#mtginn

[steveraffle]

Inktober 2017

Day 26

Get Bumped

Last day of Inktober, so gotta spam the late ones. This inking is inspired by the MtA Cast’s love of Bump in the Night. A solid way to win a game is hovering over someone’s bed, spooking the life out of them.

[lavocedililiana]

Planeswalker on the road - Spaccare tutto non è sempre la soluzione

"Non c'è alcuna forza nel multiverso più pericolosa e più capricciosa dei Planeswalker"

Ugin

Solo un essere su un milione nasce con la scintilla che lo rende in grado di diventare un Planeswalker, ma sono ancora meno coloro capaci di comprendere il proprio potenziale. Essi vagano per il Multiverso, influenzandone in maniera più o meno profonda le sorti. Combattono, amano, ingannano, aiutano…

Quando questi esseri straordinari uniscono le proprie forze per un fine comune, le conseguenze possono essere tanto straordinarie quanto destabilizzanti. Ecco perché i Guardiani sembrano una preziosa risorsa per il Multiverso. Creature al di fuori dell’ordinario che si alleano per sgominare le minacce che affliggono i Piani, per aiutare le popolazioni e difendere i deboli. Ma quali saranno le conseguenze profonde delle loro azioni?

Facciamo insieme il punto sui Piani visitati nelle ultime espansioni, a partire dalla formazione dei Guardiani.

Zendikar

"Avete ucciso due creature viventi che erano più antiche dei mondi", disse Ugin. "Senza conoscere il loro obiettivo, il loro ruolo, l'impatto delle loro vite o della loro morte... avete messo a rischio l'intero piano e causato ignote conseguenze per ucciderli. Solo perché eravate in grado di farlo".

 Senza dubbio gli abitanti di Zendikar saranno stati contenti dell’arrivo di questo gruppo di combattenti che ha salvato il loro mondo dalla minaccia degli Eldrazi. Certo, va detto che tra di loro si trovavano anche alcuni dei diretti responsabili della liberazione dei Titani dalla loro prigione di Edri, ma forse i popolani del Piano non lo sanno…

Insomma, che fosse per senso di colpa o per paura del dilagare della minaccia, Gideon, Nissa, Jace e Chandra hanno unito e loro forze e si sono precipitati sul piano per sconfiggere i mostri.

Nel tentativo di capire il funzionamento della rete di Edri che imprigionava i Titani prima del loro arrivo, Jace incontra Ugin che gli svela i nomi dei due Planeswalker che, insieme al drago, avevano creato quella sofisticata trappola: Sorin e Nahiri.

Nel frattempo Nissa, nel tentativo di recuperare la propria connessione con Ashaya, lo spirito di Zendikar, scopre la tana di Ob Nixilis ed il suo piano per recuperare la Scintilla.

I Guardiani nel tentativo di imprigionare nuovamente Ulamog costruiscono una struttura di Edri che Ob Nixilis usa per riaccendere i propri poteri da Planeswalker e per risvegliare un secondo Titano: Kozilek. Insomma, un vero fallimento.

Sulla spinta del tragico evolvere degli eventi Gideon propone agli altri Planeswalker di prestare giuramento, creando così i Guardiani, e di tentare un’ultima sortita. Lo scontro frontale è violento ma alla fine porta alla distruzione dei due Titani.

Il risultato finale è che Ob Nixilis è fuggito, non prima di giurare vendetta ai Guardiani, e due Titani sono stati uccisi, col disappunto di Ugin: non sappiamo infatti quali conseguenze avrà questo avvenimento.

Innistrad

Tamiyo aggrottò la fronte... "Ci saranno... conseguenze", rispose lei. 

Jace annuì. "I popoli di questo mondo hanno perso una protettrice".

Un lungo e gutturale brontolio rombò nel cielo, profondo e tonante. Il suono fece tremare il petto di Jace e smosse la polvere dal soffitto.

Il volto di Tamiyo si fece serio. "Il piano ha perduto la sua protettrice", disse lei.".

Jace non ha dimenticato quanto gli ha rivelato Ugin, e parte immediatamente alla volta di Innistrad alla ricerca di Sorin Markov. Ad attenderlo trova lupi mannari, bestie mutanti e… Liliana. La sua amica / amante / nemica non è certo propensa ad aiutarlo nella sua ricerca, quindi il Planeswalker si avventura nel maniero della famiglia Markov, dove trova alcuni appunti e l’aiuto inaspettato di Tamiyo, una Planeswalker lunantropa proveniente da Kamigawa.

I due incontrano Avancy, l’angelo creato da Sorin per difendere il Piano che invece si è rivoltata contro il suo credo, corrotta da una forza aliena. Nello scontro che ne consegue interviene anche Sorin, che distrugge l’angelo.

Il vuoto lasciato dalla dipartita di Avancy viene presto riempito dalla forza aliena che sta corrompendo il Piano. Il terzo Titano, Emrakul, fa la sua comparsa.

Appare anche Nahiri, che era stata imprigionata in una dimensione oscura da Sorin mille anni prima, dopo uno scontro. I due combattono nuovamente e si scopre che è stata la litomante a portare il Titano su Innistrad. La battaglia termina con Sorin intrappolato in un blocco di pietra che assiste impotente all’avanzata di Emrakul, mentre Nahiri abbandona il piano.

Nel frattempo i Guardiani si sono organizzati e si scontrano con il Titano, aiutati anche da Liliana. Nello scontro grazie ad una magia vincolante di Tamiyo i Planeswalker riescono ad intrappolare Emrakul sulla luna d’argento che campeggia sopra il Piano.

Il passaggio dei Guardiani stavolta ha portato Innistrad ad avere un Titano intrappolato sopra la propria testa, e speriamo che nessuno abbia la brillante idea di liberarlo. Intanto, il Piano ha perso la protezione di Avancy, mentre Sorin resta intrappolato e Nahiri è fuggita chissà dove. Ma consoliamoci: ora anche Liliana fa parte dei Guardiani (per portare avanti i suoi scopi e sfruttare i Guardiani stessi)… non vi sentite già al sicuro?

Kaladesh

"Ho visto tiranni", disse, "le cui ambizioni non avevano limiti. Creature che si atteggiavano a divinità o pretori o consoli, ma curavano solo i propri interessi, non quelli di coloro su cui regnavano. Intere popolazioni sono state ingannate. Civiltà sono state immerse in guerre. Persone che stavano semplicemente cercando di vivere... fatte soffrire ... o morire".

"Mai più", disse Ajani. "Finché tutti non avranno trovato il loro posto, sarò un guardiano".

 La Fiera degli Inventori sta per avere inizio, e i Guardiani vengono ingaggiati per assicurare il governo locale che tutto vada liscio.

Potete immaginare la reazione di Chandra quando si trova davanti a un membro del Consolato, lo stesso apparato governativo che ha ucciso i suoi genitori. La fuga su Kaladesh della piromante la porta a scoprire che in realtà Pia Nalaar, sua madre, è viva e guida la ribellione. Nel tentativo di liberarla da un arresto, Chandra e Nissa vengono a loro volta catturate. Soltanto l’intervento del Leonid Planeswalker Ajani, amico di lunga data di Pia, permette la fuga.

Anche Jace e Liliana fanno le proprie scoperte: Tezzeret, un Planeswalker al servizio di Nicol Bolas, si trova sul Piano ed ha un ruolo importante all’interno del Consolato.

Nel frattempo, l’inventrice Rashmi riesce a mettere a punto una macchina che permette il viaggio tra i Piani, e la presenta alla Fiera. Sarebbe catastrofico se finisse in mano alle persone sbagliate.

I Guardiani hanno ormai abbastanza motivazioni per allearsi alla Ribellione. Tezzeret impone il coprifuoco e sequestra tutte le invenzioni presentate alla Fiera, compreso il marchingegno di Rashmi. Nel pieno dei tumulti che ne scaturiscono, i Guardiani riescono a distruggere il ponte planare e a sconfiggere Tezzeret, che però riesce a mettersi in salvo. Ma prima viene costretto a rivelare che Nicol Bolas si trova ad Amonkhet dove sta per compiersi il prossimo passo del suo piano. Ajani cerca di mettere in guardia il gruppo sulla potenza di Bolas, ma gli altri Planeswlaker sono decisi: si va ad Amonkhet.

Stavolta l’intervento dei Guardiani ha portato a sconvolgimenti più politici. Un intero governo è stato abbattuto, in parte per la presenza di Tezzeret, ma in parte per il rapporto personale di Chandra con la capo della rivolta. Quali conseguenze avrà questo atteggiamento sulle prossime avventure dei Guardiani? Non si piò più accusare Liliana se porta avanti i propri fini personali, dopotutto Chandra ha fatto la stessa cosa su Kaladesh.

Inoltre Tezzeret (e di conseguenza Nicol Bolas) sa che esistono alcuni Planeswalker che si sono alleati e stanno agendo per contrastare i piani del Drago millenario. Bolas starà preparando una trappola su Amonkhet per i Guardiani?

Lo stesso Tezzeret è fuggito in maniera rocambolesca, e si unisce all’elenco di nemici che i Guardiani stanno accumulando nel loro peregrinare in giro per i Piani.

Unica nota positiva è l’unione di Ajani ai Guardiani, anche se non sarà ad Amonkhet. Probabilmente lo vedremo nelle prossime espansioni.

[justindz]

Winn(more)istrad

Last night, I played in another excellent #mtginn sealed deck event run by @TheSundry. In opening my pool, I again decided that my route to victory was through the UW skies. There were a few cards that I was saddened to not have and I was worried that the pool was weaker than my last UW draft deck. However, I believe in the game plan and my skill and thought I could probably 3-1 with some good pairings.

We sit down at the tables for Don's opening spiel. I am across from two new-ish players, who I gather have not done much limited. But, one of the guys owns 4x foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and therefore I assume he is 1) wealthy and 2) has played constructed some. We chat a bit and I give them some sparse advice, also explaining that they can modify their decks at any time between games/rounds. Most people don't know that.

I open an okay pool. I can't not get Nephalia Drownyards, apparently. What a waste of a slot. Anyway, I move red and green to the side because they are red and green, respectively. And also they were not very deep and I thought they were a bit lacking in the bomb-department. I had 0 Prey Upon, Spidery Grasp, etc. I end up on UW again--same as my last INN draft--and build

The Deck

Butcher's Cleaver

Frightful Delusion

Avacynian Priest

Gallows Warden

Smite the Monstrous

Brimstone Volley

Claustrophobia

Stitched Drake

Blazing Torch

Armored Skaab

Geistcatcher's Rig

Grasp of Phantoms

Mirror-Mad Phantasm

Skaab Goliath

Deranged Assistant

Geist of Saint Traft

Rebuke

Rebuke

Fortress Crab

Invisible Stalker

Moon Heron

Stitcher's Apprentice

Spectral Rider

Shimmering Grotto

9x Island

6x Plains

1x Mountain

The tough calls were Fortress Crab and Spectral Rider. I could have also gone with Urgent Exorcism, Unruly Mob, Sharpened Pitchfork, Sensory Deprivation or Silverchase Fox. I decided to main the Crab basically against Werewolves and such and treat that as my board-out for Urgent Exorcism when warranted. I did not have enough humans to abuse the Pitchfork and Invisible Stalker just wasn't enough. That guy was Cleaver or bust.

So, deck complete. We get the pairings and... I'm playing the 4x Jace guy.

The Matches

Round 1 - Jason w/ BR - on the play

Game 1 - He wins the die roll and chooses to draw first. Works for me. I proceed to ranch him with fliers.

Game 2 - He chooses to play first (aha! they learn!). I clog the ground and whittle him down with fliers. He gets me for a 9 point swing with a buffed up Werewolf, but I'm able to tap one of his guys on my turn and counter-swing for 8, putting him in a dead on board position with 4 life left and 40 minutes on the play clock.

Afterwards, we go through his deck and the rest of his pool and he has (gasp) 2x Claustrophobia, Stitched Drake, Sturmgeist, Think Twice, Silent Departure, Murder of Crows and Snapcaster mage to go with his 2x Tribute to Hunger and other nonsense. We rebuild the deck as UB and splash for Brimstone Volley and Pitchburn Devils. He later removes the red, but sticks with the main configuration. He won some more games later and I think the improvements made sense to him and helped a lot.

So, we get pairings again and I'm playing... his other friend who was also across from me! I think to myself: self, you're guaranteed at least a pack tonight.

Round 2 - Daniel w/ UB - on the play

Game 1 - I mulligan twice (frown) and then start out like this:

Turn 1 - Land.

Turn 2 - Land, Avacynian Priest.

Turn 3 - Geist of Saint-Traft.

And he can't stick any guys past my removal, so I ranch him pretty fast. My best play here is countering Murder of Crows with Frightful Delusions and nabbing another guy via discard.

Game 2 - Turn 2 Invisible Stalker, Turn 3 Butcher's Cleaver and I win from there. Again, about 40 minutes on the play clock.

Round 3 - William w/ BRu (Sulfur Falls and Grotto for a Think Twice) - on the draw

I remember this guy from the prior event. Nice guy. I tell him I haven't lost a game yet, but not to be nervous and wink. Turns out I got paired down. He's 1-1.

Game 1 - I record myself going from 20 to 8 in one shot and then winning. I believe he had a 5/5 transformed werewolf with Skeletal Grimace and Cobbled Wings that I had to play around, but I was able to chump, tap things and build up enough board that the fact that his creature was forced to attack each turn and he'd spent so many cards on buffing it up worked to my advantage, although narrowly.

Game 2 - My notes just say "Moon Heron + Phantasm" so I'm pretty sure I beat him to do death in the air and he had no fliers. At one point, he killed something with Geistflame. I was forced to play my Phantasm into it, tapped out and my plan was to bait the Geistflame, then play Stitched Drake off of the Phantasm and win from there. However, he didn't even re-play the Geistflame. I think people are still not used to Flashback. This will factor in to the next round as well.

Round 4 - Gareth w/ Esper - on the draw

I sit down and offer to draw, only to find out that I'm paired down again and have to play it out against a guy who is 2-1. If he loses, he gets a single pack. If he wins, he gets 5. If I lose, I get 5, if I win I get 6. So there's no viable split.

Game 1 - We play an extremely long, grinding match for about 40 minutes. Despite the fact that he manages a turn 4 Bloodline Keeper and I don't have removal for it immediately, I end up making the game pretty close with a Skaab Goliath. I spend the rest of the game keeping track off, but not look at the Silent Departure in his graveyard. Although I had enough dead dudes to recast, thanks to his Curse of Death's Hold, he never realizes he can flash it back. He even considers re-casting Forbidden Alchemy, but never Silent Departure. At any rate, we both end up down to 6 life, but I don't draw any fliers for a few turns and I can't stop his Cleaver'd spirit tokens the turn before he can't stop my Cleaver'd Goliath. At this point, my best outcome is to win Game 2 really fast and then rely on the draw since it's unlikely we'll have any time left after that. I board in Urgent Exorcism, since I saw that he had Dearly Departed and Curse of Death's Hold.

Game 2 - I mulligan an one-lander. I pick up a two-lander and have to keep that. On the play, I stick a turn 2 Invisible Stalker and then curve out with Moon Heron and Mirror-Mad Phantasm. He doesn't have any removal, so I untap with the Phantasm. He manages to kill the Heron quickly, but doesn't have more fliers and so the Phantasm and Invisible Stalker quickly go the distance. 1-1. My plan is working. We shuffle up and there are six minutes on the clock, so I figure it's probably a 3-0-1 night for me.

Game 3 - I start to build up board position and he nails me with a few Tribute to Hunger. I sac my big toughness guys that are stuck on the ground and he ends up at 28 life on Turn 0 of extra turns. However, I have a pretty good board and get a Gallows Warden and the Phantasm again with open mana to shuffle him. He plays Bonds of Faith on my Phantasm, I guess hoping to mill me as his only out. At any rate, it doesn't work and he helps me cast my Stitched Drake. I am able to easily kill him from 28 life in three turns of extra time. Sorry, man.

Conclusion

I ended the night at 4-0 with one game loss. I was very happy with that performance. I got six packs and cracked a few rares I wanted for Commander as well as a nice pack with a solid rare plus a bonus foil Mayor of Avabruck. All in all, I got more value cracking them than I would have trading or selling the packs. Some guy decided to crack his packs standing next to me because of my apparent monetary aura. He ended up getting a mythic in the first and second pack and then a rare and a flip rare in the third pack and heartily shook my hand.

Here are my main observations on the night:

I think my "clog the ground, own the skies" strategy is still pretty solid. Provided, of course, that your pool or draft can assemble enough of the pieces. I would have liked a Mausoleum Guard, Midnight Haunting or something of that sort, but it turned out okay.

Mirror-Mad Phantasm is nuts if you can untap with him. I was impressed and the milling is nice because it provides a ray of hope for the opponents and makes them feel like they "almost had you" even though you had a nearly indestructible five-powered flier AND it gave you all this free flashback and Skaab value. I can see why he's mythic. Having him at rare would have hurt the format.

Geist is, as people say, not too awesome in Limited. My conclusion is that it is correct to swing with him, trade with a two toughness guy and get the angel token in there for damage. Treat him like removal, unless the board's empty ;-)

Invisible Stalker + Butcher's Cleaver is a beating. Even with no other support for either, I'd run them. The Cleave is not bad on its own and if you have even one Trample guy, it's nutso.

Frightful Delusion continued to be awesome. I even used it once just to force a discard this time and it was a good trade for the last creature in their hand.

Although I prefer Silent Departure for curve reasons, Grasp of Phantoms was a decent replacement.

The Skaabs still rule and it's hard for them to not be active when you'd like them to be.

Hope this helps you out in your next INN Limited event. The format has been really good to me and I think it's flavorful, fun and rewards play skill over bombs. I'd actually put it up there with Triple ROE--that set was awesome mechanically, but I thought the flavor was kind of awkward so it balances out. As always, I'd appreciate any comments or questions. Happy hunting.

[justindz]

Winnistrad

I played my #mtginn pre-release Innistrad sealed and draft tournaments today. A crucial part of my new "legacy + limited" plan. I posted about my earned distaste for Dream Wizards, so I was happy to hook up with Don Wiggins (@thesundry) for an excellent event at Beyond Comics. Likely this will be my new home store.

I played Scars and Besieged (but not New Phyrexia) sealed events in the past, but otherwise my last draft was Rize of the Eldrazi. I was not entirely confidant that my skills were up to date, but I assumed I could pick well enough to at least take down some randoms. I've historically done well at sealed, despite usually opening relatively mediocre bombs and often being pretty light on non-conditional removal.

If you're a busy person and not interested in reading the summarized match details, here's the cheat sheet: 3-1 in Sealed w/ GW, 2-0-1 in the three round Draft w/ UW, drawing the last match with the other UW guy to split the prize pool. In total, I won 12 packs in addition to the 6 and 3 for Sealed and Draft that were assigned to me, so a pretty good ROI. The best money cards I pulled were foil Army of the Damned (yes, Jamie, on hold for you), Sulfur Falls and a Skaab Ruinator. I also sold all my commons and uncommons from the sealed event for $2, saving me crucial box space. Of course, I pulled out the foils and a few interesting blue cards, one Ghost Quarter, that sort of thing.

On to the content.

Sealed

My deck is green white and breaks down like this:

Bombs - Dearly Departed, Gavony Township

Removal - 2 Smite the Monstrous, 2 Rebuke, 1 Blazing Torch (wasn't super impressed)

And the rest is W value cards and fliers and green beaters, flip cards and Woodland Sleuth. Due to to my lack of removal in the pool and my low confidence in my bombs, I ended up throwing in a Traveler's Amulet and a Swamp for a Skirsdag High Priest and an Unburial Rites. I ran 17 lands total.

Round 1 - Craig w/ Bant - lost the die roll

Game 1 - I see the combo of Angelic Overseer and Invisible Stalker and have no way around that and lose handily. I do, however, get him to reveal a hideously telegraphed Village Bell-Ringer, which I note down and play around for the rest of the match.

Game 2 - I mulligan. He mulligans twice. I get there on the back of Moan of the Unhallowed with Travel Preparations and flashback.

Game 3 - I spit out a bunch of fliers and get there, playing around his Bell-ringer. 1-0.

Round 2 - Yiou w/ UR Broken Pile - lost the die roll

Game 1 - He has Charmbreaker Devils, Ludevic's Test Subject, Snapcaster Mage, Falkenrath Mauraders and a splash for Kessig Wolf Run. He also has infinite removal and a Trepanation Blade which mills me for 7 cards one turn. I lose to his 4 on-color rares and splash-able fireball land.

Game 2 - I mulligan but still spit out a bunch of fliers and get there before he rips any of his non-sense.

Game 3 - He rips all his non-sense and trounces me horribly again. I didn't really stand a chance, having to rely on mana-screwing him. Sealed. Sometimes skill isn't enough.

Round 3 - Tom with BUGw? - won the die roll

Game 1 - Game one, I get him pretty good with fliers and he reveals an Ambush Viper, which I note down (this card is everywhere, and it's pretty good, although it's insanely easy to recognize and play around).

Game 2 - He draws a lot more creatures than me and pretty easily finishes me off with Feeling of Dread around my Dearly Departed, which I also note down.

Game 3 - I don't remember this one. I rolled him. All the matches were pretty good, but I played very safely, didn't get blown out, got some two-for-ones and flew in for the win. I found out he had green in almost exclusively for Garruk which, lucky for me, he failed to draw in any of the three games. Or didn't have the Forest. Either way.

Round 4 - Serg w/ Junk - won the die roll

This guy's cocky. And he's apparently the best drafter there. I wanted to take him down because he was suggesting that I was a bad player and slow-rolled my kills, missed opportunities to finish off my opponents, blah blah, when in my estimation I was playing conservatively around combat tricks and going for the inevitable win instead of exposing myself to a loss.

Game 1 - He deals 2 damage. I deal 20. I write down Skirsdag High Priest.

Game 2 - He deals 20 damage. I deal 0. I write down nothing useful. Drew a ton of green land, no plains and hand full of white cards until it was WAY too late.

Game 3 - He explains to me how he's going to win based on his sheer confidence and desire for the increased pack payout. I explain that I will play well and we'll see what happens. He deals 3 damage. I deal 20. He plays to invisible outs at the end and again accuses me of not killing him when I could, whereas in my view I was just taking an extra turn to guarantee that I killed him with no loss of board position instead of getting Vipered or some other nonsense.

So, 3-1, good for 6 packs. I would have liked a 3-0-1 split, but I had to hit the one broken pool, which I'm pretty sure went easily undefeated. Ah well. Still got my ROI. Jamie also went 3-1, losing in the last round and got the same payout, then went home due to fatigue from 17 days in a row of Black Metal concerts or whatever. On to the...

Draft

There are 7 players for the draft because Serg stays at Chipotle too long and misses the seating and first picks. It runs anyway (yay, Planeswalker points!). I open a Skaab Ruinator and thank my lucky stars that I get to play blue. I pass on a Midnight Haunting, not wanting to commit to white on the second pick, but end up heading that way on the 5th pick anyway. Here are the highlights of my picks and passes:

Big Games: Skaab Ruinator, Manor Gargoyle, Geist-Honored Monk, Geist Catcher's Rig, Galvanic Juggernaut

Removal: Rebuke, Claustrophobia, Bonds of Faith, Silent Departure, Smite the Monstrous, Avacynian Priest, SB Urgent Exorcism and Silverchase Fox

Skaab Support: 3 Armored Skaab, Stitcher's Apprentice, Makeshift Mauler, Forbidden Alchemy, Deranged Assistant

Passes:

Tree of Redemption - passed this pretty early when I could have gone U/G, but signals told me that green wasn't very open and I assumed that Manor Gargoyle and 3 Armored Skaab would hold the ground well enough.

Skaab Goliath - I figured that the Ruinator and Makeshift Mauler meant that I couldn't reliably handle a third Skaab, so I passed on this for Avacynian Priest.

Chapel Geist - took Silent Departure instead, as I didn't like the early WW requirement and wanted more tempo/removal.

Rounding out the deck, I had an Abby Griffin, Doomed Traveler, Gallows Warden, Thraben Purebloods, Silver-Inlaid Dagger, Frightful Delusion and a Moon Heron. I ran 17 lands, including a Shimmering Groto which was my only Forbidden Alchemy flashback outlet.

On to the games.

Round 1 - Tom w/ B/R - won the die roll

Game 1 - I get a few hits in with Doomed Traveler and then my flying army takes over and smashes him. He gets me down to 6 before he dies from 6, having Heretic's Punishment, which is a dangerous late game. I board in Urgent Exorcism, having seen that and two Scourge of Geier Reach. Oi.

Game 2- He gets me down to three, but I beat him by drawing Bonds of Faith, Rebuke, Claustrophobia and Silent Departure, easily flying through his insanely impressive but totally do-nothing army of Scourges, Instigator Gang, Night Revellers, etc. He tilts hard, but it was all fair Magic. The big tilt swing was when he almost got back in the game with Army of the Damned, but I countered it with Frightful Delusions. Lol.

Round 2 - William w/ BG

Game 1 - I win easily at 16 life despite running into a Viper, which I write down, and having to play around Gutter Grime (not, Silent Departure = good). He doesn't have many Reach cards, so despite recurring a lot of his ground dudes, he can't really get past my Skaabs and Manor Gargoyle.

Game 2 - I am at 4 life when I win this one. I play very carefully around viper, grinding him out in the air. The big swing in this game is when he leaves up BG at the end of his turn (uh, Naturalize, bro?) and I "dumbly" activate my Gargoyle and attack in, only to Frightful Delusions his Naturalize and force him to discard his Viper. And then beat face.

Round 3 - the other UW guy. I explain how we can play for 7/5 or split for 6/6 and we shake hands and start cracking our packs.

Notes on Individual Cards

Armored Skaab + Exile-to-cast Dudes - Legit strategy. The cards are all aggressively costed, stuff is in your GY all the time and the Armored Skaab and Forbidden Alchemy type cards reward you for feeding this strategy anyway. Never once did I "mill away my bombs and removal" and lose. I just got value and beat my opponents before it mattered.

Forbidden Alchemy - I like this card and I just took a land 100% of the time. One time, I discarded Galvanic Juggernaut, Rebuke and Geist-Honored Monk, my opponent thought twice and was like "oh shit, I hate to see what you kept." Plains, bro.

Silent Departure - The flashback cost on this is totally reasonable and makes it even efficient to use to exile tokens or just kill auras. This was a total value and tempo card and it was everything I hoped it would be.

Bonds of Faith - stone cold nuts. Period.

Spidery Grasp and Ambush Viper both count as solid removal cards and should be valued as such.

Kindercatch - His color requirement and the fact that he loses out to a lot of random flipped cards means that I would not pick him highly even as a solid dinosaur.

Typhoid Rats - Against anything that doesn't have Geistflame, this guy either totally clogs up the ground or forces you to use removal that will embarrass you to get anything through.

Grave Bramble - Do not run this card. Period. It sucks.

Trepanation Blade - I've heard mixed opinions on this. The worst I saw it do was +2 power, the average was +3 power and the highest I saw was +7 power. This is the real deal and it pwns on fliers. I did not have the luxury, but I constantly feared it, so I would note that I come down on the side of pro-blade.

Everything else is pretty obvious.

Thoughts on Innistrad Limited

GRINDY

The bombs are bomby, but the flip cards and other commons and uncommons actually compete with them relatively well. Removal seems a tiny bit sparse and most of it is conditional or at least imprecise. As a result, games seem to be defined by conservative play, combat math, synergy and patience. Flashback cards are solid because you have time to use them again and they are just pure value. Overall, I feel like fliers own the format and the board is very easy to clog on both sides.

I'm a fan of the format and hope to play some more relatively soon. We'll see if today's performance was just a flash in the pan. As always, thanks for reading and hit me up with any questions you might have.