DGM Draft Debate - Pack 1, Pick 1

Daily Draft Debate

KrazyCaley

30 April 2013

1791 views

It's that time again. Our format this time, despite the name, is not DGM-DGM-DGM, but rather RTR-GTC-DGM. Thus, pack 1 will take us back to Return to Ravnica.

If you're new to the Draft Debate, the entire site sees and selects cards from packs as though it were a participant in a draft. I have some people here in L.A. who act as our other drafters. Then, once all the decks are assembled, we play the decks out and report the results!

I know I never posted the interviews of the players from last time; some of them responded and others did not, and I probably could have done a better job following up in any case. Such is life. Onward to another draft debate, and I will try to get better post-draft content for you guys next time.


Drafters (in clockwise order):


Tappedout

The hive mind has gone a long while without a victory, though it has yet to finish in the bottom half of any draft. Piloting the communal deck will be KrazyCaley, barrister of note and longtime Magic veteran.

Past results:

3rd in GTC

3rd in IDD

3rd in SOM

2nd in ROE

1st in WWK


Fisher

Fisher has been playing Magic for even longer than I have, and to do that, you basically had to be there for the sets named using the Greek alphabet. He is not to be trifled with in any format.

Past results:

4th in SOM


CJ

CJ started playing fairly recently; he became interested during Return to Ravnica's marketing campaign and attended a release event which hooked him. He has been playing (and drafting!) this set extensively since. He still has a ways to go as a constructed player, but I am confident he will be a worthy opponent here.

No past results.


Chryssalid

Chyrssalid has been playing for a few years now, since somewhere in Zendikar block or so. She has become a fairly strong, if infrequent player.

Past results:

4th in ROE


Ethereal

As his Draft Debate pseudonym implies, he is a very dangerous opponent. He rarely fails to win drafts which he chooses to participate in, though his past performance here on Tappedout has been mediocre.

Past results:

4th in IDD

3rd in ROE


Lee

Lee is mostly a casual player who's been playing for about as long as Planeswalker has been a card type (not counting Tarmogoyf ) , but showed decent drafting chops in his first run in the Draft Debate last time out. He returns to attempt to beat his existing high score.

Past Results:

4th in GTC


Niko

Niko has been playing since the original Mirrodin block. He plays a lot of EDH, but only tends to play any kind of limited format during release events. We will see if he can stand up to the crucible of the Draft Debate.

No past results.


Raynor

Raynor is a competitive Legacy player who has been playing since about the last core set that had "edition" in the name. He has plenty of drafts under his belt, though, so do not underestimate him.

Past results:

5th in SOM


Pack 1, Pick 1

This pack is, as you will recall, from Return to Ravnica.

Death's Presence

Racecourse Fury

Rakdos Keyrune

Rakdos Ringleader

Cremate

Search Warrant

Stab Wound

Cancel

Mizzium Skin

Lobber Crew

Rakdos Guildgate

Dispel

Towering Indrik

Urban Burgeoning

Island

The next article in this series is DGM Draft Debate - Pack 1, Pick 2

ShimmerVoid says... #1

Stab Wound ! It's a beast in limited.

April 30, 2013 10:11 a.m.

SandyDufresne says... #2

Cancel ftw!!

April 30, 2013 10:18 a.m.

exarkun809 says... #3

Definitely Stab Wound . We should look to go black.

Don't let Kaley talk us into Pick 1 Cancel .

April 30, 2013 10:20 a.m.

shuflw says... #4

Is there a reason you're drafting in reverse order of the normal layout? I think officially it is going to be drafted DMZ - GTC - RTR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon's_Maze#cite_note-4

April 30, 2013 10:24 a.m.

Pickupchaser says... #5

@shuflw Yeah newist set -> oldest set

April 30, 2013 10:28 a.m.

erabel says... #6

I'd say Stab Wound or the Keyrune. A 3/1 First Strike we can tap for mana? Kinda nice.

April 30, 2013 10:30 a.m.

Pickupchaser says... #7

@erabel Would take Rakdos Keyrune to.

April 30, 2013 10:32 a.m.

Zurnic says... #8

April 30, 2013 10:40 a.m.

BuLLZ3Y3 says... #9

Easily Stab Wound .

-BuLLZ3Y3

April 30, 2013 10:43 a.m.

zaddos says... #10

April 30, 2013 10:44 a.m.

TheGnat says... #11

Stab Wound as well for me, can greatly weaken a creature so it's dealing 1-2 damage if they attack and if they kill it off they'll still have taken some damage from the life ping.

April 30, 2013 10:50 a.m.

jkarnes says... #12

Stab Wound . Black is the strongest color in this format.

April 30, 2013 11:07 a.m.

NoSkillManiac says... #13

Rakdos Keyrune That card will stop (almost) all your problems in limited.

April 30, 2013 11:08 a.m.

VRonin says... #14

Count another vote for Stab Wound

April 30, 2013 11:09 a.m.

Stab Wound , a single color powerhouse is easier to splash if we go a different direction than B/R.

April 30, 2013 11:15 a.m.

Arachnarchist says... #16

Stab Wound removal and/or win con.

April 30, 2013 11:15 a.m.

Rewdog says... #17

April 30, 2013 11:26 a.m.

Goody says... #18

I guess Stab Wound it is, I haven't used it personally but I've heard it's good. The 3 CMC puts me off a little but the constant life loss is pretty sweet.

April 30, 2013 11:28 a.m.

KrazyCaley says... #19

@shuflw -

I think this format is more difficult. Hitting the heavy bag, as it were.

Also everyone: There may be a slight delay on this first pick. Some of our drafters have yet to get their pack information.

April 30, 2013 11:42 a.m.

Another for Stab Wound .

I'm not sold on the reverse pack order, but it should be fun either way.

April 30, 2013 11:50 a.m.

I'm a fan of the Rakdos Keyrune in this pack. It can be used for acceleration or fixing should we need it, and a 3-power first-striker is nothing to scoff at. If we take it it will win us games.

Stab Wound is also likely to win us games. Shutting down their threats its always a good thing.

All things considered, I think the better choice is Stab Wound . It kills things we need it to, and punishes opponents for playing the things it can't kill.

April 30, 2013 11:51 a.m.

cartwheelnurd says... #22

Stab Wound is the best common in the set, we should take it.

April 30, 2013 12:04 p.m.

Absinthman says... #23

Stab Wound !! I don't see any alternatives. Cancel is nice but it's too heavy blue. Considering we're drafting all three sets, we'll most likely end up in three colors. Stab Wound can easily fit in any combination of BXY. It can kill, it can make your opponent suffer if put on an unleashed creature, and it's also one of the few things that kill Tajic, Blade of the Legion .

April 30, 2013 12:05 p.m.

Kravian says... #24

Stab Wound . Removal wins games, so does your opponent having 0 life, this helps with one or the other and is an easy splash with only one black.

April 30, 2013 12:16 p.m.

psychoza says... #25

Stab Wound , all removal, all the time.

April 30, 2013 12:56 p.m.

rickthebrave says... #26

Stab Wound , clearly

April 30, 2013 12:56 p.m.

bigdamnhero says... #27

April 30, 2013 1:10 p.m.

sewellius says... #28

I'm a fan of both Rakdos Keyrune and Urban Burgeoning , myself, but I don't mind taking Stab Wound , limited removal as it is.

April 30, 2013 2:15 p.m.

SwiftDeath says... #29

either stab wound or keyrune but im more in favor of Stab Wound

April 30, 2013 2:27 p.m.

MagnorCriol says... #30

Definitely Stab Wound . Pretty terrible pack all around. Besides Stab Wound itself there's almost nothing here except some of the set's worst cards - Ringleader? Bleh. Racecourse? Bleh bleh. Burgeoning? Take the basic land instead of that card.

Drafting in this reverse order will be interesting. All the fixing is in DGM (seriously, the set's like half fixing) and coming into that third, once we've decided our colors, is a big difference. In the normal order you kind of have to take your fixing first and see if it fits your deck later, or pick your deck colors based on your fixing.

April 30, 2013 2:42 p.m.

anewsome says... #31

As much as it pains me to take a common card first, I have to go with Stab Wound .

Maybe the keyrune will make it around? haha.

April 30, 2013 3:07 p.m.

Stab Wound : A good all-around card, but has extra potential with extort.

April 30, 2013 3:16 p.m.

MagnorCriol says... #33

anewsome: I'm calling it that when this pack comes back, it'll have Racecourse, Ringleader, Cremate, Warrant, Mizzium Skin, and Burgeoning.

Mizzium Skin might be picked up instead of something else since it has a bit of utility value out of the board, but that's easily the eight worst cards in the pack.

April 30, 2013 3:27 p.m.

Zerix says... #34

Stab Wound is definitely the pick.

April 30, 2013 3:37 p.m.

tempest says... #35

I say Rakdos Keyrune but Stab Wound could be nice. This is the first time I'm doing a draft, so I'm not very experienced...

April 30, 2013 4:59 p.m.

Either Stab Wound or the keyrune. StabWound is removal, so I would probably take that in a RTR draft. This is RTH GTC DMZ though, so the keyrune is better.

All in all i would say with Stab Wound because of the -2 life, and you can make a gatekeeper a 0/2.

April 30, 2013 5:09 p.m.

Cdawg44 says... #37

Cancel . Knowing Kaley's playstyle, we could make a monstrous control deck, and counterspells are awesome in limited anyway.

Cancel ftw

April 30, 2013 5:26 p.m.

smash10101 says... #38

"Stab, stab, stab." ~Spy

April 30, 2013 6:04 p.m.

MrZanderific says... #39

Stab Wound or Rakdos Keyrune two darn good cards in Limited.

April 30, 2013 6:16 p.m.

dcarpntr says... #40

April 30, 2013 6:29 p.m.

MagnorCriol says... #41

KrazyCaley: I just realized - no Elaine? How can we redeem our honor in battle against her if she's not playing?

April 30, 2013 6:31 p.m.

Spker says... #42

Stab Wound this is just first pick and this card is the least committal, and also a strong card in limited formats. Serves up to three functions for the low cost of 3 cmc: 1. possible removal (if the creature is weak enough) 2. weakens a creature which leads to 3. opponent takes 2 damage each turn if put on the right creature. Although I find passing up on a cancel or a dispel pretty difficult, even on a first pick, having some strong black cards could win us the game, we may even be able to pull off a real mean dimir deck.

April 30, 2013 6:58 p.m.

Driver183 says... #43

Stab wound for sure hands down had 5 in a rtr draft once it was sick

April 30, 2013 7:02 p.m.

zandl says... #44

Dispel .

Pro-picks.

April 30, 2013 7:38 p.m.

http404error says... #45

No Elaine, drafting backwards... what?

I...

April 30, 2013 7:46 p.m.

GureiSeion says... #46

Let there be much stabbing!

April 30, 2013 7:46 p.m.

squire1 says... #47

Stab

April 30, 2013 8:03 p.m.

KrazyCaley says... #48

@MagnorCriol - I owe too many other people appearances to include some of the familiar faces.

April 30, 2013 8:35 p.m.

DukeNicky says... #49

Stab Wound or Cancel for sure!

April 30, 2013 9:44 p.m.

atreyujames says... #50

Stab Wound is easily the best pick here.

April 30, 2013 9:47 p.m.

miracleHat says... #51

Stab Wound is pretty evil.

April 30, 2013 9:55 p.m.

Goody says... #52

smash10101, wouldn't that be the Sniper?

April 30, 2013 10:28 p.m.

Wike900 says... #53

Stab Wound FTW. Rakdos Keyrune is a bit too restrictive, and probably won't make it unless we play R/B.

April 30, 2013 11:51 p.m.

TheBearShaker says... #54

Stab Wound . thing killed be during this past prerelease

May 1, 2013 12:22 a.m.

Seems like we have a solid consensus. Just need to wait for the other drafters to get set up.

Eagerly awaiting pick 2.

May 1, 2013 12:39 a.m.

As late as I am to weigh in, Stab Wound is easily the best card in the pack. Caley may like control, but we'll do just as well in black as blue and the enchantment is just better. As for the Keyrune, it is quite powerful in draft, however, we will have chances to pick up both creatures and ramp/fixing later. We will not always have the luxury of taking some of the best removal in the Limited format.

May 1, 2013 12:43 a.m.

tempest says... #57

Something small, buts its been bugging me. It's DGM, not DMZ

May 1, 2013 12:57 a.m.

TridenT says... #58

I'm pretty sure Stab Wound has this vote. I do not disagree.

May 1, 2013 1:02 a.m.

vic says... #59

Stab Wound . Death's Presence takes too long. No other first picks here.

May 1, 2013 1:07 a.m.

I'm sure Death's Presence can do some serious business in limited. Especially with the format slowing down for DGM. Can't deny that solid removal is just better at this point, though.

May 1, 2013 1:22 a.m.

MagnorCriol says... #61

Yeah, removal is removal, and good removal is very key in this format. Presence has a really neat effect, but at 6 mana it's just too late to really do the work it wants to do. A slower format might change that, but I'm not betting on it.

May 1, 2013 1:38 a.m.

It's important to pick up good removal while we're in RTR and GTC. The new set is pretty light on removal, and what it does have isn't always the best. Get what we can while we can.

May 1, 2013 2:22 a.m.

KrazyCaley says... #63

@w999 Good catch. I've been thinking about Korea too much recently.

May 1, 2013 8:27 a.m.

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