Innistrad is such a deep and complex limited format that even after months of drafting there are still some cards and some archetypes that are seeing less play than they may deserve. Here at Draftmagic we’ve asked some of our frequent and not-so-frequent contributors about what cards they feel are currently being overlooked in the battle for 40 cards supremacy.
Vito Gesualdi 
I find I still struggle to grasp the Innistrad draft format, simply because of how unique it is. For instance, in my first few drafts I often packed my deck with multiple copies of Smite the Monstrous, only to realize how useless it is against the format’s swarm of small, efficient beaters. Similarly, though most formats have a wealth of removal by which to punish creature enchantments, Innistrad’s removal is largely situational, meaning you can often get some serious value out of these buffs. My current favorite is Skeletal Grimace, a card I would normally pass without hesitation. Only after I drafted a deck with 3 Markov Patricians did I realize how easy it would be to assemble a poor man’s version of the classic Invisible Stalker + Butchers Clever combo. Of course there’s still a good number of answers to a 4/2 regenerating lifelinker (Silent Departure and Dead Weight stick out as the best common answers), though it only takes two hits to get your money’s worth, and if unanswered these kinds of beats can end a game quickly. Meanwhile, sticking the Grimace on an intimidate creature like Spectral Rider ensures that your opponent’s life clock continues to tick down, while jamming it onto a big guy like Makeshift Mauler forces chump blocks all day long. Anyhow, I’m of the opinion most black decks should be running a critical mass of Patricians whenever possible, so if you can pick up two, do try and find a Grimace to accent them.
Josh Frankel
Paraselene, Naturalize, Witchbane Orb and Mask of Avacyn all seem to go way later than they should. They aren’t early picks and I’m not feeling good about my chances if the make my main deck, but they are all gamebreaking sideboard options against some commonly drafted archetypes (burning vengeance or mill) and will often be solid in other matchups as well. I feel like too many drafters underestimate the power of a good sideboard. Whenever these cards go 10th pick or later (as they often do), I feel like at least 1 drafter behind me either totally neglected their sideboard in favor of some marginal card/hate draft or a vengeance/mill drafter should have hate drafted. (As a side-note, in general I think drafting for the sideboard is a much higher priority than hate-drafting, but the exception is for niche decks like vengeance/mill and self-mill)
Marlon Egolf
Altar’s Reap is a card that sees a little bit of play, but not as much as I think it should. The obvious application is to “save” your creature from removal by sacrificing it to Altar’s Reap in response, thus coming out a card ahead on your opponent. However, not enough people use it as a way of cashing in their useless creatures late game for some a chance to draw something relevant to the situation. Often times the game will turn into a board stall, or turn eight rolls around and that Walking Corpse just isn’t doing it anymore. In situations like that the loss of your early drop is basically nil, so you are essentially netting a 2-for-1 off the Reap.
Geo Thornton
Undervalued? Even still, I’d say Gnaw to the Bone. In a format where it generally comes down to a race in one way or another, gaining 10-18 life per use is rather bomby, yet it still wheels on a regular basis. You turn the game on its head, and you won late top deck wars.
Other cards of note:
Village Ironsmith: the sheer amount of dudes he eats, even in human form is massive. Yet he regularly wheels even in weak packs.
Hollowhenge Scavenger: like I said with gnaw to the bone, life gain is paramount and can put you in ridiculously enviable positions you wouldn’t much care about in other formats. Plus, why would a 4/5 for 5 go as late as this guy does anyways?
Roberto Castro
It’s no secret anymore, Self-Mill is good. But people undervalue the strength of these early blue drops. They’re good in many archetypes and serve multiple purposes. Armored Skaab is a protective beast that fills your graveyard quickly. Whether you hit a flashback card or not, this is INFORMATION about your deck. G.I. Joe taught me that knowledge is power, right? Use this information to wield your deck appropriately. Similarly, Selhoff Occultist is a very decent blocking body that can also pick up Silver-Inlaid Dagger and punch. Use the mill to answer as many questions as possible- not just “does this flashback.” As for Dagger, That card goes 4th for no reason in pack one, as people try to “set up” in their archetype niche. Instead of being aggressive and jumping into a deck, you should always take a flexible (and amazing) card and then react to the cards that come. Every deck is better with dagger in it.
Jeff Green
I think Rebuke is one of the most underrated cards by far. It suffers from what I call Neck Snap syndrome (see llorwyn). This is an idea that people get about cards being bad because your opponent knows what you have. Can your opponent play around rebuke with their Bloodgift Demon. Well yes, but what white removal was going to kill that card anyway, other than Smite the Monstrous? Just because your opponent knows you have rebuke doesn’t mean the cards doesn’t still just kill any attacker you want it to. I love picking these up 5th and 6th and destroying people with them.
Orion Wilson
I have to go with Ghoulcaller’s Chant as the one that immediately comes to mind. It’s not awesome, but the fact that it’s a one card flip on werewolves is pretty huge. There are also just so many cards you want to make sure you can get back on the table in the late game; either something that takes over the game, like a Falkenrath Noble, or something that just gives you a ton of value, like a Pitchburn Devils.
I will also say Night Revelers. A 4/4 haste for 5 is just a huge body that can get a lot of damage in very quickly.
Feral Ridgewolf seems a bit undervalued, seeing as you can pump it multiple times if needs be. Not amazing, but I don’t think it’s as unplayable as people make out.
I agree 100% with Altar’s Reap. I think many novice players will often cringe at the idea of sacrificing a creature in an aggro-heavy format because they think the best way to win is to come out swinging as hard as you can with as many creatures as possible. Obviously, this is not the case. I think to correlate Altar’s Reap to a few other Constructed archetypes; it puts a creature in the graveyard and helps you potentially draw into Spider Spawning in self-mill, if you are lucky enough to draft Olivia then it would be really nice to sac your opponent’s creature to her second ability and gain a quick 2 card advanatge at no cost, but this would also work really well with the creature you just grabbed from them using Traitorous Blood! I love this card and it’s usually a mid-range pick for me in most drafts. I also agree with Gnaw to the Bone. Black/Green is really starting to evolve as a solid color-combination in Constructed, and with all the morbid abilities that exist within these two colors, Gnaw to the Bone is a perfect fit for late game survival. (Like in Marlon’s recent black/green Innistrad draft deck.) I would have put Morkrut Banshee on the list as well. Everything thinks its so hard to cast after hitting Morbid, but any experienced player know when to use combat tricks to their advatage, and sometimes pretending you accidentally beat into lethal with a Darkthicket Wolf is a great way to bring the nasty lady into play.
In Aggro W/x decks, Feeling of Dread is monstrous for getting in the last few points. W/R tiny tricks is fast becoming one of my favorite decks, and Dread + Nightbird clutches+a solid first 4 turns is usually unbeatable. Add on top a Rally the Peasants (or maybe a furor of the unbitten, if you’re feeling cheap) and its a cant-lose.
Newish player. I feel a One-eyed Scarecrow or two in my sideboard has fantastic utility. I’ve been seeing them wheel a lot at my local shop.
When in Black, I love picking up a late Maw of the Mire. You never main deck it of course, but if you know your opponent is going to be splashing something and you want that land gone, you can clear it out and gain 4 life as well. That’s not a bad trade. Even if you just want to put your opponent one land down (preventing a Spider Spawning flashback if he has 6 for example) works out nicely.
I dont understand why black players dont take village cannibals.. its a 2/2 for 3 which is playable, but it also is great vs the best deck in the limited format (Green white human travel prep)
Paraselene. I always want these in my sideboard. I just laugh sometimes when I see a video where a pro just won’t take it saying how it hurts their one of bonds of faith. Even better when they have passed other bonds, claustrophobia, burning vengeance, and other enchantments.
Orchard spirit also seems to be really under valued. I know I undervalued it at first and found myself wishing I just had some of those over some other big green creature.
These are the two cards I’ve found myself sitting there before and thinking how I would just blow out the other person if I had one.
This article is great content – better then most articles and it seems it was easy to put together. Draftmagic should do these kinds of polls regularly.
I’m going to go with sensory deprivation here. This card has the ability to turn off a large amount of creatures in the format either making them a chumper or a glorified fortress crab which can easily be blitzed into. It’s not the best blue removal i.e. I’d still take grasp, silent departure or claustrophobia over it but when you’re looking for answers to very aggressive or evasive decks, this card works wonders.
You are not allowed to publish a picture of Calvin and Hobbes. Bill Watterson never wanted his work to be used for advertising. I will be informing the copyright infringement board if you do not remove the image immediately and send a letter of apology directly to the artist. If you truly respect Calvin and Hobbes, you would have never posted this image. I bet you also have a T-shirt with Calvin dancing to disco music, and a bumper sticker of him peeing on the Ford logo. You people are sick.
@Derp
I put up the Calvin and Hobbes picture. As one of the worlds biggest C&H fans I would never use the images of Calvin or Hobbes for my own personal monetary gain. Using this image is in now way increasing our profits; it is merely a small homage to an amazing artist that also happens to fit with the theme of the article. You can make up all the sit you want about t-shirts and bumper stickers, although none of it is even close to true. So chill the fuck out and please stop being an ass
@Derp: Please troll harder. You may or may not do those things, but unless the estate of Bill Watterson wants to sue DraftMagic immediately (legally hazy at best), nothing bad can happen to them as long as they take it down in response to THEIR CEASE AND DESIST LETTER. Not yours. Also, there is no “copy infringement board” and the artist is extremely reclusive, so sending a letter is very difficult. If you knew anything about Calvin and Hobbes, you would know these things. Also, your last two sentences can be summarized: wild speculation, wild speculation, Ad Hominem attack. Please learn how to make a logical argument and come back later.
As for the topic at hand, I am always shocked when inquisitor’s flail comes around last or nearly last pick. Just like altar’s reap, flail can be used to upgrade an early bear into something far more formidable in combat, and if you have removal for their blockers (or nightbird’s clutches), it’s double strike on your dude. I read it like this: equipped creature gains double strike if it didn’t have it before, and double double strike if it did. Whenever equipped creature becomes blocked by a creature, destroy that creature and equipped creature. It’s a split card dead-iron sledge/fireshrieker, with the average of their costs. How is this bad?
He is. My Copyright Infringement Board Pals says so.
Yeah I really like Inquisitor’s flail too. I once had a 1/1 spirit token swing for 10 in the air, thanks to flail and double Rally the Peasants.
urgent exorcism and rally the peasants, sometimesi see urgent exorcism go as the last card (besides the land). There are alot of annoying enchantments in this format and there are just as many annoying spirits with evasive abilities. I would say the card is even main deckable, tho its at its worst against b/r aggro. And even then its good to be able to side one or two of these in when needed. I dont know how many games ive won from rally the peasants, being able to give all your creatues +4/+0 is just awesome if you’re flooding the board with a bunch of little guys, and if your opponent doesnt block expecting not to take lethal, well you now have won the game.
i can’t believe people aren’t taking skirsdag high priest above almost anything, black is great in the format and it’s a 2-drop that demands removal. If u get to make even one demon, it’s just so much value and often game over. also, derp is a loser that probably thinks that smug chick {aka calvin’s nemesis} is the coolest character in C and H.
I find it awesome how Marlon’s pic is a crown royal.
Also, derp is one of those people who hate their own lives so he must find fault in everyone else to make himself feel better.
Post up more vids marlon!
Spare from Evil wins games. Cast it before combat on a stalled board and swing with 7 unblockable weenies. Win.
Frightful delusion. Put just one into your deck. Be patient like Kane from Kung Fu. Your opponent will quickly tap out to drop that bomb, and then you make him discard.
The entire concept of the card is like a four letter word.
I have drafted my fair share of innistrad. I have never lost the game when I do this to my opponent, who consequently never speaks to me again.
This is online, btw.
LOL at the guy who takes Rebuke 5th pick…