I've already talked about undying as a mechanic
when I reviewed Vorapede and Strangleroot Geist.
Now I get to talk about it again, because that's
all there is to talk about here. It's a 1/1 for
one mana. That's it. The last 1/1 that was worth
something in combat without having deathtouch or
the like was Mons' Goblin Raiders, and that was
a LONG time ago. A 1/1 hasn't been worth talking
about in years. Especially not in green, which
is used to being able to get 0/3's with no
drawback if it wants blockers, 2/2's with
drawbacks if it wants attackers, and Llanowar
Elves for when it wants a three drop. So who is
Young Wolf for? Werewolf and Wolf tribal decks,
maybe. Wren's Run Packmaster gives it deathtouch,
which combos well with undying to make quite the
vexing blocker. Championing a Young Wolf after
it's already got a +1/+1 counter is a nifty
trick as well. Limited players might play it if
they're short on creatures, but with no evasion
and little chance of killing whatever creature
blocks or gets blocked by them, it's not really
a play you feel good about. Somewhere in the
casual world is a Doubling Season deck that can
try to exploit this, but since undying makes
+1/+1 counters a liability, I'm not sure it's
the way to go.
Basically, Young Wolf exists to show off the new
keyword at common. I hope you like the art on
it, because you're likely going to end up with a
copy, and it's going to sit in in your binder
because you've got no use for it.
I don't spend as much time on Magic internet
forums as I once did, but I can just imagine the
e-fainting fits that must have been going on
when Dark Ascension's contents were revealed. If
half as many people still say everything "dies
to Doom Blade" as they did a couple of years
ago, that's still an awful lot of people who are
now terrified of creatures like Young Wolf.
Seriously, how many decks out there just
basically go "I can ignore that one-cost
creature, because I'm going to kill everything
on the table in two or three turns?" With the
right colors in your decks, you can basically
have things that don't die at all parts of your
mana curve, with Young Wolf leading the way.
There are very few decks that can draw enough
cards to have that many Doom Blade type things
in their hand.
Today's card of the day is Young Wolf which is
a one mana Green 1/1 with Undying, making it an
excellent early game annoyance that resists
removal or a good middle to late game blocker.
Many Green decks will be trying this out in
available one mana slots for the efficiency and
overall it has no real weakness, plus as a wolf
is a supported type.
For Limited a one mana 1/1 is always useful and
Undying is card advantage, so both on one card
makes this a very strong common that can be
drafted in multiples to apply early game
pressure. Sealed builds can run this with
a small supply of Green mana if splashing is
required, but multiple copies should make a
larger Green presence tempting.
Welcome to the
card of the day section here at Pojo.com. Today
we are looking at Young Wolf from Dark
Ascension. Young Wolf is a common green creature
wolf that costs one green mana for a 1/1. Young
Wolf has Undying.
Young Wolf is a pretty fun creature. I love the
fact that it is a great first turn drop that can
easily become a problem fast. If it dies off, it
becomes a 2/2. Nothing super special, but
certainly fun.
