Lol. That is why we always draft the rares and foils based on finishing place in the draft where I play. Otherwise you get the situation you described. Someone drafts all the rares (and usually loses, but gets the swag :) ).

I just got back from the preview up here in Washington and it was awesome. Ended up going 5-2 and got 5th place. Received a play mat as a door prize and a deckbox, t-shirt, and EA Fate for placing. Five drop Ragman is just nutty, him being a 12/10 on 6 and a 14/12 on 7 won a couple of games for me. Shadowpact in general is crazy good and, to me anyway, looks to be THE team of the set. Dr. Occult was constantly a 9/9 for me on turn 5. but that may be just because i suck. Ibis was almost always a 6/5 and the JSA characters i added in made sure they could attack up the curve safely. Ended up being a very nice day despite my lack of sleep and food. Definitely worth the long drive.

Had a grat day yesterday with the new set too. Went 4-0 in the Sealed taking packs Deck tin and EAs. (No mat or T-shirt for us European scum) Managed to get a draft afterwards too (annoyingly a 6 man as 10 players wanted to draft so could only do a 6 and a 4 pod) went 3-0 drafting off curve.

A few things about this format.
1) Its faster than most people think I was taking or being given evens all day in Sealed and all but 1 game was won or decided on 6. (1 game I had went to 8 boosted Superwoman seemed some good when my opp had a 7 drop.

2)The Hourman characters are pretty strong particularly the common 4 drop. They often demand a trick out of your opp to stun on curve.

3)You need to be very careful with Shadowpact they have powerful effects but you need to evaluate when the end loss is worth the gain. (I heard a few of a few games where players had downright lost because of going overboard with the effects)

My highlight of the day was game 1 I think and on turn 6 (my init) I had 2,2,4,5 I then recruited Dr Fate 6 with 2 artifacts and paid 20 end for Shadowmaster. The slump was visible. Thats when it is right to pay the 20 end.

4) Off curve there is definately a viable off curve deck for draft I dont think the deck I had was particularly great but with that experience I can identify the potential high picks. T-Spheres is hands down a total bomb as is the JSA +2/+2 dude. The problem after that is that obviously JSA are one of the teams you want but almost every team in this set offers good enablers for off curve.

I think the most succesful candidates tho will be VU, agressive drops like catwoman (whatever she is called) and weather wizard (i mostly just make up names when I haven't playd much with a set) are just what an off curve deck needs.

The VU plot twist support definately best complements an off curve deck. The two bounce PTs are excellent (clobberin time and the Ko effect) in addition they also allow Off curve to get over the card dissadvantage inherent in dropping weenies.

Another powerful card for off curve is the burn for attacks cost PT its simply huge at finishing games even on off inits.

Nice set seems fun but the draft format just does not seem as deep as X-men. Only time will tell.