xynobia

Oh good, I was just having a craving for artistic diarrhea. 

Twofers, because this week is crazy for work—just got back from a 13 hour day at school. I’ll go and collapse in bed as soon as I post this, so pardon the lack of in-depth trading card analysis in today’s entries.

October 18 pack:

Commons: C-

Kindercatch
Crossway Vampire
Maw of the Mire
Corpse Lunge
Shimmering Grotto
Moonmist
Walking Corpse
Smite the Monstrous
Spidery Grasp 

Uncommons: B+

Fiend Hunter
Ghost Quarter
Hollowhenge Scavenger

Rare: B+

Woodland Cemetary

Insert: Spirit Token

Dual-Sided Card: B-

Screeching Bat/Stalking Vampire 

Overall Pack Rating: B

Favorite Card:

October 19 Pack:

Commons: C

Kessig Wolf
Wooden Stake
Maw of the Mire
Moment of Heroism
Spidery Grasp
Selhoff Occultist
Brimstone Volley
Manor Skeleton

Uncommons: C+

Trepanation Blade
Burning Vengance
Gallows Warden 

Mythic Rare: A

Balefire Dragon

Dual-Sided Card: C+

Delver of Secrets/Insectile Abomination

Insert: Forest

Foil Corpse Lunge (geez, really?)

Overall Pack Rating: B

Favorite Card: 

Least Favorite Cards:

TWO of these! Each!? Was that really necessary?

If you’re wondering what happened to the 16th, my buddies and I (all of whom are probably reading this) got together to do an Innistrad draft on Sunday. I mentioned how mind-blowing most of the packs were, and I didn’t seem to be the only one. Thanks, fellas. I’ll post the highlights later on this week, but for today, here’s one more pack as we move out of the forest of October.

Commons: C

Voiceless Spirit
Victim of Night
Claustrophobia
Moon Heron
Ghoulcaller’s Bell
Chapel Geist
Silent Departure
Night Revelers
Spectral Flight

Uncommons: B-

Runic Repetition 
Hamlet Captain
Purify the Grave 

Rare: B

Divine Reckoning

Dual-Sided Card: A-

Kruin Outlaw

Overall Pack Rating: B

Favorite Card:

With no disrespect to Divine Reckoning, the only card I got excited about in this pack is Kruin Outlaw. After my friend and I both wound up drafting R/G werewolves yesterday (he much more successfully than I), I’ve decided to lick my wounds and regroup. In other words, time to build a transformer deck. That’s right. Get at me, dawg.

Kruin Outlaw seems to be, along with Mayor of Avabruck, one of the best Werewolves, hands down. A 2/2 first striker for 1RR is fair enough, but the flip ability in a werewolf deck is pretty nuts. I’m looking forward to dropping one of these in play against another creature-heavy deck and getting a calculator to do the combat damage math. Til then….

Since I’m having some friends (hi, Josh) over to help me crack most of the remaining packs in this Innistrad box, this could be my last Pack a Day update for a while…we’ll see. If not, I hope that the last one is better than today’s snoozer.

Commons: C+

One-Eyed Scarecrow
Spidery Grasp
Ambush Viper
Ancient Grudge
Vampiric Fury
Riot Devils
Curse of the Bloody Tome
Armored Skaab
Bonds of Faith

Uncommons: B

Ghost Quarter
Spectral Rider
Intangile Virtue 

Rare: C

Creeping Renaissance

Overall Pack Rating: C+

Favorite Card: 

After drafting red/green aggro with my buddies yesterday, I feel like I have a renewed love of the little green garter snake that could, Ambush Viper. It’s more or less a green Nekrataal or Bone Shredder: pop this baby out to surprise your opponent when you chump block their best baddy and send him to an early grave. He certainly makes up for the lackluster green rare running around in today’s pack.

Because I’m a firm believer in multitasking, I cracked today’s pack while dropping the kids off at the pool today. It looks like the cards got the hint.

Commons: A-

Ghoulcaller’s Chant
Doomed Traveler
Lost in the Mist
Elder Cathar
Ancient Grudge
Traveler’s Amulet
Rotting Fensnake
Village Bell-ringer

Uncommons: B+

Runic Repitition
Disciple of Grislebrand
Abattoir Ghoul

Rare: B+

Kessig Wolf Run

Dual-Sided Card: B-

Thraben Sentry/Thraben Militia

Foil Card: C+

Spider Spawning

Insert:

Zombie Token

Overall Pack Rating: B+

Favorite Card:

Kessig Wolf Run

Mathematically-speaking, this is probably the best pack yet. It’s just got the highest number of usable cards in it. Lots of good-to-great stuff, and almost no junk. 

Although I’d much prefer a enemy dual land over the ‘allied’ lands, Kessig Wolf Run seems to be the one to beat (including in tournament play). I had a feeling this would be the best of these new ability lands, and players are already looking for ways to break it in, which seems great. Not the sort of thing I think I’d probably try and build a deck around, but still a fun power-up.