Unfortunately, we've got no bombs here, but we have some solid choices.

I think the viable options are Merfolk Seastalkers , Vines of Vastwood , and Journey to Nowhere . Of these, I think we have to pick either Journey or Vines; Seastalkers is a great card, but it's underrated and likely to make its way back around to us, especially in this pretty decent pack.

I'd go for Journey. Removal is always at a premium in limited, and removal in a color other than red or black is even more rare.

-C

...agreed

I'd think Pillarfield Ox , look how majestic it is!

Murasa Pyromancer i think could work, looks like u can get a red green ally type of thing going on. If you get lucky

i would grab the card:Nissa's Chosen. Green is so underrated in draft, you're bound to get a Timbermaw Larva , and a 2/3 for 2 is great in draft. If you have to splash though, two green is still not a huge deal to work around.

I'd think the options here are Journey to Nowhere , Vines of Vastwood , Oran-Rief Survivalist , and (to a lesser extent) Hideous End . I love drafting allies, so I'd probably end up picking Oran-Rief Survivalist , though I would consider all the first three to be pretty equal, and may find myself picking Journey to Nowhere instead.

card:Nissa's Chosen and Journey to Nowhere are both tempting - removal is good, and recurring creatures are good. If I'm playing allies, I'd probably grab the murassa-pyromancer, guessing that the Oran-Rief Survivalist will probably make his way back around.

Allies can always be a pretty decent strategy in this limited environment; you're bound to get 10 at least if you're dedicated.

Still, I think that Journey to Nowhere is the pick. There are plenty of allies in white that we might expect to pick up if that's the way we're going; and in any case this is an extremely valuable hate pick if nothing else.

I'm going to pay attention to this series; drafting strategies, and the kinds of analysis I should be making when I'm drafting, is something I'm really looking to improve. Being fairly new to Magic in general, most of my drafting strategy boils down to "o hey look a rare" and later "I could use that in a deck back home," rather than actual deckbuilding strategies. =p

That being said, I think I could avoid going ooh shiny and picking the rare here; Electropotence feels like a somewhat underwhelming card, especially if you can't specially build around it. I think I'd either go green and pick the Nissa's or go Allies and take the Pyromancer.

From opening the first pack alone the logical choice is the card:Nissa's Chosen. Seeing how many other cards that are green in the same pack almost guarantees you another card on the come around.

That said I would still choose either the Merfolk Seastalkers or the Journey to Nowhere depending on how I felt at the time and whether I was going to go R/U or R/W.

Always Draft Red

Electropotence is not what you want in limited; it's fairly guaranteeable that the card won't actually end up in a limited deck. It's hard enough to make a good CONSTRUCTED deck out of the card, much less make the idea work in limited.

Journey, definitely.

Hideous End is way better than Journey, wasn't there some stat from moto that people were most likely to win ZZZ if they first picked hideous end? If you grab Journey, you have to play white! Bleh!

I would pick the HE here, but I can see people's choice on grabbing Nissa's Chosen and hoping to table another green card. Also isn't HE the only Black playable in the pack? meaning by taking it you'll cut black and have less people at the table playing it as a primary color.

Hideous End

Not necessarily you can switch second pack.

Are any of them foil?

My choice would be a tough pick between Journey, Nissa's Chosen and Oran-Rief Survivalist, and if I get hurried I'd pick Chosen because I'm that kind of player and I'm yet to not draft RG for Zendy.

Too bad the rare was Electropotence =(

I'd have to say this is a crap pack... only cause i tend to judge by the rare and i do not like Electropotence at all

Hmmmm.. i haven't really drafted much at all (meaning like twice) so i'd basically go it'll be one of

Paralyzing Grasp Merfolk Seastalkers Journey to Nowhere card:Nissa's Chosen oran-relief-survivalist Vines of Vastwood

And im rather bored with green atm so i'd probably not go with nissa, the survivalist or Vines.

And because there is usually litte Enchantment hate in this form, choosing a grasp or journey would be quite useful. But i can guarantee that journey wouldn't make it back around, but would be more confident in the paralyzing grasp comming back.

But from what i've played i can only say that i love being able to tap down their creatures and i'd probably go the Sea Stalkers. and hope the grasp makes it back.

Vines of Vastwood would be my first choice, though Journey to Nowhere is really tempting as is card:Nissa's Chosen

I'd pick the Journey to Nowhere . Or Merfolk Seastalkers . The stalkers are amazing against most decks. Just dry and draft as many fliers as you can from then on. (:

I would take the Journey to Nowhere .

That being said it is possible to draft an interesting islandwalk deck out of Zen-Zen-WWK. You just need Spreading Seas , River Boa , Enclave Elite , and Merfolk Seastalkers . You can even splash black in pack 3 for Wrexial, the Risen Deep !!

Journey to Nowhere or Vines of Vastwood

Being an allies kind of guy, I'm tempted by the Oran-Rief Survivalist , but I'm steering clear of the Murasa Pyromancer . The pyro is too much of a mana queen for a 2 tuffy and he's a bit lackluster unless you have a deck full of allies... which you won't.

Vines of Vastwood hands down for me.

I'd be very happy to take Journey to Nowhere . Merfolk Seastalkers is nice, but I wouldn't pick it this early. I like removal (JtN, Disfigure , Burst Lightning , Hideous End , ...) much more than Vines of Vastwood .

Were this pack 1 pick 1, I would choose the jtn or hideous. There is no way I'd pick any of the green because its poor signaling - two solid green commons are going to suggest that the color is wide open, whereas by taking the journey or hideous, you completely cut off those respective colors to the guy on your left, ensuring better passes pack 2.

Oh, none of those green commons would table by the way.

The Draft Lord has a point. I think that nails it Journey is the pick because it is easier to splash white then it is black for the hideous end. The sheer number of playable green cards mean that others are likely to (attempt to) draft green as well.

I disagree the green commons can work well.

I would take Merfolk Seastalkers without a doubt, its a great card in limited. Its not removal, but its reusable which is even better. It Islandwalks, which means it can even get through for 2, and still tap shtuff down! Love that card.

journey to nowhere if passed will almost garuntee that the person to your right will play white. so you can plan accordingly by passing it and picking seastalkers you get a great card and a heavily under drafted color. Seastalkers

@Mdragoon423 Merfolk Seastalkers is a fantastic limited card that can flat out win games. But most people don't seem to think it is, and I'd be willing to bet it finds its way back around to us.

I had a hard time choosing... contrary to most peoples thoughts i did see some value in electropence, but I have to admit I probably would have gone removal with this pick so it was either Journey to Nowhere or Hideous End . I was leaning towards hideous end, as i think that black currently offers more interesting options that can work better with other colors than white does. So for me i would have gone w/ the Hideous end.

Electropotence is a sealed card not a draft card.

@tama Yeah. Even then it takes some work to get it moving properly.

@everyone else. Journey to Nowhere seems to be the general consensus. Posting next pick now.

-C

Definitely the Vines of Vastwood - it's a solid combat trick, and it doubles as a counter to the beastly removal and even keeps your opponent off of his/her own creatures.

looking back at this, even if we'd known we were going red and blue, it might've still been the right choice to hate-draft the white removal.