My reasoning assumes that the Hellcats won't make it around the table, and if I draft them slightly higher than most, I might be able to hoard copies.
Mind you, I'm NOT saying that Firecats are first-pick worthy, in general. I just think that this is a horrible stinker of a pack, I generally like the prospects for red in M14 draft, and I think Firecat is the best red card in the pack, IMO.
I like red too, but i can't buy Firecat over Shock. Firecat is ok at best, shock is above average.
I'll be avoiding slivers for the first couple of weeks while everyone is trying to play them. If I weren't, I'd take the green sliver as I believe it to be the most powerful card in the pack.
Im avoiding the black cards even though the spirit and cockatrice are probably better than Dawnstrike Paladin because they aren't anything too special, and someone is likely to overvalue the rare and/or follow up the black card with another black card.
I think the Giant Spider is a little better than the Paladin, but the Paladin sends a pretty clear signal that there are no playable white cards. With this pack being pretty equal otherwise (outside of the green sliver which Im avoiding) I think that makes it the pick.
Dragon's Maze: Each guild got 1 Mythic so Red is the same as the rest. Except it got a walker in Ral Zarek, so it's actually ahead.
Gatecrash: 1 Red Mythic + 4 gold ones: Domri, Aurelia, Aurelia's Fury, Borbs. Same as every color, but it got a Planeswalker.
Return to Ravnica: 1 Red Mythic + 4 gold ones: Experiment, Niv-Mizzet, Rakdos, Rakdos's Return. Again same as every other color.
Avacyn Restored: 3 Red Mythics, plus Gisela. Black had only 2.
Dark Ascension: 3 Red Mythics total: the dragon, plus Huntmaster and Falkenrath. Green only had one plus Huntmaster, and Black is the only color that came ahead of Red, with 4 cards - but two are gold too, and this was Sorin's set so that is why Black had more.
Innistrad: 2 Red Mythics + Olivia. This was the fewest, true, but tied with White and Green. And Black and Blue only got 1 more because each had two gold legends (geist/grimgrin and olivia/grimgrin).
M13: 3 Red Mythics, plus Bolas. Blue and Black each had only 2, plus Bolas. Red was actually the color with the most Mythics here.
M12: 3 Red Mythics, same as every other color.
M11 and M10 indeed have only 2 Red mythics each, but one color always needs to lose one for the gold/artifacts to come in the Mythic slots. The other did too. So, in fact, Red isn't even close to having less Mythics than other colors, not in the last ~8 or so expansions.
Ral Zarek was the Izzet mythic in Dragon's Maze. All the colors were equal in that set.
Gatecrash and Return to Rav were equal.
Avacyn Restored was off on purpose, to show that black lost. Red and blue got extra mythics for their planeswalkers. Red was blessed with Tibalt.
In Dark Ascension we had a cycle of mono color mythics, a cycle of friendly paired mythics, and 2 artifacts. Sorin just stole the GW spot.
In Innistrad its all over the place. Red gets the fewest, tied. Adding them all up throughout the block, green gets the fewest, and then red.
In New Phyrexia, black gets one more than the other four.
In Mirrodin Beseiged, black and green get three, blue gets 2, red and white get 1.
In Scars of Mirrodin, red and green get 1, black and blue get 2 and white gets 3. For the set, black gets the most and red gets the least.
For kicks, green and blue got an extra mythic in modern masters.
In Standard legal sets since mythics have been released:
White 63
Blue 63
Black 68
Red 62
Green 62
Red ended up tied for last in this set too.
Red has never had the outright most.
Red also gets saddled with a litany of terrible dragons to meet some silly unknown quota.
I hope this set is fun to draft. That can make up for no NEW cool cards. The new Chandra is alright enough, I guess, but the red hate creature is very underwhelming.
Traumatize is boring and old and bad. Domestication at rare? No rampant growth variant? Planar cleansing? Havent we figured out thats useless (and cheap so its not like it needs a reprint)?
Im glad to see Mutavault back in Standard, but im not excited for Scaveging Ooze. That card seems a little unfair, and its going to be another card played alongside BTE.
I am a fan of dialing back the power level of Standard (and magic in general) but this set is also boring. Oh, and red gets the crap end as always.
What is to be expected of the very last mythic to be spoiled? I have a feeling it may be a 5-color Sliver legend, but according to N&NC there isn't room for a multicolored card. Also there is only 2 mythics in blue and 2 in red, so would they leave one color short a mythic?
Wizards kind of craps on Red all the time. They get less mythics than the other colors frequently.
I avoid green almost at any cost, but ill first pick Overrun. Enlarge is nearly as good, and Ill let the other people fight over white (which is good, since your green deck doesn't want to pair with white anyways.)
I'm not sure, but I believe you can since her text says, "You may play it this turn," and not, "you may cast it this turn." Bloodrush is technically not casting a spell; it's an ability, but I believe you're still playing the card.
When you play a card, that means casting a spell or playing a land. Bloodrush is neither of those things.
ah so we are having a muscle contest? Ok, i could Terminus your board and watch you cry. I could Pillar of Flame it and watch you cry. I could Slaughter Games it and watch you cry.
This card is good, but its not THAT GOOD. After turn 4, he becomes so easier to deal with that it comes laughable.
1. I will not cry if you answer my spells. Ever.
2. There are answers, but most of the time the VoR player will be up on card advantage or tempo, or both. If you have to vastly change your removal because of my two drop, thats likely to make my truly game breaking spells better.
3. Slaughter Games? Ugh, Ive been arguing with a troll. Must be, because that was profoundly stupid.
Basically what will happen is that once you play a game or check the player status ingame, there will be a section for promo codes. You'll click that and it'll have your unique code that you can copy down. From there, you'll go to the mothership and go to their redemption page (it won't go up until the game is out) and just pick the system you are on. Enter the code and print it out.
It sounds kind of complicated, but it really isn't that bad once you actually are in the motions of doing it.
Also, as a sidenote, I remember last year you could enter basically whatever code you wanted as long as it followed a certain pattern and you could also choose whatever platform you wanted, even if it wasn't on the platform you bought it on. I got 4 Vampire Nocturnus this way.
I think this simply comes down to a balance of pissing of maybe a hundred players (all local, because you just wouldn't travel to Vegas without intricate planning), vs pissing off 4000 players that have already paid money all collectively suffer if the tournament takes longer or just doesn't have enough room/tables to run the tournament.
There is something to knowing exactly how many people are going to be playing in a tournament the day of the tournament. You don't have to estimate or wonder if you have enough room for everyone to play. And most importantly you don't have the thousands of people that could've pre-registered that figured they would just show up the day of and pay instead.
Its a good idea, but waiting until week of to make the announcement is asinine. Its easily justifiable to assume people who make plans wont recheck the website within 3 days of the tournament.
I like red too, but i can't buy Firecat over Shock. Firecat is ok at best, shock is above average.
I'll be avoiding slivers for the first couple of weeks while everyone is trying to play them. If I weren't, I'd take the green sliver as I believe it to be the most powerful card in the pack.
Im avoiding the black cards even though the spirit and cockatrice are probably better than Dawnstrike Paladin because they aren't anything too special, and someone is likely to overvalue the rare and/or follow up the black card with another black card.
I think the Giant Spider is a little better than the Paladin, but the Paladin sends a pretty clear signal that there are no playable white cards. With this pack being pretty equal otherwise (outside of the green sliver which Im avoiding) I think that makes it the pick.
Plus White > Green in this core, it seems.
Ral Zarek was the Izzet mythic in Dragon's Maze. All the colors were equal in that set.
Gatecrash and Return to Rav were equal.
Avacyn Restored was off on purpose, to show that black lost. Red and blue got extra mythics for their planeswalkers. Red was blessed with Tibalt.
In Dark Ascension we had a cycle of mono color mythics, a cycle of friendly paired mythics, and 2 artifacts. Sorin just stole the GW spot.
In Innistrad its all over the place. Red gets the fewest, tied. Adding them all up throughout the block, green gets the fewest, and then red.
In New Phyrexia, black gets one more than the other four.
In Mirrodin Beseiged, black and green get three, blue gets 2, red and white get 1.
In Scars of Mirrodin, red and green get 1, black and blue get 2 and white gets 3. For the set, black gets the most and red gets the least.
For kicks, green and blue got an extra mythic in modern masters.
In Standard legal sets since mythics have been released:
White 63
Blue 63
Black 68
Red 62
Green 62
Red ended up tied for last in this set too.
Red has never had the outright most.
Red also gets saddled with a litany of terrible dragons to meet some silly unknown quota.
Traumatize is boring and old and bad. Domestication at rare? No rampant growth variant? Planar cleansing? Havent we figured out thats useless (and cheap so its not like it needs a reprint)?
Im glad to see Mutavault back in Standard, but im not excited for Scaveging Ooze. That card seems a little unfair, and its going to be another card played alongside BTE.
I am a fan of dialing back the power level of Standard (and magic in general) but this set is also boring. Oh, and red gets the crap end as always.
Wizards kind of craps on Red all the time. They get less mythics than the other colors frequently.
Thats what you think. They're just luring you all in and then they'll color shift it to red and call it Thoughtsizzle.
When you play a card, that means casting a spell or playing a land. Bloodrush is neither of those things.
This planeswalker is good in the hyper aggressive red deck. It will be a playable card.
Stalking Stones.
That was a finisher in control decks. THE finisher. Mutavault will be a compliment to other played cards in control decks.
1. I will not cry if you answer my spells. Ever.
2. There are answers, but most of the time the VoR player will be up on card advantage or tempo, or both. If you have to vastly change your removal because of my two drop, thats likely to make my truly game breaking spells better.
3. Slaughter Games? Ugh, Ive been arguing with a troll. Must be, because that was profoundly stupid.
1. Your lol-fest is disturbing
2. You have used, presumably, 2 cards to deal with my two drop. Nice job.
3. I have followed this up with another play by now. Do you want to spend two more spells on that one too?
Nice that you admit to being a thief.
Its a good idea, but waiting until week of to make the announcement is asinine. Its easily justifiable to assume people who make plans wont recheck the website within 3 days of the tournament.