So I think its about time we started to bid in on what will be considered 0 and 1st picks of the GLC set.

I trust my own judgement, but I also like to hear others opinions.

I'll say we do a top 5. This won't be team specific, just overall. Also we will not be including Rares, for obvious reasons.

1. Tomar-Re: 0 pick- This guy is my number 1 pick. The guys at UDE haven't given us an alfred/boris type in a while. Tomar is a refreshing twist on an old mechanic. Although his effect doesn't require you to control doom or another gotham character, or a green lantern character for that matter. By just discarding 2 cards you can search your deck for any construct needed once per turn. This is why he is such an important grab. He allows you to tutor once per turn getting what is necessary characters, equips, or plots.

2. Kyle Raynor: 0 pick- much like Tomar he tutors for characters,equips, and plots. Although his ability is only useful when recruiting him which limits his effect to a 1 pop shot. Needless to say if a pack is opened and it contains him he should be the priority.

3. Construct Plots: 0 picks- Now there are plenty of these that stand out, but I'll list the ones that interest me.
A.) No evil shall esape our sight- Let's not be a dead horse, team-ups are simply just important. Not too mention the fact that this one can be searched out pending you have a tutor to search it out.
B.) Uppercut- This is one of the strongest if not the strongest offensive plots in limited. Being able to change your characters printed willpower into a hefty atk bonus is really crucial.
C.) Rain of Acorns- If you're lucky enough to grab some nice 1-3 drops with willpower of 1 or greater, then this card will be a great addition to your arsenal. As the games goes into the later turns 5-8, your 1-3 drops become more of a nuisance than a help. Rain allows you to be more productive with all your drops, and can be very disruptive to your opponents larger drops.
D.) Helping Hand- Normally I'm of the opinion that defensive plots out trump the offensive plots, and should a main priority, but Limited hasn't seen any solid defensive plots since Web. 1 could argue that dead weight and strength of the grave are good, but they are all situational cards that either require too much sacrifice or other stipulations be met. That said Helping hand can be a very strong defensive card. Much like Web 1 drops have more importance in the limited format. Drafting 1-2 drops with willpower give you and advantage not too mention strength in numbers with a helping hand.

4. In Rememberance: 0 pick- In the limited format there is only 1 constant... characters in the resource row. This is inevitable. With so many choices for characters and so choices of playable resources it's rare if you actually go a game without having to play a character in the row. Now In Rememberance allows you to exploit your mishaps. Not too mention giving a single character a Mattie Franklin like ability once per turn. (rather defensive turns) Also the good saying comes to mind "anything that is re-usable is good."

5. Malvolio: There may be some debate about this pick, but I found this character to swing games big time. His effect allows you to look at the top x cards on your deck where x is the greatest willpower amongst characters you control, and then rearrange them. His inherent willpower of 3 is enough to make a difference, but as the game goes into later turns and you are able to recruit characters with higher willpower values, his ability becomes invaluable. Not too mention the combination of having Malvolio and In Rememberance both in play. This combo helped me go top 4 at the pre-release.

Ok there you have it, these are my picks. There are some honorable mentions, but these are my priorities.

Hmm, I'm not really a fan of including uncommons in pick orders... though I don't disagree on the power of Kyle (2) or Tomar Re. They are both clearly very good (probably warranting a first pick), but it's not as if one can really plan for picking uncommons as easily as commons.

No Man Escapes The Manhunters is a really strong opener in the common slot. It is effectively the I Hate Magic of GLC, made slightly weaker by the overall higher quality of plot twists in this set. Make no mistake though, it is still very much a first pick.

Of the constructs, Light Armor is very high on my list of picks for the set. While it sits awkwardly unable to go in the resource row, it is consistently powerful and searchable. It is fairly rare for a character to have a willpower high enough to make Uppercut better than this.

I agree on the power of Helping Hand. It will quite often be enough to make opponents sad.

I also rather like Locked in Combat, as it does double duty on offence and defence. Being able to attack up the curve or get an unexpected stunback is enough to make it a pretty high pick for me.

Characters in general should be higher picks in this set than in previous ones, and with only one slot left, I feel it would be wrong not to include one to begin to reflect this. Personally, I really like Soloman Grundy. He is simply huge. While not as cunning as other characters available, size really does matter. He forces opponents to use a plot twist if they want to stun him along the curve, and stunning up the curve on him is really quite tricky with most of the 4 drops in the set.

Teamups are clearly high picks, but I don't think they are quite as high in GLC as other sets, as there are quite a lot of them, and team stamping issues aren't as big an issue in this set.

I fond chopping block and sweeping up to be aces as far as constructs/equipment goes.

I agree with the Light armor, although if I'm able to draft a good willpower curve I'll still take the punch. Mainly because most characters have a willpower of 2 which is only 1 point less on the atk. Though generally I tend to hold such plots like uppercut for late game where it's usually +4 or more to the atk.

Wow how did I pass up chopping block. That would be second to Tomar hands down.

Chopping block is great late game when you most likely have the dead cards to play it from your hand. Sweeping up is so good on turn 6. If they havent already drawn their 7 drop you just cut their chances in half of topdecking it while being able to arrange the top X cards in your deck to your liking.

Catcher's Mitt hasn't been mentioned yet, but it's crazy good. Remember how sick Deathwatch was in MK draft? Well, Catcher's Mitt is better. No double loyalty issues, you've got a horde of common characters with extremely high DEFs (Alan Scott, Katma Tui, Malvolio) so it's easy to keep safe - just a fantastic, fantastic card. In games where I had Catcher's Mitt and Katma Tui I frequently ended turns where my opponent had initiative with more Endurance then when I started the turn.

Yea CM is real solid, especially since everyone has flight and range. It helps out a TON when you dont get your team up out in a timely manner as well. Equip it to something like Qwardian Watchdog after he is stunned and youre set.

2 Cards: Rain of Acorns (already mentioned above).

There not much too say about this card other than: its good.....even not in drafting.

The next card is........G'Nort!!!! This card basically single handedly won me my pre-release. +Atk/ +1Def to all other characters with willpower 1 or greater is great! If you need a 1 drop, play G'Nort.

There was actually one time in my prerelease that I chose to KO my 3 drop Hal Jordan (a 5/4 with willpower 3, and flight and range) over G'Nort......and if I hadn't done that, I probably would have lost.

Sweeping up returns the character to hand, not no top of the library..

Chopping Block and Sweeping Up seem to blow the game wide-open.

In any other set I'd think Light Armor was insane ... but in this one, there are a LOT of generic +2 ATK w/affiliated kicker, meaning there should be a solid crop of mid-range picks for ATK pumps. If the people at your table are still in the old "Twists first" mindset of previous sets, you can snap up the Grundies and such, and be content with picking up generic +2's later as the others scramble for drops. It's like in fantasy football: you can hold off on slots with lots of depth for later in the draft.

The Tomar Re/Kyle Rayner/Constructs thing seems to me more of a draft style than universal strategy. Obviously if you can force GL, it'll be sweet, but what happens if the Construct PT's get broken up or you don't see them, etc?

Locked in Combat is the sleeper ... it looks like the generic +2 ATK's, but it does double-duty in a set with much less tricks on defense than attack. so I'd rate it higher. In the same vein, I'd rate Sinestro Defiant higher than the other generic combat modifiers w/affiliated kicker.

chopping block was so broken for me in the prerelease. tomer re is great i had him too. also willworld let me cycle through my entire deck every game it was very good. book of oa is also a good common. central battery good too. if i had a 1st overall pick it would be chopping block it's that good. field control = win game

When Qwardian Watchdog is stunned, it goes to the hidden area. Equip cards, unless otherwise stated, can't be on hidden characters, so putting it on Qwardian Watchdog is probably not the best plan.

I feel that with many of the construct characters/plots/equips being commons it almost guarantees you to see atleast 2-3 per pack. And having 6-9 constructs for you to possibly snatch up seems like a good enough reason to take Tomar and Raynor early.
Also and I know you're aware of this, but taking them doesn't necessarily force you into GL. with that said, I totally agree with Grundy. I had 2 in my GL Sealed deck, and I would often discard them to Tomar only to get him back on turn 5 or turn 7.

Yeah the above mention of Light Armor being great....it IS great, but there are quite a lot of +2 ATK cards out there, so i might pass on the Light Armor for important deck strategy.

I actually prefer these 3....

The Ring Has Chosen
Jackhammer
No Man Escapes The Manhunters

To tell the truth there are just an amazing amount of great plot twists in this set. I've been faced with very tough decisions when i t comes to narrowing my deck to 30 cards, and it's usually due to all the great blues.

I think my strategy is to worry more about my curve. Drafting plot twists will be a second priority.

I'm probably going Manhunters or Green Lantern, so I'm focusing on which characters are going to be most important for my deck, and which ones will be hardest to come by.

If you're planning on building a GL team, I'd go after the Kyle 4 drop relatively quick. He can have an amazing impact on the game. Also Kilowog's discard two GL characters isn't THAT expensive, I'd take him too.

If you're wanting to play Manhunters, I'd take the 6 drop Manhunter Lantern quick....he is one of the best 6 drops in the set: 13/12, F&R 4 WILL, and is one of only 2 Manhunters with Willpower...

actually, if you plan on playing manhunters you really should prioritize sleeper agents and the 4 drop 7/7 with flying, 'cause believe me that thing gets hated/splashed like anything.