Here's the table:
Drana is clearly the consensus best rare, with only Kurtis and myself differing from the crowd. Guul Draz Assassin had the most votes as the 2nd best rare, and Vendetta beat Staggershock as best common. Additionally, Corpsehatch had two votes for best uncommon, leading to the conclusion black is a very strong color at all rarities.
Kurtis notably differed from everyone's pick for best un/common, most likely due to his unnatural affinity for drafting levelers. He's been having a lot of success with the archetype so it isn't entirely unreasonable his picks are valid.
My picks for best rares are off my personal experience rather than an abstract evaluation. Having beaten many Dranas and Assassins and yet to lose with Conscription or Ooze.
3 comments:
Conscription was in a virtual tie with second best rare for me, but the fact that it's an Umbra and there are so many answers to Umbras in this format. A simple Guard Duty or Narcolepsy deals with it and not with Drana, Sphinx, Assassin, or Genesis.
I do think Kurtis is insane with Time of Heroes and Venerated Teacher as his picks. Definitely not the best cards in the set, especially when the whole table is trying to draft that deck on MODO and RL.
Although I like Corpsehatch at Unc, I think Treespeaker and Cryptologist are still the best two.
Jacob has some spicy picks but I don't think either are anywhere close to the best unc/c.
Personally I think Flame Slash is a better common then Staggershock, because Staggershock only 2 for 1's bad opponents who do not play around it, which is pretty much everyone at FNM. Wish I could have drawn one tonight in R1...
Conscription is possibly the number 1 rare to first pick first pack. It is not the most powerful rare in the set however. It is probably top 5 however.
Corpsehatch is probably due to my Raid Bombardment addiction. Cryptologist is prob better in a real world scenario.
In the context of UW Levelers, Venerated Teacher is the most powerful common not just in the format, but possibly the best in any format I have ever drafted. In a vacuum, the removal is better. Staggershock > Vendetta as Red is the best color and every real Red deck wants to go to the dome or remove multiple rando blockers early.
Even if they "play around" Staggershock, you're still getting value out of it, since they're not advancing their board position. Not to mention that you can bluff it.
I'm also curious about why Kai thinks Domestication is the best uncommon, since there are so many cards it doesn't deal with, and so many ways to pump the creature and destroy it.
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