Another pick! This time we come in at the 4th pick of the first pack of a recent draft I had on cockatrice. (The list is below, along with my final deck from the draft.) The first three picks of this draft were easy. Sol Ring was the obvious choice, Worn Powerstone is a card I’m liking more and more and there wasn’t anything else that stood out in that pack, and I felt that with two artifacts Search for Knowledge seemed good, especially in a powered 360 cube where I not only want to be blue but will be guaranteed of at least having all the power in the pool. When I arrived at this pack, my options to stay open continue, but this was also a good opportunity to commit further if I chose to do so. The pack is as follows:
The cards I’m seriously considering are Coalition Relic, Phyrexian Metamorph, Mystical Tutor, Trinket Mage, and Simic Signet, with the latter three much further down the list. The rest of this pack has goodies as well and I’ll probably wheel something. UW is a great color combination for Moat decks, but I’m not married to blue and wouldn’t take a new, double-colored spell here. Ulamog is great but he is one of a million fatties, and the same goes for Bloodgift Demon with the added benefit of being another color. I’d rather not commit to either of the red strategies here, and Lotus Cobra is not the ramp I’ll be picking in this pack. Marsh Flats is cool but again I’m not necessarily either color, and it’d be a treat if I ended up in either and the Flats tabled. These cards are not serious considerations compared to the previous 5 of Relic, Metamorph, Tutor, Mage, and Signet.
Simic Signet is good but can never be the pick here. If I’m trying to stay open, there are two much better cards in Metamorph and Coalition Relic that more that make up for costing 1 more. If I want to take a blue card, I think Mystical Tutor and Trinket Mage are better options as they more firmly commit and cut the color, as they are the only actual blue cards in the pack. There are also a multitude of other amazing cards, so maybe Signet wheels and I take it there.
Mystical Tutor would be cool and I’m sure there are plenty of spells I’d want to grab, but right now I only have the Thirst for Knowledge. While it’s super likely that if I stay in blue I’ll have plenty of spells to grab, it’s power level is still undetermined and the other cards have a higher presented ceiling. If Sol Ring and Worn Powerstone were something silly like Ancestral Recall and Mind Twist, Mystical Tutor is potentially a much easier pick because I have a 2nd copy of two high-impact spells. That’s not the case though, so Mystical Tutor is further down the list.
I rate Trinket Mage higher than most, but in a powered cube he’s like a blue Wood Elves that is larger and potentially grabbing a better ramper or utility spell. With Sol Ring as a pick, I know Trinket Mage will be grabbing a pretty sick card a lot of the time, and this early in the draft I can prioritize picks like Sensei’s Divining Top, Skullclamp, or even Relic of Progenitus from out of the sideboard to turn Trinket Mage into a much more versatile card. Trinket Mage could wheel out of this pack depending on what I pick though, as this pack is pretty stacked for all types of decks, and Trinket Mage needs a target to be good.
The pick is really between Phyrexian Metamorph and Coalition Relic. At the time, I chose the Coalition Relic, and I’m 50-50 on whether that was the right call. There were certainly games where having the Coalition Relic was much better as being the actual sick ramp card instead of a semi-dead card in my hand waiting for action to build instead of building it. But there were times where copying one of my giant things or other creatures on the field would’ve been better. With my fixing lacking with two lands being replaced by moxen, something I’m pretty comfortable with doing, the Coalition Relic allowed me to cast all my double-color-costed planeswalkers pretty early. Two moxen afforded me many opportunity to blow opponents out with early bigger ramp into way earlier planeswalkers and giant creatures.
What would you choose? Leave a comment to let us know, and thanks for reading!
1 Sol Ring
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Coalition Relic
1 Mulldrifter
1 Frost Titan
1 Path to Exile
1 Preordain
1 Simic Signet
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sundering Titan
1 Ravages of War
1 Wrath of God
1 Grim Monolith
1 Tundra
1 Karn Liberated
1 Counterspell
1 Batterskull
1 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Faith’s Fetters
9 Island
5 Plains
SB: 1 Soldier of the Pantheon
SB: 1 Ajani Vengeant
SB: 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
SB: 1 Imperial Recruiter
SB: 1 Stormblood Berserker
SB: 1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
SB: 1 Student of Warfare
SB: 1 Inkwell Leviathan
SB: 1 Hero of Bladehold
SB: 1 Looter il-Kor
SB: 1 Underground Sea
SB: 1 Unexpectedly Absent
SB: 1 Unburial Rites
SB: 1 Man-o’-War
SB: 1 Inquisition of Kozilek
SB: 1 Searing Spear
SB: 1 Sword of War and Peace
SB: 1 Metalworker
SB: 1 Mishra’s Workshop
SB: 2 Swamp
SB: 2 Island
SB: 2 Plains
This is the cube list used
http://tappedout.net/mtg-cube-drafts/geothrixs-brutal-list-copy-21-03-14-1/