So the Skyspear Cavalry does a solid impression of a 4/2 flying for 5. That on it's own is solid but not super impressive, however it also has great synergy with what the White Heroic deck wants to be doing and White/x Heroic is 100% where i want to be in every Theros draft. Cutting it hard and early in a pack with no other real standout cards and only one other white card which is very mediocre seems like the strongest choice by far.
Also acceptable picks would be Setessan Tactics because of how strong it is if you are curving out with green creatures, Forgeborn Oreads because it's repeatable removal even though it has mediocre synergy with other red cards, and War-Wing Siren which is this set's Wingsteed Rider albeit in a worse color.
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Setessan Tactics is the choice, it not only sets you up for Gx heroic it's also a potential one sided wrath.
Spiteful blow and star fall are removal but too expensive to justify 1st pick. Oreads is solid but forces heavy red which isn't great. The only other real choice is War-Wing Siren which in a Ux heroic deck could quickly get out of control.
Tactics is definitely good. It goes in a nice green heavy fight club deck. But I'm gonna go with my gut and pick War-Wing. The third best card is probably Forgeborn Oread. That card is pretty crazy. He's like borderland Minotaur mixed with arc-lightning. But I'd rather not go into red with my first pick and I want to be in blue, so War-wing it is.
In my experience white is the best color, but because of that it has been overdrafted. Blue and green are both strong colors, but I've had more success with blue. The rare and the common are about even in my book. Setessan can turn a game around, leading to huge blowouts. But you need to have a strong board presence. War-wing is always good.
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Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
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Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
For me the pick is between Oreads and Tactics. The pack is quite deep, but those two cards stand out to me. Tactics probably has the highest potential for blowouts, but I feel Oreads is better overall.
Tactics is definitely good. It goes in a nice green heavy fight club deck. But I'm gonna go with my gut and pick War-Wing. The third best card is probably Forgeborn Oread. That card is pretty crazy. He's like borderland Minotaur mixed with arc-lightning. But I'd rather not go into red with my first pick and I want to be in blue, so War-wing it is.
In my experience white is the best color, but because of that it has been overdrafted. Blue and green are both strong colors, but I've had more success with blue. The rare and the common are about even in my book. Setessan can turn a game around, leading to huge blowouts. But you need to have a strong board presence. War-wing is always good.
This. The Skyspear, Oreads, Blow, and Starfall are all solid removal/dudes, but are also relatively slow in a format that can be relatively fast.
OTOH War-wing and the Tactics are cards that get to work quickly and have the potential to dominate a game. Tactics has a really high upside but is also somewhat situational. The War-wing is the safer picks, and personally puts me in a color I would rather be in given the choice, as I really like Ux tempo/heroic more than the G/x versions.
This is a much stronger pack than the last two. I'm leaning towards Tactics, but there are about half a dozen good picks. The uncommons are good, and War-Wing is very close to being a blue Wingsteed Rider, with an easier casting cost.
Tactics is the best cause it leaves you with options:
GU& GW heroic. Make a GB with scorpions and pharika's chosen as efficient removal with tactics
And as all of these are common you would need to draft some bombs that g w b u has and be done with it...
The safe bet is gu heroic tempo thought.
One of the main gripes I had with GW Heroic in BTT was its lack of ways to interact with your opponent's board, bar Time to Feed. This is exactly the card you want coming from Journey - a way to trigger Heroic and possibly get something off your opponent's board at the same time.
At the same time, I wouldn't mind running this in other green-based decks - GU, for instance. Or GR. I'd be happy to play this in any green deck, come to think of it.
As for the other cards: Oreads seems fun as hell to build around but I'm not sure if you can reach a decent amount of enchantments in Rx decks. War-Wing Siren seems promising, and would probably be my second choice. Skyspear is really fragile, but I'd rank it 3rd behind the combat trick and the blue heroic dude.
I think we all agree tactics is the right card to take. But I also like the Skyspear Cav. and Font of Fortunes are high on my list. It is easy to splash blue for card advantage, and Skyspear has a lot of potential with bestow.
The first 2 threads were really close, but this is a windmill slam Setessan Tactics. Unless you're hopelessly far behind, it's almost certainly going to kill at least one of their guys, but scales all the way up into Plague Wind status. And triggers heroic!
Of course, there will be situations where it's dead (like if they have one massive voltron or you have nothing useful on board), but this card is in the color (beefy green) best suited to take advantage of it.
I don't like how much stuff tactics needs to really be useful. Fight can be an amazing mechanic, but it's less attractive when it's on a spell and not the creature doing the fighting. I'd pick forgeborn oreads here because of all the build-arounds in this block, that's the build around I'd want to build around most. It's a really dinky flametongue kavu, but it does make every other enchantment and enchantment creature into a dinky flametongue kavu with it. Hopefully Font wheels.
Tactics has an insane amount of options attached to it, especially since you can always target creatures and still not bother to make them fight should that need come up, and you can get a surprising number of interactions off all the untapping in the set.
Picked Forgeborn Oreads.
There's enough relevant 1-toughness creatures in the format for me to consider it as a potential 2-for-1'er.
Plus, the extra damage from all enchantments is a nice addition.
Setessan Tactics is a hard card to evaluate properly, but I ultimately didn't pick it because at 2mana, it's a situation-specific removal that loses you tempo, and at 3mana, it's a card that has a narrow chance of 2-for-1'ing with even greater loss of tempo.
My thought was that I would have a higher chance of successfully 2-for-1'ing with Forgeborn Oreads than with Setessan Tactics.
Also, with JOU added, green doesn't have as much of a size advantage as it used to, so that was another factor.
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Difficult pack; lots of good, playable limited cards, but Tactics is the one most likely to end the game when it's cast on any decent GW heroic deck.
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I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Definitely tactics. Not only does it set you up for heroic, act as removal/sweeps, and exist in a very strong color in Theros block, but signals that green is closed (since the leftovers there are janky and likely to make it back to you; the leucrotta could fill in your curve, and market festival is not horrible if you can't find any other 4s).
Practice for Khans of Tarkir Limited:
Draft: (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5)
Also acceptable picks would be Setessan Tactics because of how strong it is if you are curving out with green creatures, Forgeborn Oreads because it's repeatable removal even though it has mediocre synergy with other red cards, and War-Wing Siren which is this set's Wingsteed Rider albeit in a worse color.
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Spiteful blow and star fall are removal but too expensive to justify 1st pick. Oreads is solid but forces heavy red which isn't great. The only other real choice is War-Wing Siren which in a Ux heroic deck could quickly get out of control.
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Wow we're so good at draft picks... lol
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
In my experience white is the best color, but because of that it has been overdrafted. Blue and green are both strong colors, but I've had more success with blue. The rare and the common are about even in my book. Setessan can turn a game around, leading to huge blowouts. But you need to have a strong board presence. War-wing is always good.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
This. The Skyspear, Oreads, Blow, and Starfall are all solid removal/dudes, but are also relatively slow in a format that can be relatively fast.
OTOH War-wing and the Tactics are cards that get to work quickly and have the potential to dominate a game. Tactics has a really high upside but is also somewhat situational. The War-wing is the safer picks, and personally puts me in a color I would rather be in given the choice, as I really like Ux tempo/heroic more than the G/x versions.
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GU& GW heroic. Make a GB with scorpions and pharika's chosen as efficient removal with tactics
And as all of these are common you would need to draft some bombs that g w b u has and be done with it...
The safe bet is gu heroic tempo thought.
One of the main gripes I had with GW Heroic in BTT was its lack of ways to interact with your opponent's board, bar Time to Feed. This is exactly the card you want coming from Journey - a way to trigger Heroic and possibly get something off your opponent's board at the same time.
At the same time, I wouldn't mind running this in other green-based decks - GU, for instance. Or GR. I'd be happy to play this in any green deck, come to think of it.
As for the other cards: Oreads seems fun as hell to build around but I'm not sure if you can reach a decent amount of enchantments in Rx decks. War-Wing Siren seems promising, and would probably be my second choice. Skyspear is really fragile, but I'd rank it 3rd behind the combat trick and the blue heroic dude.
The mass removal spell is way too good to pass up, however.
Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
Of course, there will be situations where it's dead (like if they have one massive voltron or you have nothing useful on board), but this card is in the color (beefy green) best suited to take advantage of it.
About Mindslaver rulings:
There's enough relevant 1-toughness creatures in the format for me to consider it as a potential 2-for-1'er.
Plus, the extra damage from all enchantments is a nice addition.
Setessan Tactics is a hard card to evaluate properly, but I ultimately didn't pick it because at 2mana, it's a situation-specific removal that loses you tempo, and at 3mana, it's a card that has a narrow chance of 2-for-1'ing with even greater loss of tempo.
My thought was that I would have a higher chance of successfully 2-for-1'ing with Forgeborn Oreads than with Setessan Tactics.
Also, with JOU added, green doesn't have as much of a size advantage as it used to, so that was another factor.
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Unrelated, but when the images first loaded up, the crease in the god gauntlet of Spiteful Blow seemed like a string bikini bottom. Now you cannot unsee it.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall