
So, I recently thought more about a wolf/werewolf commander deck and while I do love this tribe, it certainly needs more support and the transformation mechanic of werewolves is quite, well, clunky at best.
So what do I do? Make my own cards of course, based on my world Adastra. There the elves are shapeshifters, living in the vast forests of Lifdrahayn, where all the trees have ever red leaves. With the arrival of Cian and the wolfir the first werewolves also followed shortly after. The elves seeing it as a blessing of their god Feyanir, who happens to be a wolf. Also on Adastra it is always night but one day of the year, and the world has two moons, so it is quite welcoming for werewolves and the way the elves embrace their inner wolf enables them living in symbiosis their feral side.
I made Hearyn and Scadyr Naya commanders as wolves sometimes have a bit of a white splash and it usually more of a handycap to lack a color than having one too much and it also lets you run some general tribal cards like Radiant Destiny or Kindred Boon for the additional boost if need should be, plus with green in it, ramp and fixing shouldn't be much of a problem.
I do hope you enjoy these cards and if you want to see more I would love to hear your thoughts, questions and opinions.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31319759/
So what do I do? Make my own cards of course, based on my world Adastra. There the elves are shapeshifters, living in the vast forests of Lifdrahayn, where all the trees have ever red leaves. With the arrival of Cian and the wolfir the first werewolves also followed shortly after. The elves seeing it as a blessing of their god Feyanir, who happens to be a wolf. Also on Adastra it is always night but one day of the year, and the world has two moons, so it is quite welcoming for werewolves and the way the elves embrace their inner wolf enables them living in symbiosis their feral side.
I made Hearyn and Scadyr Naya commanders as wolves sometimes have a bit of a white splash and it usually more of a handycap to lack a color than having one too much and it also lets you run some general tribal cards like Radiant Destiny or Kindred Boon for the additional boost if need should be, plus with green in it, ramp and fixing shouldn't be much of a problem.
I do hope you enjoy these cards and if you want to see more I would love to hear your thoughts, questions and opinions.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/31319759/
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fanart
Species Wolf
Size 1080 x 720px
File Size 871.1 kB
Listed in Folders
I honestly feel that one of the two should flip. Hearyn more so as it can trigger itself off of a Scadyr ETB (castable at instant speed) which then also gives you the ability to also not transform it if needed. Alternatively giving either of them a Eminence tribal ability to allow the transform tribal effect while in the command zone would be viable as well, or limiting the flash speed creature casting to wolf/werewolf tribal.
I'm not sure if this was intended but the "may" verbiage on Hearyn feels a bit out of flavor with the WotC werewolf lore as they rarely have control over their transformations, Arlinn being the only one that I know that could do it at will. I would recommend a change to 'on wolf/werewolf etb, if a wolf or werewolf you control could transform, transform it." As this also then requires your co-commander in play to cause the trigger to choose without targeting. Casts Hearyn, Casts Scadyr, goes to flip a werewolf, opponent casts instant speed shroud on it(rare but still funny), fizzles the flip trigger as the Hearyn trigger can no longer target.
Happy war of the spark prerelease day.
I'm not sure if this was intended but the "may" verbiage on Hearyn feels a bit out of flavor with the WotC werewolf lore as they rarely have control over their transformations, Arlinn being the only one that I know that could do it at will. I would recommend a change to 'on wolf/werewolf etb, if a wolf or werewolf you control could transform, transform it." As this also then requires your co-commander in play to cause the trigger to choose without targeting. Casts Hearyn, Casts Scadyr, goes to flip a werewolf, opponent casts instant speed shroud on it(rare but still funny), fizzles the flip trigger as the Hearyn trigger can no longer target.
Happy war of the spark prerelease day.
Neither of them transform for some reason. First it would kinda give you three commanders, even if I find it quite clunky to have your commander need to transform to full effcienzy first. Also, even if nobody cares about that, there is the lore. Scadyr is Hearyn's inner wolf, so with him being summoned Hearyn wouldn't transform anymore. And eventually there is the practical side as I would need to make an additional illustration for the backside what I don't have time for atm.
Since you would want to run them in a werewolf/wolf tribal deck anyway with those commanders, I didn't found it really that important to restrict the flash to that tribe, might be worth a second thought tho. And about Emminence I am really torn. It is a cool ability, but it was restricted for the commander2017 set and I actually don't wanna reboot that, even if I quite often thought about it, especially for cats as their commander was quite underwhelming compared to the rest.
The may also had it's reasons. First imagine if you already had a transformed werewolf out, casting a wolf (as it triggers of them as well) would force you to transform your werewolf back. Now naturally for some you might want that, like Huntmaster of the Fells who likes to flip back and forth, but the majority of them you probably want on their werewolf side. And in a format that likes to boardwipe, it isn't impossible to get into a scenario like that where you are left with one other creature when you are rebuilding and you wouldn't want to give it up then. Further there is the lore again, as I wrote, on Adastra the bond between elves and their feral side is different to that on Innistrad and they learned to control it better under the guidance of the wolfir and from their experiences as shapeshifters before their arrival. Also there are only three instants in magic that give shroud to a creature, there are naturally others ways, like protection, but yet, I deemed that less likely to matter, at least certainly less likely than a forced transformation would be annoying. Also if the targeted transformation fizzles once, you can just cast another wolf or werewolf and transform it again. It's not like this one fizzle would deny it entirely.
I hope that makes sense, and happy prerelease to you as well.
Since you would want to run them in a werewolf/wolf tribal deck anyway with those commanders, I didn't found it really that important to restrict the flash to that tribe, might be worth a second thought tho. And about Emminence I am really torn. It is a cool ability, but it was restricted for the commander2017 set and I actually don't wanna reboot that, even if I quite often thought about it, especially for cats as their commander was quite underwhelming compared to the rest.
The may also had it's reasons. First imagine if you already had a transformed werewolf out, casting a wolf (as it triggers of them as well) would force you to transform your werewolf back. Now naturally for some you might want that, like Huntmaster of the Fells who likes to flip back and forth, but the majority of them you probably want on their werewolf side. And in a format that likes to boardwipe, it isn't impossible to get into a scenario like that where you are left with one other creature when you are rebuilding and you wouldn't want to give it up then. Further there is the lore again, as I wrote, on Adastra the bond between elves and their feral side is different to that on Innistrad and they learned to control it better under the guidance of the wolfir and from their experiences as shapeshifters before their arrival. Also there are only three instants in magic that give shroud to a creature, there are naturally others ways, like protection, but yet, I deemed that less likely to matter, at least certainly less likely than a forced transformation would be annoying. Also if the targeted transformation fizzles once, you can just cast another wolf or werewolf and transform it again. It's not like this one fizzle would deny it entirely.
I hope that makes sense, and happy prerelease to you as well.
I figured there was a big lore background to the characters that drove the reasoning but figured I'd throw in the two cents based on my experience with the cards.
The instant shroud thing is rare and definitely fringe. I mean who runs steely resolve (not instant but a named tribal shroud) . Just thought it was a funny interaction. You could still include the may and remove the target clause. When etb, you may transform a wolf or werewolf you control. Without the target clause you don't have to declare a choice until resolution so if they try to use targeted removal on huntmster you could always just choose some other doggo. But the may still really feels like it overlaps with Scadyrs trigger on transform. Perhaps give an upside to not transforming? If a wolf or werewolf you control would transform, you may choose not to transform it instead if you do you may have Scadyr fight another target creature. Or maybe a bolt or +1/+1 counters? This way there is upside to having both partners out.
The instant shroud thing is rare and definitely fringe. I mean who runs steely resolve (not instant but a named tribal shroud) . Just thought it was a funny interaction. You could still include the may and remove the target clause. When etb, you may transform a wolf or werewolf you control. Without the target clause you don't have to declare a choice until resolution so if they try to use targeted removal on huntmster you could always just choose some other doggo. But the may still really feels like it overlaps with Scadyrs trigger on transform. Perhaps give an upside to not transforming? If a wolf or werewolf you control would transform, you may choose not to transform it instead if you do you may have Scadyr fight another target creature. Or maybe a bolt or +1/+1 counters? This way there is upside to having both partners out.
Well, the actual reward for not transforming a werewolf here would already be that he remains transformed. Huntmaster and Ulrich are some of the very few exaptions which you want to constantly flip. Most werewolves are way better on their transformed side and you usually want to keep them that way, but naturally your opponents's turn would make them flip back and I wanted to make commanders that prevent that. Because in any case you can make them transform into werewolves by sitting your turn out and do nothing. With Hearyn giving your creature spells flash that isn't even much of a problem. So they flip and once you get Scadyr down they will stay that way if you want to.
The two of my own lore and my own creations. But given that this is still an MtG project it is naturally connected to that. Primarily I want to make cards that support the existing tribe. I am only one person and can't make it entirely new you see.
Lore wise it is also connected to Innistrad. With the events of Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon the Curse Mute of Avacyn ceased and werewolves came back stronger and people began to distrust the Wolfir as well. In the following conflicts my Wolfir Planeswalker Cian lead a group away into the wilds to find savety but in vain. With the ignition of his spark he traveled to other worlds to find someone to help and eventually met my leonine planeswalker Ceos. Together they brought the small group to Adastra. There the elves had worshipped one of the gods I made up for the world who is a wolf. They were shapeshifters already and mostly turned into wolves to hunt. THey saw the Wolfir as a sign of their god and embraced them into their society. Over the time the two groups mixed more and more and that resulted in the first werewolves of Adastra. However on Adastra the circustances are way different than on Innistrad. Lycantrophy is seen as a blessing and the wolfir and help learning to control it as they were werewolves themselves once afterall. Also the elves have a natural affinity towards that. Further there is the world itself. On Adastra there is nearly constantly night with two moons so the change is way more consistant and smoother than on Innistrad where it is only one night. I imagined this harsh change on Innistrad being very stressful and traumatic what might cause werewolves to lose control there often. With the different durations on Adastra the werewolves can eventually learn to control themselves and their changes.
Lore wise it is also connected to Innistrad. With the events of Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon the Curse Mute of Avacyn ceased and werewolves came back stronger and people began to distrust the Wolfir as well. In the following conflicts my Wolfir Planeswalker Cian lead a group away into the wilds to find savety but in vain. With the ignition of his spark he traveled to other worlds to find someone to help and eventually met my leonine planeswalker Ceos. Together they brought the small group to Adastra. There the elves had worshipped one of the gods I made up for the world who is a wolf. They were shapeshifters already and mostly turned into wolves to hunt. THey saw the Wolfir as a sign of their god and embraced them into their society. Over the time the two groups mixed more and more and that resulted in the first werewolves of Adastra. However on Adastra the circustances are way different than on Innistrad. Lycantrophy is seen as a blessing and the wolfir and help learning to control it as they were werewolves themselves once afterall. Also the elves have a natural affinity towards that. Further there is the world itself. On Adastra there is nearly constantly night with two moons so the change is way more consistant and smoother than on Innistrad where it is only one night. I imagined this harsh change on Innistrad being very stressful and traumatic what might cause werewolves to lose control there often. With the different durations on Adastra the werewolves can eventually learn to control themselves and their changes.
The fact that there's also some white in there also allows you some freedom to splash for effects that you might need to help protect your forces or deal with otherwise troublesome permanents.
Even the white enchantment that limits players to only 1 spell each turn.
Even the white enchantment that limits players to only 1 spell each turn.
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