what's the pick? pack 1, pick 1 - brimstone volley or civilised scolar?

[ross miles]

Its all in the title!

[Peter Dun]

its a little difficult to explain my situation at the moment... but lets just say that my internet is inconsistent so there's no need now

 

I just realised that I didn't explain why looting was so good in this format

1) Card quality advantage (this is the same in every format, but this format is a little slower)

2) Flashback and cards like Ghoulcaller's chant (so looting = ca)

3) Skaabs (so looting enables you to play large creatures early)

4) Powerful Equipment (so looting allows you to play narrow md answers like naturalize, and be able to find them in time, or throw them away)

5) Bomb heavy format (so looting allows you to find your bombs more consistently)

6) Splashing easy to do, and common (looting helps you find your grottos and discard dead splash cards)

[Thomas David Baker]

I had no idea there was any debate about this.  Volley is nuts good because this is Limited where removal is at a premium and you are often racing (and 5 to the face makes a lot of difference in a race).  And you will definitely splash it if you don't end up in R.  But Peter's arguments are interesting.  If I see a Scholar I'll consider first-picking it and going into self-mill.

[Philip Dickinson]

aren't you pretty much always going to be milling if you are in blue? i can't really think of any blue archetypes where i wouldn't be wanting to fill my GY

Thomas David Baker said:

I had no idea there was any debate about this.  Volley is nuts good because this is Limited where removal is at a premium and you are often racing (and 5 to the face makes a lot of difference in a race).  And you will definitely splash it if you don't end up in R.  But Peter's arguments are interesting.  If I see a Scholar I'll consider first-picking it and going into self-mill.

[Kieran Symington]

Got to be the Volley for me even though I agree with everyone who says that Scholar is the better card. Thing is, regardless of what deck you play, you'll be either main-decking or splashing the Volley, whilst you could easily end up cutting the Scholar if the Blue dries up. I just think you have to make your first pick something that either wins by itself or that you'll play in any deck - though it might just be me being ultra-conservative.

[ross miles]

Why such a determination to splash .... Ideally I don't want to splash, I want an awesome deck with no mana troubles ... I understand you will probably splash volley, but this is not unambigously good ...

[MarcoOJ]

pretty sure im taking volley, card is nuts

[MarcoOJ]

ps splashing isnt great im not taking it because i think ill play it more often but because its just better

[Peter Dun]

you like red in this format?

[MarcoOJ]

Not really but i think all the colours are pretty balanced. Volley so strong that i really cant see taking looter over it over it even in a fairly gy based format.

[MarcoOJ]

Having done a few more drafts now im starting to think maybe i was wrong....

[Peter Dun]

p1p1 firebolt or cephalid looter ;)

[MarcoOJ]

i think brimstone is the pick still, but it's much closer than i thought before