Amonkhet is somewhat lacking in the build-around department…unless you count one-drops combined with Cartouches and Honed Khopesh as build-around. There are some cards, though, and one happens to be in this pack. Will you take it?
Pack 1, Pick 1
The Pack:
The Pick:
In my experience, Drake Haven has been a trap.
Yes, it’s a powerful build-around card. But the problem has to do with the other payoff. Horror of the Broken Lands and Hekma Sentinels aren’t good payoffs for cycling. While there are good cards like Ruthless Sniper, it’s just hard to get a lot of them. Given the speed of the format, a deck filled with overcosted cards with cycling is just too slow. Yes, it will be good if you draw your Drake Haven, and maybe you’ll be in the right pod where everything gets set up, but I don’t think it happens so often.
The next two options form a pick that you should be familiar with. Magma Spray and Gust Walker are the two best commons by a substantial margin…and the fact of the matter is that Magma Spray is better. Early on in the format, I would have taken Gust Walker, but this is because white was under-drafted and the fact that I could almost guarantee playing the best common in the best color was enough to sway me. Now that white is over-drafted (not a bad thing, just necessary given that it’s the best color; Draft is self-correcting like this), the pick is Magma Spray. It’s an insanely efficient answer to most threats in the format, can yield a two-for-one due to Cartouches, and works both in the aggressive decks and against them. There aren’t many rares or uncommons that I take over Magma Spray anymore.
Pack 1, Pick 2
The Picks So Far:
The Pack:
The Pick:
Fan Bearer and Cartouche of Strength two of the best commons. Overall, I think in this format W/R is better than G/R, white is much better than green as a color, and Fan Bearer is just a better card. So between the two of these, I’m taking Fan Bearer.
But Fan Bearer isn’t actually my pick! I like to keep you guys on your toes, and I’m actually taking Cartouche of Zeal here. Many of you may call me crazy, as the card is of substantially lower power level (disregarding potential Trials) in comparison to both Cartouche of Strength and Fan Bearer. But there are the reasons why I’m taking it.
First, Magma Spray is a good amount better than our other options, so Cartouche of Zeal gets a bump. Additionally, in W/R, Cartouche of Zeal has really, really impressed me, and so the delta between that card and Fan Bearer isn’t so big.
But red might not be open, you say! You’ll notice that I have passed zero playable red cards so far. So if red is pretty dry in Pack 1, I should get passed all the best red cards in Pack 2 to make up for it. Even if red isn’t open, I can pair it with whichever color turns out to be open and still have plenty of solid cards.
Overall, the combination of all these little things makes me lean towards Cartouche of Zeal over Fan Bearer. But the pick is close and I wouldn’t fault anybody for taking either.