These cards are the ones I'm ending up giving a go in my Peasant Cube. Some cards I'm not including as optimizing isn't key to my cube, nor am I interested in running mechanics as Dungeons and dice rolling.
First two games in with the deck and obviously there was some getting used to the cards Enough misplays for sure but it did let me get a feel for the deck and had me made some changes to my list.
Cards Out: Patron of the Vein - Highly costed and cutting the single double black card will help as well. Evolution Sage - With Patron gone I'm not going to keep it in just for the Vivids. Descendants' Path - Just fell short half of the time, so looking for a bigger impact.
Cards In: Felidar Guardian - Reset button for Arcane Adaptation, but can blink other stuff as well. Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - No dragons but the warrior tokens will quickly stack up if unchecked. Finale of Devastation - A tutor that can recur from the graveyard and comes with a built in pump effect.
@ materpillar
Since you are looking for themed wraths, did you consider Whelming Wave?
Yeah, it’s close but gave me something to start off with, once I get the first few games in I’ll be able to tweak it more to how it would fit in with my playgroups. As far as removal and such goes, for me it doesn’t have to be all on theme. Like with the lands I don’t run/have all the ones that require you to reveal a specific creature type, I don’t feel the need to buy the missing ones as its probably money better used to improve the rest of the deck.
I’ll probably consider picking up Sliver Hivelord once I figure out if I enjoy playing the deck, it’s a bit of an investment and not a card I’d slot easily into something else. Though a lot of removal in my meta is exile orientated so the indestructible helps less there.
Haven’t played Loam Dweller before so will see how it preforms, though the new Risen Reef is pretty much an improved version of it. So right now I’d consider Dweller a placeholder until the new card is out.
It’s going to be tough to decide if the creature type density is good enough for Descendants’ Path, as it works better in more ‘dedicated’ tribal lists or when you have more top deck manipulation. In this list there might be too many times it ends up missing. I am currently running it over Distant Melody, as am not particularly fond of that one myself since it does little when you are behind and wanted some more draw that isn’t a one-of. Rhystic Study is the better option but my only copy is tied up in a different deck at the moment.
Arcane Adaptation is indeed a situational card, since you’d name a type depending on your board/hand. I’d say Dragons is indeed the safest pick and other then that I would consider Elf or Sliver. Now if only they would print this effect on a creature then you could do more fun stuff with it, since Mirror Entity only affects cards that are on the board already.
Endemic Plague is easier to cast and almost guarantees a good wipe, and it is flavorful. Widespread Brutality let’s you keep most of your side of the board. So it’s essentially a wrath and let’s you swing in. Of course, experience with it might make me re-evaluate it.
One card I still look to add is Finale of Devastation but am hoping those first few games will let me see where I can make some cuts for it.
Got my preordered cards in today, so along with the updates to my other decks I went and built a version of this deck as well. Took some inspiration from the lists posted here with some minor changes based on which cards I had around.
The mana base is obviously makeshift as well, since am working with what I had laying around. Roughly based it on being fetchable through Krosan Verge and Skyshroud Claim since I lack actual fetches to fix colors.
The oddball is probably Evolution Sage but I enjoyed it with the Vivid lands in other decks, so a bit of a pet inclusion. It's also the reason why I do have Patron of the Vein still in this list.
Having played with a fair amount of Changelings in a Tolsimir, Friend of Wolves deck, this deck idea is definitely intriguing to me. Especially since I wanted to change up from Tolsimir and other ‘small’ tokens decks. Initially I wanted to see about building a dragons deck with Ur-Dragon, but this looks like a fun alternative that I might piece together instead.
The Wanderer could definitely be an interesting addition to the deck, though I don’t think I will be trying her out myself.
As while the deck is fun, the blink version is just too casual for my playgroup. I feel both the tribal aspect and blink aspect together demand too many card slots, so to add more interaction its probably better to cut the blink part and rebuild it in a fashion more similar to SmauG’s build. I personally won’t be revamping my deck and am going to take mine apart since I want to use some of these cards in different decks.
I did consider cutting Doubling Season first, but since I run a fair amount of mana dorks, my ramp is fairly dedicated to the green side of things. I definitely know that for the curve it would be better to cut the 5 drop enchantment, so might still switch this one around.
It's not for nothing that Perilous Forays rarely sticks around in my decks, but wanted to give it a try. Karametra herself did her thing but never was impressed with her, so probably indeed better to have just Cultivate/Kodama's Reach in that slot. Greater Good I'm not a fan of in my current build, as I am lower on the anthem effects and thus the floor of that card is more likely to happen, which would set me back 'two' cards. A wolf token would draw me two and discard three, so I'm down a discarded card and the token.
Is the sac outlet a necessity? No, it definitely isn't. Yeah, with some shenanigans it allows you to take down a few more creatures, but it makes for very complicated stack building. As had this happen in a game last night and with my playgroup it was just better to simplify and keep the game going. I do agree that Forays is slow mostly because it requires mana investment. With it sometimes just becoming a situation of making one wolf token, Tolsimir forces to have it to fight and no good targets... ineffectively making it a 4 mana ramp effect.
I'll probably just need to add another Anthem effect over it.
It's my goal with this deck as well, fine tune the synergies/theme first and then try to make it more efficient.
I've considered Beast Within since it's pretty much a catch all, but went with Path instead just in case I need a creature really gone. Bur might have to go with the more versatility that Beast Within offers. Meta calls/inclusions are bound to be always there, but its about ensuring that its not a dead card in other situations.
Ironically, Doubling Season is a card I'm considering cutting from this deck as well, as I don't do that much with the +1/+1 counter doubling part and on it's own it does little so not sure if I want three slots dedicated to it.
Edit: Using the discussion here I did make a few more slight tweaks to my version of the deck:
Some of the changes were made with the idea of cutting some white in the deck for consistency, though its somewhat of the cost at a lightly higher average CMC. Beast Within I mentioned earlier, so no need to brush on that. Again I did consider cutting Doubling Season and I still might depending on how things go, but ended up taking out Anointed Processions first for being a white card. I'll track these two in the upcoming games to see whether I would have preferred Processions the times in draw Doubling Season.
I decided to try Nightshade Peddler as well, just to have another way to make our fights do more. And through mentioning it earlier it put Perilous Forays on my radar as a card to try out, as it does give the option to reset the soulbond on some creatures. It's probably less consistent in producing lands compared to Karametra, but its a card I've wanted to run before and it all green. So yeah, will see how this one plays out.
Mirrorpool I axed as well, it's a remnant of my first draft of the deck and I never use the abilities on it. Instead I feel that having a way to recur an artifact is more effective in this slot, so Buried Ruin is coming in to replace it. And has the benefit of coming into play untapped.
Decided to give my quick opinion on the considered cards, though I am trying to approach if more from a floor perspective. I noticed that due to this being a synergistic build, I ended up looking at the ceiling for cards too much. After all we’re not going to always have Tolsimir out or have an ideal boardstate.
The new Arlin always felt like too slow and costly for me, I would consider running Kessig Cagebreakers over it. The latter is up there in CMC but you don’t want it early either and it is a very good way to rebuild after a wipe. The only real negative to Cagebreakers is that its an on-attack trigger.
Predator’s Howl feels decent since it helps build board after a wipe. It would bet he second card for me to add after Cagebreakers.
Raised by Wolves is a dead card on an empty board and gets hosed by removal. I’d rank new Arlin probably above this card despite being a tad slower and one mana more expensive. And the second part of the card doesn’t impress me much either, running a finisher over it would likely be better.
Wolfir Avenger I like the flash aspect of it and the regeneration initially looks nice, but in the end it comes down to what you want to do with your open mana. Regeneration keeps Avenger on board against non-exile removal (sadly a lot of removal that I face does exile) but notably regeneration doesn’t trigger Tolsimir’s ability.
Briarpack Alpha I rank slightly above Avenger, simply because its triggered ability adds some versatility by messing with combat math.
Wolfir Silverheart generates mixed feelings for me, as it direly wants the deck to have trample so not to be chump blocked for days. It really becomes interesting if you could trigger the soulbond repeatedly (Nightshade Peddler falls in the same spot for me), it would work nice with a sac outlet like maybe Perilous Forays. Though that doesn’t help focusing the deck.
Pack Guardian I think this is something you only want if you can get a good draw engine going that puts those spare lands in your hand. Other then that I prefer to have the land on board to cast more wolves each turn than to get a single token.
Hoping to get some games in again this weekend, as last weekend our game night was sadly cancelled. Have been goldfishing the deck for a bit more and it has lead to some changes being made, just to smoothen the main strategy a bit more.
Cards Out Harabaz Druid - I don't want two Ally dependent cards in the deck and with this not being an Elf, I opted to take the druid out. Paradox Engine - The lines with this card are too convoluted and its a removal magnet, so making place for a more efficient card. Growing Rites of Itlimoc - Just too few synergies and a dead card after a wipe. Witchstalker - Cutting a wolf feels somewhat bad, but moving this to my maybe list for now in order to free up other slots.
and a Basic Land
Cards In Ghost Quarter - Deals with troublesome lands but also another way to get Riftstone Portal in the graveyard. Yeva, Nature's Herald - Having flash works well with Cloudstone Curio and Yeva happens to be an Elf on top of that. Concordant Crossroads - Even more so a must than Flash is Haste, as it enables a swing after making lots of tokens. Nature's Lore - Mana elves are important but a back up in case of a wipe might be needed. Harrow - Like Nature's Lore it's land based ramp to mitigate any wipes. Cultivate might be better, but this works with Riftstone Portal as well.
This should help with some of the deck's vulnerabilities. During the next game I am going to focus on tweaking removal/interaction, seeing right now the deck primarily relies on Tolsimir doing that work and that just might not be enough. I'm also going to be curious to see whether cutting the Witchstalker has some effect or whether I might need to adapt to more wolf creatures as well. The other part is working on improving the way to finish out games, Concordant Crossroads and Yeva will help avoid some boardwipes but just tokens might not be enough. So the main question is going to be whether or not to change Thunderfoot Baloth into maybe End-Raze Forerunners since I don't have Hoof. I like Baloth since its a more 'permanent' buff but the downside is that removing Tolsimir results also into removing the buff. There is also Decimator of the Provinces but it has a cast trigger and that's not always going to work.
It depends on the deck and the reason why its being dismantled really if there is remorse or not. If I don't enjoy how the deck is performing then its an easy process, other times its more because the decks just don't get played because they are of a too low power level to hold their own in my playgroups. Lately I've halved my collection of decks for the latter reason, which obviously was disappointing in some cases but also will make it easier to maintain the remaining decks. So I just pulled those decks out for a final game, usually just solidifying my reasons in taking it apart while also giving it a final chance after having been on the shelf for quite some time.
The main problem I have with Goblin Bombardment is that it deals damage to one target only, meaning that for the ‘dealing 120 dmg total’ (3x40) goal Impact Tremors, Zulaport Cutthroat, Throne of the God-Pharaoh and Price of Progress all have more potential. Even Metallic Mimic provides more damage as it gives +1 per creature and can attack itself (+ is a vamp therefore can receive boosts). In all given examples (Propaganda / Ghostly Prison and Terminus) I’d still argue that Impact Tremors, Zulaport Cutthroat (and co, with sac outlet), Throne of the God-Pharaoh and Price of Progress have a higher dmg output because they deal dmg to each opponent, which adds up to a higher total. Of course setting up a cutthroat with bombardment is very nice but not something we can consistently do as I don’t think we will ever be tutoring for either effect (or do you guys do this?).
Bombardment doesn't need to do the full 120 damage itself, since you need creatures to trigger it and you're going to be swinging first and use the sac to mitigate disadvantageous situations when attacking (though Reconnaissance does this better) or blocking, do some damage when a wipe happens or just to get that last bit of damage in.
Impact Tremors could be more efficient since you don't have to sac creatures and thus does guarantee damage, but Bombardment simply adds some versatility in the sense that the when you use it can mess with an opponent in more ways than just life.
Throne of the God-Pharaoh is more awkward I'd say, sure in an ideal situation it can do a bunch but your attacking with small vampires and they need to survive in order to get the trigger. It's a nonbo with Reconnaissance, since that untaps, so at 'most' it will just encourage blocks where in other situations you can chip through.
There is potential in these cards as alternatives but sometimes damage alone isn't enough. I will note that I quite often have both Bombardment and a Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat on board, which with Cruel Celebrant is going to be even more likely, without tutoring for one of these.
@Spacebeest
Aside from discussing these cards, do you have your full list somewhere?
@Spacebeest
I think one notable difference in playstyle for this deck is that you do emphasize ramp and such towards playing Edgar Markov, while some like me rarely focus on casting our Commander. In fact, the rare times I do cast him is when I'm in a bad spot and have nothing else to do. So while I do run Sol Ring in my deck, I'm usually not too impressed having it in my opening hand since I mainly need colored mana during the early turns. The rituals feel like a better option in that regard, but you need a black heavy hand or have something to generate card advantage off of it.
Cover of Darkness can do some work but in the games I had it, I felt like I needed to sandbag the card until I had a decent mass of vampires. Making things semi-unblockable just ups the threat level for opponents, where as holding it back has allowed me a few more turns in some games. Though I did cut it out of my deck during the recent changes I made, as rather want something that does something than sit idle.
Goblin Bombardment is one card I wouldn't cut on the other hand, it helps mess with things quite a bit. Block and sack the creature before damage is done to disrupt lifelink or other combat damage triggered effects is one thing. It makes boardwipes hurt more as you just sac your board in response. It even got me around dealing with an opponent whom had Propaganda and Ghostly Prison out.
Sure both suck on turn two, with Cover of Darkness definitely not being what I want to play on turn two, but you're always going to have to play some cards at a suboptimal level. Just like mulligans won't always give you a perfect hand. But with the deck being a proactive one, I'd rather be casting something on curve than hold off a turn to play that more expensive vampire.
Had my first game with the deck yesterday. It wasn't with my usual playgroup or people I play against more often, which did affect the game a fair bit as their level of threat assessment was much lower than what I would normally expect to be up against. They left both Paradox Engine and Cloudstone Curio unchecked on the table because this was a tribal deck, for example.
Now, I will give it that Paradox Engine isn't what I consider a win condition in this deck, as normally it just generates mana to sink into wolf token production and won't do so infinitely. Yes, it did help generate more tokens in the loop I used for the win, but I could have done it without Paradox Engine. As I took the game by EOT flashing in Great Oak Guardian, untap mana dorks, make token through Packmaster to bounce the Guardian, rinse repeat while using spare mana to make more wolf tokens. One opponent did try to remove the packmaster but with the mana from Great Oak's untaps and Paradox untaps I just restarted the loop with the removal still on the stack.
I pulled out a more casual deck for the other games as this table simply wasn't good enough to really test this deck. I got a light feel of things and did test my draws a tad by sandbagging the win. What I have concluded so far is that the deck wants haste and maybe another way to enable flash in order to play slightly more combo orientated.
Had this weekend a fun little conclusion to a game, thanks to not conceding too early and drawing a card that I forgot I had in the deck.
I was running my Ghave/Teysa Karlov deck against Atraxa counters, Linvala angels and an Aryel knights deck. Atraxa was the main threat until Linvala played a Coat of Arms that allowed us to hold off Atraxa enough. I wasn’t doing too well though as most my tokens were needed as chump blockers.
The Linvala player got taken out first and at that point I had a few minor tokens on the board, Doubling Season, Anointed Procession, Divine Visitation, Dictate of Erebos and a Protean Hulk which I hadn’t been able to get to die. With the Coat of Arms gone my spirit tokens were not going to really last and it got to the point where I could only last one more turn against an Atraxa attack.
So I draw my card for the turn mostly expecting to concede right after that, but my top deck is Martial Coup which I am able to cast with x=11. So a boardwipe happens and I get 33 4/4 flying angel tokens on board, plus I get Poison-Tip Archer and Orzhov Enforcer of my Hulk triggers. The latter mostly because my Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat were already gone, so in the moment the Enforcer was a random pick but turned out to be the difference maker.
Aryel player ends up conceding after this, leaving me to deal with Atraxa whom reveals Austere Command but ponders on which mode to go for; destroying enchantments or to deal with my tokens. To which he suggest going for a draw so we could get in another game, which I declined as ended up having him dead on board either way. A boardwipe would trigger Archer for a bunch of damage and the three tokens I would get from Enforcer dying would be enough to finish things.
Dawnbringer Cleric
Minimus Containment
White Dragon
Trickster's Talisman
Clever Conjurer
You Find The Villains' Lair
Grim Wanderer
Reaper's Talisman
Skullport Merchant
Warlock Class
Deadly Dispute
Grim Bounty
Shambling Ghast
You See a Pair of Goblins
Goblin Javelineer
Battle-Cry Goblin
You Meet In a Tavern
Green Dragon
Kalain, Reclusive Painter
Shessra, Death's Whisper
Spare Dagger
Temple of the Dragon Queen
The cards I'm still debating are Red Dragon and Gretchen Titchwillow
Cards Out:
Patron of the Vein - Highly costed and cutting the single double black card will help as well.
Evolution Sage - With Patron gone I'm not going to keep it in just for the Vivids.
Descendants' Path - Just fell short half of the time, so looking for a bigger impact.
Cards In:
Felidar Guardian - Reset button for Arcane Adaptation, but can blink other stuff as well.
Najeela, the Blade-Blossom - No dragons but the warrior tokens will quickly stack up if unchecked.
Finale of Devastation - A tutor that can recur from the graveyard and comes with a built in pump effect.
@ materpillar
Since you are looking for themed wraths, did you consider Whelming Wave?
I’ll probably consider picking up Sliver Hivelord once I figure out if I enjoy playing the deck, it’s a bit of an investment and not a card I’d slot easily into something else. Though a lot of removal in my meta is exile orientated so the indestructible helps less there.
Haven’t played Loam Dweller before so will see how it preforms, though the new Risen Reef is pretty much an improved version of it. So right now I’d consider Dweller a placeholder until the new card is out.
It’s going to be tough to decide if the creature type density is good enough for Descendants’ Path, as it works better in more ‘dedicated’ tribal lists or when you have more top deck manipulation. In this list there might be too many times it ends up missing. I am currently running it over Distant Melody, as am not particularly fond of that one myself since it does little when you are behind and wanted some more draw that isn’t a one-of. Rhystic Study is the better option but my only copy is tied up in a different deck at the moment.
Arcane Adaptation is indeed a situational card, since you’d name a type depending on your board/hand. I’d say Dragons is indeed the safest pick and other then that I would consider Elf or Sliver. Now if only they would print this effect on a creature then you could do more fun stuff with it, since Mirror Entity only affects cards that are on the board already.
Endemic Plague is easier to cast and almost guarantees a good wipe, and it is flavorful. Widespread Brutality let’s you keep most of your side of the board. So it’s essentially a wrath and let’s you swing in. Of course, experience with it might make me re-evaluate it.
One card I still look to add is Finale of Devastation but am hoping those first few games will let me see where I can make some cuts for it.
1x Amoeboid Changeling
1x Avian Changeling
1x Azami, Lady of Scrolls
1x Changeling Berserker
1x Changeling Hero
1x Changeling Outcast
1x Changeling Titan
1x Elder Pine of Jukai
1x Evolution Sage
1x Gemhide Sliver
1x Gishath, Sun's Avatar
1x Graveshifter
1x Harabaz Druid
1x Hibernation Sliver
1x Higure, the Still Wind
1x Imposter of the Sixth Pride
1x Irregular Cohort
1x Khorvath Brightflame
1x Lathliss, Dragon Queen
1x Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
1x Loam Dweller
1x Manaweft Sliver
1x Mirror Entity
1x Moggcatcher
1x Morophon, the Boundless
1x Mothdust Changeling
1x Myr Galvanizer
1x Patron of the Vein
1x Priest of Titania
1x Reaper King
1x Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
1x Seahunter
1x Seshiro the Anointed
1x Shapesharer
1x Skyshroud Poacher
1x Sylvia Brightspear
1x Taurean Mauler
1x Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves
1x Tuktuk Scrapper
1x Universal Automaton
1x Venomous Changeling
1x Walker of Secret Ways
1x Wirewood Savage
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow
1 The Ur-Dragon
Land (35)
1x Ally Encampment
1x Ancient Amphitheater
1x Breeding Pool
1x Cavern of Souls
1x City of Brass
1x Command Tower
1x Contested Cliffs
3x Forest
1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1x Irrigated Farmland
2x Island
1x Krosan Verge
1x Mana Confluence
1x Mountain
1x Murmuring Bosk
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Plains
1x Prairie Stream
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Seaside Citadel
1x Secluded Glen
1x Seraph Sanctuary
1x Stomping Ground
1x Swamp
1x Swarmyard
1x Temple Garden
1x Unholy Grotto
1x Vivid Creek
1x Vivid Grove
1x Vivid Meadow
1x Wanderwine Hub
1x Austere Command
1x Knowledge Exploitation
1x Martial Coup
1x Peer Pressure
1x Skyshroud Claim
1x Widespread Brutality
Artifact (6)
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Cryptic Gateway
1x Didgeridoo
1x Dragon's Hoard
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Sol Ring
Instant (4)
1x Crib Swap
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Spit Flame
1x Vampiric Tutor
Enchantment (3)
1x Arcane Adaptation
1x Descendants' Path
1x Unnatural Selection
The oddball is probably Evolution Sage but I enjoyed it with the Vivid lands in other decks, so a bit of a pet inclusion. It's also the reason why I do have Patron of the Vein still in this list.
As while the deck is fun, the blink version is just too casual for my playgroup. I feel both the tribal aspect and blink aspect together demand too many card slots, so to add more interaction its probably better to cut the blink part and rebuild it in a fashion more similar to SmauG’s build. I personally won’t be revamping my deck and am going to take mine apart since I want to use some of these cards in different decks.
It's not for nothing that Perilous Forays rarely sticks around in my decks, but wanted to give it a try. Karametra herself did her thing but never was impressed with her, so probably indeed better to have just Cultivate/Kodama's Reach in that slot. Greater Good I'm not a fan of in my current build, as I am lower on the anthem effects and thus the floor of that card is more likely to happen, which would set me back 'two' cards. A wolf token would draw me two and discard three, so I'm down a discarded card and the token.
Is the sac outlet a necessity? No, it definitely isn't. Yeah, with some shenanigans it allows you to take down a few more creatures, but it makes for very complicated stack building. As had this happen in a game last night and with my playgroup it was just better to simplify and keep the game going. I do agree that Forays is slow mostly because it requires mana investment. With it sometimes just becoming a situation of making one wolf token, Tolsimir forces to have it to fight and no good targets... ineffectively making it a 4 mana ramp effect.
I'll probably just need to add another Anthem effect over it.
I've considered Beast Within since it's pretty much a catch all, but went with Path instead just in case I need a creature really gone. Bur might have to go with the more versatility that Beast Within offers. Meta calls/inclusions are bound to be always there, but its about ensuring that its not a dead card in other situations.
Ironically, Doubling Season is a card I'm considering cutting from this deck as well, as I don't do that much with the +1/+1 counter doubling part and on it's own it does little so not sure if I want three slots dedicated to it.
Edit: Using the discussion here I did make a few more slight tweaks to my version of the deck:
Cards Out:
- Anointed Procession
- Karametra, God of Harvests
- Swords to Plowshares
- Mirrorpool
Cards In:
+ Buried Ruin
+ Beast Within
+ Nightshade Peddler
+ Perilous Forays
Some of the changes were made with the idea of cutting some white in the deck for consistency, though its somewhat of the cost at a lightly higher average CMC. Beast Within I mentioned earlier, so no need to brush on that. Again I did consider cutting Doubling Season and I still might depending on how things go, but ended up taking out Anointed Processions first for being a white card. I'll track these two in the upcoming games to see whether I would have preferred Processions the times in draw Doubling Season.
I decided to try Nightshade Peddler as well, just to have another way to make our fights do more. And through mentioning it earlier it put Perilous Forays on my radar as a card to try out, as it does give the option to reset the soulbond on some creatures. It's probably less consistent in producing lands compared to Karametra, but its a card I've wanted to run before and it all green. So yeah, will see how this one plays out.
Mirrorpool I axed as well, it's a remnant of my first draft of the deck and I never use the abilities on it. Instead I feel that having a way to recur an artifact is more effective in this slot, so Buried Ruin is coming in to replace it. And has the benefit of coming into play untapped.
The new Arlin always felt like too slow and costly for me, I would consider running Kessig Cagebreakers over it. The latter is up there in CMC but you don’t want it early either and it is a very good way to rebuild after a wipe. The only real negative to Cagebreakers is that its an on-attack trigger.
Predator’s Howl feels decent since it helps build board after a wipe. It would bet he second card for me to add after Cagebreakers.
Raised by Wolves is a dead card on an empty board and gets hosed by removal. I’d rank new Arlin probably above this card despite being a tad slower and one mana more expensive. And the second part of the card doesn’t impress me much either, running a finisher over it would likely be better.
Wolfir Avenger I like the flash aspect of it and the regeneration initially looks nice, but in the end it comes down to what you want to do with your open mana. Regeneration keeps Avenger on board against non-exile removal (sadly a lot of removal that I face does exile) but notably regeneration doesn’t trigger Tolsimir’s ability.
Briarpack Alpha I rank slightly above Avenger, simply because its triggered ability adds some versatility by messing with combat math.
Wolfir Silverheart generates mixed feelings for me, as it direly wants the deck to have trample so not to be chump blocked for days. It really becomes interesting if you could trigger the soulbond repeatedly (Nightshade Peddler falls in the same spot for me), it would work nice with a sac outlet like maybe Perilous Forays. Though that doesn’t help focusing the deck.
Pack Guardian I think this is something you only want if you can get a good draw engine going that puts those spare lands in your hand. Other then that I prefer to have the land on board to cast more wolves each turn than to get a single token.
Cards Out
Harabaz Druid - I don't want two Ally dependent cards in the deck and with this not being an Elf, I opted to take the druid out.
Paradox Engine - The lines with this card are too convoluted and its a removal magnet, so making place for a more efficient card.
Growing Rites of Itlimoc - Just too few synergies and a dead card after a wipe.
Witchstalker - Cutting a wolf feels somewhat bad, but moving this to my maybe list for now in order to free up other slots.
and a Basic Land
Cards In
Ghost Quarter - Deals with troublesome lands but also another way to get Riftstone Portal in the graveyard.
Yeva, Nature's Herald - Having flash works well with Cloudstone Curio and Yeva happens to be an Elf on top of that.
Concordant Crossroads - Even more so a must than Flash is Haste, as it enables a swing after making lots of tokens.
Nature's Lore - Mana elves are important but a back up in case of a wipe might be needed.
Harrow - Like Nature's Lore it's land based ramp to mitigate any wipes. Cultivate might be better, but this works with Riftstone Portal as well.
This should help with some of the deck's vulnerabilities. During the next game I am going to focus on tweaking removal/interaction, seeing right now the deck primarily relies on Tolsimir doing that work and that just might not be enough. I'm also going to be curious to see whether cutting the Witchstalker has some effect or whether I might need to adapt to more wolf creatures as well. The other part is working on improving the way to finish out games, Concordant Crossroads and Yeva will help avoid some boardwipes but just tokens might not be enough. So the main question is going to be whether or not to change Thunderfoot Baloth into maybe End-Raze Forerunners since I don't have Hoof. I like Baloth since its a more 'permanent' buff but the downside is that removing Tolsimir results also into removing the buff. There is also Decimator of the Provinces but it has a cast trigger and that's not always going to work.
Impact Tremors could be more efficient since you don't have to sac creatures and thus does guarantee damage, but Bombardment simply adds some versatility in the sense that the when you use it can mess with an opponent in more ways than just life.
Throne of the God-Pharaoh is more awkward I'd say, sure in an ideal situation it can do a bunch but your attacking with small vampires and they need to survive in order to get the trigger. It's a nonbo with Reconnaissance, since that untaps, so at 'most' it will just encourage blocks where in other situations you can chip through.
There is potential in these cards as alternatives but sometimes damage alone isn't enough. I will note that I quite often have both Bombardment and a Blood Artist/Zulaport Cutthroat on board, which with Cruel Celebrant is going to be even more likely, without tutoring for one of these.
@Spacebeest
Aside from discussing these cards, do you have your full list somewhere?
I think one notable difference in playstyle for this deck is that you do emphasize ramp and such towards playing Edgar Markov, while some like me rarely focus on casting our Commander. In fact, the rare times I do cast him is when I'm in a bad spot and have nothing else to do. So while I do run Sol Ring in my deck, I'm usually not too impressed having it in my opening hand since I mainly need colored mana during the early turns. The rituals feel like a better option in that regard, but you need a black heavy hand or have something to generate card advantage off of it.
Cover of Darkness can do some work but in the games I had it, I felt like I needed to sandbag the card until I had a decent mass of vampires. Making things semi-unblockable just ups the threat level for opponents, where as holding it back has allowed me a few more turns in some games. Though I did cut it out of my deck during the recent changes I made, as rather want something that does something than sit idle.
Goblin Bombardment is one card I wouldn't cut on the other hand, it helps mess with things quite a bit. Block and sack the creature before damage is done to disrupt lifelink or other combat damage triggered effects is one thing. It makes boardwipes hurt more as you just sac your board in response. It even got me around dealing with an opponent whom had Propaganda and Ghostly Prison out.
Sure both suck on turn two, with Cover of Darkness definitely not being what I want to play on turn two, but you're always going to have to play some cards at a suboptimal level. Just like mulligans won't always give you a perfect hand. But with the deck being a proactive one, I'd rather be casting something on curve than hold off a turn to play that more expensive vampire.
Now, I will give it that Paradox Engine isn't what I consider a win condition in this deck, as normally it just generates mana to sink into wolf token production and won't do so infinitely. Yes, it did help generate more tokens in the loop I used for the win, but I could have done it without Paradox Engine. As I took the game by EOT flashing in Great Oak Guardian, untap mana dorks, make token through Packmaster to bounce the Guardian, rinse repeat while using spare mana to make more wolf tokens. One opponent did try to remove the packmaster but with the mana from Great Oak's untaps and Paradox untaps I just restarted the loop with the removal still on the stack.
I pulled out a more casual deck for the other games as this table simply wasn't good enough to really test this deck. I got a light feel of things and did test my draws a tad by sandbagging the win. What I have concluded so far is that the deck wants haste and maybe another way to enable flash in order to play slightly more combo orientated.
I was running my Ghave/Teysa Karlov deck against Atraxa counters, Linvala angels and an Aryel knights deck. Atraxa was the main threat until Linvala played a Coat of Arms that allowed us to hold off Atraxa enough. I wasn’t doing too well though as most my tokens were needed as chump blockers.
The Linvala player got taken out first and at that point I had a few minor tokens on the board, Doubling Season, Anointed Procession, Divine Visitation, Dictate of Erebos and a Protean Hulk which I hadn’t been able to get to die. With the Coat of Arms gone my spirit tokens were not going to really last and it got to the point where I could only last one more turn against an Atraxa attack.
So I draw my card for the turn mostly expecting to concede right after that, but my top deck is Martial Coup which I am able to cast with x=11. So a boardwipe happens and I get 33 4/4 flying angel tokens on board, plus I get Poison-Tip Archer and Orzhov Enforcer of my Hulk triggers. The latter mostly because my Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat were already gone, so in the moment the Enforcer was a random pick but turned out to be the difference maker.
Aryel player ends up conceding after this, leaving me to deal with Atraxa whom reveals Austere Command but ponders on which mode to go for; destroying enchantments or to deal with my tokens. To which he suggest going for a draw so we could get in another game, which I declined as ended up having him dead on board either way. A boardwipe would trigger Archer for a bunch of damage and the three tokens I would get from Enforcer dying would be enough to finish things.