If I understand correctly, you can look at their sideboard as well...not saying that will suddenly win you the current game, but it can help clarify what could be coming in for game 2.
There are over 200 cards in this set. If you think that people aren't going to be upset or disappointed with the execution on some of them, and if that grates on your nerves so badly that it keeps you from posting, then perhaps you need to find a different perspective on reality. *shrug*
It's not hard to believe that a requested card for so many years, with so many voices, and people so passionate for an underrepresented tribe would feel let down by such a basic design. The reason this card irks people is because we are wondering why it took +5 years for WOTC to "figure out" how to make this work. It doesn't have any complicated features whatsoever that would seem to warrant difficulty in making it work.
The other reason is that with a tribe who, by their design nature only appear on one plane, we expected a "werewolf creature type matters" type of legendary. This guy could literally be just a human warrior on both sides of the card and it would have no impact on it. Therefore, we feel let down because he literally has nothing to do with werewolves.
Reality is, the criticisms on the card have almost nothing to do with power-level.
That is a very reasonable assessment. I have no personal interest in any of the cards, at least at the level that some people have. It merely strikes me a curious that some people would choose whether or not to play in a particular format because a card does something (or doesn't do something, as the case may be). I do have to agree that in a mirror match against another werewolf deck Ulrich won't be able to fight most of your opponent's creatures. If he is the alpha male then shouldn't he have had the ability to conscript werewolves?
I understand what you're saying and I am sure that some people will let this hold them back from making the werewolf EDH list. That is unfortunate.
I have a werewolf EDH deck - it's not terribly competitive in a multiplayer setting but it is a riot to play. At this point, I am definitely going to keep my deck (I have a Modern Collected Company werewolf deck as well) but Ulrich will not be at the helm. I run Isochron Scepter with multiple fight mechanic cards, so he just doesn't bring anything to my deck - I suppose at the heart of it I am just bummed that my tribal commander will end up not being my commander after all this time (I really hate Xenagos as a character and that's who I have been sticking with). My personal attachment to the cards may be too strong and seem silly to people. But frankly, that is what has kept me playing this game for so many years through multiple different playgroups.
For me, I am liking this card because it's not at all what I expected. It feels strong without being so broken that it's un-fun. It is flavorful as heck - I love that delirium plays right into Her as it should and her taking control of your opponents' minds is wonderful. She harkens back to the previous version very well yet still stands on her own. Finally, that art is just gloriously frightening. It truly depicts her power and sends chills down my back.
I just browsed the other thread which already existed for this card. The good news: I was incorrect in my assessment--those were not the complaints people had with the card. The bad news: people had multiple other complaints about the card, all of which seemed to boil down to "it wasn't exactly as *I* thought it should be therefore it sucks". The level of complaining is why I don't post here very much. Yes, everyone is entitled to an opinion but if the card design grates on your nerves that badly then find a different hobby. *shrug*
There are over 200 cards in this set. If you think that people aren't going to be upset or disappointed with the execution on some of them, and if that grates on your nerves so badly that it keeps you from posting, then perhaps you need to find a different perspective on reality. *shrug*
It's not hard to believe that a requested card for so many years, with so many voices, and people so passionate for an underrepresented tribe would feel let down by such a basic design. The reason this card irks people is because we are wondering why it took +5 years for WOTC to "figure out" how to make this work. It doesn't have any complicated features whatsoever that would seem to warrant difficulty in making it work.
The other reason is that with a tribe who, by their design nature only appear on one plane, we expected a "werewolf creature type matters" type of legendary. This guy could literally be just a human warrior on both sides of the card and it would have no impact on it. Therefore, we feel let down because he literally has nothing to do with werewolves.
Reality is, the criticisms on the card have almost nothing to do with power-level.
How bad is that werewolf art? What is he, 4'6"? It's like Danzig turned into a wolf with a Napoleon complex.
Maniak needs to stop being commissioned for werewolf work. This card looks pretty much the same as Sage of Ancient Lore. His other contribution to werewolves. They look enough alike that it keeps Ulrich from seeming special. But also, his interpretation of a werewolf is just stupid looking. It was excusable on the Sage because i figured it would be a one off style and it's not a very good card. But seeing it a second time makes me unhappy
I have one built and it actually works fairly well in a casual setting. It can be pretty quick but it's other focus is cursing my opponents to pull the attention away from me. I think of it like passing the curse of Lycanthropy. Curse of Stalked Prey, Curse of Predation, Curse of Chaos, they all incentivize people to attack each other instead of me (except the person who has the curse on him of course. But we can handle one person). Lurking Predators and Ward of Bones are very helpful as well
Tovolar would have been sweet but he actually has the opportunity to be printed in a set (standard or supplemental) other than a DFC set. Considering that he doesn't ever revert to human form, he doesn't need to be a DFC thus we can hope to get him in something like a Commander release.
I am holding out hope for that.
I'll restate, that I am glad we have a rules-abiding commander for all of us that want to play werewolf tribal in EDH. I am just saying that this guy feels far more like one of my 99 than my commander. He just isn't special at all. Furthermore, with commander rules, I would not want to pay 7+ mana for his effect after he dies once so he will most likely just be used for his colors and rules compliance in my deck.
Actually, now that I think about it...I was only keeping that build R/G because I was anticipating a legendary werewolf to be those colors. Now that I know this is what I get to work with I am probably going to find a Naya Legendary and just use it for its colors (since that's all I would really be doing with Ulrich). Adding white allows me to play some prison style stuff and have more control over the beastly transformation
Well...so far Edlritch Moon just has me full of conflicted feelings. Perhaps that was its goal?
This is adding to my turmoil. I am SUPER happy that I don't have to convince my playgroup to let me use Arlinn as my werewolf commander. I am glad we got a werewolf legendary...maybe I should just leave my comments at that....
Nah, can't do it. This is the internet. Honestly, we really had to wait 5 years for them to "figure out how a legendary flip creature would work" just to get something as uninspired as a Wolfir Silverheart with a flip of Prey Upon? Are YOU JOKING?! Listen, I'm not even discussing the power-level of this card yet. I am just talking about the painfully bland, and basic design. Werewolves have only gotten 2 Blocks!! 2!! We don't have access to multiple lord styles or play types. Our only thing is the flip mechanic and you can't let our legendary have some influence on that? Why? Because we got Vildin-Pack Alpha? Just full of wtf right now.
This card's flavor is basically - looky, I make my wolf companion thuper thtrong when I enter! Hey, don't hurt my wolfie buddy!! I'm gonna fight you now! FFS...I hate myself for typing that sentence but I'm going to let it stick.
Where is my meme? Makes Werewolf Lord ==> Has Nothing To Do With Werewolves - someone make that for me, please (with the stupid hat and stuff).
Also, why does Ulrich look so much like Sage of Ancient Lore? Hey, great job in making him unique and identifiable as a Legendary...G** Da****!
Now, his power level outside of my bias for wanting a werewolf - it seems very good in this standard meta. That's a very big power buff on the front and I like the removal potential on the backend. In all honesty, this card has no need to be a werewolf, so looking at it as just a static creature, I would be happy to pay 5 mana for these effects. Especially in green.
Btw, this guy is nowhere close to as good as Huntmaster. If your board is empty and you cast Ulrich, ypu paid 5 for a 4/4 unless yoy can give him haste. If you can, you get an 8/8 that's easily chumped. He is a step in the direction that werewolves should go but definitely not Huntmaster level
I am far more okay with the whole Emrakul thing than I thought I would be. Innistrad is by far and away my favorite plane. So I am sad that it is potentially biting the dust. However, the Emrakul corruption seriously triggers the hairs on the back of my neck.
When she was just slightly influencing the biology I found it annoying. However, I realize that could have been just because I wanted the obvious reveal to happen. But, seeing the transformation happen in full swing is truly jarring. I love it and it fits very well into the scope of Horror.(I am simply choosing to ignore Emrakul as an Eldrazi and think of Her as a new type of threat - cuz BFZ ruined them for me).
Now, I want to highlight something here. SEEING the grizzly transformation of the Elder Priest, the ability to so horrifyingly corrupt the purity of Bruna and Griselda with their new form (shook me to my core), and the image of Emrakul spreading over Innistrad's settlements....that is what got me. The visuals provided are amazing and deserve kudos.
BUT DANG. The execution of the writing - and the direction that the story seems to be going....terrible. Thank goodness for the artists - because I wouldn't care to ever read another word of this author's work.
There's a pretty extensive thread about werewolves in Modern in the Deck Creation Modern Sub-Forum. We have been doing a lot of testing but in the end, your conclusions are pretty much on point.
We are essentially a cooler (IMO) but less potent version of Elves do to our limited card pool.
We need a 1 mana ramp wolf to hit CoCo on 3, but I don't foresee that ever happening. At this moment, I am running birds in place.
We rely heavily on Blood Moon T2, Choke in SB, and Magus of the Moon as our disruption. That's our only real interaction with combo.
Against other creature decks we can actually do well. Vial and CoCo are wonderful, I have actually pursued the CoCo route myself and opted for cheap burn to fight off other agro attempts before landing CoCo.
I am running Tireless Tracker to create card draw but essentially what we want is a more impressive version of Hermit of the Natterknolls. A version where we don't rely on our opponent playing spells on our turn (as if werewolves don't already have enough reliance on our opponents' plays).
Obviously, stronger human sides would be preferred by it seems that we can only have one or two of those per set - not really enough to go off. A version of Terror of Kruin Pass with it's menace ability on the human side would be sublime.
A flashable werewolf with the Full Moon Rise's sacrifice to regenerate ability would be cool too. If I didn't have to sac that would be sweet but I'm probably getting greedy. Oh, and keep that one at 2 mana please.
We really do not need more pump lords though - we need more utility lords.
In the end, I can battle fringe decks very well with my werewolf list - but it's certainly nowhere near competitive beyond FNM. It is super fun though. Flipped Geier Reach Bandit into a 2 werewolf CoCo is an awesome feeling.
I had a thought. During the story of the Marvel Avengers vs. The Celestials...oh shoot...my bad, I meant the Gatewatch vs the Eldrazi, as Nissa was trying to bind Ulamog and Kozilek while Chandra roasted them like a rotisserie chicken, they supposedly tried to escape.
I don't have the link to the actual article but it was something like - they stretched until they filled the sky as they tried to leave - but Nissa went Super Saiyan and pulled them back into the plane. Now, to me, the Eldrazi don't seem to be the fleeing type. They don't seem to have been designed to fear, more so just driven to consume thus their attention could be pulled away. Just as they were first lured to Zendikar.
Well, is it possible timeline wise, for Nahiri to have been luring the Eldrazi away at the same time that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was trying to destroy them? Hence the stretching and feeling up them trying to escape? Could that be why she only attracted Emrakul? Perhaps Emmy recognized the call before the others which is why she wasn't seen on Zendikar.
I dunno, I usually love to dig into the details of the story but I haven't dug far into BFZ other than the URs.
It is curious to think about...none of the artwork from any of the werewolves seem to have any of the "corruption" that every other type of human or beast has suffered. Anyone want to hypothesize why? Do you think it's their relationship to the silver moon?
I was wondering why the moon looked so intact with the same heron head shape as well...
I understand what you're saying and I am sure that some people will let this hold them back from making the werewolf EDH list. That is unfortunate.
I have a werewolf EDH deck - it's not terribly competitive in a multiplayer setting but it is a riot to play. At this point, I am definitely going to keep my deck (I have a Modern Collected Company werewolf deck as well) but Ulrich will not be at the helm. I run Isochron Scepter with multiple fight mechanic cards, so he just doesn't bring anything to my deck - I suppose at the heart of it I am just bummed that my tribal commander will end up not being my commander after all this time (I really hate Xenagos as a character and that's who I have been sticking with). My personal attachment to the cards may be too strong and seem silly to people. But frankly, that is what has kept me playing this game for so many years through multiple different playgroups.
There are over 200 cards in this set. If you think that people aren't going to be upset or disappointed with the execution on some of them, and if that grates on your nerves so badly that it keeps you from posting, then perhaps you need to find a different perspective on reality. *shrug*
It's not hard to believe that a requested card for so many years, with so many voices, and people so passionate for an underrepresented tribe would feel let down by such a basic design. The reason this card irks people is because we are wondering why it took +5 years for WOTC to "figure out" how to make this work. It doesn't have any complicated features whatsoever that would seem to warrant difficulty in making it work.
The other reason is that with a tribe who, by their design nature only appear on one plane, we expected a "werewolf creature type matters" type of legendary. This guy could literally be just a human warrior on both sides of the card and it would have no impact on it. Therefore, we feel let down because he literally has nothing to do with werewolves.
Reality is, the criticisms on the card have almost nothing to do with power-level.
Maniak needs to stop being commissioned for werewolf work. This card looks pretty much the same as Sage of Ancient Lore. His other contribution to werewolves. They look enough alike that it keeps Ulrich from seeming special. But also, his interpretation of a werewolf is just stupid looking. It was excusable on the Sage because i figured it would be a one off style and it's not a very good card. But seeing it a second time makes me unhappy
I have one built and it actually works fairly well in a casual setting. It can be pretty quick but it's other focus is cursing my opponents to pull the attention away from me. I think of it like passing the curse of Lycanthropy. Curse of Stalked Prey, Curse of Predation, Curse of Chaos, they all incentivize people to attack each other instead of me (except the person who has the curse on him of course. But we can handle one person). Lurking Predators and Ward of Bones are very helpful as well
I am holding out hope for that.
I'll restate, that I am glad we have a rules-abiding commander for all of us that want to play werewolf tribal in EDH. I am just saying that this guy feels far more like one of my 99 than my commander. He just isn't special at all. Furthermore, with commander rules, I would not want to pay 7+ mana for his effect after he dies once so he will most likely just be used for his colors and rules compliance in my deck.
Actually, now that I think about it...I was only keeping that build R/G because I was anticipating a legendary werewolf to be those colors. Now that I know this is what I get to work with I am probably going to find a Naya Legendary and just use it for its colors (since that's all I would really be doing with Ulrich). Adding white allows me to play some prison style stuff and have more control over the beastly transformation
This is adding to my turmoil. I am SUPER happy that I don't have to convince my playgroup to let me use Arlinn as my werewolf commander. I am glad we got a werewolf legendary...maybe I should just leave my comments at that....
Nah, can't do it. This is the internet. Honestly, we really had to wait 5 years for them to "figure out how a legendary flip creature would work" just to get something as uninspired as a Wolfir Silverheart with a flip of Prey Upon? Are YOU JOKING?! Listen, I'm not even discussing the power-level of this card yet. I am just talking about the painfully bland, and basic design. Werewolves have only gotten 2 Blocks!! 2!! We don't have access to multiple lord styles or play types. Our only thing is the flip mechanic and you can't let our legendary have some influence on that? Why? Because we got Vildin-Pack Alpha? Just full of wtf right now.
This card's flavor is basically - looky, I make my wolf companion thuper thtrong when I enter! Hey, don't hurt my wolfie buddy!! I'm gonna fight you now! FFS...I hate myself for typing that sentence but I'm going to let it stick.
Where is my meme? Makes Werewolf Lord ==> Has Nothing To Do With Werewolves - someone make that for me, please (with the stupid hat and stuff).
Also, why does Ulrich look so much like Sage of Ancient Lore? Hey, great job in making him unique and identifiable as a Legendary...G** Da****!
Now, his power level outside of my bias for wanting a werewolf - it seems very good in this standard meta. That's a very big power buff on the front and I like the removal potential on the backend. In all honesty, this card has no need to be a werewolf, so looking at it as just a static creature, I would be happy to pay 5 mana for these effects. Especially in green.
Btw, this guy is nowhere close to as good as Huntmaster. If your board is empty and you cast Ulrich, ypu paid 5 for a 4/4 unless yoy can give him haste. If you can, you get an 8/8 that's easily chumped. He is a step in the direction that werewolves should go but definitely not Huntmaster level
I am far more okay with the whole Emrakul thing than I thought I would be. Innistrad is by far and away my favorite plane. So I am sad that it is potentially biting the dust. However, the Emrakul corruption seriously triggers the hairs on the back of my neck.
When she was just slightly influencing the biology I found it annoying. However, I realize that could have been just because I wanted the obvious reveal to happen. But, seeing the transformation happen in full swing is truly jarring. I love it and it fits very well into the scope of Horror.(I am simply choosing to ignore Emrakul as an Eldrazi and think of Her as a new type of threat - cuz BFZ ruined them for me).
Now, I want to highlight something here. SEEING the grizzly transformation of the Elder Priest, the ability to so horrifyingly corrupt the purity of Bruna and Griselda with their new form (shook me to my core), and the image of Emrakul spreading over Innistrad's settlements....that is what got me. The visuals provided are amazing and deserve kudos.
BUT DANG. The execution of the writing - and the direction that the story seems to be going....terrible. Thank goodness for the artists - because I wouldn't care to ever read another word of this author's work.
Crossing my fingers for EMN
We are essentially a cooler (IMO) but less potent version of Elves do to our limited card pool.
We need a 1 mana ramp wolf to hit CoCo on 3, but I don't foresee that ever happening. At this moment, I am running birds in place.
We rely heavily on Blood Moon T2, Choke in SB, and Magus of the Moon as our disruption. That's our only real interaction with combo.
Against other creature decks we can actually do well. Vial and CoCo are wonderful, I have actually pursued the CoCo route myself and opted for cheap burn to fight off other agro attempts before landing CoCo.
I am running Tireless Tracker to create card draw but essentially what we want is a more impressive version of Hermit of the Natterknolls. A version where we don't rely on our opponent playing spells on our turn (as if werewolves don't already have enough reliance on our opponents' plays).
Obviously, stronger human sides would be preferred by it seems that we can only have one or two of those per set - not really enough to go off. A version of Terror of Kruin Pass with it's menace ability on the human side would be sublime.
A flashable werewolf with the Full Moon Rise's sacrifice to regenerate ability would be cool too. If I didn't have to sac that would be sweet but I'm probably getting greedy. Oh, and keep that one at 2 mana please.
We really do not need more pump lords though - we need more utility lords.
In the end, I can battle fringe decks very well with my werewolf list - but it's certainly nowhere near competitive beyond FNM. It is super fun though. Flipped Geier Reach Bandit into a 2 werewolf CoCo is an awesome feeling.
I don't have the link to the actual article but it was something like - they stretched until they filled the sky as they tried to leave - but Nissa went Super Saiyan and pulled them back into the plane. Now, to me, the Eldrazi don't seem to be the fleeing type. They don't seem to have been designed to fear, more so just driven to consume thus their attention could be pulled away. Just as they were first lured to Zendikar.
Well, is it possible timeline wise, for Nahiri to have been luring the Eldrazi away at the same time that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was trying to destroy them? Hence the stretching and feeling up them trying to escape? Could that be why she only attracted Emrakul? Perhaps Emmy recognized the call before the others which is why she wasn't seen on Zendikar.
I dunno, I usually love to dig into the details of the story but I haven't dug far into BFZ other than the URs.
I was wondering why the moon looked so intact with the same heron head shape as well...