Shards Draft Dilemma: Oblivion Ring or Branching Bolt
bdm | November 11, 2008 | 2:35 pmThis pick keeps coming up again and again and I have not been able to narrow in on the right answer. At the drafts at Finkel’s the consensus seems to be that you take Oblivion Ring over Branching Bolt. I was talking with Gerard Fabiano the other day and apparently both he and Heezy prefer the Bolt as it allows you to “not go white” according to the GP Philly winner.
The logic seems to be that taking a green- red card leaves you open to better color combinations down the road; red-black splashing green, red-green aggro (which I have to fight with my iPhone not to auto correct to “red-green Afro”), or even Naya, in which case the Ring would also be fine.
Personally I love the Oblivion Ring. It is a much more versatile answer than Branching Bolt and can deal with anything from a creature to an enchantment to a Planeswalker. While I find Esper to be a challenging deck to pull off succesfully I would happily jump on the Bant-wagon if there was a Squire, Charger, Monk, or Paladin for the follow up pick.
With the Ring you do leave yourself open to blowouts from a well-placed Naturalize or Resounding Wave but more often than not it gets the job done.
Which card do you normally pick when faced with this dilemma? Is there anything in this pack you would first pick Ahead of either removal spell?
Feral Hydra
Seaside Citadel
Rhox War Monk
Topan Ascetic
Branching Bolt
Oblivion Ring
Akrasan Squire
Sanctum Gargoyle
Rip-clan Crasher
Dragon Fodder
Jund Panorama
Etherium Sculpter
Dreg Reaver
Viashino Skeleton
I agree that O Ring and the Bolt are the top 2 picks. I have to lean towards the Bolt. It gets you the best combinations and needs less to go right in the following packs, as well as giving you the opportunity to 2 for 1, while Ring lets you get 2 for 1′ed. O Ring is great too, though, for the reasons you provided. If you had any information on what your draftmates preferred to draft you could use that to help in your decision-making, but going in blind I’d take the Bolt.
That’s definitely a dilemma as far as pick order goes. Like you said, O-ring is definitely the more versatile pick, but also the more vulnerable. In draft, I think you have to go with the Branching Bolt out of those two. Card advantage is always good. Card advantage in Limited can be even more crucial. Most of the guys that you’ll run into in draft will also be killed by BB. I agree with Gerard that you’ve got better decks that you can build if you take the RG card. I wonder whether you’d consider Feral Hydra as well. He can be a huge guy to start that just gets bigger. Obviously removal is always good, but that’s a bomb that begs an answer.
Well it’s definitely between Bolt and Ring. It’s Bolt. It’s got a limited soul haha
But seriously it is value vs. versatility, and i’d go for the gusto and pile-up the blowout card. Oblivion can be awesome but it’s safely awesome whereas Branching can be a complete kick in the beignets.
I might pick Feral Hydra. Is that ludicrous? Otherwise I’m definitely taking the Bolt…Gerard is right.
O ring. Not close.
I think Oblivion it’s the most obvious because we can use on every type of permanent (except lands) but, in my opinion, Naya it’s the most powerful color combitation in SoA draft and Bolt can be a 2×1 for only 3 mana.
If this is our first pick, it’s obvious what colours we need in the rest of draft (or not) but in this case, I’m conviced to pick Bolt for the idea of 2×1
See you.
Honestly I take O-Ring if it’s first pack. You have no idea what you’re going to get passed and what kind of deck you’re going to end up in. The O-Ring is much much easier to splash if you’re struggling for playables and will fit in the vast majority of archetypes.
As for the pack you’re showing…the only other card I would consider would be Feral Hydra. He can be ridiculous but I don’t think you’d be doing wrong taking the O-Ring over it. I’m not sure I could take a Branching Bolt over the Hydra however.
O-ring > red-green afro, always.
I think I’d probably take the Bolt because of the possibility of a 2-for-1 and the tendency of people to main deck cards like Naturalize. Also both Naya and Jund are very powerful archetypes and I don’t think I’d be upset to commit to either of them early. Also as long as you in end up in any non-Esper deck it will likely be easy enough to splash which ever half of the bolt you need to.
All that said. Hydra is pretty nutz so I wouldn’t fault anyone for taking it or an the O-Ring instead.
I would take the Branching Bolt, for many of the reasons listed above, i.e. card advantage, combat trick, etc. but also because of value I place in signaling.
The remaining red cards, Dragon Fodder and Rip Clan Crasher, probably won’t be picked in the next 5-6 picks. You will likely wheel one of them, which you are glad to do in either a Jund or red aggro strategy. You send very strong green signals with the Feral Hydra, Topan Ascetic, and Rhox War Monk, while also sending strong White signals with the O-ring, Gargoyle, and War Monk. Obviously the tri-land is also a high pick for somebody else down to your left.
In this specific circumstance, given the strong signals, and the high probability of wheeling a reasonable playable in red, I would take Branching Bolt.
It has to be the Oblivian Ring. Like Bob Baker and JMGH, I like the IDEA of 2:1s, but I don’t think I have ever actually 2:1′d anyone, ever, with Branching Bolt, and if I have, the flyer was a gargoyle which was promptly recovered with another gargoyle. Just doesn’t happen for me. Plus, bolt can’t get rid of the things ou typically use O ring to deal with - ridiculous dragons, Sigil, Plansewalkers, etc. You will always play it no matter our archetpe - you don’t need to t3 it, obviously - and getting a random white mana off an obelish, a tri land or a panorama is not in the least problematic.
Signaling seems like a terrible thing to worry about here, unless you’ve set yourself on a pre draft or post pack one shard or archetype and that specifically dries up. But by the time you can be sure of this, you are six picks in, and it doesn’t do you much good, other than to tell you you are likely 5coloring, and so you had better start sucking up fixers. And, if you are worried about getting archetyped out, for some reason, such is much more likely to be the case with a gold branching bolt than a single colored O-Ring.
BTW, Feral Hydra is immense, and I would likely take that over the Branching bolt second.
Vincent, unless you are playing with a bunch of gasping sea turtles, the draggon fodder isn’t lapping to you.
But hey, I like the Esper (OK, esper splash Cerodon and whatever else, but mostly esper), so what do I know.
Normally I wuuld pick O-ring over branching bolt. I prefer to draft G/W tempo decks splash blue or red.
However in this pack as it is very heavy with good Bant cards your second booster wont give you lots of it and those cards are also good/decent in naya builds. High risc those to the left will draft those cards.
By taking Bolt it will easier since there are no really good red cards left and 0 black. Cutting Jund will be a lot easier and putting yourself in a good position.
If jund dont come I would always be happy to draft naya.