No help here. The two cards that look most pickable are Shepherd of the Lost and Plated Geopede . Of these, I prefer Plated Geopede .

-C

Especially since red is surprisingly apparently not being heavily drafted. If one of the two people ahead of us were taking red, surely they would have taken the Geopede.

I do not want to play three colours. These packs are awful. -punches whoever didn't take the geopede or mind sludge-

Hmmm. I'm going to have to say we take the Shepherd of the Lost because of previous picks. But hate-drafting the geopede would be worth it. Geopede it is.

Where are the other four cards in the pack?

Last two didn't show up. They're there now. The other two cards are missing because they've been drafted.

@l0ki I don't think we're committed yet to playing any color. Geopede makes a lot of sense with our Living Tsunami, which is why I like it so much.

Obv there have been picks, I just counted badly.

Caley, are we going to do a full draft? If so, is it zzz or will there be worldwake somewhere along the line?

Yeah I know, but atm we have 3 amazing cards.

I do like the look of Plated Geopede especially after picking Living Tsunami already. BUT Shepherd of the Lost is a solid card and is going to be a big pain. The question is is a creature like this gonna make it back due to the fact that by the looks of it white has been left open-ish.

But yeah can you really pass on a geopede?

For this pick i take both and close my eyes and pick one. Either option will be good i think.

OR

I go with the coolest art so by that my pick is Shepherd of the Lost

I'd take Shepherd of the Lost . I do like Plated Geopede , but the choice would be easy to me. Shepherd of the Lost is simply one of the best creature cards I could've seen (like a Sphinx or Emeria Angel ).

A hate draft of Geopede makes more sense when you consider the Zektar Shrine Expedition we just passed on. One less piece in someone's aggro red drafting scheme. It is also probably the best card in the pack, and considering it's the third card we've chosen we don't have to go three colours l0ki. RW is now a viable option.

Plated Geopede . Works with the Tsunami. Don't want it to fall past us.

I think white/blue is better than blue/red in this format. That being said, not many people will draft red/blue, even if people do like red.

I'm going to say Shepherd of the Lost . Its a good creature, and keeps us using journey.

Plated Geopede . obvious synergy.

Shepherd of the Lost seems like the clear pick, though it is almost inconceivable that nobody picked the Plated Geopede .

Had this been last pick, the Geopede would have been clearly the better choice, but in this case we already committed to a relatively strong (and pretty blue) card, so I don't think the Plated Geopede is enough to convince me to switch colors here, especially when Shepherd of the Lost is a pretty solid card in limited.

Clearly, the answer is Vampire's Bite.

(Kidding. Shepherd of the Lost is my pick, HOWEVER the Geopede is a viable option because it's a solid card, and can work landfall with Living Tsunami as a bonus.)

Shepherd of the Lost

Have seen at least five allies so far, and while the Geopede is strong, Shepherd of the Lost moves us firmly into good 'ol U/W skies territory. Go with the shepherd, I say.

If only we could have grabbed that Harrow ... bah, lets see where it takes us, I'm for Plated Geopede , Hopefully we can grab some more landfall creatures. < cough, Hedron Crab , cough>

I think we should go for the Plated Geopede . It's a better card than the Shepard, and the only reason not to pick it are our choices so far. But I don't think we're exactly locked into a strategy just yet and simply stopping another player having Journey to Nowhere is totally fine with me.

I believe Shepherd of the Lost is usually better than Plated Geopede in draft... It's great that it fits well with our previous choices, too.

@tapanmeister - This is a full ZEN/ZEN/WWK draft.

The pick is Plated Geopede but you will probs end up choosing Shepherd of the Lost .

You have already passed an army of green which you intend to keep passing and the guy next to you will smash face with bigger green than you can handle. Pass the Geopede see what happens you will lose to a green face smasher and a red burn that took the zektar and the geopede and opened two Burst Lightning s.

Shepherd of the Lost for me. I wish we chose the red card last time, then the geopede would be a no brainer.

I have to go with the Plated Geopede It's got play with the Living Tsunami and we still have plenty of wiggle room with color. The Shepherd of the Lost is an excellent second choice, but keeping our intentions vague to the people on our left is an underrated value I don't think we should ignore. With the first three it's ok to have a little bit of color ambiguity.

shepard-of-the-lost is a very close contender, but geopede wins out, because I don't want it played against me, and it goes well with Living Tsunami .

weird, lost the first bit of the comment, but Shepherd of the Lost is the close contender naturally, and geopede wasn't around, I might consider Magma Rift - even expensive removal can work out well in drafts.

Shepherd of the Lost

Not sure if theres really much of a point anymore, but I choose Shepherd of the Lost , its the limited Baneslayer! =P

Sheperd takes out the Zektar that we just passed no problem. It swings and blocks. It's safe from most things other than black kill spells, and if we continue with blue in our deck we'll certainly be able to keep it sitting on the battlefield plenty long enough to do some damage. Taking to the air always seems to work great in drafts, for me. I'd undoubtably pick the Shepherd of the Lost , and start looking at some 1 and 2 drops with 2 of our 3 picks currently being 4 mana+

Despite my general preference for white over red, I'm going to have to buck convention and agree that Geopede is the pick. He is an extremely effective early board threat that can do a lot of damage if he's not dealt with properly, at absolute worst he is a 2-mana creature that eats removal (which is better than a 5-mana creature that eats removal) and he has at least as much synergy with Living Tsunami as Shepherd does. We haven't drafted a deck yet, we don't need to limit ourselves to two colors.

This isn't clear cut at all. The upside to picking geopede is that it does what shepherd does three turns sooner. With two zen packs in the mix, we have a better chance of nabbing another geopede, and they are even better in multiples. The sad thing is passing the shepherd runs the risk of putting the guy into white: a color signaled as open. Passing it is also a strong signal.

Shepherd all the way. You can always shut down green fatties with tideforce, permafrost, or ruin ghost and sejiri steppe. And especially vapor snare. It's these cards we must look for later if we stay w/u.

@krazycaley, geopede would have been passed for Hellkite Charger and Burst Lightning by the red mage, however looking at the commons, my guess is a blue or black card was chosen.

jesus, did that comment still not work? Plated Geopede gets my vote.

Is no one even slightly interested in our green options? Creature w/ removal kicker,(ok it is expensive probably too expensive) or creature pump with regen? I do agree that it is too early to exclude a 3rd color, and i am not quite as sold on the Shepard of the lost. I also am considering the artifact, for some mana assitance particularly if we end up with 3 colors, mana tutors should not be overlooked. That said I think it falls down to geoped and Savage. I think i would go with the geoped though.

Draft Lord you are losing my respect more and more with each pick.

Sorry to pick on personals but I follow your drafting very closely and you will notice that you always do better in red. The only time a Shepherd of the Lost has actually been of help to you was in the final game of Zen Draft No. 5 and the guy scooped when you dropped it (while he was on eight life and you already had a superior field presence). The Geopede is the pick since over the last two packs you have only passed Narrow Escape and Pillarfield Ox as opposed to the legion of red cards you have passed.

This time I will say it you are wrong. Geopede is undoubtedly the pick.

That wasn't my point. My point is that we've been consistent in cutting white for the player on our left. Last pack he would have had his choosing of Shatterskull Giant or the expedition, he isn't going to choose narrow escape or an ox.

Leaving Shepherd of the Lost in the pack is going to make him question going red. My choice isn't based on how good shepherd or geopede are innately (given the choice pack 1 pick 1, I'd probably go geopede - best two drop in the format), its based off my desire to get good passes on pack two. If I give him a Plated Geopede , its more likely that on pack two he'll pass up a Kor Skyfisher or Journey to Nowhere for something like Magma Rift .

Here it is: Plated Geopede is the better pick. And its a small sacrifice to make in order to ensure better picks down the road.

Geopede leading Shepherd by 2 votes at this point. Will let the discussion continue for a bit.

-C

Hmmm well we've sent a strong signal that we arent in green. And we've passed on some good red.

Also from passing on this pack he's gonna assume we arent in White.

So we hope he thinks we've gone black/Blue, so realistically, after re-thinking the only choice here is going the be the Plated Geopede .

If he isn't getting any white he won't give us a Journey he'll hate draft it with all the good red we are throwing at him and him having no issue picking it. The better pick is geopede because he has just been getting jank white until this pass. He won't pick the shepherd given the green and black in this pack and the hot chick next to us isn't handing us anymore blue so we are in white red.

In an 8-way draft I feel that you all are too concerned about what you're passing to your left in respects to what they will pass you back. What they pass is near irrelavent when it has to go through 6 other people before getting to you. I think focusing on enfeebling them rather than enhancing yourself would be the better aim. I'm new to drafting so that could be entirely wrong, however.

@Limeron: he's talking about second pack when pass order reverses.

geopede

Guys, it's third pick pack one. You can't mess up this choice very badly at all. We can be happy whether either geopede or shepherd is chosen, and it won't have much bearing on pick 4.

@sirnips - totally wrong, we've passed him a hideous, a seastalkers and a paralyzing grasp. He def feels those colors are open.

Any remaining Shepherd holdouts, speak now or forever hold a Geopede. New pick at the end of the day today.

Let's just get it over with. We got beat.

Leaving a shepherd won't make him question going red. So far we've handed awesome blue, black and green. He could go anything bar white. White is not the draft winner red is. Look at your own experience. Plated Geopede is the pick and it can be a huge sacrifice later. I saw a guy get a perfect red draft 5 burst lightnings, 3 geopede, 3 shrine and a foil mesa you never want to stare down that barrel.

Since you haven't picked much take the Plated Geopede ... clearly the best choice. Time to start going red. In drafts you have to anticipate that sometimes a colour change is needed to be stronger. If you decide not to change you've just also prevented someone else from getting this bomb.

It honestly doesn't matter at this stage, people are still forming their ideas. Look at Tapanmeister's ZWW Draft #8, I didn't even establish my colors until halfway through pack 2, and the deck still did great. As I said earlier, its fine to take either. A difficult choice but its not one that can really be messed up on.

I REALLY dislike all this talk of "hating" bomb cards so early on. Heres a little definition for you: Hate drafting is deliberately choosing cards that will NOT fit in your deck once you have established an archetype, usually by late pack one or early pack 2. This deck currently has no archetype. Its just two cards. And synergy between the tsunami and geopede? Psssh, the tsunami effect doesnt even kick in for the geopede until turn 5. A better use for that is bouncing something like Halimar Depths to fix draws, or Sejiri Steppe every turn to grant evasion to a fatty.

And TAMA, the "question" of going red was based on the assumption that he was picking a minotaur, a giant or an expedition, pick 3. In all probability, he grabbed the Nimana Sell-Sword to go with his Hideous End (no question in my mind that he took it. It was a solid candidate from that pack, maybe a little sub par for third pick, but it was a fairly unimpressive pack after we took the tsunami.

Geopede wins. Posting next one now.