General An auto-pick in synergy's clothing

[MurphysHuman]

Right, inscho's instinct to remove the high-powered midrange glue from his cube could be understood in two ways:

1. Reducing the density of cards that are high-power and go in any deck of their color
2. Reducing the power level of cards that tie into multiple archetypes

1. runs the risk of putting the draft on-rails; if most cards do not go into every deck of their color, you better be in a specific archetype! 2. is potentially more interesting, but I have been thinking about how a card's power level is increasing in its archetype density. Look at these:



All of them do something that P&K do, but P&K's ability to do all of them at once ends up increasing its abstract power level. What are some cards that have very high archetype density but a lower power level than the cards discussed here?

 

[Erik Twice]

I also want to say one thing: I think we are overstating a bit the degree by which these cards are autopick. While they are always great, it's not often as clear in drafting what you should pick. For example:



All of these cards are very strong. But which one is the better pick is not obvious. Depending on the deck you are building, these cards go up and down in value. They can be goodstuff filler, or vital pieces. For example, if you are moving into artifacts Pia and Kiran Nalaar will be a high pick, while Bolt is "replaceable". On the other hand, if you are leaning into spells matter, or blink, you are not going to consider them much over the alternatives. To me, that's good value.

I do feel there are some cards that are so good you'll pick them over others over practically any circumstance:



I also feel some cards encroach all other options. There are not many cards that will compete against Fact or Fiction.

 

[inscho]

I also want to say one thing: I think we are overstating a bit the degree by which these cards are autopick. While they are always great, it's not often as clear in drafting what you should pick. For example:



All of these cards are very strong. But which one is the better pick is not obvious. Depending on the deck you are building, these cards go up and down in value. They can be goodstuff filler, or vital pieces. For example, if you are moving into artifacts Pia and Kiran Nalaar will be a high pick, while Bolt is "replaceable". On the other hand, if you are leaning into spells matter, or blink, you are not going to consider them much over the alternatives. To me, that's good value.

My argument is really just how these cards become more of an auto-pick the more you scale down your power, and trying to loosely map out the point in which these cards become more problematic for an environment.

Your sample 8-pack includes:
The best burn spell ever printed
One of the best 1-mana ramp creatures printed
The most splashable efficient counterspell
One of the best blink creatures printed
One of the strongest 2-mana blue creatures
An efficient, flexible reanimation spell

I'd say at least 4-5 of these won't be in cubes of the power levels I'm talking about