Pack 1
1. Opportunity
Blue control that buries its opponents in cards is the best deck, so I would take Opportunity as one of the best non-rares for that. Path to Exile normally would be in the discussion, but Modern Masters 2017 isn’t about that. The creatures aren’t actually good because they are creatures; they are good because they are spells and creatures. Blade Splicer or Dinrova Horror is the next pick for the same card advantage reasons. Blade Splicer is a bit worse than it looks because bad creatures make combat and first strike less impressive, but it blinks and populates well enough.
3. Opportunity
Usually, when I see a good Opportunity to take a Path to victory, I jump at it, but in this case I would opt for the Spliciest option. Blade Splicer (It’s a creature that makes more creatures!) has so much upside in a U/W blink deck that I think it edges out the great removal and card draw. Early on in the draft, when you can pick up plenty of Momentary Blinks and Ghostly Flickers, Blade Splicer is going to have the most potential. Opportunity is nice and all, but Harmonize being in the format really just turns me off the card as a matter of principle.
Of the five packs, this one is the strongest and hardest to choose from. There are only two strategies that I’ve had success with: R/B aggro and three- to four-color control. Dinrova Horror, Blade Splicer, Path to Exile, Opportunity, and Sea Gate Oracle are all great options for the control deck. Chandra’s Outrage, Golgari Guildgate, Attended Knight, Pyroclasm, and Falkenrath Noble are all fine cards in control too. Falkenrath Noble and Chandra’s Outrage are the only cards that go into R/B Aggro. They both cost four mana, a spot that’s clumped on the R/B curve, and are largely replaceable. We’re down to choosing the best card on power level.
Modern Masters 2017 is all about getting card advantage better and more swiftly than the opponent while not dying in the meantime. Card advantage can come inefficiently if you need it in the form of Forbidden Alchemy and Mystical Teachings. Here, the best rate is Blade Splicer as a two-for-one that combines well with Momentary Blink and Mistmeadow Witch, two premium cards for the value/control archetype. Blade Splicer may be somewhat replaceable, but its rate is unmatched. Behind that is a great catch-all removal spell in Path to Exile. Dinrova Horror is a card I want two of in my deck, but at common, I’m hopeful to pick them up later.
3. Opportunity
This pack is above-average, but I think it clearly boils down to three cards: Blade Splicer, Path to Exile, and Opportunity. The only question is what order you have them in. There’s a very efficient creature that synergizes with populate and flicker effects, a premium removal spell, and a great card advantage spell. Years ago, the removal and card advantage would be clearly ahead, but the way Limited plays out now, you need high creature quality, so I’m giving Blade Splicer a slight edge. I have Path to Exile second because it’s more flexible than an occasionally clunky card advantage spell, but you can’t go wrong with any of these.
Who Picked It Best?
Pack 2
1. Boros Signet
Zero of these cards are great at the two-for-one game, so down to the next priority of mana it is. Boros Signet is a fine choice. More mana early on is good when you are playing decks with more expensive, higher-value cards and the fixing allows for easy splashes. The cards after that are uninspiring. I would lean towards Sylvan Ranger as a mediocre card that allows me to be flexible and take better rares knowing I can splash them, but Tower Gargoyle is the next most powerful card as a finisher that doesn’t die to Grisly Spectacle.
1. Boros Signet
Taking a Signet first-pick generally Signetfies a strong start to a draft. Fixing is important if you’re looking to draft four or five colors and Signets are uncommon and very good, so I would prioritize picking them highly and try drafting a bunch of colors. Wayfaring Temple is just great (It’s a creature that makes more creatures!) and against opens you up to drafting a really strong populate deck. Sylvan Ranger is also great fixing but below the power of our other options.
This pack is miles weaker than the previous one. I like the cantrip 1/3 bodies that blue has in Augur of Bolas and Sea Gate Oracle, but Augur of Bolas is much weaker than Sea Gate Oracle, especially as an early pick. Sylvan Ranger leaves the doors open to many (or all) color combinations.
The most powerful card in the pack is Wayfaring Temple. In the G/W populate deck, this is the card that really pays you off. It may be good enough to dive right into, but I’m more comfortable staying open for a few more picks as the G/W populate deck takes a lot of commitment to make work. A distant third is Tower Gargoyle, which is great on rate but extremely restrictive on direction as a first pick.
1. Boros Signet
This is a much weaker pack than the first, with Boros Signet rising well above the rest as a clear first pick. Mana fixing is at premium in this format. The Signets don’t force you to play their colors in order to be effective and are great splash enablers, letting you capitalize on powerful gold cards that come late. I think Wayfaring Temple is the next-most-powerful card, since it fits perfectly into what Selesnya wants to be doing, but taking a gold card first is a huge commitment. Therefore, I have Augur of Bolas ahead of it as a quality blue card that is important for the spell-heavy control decks in the format.
Who Picked It Best?
Pack 3
3. [No comment.]
Fiery Justice is a beating and the easy pick. It’s card advantage, battlefield advantage, an answer, and more. Three colors doesn’t matter; finding a couple of pieces of fixing lets you easily splash it in W/R, G/R, W/G, Bant, or really anything that shares two colors with it. Past that, I’m interested in Sunhome Guildmage as a value creature that doesn’t have a cap. You can legitimately bury an opponent with this card if it goes unanswered or just Overrun and crush them in a relatively early strike.
If there’s any Justice in the world, you’ll be able to draft a sweet five-color control deck after first-picking Fiery Justice. If all goes according to plan, it won’t even matter that you’re passing Naya cards like Sunhome Guildmage and Tattermunge Witch, since you’ll just be taking fixing, bombs, and removal. Sunhome Guildmage (It’s a creature that makes more creatures!) and Tattermunge Witch are excellent aggressive cards that I fully approve of as well. Sunhome Guildmage can even work nicely in control sometimes as well, if you’re looking to hedge a little while still taking a powerful card.
A difficult pack, as the best cards are Naya cards that don’t give you much wiggle room to branch out elsewhere. Still, Sunhome Guildmage and Fiery Justice are exactly the type of cards you want to have in your Naya decks. Outside of that, there is a Sin Collector that’s available if you really want to be in the multicolor control/blink deck.
Another weak pack, and this one has the added complication of the most powerful cards being gold. Fiery Justice is incredible when you can cast it, often killing two or three creatures for one card and immediately putting you way ahead on the battlefield. Sunhome Guildmage is a cheap creature that actually gets better in the long game, so taking it lets you achieve a good curve without sacrificing power. But I really don’t want to take a gold card this early, so I have Tandem Lookout at the top, although I’m not thrilled by it. Tandem Lookout can sometimes get outclassed on stats, but if you follow it up with Mist Raven, you can pull way ahead very quickly.
Who Picked It Best?
Pack 4
2. Putrefy
3. Agony Warp
Vampire Nighthawk and Lingering Souls ruled their previous draft formats, but Lingering Souls is the one that remains king. A one-for-one creature in a two-for-one world not based on exalted (Magic 2013) or racing (Zendikar) just isn’t as exciting. Lingering Souls on the other hand is value upon value. After that I’m going straight to the removal, and Putrefy’s ability to kill Signets wins over Agony Warp’s combat potential. I don’t care if it’s wrong; Stone Raining people’s mana fixing just feels so right.
3. Putrefy
Don’t Linger long making this decision. Vampire Nighthawk might be scarier on raw stats and be mono-colored, and Putrefy might be removal, but Lingering Souls is Lingering Souls. Lingering Souls is actually easier to splash than Vampire Nighthawk, which is a plus if you’re trying to force multicolor control from the very beginning as well. Or you could take Goblin Guide if you’re drafting live and interested in a $20 bill.
2. Magma Jet
Vampire Nighthawk, Lingering Souls, Putrefy, Magma Jet, and Agony Warp are the options here. Vampire Nighthawk is a clear leader as a card that’s great in aggro and control and will swing a race for you at any point in the game. Beyond the Nighthawk, I’d go with a noncommittal removal spell in Magma Jet. Jet fits in all archetypes and especially well in those without access to real card advantage, only card selection. After that, my third is Lingering Souls, which is super-strong and doesn’t take much to splash. Lingering Souls doesn’t have a ton of synergy with anything outside of self-mill and Intangible Virtue, though it really isn’t needed. I have Nighthawk and Jet above it because of the possibility of the great R/B aggro deck flowing to me.
3. Mist Raven
Wow. This is a pack. It goes six to eight cards deep with reasonable first picks, so I’m going to rely on my previous experience with these cards to separate the top-crust cards from the merely very good ones. Vampire Nighthawk and Lingering Souls were both game-breaking cards in their previous formats, and even though the latter is two colors, it’s an incredibly easy splash for any white deck that offers solid value even when you are missing black mana. Still, that commitment is enough to put Vampire Nighthawk slightly ahead. And in third I have Mist Raven, which was far and away the best common in its format. If you’re already U/B, then the versatility of Agony Warp may outshine it, but Pack 1, Pick 1, I’ll go with the single-colored card.
Who Picked It Best?
Pack 5
2. Harmonize
More cards, more position, or better mana? The uncommons are the cards to talk about here: Unburial Rites, Harmonize, and Crumbling Necropolis. I would put Unburial Rites first, both due to preferring U/B with a splash and because each cast is likely a two-for-one, given your choices of targets. Harmonize is next, as there’s only so much I can hype Opportunity and criticize a slightly smaller version of it. Crumbling Necropolis is last, and tri-lands are much worse than in older multicolored formats. Decks are based in two allied colors with a third splash, usually, so a later Izzet Guildgate isn’t a huge downgrade.
1. Harmonize
3. Mist Raven
No harm in drawing drawing three cards for four mana. Crumbling Necropolis is excellent fixing and Mist Raven is great in a U/W blink deck, but Harmonize is everything I’ve ever wanted and more. Even though Ranger of Eos is a creature that makes more creatures, I think it’s a bit of a trap in this format, since there aren’t that many good one-drops you want in the late-game beyond Gideon’s Lawkeeper. Harmonize is probably drawing you into creatures that make more creatures anyway.
3. Mist Raven
In this pack, nothing really stands out as a home-run pick outside of maybe Ranger of Eos. The Ranger is the only card that has a ton of potential by possibly getting a couple of Gideon’s Lawkeepers or, at worst, Soul Warder or Avacyn’s Pilgrim instead. With that said, I think the safest pick that gives the best direction for your draft would be Crumbling Necropolis. Grixis is one of the best bases for a control deck and great mana is something that the deck can be lacking. After that, there’s Mist Raven. I used to be a big fan of Mist Raven in Avacyn Restored Limited, but in this format full of cheap, great creatures and ones with “enters-the-battlefield” abilities, its stock is a touch lower.
2. Mist Raven
3. Harmonize
I noted earlier that mana fixing is at a premium in this format with so many powerful gold cards, and nowhere is that more evident than in the final pack. The tri-lands from Shards of Alara may look innocuous, but they are very powerful, leaving you open to take nearly any powerful cards that come later and play three, four, or even five colors with other fixing. The options it offers are enough for me to take it first here over some powerful cards.
Mist Raven makes another appearance, and perhaps I’m overrating it putting it above Harmonize. The card draw spell is likely a bit more powerful, but my preference is always for good tempo over good card advantage, especially when the latter comes from a card that doesn’t affect the battlefield. In a more powerful format like Modern Masters, decks are going to be heavily synergistic and mimic Constructed more closely, making tempo even more important, so I’ll lean toward the blue creature in a close race for second.
Who Picked It Best?