Little budget deck for the homie. It's technically modern legal so he could jam on it online, but I would keep it at the kitchen table.
The Game Plan: Win with a Wolf army.
How?
Ramp for a couple turns and multikick
Wolfbriar Elemental
. Or go the grindy path with
Wren's Run Packmaster
. If you can't actually do either you could use Howl of the Nightpack. Last way is the weakest plan, but that's why it's a... SILVER BULLET * puts on sunglasses *
Once you have some wolf tokens, buff your howly bois with
Howlpack Resurgence
during combat. Or force thru damage with
Primal Bellow
(also during combat).
If that fails, try again. Or buy a real deck.
Thoughts and Upgrades:
I've played around with the idea of using
Aspect of Hydra
instead of Primal Bellow, but I can't imagine devotion will ever be crazy high. I'm also considering
Vines of Vastwood
so you could use it as a solid static pump, and main deck protection for the Packmaster.
Basically the upgrade path is just to make a more traditional stompy deck I think. If anyone chooses VotVastwoods, you can throw away the rest of the deck and make infect.
I also really want to include
Nightpack Ambusher
. It just kinda clashes against what I'm trying to do I think. But at the same time it's a wolf lord..
Anyone have thoughts or critiques? Thanks for reading!
For Wolf section of the deck tech:
Hey Wolf or anyone who's still reading, this section is a more in-depth breakdown of how the deck runs. Also a little rambly. My bad.
~~~~~
Probably replace Yorvo with
Steel Leaf Champion
eventually. I like him, but I think Steel Leaf Champion is a better magic card and has the added benefit of being champion fuel for Packmaster. Plus after a board wipe a 5/4 beater coming back seems good.
~~~~~
Turn Order:
T1: land, and ideally
Arbor Elf
. If not
Llanowar Elves
works
T2: land, and ideally
Wolfwillow Haven
or
Fertile Ground
to do a budget impression of Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl
. But we can't afford to go all-in on that type of ramp so a 3 mana ramp spell is also ok. i.e
Nissa's Pilgrimage
, or
Springbloom Druid
. Having one of the creature ramp spells here is nice for championing your Packmaster later on, but obviously just play what you get.
T3: land, and hopefully you have 7 mana so you can play
Wolfbriar Elemental
or
Wren's Run Packmaster
.
T4: make more wolves or attack with already made Wolfyy bois. Hopefully have a combat trick like
Howlpack Resurgence
or
Primal Bellow
to force thru damage.
T5+: just try and grind it out and hopefully you can go wide enough to win.
~~~~~
How to Sideboard:
Basically any type of deck with mass creature removal wrecks our face. We kinda can get around this with Packmaster cuz one elf will be safe, but I built the sideboard to focus heavily on control decks.
Out - 3x
Primal Bellow
, 4x
Wolfbriar Elemental
, 1x Howl of the Nightpack
In - 3x
Nightpack Ambusher
, 2x
Wolfir Avenger
, 1x
Wrap in Vigor
, 1x
Beast Within
and
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
That is the basic sideboard plan. It's a more complex way to do it (sorry), but that may be the best way to play a $30 deck when most of the format costs more than $700.
The idea is to bring in things that can play at instant speed at the end of their turn. Or use your Packmaster to just sit on mana and create tokens at the end of their turn.
Wolfir Avenger
saves itself from removal, and
Wrap in Vigor
saves everything from removal.
Beast Within
is just a catch-all removal spell.
Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
helps you play anything at instant speed, and digs into your library for you.
Also playing against control you should probably strive to use land focused ramp (
Springbloom Druid
,
Nissa's Pilgrimage
) rather than mana dorks.
Use
Tormod's Crypt
if you run into a graveyard focused deck.
Use
Thragtusk
if you run into anything faster than this deck like burn, prowess, Red Deck Wins, 8 whack etc.
Use
Return to Nature
as just a utility card. Can use to kill artifact/enchantment creatures as well if you need. Helps out a little with graveyard hate but only put it in to use it for the first 2 abilities. The 3rd is just situational, and isn't worth the slot if that's the only reason you're siding the card in.
Use
Ram Through
as spot removal. Green sucks at that. Has very small synergies with Howlpack Resurgence and Packmaster, not enough to count on, but they're nice when they happen.
~~~~~
Sideboarding is hard and meta dependent, so adjust it to whoever you play against the most.
Edit: I accidentally hit deckcyle instead of playtest so I cleaned up the description lol. Also, I think Packmaster should probably be the main gameplan. I'm gonna focus there I think, still a work in progress.
