While they’re fantastic in Commander, typal decks rarely do any serious work in constructed Magic. In most cases, boring as it sounds, simply playing the most efficient cards available offers more benefits than building towards typal synergies. Every rule has its exceptions, however, and this week we saw Golgari Wolf Typal claim first place in an MTG Standard RCQ.
Golgari Wolf Typal In MTG Standard
The heart of this new brew, which comes to us via MTG player Juan Sebastian Molina Morales, is its significant package of Wolves from The Hobbit.
Chief Warg’s Company
Chief Warg’s Company
Trample
This creature can't attack unless you control two or more other Wolves.
At the beginning of your upkeep, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
is the heavy hitter here, providing a very efficient threat that snowballs over time. Ordinarily it takes a while to get going, but here
Bejeweled Warg
Bejeweled Warg
Trample
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, choose one —
• Put a +1/+1 counter on target Wolf you control.
• Create a Treasure token. (It's an artifact with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
and
Head of the Hunt
Head of the Hunt
Flash
If a creature an opponent controls would die, exile it instead. When you do, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
speed things up greatly.
Add in
Llanowar Elves
Llanowar Elves
{T}: Add {G}.
to power out Chief Warg’s Company on turn two, and this is a deck capable of some seriously speedy starts. All of these tools allow Golgari Wolf Typal to pursue a beatdown win in most matchups, with
Ouroboroid
Ouroboroid
At the beginning of combat on your turn, put X +1/+1 counters on each creature you control, where X is this creature's power.
coming down later to help push.
Notably, this speed doesn’t come at the cost of grindy mid-game potential, as each of the Wolves here offers plenty of value over time. Bejeweled Warg provides ramp and stat scaling, for example, while the other two create a steady stream of tokens.
This grindy value plan is well-supported by the rest of the deck, which feels very much like an update on the classic Golgari Midrange shell.
Unholy Annex
Unholy Annex
At the beginning of your end step, draw a card. If you control a Demon, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Otherwise, you lose 2 life.
(You may cast either half. That door unlocks on the battlefield. As a sorcery, you may pay the mana cost of a locked door to unlock it.)
reprises its role as a fantastic midrange draw engine, and plays particularly well with
Firdoch Core
Firdoch Core
Changeling (This card is every creature type.)
{T}: Add one mana of any color.
{4}: This artifact becomes a 4/4 artifact creature until end of turn.
, which also helps out your Wolf plan. Core is also nice alongside
Beorn the Fierce
Beorn the Fierce
Trample
Other Bears you control get +2/+2.
At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a trample counter on up to one target creature you control. It becomes a Bear in addition to its other types. Then if you control three or more Bears, draw two cards.
, which appears here as a one-of finisher and draw piece.
The deck’s ample removal suite, which runs the gamut from
Requiting Hex
Requiting Hex
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may blight 1. (You may put a -1/-1 counter on a creature you control.)
Destroy target creature with mana value 2 or less. If this spell's additional cost was paid, you gain 2 life.
to
Maelstrom Pulse
Maelstrom Pulse
Destroy target nonland permanent and all other permanents with the same name as that permanent.
, pushes this angle harder. Capping everything off is
Professor Dellian Fel
Professor Dellian Fel
+2: You gain 3 life.
0: You draw a card and lose 1 life.
−3: Destroy target creature.
−6: You get an emblem with "Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life."
, which provides draw, removal, and even an alternate win condition in really long games.
A New Apex Predator?
In the current Standard metagame, Golgari Wolf Typal feels well-positioned overall. Against Mono-Green Landfall, the deck’s ample removal suite lets it control the pace of the game, while the Wolf package contests the board well. While explosive
Mightform Harmonizer
Mightform Harmonizer
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, double the power of target creature you control until end of turn.
Warp {2}{G} (You may cast this card from your hand for its warp cost. Exile this creature at the beginning of the next end step, then you may cast it from exile on a later turn.)
plays can catch you off guard sometimes, in general this feels like a strong matchup.
Both Dimir Midrange and Izzet Spellementals are also decent matchups for Golgari Wolf Typal, but could be more difficult than Landfall. Dimir presents a slower clock than Golgari but has better access to card advantage, so games there can go either way. Spellementals is a bit of a trickier matchup, since
Sunderflock
Sunderflock
This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the greatest mana value among Elementals you control.
Flying
When this creature enters, if you cast it, return all non-Elemental creatures to their owners' hands.
can absolutely blow you out, while the deck’s cheap removal can deal with your grindy threats before they generate much advantage.
Where Golgari Wolf Typal really struggles is against Control, with current Four-Color lists being perfectly placed to deal with it. The deck’s constant board wipes and removal make it tough to establish your Wolves, which in turn makes it hard to snowball advantage. Though Professor Dellian Fel and Unholy Annex are decent options in this matchup, control effectively nullifies your core game plan.
While Golgari Wolf Typal isn’t in a dominant position in Standard right now, its strong result over the weekend clearly highlights its potential. With a bit more iteration from brewers, this could potentially become a staple deck in the still-evolving Standard metagame.
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