One Pack One Pick (p1p1 thread)

Onderzeeboot · Sep 30, 2015

Dragonlord Silumgar is just awesome to play with, plus easy to splash for if I get pushed out of one of the colors!

Chris Taylor · Sep 30, 2015

blacksmithy said:
Then again, in this cube, metamorph has a best-case of, like, serenity/aethersnipe/zombie mike/conqmanti/terrasty/scuttling, and an average case of murderous redcap... So while it is a super-safe pick, it doesnt really break anything.
Okay, for this pack, what's everyone's SECOND pick?

I love that I most often hear this when there's Power or Jitte in the pack

Probably murderous cut? I don't think there's anything here that really blows my lid on power level, so cut is the card that keeps me the most open

blacksmithy · Sep 30, 2015

I wonder if there's a way to do like a Pick 1 Pack 2 game. Like, put up a pack and say, "you drafted X in pack one, what do you do?" That might be a more challenging pack game, but i dont want to COMPLETELY derail this thread.

Also chris do you mean you love hearing "whats your second pick?" Or "this doesnt really break anything?"

Chris Taylor · Sep 30, 2015

It's just phrasing you hear a lot in the powermax crack a packs.
"Well, there's not really a decision here, so lets try and suss out what there would be if some of the cards in my cube weren't drastically more powerful than others"

safra · Sep 30, 2015

blacksmithy said:
I wonder if there's a way to do like a Pick 1 Pack 2 game. Like, put up a pack and say, "you drafted X in pack one, what do you do?" That might be a more challenging pack game, but i dont want to COMPLETELY derail this thread.

Also chris do you mean you love hearing "whats your second pick?" Or "this doesnt really break anything?"

I've thought about it! if you don't want them here, you could start another thread for them, but I don't have any problems changing up the thread's scope a lil.

Chris Taylor · Sep 30, 2015

How hard can it be?

Your Picks:

The Pack:

Eric Chan · Sep 30, 2015

Yeah, that's always been my problem with Phyrexian Metamorph - it's not inherently busted like colourless cards in the vein of Jitte, Wurmcoil, or Skullclamp, but I eventually removed it from my list because it was a safe, boring pick. If you opened it pack 1 pick 1 and the cube's power level isn't too high, it was usually objectively wrong to pass Metamorph, even if you wanted to do something fun and off-the-wall because another card in the pack spoke to you. I don't like those drafting feel-bads, so Metamorph had to go over here.

Onderzeeboot · Sep 30, 2015

If Garruk and the Hydra are still in that pack, green is probably open? They both combo nicely with the Battle Screech. I don't really like how Thalia interacts with our picks so far, and Blasphemous Act seems like it goes in a different deck. I think I'ld pick the Hydra here. Seems like a nice threat we want to protect with Mom.

blacksmithy · Sep 30, 2015

I think I like Marsh Flats there.
You've got the Mom Bomb, decent removal, a source of reach... And Flats really sets you up nicely for later picks as a fetch that can get any W/x dual.
I don't really like the White and Red cards this pack offers in the same deck as Mom (except Thalia, who is likely my second pick here), and I don't want to commit to a second color yet (Bolt is the epitome of splashable so that doesn't count). Flats for me, and hope to wheel basically any of the G/U/B cards or Confluence.

EDIT: P.S. not to hate on Terese but the old Mom art is the best because the old art actually looks like someone's mother and not someone's hot daughter.

Chris Taylor · Sep 30, 2015

Onderzeeboot said:
If Garruk and the Hydra are still in that pack, green is probably open? They both combo nicely with the Battle Screech. I don't really like how Thalia interacts with our picks so far, and Blasphemous Act seems like it goes in a different deck. I think I'ld pick the Hydra here. Seems like a nice threat we want to protect with Mom.

See these are the kind of sentences I like

Blasphemous act interacts better with our picks than you think. Mom survives it, or lets a crucial threat survive it (The Mom in my cube only taps 3 times), as does Valerous Stance, and Battle Screech makes it cheap. There's enough ways to get things to survive it/profit off that damage (Mostly Boros Reckoner) that it is an option.

and again, red could be being cut, or this could just have been a weird pack.

Onderzeeboot · Sep 30, 2015

Chris Taylor said:
See these are the kind of sentences I like

Blasphemous act interacts better with our picks than you think. Mom survives it, or lets a crucial threat survive it (The Mom in my cube only taps 3 times), as does Valerous Stance, and Battle Screech makes it cheap. There's enough ways to get things to survive it/profit off that damage (Mostly Boros Reckoner) that it is an option.

and again, red could be being cut, or this could just have been a weird pack.

I hadn't looked at it that way, but you're totally right about Act. If you want to stick to your p4 Bolt you could certainly pick it up. I still think moving into green is a smart move here, it does look really open.

Chris Taylor · Sep 30, 2015

Onderzeeboot said:
I hadn't looked at it that way, but you're totally right about Act. If you want to stick to your p4 Bolt you could certainly pick it up. I still think moving into green is a smart move here, it does look really open.

This is basically all hypothetical, since Act came in just a day ago, but hey, those are the reasons why I added it!

I think I'm on the Marsh Flats stay open train here. Garruk is a strong signal for green being open, but Green/White dudes isn't really my bag. I think Flesh Carver is an option, though it has basically the same problem Garruk does: Good card, not a great archetype.
I'm inclined to believe red's being cut here, since the act is pretty niche (even if it does go well with our deck).
There's also a bit of an argument to be made for wrath of god, since a control deck with Mom, a removal spell, and Second Rate Lingering Souls isn't a bad place to be.

Aston · Oct 1, 2015

I think I'd take the Marsh Flats here with Thalia being the second choice, but as mentioned above she's pretty awkward when we've taken 3 spells so far.

Onderzeeboot · Oct 1, 2015

Ok, a new one then. Your first four picks were:

What do you pick:

Aston · Oct 1, 2015

Myr Battlesphere on the basis that if I ever pass that card, I end up losing to it.

The fact that it works in the reanimator strategy we seem to be drifting towards is a happy bonus.

Chris Taylor · Oct 1, 2015

I'm on counterspell or FTK. That necromancy means little to me at this point, and I've always found the targets are less important in reanimator than the enablers, plus Keiga reanimated is decidedly mediocre.

Currently I think we're a bit better situated to be in U/x something, and if Crystal shard isn't a trap in this cube, FTK being here at this point could be a solid signal that red is open, and a decent splash even if that's not true. If I was worried about the amount of fixing or felt that red wasn't a strong enough signal, Counterspell is a strong pick as well.

Edit: Huh, the mouseover link for counterspell shows 7th edition, but the card image link shows Tempest remastered. Weird

I think the same thing is happeneing with the expeditions?

blacksmithy · Oct 1, 2015

I pick Myr Battlesphere. If I can't reanimate it, I can probably get Tinker, and if I can't Tinker into it, I can just play a control deck and win with it and/or Keiga. I'll be real surprised if at least one good card doesn't wheel. That pack is stacked.

MCMcEmcee · Oct 7, 2015

Counterspell or Battlesphere. FTK is great but it's not worth going out of color for when there's a strong in-color pick.

Onderzeeboot · Oct 7, 2015

I think I agree with picking FTK here. We didn't pick up any black after that Necromancy, and anyway, playing three colors is very possible in this cube, so splashing for FTK is a real possibility as well. There's not many red cards I would take over FTK, which to me means red is wide open if it's still in the pack p5. It also combines very, very well with the Crystal Shard we just picked up, giving us already two great targets for bounce tricks.

There doesn't seem to be a lot wrong with picking up Battlesphere either, but it might actually cut us off from playable in the future. This particular cube heavily supports

and

, but not

and

. By picking Battlesphere we're passing FTK, so red might dry up in the second booster. It might regardless, since we didn't pick red in the first four boosters, but it is a consideration. Black seems to have dried up in this particular booster as well, so we might already be getting cut there, leaving us stranded in blue without an allied color. Still... Battlesphere.

A third option I would consider is Life // Death, since it's actually a second reanimation spell for the

reanimator deck we're drifting towards.