Several cards in the last few sets allow you to look at cards from the top of your deck and take some number of them. My question is, how do you value this against straight drawing? Or, perhaps a better question: given the choice between "Draw X" and "Look at top Y cards and take one" what values of X and Y put both abilities at about the same power level? Is it better for the remaining Y-1 cards to go on top or bottom of deck?
Redemption tends to be very much about gaining card advantage, since there isn't usually a cost associated with playing cards and having more resources than your opponent helps you get and stay ahead. That said, when given the option it's almost always better to search for one card you need than to draw two that may or may not be what you're looking for.
Here's my take: as someone who's played a lot of Flood the last couple years, I've fallen a bit in love with
Japheth. He often gets to be "look at top 8, take one, underdeck the rest" thanks to how quickly Noah gets the Flood Survivors out. Flood tends to be a very fast deck, and Japheth is a significant part of that, despite only actually gaining you one card per turn. Eight cards is a lot, and he often finds exactly what you're looking for once he gets rolling - and if not, you're eight cards closer to it for your next draw (or next turn's Japheth).
The underdeck is a double-edged sword. It helps a LOT with getting to what you're looking for - again, clearing eight cards out of the way when you're digging for a SoG on the bottom of your deck is significant - and he excels at hiding Lost Souls. That said, eight cards is indeed a lot, and sometimes you're forced to underdeck a card that you really wanted even though it's not as important as the one you took.
I think I'd generally value a "look at top 3, take 1" as approximately equal to a "draw 2", and despite how painful it can sometimes be I think that underdecking the rest is usually better than topdecking. Knowing what your next draw will be can help you plan, but I think that often if you're digging for something you simply take that if it shows up and want to be closer to it if it doesn't. I'm not sure exactly how I think this scales - Japheth's "look at 8 take 1 underdeck" is probably equal to a draw 3 in my books - but maybe it's somewhere between 3 and 4.
Some other cards make it even harder by gaining you more than one. Vain Visions can in theory effectively be a straight "draw 6", even though it's a Look and Take ability. Others can whiff completely - Mighty Warrior just puts all his cards back on top if he doesn't find a OT red or Isaiah card. Og does both. How do you value these?
I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks. It's an interesting point of discussion, and one that seems to be showing up fairly regularly in the last few sets. How do you evaluate these kinds of value generators?
