Wow, this pack has solid P1P1 options from basically every color. The pick here is probably mood/preference dependent. I love packs like this that let me start the draft out however I please instead of kind of forcing me into something because of the best card in the pack.
For me, I'm taking Strip Mine. It's incredibly underrated as an early pick by my group, so I like to punish them as often as possible. With so many good cards in this pack, a Strip Mine pick keeps you open to almost any archetype and no matter which direction you end up going, you'll wheel something sweet here.
There's so much good stuff here. I'm taking Bitterblossom, but I wouldn't be unhappy first-picking True-Name Nemesis, Elspeth, or Strip Mine. Even Rabblemaster and The Abyss are first-pick quality to build around.
I think I might go with blossom and hope to wheel the abyss
Strip mine and elspeth would be my next 2 picks, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of these.
TNN wouldn't be bad either since it cuts blue from the pack, there would be a good chance of getting more blue when the draft comes back the other direction.
Sylvan library is probably my pick, love that card. I'll know how open green is by the time it comes back around and even if it isn't I'm more than happy to splash Sylvan library in a lot more decks. Survival is great but the decks haven't been coming together for me lately so without knowing the cube I would take the safer pick.
Always catches me off seeing Sylvan Library, for as long as I have played the card it has been a spanish cards (Biblioteca Silvana) and my whole group just refer to it as Bibliotech.
Count me in for Survival of the Fittest. Either Oracle or Wickerbough might wheel, and even if those are both gone, Angel of Invention and Palace Jailer are both reasonable cards in a Survival deck.
Chandra's a fine first pick, as is Sylvan Library, but Survival is the best card here.
Survival and Chandra are definitely the standouts to me in that pack, with a nod to Mystic Confluence if you just want to cement yourself in blue. Sylvan Library keeps you the most open, IMO. I would probably pick Chandra over Daretti if I was sold on going artifacts since Daretti has potential of wheeling and Chandra is just as strong in that archetype.
I recently made a powered version of my cube for xMage, trying to get a feel how people weigh certain "power" cards against each other vs other archetype pillars.
Mox Pearl... nothing else is remotely on its level.
Without that, it's a harder choice. There aren't a lot of cards in this pack to let you stay flexible, except maybe Phyrexian Metamorph. I'd be inclined to take the Smokestack over the Wildfire. Cryptic is great but I have no interest in a 1UUU card first overall.
I weigh power above pretty much everything lol maybe generate a few packs for this, since it's too easy to get to auto-pick-city with power packs.
I actually specifically picked this pack out of a lot of different packs because the choice was not easy for me.
If the Mox Pearl was Sol Ring / Black Lotus / Time Walk / Ancestral Recall / Library of Alexandria / Mana Crypt / Mana Vault, I think it'd be an easier pick for me. I can be convinced that Mox Pearl is the right pick, but I'm not convinced it's an "auto pick" just yet over something like Wildfire / Smokestack / Garruk.
I generally think people overrate mana-acceleration, but I still don't have a solid grasp on where the original Moxen lie in my pick orders, which is why I've been picking packs like these.
If it's not easy for you, it's probably more a lack of experience with a powered cube vs anything else, as I imagine most would windmill slam the moxen like I would. I think you're underrating moxen, especially as p1p1 material. Moxen are kinda above typical mana acceleration, like other power is, since what you get for what you pay is huge.
It plays well with all those cards mentioned above if any wheeled--like the smokestack, which you can bet money on wheeling, and the wildfire which is pretty likely to wheel too--along with having a ton of other synergies with other types of decks, along with being free mana acceleration. If you were to take just about any opening hand with the right amount of lands/spells and replaced one of those lands with a moxen, it would be *noticeably* better, like night and day.
I guess the major point is: why am I taking an archetype enabler over literal power in cube for p1p1, when there are a million powerful archetype/direction cards that are massively improved when I have the explosive-play inducing moxen? When I inevitably get passed what is being open, I'll be so much more happy to have the 'powered' version of that archetype with the mox already in tow vs an unpowered version. I'll also never have a dead first pick, which is less noticeable overall in cube, but *is* noticeable when you're always playing the moxen but you might not end up playing the Burning/etc since the moxen goes everywhere and not only that plays extremely well in those places. When you take the moxen and wheel the Burning, you feel great; when you don't but you go into the open deck and you have the moxen anyways, you still feel great.
On top of that, you can't really afford to pass other players in a pod power if your goal is to win, since them having power in their hands makes winning that much tougher for your. Inversely, any time someone passes you power or you open additional pieces, the power exponentially builds off each other. Having 2-3 pieces of power is a lot better than having 1, since there are so many more hands that can have busted starts and you have the real ceiling of having something like Mox Mox and five other cards, which is a tough hand to beat. Like, it's hard to appreciate the higher chance of getting free wins when you have moxen on power on moxen, since cube is so swingy and winning a game early by playing *far* ahead of the cube is huge.
It's easy to discredit power because of it's lacking late-game application of them being pretty much just land at that point, but that's a mistake that your opponents will punish you for more so than not.
For me, I'm taking Strip Mine. It's incredibly underrated as an early pick by my group, so I like to punish them as often as possible. With so many good cards in this pack, a Strip Mine pick keeps you open to almost any archetype and no matter which direction you end up going, you'll wheel something sweet here.
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Strip mine and elspeth would be my next 2 picks, but I don't think you can go wrong with any of these.
TNN wouldn't be bad either since it cuts blue from the pack, there would be a good chance of getting more blue when the draft comes back the other direction.
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
this, switching elspeth and blossom
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Always catches me off seeing Sylvan Library, for as long as I have played the card it has been a spanish cards (Biblioteca Silvana) and my whole group just refer to it as Bibliotech.
Chandra's a fine first pick, as is Sylvan Library, but Survival is the best card here.
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A 5 drop on turn 2.
I would also slam vault
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Without that, it's a harder choice. There aren't a lot of cards in this pack to let you stay flexible, except maybe Phyrexian Metamorph. I'd be inclined to take the Smokestack over the Wildfire. Cryptic is great but I have no interest in a 1UUU card first overall.
I weigh power above pretty much everything lol maybe generate a few packs for this, since it's too easy to get to auto-pick-city with power packs.
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I actually specifically picked this pack out of a lot of different packs because the choice was not easy for me.
If the Mox Pearl was Sol Ring / Black Lotus / Time Walk / Ancestral Recall / Library of Alexandria / Mana Crypt / Mana Vault, I think it'd be an easier pick for me. I can be convinced that Mox Pearl is the right pick, but I'm not convinced it's an "auto pick" just yet over something like Wildfire / Smokestack / Garruk.
I generally think people overrate mana-acceleration, but I still don't have a solid grasp on where the original Moxen lie in my pick orders, which is why I've been picking packs like these.
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
It plays well with all those cards mentioned above if any wheeled--like the smokestack, which you can bet money on wheeling, and the wildfire which is pretty likely to wheel too--along with having a ton of other synergies with other types of decks, along with being free mana acceleration. If you were to take just about any opening hand with the right amount of lands/spells and replaced one of those lands with a moxen, it would be *noticeably* better, like night and day.
I guess the major point is: why am I taking an archetype enabler over literal power in cube for p1p1, when there are a million powerful archetype/direction cards that are massively improved when I have the explosive-play inducing moxen? When I inevitably get passed what is being open, I'll be so much more happy to have the 'powered' version of that archetype with the mox already in tow vs an unpowered version. I'll also never have a dead first pick, which is less noticeable overall in cube, but *is* noticeable when you're always playing the moxen but you might not end up playing the Burning/etc since the moxen goes everywhere and not only that plays extremely well in those places. When you take the moxen and wheel the Burning, you feel great; when you don't but you go into the open deck and you have the moxen anyways, you still feel great.
On top of that, you can't really afford to pass other players in a pod power if your goal is to win, since them having power in their hands makes winning that much tougher for your. Inversely, any time someone passes you power or you open additional pieces, the power exponentially builds off each other. Having 2-3 pieces of power is a lot better than having 1, since there are so many more hands that can have busted starts and you have the real ceiling of having something like Mox Mox and five other cards, which is a tough hand to beat. Like, it's hard to appreciate the higher chance of getting free wins when you have moxen on power on moxen, since cube is so swingy and winning a game early by playing *far* ahead of the cube is huge.
It's easy to discredit power because of it's lacking late-game application of them being pretty much just land at that point, but that's a mistake that your opponents will punish you for more so than not.
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