My choices, in order are

Battering Krasis

Give // Take

Maze Sentinel.

I think it's more important to keep pressure up from the start, and getting a good trampler on turn 3 is a strong start.

Give will allow our creatures to trade up, or flat out win if they have evasion.

Maze Sentinel is hard to take down.

There's too much power left in this pack to start taking fixing yet, and it's not a great idea to start making a Nivix Cyclops deck until we actually get a cyclops or two.

+1 Battering Krasis

I like Give // Take as well, but from recent experience I think getting good creatures will be more key than boosting other creatures. Besides, the krasis will be giving to itself so it's kind of a two-fer.

I wasn't able to post last night (stupid "real life" again) but I'm glad the mage was picked over far // away. Nice work gentlemen.

It seems like it's down to Battering Krasis and Give / Take, advantage Krasis. I'm cool with this. I've never had good experience with Battering Krasis as he's a dead draw by the time I get to him, or he gets taken care of before he can get huge. I'll be very happy if we can get a 2nd one though.
Worth noting that black seems VERY open. If we end up running WUG, splashing black seems feasible, especially if we come across the likes of Putrefy, Gaze of Granite, or Debt to the Deathless. That card wins games.

Agreed - there was a ton of both black and red in this pack. Makes me wonder if ALL of the initial rares were bant colors and now we're all hating each other. Certainly worth keeping an eye on if rakdos keeps coming around and around.

Evolve is always tricky in a deck not built around it. I'd hope he's in our opening hand because top decking him late would be pretty much a dead draw.

Evolve is a perfectly splashable mechanic, as long as you have creatures that can evolve your splash. Both of our first two picks evolve the Krasis, so there should be no worries there (yet).

As for Black being open, Rakdos Drake is really the only card in here that I can see being first or second picked, and that's only if the rest of the pack was pretty mope. We don't have enough information yet to start deciding what's open and closed. Some packs are just really stacked with certain colors. It is something to keep an eye on, though.

I could see the Spike Jester getting taken is someone is looking for an B/R/x aggro deck. The fact that no one has so far is a good sign. There are 5 more people who have yet to see it, though. The same is true for every card. We won't really be able to start our Death Note-style deduction skills until we see these packs for the 2nd time.

We should get a pretty decent idea about 2-3 picks from now. The problem is, by the time a pack tables, most of the good cards, regardless of color, have pretty much usually been taken.

Totally agree about in real life I'd be picking up Steam Vents, but this is a mock draft so there are no keeper cards for us to cash out with.

I'm also on board with the idea that if we see a pack with only Dregs or worse, we take mana fixing over something nearly unplayable.

I think our best pick at this point is Give / Take, and only because it's an uncommon. I like the Battering Krasis as well, but it is a common and we are more likely to see another one.

+1 Give / Take

I'd be a lot more game for give/take if take were more playable. As-is, Give is really the only half we care about. Granted, 3 counters on either of our creatures so far would be pretty much the tits.

Really, I'm open for any of the three cards I noted. The first two were pretty close in my book.

As an aside, has anyone here played with Battering Krasis in draft? It seems like it has a lot of potential, but is 3 mana too much for a base 2/1?

Oh deathnote. Anyways, my gut says give//take. We've already got a trampler and a flyer, bigger is better on either of them.

Problem is things like Putrefy will end up being a two-for-one then. Still, I play give // take in my simic counter deck and it's pretty decent. And the krasis being common does give some credence to the idea that we'll see at least one more come around. Okay I convinced myself.

-1 Battering Krasis

+1 Give // Take

I'll go along. I'm imagining a situation in which we topdeck the Krasis midgame and play it as a 2/1 for 3. Then it dies. I also imagine Give/Take saving us from exactly that same situation.

Swap for Give (/Take)

+1 Give / Take

Agree with the sentiment that Krasis could be seen again as a common. The 3 cmc creature is attractive, though.

Give / take it is. Anyone have final objections to this?

I've played the Krasis too many times thinking it'd be great, but as a singleton it rarely hits the board early enough to make an impact. I'm glad we've veered towards Give / Take. Maybe if we can pull a Krasis Incubation we'll have some synergy with Take.

I keep refreshing this page knowing that there won't be a new pack until the wee hours of the morning. But maybe somehow if I click it again it will be there.

:(... It wasn't

3 more hours my friend.

yeah I know. reflexive page refreshing ftl

New pack is up.

Render silent render silent render silent

Blue seems wide open with both Hidden Strings and Render Silent left in the pack.

Render Silent is a counterspell (duh) with a bonus effect. Counterspells can obviously be extremely potent if held at the right moment. This one is no different.

Hidden Strings is cheaper and easier to cast, and has a powerful effect both the turn it gets played, and perhaps turns afterwards.

I haven't made up my mind yet on which one is better for us, but those two seem like the obvious candidates, although I wouldn't rule out Nivix Cyclops.

If we are going for superior creatures, Hidden Strings is incredible as it can help us get our damage through to the enemy. Unfortunately, cipher triggers on combat damage, which we MIGHT get with our flying/trample dudes, or we might not. It's great for going on the defensive though, as we can attack all out, untap our creatures, and pass turn, ready to defend.

Render Silent speaks for itself. Counterspell + Silence is good, but it's color intensive. I think Hidden Strings is ultimately more versatile.

Hidden strings with Beetleform mage seems decent. Pay two to jump, bash, untap lands and play big guy.Protect and server on the other hand is clunky removal but removal at the same. It drives us more towards bant though so if we want to go BUGw later it might be inconvenient.The only creature for us is really the gatekeeper and since this is triple DGM there is a good chance to get couple of on color gates.
So I'd go
+1 Gatekeeper
Protect and server (foil one obviously)
Hidden strings.

I'm not sold on the Gatekeeper here. The blue one, in particular, doesn't affect the board much when he hits.

Hidden Strings isn't quite as good as Hands of Binding was in draft, but I think the impact it makes on the board immediately can give us a strong tactical advantage if played wisely. The same goes for Render Silent. The only problem with the latter is its mana cost.

On a scale of 1-duh, how likely is Render Silent to table? It does have a restrictive mana cost, which will deter anyone not already committed to U/w.