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Roberto:
If you are one of the lucky ones who won packs this past weekend at your local Pre-Release, you may have already drafted Rise of the Eldrazi once or twice. But there is a great number of people who haven’t yet had the chance to try out this awesome format. Being able to draft Rise of Eldrazi has been a great experience so far. Me and a few friends from my playgroup; Greg, Jon O, Noah and DraftMagic.com’s own Kevin Hulse; all have at least four drafts under our belts, and as a fun exercise we decided to open a pack and debate on the best limited cards for triple-Rise draft.
The Pack
The first thing we noticed is that Staggershock, Narcolepsy and the Firemage are all first-picks in many situations. The quick glance at the pack shows us an impending fight over red, a lack of any real depth in the Blue, Black, and White slices of the pie, and an interesting rare. Kor Spiritdancer might just be a break-out bomb first-pick, but none of us at the table had any experience with the card in draft. It’s a risky pick, but potentially an extremely rewarding one.
Greg decided he would take the Narcolepsy, deciding to signal his opponents to the left to play Red. There’s also zero great black cards, which gives him lots of options as far as controlling the table and making pack 2 profitable.
Jon O. made the same choice, noting the red signal as a big factor, but also arguing in favor of the Aura’s ability to shut down late game threats like Ulamogs Crusher, saying this is probably the best blue common in the set.
Noah chose to grab Brimstone Firemage. There was lots of discussion about Staggershock vs. Firemage, but Noah and myself both cited this card as much more likely to dominate a game. Passing the shock will not be a huge problem as long as we continue to grab the good red cards later in the pack.
Kevin was tempted by Ondu Giant, seeing as it’s the only solid Green card in the pack, and green is a color well worth fighting for. In the end though, he broke down and went for the Narcolepsy. This enchantment is just too good; answering almost every threat in the format by itself; and Giant just isn’t good enough by itself to be picked over such incredible removal.
Though I consider Brimstone Firemage to be the top pick out of most packs, here I had eyes for the rare. While it went mostly un-discussed among my group, Spiritdancer is the kind of card I would consider taking over even some of the stronger commons and uncommons in Rise of the Eldrazi. Considering the sizable number of Umbras that go around a table, this creature on turn two can very quickly take over a game, especially given the protection of Totem Armor. Just grab two Hyena Umbras along with a few other miscellaneous auras, and the Dancer will power your entire gameplan. Also worth noting is there’s a likely spin pick here to help this strategy in the form of Eland Umbra.
It was a fun exercise for all of us, and I recommend it for any of you who have a pack here or there. Rise of Eldrazi is an infant draft format, but will mature before you know it and simple games like this will ready you for your next fun-filled draft.
My choice would have been Narcolepsy as well.
I would probably go with staggershock or narcolepsy. I haven’t drafted yet, so I can’t say which is better, but I can see the arguments for both. Staggershock is a natural 2/1, and helps most when you have an aggressive deck, while narcolepsy takes care of a much broader range of problems.
The brimstone mage was a little too costly to activate when i was playing with it at the prerelease, though if your opponent stumbles on mana after he is out, you basically win the game.
Jon A
Narcolepsy seems correct. Probably the best removal in the set.
Staggershock is not right over Firemage I’m almost positive. Playing firemage as Grey Ogre and activating it when it matters makes it hugely versatile. If the game draws out then he goes into Shotgun Mode and double-barrels the enemy board. He’s one of my highest picks in the entire format…
Noah and Brett do the shark-pound and nab the Brimstone Mage! I have only done a single Rise of the Eldrazi draft and Brimstone Mage was not opened, but it is obviously broken. Noah, keep pickin’ up change! Berto, you also get props as I really want to try out Kor Spiritdancer, but wouldn’t have it in me to take it here. Experimenting early in the format really is the way to go, but I always get too caught up in crushing face first and evaluating question marks later.
Thx brett cards a bomb and the person to the left of you is gonna pick the narcolepsy and your just gonna not have a red fight with a person that only passes to you 1 of the 3 packs and something Brimstone mage is just a blowout. Sometimes you just play it and you level it up, and then you opponent can play any guys that have one toughness and it just rapes eldrazi spawn.
Noah W
After a lot of play this past week, narcolepsy by a mile. There are a few corner cases where it doesn’t deal totally with a problem (pestilence demon, etc) but in general, it’s one of the best ways to deal with most too huge to deal with threats. Hulse suggested splashing it in my sealed (2 copies) and it was a champ. I will be looking for this card in draft to splash, along with one of the best cards to deal with it – http://findmagiccards.com/Cards/RE/Emerge_Unscathed.html
Test – Emerge Unscathed
I like the totem armors a lot but the Eland Umbra just isn’t worth grabbing first pick. I would go for the kor spiritdancer. I would rather win in a fast fun way with spiritdancer rather by dominating with narcolepsy or the firemage.
Seriously, control is overrated. I’ve had decks full of removal, and I’ll just lose. I’ve had it happen over and over. You win by reducing your opponent to zero, not by slowing the game to a crawl.
In short: Spiritdancer