Cards I'm considering: Elder Cathar, Ulvenwald Mystics, Hamlet Captain, Forbidden Alchemy
Another yucky pack with no good reasons to be in red or black.
I think the four cards I listed are the only cards that are reasonable enough to take 1st out of this pack.
I rule out captain and alchemy right away, so it comes down to Mystics vs. Cathar. I always talk about how much I love cathar, but I think mystics might be a little more powerful. I think this is a pretty close pick that could come down to preference (and even alchemy is included in that). The only thing I'm sure of is that hamlet captain is not the pick.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Moan of the Unhallowed, Travel Preparations, Chapel Geist, Moon Heron,
Lots of nice cards here. I noticed the Cleaver but didn't consider it, because it's too early to know if it'll fit in my deck.
The cards I listed are all cards of considerable power level, so I keep color considerations in mind and narrow it down to Geist & Preparations. I chose the prep because it's usually harder to come by than geist is, and because having a GG and a WW card right away doesn't seem that good to me. Plus, even if I don't end up white, I can still play travel prep and splash the flashback off pilgrims or grottos or whatever.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Claustrophobia, Deranged Assistant
I suppose I could have looked at Reckless Waif here, but I had U/G mill on my mind. It was hard to pass up the assistant, but Claustrophobia is one of my favorite removal cards in this format.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Doomed Traveler, Village Bell-Ringer
I don't really like any of the other cards, and since ideally I'd like a GW beatdown deck to use my travel prep in, I take the more aggressive guy.
If I were sold on U/G mill, I'd have taken boneyard wurm.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Village Bell-Ringer, Think Twice, Lumberknot
Tough picks. I want to use my Claustrophobia so I think about taking Think Twice, but I decide I'd rather be G/W beatdown. I like Lumberknot but usually don't have any clever use for him. Still, I felt like he'd be better in an aggressive G/W deck than bell ringer.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Mulch, Claustrophobia
Here I haven't been seeing much white, and this is very late for a Claustrophobia, so I decide to switch to U/G. I look at Mulch for a second too since it's a key card in U/G mill, but the removal card is too hard to pass up. I take it and think about prioritizing stitcher's apprentices so I can make a huge lumberknot.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Kindercatch, Urgent Exorcism
Ugh, nothing. This is what frustrates me about Innistrad. It only takes 5 picks (sometimes less) to get to the dookie packs.
I considered Kindercatch, but I just plain don't like it, so I took the mediocre SB card in case I end up playing or splashing white.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Kessig Wolf, Crossway Vampire, Kindercatch, Lost in the Mist
More nothing. There's been a steady stream of mediocre red guys, so I think about taking one of them and switching AGAIN to R/G, but end up going with a blue card that I could reasonably see boarding in.
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Pack 2 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Stitched Drake, Midnight Haunting, Mausoleum Guard, Moon Heron
When I saw this pack, and how I'd have a good option in any of the 3 colors I'm likely to play, I looked at my deck, hid all the unplayable cards, and saw that I had 6 main deck cards. To me this wasn't enough to know what deck I was going to play, so this decision was super hard.
I ended up going with Midnight Haunting because I still wanted to be G/W and use travel prep, but would be willing to play U/W and skip my green cards (since I only have like 3 so far anyway), depending on what came my way this pack.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Avacynian Priest
The only other card in this pack I'd consider is Battleground Geist, and he's just not as useful as the Priest.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Avacyn's Pilgrim
I'm really happy to see this pilgrim. At this point I'm willing to give up on my Claustrophobias.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Mulch, Stitcher's Apprentice
I go back to considering U/G here. I am so damn indecisive about colors. I think about the apprentice and how awesome it would be in my lumberknot deck, but mulch is a more useful engine card in U/G mill strats, and I wanted to open myself up to be able to take those kinds of cards and not just cards for U/G beatdown (is this even a thing?).
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Slayer of the Wicked
Ha. Back to G/W.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Rebuke, Moonmist
I feel like Moonmist will be a more useful trick in a G/W beatdown deck.
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Pack 2 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Prey Upon
Very happy to see this card.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Lumberknot
Getting the prey upon before this made this pick much easier to stomach.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 9:
Cards I'm considering: Rebuke, Moonmist, Spare from Evil, Naturalize
I'm not sure what I need here, but I know that it's probably not a second moonmist, since I don't have enough werewolves to justify that. Rebuke is more likely to end up in my main deck than the other cards.
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Pack 3 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Silent Departure, Makeshift Mauler, Cloistered Youth, Dream Twist, Skaab Ruinator
My playables pile up top is a huge mess. This draft is going really poorly.
After looking at it, I don't have much hope of building any kind of beatdown deck. My best hope for winning so far is to make huge Lumberknots, so I settle on playing a controllish U/G/w deck that tries to emphasize that plan. Silent Departure is the best card for this strategy out of these options.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Travel Preparations, Prey Upon, Orchard Spirit
Maybe this should have been Prey Upon, but I always find myself needing more guys.
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Pack 3 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Orchard Spirit
At least there wasn't a card I needed more than this. I didn't consider boar because my 4 slot is clogged with lumberknots.
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Pack 3 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Fortress Crab
I am so happy to see this card. It's exactly what my slow, crappy deck needs.
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Pack 3 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Selhoff Occultist, Smite the Monstrous
I don't feel like I have enough guys to make Grasp any good so I don't even consider it. I like Smite, but its uses are more limited than another guy, and I need lots of those to trade with their guys so my lumberknot army can get swole.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Think Twice, Village Bell-Ringer
My two Claustrophobias kind of push me into U/G/w, so knowing that I'll be playing more blue than white pushed me to take Think Twice, since I'm more likely to play it early. I'll probably need it to smooth out my mana.
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Pack 3 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Shimmering Grotto
God I needed this card so freaking bad.
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This deck is horrible and I'm really embarrassed. This entire draft was plagued by the same problems I've been having with this format in general: the red and black cards suck so much that everyone fights over the U, G, and W cards, so there's always a small handful of playables in each of those colors and then not much else. I pretty much resigned myself to another round 1 loss after submitting this.
R1
Game 1, he's also U/G but has B too, for forbidden alchemy. He's stuck on 3 lands, and his deck is pretty slow, so it feels like I have a chance. However, I end up drawing 9 lands and 5 spells, so I can't really keep up with the dorky losers he plays once he draws out of his mana screw.
I board out mulch and board in Thraben Purebloods, since none of his guys had more than 4 power.
Game 2, I choose to draw first. I have another slow draw, but so does he. His first play is a boar on turn 4, but I have a crab on turn 4. He goes to tap his 5 lands precombat, so I'm wondering what on earth he has for my crab, but I'm hoping it's just a no-morbid spider. He floats 5 mana, and then never plays anything with it and times out with 5 mana in his mana pool, so I win the match.
If only that would happen to me again in round 2.
R2
Game 1, he has turns 2 and 3 Vampire Interloper to my turn 2 Avacynian priest.
I kind of make a mistake here, I think. I play my 3rd land, attack with my priest for 1, and pass. This HAS to clue him in on the Midnight Haunting I have in my hand, so maybe it wasn't worth getting 1 damage in. At least if I don't attack, it could look like I just forgot to activate my priest.
At any rate, he attacks with both and I haunt them away, which is a great feeling. He recovers with a Liliana of the Veil, so I lose my priest. From there, I can never play enough guys to attack it away, which gives him enough time to draw Bloodline Keeper. I don't draw anything interesting after that and lose to his rares.
I board out Mulch and a land, and board in Frightful Delusion and Lost in the Mist.
Game 2, I resign myself to lose early because of his very good draw of T2 fox, T3 geist, T4 fox + victim for my pilgrim. I even give away 2 points of damage in this game because I'm so frustrated at the flood in game 1 plus a likely loss in this game 2 from his good start + my bad deck, but I shake it off and sculpt a gameplan around my two Lumberknots. First I slay his fresh interloper, then go to 6, then play a Lumberknot and trade my Slayer fo rone of his Foxes in combat to make it a 3/3. With his only flyer on lock down from Priest and some ground defense, I have some room to breathe, so I play my other Lumberknot and a Thraben Sentry, holding back Prey Upon specifically for Bloodline Keeper. I start to build an offensive squad with two Orchard Spirits I draw off a think twice, but then he has Fiend Hunter for my Priest. This gives me the tough decision of using Prey on it to get my priest back, or using Prey on the Geist. I decide that fiend hunter is kind of a dorky loser and I'd rather just kill the guy that's offending me, you know in case he draws another removal spell for my priest. He has a rebuke to slow down my orchard beatdown squad, but that only grows my lumberknots. Still, I can't ever find a good time to strike with them. Since I'm at a precarious 4, he decides to put Bonds of Faith on his Bell Ringer and bash with his mighty squad, but I have rebuke for his fiend hunter to get back my priest, and I'm able to block all his guys (and avoid going below 4 in case of bump or something). He concedes after that.
I really didn't think I could win a single game with this deck, but it just happened.
Game 3, I keep a hand with all my colors, a think twice, and a crab, which is about the best I could hope for. He has a cloistered youth which he instantly flips in the face of my crab, so I knew something was up, and it turned out to be Fiend Hunter. I try to recover with Claustrophobia on Cloistered Youth followed by Slayer on his Vampire, but he has a SECOND Fiend Hunter, and a dagger to speed up my death. I got some breathing room when he played a fox precombat, which let me counter it and bounce one of his hunters with Lost in the Mist, which prevents his attack with his 4/3 hunter. I instantly draw Prey Upon, which I'm more than happy to trade my Slayer for his Fiend Hunter with. I get my crba back for half a second, but he just replays his other Fiend Hunter. I flash back a think twice and draw Orchard Spirit, which when combined with my Avacyn Pilgrim, threatens a trade for his Fiend Hunter, which he's not interested in. Turns pass, and he keeps drawing and passing since he's stuck on one black, and I keep drawing lands and passing. Finally I draw an Ulvenwald Mystics, which I play, always keeping mana up for Frightful Delusion. Right after this happens, he draws a second black for his Bloodline Keeper, which I instantly have Claustrophobia for next turn. I decide it's safe to attack with my Orchard Spirit, since if he has Rebuke, he'd have to tap out for it and I could get him with Frightful Delusion. He didn't have Rebuke, but he DID have Village Bell-Ringer, so I got him good (he discarded a Victim of Night with 1 card left in his hand, so that card must have been pretty good.) It turned out to be Liliana of the Veil next turn, which he used to make us both discard. He's been slowly bleeding from Cloistered Youth, so I attack him down to 5 with Orchard Spirit (after deciding I don't really care about Liliana at this point) and play a Thraben Sentry. He draws a card and scoops.
Wow. I cannot believe I made the finals with this horrible deck.
I immediately offer a finals split, but my opponent declines, which sucks.
R3
I instantly lose two games because he has a solid aggressive U/W deck with lots of flyers, and I can never draw enough crappy gimmick cards to keep up. The dream is dead.
Still, I didn't expect to make the finals with this deck, so I'm moderately pleased. I'm unhappy about how the draft went, though.
I never drew Silent Departure once during the 7 games I played. If I had drawn it at any point in any of those games, it would have been excellent, because the matches were surprisingly closer than I thought they would be.
None of my opponents were red.
I feel like I'm in a funk when it comes to drafting this format. I just never see any convincing reason to play red or black.
Let me offer an analogy. Remember the caw blade standard format? In a way, that's what this format feels like to me. In the caw format, every deck besides caw was basically a worse deck choice than caw. Your options for winning then became, play caw and learn your mirrors, or continue to spot openings for other decks as the caw decks continued to evolve to fight each other. In innistrad draft, you can usually only make playable decks from 3 colors, so your options for winning become, learn how to draft decks with U or G or W while sharing cards with everyone else who's drafting those colors, or keep your eye open for the chance when it's reasonable to draft a great red deck, or a great black deck. I didn't play much in the caw standard format, but if I did I'd probably have gotten very frustrated with the nuances of the caw mirror, and there's no way I'd ever be observant enough to notice when the caw evolutions of the week opened up a spot in the metagame for a different deck. I'm having the same problems in Innistrad limited. I don't know how to prioritize my picks well enough to draft cohesive two color decks out of the 3 available colors, and I'm not sharp enough to spot opportunities for good red or black decks.
How do I break out of it? What's the next level of strategy for Innistrad limited?
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