As you know if you've been reading my blog, while I've been whole-heartedly enjoying the Innistrad Limited environment, even if my performances with it have been lacking any success. That said, I'm happy to share that with some advancement along my MtG learning curve and a small bit of luck, I was able to rack up an appearance in the finals match of this Side Draft pod with G/R Werewolves.
Going in to the draft, I once again approached the drafting portion of the event with a clean slate, no agenda on my mind other than to have fun. Cracking my first pack, I see I've gotten two rares, what with my dual-faced Transforming card being a rare as well as the one normally found in the pack. The commons and uncommons in the pack were fairly generic, but a few solid options were there. After some hemming and hawing over what direction to take in the draft, I could see there where quite a few Werewolf cards cracked in this first round of packs, so I opted to see if I could avoid signaling too much and make a deck that would support the Instigator Gang/Wildblood Pack in my fresh pack, itching to cause some carnage. Howling at the moon on the inside, I quietly set the card Moon side up in front of me and casually passed the remaining picks to the left.
For my next pick, a Gatstaf Shepherd/Gatstaf Howler caught my eye right off, and while a quick glance over the other cards in the pack offered nothing really any more powerful, I decided to risk possibly committing to not just two colors early, but an entire tribal theme. As the packs continued to circle the draft pod, it became clear not many players were picking up on table signals, much less noticing my affinity for drafting Werewolves, as I picked up two Moonmist and another Lycanthrope in the first round of drafting.
With my colors and archetype now completely locked in, I spend the rest of the draft picking up a few more Werewolves, a pair of Full Moon's Rise, a spot of removal and some other utility cards. Upon laying out my pool to start deck construction, it becomes clear that the deck I'm building will certainly want to play very aggressively, and allows little room for coming back should a game go long. Sleeving up my assemblage of fur and claws, we start the single elimination rounds.
Round 1 I'm paired against a fairly aggressive G/W Human build. My opponent wins the die roll and opts to play, coming out quick and dropping an Avacyn's Pilgrim turn one. Following it up with a two more creature drops on her turn two. I untap on my turn two, dropping my Gatstaf Shepherd in to play already eager to start attacking her life total. Unfortunately she makes her third land drop, uses a Pilgrim to produce a white mana and drops a Slayer of the Wicked on to the battlefield. As my Shepherd finds it's way to the graveyard, I get attacked by her Doomed Traveler and second Pilgrim. Over the next few turns, I manage to drop at least one creature in to play a turn, and stay from dipping below 10 life.
I lose another Werewolf to a second Slayer of the Wicked, but my Ashmouth Hound and Hamlet Captain give me some breathing room on her attacks, when I'm finally able to drop my Butcher's Cleaver and equip it to the Captain. I slowly start making attacks with my now lifelinked Humans, and while she is killing them off by chump blocking, I'm very slowly getting ahead in the life total race, as I gain 4-5 life a turn, and she's only delivering 3 points of damage a turn with her flyers. Eventually, her deck stalls out on her, and she draws 3 lands in a row, allowing me to take the tempo of the game back. Flashing back a Travel Preparations and casting a Feeling of Dread to tap out her two remaining blockers, I manage to swing in for lethal damage after casting a Moonmist to flip the two Werewolves I'd manage to stick in to play without her finding what I found out was the 3rd Slayer of the Wicked she's drafted.In game two, she opts to play again, but ends up making a fatal mistake in keeping a hand with 3 Forests in it, and the majority of her remaining hand being white spells. As I start to build a fearsome howlpack of my own, she keeps dropping Forest after Forest on to the battlefield, chump blocking with whatever small green Creature she can, but he deck denying her the white heavy hitters in her hand. I feel bad for the speed I close of the game, but her choice to not mulligan in to a white mana source really cost her the game.
Round 2 I'm paired against a B/R Vampire deck; very aggressive. My opponent decided to brag to me a bit while constructing his deck, so I know he's running 7 low cost Vamps in addition to the Bloodline Keeper/Lord of Lineage he pulled pick one, pack one. Knowing he's going to come at me quickly, I will the die roll and opt to play, but have to mulligan to 6 cards to get in to a decent hand to help fight off his onslaught of blood-feeders. Unfortunately, my opponent finds enough removal to deal with my threats, and a fourth turn Keeper that flips on turn six allows enough damage to get through to knock me to 0 life.
Game two, I opt to play again, and thankfully he gets a much slower start. We trade damage back and forth with him slowly creeping a head in the damage race, but once more I get the Butcher's Cleaver in to play. Managing to keep my Werewolves Human though some crafty spell play, I bring the game back under my control but then he drops his Bloodline Keeper again and my clock starts ticking. Thankfully, I top deck my Geistcatcher's Rig before he can hit the 5 Vamp threshold; dealing with the biggest threat in his deck, I continue my slow march to victory with my still Human lycanthropes.Game three, I'm on the play, and it's clear that my opponent is fading fast (some hard played games after a weekend of little sleep I find out). We both start trading early damage, and I draw my Geistcatcher's Rig again, holding off on casting it until I see that dreaded Keeper again. Unfortunately, it becomes clear very soon that my opponent's heart isn't in playing anymore, and he intentionally makes bad decisions with his cards, allowing me to win and advance to the finals. I thank him for some great games and move on to meet my next opponent.
Round 3 and I'm super happy to be doing as well as I have so far. Unfortunately that excitement ends quickly, as in both my games this round, my deck fails to keep up with the very aggressive Blue and Green pool my opponent drafted, not to mention any threats I do produce fall quickly to his excellent splashed Red removal. After the match, I talk a bit with my opponent about drafting a tribal theme, Werewolves in particular, and we both agree that it's not a good strategy to go in to a draft with, but sometimes the cards fall the right way, and one can build something like I did that day.
Below is the main deck and sideboard from my pool, and as always, I'm interested to hear what you may have done differently.
Main Deck
1 Ambush Viper
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Feral Ridgewolf
1 Gatstaf Shepherd/Gatstaf Howler
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Grizzled Outcasts/Krallenhorde Wantons
1 Hamlet Captain
1 Instigator Gang/Wildblood Pack
1 Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass
1 Pitchburn Devils
1 Somberwald Spider
1 Tormented Pariah/Rampaging Werewolf
1 Villagers of Estwald/Howlpack of Estwald
2 Caravan Vigil
1 Butcher's Cleaver
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Full Moon's Rise
1 Geistflame
2 Moonmist
1 Traitorous Blood
2 Travel Preparations
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Plains
6 Mountain
7 Forest
Sideboard
2 Ghostly Possession
1 Purify the Grave
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Voiceless Spirit
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Ghoulraiser
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Rage Thrower
1 Riot Devils
1 Full Moon's Rise
1 Grave Bramble
1 Naturalize
1 Spidery Grasp
1 Demonmail Hauberk
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Sulfur Falls
