This may or may not be a terrible idea, but just for giggles I think I'm going to try running a R/G Werewolves deck at next week's local Pauper tournament. The advantage of this tribe is that if you can get them to flip (and stay flipped) then you get some seriously undercosted beaters with power to mana cost ratios that can only be matched by the creatures in Affinity and a couple creatures with the Delve mechanic. The combat tricks you can pull off with Moonmist seem pretty interesting too.
That's all well and good, but the real question for determining the viability of Werewolves as a tribe in Pauper is "How do I prevent my opponent from casting spells?" Since Pauper lacks Stax-like effects such as Tangle Wire, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, and so on that means that we'll have to take a somewhat different approach to the problem. Fortunately there is one powerful effect for denying the opponent the ability to cast spells that Pauper has no shortage of, and that's land destruction. While not always consistent or competitively viable, land destruction does seem like the best method available in Pauper for denying the opponent the ability to cast spells while your Werewolves go to town.
With that strategy in mind, here's the theoretical deck list that I'm planning to run at this weekend's local Pauper tournament:
The gameplan is pretty simple and straightforward. Play a 2 CMC Werewolf on turn 2 then proceed to spend the following turns nuking as many of your opponents lands as you can until they stop casting things, at which point you can drop some more Werewolves on the table. Stone Rain and Molten Rain are the standard tools of the trade, and Aftershock gives you the ability to destroy not only land but also creatures like Gurmag Angler that might slip through the LD onslaught and be too large for your Werewolves to run over.
This is just a preliminary list, and there is still lots of room for tweaking and tuning. Another build option would be to drop Village Ironsmith and Scorned Villager due to their 1 toughness and replace them with some quantity of Devastate, Grizzled Outcasts, one or two additional lands, and a little mana ramping by swapping Icefall for Mwonvuli Acid-Moss.
There's quite a few different options for how to build it, but I think the basic idea of Werewolves + LD could be a solid and reasonably competitive gameplan. What are your thoughts on the matter? Any input would be greatly appreciated.
You need something like Electrickery or maybe even Dual Shot or Grapeshot. Delver is THE card to beat at the moment, the only thing the fairy ban did for the format was make blue more focused on delver. You need to beat him if you want to win. Green has all the fight effects as well, which could work just as well as spot removal. Especially in the Werewolves deck, some of those "target creature fights other target creature" have other clauses like "put a +1/+1 counter" on the creature after the fight as well. Or lifegain etc...
"If fetch lands are reprinted I really believe they will be in allied colors (aka Onslaught fetches). If the fetch lands are reprinted you better believe that we'll all be fetching up basics. This would lead me to believe that the set after THS may have a reprint as the temples can't be fetched but it's pure speculation." - posted 03/22/2014 proved correct during Khans spoiler season.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.
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That's all well and good, but the real question for determining the viability of Werewolves as a tribe in Pauper is "How do I prevent my opponent from casting spells?" Since Pauper lacks Stax-like effects such as Tangle Wire, Sphere of Resistance, Thorn of Amethyst, and so on that means that we'll have to take a somewhat different approach to the problem. Fortunately there is one powerful effect for denying the opponent the ability to cast spells that Pauper has no shortage of, and that's land destruction. While not always consistent or competitively viable, land destruction does seem like the best method available in Pauper for denying the opponent the ability to cast spells while your Werewolves go to town.
With that strategy in mind, here's the theoretical deck list that I'm planning to run at this weekend's local Pauper tournament:
4 Village Ironsmith
4 Hinterland Hermit
4 Scorned Villager
4 Villagers of Estwald
4 Tormented Pariah
[18 Spells]
4 Moonmist
4 Stone Rain
4 Molten Rain
4 Aftershock
2 Icefall
4 Rugged Highlands
3 Gruul Guildgate
8 Mountain
7 Forest
3 Gorilla Shaman
3 Electrickery
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Tranquility
4 Uncontrolled Infestation
The gameplan is pretty simple and straightforward. Play a 2 CMC Werewolf on turn 2 then proceed to spend the following turns nuking as many of your opponents lands as you can until they stop casting things, at which point you can drop some more Werewolves on the table. Stone Rain and Molten Rain are the standard tools of the trade, and Aftershock gives you the ability to destroy not only land but also creatures like Gurmag Angler that might slip through the LD onslaught and be too large for your Werewolves to run over.
This is just a preliminary list, and there is still lots of room for tweaking and tuning. Another build option would be to drop Village Ironsmith and Scorned Villager due to their 1 toughness and replace them with some quantity of Devastate, Grizzled Outcasts, one or two additional lands, and a little mana ramping by swapping Icefall for Mwonvuli Acid-Moss.
There's quite a few different options for how to build it, but I think the basic idea of Werewolves + LD could be a solid and reasonably competitive gameplan. What are your thoughts on the matter? Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Active Player: 1994-1999, 2016-
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Active Player: 1994-1999, 2016-
Sign & Share Petition To Fix MTG: Arena's Economy: https://goo.gl/z8fop8
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.