I gotta give thanks to Craig Wescoe for introducing me to the sweet creature that hasn't gotten much attention yet: Silverfur Partisan
There's many ways to break Silverfur Partisan flooding the board with so many 2/2 Wolf tokens.
I'm not saying that this one is the most efficient deck at doing just that.
This is just MY take on an attempt to abuse his ability in a shell that splashes and a tiny hint of .
Hope you like it...
The deck is based around Old Silverfur who does a lot of work in this deck. Beyond getting through despite being blocked because of Trample the main reason it's so good is because it's so easy to get plenty of 2/2 Wolf into play.
If we have two copies on the battlefield, we can use Dromoka's Command to put a counter on one and have the other fight something. Since Dromoka's Command targets both wolves, they each trigger twice. This creates four 2/2 Wolf, in addition to getting the effect of Dromoka's Command with +1/+1 counters and the fight.
If those interactions aren't enough, my favorite is how Silverfur Partisan interacts with
Center Soul
. Let's say the opponent targets Silverfur Partisan with a removal spell. Silverfur's ability triggers, making a 2/2 Wolf. Then we cast Center Soul targeting Silverfur Partisan, making another 2/2 Wolf and protecting Silverfur Partisan from the removal spell. Then on our upkeep Center Soul Rebounds and we get to target Silverfur Partisan again, making a third 2/2 Wolf. That's three free wolves just for countering the opponent's removal spell!
You can likewise generate creatures with Slip Through Space, making something unblockable while also drawing a card when you cast it.
This deck can go crazy if you have Silverfur Partisan and
Zada, Hedron Grinder
on the battlefield and you target Zada, Hedron Grinder with Slip Through Space, the spell copies and also targets Silverfur Partisan, which then makes a 2/2 Wolf and draws two cards (one for each Slip Through Space on the stack).
Then you can cast Expedite targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder, which copies the spell twice now, targeting both wolves. This then triggers Silverfur Partisan's ability twice. When everything resolves, you get two extra 2/2 Wolf and draw three cards.
You now have Zada, Silverfur, and three 2/2 Wolf in play and a hand full because you draw five cards.
Then if you found another spell, say a
Confront the Unknown
, you can target Zada, Hedron Grinder again, which copies the spell onto Silverfur Partisan and all three 2/2 Wolf. This triggers the Silverfur Partisan ability four more times, which results in four more 2/2 Wolf (seven total) and putting four Clues into play.
It gets real insane real quick.
Add in some Ramp utility with Cryptolith Rite and all these creatures become mana producers.
Even if the opponent has a way to wipe your board, you still have the clues to draw a full grip, so you can just rebuild and do it all over again.
The only problem this deck runs into is it relies heavily on Silverfur Partisan and that's one card, 4 out of 60+, so the probabilities of getting it are not that great.
What do we do to fix this issue?
We have a couple cards that allow us to sift through our library and pluck creatures.
Reveal top 6 is the best amount we can sift through. The great thing is this doesn't simply bring it to hand but brings them into play.
The ultimate goal of course is to be plucking two Silverfur's from this and putting them both onto the battlefield for just 4 mana.
It can grab a lot of things though.
Duskwatch Recruiter being one of the better options because it does exactly the same thing as Collected Company but it is repeatable for mana and you can even use it's ability the turn it comes into play while it is affected by summoning sickness as long as you can pay the mana costs.
It basically lets you Anticipate over and over again which allows you to grab another creature a lot.
All these effects (Collected Company, Duskwatch Recruiter
, and Oath of Nissa being another one oh and Vessel of Nascency) really helps you find those Silverfurs.
(Also cards like Evolving Wilds can let you shuffle your deck so putting things on the bottom that you may want is not a issue.)
Using Duskwatch Recruiter
's ability and not casting any spells the turn after it was cast means it'll flip to
Krallenhorde Howler
on their upkeep. This can be both good and bad, depending on if you would rather have him for his ability to search creatures up or make creatures you cast cost less instead.
Put him into play on T2, T3 use it's ability tapping all your mana. Their upkeep it'll flip to
Krallenhorde Howler
and you got a 3/3 blocker instead of a 2/2. T4 as long as they didn't cast 2 spells you can play Silverfur Partisan for leaving mana open to cast a spell to target Krellenhorde Howler putting a 2/2 Wolf into play.
Giving us a strong T1 search option and you can choose a creature like Silverfur, a Land , or a Planeswalker. It helps us with playing any Planeswalkers fixing mana to cast them with any lands.
Instant/Sorcery that trigger Silverfur
This right here is why we run a shell basically. The only double targeter that will trigger Silverfur's effect. It's so much better than single target Instant or Sorcery when you don't have Zada, Hedron Grinder out yet.
"Choose two". Choosing the bottom two you can target two different Wolf/Werewolf triggering the Silverfur's effect. Really powerful in combination with
Zada, Hedron Grinder
or two Silverfur Partisan in play at the same time.
One of them creature(s) fights one of there creatures so you're clearing the way for attackers to follow in behind if you manage to kill it off in this fight or if you only deal it damage at least they may die in combat then.
I like how this combos with
Geistblast
too. You can copy it, and choose new targets for this copy. Targeting four Wolf/Werewolves triggering Silverfur four times.
The only problem is none of the two combinations of modes on dromoka's command will allow you to trigger Zada, Hedron Grinder which requires that you ONLY target it.
Second it doubles as an answer to problematic Enchantments like Virulent Plague without being too narrow and pointless to include in the mainboard.
Sure we can run other answers to Enchantments like Virulent Plague and we do in Nahiri, the Harbinger already but instead of wasting a spot and running a specific but narrow "destroy target enchantment" type cards our Dromoka's Commands gives us that utility built right in.
We're not taking up spots in the deck to include a separate card all together that we probably don't even need most of the time. Dromoka's Command deals with problematic Enchantments but if they never surface it can still be useful to our main strategy. It's something that can be used with some versatility and every one of it's options is just powerful.
Our other options to deal with V.P. but still have versatility to deal with other threats are
Suppression Bonds
or Quarantine Field.
Not many green Instant and Sorcery one drop spells. This is probably the best one.
Investigate could be a useful to us when we can't seem to find our Silvefur Partisan.
Might of the Masses
Shape the Sands
Aim High is meant to be played as a trap, hence the instant speed, by casting it when they declare attackers and think your creature is tapped and cannot block. You cast this and untap said creature give it +2/+2 and Reach.
Reach in particular makes this at the very least a nice sideboard card because what defense do we have for Flying besides spot removal and just racing them in damage output?
Keep in mind also that the Aim High can target a creature thats already untapped so you can use it to trigger Silverfur's effect on your turn if it's the only spell you have to cast. If you do so though it might be better to attack first. After declaring the creature attacking you can cast this and untap it and it doesnt cause it to be removed from combat, it'll give you a neat little trick offensively to trick them into blocking it and then pumping it for +2/+2 which might put it over the top of their creatures toughness. They think their creature was safe but it isn't. Oh and if you have Cryptolith in play since you untapped it you can even attack in and later tap it for mana in the same turn. Gotta love Instant speed spells with versatility.
Vines of the Recluse
might be better though because it's cheaper.
As I mentioned earlier this is great card because first of all it gives us some protection for Silverfur being targeted with removal. Secondly, the same spell can also be used to trigger Silverfur multiple times with it coming back via Rebound.
Both of these let us draw so they are great to have. Wish we had a green or white card that had this cantrip though.
I just want to mention how Slip Through Space is one of the strongest spells in combination with Silverfur. It makes em unblockable so you can flood the board AND attack in that turn for damage.
Sure Strike
or
Kindled Fury
Two more that'll trigger the effect of Silverfur. Giving something First Strike can be used in surprise as well, allowing you to cast this at instant speed after they attack in and now your creatures are dealing damage first before taking any, so hopefully they kill theirs off.
It's important to trigger the Silverfur's effect on their turn whenever possible. Putting the tokens in on their turn so when it becomes your turn they don't need Haste to attack since they don't suffer from summoning sickness like they would if you triggered his effect on your own turn.
Brute Strength
Titan's Strength
Rush of Adrenaline
A lot of red cheap options. Could solely go Gruul and be just fine but we splash Blue and focus on White for key cards like Slip Through Space and Center Soul.
And then there is this bad ass card.
It lets you double your army once you have built it sufficiently up. Combines with Cryptolith Rite to give you some godly amounts of mana ramp!
Geistblast
copies it so you triple your tokens. And don't worry about mana to cast both because Cyptolith Rite and all them tokens got you covered.
Removal/Control
If there ever was a card that fit inside a deck and was named after exactly what that deck does -- this is it! Outnumber their creatures and beat face.
Target removal on the cheap that scales with our creatures, yes please.
Declaration in Stone
The best in standard according to a whole lot of people. I like it vs tokens for sure but we can usually outpace them and beat them in combat so I don't think this has a place right now.
This might be the control we need to counter their problematic cards. It stops their worst creatures from Attacking or Blocking. It stops the worst creature in Standard and one that actually is really bad for our token themed deck. Archangel Avacyn
can be particularly hard to deal with. Bound by Moonsilver however can be tagged on her to stop her from ever transforming and killing all our tokens.
The greatness about this card is that it allows you to use it early and swap it on something worse that comes into play later. A simple sacrifice, for which we have plenty of 2/2 Wolf to offer up, lets us plop it on whatever baddy they cast negating their play. We can do this everytime they cast a new creature that's worse or more dangerous than what the enchantment is already on. It's like a
Pacifism
spreadable cancer that controls the game for us.
Suppression Bonds
works as an alternative that can deal with problematic Enchantments and opposing Planeswalkers. It's permanent not creature, even though you can still plop it on a creature.
Quarantine Field as well works for this.
Both of them are very important vs Virulent Plague decks which completely destroys our 2/2 Wolf token strategy.
Mana Fixing
While this is focused on color pairing with and (Naya) that doesn't mean we can't run any other cards though, we just need to be more color-conscious.
Mana fixing is a key part to this deck and thanks to our focus color we have a couple of option since we do heavily feature .
Thanks to one card we can effectively cast any card in Standard.
It's perfect in this deck that floods creatures, plenty and plenty of 2/2 Wolf creatures into play.
When your putting copy after copy of creature into play and this makes each one tappable for mana this is some serious ramp you have access to.
That is mana fixes all the mana as well, being able to choose what color, is absolutely insane!
Mana Ramp and Mana fixing is key to playing important cards like Slip Through Space the planeswalkers like
Narset Transcendent
and giant bombs like
Altered Ego
.
Technically this is a five-color deck and we can run anything. Especially bombs that have a higher mana cost. Don't be afraid to throw any card you like in this. In fact, what card suggestions do you think need to be added or at least sideboarded in vs certain decks?
I was thinking Altered Ego.
You can have it come into play as a copy of their creature if you want but why when you have the perfect one right in front of you.
Have it come in as a much larger copy of Silverfur Partisan.
It does target it but it won't trigger it's effect because it's a creature. It's a copy so you can have more than 4 in play though. Technically you could have 8 out of 60 cards be Silverfur.
It also gives us another Mana Dump besides the
Ember-Eye Wolf
. Get a bunch of creatures with Cryptolith Rite in play and tap everything, every land and every creature, to pay for a massive X. You still gotta pay for the rest of the cost but any creatures past 4 and all your lands are all profit for X.
This will put a massive Silverfur Partisan copy into play. We're talking an 8/8 or 12/12 Silverfur Partisan easy if not larger.
And remember Old Silverfur has built in Trample!
A nice mana dump bomb for all that Cryptolith mana anyways.
Don't forget if you leave creatures untapped to block -- don't attack in -- you can tap them at instant speed on their turn for mana to cast things. Wait for them to think twice about attacking with all your blockers and when they pass their phase tap them for mana and cast away! They will untap when it becomes your turn anyways and you would rather any tokens come in on their turn so they don't have summoning sickness and can attack or tap for mana on your turn.
Evolving Wilds not only shuffles the cards swept to the bottom of the library that we may want to draw but it can search out basic lands so you can grab your one Island or Mountain just in case we never get Cryptolith up and running.
Lastly, Oath of Nissa doubles as a mana fixer for Planeswalkers only.
Planeswalkers
First I want to start by pointing out our Oath of Nissa lets us search for these Planeswalkers and bring them in to our hand in case we don't find a Silverfur or Land we want.
Second, that same card lets us play Planeswalkers with any mana. That means all the Planeswalkers in standard are playable in this deck. In fact, every card in standard is playable in this deck. If that doesn't sell it nothing will.
It really helps give incentive to use planeswalker cards when they are more playable.
Arlinn Kord, Nahiri, Kiora and Narset all cost to cast with a Oath of Nissa in play or with Cryptolith Rite you can fix the mana to suit your needs to cast them as well.
Obviously fits the colors and the thematics of the deck. Just not so sure it's the best planeswalker for this deck. Not that it doesn't fit in well here. You wanna keep upping it though to eventually get that emblem through
Arlinn, Embraced by the Moon
. Once you got the emblem anytime you trigger Silverfur the tokens will come in with Haste and all your creatures have "'Tap: This creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player.'" This of course means you can tap everything to end the game with burn damage with each 2/2 Wolf you have dealing 2 dmg to their face.
I'm not sure to include her or not. She's one of my favorite ones but her upping ability is not that great in here. We can untap a creature and a land every turn but it's only a +1 so we need to do that four frickin' times before we can get to the good stuff of getting an emblem with "Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may have it fight target creature." Then put three 8/8 blue Octopus creature tokens onto the battlefield. Everytime a bunch of 2/2 Wolf come in you can choose to have them fight the opponents creatures taking them out most likely and clearing the way for others to attack in. But I salivate at the idea of having more 8/8 Octopus in play with a casting of Second Harvest.
The only sad thing about that wetdream is we'll probably never accomplish it because it's better to 2 her for another Anticipate effect going with all the others we have in this deck. You reveal the top four cards of your library. You may put a creature card and/or a land card from among them into your hand. The key here is "And" grabbing any creature plus a land and we can do this twice for just before she disappears. Yeah that's cost effective I'de say. Of course you would do this once then untap a land to +1 her so she don't die off when you do it again.
Narset's focus is on casting Instant/Sorcery spells. That's also in line with our Silverfur Partisan Theme which makes Narset great for giving our spells that target and trigger Silverfur's effect Rebound!
She comes in with 6 Loyalty and it only takes -2 to Rebound something making her really great in this deck.
Her + ability is perfect for getting those target Instant/Sorcery spells into your hand, if it's the top card of your deck it's basically an extra draw.
Finally her Ultimate basically ensures your victory because they can only play Creatures and well that's your bread and butter with this deck. They're not going to beat you with creatures alone.
She has my vote for best Planeswalker for this deck.
She has a great Draw,Discard upper ability. You only need to do that twice to use her for what she's meant for. Her Ultimate ability lets you pluck and play anything from your library for free. Great for grabbing another Silverfur Partisan or anything else.
(Think about the possibilities of throwing in one Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger into this deck. The one of would almost always be in your library especially with so many cards funneling things to bottom of library. If you do only add one. Briarbridge Patrol is another Investigate card that actually rewards us for using up 3 Clues in a single turn as another way to play Ulamog for free. Thing is you might be able to just cast the Ulamog, should he make his way into your hand by simply tapping lands and all your creatures for mana through Cryptolith Rite.)
Basically you play her as a Draw 2, Discard 2 and then tutor up a creature. This takes 3 turns to do and she dies unless you run Oath of Gideon or +2 her another time.
Oh yeah, her -2 is only a semi-powerful spot removal at instant speed. I guess that's kinda a big deal. They attack and tap their creature, exile it. This will deter them from attacking most often which can be great in allowing you to set up your board by choosing to not use her +2 and giving the threat of using her -2. This will often stall the opponent into skipping combat in fear of losing their creatures. Also great if they have a particular problematic Enchantment in play, zap! It's gone.
There's a lot of good Wolf and Werewolf cards.
When choosing Wolf/Werewolf creatures to run outside of Silverfur Partisan we want to focus on 3CMC or less so Collected Company works with them.
Aside from those already mentioned Silverfur Partisan & Duskwatch Recruiter
we could run some like;
Geier Reach Bandit
The Haste is nice if it's put into play via CoCo.
Hermit of the Natterknolls
It punishes them for playing spells on your turn by rewarding you with card advantage. Plus the Flavor text is great. Many can stand, where one would fall practically describes this deck perfectly. Where one 2/2 Wolf would fall to just about anything but Many of them tokens overwhelm and can withstand anything.
Ember-Eye Wolf
I love the art and it's the cheapest wolf in Standard. Haste is nice too and the built in pump actually can be a nice mana dump once we get going with plenty of creatures in play and each becoming tappable for mana with Cryptolith Rite you can make this one guy very huge.
Ulrich's Kindred
Another mana dump. You can make a few attacking Wolf creatures indestructible.
Quilled Wolf
One more cheap wolf 2/2 isn't bad but it can be made into a 6/6 if you need a giant blocker that kills one of their ground creatures. Simply tap a few of the 2/2 Wolf with the Cryptolith Rite in play to pay for the mana if you don't have enough lands.
Convicted Killer
Scourge Wolf
What happens if we go outside the realm of Wolf/Werewolf
What if we choose to run a few non-Wolf/Werewolf creatures alongside Collected Company?
Anything that's 3 CMC or less are just as effective after all and let us run better creatures potentially.
I'm sure there's plenty of ways to build this and with multiple combinations of creatures but where I went outside of Wolf/Werewolf is Investigation.
I like the sub-theme of Investigate we got going with putting Clues into play for more draws. Card advantage is always good.
Thraben Inspector
is probably the best one drop in standard. It gives us a good T1 potential but also works in later turns with a relevant ETB effect.
If you have nothing to follow it on T2 simply pay the to sac the Clue and draw a new card to hand and power surge forward into T3 with a card that you otherwise wouldn't have had til your next turn after.
If it netted you Silverfur it's perfect.
And it's under the 3CMC range so coming in with CoCo for free is possible.
Maybe Cards Show
Westvale Abbey
Could be silly easy to flip with this deck as five creatures is nothing for this deck. Flooding creatures into play easily you could have the demon out commanding all your wolf and werewolves.
Eerie Interlude
+
Geistblast
once you have a bunch of 2/2 Wolf out you can essentially double them. It doesn't work with Zada though. I like the idea but it's not reliable enough or fast enough as other options we have to run. Thing is Second Harvest kind of does this better with way less set up.
I thought about Always Watching but i misread it. Nontoken creatures makes it unplayable in this. I thought originally Always Watching
+
Cryptolith Rite
lets you attack in with all your creatures, then later tap them on their turn after they passed the opportunity to attack. Tapping them all for mana thanks to the Cryptolith Rite in order to cast a bunch of spells, or more creatures. If spells target
Zada, Hedron Grinder
or Wolf/Werewolf you control you'll be putting more and more 2/2 Wolf into play on their turn mind you. This is key because they don't have Haste naturally so if you do it on their turn you can attack with them on your next turn. When it becomes your turn, you untap the creatures you tapped for mana and attack with everything. That's the power of Vigilance and the reason to run the anthem card Always Watching . Besides each one gives +1/+1 so it makes your Wolves 3/3 or 4/4 with two in play.
Neglected Heirloom
//
Ashmouth Blade
I don't really think any Equipment is needed but if you wanted to try to run this one it could be beneficial alongside the right creature base. Turn 1, drop this. Turn 2,
Hinterland Logger
. Turn 3, equip this. At the end of that turn 3 you have a 7/5 with First Strike and Trample. Oh and it's searchable through Nahiri.
Wolf of Devil's Breach
A wolf that has some synergy with a deck including some higher CMC cards could be good. Right now the most expensive we got are right around 4CMC our planeswalkers and CoCo's. The planeswalkers if you chose to expand upon them would more than likely see duplicates sitting in your hand. Attack, choose to discard one of them, and hit em for damage.
Pack Guardian
simply doesn't work with Coco but I like how it brings in two wolf creatures getting us ahead for Silverfur who needs more and more wolf creatures to target through Zada, Hedron Grinder to completely flood the board with wolf tokens. I also really like that it has flash. Flash it in to surprise block an attacking creature and discard a land to put a 2/2 Wolf into play as well. This could potentially work in a Gruul Shell deck similar to this running
Scourge Wolf
and trying to achieve Delirium because it'll help get 1 type - Land - to the grave. (If you do take a peak at running Vessel of Nascency,
Tormenting Voice
,
Magmatic Insight
+
Crawling Sensation
, Seasons Past , a endless discard outlet for Delirium purposes in
Murderer's Axe
,
Wolf of Devil's Breach
see above reasons why, Traverse the Ulvenwald as another tutor with Delirium,
Obsessive Skinner
as a pumper with Delirium, and
Autumnal Gloom
) Cutting White means we can run more red instant spells and making the deck more reliable but you lose Dromoka's Command and all the planeswalkers except Arlinn Kord
but it might play better, if not differently.
Cult of the Waxing Moon
Another costly card that simply doesn't fit this CoCo deck but does fit the transforming Werewolves theme many of our cards share. Another way to put them Wolf tokens into play.
Vessel of Nascency Because you already run things like Collected Company, the Oath of Nissa, and the Duskwatch Recruiter
werewolf. After all this deck goes nowhere fast when you can't get Silverfur Partisan into play and we're only allowed to have 4 of him in the deck.
Since many of the spells we want for Silverfur Partisan also work great with Thing in the Ice
you could run a Temur variant using more Slip Through Space. You would have to splash for
Center Soul
but doing so counts as two spells for Thing in the Ice since you cast the spell when you Rebound it.
There's so many good cards that i want to run with this that it might make for a better EDH Commander deck idea. But who for the General? In these colors GRUW.