Validation

     This is my tournament report from yesterday's Gateway event at Regran.  There were more than sixteen participants so we played four rounds.  Most of the decks there were aggressive or midrange with a couple sporting reanimator.

     I used the werewolf list from the previous article "Growth."  Nothing was changed.  Even though I wasn't confident about the manabase, I decided to enter the tourney hoping to learn more about the deck's strengths and weaknesses.

     Bant was first up.  I kept a fast hand containing a couple of lands, Wolfbitten Captive, Mayor of Avabruck and Full Moon's Rise.  He went down to six cards.  I basically deployed my creatures while he stumbled on mana, which allowed my werewolves to transform.  Wolfpack Alpha was particularly brutal producing three 2/2 tokens that closed out the game quickly.  In the second game his Centaur Healers undid the damage I inflicted which enabled his comeback with Restoration Angels and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage.  For the decider, he kept me at bay with Thragtusks and Restoration Angels but eventually Full Moon's Rise, Instigator Gang and Wolfir Silverheart got through for enough trample damage.

     In the second round I faced Frites.  I tried to race him with my creatures but he flashbacked Unburial Rites to put Angel of Serenity into play which got rid of my pack.  He then summoned a Thragtusk to put himself beyond my reach before stomping my face with his big creatures.  Game two was more of the same: me trying to race him while he dumped cards in the graveyard.  I drew triple Titanic Growth which allowed me to force a third game.  Our last battle was similar to the previous in that my guys bolted out the gates and he was without any defensive spell.

     Jund was my third round match-up, which scared me quite a bit.  He attacked me with Strangleroot Geists while I tried to assemble a team and defend myself.  With three cards in hand, he cast Rakdos's Return which sent Huntmaster of the Fells, Mayor of Avabruck and Instigator Gang to the bin.  I was up a creek without a paddle but I passed the turn to transform my guys and dissuade him from attacking.  He drew and played a Thundermaw Hellkite that put me to thirteen life points.  I struck back and he found himself down to two.  After combat Huntmaster of the Fells upped my life to fifteen.  I was safe for the moment but he still had Kessig Wolf Run to pump his flyer.  He boosted his life back to seven with Thragtusk and Falkenrath Aristocrat arrived on the scene but it had to block instead of swinging in.  I charged in again and the game was mine.  The followup was bad for my opponent as he was mana-screwed.  A Scorned Villager allowed me to cast spells even though I was also stuck on two lands as he was.  I won albeit I expected a harder fight with all of Jund's removals.

     The last match was against Frites.  It was built differently though.  His Restoration Angels provided defense on the fourth turn while he dug for lands and I was unable to make any headway.  It didn't help that I kept a one-lander after I had taken a mulligan to six.  The second game I got him down to eight with two Titanic Growth in my hand but not enough mana to cast them both.  He, of course, gained life with Thragtusk the next turn before reanimating Angel of Serenity and I saw the handwriting on the wall.

     So I was 3-1 and in sixth or seventh place (horrible tiebreaks).  I felt a little sad that my run had ended badly.  A single pack was my reward which didn't brighten my mood a bit until I opened it.  Inside were Temple Garden and a foil Detention Sphere.  Thank you, God! 

     Overall, I thought the deck was right for the metagame as I didn't encounter a lot of bounce spells and countermagic.  The "growth" effects were key as they maximized Full Moon's Rise tremendously.  The mana-base wasn't great but serviceable.  Also the sideboard needed upgrades as I wasn't impressed with Wolfir Avenger, Moonmist, Blasphemous Act, and Grafdigger's Cage.  I was basically playing my mainboard most of the time.

Growth

     Growth means transformation, expanding from something that was limited into another form that encompasses the old and what it has learned.  Well, I've discovered aplenty and now it's time for the werewolves to be different.  This is probably the riskiest decision I've made yet.

     I have literally added seven(!) growth spells that boost power and toughness.  Instead of burn spells, I've resorted to green's strong suit: creature pumping.  This means that I can pass the turn and protect them from direct damage spells and oncoming creatures at instant speed.  Giant Growth and Titanic Growth are the innovations along with a trio of Wolfir Silverheart to remain on theme.

     Here's the list:

     Creatures: 26

     4 Wolfbitten Captive

     4 Scorned Villager

     4 Mayor of Avabruck

     4 Daybreak Ranger

     3 Instigator Gang

     4 Huntmaster of the Fells

     3 Wolfir Silverheart

     Spells: 11

     3 Giant Growth

     4 Titanic Growth

     4 Full Moon's Rise

     Lands: 23

     3 Kessig Wolf Run

     4 Rootbound Crag

     11 Forest

     5 Mountain

     Sideboard: 15

     4 Blasphemous Act

     4 Wolfir Avenger

     4 Moonmist

     3 Grafdigger's Cage

     The idea is to deploy as many werewolves as possible and just go to town on the opponent's life total.  It's relatively safe to empty one's hand with Full Moon's Rise on the board.  One can then just swing for lots of damage or take a turn off to transform everyone.

     As for the sideboard, it addresses four match-ups. Blasphemous Act wipes the board clean of tokens or Selesnya armies. Wolfir Avenger comes in against tricky blue mages with their bounce spells and countermagic. Grafdigger's Cage locks down zombies, reanimator strategies, and flashback spells.  Moonmist "Fogs" aggressive red and black decks.

     The design this time is simple, organic, and easy to execute.  I've cut down on attempts to make the deck cute by removing one-ofs and other cards that seem good but are quite ineffective in the metagame.  Werewolves are now intent on making the other guy sweat instead of the other way around.  

     Come to think of it, this is exactly the kind of growth I talked about in the beginning of the article.  I am improving, tailoring my deck to the sort of plays I want to make so that I can avoid mistakes and make better decisions in-game.  I am not stuck to ideas that don't work.  I'd rather win more than be "right."

Werewolves Forever

     I experimented with a zero-spell werewolf deck the past couple of days.  The results were mixed.  Sometimes I won with an overwhelming advantage.  At other times, I was craving Moonmist and Full Moon's Rise.  As such, I decided to put back those two spells and to make other changes as well.

     Here is the new list:

     Creatures: 24

     4 Reckless Waif

     4 Wolfbitten Captive

     4 Mayor of Avabruck

     4 Daybreak Ranger

     4 Immerwolf

     4 Huntmaster of the Fells

 

     Planeswalker: 1

     1 Garruk Relentless

     Spells: 11

     3 Ranger's Guile

     4 Moonmist

     4 Full Moon's Rise

 

     Lands: 24

     3 Kessig Wolf Run

     4 Rootbound Crag

     5 Mountain

     12 Forest

     Sideboard: 15

     1 Increasing Savagery

     4 Wolfir Avenger

     2 Wolfir Silverheart

     3 Ground Seal

     2 Gnaw the Bone

     3 Blasphemous Act

     The first thing one notices is that the land count has been upped to twenty-four to reliably reach four to five mana each game.  There are two key tricks to this deck.  One is casting Mayor of Avabruck and then following it up with Moonmist to provide an instant power boost and a 2/2 wolf token.  The other is to cast Immerwolf and once again follow up with Moonmist to lock in the transformation the werewolves undergo.  Other than being able to perform the tricks, cards like Increasing Savagery, Blasphemous Act, and Wolfir Silverheart require lots of mana so twenty-four lands is the right number.  The second thing to note about the manabase is that the deck is predominantly green splashing for red.  This enables the powerful sideboard strategies that require double-green mana.  In the future, Stomping Grounds and Cavern of Souls will further strengthen the manabase while ensuring that the right colored mana is available when it is needed.

Finally, a third Kessig Wolf Run is there as a mana-sink and as a utility land that also functions as endgame reach.

     Coincidentally, there are twenty-four creatures also.  With the exception of Immerwolf, they are all werewolves and thus eligible to receive the bonuses from Full Moon's Rise.  Reckless Waif and Wolfbitten Captive pressure control players who usually adopt a draw-go style of play.  Against beatdown, these two can trade with the opponent's creatures to preserve life points and slow down the attack.  Mayor of Avabruck pumps each werewolf and together with Full Moon's Rise can inflict huge amounts of damage.  Immerwolf is another useful tribal lord in that it pumps wolves whereas the Mayor doesn't.  Daybreak Ranger is mainly a defensive card but it can also become a fearsome force when necessary.  This card is good in creature matchups and deals with pesky flyers like Restoration Angel and Olivia Voldaren.  Huntmaster of the Fells and Garruk Relentless are the answers to Supreme Verdict, Sever the Bloodline, Mizzium Mortars, and Terminus.  They provide a pack of wolves ready to resume the battle after a mass removal spell wipes out the first wave of werewolves.

     As for the spells, it has been mentioned that Full Moon's Rise protects against control decks packing mass removal but this enchantment also does double duty in that it grants trample to each werewolf.  This ability ensures that chump-blocking is not an option the enemy enjoys.  In effect, this answers Lingering Souls and other cards that create 1/1 tokens like Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.  As with Rise, Moonmist also has additional value beyond fog-ging an alpha strike.  It can be a combat trick to save either Mayor or Huntmaster from removal.  Lastly, Ranger's Guile protects the pack from Detention Sphere and Sever the Bloodline.  This instant spell is loads better than Sundering Growth because it retains tempo.

     Regarding the sideboard, I have targeted certain strategies as popular and dominant so those are the ones the deck is prepared to handle.  The first is aggro which is usually comprised of Red Deck Wins (RDW) or Zombies.  The plan is to use Gnaw the Bone to gain life and make time for Wolfir Silverheart to come online.  In the event of tokens or a swarm strategy, Blasphemous Act works in concert with Full Moon's Rise to decimate the other side of the table while preserving the pack from destruction.  The second is control which is a good matchup for this deck but one can never have enough threats for that kind of strategy.  So there is Wolfir Avenger to flash in during the opponent's end turn and get him to use countermagic.  The Avenger's regeneration is also relevant against Supreme Verdict so this creature is more than an adequate threat to bring in.  The third is reanimator which should be shut down by Ground Seal and overran by the pack.  Last but not least is Increasing Savagery to be employed in the mirror match.

     I hope that this design is more effective than its predecessors.  If it's not yet obvious, I really love werewolves and hope that they help me take down tournament after tournament.  Even when they don't, they are really fun to play with as they mess up combat math and get my opponents to read cards they don't usually encounter in high-level play.

Eating My Words

     Sometime ago I said that werewolves don't need burn.  Well, I backtracked and incorporated Brimstone Volley just to see if it could deal with pesky life gain, flyers, planeswalkers, and blockers.  I was only able to test it against a friend's UW Tempo deck and it didn't prove crucial in the matchup as he just bounced my dudes instead of killing them.  Sphinx's Revelation put his life above my reach and the red spell became a defensive weapon as it killed his creatures deigning to carry Runechanter's Pike to my head.

     It was an even match, one that would have been tilted in my favor if I had Cavern of Souls to prevent his countermagic on stuff that he had bounced back to my hand with Unsummon or to the top of my library with Azorius Charm.  Still I was wary of adding the expensive land since it couldn't be used to activate my Kessig Wolf Run or cast spells like Moonmist.  I also felt that the Ground Seal in the sideboard would neuter his deck, preventing him from using flashback effectively.

     Here was the list I used earlier:

     Creatures: 26

     4 Reckless Waif

     4 Wolfbitten Captive

     4 Mayor of Avabruck

     2 Immerwolf

     4 Kruin Outlaw

     4 Daybreak Ranger

     4 Huntmaster of the Fells

     Spells: 11

     4 Full Moon's Rise

     3 Moonmist

     4 Brimstone Volley

     Lands: 23

     2 Kessig Wolf Run

     4 Rootbound Crag

     9 Mountain

     8 Forest

     Sideboard: 15

     1 Moonmist

     3 Sundering Growth

     4 Instigator Gang

     3 Ground Seal

     2 Electrickery

     2 Immerwolf

     I wasn't able to test the sideboard so I don't have any inkling as to what cards in there are worth it.  The fourth Moonmist is for aggressive decks.  Sundering Growth deals with Keyrunes and Detention Spheres.  Instigator Gang is for when I want to go big and trample all over someone.  Ground Seal handicaps reanimator strategies and decks relying on flashback or Angel of Serenity to win.  Immerwolf is for those games when I need my werewolves to remain their monstrous selves and not revert to their small human forms.  Lastly, Electrickery is for tokens and any deck that relies on 1/1 critters to get things going.

     Playing those games against my friend helped me see the importance of having creatures with hexproof.  It was debilitating to have my guys go to the top of my library and therefore prevent me from drawing something new.  I couldn't pump Krallenhorde Killer with confidence because I was afraid of losing an entire turn's mana to a bounce spell. 

     What became clearer as I tested this version of the deck was that I needed to go faster to beat the slow, ponderous, but overwhelmingly powerful decks littering the metagame at this point.  Brimstone Volley was certainly a step towards this but without further data I'm not sold on it beating Geist of Saint Traft, Thragtusk, and Angel of Serenity anytime soon.

Maybe Not

     Increasing Savagery was not what the doctor ordered.  With the metagame shifting towards control and non-zombies beatdown decks (Where have I read this before?), I need manpower not spellpower to push through damage as early in the game as possible.  So, the 4cc-sorcery is going out and replacing it are good ol' Reckless Waifs.  A 1-3 record with Scorned Villager and Increasing Savagery was enough to convince me that returning to aggro mode is my best bet in the new environment sans zombies.

     I'm also contemplating adding burn as Olivia Voldaren wrecks my deck completely.  Or at least something that gets rid of flyers and planeswalkers.  Magmaquake is more than adequate for one job but not for the other.  Maybe I should just depend on Moonmist...

     The sideboard is a mess.  I need to put my trumps there and not in the main.  This is going to be a long night...

Increasing Savagery

With the growing popularity of control strategies, I have decided to make some radical changes to werewolves.  First is the four-of Full Moon's Rise to counter burn and Supreme Verdict.  Another is taking out Moonmist completely and relegating two copies to the sideboard.  Third is adding Garruk Relentless to provide more firepower ala-Huntmaster of the Fells by having two targets the control player can't simultaneously deal with.  The last improvement is adding a set of Increasing Savagery to boost the deck's power and to act as a mana-sink since I've added a land.  The deck is now heavily green so Kruin Outlaw and Instigator Gang had to go.  In their absence, I have put in two Wolfir Silverheart as finishers.

The list:

Creatures: 26

4 Wolfbitten Captive

4 Scorned Villager

4 Mayor of Avabruck

4 Daybreak Ranger

4 Immerwolf

4 Huntmaster of the Fells

2 Wolfir Silverheart

Spells: 10

2 Garruk Relentless

4 Full Moon's Rise

4 Increasing Savagery

Lands: 24

4 Rootbound Crag

2 Kessig Wolf Run

12 Forest

6 Mountain

I haven't come up with a complete sideboard yet but after today's tournament I might solidify my choices.

No Burn? No Problem!

     Over the course of three tournaments, twelve matches, and thirty-one games, I have learned several things about werewolves that will surprise most people, eliciting strong reactions which I hope will lead to meaningful discourse over how best to proceed with my favorite tribe.  The first is that burn has no place in the deck because of the popularity of lifegain.  You won't see Pillar of Flame or Brimstone Volley because these cards don't advance the way werewolves want to win even though you could be saying to yourself with good reason that these direct damage spells do a lot against zombies and control decks respectively.  The second is that Full Moon's Rise is the most important spell so you don't let it get countered by blue mages and you never cash it in unless necessary.  This unassuming enchantment boosts power and grants trample and regeneration to all werewolves.  Supreme Verdict, Mizzium Mortars and chump-blocking simply won't cut it.  Only Terminus and Sever the Bloodline defends against the pack and even then, it's easy to rebuild with a sandbagged Huntmaster of the Fells or a sideboarded Garruk Relentless.  The third and most important lesson is to use Moonmist on offense.  With thirty creatures in the main, casting this instant is almost always backbreaking if not lethal most of the time.  The current metagame is teeming with creatures and this Fog-variant trumps them all not just because it can negate combat damage but also because it transforms your meek humans into game-ending monsters.

     I know my build is controversial because it ignores the common wisdom of using RG's traditionally strong cards like Pillar of Flame, Brimstone Volley, Strangleroot Geist, Hellrider, etc.  Yet I am convinced by my two top four finishes this week that I have designed something that exploits the holes in the prevailing metagame.  I won't deny that it's unconventional but it is effective and that's all that matters to me as a deck designer.