Welcome back to yet another Crack a Pack MTG with Bruce. Believe it or not, this is our 10th Crack a Pack! I can hardly believe it because that means we’ve been at this for 10 weeks now! We’ve seen everything from all three sets from Theros block, some Conspiracy, a little Return to Ravnica, and of course plenty of M15. It’s been fun and I can hardly wait to get started on the next 10 weeks! A big thank you goes out to the readers who take the time to stop and take a quick read at what I’ve written. Thanks very much and I hope to keep it up for all of you in the coming weeks and months. So, without further delay, let’s see what we’ve got in this pack!
On the whole, I’m pretty excited about this pack because there are a number of quality cards in this pack. There are also some HUGE duds, but I think the premium cards in this pack outweigh the bad ones by a fair margin.
Let’s start with our Rare, Life’s Legacy. This is an interesting card that might have some interesting ramifications because it can enable mass card draw in Green, meaning it could be useful. However, I need to ask myself, in exactly what scenario do I want to play this card? If i’m losing? No…because I’m likely needing to sacrifice one of my blockers, and that won’t help me win the war. If I’m just starting the game? No…not likely…because the creature is likely to be smallish, and I would rather get off to fast start than try to draw a few extra cards by sacrificing a creature. What if we’re in a stalled board state or one with no clear leader? Doubtful, although I won’t rule it out. I might like the extra cards if the blocker that is holding them back is reasonably safe and I can spare a creature to sacrifice in order to eek out a little more advantage. However, sacrificing my creature is likely going to set me back in real terms on the board and run the risk of me breaking the board stall…but in the wrong direction meaning I’ll soundly get thrashed. Lastly, if I’m leading, this might be a reasonable card so that I don’t run out of gas. Basically, it is a bad card in a number of scenarios, and marginally playable in a number more meaning that I probably don’t want to take this first. If it comes around the table, and in this pack it just might because the relative strength of the pack, THEN I might take a chance on it, otherwise I’ll go in a different direction for my first pick.
Kird Chieftain grabs my attention as being a very solid creature. If you are prepared to play Red/Green this is a can’t miss BOMB. A 4/4 for 4 mana is already very good, but the extra activated ability makes this guy a real menace. The sheer strength of this card makes it very appealing and can make your team tough to deal with. In most packs this is a slam dunk, but there are a number of other interesting cards in this pack.
Triplicate Spirits is in this pack and you can’t overlook it. Draft results are showing that Triplicate Spirits just crushes games because the three fliers just break open almost any board state. The synergy with Selfless Cathar or Sanctified Charge is unmistakable and the net result is an absolute beat down of pretty significant proportions. This was routinely picked first at the Pro Tour and with good reason, and so I would need to look at it. The drawback with this card is that I get the sense that White is over drafted because EVERYONE wants in on the Triplicate Spirits/Sanctified Charge game plan and so you might be in competition for the same cards. However, to pass the Spirits means you are FOR SURE going to see it played against you, so you might be well served just to grab it and try to make White happen, but be 100% prepared to switch colours in you sense that you are being cut from White pretty hard.
Sanctified Charge is the other half of the combo, and it is also in this pack. It isn’t a first pick, but I’d love to grab both cards out of this pack and ensure that I’m on the game plan.
A few weeks ago I raved about Quickling, and I’m still a big fan. Flying “bears” are awesome threats, and if I can recur something, ANYTHING, by bringing it back to my hand, well, I’m pretty sold on this card. It isn’t the flashiest of cards but it is reliable, packs evasion, and is efficient for my mana investment. This is a first pick in some packs, but not this one, although it would get some serious attention.
Caustic Tar seems like a lousy card because it enchants a land for 6 mana. However, it is a great way to break a stalemate by ensuring you have a safe and sure method of delivering 3 damage a turn. That puts your opponent on a relatively quick clock and can help you to salt away those grindy games that seem to have no obvious way to wind up.
Blastfire Bolt is super expensive removal, but later in the round you will need removal and this just might be something you have to grab. You won’t be excited, but you’ll do it and you’ll be thankful you did when you can BBQ some threat on your opponent’s side of the board.
Zof Shade, Glacial Crasher, and Soulmender are reasonable creatures, but none of them get me excited. They are role players and interchangeable so I won’t be overly concerned if I grab one much later.
Invisibility, Clear a Path, and Hunter’s Ambush are all very narrow cards and not overly useful. These would be the last cards in this pack that I’d be looking at and would be hoping an opponent would mistakenly grab one of these useless cards in this pack allowing me a second chance at something better once it wheels around.
In the end, it comes down to 2 cards, namely Kird Chieftain and Triplicate Spirits. In this instance I am going to have to side with Ben Stark who first picked this at the Pro Tour over a number of very good cards. The reason is simple: I can’t let my opponent get a hold of this. I don’t want to spend first pick hate drafting, but the fact remains this card is exceptionally powerful and if you can grab a Sanctified Charge to pair along with it you are going to steal a number of games. Now, IF I can make White work, I’ll be very happy and my first pick is not just about hate drafting, but the competition for White is often stiff so I will need to be prepared to move colours quickly if I’m cut off from White. If I move colours I will not be sad to have the Spirits in my pile ensuring that I will not need to face it down the road in the deck of one of my opponents. I would very much like to be in White and then pair it with something else, but if I can’t I won’t force it too much. I’ll be sad to let the Chieftain go because it is a bomb, but I almost feel like it is easier to cope with even though it is much larger…it dies to a single removal spell…while the Spirits become a nightmare once the spell resolves.
There we have it…week 10 in the books! What do you think? Should I have rolled the dice on the Life’s Legacy? The Chieftain? The Quickling? Or am I well served grabbing the Spirits and moving on? Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear all about it.
Next week I’m not sure what I’ll open…M15 is cool and all, but it feels like it is starting to get a little stale. Maybe I’ll get back in my “Way Back” machine and see if I can find a retro pack of some sort, just to liven things up a little. I don’t know…let me think on it and I’ll let you know.
Once again, thanks for reading and until next time, may you open nothing by Mythic bombs.
by Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters @bgray8791 on Twitter
Welcome back to another Crack a pack MTG with Bruce. Last week we busted open a pack of Journey into Nyx, but that draft format has come and gone. Sure, you might get a chance to Retro draft that, but let’s be real, the new hot game in town is M15 draft. We had a chance to watch the Pros draft M15 and got some neat new perspectives on things as some of the best drafters on the planet did their thing. Honestly, to watch Ben Stark or some of the other greats of the game draft is something else. I also had a chance to listen to Limited Resources and hear how Marshall Sutcliffe and Brian Wong, both very well respected limited players, regard the M15 draft format and with some interesting results. Both of them commented on how unusual a format this is because there doesn’t seem to be a correct draft order for the cards. Everything COULD be playable…but in that same vein everything COULD be the wrong pick. It makes for some interesting choices and reads at the draft table. So, with those ideas in mind, I thought a pack of M15 would suit our style just right…so here we go!
This is pretty average pack, but there are certainly some stand out cards in this pack that really catch my eye. The first place to start is with our Rare. Stormtide Leviathan is a massive 8 mana 8/8 creature that also has Islandwalk, turns all lands into islands along with their other type, and ensures that only creatures with Flying and Islandwalk can attack. Ok…normally I’m down on 8 mana fatty, but this guy can just lock an opponent out of their game plan and seal the deal for you. I’m actually mildly interested by this guy and what it could mean at the end of the game if I need to bust open a board stall. This will actually get a little consideration because the upside is actually so high.
Next, Quickling is exactly the sort of card I want to run. This is basically a flying “bear” with a downside…except I don’t think it is actually a downside at all. The fact that it was Flash means you can flash it in, bounce a creature that was about to die, and then recast your creature meaning that you don’t actually lose out. You could also reap the benefits of an Enter the Battlefield trigger if you can wangle it. No, this is very versatile, cheap, evasive, and could synergize nicely with a wide variety of fun creatures.
On Limited Resource, Marshall Sutcliffe was expounding on the virtues of Coral Barrier and I have to agree with him. This innocuous little 1/3 defender comes along with a squid token giving you a very solid return for your mana investment. Also, the fact that the squid has Islandwalk could also be very relevant. If you can synergize this guy with an Invasive Species or a Quickling you could really see some benefits and start to build a board state that really puts you in the driver’s seat. This is a very solid creature and would be high on my priority list.
The next creature that I would be looking at is the always boring Carrion Crow. A 2/2 flier for 3 mana makes this a Wind Drake. No one is going to write home about a Wind Drake, but the Crow is a serviceable flier and could make all the difference.
Sign In Blood is another card I’ve always liked because of the versatility. Usually I would cast this on myself to draw a pair of cards because I need to restock my hand. However, this one is versatile enough to target your opponent and effectively “shock” them . This seems like a silly way to use your spell, but if you are out front and you just can’t quite close the deal, sometimes “shocking” them with a Sign In Blood is all you’ve got left.
Shrapnel Blast is nice card mostly for the rather sick amount of damage it can deliver in short order. My only issue is that I’m not really sure that I dig the U/R artifact deck in this draft format and so I don’t prioritize this very highly. The only way I end up on THAT game plan is if I find “angry scissors” (Ensoul Artifact) early on and can then craft my deck to make use of artifacts. Otherwise, if I see things like Shrapnel Blast, Aeronaut Tinkerer and Scrapyard Mongrel, they aren’t as interesting to me and will be things that I would be looking at later in the round.
Plummet is always a fun card and something I like very much. Nothing like a Terror for fliers.
Research Assistant is an interesting card because of the “looting” ability that it packs. Late in the game, when I’m drawing more land than I need, I will HAPPILY pay the expensive activation cost on this guy for the chance to draw something more useful. Otherwise, he’s interesting, but not a super high priority and at common I’m likely to see at least one more before the end of the draft.
Ephemeral Shield is a nice combat trick. I’m not sure if I like it better than Ajani’s Presence from Journey Into Nyx. Ajani’s Presence has Strive meaning I can protect more than a single creature, but Ephemeral Shield has Convoke meaning you could still cast it even if you had no mana up to cast it. Either way, Ephemeral Shield is a very solid trick that can come in handy to save creature or lead to some sort of busted combat scenario. It isn’t a high priority for me, but if I find myself considering playing White I’d like to know that I have at least one in my pile.
Satyr Wayfinder, Thundering Giant, Black Cat, and Runeclaw Bear are all perfectly acceptable creatures, but they are largely interchangeable depending on what strategy you want to play. My motto for Drafting is always “more bodies is always good” and these help you to fill out those creature spots in your deck. I won’t turn my nose up at these guys.
Feast on the Fallen. Ok, I feel like this is a TERRIBLE card. The set up cost, of making an opponent lose life in order to trigger the effect, is very high. And then, what is more, you get a SINGLE +1/+1 counter! I’m sorry…that seems like a very low return for working hard to do damage to an opponent. Beyond the relatively low return, Feast on the Fallen does nothing to the board state. It doesn’t STOP my opponent from doing anything to me, it eats a card slot in my deck, and has a marginal effect even when I can trigger it. No, this is a bad card. I’ll pass it all day long.
For my first pick in this pack I would be weighing the Leviathan or the Quickling. In the end, I would likely pick the Quickling. With the Quickling I can almost be assured that I can cast it every game. 2 mana is very achievable (and if you don’t draw 2 mana before the game is over you may have done something terribly wrong) while the 8 needed for the Leviathan is not a sure bet. Besides, the Flying “bear” with synergy is super appealing and very much of interest to me. So, at the end of the day I would take the Quickling and leave the Leviathan to go around.
It also bears mentioning at this point that this pack is a BUST for players in White and Red. The vast majority of the cards in this deck are Black, Green, and Blue meaning that you could reasonably expect that there will be players beside you that will also be in those colours. After a single pick I wouldn’t get worried, but I would start to become conscious of such factors as the draft continued.
Well, there we go. We’ve seen a number of M15 packs and seem some pretty interesting stuff. Would you have gone with the Leviathan? Quickling? Something else? These choices start to get tricky and some other points of view will help us all, some shoot me a tweet and let me know what you think.
Next week I’m going to go and truly find a Retro pack…something from the Return to Ravnica block will be on deck. Which set? That’s a surprise for next week, but it will no doubt bring back a measure of nostalgia for those of us who enjoyed RTR or GTC draft formats.
So, until next time, may you open only Mythic Rare Bomb.
Thanks for reading
By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters @bgray8791 on Twitter
| Set Name | Magic 2015—Core Set |
| Number of Cards | 269 |
| Prerelease Events | July 12-13, 2014 |
| Release Date | July 18, 2014 |
| Launch Weekend | July 18-20, 2014 |
| Game Day | August 9-10, 2014 |
| Magic Online Prerelease Events | July 25-27, 2014 |
| Magic Online Release Date | July 28, 2014 |
| Pro Tour Magic 2015 | August 1-3, 2014 |
| Pro Tour Magic 2015Location | Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Pro Tour Magic 2015Formats | Swiss:
Top 8:
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| Official Three-Letter Code | M15 |
| Twitter Hashtag | #MTGM15 |
| Initial Concept and Game Design | Aaron Forsythe (lead) Max McCall Shawn Main Mike Gills Jenna Helland |
| Final Game Design and Development | Billy Moreno (lead) Shawn Main Adam Lee Tom LaPille Sam Stoddard |
| Languages | English, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish |
| Available in | Booster Packs, Intro Packs*, Clash Pack*, Fat Pack*
(* – Not available in all languages) |
