I don't feel so good, Mr. Stark.

Marvel's come and gone! Snapped away in its golden age. Well, at least we got another cube season out of the deal!

Trophy Boring Boros

Our first trophy - and first draft! - was a bog standard Boros deck.

Fast mana would've really helped, but we slammed on the gas starting turn two. With an MDFC and Oliphaunt, our deck was land light and action heavy. We also had a strong sideboard, especially against a couple artifact decks.

I wanted to test out new card Batroc, but he never showed up. I've really warmed up to the idea of this card - a modern FTK with a ton of upside in the late game - though that art kicks him out of my cube. Can't wait until he leaps into a Lurrus deck!

2-1 Golgari Reanimator

A mid Golgari reanimator deck. This absolutely has the power to hang - Entomb/Reanimate Archon ended a game on turn two. We're miserably light on discard though.

You can see a Sneak Attack plan hanging out in board. I cut it for consistency and a better midrange game. Still not sure that was the right call, but without any kind of tutoring or even filtering, it felt like it'd land us some real clunky hands.

This was only a 2-1, but I got a personal trophy - we took a match off Wheeler! He was playing Nadu with a backbreaking Ephemerate loop, but we managed to crush him out in game three.

Trophy Esper Bad Flash

Esper tempo with Flash Wurm to cheese out some wins.

You can see some reanimator pieces in the sideboard - like the Sneak from the last deck, I'm on the fence about whether I should've brought it in, but I didn't want to clog up my draws too much.

I don't think this deck was great, but sometimes you just need to high roll.

Clean Sweep Rakdos Reanimator

A solid little red/black reanimator deck with an agro backup plan.

Yet again, the sideboard tells the tale of my cowardice. No Sneak/Emrakul? Not even a cheeky Smog/Wife?

I dunno. Like I've mentioned before, I've had more success with these midrangey cheat decks than the all-in ones, but cards like Bomba and Voidwalker are disparate enough to be agro oil to our reanimator plan water.

Well, anyway. Everyone has a plan until pirate goblins punch them in the mouth. Gunna stick by taking the powerful cards here.

Trophy Esper Archon

Speaking of reani-midrange, we're back to Esper for another light cheaty deck.

Here it's just the Archon and a couple ways to bring it back. This is much more in line with how I'm hoping to build these decks. Discard to good threats like Ledger Shredder or Frog and reanimate with all-rounders like Emporer of Bones.

Not a new Marvel card, but a hero nevertheless - I should give Super Spider-Man a bit more respect. Four mana's a lot for a reanimation spell, but there's a higher floor here suping up something small like a Malcolm.

Trophy Esper Tempo

Back on familiar ground with an Esper midrange deck. You know the drill: strong flash threats, disruption, and an Aang that goes around way too late.

We opened an insane pack two: Lotus, Time Walk, and Recall! Jeez, how do you pick!

Lotus might be the best card in the cube, but we don't have big, snowbally threats and burning it on a counterspell seems weak. Time Walk is great, but likewise, doesn't do much with a hand full of interaction. Ultimately, I decided Recall fit best into our gameplan: we could hold up mana, trade resources, and refill our hand.

I dunno! I'll be thinking about this for a while. We got the trophy, so if I guess I made the right call!

Trophy Monow Blue

Sticking with the previous plan, another temp deck.

Bit of a funny draft. We started with some strong blue cards, then just kept taking them! We saw some strong cards in other colours, but never picked up the fixing, so we stuck with a couple solid white cards we snagged on the fringes.

I wouldn't choose to be so locked in on one colour - we were really hard up for removal - but it worked out okay. A couple wraths in the board really shored up our game against creature decks and The One Ring kept us going against the rest.

Another not-quite-new card I was thinking about is Appa, the not-quite-Resto. Not the most necessary card here, but I was pleased with the flexibility of re-triggering some ETBs and resetting the Ring. Maybe he's another one I should take higher. Yip yip!

Trophy Same Ol' Same Ol'

Yet another blue-white tempo deck! I tried, I really did. Look at poor first-pick Minsc & Boo, hanging out in the sideboard.

I moved into blue over Riddler of all things. I was aiming for some kind of Temur beatdown deck, but no such luck. Oh well, these tempo decks continue to be kind and who am I to scorn fate's tender kiss?

Shout out to the last opponent who had a sick black-white death-and-taxes kind of deck. Really cool, and absolutely tore my hands apart with Cloak and Dagger. We got real lucky to draw into a Wrath with a stolen Skullclamp right before they demolished us in the last game.

Closing the Comic Book

And that wraps up Marvel!

I dunno, even setting aside my distaste for the dastardly do-gooders, I wasn't too wowed. Cloak and Dagger was better than expected, Night Nurse is an upgrade to Sam, The Wonderous Wasp was a serviceable tempo pickup, and I saw Batrock get in a good kick or two.

I guess at the end of the day, that's not a complaint - I'm happier with the heroes staying off the pages. See you in the funny papers!