Well white seems to be fairly open but with a good artifact and a decent black attacker in this pack I see no reason to go a second color. However I'll hold off voting for now until I see what others have to say.

Loving Ravenous Skirge here.

Path of Peace is solid, unconditional removal.

i vote for Angelic Chorus for some awesome life gain.

Pit Trap or Ravenous Skirge

Pit Trap is definitely the way to go, in my opinion. Awesome removal no matter what our deck ends up looking like. Ravenous Skirge is a very close second.

At this rate it looks like we're going to see more white cards. While I was against going off-color before, Path of Peace is in better than the rest of the cards here.

Tough choice between Pit Trap and Path of Peace here. Gimme Pit Trap for now.

hmmm... yeah i am having a hard time with this pack... so much white here.. .and solid removal in white as well.....as i previously stated i don't think white will be available next pack.. but it may very well be available in pack 3 based on what we are seeing. Pit Trap and then Ravenous Skirge are also solid choices. as to my vote... not certain yet, but leaning towards Pit Trap

Pit Trap has a problem that it will only ever discourage attacking, not just remove creatures. It also can put us into awkward situations where we're taking damage from a 1/1 while they have a 5/5 on the board just not attacking to avoid the trap. In that case, it's useful as removal, as long as the trap itself isn't removed.

Path of Peace is MUCH better removal, and is a good excuse to move into White. Its only downside is Sorcery-speed. But at least it will hit ANYTHING.

Ravenous Skirge is the most aggressive pick here. It makes our deck more aggressive, and it cuts black from the pack again. However, if we pick it, we will be committing whole-heartedly to Black. If there's a color I want to signal moving into Beta, I'd rather cut Blue instead of Black.

Speaking of Blue, Annul looks powerful, given all the enchantments we've seen, and the Dragon Blood we passed earlier. Knowing that Ninjutsu is coming in the third set, Cloak of Mists could be a REALLY useful card.

Right now, we have 2 removal cards and only one creature. We need some actual threats to get in there and actually win, so for this pick, I am voting for Cloak of Mists. The few creatures we have so far are going to have to be quality, and I want to try and stop SOME blue if possible.

(My secondary is Path of Peace, simply because even though we already have a lot of removal, more doesn't REALLY hurt just yet.)

The lack of black is really telling. We need to pick a second colour and we need to do so soon. I honestly think white is the strongest, and with blue is the most numerous. My choice is the Path of Peace. It's good, solid removal, doesn't require a double colour and if it got passed this far you can bet nobody close to us on that side is in white.

Before I talk about card selection, I'd like to take a quick second to say, "I told you so," about Black.

Moving on:

Ravenous Skirge is (basically) a 3/1 flier for 1. I haven't seen a lot of things that deal one damage for cheap, but we have seen Hidden Spider go by. Throwing a 3/1 into a 2/4 just doesn't seem like a very good idea.

Pit Trap is not an aggressive card. It can't be denied that it's removal; however, it's main focus is to clog up the ground so that big guys can't squeeze through. It runs into a problem though in that it can be Disenchanted or Smashed. I'm wary of picking cards which enable removal out of the sideboard.

Path of Peace just seems like it's the best card in the pack knowing what we've passed and knowing that P3 we're probably going to get decent white. It is hidden information unlike the Pit Trap that will sit out and about for our opponent to consider. Remember: Warfare is about deception and hiding information wins more games than you would think.

The only problem I have with Path of Peace is that White just is not a very strong color in Saviors common/uncommon which is the pack 3 set.

I believe that the question we should be asking ourselves is: "Do we go for our beaters in Packs 2 & 3 and just focus on building a good removal base right now, or do we try and get aggressive here and steal removal from Packs 2 & 3."

Seeing as how we've pretty much cut black to the left, and are signaling white / red being open, we can assume that we will get strong beta black in pack two. I believe that going White now for Path of Peace would be slightly detrimental to the Left Player as it takes away a removal tool from his deck (and we're light on creatures, so currently we can assume that he'll have an answer for most of what we play) and makes him value the Angelic Chorus a little higher.

Another observation is that the player two slots to our right is probably playing Blue. Just keep that in mind.

Vote: Path of Peace

I like Pit Trap, Path of Peace, and Ravenous Skirge.

We don't need to cut black and while the skirge is good, he's not a bomb. The pit and path are both decent removal. However, drafting the pit doesn't hurt the color options of the players downstream.

I'll take Path of Peace.

I don't think this pack is going to generate a lot of Debate... just what I'm sensing.

Path of Peace. I've never had a problem drafting "too much" removal, and we've seen a lot of strong white come our way.

I'm changing my vote to Path of Peace. It was close for me anyway.

Since all the cool kids are doing it I'm going to vote for Path of Peace

I reeeeeally don't want to be in White at all with a Beta pack in the mix, but you guys are probably right about Path of Peace. I'll change my vote.

what! consensus in the ddd thread? unheard of! Just to sow a little dissension i demand we take Smoldering Crater. for no other reason really than it hasn't been mentioned by anyone so far in this thread! So since we are taking the white removal guess we can move on to the next pack now.

@ DeckBuilder345 Don't get me wrong, I'm a sucker for utility lands...but the BREAD man. The BREAD!

While Path of peace would be my second choice (and it appears will be the overwhelming pick) Ravenous Skirge is my pick. He's a flyer (so he has the evasion) not to mention that when he attacks he becomes a 3/1 flyer. Pretty powerful considering the limited amount of power that we've seen.

Yeah but he dies to removal :D

@ bosheck didn't anyone ever tell you that bread isn't good for you? too many carbs!

@ rckclimber777 i am starting to think you may be right it could be time to start prioritizing creatures, as we haven't seen many in any of the packs we have looked at so far. This is something i am strongly keeping in mind for the coming packs that creatures might need a slight bump in weight given what the first few packs have shown us. For funsies i will change my vote over to the Ravenous Skirge because a 3/1 flier is a pretty strong creature in any format really. But it looks like you are fighting the overwhelming tide on this one and the white removal is still the pick!

Lol if they want to use a removal spell on my 1/1 flyer who can swing for 3 then by all means. I'll just put a 4 cost creature with better stats on the board next turn. The skirge seems like a threat that needs to be answered or your opponent will be on a quick time table like that of Delver.

If cost 3 mana I do not think it'd be as popular :)

it is a delver that doesn't need to flip though.

Sorry if my comparison made it seem as though I am equating the two. Certainly delver is far better that is uncontested. My comparison was meant to serve as a note that a 3 power flier is pretty impressive and must be dealt with.

I'm not trying to suggest that Skirgeypants isn't good. But there are more compelling reasons to leave him be and get into a good open colour at this point. 1 toughness makes him a little fragile, too.

This is why I voted for the skirge in the first place. A 3-power evasive attacker is nothing to sneer at, for sure.

Ravenous Skirge will not table. There's someone playing black to our right like I said from the previous pack so they will take the flier. White is clearly open and a 1(3)/1 flier just isn't impressive enough to me to justify picking him over unconditional removal.

I'm really surprised that we haven't picked the skirge and yet we picked phyrexian ghoul last pack which was FAR inferior to the skirge imo.

As we already have 2 removals we're going rather heavy on that. Path is good for sure, but I'm not convinced that it's good enough to really force us into another color at this point. With all of the removal that we've seen thus far, it seems to me that we can probably slow down on the removal aspect of the BREAD model. It seems to me that there is a good bit of removal in urza's saga and so we can always pick up some more later on in the packs. Also there are very few "bombs" in the current color or at least the way we would normally classify them. This is an enchantment heavy set, a creature light set and removal moderate set.

The issues rckclimber777 brings up have been bothering me for a while. I change my vote one more time over to Ravenous Skirge. I actually wanted to pick that card to begin with, but was gun-shy from getting yelled at for "forcing a color" in the last pack.

rckclimber777: We're going to have to agree to disagree here. Nothing against your observation, I feel it's spot on in regards to the Ghoul being > than the Skirge. I was already against the Phyrexian Ghoul because it set us up into a situation where we're valuing on-color cards when we should be bailing out due to signals.

I am 85% against picking the Skirge just as I was 95% against picking the Ghoul... but this isn't my draft: it's the community's.

I maintain that we should not be taking black cards in this pack or any other that comes towards us in UZL unless they're just bonkers. Based on what we've seen and passed, I would put a heavier weight on the Path of Peace just because Saviors has some nasty fatties that might show up... and Beta is a nightmare sometimes. It really depends on what packs end up where.

Rhadamanthus: Stick to your guns. You got yelled at because someone (I don't think it was me, but if it was then oh well) was sticking to theirs. It's not a bad thing to stand your ground as long as you're actively listening and considering the points that you're being presented with. Climber is absolutely right about how UZL is set up in terms of card distribution and his opinion stems from that observation. I favor removal here because it denies our opponent that tool and makes our threats stronger later on (plus, black's enchantment pool from UZL kind of sucks).

What happened to the consensus? Where did it go? Now we appear evenly split 5 for the Ravenous Skirge and then 6 for the Path of Peace. Extremely close. If anyone wants to change their votes in case they voted for something other than the above 2 then this would probably be a good time to do it! Also if any of you peacful people would like to become skirge's we shall welcome you!

I second everything jkarnes says here. I also didn't want to be taking the Ghoul last pack, and was noticing the lack of black as other have. It's pretty obvious here that black is becoming unsustainable and while it may remain one of our colours we shouldn't pass a better card just to try and keep it up. And a solid unconditional removal card is just better than an evasion/aggro type card.

I would agree that your assessment of someone else in black wherever they may be is probably accurate which does give me pause for concern. Looking through white I'm just not ready to move into that. If we had picked disciple of law a pack or two ago, I would most definitely be on board, but as it is I'm thinking that white just isn't all that powerful in this set at least. White is filled with protection enchantments and the disciples which are pretty impressive, but few other real threats. If we had cracked the Serra Avatar also would be a different story and entirely different plan. I will agree that we have to agree to disagree as we are both firmly decided on this one and unless I can somehow change the minds of 4-5 more people it looks like we'll be taking path lol.

My comment in an earlier pick about white being pretty bad in Beta still stands, from personal experience with Unlimited and Revised. If White in this set is also feeling dodgy (which it is to me), then we shouldn't fall into the trap.

Alright, if we're (read: you) are not sold on switching into white right now then think about the options in the pack:

Angelic Chorus: Is whitePresence of the Master: Is whiteRune of Protection: White: Is white

That's 3 / 11 cards... add Path and you get 4/11. White is wide open for the next 5 cards we choose (including this one).

Picking white would do a few funny things:

Disrupt our left player's signals. (Sudden drop in main color quality forces an off color. Probably blue or red given what we've sent and are sending now)

Deny card quality (see above).

Seriously screw with pack 3.

Establish our minor color for pack two (we'll be getting the beta black cards pack 2).

Path is the best choice here if we're moving into White. If we aren't, then the Ravenous Skirge or Pit Trap are the ways to go.

I maintain my vote for Path of Peace

Black is closed. Do not pick the Ravenous Skirge. Path of Peace is good, regardless of whether we actually stick with white or not.

We haven't seen a good Black Uncommon or Rare. This means someone to our right got one, and is grabbing them all. We will be getting black from Beta, which is good (Mmm, Sinkhole.) It looks like we won't be getting White from Beta, also good. One thing no one else has pointed out is that Green is also closed. There's no green in this pack.

Blue is semi-open. Cloak of Mists and Annul are both semi-good. (One-mana counterspell unconditional except for the type of spell?) Beta has absurdly good Blue, and BoK also has pretty good blue. We've not passed much good blue, so we'll see good blue in Beta, likely.

I maintain that we should make an overture towards moving into blue, with White, Green, and Black closed. (White's closed for pack 2, at least.) After that, moving into White is next best choice, because we'll have the rest of this pack, and the third pack to pick up White in.

While I agree that the choice is either blue or white, I think it's pretty clear that white is far more open.

There are VERY FEW good black rares anyway so the fact that we haven't seen any good black rares/uncommons doesn't completely indicate that we aren't going to get any black stuff later.

We'll most likely continue to get decent white cards throughout the rest of this pack. In Beta, we'll get the black cards before the players to our right, while we'll most likely get very few white cards.

Also, just getting a Path of Peace out of the card pool isn't bad if we decide to go another color later. Picking this one card doesn't necessarily lock us into white, and there's a decent chance that in one of the next few packs, we'll have no black options whatsoever. My point being, we can't draft black cards forever.

@rckclimber777: Exactly, there are few good black rares. If they weren't picked, those people wouldn't be in black. If they were picked, those people would be getting all the other black they could, and rares/uncommons would be missing from the other packs. Same with Green, White, Blue, and Red. We're still seeing good White and marginally good blue and red, but Green and Black are absent.

My final plea for the skirge:

Yes we are seeing white cards that are ok, but this is pick 4 and as such we can't jump to that great of conclusions. None of the colors in this set are incredibly powerful. White does offer a lot of protection and enchantments that are helpful, but nothing that I see as really doing much.

While you may have a point that someone could be in black. Ravenous Skirge is easily one of the best black cards in the set. If someone was in black, then they must have found a heck of a card to pass this guy up. Just check out the set in general. The fact that we don't have a lot of black cards here just tells me that this pack was light on black in general.

White is ok with protection, but that is going to be hit or miss, not to mention that it is predominantly enchantments that offer protection. It offers little in the way of creatures and I don't expect to see any good white creatures hanging around. We missed our chance with passing up the disciple. If we start moving into white now, I see us playing catch-up.

As I said in my original post path is my second choice, but I've changed my mind there. My second choice would be Presence of the Master. Hear me out first. The set has MANY enchantments (of the 335 cards 101 of them are enchantments) This presence card will eliminate one third of the picks from this pack. That's a pretty effective card and may actually be the best pick here knowing that and realizing that nearly every color has useful enchantments that people will definitely want to play.

There are also 125 creatures. imo the skirge is one of the best black creatures from the set and will serve us well. If we draft it, it WILL win us games. The path will only win if we're already behind and presence may seem like a wildcard, but could be the most pivotal card in the set.

Caley busyness levels are high. There will be some delay in me getting the next pick up, prolly until tomorrow.

This set may be mostly enchantments, but I doubt we'll see an abundance of them in the final builds. People aren't too likely to put enchantments over creatures, or combat tricks. We have two more packs where the number of enchantments will be back to normal.

I'd rather be holding a card that can eliminate the opponant's bomb than a card that will only win if they don't manage to to do 1 damage to a flier, either with reach or just pinging. So far we've drafted removal, and one creature who gets bigger by us throwing away our other creatures. To my mind, we have not begun to draft an aggressive deck. What we're drafting so far looks more like the start of a control deck, where we build up our presence and keep the opponant's threats contained. Yes, it IS a bit early to decide our whole deck type, but we ought to go for consistency when it seems possible. If we manage to keep drafting strong removal then we'll have a reliable deck.

As thebeardedshuffler said, we need to keep our card selection in mind. When you go in to draft a block with mechanics meshing (ISD/ISD/DKA) then you have some strategies already picked out (U/G self mill, spider spawning, travel prep)... however when you get into weird jank mixup blocks like the one we're in it's more efficient to focus on an archetype (Zoo, Control, Ramp) and go after pieces of the puzzle that aid you in your goal.

Ravenous Skirge may be a good black card... so is Liliana of the Veil, so is Grave Titan, as is Gravedigger. Each card has it's merits. Gravedigger exhausts your opponent's removal and returns your bomb, Grave Titan flat out ends games that stall on forever, and Liliana is more suited to a control style deck.

To wit: Ravenous Skirge is good if you're playing an aggressive deck that demands every creature have an answer (or else). White has Angels in this set too... don't forget that. Who knows what we will yet see with White being so open.