Very tough pick here between the vampire and the boa. I snagged the boa in hopes that the lacerator will table.
Edit: After looking at all of the powerfull green that we passed in packs 1,2, I feel dumb for having picked the snake. I would instead take the vampire here. At this point, there are likely 2 guys already drafting green to the left of us, so no point in fighting with them.
I went Lacerator, mainly because we've already made a concerted effort to ship our neighbor into green. Keep in mind that I have not played a single game of Zendikar limited, so this is simply theory I'm working with here...
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I voted for the Hexmage on the last pick to experiment with forcing Vampires over the better Raptor. Since Vampires are coming around, I don't know that I'd jump on the Boa, especially since I can't imagine getting much green in Pack 2.
Again, it comes down to the choice between forcing an archetype that may or may not actually exist vs. taking the more powerful card. I'm not totally comfortable with it, but I'm voting for the Vampire again.
With two early drops in our pile already that take BB I don't see taking the Ruinous Minotaur as a good third pick.
If we're gonna force, let's force. There may have been a beautiful blue/green deck that we will never see.
Take the vamp!
We got passed a Raptor, but the blue in this pack looks totally dead. Remember that a rare was missing from the Raptor pack, so it's possible that the player to our right took something like Sphinx of Jwar Isle and we're going to get cut out of blue from here on out.
The only reason to take the Lacerator here is to force black. It is an inherently weaker card than the Boa and is only good in a specific deck archetype. At third pick we can't possibly know what our final deck will look like and hence the value of the Lacerator is ambiguous at best.
Despite the fact that we already passed some powerful green, it is not unreasonable to draft the Boa here. Afterall, if green continues to flow from our right we can get plenty of other solid green cards this pack and can expect more of the same in pack three. The third pick is just far too soon to start picking a card based solely on its color rather than its overall value. Too many people cripple themselves by forcing cards because they are afraid to abandon their p1p1.
We should have taken the Raptor last round, and we should take the Boa here.
It's more that people always overvalue removal. Really, if they make a card ":symb:: Sorcery: As an additional cost, get F'd in the A. Destroy target creature." people will say "removal is removal" and first-pick it.
I think I agree that the Boa is the correct pick here.
Mostly because passing a Lacerator doesn't disrupt our signal, and picking an easily spashable green creature could lead us to a B/G deck anyway. It would basically be a sort of Vampire-Vines deck rather than an G-Landfall archetype, looking to pick up Survivalists and Diabolists to back up a win off the backs of pumped vampires. Ideally, anyway. Plus, this is pack 1, pick 3; if the green keeps flowing, we still have time to cut it off and assure ourselves good Green support for a Black base. We're only denying ourselves Green in pack 2, assuming our signal was read, and if it was, then we can be pretty sure we're going to get black in that pack as well as pack 3.
Worst case scenario, we end up picking a strong card in a vacuum in a pack that has little else for us no matter what card we end up choosing.
The only reason to take the Lacerator here is to force black. It is an inherently weaker card than the Boa and is only good in a specific deck archetype. At third pick we can't possibly know what our final deck will look like and hence the value of the Lacerator is ambiguous at best.
Despite the fact that we already passed some powerful green, it is not unreasonable to draft the Boa here. Afterall, if green continues to flow from our right we can get plenty of other solid green cards this pack and can expect more of the same in pack three. The third pick is just far too soon to start picking a card based solely on its color rather than its overall value. Too many people cripple themselves by forcing cards because they are afraid to abandon their p1p1.
We should have taken the Raptor last round, and we should take the Boa here.
Well said. I think the lacerator is not strong enough to justify getting picked at such a stage in the draft. In anything other than a super-aggressive vampire deck, it's mainly going to be a 2/2 with a drawback. River Boa is powerful enough that I'm willing to start cutting off green here if it looks like it's open. It's unfortunate that we sent such a bad green signal to our left, but if it turns out green is open, it would be foolish to pass it by for a risking lacerator.
How much has anyone played the format? Can anyone who has played testify to the strength of black aggro? I honestly have no idea how effective lacerator would be in this format.
Maybe stupid but isn't Spell Pierce really good? Maybe it's not enough to branch out for? What about removal in Seismic Shudder, or bomb return in Grim Discovery? River Boa probably is the strongest card here....
I would probably take Grim Discovery in Black here, if I was sticking to black. I don't think anyone will splash for the vamp. Not that it means it will table, but it's not sending a signal to the left that black is open if there's only one of these guys in the pack. It is true that green is still coming, though only two people to our right have even seen this pack, one of them may be playing green already.
NM, boa it is. It's the strongest card here, and the strongest signal to send. If I ended up playing green I would kick myself for not taking the boa here, not as much with any of the other cards, and if I don't play green, I still don't feel like we're passing something strong enough to fret over.
Well, B/R aggro is pretty good from the 2 drafts I've done. I don't think B/G is going to be any good at all. It just doesn't mesh well together. So we might be looking at picking up some red aggro creatures like Shortcutter and that 1/1 ETB +1/+0 and haste dude (forgot his name).
It's what we get when we try to force a narrow archetype, you get pigeonholed. Though I don't think River Boa is strong enough for me to abandon Nighthawk though, and cutting green starting now seems like more trouble than it's worth (it's not like the green card was like a Rampaging Baloth or anything).
So hopefully we get lucky on the next couple of packs.
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Ugh, I wish I could be the guy sitting to the left of the forum. We should really have Baloth-Baloth-Boa at this point. But since we have what we have, I'd go for Lacerator and keep waiting for a secondary color to present itself.
Lacerator. I went B/g in my sealed because while vamps dominate the early game, the really struggle mid-game. In my draft I went B/u and grabbed 3 windrider eel and a living tsunami. Lacerator was just fine for me all day. We need our splash to be our fat, basically.
Ugh, I wish I could be the guy sitting to the left of the forum. We should really have Baloth-Baloth-Boa at this point. But since we have what we have, I'd go for Lacerator and keep waiting for a secondary color to present itself.
What we have is fine and Lacerator's the pick here.
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I chosen the lascerator as well. As good as river boa is, I don't think it merits going BG just for it. anyways next pack we won't be getting any good green cards.
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Lacerator. We just passed decent green. There are four other colors. Black is best equipped to deal with River Boa anyway.
Also, since we took that stupid Hexmage, might as well try that mono B aggro deck.
I would have Nighthawk-Raptor here. In that case I think it's still Lacerator, as by all accounts Tempest Owl sucks at both mana costs, Spell Pierce really wants to be an Essence Scatter variant in this format (anything but Eternal really), and I don't think the U/B refuge would be this high a pick even in U/B.
I definitely have to go with the Lacerator, too. While my initial thought were on the Boa, I've done plenty of practice drafts where I just "pick the best card" and that color drys up completely. We're definitively in black, let's keep it that way for now. The next pack will better show what our neighbors are in, and maybe we'll see another color worth getting into there.
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Ugh, I wish I could be the guy sitting to the left of the forum. We should really have Baloth-Baloth-Boa at this point. But since we have what we have, I'd go for Lacerator and keep waiting for a secondary color to present itself.
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Good point there. It was terrible the way you were shouted down when you told us the third pack would have good green cards.
My point was that IMO we should have taken the Baloths in the first and second packs on their own strength. It has nothing to do with knowing what was going to come next.
I was really looking at the gorger honestly. I know the Boa is stronger, but this pack really hasn't got anything exciting for us. I grabbed the Vamp hopeing we don't need it too bad.
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Wow. Stay the course, pick the Lacerator. Obviously the guy to our right is not drafting either Black or Green! Or he's just rare drafting... anyways, the River Boa says that Green is still open to the left, and the utter quickness that is associated with the Lacerator is very, very good. The guy to your left will probably never even see half the bombs we're passing, or even if he does, it's far too late. Feast o' Blood, here we come!
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Edit: After looking at all of the powerfull green that we passed in packs 1,2, I feel dumb for having picked the snake. I would instead take the vampire here. At this point, there are likely 2 guys already drafting green to the left of us, so no point in fighting with them.
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Take the vamp!
I voted for the Hexmage on the last pick to experiment with forcing Vampires over the better Raptor. Since Vampires are coming around, I don't know that I'd jump on the Boa, especially since I can't imagine getting much green in Pack 2.
Again, it comes down to the choice between forcing an archetype that may or may not actually exist vs. taking the more powerful card. I'm not totally comfortable with it, but I'm voting for the Vampire again.
With two early drops in our pile already that take BB I don't see taking the Ruinous Minotaur as a good third pick.
We got passed a Raptor, but the blue in this pack looks totally dead. Remember that a rare was missing from the Raptor pack, so it's possible that the player to our right took something like Sphinx of Jwar Isle and we're going to get cut out of blue from here on out.
Despite the fact that we already passed some powerful green, it is not unreasonable to draft the Boa here. Afterall, if green continues to flow from our right we can get plenty of other solid green cards this pack and can expect more of the same in pack three. The third pick is just far too soon to start picking a card based solely on its color rather than its overall value. Too many people cripple themselves by forcing cards because they are afraid to abandon their p1p1.
We should have taken the Raptor last round, and we should take the Boa here.
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Mostly because passing a Lacerator doesn't disrupt our signal, and picking an easily spashable green creature could lead us to a B/G deck anyway. It would basically be a sort of Vampire-Vines deck rather than an G-Landfall archetype, looking to pick up Survivalists and Diabolists to back up a win off the backs of pumped vampires. Ideally, anyway. Plus, this is pack 1, pick 3; if the green keeps flowing, we still have time to cut it off and assure ourselves good Green support for a Black base. We're only denying ourselves Green in pack 2, assuming our signal was read, and if it was, then we can be pretty sure we're going to get black in that pack as well as pack 3.
Worst case scenario, we end up picking a strong card in a vacuum in a pack that has little else for us no matter what card we end up choosing.
Well said. I think the lacerator is not strong enough to justify getting picked at such a stage in the draft. In anything other than a super-aggressive vampire deck, it's mainly going to be a 2/2 with a drawback. River Boa is powerful enough that I'm willing to start cutting off green here if it looks like it's open. It's unfortunate that we sent such a bad green signal to our left, but if it turns out green is open, it would be foolish to pass it by for a risking lacerator.
How much has anyone played the format? Can anyone who has played testify to the strength of black aggro? I honestly have no idea how effective lacerator would be in this format.
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I would probably take Grim Discovery in Black here, if I was sticking to black. I don't think anyone will splash for the vamp. Not that it means it will table, but it's not sending a signal to the left that black is open if there's only one of these guys in the pack. It is true that green is still coming, though only two people to our right have even seen this pack, one of them may be playing green already.
NM, boa it is. It's the strongest card here, and the strongest signal to send. If I ended up playing green I would kick myself for not taking the boa here, not as much with any of the other cards, and if I don't play green, I still don't feel like we're passing something strong enough to fret over.
It's what we get when we try to force a narrow archetype, you get pigeonholed. Though I don't think River Boa is strong enough for me to abandon Nighthawk though, and cutting green starting now seems like more trouble than it's worth (it's not like the green card was like a Rampaging Baloth or anything).
So hopefully we get lucky on the next couple of packs.
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Indeed.
Knowing the present would have been sufficient.
Most drafts could be improved by being psychic. The best card in this pack is Green. Did you know that was going to happen at pick one? If so, you should have mentioned!
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Also, since we took that stupid Hexmage, might as well try that mono B aggro deck.
This pack only has like 6 auto maindeck playable cards in it period (Jwar Isle Refuge, River Boa, Ruinous Minotaur, Vastwood Gorger, Bold Defense, and Vampire Lacerator). Some packs are just bad (unless you're the one opening them).
I would have Nighthawk-Raptor here. In that case I think it's still Lacerator, as by all accounts Tempest Owl sucks at both mana costs, Spell Pierce really wants to be an Essence Scatter variant in this format (anything but Eternal really), and I don't think the U/B refuge would be this high a pick even in U/B.
Stay on color and wait on a better signal for the splash, which definitely won't be green.
Good point there. It was terrible the way you were shouted down when you told us the third pack would have good green cards.
I dunno... for some reason i LIKE being able to stop a luminarch ascension...
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By the way, what was the first rare passed? I wasn't here at the time...:frown:
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This is the truth! I am winning the draft in my mind!!
My point was that IMO we should have taken the Baloths in the first and second packs on their own strength. It has nothing to do with knowing what was going to come next.
Although the Boa is REALLY hard to pass up.