Avacyn has been Restored and two hundred new cards are available for Standard play now, but few of them made the cut fast. Fresh new brews are in the beginnings of their journey to the top, aiming to be at full power for PTQs, WMCQs, and of course, SCG Opens (which have become even better than they were before). At the very same time, all existing powerhouses are still here ready to keep their positions and to test newcomers. I decided to be at the defending side this week, so today’s topic of my article is Wolf Races. I’m going to participate in the next Kessig Wolf Run with the help of Wolfir Avenger and Wolfir Silverheart.
Whoops! Looks like these cards are new.
Okay, let’s pretend that I’m an Imperial Recruiter sent to new cards’ village from the Great Empire of G/R Standard decks.
Primeval Titan was an important part of the hype around Cavern of Souls. At the very same time, Glimmerpost has become commonplace in Wolf Run Ramp decks on MTGO after Cedric Phillips‘ excellent article. It’s clear that there is no way to put both Glimmerpost and Cavern of Souls into one deck, so we have to make a choice. With control decks leaving their Mana Leaks at home, our choice becomes “Are you’re going to win preboard against Delver of Secrets or against all other aggressive decks?” Four of five players in the Top 32 of the SCG Providence Standard Open chose Cavern of Souls, and it’s very reasonable decision in the USA metagame.
Simultaneously, there was a PTQ in Minsk, Belarus. Two my teammates decided to make the trip with Wolf Run Ramp and G/R Aggro respectively. Looking at the potential metagame, we didn’t expect a significant amount of Delver decks, so maindeck Cavern of Souls in Ramp was almost out of consideration. Decks to expect were “random aggro,” then later during the tournament, Wolf Run Ramp and Solar Flare piloted by local endbosses (and our friends, whose choices and decklists were partially known).
The most pre-tournament testing and chatting about Ramp was made between me and my teammate Nikita Sekretarev (for whom it was a weapon of choice). When we came to anti-Flare tech, Nikita noticed that Gerry Thompson Solar Flare becomes seriously weaker without Sun Titan. If they are able to start graveyard recursion, it’s very hard to win, but defanged U/W Control is far easier to deal with. First, we discussed various removal spells, but later the wild technology came. Just look at the sideboard of the deck!
Creatures (15)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 1 Inferno Titan
- 4 Primeval Titan
- 1 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
Lands (26)
Spells (20)
- 4 Rampant Growth
- 2 Galvanic Blast
- 2 Green Sun's Zenith
- 4 Sphere of the Suns
- 4 Slagstorm
- 1 Whipflare
- 1 Devil's Play
- 2 Pillar of Flame
Sideboard
The main targets are Sun Titan and Primeval Titan. Risky? Yes. Any two-mana acceleration spell can produce black mana, but all sources aside Swamp are tapped (or have summoning sickness). However, if you’re able to capitalize on Memoricide, it’s just devastating. Memoricide was very useful for Nikita, allowing him to make his way to long-deserved Pro Tour debut in Seattle. Congratulations, bro!
Can I recommend Memoricide for upcoming PTQs? Unfortunately not. Looking retroactively, that decision was suboptimal, even after the PTQ win. Memoricide is fine against Sun Titan, but you should be sure that your opponent has read Gerry’s article and doesn’t play Mana Leak. The main problem is that Memoricide is weak against Zealous Conscripts. The bonus of a relatively small and well-known metagame was that we knew there would be no conscripts, but I see no reason this will remain the case for much longer. I’d keep Memoricide against solely Solar Flare, but wasting five slots against a single deck may be too greedy. Other parts of Nikita’s deck are not miraculous (e.g. no Bonfire of the Damned), with the noticeable Wurmcoil Engine and Pillar of Flame a tribute to expected Zombies.
An important thing to speak about is Pillar of Flame. Two copies in Nikita’s maindeck are perfectly fine. They are good against Zombies, they are good against G/R Aggro, they are almost fine preboard in the mirror match, and, in the worst case, Pillar of Flare is just sorcery-speed Shock. Two copies of Pillar of Flame in Brandon Rodrigues’ 11th place list from Providence make me cry. The mix of Bonfire of the Damned / Slagstorm / Whipflare in four of five Top 32 decks’ sideboards did the same!
Not all cards are created equal. Some of them are just better than other, some of them are more versatile than other, and some of them are perfect role-players. Nobody will put Deathmark or Flashfreeze into the maindeck; rare exceptions are just signs of unhealthy formats (Oxidize, say “Hi!” to Arcbound Ravager). A match of Magic is played as two of three or three of five, and there is no reason to put powerfully narrow cards into the maindeck.
The dark side of this “rule” is that putting versatile cards into the sideboard is generally a mistake. Sideboard cards must be gamebreakers or at least they should significantly improve matches where they come in. It’s fine when sideboard cards have some versatility—assuming that your maindeck doesn’t include narrow cards, there is no reason to exchange “do-something” cards for “do-a-little-bit-more” cards. If you want to see your “do-a-little-bit-more” card more often, just put it into the maindeck instead of wasting precious sideboard slots!
There is nothing wrong in increasing sweeper count postboard from four to six, but do you know matchups where you desperately need a Slagstorm (third) and a Whipflare (fourth) as your seventh and eighth sweepers in addition to the existing ones? Or Bonfire of the Damned as a seventh sweeper? Let’s be real: if you really want to win against aggressive decks, and don’t want to lose against control, you’d better have all your sweepers maindeck (don’t forget that both Slagstorm and Bonfire of the Damned could be thrown into your opponent’s face) and serious anti-control cards in the sideboard. Slagstorm and Whipflare are too similar to pretend that changing one to another would significantly improve any given matchup, and there are just not enough cards to board out if you want to increase your sweeper count significantly.
So, if we’re not going to waste sideboard slots on narrow cards, there are two legitimate ways to build Wolf Run Ramp without the danger of having inconsistent hate postboard. The first approach is an anti-aggro maindeck, anti-control sideboard while the second is anti-mirror/flare maindeck, anti-aggro sideboard.
Creatures (15)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 2 Inferno Titan
- 4 Primeval Titan
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
Lands (26)
Spells (19)
There are nine removal spells maindeck, and there are thirteen cards to side out against the mirror (four Huntmaster of the Fells, five sweepers, and two Pillar of Flame), so all cards except for Tree and Combust come in. Against Solar Flare, we keep Huntmaster of the Fells and don’t side in Ancient Grudge and Zealous Conscripts.
Creatures (13)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (26)
Spells (19)
Here we have anti-Titan removal maindeck and three Batterskulls in the sideboard. Other differences between the two versions include a slight tweak of the manabase and the Solemn Simulacrum / Huntmaster of the Fells count. If you’re aiming to play the mirror match often, you’d like to have more mana than your opponent, even through some land destruction, so four Solemn Simulacrums are must. Zealous Conscripts are fine and legitimate threats, but their time to go to maindeck hasn’t come yet.
When we’re speaking about “big dudes” now, we always mean six-mana creatures—just because Titans are too good. I hope that after Titans’ rotation, “big dudes” will mean “five-mana or eight-mana dudes” (with Zealous Conscripts and Wolfir Silverheart having some love), but this scenario is unlikely until the Return to Ravnica. Nevertheless, both creatures are the most impactful Avacyn Restored cards right now (okay, I’m too optimistic about Wolfir, but not without reason), and a significant part of their power is ability to deal unexpected damage suddenly. Act of Aggression wasn’t very popular during past weeks, but now it’s time to freshen anti-Threaten technology. Wolf Run Ramp normally has very few instant-speed answers for its own Titan, but Scars Block is still legal, so I’ve found an old trick which is viable against Sun Titan too: Tumble Magnet.
Magnet is weak to the same hate as Inkmoth Nexus and Sphere of the Suns, so it’s still not perfect against the mirror match or G/R Aggro due to Ancient Grudge—but it’s far more versatile than Memoricide. Taking into account that there are rarely more than two Ancient Grudges in typical sideboard, Tumble Magnet would work.
That’s all about Wolf Run Ramp, the next quick stop is Lesser Gargadon aka G/R Wolves Tribal. The goal is to be fast and to curve from Reckless Waif into Gatstaf Shepherd into Immerwolf… Oh, sorry. In fact, Avacyn Restored converted mostly unplayable Werewolves into very good Wolfirs! Wolfir Avenger is the real deal, and he has immediately made the cut in the G/R Aggro deck, filling the slot previously occupied by Green Sun’s Zenith for two.
Wolfir Silverheart, while being a Limited bomb, didn’t attract Constructed deckbuilders, though I hope he’s smashing some faces in Barcelona right now. Soulbond mechanics have some embedded weaknesses, but some creatures require immediate answers—not only Silverblade Paladin, but, for example, Nearheath Pilgrim.
Wolfir Silverheart is from that tribe too: twelve power for five mana is hard to ignore. The best home we were able to find is G/R Aggro’s sideboard. The main problem for the deck is Wolf Run Ramp, and it looks like there’s no good way to reverse this matchup, even at significant cost. My teammate Egor Khodasevich (known on MTGO as zinzinnat) has recently made online PTQ Top 8s with G/R Aggro, and a PTQ Top 8 in Minsk, right after Avacyn Restored release. Let’s look at his post-tournament update!
Creatures (23)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 1 Borderland Ranger
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 3 Wolfir Avenger
Lands (23)
Spells (14)
It’s very hard to outrace Primeval Titan, so the best thing G/R Aggro can do against Ramp is to be very fast and to avoid sweepers. Wolfir Avenger and Wolfir Silverheart are good in both situations, especially when backed up with Ancient Grudges (Sinkhole with flashback? Give me two!). In fact, Wolfir Silverheart proved himself to be so good against Wolf Run Ramp that we’re considering playing two of them maindeck.
When I faced Wolfir Silverheart paired with Wolfir Avenger for the first time, I felt smashed: my Primeval Titan became a poor chump-blocker, nothing more. The only removal that allows Ramp to avoid Wolfir Silverheart’s beatdown is Beast Within (rarely more than two copies), so Wolfir and Zealous Conscripts would be able to make this matchup significantly better. I’m not going to lie and tell you that it will be positive, but 40/60 are digits to be comfortable with.
That’s probably all for today. I can recommend both decks for the upcoming SCG Madison Standard Open or any other tournament you’re playing this weekend. Be cool, run with Wolves!
@amartology