I thought it would be fun to try out an "almost" all instant deck. Not including lands, it is 98% instant speed every card aside from my two artifacts being instant or having flash. This is a true essence of draw go control that I feel will be really fun to play. Being able to react whenever I like to any play I like gives this deck a lot of flexibility. I plan to add and refine this to be more suitable to as many match-ups as possible. I try to cover all bases to make the deck the most effective, including a few manlands that can act as backup creatures to beat face with. Inkmoth Nexus and Runechanter's Pike kills very quickly. The same mentality is true with any of the other game finishers such as Howl from Beyond and Hatred. Wydwen and the man lands can make great use of these to kill our opponents. And with a good amount of draw and filtering our hand, we can get there. I have tried Wydwen in many different builds. One with Faerie tribal, another with a similar build to this just more control elements and more equipment. So far this one seems to be doing the best out of the iterations. I wanted to go pure instant, well almost pure instant, so that I would always be able to opt out of doing things on my turn to cast at the most favorable time. I feel like it is working well.
Synergies and Interactions
+
The synergies are pretty much built into the many instant cards we choose to play here. Wydwen herself does not necessarily contribute to the combos, but the fact that she almost always will cost 4 in a dire situation means we have access to her at all times. We have plenty of answers to get around aggressive boardstates. While we don't have any hard wipes due to them being sorceries, all the options we have are huge tempo hits that will usually swing the game in our favor by having answers in hand when they are cast again. Instants, while not necessarily having synergy with other instants, still have synergy with the way the deck plays. Using our opponent's plays as a way to chain effects is what makes this particularly potent. I want to go through some of the interactions with the spells in the deck.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale + Hatred - Pretty self explanatory with any general that can get through in black. Pay 18 life after no blockers declared and kill one player.
Wydwen + Howl from Beyond - +x/+0 equal to the amount of mana we can spend. This is draw go, so most of the time we will have most our mana open and a lot of it. It can finish someone quickly after a few hits with her.
Wydwen + Runechanter's Pike - All the instants we play in this deck, it will fuel this card's power boost like crazy making her a monster.
Insidious Dreams + instants in hand - Tutor for Hatred, Runechanter's Pike plus we filled the yard with instants, or Howl from Beyond to finish game, or any other utility spell or answer we need. The fact this is in here is for the fuel it gives Runechanter's Pike.
Of course Delve is fantastic here due to the many spells we play making Murderous Cut and Dig Through Time pure value.
Mystical Teachings - grabs every card minus two. Building all instant has its upsides.
Twincast - While not really a combo or synergy, it allows us to do what our deck can't. Copy enchantment removal, land ramp, artifact removal, or just gain additional benefits off a big draw spell.
Memory Plunder - This pillages anything instant or sorcery in our opponents yard, again gaining access to what we may not have in our deck.
Deck Construction
As I mentioned before, I am trying to stay true to an all instant theme. There are two artifacts in the list that do not follow this theme, but I feel they are necessary to have in the deck for added value. I have been trying to locate any big instant spell that has the "I win" feel to it or at least feels like you have done something that needs an immediate answer to soon from your opponents or it puts them in a very bad place. The deck is laid out by card type, then by function under that since it is all instants minus our 5 flash creatures, and 2 artifacts. I am always looking for ways to improve the build to make it the most functional it can be. There are many ways in the list to win through multiple means. Options such as stealing our opponents creatures for the turn to wipe a player out, or voltron with Wydwen. I use Inkmoth Nexus as a separate wincon with the same pump spells for Wydwen. I have a few ways to get back the spells that were used or destroyed artifacts if need be. I am still looking for other ways to end games that fit the builds outline. If there are other obscure or highly useful cards that you have found to be particularly helpful please feel free to reply with your experiences.
Without further to do, here is the deck list as it currently is.
Funny enough, this is the type of playstyle that Wydwen uses in Duel Commander. I'd suggest taking a look at some of those lists for ideas. Note the formats are different.
Funny enough, this is the type of playstyle that Wydwen uses in Duel Commander. I'd suggest taking a look at some of those lists for ideas. Note the formats are different.
Thanks for the great idea! I have browsed through the 1v1 forums and have not really looked at too many Wydwen decks. She is build similarly to 1v1, but she has much of the multiplayer feel to her with the bigger splashier spells to finish the game such as Hatred. Using this in 1v1 is very difficult with the lower starting life but I'm sure it can be done. I want to include some big play spells in the list while trying to stay true to the instant theme. If there are any ideas for how to turn games in my favor please let me know your thoughts.
Update
I played two games with her last night and they both went very well. They were both against Dragonlord Ojutai Voltron and Mizzix of the Izmagnus storm combo. The first game was going pretty slow for everyone but I held my hand ready to respond to any play. I kept the Dragonlord Ojutai player from landing a vigilance source through two separate attempts with Ring of Thune, and Angelic Field Marshal. He was swinging at the Mizzix player since I had Wydwen out with runechanter's pike and 4 instants in the yard. By turn 8, I drew Hatred still sitting at 40 life. So I proceeded to attack the Dragonlord Ojutai player after he finally tapped down his commander with no blockers and killed him off. But I should have attacked with my Notion Thief that was stealing draws from the Mizzix player at his Tezzeret the Seeker. He had enough artifacts and to be able to ultimate and finish me while I was at low life after the hatred play the next turn.
The second game was very explosive. The Ojutai player landed a vigilance source and proceeded to swing at Mizzix again. I had Wydwen out and it was not profitable to swing at me while I could block and bounce then cast again. It got a little fired up after Ojutai landed Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. He targeted Wydwen first with three damage, I bounced in response. I had an already used Hero's Downfall in the yard and Snapcaster Mage in hand ready to kill the Ugin at end of Turn, although it forced the Ojutai player to pop off his Relic of Progenitus to avoid losing Ugin. The Mizzix player was at 17 general damage when he finally built up a storm count of 8 and cast Ignite Memories he chose to throw all targets at the Ojutai player sitting at 29 life since he was dead next turn from commander damage if he didn't. I was holding an ace up the sleeve with Hatred in hand, 4 other instants, and Insidious Dreams. The Ignite Memories finished the Ojutai player off and Mizix passed. End of turn, I cast Insidious Dreams discarding all but Hatred and tutored for Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Runechanter's Pike, Memory Plunder, and Blue Sun's Zenith. Drew Teferi and cast him first to bait any counterspells. Mostly I was worried we would get into a counter war like earlier in the game and if I tutored a counterspell to stop him countering Hatred I would be in a bad situation if he had more ready. So I baited with Teferi, he had no counter waiting so I proceeded to kill with Hatred unhindered to finish the Mizzix player.
I made a couple of changes to the deck as I felt I needed a little more support in a few areas.
- Crypt Incursion // + Scour from Existence - This feels like it will get more value most of the time especially since it hits artifacts and enchantments which are common problems for the colors to deal with.
- Murmurs from Beyond // + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - Teferi was a stand in card, but in the last game I played he literally sealed the game for me so I added him permanently. I am still looking to keep Murmur's from Beyond in but I do not know what would be a good replacement for it. The list is very hard to choose what is less valuable. If there are any suggestions on that please let me know.
I plan to get a couple more games in this weekend and will update how she plays out.
Are you consistently playing against just two opponents at the same time? If so, then just ignore all of the following nonsense;
As mentioned this looks very close to a 1v1 build, which would work pretty well against two opponents.
If your table ends up with a 3rd opponent you may want to consider less targeted spot removal and more global effects. When I moved my Wydwen to a multiplayer build I lowered myself to four creature spot-removals and added damnation+toxic deluge+decree of pain, and the more global control helped.
Similarly, while I love isochron scepter, the more opponents you have the weaker it gets. It can lock out a single opponent easy, a second opponent maybe, but when there are three it gets rough and may end up just being a 2:for:2 in terms of card parity. Hatred is a much beloved card and can just remove an opponent from the game. I love it in my jeleva deck and it is the easiest non-combo quick-win when playing 1v1. But you can easily die from the 15+ life-loss from the rest of the table.
And one last idea, again only important if your tables include more than 2 opponents, but a pseudo-threat to help bate removal can go a long ways. Bribery, Rite of Replication, Consecrated Sphinx and Sire of Stagnation are all pretty good at getting you some sort of advantage while eating up opponents resources.
Are you consistently playing against just two opponents at the same time? If so, then just ignore all of the following nonsense;
As mentioned this looks very close to a 1v1 build, which would work pretty well against two opponents.
If your table ends up with a 3rd opponent you may want to consider less targeted spot removal and more global effects. When I moved my Wydwen to a multiplayer build I lowered myself to four creature spot-removals and added damnation+toxic deluge+decree of pain, and the more global control helped.
Similarly, while I love isochron scepter, the more opponents you have the weaker it gets. It can lock out a single opponent easy, a second opponent maybe, but when there are three it gets rough and may end up just being a 2:for:2 in terms of card parity. Hatred is a much beloved card and can just remove an opponent from the game. I love it in my jeleva deck and it is the easiest non-combo quick-win when playing 1v1. But you can easily die from the 15+ life-loss from the rest of the table.
And one last idea, again only important if your tables include more than 2 opponents, but a pseudo-threat to help bate removal can go a long ways. Bribery, Rite of Replication, Consecrated Sphinx and Sire of Stagnation are all pretty good at getting you some sort of advantage while eating up opponents resources.
You have some very good points and suggestions here and I will touch base on them.
I do occasionally get into a 4 player game, happens maybe once or twice a month. I see the value in global effects in these scenarios. I agree that controlling the table with spot removal is hard as the players increase. I could very easily make some extra room for a few sorcery speed removal effects. If there are other effects that can be used at instant speed that are similar let me know, although I have not seen too many like Damnation and Toxic Deluge. I would most likely only use these two so they do not require me to have a huge mana investment on my turn.
Bribery is indeed very good and could easily be slotted in to give me some extra board presence. Rite of Replication I would be too tempted to hold for the kicker and I don't like tapping that much out on my turn. I want to remain reactive as much as possible. Same is true for Consecrated Sphinx and Sire of Stagnation. I would definitely use the former first for the fact it is huge card advantage and a flyer. I'd have to see what I'd cut for more sorcery speed plays. It's hard to want to cut out instants when almost all of them have been useful at some point and being able to respond when I need to is crucial.
Thanks for the advice and the suggestions. I will try some of them out and see if the deck's tempo is affected any.
Flash to Victory
I thought it would be fun to try out an "almost" all instant deck. Not including lands, it is 98% instant speed every card aside from my two artifacts being instant or having flash. This is a true essence of draw go control that I feel will be really fun to play. Being able to react whenever I like to any play I like gives this deck a lot of flexibility. I plan to add and refine this to be more suitable to as many match-ups as possible. I try to cover all bases to make the deck the most effective, including a few manlands that can act as backup creatures to beat face with. Inkmoth Nexus and Runechanter's Pike kills very quickly. The same mentality is true with any of the other game finishers such as Howl from Beyond and Hatred. Wydwen and the man lands can make great use of these to kill our opponents. And with a good amount of draw and filtering our hand, we can get there. I have tried Wydwen in many different builds. One with Faerie tribal, another with a similar build to this just more control elements and more equipment. So far this one seems to be doing the best out of the iterations. I wanted to go pure instant, well almost pure instant, so that I would always be able to opt out of doing things on my turn to cast at the most favorable time. I feel like it is working well.
The synergies are pretty much built into the many instant cards we choose to play here. Wydwen herself does not necessarily contribute to the combos, but the fact that she almost always will cost 4 in a dire situation means we have access to her at all times. We have plenty of answers to get around aggressive boardstates. While we don't have any hard wipes due to them being sorceries, all the options we have are huge tempo hits that will usually swing the game in our favor by having answers in hand when they are cast again. Instants, while not necessarily having synergy with other instants, still have synergy with the way the deck plays. Using our opponent's plays as a way to chain effects is what makes this particularly potent. I want to go through some of the interactions with the spells in the deck.
As I mentioned before, I am trying to stay true to an all instant theme. There are two artifacts in the list that do not follow this theme, but I feel they are necessary to have in the deck for added value. I have been trying to locate any big instant spell that has the "I win" feel to it or at least feels like you have done something that needs an immediate answer to soon from your opponents or it puts them in a very bad place. The deck is laid out by card type, then by function under that since it is all instants minus our 5 flash creatures, and 2 artifacts. I am always looking for ways to improve the build to make it the most functional it can be. There are many ways in the list to win through multiple means. Options such as stealing our opponents creatures for the turn to wipe a player out, or voltron with Wydwen. I use Inkmoth Nexus as a separate wincon with the same pump spells for Wydwen. I have a few ways to get back the spells that were used or destroyed artifacts if need be. I am still looking for other ways to end games that fit the builds outline. If there are other obscure or highly useful cards that you have found to be particularly helpful please feel free to reply with your experiences.
By Card Type
4 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
Creatures- 5
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Notion Thief
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
5 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Instants- 52
Counters
0 Pact of Negation
1 Swan Song
2 Arcane Denial
2 Counterspell
3 Dissipate
3 Faerie Trickery
3 Forbid
3 Hinder
3 Spell Crumple
5 Force of Will
Tutors
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Insidious Dreams
4 Mystical Teachings
Draw
1 Brainstorm
1 Cremate
1 Opt
2 Anticipate
2 Impulse
2 Lim-Dûl's Vault
2 Peer Through Depths
2 Telling Time
3 Blue Sun's Zenith
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Stroke of Genius
4 Fact or Fiction
4 Inspiration
5 Mystic Confluence
8 Dig Through Time
1 Pongify
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Malicious Affliction
2 Ultimate Price
3 Capsize
3 Dismember
3 Hero's Downfall
4 Ætherize
5 Ætherspouts
5 Evacuation
5 Murderous Cut
6 Mirror Match
7 Scour from Existence
Utility
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Twincast
4 Memory Plunder
4 Reins of Power
6 Gather Specimens
Voltron
1 Howl from Beyond
5 Hatred
Artifacts- 2
2 Isochron Scepter
2 Runechanter's Pike
Land- 40
1 Underground Sea
1 Polluted Delta
1 Watery Grave
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Underground River
1 Command Tower
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tolaria West
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Temple of the False God
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Academy Ruins
1 Buried Ruin
1 Mutavault
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Inkmoth Nexus
9 Island
9 Swamp
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
Thanks for the great idea! I have browsed through the 1v1 forums and have not really looked at too many Wydwen decks. She is build similarly to 1v1, but she has much of the multiplayer feel to her with the bigger splashier spells to finish the game such as Hatred. Using this in 1v1 is very difficult with the lower starting life but I'm sure it can be done. I want to include some big play spells in the list while trying to stay true to the instant theme. If there are any ideas for how to turn games in my favor please let me know your thoughts.
Update
I played two games with her last night and they both went very well. They were both against Dragonlord Ojutai Voltron and Mizzix of the Izmagnus storm combo. The first game was going pretty slow for everyone but I held my hand ready to respond to any play. I kept the Dragonlord Ojutai player from landing a vigilance source through two separate attempts with Ring of Thune, and Angelic Field Marshal. He was swinging at the Mizzix player since I had Wydwen out with runechanter's pike and 4 instants in the yard. By turn 8, I drew Hatred still sitting at 40 life. So I proceeded to attack the Dragonlord Ojutai player after he finally tapped down his commander with no blockers and killed him off. But I should have attacked with my Notion Thief that was stealing draws from the Mizzix player at his Tezzeret the Seeker. He had enough artifacts and to be able to ultimate and finish me while I was at low life after the hatred play the next turn.
The second game was very explosive. The Ojutai player landed a vigilance source and proceeded to swing at Mizzix again. I had Wydwen out and it was not profitable to swing at me while I could block and bounce then cast again. It got a little fired up after Ojutai landed Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. He targeted Wydwen first with three damage, I bounced in response. I had an already used Hero's Downfall in the yard and Snapcaster Mage in hand ready to kill the Ugin at end of Turn, although it forced the Ojutai player to pop off his Relic of Progenitus to avoid losing Ugin. The Mizzix player was at 17 general damage when he finally built up a storm count of 8 and cast Ignite Memories he chose to throw all targets at the Ojutai player sitting at 29 life since he was dead next turn from commander damage if he didn't. I was holding an ace up the sleeve with Hatred in hand, 4 other instants, and Insidious Dreams. The Ignite Memories finished the Ojutai player off and Mizix passed. End of turn, I cast Insidious Dreams discarding all but Hatred and tutored for Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Runechanter's Pike, Memory Plunder, and Blue Sun's Zenith. Drew Teferi and cast him first to bait any counterspells. Mostly I was worried we would get into a counter war like earlier in the game and if I tutored a counterspell to stop him countering Hatred I would be in a bad situation if he had more ready. So I baited with Teferi, he had no counter waiting so I proceeded to kill with Hatred unhindered to finish the Mizzix player.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
I made a couple of changes to the deck as I felt I needed a little more support in a few areas.
- Crypt Incursion // + Scour from Existence - This feels like it will get more value most of the time especially since it hits artifacts and enchantments which are common problems for the colors to deal with.
- Murmurs from Beyond // + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - Teferi was a stand in card, but in the last game I played he literally sealed the game for me so I added him permanently. I am still looking to keep Murmur's from Beyond in but I do not know what would be a good replacement for it. The list is very hard to choose what is less valuable. If there are any suggestions on that please let me know.
I plan to get a couple more games in this weekend and will update how she plays out.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB
As mentioned this looks very close to a 1v1 build, which would work pretty well against two opponents.
If your table ends up with a 3rd opponent you may want to consider less targeted spot removal and more global effects. When I moved my Wydwen to a multiplayer build I lowered myself to four creature spot-removals and added damnation+toxic deluge+decree of pain, and the more global control helped.
Similarly, while I love isochron scepter, the more opponents you have the weaker it gets. It can lock out a single opponent easy, a second opponent maybe, but when there are three it gets rough and may end up just being a 2:for:2 in terms of card parity. Hatred is a much beloved card and can just remove an opponent from the game. I love it in my jeleva deck and it is the easiest non-combo quick-win when playing 1v1. But you can easily die from the 15+ life-loss from the rest of the table.
And one last idea, again only important if your tables include more than 2 opponents, but a pseudo-threat to help bate removal can go a long ways. Bribery, Rite of Replication, Consecrated Sphinx and Sire of Stagnation are all pretty good at getting you some sort of advantage while eating up opponents resources.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
You have some very good points and suggestions here and I will touch base on them.
I do occasionally get into a 4 player game, happens maybe once or twice a month. I see the value in global effects in these scenarios. I agree that controlling the table with spot removal is hard as the players increase. I could very easily make some extra room for a few sorcery speed removal effects. If there are other effects that can be used at instant speed that are similar let me know, although I have not seen too many like Damnation and Toxic Deluge. I would most likely only use these two so they do not require me to have a huge mana investment on my turn.
Bribery is indeed very good and could easily be slotted in to give me some extra board presence. Rite of Replication I would be too tempted to hold for the kicker and I don't like tapping that much out on my turn. I want to remain reactive as much as possible. Same is true for Consecrated Sphinx and Sire of Stagnation. I would definitely use the former first for the fact it is huge card advantage and a flyer. I'd have to see what I'd cut for more sorcery speed plays. It's hard to want to cut out instants when almost all of them have been useful at some point and being able to respond when I need to is crucial.
Thanks for the advice and the suggestions. I will try some of them out and see if the deck's tempo is affected any.
WBR Alesha's Death Brigade WBR
WWW Brigid the Battlefield Saboteur WWW
UB Wydwen, the Biting Gale UB