Moonstalker [SF] Hasty Rain

[boehni]

Disclaimer: This deck is untested and a pure result oft some thinking. I have no access to the beta server, but please feel free to try it out and give some feedback.

Long story short: As the theme suggests, the idea of the deck is to haste and hide. Here are the cards followed by the long story!

***HERO***
Moonstalker

***Allies (19)***
4x Lightning Hunter
4x Ravager Zealot
3x Slingblade Demon
4x Bloodpack Shaman
4x Dread Wolf

***Abilities (14)***
4x Shadow Font
4x Sacrificial Lamb
4x Rain Delay
2x Ley Line Nexus

***Items (4)***
4x Dreadclaw Totem

***Armors (2)***
2x Wrath of the Forest

TOTAL: 39 cards + Hero

Long story: I want to make use of several hasted allies available now for shadow and wulven and to increase their chance of hitting twice a lot of hiding is nescessary! Haste becomes obvious when looking at the ally list. Hiding is possible via Moonstalker and Rain Delay. I will list some combos and outline card choices in the following.

Combo 1: Lightning Hunter, Ravager Zealot and Rain Delay
This is the theme play of the deck. Whenever you are not able to stealth, you can play a rain delay. To enable an attack in the next turn, RZ and LH can destroy the rain delay. If possible, go for the hero and hide again.

Combo 2: Sacrificial Lamb, Dreadclaw Totem and Wrath of the Forest
Sac an ally after he went for the hero, preferably Dread Wolf. You draw four cards and activate the totem that swings for four damage

Combo 3: Slingblade Demon, Any Ally
SBD, what a great card. Either return a hasted ally for a second swing or bring him to safety before an expected board whipe. You can also combo with the Bloodpack Shaman to bring back a Dread Wolf from the graveyard.

Some alternative card choices that went through my mind, can't really judge upon them without testing:

Twisted Familiar and Jewler's Dream would give the deck incredible resource accelleration. T2: TF T3: Shaman, TF attack and ability, Slingblade return TF, recast TF, T4: JD cast plus attack, TF ability, LH, attack with LH, TF, BS and SBD. Good luck with drawing this one though.

Krygon: Tuff choice to exclude him, got the boot for the shaman and the wulf as I thought the deck will be to weak in T2

Bloodmoon: I favor SL here as LH and Moonstalker's ability would be in the way most of the time

LLN is probably a must to overcome Ankle Breakers and pesty defending bows.

Finally, no ally control as I intend to rush for the hero and hide though shooting allies like PB and DMT might draw my attention

Anyway here goes my first post and deck, let me hear what you think of it!
boehni

[boehni]

Taking into account the impressive amount of feedback, I thought the deck might need some improvement. Just kidding ;-) Nevertheless, here is a little update.
From a helicopter perspective the deck is now mostly wulven, has some more control and the Tigers joined for destruction. Most outstanding change is probably Griptooth as a third source of protection for the hasted wulvens. I will go through the cards quickly. The number of individual cards is of course subject to testing and experience.

***HERO***
Moonstalker

***Allies (15)***
3x Tiger Wulf
4x Lightning Hunter
2x Slingblade Demon
3x Dread Wolf
3x Griptooth

***Abilities (17)***
3x Captured Prey
3x Now You're Mine
2x Shadow Font
3x Sacrificial Lamb
4x Rain Delay
2x Blood Moon

***Items (3)***
3x Dreadclaw Totem

***Armors (4)***
4x Wrath of the Forest

TOTAL: 39 cards + Hero

2cc: 12
3cc: 11
4cc: 10
5cc: 6

Allies

Dread Wolf, he is supposed to come in early game and give the opponent sth to do. He will give some inital ping damage and should then be a 2/4 on the board. May also enter midgame together with other hasted allies

Slingblade Demon, still love this card, although it is the only non-wulven and hence a potential thread to Griptooth. Nevertheless it is supposed to be the search and rescue combination together with Sacrificial Lamb. Possibly on T6: Cast SBD to return an exhausted Dreadclaw Totem, recast Dreadclaw Totem, Sac SBD, Dreadclaw Totem becomes a readied ally with 4 damage and ambush, go for the throat. Also a nice combo on T6 with a T5 Tiger Wulf

Lightning Hunter, should be played in mid-to-late game. He will harm your Blood Moons and SE. Best opportunity is to play him, when Rain Delay is still out there and you have sufficient SE to stealth. Stealth first then LH.

Tiger Wulf, mean destruction of everything. Of course, his chances of surviving are small. But it is definitely a card that will draw your opponent's attention. If there is no Griptooth available he is the T5 play. Of course, you should hide him.

Griptooth, another wall of defense, should be T5 play. Not sure how long he will survive, but it leaves your opponent sth to deal with. Could be returned by SBD to come out fresh, but this is only possible if you manage to get rid of SBD so not before T8

Abillities:
Captured Prey and Now You're Mine are the standard control cards. You will not be able to hide all the time and also want to shut down some abilities of opposing allies. Mostly early game...

Shadow Font enables you to hide that one more time, and also that one more turn where your opponent was hoping for an open window

Sacrificial Lamb, in the context of this deck I still prefer it over Blood Moon especially with the Slingblade Demon or Tigers

Rain Delay, as mentioned before (or rather below) this is the card of the deck, albeit the chances of pulling the combo of without the Ravager Zealot are a little less. But as LH should be a late game card anyway it should not be to much of a problem

Blood Moon, preferably T2 might not be as useful in the later game

Items:
Dreadclaw Totem is IMO a great haste card. It deals 4 damage including ambush which gives it some means to survive its first attack. It can be activated either via Sacrificial Lamb or the Tigers or of course any kills by your opponent ;-) May also provide some backup for Nova etc.

Armor:
Wrath of the Forest: More Draw!

Let me know what you think oft it!

[Preybird]

Griptooth will only work if you don't have a Slingblade in play. His protector only kicks in if all your friendly allies are Wulven, so I don't see a huge benefit to him.

However outside of that the concept is solid and I like the look of it.

[Gondorian]

Hey. Send me your IGN and I'll see if I can get you some beta server access.

[boehni]

Thanks for the feedback! As mentioned above, I also see the dilemma of Slingblade Demon and Griptooth. However, I can imagine several situations where it is worth to have him available, if only to drain the last hp out of you enemy by recasting a Lightning Hunter. If there would be a way to sneak a Dagger of the Unmaking into the opponents board, it might become a spare ;-) I guess only some testing will tell.

@Gondorian: That would be great I'll send you a PM

[boehni]

Good Evening and Welcome to Shattered Fates Dome, where we have wittnessed a rainy evening of wulven battles. We are now starting our after-match reports and are eagerly waiting for an opportunity to interview the star of the evening Moonstalker. However, as we have been informed by his management he did not show up after his last stealth. Wait, I hear Jenny is on the sideline and she has Griptooth, the captain, on the mic. Jenny, what you got for us?

Jenny: Thanks, I am standing here with Griptooth. Griptooth, you got quite a beating today! How are you doing?

Griptooth: Thanks, Jenny. Not to bad, been hulked quite heavy, but it was ok.

Jenny: How is it, that we do not get to see Moonstalker

Griptooth: Given the fact that we have seen a lot of rain this evening, it is probably better this way. Wet wulven, you know the smell.

Jenny: Ok, sure. Uh! Tell us how did your games go so far.

Griptooth: I guess, so and so. 2 and 2 probably a good point to stop and regroup. First match of the evening was epic 24min vs. ASK maskee, creator of Dances with Tigers. Thankfully, he decided to put the Retreat and Enrage on the bottom of the deck. So that was a nice win. After that, well. Two times vs. Rothem's Ravager hurt pretty badly. Not a chance to get a paw on the board. Mean ally shooting and item destruction. Last battle, so far, was a success against Vess. Again thankfully, they placed all BF on the bottom of the pile.

Jenny: Thanks, that sounds like mixed feelings. Any changes to the team?

Griptooth: We will probably not decide before Moonstalker is dry and unstealthed, but probably yes. Draw is tedious and we are laking some allies on the board. Not sure what we will do about Dread Wulf, but Slingblade Demon gets the boot. He just doesn't smell right. WotF might leave the team to get a T4 drop with Soothjaw. We will probably bring Wulven Rally in, as it harmonizes beautiful with the hasted guys and enables some reuse to the Tiger. Not yet sure, what will happen to T2. Control cards also get an increase, whereas Shadow Font was not that useful. We have one turn ability, one turn Rain Delay and one turn myself. Might go for some Full Moon! Aruuuugh!!!

Jenny: Thanks Griptooth, back to the studio! (Urgh, that smell)

[4Ak]

Hey. Send me your IGN and I'll see if I can get you some beta server access.

Woot to GDC for this!