I've seen Spawn of Rix Maadi do terrible things in Limited/Sealed.

Azorius Justiciar . There's really nothing great on color. Pack two has Gatecrash and Orzhov, with a little effort we can hopefully push those next to us down a different path.

I'm not in love with any of these cards. I almost prefer the guildgate.

Well, let's keep the Aura train rolling; my vote's for Ethereal Armor , I think...

Maybe we can get some kind of Esper evasive deck going...

Mono Black doesn't have much to offer. I vote for Spawn of Rix Maadi He served me well in limited and if we see orzhov or boros in the Gatecrash boosters then it can make for a nice RBW deck.

I'd definitely go for the Azorius Justiciar . It stops up their tempo and lets you get in there on a stalled board.

My main concern with the Azorius Justiciar is the double white mana cost, which makes it unlikely to be a consistent turn 4 card unless we really lock into just Orzhov (a bad call, imo). Spawn of Rix Maadi is my vote, especially considering that very few cards could stand up to him AND a Stab Wound . Once we weaken or remove their field he can power out some damage.

Spawn

I say we go with the Ethereal Armor or Dispel

we already got some auras so we should get Ethereal Armor

Spawn of Rix Maadi or Azorius Justiciar . We will end up in 3 colours after all and I'd rather avoid blue/dimir. Getting into white and/or red gives us good removal and good guilds. The 2 W will be a bit slow, but the detain effect is good after T4 too.

I like the Ethereal Armor personally, its a potential bomb alongside other enchantments and we should be able to pick up a few with ease in gatecrash. Orzhov seems like a strong colour combination and is a good choice for a potential 2-colour deck (we should have plenty of guild choices in GTC)
I also just really want to play the armor on Tithe Drinker

Seriously people, it's only pick three and we've only picked one card... twice. At this point in a draft, we are just taking the best card available. Black may end up being our splash color in the end just so we can use our two Stab Wound .

The best card in this pack is Spawn of Rix Maadi . Let's pick it up and see what the next pack brings us.

I can agree to the Spawn of Rix Maadi as well, as it is a potential bomb.

Ethereal Armor

Spawn of Rix Maadi

Spawn of Rix Maadi . Fingers crossed for that Rakdos Shred-Freak from second pack. We can get a nice black/red beatdown going here.

Spawn of Rix Maadi

If Black is Splashed for Stab Wound and we take Red/White or Red/Blue then we get the ability to play a sick turn 5/6 play. Though I'm against taking creatures that will kill our targets enchanted with Stab Wound , I'd rather win the game quickly and eliminate chances that our opposition draws answers or win conditions. If we're aiming for an Aura deck then we should take Etheral Armor and pray for a Sphere of Safety (which I think isn't the smartest thing) but could potentially lock us in to a very powerful archetype.

Azorius Justiciar

I like the Ethereal Armor the next packs after RTR will have gatecrash and while Rakdos is great in a RTR Draft in this it will be to slow especially because we are realistically looking at a potential 3 color deck from having to pick into 3 different sets. If we take some good B/W cards now we will see more with GTC in orzhov and that will help with future picks as well.

dispel

Azorius Justiciar .

Azorius Justiciar ... crappy pack, but maybe we can get some kind of Esper or B/W control deck going here

Just a note, Once we start drafting with Dragon's Maze, the draft order will be DGR - Dragon's Maze, Gatecrash, Return to Ravnica. So if you are drafting with DGM, this would be pack 3.

If this were triple Return to Ravnica Draft, I would take the Spawn of Rix Maadi .

Just read the first article and realized you are drafting the block backwards. In that case, I would take the most powerful card Azorius Justiciar because you will probably end up in 3+ colors anyway. Also, starting in this pack with a Gatecrash guild will put you in a better position for pack 2.

I think I have to lean towards the Azorius Justiciar for my official vote. It locks down our opponent's creatures. If those creatures happen to have a Stab Wound on them, then we get some guaranteed damage in.

The restrictive mana cost may mean we don't end up playing it. That's fine. We won't play every card we draft. We may end up effectively playing fewer cards anyways if we draft into some Cluestones.

I say Ethereal Armor

Ethereal Armor

Ethereal Armor

Dispel we'll have strong Dimir picks in the next two sets, and if you haven't noticed, Dimir has a strong presence in mono blue and mono black in RTR. The Dimir commons are ridiculous in limited, won a few tournaments by simply milling my opponents' decks to nothing. Keep in mind who will be piloting our deck, he plays control, and doesn't mind being cruel about it.

I would take the Spawn if we hadn't just pulled two Stab Wound in a row. That screams Ethereal Armor if anything does. We need it and we need to abuse it.

I'm a fan of Ethereal Armor for this pack. Azorius Justiciar would be my second choice. As a bonus, I think both would have decent synergy with our first couple picks. In reality, we are going to be playing as much removal as we can manage, so it's highly likely those Stab Wound s will make the final cut.

1.) Spawn is a tank in limited. A 6/4 on turn 5? Yes please!

2.) Backup pick is etheral armor. A boost and first strike for 1 is always nice.

Just remember that if we pick Ethereal Armor , it's unlikely that we'll get the boost off of Stab Wound for long. It is a removal spell at heart, and as such won't be on the board for too long.

And our opponent is likely to use any means necessary to kill off something big that we stab wound.

Think about what will wheel. Probably not any of the three main cards we're discussing right now. This pick feels important, but really we're only on the third card, so whatever we choose, it won't matter that much.

I say we pick the bomb-iest card out of the three, because we're not looking for consistency right now - we don't even have locked colors. I'm going with Spawn of Rix Maadi .

I'm going to say two things. First of all the best creature in the pack is Spawn of Rix Maadi , and that we ought to grab it. It's a heck of a beatstick.

Second is, spawn may table. The guildgate won't. We're pretty heavily invested in black so far, both because we picked two black cards and because we will want to play those cards. I don't think it's too early to start grabbing some fixing and making it harder for others to look at splashing into our colours.

DGM booster will have a lot of fixing sure, but we can focus on picking good cards over fixing in the DGM boosters if we're ahead of the game. So I'm voting for guild gate first, spawn second.

azorius justicar

I've never really liked Craw Wurm , even for 5.

I like the Azorius Justiciar , but WW will probably be tough. On the other hand even on curve a 2/2 on T4 isn't great, and the ability is just as relevant late in the game.

We haven't really picked up any enchantments for Ethereal Armor . Stab Wound should be killing stuff and if it's not our opponent isn't just going to let it sit and do damage + pump our armor.

The gate is actually kind of attractive, and I like Common Bond as well, but I don't think the vote will turn that way.

I'll throw my support in for Azorius Justiciar .

I've never really been a fan of auras in limited. A removal spell makes it a 2 for 1 for your opponent. As people have mentioned, Stab Wound is not going to stick around for long, so I wouldn't really say we have that strong of an aura theme.

I think it's a bit too early to start taking mana fixing, at the very least we need to take this opportunity to draft some strong cards in case we don't get enough black. We can also send some signals for pack 2 especially.

That being said, I think Azorius Justiciar is slightly better than Spawn of Rix Maadi . It can come down in late turns and tap opposing blockers for big swings, or it can buy us time if we're down. However, Spawn of Rix Maadi is my second choice in this situation, and I would definitely pick it over the guildgate or Ethereal Armor .

I vote Spawn of Rix Maadi . Like others have said, it seems like the most impactful of the cards in the pack. I also like how it shares a color with our Stab Wound s.

Vote: Azorius Justiciar .

I see a very nice beginning to an Orzhov control deck. He fits nicely with stalling and extort. My gut tells me to go this route. Spawn of Rix Maadi 2nd choice.

I also think Ethereal Armor has a very reasonable chance of coming back to us, being as we grabbed the Stab Wounds. Without those, who else is going to want it?

Ethereal Armor

Way better bomb than a 5/3 (or 6/4 that can't block) 5-drop

Azorius Justiciar is the pick. It is so much card advantage to get a bear with a Lyev Decree stapled to it. Also, with two stab wounds, we're pretty well set to go the orzhov route, or something like esper.

Spawn of Rix Maadi

id say Ethereal Armor first strike alone permanently for 1 mana that will always be useful at any stage of the game is always a good choice. With another enchantment already going in, and the possibility of that enchantment boosting and synergizing with this pick makes it a no brainer. Even if, Stab Wound is used as a kill spell then Ethereal Armor will give your creatures an advantage over the ones they have left.

Let's backtrack a little bit. The person who opened this pack took the rare or mythic (no useful information there). The person directly to our right took an uncommon that most likely wasn't mono-white, because the only white uncommon you could reasonably pick over Azorius Justiciar is Arrest . It could have been white-something like Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage or Skymark Roc , but regardless of that, I take the Justiciar as a pretty substantial signal that white could be open. Although I see the reasons that support the Spawn, I think we should go for Azorius Justiciar . As some people ebove have said, these picks comprise a foundation for esperish control which has realy good cards in both GTC and DGM.

I'd say Azorius Justiciar . The double white is hard, but we might end up with white as our primary color. Spawn of Rix Maadi is more likely to go unused, and if we do use it, it'll be less likely to get picked. It is just a big body, while the Justiciar can set up a turn the game in our favor.

It's too early to pick Ethereal Armor I think. I don't like it in drafts because I can't rely on it being worth it in the end. It locks us into an enchantment deck, and unless you get a good amount of playable enchantments (along with at least another Ethereal Armor to make building around it effective), its a throwaway pick.

guessing at what the cards are arent going to help. Just because it "most likely" wasnt white doesnt mean it wasnt. It could of been some crap card a first timer took. It could have been Oblivion Ring it could of been anything. There are uncommons better than justicar, and perhaps the person who picked the uncommon could of picked it soley for the color. In which case you want to pick the card thats going to be the most useful in most situations. Id be hard pressed to find a more versatile card. than Ethereal Armor Not only that but justicar has no chances of ever synergizing with Stab Wound

I'm really not a fan of Spawn of Rix Maadi .

If you Unleash it, it becomes really "big", but loses its ability to stop your opponent from doing stuff. It HAS to be used on offense, which is a huge drawback.

If you don't Unleash it, it becomes a 5/3 for 5. It pretty much screams "block me and trade up".

I'd really like to go Orzhov, but Spawn of Rix Maadi is a thing. Only third pick out of a 'meh' pack anyway.

Azorius Justiciar in an attempt to draft Orzhov. detain, extort, and Stab Wound s will win lots of games.

This is one hell of a close race.

We have to remember that the Stab Wound is a removal spell and won't really be boosting other enchantments. Even if it doesn't kill, the opponent will simply block whatever we enchant with Ethereal Armor in order to not only stop the loss of two life a turn, but reduce our buff.

That said, I think the Azorius Justiciar is the best pick. It looks to me like we should be trying for an Esperish controlly deck. With Kaley at the helm, we should have no problems 'trolling all over these games.

I believe that Azorius Justiciar is the best choice here. It's a good card in any deck that can play it, and is a significantly higher average pick than any of the other cards in the pack.

Spawn of Rix Maadi is tempting to narrow down on, but we can't afford to narrow yet! Especially when Justiciar is sitting there.

Ethereal Armor is nice, but synergy is unreliable in draft. It would be a fine pick, but I still like Justy better.

Azorius Justiciar gets my vote here. Much as I love Spawn of Rix Maadi , the Jusiticiar is a pretty decent tempo card that synergises well with our Stab Wound s. Also, since the Spawn is common, there is a greater chance we can pick one up in a later pack.

Ethereal Armor is a terrible pick here. There are very few auras worth picking up this early (I'm looking at you Stab Wound , and you in 24 hours Unflinching Courage ), and while "permanently" giving a creature first strike is nice, when the two for one comes, its going to hurt.

After hearing the arguments, I'm inclined to change my vote and support Azorius Justiciar as first choice.

Spawn of Rix Maadi 6 power 5 drop. Hell yeah!

Same goes for me.

Spawn of Rix Maadi .

Azorius Justiciar

Spawn of Rix Maadi

Ethereal Armor people may want to start thinking about their 2nd choice vote...

I'll switch my vote to Azorius Justiciar

As much as I love Rakdos I see the value I'm the justiciar

Same here. If I have to choose a creature, it'll be Azorius Justiciar

Azorius justiciar

I don't think I understand why the love for the Justicar. Lyev Decree is half the mana for functionally the same effect. A 2/2 doesn't matter much on turn 4. Yes, if you unleash the spawn you can't block. But you only make that decision when you cast him. If you really need a blocker, you're the one trading with something important. If you don't, he's a huge threat that needs to be answered.

With the justicar, you need to be able to capitalise on the ETB effect, because that's all he's good for. With spawn, you've swun the tempo favourably in your direction, either because you got a powerful blocker or because you dropped a huge threat. Not to mention double white is a heck of a commitment when so far we have no other white interests.

The pick is definitely Azorius Justiciar .

The Spawn and Armor actually have a chance to table. The Justiciar will NOT.

Think about it. If we draft mono black and mono white cards in RTR... we have Orzhov's cards next two packs! AND the Justiciar works well in Boros if we go the W/B/R route.

Azorius Justiciar

It's evasion for other beaters if we end up aggro. It stalls beaters if we end up in a controlling position. I like that flexibility.

I'm okay with Spawn of Rix Maadi , too. I don't think the aura is worth it.

There's a reason that the Spawn has an average draft pick of 8 and the Justiciar has an average pick of 4.

The Justiciar is good at any point in the game. Board stall? End it with a 2x Detain. There's no point in a game of MtG where shutting down 2 of your opponent's creatures is a bad thing.

I would rather pick the admittedly awful Emmara Tandris over Spawn of Rix Maadi because at least she can survive a chump block.

Summary so far (based on latest decisions, including some changes that people made):

Azorius Justiciar : 27.5 votes (There was someone who said Justicar or Spawn, without clear preferrence, therefore, half a vote. I also counted dbrannon's "Same goes for me" as a response to sewellius's change of mind and counted it here. If I'm wrong, please correct me.)

Spawn of Rix Maadi : 18.5 votes

Ethereal Armor : 8 votes

Dispel : 2 votes

I may have miscaculated somewhere because it's quite hard to keep track of all decision changes and posts that do not represent votes. The gaps are so large though, that one or two missed or misplaced votes shouldn't be able to change anything anyway.

You'd need 4 power to kill an unleashed spawn, that's not a "chump" block. Also, Justicar doesn't shut down creatures, it shuts them down for one turn and for 4 mana. As I say, if that's what you want, just wait for Lyev Decree in DGM and enjoy the same utility at lower mana cost and colour commitment.

Again, Justicar was a high pick in RTR for good reason, but this is not the same draft environment. I may not be right all the time but you do need to be open to that concept when considering your pics. Colour commitment is a much bigger deal when drafting all three sets.

I still maintain that we should take the guildgate, but since I'm alone on that, I'd rather have a creature who's colour friendly and can beat down all the bears. Also, the harder we cut into the black cards, the more chance we have of being passed them later.

I agree the Justiciar is color-heavy, but the Spawn isn't much better. It still has a highly restrictive mana cost.

In a draft you have to pick the cards with the most powerful effects until you find a pattern and stick to your colors. We don't have any defined colors yet. We won't be committing to white. We'll just be grabbing a powerful white card. Then we will have powerful white and black cards. But still no definite commitments.

It could be that we don't end up playing either of those two cards in our final build, but I feel that the Justiciar synergizes better with what we already have. Locking down your opponent while you watch them Stab Wound to death is a good play.

What landgrafb says is quite correct. We can afford to "waste" a few picks on powerful cards and not play them in the end in this format. Also, my reasoning for Justiciar is also based on the fact that it opens a way to also pick blue and Azorius cards. This way, we will have two guilds to choose fom in GTC - Orzhov and Dimir. If we manage to pull of an extort train, cards like the Justiciar buy us precious time for extortion. We may even be able to pick a Dramatic Rescue or a few instances or Deputy of Acquittals or Keymaster Rogue along the way that can interact nicely with the Justiciar.

landgrafb and Absinthman make the best points.

Taking W and B in RTR opens us up greatly for GTC and DGM. We have Orzhov, Dimir, and Boros to choose from. The Stab Wound s and Azorius Justiciar would fit into any of those decks.

same goes for me means justicar

Azorius Justiciar . Double white isn't ideal this early but I think it's worth the chance. If we do go Orzhov or WBR it sets us up nicely and if we don't it's only one pick out of a crappy pack. (What's with all these terrible packs, by the way?)

thebeardedshuffler - the thing is, Lyev Decree isnt the same functionality as a Justiciar. That body makes all the difference in the world. Justiciar is worth a slot in a deck that can cast her because her body can attack, block, trigger battalion, carry a cipher card, hold an aura, get scavenged onto, etc. Limited is almost all about creatures.
A card like the decree has a fleeting effect with no significant board impact - sure, some games it'll be a big deal but most of the time it's just stalling for a turn, or stone cold nothing. 2/2s are still relevant on turn 4, as well, there's lots of things with toughness mismatches in this format thanks to evolve.

Sure, I'll switch my vote to Azorius Justiciar . This pick will hardly make or break our deck; let's pick a powerful enough card and get on with it.

Azorius Justiciar . Even if WW is heavy, there are lots of fixers in the format and an esper extort tempo stab wound style sounds good to me. Anyway, Stab Wound shall be played more like a clock than a kill if you have the opportunity, it kills really fast actually, even more with extra range with extort. Again, it is only 3rd pick, so just pick the best card individually, which is the justiciar to me.

This looks like about the closest we're going to get to a consensus on this pick. Moving along.