I first interviewed Tze Hong at $10K Manila, where he made the semifinals. His performance ever since has consistently earned him a spot in the money at $10K events.

There was some light banter going on as I sat myself next to Tze Hong. All three countries were represented at the top table of Day 2, with three Malaysians, four Singaporeans and one Filipino. One of the more recognizable names present was Jonathan Koe, who finished Day 1 of PCLA 2004 in the Top 8.

The conversations ceased abruptly when head judge, Edwin Teh, announced the commencement of the draft. Listed below are the cards Tze Hong considered in each pack. Those he chose for his pool are listed first.

Pack 1

01: Death Trap, Metamorpho, Mysterious Benefactor
02: Batman, Hidden Crusader, Atlantean Trident, Token Resistance
03: Mysterious Benefactor, Booster Gold, Shake it Off
04: UN Building, Captain Boomerang, “Digger”, Hector Hammond, Mind Over Matter
05: Bizarro Ray, James Jesse ◊ Trickster, Catherine Cobert
06: Metamorpho, Silver Sorceress, Slaughter Swamp
07: The Mist, Satellite HQ, Running Interference
08: Captain Cold, Charaxes, Killer Moth, Mysterious Benefactor
09: Mysterious Benefactor, Staged Attack
10: Atlantean Trident, Mark Desmond ◊ Blockbuster
11: Fire, L-Ron, Booster Gold
12: Divided We Fall
13: World’s Greatest Heroes
14: Kanjar Ro

Pack 2

01: Remoni-Notra ◊ Star Sapphire, Zamoran Champion, Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle, Booster Gold
02: Rallying Cry!, Death Trap, Henry King ◊ Brainwave, Sinister Psionic
03: Plasma Blast, Solomon Grundy, Buried on Sunday
04: Metamorpho, Bluejay, The Plunder Plan
05: Guy Gardner, Egomaniac, Funky’s Big Rat Code, Bizarro Ray
06: Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost, Captain Atom, Prometheus
07: Hector Hammond, Mind Over Matter, Ice, Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle
08: Quakemaster, Sue Dibny, Staged Attack
09: Booster Gold, Ted Kord ◊ Blue Beetle, JLI Embassy
10: Bluejay, UN Building
11: Bulletproof, Manhunter Clone
12: Bluejay
13: Catherine Cobert
14: Roll Call!

Pack 3

01: Counterstrike, Guy Gardner, Egomaniac, Kimiyo Hoshi ◊ Dr. Light
02: Magnificent Seven, The Wizard, Catherine Cobert
03: Nth Metal, Wonder Woman, Princess Diana, Sue Dibny
04: Plasma Blast, Hal Jordan, Hard-Traveling Hero, Rama Khan
05: Batman, Hidden Crusader, The Plunder Plan, Guy Gardner, Egomaniac
06: JLI Embassy
07: Sinister Citadel, Captain Boomerang, “Digger”
08: Plasma Blast, Catherine Cobert, Tattooed Man, Living Ink
09: Ocean Master, Gorilla City, Bizarro Ray, Bluejay
10: Firestorm, Catherine Cobert
11: Sue Dibny, Bluejay
12: Infernal Minions
13: Guy Gardner, Egomaniac
14: Field of Honor

Tze Hong went into the draft bent on drafting JLI paired with either SS or JLA. The Mist and Captain Cold came along early, so that decided his second affiliation. His rationale for this is that JLA is heavily dependant on power-ups for synergy, SS on the KO’d pile and IG on hand size. JLI, in contrast, is pretty balanced and stable on its own. Hence, by drafting JLI with another affiliation, his deck would be more focused on a single strategy.

On his picks, Tze Hong was generally satisfied, but said that he might have taken a copy of Mysterious Benefactor a little too early. He also felt he could have done better with the turn 2 and 5 drops. He commented that he drafted too many Bluejays and insufficient turn 5 drops of his affiliations, forcing him to use Kanjar Ro in his deck.

This gave him the following card pool:

Tze Hong’s Booster Draft Pool

Infernal Minions
Ocean Master

2 Batman, Hidden Crusader
2 Bluejay
Booster Gold
2 Catherine Cobert
Fire
2 Guy Gardner, Egomaniac
2 Metamorpho
Sue Dibny

Captain Cold
Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost
Hector Hammond, Mind Over Matter
Quakemaster
Remoni-Notra ◊ Star Sapphire, Zamoran Champion
The Mist

Kanjar Ro

Atlantean Trident
Nth Metal

Field of Honor
JLI Embassy
Sinister Citadel
UN Building

Bizarro Ray
Bulletproof
Counterstrike
Death Trap
Divided We Fall
Magnificent Seven
2 Mysterious Benefactor
3 Plasma Blast
Rallying Cry!
Roll Call!
World’s Greatest Heroes

Tze Hong felt his card pool was a little distorted, as there were many plot twists being passed late. IG was also being drafted unusually heavily. However, he also noted that from the comments his friends made, the pod was balanced in comparison to the others.

He derived the following deck from the above cards:

Tze Hong’s Deck

Ocean Master

2 Batman, Hidden Crusader
2 Bluejay
Booster Gold
2 Catherine Cobert
Fire
2 Guy Gardner, Egomaniac
Metamorpho
Sue Dibny

Captain Cold
Crystal Frost ◊ Killer Frost
Hector Hammond, Mind Over MAtter
Quakemaster
Remoni-Notra ◊ Star Sapphire, Zamoran Champion
The Mist

Kanjar Ro

Atlantean Trident
Nth Metal

Sinister Citadel
UN Building

Bulletproof
Counterstrike
Death Trap
Mysterious Benefactor
2 Plasma Blast
Rallying Cry!

Tze Hong played Bulletproof over another Plasma Blast, as he felt the Plasma Blast’s value would diminish in the late game. It was also played over Magnificent Seven, as he does not have many characters with the ally ability.

Tze Hong also said that the deck works better on the even initiatives. His plan is to deal the most damage on turn 4 and defend on turn 5. By turn 6, his opponent would have to be brought down to a single digit of endurance, which would inhibit his attacking on turn 7. If possible, He would try to defeat his opponent by turn 6.

Another minor but important point he raised was that his drops for the initial to turns are JLI, while the drops for turn 3 are SS. This allows him to team up early.