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Editor: Gabriel Wong. Tuesday 27th September 2005.

Accept No Limits - The Melbourne $10K Edition - By Kerryn Rubin
This article comes at you straight out of the Melbourne $10K. It includes a real life example of how to draft 'Faces of Evil', the power archetype of the Avengers set, as demonstrated by the eventual champion Scott Smith.

On a personal level Melbourne $10K was very disappointing. I missed Day Two on resistance, and thereby missed making Top 20 for the 4th time in a row. However, this was counterbalanced by my good friend Dave 'Moose' Helsby eventually finishing 3rd overall. This was a well deserved result by a great player.

The other advantage of being knocked out so early was that I could follow a top drafter pick by pick through a top level draft. Before the first draft of the day I had a chat with Scott Hunstad who was quietly tipping Scott Smith to take out the 1$0K (good tip Scott). As metagame.com was going to be following Alex Brown, who was the highest profile player drafting at the top table, it made sense for me to follow Mr. Smith around.

The Top 8 from Day One's sealed rounds were all drafting in a pod together. Sadly, the only undefeated player from Day One - Andrew Corney - was not there, and there were only seven drafting in the pod. As well as Scott Smith and Alex Brown, the rest of the table was made up by Dave 'Moose' Helsby, Ray Isais, Anthony 'Migga' Micali, Minga Wong, and Early Nguyen.

Before I report on the picks Scott made I want to point out that through the draft Scott was drafting the 'Faces of Evil' archetype. This is an off curve strategy that a lot of the top players around the world have been pursuing in Avengers drafts. For those of you not familiar with it, it relies on drafting Masters of Evil and Thunderbolts characters, the majority of whom cost 3 or less, and who have useful payment powers. A large part of its strength is that all of ones resources points are used up every turn. It is a fast, explosive strategy heavily relying on speed and numbers for board control. Rather than discussing individual cards now, I will comment on them as we look at Scott's picks. I hasten to add that all opinions on cards in this article are my own rather than Scott's, and opinions on why Scott picked a cards are again mine. Therefore any stupid comments belong wholly to me, and not Scott.

Where multiple cards are listed for a pick, the first card on the list is the card Scott eventually picked. The other cards listed are cards that I rated highly, or that I could see Scott was seriously considering

Pack One

1 - Speed Demon, Kang - Earth Mesozoic-24
For the first picked of the draft Scott was beaming as he opened a foil Speed Demon. As you can see, this was the only bomb in the pack, with the next best card being the 4 drop Kang!

2 - Melissa Gold <> Songbird - Sonic Carapace, Justice, Like Lightning, Legendary Battles, Call to Arms
This pack offered gold, with Melissa Gold's 6 attack being a terrific beatstick. A two cost character that can stun up the curve to 4 (or even many 5 cost dudes with only a small pump) she is indeed 'gold'. However, Justice, Like Lightning is a pump with a great on team extra effect, and Scott may well have still decided to chase Avengers having seen a second pick Legendary Battles.

3 - Heinrich Zemo <> Baron Zemo, Crime Spree
Heinrich Zemo is the 4 drop of choice for this team, letting everyone adjacent stun up the curve.

4 - Mr. Hyde, Sonic Disruption
Mr. Hyde is the other top 4 drop, as he turns into a 9/9 after turn four in most games played with this deck.

5 - Joystick, Egghead, Charcoal
This was an interesting choice, with Smith going for Joystick, over the often more favoured Egghead.

6 - Two Worlds, Melissa Gold <> Songbird - Heroine Unbound, and lots of Squadron cards
Having seen no 'Faces of Evil' Scott has decided he needs a team-up. At this point it was interesting to note how much of the pack was made up of Squadron Supreme cards. This boded well for anyone drafting Squadron as it appeared at this point there was only one person doing this.

7 - Force Field Belt, Egghead, Under Siege
Scott went for a great little piece of equipment that makes sure you always spend all your resource points.

8 - Thunderball, Behavior Modification Device, Erik Josten <> Goliath
Nothing great in this pack but an on team 5 drop who is slightly above curve.

9 - Thunder Jet, Egghead
Scott takes the equipment/pump and once again passes Egghead.

10 - Doctor Decibel

11 - Supply Line

12 - The Time Keepers

13 - Answer the Call

14 - Utopia Isle

The last 5 picks brought no joy for Scott.

Pack Two

1 - Melissa Gold <> Screaming Mimi, Stolen Power, Joystick
The other 2 drop Melissa Gold , with a great burn ability for the deck.

2 - Repulsor Ray, Plant Man <> Blackheath, Prismatic Shield, Moonglow
I suspect Scott felt he needed more pumps at this point (having none so far!), as he passed up the great Plant Man <> Blackheath for an average pump.

3 - The Wrecking Crew, Second Chance, Sonic Disruption
Scott took the pump of choice of the deck. The Wrecking Crew allows you to get up to +8 ATK (though usually +4-6 ATK) for the one card.

4 - Paul Ebersol <> Techno - Gadgeteer, Crime Spree
The 2 drop Paul is a great utility card being both a character and a pump for most of your other characters.

5 - Thunder Jet, Beetle <> Mach 3, The Wrecker
Another Thunder Jet over the often awesome Beetle <> Mach 3, who is a fifth turn legend.

6 - Karla Sofen <> Moonstone, Unfair Advantage
Nothing too exciting here.

7 - Whirlwind, Blue Eagle, Beast

8 - Doctor Decibel, Karla Sofen <> Moonstone, Melissa Gold <> Songbird - Heroine Unbound

9 - Ultron <> Crimson Cowl
The 9th pick gave Smith Ultron, whose ability to cause breakthrough across the board can make that extra few point difference needed for the win.

10 - Sonic Disruption, Executioner
I think that Sonic Disruption can be highly underrated. That Scott was getting it late was a reasonable sign to me, but the deck was still looking very shaky.

11 - Dallas Riordan <> Vantage

12 - Playroom

13 - Ahab

14 - Win-Lose Deal

By the end of the 2nd pack Scott was looking very disappointed by the draft so far, and only the last pick Win-Lose Deal got a smile, and the trade mark Scott Smith kiss to the card he is happy to see.

At this stage things were looking very bad. Scott had only three 1 drop, three 2 drop, and two 3 drop characters. He also had no Faces of Evil to give the deck its trademark kick. I could see things about to fall apart and was thinking to myself 'Well, I won't be writing this one up'. And then came the 3rd pack.

Pack Three

1 - Helmut Zemo <> Citizen V - Tactician, Call to Arms, Melissa Gold <> Songbird - Sonic Carapace
The first pick went to filling out the curve, with the reasonable 3 drop Helmut, over the awesome Melissa Gold and the good pump.

2 - Faces of Evil, Tiger Shark, Amenhotep
Scott took the pack and suddenly he was beaming. There was a Faces of Evil - suddenly there was hope. Nothing else in the pack could be picked over this.

3 - Faces of Evil, Radioactive Man - Chen Lu, Egghead
3rd pick and along comes another Faces. The draft had turned from poor to great in only 3 picks.

4 - The Wrecking Crew, Plant Man <> Blackheath, Might Makes Right
Another good pump was taken over the awesome Plant Man <> Blackheath.

5 - Helmut Zemo <> Citizen V - Tactician, Paul Ebersol <> Techno - Gadgeteer
Another 3 drop to fill curve over a better 2 drop. Scott knew exactly what he needed to get the deck going.

6 - Bulldozer, Mammomax, Combat Maneuvers
Bulldozer received a large kiss and a smile. Here was a quality three to help out at this crucial spot on the curve.

7 - Paul Ebersol <> Fixer, Piledriver

8 - Beetle <> Mach 1 (Scott kisses card)
Great 1 drop with 2 ATK, flight, range and searches out your Faces of Evil. 'Nuff said.

9 - Stolen Power
Finishing Move on steroids. I love this card.

10 - Jarvis

11 - Lady Lark, Prismatic Shield

12 - Piledriver

13 - AIDA

14 - Mortician

The last six cards added only another much needed 3 drop character.

Having had everything come together in the last pack Scott was jubilant. He quickly put his deck together in around 2 minutes and then handed it to me while he considered how to tweak the last few cards. Eventually Whirlwind was played over Piledriver ("Flight and range man.") and Force Field Belt was the last card cut.

Here is Scott Smith's deck, from the top pod of the Day 2 draft to decide the Top 8.

Characters
1 x Joystick, Janice Yanizesh
1 x Paul Ebersol <> Fixer, Problem Solver
1 x Beetle <> Mach 1, Reluctant Hero
1 x Melissa Gold <> Screaming Mimi, Mimi Schwartz
1 x Melissa Gold <> Songbird, Sonic Carapace
1 x Paul Ebersol <> Techno, Gadgeteer
1 x Mortician, Toussaint Morrow
1 x Speed Demon, Second Chance Speedster
1 x Bulldozer, Wrecking Crew
2 x Helmut Zemo <> Citizen V, Tactician
1 x Lady Lark, Linda Lewis
1 x Ahab, Houndkeeper
1 x Heinrich Zemo <> Baron Zemo, Baron of Zeulniz
1 x Mr. Hyde, Engine of Destruction
1 x Dallas Riordan <> Vantage, Ionic Inheritor
1 x Whirlwind, David Cannon
1 x Ultron <> Crimson Cowl, Dark Disguise
1 x Thunderball, Wrecking Crew
1 x Karla Sofen <> Moonstone, Master Manipulator

Plot Twists
2 x Faces of Evil
1 x Two Worlds
1 x Repulsor Ray
2 x The Wrecking Crew
1 x Sonic Disruption
1 x Stolen Power

Equipment
2 x Thunder Jet

You can see that Scott had to splash three extra teams to make his ideal curve. After chaining Two Worlds to Mortician coming out Scott was able to utilise its boost in one game, which was a real 'icing' playing. It is also the first time I have ever seen Ahab run in a draft. Scott went on to win two out of his three matches to make the final. In the pod matches the one loss was to Alex Brown (who scooped up the Squadron cards that I noticed earlier which can be seen on metagame.com). Scott went on to ultimately beat Alex in the Top 8 draft. Well done Scott Smith - a fine $10K champion.

Until next time�

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