Assuming everyone gets exactly their "fair share" of guildgates, we can expect to get exactly 3 of them. If that's not enough for our plans, then we're going to need to be more greedy with them than everyone else. Could be a fun little psychology project.

Don't forget that Cluestones ramp, fix, and eventually replace themselves, though. They're perfect for slow formats. Not everything has to ride on gates.

Welcome to the discussion! How was the GP?

I see you're point, TiredTofu, but Beetleform Mage is only a 3 CMC 2/2 mana sink that becomes a 4/4 flyer once per turn. It reminds me of Frilled Oculus. It's a good creature, but isn't a first pick.

We haven't definitively chosen our colors yet because it's a little too early for that. We should take the best cards from these first few packs and then choose our colors accordingly. Also, Advent of the Wurm needs only one white mana to cast, so playing a 3-color deck and splashing white via guildgates or cluestones is not impossible to pull off.

Far / Away is one of the better tempo and removal spells in this format, unlike something like Ubaal Sar Gatekeeper that needs guildgates to even be a removal spell.

Beetleform Mage is a good card and hopefully some more will come around the table to us later. But Far / Away is the better pick at the moment, in my opinion.

This is a good point for debate. Let's yell at each other and stuff.

I definitely see the power in Beetleform Mage. It's an absolute beast (and so is Frilled Ocullus, btw). It could easily be first-pickable in the right pack.

In my mind, Far/Away is the more powerful card, simply because of BREAD. It could be argued that Beetleform Mage is a pseudo-bomb, which puts it at a very close second to Far/Away in my mind.

A different question is how quickly do we want to try to lock in on our colors? If we give weight to the fact that Beetleform Mage has G in its cost, then it becomes slightly more valuable. It's probably too early to try to lock into colors, but there's a definite advantage in this format to knowing which colors to prioritize. The last DDD proved that when we couldn't color-fix because we didn't know which colors we were running.

tl;dr: Which is more valuable (in this format): Solid removal, or a solidified mana-base (even if it is forced)?

Here's the deal, in my mind. Advent costs GG. If we play it, we're gonna need to be in green. And since it's such a beast of a card, we'll most likely end up finding a way to play it, unless we get NOTHING in the way of green in the next packs. However, we've already been given a solid green creature. That being said, I still prefer Far/Away, even if it ends up being a hate draft. If other players don't get removal, our creatures can stay on the battlefield and continue to beat face.

Also, @TiredTofu- Welcome to the Brotherhood! You werent here when I mentioned this, but tagging cards with automatically throw this deck page onto the tagged card feed, so even though its private, the deck will show up. This obviously puts us at a disadvantage. I'm going to remove your comments with tags, and post them below without the tags, just so we can maintain our sneakiness. We are assassins, better act like it.

@landgrafb & everyone else: This is an interesting thought. If a pack has nothing terribly exciting, should we just as a general rule start taking the fixing? This will open up our options in later packs, while the others struggle to make their decks work, and are forced to pick in-color cards that are inferior. Thoughts?

Here are TiredTofu's comments, sans card tags: " TiredTofu says...Sorry for being late to the party, folks. I'm here and ready after being out of commission for the last few days at GP Vegas. Far / Away is a very color-greedy pick. I'd still want to argue for Beetleform Mage . A 4/4 flyer is a huge threat in this format, and it overpowers most cards in this format's skies. Also, I agree that removal in this format is at a premium--which is why if you load up on genuine threats, your opponents (who have been squabbling over removal) will not be able to keep up with you. Furthermore, Far / Away gets worse the less removal that we have. If they even have 3 creatures on board, this 5 CMC removal spell won't even kill what we want it to. I really think that we really just need to load up on threats to start with. A 5 CMC removal spell that give the opponent a choice isn't good enough. I genuinely think we're overvaluing Far / Away in a draft format. Current Vote: Beetleform Mage "

And here's his other comment that he posted while I was typing all that." Oh, Vegas was great. A little disorganized/chaotic, but that's inevitable with 4500 people in the same area. The 8 hour drive each way inevitably left me a bit burnt out, though. As for this discussion, though, I still think that since we do have Advent, and we will play Advent, it's important to signal that green is closed. If we pass Beetleform Mage, that screams that green is open to the player on our left, and if they're smart at all, they'll pick up on that. If we pass Far / Away , it will scream that Dimir colors are open. This pick will decide what gets passed to us in pack 2, and I really want to be getting all of the great green creatures in the format. Also, I still really think that 4/4 flyer that can start swinging on turn 4 is absolutely fantastic. It also blocks most of the format, and is a bear at the very worst. I'll obviously defer to what the rest of the group decides, but if we have the stones to commit to a green creature-based route early, I really don't think we'll be disappointed. "

I really like TiredTofu's reasoning. I'd be cool with either the mage or the removal.

I'm game for signaling that Dimir is open. Closing green for ourselves is probably at least a medium-high priority.

I'll switch my vote to [Beetleform Mage]

And I'm game for choosing fixing in all cases where our other choices may-or-may-not be mainboard material. Having medium-power cards is not as good as being able to reliably cast our high-power cards.

Sorry, about that. No tags it is!

I genuinely think either the Beetleform Mage or Far // Away are both good picks. I'm made my preference clear, but since we're committed to green, I really think signaling green should be a priority--especially when we get a quality flying creature to boot.

But the more opinions the merrier!

Semi-relevant question:

Is there ANY removal in the format in Bant colors? Ima look into that once my food is done.

Answer: No, not really

There's very little removal in this format. If we can prioritize effective creatures, they are fairly unlikely to just go away on us.

Krasis Incubation would be the premium one. Runner's Bane is also okay for smaller creatures.

But the biggest answer is that in a format with little removal, we need to win the creature war fair and square.

If the group wants to switch to Beetleform Mage, I won't lose any sleep over it. It was my second pick from this pack as well. Not taking Far / Away won't be a problem with me if that's what everyone else wants to do.

I'll say I don't know much about the whole "signalling" thing. I've always hosted in-house drafts with close friends, and we play enough that we anticipated each other's styles (picks and hate) more than relying on signals etc.

If people with more experience think that snagging beetleform will pass along the right idea, then let's slam up some green and hope to get some killers passed in pack two, picks 1-3.

Everyone cool with the beetle Mage? Gonna report in soon

Sure.

Sure go with the Beetlemage - it was my second pick and there's some good arguments. I'll switch my vote too.

-1 Far / Away

+1 Beetleform Mage

There's a lot of versatility in this pack.

Battering Krasis can get extremely overwhelming if we can get the right mix of creatures to play it with.

Maze Sentinel seems boring at first, but having a huge butt and Vigilance is a very strong combination. The rest of the card is all upside.

Give/Take is probably only good for Give, but 3 +1/+1 counters are not to be scoffed at.

Protect/Serve might be the closest thing we see in our current colors to removal. It's not a hard card to play correctly, and can easily devastate a combat step.

The other cards are all pretty solid in their own right, but probably not so much as to bail on our current color scheme, even if we are only 2 picks in.

Pack 1- Pick 3 is up. Here's a thought I had last pack that I think is relevant to this pack..If a pack has nothing terribly exciting, should we just as a general rule start taking the fixing? This will open up our options in later packs, while the others struggle to make their decks work, and are forced to pick in-color cards that are inferior. Thoughts?

This pack has be a bit stumped. If left to my own devices I'd probably end up taking Maze Sentinel or one of the fuse cards. If this were a real draft with real cards, I'd end up taking the Steam Vents, mostly for personal use after the draft. Nothing in this pack is life-ending if we don't get it, plus a blue/red shock land can help keep our options open later on.

Pack 1- Pick 3 is up. Here's a thought I had last pack that I think is relevant to this pack..If a pack has nothing terribly exciting, should we just as a general rule start taking the fixing? This will open up our options in later packs, while the others struggle to make their decks work, and are forced to pick in-color cards that are inferior. Thoughts?

This pack has me a bit stumped. If left to my own devices I'd probably end up taking Maze Sentinel or one of the fuse cards. If this were a real draft with real cards, I'd end up taking the Steam Vents, mostly for personal use after the draft. Nothing in this pack is life-ending if we don't get it, plus a blue/red shock land can help keep our options open later on.

Since we've pretty much decided to go with Bant (which I have no problem with since I was on board with either pick really) Battering Krasis and Give / Take are the obvious choices and both are among the best cards in this pack anyway. Give and Take would be a signal that Simic is somewhat open and so passing it is quite dangerous from that angle. There are enough playable cards with color variation in this pack for the slightest chance that Battering Krasis will wheel (unlikely) and I'd say it's more likely than Give and Take coming back to us.
So:

+1 for Give and Take with Battering Krasis as my second vote if we deem that creatures are more important at this point.

Krassis and Give//Take would be my favored options. Honestly, either one could work.

I am noting that there are a number of quality Red/Something cards that haven't been taken, which is interesting and worth looking into for future packs. If red is going to be wide open, RUG splashing white could potentially be very powerful. If we have the opportunity to go RUG, we can abuse Nivix Cyclops and Fluxcharger, neither of which tend to be picked up as early in draft as they should based on what they can do if you draft with them in mind.

My current vote is Give//Take. It continues our signaling of Simic colors, it can be strapped onto a flyer to speed up our clock, it's quality card advantage in the late game, and if RUG is open it'll keep our Sorcery/Instant count up.

To clarify, my choices currently would be

1. Give // Take

2. Steam Vents

3. Battering Krassis

All three are completely valid options, and I'd like to hear other people's opinions on the matter. Even beyond that, there are a few tempting, off-the-wall options.