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First Pack, First Pick

By Chris Harrold

 

Boosters? What good are boosters? You buy them, you open them, you go straight to the rare and discard the rest of the chaff to the to be sorted later pile. Did you get the £12 land? Or did you get another Nephilim?

 

As I have matured in my Magic playing I have learnt that every booster is a treasure trove or gemstone mine of potential magic fun. It is no fun anymore just to open the packs and be done – we need to be getting more for our money. The simplest way to do this is to look at each pack as if it were the start of a fresh draft.

 

Ah… The fresh draft feeling. You crack open the first wrapper and sniff the new card smell – skipping through a flowery field like some loopy woman on a Lenor advert. It’s the start of something good – you can sense it.

 

But seriously, you open the pack, peruse the contents and think – If I were me, which conveniently I am, and this were a draft, what would I pick first and what sort of signal am I sending to my opponents?

 

This article is going to be run through of these decisions, with discussion and afterthought. The boosters opened come from an ill fated RGD Rochester draft we attempted. Thankfully most of us escaped unscathed, but some still bear the mental scars.

 

Pack One

 


Gaze Of The Gorgon

Goblin Spelunkers

Greater Mossdog

Selesnya Sanctuary

Stasis Cell

Roofstalker Wight

Sewerdreg

Seismic Spike

Lorebroker

Flight Of Fancy

Boros Signet

Stone Seeder Hierophant

Blockbuster

Crown Of Convergence

Selesnya Guildmage

 

 

Nothing really to argue about here, but that has never stopped us before. Rather than go straight for the obvious let us discuss the possible alternatives. In the common and uncommon slots we have little of great excitement. Taking a land this early is a mistake, unless you plan to just read what signals you get sent. Similarly with the signet. None of the creatures are really first pick worthy (with one exception). Mossdog is solid and does have the single colour mana symbol. Flight of fancy is another possible choice, as it is easily splashable card draw and evasion rolled into one. Blockbuster has just never seemed to do all that and the Gaze is a card I have never found myself falling for.

 

The rare we get is the very strong Crown Of Convergence. Without the mana to use the second ability we get a rather inconsistent Glorious Anthem. It only counts creatures, but a good third of your deck is going to be those. It does take away a little bit of the surprise factor and if your opponent should have a Lurking Informant or Vedalken Entrancer then say bye to all your good stuff. However, if you have GW then you will be able to sift away those late game lands and draw what you really need.

 

The biggest downside to the Crown is that it pushes you into Selesnya, which is commonly regarded as a very weak guild to draft as it does not fall into a 3 set guild pattern. However, this is no reason to pass up the strongest Guildmage of the block. This man just wins games, on his own, with no help from anywhere else. I just suggest you aim to play him for GG rather than WW, as the white ability is the better to have on the splash and GRU is the better colour set to draft.

Signals? Is there anything much to pass. Maybe the person next to us will take the Crown and go into Selesnya too, but I don’t think the crown is worth it. Otherwise you are passing a ‘Dog and a Flight which may put you at risk of losing green next pack – but it’s alright because we would want Izzet anyway!

 

 

Pack Two

 


Mortipede

Dogpile

Selesnya Sanctuary

Wojek Apothecary

Terraformer

Dimir Infiltrator

Grayscaled Gharial

Shred Memory

Disembowel

Sell Sword Brute

Elves of Deep Shadow

Goliath Spider

Dimir Guildmage

Tunnel Vision

Carrion Howler

 

This pack writes the rules on how to be mediocre. Nothing here is bomb status and it’s hard to say if anything is really of first pick quality. There are a number of playable creatures in Mortipede, Terraformer and Sell Sword, but nothing I would really want to take first. The Dimir Guildmage is very strong and pushes us in the direction of blue – as the black ability is the less useful. The Elves are acceptable mana fixing, but again not as first pick. Tunnel Vision has been known to win games, if you hope to rip a Junktroller somewhere, but you can be guaranteed it will come back to you. The best pick in this pack however is the Disembowel because it is:

 

1) Removal

2) Splashable

 

This would leave us passing barely any signal at all because the pack is so shocking. I expect the Guildmage will go second, so you will need to anticipate the black or blue not coming to you in Guildpact. Hopefully you can push some nice white onto him so that he feels obliged to take the Orzhov. You will have the choice of taking your black in many directions, especially as it is so easily splashed.

 

Pack Three

 


Civic Wayfinder

Muddle The Mixture

Screeching Griffin

Sadistic Augermage

Thundersong Trumpeter

Ordruun Commando

Caregiver

Dizzy Spell

Thoughtpicker Witch

Galvanic Arc

Elves of Deep Shadow

Pollenbright Wings

Flaring Flame-kin

Flash Conscription

Chord of the Calling

 

This is much more of a thought provoking pack and it starts to become important to think about the draft ahead of you and not just the most powerful cards in the pack. Sifting the chaff it is easy to get rid of about 9 or 10 cards, but that still leaves us with the following: (in no particular order)

 

Civic Wayfinder – It is difficult to emphasise how good this card can be. Decks will invariably be 3, maybe even 4 colours with a splash. This guy fixes mana, is an efficient creature and is easily splashed. He also sets you in one of the strongest colours, because everyone and their wife wants to play RGU (I know my wife does). Pass this and just remember to stay away from green.

 

Pollenbright Wings – In the days of RRR draft this was a bomb, but now Selesnya is the geek friend who you ignore when you hang with the cool guys – Who am I kidding? You’re the geek and you don’t have any cool friends! You will find this card coming as late as 6th pick nowadays.

 

Chord of the Calling – Again a card I have not really had the opportunity to play in draft, but I have been on the receiving end of an instant speed Ursapine once or twice. As long as you get something that is worth tutoring for this card is solid. It is a VERY heavy move into green this early though.

 

Thundersong Trumpeter & Flash Conscription – These both suffer from the simple fact that there is something much better in red in here. Otherwise they are both playable, if not amazing. The Thundersong does tie you into two colours early which is also a mistake.

 

Galvanic Arc – This is the strongest card in the pack without doubt. It is cheap, it is efficient and it is removal. Even if red gets cut we can splash this.

 

By taking the arc be aware of what you are passing. The Wings, Trumpeter and Conscription are unlikely to go second or third and you do now make the players to your left fight over green a little bit. Remember this and try to pass them into colours which will reward you when the packs switch direction.

 

Pack Four

 


Benevolent Ancestor

Thundersong Trumpeter

Vedalken Entrancer

Gather Courage

Golgari Signet

Dimir Guildmage

Necromantic Thirst

Dimir Infiltrator

Sparkmage Apprentice

Viashino Fangtail

Seeds of Strength

Greater Forgeling

Overgrown Tomb

Frenzied Goblin

Courier Hawk

 

Now don’t lie to yourself. We can all be bought and if this were anything but a high level draft you probably just take the land. You can be happy that it has probably paid for the whole thing. The land aside this pack is far from exciting. Vedalken Entrancer has gone out of fashion and has faded into obscurity with the whole Dimir mill strategy. The decision comes down to UB or R as our plan. The Dimir Guildmage is solid and can easily be splashed into black and blue, as I said earlier. On the red side we have the Fangtail, which is very solid, and the Forgeling, which can be difficult for an opponent to deal with.

 

The downside to all of these cards is the double colour in the mana cost, which means we are committing strongly to a colour at an early stage. I personally feel that the Fangtail is the strongest of all these cards and would be the one making my pile. I would note we are passing the Guildmage and Forgeling, but it is impossible not to share colours in this format and also next to impossible to signal off of a first pick.

 

I hope you have found these discussions useful and I will look at the other 4 packs from our Rochester at a later time.

 

Take the money and run!

 

Chris