MTG Salvation

Please ignore the financial value of the cards for the purpose of this discussion.

fnord i would like to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. your posts on what would you first pick are keeping me sane during this week before the pre-release.

also, would grab gleam of battle first, since it is useful even if you dont go full boros.

Gleam of Battle, Unflinching Courage, and Maze Glider are all decent I think, but I have to go with Dragonshift which should win you the game when you overload it.

As powerful as armidallo cloak is, winning the game seemed more powerful, so I went with the rare...

Maze gilder. A very solid and easy pick. Strong card and easily splashable.

Dragonshift, not even a contest.

This is really hard, dragonshift is the strongest card in the pack but only if you are die hard committed to UR.

Otherwise I feel its between armadillo cloack of gleam of courage. TBH I would probably take the cloak. The maze glider is strong but all 3 I mentioned are game ending.

Armadillo Cloak's younger brother. I just can't see myself going heavy enough into blue/red in this limited and Boros cards will probably get picked over. Strong card, more than happy to take it.

Don't laugh, it works.

Maybe Dragonshift.

Unflinching Courage, wanted to go with the rare, but locking into heavy UR this early seemed like a bad idea, also there is very little in terms of good GW in the pack which will help signals.

Easy.

Ya'll could just type the card out instead of making us click on it, just ends up being more work for the both of us...

I agree that Courage is the pick here. Dragonshift is a great finisher but requires you to be heavy red/blue and have lots of creatures out (relevant, since unlike Overrun in green you're probably not the "creature" deck).

The main reason I pick Courage is that unlike Dragonshift it can also save you from losing.

Quote from DrunkWolf

I feel like people that don't pick unflinching courage have never faced the horror that is armadillo cloak in sealed. It is absolutely bonkers.

Considering Armadillo Cloak was printed 13 years ago, I feel it's safe to assume most people haven't played against it in sealed...

If this is a format that is as fast as GTC x3, Unflinching Courage is the pick.

In others, I would give Dragonshift a thought...and likely still go with Armadillo Cloak part 2.

Unflinching Courage and Maze Glider are the only two worth looking at here, everything else is much weaker.

Dragonshift isn't terrible, but for the most part it will be an overpriced and underpowered version of what you want, whether it is as a single target pump spell or an overrun effect. Even an underpowered/overpriced Overrun is still worth having, but not as a first pick, and certainly not over bombs like the Maze Glider and Unflinching Courage.

Maze Glider can even have a similar overrun effect, giving some fat stuff flying late game...but it actually comes with a very large flying body itself, making it SO much more reliably good than the Dragonshift.

And Unflinching Courage is one of the scariest turn 3 plays in the format. If the opponent doesn't have removal for it or its target within a turn or two then the game is likely over.

Personally I would take the Unflinching Courage because I lean towards being the aggressor, plus I think it is simply the most powerful thing in the pack. But I could see taking the Maze Glider, especially if you put a lot of value in keeping your options open, as the Maze Glider is an ideal splash card (with it being a late drop with only a single colored mana in its cost).

Unflinching Courage for sure, it's good early game, it's good late game, it's easy to cast, and since there aren't exactly a ton of sweepers floating around you'll almost always have something to put it on. Not to mention if you can snag an Ascended Lawmage to put it on.

I think it's Courage pretty easily here too. The other thing I didn't see anyone mention is the guilds this could lead you to. Orshov, Boros, Gruul and Simic all would love this card and can fit into the aggressive nature of the card.

This card can turn any of the 2-3 drop Boros cards into monsters. Sunfire Paladin would just wreck them if not answered. Basilica Screecher and Syndic of Tithes could create some serious life total advantage. The combination of increased size and trample added to the Gruul creatures just turns them into wrecking balls. Works really well on Simic evolve creatures that are reaching the top of their evolve curve. Even putting it on an un-evolved Elusive Krasis seems good. It's out of burn range, getting dangerously close to trumping a lot of combat tricks and can be turned sideways and turn life totals by 4+. It can also give that pumped Shamble Shark the final bit of punch.

The top picks are Dragonshift and Unflinting Courage.
Dragonshift is very powerful but only if your opponent is not too fast and if you draft around it. Unfliting Courage is a straight win if your opponent doesn't have removal in his hand right away. RTR have some hexproof guys that makes great targets for this.

I would place myself on Selesnya before Izzet any day (probably because I'm not a pro).

Why are people evaluating dragon shift like it's a constant bomb in limited? It's a bad alpha strike if you use it that way i guarantee you will lose because it should be thought of as a win con because it is so hard to overload it. I don't see it ever coming close to being used as an actual finisher i would much rather see it be used as removal because that's what it will be most useful for.

With that being said i chose unflinching courage as it will more consistently win you games and it will send good signals.

Armadillo Cloak is a lot like Rancor in that people heavily overvalue it. It's not the same card it used to be. Creatures were worse, removal was worse and more expensive so the likelihood of it backfiring was low. Gift of the Orzhova isn't a 1st pick quality card, and this isn't THAT much better, if at all. Having said that, it's still probably the best card in the pack, I am wondering how good the rare could be. 7 mana is a lot. Expensive overrun for UR. Teleportal was damn good.

I think I'd rather have Maze Glider over Dragonshift. The combat trick/Overrun options are nice, but I don't know that I want to be investing that much in a guild I hate drafting. Maze Glider gives me a similar benefit while leaving me open to more options. That being said, I'll probably end up taking Armadillo Cloak 1.1.

Quote from dkiller

Why are people evaluating dragon shift like it's a constant bomb in limited? It's a bad alpha strike if you use it that way i guarantee you will lose because it should be thought of as a win con because it is so hard to overload it. I don't see it ever coming close to being used as an actual finisher i would much rather see it be used as removal because that's what it will be most useful for.

With that being said i chose unflinching courage as it will more consistently win you games and it will send good signals.

The format should be really slow. And even in fast formats, a 7 mana spell that so easily deals 8~20 damage is pretty strong. Forget the GTC mindset. There won't be hundreds of 2 mana guys infesting the table by turn 3 and there won't be a deck that plays 8 removals spells.

People expect D-G-R to be a 9~11 turns format and in that case grinding decks with bombs are the norm. Dragonshift is a bomb because by the time you have 7 mana you should have like 4~5 creatures on the table and with so many creatures you will simply win most of the time you cast it.

Also I think the Maze Glider is being overrated. A 3/5 flying for 6 is not impressive at all, it's only playable if you don't have anything else. Also, how many multicolor, non-flying, creatures you expect to main deck playing blue ?

99% of the time, dragonshift will just be a harder to cast Wings of Velis Vel. And that card was never a first pick...

Generally people who say something is not close, easy, or snap pick are wrong about the card the pick about 25 percent of the time, and wetting about it being easy, not close, or a snap pick about 90 percent of the time.

Quote from Apokryphos

99% of the time, dragonshift will just be a harder to cast Wings of Velis Vel. And that card was never a first pick...

I dunno what game you're playing but even in GTC limited (ridicolous fast limited) i always played one 6~7 mana spell and never had real trouble in casting it.

Dragonshift is a win condition in a color combination whose biggest weakness was a lack of reasonable win conditions. I love me an Armadillo Cloak, but how much better is it than Gift of Orzhova, really?