“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack”
In the Sorcery community, few debates spark as much playful rivalry as the one over the greatness of wolves and frogs.
With frogs making a splash in Sorcery news recently, community member Kiel Wilson is determined to bring wolves back into the spotlight. As the organizer of the upcoming Explorer Series, a community run Sorcery circuit kicking off on March 22nd at Mythic Forge Gaming, he has been busy planning for the launch of his upcoming event. However, he took a moment to step away from his planning to share his insights on the Grey Wolves deck archetype and to make his case for why wolves are indeed the superior beasts in the realm.
Get to Know Kiel
If you’ve attended community events last year, you’ve likely run into Kiel, known as Ras al Gul on the Sorcery Official Discord. Whether cosplaying as a Thankless Squire, organizing events, or running his Youtube Channel The Chase Collectibles, if there’s fun to be had, you’ll find Kiel involved.
Shortly after the Kickstarter, Kiel dove headfirst into Sorcery and has worked tirelessly to grow the community in the Metro Detroit area, working with local game stores, organizing events, and building a robust singles inventory.
Inspired by community events like the Courtesan Cup, Kiel created the Explorer Series, which he describes as “a community circuit dedicated to LGS play, road trips, community growth, artist spotlights and exciting prizes.” Find out more about the first event in Kiel's Explorer Series here.
MAN’S BIGGER BEST FRIEND
Explore Kiel’s Deck on Curiosa.io, Sorcery’s official deck builder.
Kiel: Man’s Bigger Best Friend started as a learning deck. The aim was to build a very simple drive deck full of Ordinaries and a limited number of Elites and Exceptionals. The Elementalist is an amazing Avatar to teach with, as if you build your deck around only single threshold requirements, it is impossible for threshold misplays to happen.
This deck wants to put 5 to 6 Grey Wolves in play on turn 3, having 3 wolves being able to attack. Because Grey Wolves give +1 for each other Grey Wolves that is nearby, that usually looks like 15 to 18 damage. From there, you get your opponent to Death’s Door on turn 4 and finish with a wolf, Heat Ray, Lightning Bolt, or Grapple Shot on Turn 5. The concept is very simple, but very fun.
What are some of the Key Cards in the deck?
Kiel: Grey Wolves, obviously. Having the Elementalist as your Avatar alongside full allotments of Towers, Hamlets, and Ponds, make the likelihood of playing a first turn wolf, as well as two more on the 2nd turn much more likely. On the third turn, you’re ideally playing your 4th and 5th, if not 6th wolf!
There are few key cards to counter specific meta threats. Floodplains deal with Root Spiders, and I’ve included Varmint Warrens to help build up the pack in the midgame. Currently, I’m incorporating Arid Deserts to remove 1 power minions or other weak blockers. But there is plenty of room to explore and build off and explore, perhaps including Pebbled Paths to shut down charging minions.
Ultimately, this deck is a blast to pilot. I highly recommend this deck in any player’s learn-to-play arsenal as it teaches and really reinforces the concepts of nearby, move and attack, and overall tactical positioning!
What are Some of Your Favorite Tactics to Use with this Deck?
Kiel: There are no combos that are required for this deck to work. That being said, in addition to the wolves, we do have 18 other cards in our Spellbook.
Notably, Common Sense and 14 Ordinaries that only cost 1 threshold.
This allows you to use Common Sense to grab the right tool for supporting your wolves as they swarm down from your sites, howling and running (hopefully at a pesky frog player's minions!). This might be offensive, snagging a Lightning Bolt to finish off an opponent on Death’s Door, or defensive to get an Old Salt Anchorman on the board to protect against mass removal like Earthquake. (Grandmaster's Note: Yes, Bury, Drown, Chaos Twister, etc., are movement effects!”)
What Are the Deck’s Strengths and Weaknesses?
Kiel: This deck is so much fun to play. When it works, the games can be wildly fast and you will find plenty of people that want to beat it. It obviously has a huge weakness to Grim Reaper and Feast for Crows. Speaking of Feast for Crows though, I recently played a game against Rudeasaurus at the tournament at Five6 Gaming in Ohio. I had three wolves in the Realm on Turn 2. He played Feast for Crows and removed 29 wolves from the game! But… I was still able to win the game!
Additionally, by Turn 4 or 5 you’ll have no cards in hand and are drawing 1 spell per turn. It’s a bit of an all or nothing strategy. I’ve experimented with Wizard’s Den as a solution to this, but the benefits come mainly in mid-to-late game rather than helping double down on getting an overwhelming start.
Final Thoughts
Kiel: I can’t emphasize enough how fun this deck is to play, and there are a lot of variations you can build of it. Who knows what the future holds for the “Pack”? I can tell you what it doesn’t hold… losing to Frogs!
Join the Hunt
Kiel’s Grey Wolves deck is a great example of Sorcery’s deck building depth - simple to learn, rewarding to master, and packed with thematic flavor. We’d love to see your take on the Grey Wolves archetype!
Join the Sorcery: Contested Realm Facebook group or Official Discord and be part of the conversation!
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