I think the card is definitely a lame design, but it could have interesting gameplay interactions in an environment that had a mechanic like Reinforce. Just trying to find the bright-side.
Well, sorry, yer wrong. As almost EVERYONE has said, and as you can tell from looking at the cards in the format, this format is slower than previous ones.
On the subject of the pick, this is pretty easy. The only card I would play from this pack is Toil/Trouble.
I agree that this is looking to be a slower format, but I would bet anything that there will be a competitive aggro deck that preys on top-end heavy ramp decks; ones that are trying to go over top of what I believe will make up the majority of the field... solid mid-range 3 color decks.
What about mash-shuffling (when you take two halves of your deck and "mash" the cards between each other)? It seems similar to the riffle-shuffle because the "mashes" are imperfect. I ask because I can't riffle-shuffle sleeved cards for the life of me.
I agree that this is looking to be a slower format, but I would bet anything that there will be a competitive aggro deck that preys on top-end heavy ramp decks; ones that are trying to go over top of what I believe will make up the majority of the field... solid mid-range 3 color decks.