Cards I'm considering: Sturmgeist
I opened Sturmgeist in a live draft once, and I think I passed it for some common or uncommon that was worse than it looked. It was one of the first drafts I did. I remember asking people about the pick, and almost everyone said they'd have just taken Sturmgeist.
That's yet another thing about this format that makes it so unusual. Lots of the rares are tough to decipher. In other formats, I'd be ecstatic about slamming a card like Dearly Departed, but in this format, I don't really love it because it doesn't seem to fit very well in any of the decks that are competitive.
In this pack, which is really stinky by the way, my only decent alternative is another blue 5 drop, and I'd rather just have the magpie effect.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Forbidden Alchemy
Another not-excellent pack. I looked at Diregraf Ghoul for a second, but it doesn't play well with Sturmgeist, and I'd rather stay out of dedicated U/B if I could. Forbidden Alchemy is probably the best card in this pack and it matches my color.
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Pack 1 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Silent Departure, Civilized Scholar
Urgh, tough pick. I'm glad I'm in blue, at least. Departure is nuts, but effects like the one(s) Civilized Scholar provides are hard to come by in this format.
I'd like to hear opinions about this pick.
My Pick:
Pack 1 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Avacynian Priest, Vampire Interloper, Selhoff Occultist
Well, I look at occultist but I don't think he's strong enough (compared to priest and interloper) to stay blue. It comes down to priest vs. interloper. I'm a fan of the interloper, which is why I even considered it, but priest is a way better card in a way better color combo so it's not much of a decision.
I am a little troubled about how this is the first good white card I've seen. I'm worried that it might be a fluke like the Departure from last pack was for the guy to my left.
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Pack 1 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Claustrophobia
Well, the seeing the geist kind of calms my priest worries. However, I'm a huge fan of claustrophobia, and it looks like I'll be in heavy blue this draft.
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Pack 1 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Delver of Secrets, Selhoff Occultist
I don't really have a good way to use the occultist, but if I'm in U/W I could load up on feelings and make delver pretty good. I feel like this isn't a pick I'd usually make.
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Pack 1 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Voiceless Spirit
God I want that chapel to make splashing alchemy flashback easier.
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Pack 2 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Reaper from the Abyss, Claustrophobia, Geistcatcher's Rig
I don't really have a good explanation for this pick. I was thinking something like, "urgh, reaper is really strong, and I do only have like 3 white cards after all. I could just switch." However, before I even saw the next pack, I knew this pick was bad. I think either of the other cards I was considering would have been better.
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Pack 2 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Grasp of Phantoms, Geist-Honored Monk
Here comes an excellent white card to hammer in the badness of that last pick. I think about trying to make the reaper work by taking the grasp, and maybe the grasp would have been good in U/W anyway, but man, geist is just so good, and if the guy to my left passed it he's probably not white.
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Pack 2 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Feeling of Dread, Chapel Geist, Spectral Rider
Well, here come the white cards. I like rider in general, but I don't think he fits very well in my deck. It comes down to geist vs. feeling. I love feeling, and I got a delver to look out for, but for some reason I felt like the geist was the more prudent pick. I do tend to lean towards creatures in this format.
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Pack 2 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Elder Cathar, Doomed Traveler
It feels like these cards always come together. Cathar is usually the better pick, and I think it is here, but sometimes I can see taking the traveler over it.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Unburial Rites, Armored Skaab, Silverchase Fox
This pick might be too fancy. I don't have much use for the skaab, and I'm a huge fox fan, but I was already thinking about playing a swamp for the alchemy flashback, and with a geist honored monk and a sturmgeist I could get a lot of good value out of this card.
My Pick:
Pack 2 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Deranged Assistant, Silver-Inlaid Dagger, Voiceless Spirit
I've been liking dagger more and more lately in general, not just in stalker decks, so I actually think about it here. I also generally like having solid men, and Voiceless Spirit is a solid guy, so I consider that, too. Ultimately, though, I choose deranged assistant since I have a couple good 5s to ramp into.
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Pack 2 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Moment of Heroism, Shimmering Grotto
The grotto would really help out my moronic unburial splash, but I need more delver cards, and I like moment a lot now anyway.
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Pack 2 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Doomed Traveler, Elder Cathar
I still don't have enough use for doomed traveler to take it over cathar.
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Pack 2 pick 9:
Cards I'm considering: Armored Skaab, Stitcher's Apprentice
I need 2s and not 3s, and I don't have a great deck for skaab anyway.
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Pack 3 pick 1:
Cards I'm considering: Geist-Honored Monk
Well,
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Pack 3 pick 2:
Cards I'm considering: Murder of Crows, Civilized Scholar, Silent Departure
Argh. What a ridiculous decision. I took murder because I think it's the most powerful card, but maybe I needed the departure more.
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Pack 3 pick 3:
Cards I'm considering: Delver of Secrets, Deranged Assistant, Blazing Torch
I could probably use some more removal, and I also consider taking the delver and just highly prioritizing spells, but I decide that with so much good stuff at 5 I need as many accelerators as I can get.
My Pick:
Pack 3 pick 4:
Cards I'm considering: Civilized Scholar
Maybe this would be better as mauler, but I felt like I didn't have enough reliable ways of getting guys into the yard. I might have considered the 5 drop spirit if it was the blue one.
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Pack 3 pick 5:
Cards I'm considering: Smite the Monstrous, Dream Twist
I think about dream twist, but I decide smite will be more useful delver fuel.
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Pack 3 pick 6:
Cards I'm considering: Feeling of Dread
I don't have one of these yet, and I need more delver cards. If it wasn't for this constraint, I'd have thought harder about maybe taking Moon Heron.
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Pack 3 pick 7:
Cards I'm considering: Delver of Secrets, Spare from Evil, Armored Skaab, Stitcher's Apprentice
Lots of directions this pick could go. I already have one apprentice I probably won't play and don't have a super huge need for 2, and I've passed tons of skaabs this draft and don't see a reason to start taking them now. That leaves delver #3 and spare from evil. I end up taking delver since I don't feel like spare will be super useful, even if it does flip my other 2 delvers.
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Pack 3 pick 8:
Cards I'm considering: Frightful Delusion, Selfless Cathar, Spectral Flight
I think cathar and flight are both way better cards, but I'm likely to actually play this card since it flips my 3 delvers and I have 3 ways to ditch it if I can't use it late game.
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I like this deck. I think it's pretty good. It has some crappy cards, but I think the overall package is workable.
R1
Game 1, I'm on the play and I have T2 delver. He has T2 Neonate, but I'm able to match it with T3 Voiceless Spirit. He bashes into my guy, so I block, wondering what he has, and it's Vampiric Fury. Strangely enough, I'm fine with this. I peck for 1 with my delver and add another one and a priest to my squad, and his next play is ashmoth hound. He adds another neonate, while I play civilized scholar followed by chapel geist. The only card he ever has that affects the board is a brimstone volley, which he uses to kill my priest, and by then I've looted into a Geist Honored Monk which he concedes to. I never got to flip my delver.
Game 2, he doesn't have a turn 2 play, while I curve out with T2 Deranged Assistant, T3 Voiceless Spirit, T4 Geist-Honored Monk. The only cards he ever plays are crappy vampires (interloper, crossway, neonate). I attack my 5 powered geist into his 3/2 and fresh neonate, waiting to blow him out with the Spare from Evil I boarded in if he plays the vampiric fury I suspect he has, but he doesn't have it and just takes all the damage to go to 9. When his next play is ashmoth hound, I play the spare and bash him for his life total.
R2
Game 1, I have T1 Delver, T2 Delver on the draw to his island + mountain + traveler's amulet. I didn't see a rolling temblor in the draft, which is the only card I don't want to see right now, but obviously he has it before I can flip my delvers. I rebuild with a civilized scholar (which I flip by discarding a chapel geist I can't play) and an elder cathar, but he stops my ground assault with a Kessig Wolf. I get stuck on 3 lands and the only plays I can make (priest and scholar #2) give him max temblor flashback value, so I pass with nothing and my brute flips back. He plays a scourge of geier reach, tapping too low to give kessig wolf first strike, which gives me an opportunity to loot, re-flip scholar and attack. He trades his wolf for it, and I draw two lands in the process so at least I can make drops to play the awesome 5s in my hand (sturmgeist, murder, monk). He untaps and plays a sturmgeist of his own.
Here, I can untap and either play my own sturmgeist, or play geist-honored monk. (Or Murder, I guess, but I think that's the worst of the 3.) I chose the sturmgeist because the math worked out such that if he had nothing, our geists would just trade, and if I played the monk he could attack, I'd chump with a flying token, then he could flash back temblor and I'd lose the monk and my cathar. So I chose to play around what I knew he had rather than what he didn't have.
It worked out that I got punished to the max for this, since he untapped, played land #7, played grasp on my sturmgeist, and when I tried to play geist-honored monk the next turn (for sturmgeist damage control) he had dissipate.
I can't really win from here.
Game 2, I mulligan on the play into UUUW Chapel Geist Murder, which isn't great but whatever. His first play is T2 delver off a shimmering grotto, while mine is T3 Avacynian Priest. He misses his 3rd drop and passes with no delver flip, while I untap and draw a plains to play CHapel Geist. He draws a land next turn and plays One Eyed Scarecrow, then I play Murder on my next turn and get in for 2 (I tapped his scarecrow EOT). He still hasn't flipped delver, but he drew a traveler's amulet to go get his mountain, and then played spectral flight on his delver. I draw for the turn and my hand is 2 lands and Moment, so all I can do is bash with murder and pass. He plays another land, then civilized scholar, and passes. I draw elder cathar, play it, bash with murder and pass. He draws, plays land #6, plays Skirsdag Cultist and passes. I draw land #8 and bash with murder and cathar. He blocks cathar with delver and I play moment to clear it out of the way, then pass with 6 mana up and 2 lands in hand. His next turn is a backbreaker: harvest pyre to kill murder, and a second one-eyed scarecrow. I untap, draw a useless voiceless spirit, tap his scarecrow squad down and attack into his cultist with my cathar. He blocks, and throws it at my priest. He draws and passes without playing anything or looting. I draw feeling of dread and pass. He draws and passes again without looting or playing anything. I draw civilized scholar, excited that I can maybe loot some of these lands away, play it then pass. HE loots away 2 lands, then flashes back the temblor in his yard to clear away both our scholars plus my cahtar, which I use to pump my chapel geist. I draw land #9 (yawn) and get in for 1 with geist. He has no land but plays grasp of phantoms on my geist, which is like full blown time walk since I'm so flooded. His next play is Geist of Saint Traft, which is a fun card. I untap and draw, big surprise, land #10 then pass. He adds a scourge of geier reach after bashing me then passes. I draw a 3/3 sturmgeist, play it and pass. but he instantly has claustrophobia for it and then bashes. I chump the scourge with my spirit, then untap and draw a claustrophobia of my own for his scourge. My next draw step is lost from the mist, which isn't too useful since he doesn't need to play anything to keep killing me, but it doesn't matter much anyway since he's able to dissipate it when I try to use it on the Sturmgeist he plays next turn. I lose shortly after this.
I'm absolutely infuriated to lose like this. Not only was his deck perfectly set up to beat mine (with temblor and 2 scarecrows at just the right times), but I had to get screwed then flooded to really be taken out of the game.
This is my 16th draft, and I've only made the finals 3 times. I've only made it past round 1 6 times. I started this movement knowing that I needed a lot of improvement in the Innistrad draft format, and my drafts have been far from perfect, but in actuality very few of these losses have felt like they were because my deck was bad, and most of them have been more like "I flooded then screwed and his deck was too fast to claw out of the hole." I'm sure some of those are due to deckbuilding errors, but it's alarming how far out of my control it usually feels when I lose.
I"m just bitching, I guess. It just feels like, even though I've never really been good at Innistrad draft, I've always been better than my results. Maybe I don't have the right to complain until I post a draft where everyone agrees with all of my picks.
I felt a little bit better after watching the replay of my R2 opponent in the finals getting flooded and losing to Army of the Damned after playing both halves of his Rolling Temblor.
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