I think that the Maze Sentinel is the better choice here. We don't currently have much use for it, and I'm not thrilled about the idea of a useless removal spell. I've played Maze Sentinel as a 22nd or 23rd card, and not been particularly disappointed by it. It's not stellar, but it's got a huge butt, makes our Beetleform Mages (and Species Gorger, to a lesser degree) better, and at the end of the day is a creature.
Its a poor substitute for Pit Fight, and if we get a Pit Fight we'll just play that instead, but if we don't have a Pit Fight its reasonable to substitute Mutant's Prey.
Its a poor substitute for Pit Fight, and if we get a Pit Fight we'll just play that instead, but if we don't have a Pit Fight its reasonable to substitute Mutant's Prey.
Mutant's play is complete garbage. I have actually seen Maze Sentinel be decent. Maze Sentinel all the way for me.
Mutant's Prey isn't worthwhile enough for our build so far.
We could easily be cut out of counter-giving the next two packs,
And you won't ever go wrong with a creature.
Hopefully we're not forced to play it, but it's still better than picking up the Prey and simply hoping we get enough support to use it.
At worst it's a speed bump on the way to summoner. I do think that it could wield an unflinching courage with dignity. I'd rather play it on the hexproof rhino, but we could do worse that draft a body on-color.
Then again, whaveter. Both suggested pick I've never seen played anyway.
I'm not a big fan of Maze Sentinel, but it's probably the right pick here. It's the one maze monster that I've not actually cast, though, and if I were drafting by myself, I'd probably avoid it here.
Mutant's Prey is highly dependent on several things going right. If we were in, say, RUG, I could see taking it here since it'll work whether we get evolve or unleash. But whenever I grab Prey, I usually end up without a critical mass of creatures with +1/+1 counters, despite being in appropriate colors. Just the way the packs turn out.
Of note, Wake the Reflections is also highly dependent on things going right (ie. getting around 6-8 token generators), but the payoff is generally better. Like, it'll be nutty if we end up with Urbis Protector or Miming Slime plus a Knight Watch in pack 2 followed by all the centaurs in pack 3. If we were going to gamble on a 1-cmc card, I'd rather gamble on Wake.
Maze Sentinel seems like the better choice here, but not by much. I kind of like Wake the Reflections as an oddball pick, but I have to give it to the solid defense on the Sentinel here.
I was wondering what the hold up was. Thanks for the update.
And wow, this is an unappealing pile ('bout time I suppose). I would take Maze Sentinel. Everything here is generally bad. But the Sentinel requires you to hit six mana, while Prey requires you to have a creature with a +1/+1 counter on the field. We'd have to hit, say, at least three Evolve creatures before even considering Prey. Hopefully we wind up with a pool that would never care about either card.
On Wake the Reflections, I feel about the same with that as I do Mutant's Prey. Wake requires that we hit at least a few token-making cards before even considering it. I suppose I'd lean a bit more towards Wake though, since we have a Trostani's Summoner.
Whether or not it worked does not validate the play. That's hindsight probability. Let's say I offered you a bet -- I'm going to flip a coin and if it's heads, I'll give you 1 dollar but if it's tails, you'll give me 2 dollars. This is obviously a terrible bet for you. Accepting it is a bad decision. You can't justify it afterwards by arguing that you won the flip, therefore you made the right decision.
Huh. Now that Sene has given us a new pack to look at, Plasm Capture? With Gorger it might be hard to hold up the mana, and Phytoburst on a Beetleform might be a better plan.
Plasm Capture into Maze Sentinel! Have to love it when a plan comes together....
I'm not a phan of Phytoburst though, so I probably do take the Plasm Capture so that we can side in an improbable answer if we have to, and who knows, maybe once it enables us to dump the summoner early and we can walk away knowing that we just created another bad beats story.
Whether or not it worked does not validate the play. That's hindsight probability. Let's say I offered you a bet -- I'm going to flip a coin and if it's heads, I'll give you 1 dollar but if it's tails, you'll give me 2 dollars. This is obviously a terrible bet for you. Accepting it is a bad decision. You can't justify it afterwards by arguing that you won the flip, therefore you made the right decision.
The gatekeeper is pretty meh and we have no gates. So it comes down to what color we want to cut: white, green or blue. I'd take mutant's prey here in the vague hope we will get Simic action in the next pack. Anyway, in GTC, the only guild cards we can pick are Simic, might as well get the most out of them if we can.
PS: reviewing our white, we only have three playables anyway and one of them is a seven drop and the courage is splashable, so that's another strike against drafting the white card.
Ooh, now this is an interesting one. After some lengthy deliberation I'd hafta say Mutant's Prey. I really wanna take that cluestone just in case, but we've done a good job of cutting Simic so far and hopefully we get rewarded with a handful of evolve guys. We can also potentially pick up some scavenge cards in the last pack to help turn it on in the late game.
Alright, switching my vote to Sunspire Gatekeepers. We have a chance at grabbing Simic gates in the next pack and Azorius/Selesnya gates in the last as well as Gatecreepers so it's not entirely out of the question that we could activate him. Maybe we could do something with the token he makes too (Eyes in the Skies etc). The Mutant's Prey IS unplayable without a surge of counter-making cards, but the Gatekeeper can get in the bunch if worse comes to worst.
Do the right thing and pick the fat-butt vigilance guy
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Its a poor substitute for Pit Fight, and if we get a Pit Fight we'll just play that instead, but if we don't have a Pit Fight its reasonable to substitute Mutant's Prey.
Mutant's play is complete garbage. I have actually seen Maze Sentinel be decent. Maze Sentinel all the way for me.
New to Commander? Read the Above article.
Mutant's Prey isn't worthwhile enough for our build so far.
We could easily be cut out of counter-giving the next two packs,
And you won't ever go wrong with a creature.
Hopefully we're not forced to play it, but it's still better than picking up the Prey and simply hoping we get enough support to use it.
At worst it's a speed bump on the way to summoner. I do think that it could wield an unflinching courage with dignity. I'd rather play it on the hexproof rhino, but we could do worse that draft a body on-color.
Then again, whaveter. Both suggested pick I've never seen played anyway.
2nd place behind Paulo after round 3 of Pro Tour M15
(finished 8-8, but beat Alexander Hayne and Ben Stark)
Mutant's Prey is highly dependent on several things going right. If we were in, say, RUG, I could see taking it here since it'll work whether we get evolve or unleash. But whenever I grab Prey, I usually end up without a critical mass of creatures with +1/+1 counters, despite being in appropriate colors. Just the way the packs turn out.
Of note, Wake the Reflections is also highly dependent on things going right (ie. getting around 6-8 token generators), but the payoff is generally better. Like, it'll be nutty if we end up with Urbis Protector or Miming Slime plus a Knight Watch in pack 2 followed by all the centaurs in pack 3. If we were going to gamble on a 1-cmc card, I'd rather gamble on Wake.
Mogis, God of Slaughter
Daxos of Meletis
Maybe we will be able to run it effectively after pack 2...
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
And wow, this is an unappealing pile ('bout time I suppose). I would take Maze Sentinel. Everything here is generally bad. But the Sentinel requires you to hit six mana, while Prey requires you to have a creature with a +1/+1 counter on the field. We'd have to hit, say, at least three Evolve creatures before even considering Prey. Hopefully we wind up with a pool that would never care about either card.
On Wake the Reflections, I feel about the same with that as I do Mutant's Prey. Wake requires that we hit at least a few token-making cards before even considering it. I suppose I'd lean a bit more towards Wake though, since we have a Trostani's Summoner.
1 Haazda Snare Squad
2 Beetleform Mage
1 Unflinching Courage
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Species Gorger
1 Mending Touch
1 Maze Sentinel
P1P10:
Mark your pick by either bolding it or putting it in Quote tags.
Next pick will be tomorrow (unless there is clear consensus, in which case I might post the next pick earlier). Have fun!
I'm not a phan of Phytoburst though, so I probably do take the Plasm Capture so that we can side in an improbable answer if we have to, and who knows, maybe once it enables us to dump the summoner early and we can walk away knowing that we just created another bad beats story.
2nd place behind Paulo after round 3 of Pro Tour M15
(finished 8-8, but beat Alexander Hayne and Ben Stark)
Posting this early. Figured we all wanted to get these crappy packs over with so we can get to the real ones
1 Haazda Snare Squad
2 Beetleform Mage
1 Unflinching Courage
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Species Gorger
1 Mending Touch
1 Maze Sentinel
1 Plasm Capture
P1P11:
Mark your pick by either bolding it or putting it in Quote tags.
Next pick will be tomorrow (unless there is clear consensus, in which case I might post the next pick earlier). Have fun!
PS: reviewing our white, we only have three playables anyway and one of them is a seven drop and the courage is splashable, so that's another strike against drafting the white card.
Ooh, now this is an interesting one. After some lengthy deliberation I'd hafta say Mutant's Prey. I really wanna take that cluestone just in case, but we've done a good job of cutting Simic so far and hopefully we get rewarded with a handful of evolve guys. We can also potentially pick up some scavenge cards in the last pack to help turn it on in the late game.Alright, switching my vote to Sunspire Gatekeepers. We have a chance at grabbing Simic gates in the next pack and Azorius/Selesnya gates in the last as well as Gatecreepers so it's not entirely out of the question that we could activate him. Maybe we could do something with the token he makes too (Eyes in the Skies etc). The Mutant's Prey IS unplayable without a surge of counter-making cards, but the Gatekeeper can get in the bunch if worse comes to worst.