Daisho’s Pack Instinct deck guide: Forest of fury

To me, Pack Instinct was the most important deck in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013.

When I first started playing Magic I opened Garruk’s planeswalker card and immediately built a green deck. In Duels 2012, Apex Predators should have been my favorite.

But anyone who has played with it knows how much of a disappointment it was.

Pack Instinct may just make up for a going an entire year without a reliable green deck.

There are two main ways to run this deck, especially with the addition of promotional cards. You can play all of the gigantic creatures and mana acceleration cards, making this deck a ramp deck. The Leatherback Baloths and other assorted big creatures stall the ground until you can move up to playing your huge threats. It can also be run as an aggro deck. With undercosted powerhouses such as Garruk’s Companion and Timbermaw Larva, you can easily destroy your opponents before they can react.

Pack Instinct card-by-card analysis (by cost)

Ulvenwald Tracker: 5.0 Ramp, 5.0 Aggro

Ulvenwald Tracker is pretty much an insane card for this deck. Green creature removal has been pretty much unheard of in the history of magic. The fighting mechanic allows your gigantic creatures to pick on the little guys. The fact that Tracker lets you do this over and over makes Tracker an invaluable asset no matter how you run this deck.

Prey Upon: 4.5 Ramp, 4.5 Aggro

A one mana removal spell pretty much can’t be beaten. Noteworthy information is that Prey Upon is a sorcery. Additionally if your creature isn’t quite big enough, or theirs has deathtouch, it can be a two for one (a two for one is a scenario in magic where you use two cards are used to deal with one of your opponents. In this case you are using Prey Upon and having one of your creatures die to deal with one of their creatures) in their favor which is obviously not ideal. These downsides are nowhere near upsides and all three of them should make the cut.

Primal Bellow: 2.5 Ramp, 4.0 Aggro

One mana to deal five damage. Seems good? Maybe not exactly that powerful but primal bellow is certainly an excellent card. Not only dealing direct damage, this card can also save one of yours from death mid-combat. If you save a creature with trample from being blocked you get the added benefit of pushing extra damage through. This card is pretty much exactly what the aggro deck needs to speed it up. It’s not quite as effective in the ramp deck because your creatures are almost always larger and don’t need the extra boost.

Fog: 2.5 Ramp, 2.5 Aggro

New players gravitate towards fog and for good reason. They notice they often frustrate better players by playing this card and that it wins them games. If you analyze this card deeply it has advantages and disadvantages. It can gain you 10 life, tap your opponents creatures and give you that turn you need to swing in for lethal. But more often than not your opponent will still have large enough creatures back that a fog won’t be good enough to win the game and just delay your demise for one turn. Even more often it does absolutely nothing and is a waste of a card. You should run this card in neither version of the deck.

Emerald Medallion: 3.0 Ramp, 2.0 Aggro

Nature’s Lore and Emerald Medallion are very similar cards. They are both two mana cards that accelerate you to cast spells cheaper and their effects are present the turn they are cast. There are two major differences. Nature’s Lore pulls a forest out of your deck while emerald medallion does not and emerald medallion allows you to play multiple spells a turn and get the one cheaper bonus for each of them. I feel the positives of Nature’s Lore outweigh those of Emerald Medallion and should be the two drop ramp spell of choice. Even when running the ramp version of the deck the Nature’s Lores are generally enough and you don’t need more than four two drop ramp spells.

Nature’s Lore: 4.0 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

Using a forest to ramp you allows you to cast spells like Primulcrux, Khalni Hydra and Leatherback Baloth at a discount. Additionally, there are a few cards that deal with lands specifically such as Rampaging Baloths, Avenger of Zendikar and Howl of the Nightpack. For these reasons I like Nature’s Lore better. In the aggro deck it’s not quite as important to ramp and you’ll find you won’t have enough room for too many of these as when you draw them they are generally dead cards. Still, dropping Timbermaw Larva a turn earlier can be extremely beneficial so I run a couple of them in that version of the deck. They are crucial in Ramp so all four should be run.

Garruk’s Companion: 2.5 Ramp, 4.0 Aggro

In general at the two drop spot you would be okay with a card that gives you two power. If it’s two power plus evasion you’re thrilled. Garruk’s Companion gives you THREE power and some sort of evasion in trample. This makes him an excellent choice for the aggro deck. Being only two toughness, he does die easily and doesn’t do much in the way of walling off your opponent so you can drop bigger threats. He’s not excellent in the ramp version and there are so many amazing cards he has to be cut. But in Aggro all four should make it in.

Lightning Greaves: 4.5 Ramp, 5.0 Aggro

Lightning Greaves is one of those cards that you just feel lucky when it makes it into your favorite deck. Any deck with creatures benefits from this card but pack instinct may have just been the best choice. This card should always be played before a creature. If you have Garruk’s Companion or Lightning Greaves as your turn two options you may as well play the Greaves since you always have the option of playing Companion the next turn and giving it haste. Aside from protecting your biggest threats this card makes it impossible for your opponent to count how many turns they have left. When at any moment an 8 power Timbermaw Larva can jump out of your hand ready to strike they have to be far more cautious. Shroud is almost always amazing especially when you can just throw it on a Primordial Hydra and just wait a couple of turns to win the game barring mass removal. You do have to note that you cannot target your own creatures with shroud so Prey Upon and Primal Bellow are out of the question when the Greaves are on. Fortunately the equip cost is 0 so you can move it over before Prey Upon and then move it right back. This card is just as useful in Ramp as it is in Aggro because protecting your big threats is just as important as giving them haste is in Aggro.

Primordial Hydra: 5.0 Ramp, 4.5 Aggro

No matter how you look at it. Primordial Hydra is a huge threat that will win the game in a small number of turns. Ramp obviously helps because the number of turns goes down significantly when you have more mana available for the original X cost but even as X = 1 this card becomes gigantic before the game is out of reach.

Vineslasher Kudzu: 3.5 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro

A card like this is hard to evaluate. Drawing him late game can be an issue as he won’t be as strong as your other late game threats. Still, there is no point in the game where his mana cost won’t be worth his effect therefore he’s still pretty viable. In Aggro there are only four two drop creatures so this provides and increasingly bigger threat early on. With ramp it’s not huge but a nature’s lore or cultivate turn 3 will turn him into a 3/3 making him ideal as a body to block early enemy threats.

Dungrove Elder: 5.0 Ramp, 5.0 Aggro

Arguably the best card in the deck Dungrove Elder is extremely undercosted. He’s hexproof and gigantic. Unfortunately there’s no way to give him trample so he will generally just be “tap: target opponent sacrifices a creature” as Dungrove Elder will be chump blocked every time he attacks. He still gives you a great early game threat in Aggro and a good way to slow your opponent down in Ramp making him ideal for both decks.

Brindle Boar: 2.5 Ramp, 1.0 Aggro

Good old life gain on a dude. Unfortunately the gain is when he is sacrificed. This basically means the best brindle boar will generally do is block a creature and sacrifice to gain life. This means it’s basically a three mana card that will gain you about seven life. With all the options available to stall or attack there are almost always better options than Brindle Boar.

Cultivate: 4.0 Ramp, 2.5 Aggro

Cultivate is an interesting ramp spell. The traditional prices are two mana to put one land onto the battlefield tapped or four mana to put two lands onto the battlefield tapped. Cultivate fits right in the middle putting one on the battlefield and one in hand. This deck when run as a Ramp deck needs as many lands as it can get so getting the two and only having to pay one more is a pretty good deal. In Aggro it really only accelerates you to your five drops and at that point it’s not quite worth it. But topdecking this card late game with an Avenger of Zendikar on the battlefield is only beneficial.

Leatherback Baloth: 5.0 Ramp, 5.0 Aggro

A 4/5… for 3?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING? Sign me up. Though this card isn’t as tricky as some other three drops in the format it’s incredibly undercosted and works perfectly no matter how you run the deck.

Blanchwood Armor: 2.5 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

The ability to make your creatures so much larger is certainly tempting. Unfortunately its upside is not excellent unless your opponent can’t block and the risk is just too high. When using any aura you run the risk of being two for oned with a bounce or kill spell which every single deck in the format has one of the two (with the POSSIBLE exception of goblins). That being said your creatures are generally larger anyway so you often don’t get much value out of it. It does have the ability to be 5-6 surprise damage as you put it on a creature they weren’t expecting to have to worry about but sometimes they will just have that two for one.

Genesis Wave: 4.0 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

For such an interesting effect Genesis Wave is well costed. For Aggro, the ideal X is probably four meaning seven total mana, two more than you’re willing to spend on a spell in this version of the deck. This can be useful especially in the Mono Black matchup where you might have an empty board and a bunch of lands. But as the game drags on the value of this card goes up exponentially. Not only do more cards from your deck hit the table but more powerful ones do. In Ramp it’s at the worst going to get you a bunch of lands and one six drop. It’s an extremely interesting card but also a high variance card.

Obstinate Baloth: 4.0 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro

Obstinate Baloth is much better than Brindle Boar because it’s already well costed as a 4/4 for 4 and the life is just a bonus. Without the limitation of needing to be sacrificed to gain the life it can also trade, deal damage and hold sides down. Then of course there’s the one in a hundred game where they play Lilliana’s Spectre and you just laugh.

Master of the Wild Hunt: 4.0 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro

This is a card that is just hard to understand. On paper it’s insane but in game it never does as much as you’d expect. It almost never attacks so that already weakens it as a four drop in the Aggro deck. Making a 2/2 wolf every turn is already a good enough effect to be in most decks. The fact that you can start picking off enemy creatures once a turn is outstanding. Because of its crazy power level, this card makes it in both decks. Oh and look out for cute tricks with Changeling Colossus.

Changeling Colossus: 3.5 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro

This guy is pretty good. Being able to pump it so large makes him a huge threat and need to be chump blocked every turn so long as you swing before playing spells. This card combos insanely well with Primal Bellow pretty much assuring a win playing that combo turn 5. Protection from black is unfortunately not very relevant. There is only one Mono Black deck and that deck is very strong in the format but just 1/10 doesn’t make the protection from black super relevant. Still, it is worth noting you basically win the game if they can’t find an Innocent Blood, Mutilate or Icy Manipulator.

Fangren Firstborn: 2.0 Ramp, 4.5 Aggro

If you can see where I’ve been going building these decks you’ll understand how I value Fangren Firstborn. In Aggro this guy pumps up the team and swings in for 5 at a cost of four. The bonus is also in counters so they stick around. In ramp he merely has two toughness and on defense will die to some 1 drops that pack a punch.

Timbermaw Larva: 4.0 Ramp, 5.0 Aggro
I bet you guys were wondering how many times I could mention Timbermaw Larva in one article. It’s been three so far for those counting at home and there’s a reason. At four mana the ability to swing for so much damage is insane. Unfortunately his base toughness of 2 means he dies to burn and lack of evasion means he can’t do unlimited work. But this guy kills so quickly on an uncrowded board state that it’s impossible to leave him out.

Primal Huntbeast: 2.0 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro

You’ll notice that most of your creatures are bigger than they should be for their cost. Primal Huntbeast on the other hand is a bit undersized. While this makes him a huge liability in this deck it also is one of his biggest assets. It means that he can afford to be smaller in most matchups since your opponents won’t care much about him. In matchups where hexproof is relevant he’s just about game winning especially if you can hit him up with a Primal Bellow.

Jayemdae Tome: 2.5 Ramp, 1.0 Aggro

What’s the matter? Was Harmonize not answering your calls? Is that why you stuck us with this terribly slow and clunky draw spell? Better leave the drawing up to Garruk’s Packleader in this deck as his draw is cheaper and on 4/4 guy for one more mana.

Wildheart Invoker: 3.0 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

Invoker isn’t TERRIBLE in either version of the deck he’s just not outstanding. He’s just big enough to see play in Aggro and just powerful enough to see play in Ramp yet since he takes so long to see any real benefits from him I’d leave him in the sideboard.

Bountiful Harvest: 0.0 Ramp, 0.0 Aggro

Perhaps the worst card in the format I wouldn’t play Bountiful Harvest if this card gained me twenty life and yet it has the nerve to not even gain me 2x my lands! Get out of my deck bountiful. Leave now and never come back.

Ant Queen: 3.5 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

A token generator is often powerful but I find by the time I reach five lands I want to be playing bombs not making tiny little insects. If you topdeck this card late game he could easily win it for you or in combination with predatory rampage it can be quite powerful but overall I want my five drops to have insane utility without me pumping any mana into them. Still at the very least it’s a big body for five mana and while I don’t run any of these I certainly wouldn’t fault anyone who would.

Garruk’s Packleader: 3.5 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro
Indrik Stomphowler: 3.5 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro
Sentinel Spider: 3.5 Ramp, 3.5 Aggro

Ah the wonderful section of five mana 4/4 utility creatures… Unfortunately I can’t run all nine copies of these cards or my deck would be full of creatures not too big but with cool effects. Packleader’s draw can be what the deck needs to excel in the late game. Stomphowler’s effectiveness can often turn the tide in a game looking like it will be won by a Silent Arbiter or Oblivion Ring. Sentinel Spider helps controlling your opponent’s aerial invasion while your forces get through on the ground. Any combination of the three is acceptable and I run 3-5 of these total.

Incremental Growth: 2.0 Ramp, 2.0 Aggro

Suffering from needz moar targets syndrome this card often helps your opponents as well. On another note, this deck either wants to win the game by the time you can cast this card not just make its dudes a bit beefier, or start dropping the spells that will win the game.

Predatory Rampage: 3.0 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

Overrun! Thanks for giving us Overrun! Wait… this card doesn’t give trample? This basically means that you won’t win the game playing this card and your opponent can just untap his creatures and be happy. In addition this only works when you have multiple threats out already which is generally the situation where you won’t need this card. Sometimes it’s a 5 mana Plague Wind but generally will be only a slightly useful card at a high expense.

Vorapede: 5.0 Ramp, 5.0 Aggro

When wizards decided to print a five mana undying card they really went all out. Giving it vigilance AND trample is a bit ridiculous. And yet I can’t help but wonder if it would be too much to ask that they change vigilance to haste? Generally the two are equal abilities in power level but would give this card the instant benefit it needs to be a powerful constructed player. Still, there was never any doubt this card wouldn’t be the top of the curve finisher in Aggro or a great mid-range threat in Ramp.

Primeval Titan: 4.5 Ramp, 2.5 Aggro

Now comes the hard part. There’s only a certain amount of room in the Aggro deck. Running Garruk’s Companions and Primal Bellows means that at some point you have to make cuts. This is one of them. In Ramp Primeval Titan is excellent. Some of your other threats benefit from having forests enter the battlefield and even just thinning your deck out is quite useful.

Primalcrux: 5.0 Ramp, 3.0 Aggro

For a while I made Primalcrux my only six drop in Aggro. So many of your creatures have multiple green symbols in the name that this dude is generally of “I win” power. Toss in trample, and he destroys dreams. With the addition of the new Promotional cards I had to find something to cut and this seemed to be the card that was least synergistic. In ramp it’s exactly what you want. A bomb at 6 that is great by itself and insane if your Leatherback Baloths managed to make it this far into the game.

Rampaging Baloths: 5.0 Ramp, 2.5 Aggro

This guy squashes Ant Queen in his ability to make tokens dropping 4/4 beasts at no cost. Being a 6/6 trample himself means that even if you don’t draw lands anymore you still got your value out of him. Perhaps the best part about Rampaging Baloths is that he makes ramp spells continue to be important even into final stretches of the game when normally they would be dead draws.

Terra Stomper: 4.0 Ramp, 2.0 Aggro

Terra Stomper is rather undercosted on the surface. Add in the fact that blue can’t counter him and he gets slightly better. In general he’s just a filler big dude that will win the game if he hits but doesn’t do anything spectacular or out of the ordinary.

Howl of the Nightpack: 3.5 Ramp, 1.5 Aggro

This card is insane. It adds at least fourteen power to the board (okay at the very least ten power…) for seven mana which is just incredible value. Play this the turn after a Primeval Titan and it will turn into twenty or twenty-two power. Just hope your opponent doesn’t have a Massacre Wurm! Worthy of note is that this card doesn’t combo with Genesis Wave so if you run wave just one of these should do the trick.

Boundless Realms: 3.0 Ramp, 0.5 Aggro

Add seven-plus lands to the battlefield to make your Avenger of Zendikar tokens 7/8s seems like a fun strategy. Unfortunately more often than not you’d rather play a spell that directly gives you a threat than one that relies on another card to help out. Interestingly another huge benefit of this card is that it takes so many lands from the deck that you will draw into mostly spells for the rest of the game.

Avenger of Zendikar: 5.0 Ramp, 2.5 Aggro

Avenger of Zendikar is so powerful I even wanted to run him in Aggro before thinking better of it. Generally you’ll want to hold him until you have seven lands on the table and one in hand in case he dies instantly you still have an army of 1/2s instead of 0/1s.

Biorhythm: 2.5 Ramp, 0.5 Aggro

At eight mana you want an effect that will consistently be amazing for you, not one that can range from winning you the game to losing you fifteen life. Still the upside is so adorable on this card that it really makes you want to at least try it out.

Verdant Force: 2.5 Ramp, 1.0 Aggro

They keep putting this card in the game and yet again I have to say NO! For eight mana you should do more than just flood the board with two 1/1s a turn. 2/2s or 3/3s and I might have to welcome this card into the deck but for now it should stay in the sideboard.

Khalni Hydra: 3.0 Ramp, 2.5 Aggro

The earliest this card can be played on curve is turn five and that’s if you hit your two, three and four drops and they stick around till turn five. This basically means that in general Khalni Hydra will be a 6 mana 8/8 trample which leaves him as a strictly worse Terra Stomper. It seems like we have enough huge threats and don’t exactly need this eight-headed monster.

Pack Instinct deck lists

Now that I’ve gone through all of the cards I’ll go ahead and say that I feel the Aggro version of the deck is significantly stronger than Ramp yet Ramp is quite a bit more fun. After all with the ability to swing crazy amounts of damage with different combinations of cards is quite tempting.

Ramp variant

• 3x Prey Upon
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 4x Nature’s Lore
• 2x Primordial Hydra
• 1x Vineslasher Kudzu
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 2x Cultivate
• 1x Dungrove Elder
• 3x Leatherback Baloth
• 1x Chameleon Colossus
• 1x Obsitnate Baloth
• 1x Master of the Wild Hunt
• 2x Timbermaw Larva
• 2x Garruk’s Packleader
• 1x Indrik Stomphowler
• 1x Sentinel Spider
• 1x Vorapede
• 2x Primalcrux
• 1x Primeval Titan
• 1x Rampaging Baloths
• 1x Terra Stomper
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Howl of the Nightpack
• 24x Forest

Aggro variant

• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 3x Prey Upon
• 2x Primal Bellow
• 2x Nature’s Lore
• 4x Garruk’s Companion
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 2x Primordial Hydra
• 1x Vinelasher Kudzu
• 1x Dungrove Elder
• 3x Leatherback Baloth
• 1x Obstinate Baloth
• 1x Master of the Wild Hunt
• 1x Chameleon Colossus
• 2x Fangren Firstborn
• 2x Primal Huntbeast
• 3x Timbermaw Larva
• 2x Garruk’s Packleader
• 2x Indrik Stomphowler
• 1x Sentinel Spider
• 1x Vorapede
• 24x Forest

Gameplay video