When new players join the server, they often complain about the lag. We usually tell them it gets better with better tools, and maybe gift them a better pick. But this could easily be standardized with a quick and easy "Challenge" awarding said pickaxe. It would also server as a real early introduction to challenges. For example, mine 16 cobblestone. If you don't want to throw the balance off too much. It could be a stone pickaxe but with efficency IV and unbreaking III. Enough to speed things up a little, and also be replaceable fairly quickly in the game. As they can they can use public enchant tables and public xp farms to get to that point quickly, if they want another one. gold or iron pickaxe could also make sense. and even eff 5. But then you could get a feeling of not being able to replace it soon enough, and having to revert to slow mining again.
i like the idea of dia pick for starting out - it's really not at all like they're hard to come by on the server. diamond picks are so common they've become effectively worthless for most players.
As are the gold axes with efficiency 5 and unbreakable 5, I mean who's ever actually used them properly as a better axe. But it's a reward. And it can really help when new players break their axes. The key audiences here being new players, not most players. And those few new players that do struggle with bad tools and block lag something small like a eff5 unbr5 stone/gold pickaxe would be useful and a fun early game reward
Perhaps I was not as clear as I should have been (will blame the covid). What I meant was, as diamond picks are worthless to most players anyway, they're a perfect item to provide to new players upon joining. They're far better than anything else newbies will have as a starting tool, and there is no "economy" of diamond picks to risk crashing nor a balance to throw off. I am agreeing, not disagreeing, with the post.