Back from vacation. I like runner's bane. Also, did something change with tagging? I thought that it was a no-no.

Tagging is A-OK now. The privacy issues were hotfixed by YeahGo.

Welcome back Kravian. I hope you approve of our cyclops or bust method of drafting.

@Darkness1835 - Don't forget to send me that pick.

@KrazyCaley- Should be in your inbox now.

New pack.

For me it's Riot Piker vs Mindstatic , in strong favor of the static. Triggers our cyclops, discourages attacking if opponent is stupid enough to play things main phase 1, and is a general counterspell that we can use to shut down the inevitable Debt to the Deathless we'll see with all these Junk drafters.

Please welcome to the group Prevailed, our newest brother in darkness.

I'm game for either one. Piker puts on early pressure but gets outclassed reasonably quickly. Static is a counterspell. Leaning towards Static.

Welcome Prevailed!

Mindstatic is nothing short of terrible. Our deck strategy is to cast all of our Cyclopi and then cast an instant or sorcery so they can attack. When do we want to sit on a 4 CMC counterspell? Never. And I've almost always had bad results playing 4 CMC counterspells in limited (except Rewind , that wasn't bad).

Riot Piker is good on turn two and three, and awful past turn 5. A 2/1 first striker that has to attack every turn by itself just loses once our opponent drops a 3/3. We aren't looking to trigger battalion, so we don't need the extra attacker.

I think our next pick should be Boros Cluestone . It's mediocre fixing (I always prefer guildgates to cluestones), but it's still fixing and playable as our 23rd card. It does give us an option to keep a white splash if we decide in the end to keep the Advent of the Wurm in our deck. I know we've been talking about cutting out the splash, but if we see some good guildgates then there is still a chance that Advent is playable.

+1 Boros Cluestone

Well, let's break it down, shall we?

There is a definite case for mainboarding the Cluestone. Should we get enough fixing to justify it, there's still a chance we can run Advent in our deck. We all know how powerful that could be.

The real question is: Are we likely to mainboard either of the other candidates? Riot Piker gets outclassed so quickly that I think he's going to be pretty lackluster. Also, we don't need to fear playing against him because our entire deck is built to shut him down.

Mindstatic is an expensive counterspell. Assuming we get a fair amount of playable cards for our deck, it's reasonable to assume that we won't want to draw this card over anything else in our deck. Sitting on 4 mana for a turn doesn't usually win you the game.

If we grab the Cluestone, we also limit the ability of anyone else in the draft splashing into Red. The fewer people who can potentially play the cards we want to draft, the better.

tl;dr: Boros Cluestone is a pretty good pick here.

Really hate cluestones, but it may be the best pick here anyway. Let's reconsider the Riot Piker if we were able to drop Give / Take onto it though. That could be a bit more dangerous. I'm sure in the next packs we're going to be looking for +X/+X kind of instants/sorceries as well to set off our cylopses and he seems like a good target for whatever those may be. Not saying he's great, just that he's in color and sucessfully going 3 colors is hard and 4 is damn near impossible.

Mindstatic is of limited use for our cyclops as we can only cast it in reaction to our opponent (not entirely true, as we could counter our own spell but that's unlikely). So we can't activate the cyclops when we need to with it. It has to stand as a 4 cmc counter spell.

Riot Piker would be as great 2 cmc creature if it wasn't for his suicidal tendencies to attack each turn. He does seem more of a battalion card. I also wouldn't want to sink instants onto him as I want to conserve those for activating multiple cyclops.

Boros Cluestone starts to open the option of splashing white, although it is unlikely we will go that way. The card draw in the mid-game is helpful, and our deck can stall if we are top decking and hoping for an instant while our cyclops are defending home base.

Honestly, I would rather not have to main board any of these cards. I'm going to vote for the cluestone, just in case splash white becomes viable. I would also be happy with Mindstatic as it is the only card I would think could be side boarded in for games 2 and 3 if we are facing big bombs or Debt to the Deathless .

+1 Boros Cluestone

When the cards are terrible, I always lean towards fixing. Even if it's not good fixing. Cluestone works, I suppose.

Fine with me, guess we're getting cluestoned. Next pack may have a few cards to choose from but then we're auto-drafting for a few days yes? Just asking because I intend to be drunk for about the next 72 hours, Give / Take , and don't want to miss anything important.

Happy 'murica day guys.

I'll be camping all weekend, so if I could get an email saying when we open the next pack, that would be great. I can stay in touch for the important picks that way.

Always happy to get some fixing. Cluestone it is. The draw could be helpful when both players are topdecking.

@actiontech- Picks 13-15 will be autodrafted over the course of one day, and then we will receive Pack 2 that midnight. This is currently pick 11, so if everything goes according to plan, we should start our new pack on Saturday midnight US PT. @landgrafb- I got you. I'll send out an email to everyone just in case you guys shut down while things get boring, or are too drunk to function.

Hidden Strings seems the obvious choice.

I could see a case being made for Awe for the Guilds but there's only 30 mono-colored creatures in this format, and 45 multicolored creatures, so chances are it'll be a dead draw when we get it. Hidden Strings just seems better because we can attack, then set up our defenses by either untapping mana for something like Weapon Surge or our creatures so we can attack all out and still be able to block.

So I'm up and alert this morning and figured I'd drop in.

I agree that Hidden Strings is our pick here. Cast it, tap two blockers, swing multi-cyclops FTW. Much more reliable than Awe for the Guilds and the cipher is just something fun we can stick on our Wind Drake if we're lucky enough to have him out.

Also, further confirmation we will have our pick from anything blue throughout this draft. Huzzah!

Hidden Strings . Obvious choice is obvious.

Did some research on Gatherer. I think the obvious choice wasn't obvious.

There are 7 uncommon or rare creatures that are monocolored out of the 30 monocolored creatures in the set.

There are 38 uncommon or rare multicolored creatured out of the 45 multicolored creatures in the set.

Limited is a format where commons make of a majority of your deck. If there are 23 common monocolored creatures in this set and 7 common multicolored creatures, it's easy to assume that in limited that nearly everyone's creatures will be mostly commons along with about one to four uncommons and maybe a rare or two.

Hidden Strings works well the first time you play it, or would go well on Wind Drake or maybe even Beetleform Mage . But it's a one trick pony, and can be 2 for 1'd. After that first time we cast it, if our opponent has a removal spell or a blocker that we can't get rid of, then Hidden Strings no longer works. And with everyone else grabbing all the white and black cards, they're sure to have some removal.

With that in mind, Awe for the Guilds is the pick here. Again, in limited, all of our decks will be made up of mostly commons. That includes our creature bases. There are 23 common monocolored creatures (out of the 30 monocolored creatures), and we'll be seeing them lots more than the 7 multicolored commons or the 38 uncommon/rare multicolored creatures. That claim is based on probability. Awe for the Guilds gives us pseudo-unblockable creatures when we cast it, including our horde of cyclopi, which I think fits our strategy better. I think we should be grabbing these almost as often as we our hoping to grab Weapon Surge . In our deck, it could win us a bunch of games out of nowhere.

+1 Awe for the Guilds

I think the analysis needs to include whether there will be 3 or more creatures in play for our opponent. Hidden Strings can guarantee free unblocked attack if its two or less creatures. So if Awe for the Guilds is only better if there's 3 or more creatures, what are the chances that a multi-coloured defender will still be in play for our opponent?

The cipher ability will have some advantage of allowing us to untap our attackers or land, as well I suppose. I guess I'm not convinced on Awe for the Guilds yet.

+1 Hidden Strings

I prefer the flexibility and guaranteed functionality of Hidden Strings over the maybe-better that Awe for the Guilds represents. And we can potentially force a block with strings by tapping what he would prefer to block with thereby killing something nasty. Plus we save one off the CMC and could theoretically drop a 2nd sorcery or instant and give our guys +6/+0 a little easier.

I agree with actiontech. Awe for the Guilds can end games in the right circumstances, but I like Hidden Strings more because its playable at any point in the game and is nasty when put on one of our fliers.. I suspect this isn't the last Awe for the Guilds we'll see, anyways.