Green Lantern Corps has not really been out especially long, and for those of us looking to improve our drafting there is no better way to do it than to scrutinize what the best players in the game are doing. Unfortunately, any single draft watched with any single pro won't necessarily teach you that much. Packs can contain unusual distributions of cards, or can be very straightforward in the direction they push a player, which isn't always conducive to a strong learning experience.

 

One useful exercise to improve your drafting is to go through and determine a rough set of cards that you always want to look out for to pick in a given set. For rares and uncommons, planning around them is a little optimistic, but for commons, knowing which cards should not be passed is genuinely useful. To achieve this end, I hit the floor, looking for pros to give me their take on the top five common picks in Green Lantern Corps.

 

Here's what they told me.

5. Locked in Combat

 

Michael Jacob

 

1. Light Armor

2. No Man Escapes the Manhunters

3. Solomon Grundy

4. Superwoman

5. In Evil Star's Evil Clutches

 

Ryan Jones (3-0 today in GLC)

 

1. Light Armor

2. No Man Escapes the Manhunters

3. Lanterns in Love

4. Sweeping Up

5. In Remembrance

 

Dean Sohnle (3-0 today in GLC)

 

1. Sweeping Up

2. No Man Escapes the Manhunters

3. Light Armor

4. Solomon Grundy

5. Lanterns in Love

 

Mark Slack

 

1. Solomon Grundy

2. Lanterns in Love

3. Sweeping Up

4. Light Armor

5. No Man Escapes the Manhunters

 

 

John Rich

 

1. No Man Escapes the Manhunters

2. Sweeping Up

3. Solomon Grundy

4. In Evil Star's Evil Clutches

5. In Remembrance

 

Adam Fears (3-0 today in GLC)

 

1. Sweeping Up

2. Chopping Block

3. In Remembrance

4. Kilowog

5. In Evil Star's Evil Clutches

 

Some of these orders are far from set in stone. Nothing is sketchier about answering a question than a pro under pressure, but there are definitely some clear trends regarding the power of the combat tricks that have the most impact. Also of note is the fact that in an unusual turn of events, large characters actually push to make their way into the top five. Solomon Grundy is a large enough 5-drop that he forces opponents to have some sort of pump to do anything about him, and if you have any sort of trick whatsoever, he requires very little work to attack up the curve. With so many generic plot twists in Green Lantern Corps, the value of good characters rises slightly, necessitating a change in traditional pick order values. It is definitely worthy of note that no player asked mentioned any team-ups. While they are clearly important, there are many more team-ups in this set than previous ones.

 

Take this knowledge and use it to smite your foes. That's what I would do.