@Tempest - They should be preserved in the update commentary. I also intend to mention what's missing as soon as we have that information (see my sample pick, minus the tagging of course).
It probably helps that we haven't received anything compelling enough to really fight over, either.

where in the update? i feel like i'm going blind right now... you have all the cards in the update's section? i only see the one we picked

Click the "Pack 1 Pick 1" update, should be the second one.

oh hey! i learned something new today! gotcha thanks

Anyone want to take a bet on the quality of the next pack? XP

Have you already submitted our vote? I have to wake up pretty early tomorrow so I should sleep now but I want to see the next pack hopefully we start getting some good white creatures

@tempest - Yeah. Renounce the Guilds is locked in.

Ok. Well I'm heading in for tonight but I'll comment tomorrow morning

Two Prime Directives are prominent in this pack:

Render Silent
Goblin Test Pilot
Protect Serve
Protect Serve (foil)
Awe for the Guilds
Hidden Strings
Izzet Cluestone
Mutant's Prey
Nivix Cyclops
Opal Lake Gatekeepers
Orzhov Guildgate
Steeple Roc
Wake the Reflections

...seriously?

Of these, the ones that catch my eye are Hidden Strings, Opal Lake Gatekeeper, and Steeple Roc. I suppose Render Silent and Nivix Cyclops are worthy of note, though (respectively) I'm not fond of grabbing counterspells so early and am already showing some color bias.

I'd really like to nab the Steeple Roc, as limited experience has taught me it can hold its own fairly well.

@Supersun - Seriously...

In regards to the Steeple Roc, I generally don't like it since 1 toughness is really not much for a 5cc creature, but in this format it's not like Electrickery exists and I could see people potentially having issues getting rid of it.

I'm still not a fan, it's 5cc and even with First Strike it still can't even safely block nearly half the creatures in this format (including the Gatekeepers...). Even when attacking over someone's head he's not that great as nearly half of the flyers in DMG can still kill him just by blocking (Including Maze Glider :/)

What may make him worth picking is that flyers are rare and he's one of only two flyers that doesn't require blue (the other being Rakdos Drake that we saw in the last pack), and he does cleanly get around Mossdog.

We also have a very interesting choice here from the cards we have been getting passed it seems very clear that White and Blue are both open to our left.

On the other hand this exact same signal is going to be sent to our right regardless of what we pick.

We could potentially aim for Azorius in this pack and pack 3, but at the same time White and Blue will be very strained in pack 2.

It also looks like there could be a very real threat that someone to our left is heavily drafting Green. That...could be a problem, but it's still a bit early to tell with only 2 cards missing from this pack.

It may not be a terrible idea to switch to drafting Bant at this point drafting Blue and White in pack 1 and 3 while grabbing Green and White in pack 2. There might also be a good chance of some Red in pack 2 since Red also might seemed to be getting starved.

Still not entirely sure what the best pick is. If we are running blue, Opal Lake Gatekeepers should be a stupidly powerful card in triple DMG since statistically we should have at least 3 gates by the time we are done drafting while we could easily draft more.

I'd prefer to hear what others have to say before making a decision.

I really like Render Silent.

Other pucks I would be happy with are Nivix Cyclops, Opal Lake Gatekeepers, or Hidden Strings. In that order.

Looks like we are being passed UR.

In a normal pack Steeple Roc would come back to us but this pack is really weak. We will most likely see one in another pack, but this one is gone if we dont take it now.

I like the cyclops too, his ability is really cool, but he'd be the first dude we draft and he's currently outside every color we have. The roc also isn't good in full block, BUT at common there are 4 fliers and it beats 2, trades with 1 (itself) and loses to glider. My main problem with it is that it costs FIVE MANA. Which is just silly for a 3/1 flying, first striker.

Still working on learning about this signalling thing, but I think grabbing protect/serve or the gatekeepers is gonna be best pick for this pack.

For the split spell we can use it for the white half, then the blue half if we want. As for the gatekeepers, they are definitely a secondary pick, as I'd really like to avoid grabbing a 4th color on our 3rd pick. So for now...

+1 Protect/Serve

Until someone can convince me otherwise.

YAY double post!

Our 3rd option is to grab that guildgate, and go ahead and getting some fixing in case we decide junk, OR just some white gates as it seems currently white is our central color. My pick still stands, but I believe that gate is definitely another solid choice, and would probably snatch that over the blue gatekeepers currently shown.

As you guys have said, blue is open so we should consider running blue as our secondary color. We can't be locked in on a color too early but we should by pack 3. Anyways, blue is open so I think we should pick render silent. Counter a 1st main phase creature and prevent them from using combat tricks or counter a combat trick and prevent another creature from coming in. There aren't too many counterspells in this set so we should grab this one while we can.

+1 render silent

I feel like it should be noted that all of the blue cards in the pack are usually terrible and might get tabled, so if we see some other good UR cards down the line we might feel better about taking them knowing that Cyclops might come back around.

Personally I think we should take Steeple Roc. It's good in block and it's probably good here.

Besides Opal Lake Gate Keepers.

+1 Steeple Roc

A good body, and as someone pointed out it holds its own against 3 fliers in the set. Otherwise the pack seems lackluster besides the gate, gatekeepers, and render silent. Though two of those picks would have us courting blue as a secondary color, which isn't necessarily bad this early on.

@Tempest - I'm really hesitant on Render Silent. It's specific mana cost (in no doubt a minimum three color deck), plus the latter use of it (assuming I want to play my threats first / guildgate stalling) makes me doubt I'll see optimum bang from a 3rd pick buck.

Honestly, there's not a lot you can do to affect the signaling of this pack.

Just be aware that with the picks that we have been seeing someone to our near right will definitely be running Azorius.

The only other thing we need to watch for is if this pack makes even MORE people to the right start running Azorius which means blue and white could potentially end up getting choked out hard in pack 2.

In regards to the pick...

+1 Steeple Roc

Even if it's probably the worst of the format, Evasion is still Evasion in limited, and if necessary we can ramp it down on turn 4 using the thousands of cluestones we will end up getting...

GureiSeion, TheHorse, kanofudo

what are your votes?

"Personally I think we should take Steeple Roc. It's good in block and it's probably good here."