Innistrad Prerelease in Canada, eh?

By Unrepentant Canadian Josh Frankel

Innistrad. Finally. Nothing makes me hungrier for new cards more than drafting nothing but core set for what seems like forever. A busy weekend meant that there was only one prerelease I could attend- midnight friday night. Sleep is for the weak.

Without further ado, here’s my pool:

Like any self-respecting magic player, I went straight for the rares. I guess opening two dual lands isn’t too bad value-wise, but that doesn’t exactly help lead to a broken pool. Parallel Lives is totally unplayable in all but the strangest of pools and Stony Silence is just stone unplayable. I don’t know if Unbreathing Horde is ever really going to be worth running (I’m leaning towards nope!) but it definitely requires more than the one other zombie this pool has to offer. That leaves us with Angel of Flight Alabaster which thankfully seems pretty nuts, so I didn’t whiff completely. It feels like its at least going to be worth splashing for, perhaps with the help of a dual, especially if I have a few playable spirits.
I start by looking at the rest of my white, since ideally I’m playing the same color as my only quasi-bomb. It’s not especially deep, but there are at least a few seemingly strong cards, including a couple of spirits to go with my angel. The standouts are Fiend Hunter, Gallows Warden, Voiceless Spirit and Smite the Monstrous. Thraben Sentry seems difficult to evaluate, but it feels like it’s at minimum playable (it turns out it’s actually quite strong!). Doomed Traveler looks like filler, but perhaps borderline playable and I was totally unsure if Urgent Exorcism and Spare from Evil were mediocre, good, or sideboard only.

My blue is just pure awful, and my black doesn’t seem to offer much other than a couple of removal spells (Corpse Lunge and Dead Weight) that I can potentially splash.

My green seems pretty unexciting, though I feel its tough to evaluate properly without getting a better idea of how good the werewolves actually are. Its possible Ulvenwald Mystic[card] is insane and that [card]Villagers of Estwald are pretty sweet as well. If it turns out spells like Moonmist, Make a Wish and Bramblecrush are better than my gut tells me they are, playing green has some merit. But I like to listen to my gut, and he also tells me that 3 Kindercatch is 2 too many (even though they are spirits) and so I’m hoping for better elsewhere. It is worth keeping in mind that I do have the green/black dual, so playing green for creatures and splashing black for removal might at least be an option, albeit one I wouldn’t be too happy with.

Looking through my red gives me some hope that the pool might be ok. It’s definitely my deepest color, and has a bunch of decent looking dudes. The first thing that stands out is the potential synergy between the 2 Skirsdag Cultist, the (aptly named) 2 Pitchburn Devils and the Rage Thrower. It does seem a little slow/clunky, but my early impressions from the spoiler was that slow and clunky is how this format rolls. Also of note is the abundance of Falter effects I have access to in double Crossway Vampire and double Nightbirds Clutches. With the help of the other random dudes that (sort of) fill the curve, perhaps my deck has some direction. Forcing through some damage with falters, and potentially finishing them off by pitching devils at their faces is at least a plan I can get behind.

Here is what I ended up sleeving up with notable exclusions in the sideboard:

As should be expected with a new format, looking back I know my deck isn’t perfect. We’ll get to the changes I would make a bit later, but first I’ll discuss the choices I made.

- I decided that 2 Nightbirds Clutches were not needed. Spare from Evil seemed like it would provide a similar effect often enough, but is more versatile in that it doubles as trick. Being conditional on them having non-humans was a bit of a concern, but I also just wanted to try the card out.

- The decision to go with 16 land was not based out of how many lands I thought my deck needed (which was likely 17). I went to 16 because I felt my deck seemed like it might be weak and perhaps the extra cards can help me beat more broken pools. For the record, this was almost 100% a mistake.

- Doomed Traveler is a borderline card, but with so few early drops and it’s synergy with Skirsdag Cultist, Thraben Sentry and Rage Thrower i felt it was an easy inclusion.

- Galvanic Juggernaut is a card I wasn’t sure about. It is obviously massive, and I included it based on the 2 cultists, but based on my experience (and other players’ experience) its pretty strong even without the “enablers”.

-Feral Ridgewolf was played over Riot Devils because it seems so much better in the late game. I’m still not sure about this one, since roughly half the times i drew it was awesome, and the other half of the time I wished it was a 2/3 devil.

-Tormented Pariah was my last cut. My feeling was that Night Revelers was generally going to be slightly better. While I think that statement might be true, its quite possible I should have played both. One thing I learned is that it would have been decent at trading with opponent’s werewolves.

-Two questionable inclusions were Furor of the Bitten and Urgent Exorcism. I included the first as a quasi-falter effect, figuring that it would be another way of forcing an attacker through. I knew from the spoiler there were a couple high quality 1/4s at common. The second was included because I just seemed so low on removal and I figured most decks would have at least a few reasonable targets in either creature or aura form. (small sample size, but that seems like a mistake).

-I decided against Shimmering Grotto despite a few awkwardish mana costs. Because of my lack of two drops I really want to have access to my 3/2 on turn 3. Seeing as my only double white was fiend hunter, which is perfectly fine in the late game, I figured mountain was just better than the grotto. I suppose an argument could be made to cut an extra plains for the grotto, but I sort of feel like with my clunky curve, any time I’m tapping grotto for colored mana (be it red or white) I might as well have just missed a land drop.

Round 1 – vs Black/White
All three games played out the same. He had a pretty good curve of creatures and usually had the early board presence. I would eventually stall the ground with some combination of Pitchburn Devils and Thraben Sentry and the first strike equipment and we’d trade blows in the air. The shit hit the fan when I’d slam Rage Thrower onto the table (The card is insane!). Needless to say, the game I lost was the game he was able to kill it.

1-0

Round 2 – vs GUbr featuring Garruk and Olivia Voldaren!

His deck had some pretty sweet cards. He played Garruk both games, but both games I killed it immediately with a falter effect/geistflame. He’d stall the ground with indestructible artifacts (Creepy Doll) and Manor Gargoyle) while digging with multiple Forbidden Alchemy. In the meantime, I’d just play whatever dudes I drew, and I’d find falter effects before he could mount enough pressure to take me out. (I sided into the second Nightbirds Clutches between games).

2-0
Round 3 – vs BR zombie rats!
Game 1 I mulled to 5 on the play. But turn 2 ashmouth hound into turn 3 Furor of the Bitten (when you mull to 5 on the play you go for it!) was tough for his 1/1 deathtouch and 2/2 zombie to stop. It got in for 12 before he was able to trade and this eventually set up a lethal attack when Rage Thrower hit the table a few turns later (did I mention this card is insane?).
Game 2 he played 3 mountains and nothing else, while I curved out from 3 to 5. Not much else to say here.

3-0

Round 4 – BRb control

My opponent plays 6-7 removal spells this game while digging with Forbidden Alchemy, going down to 10 life from attacks in the meantime. He drops a very scary Heretics Punishment with 7 lands in play and follows it up with a 3/4 flyer, while I drop 2 consecutive Pitchburn Devils. He elects to target me rather than my creatures taking a chunck out of my life total and swing with the flyer, so it’s clear the race is on. I put him to 7 after attacking with both (he has 1/4 in play), and to 1 after Nightbirds Clutching him, threatening lethal on the next attack, with me at 11 life. He has enough mana for 3 total Punishment activations (1 at the end of my turn), so I think I’m likely the favorite, but depending on his deck its probably pretty close to a coin flip. He hits for 3, then 3, needing 5 on the last one. He flips Land –> Land –> Into the Maws of Hell. Booo. Frowny face.

Game 2 isn’t remotely as close. I have the removal for his Heretics Punishment (this is the only time I cast Urgent Exorcism all tournament, and I drew it a ton. I almost always sided it out, but he had 3 claustrophobia and the punsishment) but he has the removal for all my guys. My hand clogs up with Clutches, Spare from Evil and Smite the Monstrous vs. his 3/4 flyer and his Kruin Outlaw. I throw away some spells to keep it from transforming, but after a few more blanks drawn I’m toast.

3-1

Round 5 – Bant aggroish.

Kind of anticlimatic. Game 1 he gives his evasive 2/2 +1/+2 and hexproof, and I get outraced in large part thanks to Feeling of Dread. Game 2 he leads with a Avacynian Priest, and I lead with ashmouth hound. He plays a flyer and taps out for (gasp!) Kessig Cagebreakers. His graveyard is empty and I have a Fiend Hunter in hand (but I’m missing the second white source). Unable to tap my guys, I attack into his board (with geistflame in case he blocks with the cagebreaker). He gladly blocks with the tapper in order to put a creature into his yard. Given the fiend hunter, this seems like decent trade since the tapper is pretty good against me, but he rips the hexproof equipment off the top (according to him) and promptly attaches to cagebreakers. I peeled the plains, but was reduced to exiling a lowly wolf, and died 2 turns later unable to mount enough defense to both survive the attack and trade with the cagekeeper.

3-2

Overall the deck played out way better than expected even though it (or I, but I prefer to blame the deck) fell short the last couple of rounds. It desperately wanted a couple of 2 drops and another targeted removal spell or two, but that’s sealed deck for you. Rage Thrower seemed ok during deckbuilding, but played like a bomb. Two of my opponents called it broken after I put it into play and they realized how dead they were when I attacked. Nightbirds Clutches performed far above my expecations as well. I only drew my angel once, and that was the game my opponent didnt play a single spell. Perhaps thats the guy that would have tilted round 4 into my favor.

Here are the changes I would make if I could rebuild the deck:
-1 Furor of the Monstrous
-1 Urgent Exorcism
+1 Mountain
+1 Tormented Pariah

Feel free to share your builds in the comments. Comparing builds and ideas is really usefull when the format is so new.

Word to your mom,

Josh