When I first started playing magic on my own (I learned to play when back in '97, but never bought my own cards or anything since I was only 9) Avacyn Restored had been out for a little while already. I was playing with a modified vampire intro deck that was horrible and was always losing. Someone from my LGS had enough of that and not only donated some cards to me, but used some of his store credit to get me more cards. Those cards would be the beginning of my new deck and the ending of my losing streak. Those cards were Werewolves.
We once again find ourselves in Innistrad, The amalgam land of every classic horror movie you've seen, and my personal favorite. Let's begin the deck breakdown.
Turn Ichi
Besides our land we want to be doing one of two things:
- Playing a
Village Messenger
(if the opponent fails to play something the following turn they'll have to deal with a 2/2 with menace!) which is a great early creature.
- Drop down a
Neglected Heirloom
to set up for later turns. The reasons I chose
Neglected Heirloom
is simple:
- We need something early to play besides our messenger.
- We want to be able to hold our own without constantly playing spells so if need be we can choose to not play anything, or only play one spell so that our werewolves DO NOT revert. Equipment takes care of that in that we can still equip without triggering any triggers
- It flips with our werewolves! how cool is that! Not only that, but it doesn't flip back! So even if our werewolves revert to humans, they'll still get +3/+3 and first strike!
Right now I've settled on 3, because while a set would be nice to ensure we have a play turn one, we really don't want them crowding around the field and will be using that mana for more creatures instead.
Turn Zwei
We'll almost always want to play Duskwatch Recruiter
turn two as it sets up the following turn rather nicely. Using its ability, we can search for a creature to play next turn AND our werewolves (or werewolf) will get to Transform! But that's not all folks, once he flips, he goes an extra step further by ensuring that whatever creature we got, will cost one less!! He really lives by his *recruiter* name. On the of chance we don't get a creature, well, at least we still got through a mana pocket or whatever, which still ain't bad.
We also have the
Kessig Forgemaster
which has a sudo-first strike that essentially makes him a 3/1 and thats good for picking off weenies. Might try out
Scourge Wolf
as a replacement if i feel forgemaster is underwhelming.
Moonlight Hunt
with as many werewolves as this deck is running, we can(will) remove almost anything in out path, and do it on the opponents turn before, during or even after an attack.
At this point we actually have a lot to do here:
- Use Duskwatch Recruiter
s ability if we have one, attack or pass turn and flip next upkeep.
- Play another two or one drop and/or our equipment and/or eqiup and attack or pass turn.
- Play a three drop. Duh.
- Geier Reach Bandit
is the most aggressive of our three drops, being a 3/2 with haste. Its moon side Vildin-Pack Alpha
lets every other werewolf that enters flip right away as well! What!!
-
Breakneck Rider
is a decent body in it's own right, but its the moon side (like everything else) that we want. Giving our attacking creatures +1/0 and trample Neck Breaker
serves as a decent enough substitute to the gone Wildblood Pack
.
-
Hermit of the Natterknolls
is a little more defensive than the other werewolves, but it and its transformation provide a valuable service that the werewolves didn't have before, Card draw. A card drawn for everytime they deny our werewolves transformation. That's all I'm going to say.
- Silverfur Partisan is more in there just as another creature with a really helpful ability. While I'm sure they will be targeting our werewolves to burn and kill and we will be getting wolf tokens, that's not what this deck is focused on, otherwise we'd have more pump spells and less werewolves transforming. I decided two, might include two in the sideboard, or up it to 3 and move the hermit down to 3 as well.
-
Howlpack Resurgence
is simple. Its an enchantment that pumps our wolves and werewolves (even if they're human) by +1/+1, grants them all trample, and also serves as combat trick with flash! This is important because we can choose not to cast anything our turn, transform, then cast it on their turn and keep our werewolves (assuming they cast only one spell) transformed!
Turn Quatro
PLAY MOAR WEREWOLVES*
*Disclaimer: The deck is constantly evolving so this part is subject to change, and while PLAY MOAR WEREWOLVES will always be relevant advice, we are not liable for any injuries that may occur to opponents while said advice is being taken.
So this is a "brief" (HA) rundown of my deck, I hope you guys will help me test it and give me feedback/suggestions, ect.
HAPPY HUNTING
