I thought I saw some speculation about the souls being in the seeds as well. Is that just a chance to be in there or will it be in every seeded pack (if the spec is the case)?
If you are picking the seeded pack just for the biggest chance of getting a really good rare for sealed, then Blue is surprisingly your best option.
This is flawed reasoning for a couple of reasons:
Even if we agree that the blue rares are the best (which I don't - white's rares seem quite a bit better to me), you are also giving up on having a decent promo card, as the blue prerelease promo is barely playable. So if you're lucky and get that Air Elemental thing, you're still not better off than the black player who is guaranteed to get an Indulgent Tormentor in his pack.
The one potentially good rare in that one pack is way less important than the average quality of commons and uncommons in that particular color. Blue's commons and uncommons are overall quite underwhelming in this format, and those are what form the backbone of any limited deck (unless you are insanely lucky).
Thoughts on the promos:
White: Hmmm. This is a pretty expensive creature but it's hard to imagine losing a race in any game this resolves.
Blue: I think this is a reasonable card. It's not guaranteed to be a bomb but it very well might be depending on what else is on the battlefield at any given time. It's a card I would always play in any blue deck but the strength of this promo is not enough to pull me into the color by itself.
Black: A 5/3 flier for 5 that clocks them for an extra 3 a turn OR generates card advantage is really strong. The only downsides are that it dies to Lightning Strike and the opponent gets to "pick their poison."
Red: Again, seven mana costa a lot but it's very powerful. It probably won't ever completely reverse the tide of battle like the White promo can, but it's a better creature than the White promo and the triggered ability is strong in a color that needs ways to push through late game damage. I don't love it but I like it.
Green: IMO this is the worst promo. 7/2 dies to virtually everything and it reanimates a) tapped and b) during your next turn, which means that c) you can't do anything with it again for another turn. And it costs six.
The strength of the colors overall:
White: Not the best but not the worst, White has a lot going for it at common and uncommon. It only has a handful of really strong rares, though.
Blue: On first glance Blue doesn't seem that strong overall but it has the best rares in the set IMO.
Black: It's sort of the jack of all trades, master of none in this set. It beats down, gets card advantage, gains life and removes things... but it doesn't really excel at any of those. There are a few solid rares but Black's creature base just seems poor to me. The graveyard-centric things also strike me as very slow.
Red: At uncommon most likely but certainly at common, Red seems like the deepest color to me(!). Its depth at rare is decent but not as good as Blue and probably not as good as Green, either (and opening Crucible of Fire in your sealed pool would be unfortunate). Red seems strong overall.
Green: Most of Greens rares are strong(with the exception of the promo), but none of them are particularly exceptional. Green seems pretty strong at lower rarities but again, not great.
Overall:
White: A strong choice but maybe not the first choice.
Blue: I could see going Blue here on the strength of the rares. You will need to get a little lucky, though.
Black: Black strikes me as the color most lacking in playables. The best promo of the five doesn't make up for that.
Red: This is probably what I would take. Red seems very good in this set.
Green: It is on par with White overall, or close to it but the fact the promo isn't very good means I would never go Green over White and certainly not over Red or Blue.
@Moneystax: just in case you weren't aware, the blue promo can only copy creatures you control. So it's not a Clone.
Just in case you hadn't run across me in context of spoiler evaluation before... I don't know how to read spoilers accurately. Truth
But that doesn't change my analysis of the card any. I'd still play it in any Blue deck but I'm not pulled into the color on the strength of this card.
Haha, I wonder if someone at Wizards wrote a note like "Make sure M.P. is the Blue promo" and someone misinterpreted it.
oh man, i didn't even think of that. Master of Predicaments would be SUCH a Timmy-like, fun promo. and, i mean, isn't that a perfect fit for a prerelease? too bad!!
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Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul "no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
That can backfire terribly though. When you cast/recast Pretender, opponent can just Bolt the shaman with MP on the stack. Shaman dies, MP enters the battlefield as Primadox, you don't draw a card and both get bounced back to your hand next turn. MP seems better as the board gets stalled out, which unfortunately seems to be a thing with such terrible removal.
It seems extremely likely that Clone would just be entirely superior in every way with that set-up.
My issue with MPretender, though, isn't specifically about it being a bad Clone, but that it looks worse than Sakashima in almost every situation. Basically, depending on your Island count, you're paying more mana for a crappier version of either Clone or Sakashima... way too high a price for such a minute option.
Went with green, so I played the Phytotitian and I just so happened to pull out another one in the rest of my pool.
It actually was pretty solid when I got it out, giving me virtual card advantage and stalling boards. It's pretty good in both aggressive and defensive/control decks.
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This is flawed reasoning for a couple of reasons:
White: Hmmm. This is a pretty expensive creature but it's hard to imagine losing a race in any game this resolves.
Blue: I think this is a reasonable card. It's not guaranteed to be a bomb but it very well might be depending on what else is on the battlefield at any given time. It's a card I would always play in any blue deck but the strength of this promo is not enough to pull me into the color by itself.
Black: A 5/3 flier for 5 that clocks them for an extra 3 a turn OR generates card advantage is really strong. The only downsides are that it dies to Lightning Strike and the opponent gets to "pick their poison."
Red: Again, seven mana costa a lot but it's very powerful. It probably won't ever completely reverse the tide of battle like the White promo can, but it's a better creature than the White promo and the triggered ability is strong in a color that needs ways to push through late game damage. I don't love it but I like it.
Green: IMO this is the worst promo. 7/2 dies to virtually everything and it reanimates a) tapped and b) during your next turn, which means that c) you can't do anything with it again for another turn. And it costs six.
The strength of the colors overall:
White: Not the best but not the worst, White has a lot going for it at common and uncommon. It only has a handful of really strong rares, though.
Blue: On first glance Blue doesn't seem that strong overall but it has the best rares in the set IMO.
Black: It's sort of the jack of all trades, master of none in this set. It beats down, gets card advantage, gains life and removes things... but it doesn't really excel at any of those. There are a few solid rares but Black's creature base just seems poor to me. The graveyard-centric things also strike me as very slow.
Red: At uncommon most likely but certainly at common, Red seems like the deepest color to me(!). Its depth at rare is decent but not as good as Blue and probably not as good as Green, either (and opening Crucible of Fire in your sealed pool would be unfortunate). Red seems strong overall.
Green: Most of Greens rares are strong(with the exception of the promo), but none of them are particularly exceptional. Green seems pretty strong at lower rarities but again, not great.
Overall:
White: A strong choice but maybe not the first choice.
Blue: I could see going Blue here on the strength of the rares. You will need to get a little lucky, though.
Black: Black strikes me as the color most lacking in playables. The best promo of the five doesn't make up for that.
Red: This is probably what I would take. Red seems very good in this set.
Green: It is on par with White overall, or close to it but the fact the promo isn't very good means I would never go Green over White and certainly not over Red or Blue.
Just in case you hadn't run across me in context of spoiler evaluation before... I don't know how to read spoilers accurately. Truth
But that doesn't change my analysis of the card any. I'd still play it in any Blue deck but I'm not pulled into the color on the strength of this card.
oh man, i didn't even think of that. Master of Predicaments would be SUCH a Timmy-like, fun promo. and, i mean, isn't that a perfect fit for a prerelease? too bad!!
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
It was useless because I didn't get any auras or trample enablers.
That can backfire terribly though. When you cast/recast Pretender, opponent can just Bolt the shaman with MP on the stack. Shaman dies, MP enters the battlefield as Primadox, you don't draw a card and both get bounced back to your hand next turn. MP seems better as the board gets stalled out, which unfortunately seems to be a thing with such terrible removal.
I'm not arguing the promo is anything less than amazing. But maybe Spikes shouldn't play casual :P.
It seems extremely likely that Clone would just be entirely superior in every way with that set-up.
My issue with MPretender, though, isn't specifically about it being a bad Clone, but that it looks worse than Sakashima in almost every situation. Basically, depending on your Island count, you're paying more mana for a crappier version of either Clone or Sakashima... way too high a price for such a minute option.
It actually was pretty solid when I got it out, giving me virtual card advantage and stalling boards. It's pretty good in both aggressive and defensive/control decks.