Entry #2 - Wolf Run RUG

I get most of my ideas from Standard.

Wolf Run RUG one of two original ideas I've brought to Modern that actually had any success. Neither are truly original, because both are ports of Standard decks. Maybe someday I'll reveal what the other one is, although some of you may already know what it is.

Wolf Run RUG began as a love affair with an idea. This idea was that Standard Wolf Run was good for the same reasons that Valakut was good. Control has a tough time interacting with lands and when facing a ramp deck it's sometimes difficult to know which spells you should and should not counter. This is because they all do the same thing and you can't feasibly counter them all for value. But if you don't counter any, suddenly your counterspells (namely your Mana Leaks and Spell Pierces) become useless because of the sheer amount of mana at the disposal of your opponent. This actually turns one of the best counterspells in the format into a liability.

I was convinced that the same could ring true in Modern. The Modern control deck has not changed in some time and there was a very small difference between Standard control decks and Modern control decks. Sometimes people were even playing straight ports, such as Solar Flare and Stoneforge-less UW Blade variants. I set out to exploit these decks in the same way that Valakut and Wolf Run exploited them. But I needed some help.

I first floated the idea to a man you might know by the name of cbus. He was skeptical, and didn't really get in on the idea, but he did let me bounce ideas off him and provide a few of his own. This lead to the first incarnation of the deck, which was bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad. It was bad. So bad. It was horribly slow, clunky, and just plain didn't work. I almost gave up.

As an aside, I want to point out one card offered to me by cbus that would be cut for the final deck but I still think is really quite good: Viridian Emissary. At first, it seems like nothing more than a bad Sakura Tribe-Elder that can attack. But then you realize that it's a bad Sakura Tribe-Elder that can attack! And block! Rather than blocking or being blocked only to be sacrificed to net a land, the Emissary sticks around to dig his dirty, Oil-stained claws into whatever it may have blocked or been blocked by. This isn't always relevant, but the few times it is it feels excellent. Whether you are double-blocking, blocking a Snapcaster Mage, or what have you. Attacking with it feels excellent as well because either your opponent blocks it and you get a land or they don't block it so you can't get the land, which means you're getting damage in that may become relevant later. It's not a bad topdeck, either, because that 2/1 body can be a decent clock when the game grinds to a halt, and certainly your opponent will not feel good about wasting a spell on it. There is so much deceptive value in this card and I absolutely love it.

But I digress.

The next person I brought the deck to was a good friend of mine by the name of The Labyrinth. Trice players will certainly know who he is and perhaps have some opinions on him. Love him or hate him, the guy is no idiot and he wasted no time in making this deck the absurdity it is now. It took him mere moments to suggest the one card that put my pipe dream on the fast track to success: Lotus Cobra. From then on, this deck was real. It was good. It was absurd. Shortly after Lotus Cobra, Oracle of Mul Daya entered the mix. Lab was not crazy about her at first but I pushed hard. She was an auto-include in my version of the new Lotus Cobra version of out deck and I'd already done some crazy things. The Cobra powered her out on turn three, which invariably lead to turn four Primeval Titan. I was also enamored with the synergy between her and Jace Beleren. She picked lands off the top of my library so that I had a better chance at drawing business with my loyalty counters. On the flip side, if I needed a land but there was not one on top, Jace was always happy to pick up that top card to see if there was a land underneath. It was a match made in heavy and just gravy.

So we had our core. Lotus Cobra, Jace Beleren, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Primeval Titan. The deck changed a lot from then on, but these four cards pretty much stayed the same. When I play the deck, I'm always amazed at how much raw power there is here, even though it's somewhat sluggish. When this deck wins, it wins big. I've seen Titans with power well over twenty. Once, it went over thirty. I've pulled every last land out of my deck more than once. It's really hard to not be proud of myself when I look at this deck, even though it's not my place to feel as such. Even though I'm currently embroiled in the world of red, green, and black if I were to receive comped transportation and entry to a Modern tournament and were given a full set of every Modern-legal card I would build this deck immediately. I love this deck. It's my baby. It's one of the very things I'm truly proud of.

So here it is:

Wolf Run RUGMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Land:
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Breeding Pool
3 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Flooded Grove
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Inkmoth Nexus

Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Primeval Titan
3 Oracle of Mul Daya

Planeswalkers:
3 Jace Beleren

Instants:
4 Remand
3 Mana Leak
3 Spell Pierce
2 Cryptic Command

Sorceries:
3 Explore

Sideboard:
3 Spellskite
3 Flashfreeze
3 Beast Within
3 Engineered Exlosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Cryptic Command


If you're reading this, I encourage you to give this deck a try. If only to help me smooth out any wrinkles in the design. Feel free to comment and offer suggestions, even if you chose not to play with it.
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Hamlet Captain

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