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I draft frequently and play sealed as well.
I am very interested in talking about limited strategy and improving gameplay.
I don't think the power level difference is great enough to want to take sphinx over artisan, and I like blue. They can both get there by themselves but are maximized in a deck with a lot of artifacts.
Shatter is right out, myr and tumble magnet are strong support cards but not powerful enough to first pick in a pack this deep.
So it comes down to do you want a finisher or splashable card advantage. Scrapmelter is the clear choice for me.
You aren't even putting the person to your left into red, that shatter should go 4th or 5th pick, nothing for you to worry about.
(with Metalcraft,) Argent Sphinx is damn hard to remove, and is an excellent finisher in a format with next to no powerful flyers. I'd probably go with him, but could easily understand Scrapmelter. Even without Metalcraft, you are talking about a 4/3 flyer for 4 that outclasses almost every other aerial creature in the block.
Although... I guess a simple Wall of Tanglecord would keep the Sphinx at bay.
I don't know, maybe this is why I am not so good at drafting... but when I see that card on the other side of the board, I hate it so much... and taking it would be both a hate pick and a power pick for me. Too many rage synapses firing for my minuscule mind to consider logic.
Either scrapmelter or sphinx. Artisan is fine, but you can usually fill the win condition/5 drop role later on. The aggressive 4-drop and 2-for-1 are going to be better, though they do commit you to a color.
I like scrapmelter here, but I will say that sometimes blue is so underdrafted that you start getting passed absurdly high quality cards late so getting into blue P1P1 is actually good b/c you can cut it early.
This is a classic case of where people overrate the importance of sending signals. The most important thing to worry about is what you are getting, not what you pass p1p1, where you want to focus on power.
(Even if Scrapmelter was colourless, I'd still take Artisan over it.)
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(Even if Scrapmelter was colourless, I'd still take Artisan over it.)
In that case you definitely overrate Artisan. It's not nearly as good as Scrapmelter.
It's between Sphinx and Scrapmelter. I could easily see this going either way based on preferences, but currently I have blue and red about equal so that doesn't solve it for me. (My color preferences right now are G/B > U/R > W.) I think I lean towards Scrapmelter but it's close.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Shatter is so low because you can always pick up Artifact Removal later anyway, and you have a much better artifact removal card in this pack anyway. Perilous Myr stops about anything except flyers. Tumble Magnet is one of the cards i like way to much, but i feel like whenever i play one and my opponent doesn't have one, i am either far ahead or i just got 3 more turns to look for answers.
I am a personal fan of Argent Sphinx and if you're going to commit to blue Sphinx is a very good reason. Scrapmelter is the safer choice in terms of color restraints, but a 4/3 flyer that is potentially invincible is pretty attractive to me
One game ended up with me on the play dropping a t2 thrumming bird and T3 grindclock and t4 wall of tanglecord + thrumming bird #2. That is just hilarious
I generally don't worry about signalling on a P1P1, you don't really give too much away at this point. If you base the rest of your draft off of your first pick, things might not go so good.
All that said, I choose the Sphinx, scrapmelter is great (one of the top cards in the set and all...) But a 4/3 flyer on turn 3 with metalcraft by turn 5 is hard to deal with sometimes. Also, blue is more fun to play.
Sphinx is dirty. 4/3 flying for 4 that is not an artifact is quite hard to stop. Draft wall of tanglecord higher than you normally would both for control and for metalcraft.
If scrapmelter could kill the sphinx it would be a different story I think.
leave the red cards to your left, take the good and only blue one in the pack, continue to dry blue in P1, and enjoy the blue goodies that are coming at you P2...
Yeah...most drafts don't generally work like that. You could very easily have someone upstream from you opening a blue bomb rare and decided to cut blue, in which case, you just got screwed if you decide to force blue straight from pack 1.
Scrapmelter on the other hand is perfectly splashable, so even if you got cut from red, you could always try splashing for it.
P1P1 you shouldn't considering sending signals anyway. Just take the best card that you think will complement your final deck.
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Signals don't matter as much in Scars anyway, unless you're talking about the difference between Infect and Metalcraft. I've seen many a draft with neighbors in the same color, but it tends to work out, given that in the typical 2-color deck in this format, non-Infect of course, you're seldom running more than 4 or so cards of any one color. Given that, you should be less concerned with taking a colored card and sending a poor signal.
Besides, reading signals is infinitely more important than sending them, and in a set that marginalizes the importance of signaling in general, making sure you send a good one with your first pick is completely ludicrous.
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Such a deep pack with 6 cards I would consider first pickable.
I rank Scrapmelter at the top with Argent sphinx just behind then maybe artisan, then shatter then tumble magnet then perilous myr.
Simply due to signalling I took the Argent Sphinx but I couldn't fault anyone for taking the more powerful scrapmelter over it.
What would you chose here?
I draft frequently and play sealed as well.
I am very interested in talking about limited strategy and improving gameplay.
Shatter is right out, myr and tumble magnet are strong support cards but not powerful enough to first pick in a pack this deep.
So it comes down to do you want a finisher or splashable card advantage. Scrapmelter is the clear choice for me.
You aren't even putting the person to your left into red, that shatter should go 4th or 5th pick, nothing for you to worry about.
Although... I guess a simple Wall of Tanglecord would keep the Sphinx at bay.
I don't know, maybe this is why I am not so good at drafting... but when I see that card on the other side of the board, I hate it so much... and taking it would be both a hate pick and a power pick for me. Too many rage synapses firing for my minuscule mind to consider logic.
I like scrapmelter here, but I will say that sometimes blue is so underdrafted that you start getting passed absurdly high quality cards late so getting into blue P1P1 is actually good b/c you can cut it early.
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(Even if Scrapmelter was colourless, I'd still take Artisan over it.)
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
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MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
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is how i'd rank the cards
In that case you definitely overrate Artisan. It's not nearly as good as Scrapmelter.
It's between Sphinx and Scrapmelter. I could easily see this going either way based on preferences, but currently I have blue and red about equal so that doesn't solve it for me. (My color preferences right now are G/B > U/R > W.) I think I lean towards Scrapmelter but it's close.
Shatter is so low because you can always pick up Artifact Removal later anyway, and you have a much better artifact removal card in this pack anyway. Perilous Myr stops about anything except flyers. Tumble Magnet is one of the cards i like way to much, but i feel like whenever i play one and my opponent doesn't have one, i am either far ahead or i just got 3 more turns to look for answers.
http://www.raredraft.com/watch?d=2l2b8
I put comments under some of the stranger picks.
One game ended up with me on the play dropping a t2 thrumming bird and T3 grindclock and t4 wall of tanglecord + thrumming bird #2. That is just hilarious
I generally don't worry about signalling on a P1P1, you don't really give too much away at this point. If you base the rest of your draft off of your first pick, things might not go so good.
All that said, I choose the Sphinx, scrapmelter is great (one of the top cards in the set and all...) But a 4/3 flyer on turn 3 with metalcraft by turn 5 is hard to deal with sometimes. Also, blue is more fun to play.
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If scrapmelter could kill the sphinx it would be a different story I think.
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Yeah...most drafts don't generally work like that. You could very easily have someone upstream from you opening a blue bomb rare and decided to cut blue, in which case, you just got screwed if you decide to force blue straight from pack 1.
Scrapmelter on the other hand is perfectly splashable, so even if you got cut from red, you could always try splashing for it.
P1P1 you shouldn't considering sending signals anyway. Just take the best card that you think will complement your final deck.
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Besides, reading signals is infinitely more important than sending them, and in a set that marginalizes the importance of signaling in general, making sure you send a good one with your first pick is completely ludicrous.
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But this is MTGO so I take sphinx because sphinxes are cool and blue is cool.
But I've drafted SOM so much now that seeing any of these cards just makes me throw up a little in my mouth anyways.