That said it shines in a special way in Wolf Run Ramp. The deck's strength in the late game means that typically all you want to do is survive survive and survive. Thragtusk is a powerful and safe play that typically comes at just the right point in the game. The immediate life gain means you need not fear Zealous Conscripts or Vapor Snag and the card's defensive orientation means that if a Delver player copies it with Phantasmal Image (the only way to answer it at parity) the only thing they'll accomplish is slowing down the game and dragging things out to the advantage of the Wolf Run Ramp player. In combination with Cavern of Souls and Kessig Wolf Run it's truly a powerful tool.

Wolf Run is also the only deck that needs not fear a Thragtusk. For obvious reasons the Beast shuts down aggressive decks in a big way. Even against control though the way it generates value after a Doom Blade or Day of Judgment is quite powerful. The only thing the card isn't great at is killing the opponent quickly so Wolf Run Ramp has plenty of time to come over the top with a Titan or Wurmcoil Engine.

The G/R Wolf Run Ramp list I've offered above is what I believe to be the most rock solid deck choice for this weekend's StarCityGames.com Standard Open in DC or any other upcoming Standard event. If you expect the metagame to continue on its current track and you expect Delver and G/W Elf Combo to show up in strong numbers I recommend G/R Wolf Run Ramp.

Regarding the exact decklist while many people have abandoned Green Sun's Zenith I still think it should be a major consideration. Overall casting a Zenith for a Birds of Paradise on turn 2 is only a little bit weaker than playing a Farseek or Sphere of the Suns; often it's exactly the same. The difference comes when you topdeck Green Sun's Zenith on turn 9 which is somewhat better than topdecking that same Farseek. That said I've tempered my enthusiasm for the card and restricted it to two copies since I don't like the idea of playing second-best targets like Huntmaster of the Fells and Acidic Slime just for the sake of versatility.

On the topic of Farseek it is a nice addition to Wolf Run as Rampant Growth has always been substantially better than Sphere of the Suns. Like Rampant Growth your mana acceleration from Farseek cannot run out and it cannot be Ancient Grudged. However unlike Rampant Growth Farseek cannot search for a basic Forest. For this particular list that causes a problem because in order to fit all of the colorless value lands you either need to cut so low on Mountains that you can't support Farseek or you need to cut so low on Forests that you can't cast it on turn 2 with enough consistency. I've suggested a split between Farseek and Sphere of the Suns to increase the number of opening hands you can keep (sometimes you can keep a hand with a Sphere but no green land) and decrease the number of times you run out of Mountains to search up.

Farseek can be a much more powerful tool in a three-color Wolf Run Ramp build.

Wolf Run White

Reid Duke

0th Place at Test deck on 8/5/2012

Standard

 

Creatures (15)

• 4 Solemn Simulacrum
• 3 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 2 Thragtusk
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

Planeswalkers (1)

• 1 Gideon Jura

Lands (26)

• 3 Forest
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Glimmerpost
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 4 Razorverge Thicket
• 4 Sunpetal Grove

Spells (18)

• 1 Sphere of the Suns
• 2 Oblivion Ring
• 2 Bonfire of the Damned
• 4 Day of Judgment
• 3 Farseek
• 2 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Rampant Growth

Sideboard

• 2 Thragtusk
• 1 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Beast Within
• 1 Crushing Vines
• 1 Natural End
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Gideon Jura
• 2 Karn Liberated
• 2 Terminus
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus

 

Wolf Run White while functionally very similar to straight G/R sacrifices a few of the colorless value lands in exchange for a greater diversity of top-end threats and the all-powerful Day of Judgment.

Slagstorm falls short against Hero of Bladehold and Restoration Angel. Bonfire of the Damned is bad to see in your opening hand. Blasphemous Act can be overpriced and inefficient. Day of Judgment does all of their jobs it does them under any circumstances and it does them all the way.

Oblivion Ring is also a card I would be happy to have in my maindeck in the course of a long tournament. Annoying noncreatures like Birthing Pod equipment and opposing Oblivion Rings make me want to maindeck a utility card in Wolf Run Ramp but the options available to straight G/R are not so appealing. Natural End and Crushing Vines are considerations but would frequently be stuck in your hand with no target. Acidic Slime is expensive and competes with the dramatically better Thragtusk for a spot on the mana curve. Beast Within is a great sideboard card for certain matchups but it's simply too bad against creature strategies to maindeck in my opinion. Oblivion Ring though sorcery speed is a versatile answer that will never be completely dead.

If you expect midrange green decks like Birthing Pod to continue their dominance I recommend Wolf Run White. In particular having easy answers to Hero of Bladehold corrects one of the few weaknesses of Wolf Run Ramp that such creature decks will try to exploit.

Wolf Run Blue

Reid Duke

14th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 7/29/2012

Standard

 

Creatures (14)

• 3 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 2 Frost Titan
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 2 Phantasmal Image
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 1 Thragtusk

Lands (26)

• 5 Forest
• 4 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Glimmerpost
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Inkmoth Nexus
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run

Spells (20)

• 3 Bonfire of the Damned
• 3 Farseek
• 2 Green Sun's Zenith
• 4 Ponder
• 4 Rampant Growth
• 4 Temporal Mastery

Sideboard

• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Thragtusk
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Beast Within
• 2 Negate
• 1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 2 Karn Liberated
• 2 Blasphemous Act
• 2 Pillar of Flame

 

Wolf Run Blue is a deck recently popularized by Josh Ravitz and Gerard Fabiano. It's also the deck I played to a 7-2 record at the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Buffalo.

While I can certainly say that I wasn't disappointed with the blue I'll also admit that I'm not 100% confident in it either. The honest truth is that it was the general strengths shared by all flavors of Wolf Run Ramp that really impressed me and led to my success.

Ponder is a welcome addition to nearly any deck but with only eight blue lands it doesn't have the same power to smooth out your early turns as it does in U/W Delver. Temporal Mastery was remarkably powerful in certain matchups and was always a solid game 1 card but it was typically the first thing I looked to sideboard out.

I did feel that Frost Titan was an improvement over the Wurmcoil Engines I've suggested in the other two decklists (though Gerard with whom I worked on the deck wasn't as sure on this point). Phantasmal Image serves as one more answer to Geist of Saint Traft and is powerful for obvious reasons in a deck that plays six Titans. Negate out of the sideboard is a blowout against blue control and some other miscellaneous decks.

As I mentioned above I feel that Green Sun's Zenith is at least a consideration but the Huntmaster of the Fells and Melira Sylvok Outcast were bad for me. I wished I'd had more Thragtusks and more Cavern of Souls at least in the sideboard. With the recent success of Elves and the annoying persistence of U/W Delver I would also recommend a couple of Whipflares somewhere in the 75.

Wolf Run Blue maintains all of the strengths of traditional Wolf Run Ramp but has a few extra tools for the matchups that are traditionally difficult for the archetype. If you expect the metagame to take a turn back towards control and Wolf Run mirrors I recommend Wolf Run Blue.

Any of the above decks are great options for Standard right now. They are substantial favorites over the vast range of green beatdown decks that are coming to define the format. Equally important though is the way they dodge the hate targeted towards these decks.

Of course you can feel free to slog it out in creature battles with everyone else. If you have a great day and are a great player with a great list you might just rise to the top. I for one though am going to make things easy on myself. I'm not going to play the game that everyone else wants me to play. I'm going to Run people over!