If you are looking to draft, then there are few better players to scrutinize than the number one ranked Sealed Pack player on the planet, PC LA winner Ryan Jones. Ryan finished Day 1 with a 9-3 record that placed him in the top eight players. With the Booster Draft skills he clearly possesses, there is a very real chance that Ryan could push for a second title.
The first draft of the day was
Green Lantern. Players have not had as much time to prepare for this format as they have for many of the previous draft formats at Pro Circuits, and it is radically different from the draft dynamics of
Marvel Knights. With a lot more quality generic plot twists, committing to a team early is less of an imperative and getting quality characters becomes more important. It will be interesting to see through the day how well players manage to shift gears with this new set.
Going into the draft, Ryan did not have any preconceived strategy for forcing particular teams or styles of play beyond looking to have a final deck comprised of ten plot twists and a curve of characters like the following:
1- and 2-drops: 3
3-drops: 4
4-drops: 4
5-drops: 4
6-drops: 3
7-drops: 2
This is a curve that doesn't dramatically change with the set, as it is generally strong in terms of ensuring that drops get hit all the way up the curve. If he saw a powerful team-stamped plot twist, there might be potential to move in early, but flexibility is very much an element of his game.
For the very first pack, there was little strong reason to commit early, as
No Man Escapes the Manhunters was sitting pretty in the common slot. One of Jones's top five common picks in the set, it will always be a powerful card to draw and an above average combat trick that will occasionally do something amazing when it grabs a hidden character to get bashed. His other options here were realistically
Millennium, or at a stretch
Guardians Reborn. With the volume of team-ups in the set, though, there was little need to snap this one up over a quality combat trick. This first pick was pretty clear.
In terms of plot twists for his second pick, Ryan had slightly less options, netting himself a
Golden Death rather than committing to characters. He received a gift in pack three with
Light Armor, the hugely versatile equip that can do good work in a multitude of situations, thanks to the fact is can function as a plot twist or a really powerful equipment.
It was one of the factors that led Ryan to commit to his first character in pick four with
Malvolio. The Emerald Enemy's ability is very helpful in ensuring that patchy draws in the later turns aren't as much of an issue, but his ATK value is frankly just awful. With a
Light Armor already on his pile of cards, Ryan could happily make Malvolio into a genuine threat in a fight, as his DEF value would be high enough to force opponents to use tricks in most evenly costed fights.
Gnaxos in pick five didn't especially commit Ryan to a second team, as his natural size makes him a powerful character to have—powerful enough that when a second one arrived in pick eight, he was snapped up. The interesting alternative in pack five was a
Rain of Acorns, which has been popular amongst many of the drafters here today.
At the end of pack one, Ryan's pile had a high number of playable plot twists but was a little short on characters, with clumps around the 2- and 4-drops.
Pack two offered Jones another one of his top five commons from the set in the form of
Sweeping Up. Having gotten a late
Hector Hammond in pack one, he already had a nice little character with which to get rid of an opposing threat, and the pseudo-
Finishing Move would also help smooth out his draws a little.
Nero Unleashed was the only real other option Jones strongly considered in this pack, but it did not hold the same raw power as the construct plot twist. His second pick of
Thunderous Onslaught over
Mosaic World continued Jones's theme of picking powerful aggressive combat tricks over most alternatives. With nearly two whole packs to go, it seemed likely that he would find a team-up of some description before he stood up from the table.
A second
Thunderous Onslaught offered itself to Jones on his third pick of the pack, but he was concerned with a lack of characters at this point, so he instead elected to take
Dr Ub'X, whose powerful potential for board control combined neatly with his
Sweeping Up. Pick four offered Jones a quality 7-drop in the form of
Azrael Batman, Knightfall. While he had passed an
Alan Scott early, this was the first pack without obviously powerful plot twists competing for Jones's need for a 7-drop.
Mosaic World as a fifth pick validated Jones's previous spurning of team-ups, and when he was passed a sixth pick
Sinestro, Lantern in Exile, it was quickly added to Ryan's pile, giving him his first 6-drop. A second Ub'X (squirrel of doom!) arrived for Ryan seventh pick, and all of a sudden his characters were looking pretty good. The rest of the second pack brought a second Mosaic World and a twin for the
Power Ring that Jones had gotten late in pack one.
When I asked him about the overall quality of his deck, he seemed fairly happy, predicting a 2-1 at worst. With only two 6-drops and a single 7-drop, he would be forced to keep most hands with his 7-drop them, but his plot twists were very solid. With
Sweeping Up and
Dr. Ub'X giving him an assortment of virtual KO effects, and multiples of many of his characters for powering up, his deck was amply able to perform consistently without having any particular bombs.
Check out the coverage to see how he does!