Innistrad Draft 2

Typically when I'm going to do a draft write-up I decide before the draft that I'm going to do one. I don't draft any differently than I normally would but the idea is to not cherry pick drafts that make me look good or which seem interesting. Sometimes drafts are just normal things where I lose in the first round and I want to show them too.

This draft is not one of those. Matt commented on yesterday's draft that he thought the deck was fun and full of powerful cards. At the time he made that comment I was in the middle of another draft that had a deck that was even more fun and had way more powerful cards. It had some really crazy plays so I figured I'd write it up for today. At one point my opponent complained that my first 3 spells were rares and told me to stop playing rares. I told him I still had more to come. (I had 2 more in hand at the time and topdecked another the next turn.)

Buckle up and enjoy the wild ride!


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My deck:


1 Murder of Crows
2 Mountain
1 Fortress Crab
3 Swamp
1 Mindshrieker
1 Creepy Doll
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Selhoff Occultist
11 Island
1 Back from the Brink
1 Blazing Torch
1 Silent Departure
1 Demonmail Hauberk
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Sever the Bloodline
1 Skaab Goliath
2 Civilized Scholar
2 Armored Skaab
1 Undead Alchemist
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Stitched Drake
1 Shimmering Grotto
1 Think Twice
1 Stitcher's Apprentice

Sideboard
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Forest
1 Darkthicket Wolf
1 Fortress Crab
1 Grave Bramble
1 Ranger's Guile
1 Island
1 Island
1 Vampire Interloper
1 Village Bell-Ringer
1 Geistflame
2 Naturalize
1 Travel Preparations
1 Rotting Fensnake
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Orchard Spirit
1 Dream Twist
1 Burning Vengeance
1 Memory's Journey
1 Purify the Grave

P1P6 travel preparations? What? I figured I could play an aggressive blue/green deck with it. I may not be able to flash it back the real way, but I have a snapcaster! Of course when I open high priest in pack 2 everything changes. I had a good black card already and didn't really want to first pick an elf so I went with the bomb. I could have had another travel preparations in P2P4! No one is playing GW beatdown! 

Match 1 - Game 1  (160457808)

My opponent wins the flip and chooses to go first. My hand is I, I, skirsdag high priest, stitched drake, civilized scholar, demonmail hauberk, blasphemous act. I have two of my splash cards but I figure any land in 3 turns gives me some game so I keep. He plays a swamp and says go. I draw mountain and play an island. He plays a mountain and says go. I draw skaab goliath and play mountain. He plays mountain and hits me with a night terrors, removing my stitched drake. I draw island and play scholar. He plays swamp and rotting fensnake. I draw another island. I loot into blazing torch, pitch my goliath to untap my looter, and use torch to kill snake. Looter unflips. He plays a mountain and says go. I draw shimmering grotto. I loot into an armored skaab and pitch an island. I bust out my high priest and say go. He plays a stensia bloodhall and dead weights the high priest. I draw island, loot into an island and pitch it. I play skaab milling off think twice, deranged alchemist, and selhoff occultist. Now that I have something to do with 3 mana I play the last land from my hand. He plays another land and a typhoid rats. 

I flash back think twice into snapcaster mage and draw swamp on my turn. I swing for 1, loot into a murder of crows (pitching swamp) and play murder. He domes me with his hall. He buffs up his rats with a furor of the bitten, plays a land, and says go. I draw back from the brink and loot into creepy doll. I pitch snapcaster to power up my looter and smash for 10 down to 9. Creepy doll comes down to hold the fort. He domes me with his land down to 13. He draws and concedes.

Match 1 - Game 2 (160458744)

He elects to play again. My hand is I, I, I, I, S, think twice, creepy doll. Maybe a little slow but I'm going to draw a ton of cards so I'm good. He plays mountain and says go. I draw stitcher's apprentice and play an island. He plays swamp, bloodcrazed neonate. I draw selhoff occultist and play land, apprentice with every intention of trading. He plays mountain, crossway vampire (no-block on apprentice) and swings for 2 and a counter. I draw fortress crab, play land and occultist and say go. He plays land, crossway vampire (no block on occultist) and swings in for 6. I elect to not chump block which might have been wrong? I draw demonmail hauberk and play fortress crab. He has land, nightbird's clutches on my crab and occultist and swings for 10. This time I do chump. But I'm at 6, he has clutches in the bin, and I have no possible way to win after drawing an island. Killed on turn 6 with ground creatures despite having creature drops on turns 2 through 5. Yikes!

Match 1 - Game 3 (160459124)

I elect to play first. My opener is I, S, snapcaster mage, undead alchemist, murder of crows, back from the brink, blasphemous act. I might be in trouble if he has a draw like last game but if I draw a red source I'll be fine. I keep and play an island. He plays a mountain and says go. I draw mountain (ting!) and play it. He plays swamp and bloodcrazed neonate. I elect to hold snapcaster back at end of turn with the plan of casting it in combat when he can't keep it from blocking. I draw island, play it, and say go. He swings, I snapcaster and trade. He plays land and hits me with night terrors, taking the murder. I draw skirsdag high priest and play undead alchemist. He plays land and rotting fensnake. I draw civilized scholar and decide I would probably block if he attacked so I swung in to force the trade while he's tapped out. Surprisingly he doesn't block and I get a zombie token. I follow up with scholar. He plays crossway vampire keeping  my token from blocking, kills my alchemist with dead weight, and says go. I draw island. I could sweep the board here but decide to delay a bit more. I play land and say go. He cracks me with another night terrors. He doesn't mind if I'm going to wrath I guess as he takes my high priest. He swings and I looter into a shimmering grotto. I decide I'm not actually going to wrath and pitch my act. I trade token for snake and take 3 down to 12. 

I draw island, play grotto, and back from the brink. He plays night revelers which have haste thanks to the scholar. He swings for 7. I loot before blockers, find an armored skaab, pitch it and trade with revelers. I fall to 9. On my turn I draw mindshrieker. I brink back the armored skaab which mills another scholar, another armored skaab, demonmail hauberk, and island. I play my island from hand and my mindshrieker and say go. He swings and I activate mindshrieker before blockers. I mill my blazing torch and opt not to trade. I just block with skaab. He plays pitchburn devils and says go. 

I draw island which I keep in hand. I brink back alchemist and a scholar and swing for 1 with mindshrieker. He bashes with both. I trade alchemist for vampire and block devils with skaab. He plays tormented pariah, harvest pyres my skaab to finish it off, and says go. (Why he didn't pyre precombat I don't know.) He is now out of cards in hand. 

I draw island. I start by brinking back the armored skaab. He mills off island, mountain, skaab goliath, and fortress crab. I brink back the other civilized scholar and say go. His guy transforms since I didn't actually cast any spells. He swings with both dudes. I looter into think twice which I discard. I use mindshrieker before blockers and manage to hit stitched drake. This make him 4/4 so I trade with his 6/4 and block the devils with skaab. He says go.

I draw swamp, which I play. I then brink back skaab goliath and mindshrieker and say go. He has crossway vampire but doesn't attack. I looter into island which I discard, and then looter into creepy doll which I discard. I was thinking my guy would flip but it turns out tokens don't have a second side. Huh. 

I draw swamp and no longer have a plan for dealing damage. Well, except for the 9 lands in play and the mindshrieker. I play a 10th land and swing with goliath and mindshrieker. He double blocks the goliath and I assign all the damage to the vampire. (I don't want to kill the devils.) I mindshrieker him 3 times (I'm down to 7 cards in my deck) and hit an abattoir ghoul and 2 lands so he takes 5 down to 14. I brink back fortress crab for even more big butts on defense. He draws a card and concedes. 

Match 2 - Game 1 (160462282)

He wins the toss and chooses to play. He mulligans to 6. My opener is I, I, S, S, armored skaab, fortress crab, demonmail hauberk which is a clear keeper. He plays swamp and traveler's amulet. On my turn I draw stitched drake and play an island. He plays moorland haunt and walking corpse. I draw stitcher's apprentice which I play along with a swamp. He cracks for 2, fetches a plains, and plays a silverchase fox. I draw murder of crows. I play armored skaab which mills island, silent departure, skirsdag high priest, and undead alchemist. He plays a 4th land and swings. I decide to that my mana is going to be busy for a few turns and double block the fox with my two dudes. Apprentice trades for fox and I take 2. He follows up with markov patrician and champion of the pariah. 

I draw civilized scholar and play my last land out. I can now play demonmail huaberk, fortress crab, civiilized scholar, or stitched drake. I opt for the drake and remove the apprentice. He plays doomed traveler and says go. I draw shimmering grotto, swing with drake, and play murder. He plays a 5th land and does nothing. I draw think twice. I swing with just the murder and then main phase think twice. It gets me an island which I play along with fortress crab. He plays a land and says go. I draw blasphemous act, swing for 7 in the air, and play civilized scholar. He draws a card and concedes. 

Match 2 - Game 2 (160463048)

He chooses to play. My opener is I, M, mindshrieker, skirsdag high priest, blasphemous act, undead alchemist, think twice. What a beating! If he has an aggressive start I get to wrath. If he doesn't I have bombs galore. He plays swamp and says go. I draw snapcaster mage and play island. He plays plains and says go. I draw a swamp and bust out the mindshrieker. He plays a plains and kills mindshrieker with dead weight. I draw island and play high priest. He has no more land and just has walking corpse. I draw island and play undead alchemist. He plays swamp and abattoir ghoul. I draw island, play it, and say go. 

My opponent now comments "stop playing rares". He then cracks me for 3 with the ghoul and plays a rare of his own: bloodgift demon. That could get out of hand in a hurry!. At end of his turn I think twice into sever the bloodline (I guess he's going to disappointed with my rares again) and flash it back for an island. I then draw a swamp. I sever the bloodline his demon (sadly it gets exiled and not killed or else I would play snapcaster and make a death star with the high priest) and say go. he hits me for 3 more and plays a high priest of his own. 

I draw silent departure on my turn. The board is his 3 dudes (including high priest) against my high priest and alchemist. I can't sever his priest without getting my own. So I decide that my priest is expendable. I cast silent departure on my undead alchemist and then cast blasphemous act to wipe the board. I figure if worse comes to worse I can still use snapcaster to wrath again. He plays makeshift mauler on his turn. 

I draw armored skaab and bust it out. It mills island, shimmering grotto, civilized scholar, and creepy doll. I also play out undead alchemist and my 8th land. He plays skaab goliath. I think he was hoping I'd waste my bounce on the 1-creature skaab instead of the 2-creature skaab. He doesn't swing and says go. I draw swamp and sever his goliath. He plays vampire interloper and says go. 

I draw stitched drake. It's time to get my zombie on so I bounce his mauler and swing for 5 points of zombie damage. This mills off 3 dudes so I get 3 zombies. It also gives my opponent a forbidden alchemy to flash back if he finds time. I finish off with stitched drake removing civilized scholar. He swings in with his vampire and I kill it for him. This lets him replay the mauler. He also plays markov patrician and says go. 

I draw armored skaab. I decide it's worth trading 2 of my tokens for his patrician and an extra 2 mills so I swing with 3 tokens and the drake. The 7 mills net me 3 more zombies and him nothing of note. I hold back the skaab. Not sure why, I think it was because I only had 16 cards in my deck and didn't want to risk milling back from the brink which is my out if he can somehow deal with my tremendous board advantage. All he has is another makeshift mauler.

I draw island. I decide it's really worth losing 2 tokens to get in for 4 more zombie damage and swing with my 4 tokens and the drake. Maybe the armored skaab should have gotten in too? I think he was staying back to chump block. This 7 card mill nets a mere 1 zombie. No flashbacks for him though, and he's down to 5 cards in his deck. I say go. He swings so I chump with skaab and zombie token. 

I draw mountain. I start to swing with everything and then think he may have attacked with all in an attempt to trick me into throwing my alchemist into a rebuke. So I unattack with him and just crack with my tokens and my drake. He then asks if I'm sure. He'll let me take it back if I want to swing with the alchemist! I don't know if he had it or not but he certainly died when I didn't attack.

Match 3 - Game 1 (160465290)

He wins the toss and chooses to play. My opener is I, I, I, S, armored skaab, demonmail hauberk, back from the brink. Stupid demonmail hauberk! I have yet to cast it and I've always hated drawing it. I even sided it out in game 2 of the last round. At any rate, I do keep since I have one of my bomb rares and an early blocker. He starts with island, delver of secrets. I draw island and play it. He doesn't flip his guy, plays island, and swings for 1. I draw island and play it. He doesn't flip his guy, plays island, and swings for 1. I draw swamp and bust out my armored skaab which mills shimmering grotto, deranged assistant, civilized scholar, and selhoff occultist. He doesn't flip, doesn't play a land, and doesn't swing. Instead he just plays butcher's cleaver.

I draw undead alchmist. I bust him out and swing with the skaab in the hopes of making a token. I mill off claustrophobia instead. He doesn't flip. He plays an island, equips, and doesn't swing. I draw mountain and swing with skaab. He trades! Yes! If delver flips he'd be getting in for 7 lifelink in the air and I don't know that I could handle that. I play demonmail hauberk post combat and say go. He has a 5th island and a moon heron. I draw island. I decide to offer the trade of alchemist for heron since I'm really worried about 6 points of flying damage. He accepts. Yes! I follow up with back from the brink. I'm pretty sure I'm in a dominant position now. He has just a lantern spirit and says go. 

I draw fortress crab. I decide the best start is to get more options and brink back the armored skaab. It mills swamp, blazing torch, stitcher's apprentice, and skaab goliath. I brink back the alchemist as well. He finally has his second colour and plays plains and voiceless spirit. He equips it with cleaver and swings for 2 with lantern spirit. 

I draw island. I brink back my stitcher's apprentice and sac him to the demonmail hauberk. Armored skaab is now a 5/6 and can get through the 5/1 first striker on the other side of the table. He gets in for 5 and makes 1 zombie token. I then play a land and brink back the skaab goliath. He hits me for 7 and plays gallows warden. I'm down to 9 and he has 10 power of flyers in play.

I draw snapcaster mage which has no target. I try to think of a way to survive. My first plan is that he'll chump block with his warden so I try attacking with armored skaab and skaab goliath. No dice. Instead he takes 11 zombie damage which gives me a mere 2 zombies. Ok, now what? I have snapcaster mage in hand so if I could get a spell into the graveyard I could flash it back. I have back from the brink in play with deranged assistant, civilized scholar, and selhoff occultist in the bin. Aha! I can brink back the occultist and then kill some creatures to mill cards into my graveyard! I can use the demonmail hauberk to sac a couple dudes and mill myself a couple times and hope. Seems like a plan!

I brink back my occultist and sac one of my new zombie tokens to move the hauberk over. And then it asks me who I want to target with the occultist trigger. RIGHT! It can target any player, not just yourself. How many cards are left in his library? 8? And I have 6 creatures left in play, a trigger to put on the stack, and the mana to cast 2 more cretaures? Giddy-up! I target him with the trigger. It mills a creature which actually procs the alchemist. He checks for any creatures being milled not just from zombie damage! I now have enough dudes in play to mill him out without spending any more mana. I do so. He lets me see his entire deck (except the 3 cards left in his hand) by forcing me to go through the motions. It does chew 2 minutes off of my clock but I still have 19 left so no worries there. 

He appears to only be playing 11 creatures. He has three rebukes, a midnight haunting, and a dissipate as instants of note. 

I guess that's why demonmail hauberk is in my deck... It let me swing through a 5/1 first striker and it let me combo off at the end of the game. You get to stay in the deck!

Match 3 - Game 2 (160466832)

He's on the play. My opener is I, I, think twice, skirsdag high priest, civilized scholar, undead alchemist, skaab goliath. He starts with delver of secrets. I draw mindshrieker and play a land. He doesn't flip, plays plains, inquisitor's flail, and swings for 1. I draw mountain and play my mindshrieker. He doesn't flip, swings for 1 (I don't trade but I think I should have in retrospect) and plays island and butcher's cleaver. I draw island and play it and scholar. I don't swing because I want to trade if he equips flail. Why didn't I trade last turn? Gah! He doesn't flip and swings for 1. I don't trade again. Why!?! He follows up with island and moon heron. 

I draw island. I play it and say go. I now have two activations of mindshrieker up so maybe that was my plan all along. He doesn't flip but does equip cleaver to delver, flail to heron, and swings. I mindshrieker myself and hit swamp. I do it again and hit armored skaab. Now I'm 4/4 and the best I can do is still trade. I loot into island, pitching high priest, and flip. I trade both my dudes for both his dudes. There are no creatures left in play and I have 5 cards to his 2. He does have two brutally powerful equipments in play though.

I draw stitched drake and play it exiling armored skaab. He has skaab goliath on his turn. I think twice at end of turn into creepy doll. I draw snapcaster mage. I play my own skaab goliath exiling the scholar and the high priest. He equips the cleaver and says go. 

I draw silent departure. Huzzah! I bounce his goliath. He dissipates it. Frown. I have nothing better to do now than cast creepy doll and say go. He plays a second delver of secrets, a deranged assistant, and equips flail to delver. 

I draw demonmail hauberk. I play undead alchemist and decide to swing with my drake to start getting my mill on. This is a really scary idea since if he happens to have an instant on top I'm going to eat 12 and fall to 5. especially since one of his instants puts a pair of 1/1s in play and pretty much guarantees him the win if that's the card. I get no zombies off of my 3 damage. I say go. He reveals midnight haunting. Well, I deserve to lose.  He knocks me to 5 and says go with 3 mana up. I draw armored skaab and play it. I mill island, shimmering grotto, civilized scholar, blasphemous act. If I could get him to cast haunting while I can still play a sorcery I can wrath and not lose. (Snapcaster it!) I can't think of a way to do that though so I say go. He casts haunting at end of turn.

Now all he has to do is spread out his equipment. I can only block one flyer and only have 5 life. He can make it so he has a 4/1, a 3/2, and a 1/1 that does double damage. I can't win. I remember thinking about making a snide comment about how he was lucky to get that one card on top of his deck. Nevermind the fact I gave him that out. I decided I didn't want to be snarky though since I hate people who are. 

As it turns out there's another reason to not be snarky... He didn't notice that he had the game won. Or rather he didn't know the rules well enough and thought he did have the game won in a different way. (To be fair I thought the same thing when I was drafting at Matt's last month and had to be corrected...) 

He equips the goliath with both pieces of equipment and swings with everything. Now you might think that it's a 9 power trampler that does double damage so I'd need 18 toughness to absorb it all, right? It turns out no. You have to assign at least damage equal to toughness to each creature BEFORE the doubling happens. So I can just trade goliaths and take no trample damage. I also block the 3/2 flyer with my 3/4 flyer and eat his assistant with my armored skaab. Creepy doll blocked the goliath too just in case. I take 2, fall to 3, and kill everything but his 2 1/1 flyers. All I lose is my own goliath.

I draw murder of crows, swing with doll, alchemist, and skaab. I get a zombie. I play murder and say go. he plays voiceless spirit and equips with cleaver so it's a 5/1 first striker. I draw sever the bloodline but have no black sources. Instead I cast demonmail hauberk and equip my armored skaab by saccing the zombie token. Murder lets me cycle a card and I draw blazing torch. Alright! I ditch the sever, play blazing torch, equip creepy doll, and swing. He chump my 5/6 with a 1/1 token. I opt not to looter because I seem to love snapcaster mage in my deck with no non-flashback spells. Probably I was holding on to it in case I needed to wrath. he plays a lantern spirit and says go. 

I draw back from the brink. I swing with my 5/6 and he rebukes it. I loot with murder into an island which I discard. I cast back from the brink and say go. He equips lantern spirit with flail and swings with lantern spirirt and voiceless spirit. Creepy doll throws a torch at the voiceless spirit. Murder block the lantern spirit. My opponent then concedes.