Last week we looked at a different kind of Kindred deck in Gruul: Kicker Kindred. Today, I'd like to continue that idea with another unusual look at Kindred.

Wulfgar is Triggered Ability Kindred - though specifically Triggered Ability on Attack! That's so wonderfully specific I can't help but want to see what happens if we try to build around it.

For those who aren't sure, Triggered Abilities are abilities that happen when something else happens. This is often the beginning or end of a specific phase ("at the beginning of your upkeep," "at the end of your first main phase"), but it's also regularly something that happens ("whenever a nontoken Creature dies," "when a player draws a card"). This can be a little complicated to see, so the best trick I have is to look for one of three specific words: "at," "when," and "whenever." If it's got one of those words starting off the text, it's a triggered ability.

Let's see what kind of damage we can do with this.

Wulgar Attack Trigger Kindred | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Wulfgar of Icewind Dale

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Bane of Bala Ged
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Blossoming Bogbeast
• 1 Breeches, Eager Pillager
• 1 Captain Lannery Storm
• 1 Coastline Marauders
• 1 Cultivator of Blades
• 1 Delina, Wild Mage
• 1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1 Durnan of the Yawning Portal
• 1 Elder Gargaroth
• 1 Emergent Woodwurm
• 1 Emissary Green
• 1 Etali, Primal Storm
• 1 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1 Grand Warlord Radha
• 1 Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
• 1 Inferno Titan
• 1 Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1 Owlbear Cub
• 1 Primeval Herald
• 1 Ruby, Daring Tracker
• 1 Savage Ventmaw
• 1 Stampede Surfer
• 1 Tectonic Giant
• 1 Werewolf Pack Leader

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Domri, Anarch of Bolas

• Instants (5)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Hunter's Insight
• 1 Klauth's Will
• 1 Return of the Wildspeaker

• Sorceries (9)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Hull Breach
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Rishkar's Expertise
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Three Visits

• Enchantment (10)
• 1 Aggravated Assault
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Colossal Majesty
• 1 Druids' Repository
• 1 Elemental Bond
• 1 Family's Favor
• 1 Garruk's Uprising
• 1 Gimli's Reckless Might
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Rhythm of the Wild

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Mage Slayer
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Two-Handed Axe // Sweeping Cleave

• Land (40)
• 12 Forest
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Bonders' Enclave
• 1 Castle Embereth
• 1 Castle Garenbrig
• 1 Cinder Glade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Game Trail
• 1 Highland Forest
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 1 Raging Ravine
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Restless Ridgeline
• 1 Rockfall Vale
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Rugged Highlands
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Sheltered Thicket
• 1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Wooded Ridgeline

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The first thing we need to notice is the Creature attacking doesn't necessarily need to have the Triggered Ability. The attack just needs to be the thing that triggers the ability. So, a Creature which says "whenever [this Creature] attacks, each opponent discards a card" will work, but so will an Enchantment which says "whenever you attack with one or more Creatures, draw a card" or an Equipment which says "when Equipped Creature attacks, Equipped Creature fights target Creature." This opens up our opportunities quite a bit.

Let's start with Wulfgar. He's got Melee, so he gets +1/+1 for each opponent we've attacked this turn. So, if we attack with him and two other Creatures, each one attacking a different opponent, Wulfgar gets +3/+3. But wait! Because his ability is triggered by attacking, it happens again because of his second ability, which means he'll get a whopping +6/+6 on attack if we're attacking three opponents.

He also costs 5 mana, and we want him out pretty much all the time, so we're running our normal 40 Lands and several ramp spells. Because getting him out a turn early will be helpful, most of our ramp happens in the two- or three-mana arena, including Cultivate, Thought Vessel, and Ruby, Daring Tracker (who works great in a lot of ways). Domri, Anarch of Bolas is a nifty way to get Wulfgar out on turn four, plus he functions as a removal spell later, and Druid's Repository is a fun way to bank some mana without Treasures. Notice Sword of the Animist will trigger twice with Wulfgar out! We have a few ways to search for a Forest or a Mountain, so we're running several dual lands which have the Land types. We've also got some of the regular suspects, like Castle Garenbrig and Castle Embereth, Kessig Wolf Run, and Rogue's Passage. One of the best ways to use excess mana is to build in mana sinks, and Lands like Kessig Wolf Run and Rogue's Passage are great options.

Our best bet to win the game is coming out fast and aggressive, so we want to be able to keep cards flowing to our Hand. Enchantments like Garruk's Uprising and Creatures like Elder Gargaroth both help with this. We're going to have Creatures entering the Battlefield and being big, so the Enchantment suite works well. Elder Gargaroth draws two per attack thanks to Wulfgar, as does Werewolf Pack Leader. Family's Favor is kind of funny because it will put two Shield Counters on a Creature, then it will lose only one of them if it does damage to draw the card, so it will keep the second Shield Counter. Beast Whisperer is kind of another one of the Enchantments; Breeches, Eager Pillager gives us an impulse draw; and Durnan of the Yawning Portal digs around for another Creature and makes it easier to cast for us. Rishkar's Expertise and Shamanic Revelation are both solid hand-refillers, and Hunter's Insight remains one of my favorite cards to play in Green decks.

Then, of course, we have a few ways to suddenly make the combat math a lot more difficult. Blossoming Bogbeast is hilarious here, giving a blanket +4/+4 and Trample when it attacks. Cultivator of Blades will normally give +3/+3. Even Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma makes things a bit more complicated.

I'm not sure how I feel about Hull Breach, and it's possible I want it to be Decimate if I'm going to run a Sorcery-speed Disenchant, but I figured it was worth trying here. It does a lot for 2 mana, which is nice. Klauth's Will can do some pretty serious damage, and Blasphemous Act is well-loved for a reason. Beast Within is a decent catch-all solution to lots of problems. I really like Argentum Armor here (okay, I really like Argentum Armor in general, but here it really shines) because we get to hit twice. Bane of Bala Ged is particularly nasty. Inferno Titan can throw some damage around. Heroic Intervention is a great response to someone else's Wrath effect.

We have a few ways to give Haste, like Gimli's Reckless Might and Rhythm of the Wild. This is useful but not necessary, so we only have a few, but a nice line of play is turn two ramp, turn three Haste, turn four Commander, turn five something stupid and huge.

Two more things deserve special attention. Beastmaster Ascension is very strong here because it will get two counters per Creature, which means it activates with four total attacking Creatures, not seven. An early Beastmaster Ascension can easily run away with a game. Also, we have Savage Ventmaw and Aggravated Assault. Both of these cards are good on their own, but together they go infinite, so it's a fun pocket combo but not the purpose of the deck.

Just like last week, this deck should be a hoot to play. Decks which attack aggressively like this are often really fun at a table because they force people to act or they'll just die. We also won't ever be quite sure how we'll play out, since we have such a random assortment of Creatures to draw and each one behaves differently - we just know we'll get to do whatever they do twice.

What Triggered Ability do you want in Wulfgar? I'd love to hear from you on social media to let me know.

Thanks for reading.