Draftin' EverywhereIf you've read my other articles on Limited, you know I'm a big fan of Limited theory. Limited theory is very important, but it's nothing like getting in actual drafts. Now I'm putting my money where my mouth is and I implement all of the theory I've babbled about in my previous articles. Teamups? Check. Curve considerations? Check. Archetypes? Double check. Which XMen archetype did I draft? One way to find out.

In the past, I've shied away from doing draft walkthroughs. They're really hard. The first and foremost reason is that they require way too much typing to transcribe picks and such. Bad beat for me I guess. The second major problem I have with draft walkthroughs is that you don't get the opportunity to collect your thoughts and truly think through what you're doing as you're drafting. If we all had as long as we needed to reflect upon each individual play, we'd all be very good players. That's why articles about constructed decks all sound so great. Their authors have had however long they choose to think about their subjects. By contrast, my general futility will cause me to make a ton of mistakes that I'll reflect on as being bad both from a theoretical standpoint, as well as a practical standpoint.

Fortunately, we can all learn from my mistakes. At least that's what I tell myself. More likely, you'll all just laugh at me for being truly terrible and I'll just go to Arizona where none of you can find me. Before I forget, UDE, can we please get PCQs in AZ? Pretty please?

As I go through this walkthrough, try to ask yourself what you would take from each pack. More importantly, rationalize why you would take that card. As a cheat sheet, you can write down the deck as we go, filtering out truly unplayables. When I draft, I make a mental picture in my head of what I've drafted and what needs my deck has. Once you start drafting for the needs of your deck as opposed to just taking the best card for your deck out of each pack, you will find your decks turn out much better.

For emphasis, I'll retype that last statement, because it is really important.

Once you start drafting for the needs of your deck as opposed to just taking the best card for your deck out of each pack, you will find your decks turn out much better.

As for the draft itself, it was done using Vsed with pretty much all competent people. I've seen most of the people in other drafts I've done, and I'd consider them more prepared for Day 2 of a PC than most other people.

On with the Show!

Pack 1:

Pick 1: Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon; Blackbird Blue; XMen United; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Exodus; Jubilee; Mystique; RemRam; Planet X; Friedrich Von Roehm; Jetstream; Above and Below; Super Hero Showdown; Absorbing Man

There are a few cards I'd be happy first picking and many I'd be happy playing, but only one card spawns an archetype almost by itself. In JLA limited, the Injustice burn deck was very powerful, but relied on getting a Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist, and uncommon. Similarly, Blackbird Blue allows an amazing off curve archetype and you can't pass it if you plan on drafting an XMen based off curve deck.

My pick: Blackbird Blue

Pick 2: Turnabout; Bishop; Angel of Mercy; Healer; Hemingway; Neutralized; Destiny; Fabian Cortez; Toad; Madelyne Pyror; Selene; Join; Phase Shift

Once you have a Blackbird Blue in your pile, you look for appropriate cards to support an off curve strategy. If there is nothing there to support it, you may have to adandon it. You have about 2-3 picks to decide if you're going to play off curve xmen. Fortunately for us, Turnabout is a perfect archetypical card for our deck. There are a copule other decent cards, but nothing that jumps out like the Turnabout does

My pick: Turnabout

Pick 3: Juggernaut; Rogue; Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon; Piper; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Sunder; Neutralized; Hellfire Club Mercenary; Jetstream; Inner Circle; Homo Superior, Special Delivery

There aren't alot of cards I like in this pack. If I wanted to stay pure XMen, I'd take the Sage, but I certaintly don't like taking such a mediocre character this early. Neutralized and Hellfire Club Mercenary give me options for a second team, but I think I want to keep my options open at this point and take the generic pump. While Homo Superior isn't fantastic, I don't like taking pumps over good characters, so I like picking up my attack pumps when there aren't good characters for me to take. On a side note, Neutralized is certainly the best Morlocks stamped card for us at this point. It's basically a Morlocks stamped Finishing Move

My pick: Homo Superior

Pick 4: Angel of Mercy; Rebirth; Time Breach; Xtreme Manuver; Sewer System; Harry Delgado; Pyro; Senyaka; Emma Frost, White Queen; Drain Essence; Teamwork;

There are three cards I looked at here. Pyro is an excellent inclusion if I want the Brotherhood as a second team. Drain Essence is certainly a powerful card as well, but I don't know how many energy characters I will have at this point. This was a tough card to pass, but I don't want to restrict my options at this point, since I want the ability to take the best card, instead of having to take a playable energy character just so I could play Drain Essence. Instead, I'm taking Angel of Mercy, which is just a backbreaking plot twist, especially when you recover multiple characters. I consider Drain Essence a slightly better card, but I know that my Angel of Mercy will make the deck.

My pick: Angel of Mercy

I want to take a moment to discuss cards like Time Breach and Xtreme Manuver. I think they're total trash. In your deck, your plot twists are at a premium, and you want all of your plot twists to be as effective as a generic +2 ATK (and you need a few actual pumps in every deck as well). Any plot twist that can't generate +2 attack should be discarded. If you play either Time Breach (aka BatSignalFlare) or Xtreme Manuver, you'll quickly realize that neither card is good enough as a mediocre card like Homo Superior.



Pick 5: X-Corp, Hong Kong; Hemingway; Chrome; Colossuss; Julia Carpenter; Bevatron; Hellfire Club Initiate; Evil Alliance; Phase Shift; Dr Druid

Once again, I have the option of going off team for Chrome, but the stronger card is in my team. Hong Kong is a fantastic card for an off curve deck, as any repetitive bonus is more than welcome.

My pick: X-Corp, Hong Kong


Pick 6: Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon; Harry's Hideaway; X-Corp, Hong Kong; Crimson Commando; Beef, What's for dinner; Empath; Inner Circle; Phase Shift; Image Inducer

All of our options are on team, Sage, Hideaway, Hong Kong, and Image Inducer. The only reason I would take Sage is because I really haven't taken any characters yet. I already have a copy of Hong Kong and Angel of Mercy is stronger than Hideaway in my deck, so I'm going with the Image Inducer. At this point I've noticed that the early XMen characters just aren't there, and that I'm likely going to have to play multiple off team guys. I love the +2 ATK as well as making that sometimes awkward off team guy less.. well awkward. Also, at this point, I've noticed that I've passed over quite a few Brotherhood characters simply because they were off team. Perhaps I can look for them as a second team.

My pick: Image Inducer

Pick 7: Nightcralwer; Bishop; Iceman; Angel of Mercy; Phoenix Rising; Artie; Beef; Emma Frost, White Queen

Although Angel of Mercy is tempting, I desperately need to start taking characters. Nightcrawler fits the bill. While not outstanding, Nightcrawler is certainly adequate as a 3 drop 6 attack. Taking Angel of Mercy here would severly restrict my ability to take additional noncharacters later in the draft, since I don't have a character through 6 picks yet.

My pick: Nightcrawler

Pick 8: Lockheed; Psylocke; Rogue; Erg; Crimson Commando; Fabian Cortez; Submariner

Just what the doctor ordered, a low drop XMen. Note the Crimson Commando still in the pack however. The Brotherhood low drops seem underdrafted.

My pick: Lockheed

Pick 9: Rem-Ram; Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Exodus; Julia Carpenter; Above and Below

I'm shocked to see Rem-Ram on the loop, as he's one of the best cards for a reservist deck, and is servicable in quite a few decks, including this one. This will help me make the plunge into Brotherhood, although finding enough reservists for this card might be tough. I want about 5 to be happy.

My pick: Rem-Ram

Pick 10: Destiny; Healer; Hemingway; Fabian Cortez; Blow the Man Down

Another nice gift. Although I wish I would've taken some of the Sages earlier, as Sage is the only Mental character 3 or less, I do have a Rem-Ram, and the 2 extra cards on a later turn is always welcome.

My pick: Destiny

Pick 11: Hellfire Club Mercenary; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Piper; Juggernaut

The mercenary is certainly playable, although it doesn't look like I will have Hellfire Club as a prominent team.

My pick: Hellfire Club Mercenary

Pick 12: Pyro; Harry Delgado; Rebirth

I'm absolutely stunned to see Harry Delgado here, as he is by far the best 6 drop to play in a reservist deck and almost any Brotherhood deck. I'm just as happy to see a good card for my deck this late.

My pick: Pyro

Pick 13: Julia Carpenter; Colossus

My pick: Julia Carpenter

Pick 14: X-Corp, Hong Kong

How lucky.

After pack one I'm firmly entrenched in the Blackbird Blue archetype, with late Brotherhood picks putting me in a second team. At this point I want to prioritize some teamups, either XMen United, Planet X, or Brave New World (to enable Destiny) would all be outstanding and worthy of an early pick. I also need some more low drop XMen characters.


Pack 2:

Pick 1: Dazzler; Jubilee; Masque; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Neutralized; Sewer System; The Forsaken; Rem-Ram; Shinobi Shaw; Memory Probe; Krakoa; Image Inducer; Frankie Richards

With Dazzler, Rem-Ram, and Image Inducer all being quality picks, I'm going to take Dazzler, as I simply need early XMen drops and Dazzler is one of the best. Hopefully I can loop the Jubilee, but this pack is fairly weak.

My pick: Dazzler

Pick 2: Rebirth; Annalee; Retribution; The Forsaken; Anne-Marie Cortez; Spoor; Exodus; Toad; Catseye; Sage, Tessa, Immovable, Mind Control, Toxin

I think my personal preferences got in the way of this pick. I am so enamored with Sage, Tessa. While Spoor is fantastic, on team, and gives me incentive (along with my RemRam) to pick up some reservists, I love me a Sage. With Destiny, I think I can use either District X or Brave New World to get enough Mental characters to fuel their effects. I will definitely keep an eye out for Mental characters. This pick forces the rest of my draft much more than Spoor would have, so it's likely that this pick is a mistake. I just love a Sage.

My pick: Sage, Tessa


Pick 3: Hellfire Club Mercenary; Annalee; Callisto; Bum's Rush; Blob; Exodus; Wundergore Citadel; Roberto De Costa Cabral; Psionic Storm; Multiple Man; Kang, the Conqueror; one unknown

I took the full amount of time on this pack, and I'm now positive I picked incorrectly. At this point I was firmly in Brotherhood AND XMen, and I figured that I could play a full three teams, as another Mercenary would be my third Hellfire character. I should've just taken the generic +2 ATK (Psionic Storm) and been done with it

My pick: Hellfire Club Mercenary

Pick 4: Archangel; Xorn; XMen United; Erg; Feral; Silver Sabre; Emma Frost, White Queen; Psionic Storm; District X; Mutant Massacre; Mindtap Mechanism

This is a very, very difficult pick, and I still don't know what is correct at this point. Somehow, one of the best generic commons in the set is still here, in Mutant Massacre. However, there are two cards that I desperately need, in XMen United, and Archangel. I take Archangel rationalizing that I can pick up an X-Corp Amsterdam to make my Archangel turn into a teamup if need be, but I still have to take a teamup at some point, mostly likely two teamups if I go with a three team build. And there's always that part about drafting an Amsterdam. However, I still need more low drop XMen, and this is probably the best.

My pick: Archangel

Pick 5: Rogue; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Storm, Gold Leader; Kill the Flatscans; Beef, not for dinner anymore; Catseye; Chill Out! (dude); Multiple Man; Brave New World; Leadership Challenge

Man, there sure are a lot of Storms in this draft. Just sayin, ya know. This pick for me this time, is very easy. I went on about not needing a teamup, and I get one of the ones I want at this point. This turns on both Sage and Destiny as well, so it has added value for me.

My pick: Brave New World

Pick 6: Oldaker (Friedrich Von Roehm); Hellfire Club Initiate; Jetstream; Hellhound; Freedom Force; Storm, Leader of the Morlocks; Hemingway; Rogue; Jubilee

I'm fairly certain I pick incorrectly here as well, as I take Mr Oldaker in honor of my favorite Mickey Lolich wannabe. I shouldn't have been so adamant on playing three teams, and this pick puts additonal pressure on me to draft 2 more teamups, preferably one as an XCorp Amsterdam. The reason I need to teamup so desperately in this deck is due to the fact that you need to team attack quite often. Oh, and that Blackbird Blue card is a bit teamstamped.

My pick: Friedrich Von Roehm

Pick 7: Iceman; Rogue; Phoenix Rising; Blow Hard (quite the accurate name); Hemingway; Colossus, Wundergore Citadel, Beef

Really nothing for me, I doubt I'll play the Citadel, but it's the only card I could concieve of playing. Everything else in this pack costs too many resources

My pick: Wundergore Citadel

Pick 8: Archangel; Time Breach; Hemingway; Sunder; Anne-Marie Cortez; Selene; Multiple Man

Wow, another Archangel. I'll happily take it, although I will note that someone could spit out Multiple Multiple Men.

My pick: Archangel

Pick 9: Jubilee; Neutralized; Rem-Ram; Memory Probe; Krakoa; Frankie Richards

I'm suprised that two of the better cards in this pack looped out of such a weak pack. Neutralized and Rem-Ram are both excellent characters, and the Rem-Ram gave me pause. However, I would primarily be drafting it as a Mental character, as I don't really have the reservists to hit enough. If Jubilee wasn't in the pack, I'd be happy taking Rem-Ram.

My pick: Jubilee

Pick 10: Catseye; Exodus; Anne-Marie Cortez; Retribution; Rebirth

How is the Retribution still here. Very, Very strange. I love a Catseye, despite just having passed on the Rem-Ram and not really wanting to play three teams.

My pick: Catseye

Pick 11: Multiple Man; Exodus; Callisto; Kang, the Conqueror

If the person to my left is in Morlocks, they'll be happy with such a late Callisto. I'll take the Multiple Man, who is actually playable. Having all of your teams is what makes Image Inducer so good.

My pick: Multiple Man

Pick 12: District X; Mindtap Mechanism; Emma Frost, White Queen

If I pick up another Sage or a Destiny, I could see playing the District X. It's probably not worth the card however.

My pick: District X

Pick 13: Multiple Man; Rogue

I could live the dream. Multiple Multiple Men.

My pick: Multiple Man

Pick 14: Hellhound


This pack was pretty good for me, as I was able to pick up some much needed low drop XMen as well as a teamup. I veered away from a two team strategy and I'm fairly entrenched in XMen as well as Brotherhood and Hellfire Club. This is fine, but I will need to get another teamup. I will also want an XCorp Amsterdam to go with my double Archangel. On a side note, my curve is really fixing itself as I'm getting plenty of opportunities to take 1 and 2 drops, and I only have a single 3 drop. I could take almost any set of characters in the final pack and be fine from a curve standpoint. My playable pile at this point looks like this:

Xmen - Archangel x2, Lockheed, Jubilee, Dazzler, Nightcrawler
Brotherhood - Pyro, Destiny, RemRam
Hellfire Club - Hellfire Club Mercenary x2, Sage, Catseye, Friedrich Von Roehm
Other - Multiple Man x2
NonCharacters - Blackbird Blue, Turnabout, X-Corp Hong Kong x2, Homo Superior, Angel of Mercy, Image Inducer, Wundergore Citadel, District X

Pack 3:

Pick 1: Shadowcat; Archangel; Bishop; Psylocke; Hump; Piper; Postman; Silver Sabre; Stonewall; Empath; Army of One; Essence Drain; Momenatry Distraction; Image Inducer

This pack is very strong, and most people would take the incorrect card out of this pack. It should be fairly clear that we cannot play Momentary Distraction or Essence Drain, which is rough, but them's the beats. We already have 2 Archangels and I'd rather not take a third equipment, even one as good as Image Inducer. The real pick for us is Shadowcat, who is one of the best characters we can hope to have at this point. 3/3 on a two drop is fantastic, and this one is on team and we could use more 2 drops.

My pick: Shadowcat

Pick 2: Spoor; Xorn; X-Corp, Paris; Exodus; Toad; Acolyte Body Armor; Freedom Force; Freidrich Von Roehm; Hellfire Club Mercenary; Harry Delgado; Toxin, 2 unknown cards

My notes get a bit hairy here as I'm unable to write down the contents of the pack before it moves onto the next pack. However the cards I didn't write down were cards I wasn't considering. The choice is between Spoor, Xorn, and Friedrich. I still felt at this point that I could support a small reservist theme. I likely wouldn't have gone after any more reservist cards if I didn't have this Spoor. Having an on board trick is incredible and exactly what this deck wants at this point. In the absense of premium plot twists, this is great. The replacing might also help keep gas in the tank, since my deck will be playing out its cards rather quickly.

My pick: Spoor

Pick 3: Archangel; Jubilee; Storm, Gold Leader; Retribution; Amelia Vogt; Destiny; Spoor; Emma Frost, White Queen, Alter Density, Mutopia, Dr Druid, Submariner

With more plot twist based attack pumps, I probably would've taken Submariner here. I really like Submariner. I also gave a good long look at Destiny, as my deck can support her quite well. However, Spoor will do just as well. One more thing I love about Spoor is that drawing 2 of him is fine. You just use the ability with the other. All in all a fantastic card and a fine pick. I definitely want a few more reservists.

My pick: Spoor

Pick 4: X-Corp Amsterdam; Coloussus; Havok; Feral; Leech; Piper; Tar Baby; Tommy; Julia Carpenter; Senyaka; Krakoa

There's our Amsterdam! We really wanted one to go with our need for teaming up and our double Archangel. This deck is a ton better with this card in it. Even without the need for an Amsterdam, I didn't really want anything in this pack besides the Feral or perhaps the Senyaka.

My pick: X-Corp Amsterdam

Pick 5: Bishop; Xtreme Manuver; Artie; Caliban; Hemingway; Marrow; Chrome; Harry Delgado; Freedom Force; Evil Alliance

While its possible we could take Bishop here, I think Chrome is the stronger pick as a reservist that has acceptable stats and an occasionally relevant ability. This is a good litmus test to see how well you can draft off curve. If you wanted to take the Bishop here, you're not drafting off curve. 4 cost vs 2 cost and the choice is clear.

My pick: Chrome

Pick 6: Blackbird Blue; Sage, Xavier's Secret Weapon; Turnabout; Artie; Piper; Crimson Commando; Emma Frost, White Queen; Jetstream; Mental Domination

Oh, it's nice. One of the rewards of staying true to the archetype is that you will get gifts like this. It is unlikely that many people can play this card at my table, since playing it in a curve deck is poor at best. I would've been happy with the Turnabout or the Crimson Commando, but I'm not passing the defining card in my archetype

My pick: Blackbird Blue

Pick 7: Rem-Ram; Changling; X-Corp, Hong Kong, Beef, a late afternoon snack; Hellfire Club Initiate; Multiple Man, District X, Mutopia

I made a poor pick here, but I was blinded by the need for Mental characters and reservists and my requirements for teamups. Mutopia is definitely the pick here, even at the expense of a fantastic character. I picked Rem-Ram, but I really should've taken the second teamup.

My pick: Rem-Ram

Pick 8: Bishop; Snikt!; X-Corp Paris; Hump; Hemingway; The Forsaken; Spoor

This pack is stacked for an 8th pick. Snikt, Hump and Spoor should not be in the pack 8th pick. However, my need to keep cards in hand pretty much eliminates Snikt from my deck. Well, at least when theres the best 4 drop possible in the pack 8th pick.

My pick: Spoor

Pick 9: Empath; Archangel; Piper; Silver Sable; Stonewall; Momentary Distraction

Well I was hoping for Empath back. Seeing what looped made me vomit a little inside. Momentary Distraction is a bomb, one of the few bombs in this set. If you play on curve, it's pretty much impossible for your opponent to get far ahead unless your characters just suck and they can no trade going across the curve. Everyone attacks up at some point in the game. Bombs should never make the loop. Neither should Archangel. Archangel, like Spoor, is another one of those fantastic cards you don't mind drawing multiples of. You can just discard the second copy on a later turn. Now, I'm all but guaranteed of drawing my teamup.

My pick: Archangel

Pick 10: Xorn; Exodus; Freedom Force; Hellfire Club Mercenary; Toxin

I'll happily take a Xorn at this point as a mediocre character that must be attacked off init. If I ever get to combine him with the Angel of Mercy, I will do a little happy dance

Pick 11: Mutopia; Storm, Gold Leader; Emma Frost, White Queen; Submariner

I still don't have enough plot twist pumps to justify Submariner, so I will gladly take this opportunity to make my previous mistake of passing Mutopia irrelevant. I acutally like this card quite a bit, and I can almost always find a way to flip it up for at least two teams. It's better in off curve decks because you will have more characters in play to match traits with. In addition, an off curve deck can really use the extra card draw Mutopia provides. If I learned anything from this draft, it is that I should've put more priority on taking Mutopia in an off curve deck before pack 3, pick 11.

My pick: Mutopia

Pick 12: Piper; Julia Carpenter; Krakoa

My pick: Piper

Pick 13: Bishop; Freedom Force

My pick: Bishop

Pick 14: Emma Frost, White Queen

Only after going back through the packs did I realize that I really didn't need to stick with Brotherhood as a secondary team. I only had a few late picks in the first pack that were Brotherhood, and I could've easily just splashed the Destiny. However, I didn't have any cards that I couldn't support and I had a ton of power.


After cutting all the obvious chaff, I was left with the following 37 cards to build a deck from

Xmen - Archangel x3, Lockheed, Jubilee, Dazzler, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Bishop
Brotherhood - Pyro, Destiny, Rem-Ram x2, Spoor x3, Chrome
Hellfire Club - Hellfire Club Mercenary x2, Sage, Catseye, Friedrich Von Roehm
Other - Multiple Man x2
NonCharacters - Blackbird Blue x2, Turnabout, X-Corp Hong Kong x2, Homo Superior, Angel of Mercy, Image Inducer, Wundergore Citadel, District X, Mutopia, X-Corp Amsterdam, Brave New World


The first cards I cut were all my army one drops. I had plenty of one drops and they were the weakest cards left. The next cards I cut were Wundergore Citadel and Bishop, since they were merely in the deck in case I needed them. This left me with 31 cards I was more than happy to play. After a great deal of internal debate, I decided to cut the Pyro. I don't really need to draw a Brotherhood character, as I have no Brotherhood stamped plot twists. In addition, I have a ton of one drops and this was the easiest to cut. I almsot cut either Nightcrawler or Xorn, but I'd rather have an Xmen than a Brotherhood character. I ended up with 3 Hellfire characters, which was fine for me. I didn't need to draw any of them, but If I did, I'd have enough ways to team them up.

My final decklist:

One drops(8)
Archangel x3
Jubilee
Lockheed
Rem-Ramx2
Catseye

Two drops(6)
Shadowcat
Dazzler
Destiny
Sage, Tessa
Chrome
Friedrich Von Roehm

Three/Four drops (5)
Xorn
Nightcrawler
Spoor x3

Equipment (3)
Image Inducer
Blackbird Blue x2

Plot Twists and Locations (8)
X-Corp, Hong Kong x2
X-Corp, Amsterdam
Turnabout
Homo Superior
Brave New World
Mutopia
Angel of Mercy


I was extremely happy with this deck, and I would predict a 3-0 for myself if this was at a Pro Circuit draft table. I was able to play a game with 3 different people, which was nice in simulating a PC draft. I had the logs saved, but for some reason I decided not to move the location of the logs between games. Therefore, I'm left with only the log for my last game. I'm stupid, I know.

My first round was against Hendy, and I was able to come out firing. I had evens, so his Silver Sable on turn 3 was able to knock down my 1-3 drops but a well timed Angel of Mercy on Xorn let me recover the team. *does a little happy dance* Turn 4 saw Blackbird, Catseye, and a 2 drop, which in conjuction with Xorn, put me too far ahead in the game. He ended up curving out fine, but didn't draw plot twists so I actually ended the game on turn 6 without having to use the Spoor I played on 5, my Turnabout, or my second Hong Kong. And this was after I did nothing but play a 1 drop on 6. This game was essentially won on turns 3 and 4 where I generated way too much attack power to handle. While it's true that he didn't have any plot twists(other than an Enemy that he didnt need), I had far too much advantage after turn 4.

My second round was against Hoang, who started nicely with Toad and Leech to my Lockheed and Chrome. He was happy to trade characters, so I was happy to get his evaders off the board, suspecting an evasion deck. Like the first game I played, Hoang had a potentially disasterous Silver Sable, but he was unable to deal breakthrough as I had a teamup to reinforce my Nightcrawler. I played an Archangel, a Friedrich, and a Blackbird Blue, and was able to gain a tremedous amount of advantage through attacking my Friedrich into his 4 drop. After an Angel of Mercy saved my entire board on turn 5, I was able to muster up enough dudes to easily finish him off on turn 6.

The last person I played was none other than anfrony, the amazing Anthony Justice. Let me go on the record first as predicting at least a Top 8 at PC San Fran for our beloved AJ. Anthony has worked so hard at his limited game and hes always a constructed genius. In our game Anthony ran the ole turn 1 Artie + Tommy. That's really good against my off curve deck. I have to pay resource points for my characters. I filled up pretty much every turn, but I had some difficult decisions to make during the game, mostly due to Anthony's fantastic draw. Although he missed 3, he played Leech on 2 and Postman on 3, so he wasn't exactly behind with a board of 1, 1, 2, 2, all evaders. To my suprise, when I attacked with my Sage offering a trade, Anthony correctly read me for a recovery spell that would let me recover my board with Xorn. My board on turn 4 was Sage, Xorn, and Spoor to his board of Hump, Artie, Tommy, Leech. I only had my Amsterdam, so I didn't want to get a teamup yet, since I knew I would have to teamup all three teams. In short, I attacked into his Hump and he evaded his other 3 characters and Shrapnel Blasted, which I could not get over. I lost a character and essentially did nothing on turn 4. On turn 5, I played Destiny (boosted) and Jubilee with Blackbird Blue to go with my Spoor(now with Image Inducer to turn on Mutopia for three teams) and Sage. His nice Morlocks curve kept going with Marrow. A Key Angel of Mercy (sense a theme here?) allowed me to keep my board while he lost his Tommy...except he had a Key Neutralized for my Spoor. This means I was set back to just three characters plus my recruit facing a huge endurance deficit, something like 5 to 25. I did recruit 4 characters on turn 6, going down a few resources and using Sage. I worked out attacks that would put him at exactly 1 endurance less than me, but that plan involved him having nothing among the 4 face down resources that he could play on defense. Unfortunately, he had a Retribution for my Sage on Artie attack that put him one endurance above me for the win.

What lessons can be learned from this draft?

1) Drafting an archetype can be extremely powerful, as a good archetype deck will have far more synergy and have the ability to create far more powerful plays than a good non-archetype deck.

2) It's more than possible to jump into an archetype with one or a few archetype defining cards. Blackbird Blue is by far the singular most powerful archetype enabler, but I could see jumping into the Morlocks evasion archetype on the basis of Shrapnel Blast or the Reservist archetype because of Ruins of Avalon. Even without some of the lucky late picks I recieved, my deck certainly would have been servicable. Not having the late Archangel, Hong Kong, and Blackbird would not have made the deck total trash.

3) Early in a draft, try to draft cards that you know you will play. You only get to cut 12 of the 30 cards you draft, so you don't normally want to take cards that will push you in multiple directions early in a draft. There was no way I was taking those Spoors if they were in pack 1 while I still had to fill in needs for my blooming Blackbird deck. However, once I filled all of my needs for the Blackbird deck, I could look at more powerful cards like Spoor that required support. For the record, I'll admit the Sage was greedy.

4) Look for a secondary theme that compliments your primary theme. It is very rare that you will be able to draft enough cards for only one deck. There simply aren't enough 1 and 2 drop XMen characters for you to draft mono XMen Blackbird Blue, even if you're the only person that would touch any of these cards. The late Brotherhood early drops in pack 1 told me that I could augment my Blackbirds with some Brotherhood cards, and even get a small reservist or mental theme going. While the XMen don't really have much in the way of reservists or low drop Mental characters, I was able to pick up enough cards to support a theme. Of course, finding mental characters is pretty easy when you have Archangel x3 -> Amsterdam -> Brave new World. I'm fairly certain I made that play sequence in almost everyone of my games. It seems odd, but Archangel helped support my Sage addiction. The key to my secondary theme was that I found these cards late. Go back and look at my 9 through 12 picks to see where I started drafting Brotherhood.

5) Anthony Justice is top 8'ing PC San Francisco. You heard it here first.

On a final note, I've been drafting using VsEd quite a bit to prepare for the PC. If you want to get your draft on, you can catch me on AIM as dirkavanbrussel

Happy Drafting,
Adam Prosak

Solid article. A real top drafting guide.

Angel of Mercy + Xorn ftw!!

ive drafted once in a hobby league and couldnt buy a win. im liking this trend of articles for sealed and drafting, its giving a lot of pointers non pros and coincidentaly were having a 10k sealed here in manila next month so more articles please.:)

Awesome article Adam. More than I had hoped for when you told me about it. * does a happy dance.
When you started going down the dark hellfire road I thought it was going to be when a good draft goes bad article but you pulled it out. Sounds like there were some poor draft choices at your table to make up for it.

If only you had done this for JLA I might have done better day two. Mr. Prosak deserves to top 8 as well.

Thanks for the article.

Since I have never drafted, I took the opportunity to use the packs you listed to run a trial draft without looking at your picks/analysis. I pretty much found I sucked at drafting.

For anyone who wants to critique or see what not to do, here are my picks.

Pack 1
1. Planext X - (it's a team-up and Brotherhood is often ignored)
2. Destiny
3. Storm
4. Senyaka
5. Chrome
6. Crimson Commando
7. Nightcrawler
8. Crimson Commando
9. Rem-Ram
10. Blow the Man Down
11. Piper
12. Harry Delgado
13. Julia Carpenter
14. X-Corp: Hong Kong
Pack 2
1. Rem-Ram
2. Spoor
3. Wundagore Citadel
4. Silver Saber
5. Kill the Flatscans
6. Freedom Force
7. Wundergore Citadel
8. Anne-Marie Cortez
9. Krakoa
10. Anne-Marie Cortez
11. Exodus
12. District X
13. Multiple-Man
14. Hellhound
Pack 3
1. Stonewall
2. Harry Delgado
3. Amelia Voight
4. Julia Carpenter
5. Freedom Force
6. Jetstream
7. Rem-Ram
8. X-Crop: Paris (terrible pack)
9. Momentary Distraction
10. Freedom Force
11. Submariner
12. Julia Carpenter
13. Freedom Force
15. Emma Frost, White Queen

My draft is rather anemic in terms of 3-drops and 5-drops. Destiny helps out with the 3-drops, but the 5-drops are a disaster.

My deck:
3x Rem-Ram
1x Amelia Voght
1x Chrome
2x Crimson Commando
1x Destiny
1x Senyaka
1x Silver Sabre
2x Anne-Marie Cortez
3x Julia Carpenter
1x Spoor
1x Jetstream
1x Stonewall
1x Sub-Mariner
2x Harry Delgado
2x Wundagore Citadel
4x Freedom Force
1x Hellhound
1x Kill the Flatscans
1x Momentary Distraction


Cie le vie. It was an interesting distraction and a good way to practice a draft without participating, so thanks.

Grats on jinxing Anthony Justice like you did Phemus Pan before PC Atlanta :)

The only time a drop is ever a "disaster" is when you have fewer then you need, or terribly under-stat'ed drops. My 3rd draft in PC Atlanta had Kanjar Ro and Darkseid at the 5 drop (that was a disaster). Tennet actually drafted a deck w/out a 3 drop 3rd pod in Atlanta (that's really a disaster). Jetstream, Submariner and Stonewall are far from disasters. I'd be more concerned about only having 2 real 3 drops (when it should be 4). Though honestly drafting like you did is less than telling, because had you been drafting these cards the cards you would have seen in packs 2 and 3 would change a lot.

solid. thanks Adam.

This is a quote from Alex Brown's draft bible on that 'Celestial City' website -


and this is a quote from your article for those who may have passed it by;

I think its funny that two very good limited writers can have such completely different evaluations of the same card. I think that Momentary Distraction is a bomb too. The disadvantage is that first picking it first pack makes you go on curve, but it is incredible in Morlocks and Brotherhood because you are going to play their physical characters anyway.

In a 30 card limited deck you should be seeing it when it is relevant nearly every game; it twarts their initiative if you use it on Hump or Spoor on turn 4, and is great with all the Morlock curve characters (except for Eye), Harry Delgado and Wolverine. Obviously this card isnt on the same level as Mech Bay bombness, but I would definately take it if I could support it. I might not first pick, first pack it over a Massacre (something that goes great in EVERY deck), but I think its a pseudo-archetypal card that makes curve decks much more powerful.

Great article. I agree with you that we don't have enough articles that talk about drafting. Then again, I don't think many people experience drafting with enough competent players.

Anyway, I was happy to see that I pretty much agreed with almost all your picks. The key points that I picked up were making sure to have a secondary theme that sort of fits the main one. With that said, I think this article was sort of like the "level 1" of draft articles. Now, I'd like to see you follow this up with a draft that had you changing strategies in the middle and STILL you ended up going close to 3-0 with the deck. It seemed like you got Blackbird Blue first pick and were able to stay with that theme throughout your draft. Let's see what happens when things don't start out the way they end. Other than that, this was a very solid article in an area that lacks much discussion, which is sad because Vs. draft is an amazing format.

Prakash

P.S. You know, you can hide out in Cincy too and play in PTQ's there as well :)

P.P.S. Good luck at your 30 player Regionals (if you go). Hope no one pukes this time ;P

I'm pretty sure my draft would have had a 3rd pick Neutralized, I love the KO effects. I'm not sure how the draft would have turned out as I would have taken Annalee x 2 in pack 2 and hopefully received more Morlocks (crosses fingers) than came by in pack 3. I also don't think I could take Archangel over Mutant Massacre, deck be damned. That doesn't make it correct though.

Anyway, good article, I found this walk through more useful (to me) than any of your previous limited articles. I would love to see more of them like this in the future.

Who sees 5 KO effects and ends up with 0? :(

Here is where I would have taken a different card from you. Most of the time I am wrong but I figure these are worth posting.

Pack 1, pick 6:

Your pick: Image Inducer
My pick: Crimson Commando

As you mentioned, you've seen a few BH low drops and you've yet to pick up a single character. His text is blank most of the time, but I think he is the correct pick. You did end up with six 2-drops - in retrospect I'm sure you'd prefer the Inducer, but I would have been too paranoid to take the equipment given what you already had in the non-character department.

Pack 2, pick 2:

Your pick: Sage
My pick: Catseye

Looks like we were both wrong. I don't really pick the Spoors/Madelyne Pryors/Stonewalls/Mystiques high enough - how early are you willing to take them?

Pack 2, pick 3:

Your pick: Hellfire Club Mercenary
My pick: Psionic Storm

You have already covered this.

Pack 2, pick 6:

Your pick: Friedrich Von Roehm
My pick: Friedrich Von Roehm

Okay, so we went for the same card. He was my impulse pick but Jubilee makes more sense.

Pack 2, pick 12:

Your pick: District X
My pick: Mindtap Mechanism

In this deck I think it is better filler.

Pack 3, pick 2:

Your pick: Spoor
My pick: Friedrich Von Roehm

See earlier Spoor comments. I've never had him in this sort of deck and you'd started picking up some reservists. A pump "on a stick" so to speak is obviously great. He seems like the right pick.

Pack 3, pick 3:

Your pick: Spoor
My pick: Destiny

Given your mental sub-theme I stand by this. She is always insane when you can use her ability.

Pack 3, pick 8:

Your pick: Spoor
My pick: Snikt!

I'm so stupid, I definitely got this one wrong.

These are always great to read BTW. You really need to write a San Fran report.

KO effects flowing like water... and you are dry?

Great article, but myself I woudl have abandoned the bird and went more heavily into Brotherhood I think. There were some solid picks there just flying by. How late did Amelia Voight go? Yikes.