I played against a deck on MTGO that used Banishing Knack, Golem Foundry, and Battered Golem to go infinite. I thought it was pretty cool and wanted to see if I could take Banishing Knack and fit it into a different combo shell. I love elves so I wanted to see if it would work with that. Here's what have so far.
The target for Banishing Knack would be Nettle Sentinel. My finisher would involve Branchbender (hopefully being able to use the untapping to convert a few of my lands into creatures) and Timberwatch.
Ideally, I'd like for this to work in a multiplayer setting and I think it has a chance of working. If I wanted to break the pauperness, I'd swap out Seeker of Skybreak for Wirewood Symbiote, which is obviously far superior. I haven't play tested this yet so I have no idea how well this would work. Please provide me any feedback to help tune it.
Edit #1: -1 Elvish Branchbender, -1 Gnaw to the Bone, -1 Quirion Ranger, -1 Sylvan Ranger / +2 Envelop, +2 Quirion Elves
Edit #2: -2 Envelop, -2 Quirion Elves, -1 Quirion Ranger, -1 Seeker of Skybreak / +2 Power Sink, +2 Priest of Titania, +1 Sylvan Ranger, +1 Timberwatch Elf
Edit #3: Added initial sideboard
Edit #4: Added Branchbender back in...he's too good of a finisher when I need to push through extra damage.
Yeah, I've discovered that as well. I finally got to play test this deck a little on MTGO. It was inconsistent, but when it goes off it was pretty nice. I need to tweak the numbers for the cards, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm thinking of maindecking Envelope to provide some protection for my elves and banishing knack. I'm definitely gonna cut Branchbender but am on the fence about Huntmaster. Maybe cut them for Quirion Elves to give me more blue mana? I don't see this deck being competitive, ever...but it's a fun casual deck at least.
Copperhorn Scout has been hit or miss...and I'm thinking about cutting him. If I don't have a Banishing Knack in hand he usually just sits without attacking unless I'm trying to use his triggered ability to flood the board with more elves. When the pieces are in place, I can pretty much clear the opponent's board.
Small changes to give me a little bit of protection with Envelop and some more possible blue sources.
I don't know why I missed it, Xyx, but I didn't see the Wirewood Heralds recommendation. I'll see where I can fit it, that's a great suggestion...maybe instead of Seeker of Skybreak? I still sorta like Skybreak, in case I don't have a Nettle Sentinal out, and it works well with Copperhorn. I'll have to give it some thought.
I updated the list with my initial sideboard. I'm not sure I'm happy with it right now. Should I take out somethings in favor of adding pyro and hyrdoblast?
Note: Sundering Vitae is primarily there for Affinity...which I presume would be one of the decks I'm weakest to. I think it will also come in handy against decks that run exiling enchantments and pestilence.
Isn't Viridian Longbow better? I mostly play Pauper decks at the kitchen table against non-Pauper decks, though, so my perspective is skewed.
It is better. If you're going infinite (or even just doing it a lot) then you might as well go for what puts through damage. Longbow can kill players and creatures while Bola only taps creatures. Go with the damage!
This is actually something I've been wanting to mess around with. Mainly because a functional reprint of Banishing Knack was just printed in Born of the Gods (see Retraction Helix. This means that you can play a full 8 copies if you want. Here are some more fun interactions I've thought of.
Rancor - Allows you to bounce all your opponent's creatures (Hint: cast it on theirs, not yours ) Abundant Growth - Since Banishing Knack says "Non-land permanent", this is a better target than Elvish Visionary. It also fixes for blue mana. Devoted Druid - Kind of like a backup Nettle Sentinel. Not too exciting on its own but with a Timberwatch Elf, you can get lot's of untaps (Hint: bounce the Druid with your last activation so it doesn't die) Bond Beetle or Ivy Lane Denizen - There are probably better ways to kill your opponent but these could be relevant for fighting sweepers.
Rancor - Allows you to bounce all your opponent's creatures (Hint: cast it on theirs, not yours )
How does that work?
Cast Banishing Knack on Nettle Sentinel.
Bounce one of their guys.
Cast Rancor targeting another one of their guys, which untaps Nettle Sentinel.
Bounce guy with Rancor on it, Rancor dies and returns to your hand.
Repeat.
It's probably not necessary, though. In an elves deck, you can set up turns to bounce 3-4 guys just by playing out additional creatures to untap Nettle Sentinel. You'd only need Rancor if you wanted to bounce 5+ guys, which doesn't happen very often. But I've seen elves decks play Rancor simply to help the beat down plan, so it could be kind of a freebie. Maybe there's a Tempo Elves deck that plays out a bunch of cheap dudes and bounces guys out of the way with Knack. And then occasionally goes combo :).
I also think I'd play 4 Lys Alana Huntmaster in a Banishing Elves deck because there are a couple of ways to go infinite.
Huntmaster + Nettle Sentinel + Birchlore Rangers + Banishing Knack gives infinite elves (Tap the Birchlore and the elf token for G then bounce the Birchlore and replay it)
Huntmaster + 2xNettle Sentinel + Birchlore + Abundant Growth + Banishing Knack lets you draw your whole deck to find singleton win conditions like Mob Justice or Viridian Longbow.
I know we're talking multi card combos here but you do get to see a lot of your deck and a lot of the cards are natural parts of an elf deck anyway.
4 Birchlore Ranger
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Sylvan Ranger
3 Priest of Titania
3 Quirion Ranger
3 Timberwatch Elf
2 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Elvish Branchbender
1 Wellwisher
4 Banishing Knack
4 Distant Melody
2 Ponder
2 Power Sink
1 Gnaw to the Bone
Lands: 14
13 Forest
1 Island
4 Sundering Vitae
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Kaervek’s Torch
2 Power Sink
2 Spidersilk Armor
1 Mob Justice
1 Mountain
1 Scattershot Archer
The target for Banishing Knack would be Nettle Sentinel. My finisher would involve Branchbender (hopefully being able to use the untapping to convert a few of my lands into creatures) and Timberwatch.
Ideally, I'd like for this to work in a multiplayer setting and I think it has a chance of working. If I wanted to break the pauperness, I'd swap out Seeker of Skybreak for Wirewood Symbiote, which is obviously far superior. I haven't play tested this yet so I have no idea how well this would work. Please provide me any feedback to help tune it.
Edit #1: -1 Elvish Branchbender, -1 Gnaw to the Bone, -1 Quirion Ranger, -1 Sylvan Ranger / +2 Envelop, +2 Quirion Elves
Edit #2: -2 Envelop, -2 Quirion Elves, -1 Quirion Ranger, -1 Seeker of Skybreak / +2 Power Sink, +2 Priest of Titania, +1 Sylvan Ranger, +1 Timberwatch Elf
Edit #3: Added initial sideboard
Edit #4: Added Branchbender back in...he's too good of a finisher when I need to push through extra damage.
Copperhorn Scout has been hit or miss...and I'm thinking about cutting him. If I don't have a Banishing Knack in hand he usually just sits without attacking unless I'm trying to use his triggered ability to flood the board with more elves. When the pieces are in place, I can pretty much clear the opponent's board.
I don't know why I missed it, Xyx, but I didn't see the Wirewood Heralds recommendation. I'll see where I can fit it, that's a great suggestion...maybe instead of Seeker of Skybreak? I still sorta like Skybreak, in case I don't have a Nettle Sentinal out, and it works well with Copperhorn. I'll have to give it some thought.
This should smooth out the consistency more...I hope.
Note: Sundering Vitae is primarily there for Affinity...which I presume would be one of the decks I'm weakest to. I think it will also come in handy against decks that run exiling enchantments and pestilence.
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Kaervek’s Torch
2 Power Sink
2 Spidersilk Armor
1 Mob Justice
1 Mountain
1 Scattershot Archer
It is better. If you're going infinite (or even just doing it a lot) then you might as well go for what puts through damage. Longbow can kill players and creatures while Bola only taps creatures. Go with the damage!
Rancor - Allows you to bounce all your opponent's creatures (Hint: cast it on theirs, not yours )
Abundant Growth - Since Banishing Knack says "Non-land permanent", this is a better target than Elvish Visionary. It also fixes for blue mana.
Devoted Druid - Kind of like a backup Nettle Sentinel. Not too exciting on its own but with a Timberwatch Elf, you can get lot's of untaps (Hint: bounce the Druid with your last activation so it doesn't die)
Bond Beetle or Ivy Lane Denizen - There are probably better ways to kill your opponent but these could be relevant for fighting sweepers.
Happy brewing!
Cast Banishing Knack on Nettle Sentinel.
Bounce one of their guys.
Cast Rancor targeting another one of their guys, which untaps Nettle Sentinel.
Bounce guy with Rancor on it, Rancor dies and returns to your hand.
Repeat.
It's probably not necessary, though. In an elves deck, you can set up turns to bounce 3-4 guys just by playing out additional creatures to untap Nettle Sentinel. You'd only need Rancor if you wanted to bounce 5+ guys, which doesn't happen very often. But I've seen elves decks play Rancor simply to help the beat down plan, so it could be kind of a freebie. Maybe there's a Tempo Elves deck that plays out a bunch of cheap dudes and bounces guys out of the way with Knack. And then occasionally goes combo :).
I also think I'd play 4 Lys Alana Huntmaster in a Banishing Elves deck because there are a couple of ways to go infinite.
Huntmaster + Nettle Sentinel + Birchlore Rangers + Banishing Knack gives infinite elves (Tap the Birchlore and the elf token for G then bounce the Birchlore and replay it)
Huntmaster + 2xNettle Sentinel + Birchlore + Abundant Growth + Banishing Knack lets you draw your whole deck to find singleton win conditions like Mob Justice or Viridian Longbow.
I know we're talking multi card combos here but you do get to see a lot of your deck and a lot of the cards are natural parts of an elf deck anyway.