Deck Spotlight #3: The Rise of the Wolf

So, another day, another blog, I guess?

I've lifted the lid on my favourite Standard-Legal deck so far, and my current project deck, and even done a bit of on-the-spot deckbuilding. But what haven't I done?

Today, I would like to showcase my favourite deck period (ever), my Werewolf tribal deck, the Full Moon Lynch Mob. (I'm crap at names, anybody with a better idea could probably outdo it) But, I digress..

My Werewolf deck was the first deck I ever looked outside of my spares in order to build. That is, once I'd fluked my way into pulling a Huntmaster of the Fells out of one of my first Dark Ascension Boosters. My first mythic rare of my Magic: the Gathering career, and I got one of the strongest aggro bombs to date. Quite a good start, no?

Needless to say, the 'werewolf mechanic' captured my imagination. A werewolf deck would become a race for the opponent: Kill me, or run out of spells. If you run out of spells, you'll be facing a lot more than the nice happy 2/2s I've been dropping the last few turns. And thus, my hunger for the Moon began.

As with any Tribal deck, I started where any search would start: The availability of Lords. Lords in this context meaning any number of cards which provide small boosts to creature of a type, in this case werewolf. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. For those well versed in Dark Ascension, the cycle of Captains covered the 4 main 'fantasy monster' archetypes. Diregraf Captain covered the zombie contingent, Stromkirk Captain filled the vampire section. Immerwolf was the werewolf version of this card, and made my little newbie heart skip a beat. A werewolf lord? That stops them transforming into their weak, fleshy forms? Oh Wizards, you spoil me. However, being non-wolf, I decided to add a smaller amount of them than most other creatures, as Werewolves are preferable over Immerwolves in most situations.

This lead me onto Mayor of Avabruck. What a beautiful card design. A lord that affects either humans or wolves, and switches when my humans become wolves and back again. I was aback. The wolf token spawning is just gravy, but those things become lethal if the Howlpack Alpha is left untouched. the basis was coming together.

Now, the colours told me I wanted to make it an aggro deck. Red and Green are an aggro partnership forged in the depths of the Helvault. As such, I looked to quicken my curve: I had 2, 3 and 4 drops. The 1 CMC creatures did not fail to disappoint either. Reckless Waif was a great choice to add to the deck, as swinging for a minimum of 3 on turn 2 if the opponent couldn't handle a turn 1 play was an exciting thought. What was even more exciting was the look of Wolfbitten Captive, which could swing for 3 on turn 2 UNTRANSFORMED, then transform in the opponent's upkeep as you would tap out pumping him. the Krallenhorde Killer has broken many any early frontline for me, as a 6/6 wolf is a good removal target, the 2/2 he becomes after is not, necessarily. As such, he goes untouched.

With those down, I explored my prospect of removal, to waste early resistance. I was drawn to Searing Spear (Lightning Strike as it is in the current decklist, the Strikes did not exist when I was looking) and lo, what was this? A werewolf with targetted removal. This just got better and better. Daybreak Ranger was probably the hardest wolf to amass a playset of, but it was ultimately worth it. The ability to throw a wolf amongst the enemy defenses and rip apart weak links, or to hate on those flyers coming at you, is invaluable.

Filling out the curve comes the copious amount of 2 drops. The Gatstaf Shepherds are decent beatsticks, and 4/4 Unblockables against all non-green decks when transformed with a lord out speaks volumes about its worthiness in the deck. Full Moon's Rise allows the wolves to run recklessly at the opponents force, threatening decimation of his field or his life total (often both), at more or less no downside to you. Oh, and it stops most board wipes. That has that going for it too. Speaking of decimation, however... Moonmist rounds out the decklist, providing one of the most demoralising sights an opponent staring down a field of humans can witness, guaranteed. I can not promote this spell enough, honestly. It's caused on the spot concessions, scoops, what have you, as your opponent who thought they were being clever by deliberately spreading out their casts in order to stop your horde transforming just had all their work undone... And then they run at the opponent, with no threat to themselves, annihilating everything in their path. Yep, this is a Gruul deck alright. And it's my favourite of all time.

Thats my deck spotlight folks, hope you enjoyed it!