In honor of his Top 8 appearance at the very first Pro Circuit two years ago, I decided to cover FTN’s Steve Horowitz for the first draft. FTN is well-known for their knowledge of the Draft format, so I was sure that Steve’s draft would be interesting to watch. However, Steve corrected my misconception, telling me “I have no idea what I am doing!”

Steve’s picks are in italics with notable cards in the pack following.

Pack 1:

1) Black Alice; Huntress, Reluctant Queen; Relentless Pursuit

Steve’s first pack was rather mediocre, really only giving one clear pick in Black Alice. Hopefully, the remainder of the picks would support this pick.

2) Blackbriar Thorn; Atom Smasher; Bizarro, ME AM Bizarro #1; Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat

3) Abjuration; Cheshire

4) Dr. Occult; Abjuration; Ragman, Redeemer of Souls

Steve’s picks seemed to be falling in line, with a heavy signal that the players to his right weren’t interested in going into Shadowpact. He was forced with a tough decision in pack four between Dr. Occult and Abjuration. But overall his picks were looking amazing.

5) Stepping Between Worlds; Cheshire 

6) Nightshade, Shadow Siren; Manitou Dawn

7) Ted Grant ◊ Wildcat; Forbidden Loyalties; Laser Watch

8) Blue Devil, Dan Cassidy ; Rose Psychic

9) The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel; Witchfire

10) Atom Smasher; Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee

11) A Moment of Crisis; Dr. Fate, Hector Hall

12) Ragman, Redeemer of Souls
13) Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee

14) Dr. Fate, Hector Hall

Steve’s first pack was looking very strong, with a good assortment of characters along the curve. His non-character support was minimal, but with the right character picks in the next pack, he should have no problem picking and choosing in the third pack.

Pack 2:

1) Superman, Earth 2; Carter Hall ◊ Hawkman; Blackbriar Thorn; Ahmed Samsarra

This pick was a bit suspect. Steve already had a strong Shadowpact base, so it seemed like Blackbriar Thorn was the likely pick. Having two copies in his deck would make it much easier to hit him on 2 or 3, then Steve could just focus on drafting Magic plot twists (which he should receive in abundance from his left since he had cut off most of the strong Shadowpact in the first pack). But Steve actually deliberated quite a while between Superman and Hawkman. He explained to me later that he chose Superman because he doubled as a 7-drop. Still, with no cards to support the power-up theme from the first pack, Steve would have to draft support for a new archetype to make Superman work.

2) The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel; Wesley Dodds ◊ The Sandman; Zatanna, Showstopper; Collecting Souls; Rose Psychic

Another surprising pick. With a strong Shadowpact 6-drop in Zatanna, she seemed like a good choice. Also, Steve was still pretty light on 3-drops, so Rose Psychic might have been a reasonable pick. But Steve deliberated this time between Wesley Dodds and The Phantom Stranger, eventually settling on the dual-utility 7-drop.

3) Captain Marvel, Earth’s Mightiest Mortal; Power Girl, Earth 2; The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel

4) Nightshade, Shadow Siren; Manitou Dawn

5) Katar Hol ◊ Hawkman, Eternal Hero; Power Girl, Earth 2; The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel

The second pick Phantom Stranger was coming to light as an incorrect pick, with two more making an appearance in the next three pack. Also, the choice to move into JSA Identity power-up was questionable at this point, with only about one-and-a-half packs remaining.

6) Watch the Birdie!; Laser Watch

7) Defend Yourself!; Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; Carter Hall ◊ Hawkman

8) The Oblivion Bar; Deadshot, Dead Aim

9) Stargirl; Atom Smasher

10) Collecting Souls; Rose Psychic

11) Stepping Between Worlds

12) Checkmate Armory; Catman

13) Bart Allen ◊ The Flash; Catman

14) End of All That Is

Steve’s second pack did not go nearly so well, with some questionable picks that really did not support the theme he had set from the first pack. Moreover, he missed some key opportunities to get some quality 3-drops so that he wouldn’t be pressed to draft 3-drops in his final pack. This fact would indeed come back to haunt him.

Pack 3:

1) Amulet of Nabu; Blue Devil, Big Blue; The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel, Power Girl, Earth 2

The choice to pick the Amulet here was suspect, as the third pack is usually too late to start assembling the Fate Artifacts. Moreover, he passed a quality 5-drop in Blue Devil. Since he probably still needed one more quality 5-drop to make his deck, this seemed like the apparent choice.

2) Justice United; Zatanna, Magical Manipulator; Thanagarian Invasion; Defend Yourself!

Steve told me that he really felt that he needed the Team-Up. However, second pick may have been a bit too high to take it . . . especially since a quality 3-drop for his team is in the pack.

3) Hourman III ◊ Hourman; Rann

4) Blue Devil, Dan Cassidy; Transmutation

5) Zazzala ◊ Queen Bee, Mistress of the Hive; Mordru

To be fair, there really wasn’t much to choose from in Steve’s fifth pack. Still, it seems that Zazzala is a weak pick considering some of the characters he could have chosen from in his earlier packs.

6) June Moon ◊ Enchantress, Bad Witch; Dr. Occult; Power Girl, Earth 2

Steve says that this was his worst pick of the draft. While he had heard from a friend that June Moon was amazing in Sealed, Steve probably would have been better served by picking his second Dr. Occult, since one of his 4-drops was effectively useless in his deck, and he already had two quality 6-drops.

7) Collecting Souls; Zatanna, Showstopper

8) Neutralization Protocol ◊ OMAC Robot; Helm of Nabu; Spectral Slaughter; Divination

9) Arthur Kendrick; Madame Xanadu; The Phantom Stranger, Fallen Angel

10) The Spectre, Soulless

11) Death from Above; Manitou Dawn

12) Transmutation

13) Detective Chimp, Bobo T. Chimpanzee

14) True Name

For a draft that started out so pretty, it got ugly in a hurry. Steve readily admitted that his inexperience with the set led him to make some mistakes with some of his picks. As a result, he didn’t manage to get any Shadowpact 3-drops, and his non-character support wasn’t very strong.