Another Innistrad Draft Report
Just returned from another #mtginn draft with @TheSundry at Beyond Comics. We didn’t get many players again, so this was going to be another 3 round event. All of which means the breaking even point (aside from opening a Garruk, Don!) is pretty much at the 3-0 slot. So I put on my game face. Which looks like my other face.
The Draft
We open the first pack and I’m looking at a bunch of mediocre cards with a few playables, but nothing that would put me in a color. The rare is a Sulfur Falls. I ask Don “what’s the prize payout look like, so I know if I want to rare draft or not?” This gets a chuckle, but I didn’t wait for the answer and picked the Sulfur Falls. It won’t hurt my feelings to be in UR or UXr and I wasn’t sending much of a signal this way either. Don opened Bloodline Keeper and did the whole windmill slam thing where we all knew not to fight for black. I noted that and decided not to bother with black at all.
Luckily, in the second pack, I get a Brimstone Volley because someone grabbed a sweet rare. It is done. The person to my right appears to be cutting blue a bit, but not red. So I end up heavy on red with a few sweet blue cards to round it out. Here are the key picks where I did some thinking:
- I took a Charmbreaker Devils over a second Brimstone Volley. I didn’t expect the Volley to wheel, but I thought the engine I could create would be worth slightly more than two Volleys.
- I had an option for a second Selfhoff Occultist which would go well with my Flashback cards, Charmbreaker Devils, Stitched Drake and Makeshift Mauler, but decided instead to take away a Smite the Monstrous from one of my opponents. The Selhoff may not have fit, so I think this was a good choice given the 4+ power guys I wanted to protect.
- I had passed an Invisible Stalker earlier, so I took a Butcher’s Cleaver over a relatively playable creature and ended up not playing the Cleaver.
The Deck
- Blazing Torch
- Brimstone Volley
- Geistflame
- Harvest Pyre
- 2 Silent Departure
- Desperate Ravings
- Deranged Assistant
- Civilized Scholar
- Stitched Drake
- Makeshift Mauler
- Murder of Crows
- Selhoff Occultist
- Sturmgeist
- Reckless Waif
- Ashmouth Hound
- Village Ironsmith
- 2 Pitchburn Devils
- Kessig Wolf
- Charmbreaker Devils
- Skirsdag Cultist
- Galvanic Juggernaut
- Sulfur Falls
- 9 Mountain
- 7 Island
Relevant SB: Butcher’s Cleaver, Rolling Temblor, splashable Gutter Grime, few red 2-4 drop creatures to swap around depending on my opponent’s speed. I only ended up using Rolling Temblor.
The Games
Round 1 - The Don - BR Vampires - on the play
I get to try to win the first round through Bloodline Keeper!
Game 1 - I open with Mountain, Reckless Waif. It flips and then I play Ashmouth Hound. Don misses a land drop and I easily roll him from there. I take no damage.
Game 2 - Don has turn 2 Bloodcrazed Neonate. I have turn 2 Ashmouth Hound. Don plays Furor of the Bitten on the Neonate and swings, missing the obvious Ashmouth Hound block, which trades with the Neonate and is a sweet 2-for-1 for me on the draw. From there, I play out some threats and get him in chump block mode and then win again without taking damage. To be fair, his deck bricked on him, draw-wise too.
Round 2 - Craig - Bant - on the draw
Game 1 - I win at 14 life with basically an over-powering board. The Pitchburn Devils did a lot of work in this match, as did the Civilized Scholar who got in once early, flipped and put him on defense pretty fast.
Game 2 - I keep a greedy hand with only an Island on the draw, but with a Deranged Assistant which will get me back on curve if I draw a land in either the first or second turn. I end up drawing it on the fourth turn, but Craig’s start is not very fast either. I lose with Craig at 3 life to an Abbey Griffin that I was close to racing until he pooped out a Spider Spawning to chump my Juggernaut and Pitchburn Devils and, etc. I actually had a good chance of winning on my last turn with 6 cards left in the library (this was a long one) by pealing either Murder of Crows, Brimstone Volley or Silent Departure. But instead, I drew one of the three lands. Raw.
Game 3 - I win at 17 life. Craig draws a metric crap ton of land and I overpower him with Charmbreaker + Brimstone Volley.
Round 3 - Dan - UW Humans - on the play
I saw Dan playing Craig earlier and he has a very sweet Mentor of the Meek engine and a bunch of Elder Cathar synergy. But this is first draft and he grabbed 2-3 pretty mediocre cards, so I like my chances.
Game 1 - He keeps a greedy hand and misses a few land drops and I steamroll him without losing any life. After the match, I offer to help him adjust his deck a bit and convince him to keep in Smite the Monstrous, which he wanted to board out because he didn’t see any 4+ power (hint, I have three bombs at that level!). I also convinced him to cut his single Curse of the Bloody Tome and a Memory’s Journey for Silent Departure and I think a Sensory Deprivation.
Game 2 - Nothing much happens until his turn 3 where he plays a Mentor of the Meek. I had boarded out Kessig Wolf for Rolling Temblor and use it to take out the Mentor. After that, I play out big guys and easily overpower the humans with Dan having lost his draw engine. I don’t lose any life again.
So I end up 3-0, 5-1 in games. Good enough for four packs. The first two brick on garbage rares, but the second one has Stromkirk Noble and Kruin Outlaw and I hit a foil Chapel Geist and a Past in Flames in the fourth pack to make up the difference. What with the Noble and Sulfur Falls, I’m a step towards the UR CounterBurn standard deck. Although I bought the whole thing for MTGO this morning, so I think I won’t make it in two places.
Btw, shout out to Cardhoarder.com for being awesome. Their site is really good, prices are solid and they even threw in a card for free (albeit a common) that I accidentally failed to put in my cart. That’s customer service.
On Innistrad
As a limited format, Innistrad is insanely good. I think I can decisively say that it’s the best I’ve ever played. I would probably be happy drafting this for the rest of my Magic career. It’s so good that I’m actually afraid that Dark Ascension will mess it up.
MaRo and team, you guys may have scared the crap out of us with all this organized play stuff, but keep making limited formats like Innistrad and all will easily be forgiven.
