Q: Why Rhys the Exiled?
A: Because he eats elves. I mean, he's a total cannibal. How cool is that? Giving Grim Feast flavor points makes him even better.
Q: No, really, Rhys the Exiled seems really bad when you could run Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Nath of the Gilt Leaf, Glissa the Traitor, or even Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.
A: Fine. Ezuri and Kamahl both say "oh hai guyz, I'm going to play some elves and then overrun you x5" and are really boring and unsophisticated Timmy beats. Glissa is overplayed and doesn't do a lot to synergize with elves unless you pack the deck full of artifacts...and not elves. Nath seems interesting, but Rhys actually works better in this list...
Q: So you're not playing coat of arms or anything?
A: Coat is bad in a meta with lots of interactive decks, many of which are tribal (soldiers, snakes, other elf decks). Similarly, obvious pump spells really scare people and make you a huge target. Let someone else look like a jerk for killing your arbor elf and elves of deep shadow.
Q: Elves are bad
A: Care meter.
Q: What do you do when someone kills Rhys?
A: Well, he's only a 3/2 and he's not really doing anything other than gaining me a few life every turn...so no one really goes out of their way to kill him. Further, regenerating Rhys has positive synergy with several rattlesnakes and CA engines in the deck.
Q: what do you do when someone really tries to kill Rhys?
A: Panic. Actually, oftentimes that's fine because I can just regenerate and that's often a positive play for the deck. If they really, really go after him...that's fine because that will typically mean the rest of my elves aren't being removed so I can just keep playing my game regardless
Concept:
(1) Green elf decks always end up packing tons of tutors or janky mechanisms to get more cards. They're also pretty horrid at providing sufficiently nasty rattlesnakes or recovering from sweepers.
(2) Black gives you card draw, but often costs life.
(3) Rhys the exiled is easy lifegain on a stick. Further, his regeneration effect can have positive interactions with your rattlesnake and card advantage engines. This is why Rhys is better than Nath. Further, people hate discard so this guy is less annoying (and many Nath players often pack discard effects that dilute the strength of the elf-concept and, oftentimes, tokens in and of themselves don't really provide lasting impact)
(4) Green-Black has several good cards that fill so many of the weaknesses evident in traditional elf decks.
(a) Global Pump effects outside Ezuri, Garruk. My group is a fairly sophisticated "don't play something randomly degenerate" interactive group. If they know I've got pump effects all over I will get crushed every time I get 3 elves of the board.
(b) try to tutor for rofellos on turn 2-3 every game or add too many tutors (e.g. I could easily add green sun's zenith, worldly tutor, sylvan tutor, imperial seal, grim tutor, cruel tutor, beseech the queen). The deck gets too linear.
All-Star Cards Victimize - the mother of all recursion. nothing like eating barter in blood with the table yipping with glee, only to sacrifice a token to bring back wirewood channeler, rofellos, elvish archdruid, or what have you. It's also been baller at bringing back regal force, etc. Cloudstone Curio - the interactions are nutty. The most obvious being bouncing two creatures in and out with concordant cross-roads or 1k elixir and using the infinite storm count to crush the table. Grave Pact - good way to make people think twice about messing with you...then you end up making them sac creatures by putting a regeneration shield on Rhys. Fecundity - good way to draw cards with Rhys (B = draw 1) and it's also a big way to prevent people from killing your dudes. If you get 5-6 creatures, even if they're wiped out...getting 5-6 cards usually pushes this deck over the time in a huge way. Genesis wave - if you wave for 15ish (which is not very hard) you basically auto win...and if someone counters it... Praetor's Council / Yawgmoth's Will - landing these two, or both is totally nutty. Wave gets countered, play it again. Use the graveyard to bring back all of those early-removed threats.
Riftsweeper - people path and swords things and think you're not going to run this guy. I mean...really? It's been beyond huge. Even more so when I can start playing cloudstone curio games to get multiple cards back into my library.
"combos"
- Random jank - arbor elf, lys alana huntmaster, cloudstone curio, gilt-leaf archdruid = G = draw 1 card, get a 1/1 elf warrior...repeat as necessary.
Q&A
A: Everyone loves elves. They're cute, they're cuddly, they're craving blood.
Q: Why Rhys the Exiled?
A: Because he eats elves. I mean, he's a total cannibal. How cool is that? Giving Grim Feast flavor points makes him even better.
Q: No, really, Rhys the Exiled seems really bad when you could run Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Nath of the Gilt Leaf, Glissa the Traitor, or even Kamahl, Fist of Krosa.
A: Fine. Ezuri and Kamahl both say "oh hai guyz, I'm going to play some elves and then overrun you x5" and are really boring and unsophisticated Timmy beats. Glissa is overplayed and doesn't do a lot to synergize with elves unless you pack the deck full of artifacts...and not elves. Nath seems interesting, but Rhys actually works better in this list...
Q: So you're not playing coat of arms or anything?
A: Coat is bad in a meta with lots of interactive decks, many of which are tribal (soldiers, snakes, other elf decks). Similarly, obvious pump spells really scare people and make you a huge target. Let someone else look like a jerk for killing your arbor elf and elves of deep shadow.
Q: Elves are bad
A: Care meter.
Q: What do you do when someone kills Rhys?
A: Well, he's only a 3/2 and he's not really doing anything other than gaining me a few life every turn...so no one really goes out of their way to kill him. Further, regenerating Rhys has positive synergy with several rattlesnakes and CA engines in the deck.
Q: what do you do when someone really tries to kill Rhys?
A: Panic. Actually, oftentimes that's fine because I can just regenerate and that's often a positive play for the deck. If they really, really go after him...that's fine because that will typically mean the rest of my elves aren't being removed so I can just keep playing my game regardless
Concept:
(2) Black gives you card draw, but often costs life.
(3) Rhys the exiled is easy lifegain on a stick. Further, his regeneration effect can have positive interactions with your rattlesnake and card advantage engines. This is why Rhys is better than Nath. Further, people hate discard so this guy is less annoying (and many Nath players often pack discard effects that dilute the strength of the elf-concept and, oftentimes, tokens in and of themselves don't really provide lasting impact)
(4) Green-Black has several good cards that fill so many of the weaknesses evident in traditional elf decks.
Decklist:
1 Rhys the Exiled
Card Advantage Engines
1 Dark Confidant
1 Dark Tutelage
1 Mind's Eye
1 Necropotence
1 Regal Force
1 Primordial Sage
1 Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
1 Sylvan Library
1 Skullclamp
1 Slate of Ancestry
Sweeper Recovery / Don't Wrath Bro!
1 Prowess of the Fair
1 Golgari Germination
1 Caller of the Claw
1 Grave Pact
1 Fecundity
1 Grim Feast
1 Wirewood Herald
Win-Conditions
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Garruk Wildspeaker (primary use: ramp)
1 Genesis Wave
1 Nissa Revane (primary use: lifegain)
'Yard Hate
1 Necrogenesis
Removal
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Putrefy
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Steely Resolve
1 Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
Mana Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Arbor Elf
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Priest of Titania
1 Wirewood Channeler
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Greenweaver Druid
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Argothian Elder
1 Joraga Treespeaker
Mana Fix
1 Joiner Adept
Recursion
1 Glissa the Traitor
1 Praetor's Council
1 Eternal Witness
1 Riftsweeper
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Victimize
Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Natural Order
1 Elvish Harbinger
Non-Elf Ramp Effects
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Elvish Guidance
1 Crop Rotation
1 Enslave
1 Wellwisher
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Elvish Vanguard
1 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Wirewood Hivemaster
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
Land
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Twilight Mire
1 Tainted Wood
1 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wasteland
14 Snow-Covered Forest
To be Tested
Potentially "on the outs"
Things I won't use/do
(b) try to tutor for rofellos on turn 2-3 every game or add too many tutors (e.g. I could easily add green sun's zenith, worldly tutor, sylvan tutor, imperial seal, grim tutor, cruel tutor, beseech the queen). The deck gets too linear.
All-Star Cards
Victimize - the mother of all recursion. nothing like eating barter in blood with the table yipping with glee, only to sacrifice a token to bring back wirewood channeler, rofellos, elvish archdruid, or what have you. It's also been baller at bringing back regal force, etc.
Cloudstone Curio - the interactions are nutty. The most obvious being bouncing two creatures in and out with concordant cross-roads or 1k elixir and using the infinite storm count to crush the table.
Grave Pact - good way to make people think twice about messing with you...then you end up making them sac creatures by putting a regeneration shield on Rhys.
Fecundity - good way to draw cards with Rhys (B = draw 1) and it's also a big way to prevent people from killing your dudes. If you get 5-6 creatures, even if they're wiped out...getting 5-6 cards usually pushes this deck over the time in a huge way.
Genesis wave - if you wave for 15ish (which is not very hard) you basically auto win...and if someone counters it...
Praetor's Council / Yawgmoth's Will - landing these two, or both is totally nutty. Wave gets countered, play it again. Use the graveyard to bring back all of those early-removed threats.
Riftsweeper - people path and swords things and think you're not going to run this guy. I mean...really? It's been beyond huge. Even more so when I can start playing cloudstone curio games to get multiple cards back into my library.
Complaints.
Eternal Witness...why are you a human. Angst.
Synergies
- I'll do this sometime
"combos"
- Random jank - arbor elf, lys alana huntmaster, cloudstone curio, gilt-leaf archdruid = G = draw 1 card, get a 1/1 elf warrior...repeat as necessary.
Stories
- I'll get on this sometime
Trade/Sell me your Demonic Attorney!