[OKCoyote]

After a few days where I couldn't get the pack generator to work, we're finally back online. Today's pack is pretty strongly tilted toward Maquis, but is the best card a noun or a verb? It's time once again for...

PACK ONE, PICK ONE

The scenario: You're playing in an Infinite Diversity Remastered draft. You already have the IDR set as your cardpool and you are opening and looking at your first pack of nine cards. Assume you haven't drafted your mission pack yet; you are judging these cards based on overall value instead of value to a specific mission set. You haven't chosen any headquarters yet as you don't have to make that choice until after the other cards are drafted.

Today's draft theme: For the Cause
(Headquarters are: Athos IV, Maquis Base; Bajor, Gift of the Prophets; Cardassia Prime, Hardscrabble World; and Earth, Home of Starfleet Command)

Your Pack:
Anhaica
Covert Extraction
Essential Regrets
Houdini Mines
Inad
Kobb
Rescue Prisoners of War
Tricorder
Tuvok, Undercover

Which card is your first pick, and why? Select your pick in the poll, then (if you wish), leave an explanation in the comments.

(Note: I'm generating these packs from the Virtual Pack Creator, not manually selecting cards, so these packs are random and representative of packs you might get in an actual Infinite Diversity draft. Therefore some packs may have easier first picks than others.)

[Danny]

I went with Covert Extraction. A one-cost that's an 'unpreventable' stop (or kill) for uncommon skills (two skills that appear on the mission also in this pack). Better that I have it and have my opponent face it, than vice versa.

[jadziadax8]

I went with Covert Extraction. A one-cost that's an 'unpreventable' stop (or kill) for uncommon skills (two skills that appear on the mission also in this pack). Better that I have it and have my opponent face it, than vice versa.

+1

[MidnightLich]

I've also picked Covert Extraction, but Inad was a strong runner up. But her value depends on the dilemmas other people have, and it's unlikely to see the ones she's great against.

-crp

[Maelwys]

I'm going between Covert Extraction and Houdini Mines. The others have already made a strong case for Covert. Houdini mines is good because it's a killing dilemma that bounces back to dilemma pile, and has steep enough skill requirements that most sealed deck away teams won't be able to get passed it, so it's really good against people that try to just throw 5-6 people at the mission a bunch of times in hopes of eventually building up enough dilemmas that they can complete (which is a pretty common strategy in sealed deck, where you don't have many strong characters, or ways of protecting those that you do have, so everybody becomes a redshirt). But the downsides are the high cost, meaning you often won't get to place much else aside from that one dilemma, so if killing one person doesn't stop them, they're going to complete the mission regardless of whether it bounced or not.

So I'll probably go with Covert, just because the low cost makes it easier to guarantee you'll play it. But Houdini is a close runner up for me (and if this pack came to me after one of you had grabbed Covert, Houdini is an easy choice for me).

[Naetor]

I'm going with Tuvok. 6-7-7 is a good stat line + command star.

[OKCoyote]

Bumping with another day left in the poll.

[Armus]

I voted Houdini mines.

Any dilemma that doesn't go under has value in this format.

[jadziadax8]

Shameless plug:

If you like IDIC Draft and are anywhere near Chicagoland this weekend, we are playing this format Sunday at noon in Mount Prospect. Tribbles will follow.

[Fritzinger]

Houdini Mines, although Covert Extraction is a hot second that maybe should've been first if I'd been thinking about it.

Seems like it would be worth doing a whole draft (pack 1 p1, pack 1 p2 etc) as the first p1p1 of any given pack I see is always going to be dilemmas. (and it seems the same for others)

[OKCoyote]

Houdini Mines, although Covert Extraction is a hot second that maybe should've been first if I'd been thinking about it.

Seems like it would be worth doing a whole draft (pack 1 p1, pack 1 p2 etc) as the first p1p1 of any given pack I see is always going to be dilemmas. (and it seems the same for others)

Indeed. The concept may have run its course, though I'll give it some thought.

[Maelwys]

Houdini Mines, although Covert Extraction is a hot second that maybe should've been first if I'd been thinking about it.

Seems like it would be worth doing a whole draft (pack 1 p1, pack 1 p2 etc) as the first p1p1 of any given pack I see is always going to be dilemmas. (and it seems the same for others)

Indeed. The concept may have run its course, though I'll give it some thought.

Do one more pick with the same concept, then go back around. P1P2 from the first pack you produced, where the card that we picked is missing, and we already have the first card from E4 in front of us. Then we can keep rotating around. Basically, perform a full draft while sitting in all 4 seats. It'll be a bit of a pain to keep track of which seat is being handed which pack next, but if you make a spreadsheet for it you can probably get it all straightened out (and I'm happy to help if you'd like).

[jadziadax8]

Or you could do something like this:

1. The first person to see a new thread picks a card from the full pack, then passes it along.
2. The next player to see the thread picks one of the remaining cards and so on until the pack is picked. Once you pick a card, you don't get to go again.