We've talked about Constructed decks a lot here, and in the podcast, but we haven't really delved in depth as to what you might like to bring to an OP. This is what we're going to do, and maybe I'm really off base here, but I hope everyone can use this to put themselves in a better position to tackle Hybrid OP. Hopefully you won't square off against me, but maybe I'll recognize you by your deck building!

What This Isn't

This isn't a Constructed deck. That much should be obvious, but I want to make this clear. When you are working on putting together a Constructed deck you have an entirely different goal from when you are working on a Hybrid deck, and you should be going into it with different things in mind. Constructed decks are great, but there are going to be many people whose tournaments are Hybrid and having a great 8 card plan isn't going to help if you don't know how to pare it down.

Hybrid deck format is fairly simple, and outlined in the [link] official Organized Play rules as follows:

• Each player will bring 4 cards, each with 3 (or 'max') dice, whichever is fewer
• Each player will purchase 10 booster packs
• Construct a deck of up to 8 cards with up to 20 dice

Math is Evan's game, but take my word for it when I say your expected results from 10 packs are approximately: 1-2 rares, 4-5 uncommons, the rest (about 14) commons. You'll very likely get a duplicate common or three, leaving you with about 15 unique cards. Of those cards, many of them are going to be overpriced. Again, Evan has crunched the numbers and it's a bit dire. In general you are going to be looking at picking up maybe as many as half (or more) of your cards with a 5+ purchase cost.

So what does this all mean? In my opinion, it basically means you must be prepared to win, even if you don't get a single useful card from your packs. That is the only lesson I take from this. Hybrid is about the core in a way that the standard Tournament rules never will be.

Where To Start

Evan talked about dice drawing options in a recent post, and honestly that's exactly where you want to start. Pick one. I like Beast: 666, honestly I don't see a lot of reasons not to bring him. The only time I'd think about not bringing him is if I'm going up against a crowd I know is full of Tsarinas; then I'd bring Genetics Expert. Your other options are pretty much Gambit and Norman Osborn, and I don't recommend these guys near as much as Beast.

Nova and Silver Surfer are really poor solo choices in a hybrid match, just because you have to GET them first, and that's not a given if you don't have some low end churn. If you want to use Silver Surfer's global you have an ok chance of getting him in a draw anyway. It's nothing I'd count on, but remember that.

Second, evaluate the cost of your cards so you know why you're bringing something that costs more than 4. If you're bringing something that's more than 4 cost you need to have a really good reason, Loki: Gem Keeper you would bring for his control aspect, Storm: Wind Rider is an excellent assassin, these are cards who are really worth that one extra cost, because they go an extra mile, sometimes two. I would, in general, not even think about considering the 6-7 cost cards without a staggeringly good reason. I could perhaps see the argument for an If Looks Could Kill Cyclops, as long as your entire deck is built around getting him out and getting the energy to purchase him quickly.

Bring an assassin, or a swiss army knife that serves as an assassin: Punisher, Hawkeye, Storm. Again, these are going to help you as you work through the earlier parts of the match. You might be able to leave Punisher and/or Hawkeye to chance (they aren't an unlikely pull, getting at least one of them is fairly likely), but absolutely don't count on getting one of these to make your game; bring an assassin.

Damage. Damage. Damage. How are you going to win? You aren't going to be able to count on some good stuff out of your packs, so how do you intend to win? Human Torch? Tsarina? Look for someone on the cheaper side, you will get a few expensive options out of your pack draws.

Where To Go From There

So you have some ideas of what you want to bring: a dice drawing engine, an assassin, some cheaper cards with good damage, and a swiss army knife or two. Just to put all my 'cards' out there so to speak, my intended Hybrid team is: Beast - Mutate 666, Storm - Wind Rider, Human Torch - Johnny Storm, and Black Widow - Tsarina. As you can see, this fits very neatly into the idea of dice engine, assassin, and some good cheap damage cards. In general, my guess is you'll see this team or someone like it frequently. It's not the only team, but it is a very good one.

Where's All The Action

I always bring Distraction to a party, its great global ability is what I use it for. You can pull back Tsarina after you attack with her, you still spin a character down but she won't take damage. This also helps you fight off a Control strategy as well. I usually see the other action space as a wild card. I like Power Bolt as my favorite, but I'm going to give an honorable mention to Smash! because it lets you KO some characters that Tsarina has spun down, but honestly I think it's your wild card. How do you like to play? I don't like Gearing Up but a lot of people swear by it.

Whatever's good. You built a good, solid card/dice core for a reason, everyone else should further those cards and their ability to win. Hawkeye, Punisher, maybe a Nick Fury if you end up with a Hawkeye to aid with quick fielding. Ghost Rider can provide some quick early/mid game energy (although you'll want to focus on purchasing Beasts and Black Widows first). A Goblin Lord might be able to beef up your sidekicks a little bit. Just use your imagination, you're going to be using some fairly average commons, so you might as well look at them as cheapish energy in order to get out your big guns.

You'll end up with a few cards that are very expensive, but maybe not particularly good. Keep an eye on them, there may be a diamond in the rough to supplement the great cards you are bringing. The truth is you should always be ready to win with whatever 4 cards you bring with you to the OP.

Good luck in all your Hybrid needs. Got an OP Hybrid story that you want to share? I want to hear it. How did your deck work out for you? What did you bring?