Should I Use Board Wipes in a Tribal Deck?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 9, 2021, 6:17 p.m. by theindigoeffect
I'm brewing Tovolar, Dire Overlord Flip, and because I need at least three werewolves on the battlefield to transform my creatures, I feel like board wipes might be counterproductive.
If board wipes are unnecessary, could you guys recommend some alternatives to Blasphemous Act and the like in Gruul?
Xenaphix02 says... #3
I feel like you should still be running board wipes. Werewolves don't rely on tokens very much so you need cards that can hose decks that want 10+ small creatures on the board. Savage Twister, Klauth's Will, Anger of the Gods, and Storm's Wrath all either wipe away small creatures or let you set the amount of damage dealt. They might hit your own creatures but trading 2-1 is a pretty good rate.
October 9, 2021 7:35 p.m.
I see nothing wrong with running Blasphemous Act at least. If it’s in your opening hand, it’s easy to just wait for a 1 mana board wipe around turn 4 or 5 and then build your board immediately. Outside of that boardwipe, though, spot removal can often be much more useful than boardwipes, especially in creature centered decks. Some good options are Vandalblast, Tovolar's Huntmaster Flip, Huntmaster of the Fells Flip, Druid of Purification, and Ohran Frostfang (since werewolves love attacking and all).
Ezuri's Predation is close to a boardwipe.
October 9, 2021 7:36 p.m.
TypicalTimmy says... #6
You may want to consider the Timmy route and go for massive X-spells, such as:
Also Anger of the Gods is underrated and can prove useful against certain archetypes. Now while it is true that you are hitting your own Werewolves in this process, you can always cast more, hold back on them, or find ways to get them from your graveyard. For example, Feldon's Cane, Renewing Touch, Piper's Melody, Cranial Archive and Elixir of Immortality.
Have land tutors and land ramp spells and the rest as Werewolves. Now you can ramp out Werewolves to apply pressure, wrath the board and get your puppies back. The goal of the deck would be to wear thin your opponent's resources with a continual assault across the board at all times.
As an added bonus, his reverse side wants to have tons of mana anyway, so focusing on X-cost spells is perfect.
I'd recommend Skyclave Relic and Empowered Autogenerator for some serious ramp, and Lithoform Engine and Strionic Resonator to copy his ability, and Rings of Brighthearth
October 9, 2021 10:24 p.m. Edited.
seshiro_of_the_orochi says... #7
Even in very creature-heavy decks, a wipe or three are often very useful. What do you get from three or four werewolves when the Goreclaw creature storm deck just went of and ended the turn with 127 power in play?
Ezuri's Predation is a great boardwipe in green, as is Apex Altisaur. Reckless Endeavor can be somewhat one-sided if your creatures are on the bigger end, also: Burn Down the House is great if you don't want the exile-effect from Hour of Devastation.
October 10, 2021 4:39 a.m.
plakjekaas says... #9
Depending on how often you plan to use targeted effects on your own creatures, you could run Akroma's Memorial and give your creatures protection from red, making them immune to your Blasphemous Act, keeping all your wolves alive and ready to draw cards while all blockers blow up.
griffstick says... #2
Decimate is really good
October 9, 2021 7:03 p.m.