Rocco WILD PAIR

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

This is a hidden commander deck with an Enchantment commander. Namely WILD PAIR. This is a pet card of mine and potentially my favorite card in all of magic. My first block was Time Spiral block, and I actually had a standard legal deck with Wild Pair for casual gameplay. It was a deck with Mulldrifter Ashcoat Bear Mystic Snake and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and was a lot of fun. Not good, but fun.

I recently had a revelation that with a couple newly released cards, I could guarantee I could get Wild Pair to my hand by turn 5 or 6. This requires jumping through a significant number of hoops and is glacially slow set up that can be seen from halfway around the world. But it does allow the deck to function and get Wild Pair in play consistently.
Obvious play pattern. Ramp to 6 mana. Cast Rocco X=3 for Moon Blessed Cleric fetching Wild Pair to the top. Cast Wild Pair and pray that it survives the turn cycle. Profit. Of course we don't have to tap out for wild pair, so it all depends on the boardstate. This is a slow deck meant for lower power tables, but does have resiliency against enchantment removal.

***A sligthly more efficient, but less consistent play pattern would be to draw or tutor for a sacrifice land, namely High Market or Miren, the Moaning Well and cast Rocco for X=4 and tutor Academy Rector. Then on that same turn, or next turn all we need do is sac the Rector and tutor Wild Pair. This could work without the sac outlet, but no opponent is going to willingly kill Rector unless it is exile removal, which blanks our whole play. I don't think this strategy is worth throwing any sac creatures into the list, just a land or two on the off chance we can get an easier Wild Pair tutor. Academy Rector works well with the other enchantments we play as well, so should never be a dead draw. This gives is the distinct advantage of having open mana the turn Wild Pair hits play, which guarantees us at least 1 free creature before it can be targeted by removal.

If you are not familiar with Wild Pair play style, it works similar to a Birthing Pod chain, but only cares about total power and toughness to match when a creature is cast from the hand. Hence the atrocious mana curve. Playing a Haywire Mite and pulling Gigantomancer for free is just good clean fun. So we want to have several creatures for each P+T value that we have in the deck to maximize our hits, just like a Pod chain.

The two most useful creatures in the deck are Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker, each having flash, and a self-bounce feature means we are just throwing creatures directly from the library into play at flash speed. Once we untap with Wild Pair in play we drop any 2/2 or 2/3 and find one of these cards. This sets off the chain of the deck. The 2/2 slot is the most important since it has Karmic Guide and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Kiki being probably the most powerful single card in the deck outside of Pair. The rest is a toolbox list of ETB creatures, and some artifacts and enchantments that help us wring value out of said creatures or keep Wild Pair protected.

As the creatures get larger, the value from Wild Pair goes up, and the burn creatures like Inferno Titan and Bogardan Hellkite have been some of my better finishers in the late game just by blinking and copying them for some direct damage. Most of our creatures are not meant for combat. So there are a few pump and overrun cards in here to help with that. Winning is honetly secondary to just toolbox durdling with Wild Pair. I noticed during one game that I do have the Felidar Guardian+ Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo in here, so time will tell if that stays in. I just liked the idea of having a couple blink creatures in the deck. I don't want Wild Pair to become a one card combo, kill on sight permanent, as that would be counterproductive to the deck's mission statement.

This is just a spot to explain my most favorite card that now has it's own deck forever. The second game I played with this deck, I drew 84 cards out of my library and only had maybe 5 creatures left in the deck. I barely won that game :P
Rocco WILD PAIR

Planeswalker

Approximate Total Cost:

Notable omissions
Recruiter of the Guard ... I need more copies.
Enlightened Tutor ... I need more copies, but I don't think I really need it.
Craterhoof Behemoth ... might come in if I have trouble finishing the game. I don't like this card much.

Wish List
Preston, the Vanisher
Solitude
Greater Auramancy
Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines maybe

The Enchantment Ramp Package: ... has been removed. Better to spam more creatures, and every 2/2 ramp creature makes Whitemane Lion an instant speed rampant growth with buyback

Budget consideration: Academy Rector, Cloudstone Curio, Winding Canyons, and the Shock Lands are nice to have but not necessary. I still need to trial Curio to see if it is even needed in the deck, and Academy Rector has minimal synergy here. Otherwise the core of the deck is extremely affordable. Greater Auramancy and Guardian Project are probably first priority upgrades on a budget. Making Wild Pair hard to kill is top priority, and all the tutoring we do directly into play really makes Guardian Project shine. Winding Canyons can actually do some good work, though I would only consider if after the rest of the land base is performing 100%.

image.png
Power + Toughness Breakdown
Last edited by PrimevalCommander 2 months ago, edited 20 times in total.

Tags:


User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

Rishkar's Expertise and Return of the Wildspeaker will need to come out for a different type of draw. My average creature power is low for what we want out of these cards. I last cast Rishkar's Expertise for only 3 cards, but did get a free Guardian Project so it wasn't all bad. Still I will be on the lookout for more impactful draw spells. Tocasia's Welcome perhaps since I have 2 self bouncing flash creatures that would trigger this, but only 18 total creatures mv 3 or less and only 2 token makers.

Lurking Predators was just a fun card back when big enchantments didn't need to win the game in one turn cycle. With 40% chance to hit, but overall creature impact is only modest, so we will see if it sticks around.

Somberwald Beastmaster may be too low impact for the mana cost. I like the deathtouch, but the mana cost is high and the creatures are only so-so. Getting too many 7's and 8's stuck in my opening hand really slows my roll early game. It probably needs to become more ramp or draw like a Rumor Gatherer or Yavimaya Granger

Chromaticus
Posts: 308
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted

Post by Chromaticus » 1 year ago

How do the rules work with 0/0 creatures? Do you search up a 0/0 from your deck?

Thinking play a hydra for X=0 get an Arcbound Overseer?

Similar thoughts for morph, let's you get 4's when you want, and other variables too.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

Chromaticus wrote:
1 year ago
How do the rules work with 0/0 creatures? Do you search up a 0/0 from your deck?

Thinking play a hydra for X=0 get an Arcbound Overseer?

Similar thoughts for morph, let's you get 4's when you want, and other variables too.
0/0 creatures typically enter the battlefield with the counters already on them. See Lifeblood Hydra. So whatever X is on the Hydra is what Wild Pair will see, combined P+T of course. This is a good way to target specific creatures in your deck since you can make a hydra whatever combined even power and toughness you want. But it is not good for tutoring up other hydras. Perhaps if you wanted a specific Hydra like Kalonian Hydra and cast Lifeblood Hydra with X=0, then Wild Pair will see a 0/0 creature enter the battlefield, and immediately die. Then Pair will resolve and find you a 0/0 creature, but Kalonian Hydra will ETB with 4 counters on it and survive. The example you provided should also work, but we are basically sacrificing the Hydra to tutor out another 0/0. Not the worst since it is a cheap tutor, but I personally like the 2 for 1 from Pair.

Note that you can stack enter the battlefield triggers like Triskelion to resolve Wild Pair as a 1/1 or as a 4/4 since you choose how the triggers go onto the stack (edit: Triskelion etb's with counters already on it, but a creature with an etb trigger to gain counters would work this way). In standard I would play a Llanowar Elves and tutor up Triskelavus and end up with a 4/4 flyer. If you so choose you can run a host of variable power+toughness creatures to really get a lot of flexibility out of Wild Pair's triggers, however this deck is mainly focused on chaining fixed size creatures and abusing self-bouncing features of Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker. And variable power creatures are only tutored by the P+T in their text box, which makes finding them from the library more difficult.

Morph creatures should trigger as 4's, yes.

*/* creatures track their P+T in all zones, so Ulvenwald Hydra would be exempt from any of these examples and would always have Power and Toughness equal to your land count.
Last edited by PrimevalCommander 6 months ago, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Dunharrow
Posts: 1821
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Montreal

Post by Dunharrow » 1 year ago

I have WP in my Mina and Denn, Wildborn deck just as a value card
I kinda like Temur Sabertooth, especially since your commander needs to be cast to tutor something.

For card draw, maybe you want to consider Beast Whisperer?
The New World fell not to a sword but to a meme

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

Dunharrow wrote:
1 year ago
I kinda like Temur Sabertooth, especially since your commander needs to be cast to tutor something.
For card draw, maybe you want to consider Beast Whisperer?
Both very good recommendations, thank you. Beast Whisperer should get a spot being tutorable off Stonecloaker. It may come in for Return of the Wild Speaker. I need a couple more 5's to boost Stonecloaker's effectiveness. Spots start running out fast even at 40 creatures in toolbox lists :grin:

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

No official change log, but I did remove the enchantment ramp package in favor of more tutorable creatures. I may be overestimating the number of creatures I'll be able to get in play, but I did pull 35 out of 40 creatures from my deck one game, so it is possible. Adding creatures to the "2" slot just help me tutor Gigantomancer more effectively. Somberwald Beastmaster comes out because I have too many high MV creatures that were clogging up my opening hand.

IN Trying to beef up my creature ramp, and ramp in general. Up to 9 ramp and it will get to 10 here shortly. I need to see some early game ramp every game to at least compensate some for skipping a turn casting Wild Pair on turn 6. Adding some incremental draw creatures that I can tutor with Stonecloaker instead of 1-shot draw that may only draw me 2-3 cards anyway.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 1 year ago

Game Review: 3 player pod
Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer Wild Pair , Marath, Will of the Wild beast/zoo , Korvold, Fae-Cursed King value.
I keep a slow hand, but have both Moon-Blessed Cleric and Wild Pair in hand in the first few turns. So I don't need to waste a turn tutoring it up. I play early Moon-Blessed for Sterling Grove and get it out on turn 5. I try getting a couple creatures in play as blockers since Marath is playing Big Stompy Beasts and a Fight theme for removal. A turn 2 Boxing Ring really complicates things as all his creatures now ETB to fight all my 1/1 and 2/2 etb dorks. Instead of dropping Wild Pair on turn 6, I drop an Inferno Titan to stabilize my board, Luckily Marath can't conjur a 6 drop larger than my Titan so it holds the line for a couple turns. Krovold was a little slow, but his turn 6 Korvold got eaten by a big Battle Mammoth pumped by Marath with the fight on the stack.

I finally get Wild Pair in play and with sterling grove and think I am home free. Marath before my turn had double enchantment kill and pops both my enchantments. In response I flash Whitemane Lion for Auramancer get back Pair, bouncing the Auramancer with Whitemane instead of itself. Korvold spends a turn rebuilding after losing Korvold and I do the same pulling Wild Pair from the graveyard. I get Pair back in play, and it survives for me to cast Lumbering Battlement and find Deadwood Treefolk. Battlement hides Eternal Witness, Wood Elves, Deadwood Treefolk, and something else, becoming a 12/13 blocker. Korvold has had enough of Marath's stompy creatures and cast Crux of Fate, which brings all my stuff back into play. I get back a handfull of cards, but wild pair gets destroyed once again :\ . I get it back to my hand quickly, but don't cast it to get a Teleportation Circle into play and do other stuff. I have a Sun Titan get back Sterling Grove, then the T. Circle blinks Wood Elves to ramp me since Titan didn't have any good targets. Marath rebuilds quickly and destroys Korvold yet again, so I didn't have to spend any resources answering Korvold, good for me :grin:

Marath continues to struggle finding large 6 drops to answer my Titans, so I was able to hold blockers and protect my life total. Game is getting loooong now, over 2 hours. I get Wild Pair out for the 3rd time with Grove and Circle representing a very hard to interact with board. Marath tried to fight my Sun Titan with Protean Hulk, but I Stonecloaker for Felidar Guardian to fizzle the trigger on Titan. His next turn Marath goes for broke to try and take me out. After the last wipe he only has 3 small token creatures to attack. He casts Regal Behemoth , Gahiji, Honored One , another 5 drop creature and a Craterhoof Behemoth pumping his team to 52 total power all attacking me. I'm at 29 or something and only have Sun Titan and some other small creatures. I go into the tank, peek at my notes and it comes to me. Cast Stonecloaker tutor Githzerai Monk to tap his team. Slight rewind but it was clear who was going to take that attack. Marath still at 31 but no blockers and no mana. I take my shot. Hardcast Gigantomancer for 8 mana, tutor Cultivator of Blades, cast Whitemane Lion, tutor Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, make a Cultivator of Blades copy with Kiki and pump it to a 7/7 with Gigantomancer, plus the two +1/+1 counters from Fabricate and swing with my team making them all 9/9's.

A savy reader might notice I recently tutored Felidar Guardian, but I really want to keep the card but we don't like infinite combos, especially with tutor commanders, so I ignored that interaction for something more fun. Marath dies and Korvold takes a hit too. I blink Kiki to untap him and pass to Korvold with untapped creatures and a Githzerai Monk, this is my game too lose, or so I thought. Korvold smiles maniacally and slowly taps some mana. On the stack goes Insurrection! :omg: . I go deep in the tank, wondering how to get out of this. My kneejerk reaction was to ask "DO YOU HAVE ANY SAC OUTLETS"? Knowing Whitemane Lion for Dualcaster Mage would let me steal this spell right off the stack and sack enough creatures to leave me alive. But he did not. After thinking for another few minutes I made infinite Felidar Guardians and let it resolve. He attacked me with 90 million of my own guardians and won the game. Laughs were had all around after that play.

Card review.
Cultivator of Blades is fun and will stay in. Nice overrun that can be tutored more easily than Blossoming Bogbeast
Lumbering Battlement was just about to be removed, but has shown the power of hiding away multiple ETB creatures for later. Probably will stay to see it a few more times and get a better feel for it's consistency.
Late edit: Winding Canyons did good work this game since it was a long game I had 12+ mana available. Enough to hold up Canyons and play more than just Stonecloaker at instant speed.
My only other comment is that ramp creatures are better than other types of ramp due to the blink synergy and increase in tutor targets. And I really want to get Emiel the Blessed into the deck. I will be actively looking for 2-3 creatures to remove for an "8 drop" package for Emiel. I already have Topiary Stomper standing by.
Last edited by PrimevalCommander 6 months ago, edited 4 times in total.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 8 months ago

New additions and a little change in the toolbox. Adding an "8 PT" group for a couple key cards. Haven't played these yet, but I have not been as happy with the 6PT slot and think I can do better.

out Yavimaya Granger >> in Topiary Stomper, gives me another 8PT to find the other two.
out Meteor Golem >> in Emiel the Blessed
out Restoration Angel >> in Charming Prince
out Fountain Watch >> in Sigarda, Font of Blessings
out Eladamri's Call >> in Storm of Souls
out Druid of Purification >> in Myconid Spore Tender, power downgrade just to reduce collateral damage of the druid.

Emiel will give me more repeatable triggers. I need something that can re-buy my creatures already in play, since eventually I run out of targets in the deck. Eldrazi Displacer also looked at, but required colorless mana specifically, instead of generic.
Charming Prince gives me some flicker tricks with Whitemane which can save creatures from board wipes, which is important.
Sigarda replaces Fountain watch as a better version of that effect, cheaper, with more relevant body. Not sure I need 2 of these right now.
Storm of Souls provides some late game come-back and most of my value is in the ETB. My two mass-blink creatures can reset their power as well. Very affordable mana value for this effect. And I don't really need many more creature tutors when my entire plan is tutoring creatures. It helps find those silver bullets, but I think Storm will be more fun and more splashy. I already tutor so much, I don't need any more. Heck, both my "commanders" tutor on demand.

Awaiting a spot will be Cliffside Rescuer as a 4PT protection piece for Wild Pair. This will get the nod over Alseid of Life's Bounty due to the 4PT for Witemane over the 2PT. Though waiting to tap is undesirable, some sneaky tricks with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can get me an instant activation to protect Pair. Riftsweeper might come out, but I really don't want to lose Pair to exile, so this is a big of insurance. Not sure it is worth the slot though, when I can get a protection piece on standby instead of trying to dig Pair out of exile, then out of the library. Very very slow to get back in.

Solitude has catapulted to the top of my wish list being a 5PT removal piece toturable off Stonecloaker. Which I desperately need.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 7 months ago

Quick change to remove Riftsweeper for Flickerwisp. Not sure how I missed Flickerwisp, but it is a creature tutorable off a Whitemane Lion that can protect Wild Pair from removal or board wipes. This is an A+ tier card for this deck and I completely missed it. With Flickerwisp in, I may be able to pull out Felidar Guardian to completely remove all Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combos from the deck. But Felidar also blinks permanents, so it has an important spot in the deck for Wild Pair protection.

I still have Cliffside Rescuer on the bench waiting for a chance, but I think Flickerwisp is the better card here.
Also mentioning Abdel Adrian, Gorion's Ward as another board-hide creature that would go well with my "8PT" group, but I don't want too many of these floating around.
Lastly Preston, the Vanisher will be coming in the next time I place an order since it is a bit more attainable, and acts like a diet Panharmonicon that falls into the 7PT slot and will probably replace one of the other 7's if I can't find anything else. Also adds more creatures for the overrun with Cultivator of Blades.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 6 months ago

Hooray for WOE reprint of Greater Auramancy. And I didn't even have to wait 2+ years to get it for this deck. Next up, Modern Masters reprint of Solitude next year to bring that price down a little bit.

General Note: With only 7 red cards in the deck, I really need to look for something cool in red to get a little more representation in here. If I'm missing something awesome in red let me know. Molten Primordial sounds cool, but I'm not sure it fits this deck.

SunRais
Posts: 1
Joined: 2 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by SunRais » 6 months ago

Hey, I really like this idea. I made my own list, I think I got some interesting addition if you wanna check It up ;)
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/MdhT1JbUkUmh2CxeIIJTAA

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 6 months ago

SunRais wrote:
6 months ago
Hey, I really like this idea. I made my own list, I think I got some interesting addition if you wanna check It up ;)
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/MdhT1JbUkUmh2CxeIIJTAA
Great list, thanks for posting the link. Let me know how it plays. Good core creature base with some variation that I like. Few more 1/1 mana dorks over my 2/2 etb ramp creatures, which adds some redundancy to the 2PT slot. Several other really good cards in here to provide a different style to the core deck structure.
Birthing Pod and Saffi Eriksdotter add some tutor and protection while triggering ETB's, which are nice. Great cards and I use in multiple other decks as well.
Bloom Tender I should probably put on my wish list to help give me some mana after casting Pair for a followup creature. Might be a while though as I want to get a Preston, the Vanisher first. Sanctum Weaver sort of occupies this space for me now, but both would be better!
Fiend Hunter is solid removal, but mostly temporary as I typically wouldn't spend extra resources blinking or bouncing it with the ETB on the stack. Good for hiding a creature away as a fail-safe which is more valuable here than other places.
Moonshaker Cavalry solid card, especially if you value the 6/6 body over Craterhoof's 5/5 for the tutoring package. One I want for a different deck.

Worth mentioning, we have a good selection of over costed 1/1 token makers that can dump a lot of power into play. If going the token maker route a looter or two to dump unwanted 7 drops out of your hand would be a bonus. Getting a free Splicer feels good, paying full price, not so much. But I can see this being a very playable version of a Pair deck with the right support cards.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 6 months ago

Greater Auramancy is now in for Privileged Position, since all I want to protect is Pair anyway.

I also picked up an Éowyn, Fearless Knight as a Solitude-at-home since I really need at least 1 more creature that can interact with opponent's creatures. Also it is red, which helps my color balance a tiny bit. It comes in for Cemetery Prowler since it was still a proxy. I like Prowler for reducing the cost of Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker, but overall I think I need the removal more.

User avatar
PrimevalCommander
Posts: 872
Joined: 4 years ago
Pronoun: he / him

Post by PrimevalCommander » 4 months ago

I was looking for more self-bouncing creatures with flash and found an old throwback that I completely forgot existed. Fleetfoot Panther gives me a self-bouncing creature in the "7" slot, which allows me potential to have 3 different PT slots with repeatable engines. I'm not putting it in yet since I don't have a large enough toolbox at 7PT, but now I have actively look for 7PT's that may be more useful to me than I previously thought. Also give me a second functional copy of Glorious Protector. Currently with only 2 creatures at 7PT, and Preston, the Vanisher making it 3 here soon, that is still not enough for me to invest another slot into the Panther.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Return to “Decklists”