Werewolves Inc.
Hmm lame ya. Monsters Inc. Werewolves Inc. Werewolves == Monsters
Get it? no? Well. Maybe not with Emrakul running around :)
Werewolves are like big fuzzy bears in Innistrad. Made all the more endearing by Emmy.
I meant even the innistrad folks would rather see a normal(???) werewolf these days.
"Small case" as the locals would call it.
Anyways enough nonsensical ramblings... though one would consider a werewolf.dec kinda nonsensical :p
Still. This is about ze passion in ze ragin' heart no? Werewolf? ragin'? they do that alot. Hell theres even a
RPG game called Rage. Anyone remember that? I believe if was by a company called Whitewolf? I could be wrong.
Anyways werewolves.
I love innistrad. Its so flavorful. I love the horror themes, spirits, were-whatever (technically lycanthrophy?),
vampires, zombies blah blah blah. We live in a world of consumerism and these are our sins of distraction.
Fine. Culture. Whatever. These are flavour tropes I grew up with, so ya :)
Anyways. When I first saw Howlpack Resurgence, I was enamoured by it (plus I gotz me a foil! Those shiny green eyes lol).
And with Arlinn Kord, I thought the stars were aligned for a werewolf deck finally.
Not a mish mash tribal for the kitchen table. But a competitive one. Preferably with a wincon/method/process unique
to werewolves, but I will take plain old competitive :)
However to my horror (see? so in theme with Innistrad!), Shadows over Innistrad did not provide enough juice. The red
competitively costed werewolves were too small and did too little. Or were too heavily costed (you could build
some funky kitchen table or EDH werewolf theme deck tho).
The green ones were good but only those 2 cc ones. And actually only one was good (duskwatch recruiter), the other
lambholt pacifist is ... too pacifisted :) But it is good for gumming the ground tho.
So there is a dearth of competitive werewolves.
However in building/thinking/dreaming about the deck. I realise there were probably flawed assumptions we were
makng that is compounding the problem:
1) We wanna allz the critters to be werewolves
2) We expect it to be a normal creature weenie deck
3) We are not thinking hard enough about the werewolve related tools
We also should consider the restrictions we have
4) Humans are lame, Werewolves are slow ---> i.e. the flip mechanism sucks.. it is too nerfed
5) Good werewolf cards are hard to find
With regards to 1) Wolves! Wolves! Thats where we have some more play. Unfortunately it is also quite a dearth.
But! Eldritch Moon brought us these sweet puppies:
Deranged Whelp
Brazen Wolves
Crazy is the new cool yo?
These were to replace the red werewolves.. which were just not cutting it. 2 and 3 cc is rough, but remember
this is standard, so hyper efficient is less crucial. Also werewolves have that flippy thing going on so the
action is really not at 1cc but 2-3cc kinda timeframe.
Another nice pup, who is a little touched by Emmy's visit:
Kessig Prowler
This provides early pressure and can transform at will late game to a 4/4. This is relevant as it synergises
with Arlinn and Lambholt Pacifist.
Actually also with regards to 1) I first replaced the red werewolves with Gnarlwood Dryad and Noose Constrictor.
I tried to work in Delirium. But it was a little bit half assed.
I liked Gnarlwood Dryad alot as it had death touch and can upgrade to a 3/3. However without dedicated slots to
enable delirium it is most of the time going to be a 1/1 death touch. So it is almost going to be purely
defensive.
Noose Constrictor is awesome, it enables delirium and is offensive and had reach (I see you spirits!!!)
But it alone is a little weak on the delirium enabling front.
Still I am keeping the Noose Constrictor + Gnarlwood Dryad package in the sideboard.
In truth I actually really like the Noose Constrictor + Gnarlwood Dryad package of early pressure. And it
kinda turn the deck into a green stompy (together with kessig prowler).
But I felt I was not utilising the Howlpack Resurgence and Moonlight Hunt enough (I want 4 of each).
I actually thought it was oki. But it meant I will have moments when I had the wolf/werewolf enablers but have only snakes
and dryads in play. A little nonbo, but livable. (I would have only 12 werewolves but I did Arlinn to make little wolves...)
But I decided i wanted to see if wolves could make the card. Meaning I give up defensive ground and reach
protection as well as give up a more hyper aggressive front for a more midgame aggro game that seeks to
overwhelm with werewolf related goodness.
Hence the search for good wolves.
I could only come up with
the crazy
Deranged Whelp
and the brazenly brazen
Brazen Wolves.
Oh well :)
Going off will continue later...
[20160809 13:19]
back...
So with respect to 2) , originally I just went, low cc red werewolves + low cc green werewolves
There was'nt much of a plan :p
So with new gusto, I went the way of the stompy. Since Eldritch Moon did bring many nice small green creatures.
But as mentioned earlier, It created a dichotomy in what the deck wanted to do. Moreover I was concerned that
my opponent could simply pick off the 12 werewolves and up to 8 of my cards would be rendered worthless (well
there is still Arlinn, but my opponent would probably say "screw you!!!" to her too!)
Hence I wanted to try wolves.
Really we should try to turn ourselves inside out, since its all about Emrakul these days and she is all about
bringing out your inner/innards beauty.
So repeat after me:
Werewolves are wolves too!
Werewolves are wolves too!
Ok so thats my lame attempt at a XXX are people too joke lol
Anyways, if you use the wolf tribe as your gel, you get a bit more breadth in your choices. The wolfir remnants
also become possible choices.
Spririt Guardians etc (the Spirit Wolf that can flash into play)
So we are really building a wolf deck, and Arlinn would approve :)
Another thing that seems important is recognising what the deck is trying to do.
Werewolves are slow. The whole flip thing is such that the weak part of the card is often the front side and
you pay premium casting cost to get the oppotunity for flip side. So often if you want the flip side you gotta to
do nothing. (This is really addressing point 4)
Thats not good.
So your cards must do more, so that when you do not cast you are not doing "nothing"
Thats what makes Duskwatch Recruiter so awesome as a werewolf. Thats also what makes the red werewolves not that
great as its tough to keep the pressure on when it is only a puny 1/1.
What I am trying to say is that you need to use cards that pack alot of value and/or can preferably
have some recurring triggered or activated ability. (Like Duskwatch Recruiter!!! what a winner!)
So given that you sometimes want to pass the turn doing nothing to trigger the flip you need activated abilities
so that you are not really doing "nothing" when you are not casting spells.
That is also what makes Kessig Prowler awesome, on three counts.
It only flips once
It is a flip on demand
It is one of those do something while you are doing nothing abilities =D
Arlinn fits here too!
Passing the turn with Howlpack resurgence or waiting to cast Moonlight Hunt works here too!
So what about if you cannot find these "waiting in the wings" kinda effects/cards
Well thats where the awesome Deranged Whelp and Brazen wolves come into play.
Essentially, they actually pack in recurring value.
Brazen wolves is really a 4/3 for 3 on offense. the toughness of 3 is also likely to be relevant
against languish. (This is assuming with Howlpack resurgence backup). Every turn you attack it is
a +2/+0 that is really a recurring benefit :)
How good is that? Lets just say in a tangle with a reflector mage it comes out alive?
Deranged Whelp? Menace is not to be scoffed at, especially when you are doing a wolfie pump deck essentially.
One Howlpack resurgence gives +1/+1. There is a total of 4 in the deck. Plus Arlinn's +1 first ability (+2/+2 with
vigilence and haste) and you are looking at a world of hurt. Did I mention that the flip side of Kessig
Prowler has the ability where it can only be blocked by 1 creature (while Deranged Whelp must be blocked by
at least two). All these mess with ppl's minds when they are assigning combat.
This kinda addresses point 5 where good werewolves are hard to find, so lets find good wolves instead :)
And lastly point 3. This is a werewolf deck, so I really want to play with stuff that hit that trope.
I want Howlpack resurgence and Moonlight Hunt. I really really wanted to play waxing moon? that card from Eldritch
Moon that flips a were wolve on demand? it is so flavorful but a one shot flip is simply not strong enough.
Howlpack Resurgence tho, is offense and defense. Being flash, means it has ambush capabilities. And... it gives trample!
Moonlight hunt only hits creatures, but its a hit em' only fight effect and it utilises all your werewolves.
Which is pretty brutal when they flip or have been pumped.
How to win?
There are 4 Incendiary Flow :)
Fine.
I intend to to also hit a few times with werewolves and hope they are strong enough to overwhelm
my opponent's dudes.
Arlinn can pump and burn as well.
Also the flipped Kessig Prowler, Deranged Whelp and Brazen Wolves will hope fully result in more bad blocks
from opponents :p
And you should also seek to ultimate Arlinn. Hopefully in the late game you have pumped your werewolves some,
and the direct damage should seal the deal.
Thats the plan, tho I can see this deck folding to black removal and sweepers tho.
I don't really have a solution :p
there is Spirit of the Hunt (3/3 flash wolf that gives a temporary +0/+3 to all wolves
and werewolves) and Woodcutter's Grit (instant +3/+3 with hexproof) however both are 3 cc.
I have not tried those yet, but they are definitely candidates for sideboard options.
Mainboard, I feel like they seem a little slow and non aggressive.
For mana fixing I use warped landscape and the tango and shadow lands.
I will go out on a limb and state that the midrange decks we are seeing at the moment in standard are making
a mistake using Evolving Wilds instead of Warped Landscape.
The reason is this:
Warped Landscape can produce mana.
This is a pretty big deal.
With Warped Landscape, you fulfil your land drop and can wait to draw a land. You can wait til you draw enough
land before popping it for the colour fix. In the meantime you are not down 1 mana in your mana production
capability
With Evolving Wilds each turn you wait to pop it, is a turn you are 1 mana down in your mana production
capability. Until you actually pop it do you get your 1 mana down effect removed (and even then, the fetched
basic land comes into play tapped). Think about it, you have just placed a sphere of resistance on yourself :)
Well not really, since sphere of resistance makes ALL your spells cost one more, not just one spell... but you
get the point.. I hope :p
Not that Evolving Wilds is not good. Being able to fetch for no mana is a big deal too. It means EW is active turn
one. While WL is really only active turn three. Oh reread previous four sentences. Carefully.
We just stated the difference.
You need mana fix pronto? EW
if you can wait a few turns (say most of your cards really work on turn 3 onwards)? WL is just as good without
screwing with your mana production.
ALSO.
WL is really okay if your cards are mostly 1 coloured + X generic. for example Brazen Wolves is 2R.
WL is really awesome since it can produce 1 mana!
However if you play somethng like Scourge Wolf which is RR, then WL is bad, and worse than EW.
So you need to see what cards you are playing.
I am saying this because I see the popular decks running EW.. when actually I think WL is perfectly serviceable
and would result in less losses where they did not draw enough land early. Rather than pop the EW early just so
they can play something, a WL would have allowed them to play their 2 drops while waiting for more land to be
drawn naturally.
In a nutshell, if you are playing a fast deck that uses 1/2 cc cards and do not have double same mana cost
(e.g. RR) then EW is best.
but if you are playing cards that are relavant turn 3 on wards. You might want to consider WL.
For example lets use Spell Queller as an example 1WU.
I would use WL as: if I had two lands in play, with a WL I can wait for the third land and will have 2 mana while
waiting. With an EW I would have 1 mana while waiting, and if I pop? well my deck now has one less land so my
chances of naturally just dropped a little :p
Anyways here is my decklist:
Werewolves:
4 lambholt pacifist
4 moonlight hunt
4 duskwatch recruiter
4 kessig prowler
4 Deranged Whelp
4 Brazen Wolves
4 incendiary flow
4 Arlinn kord
4 howlpack resurgence
4 warped landscape
4 Cinder Glade
4 Game Trail
6 forest
6 mountain
Deck is totally untested :) But it seems fun, plus I like the process of brewing :p
So thats my take on werewolves! thanks for reading this far :)
[20160810 3:22]
Labels: Arlinn Kord, deck, decklist, Eldritch moon, magic, magic the gathering, shadows over innistrad, werewolf, werewolves
