Assuming those are Acridian and Brilliant Halo, I would probably have to go either Sicken or Duress. I think it'd be best to stay in black since there isn't really anything that stands out in another color.

I go with Sicken as it can serve as removal, or cycled for card advantage.

not sure what 2 of the cards listed are.... but even w/ out that knowledge i think there are 3 good options here. Dragon Blood to pump our other creatures b/c we are likely going to end up with a bunch of durdly small dudes, Sicken b/c well duh it is removal for other peoples durdly smally dudes, and Phyrexian Ghoul a 2/2 for 3. Not the worst creature but not the best either. Seems to me that Yawgmoth's Edict is a very strong side board card and we should hope that it tables, as that will really hose some white drafters.

None of the above choices really stand out to me, so i think maybe I will vote for the Sicken cuz it is removal, i am open to solid arguments to change my pick however.

As crazy as it sounds... Dragon Blood or Yawgmoth's Edict. That edict would be a powerful white hate card, considering most players have yet to see it.

Oppression

I would take Sicken. Black is really good in these 3 sets, and if we want to discourage others from jumping on it we should take the removal out of their options where we can. Also, Sicken is just a good card for this environment (creatures in Beta and Betrayers are crazy small).

Dragon Blood is my vote. Keeps us from committing too heavily to black just yet, though it does hint at an open black with the rest of the pack being passed; bad news for Befoul. Duress is not powerful at all in Limited except as a Probe-like effect.

Phyrexian Ghoul is also tempting. Yawgmoth's Edict really makes me want to pick it, as I doubt it will table, and as I said last time, we just passed four pretty good white cards, ensuring at least one person to our left will be in white.

The problem with this pack is we still haven't sent any strong signals. It also makes me wonder what common was picked that they passed Dragon Blood for. It was probably Blue. There's not much good white in here... A bit of decent green (Lyrist looks to be somewhat powerful in this draft?) Either way, we'll end up signalling strongly blue when we pass this.

Worn Powerstone seems good here. I don't know what's good though.

I mean we already have 1 removal so getting a second this early seems a little too quick. having said that I'll go with Phyrexian Ghoul, but I'm not bummed if we pick up Sicken

Sicken

removal and cycling in-color is hard to beat.

sicken

I'm torn. Given the lack of synergy between these packs, I think anything that gives us generic boosts and doesn't tie us to a colour should be strongly considered. As such I would pick the Dragon Blood.

I say take the Sicken and hope that Yawgmoth's Edict tables.

I feel that going for Yawgmoth's Edict, which will be a (potent) sideboard card, is jumping the gun a bit too much.

Dragon Blood seems like it would be good for longer games, but I'd probably suggest going for Sicken to try and close in on black for now. The other options, to be fair, aren't looking particularly strong anyway.

I'm torn between Duress, Sicken, and Yawgmoth's Edict

However I'm inclined to vote for Duress, its relevant at more stages of the game and hits threats we might not be able to otherwise deal with.

However Sicken is a close second and I would have no problem with drafting that as cycling plus cheap, limited removal is good. Worse case scenario it serves as a combat trick later.

I'm hoping someone with more drafting experience will weigh in on this idea. ...just tossing it out there for the sake of discussion.

When drafting different sets like this, I'm assuming it's more difficult to build deck synergies. The set mechanics don't line up as easily. Our focus in this draft will edge toward the card quality end of the scale, rather than card synergies. Developing a solid deck theme - like Elaine did in the last draft - will be considerably more difficult. Without those easy synergies that set mechanics provide, decks will be slower and games will run longer.

This is my theory. I'm inexperienced with drafting random sets like this.

Based on that, does it make sense to grab Worn Powerstone? Mana acceleration is a good thing. I'm looking at Worn Powerstone like it's a poor man's Sol Ring and I'm thinking about how EDH decks abuse that kind of acceleration. Looking at the rest of the cards in these sets, I think we may have a good shot at picking up additional acceleration to create something like a ramp control build.

I like your train of thought SupremeAlliesCommander, but a good strategy to go by isB BombsR RemovalE Efficient Spells (in Mirrodin this was Equipment)A AggroD Dregs

While I do think you may be able to see Worn Powerstone as an efficient card, it certainly doesn't do a whole lot by itself. I think removal is going to play a big part in this draft, even lame removal like Sicken. The ability to cycle it if it is just clogging up our hand is a huge bonus and it is very splashable with the colorless cycling cost.My vote goes to Sicken.

SupremeAlliesCommander i do agree with part of what you said, as it mirrors my belief as to what is going to happen here. There will be little in the way of synergies to be had in our final deck, and we are likely to see this devolve into old staples of combat tricks, removal, and card advantage being huge in these decks. Probably a lot like drafting a core set in fact. I think the deck we drafted last DDD is actually the exact kind of thing we should be aiming for in this deck. One with lots of creatures, and good combat tricks or solid removal that we can use to our advantage.

I disagree that this is like EDH in any way, and that we are going to be benefitting from using the artifact to ramp. I just don't see us needing to use the ramping effect that badly, we are likely going to be jamming a fair number of lands in our deck 15-18 ish so we will likely have plenty of those. I also don't think that it is a given that ramping is going to benefit us. I have high hopes of putting together some sort of agressive agro deck, since that is most of what we will see when pack two arrives. In EDH we would want ramp to consistently be able to cast our awesome fatties, but we don't have any awesome fatties so far, and may never get any... (i hope we do but you never know).

When people don't understand the format and the format has no real themes, the best place to be is usually a solid deck packed w/ creatures you can turn sideways supported by removal and combat tricks.

To an extent, SupremeAlliesCommander, yes. But also no. The issue with ramp in draft is that you need something to ramp INTO, aka a Bomb. Then you need to draw it. Ramp isn't a BAD strategy, but it is not a win condition. Mana-fixing is a much better thing to pick up in a draft, allowing you to fix any bad land draws by searching for a basic land or changing the color of your mana.

EDH decks make good use of Sol Ring because they have big spells they want/need to cast. We may not.

Sorry, Acridian and Brilliant Halo it is.

-C

Also, good debate here, no consensus yet. Leaving it open.

Looks to me like sicken has the numbers... everything else seems to have much fewer votes than it does.. with second highest being for the artifact that gives the +1/+1 counters.

I have to agree with SAC here. The Worn Powerstone gives us 2 mana on turn 4. While I agree that mana-fixing is more important than ramp. Colorless ramp only helps us in the long run. We don't need bombs to ramp into. Just being able to cast another spell during a turn is good enough which is exactly what this helps us with. I'm thinking a U/B control type deck with U draw spells, Black Removal and creatures. With the added ability of mana. This is all speculative of course, but just going off of what U/B are known for. It's normally a pretty solid archetype in draft. (unless its a Innistrad x3)

We need to pick cards that do something before picking cards that don't, so Worn Powerstone should be a non-topic this early in the draft. Remember, the next pack is Beta. Everyone remembers Beta for the Power 9, but forgets that most of the rest of the set would be unprintably weak nowadays. We need to pick good, proactive cards while we can get them, and shape our decks as much as we can now so the cards in the 3rd pack from a set with at least something resembling modern design sensibilities can help us. That's why I voted for the best removal in the pack, Sicken, since the rest of it isn't all that great.

Since I'm not inagreement with many I'll swap my vote to Worn Powerstone. I still think it'll be of limited use, whereas the Dragon Blood will allow us to make weak older cards a bit more threatening, but I do seem to be in the minority. Going for the powerstone to keep us from delving into another colour for some weak removal.

thebeardedshuffler by my count the Dragon Blood has more supporters than the Worn Powerstone. I agree with Rhadamanthus that most of what we will find in pack two will be vanilla weak creatures and spells.... and therefore rampping into something big doesn't seem likely, and playing this super control deck also doesn't seem likely. Agro imo is the way to go which is why i am hoping for a black red deck. Picking a random colorless ramp artifact that you play on turn 3 really isn't a solid choice here when good removal is available and we aren't likely to see anything particularly worth ramping into.

If i had to choose an artifact i would take the Dragon Blood over the colorless mana ramper. We might be able to use that to trade our creatures up, or out of reach, where as the ramper really isn't helping. Plus i think the Worn Powerstone is likely to come back around. Neither helps to send a signal of us in black to our left, and won't help us kill creatures. I think it is slightly unreasonable to expect we would be able to build a decent u/b control deck considering the sets we shall be seeing, but that is why we open the packs!

I guess I can't count then :D ignore my switching then.

I have to put my vote out for Dragon Blood. This card will help in any deck type. In a control deck it makes our bombs more bomby when they hit. In an agro deck it cuts down on the number of dead turns we have. Combo isn't an issue in limited so the blood helps both of the major archetypes in this format... but a close second goes to Sicken which is a decent removal spell all things considered.

Dragon Blood doesn't do anything on its own except use up mana and make a creature slightly bigger. This is still Pick 2, so we need to choose cards that have an effect, not ones that make other effects marginally better.

Best i can tell the votes stack up as

Sicken - 8

Blood - 4

Other- 1

Powerstone - 2 (assuming that SupremeAlliesCommander has changed his vote to this. If he hasn't then one of these goes to other.)

Dragon Blood just seems horribly inefficient to me. Of the two frontrunners, I'd rather have Sicken.

Waiting for one of our drafters.

Dragon Blood may seem horribly inefficient and a mana vacuum, but you have to consider the likely state of the game. As I understand it (and this could be flawed given my lack of specific information regarding these sets) the older sets are generally less powerful and less aggressive. Having the blood on the field means that any turn where we didn't have a use for the mana we have a use that directly improves our board state as long as we control at least one creature. I realise it's lost the vote but still, just wanted to make the case. :)

On a side note has anyone else noted a sincere lack of creatures? this pack and the last had, what, 3 each? If the next pack does we have to decide if we should prioritise good creatures. It might be that this is a set with strong spells and we should get the best we can out of it, but it's a common mistake to draft too light on creatures.

We are good to go. Sicken wins.