Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Humans

Today's installment will complete our look at the tribes of Innistrad and what they have to offer, and as the title says, today we're looking at the humans. Judging from the abilities of humans like Champion of Lambholt (An auto-include in my opinion) and Champion of the Parish, much like our vampires, +1/+1 counters seems to be the name of the game. So lets see what we can do with that.

Champion of Lambholt is easily one of the most important humans in the deck since humans usually have small bodies so the evasion is going to be crucial to our game plan. Sadly, the humans have no viable lord or anthem effects for us to use so I found myself wanting to play with Cathars' Crusade. It doubles both of our Champion's output and even if it should be destroyed, unlike a traditional lord or anthem effect, any benefits we managed to get out of it are permanent. Some similar cards to use in tandem with the Crusade are: Mikaeus, the Lunarch and Gavony Township.

In my opinion, any deck with access to card draw should probably find room for some. Though I can't speak for anyone else, I know that my least favorite thing about Magic is being in topdeck mode. So having said that, and considering the fact that almost all humans are 2/2 or less then its obvious that Mentor of the Meek fits right in.

Now, at this stage of the deck, a pattern is arising. A lot of our cards trigger when a creature enters the battlefield, so why not use this to create some great synergy? And if synergy is what we're looking for then look no further than Thraben Doomsayer; churning out a human token each turn, we are able to trigger both of our Champion's, Cathars' Crusade, and/or Mentor of the Meek all without having to use any of the creatures we may have in hand. His 'Fateful Hour' ability is narrow and probably won't come into play very often if at all but at least its gravy! Also, as if the Doomsayer wasn't good enough, we can also add Mausoleum Guard for almost equal synergy.

Now the deck just needs some finishing touches so we'll add some good stuff, some necessary utility, and some more thematic cards in the form of Silverblade Paladin, Rebuke, and Travel Preparations respectively.

The Paladin and Rebuke need no explanations I'm sure, but Travel Preparations may seem lackluster at first glance, though, I think it is actually great for enabling an alpha strike with Champion of Lambholt and is also good for recharging Mikaeus or even perhaps doing both at the same time.

We'll just add in the rest of our manabase now and we're done, our list looks something like this:

Creature: 24
4 x Champion of Lambholt
4 x Champion of the Parish
3 x Mausoleum Guard
3 x Mentor of the Meek
2 x Mikaeus, the Lunarch
4 x Silverblade Paladin
4 x Thraben Doomsayer

Enchantment: 3
3 x Cathar's Crusade

Instant: 4
4 x Rebuke

Sorcery: 4
4 x Travel Preparations

+ 25 Land




One card I'd love to find room for is Deranged Outcast so I'd have a sac outlet for Mausoleum Guard and could also put the Doomsayer's tokens to even more use. Silverblade Paladin contributes nothing to the theme (other than being human) but I'm reluctant to cut him because he's so good.

Oh well, as with a lot of deck ideas, we usually find ourselves with more ideas than we have room for and either way I think the deck is pretty good as it stands. Though, of course...yada yada... playtesting ... yada yada. ;-)

This concludes our venture into the realm of Innistrad and as we delved into its tribes, I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me.

Remember to leave a comment if you have any suggestions or if perhaps you feel I overlooked a card as I'm very open to different perspectives and ideas.

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Wolves

Today we look at the werewolves of Innistrad and what a block constructed deck built around them might look like. I wasn't particularly looking forward to this one as the transform mechanic for the werewolves in this set is unreliable to say the least.

They transform to and from their human state based on the number of spells played by any player on the turn before. I probably don't need to tell you why this is bad but for the sake of any newer players reading I will. Basically, anything that allows your opponent(s) to decide what happens to your cards is generally a bad thing. Cards like Browbeat for example seem good at first glance, 3cc for three cards is a pretty good deal, as is 3cc for five damage, but your opponent will always choose the lesser of two evils to minimize your advantage. So, like Browbeat, Dash Hopes, and many other cards, our werewolves are very difficult to rely on but despite all this we're going to build a deck around them anyway. So lets get into it.

Thankfully there are a few cards that we can turn to to mitigate the issue I just talked about and they will be our first cards to make the cut whatever happens. They are Immerwolf and Moonmist. Immerwolf isn't exactly a werewolf but for the sake of making the deck at least playable I chose to dilute the theme just this once.

Now, the deck needs a wincon, something to propel it to victory and I think Kessig Wolf Run is what we're looking for. It ensures that even if our werewolves revert back to their weak human state they can still pose a threat. Now, after deciding that the Wolf Run is our wincon there are two things we'll need: ramp and decent creatures to target. The ramp in the Innistrad block does leave much to be desired and unless I overlooked a card or two, the best I could find was Mulch and Caravan Vigil. Oh, and we also have Moonscarred Werewolf.

As for creatures to target with our Wolf Run we are slightly more fortunate in this area as we have Terror of Kruin Pass and Ironfang. Ironfang may seem a little lackluster but if you noticed, Wolf Run doesn't boost the toughness of our creatures so First Strike is actually pretty relevant. Some other great werewolves we can add are Merciless Predator and Ravager of the Fells. Ravager is pretty much "good stuff" as far as werewolves go since he rewards you no matter which form he transforms into.

At this point, we only have space for a couple more cards so I think we'll add Full Moon's Rise and the rest of our manabase and we're done. Our list looks something like this**:

Creature: 22

3 x Huntmaster/Ravager of the Fells

4 x Immerwolf

4 x Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass

4 x Reckless Waif/Merciless Predator

4 x Scorned Villager/Moonscarred Werewolf

3 x Village Ironsmith/Ironfang

Enchantment: 3

3 x Full Moon's Rise

Instant: 4

4 x Moonmist

Sorcery: 8

4 x Caravan Vigil

4 x Mulch

+ 23 Land  

One thing that worries me with this list (other than the inherent problem with werewolves to start with) is that something feels wrong with the creaturebase, I mean, all the cards have a justified role in the deck but its just so many four-ofs that it feels wrong (to reiterate) though it feels like it has more four-ofs than I really need. I dunno, maybe its just me.

Some playtesting should reveal any issues to be sorted out anyway. So take this list with a grain of salt I guess.

Anyway, this covers our look at the Werewolf tribe and next up is G/W Humans to complete our look at the tribes of Innistrad.

If you have any suggestions please feel free to leave a comment. =)

**Edit - I just realized that Wolfir Silverheart would really be phenomenal in this list and I'm not sure how I forgot about him. The question is though, should I dilute the theme any further? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated! 

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Vampires

Today's look is at the Vampires of Innistrad and how one could go about building a deck around them. Vampires in Innistrad seem to have a recurring theme of getting stronger once they damage a player so lets go with that.

First up, setting a very aggressive tone to the tribe is Stromkirk Noble, able to hit the board early and swing (hopefully) before any non-human blockers come down. So we can see already that it would help if we had him as a four of.  Some other cards that fit nicely into the deck are Markov Blademaster and Falkenrath Marauders as well as Stromkirk Captain to help our vampires take control of the board; speaking of controlling the board, we can throw in a couple of Olivia Voldarens too.

As I said earlier most of our vampires seem to have a thing for dealing combat damage to players, so why not double (or possibly triple) their output by adding Rakish Heir and Curse of Stalked Prey? Also, since our vampires need to do damage to players before we start getting any value out of them, we're going to need plenty of ways to mow down any blockers that might hinder us, so we'll add Brimstone Volley, Thunderbolt, and Tribute to Hunger. Brimstone Volley's morbid trigger might seem a bit unreliable but even three damage should be enough to clear away blockers in the early game and thats where this deck looks to set the pace. The fact that it is possibly good in the late game as well is just gravy.

One last thing we'll do is add a few Reforge the Souls to prevent us from running out of gas and we're done.

Creature: 21

3 x Falkenrath Marauders

4 x Markov Blademaster

2 x Olivia Voldaren

4 x Rakish Heir

4 x Stromkirk Captain

4 x Stromkirk Noble

Enchantment: 3

3 x Curse of Stalked Prey

Instant: 10

4 x Brimstone Volley

4 x Thunderbolt

2 x Tribute to Hunger

Sorcery: 3

3 x Reforge the Soul

+ 23 Land

Thats it for our look at the B/R Vampires of Innistrad, next up is (ugh) the R/G Werewolves.

Any suggestions or cool tech, please leave a comment! =)

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Skaabs

Okay, so at first I wasn't really sure what to do for this zombie list as most all of the mono-blue zombies sucked, though I eventually decided on a build revolving around Grimgrin, Corpse-Born as our main wincon.

Once I decided on that, I realized I would definitely need some fodder for the cannon and luckily there were a few zombies that fit the role, such as Gravecrawler, Geralf's Messenger, and Black Cat. Most of the time we're going to be casting Gravecrawler from our 'yard several times per match, so why not profit from that with Secrets of the Dead? Though, I figure we'll need more support for the enchantment than just Gravecrawler, so we'll add Think Twice, and Havengul Lich.

Now, we can't go putting all our eggs in one basket so as an alternate wincon we can throw in some Endless Ranks of the Dead (also provides food for Grimmy if need be) as well as some Diregraf Captains to make our meagre tokens slightly more threatening. Diregraf Captain also works pretty well when we are constantly feeding our Gravecrawlers to Ol' Grimmy. 

At this point we'll just add some removal a la Barter in Blood and Tribute to Hunger, assemble our mana base and we're done. Our finished product looks something like this:

Creature: 17

3 x Black Cat

4 x Diregraf Captain

2 x Geralf's Messenger

4 x Gravecrawler

3 x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born

1 x Havengul Lich

Enchantment: 7

3 x Endless Ranks of the Dead

4 x Secrets of the Dead

Instant: 8

4 x Think Twice

4 x Tribute to Hunger

Sorcery: 4

4 x Barter in Blood

+ 24 Land

Of course, Cavern of Souls was added to the mana base , though from this point I'll just leave that as a given.  

Any suggestions or cool ideas, just leave a comment! =)

Next up are the B/R Vampires. 

Thank you for reading, 'till next time.

Innistrad Tribal Block Constructed: The Geists

Today and in the next few days to come, we'll be looking at the tribes of Innistrad and how a (block constructed) deck built around each tribe might look. Going in a clockwise motion and starting with White, first up would be the W/U Spirit build.

The first obvious inclusion is Drogskol Captain who pumps and grants protection to our spirits, and coming in second is Geist of Saint Traft, who doesn't want six power for three mana? Though, it really does irk me that he doesn't have flying but I digress.

Two other great spirits to add are Mindshrieker and Spectral Rider. Mindshrieker can go off multiple times in a turn for some potentially impressive boosts and already has evasion so what's not to like?

Now we have our beatsticks out of the way, and since we're in some very controlling colors, we'll add some board control in the form of Dungeon Geists, Soul Seizer and Rebuke; and for the fun of it I suppose a couple of Divine Deflections could do as well. 

As the bane of all decks is running out of fuel we'll throw in a playset of Amass the Components to keep our tank full. 

So now we have beats, board control and refilling our tank covered, what now? Well, I'd say since a majority of our creatures have flying, a few Favorable Winds might do nicely. Its not as good as the Captain but as the old saying goes, two anthem effects are better than one. Not to mention that the Captain is less likely to stick, being a creature and all, so it can fill in in his absence.

Seeing as how this deck isn't exactly laden with creatures, I figured Midnight Haunting could serve us when we have no creatures to speak of.

Put it all together and we have something that looks like this:

Creatures: 19

4 x Drogskol Captain

3 x Dungeon Geists

2 x Geist of Saint Traft

4 x Mindshrieker

2 x Soul Seizer

4 x Spectral Rider

Enchantments: 3

3 x Favorable Winds

Instants: 10

2 x Divine Deflection

4 x Midnight Haunting

4 x Rebuke

Sorcery: 4

4 x Amass the Components

+ 24 Land

In our mana base, we have another obvious inclusion in the form of Cavern of Souls, and Moorland Haunt allows us to use our graveyard as a resource.

You're probably wondering why Angel of Flight Alabaster isn't on this list, as she would allow us to make better use of our graveyard than Moorland Haunt; so to answer your question, the only reason she wasn't included is that I was trying to keep it to a strict spirit build.

This concludes our look at the W/U Spirits next up is the U/B Zombie tribe. If you have any suggestions or secret tech, please leave a comment!

Thank you for reading, until next time.