BFZ Pack Cracking: What's the pick?

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Posted on Oct. 7, 2015, 7:11 p.m. by JWiley129

So I'm going to put some packs down below, and I want to know what would be your top 3 picks would be.

Pack 1: Oracle of Dust, Lithomancer's Focus, Fortified Rampart, Eldrazi Devastator, Demon's Grasp, Looming Spires, Fertile Thicket, Spell Shrivel, Snapping Gnarlid, Retreat to Kazandu, Spawning Bed, Breaker of Armies, Planar Outburst, Roilmage's Trick

Pack 2: Territorial Baloth, Roilmage's Trick, Dutiful Return, Swell of Growth, Lithomancer's Focus, Goblin War Paint, Smite the Monstrous, Kozilek's Channeler, Vestige of Emrakul, Courier Griffin, Tajuru Warcaller, Catacomb Sifter, Infuse with the Elements, Ruinous Path

Pack 3: Altar's Reap, Roilmage's Trick, Call the Scions, Swarm Surge, Boiling Earth, Lithomancer's Focus, Valakut Invoker, Courier Griffin, Benthic Infiltrator, Touch of the Void, Resolute Blademaster, Molten Nursery, Ulamog's Reclaimer, Smoldering Marsh

My Picks

Pack 1: Show

1. Planar Outburst: Wraths are good in Limited. End of story. 2. Spawning Bed: Making 3 1/1's is no joke, and the fact it's a land means you get more picks into your final deck. 3. Snapping Gnarlid: I like the Landfall deck, and ole Snappy here is just what the doctor ordered.

Pack 2: Show

1. Ruinous Path: It's the best removal spell in the set, and the fact it can be a 4/4 late in the game is great. 2. Kozilek's Channeler: Colorless is a huge boon here, plus the mana it generates is quite powerful. 3. Tajuru Warcaller: This card is like a mini-Overrun and is one of the reasons to play Allies.

Pack 3: Show

1. Touch of the Void: It's a fine removal spell, even if it's not an Instant. 2. Benthic Infiltrator: The Ingest/Processor deck is real, and this is the best/most important ingester. 3. Courier Griffin: This pack overall is pretty weak, so the Griffin here gets the nod for the next best card. There could be arguments for Resolute Blademaster, but that's only if you're in the Allies deck.

Aside from the obvious P1P1's from Packs 1 and 2, I feel like these packs illustrate my vies on the format and what you might want to consider going into your next draft.

Karns_Pyromancer says... #2

Pack 1: 1. Planar Outburst (Boardwipe, duh). 2/3. If I'm being completely honest, Spawning Bed and Looming Spires tie in my mind.

Pack 2: 1. Ruinous Path is excellent in Limited. 2. Goblin War Paint is really good and I've learned it's sting. 3. Swell of Growth or Tajuru Warcaller. I'm not a huge fan of allies, so yeah...

Pack 3: 1. Touch of the Void is good. 2. Boiling Earth has given me moderate success. I'm rarely sorry to see it. 3. Benthic Infiltrator is good, but not something I'm very fond of.

October 7, 2015 7:55 p.m.

JohnnyBaggins says... #3

Assuming we're always P1P1:
1: Planar Outburst over Demon's Grasp over Oracle of Dust
Planar Outburst is a board wipe, it's an obviously amazing effect, and utterly absurd if you ever get the Awaken going. Demon's Grasp is solid removal, Oracle of Dust is good if you actually get an Ingest Deck going.

2: Ruinous Path over Smite the Monstrous over Catacomb Sifter
Ruinious Path is unconditional removal, easy first pick. Smite is close behind because it removes what you want to remove the majority of the time. I have neither played nor played against Sifter so far, but he seems pretty good.

3: Resolute Blademaster over Touch of the Void over Benthic Infiltrator
I find Boros Allies to be so strong, that I'm willing to first pick a two-coloured card. This is one of the best cards in this deck, entirely stupid if you trigger it regularly. Touch can be removal, and Infiltator is the engine you need to pick to get into a good Ingest deck.
This pack is fairly disappointing in any case.

Now let me see what your picks were.
Well, we agree on the firspicks in 1 and 2 and then we don't really share opinions anymore. I've come to value Removal so highly that I see no shame in First-Picking Grasp or Smite. Grasp is borderline because there's quite some stuff in this set on turn 6 that dodges Grasp, at least before combat damage.

October 7, 2015 8:35 p.m.

Karns_Pyromancer says... #4

I'm not a huge fan of Grasp. I have no problem running one, but-unless my black pool is amazing-I'm unlikely to run more. I think a 5 CMC removal spell should meet me more than one creature.

October 7, 2015 10:06 p.m.

Rasta_Viking29 says... #5

I typically play tempo decks and focus on being aggressive. I've only drafted BFZ once but I think I'll be trying to draft R/G Landfall, U/G, R/U, and R/W/x Allies in future drafts.

Pack 1 I would probably take Snapping Gnarlid and force landfall. Outburst should put the drafter to the left on white and help me out pack two.

Pack 2 Ruinous Path is too good to pass. Probably look to get into B/R and if I'm lucky a sacrifice deck.

Pack 3 I would take Benthic Infiltrator I guess. It could end up in my deck but I would not let it dictate my next few picks.

October 7, 2015 11:29 p.m.

TheRedMage says... #6

Packs 1 and 2 are not, I think, particularly close. It's rarely correct not to take a P1P1 wrath and Planar Outburst is no exception, and Ruinous Path is an amazing and versatile removal spell.

Pack 3 is the interesting one. The best common in the pack is Touch of the Void, which for me is actually pretty close to being the best common in the set (probably after Eldrazi Skyspawner). But Resolute Blademaster is very tempting.

Quite honestly - I have played a WR deck with a strong Allies subtheme in sealed but I havent had a chance to draft WR allies yet. If this was a tournament I'd pick the Touch of the Void because it's the safe pick. If I were at my LGS, I'd pick the Resolute Blademaster and try to play Allies. It's possible the blademaster is the correct pick anyway, but the fact that it's a 2-color card makes me doubt it, especially with a Touch of the Void in the pack.

October 8, 2015 9:45 p.m.

Rasta_Viking29 says... #7

Ha, for some reason I thought Touch of the Void was Scour from Existence. That's a easy choice p3 for me.

October 9, 2015 12:55 a.m.