Hello again readers and gluttons for Magic power! As we started in Part I, this article deals with the ins and outs of each archetype in Innistrad Limited. First, we jumped into the “best deck” U/W Skies and described how its optimal list can hardly be beaten. Also, it uses the two best colors so it’s impossible to fail with. Next we traveled into the graveyard for some Self-Mill goodies. Using graveyard enablers, like Mulch, we load our bin with goodies to take over the game later. [/card]Spider Spawning[/card] wins games on its own. Finally, we left off with a heated discussion about G/W Aggro and R/B Vampires.
R/G Werewolves
Perhaps the most solid base for an aggro deck is Red plus Green for a plethora of solid bodies and removal plus pump. Werewolves, like Villagers of Estwald, are amongst the most flavorful cards I’ve ever seen printed with a Magic logo. Wait… Nevermind. They transform into ugly brutes that terrorize your opponent if they don’t play a spell. The downside of this archetype is that it relies on your opponent failing, in which case Grizzly Bears could win. Enter Moonmist.
Innistrad Limited is full of cards that suck donkey dick in most archetypes, but are stand-out bombs in others. Moonmist headlines this list. Instead of relying on an opponent’s miscues, you rampage their face while losing no creatures. The spell can work wonders on defense while you try and set up a counter-swing, and thus is the most powerful card in the deck. Maybe I should rename this deck R/G Moonmist.
I’m generally weary of jumping into this archetype, since it relies heavily on one card. When I do it’s because I see Moonmist in my opening pack. R/G is a safe place to be since you can combine lands with creatures, add an attack step, and suddenly you win games of Magic. If I see a lackluster pack with the signature trick, I’ll often grab a Darkthicket Wolf and watch the Mist spin. The no-brainers to get in are the archetype-defining Kruin Outlaw and Kessig Wolf Run.
NOTE: On MTGO you can’t see all the flip-cards at the table, but in real life, make sure you use that info to discern if the deck is available (and if someone on your right jumps into it!)
Make sure to prioritize GUYS for this deck. No amount of Traitorous Blood will help you punch through if you don’t have creatures already. Also, the deck relies on a few non-removal spells and thus needs to stay high and tight on guy count.
I generally only dive into this deck when I get a rare Werewolf like Kruin Outlaw.
Pick Orders:
Moonmist – While the most important card in the deck, it’s trash to everyone else so expect it late
Creature X – (Power + Attack Step = Win)
Creature Y - (Ditto)
Spidery Grasp and all forms of pumps
Fed Rating: 8/10 – While the draws can be explosive, they often lean too hard on a few cards
Wrecked Rating: 3/5 – If you’re *just* dropping dudes you’ll Silently Depart from drafts quickly
U/R Control
I hesitate to call this deck “Burning Vengeance” since it gets hate-drafted and sometimes doesn’t even show up in the draft. Instead, think of this deck as the control shell that takes advantage of card advantage from the graveyard. While the power Enchantment can wreak havoc on an open board, you can’t build a deck that fails without it. For that reason, you’ll hardly see me play Dream Twist. Granted, sometimes you get two copies of BV and suddenly you play more cards from your graveyard than from your hand.
All sorts of removal are good for this deck, just make sure to save them for the threats that matter. Armored Skaab is often my favorite card for this deck, as it serves as a long-game blocker and lights up your graveyard. It’s important to draft creatures with butts for this deck, since often they’ll be doing a lot of blocking while you churn the soil of your graveyard. A few evasive win-conditions are nice. Specifically, Murder of Crows, Charmbreaker Devils, and Heretics Punishment will put me into this deck, especially if that Blue uncommon gets passed.
This deck, more than all the others, needs the right card at the right time. It can’t wait longer than three turns to plug the ground, can’t wait too late to drop a fatty, and can’t get stuck digging for one spell and then have no backup for it. Make sure that you cost-sort your deck while you draft U/R and fill in the pressure points. If you are weak in any one area, the deck will suffer.
Now U/R Flashback decks have varying pick orders depending on what cards you already have, so I’m gonna jump a little into my favorite deck: U/R tempo. It plays similarly to Flashback except doesn’t rely on anything, and in fact gets rewarded by those latepick Crossway Vampires. This deck plays cheap threats and uses myriad tricks to keep blockers out of the way.
Pick Order:
Harvest Pyre – the first one. You never want to draw two
Makeshift Mauler – Try to not get more than two zombies without enablers
Bonus Pick: Delver of Secrets – Rejoice! We found a deck where he excels
Fed Rating: 10/10 – This is the “unbeatable” deck if you hit the perfect list
Wrecked Rating: 3/5 – A bad U/R list just runs weaker creatures than your opponent’s
All your eggs in one basket?
U/B Zombies
Have you noticed that U appeared in like half of these deck archetypes? One reason is that its cardpool feeds many strategies. Silent Departure goes in every deck, as does Moon Heron and Civilized Scholar. Along with the last, Armored Skaab feeds U/B Zombies especially well. The primary idea in this deck is to load the graveyard and then absorb it back up with Makeshift Mauler or restock your hand with Ghoulraiser. While Blue and Black tend to be control colors, this deck often relies on under-costed fatty zombies to jump to early leads. Sure, the Ghoulraiser can set up neat card advantage, but in the end he’s still just a 2/2.
One of the downsides to this deck is that it doesn’t have rares. Endless Ranks of the Dead is unreliable, and Unbreathing Horde really needs a dedicated deck (and to not be in your opening hand!) That said, you can pull from the unwanted pool of Black creatures like Markov Patrician. Removal is actually less important to this deck since it really just wants to splash body parts onto the table and throw them at someone’s face. Sure, you still want Victim of the Night to get some jerks out of the way, but nothing nothing beats the reliable damage of a Moan the Unhallowed.
Usually I avoid diving into this archetype, since the ceiling is so low. The good news is that it’s hard to build a bad U/B deck, and sometimes the underdrafted color (Black) rewards you with a few goodies. Some notes about the cards no one else wants: Corpse Lunge is pretty bad. If you get a lot of 3/X creatures then it becomes playable, but be careful that it doesn’t leech your graveyard when you need it for those Blue Zombies. Ghoulcallers Chant is also lackluster. When it gets two Zombies, you often can’t even cast them fast enough for the advantage to matter. Also, you’re syphoning the fuel the rest of the deck needs!
Pick Order:
Claustrophobia – Always, removal first
Fed Rating: 7/10
Wrecked Rating: 3/5
U/W Mill
So last (and quite probably least) is another whacky archetype: Mill. In case you weren’t around for Millstone, the naming of this archetype actually pre-dates Limited. Making your opponent run out of cards is a dangerous win condition for many reasons: it’s slow, it feeds their graveyard with Flashback spells, and your win conditions can’t trade for creatures. We trade all of these cons for the single pro that we get an entire deck of cards no one else wants.
Jumping into UW Mill usually means seeing key milling cards in your opening pack and anticipating their return eight picks later. When I say “key milling cards” I mean Curse of the Bloody Tome. No matter how many Ghoulcallers Bells and Dream Twists you get, they’re not fast enough without the Curse. Let me say it again, the deck is shit without curse. Got it? Shit.
So saying we get our three Curses, how do we leverage them into a deck? For one, think that a turn-1 Bell followed by a turn-3 Curse will mill out your opponent by turn-11. Kinda slow, but manageable. A second Curse (hopefully paired with a Silent Departure or Sensory Deprivation) means it’ll be hard to lose. So we have our goal, and our star player. Now time to insert the role-players. Remember, we aren’t building a normal deck, so evasion is worthless (except to block flyers.) If you save removal for the opponent’s evasive creatures, you only need a Fortress Crab to save the ground. Chapel Geist and Voiceless Spirit do work upstairs while also winning fights on the ground, so make sure to grab these guys.
Innistrad offers a lot of tempo plays like Feeling of Dread and Silent Departure. While these cards are great while attacking, they are card disadvantage. In a deck that needs to survive ten turns, be careful to not overvalue these guys. Instead, Grab the Ghostly Possession that undoubtedly spins in every pack. Use Armored Skaab to plug the ground and give you a Dream Twist or two.
Since the deck is -what’s the word?- SHIT without Curse, make sure you take some cards that can dual as U/W Skies playables. If you don’t get the Mill deck, you might still have a playable defensive deck full of flyers.
Pick Order:
Curse of the Bloody Tome – While it should go late, you can’t afford to miss a single one!
Bonds of Faith – If you take a Tome over one, expect to fight your neighbor for White
Armored Skaab – a blocker and an enabler
Ghostly Possession – you can get it late, but it’s the best removal in the deck.
Sensory Deprivation – the second best ^^
Fed Rating: Unbeatable
Wrecked Rating: Cannot win
Oops!
And there you have it! Eight archetypes in Innistrad draft covering every common but Curse of the Pierced Heart. There’s never been a Limited format like this, where literally one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Every deck is different, and one draft can give us eight different strong decks if the players all dive in opposite directions. Now of course, I didn’t go into every combination (certainly, Rally the Forces wants it’s own R/W deck) because good cards plus lands will always make a deck. I hope you enjoyed the article, and for those who made it this far, enjoy stomping pubs on MTGO!
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Cheers
Roberto
In the mill how is Armored Skaab an enabler when trying to mill someone else? Wouldn’t you want to pass it so if someone else plays it they help you out? Also I would think the crab would be a higher pick over it.
Most UW mill decks are running a good amount of flashback like dream twist, silent departure and grasp. I totally disagree with berto on the value of silent departure in this type of deck, I’d take them over both bonds and claustraphobia.
I love the skaab in a mill deck. A good mill deck runs departure, feeling of dread, and dream twist as key cards. Therefore the skaab has potential to be card advantage and clog the ground. I’m also with solebush on departure just for its flashback alone since the mill deck runs ghoulcallers bell as well as skaab. I’m pissed…I didn’t feel like spending money today but now I need to draft me a mill deck after reading this article lol
Silent Departure and Feeling of Dread both buy time. They can ultimately buy you enough time but they are less important than steady blockers. Ghoulcaller’s Bell is important to factor in when weighing the flashback spells, but if you draw 3 “tempo” cards in an opening hand and they answer your only permanent blocker then you WILL NOT have enough time. Silent’s best use is after turn 3-4 Curse, using the 4th mana to set them back. It is a win there, but unreliable. I do like it.
You HAVE to always value Silent Departure high.. if you pass one you will never see it again. That is a guarantee. Since U/W Mill runs on defense, I can’t think of a better tempo card out there..
there is no card called victim of the night and certainly not that high in the pick order…
Victim of night is 3rd or 4th at best in BU (or any deck with black) Imho
I played a U/B Zombie deck at my very first draft, and out of 14 people it was being played by one other person who happened to be at a different table than me. So as a result, I got all the good zombies I needed to make the deck work. Increasing Confusion, Havengul Runebinder, Diregraf Captain and Geralf’s Mindcrusher were all passed by other players who didn’t have the cards for a Zombie deck in my draft, and each of these 4 goodies led to victory for me.
Seriously, if you pick up a Runebinder and Mindcrusher, don’t hesitate to run U/B Zombies. It’s constantly under-rated, and black has a great removal suite in Dark Ascension draft.