Turn six. Untap. Upkeep, flashback Dream Twist on myself. Fail to draw my last card. Good game. I win.
The sheer number of times I’ve won over the passed month with Laboratory Maniac is absurd. Since Worlds, I have become obsessed with Gerry Thompson’s first day two draft deck. And I don’t understand why more people haven’t.
-As an aside, before I get too far into this-
Originally (over a month ago), this article was going to be on GW Tokens, another Niche deck. That got put on the back-burner due to some dumb personal stuff. Then Worlds happened, and this archetype was turned onto me. Unfortunately for me, LSV just posted an article on the archetype a day or two ago (as of me submitting this article), so I’m going to apologize in advance that some of this information is going to be redundant.
-END ASIDE, CONTINUE AWESOME ARTICLE-
Imagine you crack this pack in a draft:
- Doomed Traveler
- Tormented Pariah
- Voiceless Spirit
- Geistflame
- Traveler’s Amulet
- Gnaw to the Bone
- Walking Corpse
- Festerhide Boar
- Orchard Spirit
- Silent Departure
- Spider Spawning
- Murder of Crows
- Memory’s Journey
- Witchbane Orb
You could make an argument that this pick boils down to three cards:
Most people in my circles would boil the pick down to Murder of Crows or Silent Departure. Spider Spawning is more powerful than Departure, but it is harder to play. And in most cases, this line of thought will be correct in my opinion. There is, however, a far more intriguing approach to this pick. Look at the pack again. Does anything stand out to you?
Memory’s Journey has a distinct possibility of wheeling. If it doesn’t, Gnaw to the Bone most certainly will. These cards, despite being almost totally unplayable in most decks, are staples of the Blue-Green mill yourself deck. At the end of the game, it grands you a greater number of Spider Spawnings and/or Gnaw to the Bones, and when combined with Runic Repetition (to get back a flashbacked Memory’s Journey), lets you go “infinite”.
Unplayables are the theme of this deck, and using this line of thought to your advantage is what makes the deck so very powerful. While the other seven players at the table are fighting over efficient werewolves or explosive removal spells, or digging for value Travel Preparations, the only cards you are fighting for are Armored Skaabs, Civilized Scholar, Deranged Assistant, and Forbidden Alchemy. Later on, while they’re all fighting over the last few dudes; those last value cards for their archetype decks, you are only looking for the junk they don’t want. Gnaw to the Bone? “Borderline unplayable”. Mulch? “Unplayable”. Memory’s Journey. “Who wants that?” Runic Repetition.. “LOL”
A real ringer, huh?
Between taking powerful game enders like Spider Spawning and Splinterfright, and picking up enablers like Alchemy, Mulch, and Armored Skaab, and drafting late steals such as Journey, Gnaw to the Bone, and Dream Twist, what do you do? Simple. You make smart decisions. Earlier on, removal spells like will take on priority. Flashback tempo-removal spells like Silent Departure and Grasp of Phantoms are the best non-rare, non-Brimstone Volley removal spells in the format and should be taken early as long as they don’t interfere with the “bombs”. Aside from the obvious “bombs-removal-support” quota that you would hear in almost any walkthrough of drafting, just draft a good deck with a blue base with some decent creatures. Dual-purpose creatures like Ambush Viper or Selhoff Occultist are great because they serve as both creatures and Removal/Enablers. While the Occultist shouldn’t be valued nearly as highly as Armored Skaab as an Enabler, it is a decent mid-late pickup when you don’t have something much better to take. In the end you want to end up between 11 (with a TON of enablers) to 16 creatures.
Cards like those I mentioned above are the pillars of your strategy. You don’t have to commit to the deck early because it comes together so late. The cards you find yourself hunting for later are cards you would likely end up with in your sideboard anyways were you not playing this particular strategy. Oddly enough, they shape up what turns into an entirely unbeatable game state. Too many times, I’ve cast Spider Spawning for seven with three or fewer cards in library, cast Gnaw to the Bone at the end of their turn and drew a concession. Too many times have I cast too many Laboratory Maniacs for my opponent to beat me. Oftentimes, a 6/6 Boneyard Wurm or a some Somberwald Spiders or even an accumulation of Armored Skaabs will be more than enough. The deck doesn’t have to be the nuts in order win an 8-4.
Here are a couple examples of the archetype. One is the stone cold nuts, and the next is a salvaged disaster that barely managed to take down an unusually weak FNM recently.
The NUTS:
8 Island
6 Forest
2 Swamp
Salvaged Train Wreck:
3 Mulch
8 Island
7 Forest
1 Swamp
There were several situations during the “train wreck” that I could have (and should have) just went in a different direction, but I was absolutely bound and determined to have another sweet draft to show off to the readers of this article. While I didn’t get there in that regard, it did give me an excellent opportunity to show that even if this archetype doesn’t exactly go your way, you can still win handily. I won the majority of my games on the back of a timely Gnaw to the Bone followed by Spider Spawning (with or without flashback, it is near impossible to beat 5+ spiders when your opponent is gaining 10+ life a turn).
When it comes to playing the deck, it’s pretty straightforward. Spend the early turns getting value off of your Dream Twists/Alchemies/Skaabs and clog up the ground with your dudes. Trading your guys off in the midgame is paramount, as filling your graveyard with dudes is your greatest advantage in the late game. You finish the game with your Spider Spawnings, Laboratory Maniac, or by simply grinding your opponent out with dudes. You survive long enough to get some guys into the graveyard by gumming up the ground and crushing their dreams with Gnaw to the Bone.
This archetype can be totally unbeatable at its best, and is strong even when it doesn’t have all of its most important tools. The ability to recognize when when the archetype is going to be open early on and to plan your draft accordingly is a major skill to pick up in Innistrad draft, as is the ability to recognize it late and to know when to move in. Seeing key cards like Armored Skaab and Spider Spawning in the early to mid picks can shift you into a major direction and dictate the rest of your draft. Getting the satisfaction of gaining 20+ life off of Gnaw to the bone on turn 8 or 9 is a sufficiently gratifying experience that you have to actually do in order to appreciate. Gerry Thompson did it at Worlds. LSV has officially jumped onto the bandwagon, and most importantly, I’m urging you to give it a try. Cast Spider Spawning today and experience the undeniable power of milling yourself!
Great write-up! My local store was doing a special on black Friday this year where all pre-constructed decks were buy one, get one free. Almost everyone started scooping up the Innistrad white/human tournament deck for the various rares. But no one seemed to be touching the BUG graveyard tournament deck. I picked up two of them because I think they are so awesome! This type of deck is so much fun to play. One of my friends described my version of this deck like this; “Wow dude, it’s like you turn your library upside down and can pull any card you want from it.” He wasn’t kidding. If you can last from turns 1-6 without taking serious damage, it is very hard for any deck in the Standard format to beat the late game strength of this deck. I enjoy using Mind Unbound or Back from the Brink to add some more fun to the deck in later turns. Very good analysis of the deck, looking forward to playing my own version more often.
This is pathetic. LSV wrote this exact same article weeks ago. Not only that, but he posted a video of himself forcing the archetype so we could see how it works in action, and then ANOTHER draft video of him just falling into the archetype by chance. What possible reason did you have in posting this article? It’s so late into Innistrad that you can’t get away with writing up absurdly basic guides to well known decks. This is some of the laziest writing I’ve ever seen.
LSV forced the archetype… then passed on Memory’s Journey something like third pick in pack three, apprently counting on it coming back around. It didn’t. Watched another draft where Anton at SCG did the same. In neither case did they take something that would be more valuable to the functioning of the deck.
I don’t get it. If you’re going to draft the archetype, then draft it and see how it works. It’s rather annoying to be shown some hobbled, half-assed version of a deck.
As for first pick above. I would take Spawning over Journey. If Journey comes back around, that’s gravy. But the chance is there. I can’t see Spider Spawning coming back at all. In the event Journey doesn’t wheel, Spider Spawning is at least good on its own, as well.
Sorry that this article seems recycled guys. I had this article ready to submit a couple days before LSV’s Article was posted on ChannelFireball and I wasn’t on the ball. Then through this last week, several other videos and articles flooded in at the same time, all on this subject.
This was intended to be an intro to a relatively obscure (as of the writing of the article) archetype. My recommendation at this point would be to shelf this archetype for a while. Nothing wheels anymore on any level and there are often instances of 3+ people at a table trying to jam this same deck (There were four people in a side-draft I was in at the PTQ in Cbus this weekend drafting this same deck. Hint: it didn’t work).
The entire point of an archetype like this is that low-quality cards for other archetypes come to you late. When this is no longer the case, it doesn’t make sense to draft it.
forgot this as well:
@PDXOR: I didn’t mean that the first pick came down to Journey or Spawning, I was pointing out that the fact that Journey was in the pack solidified Spider Spawning as a first pick to me over the blue cards.
And I totally agree with your point. When someone tries to draft this deck to show its power off, they will often end up with a weaker version, because you don’t just go into a draft looking to force this. You want to draft a good U/G deck and if the cards come to make this good, they come. Otherwise you will end up with a sub-par version (which can still be good but usually is too slow/inconsistent and won’t get there).
I’d like to see another article on other draft archetypes that’s this detailed. Good article, but unfortunately a poor subject lol (no fault of your own)
I’m sorry for my knee-jerk, rude response. Unlike literally every other article and video I’ve leveled legitimate complaints at on this site, you politely and calmly apologized for your mistake and explained the situation from your own perspective. Thank you for being so reasonable. I hope to see more content from you in the future, preferably on the date you mean to publish it. I really can’t emphasize enough how refreshing it is to not see the usual response. Calfee, Roberto, Josh, and Greg throw a hissy fit whenever someone calls any one of their decisions into question. If the editors of this site hire more people like you, I can see you guys becoming quite successful.
Scrub, draftmagic.com has been featuring this archetype for awhile. They were the first one to feature it in their draft videos. I felt when LSV wrote his article, he was actually ripping it off from here. I definitely would not criticize them when it comes to articles about spider spawning.
Totally, solebush posted a draft video where he said he had been trying to get a BUG self-mill deck on camera for a while. You can hear how wicked excited he is to be nailing it.
Also, the whole point of archetype drafting is passing on certain cards (GttB) and intending to have them wheel…isn’t that sort of obvious? This way,you end up getting a higher ratio of impact cards by capitilizing on by being in the niche that the typical late pick cards needs to be in to be effective.
I would agree shelving this deck, i forced it at an FNM and someone hate drafted two spider spawnings, at which point your win condition is recycling curse of bloody tome, lab maniac (rare) or straight up casting gnaw to the bone until your opponent concedes. my deck was sick, but really spider spawning is the only reason to go into this deck, and if you don’t see one you really can’t build it, it just becomes hard to play without going to time and people don’t really like it because it’s not really fun, interesting, or interactive.
Also, people HATE conceding to you when your win-con is decking your opponent naturally.
Decklist:
3 gnaw to the bone
5 deranged assistant
1 civilized scholar
2 forbidden alchemy
3 mulch
3 armored scab
1 boneyard wurm
1 lab maniac
1 runic repitition (1 more board)
1 memory’s journey (1 more board)
1 curse of the bloody tome
1 snapcaster mage
**i did manage one game to have 4 cards in my deck on turn 5, which i count as a success.**
I would have to say that Josh(solebush) is on camera saying that spider spawning is the best card in the set for draft well before LSV(I watch CF too) and the other article by Steve Sadin… hell he was drafting/forcing spider spawning in his first videos….
Um you are far from the first person to bring this up. The only issue is Curse of Oblivion and the white card with flashback that exiles a creature from a graveyard.
But this was done by Marshall for LR about a month ago and it has been well known about for a long time. The only problem is going up against other players who are playing mulch decks and take your cards.
Also hoping for a spider spawning, which is usually a P1P2 and a Ruinic Repition + Memory Journal which are both uncommon is hard to do. And also Lab Maniac isn’t a card that you see a lot.