Red/Green Werewolf Deck With Dark Ascension
January 25, 2012 | Posted by Dee
The Werewolf tribe got some great cards from Dark Ascension. I wanted to see how much better the deck got so I started testing it as soon as the full spoiler was released.
So far, I’ve been satisfied with the deck. It can be blazing fast yet it has protection from mass removal with Full Moon’s Rise.
Also, it doesn’t have to win right away. You can win in the midgame with card advantage creatures like Daybreak Ranger, Mayor of Avabruck, and Huntmaster of the Fells.
I tried a couple different decklists before I came up with one that won consistently. Here’s my current Red/Green Werewolves deck.
| RG Werewolves | |||||||||||
Creatures (26)
Spells (10) Lands (24) | Sideboard (15) |
| |||||||||
Creatures
The list has a lot of cheap creatures. You’ve got 16 Werewolves that cost two or less so in most games, you’re putting a lot of pressure on your opponent right away.
Having another one-drop from Dark Ascension helps a lot. Wolfbitten Captive is great early in the game but it’s also solid in later turns. When it’s transformed, you can make it a 6/6 for four mana. This is very relevant because it can gain trample from Full Moon’s Rise.
You might be surprised to see only two Immerwolf. I started with four copies but mana curve issues forced me to go down to two.
Daybreak Ranger proved to be the better card and I don’t want too many three-drops. I want to keep the mana curve pretty low. Also, Immerwolf does not benefit from Full Moon’s Rise.
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For the four-drop spot, I tested Instigator Gang but Huntmaster of the Fells proved to be the better card. You just lose too much tempo with Instigator Gang when they Doom Blade, Incinerate, or Vapor Snag it.
If they kill Huntmaster of the Fells, you can still keep the beatdown going with a 2/2 Wolf token. The token may not seem much but it gets bigger with Immerwolf and a flipped Mayor of Avabruck.
Also, the Dark Ascension mythic rare can kill a creature (like a flipped Delver of Secrets) and deal two damage to your opponent when it flips to the night side. The direct damage can be important if you’re racing or you need to kill a planeswalker like Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.
Spells
Full Moon’s Rise is one of your most important cards for several reasons. First, it allows you to overextend into mass removal spells like Day of Judgment and Slagstorm.
Second, it protects your best Werewolf from removal. This protection can be really good if your best Werewolf is a flipped Daybreak Ranger that keeps killing your opponent’s creatures or a flipped Mayor of Avabruck that keeps producing Wolf tokens.
Third, the trample and +1/+0 abilities allow you to break through creature stalls and race effectively. Trample is especially important against token decks. It keeps them from chump blocking effectively.
[Buy Full Moon's Rise on eBay at a low price]
The +1/+0 and regeneration abilities work well together versus control decks. Your guys get bigger so you can kill faster and they are protected from common removal spells.
On the play, this is one of the best openings you can have against control:
T1: Reckless Waif (it usually flips on your next turn)
T2: Full Moon’s Rise
On turn two, you’re attacking with a 4/2 trampler that can be regenerated. If you resolve another Werewolf on turn three or four, it will be hard to lose.
I went with only two Moonmist because you only really want it for some of your Werewolves. Moonmist is solid if you’re flipping Mayor of Avabruck, Huntmaster of the Fells, and Daybreak Ranger. But I’m not too excited to cast Moonmist to flip Reckless Waif, Wolfbitten Captive, and Gatstaf Shepherd.
Also, you usually don’t want to draw multiples of the green instant spell. If you cast one Moonmist, you probably don’t want another copy in your hand because your Werewolves are already flipped. Instead, you’d rather have a removal spell or a creature so you can advance the board.
Plus, there are those situations where your creatures are already flipped and then your draw Moonmist.
For the removal spell, I went with Arc Trail because BW Tokens decks looks like it could be the next big thing.
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14 Responses to “Red/Green Werewolf Deck With Dark Ascension”
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I like the build you’ve been working on here. I have a few questions if you wouldnt mind answering. As of right now, do you have a standard legal version of this list pre-dark ascension. Second question, have you tried garruk relentless, and if so what were the results? Awesome article and thank you in advance for any information you could give me.
Thanks!
I don’t have a pre-Dark Ascension version of Werewolves. I only started playing the deck this week and the deck had Dark Ascension cards from the get-go.
I haven’t tried Garruk Relentless because I don’t want more than 4 cards that cost four. I want to keep the mana curve low and Huntmaster of the Fells was already doing well at the four-drop spot.
But Garruk Relentless could be a pretty good card in a different build. If I were to play it, I would start with a more midrange list since it is not that good of an aggro card.
In this type of build, you might want mana creatures like Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves so you can play more spells that cost three or more. There’s even a Werewolf mana creature, Scorned Villager, that you can try out.
Also, I would start with 4 Immerwolf to boost the tokens from Garruk.
Hi,
greetings from Chile!, first i love your blog, i learned son much about magic and the mind i need to play magic, thanks for explain the decks and try to teach about this, it´s really good for players no-pro like me.
About this deck i think the balance of lands can be better i think, 7 mountains and 7 forest lost the balance, a acouple of time i draw only mountains, and its bad because the most spells are green i think 9 forest and 5 mountain is better or 8 and 6, this is my little suggest, thanks for all, and continue teaching about Magic
Pd: sorry for my level of english, congrats!
Hi Matias,
It’s pretty cool to see someone reading from overseas.
Thanks for the suggestion. I think you’re right
8/6 seems slightly better than 9/5 because it gives you more chance of playing Reckless Waif on turn one.
Kruin Outlaw? 3cmc First strike – double strike …and evasion to all werewolves
I was happy with my three-drops so I never got to try Kruin Outlaw. But it does seem pretty good and other people have brought it up.
I think cutting two Daybreak Ranger for two Kruin Outlaw is worth testing. I hesitate to go with a full set of the red Werewolf because it strains the mana too much in my opinion.
I really like this deck idea. It seemed that in Innistrad the wolves just couldn’t cut it in standard, or modern for that matter. However with the Dark Ascension release, the werewolves got a VERY nice kick in their power. Having much more bite than bark, i wonder however. Have you perhaps thought about Mondronen Shaman // Tovolar’s Magehunter? It gives an option that if you CAN’T attack, you can just bide your time until you can, still be picking off at the player’s life. Also, perhaps a nice buff from Increasing Savagery or even Wild Hunger? Lastly, what about Scorned Villager // Moonscarred Werewolf?
Anyway, thank you <3 LOVE the deck idea!
Great stuff! but IMO, you’d need a set of moonmist. Not only would it transform your werewolves, but it also protects you from any combat dmg your enemy can dish out in his turn.
Also I’d go for incinerate rather than arc trail, because if you have a werewolf deck, you try not to cast more than 1 spell on your turn, so for me, I’d like to cast my blaster (incinerate) in my opponents turn rather than arc trail( a sorcery) on my own.
I previously had manabarbs as a side deck, it keeps your opponent from casting more spells to re-transform your werewolves, and since the mana curve in this deck is quite low. you’d still have the advantage. But since immerwolf has been added, I don’t think I’d need manabarbs that much…
@Koma
Mondronen Shaman looks pretty good. It’s definitely worth testing because it has a powerful night side. I’m not sure if it’s better than Huntmaster though. At least, it’s a decent budget option if you can’t afford four Huntmasters
I don’t really like pump spells because you can lose card advantage if they have a removal spell like Doom Blade or Oblivion Ring. Wild Hunger has flashback so that helps but it might be too expensive at three mana.
I like Scorned Villager in a less aggressive, more midrange deck. I actually started testing Werewolves with Scorned Villager in my first decklist. I was pleased with the card, but I had to cut it when I decided to make the deck leaner and more aggressive.
But if you’re building a midrange Werewolves deck, I would definitely try out Scorned Villager.
I like this deck. I want to play werewolves in Block constructed, so this deck need to be tweaked a little bit. Can you help with it? Fist of all, it will need a different removal spell. What will be best – Brimstone Valley, Geistflame or maybe even Fling? Also, there’s no red/green dual lands in the block, so how much mana balancing do we need? Just several Evolving wilds, maybe? And maybe you will have some ideas about sideboard.
I like the list a lot and I’ve been wanting to play Werewolves ever since I saw Huntmaster and Immerwolf.
So my question is did you test Young Wolf in the spot of Wolfbitten Captive?
I think it would work good against Red decks so you can stop Stromkirk Noble and good against control decks with wrath effects as it will come back and keep the pressure up.
Another question.. Since we apply a lot of pressure early would it be smart to try and play some Brimstone Volley? Let them kill our guys and we deal 5 to them!
Thats all for now!
@ Taldarin
I tried out Young Wolf. It just wasn’t good enough because it doesn’t combo with Full Moon’s Rise, an unflipped Mayor, and Moonmist.
Young Wolf is a pretty good card. I could see it in a deck different from mine that doesn’t rely on Full Moon’s Rise (in other words, plays 2 or less copies of the enchantment). My deck is focused on Full Moon’s Rise so I had to cut Young Wolf. In my experience, you need a critical mass of Werewolves for Full Moon’s Rise. That’s one of the reasons I only have 2 Immerwolf.
I tried out Young Wolf to fight wrath effects but I found that Full Moon’s Rise was usually enough.
Young Wolf is good against Red decks. I don’t think they will be a big part of the metagame because of Sword of War and Peace, Strangleroot Geist, Geist of Saint Traft, and Timely Reinforcements. But if you have a red heavy metagame, then playing Young Wolf over Full Moon’s Rise is probably better. I’m not sure what that deck would look like.
I like Brimstone Volley but I think it costs too much for my decklist. I don’t want to have too many three-drops. I want to keep the mana curve low to increase my chances of having an aggressive early start.
Ok. Thanks! I’ve been playing RG Werewolves on MTGO and it is doing very well. In some matchups it doesn’t do so great but If I spend more money I could fix those matchups but I’m going to spend it on the real cards. I think huntmaster would also help. Just from playing and thinking.. If I had huntmaster.. lol. The added token of hunt I think will really help and the gain 2 life even though no one else thinks so. And of course the flip side will do wonders!
Hey ho,
I really like this deck, I also tried to build a Werewolf-Deck and it looks like this:
Creatures (23)
4x Wolfbitten Captive
4x Reckless Waif
4x Mayor of Avabruck
4x Immerwolf
3x Kruin Outlaw
4x Instigator Gang
Spells (14)
4x Moonmist
4x Full Moon’s Rise
4x Incinerate
2x Brimstone Volley
What do you think about this deck?
I decided for Kruin Outlaw and Instigator Gang, because the pumping-effect is awesome and in addition to that you’re opponent have to block every single one of your powerful creatures with at least two creatures.
Also I’m not sure about how much forests and mountains I have to play, could you help me?
PS: Sorry for the language mistakes, greetings from Germany