What to pick... (MBS first picks again)

Its been a while since I went to a draft, but went along to Hemel last night and had some fun. Deck seemed to be mainly removal and infect creatures, and I had a couple of fast games. Won two of three rounds, so got two boosters as prizes and, as I've done a few times now, had a look through each one to decide what I would be picking first were I to start a draft opening each pack. 


Pack 1

The notable cards in the first pack included Fangren Marauder, Tine Shrike, Skinwing, Morbid Plunder, Master's Call and Corrupted Conscience. 


When I was first going through the pack, it didn't seem to be too exciting until I got to the last card; Corrupted Conscience. It overshadows all of the other cards in the pack I think. Removing an opponents threat and gaining a threat of your own is just too good to pass. As with the infect spider (Blightwidow, also a great first pick) this is good in both an infect deck and a non-infect deck. In an infect deck it increases your threat density, probably very significantly as there is going to be a higher quality of creatures without infect (imagine the Fangren Marauder with infect...). In a non-infect deck, it either serves as removal for one of their creatures and leaves you with a very good blocker to slowly apply -1/-1 countersto anything that would attack into it. And for some creatures, it can probabaly win the game through poison on its own (like the Juggernaut). 


The Master's Call is good if you want to get a metalcraft themed deck, and Morbid Plunder is good, particularly in infect decks. Both are efficient cards and I would be happy to use an early pick on either. The Fangren Marauder is often overlooked, the life gained is quite significant (so long as you're not playing against infect that is); one of the matches being played next to me had a Fangren Marauder out, various artifacts and a Rusted Slasher for instant sacrificing to gain a lot of life. I think their opponent scooped fairly quickly. 


Pack 2

This pack was unfortunately fairly mediocre compared to the other one (but Corrupted Conscience is a very good card so that's somewhat to be expected). I did manage to get another Master's Call and a FOIL Master's Call though...


There is a lot of infect in this pack. None amazing, but some are certainly worth considering. Plague Myr is handy for acceleration, and is a decent blocker to shrink an attacker if needed. The Core Prowler has infect and proliferate, which, as I have learnt, is a very powerful mechanic. 


I think in this pack, I would be tempted by the Core Prowler as I like infect, but there is the risk of the next 3 or 4 people thinking infect is open (but also the possibility of one or two of the weaker infect cards making it back round again). Ultimately, I suspect I would take the slightly safer pick Master's Call (FOIL obviously), but keep in mind that I have passed 4 cards with infect, so if I think it is open there is a high chance of at least one coming back to me to increase my infect pick density, so will be more confident to switch to infect if I suspect it is open.