A Thin Veil of Sobriety – My Innistrad Prerelease Report

Friday night, I went out.

I sometimes find it amazing how quickly and easily “taking it easy” can turn into an inebriated stupor, but I suppose that this is the nature of the life I live, and as is I might just be too old to change.

Anyway, the original plan was to stay in, but once the evening rolled around I decided to take my girlfriend out to a nice restaurant in the next town over for a meat and cheese plate and a drink or two. Several hours, one beer, and six martinis, and $200 later it was time to stumble to the next libation peddling establishment. By the third bar I was a bit too intoxicated for my own good, and we took a cab back home. After some drunken eats and a bit of puking I was finally able to rest my weary head.

The morning arrived faster than I had anticipated, but I was fortunate enough to not wake with even a bit of a hangover. This is because I was still very, very drunk. I got myself cleaned up and my girlfriend dropped me off at the card store, Chris’ Cards and Comics, in time for the 10am prerelease, woozy and with very few brain cells capable of comprehending magical cards.

The area I live in does not house a great deal of Magic players, so Chris’ had only 14 people in attendance for the prerelease. However, Chris’ is unique in the way that they structure their tournaments. Regardless of how many people show up, there will be a three round swiss followed by a cut to top four, and then the semifinals and the finals. This means that most of the time, as long as you go 2-0 in the first two rounds, you can just draw into top 4 in the third round. So try not to lose. Also, only the 1^st and 2^nd place players get packs. Under normal situations I would have made a ferocious stink about the tourney structure until they relented to change it, but I was in no shape to argue, and just accepted my fate. I slithered to the counter to pay for my flight, and encountered an interesting dilemma.

Upon opening my wallet, I discovered that Marlon Egolf’s Institution for Savings debit card had been replaced with Steven Locke’s Capital One Master Card. Apparently, the last bar that I drank at the previous night had given me the wrong card back, and I was too intoxicated to notice that my green and brown debit card was now a blue and white credit card with someone elses name on it. So this was a small problem.

Fortunately, this turned out just to be a brief hiccup, as my buddy Steve Bond was nice enough to pay my entry fee, and I called the bar and they still had my debit card. Crisis averted, I sat down to open my Innistrad packs.

As it would turn out, it’s quite difficult to decipher a sealed pool of a set you have never played before and also be drunk. My green and black pool looked to be the bombiest, so I decided to be green/black. I also decided that the blue card boarders were pleasing to my eye, so I threw some blue cards in the deck as well.

Here ya go:

Garruk Relentless

Somberwald Spider

Creeping Renaissance

Moldgraf Monstrosity

Caravan Vigil

Woodland Sleuth

Screeching Bat

2 Markov Patrician

Corpse Lunge

Curse of Death’s Hold

Vampire Interloper

Morkrut Banshee

Sever the Bloodline

Civilized Schollar

2 Stitched Drake

Deranged Assistant

Makeshift Mauler

2 Claustrophobia

Geistcatcher’s Rig

Traveler’s Amulet

Lands

Round 1 vs Kyle

I don’t remember much of the details of the games, only bits and pieces. Game one I can out of the gates very slowly, and got pummeled for a while. I dealt with a few of his threats via removal, but I kept drawing the wrong types of cards, and at one point had a Corpse Lunge, Stitched Drake, and a Makeshift Mauler in hand with no creatures in my graveyard. The key point in the game was when he played a Grizzled Outcasts with me at 6 life and only Woodland Sleuth in play and no castable spells in my hand. Fortunately I was able to draw a Markov Patrician to prevent his guy from werewolf-atizing, and he didn’t have any removal to blow me out when I double blocked. Getting a couple creatures in my graveyard allowed me to stabilize, and eventually I drew Sever the Bloodline and some of my other bombs and killed him.

Game two I won easily, although I don’t remember how.  Probably something to do with Garruk.

At this point my drunkness was fading and was rapidly being replaced by the hangover that I had been lucky enough to avoid up until that point. I also started singing loudly every song that popped into my head; everything from Cher’s “Believe” to the Simpsons Planet of the Apes Musical* songs. Despite my awkward voice and semi-lisp I am not at all shy about my terrible singing, and the Believe chorus would continue to echo loudly throughout the store for the next few hours.

*I think it was called “Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off”

Round 2 vs someone

I have no idea what happened here, other than I won in two games.

Round 3 vs Dave Howell

Howell is another one of my good friends that was at this prerelease. He had drawn in the last round and I had been paired down against him, which prevented me from gaming the system and drawing into the top 4.

Game one I was behind from the get go, with Avacynian Priest holding me down while Elder Cathar beat me savagely about the face and neck. Eventually, with one creature in play I cast Garruk and had a decision to make. I could fight the Priest, but if he has Moment of Heroism then my Garruk dies and his guy lives, and I probably lose the game. If I make a wolf and he attacks with both creatures, then I block the Priest, and he can either save it with the Moment, or kill Garruk and sacrifice his Priest. So I made a wolf and passed. During his turn Howell chose option C, which was to use all of his three mana to play a Silver-Inlaid Dagger, equip his Priest and attack me with it. Obviously I blocked with the wolf, and that problem was solved. I won the game from there, and as it turned out he did have the Moment of Heroism in his hand when I played Garruk.

Game two he put me on the play, and I started off with a turn two Deranged Assistant into a turn 3 Garruk, which prevented him from playing any of his early creatures. Three turns later he drew a Bramblecrush and got rid of my planeswalker, but the damage had been done and I won the game easily from there. I think he might have conceded when I played [card]Creeping Renaissance naming planeswalker.

Now that my hangover was really setting in, I needed some greasy food, and fast. Since I don’t eat fast food it cuts back on my options considerably, but Howell was nice enough to drive me to a nearby 99 and I grabbed some sort of creamy pasta dish to go. While this didn’t exactly quash my hangover, it did prevent me from throwing up (I’m a notorious hangover puker).

Before the top four started I asked about the prize payout, which was eight packs for first, six for second, and zero for anyone else. This is obviously garbage, so we all agreed that 3^rd and 4^th place would get two packs, and the top two would split.

Semis vs Steven Bond

Game one we traded Vampire Interloper attacks for a while, until I killed his with a Geistcatcher’s Rig, which also prevented his freshly cast Grizzled Outcasts from attacking. We both played some creatures and had them die, and eventually Creeping Renaissance got five creatures back from my graveyard to my hand. There were not a lot of opportunities over the course of the day to get a ton of value out of the Renaissance, and it usually ended up being an expensive Regrowth, but this specific occasion showed my just how powerful the card can be in the correct circumstances.

Game two ended up in a situation where I had a flipped Garruk in play, along with a 2/2 and a 1/1 wolf token, a Deranged Assistant, two forests, an island, and a swamp. Steve had a couple of creature, and had just played a Gallows Warden. I drew a Caravan Vigil for my turn and used Garruk’s -1 ability to sac the wolf, searching up Morkrut Banshee. I played a morbid Vigil to put a swamp into play, then played the morbid Banshee to kill his flyer. I won fairly easily after that.

I split in the finals.

Thoughts on some of the cards I played:

Deranged Assistant

This guy was fantastic for me. Other than the obvious mana acceleration that he provided, I found myself activating him at the end of my opponent’s turn to mill myself. Being able to fuel cards like Corpse Lunge and enable cards like Stitched Drake is very key, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Assistant turns out to be one of blue’s most important commons.

Screeching Bat

I thought that this card would be way overpowered for an uncommon, until I actually played with it. It turns out that the vampire in the otherside doesn’t even have flying, so you lose that evasion that is so important in a slower format such as Innistrad. The only time I transformed the bat all day was when I needed a larger creature to block with. This card has much more value as a 2/2 black flyer for three, so when you see it in a pack you should be evaluating it that way.

Sever the Bloodline

Obviously this card is insane, and you should probably not ever pass it if you see it in draft. “Destroy target creature” effects tend to be five mana in limited, such as Weed Strangle or Gloomlance, so you’re already saving a mana right there. Flashback is what puts this card over the top, since you can use it on an early threat and then whatever late game bomb your opponent happens to play out.

Moldgraf Monstrosity

I never once cast this guy, but since he’s a strictly better Quilled Slagwurm you can probably guess my feelings about him.

Claustrophobia

Narcolepsy was a top-notch removal spell in Rise draft, and if you can pay the double blue then Claustrophobia is almost always going to be better. One of the annoying things about Narcolepsy was that it was innifective on cards like Brimstone Mage or Enclave Cryptologist, and Claustrophobia solves this problem. This card looks unassuming, but it’s actually pretty awesome.

Curse of Death’s Hold

First pick this card.

Stitched Drake

Exiling creatures from your graveyard is a bit more of a drawback in this set than you would think, since there is so many cards that want you to do so. You really need to be able to mill yourself if you are planning on relying on cards like Stitched Drake to always be castable. The Drake is still pretty sweet as a 3/4 flyer, and is definitely worth trying to build around, especially if you can get multiples.

After the first flight ended, the owner of the store told me that he would spot me the entry fee for the next flight if I wanted, since he had his own problems with misplacing credit/debit cards and therefor sympathized with my plight. I decided that offer was too good to pass up, so I entered in the next flight.

My pool in this flight was not nearly as cool as in the last one. I won the first two rounds but again couldn’t draw into the top four, and lost the third round to Howell and his Angelic Overseer/Dearly Departed offense.

Here’s the build of my second deck, in case you’re curious:

Abattoir Ghoul

Hollowhenge Scavenger

2 Falkenrath Noble

Vampire Interloper

Kindercatch

Village Cannibals

Victim of Night

Spidery Grasp

2 Somberwald Spider

Grave Bramble

Corpse Lunge

Lumberknot

Ulvenwald Mystics

Splinterfright

Avacyn’s Pilgrim

Bloodgift Demon

Markov Patrician

Creeping Renaissance

Mask of Avacyn

2 Dead Weight

land

Overall I enjoyed the set, despite my frazzled mind state. Other than the obvious overpowered rares and mythics, the set seems to be pretty well balanced for limited play, and I’m really looking forward to drafting it.

The werewolk strategy seems like an interesting dynamic, as they do put a lot of pressure on your opponent to play a spell just about every turn. Creatures like Grizzled Outcasts and Village Ironsmith are not too much of a problem, but a turn three Hanweir Watchkeep or Villagers of Estwald is going to be a serious issue if they become flipped right away. Even if your opponent has spells to cast on their turn, you can just pass without playing any spells, and lo-and-behold, now you have a three mana 5/5. I don’t think this is necessarily too powerful as to be unfun, but it will certainly create some tense situations. It should be interesting.

Thanks for reading,

Marlon Egolf