(This is a guest article by Cruxx)

Motivation

The Wrath of the Wulven deck is supposed to make the best of Wulven's inherent abilities and combine them into a strong deck that stands a fighting chance in any matchup. Unfortunately Wulven currently lack race specific item destruction and draw mechanic, which keeps them from competing well consistently at very high levels of play.

This deck combines the best Shadow creatures to choose from according to the circumstances, combined with Wulven's potent creature removal tools, survivability and Moonstalker's ability to safeguard himself and his allies from physical attacks.

If you learned to play it well and know your opponents basic tactics, this deck carries you easily to a rating of 200 and further. (Personal record so far: 20 games win streak above the 200 mark, up to a rating of 243.)

Deck

Strategy

The deck was designed with The Rule of Six in mind, giving it different strategic options to chose from, depending on the opponent you are facing. Using Moonstalker's ability wisely to protect creatures at crucial points in the game and exploiting your opponents weak spot is the main goal of this deck. In this latest iteration I cut back on card draw (Bazaar and Shadow Knight only) to stress other goals of the deck some more.

The deck can be broken down into the following sections, each fulfilling a different goal:

Strong and versatile mid-cost creatures - Pack Wolf, Death Mage Thaddeus & Keldor

Hard Hitters - Plasma Behemoth & Shadow Knight

Creature Control - Now You're Mine & Captured Prey

Survivability - Regeneration & Full Moon

Card Draw - Bazaar & Shadow Knight

Item destruction - Shriek of Vengeance & Jeweler's Dream

This last point needs some explaining. Originally Acid Jets would complete the 6 cards item destruction goal, but due to its rather limited and ineffective nature, I decided to put an "item destruction card" in that works similar, but opens up additional offensive options, speeds up my game and also provides more ping damage synergy: Jeweler's Dream. You will do a bit worse against heavily buffed weapon builds, but most of the time Acid Jets really wasn't enough to achieve victory anyways and now we even dish out more damage and punish creatures attacking our hero. Feel free to change 2 of those cards back to Acid Jets or any other card you would prefer to destroy items.

The strategy can vary greatly now depending on the opponent you are facing. Let's take a look at 3 specific examples to get the general idea.

• An Eladwen deck trying to death race your hero should be met with Regeneration and Full Moon, to keep you in the game. When it comes to creatures several early Wolf Pack for early pressure or Plasma Behemoth due to his high HP present very good choices. In this case some of our creature control cards and item destruction can be sacked preferably in most cases.

• Vs. a Boris player it can be highly beneficial to play less mid-cost creatures and safe your Shadow Energy for later in the game, when you want to play Plasma Behemoth and Shadow Knight to seal the deal.

• Vs. a Darckclaw stall deck without creatures, you are able to sack creature control and draw mechanic cards, since one goal of the DC deck is milling you to death. In this case it is very important to use item destruction wisely to keep your creatures in play (destroy Evil Ascendant) and create a hole in your opponent's defence, when he thinks himself save (destroy Rain Delay / Full Moon) and attack with full force.

Similar to the 3 examples above, there are many different options when it comes to your overall game plan and sacrificing strategy vs. different opponents. Learn about other decks and what their weak spots are and then exploit them.

Basic synergies & tactics

• Use Moonstalker's ability to protect key creatures like Plasma Behemoth or multiple creatures if you plan on using Full Moon the next round

• Use Shadow Knight to revive Plasma Behemoth

• Use Death Mage Thaddeus entry ping damage together with a previously played creature to finish off an ally

• Use Jeweler's Dream to the same goal and or to reduce item durability of your opponent

• Use Jeweler's Dream when it allows you to play additional useful cards. (e.g. when played in round 4 attack a Kristoffer and use the freed up resources to Now You're Mine an Aldon or play a Pack Wolf.)

• Use Plasma Behemoth and Death Mage Thaddeus vs. stealthed creatures

• Use Keldor's ability to kill off strong cost 3 creatures and for additional damage output

• Use Plasma Behemoth, Death Mage Thaddeus and Pack Wolf vs. Warriors and Crippling Blow

• Play Pack Wolf preferably if you have at least 2 in your starting hand to utilize its self-buff

• Use Full Moon either defensively vs. burn decks or offensively when its use enables you to kill off key creatures

• Keep Captured Prey for creatures with special abilities, like Plasma Behemoth or Shadow Knight

• Use Now You're Mine against buffed low cost creatures or cornerstone creatures like Aldon the Brave or Jasmine Rosecult

• Be mindful of keeping some Hard Hitters on your hand vs Mages and Priests with mass removal

Feedback

Please use the Shadow Era forum thread for comments and feedback.