Pack 1, Pick 1 - #1

Hi again!

Okay, so it's pack one of the draft and you crack open the following booster. What is the pick?

Let's start by cutting the options down, based on the cards we definitely aren't going to take.

Both of these guys are pretty generic fatties that you'r never really going to be excited to play. The Thresher is an expensive Craw Wurm, with the extra mana of value apparently being that it dies to even more removal than normal. Scrapdiver Serpent is far more resilient, but for this mana cost we really want an evasion ability that is on all the time. Both of these dudes can regularly be found hanging out in the dregs of the pack, so there will almost definitely be another shot at these if we want them (hint: we don't).

Psychic Miasma is an intricate card that is home to many mysteries. For a start, the guy in the picture has a hat on that covers his ears, so we're not sure if it's an elf being mind-probed or a human. The confusion worsens when you notice that where the snaking tendrils cross the figure's body it seems to have turned to stone. Is this some kind of petrification taking place? Seemingly not, because his face appears skeletal underneath them. Odd.

There are some words on the card too, but figuring out who would want this effect is as confusing as the artwork. Avoid.

Island is the strongest land in the block for constructed, but in draft I'll pretty much always pick a Silver Myr over it. Don't fall into the trap and take it here.

Both of these cards are realistic playables, and both surprisingly close in utility. Ferrovore represents a substantial threat in the late game if it can get through unblocked, but can leave you open to massive card disadvantage. The more spellbombs you have the better the deal becomes, especially as the red spellbomb combos with both ends of this card.

Moriok Replica does an even better job, since being an artifact counts for an awful lot in this block. I would be happy to start either of these cards in the right deck, but there are so many better options in the pack that they are put to the side for now.

Now we're down to the serious business of cutting legitimate first-pickable cards; this pack is deep. My first action is to look for cards that perform the same role in a deck, but where one is noticeably worse than the other.

Auriok Edgewright and Glint Hawk both lose out in comparison to Glint Hawk Idol for me. I like Edgewright a lot, so much so that I will pick him over Sunspear Shikari unless I already have a couple of quality pieces of equipment. My view is that it is more likely you can draft a deck that can enable metalcraft than it is to gamble on picking up specific equipment cards (Darksteel Axe and Sylvok Lifestaff are the two I really want on Shikari). Against the Glint Hawk Idol we are measuring up a solid creature that becomes great with metalcraft and a great evasive creature that counts towards metalcraft. Easy choice for me.

Glint Hawk versus Glint Hawk Idol seems like a comparison that should favour the creature being idolised. It seems like whoever made the Idol thought a bit too much of the Glint Hawk, since the Idol is so much better. I love playing them together, but I don't think there is any number of Glint Hawk Idols I can have drafted where I would take a Glint Hawk over one.

The next comparison based cut is the Galvanic Blast. I love the Blast, and will take it over most commons, but Arc Trail is just ridiculous value.

Lumengrid Drake, along with Sky-Eel School and Darkslick Drake, is an odd case in this format. The rate at which you see these cards circling the table is astonishing when you consider they would barely go past third pick in most formats. I wouldn't be surprised if these rose is value as the format evolves, what with this card being a flying Man-o'-War and all. For this pick, though, the Glint Hawk Idol is a 2/2 flyer that can attack two turns earlier and is an artifact, so under-rated or not, we pass on the drake.

Tumble Magnet comes the closest yet to ousting the Idol in a Top Trumps style face-off. My choice comes down to two factors. If we want an artifact to achieve metalcraft, the cheaper Glint Hawk Idol serves us better. If we want a removal spell, both Arc Trail and Spikeshot Elder offer more permanent solutions. Tumble Magnet falls into the gap between these two wishes, fulfilling neither of them completely. It would be a fine choice, but I'd prefer to take one of the more powerful and focused cards.

The next card I discount is Ichor Rats, not because of a direct comparison, but because of what it means for the rest of our draft.

Infect is an odd archetype to draft. The base power level of the mechanic is very high, and if you could get every infect card in the draft you would have the best deck at the table. What really happens, though, is that several people will fight over the deck, with the result that each of their decks will have a power level roughly equal to that base power level divided by the number of drafters. With only two drafters you'll still have one of the best decks, but at three and upwards you start dropping below the strength of the normal metalcraft and good stuff decks.

So how does this differ from competing with people over metalcraft, or over the blue control cards? Well, if I start out picking up white metalcraft creatures, but end up short on artifacts to power the deck, I can still put together a decent deck. The parts may not quite be there to make it an efficient machine, but at least all the cards I do have are pulling in the same direction. With an infect strategy you're not going to be so lucky, every non-infect creature you're forced to run directly pulls against your chosen win condition. When you draw a split of creatures which ones do you attack with? What happens when they kill your infect creatures at 7 poison and you draw only non-infect men after?

This isn't to say that I won't draft infect, but I try to avoid forcing it unless there is no other good option. Besides, Ichor Rats is one of the less exciting members of the archetype, usually representing the equivalent of a Shock before trading with a Myr.

Now we're really coming down to it, as any one of the three remaining cards can be argued for effectively. I think that Glint Hawk Idol is the least impressive, purely on the basis that both of the others offer the chance to remove multiple creatures.

Between the two red removal spells I am less sure of the choice. Arc Trail offers an incredible deal for the mana, and kills so many important creatures in this format. Spikeshot Elder is more mana intensive to use, but offers even more potential to control the board and even straight up win games. This early in the draft we are in a position to maximise his potential as much as possible by picking up equipments and valuing cards like Painsmith and Trigon of Rage highly.

Spikeshot Elder is the pick.

Steve