Hungry Like the Wolf

Modern

Krazykobold98

Creature (22)

• 1x Afflicted Deserter  ^Flip
• 1x Breakneck Rider  ^Flip
• 2x Cult of the Waxing Moon
• 3x Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip
• 2x Gatstaf Arsonists  ^Flip
• 1x Geier Reach Bandit  ^Flip
• 1x Hanweir Watchkeep  ^Flip
• 2x Hinterland Hermit  ^Flip
• 2x Hinterland Logger  ^Flip
• 1x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• 1x Kruin Outlaw  ^Flip
• 2x Mondronen Shaman  ^Flip
• 1x Silverfur Partisan
• 2x Village Messenger  ^Flip

Land (24)

• 9x Forest
• 2x Game Trail
• 2x Kessig Wolf Run
• 9x Mountain
• 2x Shimmering Grotto

Enchantment (4)

• 2x Curse of Stalked Prey
• 2x Howlpack Resurgence

Artifact (4)

• 2x Bladed Bracers
• 2x Butcher's Cleaver

Instant (4)

• 2x Hunger of the Howlpack
• 2x Moonlight Hunt

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Caravan Vigil

---

Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 2x Hamlet Captain
• 2x Kessig Cagebreakers

Artifact (2)

• 2x Witchbane Orb

Instant (2)

• 2x Ranger's Guile

---

So, a fan of 80's music, are ya? Or maybe you just found the name howlarius? Oof, sorry about that pun, I've had a ruff day.

...

OKAY, now that lame joke time is over, I'll get to the point.

Simply put, this deck is an Innistrad-Werewolf-and-Wolves themed R/G aggro deck. Nothing new, really.

However, it is (or is supposed to be) more than just a bunch of werewolves thrown together. I will go more in depth about the strategy below, but basically my goal was to create a deck that took werewolves' main weakness, the limit on transforming, and turned it into something that you don't care as much about at worst, and celebrate at best.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Since this deck is very new, I'm going to wait to do this section until I have playtested it more. I would appreciate any data that others gather as well, and will include it here at my discretion. (See below in Feedback -> Playtesting for more details.)

Strategy, Key Combos, and Synergies

General Strategy

There are a couple main ideas that this deck focuses on: aggro, and transforming.

Aggro

As I mentioned before, this is an aggro deck, so you will want to attack as often as possible. Most of the creatures in this deck have some sort of combat advantage (or give all of your creatures advantage, in Kruin Outlaw  's and Breakneck Rider  's cases) when transformed, whether it be Menace, First Strike, Trample, or other. Duskwatch Recruiter   is also very useful for getting out creatures quickly.

Transforming

Hungry like the Wolf is designed so that you want your werewolves to transform as much as possible, whether it be human to werewolf or werewolf to human. Cult of the Waxing Moon will give you a lot of wolf tokens when your guys are transforming often, and Afflicted Deserter   and Huntmaster of the Fells   have abilities that trigger when they transform.

If your opponent is casting so many spells that you just can't get your guys to transform, or if they're just not transforming enough, the deck depends on static buffs like +1/+1 counters and equipment (which give extra buffs if they're human) to boost their small bodies, and cards like Silverfur Partisan and Howlpack Resurgence will buff your werewolves regardless of their form, human or not, as well as any wolf tokens you may get.

Sideboard

In the event of such an occurrence as detailed in the above paragraph, the plan is to switch out the following cards:

• Hinterland Logger and Hamlet Captain; Since the werewolves won't be transforming as much anymore, Hamlet Captain is added to buff werewolves when they are in their more vulnerable human form.

• Hunger of the Howlpack and Ranger's Guile; These will only be switched out if the opposing deck has few or no creatures, and/or focuses on creature removal/burn.Since there are less creatures, Morbid is less likely to activate, so you would get less out of it. Ranger's Guile, on the other hand, both buffs your creature and protects it from selective spells. However, there is also the drawback that the buff isn't permanent.

• Cult of the Waxing Moon and Kessig Cagebreakers; Though they both have similar abilities, Kessig Cagebreakers is much better in this situation. Because the werewolves won't be transforming as much, you'd get less out of Cult of the Waxing Moon. Not only that, but because all of your werewolves are in their weaker human form, there's more of a chance that they'll die, and so the Cagebreakers may produce even more creature tokens.

• Witchbane Orb;This card I wasn't so sure what to switch out with, but I felt like I should include some safeguard against spells that directly target players. I'll have to experiment.

Combos and Synergies

Combos

Initially when I created this deck, I had defined it as being aggro/combo, but after some research I realized that all of the card combinations technically aren't combos, but rather are synergies. If anyone sees a combo that I missed, please let me know and I will put it here. Similarly, if any cards are added/replaced that would create a combo, I will put it here. If anyone is confused about the difference between a combo and a synergy, here's an explanation.

Synergies

• Duskwatch Recruiter and Transforming : Duskwatch Recruiter   is useful in a couple of ways. The most obvious is the first ability, which will get you creatures faster. The ability on the flipside, however, is the best part. With the reduced cost for creatures, you'll be able to cast multiple spells more reliably, and so transform your werewolves back to human form, ready to be transformed again and to trigger Cult of the Waxing Moon's, Afflicted Deserter  's, and/or Huntmaster of the Fells  's abilities.

• Cult of the Waxing Moon and Huntmaster of the Fells : Cult of the Waxing Moon and Huntmaster of the Fells   both produce wolf tokens, which synergizes well with Silverfur Partisan, Howlpack Resurgence, and Moonlight Hunt. This, in combination with the fact that even in human form werewolves have the werewolf subtype, means that generally most of your creatures will benefit from the effects of the previously mentioned cards. Additionally, Kessig Cagebreakers produces even more tokens if switched in.

• Moonlight Hunt and Morbid : If you aren't killing enough to trigger the Morbid abilities of Hunger of the Howlpack or Caravan Vigil just with your creatures alone, Moonlight Hunt is a pretty reliable way of killing of any single creature you opponent has, assuming you have enough werewolves and/or wolves out.

• Equipment and Humans : Hungry Like the Wolf's equipment is essential to making sure that your werewolves are just as good in human form as they are in werewolf, or at least so that it isn't as much of an inconvenience. Not only do they provide permanent buffs, but while in human form they give a little extra.

Event Report

This is where I will give examples of how the deck has performed in several different scenarios. I have not tested the deck yet, but I hope to post soon. If you are interested in helping to gather data, please look in Feedback -> Playtesting below for more details.

Change Log

This is where I will keep track of changes I make to the deck, for your reference. I will explain what change I made and why in each entry, and give credit if the decision was based on feedback from the comments section.

Feedback

Casual, but Competitive

Before I get into the specifics of the feedback that I'm looking for, I'll give you an idea of the 'meta' it was designed for. While this deck is listed under Modern, I was very conflicted about whether or not to list it as Casual instead. However, as I will explain why, I decided that being listed as Modern would better attract the attention of the kind of feedback I'm looking for.

You see, most of the time I'm just a casual player, as I rarely have the time for official events due to certain circumstances. However, I am at the same time a pretty competitive player, and I spend a lot of time trying to perfect a deck's strategy. In contrast, I also like to...

1) Limit myself to Modern legal cards, mainly because I just prefer the aesthetic.

2) Limit myself to a certain theme, also for aesthetic/enjoyment reasons.

Because of these limitations, I will spend weeks at a time trying to find the right balance between strategy and theme, as I have with this deck.

So, while I won't be playing in a particularly competitive 'meta,' I'm still looking for slightly better advice than I might have received if I had labeled this as Casual.

It may not be of as much importance since I'm not playing in an official 'meta,' but just in case here are the decks that I generally play against in the small group of friends that I play Casual with:

• R/G Ramp/Aggro: Lots of small ramp creatures (like Elvish Mystic), large creatures (6/6 and up) generally out by turns 4-6.

• Colorless Eldrazi: - Contains such cards as Herald of Kozilek, Endless One, Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger, focuses on traditional tactic of sacrificing many spawn for mana.

• R/U/Colorless Eldrazi - Similar to previous deck, but contains Vile Aggregate, counterspells, smaller/cheaper eldrazi.

Card Suggestions

As I mentioned in the previous section, I make an effort to find the balance between a good deck (mechanically) and the theme. It is rather limiting, but as Mark Rosewater has said, "Restrictions breed creativity." So, While I certainly want the deck to do well, just keep in mind the theme (red + green, Innistrad + Dark Ascension + Avacyn Restored + Shadows Over Innistrad, werewolves + wolves + humans).

Other than that, what I'm looking for in respect to card suggestions are combos or synergies that I may have missed that correspond with my deck's core concept (transforming doesn't matter/is awesome) or that simply improve the deck's effectiveness/efficiency, while also staying within the restrictions detailed above.

Playtesting

While card suggestions may improve my deck, my highest priority at the moment is playtesting. As I have not actually built this deck yet, I have only been able to test it in a vacuum so far. I will eventually be able to do this, but for the time being I welcome any playtesting data that others could collect.

You may have noticed that two sections above, Strengths and Weaknesses and Event Report, are essentially empty. As I have noted in their respective entries, I haven't listed strengths and weaknesses yet because I would like more data before doing so, and I haven't made any event reports yet because I haven't played with the deck outside of the Tapped Out playtest function. If you are interested in helping, here's the kind of data that I'm looking for:

Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Does the deck have strengths and weaknesses in a vacuum?

2. How does the deck perform in various matchups?

3. How would you rate the strength of the deck as a product of its characteristics?

For more detailed versions of the questions, look here and go to Strengths and Weaknesses.

Event Reports

Event reports are meant to show off the deck's performance. You may go into great detail with event reports, listing dates, venues, and game-by-game matchups, or you may just share a specific portion/situation you encountered when using the deck. I will eventually post my own event reports once the deck has been constructed, but until then I will include any especially interesting or detailed reports that are posted in the comments. I will also give credit to whoever does so.

Lastly, I would like to give credit to Epochalyptik for their extremely helpful primer guide. This is my first non-private deck that I've made on Tapped Out, and while I didn't follow the guide to the letter, it made it so much easier for me to articulate the specifics of my deck.Thank you for checking out my deck, and I look forward to any feedback that I may receive!

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Exclude colors	WUB
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 11 - 4 Rares 16 - 2 Uncommons 14 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.45
Tokens	Human 2/2 G, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	Modern - Werewolves