Innistrad is the Best Draft Format I've Ever Played

[Thomas David Baker]

I have just noticed in the last week or so this is true.  It beats out SHM/SHM/EVE, all the Alara block formats, ZEN, ZEN/WWK, Rise and all of Scars block.  Plus core sets.  I think possibly even by a long way.

 

Yesterday I took an early Burning Vengeance and forced it.  The deck ran two Dream Twists and a Fortress Crab and they were some of its best cards.  In the final of my second draft pod at the GP (playing for top 8), Ghoulcaller's Bell and Feelings of Dread literally won the game for the guy playing against Josh Utter-Leyton's pretty incredible Gavony Township deck.  Yesterday I lost in a draft to a guy that had set up his deck so that Moonmist was a ridiculous bomb and every time he had two mana up I had to think "does he have Moonmist?"  He had three or four.  Online facing down something like 10 zombies and Undead Alchemist with Endless Ranks of the Dead in play with my opponent on 15 I managed to find a line of play (get milled down to 3 cards, activate Skirsdag High Priest in end of turn step, untap, calculate that 2 of my 3 cards were lands so mill him with Mindshrieker until it had 7 power, swing for the win with my three fliers) that made me very pleased indeed.

 

Unlike most draft formats where the same terrible cards go round late every time in this format there almost are no terrible cards, just cards you do or don't want for the deck you are building.

Perhaps it's just the fun of discovering the archetypes but it does seem deeper and more fun than any format I've played before.

 

Agree?  Disagree?

 

PS Off to Worlds now :)

[Dan Barrett]

I LOVE triple-Innistrad.

 

To the point where I actually think Dark Ascension could only make it worse!

[Ben Titmarsh]

Agree.  This format is awesome, i've been drafting it endlessly online!

[Simon Baldwin]

I like it, but think I need to draft it more as I've only been able to do so a few times (and seem to end up Black/Green splash white, so I would like to try other colours at some point). 

 

I did do a draft the other day where I had fun with Parallel Lives and Moan of the Unhallowed, yay tokens :D

[Philip Dickinson]

i don't know, the lack of removal and good fixing kinda irk me a bit. give me a slice of MD5, CBS or RGD any day

[Gary Lynch]

Agreed, it is a very good format. Unfortunatly I tend to find myself drafting U/B most drafts. The good ground defense with a few flyers seems just such a solid plan. Once you add in silent departure and the ability to almost time walk them (grasp of phantoms) it seems to be the best strategy as it can beat pretty much anything your opponent is doing. The only thing I find I quite often loose to is when they are on the play and make a turn 2 Mayor of Avabrook(??).

 

I also like U/W agressive flyers but white tends to be over drafted quite often.

 

I have found red to be my least favourite colour in this format. It seems good when you have mutiple of the Halamir Watchkeepers and some of the rare werewolves but if you dont it seems lacking. One of my favourite red cards I have decided is called ass-to-mouth hound. A lot of white creatures cant even attack into him.

[Peter Dun]

its very hard to compare draft formats as they test very different aspects of the game...

honestly though, I have to agree that INNx3 is probably the best draft format I have ever played

 

Risex3 was very good, but INN is better at the "draft for archetypes" aspect of the game

RGD was very good, but INN has a better ability to encourage 3 colours, without actively forcing you to do it

TSPx3 was very very good, but INN allows you to draft tempo decks in the same way whilst giving you better defences.

 

The only format that comes close for me is Odyssey block simply because SO MANY THINGS are going on at the same time although I suspect that lots of people dislike that block. And drafting/building a UB mill yourself deck even has some aspects of that Odyssey block feel.

 

I agree with DanB that Dark Ascension can only make things worse :P

 

(That said, I haven't played it as much as I normally would because I am basically pretty disgusted at wizards, and am actively cutting down on my competitive play :P)

[Thomas David Baker]

I split the finals of a draft at Worlds today playing WB my-creatures-want-to-die aggro with a guy playing a GU deck that tried to mill the entire library into the graveyard, then use Memory Twist to put back needed cards.  It won with Back from the Brink for two boneyard wurms (and plenty of other dudes) or (more often) Spider Spawning for 15, or (in extremis) Spider tokens blocking with a Selhoff Occultist out to mill the opponent.  It was built around multiple Gnaw to the Bone and Mulch.  Awesomes.