Mindwrack Demon was one of the bombs I opened on Sunday. As you can see, it is an extremely strong flier that comes with (potentially) two downsides. However, its first downside could be considered a Delirium enabler to mitigate its second actual downside.
Now I am going to present two scenarios involving Mindwrack Demon that I experienced on Sunday. The question is, what is the correct play?
Scenario 1: Your opponent's life total is 5. Your life total is 12. Your opponent has a 4/1 Bloodmad Vampire, 3/2 flying Olivia's Bloodsworn, 6/5 menace Gatstaf Ragers, and 1/1 lifelink Indulgent Aristocrat, all untapped. You have a 3/3 Inspiring Captain, 2/1 flying Olivia's Bloodsworn, 4/5 flying, trample Mindwrack Demon, all untapped, and the enchantment Always Awake, giving your creatures +1/+1 and vigilance. Your graveyard has Creature and Sorcery for Delirium. Your hand contains Humble the Brute, Murderous Compulsion, and Twins of Maurer Estate. It is your opponent's attack phase, and you have enough mana to cast Humble the Brute. Your opponent declares an attack with Olivia's Bloodsworn and Gatstaf Ragers, while holding two cards in hand and all mana open. What is your play?
Answer: I failed this scenario. I cast Humble the Brute to destroy his Gatstaf Ragers, giving me an Instant in my graveyard. However, I left the Olivia's Bloodsworn unblocked. My opponent then sacrificed his Indulgent Aristocrat to put a +1/+1 counter on both Olivia's Bloodsworn and Bloodmad Vampire and cast Grotesque Mutation on Olivia's Bloodsworn to give it +3/+1 and lifelink until end of turn. Just like that our life totals were reversed, and my life total dropped to 1 on my upkeep because of Mindwrack Demon's Delirium check.
The correct play would have been to recognize that I had no easy way to get Delirium and block the Bloodsworn with my Mindwrack Demon after casting Humble the Brute on Gatstaf Ragers. This way, one of three things occurs: a) my opponent doesn't play any combat tricks and lets Bloodsworn die, b) my opponent plays Grotesque Mutation to cause a trade and gain 6 life, or c) my opponent still plays exactly the same way as above to gain 7 life. In both scenarios b and c, the game would have gone on a few more turns, but I would have had my 3/2 flying Olivia's Bloodsworn to attack him unimpeded in the air. In scenario a, I would have lost 4 life at the beginning of my upkeep dropping me to 8 life, but I would have killed my opponent before losing to Mindwrack Demon since I could swing for lethal by attacking with everything on that turn.
To put this in context, this happened in game 2 of a round where I had already won game 1. Because of this misplay, we went to a game 3 that went to a draw because of time.
Scenario 2: Your opponent's life total is 6. Your life total is 10. Your opponent has a 2/1 Crow of Dark Tidings, a 2/4 Rottenheart Ghoul, and a 2/2 Ghoulcaller's Apprentice, all untapped. You have a 2/1 Crow of Dark Tidings and 4/5 flying, trample Mindwrack Demon, tapped after attacking. Your hand contains Murderous Compulsion, Silverstrike, and Twins of Maurer Estate. Your graveyard has Creature and Land for Delirium. It is your second main phase, and you have 3 Swamps and 3 Plains untapped. What is your play?
Answer: This particular interaction was probably the most inspired Magic I've played in a long time. The two key points to note about this scenario are that a) your opponent can drop you to 4 life with the current board, leaving you to die to Mindwrack Demon on your upkeep, and b) you have the Instant and Sorcery you need for Delirium in your hand and the mana to cast both of them.
Therefore, the correct play is to cast Murderous Compulsion targeting your own Crow of Dark Tidings. Unfortunately for you, the two cards it mills from your deck are both lands. Your opponent smiles, knowing that you still don't have Delirium, draws for his turn, plays a land, and attacks with everything. You then smile back and kill his Crow of Dark Tidings with Silverstrike, gaining 3 life (for a total life loss of 1) and, more importantly, getting Delirium. You then untap, don't lose life on upkeep, draw, attack with your Mindwrack Demon, play Twins of Maurer Estate to block the ground, and pass. On his draw, your opponent concedes.
This was actually another game 2, this time in the final round. Due to a computer error, I had actually been paired up with an opponent with a better record (I was 2-0-1 and he was 3-0-0) even though there was one other person with a 2-0-1 record (who had also been paired with someone who was 3-0). I had won the first game because he mulliganed to 5 and then didn't draw enough land/creatures to keep up with my early fliers.
Scenario 2.5: The question then becomes...what if your opponent didn't attack after you passed the turn? Let's assume that your next two card draws are non-flying creatures with 4+ converted mana cost (at 10 life, you'll die before you draw a 3rd card off your draw step unless you get Delirium. Also, drawing a land on your next turn gives you 7 total mana and leads to Madness shenanigans with Twins of Maurer Estate). On your upkeep, you lose 4 life, leaving you at 6 life as well. The correct play is still to swing in with Mindwrack Demon. Your opponent can choose to block with Crow of Dark Tidings. Since Mindwrack Demon has trample, blocking with Crow doesn't gain your opponent anything (he's still on a 2 turn clock). Most likely no blocks will be declared, leaving him at 2 life. (Note: if he blocks, you actually end up in a better position since he no longer has a flier on the board and is no longer threatening lethal.) On your second main phase, it is no longer correct to cast Twins of Maurer Estate. Instead, mana should be left open for Silverstrike, again.
The turn is then passed to your opponent. At this point, your opponent is forced to swing with everything to attempt to win the game before you do. From his perspective, he needs you either dead or at 4 life without Delirium. He expects either that he'll be attacking into a combat trick (in which case the game is already over for him) or that you're bluffing, but doing nothing will lose him the game. You hit one of his creatures with Silverstrike (recommend targeting Crow of Dark Tidings, unless you had the aforementioned 7 mana, in which case target Rottenheart Ghoul and cast Twins for their Madness cost when your opponent forces you to discard, then use Twins to block Ghoulcaller's Apprentice...Ouch!), netting -1 life after damage is dealt and gaining Delirium. Finally, untap, upkeep, draw, and attack to win the game. The key to this interaction is still playing Murderous Compulsion on your own Crow of Dark Tidings.
I hope you had fun working out these two scenarios. Mindwrack Demon was an amazing Limited bomb, and I had fun playing with him (even when he caused me to lose). Check out my Sealed pool and deck below (my prerelease promo was Bygone Bishop two days in a row!):
Colorless (4)
Haunted Cloak (Equipment, 3)
2x Harvest Hand (Artifact Creature, 3)
Murderer's Axe (Equipment, 4)
Green (15)
Loam Dryad (Creature, G)
Clip Wings (Instant, 1G)
Aim High (Instant, 1G)
Fork in the Road (Sorcery, 1G)
Cryptolith Rite (Enchantment, 1G)
Quilled Wolf (Creature, 1G)
Byway Courier (Creature, 2G)
Hermit of the Natterknolls (Creature, 2G)
Tireless Tracker (Creature, 2G)
Inexorable Blob (Creature, 2G)
Might Beyond Reason (Instant, 3G)
Pack Guardian (Creature, 2GG)
Cult of the Waxing Moon (Creature, 4G)
2x Watcher in the Web (Creature, 4G)
Red (14)
Dual Shot (Instant, R)
Tormenting Voice (Sorcery, 1R)
Sanguinary Mage (Creature, 1R)
Scourge Wolf (Creature, RR)
2x Uncaged Fury (Instant, 2R)
Stensia Masquerade (Enchantment, 2R)
Fiery Temper (Instant, 1RR)
Convicted Killer (Creature, 2R)
Breakneck Rider (Creature, 1RR)
Inner Struggle (Instant, 3R)
2x Structural Distortion (Sorcery, 3R)
Goldknight Castigator (Creature, 2RR)
Blue (13)
Invasive Surgery (Instant, U)
2x Jace's Scrutiny (Instant, 1U)
Ghostly Wings (Enchantment, 1U)
Fleeting Memories (Enchantment, 2U)
3x Stitched Mangler (Creature, 2U)
2x Drownyard Explorers (Creature, 3U)
Gone Missing (Sorcery, 4U)
Lamplighter of Selhoff (Creature, 4U)
Silburlind Snapper (Creature, 5U)
White (22)
Chaplain's Blessing (Sorcery, W)
Town Gossipmonger (Creature, W)
Thraben Inspector (Creature, W)
2x Topplegeist (Creature, W)
Expose Evil (Instant, 1W)
Moorland Drifter (Creature, 1W)
Survive the Night (Instant, 2W)
Ethereal Guidance (Sorcery, 2W)
Always Watching (Enchantment, 1WW)
2x Cathar's Companion (Creature, 2W)
2x Militant Inquisitor (Creature, 2W)
Dauntless Cathar (Creature, 2W)
Spectral Shepherd (Creature, 2W)
Bygone Bishop (Creature, 2W)
Tenacity (Instant, 3W)
Silverstrike (Instant, 3W)
Inspiring Captain (Creature, 3W)
Apothecary Geist (Creature, 3W)
Humble the Brute (Instant, 4W)
Black (15)
Shamble Back (Sorcery, B)
Sanitarium Skeleton (Creature, B)
Murderous Compulsion (Sorcery, 1B)
Grotesque Mutation (Instant, 1B)
2x Olivia's Bloodsworn (Creature, 1B)
Rancid Rats (Creature, 1B)
Pale Rider of Trostad (Creature, 1B)
Merciless Resolve (Instant, 2B)
2x Crow of Dark Tidings (2B)
Rottenheart Ghoul (Creature, 3B)
Mindwrack Demon (Creature, 2BB)
Hound of the Farbogs (Creature, 4B)
Twins of Maurer Estate (Creature, 4B)
Land (2)
Warped Landscape
Forsaken Sanctuary
BW Fliers
Creatures (17)
2x Topplegeist
Pale Rider of Trostad
Moorland Drifter
Rancid Rats
2x Olivia's Bloodsworn
Dauntless Cathar
Spectral Shepherd
2x Crow of Dark Tidings
Bygone Bishop
Inspiring Captain
Apothecary Geist
Mindwrack Demon
Twins of Maurer Estate
Hound of the Farbogs
Other (6)
Grotesque Mutation*
Murderous Compulsion
Ethereal Guidance
Always Watching
Silverstrike
Humble the Brute
Land (17)
Warped Landscape
Forsaken Sanctuary
8x Plains
7x Swamp
*Note: In my first two rounds, I was using Merciless Resolve instead of Grotesque Mutation. This was to enable getting land into my graveyard to enable Delirium. However, I found that more often than not, Merciless Resolve ended up being a dead card in my hand. (Special thanks to Andrew Weiss for concurring when I commented that Merciless Resolve wasn't really doing anything for me.) The life swing that came with Grotesque Mutation fit with what the deck wanted to do much better.
I hope you're enjoying Shadows over Innistrad as much as I am! Please leave your comments below.
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