We’ve started off with a pretty cool mythic (although I wouldn’t classify her as a bomb). How does that affect your second pick?
Pack 1, Pick 2
The Picks So Far:
The Pack:
The Pick:
Both Shivan Fire and Tatyova, Benthic Druid are cards I would be happy to first pick. Pack 1 Pick 1 it would be Tatyova, and it wouldn’t even be close. However, Shivan Fire is on-color with Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, and Tatyova would require a third color. Does this change the pick?
I don’t believe it does. The ceiling on Tatyova is just way too high. Shivan Fire is good, but Tatyova is an A. She is better than Jhoira by a reasonable margin because it’s more seamless for her to provide a stream of card advantage. Additionally, splashing isn’t all that difficult, so I think I’m going to take the pick with the highest upside.
Pack 1, Pick 7
The Picks So Far:
This is a pretty good start to a draft. In my opinion, there are so many powerful cards in this format that you really want to put yourself in a position to play as many as possible. Hopefully Jhoira can be splashed, but regardless, this is looking to be a solid U/G deck.
The Pack:
The Pick:
Nature’s Spiral isn’t actually in the discussion here, but I wanted to bring up the card. Spiral can do a lot of unique things, so it’s a nice card to have access to. However, I think often it’s hard to find room for a card that’s this narrow in this format unless you’re lucky enough to have so much card advantage that you can afford to play it with little risk. Don’t get me wrong, I like the card, but I’m near 100% to maindeck Opt or Deep Freeze.
Wait, 100% to maindeck Opt? Ryan, shut up. Opt is terrible. Well, we finally found a format where Opt is good! Most of the time in a Limited format it’s just not worth a slot in your deck, but this format has a specific texture where the card is a great inclusion. Here’s my logic:
1. There are a lot of powerful cards in this format (including uncommons). Opt helps you see your best cards more frequently than your opponent will see theirs.
2. Blue is the best color by a wide margin, which gives it a bump.
3. Opt marginally helps splashing (especially when you get multiples). There are lots of splashable removal spells and bombs without an abundance of fixing. Opt and Divination are real cards to help fix your mana in this format. Don’t forget that.
4. Non-creature spells actually matter as there are cards such as Ghitu Chronicler, Adeliz, the Cinder Wind, The Mirari Conjecture, etc.
5. The format is slow in general, so it’s quite rare that you lose a game due to tempo-loss of the inability to spend one mana to draw a card.
I’m actually going to take Opt over Deep Freeze here. I think most people will disagree, but just look at the power level of the deck. With Karn’s Temporal Sundering, Jhoira, and Tatyova already, finding the best cards consistently will win you plenty of games. And given the green base, splashing really shouldn’t be a problem off cards like Grow from the Ashes (alongside Opt and Divination, of course). With all the removal at common that’s splashable, I doubt this deck will be hard pressed for removal, and I would rather take Opt for consistency than Deep Freeze, which is a mediocre removal spell.