Editor: James Kongy. Wednesday 23rd March 2005.
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Editor: James Kongy. Wednesday 23rd March 2005.
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Slow fade in on a room. The room is filled with trellis tables, and an odd assortment of chairs of various colours, fabrics and of variable condition. Slow zoom into 'Our Hero'. He is sitting on a purple swivel chair with a pained look on his face. On the table in front of him are the contents of five freshly opened Marvel Knights boosters. What will he put in his sealed deck??? The agony of these choices can be seen playing across his face. Hello again. Hopefully that attempt at an arty intro has conveyed what this article will be about. That's right – it's another sealed card pool. But wait, there's more!!! This article is the first in a series of weekly articles (yes I have committed to writing regularly again) which will examine Marvel Knights (MK) sealed play. Over the next five weeks I will post a real 'sealed card pool' a week (made in the traditional way, by cracking five packs and typing up the contents) with a proposed build. This serves two purposes. Firstly I will use this to explore the MK sealed pack - and by extension drafting - card choices and archetypes. Secondly, I think it will serve as great practice for the Auckland 10K, which will be the world's first sealed 10K. As always, I keenly await your comments in the forums, as it is through discussion that we all improve our knowledge. Later articles in this series will also canvas views from some of Australia's best limited players. And now, on with the show (ah yes, it's cliché city here tonight). Here is the first card pool. This card pool is something to behold. It has particular strengths in all four of the major affiliations, which makes it remarkably hard to decide on a final thirty cards to play. I think there are many possible builds from this card pool, and these will go through my thinking processes to land at the build I would play. This does not make it the best build though, just my build. There are five team-up cards in this card pool, including two Midnight Sons (my favourite of the new team-ups) and a Dagger to fetch them. This instantly makes me very keen on playing the Marvel Knights (MK) affiliation. Back this up with a 'Head Shot' and a 'Bring the Pain' and the Knights are looking good in the blue cards. Looking at the available characters, they have playable drops at every costing from one through to six. Characters I consider strong in the pool include Brother Voodoo, Moon Knight, and Daredevil (3), and Natasha Romanoff. The next burst of excitement I had after spotting the large number of team-ups was spotting two (!!!) Fixers in the card pool. In limited a first turn, or even a second turn Roscoe Sweeny can be a real game turner. Having two in your thirty card deck gives you a good chance of seeing one of them if you mulligan aggressively for this outcome. Playing two Roscoes means you would like to have at least one crime lord at very drop. The card pool available makes this a real possibility, as there are playable Crime Lords (CL) at every costing except for the 5 cost spot. If Roscoe survives to turn five, hopefully one of your team ups will be in play. Stand out CL characters include Bullseye (he is big), Masked Marauder, and Jamie Ortiz. There are no real stand out plot twists for CL, though Shakedown is very playable. A review of the available X-Statix cards throws my deck ideas so far into chaos. Here is where the majority of the blue is lying – team stamped and tempting. Never Give Up! is one of the best plot twists ever printed for totally turning a game of sealed on it's head. I have used this card in sealed and draft to steal games that my opponents thought were in the bag on many occasions. I went 3-1 at one of the MK Sneak Peaks with an Underworld, MK, X-Statix deck that was brutal. All three of the games that I won involved Never Give up being played on turn five or six to stunning effect. One of those games was a turn five win. I find it hard to understate how broken this card is in the format, and yet many people have told me that that is exactly what I do. This card is a potential first pick for me in drafts, and a real tempter in sealed. Go in Swinging, Missed Drop and Mind Over Matter are all very playable cards. Many people forget that you can return a stunned character to hand with Mind Over Matter, or save your 2 drop that has hung around for too long from being attacked by returning it to your hand. I should also mention Glory Hound. Although this is not a card I am particularly fond of, it can totally ruin an opponent. I have lost games where I had been in a commanding position, after my opponent stopped a key team attack from happening late in the game. I am yet to decide on the overall playability of this card, and would be keen to hear people's opinions in the forums. There are also some very good characters available in this affiliation, including the magnificent Orphan, who can be a late game stealer. The other strong characters are Spike, Battering Ram, and Mysterious Fan Boy. All of them come with typical X-Statix type drawbacks to their power. Underworld appears the weakest of the four affiliations, but they still have some nice little tricks. Ultimately, their paucity of powerhouse characters, and only one good bit of blue make me put them aside this time. With three other team-ups available to me I don't need the two Hypnotic Charms, or Morbius's handy search ability. Finally, there are the 'play in any deck' cards. Top of this list for me for this pool are Blown to Pieces and Marvel Team-Up. I like Meltdown as a nice utility card and it is amazing how crucial that extra two endurance might be at a critical time in the game. A 'bye-bye' War Wagon card is also always good to have. Without other means of getting to hidden characters in this card pool, Out of the Darkness is also a handy card to have. So, with those thoughts in mind, here is the deck I built.
Thoughts on some key choices: Only playing 2 main affiliations. The temptation is to splash X-Statix, with 3 team-up cards in the deck. This would primarily be for Never Give Up, Spike and Battering Ram. I decided not to do this as I feel it would have potentially reduced the consistency of the deck. Of real concern is that Spike really backfires without a team-up. I am not sure if this was too conservative a decision. This then leads me to play Sharon Ginsberg, as end game card cycling is never bad, and Carrion, as he has a neat ability. I'm still not sure about the Carrion/Battering Ram choice. I have a nasty feeling I got it wrong. Only playing two main affiliations also cuts right down on the available plot twists. I really did think very seriously of splashing X-Statix, however decided to go for a few consistent curve, with 3 team ups, and a few power blue cards. Orphan – a seven drop is necessary. If there is a spare team up in the row at this late point in the game Orphan becomes insane. If there isn't he is still a good size card to drop. He wins out over Nightmare with ease. And that is card pool one. I'm looking forward to seeing your builds for this deck in the forum, and hearing your comments and suggestions. Until next week, keeping on mising. Kman | ||||||||
