I say Treachery. Since both treachery and shriekmaw will get rid of your opponents best creature and give you a creature to boot, the only real comparison is whether you're likely to end up with a better creature than 3/2 fear if you use Treachery. I think you usually will, and so the mana untap and blueness are just icing.
i actually think mirrodin is the best pick for chaos. the ideal first pick is a solid artifact that you know you can play regardless of what else you're passed. you can't do much better than first pick loxodon warhammer which is uncommon, and your chance of getting at least one great artifact is extremely high.
We just did this a few night ago actually, and someone asked me to post how it went. It was a lot of fun! Mostly it was bizarre to see a pack of fifth dawn followed by a pack of torment followed by xth, etc. all in the same draft, but it was also cool to find weird interactions and synnergies between blocks.
I ended up winning, being undefeated match-wise. I drafted a RGu deck, splashing blue for fliers just because I didn't have much more than 20 playables in RG. The guy who came in 2nd was also RG with a small elf theme (10th ed Elvish Champion). close third was a five color sunburst deck, with both Skyreach Manta and Suntouched Myr, along with good removal in RB and nice blue fliers, with tons of mana fixing. The other two decks were UW and UG.
To be honest, I'm surprised I won given the lack of bomb creatures in my deck and the large number of unexciting 2/2s for three mana. Bonesplitter was my second pick of the whole draft, and ended up being an mvp. Discarding Violent Eruption to either Lightning Axe (build your own cone of flame) or Gathan Raiders was usually gg. If I drew all three colors of mana the blue guys were nice, hardly ever sat there as dead cards. Sprout swarm was useful as always, and Millikin was a nice boost into third turn Petravark which often was such a tempo boost that they could not recover.
Hunted Dragon was terrible most of the time, I boarded him out every time once I realized how bad he was. I did win with him a couple of games, where the ground had stalled and I needed a little extra punch in the air. I kept him in the deck as a finisher against the 2nd place RG who had exactly 0 fliers in his deck but who wrecked me with forestwalk whenever he got an Elvish Champion to stick.
Overall it was fun. Drafting the packs was one of the best parts, except by random chance I picked packs 4th, 4th, and 5th each round respectively (we picked packs in between rounds of drafting). Since Mirrodin and Fifth Dawn were picks 2 and 3, I 4th picked Planar Chaos round 1 hoping for a three color dragon to give me some colors to shoot for - I got the Rough // Tumble instead and was happy. After pack one I was in green and red and decided to go Future Sight in search of bomb green uncommons. I don't even remember what I got last pick - just that I got a second pick incinerate.
Anyway, I can't post my pool cuz it's been meshed together with everything else by now, and there's really no point of a crit since this is not a standard format, but if anyone else ever does this I'd be curious to see what you draft, and if you're thinking about doing this with some friends I'd highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun and a nice unexpected draft format.
I would like to see Unicorns as well, mostly so I could get foil ones and make an all-shiny all-unicorn deck. Or combine them with the Fae and make a unicorn and fairy deck. And maybe I'll play with Malach of the Dawn too.
They could do promo unicorn cards that were glittery (not just foil, but with real glitter on them!!). and for next year's game day prize backpacks, they could have big vinyl pictures of shining unicorns. wow, I think I like this new direction for Magic...
Later tonight five of us are going to draft a crazy mess of unrelated packs. we've got one pack each of:
Invasion
Planeshift
Odyssey
Torment
Onslaught
Scourge
Mirrodin
Fifth Dawn
Ravnica
Guildpact
Dissension
Xth
Time Spiral
Planar Chaos
Future Sight
Before we draft the cards, we're going to draft the packs. We'll each get a random seat between 1 and 5, and then pick packs from the pool in order of seat. Here's my question: which packs would be the strongest? If you got to first pick any of those packs, which would you choose? What about second, third, etc.?
My instinct is to try something like Time Spiral, the logic being that with the timeshifted card there's a higher chance of a bomb. Xth also seems pretty draft-friendly. I think I might avoid Mirrodin because most stuff is so artifact-related -- that said, a bomb artifact is the perfect first pick cuz it doesn't committ you. And Loxodon Warhammer is uncommon in Mirrodin.
I've never drafted anything but RGD and TPF (well, and coldsnap and xth. and sanwiches, which is surprisingly fun). so any help with power levels of earlier sets would be great.
I don't think that line you put so much emphasis on is a hint at all:
If you need to know that tribal is a card type, odds are you already do.
I see two much more compelling interpretations:
1. like someone already said, if you're playing enough magic that it actually comes up in a game whether or not tribal is a card type, you probably already know that it is. Most inexperienced players would never encounter that in a game, and most people obsessed enough with magic to encounter it already know.
2. Each new card that interacts with card types, like Tarmagoyf, will get reminder text to tell you that Tribal is a card type. Again, if you need to know if it's a type for a game play situation, the card will tell you that it is.
His point in this ask wizards question was not to hint at the presence of Tribal in Lorwyn - that seems like a huge jump to me - but simply to point out that it doesn't really matter whether Tribal is a type or a supertype to 99% of people who play magic, in 99% of games that get played.
we occasionally draft and pass a joint around with the packs. it definitely doesn't make anyone play worse, just slower.
also, i'm from the us but spent three months in London. I played FNM there in a hotel convention room, and people would get pints from the hotel bar and drink during FNM. there was one time i was in the finals of a draft and my opponent was clearly wasted. he'd built himself a good deck, but was not playing well and i won easily. i guess i was happy to win, but they were two of the most obnoxious games i've ever played, and hardly a finals-worthy challenge.
this is me looking a little intense. something about the webcam must have been really interesting. also, isn't my pink texas shirt sweet? it's got lupins on it. speaking of which, did anyone else read that childeren's book about a lady who planted lupins everywhere? it was called something like 'the lupin lady' or 'lupin valley' or 'check out all these lupins' or something...
wow. this user name is shameful. is there such thing as a rules infraction for terrible puns? please don't judge me.
I've been reading this site for a while but never really posted. honestly i really only got this user name so that I could ask you guys what's more awesome than a gossamer phantasm. but hello nonetheless. I'm sure you'll hear from me again when another terrible magic related pun pops into my head. until then, cheers.
in.
I ended up winning, being undefeated match-wise. I drafted a RGu deck, splashing blue for fliers just because I didn't have much more than 20 playables in RG. The guy who came in 2nd was also RG with a small elf theme (10th ed Elvish Champion). close third was a five color sunburst deck, with both Skyreach Manta and Suntouched Myr, along with good removal in RB and nice blue fliers, with tons of mana fixing. The other two decks were UW and UG.
Here's my deck.
1 Gruul Turf
7 Mountain
6 Forest
2 Island
1 Millikin
1 Giant Dustwasp
1 Shoreline Ranger
1 Flamewave Invoker
1 Kavu Aggressor
1 Thunderscape Battlemage
1 Gathan Raiders
1 Caldera Kavu
1 Venomous Brackus
1 Petravark
1 Snapping Drake
1 Verdant Eidolon
1 Giant Spider
1 Hunted Dragon
1 Iron-Barb Hellion
1 Lightning Axe
1 Canopy Surge
1 Sprout Swarm
1 Incinerate
1 Flowstone Embrace
1 Rough // Tumble
1 Violent Eruption
To be honest, I'm surprised I won given the lack of bomb creatures in my deck and the large number of unexciting 2/2s for three mana. Bonesplitter was my second pick of the whole draft, and ended up being an mvp. Discarding Violent Eruption to either Lightning Axe (build your own cone of flame) or Gathan Raiders was usually gg. If I drew all three colors of mana the blue guys were nice, hardly ever sat there as dead cards. Sprout swarm was useful as always, and Millikin was a nice boost into third turn Petravark which often was such a tempo boost that they could not recover.
Hunted Dragon was terrible most of the time, I boarded him out every time once I realized how bad he was. I did win with him a couple of games, where the ground had stalled and I needed a little extra punch in the air. I kept him in the deck as a finisher against the 2nd place RG who had exactly 0 fliers in his deck but who wrecked me with forestwalk whenever he got an Elvish Champion to stick.
Overall it was fun. Drafting the packs was one of the best parts, except by random chance I picked packs 4th, 4th, and 5th each round respectively (we picked packs in between rounds of drafting). Since Mirrodin and Fifth Dawn were picks 2 and 3, I 4th picked Planar Chaos round 1 hoping for a three color dragon to give me some colors to shoot for - I got the Rough // Tumble instead and was happy. After pack one I was in green and red and decided to go Future Sight in search of bomb green uncommons. I don't even remember what I got last pick - just that I got a second pick incinerate.
Anyway, I can't post my pool cuz it's been meshed together with everything else by now, and there's really no point of a crit since this is not a standard format, but if anyone else ever does this I'd be curious to see what you draft, and if you're thinking about doing this with some friends I'd highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun and a nice unexpected draft format.
They could do promo unicorn cards that were glittery (not just foil, but with real glitter on them!!). and for next year's game day prize backpacks, they could have big vinyl pictures of shining unicorns. wow, I think I like this new direction for Magic...
Invasion
Planeshift
Odyssey
Torment
Onslaught
Scourge
Mirrodin
Fifth Dawn
Ravnica
Guildpact
Dissension
Xth
Time Spiral
Planar Chaos
Future Sight
Before we draft the cards, we're going to draft the packs. We'll each get a random seat between 1 and 5, and then pick packs from the pool in order of seat. Here's my question: which packs would be the strongest? If you got to first pick any of those packs, which would you choose? What about second, third, etc.?
My instinct is to try something like Time Spiral, the logic being that with the timeshifted card there's a higher chance of a bomb. Xth also seems pretty draft-friendly. I think I might avoid Mirrodin because most stuff is so artifact-related -- that said, a bomb artifact is the perfect first pick cuz it doesn't committ you. And Loxodon Warhammer is uncommon in Mirrodin.
I've never drafted anything but RGD and TPF (well, and coldsnap and xth. and sanwiches, which is surprisingly fun). so any help with power levels of earlier sets would be great.
If you need to know that tribal is a card type, odds are you already do.
I see two much more compelling interpretations:
1. like someone already said, if you're playing enough magic that it actually comes up in a game whether or not tribal is a card type, you probably already know that it is. Most inexperienced players would never encounter that in a game, and most people obsessed enough with magic to encounter it already know.
2. Each new card that interacts with card types, like Tarmagoyf, will get reminder text to tell you that Tribal is a card type. Again, if you need to know if it's a type for a game play situation, the card will tell you that it is.
His point in this ask wizards question was not to hint at the presence of Tribal in Lorwyn - that seems like a huge jump to me - but simply to point out that it doesn't really matter whether Tribal is a type or a supertype to 99% of people who play magic, in 99% of games that get played.
also, i'm from the us but spent three months in London. I played FNM there in a hotel convention room, and people would get pints from the hotel bar and drink during FNM. there was one time i was in the finals of a draft and my opponent was clearly wasted. he'd built himself a good deck, but was not playing well and i won easily. i guess i was happy to win, but they were two of the most obnoxious games i've ever played, and hardly a finals-worthy challenge.
wow. this user name is shameful. is there such thing as a rules infraction for terrible puns? please don't judge me.
I've been reading this site for a while but never really posted. honestly i really only got this user name so that I could ask you guys what's more awesome than a gossamer phantasm. but hello nonetheless. I'm sure you'll hear from me again when another terrible magic related pun pops into my head. until then, cheers.