Deck building suggestions?

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mystical_tutor
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Deck building suggestions?

Post by mystical_tutor » Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:01 am

We are having a halloween event at the store. Another TO is organizing it. One of the deck builders just dropped out and I was selected. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Rules: Hoard

My hoard is Werewolves/wolves

The deck will be played against 3 players (survivors) with their own commander decks. They have a common turn like in Archenemy.
the Hoard deck has 60 wolf tokens and 40 cards (spells, creatures etc.) and no land.
The Hoard has infinite mana (and no spells with X in abilities or casting cost).
When a token card is drawn it is "put into play" repeat until a non token card is drawn.
When the Hoard takes damage that many cards are milled from the deck to the graveyard. If the hoard is out of cards before the combined life total of the survivors (60 points) is reduced to 0 the survivors win.

Teams will be randomly selected.
The Survivors have three turns to set up before the Hoard arrives.

I don't know if any of you have played Hoard but I haven't.
My question: What would be good creature/spell cards for me to select?

Gary
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manaman22
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Post by manaman22 » Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:10 am

Immerwolf and Howlpack Alpha should be a good start. Instigator Gang adds an Oriflamme effect that gets better. Terror of Kruin Pass makes your (werewolf only, sadly) guys harder to block. Werewolf Ransacker can help you deal with problematic artifacts.

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Wed Oct 17, 2012 2:12 am

I think I'll have a problem with the flip cards. They have a combined turn so it is easy for them to cast enough spells to keep the sunny side up. You did give me an idea though--the old Orcish Oriflamme will give me some help on attack power.

In play test the Commander PCD with the Kaalia of the Vast deck took the hoard out in no time at all because the hoard has no flyers. I am tempted to put Levitation in but it almost seems cheese to use blue in a halloween deck.

Keep the suggestions coming. Immerwolf will be included.

What else helps wolves?
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manaman22
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Post by manaman22 » Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:07 am

Right, good point about the whole shared turn thing. Makes flippers a lot less awesome.

Adaptive Automaton would provide another tribal pump. Brass Herald gives a tribal pump as well, but I'm not sure how his other ability would work for you. Cover of Darkness naming either wolf or werewolf would provide some evasion. Roar of the Crowd can give you some reach. Steely Resolve would help with removal. Maybe Eldrazi Monument to give some flying and another +1/+1?

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Post by caquaa » Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:26 am

mystical_tutor wrote:I think I'll have a problem with the flip cards. They have a combined turn so it is easy for them to cast enough spells to keep the sunny side up. You did give me an idea though--the old Orcish Oriflamme will give me some help on attack power.

In play test the Commander PCD with the Kaalia of the Vast deck took the hoard out in no time at all because the hoard has no flyers. I am tempted to put Levitation in but it almost seems cheese to use blue in a halloween deck.

Keep the suggestions coming. Immerwolf will be included.

What else helps wolves?
never played/built one/heard of one before, but....

same thing I play in my standard deck.... Collective Blessing!

and since you mentioned orcish oriflamme I'm assuming its not limited to standard for you, and the card is very fitting, Triumph of the Hordes. Hopefully they use a 10 poison rule for this card to be effective.

things not on theme: insurrection, Akroma's memorial, craterhoof behemoth, elbrus, gisela, any extra turn effect, worldfire, Elesh Norn, Pariah's Shield, Gigantomancer, Gleemax(tad over the top?)

things that seem on theme: alpha brawl, army of the damned, griselbrand. BFM (have both halves???), Dread Cacodemon


hopefully that gets you started ;)


edit: is elixir of immortality / feldon's cane cheating? hah

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Post by Alien_Starfighter_Pilot » Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:26 pm

is Doubling Season not allowed?

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berkumps
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Post by berkumps » Wed Oct 17, 2012 4:56 pm

What about Gaea's Blessing? Or Serra Avatar? Or something similar to prevent death by milling?

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mmgun
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Post by mmgun » Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:19 pm

Master of the hunt seems sweet with infinite Mana, still fair with not hasty wolvillions.

A pity, no lands are allowed, EWOLVing Wilds would fit the theme quite well.

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:08 pm

Thanks much. The event was a success and fun was had by all. Only one hoard deck ever won, then only once. That was fine though as the whole thing was for kicks.

I used several of the suggestions. Some I couldn't use as I had to stick to R/B/G colors and we were restricted to using activated abilities only once per turn to curb out infinite mana advantage. I had gone through the first game before I realized that my Gravity Sphere was worthless as I never had blockers anyway (all my creatures had to attack every turn)

Two groups came right down to the last turn so they did feel the challenge and that is what I wanted.

One group really won by the hair of their chinney chin dhin as on my last turn I pulled 11 wolves and Immerwolf. One guy was using a commander that caused all my cards to come into play tapped or they would have been toast.

I only had two Deasert Twisters in the deck and they both got milled so I was unable to get rid of plainswalkers quick enough.

Great fun and I highly recommend it for pure fun. One player is requesting we do it at Christmas with angel and elf hoards.....

Thanks again for your input.
Gary Adkison
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Knowledge is proud because it thinks it knows so much; wisdom is humble because it realizes it knows so little.

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mystical_tutor
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Post by mystical_tutor » Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:47 pm

Just a little elaboration.

Doubling Season, I banned myself because of the confusion about how my tokens come into play. To avoid the stack and stuff the wolves were "put in to play" and not cast. Also, like Akroma's Memorial, mentioned above, there were some things I just didn't want to use.

In addition to the orcish oriflamme I used Mightstone. Figuring that most of them would get milled anyway (and they did) I figured I would be lucky to keep even one in play. As it worked out I was not even able to do that for more than a turn or two.

Flip cards came in with the moon side up and stayed that way (for the single turn that they survived...LOL) The one that gives attacking creatures +3/+0 immediately became target alpha. I was surprised though at how little instant creature removal the players used. Only once did anyone take out a critter in the attack.

Feldon's Cane and Gaea's Blessing only recycle my spells (25% of the deck) as technically the wolf tokens disappear when they hit the graveyard.

Army of the damned was in the Zombie hoard. Alpha brawl got forgotten...doh. No way I could ever get both halves of the BFM at one time.

My guess that dammage would increase expodentually was correct. It was like by turn 3 or 4 for me I was milling 20+ cards. The three turns they had to set up before I arrived really helped.

Again thinks for all the suggestions.

Gary
Gary Adkison
Father of a former Wizards of the Coast janitor.

Knowledge is proud because it thinks it knows so much; wisdom is humble because it realizes it knows so little.

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