Innistrad Draft (8-4), 5/1/2012

My deck after pack one was looking to be a bit of a crap blue/black monstrocity, so I just decided to go all in on mill. I picked a Curse of the Bloody Tome P2P1, so let it never be said that I am not committed. Anyway this deck sucked and I made terrible mulliganning decisions in my first match (didn’t mull a five-lander or a one-lander) so I was put out of my misery pretty quickly.

Innistrad Draft (4-3-2-2), 13/11/2011

This is basically why I don’t like drafting blue/black decks in Innistrad. Everything needs everything else, you have way too much top end and not enough one or two drops (but you can’t really justifiably cut your five-drop flyers otherwise you have nothing to win with), and it is very hard to make cuts. I ended up having to cut a removal spell here, and I feel like the deck also wanted a second Crab, but I couldn’t fit it in. I did get to play Army of the Damned (mainly because I wanted to cast it at least once in this format), and picked up two other mythics to help with my set redemption, though. 

My first game was with an equally slow red/white deck. Game one it didn’t seem to register when I clicked “yes” for whether I wanted to play first, so I clicked it again, and it mulliganned what was a perfectly fine hand. Then I drew into a one-land hand, and had to mulligan again. Despite that, I drew pretty well, while he got kind of flooded, and killed him with Army of the Damned. Game two I had a very good start with Deranged Assistant, but he neutralised all the threats I ramped into and I milled ALL of my flyers with Deranged Assistant and Armored Skaabs. My game plan was then to get to eight mana to cast Army of the Damned to finish him off, but before I could he cast TWO Rolling Temblor to wipe the board, meaning I couldn’t even cast it and then flash it back to kill him. I drew a million removal spells while he played some Village Bellringers. I attacked for a few every turn with Armored Skaabs and Fortress Crabs, but it wasn’t fast enough to kill him before I decked myself. Game three I again found none of my flyers (which should have been enough to kill him) and instead drew my ground zombies, which couldn’t block his best dude due to his Blazing Torch. I eventually drew enough for Army of the Damned, forgetting that he had (one of his three) Scourge of Geier Reach out. All the zombies gave it a million power, he used the Blazing Torch and some other spell to get rid of my blockers, and then swung for the win. Pretty frustrating, because my deck should have been very well set up against him. All of his dudes were big dumb ground guys that my high toughness creatures should have been able to hold off, and then my flyers should have been able to kill him without fuss, but unfortunately I never got to cast any of them in three games.

Innistrad Draft (8-4), 5/11/2011

White seemed pretty open with decent but not amazing cards. I was pretty open on a second colour going into pack two, but the best thing I opened was an Invisible Stalker, so I figured I would try for the human equipment deck. Unfortunately the only thing I found was one Spectral Flight and a Dagger. Overall I think this deck turned out pretty well; no bombs but pretty consistent.

Unfortunately I lost a pretty close match in the first round. Game one I stomped all over him, game 2 was pretty close and I got him down to around 3 life before flooding out and letting him stabilise, and game 3 I should have won, but I clicked through the beginning combat phase without tapping one of his dudes with my Priest, which let him deal me lethal. I obv was going to draw the Fiend Hunter that should have let me attack for the last few damage the next turn. Unfortunately I only played Mindshrieker once and he killed it almost immediately, but it would have won me either of those games.

Innistrad Draft (8-4), 4/11/2011

I first-picked Garruk Relentless, so I figured everything after that was a bit of a free-roll. I took Brimstone Volley and then two Murder of Crows next, and then got excited and took Burning Vengence. The red/blue Burning Vengence deck seems pretty fun to play, and it wants a lot of spells that other decks don’t, so I figured it might be worth a try. Plus, thinkgs like Murder of Crows are crazy good in that kind of a deck. I think took some fixing so I could splash Garruk. Unfortunately, not much in the way of flashback spells were coming around. I picked up some Skaab guys (who also seem good in that kind of deck), but not much else. I did end up seeing a reasonable amount of flashback cards in late pack 2/pack 3, but by then the ship had kind of sailed, and I would rather take some creatures that did something over spells that would only be good if I reached a critical mass. Maybe I just needed more commitment :( Overall though, I thought this deck wasn’t bad. I felt like it had enough dudes to stall them in the early game, and then some great spells to win in the late game. 

Unfortunately, match one didn’t go my way. I stumbled on three mana for about three turns in game one, while he got out some Cloistered Youths and started beating down. By the time I was able to draw my fourth land I was already too far behind. Game two went much better, as I got some early dudes out, and then played Ludevic’s Test Subject and just leveled a bunch until I was able to kill him with a 13/13. Game three was pretty close, but unfortunately he played a bunch of flyers along with Silver-Inlaid Dagger. I dealt with most of them, leaving him with a 1/1 spirit, and then played One-Eyed Scarecrow. I just needed to draw my sideboarded Naturalise to take care of his Dagger and I hopefully would have stabilised, but unfortunately a couple of draw steps and a flashbacked Think Twice didn’t get me there. I felt I got a little unlucky in this match, but I got very lucky in my previous draft, so I suppose I can’t be too upset.

Innistrad Draft (8-4), 29/10/2011

Ugh this deck. It really really needed some solid 1-3 drop creatures, but unfortunately they never really came. Everything five-drop and up seemed very good though. In the first round I was paired up with a blue/white flyer deck. Game one he blew me out with a pump spell after I had to double-Blazing Torch his threat, and then he had the white tapping spell to kill me after I stabilised. Game two I had severe mana problems (I drew like three mountains over 20 or so turns in the first and second games combined) and was doing okay until he played Back from the Brink and just replayed all of his threats again. No fun :(

Innistrad Draft (8-4), 24/10/2011

I first-picked a Balefire Dragon, then I think second-picked a Grasp of Phantoms? And the draft pretty much went from there. There were a few shaky moments where I thought I might be getting cut (most of the packs were filled with mediocre green and black cards), and I think p2p1 and p2p2 had literally no cards in my colours, but I managed to scrape something together. 

I ended up suuuuper happy with this deck. From watching the replays, it didn’t have quite as much power as some of the other decks, but it was one of the only 2-colour decks in the whole draft, and it was pretty consistent. Although it lacked much removal (hence me having to play things like Sensory Deprivation), once I got to four or five mana and above the quality of my cards were pretty great. I didn’t have many insane bombs, but I had a lot of cards that could pretty happily win the game on their own. Standout performers were the Watchkeep, Grasp of Phantoms, and all of my five-drops. Unfortunately I don’t think I ever even drew the Dragon? So I have no idea how that would have gone, although I found myself getting to 6-8 mana pretty regularly.

I went 2-0 with this, and then split the finals.

Innistrad Draft (Swiss), 16/10/2011

I made a couple of mispicks in this draft, but not a whole lot, I think. Blue was pretty open from the beginning, with a reasonable amount of black and white coming around, but black just had the better cards. I first picked Cackling Counterpart over Murder of Crows, which has to be wrong, but I wanted to try out the rare (edit: actually now that I realise it has flashback, there’s no way Murder of Crows is better than that). I wasn’t sure how many things like Moon Heron (which don’t play into the themes of the deck, but are solid cards) versus things like Think Twice (which are pretty good if they get milled, but don’t have a whole heap of impact) I should play, and I think I might have erred too much on the side of synergy. Maybe having solid creatures like Moon Heron or Markov Patrician is just better? You will notice that the manabase for this deck does not include any plains despite the fact that the mana requirements aren’t that onerous (aside from Reaper), and Unburial Rites is great when you can flash it back. That is because I am a moron and forgot to add plains when I was adding land. I switched two plains for two islands after the first game of every match.

Match one was against a pretty aggressive red/green deck. In game one he hit me down to 1 life, but then I played my demon and a bunch of zombie dudes and stabilised. Game two I F6ed through my first turn because I’m a moron, and then lost. Game three I played my demon which he killed, and I then got it back with Unburial Rites, and then played Cackling Counterpart on it, with a plains in play to Unburial Rites it a third time if he killed it again. I won that game.

Match two was against blue/green werewolves and zombies. I got pretty badly manascrewed both games (in game one I was on three land while he was on 7-8), and in game two I finally managed to get out the Reaper (with the help of two Deranged Assistants), but he played two Grasp of Phantoms (sorcery that puts a creature on the top of its owner library) on successive turns, and then played that red Devil that gets back sorceries at random, and replayed his Grasp of Phantoms, and then the newt turn got to eight mana which let him flashback Grasp of Phantoms. It is very hard to win when you get time walked four times, and so I didn’t.

Match three was against red/white humans. Game one my deck did exactly what is was supposed to do. I had Deranged Assistant, Armored Skaab and Forbidden Alchemy to get a bunch of stuff in my graveyard, zombies to cast and to exile from my graveyard, and a bunch of flashback cards to get value. I also had a Reaper of the Abyss and Cackling Counterpart to copy it. He Fiend Huntered my Reaper, but it didn’t really matter. I won before I was able to flash back Cackling Counterpart in order to have three demons on the battlefield :( Game two I mulliganned to six and then got stuck on three land. I played Armored Skaab and milled four land, which made me very sad. I ended up having to Forbidden Alchemy for a land. I eventually drew another couple of land, but all his stuff got bigger when I killed something (like Thanben Sentry and whathaveyou), which prevented me from stabilising. Game three I had a turn one Delver into turn two Vampire Interloper. The Delver flipped on turn four or so, so I was beating down pretty hard. He eventually got Markov Vampire and Silver Inlaid Dagger, so was able to gain a bunch of life. I killed his vampire… somehow, and then he ended up with a 5/5 Juggernaut and a 5/2 equipped human that dies and gives +1/+1 counters. I was on five, but luckily had a Markov Patrician to chump with, leaving me at three. I swung in for the win the next turn.

I feel like this was a really good deck, but I played a lot of pretty aggressive decks, and found myself winning at pretty low life a lot of the time. I’m not sure if I built this wrong, if the quality of archetypes are really close in Innistrad, or just if everyone in the draft opened very well. I think maybe the fact that I picked up a lot of synergistic cards led me to play too many do-nothing cards like Think Twice, whereas if there had have been less graveyard-centric cards, I maybe would have been happy with playing more solid creatures.

M12 Draft (8-4), 26/9/2011

I was left with two packs after the last draft, so I figured I would buy another one and play an 8-4, where I was very likely to lose, and that would be the end of my draft experience. This was the first time I have played an 8-4. I haven’t played one before due to a combination of just preferring to play as many games as possible (I want to get the most out of my money), and being a little intimidated and assuming I won’t get into the finals, so it seeming like kind of a waste of the packs. This draft started a little poorly. I picked up an early Mind Control and Aether Adept, but there wasn’t a whole lot else coming, and I had to be content with taking a bunch of mediocre black cards. I opened a Serra Angel in pack 2, and figured it was worth taking a chance of abandoning black for. White seemed pretty open in pack two since it was so cut in pack one, so I got a few more reasonable cards. I think I opened the other Mind Control in pack 3? Which definitely helped me out; before that my deck was looking neither powerful nor consistent. I almost splashed black for Gravedigger and Wring Flesh, but at the last moment I decided Greatsword and Cancel are okay enough that I don’t need to strain the mana base. I was a little concerned with the lack of removal, but I like having the Ice Cage and two Mind Controls with Auramancer.

I won the first two matches on the back of Serra Angel and/or both Mind Controls, as expected. It didn’t help that my opponents seemed to be having mana problems in a few of the games. I split with my opponent in the final round as I’d rather have the packs for two drafts guaranteed than two and a bit drafts if I win.

I swear I’m not just trying to draft blue/white all the time. In this case I opened Sun Titan in the first pack, and then got passed some pretty late Azure Mages, so I figured blue was open. Given that this deck was attempting to be pretty defensive (what with two Timely Reinforcements and a Titan), I maybe should have swapped out Coral Merfolk for Pride Guardian (which is what I did do in a few of my matches). With the Timely Reinforcements, Skywinder Drakes, and Aven Fleetwing, I would have killed for a Greatsword, but I don’t think I saw one in the draft. 

I made several pretty horrendous misplays, but managed to go 3-0 anyway. The Stave Offs ended up being very very good in this deck - countering removal, 2-for-1ing creatures that had auras on them, killing their creatures in combat, and swinging in for the win. I was a little worried that three was too many when I had so few creatures, but it ended up being pretty good, I just played a guy and then protected him as I hit them a bunch of times.

I think I opened an Oblivion Ring in the first pack, and then it was very clear that blue was open. I picked up a bunch of reasonable cards in pack one, and then opened Frost Titan in pack two. At the end of pack two I was only playing white for a handful of cards like Oblivion Ring, Stave Off, and Benalish Veteran, but then I opened Gideon Jura in pack three and picked up some more white cards. The hardest thing about this was the deck building. Because blue was so open, I got a lot of really good cards that seemed like they would be good in my deck. I think there are arguments for adding the Ice Cage, Coral Merfolk, second Frost Breath, or second Cancel, or maybe Rusted Sentinel as an extra blocker while I win with my bombs (Rusted Sentinel being a worse blocker is the reason why I played Amphin Cutthroat over it). I’m not sure having that many five-mana flyers is necessary, but I thought the Chasm Drakes might be helpful for picking Gideon or Frost Titan up and flying over for the win (which did happen in a couple of games).

The games were all closer than I was expecting them to be, given how good my deck seemed to be. In match one my opponent almost got me, as I stumbled a little and he had starts involving that golem that likes auras together with things like Spirit Mantle. Luckily I was able to draw either Stave Off or Oblivion Ring, and other than a Serra Angel, he didn’t seem to have a lot of top end or disruption, so eventually the quality of my cards took over. In match two I made a huge punt involving forgetting that his Onyx Mage was in play while attacking with my Frost Titan, so tapping down a dude that had attacked me rather than a blocker, which let him deathtouch my Titan. I can’t remember if I lost that game, but I ended up winning the match anyway, luckily. Match three was also pretty close. My opponent had a pretty aggressive red/black deck with guys like Sengir Vampire, Vampire Outcasts, two Gorehorn Minotaurs and a Grave Titan. Every game he managed to cast a timely Mind Rot, which didn’t get my bombs, but usually got the land or the middling dudes, slowing me down from playing them. We had a very close game one, where he got me down to two life while I was hitting him with some flyers, and I ended up trading with all of his dudes with a couple of guys left that would be lethal the next turn, but he ripped Chandra’s Outrage to do the last damage to me. In game two and three he again got me down reasonably far, but I eventually got Gideon and/or Frost Titan out, and he wasn’t able to answer them. He bitched a reasonable amount about how lucky I was for opening a bunch of mythics and an Oblivion Ring, but I feel like the power of his deck wasn’t that far off mine. That’s the internet, I guess.

Anyway I am winding down drafting M12 in preparation for Innistrad, but I got another three packs so I guess I have to do another one at some stage. I’ve got a copy of almost the entire set; just missing some cards like Sorin and Jace, as well as Primeval Titan. I’m so unlucky