Chief of the WildsChief of the Wilds | Art by Tomas Duchek

This week’s featured type is one of my favorites, but their recent treatment has me somewhat perplexed.

They’re really cool because they are commonly depicted as valuing the collective over the individual. In fact, they’re the emblem of the closest things to protagonists in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Stark family, who are noteworthy for their close ties and strong familial bond.

They were also the mascot for one of the schools I used to teach and coach football at, which adds to the personal connection I have with them.

Have you guessed it? It’s Wolves!

Wolves are pack animals, which makes them perfect for a card game sold in packs. I kid, but Wolves are great for showing a different side to Golgari, a color pairing usually centered around the graveyard.

Wolves got a lot of support in The Hobbit, but not all of it seems to fit with the literary or mechanical roles of Wolves.

Wolf History

Wolves haven’t been around for a long time, but they have often been depicted as bonding with humanoid species. Anara, Wolvid FamiliarAnara, Wolvid Familiar protects its partner; Tokka & Rahzar, Terrible TwosTokka & Rahzar, Terrible Twos and Tokka & Rahzar, UnsupervisedTokka & Rahzar, Unsupervised are grouped together; Ukkima, Stalking ShadowUkkima, Stalking Shadow partners with Cazur, Ruthless StalkerCazur, Ruthless Stalker; and Voja, Jaws of the ConclaveVoja, Jaws of the Conclave cares about Elves.

Some of the Wolves in The Hobbit even care about Armies, Orcs, and Goblins, furthering the humanoid pairing theme.

But most of the Wolves in The Hobbit are focused on a different theme: ferocious, or caring about creatures’ power being four or greater. I’m not saying Wolves aren’t ferocious, but it feels really weird for a pack animal to care about one member being big instead of sharing the wealth.

As a result, this deck will be focused on the pack mentality. Wolves might not have the battalion ability of Soldiers, but they do have the ability to swarm the board.

The tough part will be trying to mesh the go-wide token theme from previous iterations with the ferocious theme of The Hobbit.

So how do we get these pieces to work together? And what does Chief of the WildsChief of the Wilds bring to the table?

What Does Chief of the WildsChief of the Wilds Do?

Chief of the Wilds is a menacing 4/4, with its stats and combat ability not only proccing ferocious but also requiring teamwork to take down. 

But it can do far more than that.

Every Wolf that enters, token or otherwise, grows our Chief with a pair of +1/+1 counters. The leader of the pack gets stronger and stronger the bigger the pack it commands, which is a nice way of meshing the go-wide and go-tall strategies.

The Chief doesn’t just draw power from the pack, however. It also acts as a PanharmoniconPanharmonicon for Wolves and Battles.

Admittedly, this deck will not go into Battles, however. It does bother me a little bit to not use all of a commander's abilities, but this is a Wolf deck first and a Chief of the WildsChief of the Wilds deck second, so it doesn’t have to be the epitome of a Chief deck, just a Wolf deck.

After all, the lone Wolf dies, but the pack remains.

Key Cards for Chief of the WildsChief of the Wilds

Wolves serve a variety of roles in Magic, and we will be trying to use Wolves to do the jobs of our deck whenever possible. Our aim is to swarm the board, so we will be using Wolves that are low to the ground, share power or abilities, or make multiple bodies.

Ferocious PupFerocious Pup and Pack GuardianPack Guardian both enter with a Wolf friend. Since the ability triggers as they enter, our commander can double the furry fury. And all these Wolves entering make it very big very quickly.

In addition to the pack aspect, Wolves are incredible hunters, which is shown mechanically via flash. Jumping into battle at instant speed enables Wolves to catch opponents by surprise, with Briarpack AlphaBriarpack Alpha also growing a packmate.

Swarming the board takes mana, and we need to ramp. Wolfwillow HavenWolfwillow Haven is a Wild GrowthWild Growth that can make a Wolf token, while Herald's HornHerald's Horn reduces the cost of our Wolves and can help to find more. Both of these help us get more Wolves onto the board as quickly as we can.

In addition to swarming the board, we need to keep other boards from getting out of hand. Thematically, it makes sense to use “bite” effects, which refer to fight effects that are one-sided.

Bite DownBite Down and Band TogetherBand Together are perfectly thematic removal effects, showing Wolves chomping down with their rows of sharp fangs and working together to bring down opposing threats.

Card draw and advantage aren’t a huge focus for us, as we want to end the game quickly and push as much damage out as quickly as possible. We do need some cards that dig, however, even if it’s just cantripping (drawing a card to replace the one that was just cast) like Sarulf's PackmateSarulf's Packmate or an expensive mana sink like Skalla WolfSkalla Wolf.

Mosswort BridgeMosswort Bridge and Secret TunnelSecret Tunnel are both nonbasic lands that highlight our creatures working together. Mosswort cares about our total power, which can work with ferocious and large creatures or tokens and a wide board of small creatures. Secret Tunnel allows a couple of our Wolves to work together to find a way around opposing defenses, which is also how Robb Stark got around the Golden Tooth and won a key battle at Oxcross in Game of Thrones.

But how do we close the game out?

How Does This Chief of the WildsChief of the Wilds Commander Deck Win?

This is primarily a combat-oriented deck, looking to go wide with Wolves while also going tall with our commander. Since there isn’t a limit on how big the Chief can get, we can attempt to eliminate with commander damage anyone who we can’t swarm.

WarglingWargling works with both strategies, growing a creature and giving our Wolves trample so we can make blocking difficult, especially with our big commander. The Overlord goes more in the other direction, increasing our board exponentially, which also grows our commander to incredible size.

The Deck List

Conclusion

Wolves have a few different strategies, from tokens to ferocious and quite a lot in between.

How would you build Wolves? And who would you use to command them?