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Whiteout Conditions

Throne of Eldraine isn’t a snow-based set, but Ryan Saxe is experiencing whiteout conditions Pack 1, Pick 1! What is the strongest card in the color, and should you leave the rest of the table to fight over it?

Pack 1, Pick 1

The Pack:

The Pick:

Wow, the pack is chock-full of white cards. Which is the best, though? Outflank is not a card I like very much. Righteous Blow and Impeccable Timing tend to be poor Limited cards, and even though Outflank can scale well with the game, it can also be blown out by removal.

Silverflame Squire is a very, very good two-drop. If you eat a creature in combat with the adventure instant, Silverflame Squire is card advantage functioning like Briarhorn. However, both Charming Prince and Syr Alin, the Lion’s Claw are too much better to consider the Squire. Charming Prince is one of the best two-drops possible for Limited because it scales well into the late-game. Any two-drop with a high ceiling and a low floor should be taken highly. And even though Syr Alin is arguably more impactful on a game of Limited, as a 4/4 first strike creature can completely dominate a game, I think the difference in mana cost makes this pick Charming Prince by a reasonable margin.

The reason why I put Thrill of Possibility as an option is because it is the only red card, and I can see some players coming to the conclusion that it’s correct to pass the white cards and let the rest of the table fight for them. Additionally, Thrill of Possibility is the only red card and a very important synergy piece for the Izzet archetype because that archetype cares about drawing two cards in the same turn. Overall, this is overthinking it. The delta in power-level between Thrill and the best white cards is just too high to justify the pick.

Pack 1, Pick 2

The Picks So Far:

The Pack:

The Pick:

All three options in this pack are cards I would be happy to first-pick. Clockwork Servant is a powerful colorless option, and Shepherd of the Flock and Keeper of Fables are both good value creatures!

If this were Pack 1, Pick 1, I would take Keeper of Fables because I think it is too much more powerful than the other options, but it’s possible that Charming Prince changes this prioritization. Shepherd of the Flock and Charming Prince both enable reusing enters-the-battlefield effects and are in the same color. This helps skew towards a very strong white deck. Most white decks lose late-game power because of their aggressive nature, but this start would help enable a more flexible white deck.

Given that Shepherd of the Flock is better than Clockwork Servant in basically all white decks, the only reason to take Clockwork Servant is for an additional layer of flexibility. I don’t think that logic holds up well, and hence for me the decision is between Shepherd of the Flock and Keeper of Fables.

I know I talked about the mana delta between two-drops and five-drops in Pack 1, Pick 1 of this draft, but the power-level delta is much larger here. Shepherd of the Flock is a good card, but it will likely have a much smaller impact on the game than Keeper of Fables. Keeper of Fables can singlehandedly take over the game. And while Syr Alin can do that as well, the opponent can still draw out of it with a removal spell in a couple of turns. With Keeper of Fables, the card advantage generated in those turns may be too much of an advantage to overcome. I usually lean on the cheaper cards in these scenarios, and I wouldn’t fault anyone for taking Shepherd of the Flock, but I’m taking Keeper of Fables.

Pack 1, Pick 3

The Picks So Far:

The Pack:

The Pick:

Righteousness may look like a good card because it’s guaranteed to kill creatures in combat for one mana, but it’s still easy to blow out and too conditional. I try to avoid putting cards like that in my deck when possible. It’s likely not embarrassing and a fine inclusion, but below par.

If I took Shepherd of the Flock Pack 1, Pick 2, the correct pick out of this pack would be Venerable Knight by a reasonable margin. While Savannah Lions is never a particularly impressive card in Limited, it does make for the best possible aggressive draws, which are important to have access to for many white decks. However, without the skew towards an aggressive white deck, this is less enticing.

For me, this pick is between Spinning Wheel and Scalding Cauldron. There are cards that care about artifacts in this set, both picks keep me reasonably open, and both cards are fine, albeit a bit expensive. If my final deck has enough removal and doesn’t care about artifact synergy, it’s possible to cut Scalding Cauldron. And if my deck isn’t looking for mana fixing, a mana sink, or the bump from three mana to five mana, then Spinning Wheel seems mediocre.

However, with a powerful five-drop in my pool already and a splashable two-drop (yes, I think Charming Prince is that good), Spinning Wheel could be perfect for the deck. I believe Scalding Cauldron is the safe pick, but early in a format I often lean towards the cards that are harder to evaluate in order to learn about them. Because of this, I’m taking Spinning Wheel.

Additionally, I think this card may start underrated anyway. One issue with mana rocks is that they become irrelevant when the mana advantage no longer matters. With Spinning Wheel, at this point in the game thre should be plenty of excess mana to take advantage of the tapping ability, which is powerful enough to swing a game!