Um...generally you just have to pray it doesn't happen.

Ok...let's try this.

Pack 1:






Whirlpool Whelm, Leaf Gilder, Adder-Staff Boggart, Wispmare, Streambed Aquitects, Consuming Bonfire, Spiderwig Boggart, Flamekin Brawler, Tideshaper Mystic, Rootgrapple, Triclopean Sight, Faerie Harbinger, Knight of Meadowgrain, Woodland Guidance, Favor of the Mighty

I actually had a lot of trouble with this pack, and I don't know if I picked right. I'll reveal my pick later and my reasoning.

Quick question, I won a lot of Morningtide when I lucked into my 8th place finish in that release league. Should I sell them now or hold onto them until whenever the next set is released? I figure demand will stay the same but supply will decrease so holding on makes sense, but I'm not sure if it'll work that way.

EDIT: Let me know if this is messing up the formatting of the board.

Ugh really mediocre pack.

Choices I see:

Whelm
Leaf Glider
Aquitects
Bonfire
Harbringer
Knight

I feel like Bonfire can be discounted quickly, it sets you into red too quickly which is generally a weak color.

I also feel like Knight is a poor reason to force white so early.

Leaf glider is pretty weak power wise, good to have for elves for sure though.

As for Whelm, Aquitects, and Harbringer, I feel like Aquitects are the most powerful, merfolk is generally a good deck.

If I didnt take aquitects splashing for Whelm is okay, not a awesome card to splash and will usually be cut imo.

So I think Aquitects is the pick here, trying to cut merfolk, but in no way being stuck in blue.

I'd like to get into playing drafts eventually so I'll get in on this and hopefully learn a bit.

Of those cards I'd go for Favor of the Mighty since it'd already help start cementing what cards I'm looking for (similar casting cost creatures). If not that, I'd go for Flamekin Brawler since he seems like a Fire-Belly Changeling with somewhat more potential, and that guy is just so effective in the early game especially against opponents with much in the way of smaller creatures.

Awesome, I managed to pick two you wouldn't even consider.

I felt like my choice was between the knight, the faeirie harbinger, bonfire, and gilder(aquitects are good, too, I guess...so maybe I valued harbinger over aquitects incorrectly here). Eventually chose the knight, because I wanted to try to signal white to the guy next to me (although I'm not exactly sending any bombs in any other color), but I thought along the same lines, which were that bonfire and gilder were weak...but also I was thinking that I didn't want to send along a decent blue card after picking one.

But yeah, definitely a mediocre pack to open for your first draft in this block ever.

I'll post the second pack sometime tomorrow.

EDIT: Dire, you're probably over-valuing the guys with firebreathing (R: Creature gets +1/+0). They're ok, but generally pretty weak because spending mana to pump them slows down your development. Also, it's too easy for your opponent to trade some middling 2/2 for your flamekin brawler (and he'll make you spend 2 mana to do that). Furthermore, you can't even attack with brawler if I have a card like Knight of Meadowgrain down.

Favor of the Mighty isn't a good pick here because Knight is better and also because you can't really control who's going to have the higher cost creatures and that's really bad for you. Also, you shouldn't try to build a deck around a card, but instead try to find synergies between a range of cards.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding Favor of the Mighty. I assumed this was an enchantment on your own creatures only. Does it also include your opponent's creatures? I probably am valuing the fire breathers a bit too much. I've just had some great matches where mutavault + cheap fire breather and a little removal ends the game real fast.

Definitely makes more sense to go for synergies though.

It has to say "each creature you control" for it to have that effect. As written, it affects every creature in the game.

Did I use affect and effect correctly, there?

Er...anyway, synergies aren't the end all and be all, but in the equation of removal + mutavault + fire-breathers, you'll find that the order of importance of getting the win was probably removal>>>>mutavault>fire-breathers.

Oh man...I'm just thinking of a one-way Favor of the Mighty...Man, that'd be awesome. Haha, it would probably cost a ton more to play, though.

More and more I look at the knight I like it less and less.

The big problem is that you are first picking something that requires a heavy color commitment without it being a very powerful card.

Aquitects really shape the merfolk deck, they are a good way to get through damage, force through your islandwalk (which many playable merfolk have, etc).

The knight is a great card if you are white. But it isnt a reason to go white. Its not synergistic with anything (except "drop a lot of creatures and smash"), just a warm body.

Also Favor of the Mighty is not a good pick at all. Your opponent will have high cc bombs as well (he had the fortune to open good cards). Favor makes it harder for you to remove them. Its basically burning a card for an unexploitable symmetric affect.

Also the brawler will come around a lot later. It is not great early game because you want to be dropping creatures, not pumping your 0/2.

NM I should read before I post.

Dire, Favor of the Mighty is terrible (like 12-15th pick and if you put in your deck it's really bad)

Of the cards in that pack I'd take faerie harbringer. Flash, flying 2/2 for 3U is decent on it's own and the fact that you can search out your best faerie card (remember shapeshifter/changling are faeries) is cake.

Plus you're not really deciding on a color if you take it as well.

Lol...Momir is fun...

Denizens of the Deep - When this comes into play return all creatures to your hand...

Greaaaaat.

I could go with either Leaf Glider or the Harbinger and not feel bad.

One of the bonuses of taking Leaf Glider instead of Harbinger (or Aquitects, which is double blue and really only good in one archetype) is that 4 out of the next 5 cards taken in this pack will be blue or white. Two of which are double-costing, making them more likely to lock in their drafter.

The remaining green and black in this pack are pretty weak, making it a bit easier for us to cut g/b elves.

Obviously pack 1 pick 1 signals aren't that big of a deal, but it might be enough to swing me to the Glider.

I get the idea that black is supposed to be the thematic natural partner for an elf deck in this format, but I don't see the cards for it. Even if I'm drafting "GB elves" all these cards seem completely "meh" to me: Blightsoil Druid, Hunter of Eyeblights, Lys Alana Scarblade, Maralen of the Mornsong, Moonglove Winnower, Prowess of the Fair, Scarred Vinebreeder

I've had Lys Alana Scarblade in decks with 16 elf cards, and even then felt the cost of discarding elf cards was too steep to be "good". Scarblade Elite is solid, but he really wants assassins, not elves, and those aren't easy to come by, let alone get into the yard. Whereas on the green side, the elf-themed cards range from solid to huge bombs.

I would need a lot of convincing to be think any G/b elf deck is better than the G/r elf deck I posted above.

Glad we can all agree that I picked wrong...

Pack 2:






Fertile Ground, Moonglove Extract, Hillcomber Giant, Sentinels of Glen Elendra, Stinkdrinker Daredevil, Dreamspoiler Witches, Battlewand Oak, Triclopean Sight, Nath's Buffoon, Caterwauling Boggart, Tideshaper Mystic, Changeling Berserker, Vivid Meadow, Nettlevine Blight

I'll post my pick now since I'll be gone all night. Nettlevine Blight looks intriguing, as I assume it basically reads "Opponent sacrifices a permanent every turn". But it seemed slow, so I passed on it (if it was so awesome I wouldn't get it 2nd, right?). Then it was between berserker, moonglove extract, sentinels, and fertile ground. Given what I passed in the previous round, it was down to berserker and extract for me. Berserker seemed pretty sweet a 4 mana drop, and I chose it because i didn't pass very good red in the previous pack.

Fair enough, I have no problems with G/r elves either. The main difference to me is just where you see your removal. Ending up green with multiple splashes for removal is fine too.

The key black cards I was thinking of are nameless inversion, pack's disdain, violet pall, etc. Which can easily be substituted with tarfire, lash out, shard volley.

I will agree red has better creatures/changelings to go with an elf deck, often times.

The thing that annoys me the most about that card is that 8 used to not have any autolosses. In fact in a long, drawn-out game, getting to 8 (if you were stuck on 7) so you wouldn't hit phage was a serious concern. And then they have to reprint that piece of trash in 10th edition, introducing it to magic: online.

Isn't momir the scratch off lottery version of magic online?

I used to play, and this thread reminded me that I still hadn't checked out the biggest client update. Think I'll try to get in a few games soon to see how lost I am after all this time.

The interface is really hard to do, I still dont have an account because the timing online scares me, very tilting to miss instants and stuff.

lol, playing online actually makes all the rules easier. You just need to worry about misclicks and the clock which will hurt you early on.

Macdaddy:

I'd probably take the 2/3 flying flash for 3U this pack after I took the faerie harbringer pack 1 pick 1 (p1p1). I think it's more important to stay on color than to take an off-color card that may hit our deck or may go out of it. Also, the changeling berserker is the worst of all the champions (behind g/w ones).

Also I take it this is LLM, and faeries are a very good tribe to draft. In the morningtide pack there is a lot of good cards for a faeries deck.

If your going to go faeries wouldn't the witches be a better choice? Good synergy there for a deck.

Oh damn! The V2 server is down. I was hoping to get a couple of final league games in. I already have Magic withdrawal. I really hope they get the V3 server up AND league games. Damn I love leagues. I had so much fun 'making' (ok - blatantly copying what you guys recommended ) and playing with the same deck for like 40 matches.

This thread has me wanting to play again. I have a few hundred tickets just sitting there but no time to use them