Brains!!! Zombie Draft Deck

     Hello again. I have not written a blog entry in a while but I will try my best to keep up with it! I have finals next week so that makes things a wee bit tough. After that though I don't have anymore classes, and that means more time for Magic! However, today I am making time to write an entry because I drafted a really, really awesome deck.

     It was an 8 man draft and I first picked a Gravecrawler because let's be honest, that's basically not a bad "money card" and it's easy to trade off. Also, it's about what my draft would have cost me if I didn't use store credit! I started drafting seriously though and was passed a Tragic Slip, and then another, and then another! THREE Tragic Slips. Now with a nice rare and three great removal spells I was pretty satisfied so I started making a fun deck. I tried to pick as many Zombies as possible to bring back Gravecrawler since I did first pick him. When there weren't any Zombies in a pack I would choose the best card available and ended up with WB. When I opened my Innistrad pack I kept a Woodland Cemetery even though I was not playing green because I'm sure it'll be worth more soon. Again, I started taking all of the Zombies and did a bit of rare drafting.

       

     For the last round of packs I felt okay about my Zombie themed deck and could probably have stayed mono black, but I kind of have a thing for Moment of Heroism and other combat tricks. I also started hate drafting all of the really good cards and picked more Zombies when I saw them. Then I saw an Endless Ranks of the Dead and chuckled to myself a bit. I did not pick it though because I was more than confident that it would wheel. Next came an Unbreathing Horde which I let pass too because I highly doubt that anyone else at this draft had any Zombies. I took them all! Boom! They both come back to me and I was successful in taking some really good cards away from possible opponents. What are the odds of me drafting three great Zombie rares?! If only I had Zombie Apocalypse... This is how my deck ended up:

1 Gravecrawler                 1 Altar's Reap                              10 Swamp
1 Diregraf Ghoul               1 Ghoulcaller's Chant                    7 Plains
3 Walking Corpse             3 Tragic Slip
2 Highborn Ghoul              2 Moment of Heroism
1 Unbreathing Horde         1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
2 Ghoulraiser
1 Markov Patrician
1 Sightless Ghoul
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Mausoleum Guard
1 Hollowhenge Spirit

     I was probably way too excited about my deck and laid it for my boyfriend Andrew and my friend Robby to see. They both warned me about Endless Ranks of the Dead not being good in draft because I might get it too late or that it might just be a useless enchantment. They also said that Unbreathing Horde was unreliable because I only have 10 other Zombies, but I felt like that was so many!

    My first round was against a guy playing BR. I won the dice roll and played first with Swamps, Plains, Endless Ranks of the Dead, Highborn Ghoul, Tragic Slip and Sightless Ghoul in my hand. He played a turn one Typhoid Rats and passed. Turn two I had Highborn Ghoul out and found Gravecrawler on turn three. I just had to play Endless Ranks of the Dead and was so excited to get my first Zombie token! My opponent was pretty surprised and saw what was about to happen with that enchantment out. I drew an Unbreathing Horde, played him instead of Sightless Ghoul, kept up mana for Tragic Slip and started attacking next turn. Neither of us were attacking before, but now I was continuously gaining Zombie tokens and had Gravecrawler out. I attacked with everything and Typhoid Rats blocked my Highborn Ghoul while Feral Ridgewolf blocked Gravecrawler letting Unbreathing Horde and my Zombie token go through for five. Then he used Tragic Slip on Unbreathing Horde but I was doing fine because I casted Gravecrawler and would get two more Zombies next turn with my three tokens and him out. After that I won the game pretty fast and had nine Zombies out before winning!

     Game two was a bit more difficult. He was on the play and eventually brought out Hinterland Hermit, Falkenrath Torturer and Falkenrath Noble (I'm always so scared of him). This time I played Gravecrawler, Walking Corpse, Walking Corpse and then Elgaud Inquisitor. I attacked with Gravecrawler and  Walking Corpse in hopes to use Tragic Slip on Falkenrath Noble. He managed to attack me once with Falkenrath Noble and passed the turn to let Hinterland Hermit flip into Hinterland Scourge. On my turn I drew Altar's Reap and attacked with Gravecrawler and a Walking Corpse once again. This time my opponent decided to block Gravecrawler with his Falkenrath Torturer and Walking Corpse with Hinterland Scourge, but  I finally got to Tragic Slip his Falkenrath Noble. However, he also had a Tragic Slip and used it on my other  Walking Corpse.

     After combat I casted  Gravecrawler to sacrifice for Altar's Reap before casting him again and drawing into Endless Ranks of the Dead. During his turn he played Kessig Wolf and passed. I drew into a  Ghoulraiser which I played to get a Walking Corpse back and then cast. Afterwards he had Abbattoir Ghoul after attacking with Kessig Wolf. I drew Ghoulcaller's Chant but didn't need to use it so I cast Endless Ranks of the Dead. It was getting bit scary though, I was at 13 and he was at 22! Next turn I drew Moment of Heroism and attacked with my Elgaud Inquisitor and Walking Corpse. Both were blocked and I used Moment of Heroism on Walking Corpse which was being blocked by Abbattoir Ghoul. Now I had 17 life since he gave Kessig Wolf first strike. Slowly after that though I started building a Zombie army and eventually won while he kept drawing into lands. I also won my next two rounds similarly with Endless Ranks of the Dead in four games. When I told my friends what happened they were surprised but happy for me and that was the end of my favorite draft deck ever so far. The end.