Card/Deck Werewolves

[Sainth]

I'm not completely serious about this, and I think the power level of my cube is probably too high for werewolf tribal, but Geier Reach Bandit and Mayor of Avabruck got me thinking and I compiled some lists of werewolf cards.

Werewolves I currently run or have run and could see running again:

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Werewolves that aren't completely terrible (maybe):

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New werewolves I expect to run:

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Village Messenger Duskwatch Recruiter

New werewolves that aren't completely terrible (maybe):

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Breakneck Rider Kessig Forgemaster Geier Reach Bandit

Anyone going to give it a shot?

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I really like the werewolf transform mechanics, and have ran them on and off as a tribe in various cubes.

However, the problem with them in the context of riptide cubes is that our cubes tend to have low curves to emphasize the early sequencing of multiple spells, which neuters the werewolf based strategies. Even in my bounceland based cube, things tend to heat up around turn 2, and the only wolves I can really justify are the 1cc ones like reckless waif.

For it to really work well, you really need a much slower and somewhat clunky environment, and in that case the mechanic is great as it creates an huge incentive for people to not durdle. Otherwise it varies between poor to "meh" depending on the configuration you select.

 

[Coke No Ice]

Werewolves are at this weird spot where they're at their best when either a.) your opponent stumbles and all your duders flip and OP gets wrecked or b.) you time walk yourself to flip your duders and OP is incentivized to surge out something to wreck you. Neither of those is where I want to be in cube, because it's too easy for things to go horribly wrong. It's different in retail drafts when some amount of clunkyness is accounted for and/or the power level payoff of your duders flipping is enough to warrant the risk.

THAT BEING SAID I think there's an argument to be made in favor of a few of these cards on the basis that you're happy if they don't flip. I run Instigator Gang as a dorky red anthem that gets bigger if you play a certain way, and in the past I've run Mayor of Avabruck who at least serves as a human lord, even if that isn't particularly exciting, and I would run Huntmaster of the Fells because it's neat but I don't have one and I'm rather partial to Ghor-Clan Rampager, and I've never played with Wolfbitten Captive but as rootwallas go it's a pretty alright one, and of course there's the mini-game of trying to get it up to an 8/8 and that sounds like a good time to me.

For new ones Duskwatch Recruiter is obviously nuts and needs no explanation, and for that matter, no tribal support. Lamholt Pacifist reminds me of Glade Watcher in an oops-how-did-that-card-get-into-this-set-file-who-knows-its-a-mystery kind of way (I'm looking at you Baloth Pup and Necropolis Regent) and I'm not convinced it's worth running as a werewolf but it might serve as just an interesting card. Sage of Ancient Lore is a decent Maro if you're in the market for a Maro, but I don't know who is in that market or why they are there. Lastly but not leastly is Silverfur Partisan which again meets the critera of runnable without much other support (except for Giant Growths or whatever), and it's even better if you have a wolf package (I have a wolf package don't judge me).

LSV's blue cards article brings up an interesting point in that werewolves synergize nicely with instants/flash creatures/counterspells, in that having the werewolf on the battlefield is a confounding variable for your opponent to try and guess around. I recall (this is the point where you stopped reading) when original Innistrad was out there was a janky blue green humans deck that went Delver of Secrets into Mayor (who pumps both sides) and then holds up countermagic. So that might be an angle to pursue if you're looking to find a strategy for werewolves that isn't "draw card, drop land, pass, pray"

 

[Aoret]

I don't know a ton about the environment, but maybe these work as a lower curve option in eldrazi domain where most of the stuff you're doing is bigger?

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

One of the ways that the werewolf transform mechanic is really interesting is that it asks the player to value time: what is the value of me just passing the turn to try to flip this creature rather than just casting a spell?

In limited, where the spells are weaker, and the value from a flipped wolf is going to be greater, this can be an actual valuation question. In higher power formats, the answer is that passing your turn to flip a wolf is generally a bad play.

 

[shamizy]

Spells are way too efficient in my cube for Werewolves to become a real archetype. There's just too much interaction early and often for them to flip reasonably often. It does happen every now and then, but I don't think it's something I can currently implement without sweeping changes. You need to really gear your G/R cards towards being able to play at instant speed or have action available to them if they ever need to pass the turn to flip their Werewolves.

 

[whydirt]

I'm wanting to support werewolves more explicitly with my next update. First, I'm going to make it more of a midrange than purely aggressive as the top end werewolves are more likely to flip profitably as people run out of gas. Additionally, I plan to increase the ways for Gruul to "play spells" without actually casting something, such as:

• Spell lands like Teetering Peeks (also plays into landfall, which is another natural GR archetype)
• On-board mana sinks (Monstrous seems like a good fit, for example)
• Bloodrush
• Flash creatures
• Equipment (obviously casting it counts as a spell, but equip costs let you at least use mana more efficiently)

 

[Aoret]

I totally dig this concept whydirt. Sounds like you've really put a lot of thought into what it takes to make this viable. I'm eager to hear how it turns out!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I will say that the 2/1 that pings when it blocs or is blocked totally surprised me. It is really solid, try it out!

 

[whydirt]

It's a better Ashmouth Hound, a card that has been a decent roleplayer in peasant cubes since the original Innistrad. The Hound is probably outclassed now that WotC seems okay with giving red better limited creatures in place of efficient burn spells and printed lots more exciting 2-drops in the meantime.

 

[Mondschwein]

M20 released, and there's one card in that Core Set that makes me think (again) if I should implement more Werewolves into my cube. Just found this thread and I'm glad that people already had the ideas I have in my mind right now, and that they didn't sound hopeless to them. Wish there would have been some field report about how it turned out.

Cards I think are generally playable in a mid-powered cube

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Huntmaster might be a bit pushed, but multicolour cards should be a bit stronger anyway, so I could see one running it. But there's a multicolour card in Ulrich of the Krallenhorde that I'd like to try instead, as it looks like a fixed version of Huntmaster of the Fells and Wolfir Silverheart. Naming that one brings me to the next category, the maybe-playables I'm personally not sure of:

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Playable wolves

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Some Werewolves are mana sinks themselves, and for me, that's the way to go. Mana sinks generally lead to a smooth gameplay, and having lots of them generally means that the format could be slow enough for werewolves to shine. Red already has a lot of instants, and Green has some Flash creatures for the occasional formation of UG Flash.dec.

It's not that I want to go deep on this, but if the environment already looks appealing to the werewolf tribal, I find they create interesting decision-making on both sides of the table, and therefore I want to try them out.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

There's a bunch of playable wolves you didn't mention, depending on power level. All of these are worth considering, I think.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

Maybe werewolves could be a real thing in a slower oriented cube like a dragon cube or big Eldrazi cube?

 

[Mondschwein]

@ Onder nope, I find most of them lackluster or even somewhat poisonous. Maybe If you're really in the lower end of powerlevel, but that's something I'm not really qualified to talk about.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Have you ever tried Pyreheart Wolf? If you're going to run a wolf theme, I'm pretty confident it should make the cut. Giving all your creatures menace on a resilient body is no joke.

Also, Ulrich's Kindred might look poisonous, but it has a good stats to cost ratio, doesn't actually need any other (were)wolves per se, because it can just use the activated ability on itself, and it's the threat of activating that allows you to attack with impunity. What are they going to do? Block and let you activate it at the cost of their blocker? That just means they lost a creature to a somewhat inefficient spell. Gang-blocking your larger werewolves, if you pick them up, is going to be a nightmare with this out.

 

[vennythekid]

Surprising to see no mention of Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves in this thread.

Granted, it's not in the core G/R colors and doesn't trigger on transform, but it's 6/6 of stats that can do a lot of work.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Great one venny! It's why I mentioned Watchwolf, because I think it's valuable to bleed the theme into other colors if possible. Other options that make Wolf tokens and thus have indidental cross-synergy with the "wolves and werewolves" tribe:

 

[Mondschwein]

Tolsimir, Garruk and Master of the Wild Hunt all look very strong to me. Kessig Cagebreakers is a lovely gy payoff and token producer.