I just can't see how the pick isn't Pith Driller. It's removal. It's Instill Infection -draw a card, + a 2/4 body. It's an artifact for Metalcraft or sacrificing to artifact sac outlets. It doesn't commit us to any colour or deck archetype, while at the same time cutting this pack of all (good) black cards, and we WANT to be in black, since black is crazy good in this set.
The Thopter is more suited to aggressive strategies and is much more fragile and likely to die to random pings (or, say, Pith Driller lol) before it can get any damage in, whereas the Driller always gets his counter on something. Implant is fragile, slow removal that gives your opponent too many opportunities to save their guy or 2-for-1 you (You: Put Implant on Pith Driller. Go. Opponent: Play Glint Hawk, bounce Driller, Play Driller, kill your Thopter. Go.). It's fine, but it's not as reliable or solid as the Driller.
The pick is unquestionably Pith Driller. Nothing else can really compare (my opinion of Remember the Fallen has...Fallen, as of late :p).
Agreeing with the sentiment that Beast Within sucks in limited. Yeah, it's a pretty big game when you turn your opponents Karn or Hoard-Smelter into a hill giant, but they likely still got some value out of it (less likely with Smelter), and you still have a 3/3 to deal with. It's negative card advantage, and card advantage is often the key factor in most limited formats. I might be wrong on this, but in the here and now, I wouldn't take Beast without playtesting it a few times, and I'm not taking it when there are so many other good choices here.
The Raptor is a Cystbearer with wings, which is pretty sweet, but is in the infect-lite colour white. Moving into white infect early is super risky, since it's possible the white infect cards are just never opened in NPH and Besieged or you get cut. And whereas Cystbearer was a fine defensive creature in decks with a good lategame (i.e. dinos), this card is much more expensive and open to more removal (anti-air) that you simply can't justify first picking this unless you have a hard-on for (white) infect. I would only take this later in the draft after I picked up some decent white cards (like Remember the Fallen *hint*), or if there was simply nothing else.
The Shrike is a powerful, though dangerous card to use since it dies to plenty of cards in the format. Its upside is really high, though, and card draw is so hard to come by in this format that this is somewhat of a common bomb (in that if your opponent doesn't have removal for it, it can be a bit of a beating). Maybe I just have glossy eyes for this card, but I like it better than the rest of the fliers in this pack.
Remember the Fallen is a (splashable) Morbid Plunder in white that can sometimes get back cycled spellbombs for more value, or get back a shattered Sword of X to totally ruin your opponent's day; in other words, it's pretty insane. I think the fact that this sets you up really well for pack 2 if the Raptor wheels and fits quite nicely in the U/W fliers deck this pack has in it means it's definitely one of the better picks. Gogo reliable card advantage.
Glistening Oil is clunky removal that can also randomly give your creatures double strike/wither if you need it. It, however, forces a heavy commitment to black which sets it a bar lower than Remember the Fallen. The fact that it CAN be a recurrable bomb that produces hypothetical card advantage means it's still an option however.
I went with Remember the Fallen because it leaves me the most open and has the most reliable amount of potential card advantage, but I don't think I could fault anyone for taking any of the 5 cards I talked about.
I'm surprised not many people are going for the better Naturalize in an artifact block. Good removal is good removal. I'd take it over any of these cards, because, while solid, none of them are bombs. And everybody knows you're supposed to pick Bombs>Removal>Solid Cards
This, pretty much. The Angel and Splicer, while definitely solid cards, are decidedly NOT bombs, and unless I saw them super late (5+ pick), I wouldn't be sure if I should move in on them, whereas if I saw a Corrupted Conscience or Viridian Corrupter 2nd or 3rd pick (both of which are TRUE limited bombs), I'd know there's a good chance blue or green is open and it'd be a good idea to get in on it.
Scorn is instant-speed removal (splashable, at that; sorry, Verdict) that hits a (obviously) large portion of the format and even has a ping attached to it, which becomes all the more relevant with phybrid in the format. It even comes with the not-so-irrelevant bonus of cutting green and shipping white (GW sucks), leaving yourself in a good position for pack 2, while still keeping you open due to the splashable nature of Scorn.
If Scorn wasn't in the pack, I'd slam the Angel no problem (a worse, white Fangren Marauder is still a Fangren Marauder). If not that, then Bludgeon Brawl just because the card is so awesome.
I would take the Impaler Shrike. I really liked going heavy blue fliers in MSS, and there are even more fliers in NPH, so cutting these guys early seems fine. The Unsummon is fine, but will not make people go into blue if they aren't already, which means I have a good chance of being passed more blue.
The Vital Splicer and Growth are ok, but there's quite a bit of green in this pack, and I wouldn't want to send the signal that green is open and get cut later. Additionally, I'm not quite sure how good the Growth is.
The Mortis Dog seems like a solid guy who trades for things and deals damage, but I'm not sure how good he really is. If I wasn't in love with blue fliers, I'd consider him, but as is, the Concentrate on a stick is my windmill slam. I don't think picking anything else out of this pack except one of these 4 cards could be right.
So kemba grabs an entire mountain to beat people to death with, along with an entire forest (not one tree, a FOREST), and entire island, the city of Emeria, marit lage trapped under ice, and BEATS PEOPLE WITH THEM, yet for some reason it doesn't do any additional damage. On the plus side, he keeps shaking the lands and cats fall out. Theres probably a youtube vid of that.
EDIT: similar concept, but more funny less useful: two eldrazi spawns play catch with a celestial collonnade until it wakes up and they drop it.
5. Equip Karn Liberated to Karn, Silver Golem and beat face.
6. ...And then turn Karn Liberated into an Artifact Planeswalker Equipment Creature using Karn, Silver Golem's ability.
Yes, you just made Karn attack using himself as a silver hammer, then made him drop himself because he used his own ability to turn himself into a creature.
It's non-italic for emphasis in an italic sentence. It's the same effect as italicizing a word in a non-italicized sentence.
Oh no, I know all that; what I'm saying is there isn't really any reason for the emphasis to be put on "incompleat" in that sentence (or at least, I don't think there should).
The image in the unmentionable PDF file says "incompleat".
I can confirm that my copy of the PDF says "incompleat" too, although its in a non-italic font (which makes no sense in context), so they could have changed it before it went to print. Maybe this will be the first time they have to errata flavour text?
5. Equip Karn Liberated to Karn, Silver Golem and beat face.
6. ...And then turn Karn Liberated into an Artifact Planeswalker Equipment Creature using Karn, Silver Golem's ability.
Yes, you just made Karn attack using himself as a silver hammer, then made him drop himself because he used his own ability to turn himself into a creature.
Can people confirm the PDF isn't an exploit, full of viruses, etc? I'm kinda paranoid about this stuff.
I can confirm it's fine (though why trust me, I only have 2 posts :P).
Yeah, pretty weird not seeing Darksteel Angel art on a card NOR any other planeswalkers. I mean, this thing is still totally real, but this will be the first block with a colour of planeswalker completely absent (green).
I think having my first post in one of the most insane leak threads in quite a while is worth while.
All cards are real. Looking at the godbook now. Pretty crazy. I've already seen 3 splicers, and that's only been in white...these splicer cycles are really, really neat.
There are a bunch of cards I could name as my favourite, but for nostalgia reasons I have to go with Kiln Fiend for being in my favourite colour and combining two of my favourite things - casting lots of spells and doing a bunch of direct damage - into one card, as well as being from the set I started with.
The Thopter is more suited to aggressive strategies and is much more fragile and likely to die to random pings (or, say, Pith Driller lol) before it can get any damage in, whereas the Driller always gets his counter on something. Implant is fragile, slow removal that gives your opponent too many opportunities to save their guy or 2-for-1 you (You: Put Implant on Pith Driller. Go. Opponent: Play Glint Hawk, bounce Driller, Play Driller, kill your Thopter. Go.). It's fine, but it's not as reliable or solid as the Driller.
The pick is unquestionably Pith Driller. Nothing else can really compare (my opinion of Remember the Fallen has...Fallen, as of late :p).
The 5 main contenders here (IMO) are Spire Monitor, Shriek Raptor, Impaler Shrike, Remember the Fallen, and Glistening Oil. The Monitor is a Sky-Eel School that trades the filter for flash, which makes it both better and worse than the School. It's certainly a fine card, but we can do better.
The Raptor is a Cystbearer with wings, which is pretty sweet, but is in the infect-lite colour white. Moving into white infect early is super risky, since it's possible the white infect cards are just never opened in NPH and Besieged or you get cut. And whereas Cystbearer was a fine defensive creature in decks with a good lategame (i.e. dinos), this card is much more expensive and open to more removal (anti-air) that you simply can't justify first picking this unless you have a hard-on for (white) infect. I would only take this later in the draft after I picked up some decent white cards (like Remember the Fallen *hint*), or if there was simply nothing else.
The Shrike is a powerful, though dangerous card to use since it dies to plenty of cards in the format. Its upside is really high, though, and card draw is so hard to come by in this format that this is somewhat of a common bomb (in that if your opponent doesn't have removal for it, it can be a bit of a beating). Maybe I just have glossy eyes for this card, but I like it better than the rest of the fliers in this pack.
Remember the Fallen is a (splashable) Morbid Plunder in white that can sometimes get back cycled spellbombs for more value, or get back a shattered Sword of X to totally ruin your opponent's day; in other words, it's pretty insane. I think the fact that this sets you up really well for pack 2 if the Raptor wheels and fits quite nicely in the U/W fliers deck this pack has in it means it's definitely one of the better picks. Gogo reliable card advantage.
Glistening Oil is clunky removal that can also randomly give your creatures double strike/wither if you need it. It, however, forces a heavy commitment to black which sets it a bar lower than Remember the Fallen. The fact that it CAN be a recurrable bomb that produces hypothetical card advantage means it's still an option however.
I went with Remember the Fallen because it leaves me the most open and has the most reliable amount of potential card advantage, but I don't think I could fault anyone for taking any of the 5 cards I talked about.
This, pretty much. The Angel and Splicer, while definitely solid cards, are decidedly NOT bombs, and unless I saw them super late (5+ pick), I wouldn't be sure if I should move in on them, whereas if I saw a Corrupted Conscience or Viridian Corrupter 2nd or 3rd pick (both of which are TRUE limited bombs), I'd know there's a good chance blue or green is open and it'd be a good idea to get in on it.
Scorn is instant-speed removal (splashable, at that; sorry, Verdict) that hits a (obviously) large portion of the format and even has a ping attached to it, which becomes all the more relevant with phybrid in the format. It even comes with the not-so-irrelevant bonus of cutting green and shipping white (GW sucks), leaving yourself in a good position for pack 2, while still keeping you open due to the splashable nature of Scorn.
If Scorn wasn't in the pack, I'd slam the Angel no problem (a worse, white Fangren Marauder is still a Fangren Marauder). If not that, then Bludgeon Brawl just because the card is so awesome.
The Vital Splicer and Growth are ok, but there's quite a bit of green in this pack, and I wouldn't want to send the signal that green is open and get cut later. Additionally, I'm not quite sure how good the Growth is.
The Mortis Dog seems like a solid guy who trades for things and deals damage, but I'm not sure how good he really is. If I wasn't in love with blue fliers, I'd consider him, but as is, the Concentrate on a stick is my windmill slam. I don't think picking anything else out of this pack except one of these 4 cards could be right.
Man, I think this my favourite card in the set.
Oh no, I know all that; what I'm saying is there isn't really any reason for the emphasis to be put on "incompleat" in that sentence (or at least, I don't think there should).
I can confirm that my copy of the PDF says "incompleat" too, although its in a non-italic font (which makes no sense in context), so they could have changed it before it went to print. Maybe this will be the first time they have to errata flavour text?
I think I can 1-Up that.
1. Play Karn, Silver Golem.
2. Play Karn Liberated.
3. Play Bludgeon Brawl.
4. Play Liquimetal Coating and turn Karn Liberated into an Artifact Planeswalker Equipment.
5. Equip Karn Liberated to Karn, Silver Golem and beat face.
6. ...And then turn Karn Liberated into an Artifact Planeswalker Equipment Creature using Karn, Silver Golem's ability.
Yes, you just made Karn attack using himself as a silver hammer, then made him drop himself because he used his own ability to turn himself into a creature.
I can confirm it's fine (though why trust me, I only have 2 posts :P).
Yeah, pretty weird not seeing Darksteel Angel art on a card NOR any other planeswalkers. I mean, this thing is still totally real, but this will be the first block with a colour of planeswalker completely absent (green).
All cards are real. Looking at the godbook now. Pretty crazy. I've already seen 3 splicers, and that's only been in white...these splicer cycles are really, really neat.