Your thoughts on "junk" commons

cloysterd · Joined: 24 Jan 2007 Posts: 48

With nearly a week of Shadowmoor drafting complete, I'm wondering what people think of these cards that seem to be popular 15th picks. Any others you think might be underrated?

Memory Sluice - Has anybody tried drafting these? Seems like you could easily get 6 or 7 and mill like crazy.

Cerulean/Viridescent Wisps - Not great, obviously, but cheap cantrips that can be quick combat tricks or hose some powerful stuff. Playable?

Gleeful Sabotage - With all the Scarecrows and monster enchantments running around, it seems like this could be worth maindecking. Too bad it's a sorcery.

Mine Excavation - Even remotely playable? Maybe with a lot of Scarecrows?

Delicious · Joined: 08 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Memory Sluice- bitterblossom anyone?

Wisps: hmm, i love playing black, so if i start encountering alot of cameleons around, i might splash a color so i can block th emight chameleon

Gleeful- i think thi one might actually see play, with amount of people running elves and making tokens, it might see SB play

Mine- hmm, unless someone is playing like turbofog or WB rogues/faeries, i don't think it will see play

Thorns · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 820 Location: Rath

ransom3 · Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 142

Memory Sluice is pretty h4x0r. Also, I'm fairly sure that drafting fits in pretty solidly in the Limited category.

Thorns · Joined: 16 Aug 2006 Posts: 820 Location: Rath

Avata · Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 372

My thoughts:

Memory Sluice - I'd say "viable - maybe." If this card were an instant, I'd be all over it as an alternative win. As a sorcery, it's hard to know whether your average u/b control is really going to be in the position to tap down to of their own guys on their turn, and if they are, how often are those going to be offensive beaters that would be better spent flying overhead for a shot to the dome? That said, if it feels like you're getting a lot of them late in the first half of the draft, you could pick them higher later on and end up with a weird sort of u-b control with early drops, and just steal random matches by resolving three of them early. (Kind of reminds me the old arcane-milling from Kamigawa block draft - it usually didn't work, but when it did, it worked amazingly just because opponents had no weapons to deal with you.)

Various Wisps - Absolutely playable. Every single one of them gives some small relevant benefit at least (although I like the red and green ones the least) and if you're hurting for playables, you'll happily add these guys purely as deck thinning agents. The blue one can be a sick combat trick at the right time, and the black and white ones can at least marginally throw off racing math, which is a good thing.

The other two, I dunno. Gleeful Sabotage seems like a sideboard card at best (although I could be wrong, and as a sideboard card, there are definitely matchups where I could see this thing being a monster). Mine excavation seems "okay" if you have a deck built for it with a lot of scarecrows (to make sure you have more than one artifact in the gy) and "must kill" artifacts or enchantments (to make sure that when you cast excavation, your opponent knows he's in huge trouble). But, that's really situational. It's probably one of those cards that you'll feel comfy having in your sb, but you'll find never quite justifies it's way into the main.

Delicious · Joined: 08 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

sorry, didn't read lol

SaTiVa · Joined: 09 Jun 2005 Posts: 190

I have been main decking 1 copy of gleeful/smash since the high prevailence of scarecrows and enchants....
that memory card well ... i see u have to mill about 25 cards in limited to actually mill the player

that means u need to play 3 (conspired) for 24 cards... for u to draw 3 of that card in ur top 15 means u want about 8 in the deck ... so you would hae to be gunning for them from early in the draft

Lastly about the wisps they are all playable and i would never mind having any single wisp in my deck ... just playing multiples i could see as a little sloppy

Avata · Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 372

Well, you have to mill about 25 cards assuming you're looking to get into a race situation. If you can stabilize the board 1) you could have much more time to draw the necessary three copies and/or 2) two copies would be sufficient to end the game.