Wrath of the Wulven - Competitive Moonstalker 40c deck for 1.5

[FORGlVEN]

I'm a wulven player and loving it. Thanks guys for the great tips on the decks

[Cruxx]

Oh this new update looks interesting indeed!

Started theorycrafting and playing a bit again. Will update the Wrath of the Wulven to the latest version once the deck builder is updated.

At the moment I'm playing the following and thus far it's doing well (couple of games only).

Moonstalker

4 Keldor, 2 Medusil for medium creatures, complemented by 4 Pack Wolf.
4 Jeweler's Dream and 2 Thaddeus for ping damage (and speed gain).
4 Plasma Behemoth and 2 Ogloth as Hard Hitter (what great creatures <3)
4 Sacrifical Lamb and 2 Shadow Knight for card draw/recycling dead hard hitters.
4 captured prey, 4 NYM and 2 Full Moon (thinking to change them for Bloodlust, will have to see) for battlefield and creature control.
1 Ley Line Nexus for the very late game, if I run into an item that would cost me the game.

I know it lacks item destruction, but this way I am always drawing useful cards and can build up superior creature forces, especially with Moonstalker's ability.
Synergy between my 12 low cost creatures, sacrifical lamb and Ogloth is just insane, so good. This way you don't feed your opponent's card draw machine and it is up to you when and how to use it. Also Ogloth creature destruction can be used on own allies if needed and his ability complements the other ping abilities really well.

[Larus]

Thanks for updating

I can imagen how your deck might work but I also wonder if your allies survive in critical matches (lets say Banebow or Mages in general) long enough to profit from SL. Looking at your deck I think that your strategy is to switch in the late game to PBs and hold them on the board.

But in this case you wouldn't profit much from your cheaper units, simply because PB cost so much. Might be that I'm totally wrong with my analysis but I think that sacrifice an ally whenever you need fresh cards might be to risky.

Since I discover how brilliant WotF work with allies I can't just life without it

[painful_smile]

I tried a few games with this decks. Its Very strong indeed but struggles vs Mages. You cannot destroy their Research + you cannot keep your allies on the board against all the nukes because your ability does not work. And i often run out of cards but thats because i don't rly find the right use for sacrificial lamb i guess.

[Cruxx]

@ Larus:
Banebow shouldn't be a particular problem as his ability only deals 2 damage. Mages on the other hand will always be a challenge for Moonstalker in this iteration, as his ability is basically rendered useless and he has no viable option of dishing out damage without allies. Making good use of Shadow Knights and sacrificing allies into Ogloth before an AoE hits might be an option later in the game though.

WotF was always too slow for my taste, basically giving up pressure for one round, already expecting to lose creatures the next. I prefer to apply pressure constantly and use sacrifical lamb as needed. If I am ahead sacrifical lamb can be sacced without concern, if I know my current hand / possibilites won't do, you can still attack with an ally and sacrifice it afterwards. I love having the opportunity to bolster my hand without supporting the opponent as well.

@ Painful_smile:
Jeah, as already mentioned Mages do very well against Moonstalker in general. In the last patch it was always a close call, with 1 or 2 HP difference between me and the mage. Well timed Full Moons normally made or broke the game, as it messed up the mages damage calculation.

[Larus]

What can I say, you are right and have a valid point. And I acutally love SL like no other new card but for some reason I hestitate so far to rely totally on it.

But when I face the facts I come to the conclusion that slow down your gameplay might be a greater threat. So I whent out and tested a similar composition like yourself and I liked it. So far I find a higher SK support more useful than PBs but I need more testing for a final opinion

[Cruxx]

Will actually try it with 2 additional WotF for a while, as the synergy with SL and Ogloth would be again really good.
Currently -1 NYM, -1 Captured Prey. Will see how that works.

[Cruxx]

In my recent games it became more and more apparent to me, that I really don't need a lot of card draw. Most of the time 1 SL is more than enough.
To me the key is to keep the deck simple and streamlined enough, so every card I draw is useful to me in most circumstances.

With Moonstalker it is all about keeping worthy creatures alive and assure battlefield control.
Therefore the deck features 20 creatures, 12 of which are low cost and all of which excel in at least one specific area. In addition with 12 support cards I achieve battlefield control and victory in most cases (but as usual mages / priest with mass removal and piercing MS's ability will always be a challenge).
The last 7 cards are basically there to speed up my game, be it by card draw or additional ressources.

Since 12 of my creatures have the ability to "dump ressources" into them, I don't need to play a card every round later on, hence less card draw needed.
Additionally Jeweler's Dream basically helps putting me 2 rounds ahead. Again, less card draw needed as I need to play less ressources (normally 6 is my go to number, allowing dual Plasma Behemoth action or a lot of other useful combinations.)

Therefore I am actually doing quite well with less than 6 card draw mechanic cards in my deck.

Latest iteration:
Moonstalker

4 Keldor, 2 Medusil, 2 Thaddeus, 4 Pack Wolf as 2x strong mid-cost creatures
4 Jeweler's Dream and 3 Sacrifical Lamb for speeding up my game. (Considering going down to 2 SL.)
4 Plasma Behemoth, 2 Ogloth and 2 Shadow Knight as Hard Hitter (what great creatures <3)
4 Captured prey, 4 Now You're Mine, 2 Bloodlust and 2 Extra Sharp for 2x battlefield and creature control.

Reason for extra sharp: Had WotF in there and the combination with SL is indeed very good and tempting. I found myself saccing WotF though most of the time. Basically the only time I would ever play is was in round 4, if I did not have a JD or something else to play. As said before, most of the times I really didn't need as much draw as I was able to get, so in this latest iteration I am trying 2 Extra Sharp, as it allows me additional creature removal (stacking with Bloodlust). It also opens up nice synergies again with Keldor or Ogloth, being able to dispatch many a creature either through the additional damage or Ogloth "eating" a creature 2 ressources stronger than he should be able to currently digest.

So currently evaluating: Usefulness of Extra Sharp and maybe going down to 2 SL.

[Ramirez Delgado]

Hi Cruxx,

I watched some of your games, good deck and card composition!

The combination of T3 Keldor and T4 JD is a nice opening, WotF seemed to slow you down a little bit.
Concerning card draw I'm indecisive if you don't struggle only with SL (maybe try 1-2 BS?), your deck is quick and strong. If you can use JD as ressource acceleration, I liked the turns where you were able to play 2-3 cards at once. I think, your strength is to quickly obtain board control. On the other side you use Keldor, PB, Ogg and they exhaust your resources, therefore you will not play cards so often after they hit the board.

I personally don't like Medusil and you seem to not play her very often (or need her ability). Maybe try some IG to keep ally longer on board (for e.g. Bloodlust or SL)? Regardless of my opinion, you have a competitive deck and I will keep tracking your thread as I'm interested upon your posts.

[Cruxx]

Thanks Ramirez.

The thing is I theorycraft more than I actually play. If I run into a stall deck, the fun I am having is decresaing pretty fast, though in the end I still win a fair percentage. Also competitive gaming can become quite stressful to me...

In the end someone else with more actual play experience (e.g. those holy human knights burning my shadow energy took me by bad surprise and I am thinking adding Shadow Font just for those guys again) might do much better with that deck, taking some different key decisions.

Medusil I agree to a point. I don't use her that much, but I'd like to have her in the deck for the option of gnawing away at bigger foes. If not her I would have to chose another 3 cost ally to keep support/creature balance and since Thaddeus is unique and big bad wolf (Wulven 3/4 regeneration) is evern worse, she just fills in space. I might end up kicking her and go with 10 mid cost allies only. We shall see.