Saturday 26 February 2011

Some Mirrodin Besieged first picks

After playing some two person sealed deck with Liz for fun (and getting used to the new set), and after I got easily beaten three times in a row by a super-powered infect deck, we had a look through some packs to see what we would pick first and second, if we were opening them in an actual draft. For three of the packs, I set aside three or four that I would consider picking first, for some further analysis on here (feel free to add any comments about your thoughts!)

Choices 1: Bonehoard, Spread the Sickness, Corrupted Conscience, Divine Offering
I think that is the order I would pick these cards (i.e. if the one(s) before it wasn't in the pack, I would pick that on). I like Bonehoard as it is it reusable and gets better the longer the game goes on, and while Spread the Sickness is good removal, I think I prefer Bonehoard slightly better. Spread the Sickness and Corrupted Conscience were close; in the first case you destroy any creature (no restrictions), in the second you gain control of it (arguably better), both for 5 mana. Both are good in an infect deck, but can go into a deck without infect fairly easily. The reason I think I prefer Spread the Sickness slightly is that at a single black compared to a double blue, it is easier to splash, and it has the extra proliferate in addition. Liz played it against me earlier today and it was very powerful, killing two creatures at once, and giving me another poison counter. 


Choices 2: Blightwidow, Phyrexian Juggernaut, Master's Call
Again, I think this is the order I would pick these cards in. Blightwidow is such a good defender and works well in both infect and non-infect decks. Phyrexian Juggernaut is also quite powerful; something large with infect will either attack lots and destroy your opponents creatures over one or a few turns, or go on and win the game on its own. These two are close, I think I would take the Blightwidow first, but it is very close. Master's call is also quite good, but I think the other two are better. 


Choices 3: Divine Offering, Nested Ghoul, Rot Wolf
Of the three, I think I'd take the Divine Offering first. Instant speed artifact removal in an artifact block, seems fairly powerful. The next two I would have trouble ordering. Rot Wolf is easier to cast as its one green as opposed to two black, but Nested Ghoul comes a few turns later leaving more time to get the double black. They both have two toughness so are as easy as each other to be killed in combat, attacking on their own will kill the opponent in the same amount of turns (if played on the same turn, rot wolf comes out earlier). I think the Ghoul edges it slightly because it can take out a larger creature, and leave behind another creature to take out another smaller creature later for some board advantage. Although the Rot Wolf permanently shrinks a creature, and may draw some cards for some card advantage. I think its fairly hard to choose between them (if it was a choice between the two for a first pick), and would probably pick a different one on different days, just depending how I felt that day. I guess if I went into the draft with the plan to force infect, it would be the Rot Wolf, but if I didn't want to rick it unless there was a good number of viable infect cards before committing to the strategy I might go for the ghoul. 


Any thoughts on any of the picks/orderings, leave a comment and let me know :D

No comments:

Post a Comment