Locations
Welcome to the final Meddling installment for Eldritch Moon. We’ve got just one deck left to go, the R/G Untamed Wilds.
The aim of the Ertai’s Meddling series is to illustrate deck-building through the lens of the Intro Pack. You can’t flip a Chaos Orb without hitting a decklist filled with rares and mythics, but what’s out there for the new or returning player, looking to give their Intro Pack another lease on life? In this series, we take each Intro Pack and break it down to its core themes, before rebuilding it subject to two Golden Rules.
Rule #1: No added rares or mythics — commons or uncommons only!
Rule #2: We can only use cards from the sets already present in the deck. That means Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon.
The object of both Rules is to keep our deck-building limited to what’s both inexpensive and readily available. Before we begin, let’s take a look at the stock deck list for Untamed Wilds.
Untamed Wilds ? Eldritch Moon Intro Pack | Wizards of the Coast
- Creatures (20)
- 1 Assembled Alphas
- 1 Mad Prophet
- 1 Noose Constrictor
- 1 Silverfur Partisan
- 1 Voldaren Duelist
- 2 Bold Impaler
- 2 Furyblade Vampire
- 2 Howlpack Wolf
- 2 Primal Druid
- 2 Quilled Wolf
- 2 Somberwald Stag
- 3 Brazen Wolves
- Spells (15)
- 1 Clear Shot
- 1 Clip Wings
- 1 Lightning Axe
- 1 Rush of Adrenaline
- 1 Uncaged Fury
- 1 Magmatic Chasm
- 2 Prey Upon
- 2 Spreading Flames
- 2 Blood Mist
- 3 Wolfkin Bond
Making the Cuts
The original deck takes a bit of an unthemed “good stuff” approach. Sure, there’s the whiff of Wolf/Werewolf tribal, though lacking any of the latter, thanks to the cards Howlpack Wolf and Silverfur Partisan. By the same token, there’s a madness element present as well, given the inclusion of cards like Noose Constrictor and Lightning Axe. We could try and overlap them, but we’d have to avoid bleeding to center just a little bit too much. After all, to make madness work you really want to have a lot of outlets, while the Wolf/Werewolf tribal — like most any tribal deck- really wants a heavy component of its constituent creature types.
Instead, what might work best here is to try and build a deck that lets both strategies have a little bit of space, but in a way that doesn’t compromise one way or the other. Can we find some synergy in the block that lets us bridge the gap?
Abandon Reason says yes!
In order to tune to that frequency, however, we’re going to need to make some room- and there’s a lot in this deck that doesn’t fit the bill.
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For one, we’ll need to let go of our sole 1-drop. The Bold Impaler is a nice little mana sink that can pivot from a modest body into a decent hitter for the investment of a little mana each turn. These can be solid options when the late-game stages arrive and you find yourself with more mana than options. Nevertheless, this does nothing to further either of our ambitions, so the Impaler can boldly pick up his pink slip from HR.
For similar reasons, we’ll also be dispensing with the 2-drop, Quilled Wolf. In fairness, the Quilled Wolf is, well, a Wolf, so it does check the tribal box. Like the Impaler, it’s another late-game mana sink, transforming the humble 2/2 into a 6/6. However, that does mean that you still have to play with it as a Grizzly Bears for a number of turns until you get there, and we just want to be a lot more proactive with the deck. Our 2-drops need to matter, in a way that the Quilled Wolf simply doesn’t until the game goes on long enough that you can free up the mana to make him relevant.
We’ll also be cutting the Primal Druid. While it’s certainly nice to have ways to get land into play to help keep your mana consistent, a 0/3 is a do-little speed bump. Slower decks than this might see that as a positive, but it has no place here.
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Moving up to the 3-drops, we find another target for our housekeeping in the Howlpack Wolf. This wolf offsets efficiency with an attacking/blocking restriction, and compares very poorly with the Brazen Wolves. The latter slam in as a 4/3 on the attack without needing a single other creature on the battlefield, and elbow the Howlpack aside.
Next up is the Mad Prophet, which welcomes us to the 4-drops. The 4-drop is a fine enough madness enabler, and even can activate for you on the first turn thanks to haste. Nevertheless, we want to keep the deck tight and forward-focused, and the Prophet doesn’t have much to offer there as a four-mana 2/2. Same goes for the Voldaren Duelist. The Falter effect it brings in as it enters the battlefield is helpful to push additional damage through, but again, a four-mana beater that your opponent can trade for a Bear that costs half as much isn’t going to cut it here.
Our last cut is the Somberwald Stag. Like the Duelist, the Stag pairs an underwhelming body with a nifty, one-time trick. The fact that that trick is removal makes the Stag at least interesting, but it isn’t quite as good as it looks. For instance, if the creature you’re trying to eliminate has 3 or more power, this is effectively a five-mana sorcery-speed removal spell. By the later stages of the game, chances are good you’re going to want to kill off your opponent’s best creature, but it’s certainly possible that their best creature can’t be killed by the Stag. The card is far from useless, but it’s not foolproof, either. As a result, we’re leaving it out.
Building Up
The first card to keep is the Furyblade Vampire. It’s a bit unassuming as a two-mana 1/2, but it makes a great discard outlet for our madness suite. The original deck list had two of them, and that seems about right here. We’ll want to have a steady supply of madness cards to take advantage of discard outlets, but not enough to throw one away every turn. Not only that, but this Vampire is lousy in multiples, since you have to discard to fuel it before attackers are declared. No surprise “which one is he gonna pump” shenanigans here, alas.
Next up is the Noose Constrictor, the modern-day Nimble Mongoose. This card does allow for last-moment trickery, and you can discard more than one card to it a turn anytime you like. That helps it be more potent in the red zone — in both directions — as well as make it a little harder to burn out for your opponent. With cards in hand, risking a Shock on it seems a very dicey proposition. We’ll take a full playset here.
Our last 2-drop is another very strong Green card, the Duskwatch Recruiter. What’s not to love about this guy? A two-mana 2/2 isn’t all that enticing, but one that can go digging into your library for more creature cards is priceless. Not only that, but the statistical shortcoming is made up for by the Recruiter’s Werewolf mode, where he’s now a 3/3 that makes your other creatures cheaper to play. Finally, as a Werewolf, he enjoys some of the tribal benefits we’ll be seeing in the deck thanks to our next card, the Silverfur Partisan.
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The Partisan is one of the deck’s two rare cards, which means that its spot in the final 60 is generally assured. Even when they’re not perfectly aligned with the deck or on-theme, we tend to keep the rares in anyway for the overall power and splashy fun they provide. In this case, the Partisan isn’t all that great when it first touches down — a humble 2/2 with trample. But each time it’s the target of an instant or sorcery spell, it pops off a 2/2 Wolf token. It’s not huge on its own, but it’s a nice bit of added value.
Certainly there’s a fun casual deck waiting to be made that runs all Wolves and Werewolves with four of this guy, but since we only have one copy at our disposal, it’s not worth trying to exploit. Instead, we’ll expect to see some synergistic overlap with the Duskwatch Recruiter, as well as with our next selection, Brazen Wolves.
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The Brazen Wolves are 2/3’s that swing as 4/3’s, all for 3 mana. That’s a solid deal, and we’ll want to stock up on these. The other 3-drop we’ll want here is the Bloodmad Vampire. This is the first of our madness creatures, which means we can sneak them out at instant speed when we have a discard outlet at hand. This Vampire has statting heavily lopsided in favor of attack, which suits our purposes just fine. Are they fragile? Sure, that 1 toughness won’t hold up to much, but there are some ways to ensure they connect to let their “Slith mechanic” help build them up.
The other madness creature we can’t pass up are the Incorrigible Youths. In a deck with reliable discard outlets, the Youths are an incredible bargain — a three-mana 4/3 with haste. These are the perfect card to pitch to the Furyblade Vampires to pump them up, because both can immediately attack together. At 5 mana, they’re even worth paying full price for here, but the offer of considerable cost savings is too good to ignore. We’ll happily take four of these.
The final creature on offer here is the deck’s premium rare, Assembled Alphas. This one costs 6 mana, but it comes equipped with quite a package — a three-point blast to any creature it encounters in the red zone, and to your opponent as well! As a 5/5, it makes for a nice closer, and is a no-brainer to keep.
As for spells, this is pretty straightforward. Since we’re playing madness, we know we’ll want a playset of Fiery Temper. A playset of Lightning Axes will give us even more removal, as well as another discard outlet (and at instant speed, no less).
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From that foundational burn, we have another card that can really tie the deck together: Abandon Reason. It’s a madness spell, so we can use it to fuel our Lightning Axes and Furyblade Vampires without any loss of card advantage. It grants first strike, taking our Bloodmad Vampires from brittle to brutal in a stroke. And on those occasions where we have the Silverfur Partisan in play, the fact that Abandon Reason targets two creatures means that we can often grab two 2/2 Wolf tokens at a stroke, just by targeting two Wolves or Werewolves. Now that’s versatility!
We’ve got room for two more spells here, and lots of options. Borrowed Hostility’s two modes and escalate give it a bit of that same Swiss Army knife utility. Clear Shot is some added removal that pairs well with the Partisan and Bloodmad Vampires. The Wolf/Werewolf subtheme would be happy to see Moonlight Hunt. Otherworldly Outburst makes a nice hedge for the Bloodmad Vampire, letting it potentially trade high while replacing itself with another creature. Woodcutter's Grit is a nice pump that can save one of your creatures from removal, but then there aren’t any creatures in this deck that would be considered essential- plus if they target the Partisan with removal, they’re automatically giving you a 2/2 Wolf token.
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In the end, I’m going with Uncaged Fury. We have some lovely, high-power creatures here for whom this can be a painful surprise for your opponent, such as a 10-point connect from the Bloodmad Vampire. Combat tricks are at their best when they keep your opponent off-balance and guessing, and something this brutal certainly will do just that. I also like that it meshes well with a blocked Bloodmad Vampire, giving it the happy prospect of living to fight another round.
Here’s our final version!
Meddled Untamed Wilds ? Eldritch Moon Standard | Jay Kirkman
- Creatures (22)
- 1 Assembled Alphas
- 1 Silverfur Partisan
- 2 Brazen Wolves
- 2 Furyblade Vampire
- 4 Bloodmad Vampire
- 4 Duskwatch Recruiter
- 4 Incorrigible Youths
- 4 Noose Constrictor
- Spells (14)
- 2 Uncaged Fury
- 4 Abandon Reason
- 4 Fiery Temper
- 4 Lightning Axe
I hope you’ve enjoyed our meddling of the last of the Intro Packs. Kaladesh — with its Planeswalker Decks — is on the horizon. Aether ho!
