Few drafters play this deck. It wins 54.6% over 2,822 games, a little below the four most-played decks: Goblin Army (57.6% over 85,459 games), Draw Two (56.4% over 58,594 games), Ferocious Wolves (56.9% over 57,277 games) and Dwarves & Equipment (56.5% over 52,797 games). Ferocious Wolves (black-green) is the green deck most drafters choose instead.
The set's and its five common dual lands are made for Goblin Army, Ferocious Wolves, Dwarves & Equipment, Draw Two and Elf Landfall, and no card asks for both red and green. Red's best cards are built for Goblin Army () and Dwarves & Equipment, and green's for Ferocious Wolves, where black adds more creatures (Ravening Warg, Nighthowl Pursuer). A few hybrid cards still work here. Their cost has a symbol like that either of two colors can pay. Large Bear, Duskwatch Hunter, Mirkwood Nurturer and Thranduil, Sindarin Liege can be cast with green mana, and Goblin Plate Mail and Dwalin, Weaponmaster with red.
Only five cards have enough games in this deck to measure. Two of them are basic lands, and the other three all do worse here than in their home deck: Pinecone Strike 57.0% here against 60.5% in Goblin Army, Quarrel 56.1% against 58.4% in Ferocious Wolves, Attercop 55.4% against 57.1%.
You end up here when both red and green keep coming to you and black and white are clearly taken. Then 4-power green creatures and red make a fair deck.
Deck win rate54.6%−1.6 vs average2,822 games
Compared with the set average (56.2%). Win rates from 17Lands.
How a game goes
Ordinary Bear's 4 power turns on for Nasty Little Rabbit, and Pinecone Strike burns the blocker in the Rabbit's way.
Early turns
Turns 1–3: Nasty Little Rabbit on turn 1, a like Attercop or Bothersome Noisemaker, then Mirkwood Pathmaker or Dori, Bearer of Friends on turn 3. Use Pinecone Strike on their best early creature.
Middle turns
Turns 4–6: get a creature with 4 power down to turn on, and cast it before combat so the Rabbit grows the same turn. Quarrel and the Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern clear the one blocker that stops your attacks.
Late game
Turn 7+: Gandalf, Spark Starter and Smaug, the Great Calamity (cast after its Spew Flame) are with a body attached.
Ferocious
is a bonus that is on while you control a creature with power 4 or more. The 4-power creature only has to be on your side of the battlefield, or untapped. It does not have to attack. Each card checks at its own moment. Wargling and Wilderland Scrounger check when they attack, and Nasty Little Rabbit checks at the beginning of combat on your turn.
Example: you control Ordinary Bear (a 4/5) and Nasty Little Rabbit (a 1/2). At the beginning of combat on your turn the Rabbit gets a +1/+1 counter , whether or not anything attacks. After three counters the Rabbit is a 4/5 and counts itself, so it keeps growing even if the Bear .
This deck's three ferocious cards are all green (Rabbit, Wargling, Wilderland Scrounger), and red supplies many of the 4-power bodies: Gundabad Opportunist, Glóin the Mighty, Misty Mountains Raider, and Bombur, Gentle Dreamer (5 power for 3 mana).
Nighthowl Pursuer (1/1 menace): “Ferocious — Whenever this creature attacks while you control a creature with power 4 or greater, this creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.” You also have Desolation Prowler (2/2). Right now nothing you control has 4 power, so ferocious is off.
Before attacking, you use Desolation Prowler: “Pay 2 life: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.” You go to 18 life and Prowler is a 4/4. Now you control a creature with power 4 or more, so ferocious is on.
Pursuer attacks, and ferocious triggers: +2/+2, so it's a 3/3 with menace. Their single Bear can't block it alone, because menace needs two blockers. It hits for 3.
The deck plays cheap Wolves and a few 4-power creatures (Large Bear, Mirkwood Pathmaker, Ordinary Bear). Once one big creature is down, all the small ones get better.
Step 1 of 4. Nighthowl Pursuer (1/1 menace): “Ferocious — Whenever this creature attacks while you control a creature with power 4 or greater, this creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.” You also have Desolation Prowler (2/2). Right now nothing you control has 4 power, so ferocious is off. You have priority.
Your turnFirst main phase
Your turn, first main phase.
Beginning
Main 1
Combat
Main 2
End
Opponent20life
4/5
4/5
You20lifehas
1/1
1/1
2/2
2/2
Key cards
Pinecone Strike
CcommonInstant
Removal
Why it works
Three damage at speed for 2 mana kills most of the set's 2- and , and its second mode destroys an in the same spell.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Save it for their best early attacker or the creature wearing their , and let a 1/1 live. When they have a , choose both modes.
Every land you play makes it bigger, so unlike most it is still worth drawing on turn 8. A late Pathmaker also turns Quarrel into a 6- or 7-damage spell.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Don't block a with it on turn 3, because it is worth far more later. A big Pathmaker without gets chump-blocked, so its best turns come with Beorn the Fierce's on it.
drawing it late game and having it be a 6/6 or 7/7 sounds fairly good to me.
Once your first 4-power creature is out, the Rabbit gets a counter every turn, so one that starts growing on turn 4 is a 5/6 by turn 7. Opponents end up spending on a 1-mana card.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Don't trade it or chump-block with it, even while it is still a 1/2. In paper the counter comes whether or not anything attacks, so say "going to combat" every turn and add it.
Also, unlike the beetle, it sees itself for its own ability, so once it hits 4 power, it just keeps triggering.
With a 4-power creature out, Quarrel kills most early drops for 2 mana at speed, and a late Pathmaker or Bombur, Gentle Dreamer handles bigger ones.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Before combat it removes the blocker in your way. After combat a creature that attacked can still be the source, because Quarrel doesn't need it untapped.
Especially potent with creatures, Quarrel is just a solid spell for whatever green deck you're drafting.
Chapter I deals 6 damage, enough for nearly any creature in the set, and the keeps working after that. Chapter II destroys an of theirs (, a ), and chapters III and IV each add toward Gandalf, Spark Starter or Smaug, the Great Calamity.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Because chapter I triggers as the enters, hold it until they have a creature worth 6 damage. The from chapters III and IV arrives in your first main phase and is gone when that phase ends, so plan a spell for it there.
Gundabad Opportunist brings 4 power for , and the card it exiles when it enters is yours to play until the end of your next turn, so it usually replaces itself.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Hold your land drop until it has entered. If it exiles a land, play that one and keep the land in your hand. A spell you can't afford yet decides next turn's mana.
There's nothing much wrong with a decently sized that impulse draws you a card on entering.
on a keeps big ground creatures from attacking into it, and adds to the list. It is also your best Quarrel source, because 2 deathtouch damage kills even a 6/6.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
With a big threat across the table, hold it back for Quarrel instead of trading it. With 1 toughness it to anything that deals 1 damage to each creature.
Without , its 10 power stops at one chump blocker a turn, and and don't change that. Drafters still take the 7-mana 10/7 around pick 3.
How to play it and the numbers
How to play it
Take or a good cheap creature over it. If it does make your deck, it needs to connect, which Wargling (switched on by the Bear's 10 power) or Beorn the Fierce's gives it.
Sadly a major underperformer and not a very good card.
Look for red and green's best uncommons coming later than they should. Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern (average pick 3.0), Pinecone Strike (3.7) and Mirkwood Pathmaker (3.8) are normally gone in the first few picks, so seeing them at pick 6 or later means those colors are open. Nasty Little Rabbit (4.4) arriving late says green is open. Quarrel (6.0) and Attercop (7.6) coming mid-pack is normal and tells you little. Watch black too. If Crude Bent Blade and Ravening Warg also come late, go Goblin Army or Ferocious Wolves instead, because those decks win more with the same red and green cards.
Common mistakes
Forcing Beasts and Burn. No or dual land is made for red and green, so you never draft toward this deck on purpose. Take strong red and green cards, and settle here only if both colors keep flowing in pack 2.
Too few creatures with 4 power. does nothing without one. Nasty Little Rabbit stays a 1/2 and Wargling stays a 2-power . Aim for about six creatures that have 4+ power or it quickly: Mirkwood Pathmaker, Duskwatch Hunter, Gundabad Opportunist, Glóin the Mighty, Misty Mountains Raider, Ordinary Bear, Large Bear, Bombur, Gentle Dreamer.
Too little . Green's only common and uncommon removal spells are Quarrel and Troll Negotiations (Warg Tactics kills only ), and both need a creature of yours. Take Pinecone Strike, Spew Flame (Smaug, the Great Calamity) or the Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern over another midsize creature.
Betting on one huge creature. Gigantic Big Bear, Beorn, Reluctant Host and Wilderland Scrounger all win below the set average, partly because a lone big creature is easy to answer. Black's Crude Bent Blade makes you a creature of your choice, and white's Stone by Sunlight destroys any creature with at least 4 power. Keep cheap creatures next to your big one.
Casting Quarrel or Troll Negotiations while the opponent has mana open. Both need your creature alive when they . If the opponent kills it in response, nothing happens and you have lost two cards. Cast them when the opponent is out.
Adding a third color. With no dual lands your mana is already plain basics, and three-color black-red-green decks win 50.3% over 2,066 games, so stay with two colors.
Quarrel, a 2-mana , has your creature deal damage equal to its power to their creature without taking any back. The big creatures in Ferocious Wolves (58.4%) kill almost anything with it. Elf Landfall's creatures are smaller, yet Quarrel lifts that deck (55.3%) further above its average than it lifts Ferocious Wolves.
Cardsplain
