Preferred Selection - Mirage - Rare - GG2 - Enchantment:
At the beggining of your draw phase look at the top 2 cards of
your library and choose one. Place that card on the bottom of
your library or pay GG2 and sacrifice preferred selection to draw
that card. Place the other card back on top of your library.
(This is not the exact text it is from inquest)
This card has extremely high potential and can be used in any deck
that has green as a major colour.
Lets start with the obvious use. Preferred Selection lets you look at
2 cards instead of 1 every single turn. It requires no mana to
power each turn and is re-usable. This is like a brainstorm
for 2 cards every single turn costing no mana.
You could argue that it costs you a card to first cast preferred
selection, but remember you can always recoup this card by paying
the 2GG to draw and sacrifice preferred selection.
Being an enchantment it is very hard to kill, though green got some
fancy new ways to kill enchantments in visions.
Do you put 4 of these in a heavy green deck?
Well lets look at what would happen if I drew too many of them:
You would need to play heavy mana to use them, lets say with wall of roots
and other mana sources you play 30 sources of mana. This allows you to
easily cast Preferred Selection on the third turn and start gaining card
advantage from it. But with 30 mana sources aren't you going to draw
too much mana in the late game? No way, with preferred selection out
you draw exactly how much mana you want.
What if I have one out already and I draw another?
With one Preferred Selection out you never need to draw another because
you have a choice of what you draw every turn. On the other hand
having 2 Preferred Selections isn't necessarily bad, more on having 2
next.
Still if you have 2 in your hand what good is the second one?
Lets look:
Having 2 out lets you look at the top 2 cards, place one on the bottom
then look at the top 2 cards again. You are actually looking at 3 cards
now each turn. Too much card advantage for you? Simply pay the 2GG and
sacrifice one of your Preferred Selections to keep a card.
So we see 4 Preferred Selections is quite viable, especially in a
slow green control deck. Perhaps in a Green/White Armageddon variant.
The choice of cards allows strong recovery from Armageddon as well
as library manipulation before the 'geddon.
How does Preferred Selection compare to Sylvan library?
Well Preferred Selection lets you look at 2 NEW cards each turn,
while Sylvan library only lets you look at 1 new card unless you
shuffle your library somehow. Preferred Selection is also
cumulative so if you draw another or start with 2 you aren't too
disappointed. Preferred Selection can also itself be sacrificed
to draw an additional card. So Preferred Selection has several
advantages over Sylvan Library. Sylvan Library also has
advantages over Preferred Selection. Sylvan Library costs G1 to cast.
Sylvan library can be used to store spells like disenchant so that
it can not be Stupored away before a disk is cast or something like
that. Sylvan Library also lets you look at 3 new cards if you have
a way of shuffling your library.
Are there any combos that make this great card even better?
You bet, combos are just being discovered now.
The most obvious is Sylvan Library, lets look at how it works
together. Remember Preferred Selection works at the beginning
of your draw phase.
Your Draw phase goes like this if both Preferred Selection and
Sylvan Library are out:
First Turn:
Look at the top 2 cards, put the worst on the bottom.
Activate Sylvan, look at the next 3 cards, choose the best of
those 3, put 2 back on top. You perused 4 cards total.
Next Turn, and all future turns:
Using Preferred Selection look at the 2 cards you saw last turn
from the Sylvan Library, put the worst on the bottom. Activate
the Sylvan drawing 3 cards and keeping the best 1. You choose
the best of 4 total, only 2 of which you never saw before.
Each Turn you see 2 new ones and choose the best of those 2
plus 2 old ones.
Analysis: Not much better than Preferred Selection all by itself
which lets you look at 2 new ones each turn anyway. With
some shuffling like Thawing Glaciers or even Rampant Growth
the Sylvan can be advantageous though.
Another Combo - Rowen.
This is the best combo I have come up with using this card.
Rowen makes you show your opponent the first card you draw and
if it is a basic land then you can keep it and draw another card.
Every turn you look at 2 cards, if you really like 1 of them
then sure keep it on top. Otherwise put a basic land on top
and draw it for free. Then draw your regular card. The regular
card you draw is NOT seen by your opponent so the disadvantage
of Rowen (showing opponent your draws) never affects you.
Preferred Selection also gives you more control over spells like
Gravebane Zombie, Fallow Earth, Disempower, Painful Memories,
Stunted Growth, etc.
Preferred Selection also lets you put cards in your deck that
won't always be 100% useful. For example drawing crumble
when the opponent has no artifacts is useless because it can
not be cast but if the opponent does
have artifacts then crumble is a great card to draw. Preferred
Selections gives you the flexibility to draw this card when you
need it and skip over it when you don't need it.
Overall Preferred Selection is a very strong card, its only drawback
being its casting cost. A green slow control deck would benefit
greatly from it.
Here is a sample deck. It is designed for Mirage/Vision constructed
which is the next Arena format.
Mainly Green Mirage/Visions only, Control, Card advantage deck: 4 Jungle wurm (great blocker, survives twister and start attacking) 4 uktabi wildcats (huge regenerators, hard to kill and can't be controlled) 4 River Boa (great blocker, islandwalker, regenerate from Twister) 2 canopy dragons (Flying, Trample, also flying defense) 1 Uktabi Orangutan =15 creatures 1 vitalizing cascade (only white spell) 1 elven cache 1 creeping mold (vs enchantment/artifact) =3 spells 3 savage twister (only red spell) 2 feral instinct (creature control, and card advantage, and deck thinning) 2 Rowen (Great with Preferred Selection) 4 preferred selection (strong mirage card, great with Rowen) 3 amber prison (great against cerulean wyverns or mind harness) =14 card advantage spells 1 plains 1 White/green fetch land 2 mountain 18 forests 4 rampant growth (gives coloured mana) 4 wall of roots (good with savage twister too) =30 manas (Preferred Selection controls this) Sideboard: 4 Scalebane's Elite 2 Creeping Mold (vs enchantments) 2 Uktabi Orangutan (vs artifacts) 2 Vitalizing Cascade 2 Reflect Damage (vicious vs twister) 1 Savage Twister 1 Amber Prison (vs mind harness and cerulean wyverns)