Garruk, Cursed Huntsman is a Planeswalker I Love to Use the Few Times it Works

One of the mythic rare planeswalkers from Throne of Eldraine, Garruk, Cursed Huntsman is an odd but really exciting card.

It's 6 mana, 4BG, which means it's a bit difficult to get out on the board. And one of the really weird things about it is that it has non + Loyalty ability... sort of. It does start with 5 Loyalty, though, which is pretty nice.

No, it's not like one of the War of the Spark planeswalkers that you just use a few times and then chuck (or keep around for its passive ability.) Instead, its first ability is +0: Create two 2/2 black and green wolf tokens that have "When this creature dies, put a loyalty counter on each Garruk planeswalker you control."

So ultimately, you're pumping out two 2/2s every turn for no charge, and then they recharge Garruk when they die. A constant stream of creatures is never a bad thing, and they make the perfect chump blockers, as you'll be able to punish the opponent for attacking with anything that can kill them by powering up Garruk's other abilities.

His second is -3: Destroy target creature. Draw a card.

Given that you start with 5 Loyalty, if you have a problematic enemy creature (like a pumped-up Ajani's Pridesmate, for example) you can toss this at them. Garruk will still be alive, so if you want to keep him for his other uses, you're ok as long as you can keep him up through the next turn.

His ultimate is -6: You get an emblem that says "Creatures you control get +3/+3 and have trample."

Given that he starts at 5, you can get this ultimate pretty easily. Indeed, if you can out two wolves and have them die before your next turn, you can get it out and keep him around to start pumping out 5/5 tramplers every turn.

Currently I'm running him in a deck that's all green except for a dip for his one skull in the mana cost (I've actually managed to find a balance of lands where I'm not finding myself color-screwed in any typical game.) Now that I think of it, though, it might be better to go the other way, in a mostly-black deck with lots of sacrifice mechanics so that you can always use those wolves to pump him up. On the other hand, ramping up to six mana might be harder in a black deck, though black has much better control capabilities than green, so you could kill creatures and delay the opponent until you can get him out (I suspect that I'll be tinkering with that next.)

Anyway, it's a fun flavor and a fun card. It's very weak against flyers, and I'll admit that the one time the card really shone (in the game I just finished that inspired me to write this post) I think my opponent's reckless attacking was the only reason I actually got to use all his abilities (he had a standard Ajani's Pridemate lifegain deck and had a 3/3 Inspiring Orator and a 3/3 Charmed Stray that he attacked with despite my having two wolves out already.

Now, having just gotten another Liliana planeswalker card in a recent pack, I'm thinking about building something around her...