Discussion Forum

This post will explain (hopefully) why Huntmaster of the Fells is still an awesome card when you are using Immerwolf.

The main reason people are misguided into thinking that huntmaster is not worth using with immerwolf is that he is better without, you say “huntmaster is weakened by immerwolf so you shouldn’t put them in the same deck as each other”…. I have heard this so many times. Yes, he isn’t as strong, but you are failing to realise that he is still the best option, he is still stronger then the one you are putting in instead.

I’m going to use this example werewolf deck so you know what sort of deck I'm talking about;
4 waif
4 captive
4 mayor
3 Shepard
3 full moon’s rise
4 moon mist
4 immerwolf
3 outlaw
2 volley
2 gang
3 huntmaster
24 land
Even using a deck that’s very immerwolf focused such as this one huntmaster has his place. I would go into detail with the deck and tweak it a little, but this article is about huntmaster. So ill explain the basic mechanics, which are get lotsa wolves, buff with outlaw, mayor, gang, full moon’s rise, and immer, flip-swing them with moon mist.

Reason #1 Statistics

You can’t beat good stats, and, quite simply, if you look at the statistics Huntmaster is better then the other 4-mana werewolves, for example, Mondronen Shaman.
If we have a look at the day side of each we find that Huntmaster is way better

Day Side:

Huntmaster:
P/T:...........2/2
Abilities:.....2 Life
.................2/2 Wolf

Shaman:
P/T:...........3/2
Abilities:.....NA

It's very obvious here that Huntmaster is better then Shaman on the day side and even more so because of mayor and immerwolf, as having two 3/3s is better then one 5/5 Huntmaster’s day-power is especially notable because although most people look at the flip side of the werewolf to see if they want it, what you are forgetting is that You Will Spend More Time As A Human! So anyway, lets have a look at the other side and see if shaman can redeem itself.

Night Side:

Huntmaster:
P/T:...........4/4
Abilities:.....2 Creature damage
.................2 Player damage

Shaman:
P/T:...........5/5
Abilities:.....2 Player damage, triggered by opponent spell cast.

Maybe an average at a first glance but even here huntmaster has a 2 great advantages, these being that 1), you keep the wolf and the life, and 2), he deals the 4 damage immediately, the fact that the damage is done immediately means not only that the damage is taken sooner, but also the shaman probably wont get a chance to deal that much damage at all. So huntmaster is over-all better on the night side as well, with a grand total of win for huntmaster.:)

If you just look at the statistics you can check it with other 4-mana examples such as instigator gang or tormented pariah, you will come up with similar answers (I only chose shaman cause they are similar cards).

(Note that I didn’t include the flipping forwards and backwards other than the mandatory switch to wolf, I just said as “when its on this side it does this” rather then “if you keep flipping it back, it does this” so if you add this small possibility of not having immerwolf in it gives him an even greater advantage.)

Reason #2 Playability

Huntmaster very versatile, he helps prolong the time where you have to play full moon’s rise, generates creatures that can be buffed with mayor, kills the opponent’s minor blockers at the crucial moment (when you flip all of your creatures to make the final swing) and burns the opponent to help you along. On top of all this he causes the opponent to hesitate before flipping your werewolves back and if he dies you get to keep the wolf (or wolves) he generated. Huntmaster helps with the whole Immerwolf, outlaw, mayor idea by generating a few wolves that soon become 4/4 blocked by 2 creatures.
And finally the list of flip-kills he can do is massive, including; phyrexian crusader, diregraf and stromkirk Captains, immerwolf, cemetery reaper, grand abolisher and elite inquisitor.

(The “blocked by 2 creatures” part is really helpful to this as it means that not only is there lots of large creatures but now the opponent has to dual block and take more damage as well as that he will be blocking with little creatures that shouldn’t be in the battle at all such as signal pest.)

Reason #3 Flip

You wont get immerwolf every game, so there will be a not-inconsiderable number of games in which you have huntmaster but not Immerwolf. This means that you can now use huntmaster as a back-up immerwolf! Think about it, if you flip to night side you want immerwolf, but you don’t have him, so instead you have a card that may not be a “you cant flip my creatures”, but at least he’s a “is it really worth it?”. He will make the opponent stop and think about flipping you back, if they know that you might have moon mist anyway then they may decide it’s not worth it.

so please, if someone is using monodron shaman or some other 4-mana werewolf, refer them to this thread cause its probably not the best card they could use.

I hope you found this helpful, and any feedback is much appreciated.


PS: can anyone tell me how to add pictures?