Wulven Tribal Aggro- Dark Prophecies 1.7

[Reshiram99]

EDIT: For some reason, the title turned into another thread's title I wrote a while back. Could a moderator change it please? Thanks

After getting frustrated after repeatedly trying to make a half-decent control deck with the expansion and failing miserably, I decided on making that an aggro deck. Your traditional warrior aggro mix of human allies and mumbo jumbo? Bah, too mainstream. After some deep thought and consideration, I realized that Wulven had been given the exact tools that were necessary for a 'tribal' aggro deck to succeed. Strong options for board control? Lightning Hunter, Call of the Pack, and Howlfang, Terror of the Vale answer the call. Some decent unilateral draw at last? Blood Moon. A truckload more efficient, ruthless, and above all, Wulven, allies? It's a long list. Mix that all together into one, tidy package, and you have one helluva mean, lean, furry ball of claws and teeth, all vying for your opponent's throat.

***HERO***
Moonstalker

***Allies (21)***
4x Bad Wolf
4x Pack Wolf
4x Ironhide Karash
4x Wulven Predator
3x Lightning Hunter
2x Howlfang, Terror of the Vale

***Abilities (18)***
3x Captured Prey
3x Now You're Mine
2x Bloodlust
4x Bad Santa
4x Blood Moon
2x Call of the Pack

TOTAL: 39 cards + Hero

I will now explain my card choices.

Moonstalker: Millstalker has a long and infamous history of being the most boring deck type in Shadow Era existence to both play and play against. Rest assured that this deck says no to such stagnant practices. In this deck, Moonstalker's ability is absolutely invaluable for gaining board control and keeping it. Stealthing all your allies for a turn is almost the equivalent of giving all of your allies haste, that is, it almost ensures 100% that your allies will do something. On top of all this, Moonstalker himself is hidden. A truly incredible, almost game-breaking ability. And it's all for the cost of just 3 Shadow Energy.


Bad Wolf: While not as survivable as an Infernal Gargoyle or as good a utility tool Death Mage Thaddeus is, Bad Wolf is still a very solid 3cc drop. He also has positive interactions with Howlfang and Call of the Pack. While the health regeneration ability rarely saves Bad Wolf from prolonged hero and ally assault, it does negate a good number of DoTs, such as Flaming Arrow, Cobra Demon, Engulfing Flames, etc. If you need something to fling at a Molten Destroyer, this card's the... well, card.

Pack Wolf: Puwen wishes he could be as good as this guy, and this guy wishes that Champion of Irum would take a nerf bat to the face. In all seriousness though, Pack Wolf is your staple 2cc drop, which gets exponentially better as you drop more and more of his brothers, something which is surprisingly easy to do between Howlfang, Call of the Pack, and Moonstalker's ability. Preferably, you would try to avoid saccing these, because they are still very relevant in the late game.

Ironhide Karash: A ram thing with, presumably, iron hide. Ironhide is your backup 2cc drop, in cases where you don't draw Pack Wolf. While definitely more saccable than your Pack Wolves, Ironhide is still pretty decent as a mini-weapon destruction battery, especially since this deck lacks any specialized item destruction. He's immune to Anklebreaker, unbuffed Soul Seekers, Rusty Longswords, Gargoyles, Acolytes, the list goes on and on. Really great card if you're expecting weapons from your foe.

Wulven Predator: A pretty staple 3cc drop. Decent body, good interactions, and a nice ability. This card hoses Night Owls pretty hard. Wulven Predator's ability also allows it to stop shenanigans that Wulven would otherwise have trouble stopping, eg: Erikas, Nightshades, and other allies with stealth. Anything that's lurking behind a big, fat Aeon also has nowhere to run.

Lightning Hunter: Definitely one of the best additions to Wulven in this expansion, this card and Blood Moon balances out the pile of trash commons that Kyle also gave Wulven in Dark Prophecies. Lightning Hunter is fast. He is really fast. He's so fast that he can come in sprinting on turn 4, slap that turn 3 Jasmine in the face, run out, and also nuke your support abilities because he's so damn fast. Lightning Hunter is just an absolutely excellent card for board control and can really help mitigate the infamous human weenie rush, as well as other assorted shenanigans (tm). The reasons that this card isn't a 4 of in this deck is twofold: firstly, all your support abilities are lost as soon as Lightning Hunter comes into play. This card really cripple the effectiveness of Blood Moon and Call of the Pack if you have too many. The 1 Shadow Energy ping does also add up over time, as well. The second reason is because this deck is meant to be fast, and Lightning Hunter, while very fast himself, has a very slow resource cost. 4 of a 4cc drop raises the resource ramp too high in almost any aggro deck.

Howlfang, Terror of the Vale: This card is your bomb and game-winner. If Howlfang sticks, you've pretty much won the game. Howlfang is your Wulven tribal lord, the alpha of your Wulven minions. He can provide close to 12 resources of value in a single cast, if you play him correctly. You have Howlfang himself, as a 6cc drop. You can bring a 3cc Wulven minion in for free, giving 9 resources of value. Finally, Howlfang acts like an War Banner, just only on your turn. 9+3+3= 12. I've been considering raising this card to 3 slots, but it might also raise the resource curve too high. Only playtesting will tell.

Captured Prey: Standard Wulven removal from Call of the Crystals. This card practically renders any opposing ally completely helpless. In most Wulven decks, I would play 4 of these, but playing 4 in this aggro-style deck would probably do more harm than good. A nice little quirk about Captured Prey is that it also disrupts Gravebone recursion cycles.

Now You're Mine: This card is cheap and yet, extremely effective. Instantly killing a Jasmine or an Aldon can sometimes tip the board in your favour and keep it that way. Now You're Mine obviously does start losing value in the late game, however, so a full playset is not necessary.

Bloodlust: A fairly situational card, which is why I only run 2 copies of it in this deck. When you draw it, though, it can often mean the difference between killing an opponent and completely forfeiting the board and inevitably, the game. The reason Bloodlust is played over Full Moon is simply because Lust is cheaper. The hero damage prevention effect of Full Moon is not even truly necessary.

Bad Santa: A classic from the original set, Bad Santa is used in this deck for quick, fast burst draw. The low resource cost means that it can be slotted into a turn very easily, and because this deck is fairly fast and most of the cards in it are capable of killing an opponent, the card disadvantage of Santa is not a massive downside.

Blood Moon: Arguably the best card Wulven have been given in DP, this card gives good, simple card advantage that keeps the furry machine a-chugging. Even though Blood Moon rarely reaches its full potential between Lightning Hunter and Moonstalker's ability, 1 or 2 cards for 2 resources is still not bad at all, and 3 cards for 2 resources is absolutely epic.

Call of the Pack: This card, while possessing no use when you already have allies on the board, is a great card for both regaining and keeping board control. While behind, Call of the Pack effectively allows you to churn out furry killing machines at double the usual rate. Eventually, sheer numbers and Moonstalker's ability will allow you to crush through even the most stalwart of defenders. As aforementioned, this card is situational in use, hence the use of only 2 copies.

Well, that is my Wulven tribal aggro deck for Dark Prophecies, 1.7. I hope you'll enjoy playing the deck as much as I am. I'm still constantly tuning and tweaking the deck, so do expect some updates. Feel free to give me any feedback or criticism. It's what a forum's for, isn't it?

[Reshiram99]

ughh, wait, why is the title all screwed up? Could a moderator change it to Wulven Tribal Aggro- Dark Prophecies 1.7 please? Thanks

[Dylan Hunt]

Why not using WotF for draw?

[Mad Botany]

WotF requires allies, which can be crippled without being killed, and an armor is very easy to be destroyed(human now can use Artful Squire to deal with items). Blood Moon is only +2, and you have to stop using MS ability for 3 turns just to draw +2 cards(it's like developer team don't want us to use wulven heroes at all). And if this is an aggro deck, running Bad Santa/Bazaar is acceptable since aggro deck is quick and need cards instantly(but give cards to opponents, which should be avoid).
I think this deck is too slow for rush, allies are too fragile, vulnerable by indirect damage, and you will struggle after a boardwipe(CotP and Howlfang can help, but imo they are too slow and vulnerable to make an impact). I don't know how good this deck can control the board, but it can't rush, both Bloodlust and Howlfang requires >2 allies on boards to make a different, draw is slow. Wonder how good it perform in test server, because I haven't test wulven new cards yet, and I don't think wulven heroes can do better in the next expansion, they even give our under-powered Moonstalker a nerf bat, some cards to bypass our stealth stall. Like I said, it's like they hate WULVEN or sumthing Buffed mages make it worse.

[Airact]

Blood Moon is probably one of the best cards in the game right now so I don't really know what you are talking about.

But yeah, I agree that WotF is probably not the best choice here as 4cc is a lot of tempo to get cards from.


Cards for tempo -wise Blood Moon is like the 4th (?) best card in the game. The first being Bazaar, 2nd being Blood Frenzy (pretty much because those two are Infinite cards for 2 and 3cc respectively) and 3rd being BS (because it gives the cards faster). Two of those cards give the cards to both players and Blood Frenzy is probably the best card in the game so that's decently hard to beat.

Let's compare Blood Moon to Tome of Knowledge for example. Blood Moon gives +2 card presence for 2 resources and 3 turns. Let's see how much Tome requires to get the same. 8 resources (2 to set up and 3 draws). Yeah. Blood Moon pretty stronk.

[Dylan Hunt]

WotF is very good for board wipes and SL is very good for disabling attachments and effects. And they work so well together. Isn't WotF + SL the current typical setup for MS aggro?

Combined them with the new BM, wulven aggro is as strong as warriors'. My personal preference is 4x BM + 3x WotF + 2x SL. T2 BM -> T4 WotF -> T5 ability looks slower, but you have so many more options for your T5 and T6 to take full advantage of MS's first 6SE.

[Reshiram99]

Haven't had too much time to tune the deck more, but I am starting to see a problem getting the board back. I don't know if Call of the Pack is really worth anything. It does do a few cool tricks, but I think the deck slots would be better suited to some other stuff. I'm actually seriously considering Pack Alpha. The buff itself is quite considerable and all your Wulven allies benefit when the attachment gets blown up. And yes, I don't use WotF because it's too slow. This deck is meant to be very fast-paced. I do realize that Blood Moon usually only gives +1 card or only cantrips most of the time, but I don't want Bazaar either because it'll just fill up opposing mages' hands with burn. Sac lamb is good and all, but since the deck runs quite a few 2cc allies, I'm technically not getting any card advantage from Sac lamb if I kill one of my 2cc (I'm spending Sac lamb and an ally for 2 cards = 0 card advantage).

[Mad Botany]

Pack Alpha has never been a good card, and even now since we have too much attachment and attachement remover now. Allies remover/disable will ruin your day, and you will never benefit from its +1hp effect because it's only useful if you are having the board and are likely to win(when you don't even need to spent 4r for that card). You have to constantly having allies on board, and protect them to make Bloodlust/Howlfang works, and that's only happen when your opponents are noob/they are about to losing, which is overkill.
WotF is NOT good for boardwipe because ppl know that they have to destroy it before using boardwipe, and you are still losing allies(and they usually use it when you have board control, which means you are losing CARDS too) after boardwipe. It requires allies to work, and now all heroes including human heroes have a way to destroy it without attack. Human side always have what they asked for "balance reason", but not shadow side, especially wulven. It's FAIR that shadow cards always have to have restriction to take effect, and usually over-priced. You already find out that most new cards they give wulven heroes are all trash(don't flame, look at others heroes, especially human heroes before throw stones at me).
Wulven have Crescendo for boardwipe, it's hard to use but possible with MS ability and allies on board, and too slow to wipe board at the right time. Wulven heroes don't really have a way to make a comeback, so take the board early on rush with allies and make opponents suffer is safer than take it slow and let them have enough cards and resourses to stop your rush(most competitive deck are late/mid game heroes and have mass control/boardwipe cards, which is possible for a comeback).
And about Sac Lamb, don't hesitate to use it on 2c allies when you don't have 3c on board and really need cards/know that ally gonna die in next turn/already have board control because at least it net you some cards than feeding that ally and gain nothing. Change your deck around SL if you have to, or even running bazaar and death-racing(I don't know why, but most deck that can actually work in QM with bazaar is all stall deck, not rush deck).
There are still a lot of cards you can add, so good luck with tuning your deck, because I still hope that someone haven't give up on wulven can actually make a competitive deck with DC/MS.

[Reshiram99]

I think that Moonstalker is quite viable in the expansion. Yes, there are a bunch of cards that now hose stealth, but who, in their right minds, are going to run 4x Nowhere to Hide in place of more valuable cards? Nobody. I'm going to go test a few more tweaks to the deck. Currently, I have a few cards in mind for dealing with fatties. I'll test an updated decklist which I'll post here if it's successful.

[Dwindle101]

I haven't tested it out yet but when I saw lightning hound the first thing I thought of was rain delay. Like turn 4 u play jewlar's dream. Turn 5 howlfang attack rain delay. Then t6 lightning hound to break rain delay and swing with 3 guys