I've just started playing this deck recently but I'm already seeing that after Green Sun's Zenith, Natural order, or Glimpse of Nature get countered all that's really left to do is bounce and replay Visionary until I draw into more business and turn elves sideways for a few points of damage a turn. Might be nice to just kill them with Shaman of the Pack instead of having to actually draw another business spell off of the Visionary. I think Shaman has the potential to replace Craterhoof Behemoth as the main win con.
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I've just started playing this deck recently but I'm already seeing that after Green Sun's Zenith, Natural order, or Glimpse of Nature get countered all that's really left to do is bounce and replay Visionary until I draw into more business and turn elves sideways for a few points of damage a turn. Might be nice to just kill them with Shaman of the Pack instead of having to actually draw another business spell off of the Visionary. I think Shaman has the potential to replace Craterhoof Behemoth as the main win con.
I didn't quite get your point.
Shaman is good as a 1of, possibly 2of if you really want to, as a Zenith target. I won't and can't replace Behemoth because Behemot allows us to win in a single turn when we decide to go off, while Shaman 90% of the times can't to that. If you have 4 elves/dryad arbors in play and cast NO to get Behemoth, you will have 3 5/5 attacking along with a 9/9, 24 damages trample (typical situation that happened to me a billion times). If you get Shaman in that situation, all you do is have your opponent lose 5 life.
P.S. If you're thinking about the Miracles MU, you can win by simply attacking them with 1/1 and 2/2 elves if they counter all the finishers. If you run white you can try and stop Terminus with Gaddock Teeg (don't like that strategy, Teeg always eats a Swords to Plowshares). Me I bring in Abrupt Decay against them to prevent the Counterbalance lock and just put pressure on them, to stop me they will usually need at least 2 FoW and 2 Terminus, which they don't always have.
You make an excellent point about Behemoth. The point I was attempting to make was that I've had multiple games where I just couldn't resolve NO/Zenith/Glimpse and the strategy of turning elves sideways does deal damage but always seems to end up a few points short of lethal. It might be nice to have an additional threat at a low CC that can deal anywhere from one to lethal based on number of elves controlled. Shaman of the Pack also seems like it will be effective with Wirewood Symbiote. I'll cede that you're right. Shaman will likely become a 2-of/GSZ target.
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Zenith, NO and Glimpse can be countered, while Shaman can't? She can be countered as well. What's the difference?
how should I sideboard for the lands control decks? thanks in advance
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I'm thinking that Shaman of the Pack could lead to a slightly different build of the deck. I haven't had time to really start working at it yet, but I think you could build a less combo-oriented deck that is better at winning over multiple turns rather than in one big swing. Either version could do both, of course, but each would be more focused on/better at winning one way or the other. This other deck probably runs 3 or even 4 Shaman, probably fewer Natural Orders, and a Cavern or two. I'm hoping to have enough time soon to find out whether it's any good or not.
I'm new to the board but I've been playing Elves for a while now so I figure I'll post my decklist here for reference and we can continue some discussion about this wonderful deck.
I want to play more Reclamation Sages, but I'm hesitant on the new drain elf. I look forward to reading about and doing some of my own testing in the coming weeks.
I'm new to the board but I've been playing Elves for a while now so I figure I'll post my decklist here for reference and we can continue some discussion about this wonderful deck.
I want to play more Reclamation Sages, but I'm hesitant on the new drain elf. I look forward to reading about and doing some of my own testing in the coming weeks.
If your have an elf that does a unique ability you only want in some cases (such as Reclamation Sage), you only need one copy in the deck. I went down to 19 lands so I could add a single Shaman of the Pack to the deck as an alternate win condition.
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Modern: U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
If your have an elf that does a unique ability you only want in some cases (such as Reclamation Sage), you only need one copy in the deck. I went down to 19 lands so I could add a single Shaman of the Pack to the deck as an alternate win condition.
More Rec Sages is actually very reasonable right now, with the two main decks to beat being Miracles and Omni-Tell. He is among the best cards in your deck against either matchup, so you want to see at least one every game and quite possibly more. You want to have one in hand when Show and Tell is cast, so you can't count on GSZ as extra copies there. And CMC 3 is kind of a sweet spot against Miracles, it's the hardest number for them to hit with Counterbalance (which also needs to be destroyed if you have any hope of winning).
Comments on the list:
* You don't want to play less than 4 Heritage Druid, since it enables the Glimpse gameplan.
Three Druids is fine, especially with two Birchlore. You never need more than one copy - Heritage Druid #2 is actually the worst creature in your deck. The second Birchlore over the fourth Druid gives you a better chance at hitting other colors of mana for Ruric and sideboard cards.
I run Ruric Thar as well, and I have actually cast him with a Taiga + Heritage Druid mana. On the other hand, I have also lost at least one game where the Taiga would have been better as a basic forest, and possibly others where it should have been a Pendelhaven. So that seems to be more of a personal preference than anything - do you feel worse about losing a game here and there to Wasteland or to getting stuck with Ruric in your hand?
I'm not sure I like two Sylvan Library main deck. One I could see (though I keep mine in the board), but drawing a second just seems bad.
* I don't see any good reason to only run 2 copies of NO, as it is our main win condition.
* You don't want to play less than 4 Heritage Druid, since it enables the Glimpse gameplan.
* A singleton of Shaman of the Pack is highly recommended as in some MUs it will win games in combination with Symbiote.
* You could easily find those slots by renouncing to Ruric Tar and Birchlore (or even Library).
And finally a question: is it really worth to run that Taiga without Slaughter Games in the sideboard? Is it just to cast Ruric?
Personally I prefere a Tropical Island for Swan Song, but if you want to run Taiga I think you should put Pyroblast or Slaughter Games in your SB.
The idea behind only 2 Natural Orders is that the 2 Sylvan Librarys can generally help me find Natural Order when I need it along with some other tools for the more grindy matchups. Though I do sometimes miss the third Natural Order I can't see ever going back to running all 4 in my main deck. I switch between 2 and 3 pretty regularly.
Ruric has been too good for me to renounce. The second Birchlore Rangers is there because I only run 3 Heritage Druids. I really don't want more than one Heritage Druid in my hand or on the board as it then becomes a 1/1 vanilla creature. Birchlore helps fix mana if I need and fulfills a similar role as Heritage Druid.
I do very much like the idea of Pyroblasts in the sideboard if I'm packing a Taiga anyway.
I haven't tested Shaman of the Pack enough yet, but the games I have played it hasn't been too much of an all star for me. Like I said, I haven't done enough testing yet though.
EDIT: Sorry I forgot to answer your question at the end of the post. I do think that the Taiga is worth it even without red cards in my sideboard. It helps me cast Ruric, its fetchable, and can be protected by Quirion Ranger. None of that can be said about Pendelhaven.
So that seems to be more of a personal preference than anything - do you feel worse about losing a game here and there to Wasteland or to getting stuck with Ruric in your hand?
I'm not sure I like two Sylvan Library main deck. One I could see (though I keep mine in the board), but drawing a second just seems bad.
I have more ways than just the Taiga to cast Ruric. Deathrite and Birchlore can both help in that regard, and I typically don't fetch for the Taiga unless I know ahead of time that I'm going to have to hard cast him, and I'll generally try and save the fetch for that turn. However, more often than not an opponent is going to use Wasteland on one of my Cradles regardless of whether or not the Taiga is on board. So I guess I'm saying I feel just as susceptible to Wasteland with or without the Taiga.
Drawing two Sylvan Librarys is definitely bad, but if I already have one in play I can do a pretty good job of not drawing it if its on top of my deck. I do go back and forth between 1 and 2 though, it really depends on how much Miracles I anticipate seeing.
If I were to create a sideboard with Pyroblasts, what would you guys cut? Something like this?
I've heard that this deck's bad matchups are faster combo decks like OmniTell, Storm, Reanimator, and Sneak & Show, as well as Miracles, and some fringe decks. I guess some of the fringe decks are other random fast combo decks. What else has a very positive matchup against Elves, even if it's fringe? I'm specifically thinking of non-combo decks as I assume any faster combo deck has an edge, but input on combo decks is cool too.
Pox decks with lots of removal can give elves a bad time. Elves can put up a decent fight, especially if the elf player is very skilled, but its a tough match up for the pointy eared people.
This is more of an agro elves build. In combo elves, we generally use cheap costing elves to chain together a glimpse chain for card advantage or the win. We also try to drop 4 or so elves that could attack by turn 3 and NO for a hoof to win. Lords are too costly and this is why they are not widely used anymore. Combo elves admittedly adapted the NO route from agro elves, but as of right now, combo elves is the better of the 2 decks.
Some problems that I have with your list are:
1) Wasteland: wasteland is not a good card in an elf deck. It just does not belong there. We have no other disruption to take advantage of using wasteland, and generally you want to win as fast as you can, and wasteland does not fit into that description.
2) Cavern of souls: we generally do not need this card. However, if you feel that it is necessary, a better number would be 1-2 and not the whole playset.
3) Gaea's Cradle: this is one of the best cards in the deck (especially since the legend rule change) thus you should be running 4. This may even hold even more true in your version where your creatures have a higher average CMC than combo elves decks. Obviously it is an expensive card and there may be budget concerns, but it is really worth the investment and allows for more explosive games.
4) you have 20 lands and that is just too many IMO. If you feel that it is working fine for you, just disregard this. However, with 4 priest and 4 archdruid and 2 (more if you decide to buy them) cradles, not to mention 6 mana dorks, you should have more than enough creatures.
5) Garruk is just too expensive, and takes too long to get to his ultimate.
I will share my combo elves list for reference because it is pretty stock, however I have some meta cards and personal calls.
If you want to keep it mono green due to budget concerns, you can always go:
-4 Verdant, -4 Wooded, -2 bayou, +8 Forest, +2 Cavern for the land base and
-4 DRS (or you can keep it by adding more birchlores to have access to black reliably), -1 Shaman of the Pack, +1 Quirion, +2 Birchlore, +1 Heritage, +1 NO.
Hope you found this helpful and sorry for the late reply. I hardly check here as the thread at mtgthesource is just much more active and better.
For my liking, 20 lands is too much for this deck. Everybody is different, hence why I said disregard my comment if he felt 20 lands was something that he liked. My main concern with his landbase however was the inclusion of 3 wastes. Elves is not a deck that wants to loose its lands. I have played elves when this deck ran a more combo centric gameplan without NO and only 12-14 lands (I used to play 12). Admittedly that was before the legend rule update thus only running 1 or no cradles was the norm, and we didnt play dryad arbor. I have played every version of elves. From agro elves, to grapeshot(mono g), to banefire(mono g), to emrakul (mono g), to mirror entity (gw), and now the current list that I posted. Most elf players now a days admittedly play 19 (1 additional fetch) or 20 (1 fetch/pendlehaven/cavern) but for me I have found 18 lands to be the sweet spot. I feel that it is a bad idea running 9 fetches and only 2 forests, 2 bayous, and 2 arbors as targets. Some people on mtgthesource advocate for cutting all cradles against miracles as it is useless without a board presence, but i find that the way I play i can usually keep 1-2 elves in hand and 1-2 elves on the board to allow cradle to tap for mana.
Also I find myself mulling more hands with lands than without. I mull pretty aggressively as in my opener I look to have access to at least 1 of the following: GSZ, NO, or glimpse. There are some times where I keep a hand without these, but it would have to have both symbiote and visionary and probably a deathrite and 2 or so lands to merit a keep.
Round 1: 1-2 vs 4c control.
Getting fow'ed, they bolted my stuff and I lost to their Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Young Pyromancer. I chose wrong card in game 3 with Thoughtseize: I chose FoW instead of Tasigur. Basically I left his clock stay in hand which caused me the loss.
Round 2: bye. "free win yay"
Round 3: 2-0 vs 12-post.
It seems my clock was faster. Game 1 he played Glacial Chasm. So I of course Natural Order into Deathrite Shaman. At this point he became desperate since I could just wait with DRS and have a beatdown when he decided not to pay the cumulative upkeep. Second game I won with Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth.
All in all: It seems Cavern of Souls did some work on not allowing my opponent's to counter my elves during the games. I was pretty happy since this was my first list with Caverns. I also first time did maindeck Progenitus instead of a second Craterhoof Behemoth. For my meta, I think this was the correct call. When I NO into Progenitus, its gg. I was surprised to dodge all storm players and all D&T since those are probably the two most played decks in Legacy tournaments.
Modern: BRG Griselbrand reanimator, BUR Grixis Control, UR Blue moon (with Possibility Storm sometimes) Legacy: BU Reanimator, BU Omni-tell, BUW Tin Fins, BUR ANT / TES, <> Eldrazi Stompy
my list is a lil janky because not only am i sort of a newbie, but i dont own all the cradles or NO's that i'd like too. i do still have some opinions on some cards in the list though that i'd like to share. here is my take:
first off, i want to say that deathrite shaman is amazing. when the going gets tough he gets going. he can actually shut some decks down. he is an alternate win con in the occasion odd game. and on top of it all he can still just be a llanowar for you. he is the best elf and i'm glad i've finally realized this.
second, i wanted to say that instead of going full on "stream line" with my list, i've found that having silver bullets in the main to be seemingly more successful. nettle in my mind was naturally first to go, because his power level didn't seem to match that of the others. reclamation hits alot of pesky targets and ooze can help fight the yard abusers, as well as help in grindy matchups. packmaster is a great plan-b when alot of elves are getting murdered.
regal force has won me games where craterhoof would not have. green sunning for a regal on turn 3 for 7 cards ends up being GG when you have at least one mana floating. i choose to go 1 regal and 1 hoof for my fatties.
and about sideboarding. i really am into testing a 4 color elf list right now. red and white. for more silver bullet targets. my thought is that with the combinations of deathrites, birchlores, and fetchlands we dont really have to worry about mana fixing.
also still hesitant to try shaman of the pack. not sure why.
This was my end of the year pimp update. I've posted this on mtgthesource and reddit a few months ago but I seem to have forgotten to post it here. Between January and now I have a few more pieces but i'll save those for the next big update.
It's my elves deck. It's by far my favorite deck to play and I put my heart and soul into finishing it. I started playing Legacy around a decade ago and from the start, I knew I wanted to play Elves. It was fun and I was a high school student with little to no income. It was no where near tier 1 back then. Back then, it was an all-in combo deck with Summoner's Pact, Emrakul, and Grapeshot as the finishers.
Over the years, I slowly upgraded my deck. I took a break for a few years during college. When I came back, Elves became a whole new deck. With the new legend rule change which made Gaea's Cradle insane and the printing of Craterhoof Behemoth, Elves was finally good. I have a little more income now since graduating college and I upgraded from English nonfoil to English foil, and then now it's almost complete as Chinese foil.
So, here's the deck:
I plan to get almost every card altered eventually, so if anyone has any alter ideas, let me know!
When this deck is completely 100% chinese foil and altered, i'll probably work on simplify chinese foiling a vintage deck, career and/or future wife permitting
This was my end of the year pimp update. I've posted this on mtgthesource and reddit a few months ago but I seem to have forgotten to post it here. Between January and now I have a few more pieces but i'll save those for the next big update.
It's my elves deck. It's by far my favorite deck to play and I put my heart and soul into finishing it. I started playing Legacy around a decade ago and from the start, I knew I wanted to play Elves. It was fun and I was a high school student with little to no income. It was no where near tier 1 back then. Back then, it was an all-in combo deck with Summoner's Pact, Emrakul, and Grapeshot as the finishers.
Over the years, I slowly upgraded my deck. I took a break for a few years during college. When I came back, Elves became a whole new deck. With the new legend rule change which made Gaea's Cradle insane and the printing of Craterhoof Behemoth, Elves was finally good. I have a little more income now since graduating college and I upgraded from English nonfoil to English foil, and then now it's almost complete as Chinese foil.
So, here's the deck:
I plan to get almost every card altered eventually, so if anyone has any alter ideas, let me know!
When this deck is completely 100% chinese foil and altered, i'll probably work on simplify chinese foiling a vintage deck, career and/or future wife permitting
This was my end of the year pimp update. I've posted this on mtgthesource and reddit a few months ago but I seem to have forgotten to post it here. Between January and now I have a few more pieces but i'll save those for the next big update.
It's my elves deck. It's by far my favorite deck to play and I put my heart and soul into finishing it. I started playing Legacy around a decade ago and from the start, I knew I wanted to play Elves. It was fun and I was a high school student with little to no income. It was no where near tier 1 back then. Back then, it was an all-in combo deck with Summoner's Pact, Emrakul, and Grapeshot as the finishers.
Over the years, I slowly upgraded my deck. I took a break for a few years during college. When I came back, Elves became a whole new deck. With the new legend rule change which made Gaea's Cradle insane and the printing of Craterhoof Behemoth, Elves was finally good. I have a little more income now since graduating college and I upgraded from English nonfoil to English foil, and then now it's almost complete as Chinese foil.
So, here's the deck:
I plan to get almost every card altered eventually, so if anyone has any alter ideas, let me know!
When this deck is completely 100% chinese foil and altered, i'll probably work on simplify chinese foiling a vintage deck, career and/or future wife permitting
Now comes my question, what happens if they ban a card of your deck or if they change legacy introducing Eternal?
Pimping is too risky IMO
Elves is so far from banning that i'm not worried. They'd have to ban brainstorm, sensei's diving top, ponder, show and tell, lion's eye diamond, etc etc before they touch a card in Elves.
And Maro said they wearn't making "Eternal". It was just a rumor.
However if that isn't the case, i'm not worried. I'm not relying on my deck to keep me afloat. If it loses value, it loses value. When I pimped and had my deck altered, I did it with the understanding that it's sunken costs.
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Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
Maro admitted on Twitter that they're making a new format. It just so happened that players made that speculation of the format when they announced eternal masters.
I still think it's going to be a Legacy no reserved list format. It just makes sense.
Maro admitted on Twitter that they're making a new format. It just so happened that players made that speculation of the format when they announced eternal masters.
I still think it's going to be a Legacy no reserved list format. It just makes sense.
Its been a few days since all this was posted, but I think people are misinterpreting Maro's "when".
'If', in this case, means "It would be reasonable if it never happened".
They will eventually create a new format, like they did with modern.
In 10+ years, modern may have its own issues, and making some sort of "post modern" might be likely to happen.
At this point, I don't think wizards is interested in endorsing a new format, especially one so similar to two that already exist.
If I was looking for a stock 75 for Combo Elves what would it look like? I am making some proxy decks for our playgroup and I want to include elves in our rotation. Thanks in advance.
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Vintage-Shops/BUG/Dredge Legacy-Death and Taxes/Nic Fit
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the amazing sig!
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You make an excellent point about Behemoth. The point I was attempting to make was that I've had multiple games where I just couldn't resolve NO/Zenith/Glimpse and the strategy of turning elves sideways does deal damage but always seems to end up a few points short of lethal. It might be nice to have an additional threat at a low CC that can deal anywhere from one to lethal based on number of elves controlled. Shaman of the Pack also seems like it will be effective with Wirewood Symbiote. I'll cede that you're right. Shaman will likely become a 2-of/GSZ target.
If only there were something like Boseiju, Who Shelters All but for creatures.
—Barrin, Principia
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It was not delight, not wonder that arose among us, it was the peace of heaven. He who has thought most deeply loves what is most alive. - Friedrich Holderlin
1907 Constructed Rating on Magic Online.
Current decks of choice:
Vintage: Shops.
Legacy: Lands.
Modern: Lantern.
I'm new to the board but I've been playing Elves for a while now so I figure I'll post my decklist here for reference and we can continue some discussion about this wonderful deck.
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Birchlore Rangers
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
2 Dryad Arbor
3 Heritage Druid
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Natural Order
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Bayou
2 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Sylvan Library
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Taiga
2 Choke
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Golgari Charm
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order
2 Thoughtseize
1 Krosan Grip
1 Null Rod
I want to play more Reclamation Sages, but I'm hesitant on the new drain elf. I look forward to reading about and doing some of my own testing in the coming weeks.
If your have an elf that does a unique ability you only want in some cases (such as Reclamation Sage), you only need one copy in the deck. I went down to 19 lands so I could add a single Shaman of the Pack to the deck as an alternate win condition.
U Merfolk | GR Tron | WUR Jeskai Control | WBG Abzan Company
EDH:
G Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Fighting for Rivendell
WU Brago, King Eternal, Long Live the King
WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Worship the Dragon
More Rec Sages is actually very reasonable right now, with the two main decks to beat being Miracles and Omni-Tell. He is among the best cards in your deck against either matchup, so you want to see at least one every game and quite possibly more. You want to have one in hand when Show and Tell is cast, so you can't count on GSZ as extra copies there. And CMC 3 is kind of a sweet spot against Miracles, it's the hardest number for them to hit with Counterbalance (which also needs to be destroyed if you have any hope of winning).
Three Druids is fine, especially with two Birchlore. You never need more than one copy - Heritage Druid #2 is actually the worst creature in your deck. The second Birchlore over the fourth Druid gives you a better chance at hitting other colors of mana for Ruric and sideboard cards.
I run Ruric Thar as well, and I have actually cast him with a Taiga + Heritage Druid mana. On the other hand, I have also lost at least one game where the Taiga would have been better as a basic forest, and possibly others where it should have been a Pendelhaven. So that seems to be more of a personal preference than anything - do you feel worse about losing a game here and there to Wasteland or to getting stuck with Ruric in your hand?
I'm not sure I like two Sylvan Library main deck. One I could see (though I keep mine in the board), but drawing a second just seems bad.
The idea behind only 2 Natural Orders is that the 2 Sylvan Librarys can generally help me find Natural Order when I need it along with some other tools for the more grindy matchups. Though I do sometimes miss the third Natural Order I can't see ever going back to running all 4 in my main deck. I switch between 2 and 3 pretty regularly.
Ruric has been too good for me to renounce. The second Birchlore Rangers is there because I only run 3 Heritage Druids. I really don't want more than one Heritage Druid in my hand or on the board as it then becomes a 1/1 vanilla creature. Birchlore helps fix mana if I need and fulfills a similar role as Heritage Druid.
I do very much like the idea of Pyroblasts in the sideboard if I'm packing a Taiga anyway.
I haven't tested Shaman of the Pack enough yet, but the games I have played it hasn't been too much of an all star for me. Like I said, I haven't done enough testing yet though.
EDIT: Sorry I forgot to answer your question at the end of the post. I do think that the Taiga is worth it even without red cards in my sideboard. It helps me cast Ruric, its fetchable, and can be protected by Quirion Ranger. None of that can be said about Pendelhaven.
I have more ways than just the Taiga to cast Ruric. Deathrite and Birchlore can both help in that regard, and I typically don't fetch for the Taiga unless I know ahead of time that I'm going to have to hard cast him, and I'll generally try and save the fetch for that turn. However, more often than not an opponent is going to use Wasteland on one of my Cradles regardless of whether or not the Taiga is on board. So I guess I'm saying I feel just as susceptible to Wasteland with or without the Taiga.
Drawing two Sylvan Librarys is definitely bad, but if I already have one in play I can do a pretty good job of not drawing it if its on top of my deck. I do go back and forth between 1 and 2 though, it really depends on how much Miracles I anticipate seeing.
If I were to create a sideboard with Pyroblasts, what would you guys cut? Something like this?
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pyroblast
1 Krosan Grip
1 Natural Order
1 Null Rod
2 Choke
I want some kind of token hate if I can fit it.
Pox decks with lots of removal can give elves a bad time. Elves can put up a decent fight, especially if the elf player is very skilled, but its a tough match up for the pointy eared people.
10 Forest
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Wasteland
2 Gaea's Cradle
1 Dryad Arbor
// Creatures
4 Priest of Titania
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Joraga Warcaller
2 Sylvan Messenger
2 Elvish Champion
2 Fyndhorn Elves
2 Elvish Mystic
2 Imperious Perfect
2 Llanowar Elves
1 Progenitus
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Terastodon
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Back to Nature
2 Pithing Needle
1 Worldspine Wurm
2 Thorn of Amethyst
H/W - Website
Some problems that I have with your list are:
1) Wasteland: wasteland is not a good card in an elf deck. It just does not belong there. We have no other disruption to take advantage of using wasteland, and generally you want to win as fast as you can, and wasteland does not fit into that description.
2) Cavern of souls: we generally do not need this card. However, if you feel that it is necessary, a better number would be 1-2 and not the whole playset.
3) Gaea's Cradle: this is one of the best cards in the deck (especially since the legend rule change) thus you should be running 4. This may even hold even more true in your version where your creatures have a higher average CMC than combo elves decks. Obviously it is an expensive card and there may be budget concerns, but it is really worth the investment and allows for more explosive games.
4) you have 20 lands and that is just too many IMO. If you feel that it is working fine for you, just disregard this. However, with 4 priest and 4 archdruid and 2 (more if you decide to buy them) cradles, not to mention 6 mana dorks, you should have more than enough creatures.
5) Garruk is just too expensive, and takes too long to get to his ultimate.
I will share my combo elves list for reference because it is pretty stock, however I have some meta cards and personal calls.
4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Bayou
2 Dryad Arbor
Creatures 30
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
3 Quirion Ranger
2 Birchlore Rangers
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Shaman of the Pack
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
3 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Glimpse of Nature
1 Sylvan Library
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
1 Krosan Grip
2 Pithing Needle
1 Null Rod
2 Choke
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sylvan Library
If you want to keep it mono green due to budget concerns, you can always go:
-4 Verdant, -4 Wooded, -2 bayou, +8 Forest, +2 Cavern for the land base and
-4 DRS (or you can keep it by adding more birchlores to have access to black reliably), -1 Shaman of the Pack, +1 Quirion, +2 Birchlore, +1 Heritage, +1 NO.
Hope you found this helpful and sorry for the late reply. I hardly check here as the thread at mtgthesource is just much more active and better.
Also I find myself mulling more hands with lands than without. I mull pretty aggressively as in my opener I look to have access to at least 1 of the following: GSZ, NO, or glimpse. There are some times where I keep a hand without these, but it would have to have both symbiote and visionary and probably a deathrite and 2 or so lands to merit a keep.
1x Birchlore Rangers
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Elvish Visionary
4x Heritage Druid
4x Nettle Sentinel
1x Progenitus
4x Quirion Ranger
1x Reclamation Sage
4x Wirewood Symbiote
Land (18)
1x Bayou
2x Cavern of Souls
2x Dryad Arbor
2x Forest
2x Gaea's Cradle
1x Overgrown Tomb
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Glimpse of Nature
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Natural Order
Instant (2)
2x Crop Rotation
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Krosan Grip
2x Null Rod
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Thoughtseize
Round 1: 1-2 vs 4c control.
Getting fow'ed, they bolted my stuff and I lost to their Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Young Pyromancer. I chose wrong card in game 3 with Thoughtseize: I chose FoW instead of Tasigur. Basically I left his clock stay in hand which caused me the loss.
Round 2: bye. "free win yay"
Round 3: 2-0 vs 12-post.
It seems my clock was faster. Game 1 he played Glacial Chasm. So I of course Natural Order into Deathrite Shaman. At this point he became desperate since I could just wait with DRS and have a beatdown when he decided not to pay the cumulative upkeep. Second game I won with Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth.
Round 4: 2-0 vs Elves.
Game 1 I won the coin flip and decided to go first. Comboed off turn 4 with Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth, 1 turn before him. I sided in the basic combo-disrupt package: Cabal Therapys and Thoughtseizes. Game 2 I turn 1 Thoughtseize seeing his hand is nothing except Glimpse of Nature. After that I topdecked my Natural Order first and fetched Craterhoof Behemoth for the win.
Round 5: 2-0 vs 4c control.
Same 75 list as round 1. Game 1 I won with slowly grinding him until Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth. Game 2 he made a mistake and did tap out. I used Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy to rip his hand out of cards, then that one turn I had the chance, I Green Sun's Zenith into Progenitus.
All in all: It seems Cavern of Souls did some work on not allowing my opponent's to counter my elves during the games. I was pretty happy since this was my first list with Caverns. I also first time did maindeck Progenitus instead of a second Craterhoof Behemoth. For my meta, I think this was the correct call. When I NO into Progenitus, its gg. I was surprised to dodge all storm players and all D&T since those are probably the two most played decks in Legacy tournaments.
The Overgrown Tomb and Crop Rotation are budget substitutes to more Bayou and Gaea's Cradle. Yes, you can pwn with a budget.
BRG Griselbrand reanimator, BUR Grixis Control, UR Blue moon (with Possibility Storm sometimes)
Legacy:
BU Reanimator, BU Omni-tell, BUW Tin Fins, BUR ANT / TES, <> Eldrazi Stompy
4 heritage druid
4 quirion ranger
4 wirewood symbiote
2 birchlore rangers
4 elvish visionary
4 priest of titania
4 elvish archdruid
1 scavenging ooze
1 reclamation sage
1 wren's run packmaster
1 regal force
1 craterhoof behemoth
4 glimpse of nature
4 green sun's zenith
1 natural order
2 forest
1 stomping ground
1 savannah
2 bayou
2 misty rainforest
3 wooded foothills
2 windswept heath
2 verdant catacombs
1 gaea's cradle
1 thalia, guardian of thraben
1 ruric thar, the unbowed
1 melira, sylvok outcast
1 bane of progress
1 sylvan library
3 cabal therapy
3 abrupt decay
3 pithing needle
first off, i want to say that deathrite shaman is amazing. when the going gets tough he gets going. he can actually shut some decks down. he is an alternate win con in the occasion odd game. and on top of it all he can still just be a llanowar for you. he is the best elf and i'm glad i've finally realized this.
second, i wanted to say that instead of going full on "stream line" with my list, i've found that having silver bullets in the main to be seemingly more successful. nettle in my mind was naturally first to go, because his power level didn't seem to match that of the others. reclamation hits alot of pesky targets and ooze can help fight the yard abusers, as well as help in grindy matchups. packmaster is a great plan-b when alot of elves are getting murdered.
regal force has won me games where craterhoof would not have. green sunning for a regal on turn 3 for 7 cards ends up being GG when you have at least one mana floating. i choose to go 1 regal and 1 hoof for my fatties.
and about sideboarding. i really am into testing a 4 color elf list right now. red and white. for more silver bullet targets. my thought is that with the combinations of deathrites, birchlores, and fetchlands we dont really have to worry about mana fixing.
also still hesitant to try shaman of the pack. not sure why.
thats all for now.
It's my elves deck. It's by far my favorite deck to play and I put my heart and soul into finishing it. I started playing Legacy around a decade ago and from the start, I knew I wanted to play Elves. It was fun and I was a high school student with little to no income. It was no where near tier 1 back then. Back then, it was an all-in combo deck with Summoner's Pact, Emrakul, and Grapeshot as the finishers.
Over the years, I slowly upgraded my deck. I took a break for a few years during college. When I came back, Elves became a whole new deck. With the new legend rule change which made Gaea's Cradle insane and the printing of Craterhoof Behemoth, Elves was finally good. I have a little more income now since graduating college and I upgraded from English nonfoil to English foil, and then now it's almost complete as Chinese foil.
So, here's the deck:
I plan to get almost every card altered eventually, so if anyone has any alter ideas, let me know!
When this deck is completely 100% chinese foil and altered, i'll probably work on simplify chinese foiling a vintage deck, career and/or future wife permitting
HQ album: http://imgur.com/a/gGbNe
Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
Now comes my question, what happens if they ban a card of your deck or if they change legacy introducing Eternal?
Pimping is too risky IMO
H/W - Website
Elves is so far from banning that i'm not worried. They'd have to ban brainstorm, sensei's diving top, ponder, show and tell, lion's eye diamond, etc etc before they touch a card in Elves.
And Maro said they wearn't making "Eternal". It was just a rumor.
However if that isn't the case, i'm not worried. I'm not relying on my deck to keep me afloat. If it loses value, it loses value. When I pimped and had my deck altered, I did it with the understanding that it's sunken costs.
Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
I still think it's going to be a Legacy no reserved list format. It just makes sense.
https://twitter.com/mtgaaron/status/699631925170835458
Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
However...
Edit: https://twitter.com/_anaestheticz_/status/702749777075699712
Interesting...
Well, if a new format comes, I may switch over or stay with legacy. Either way im not worried.
Basilisk Collar? $5.00
Shooting down a baneslayer angel? Priceless
'If', in this case, means "It would be reasonable if it never happened".
They will eventually create a new format, like they did with modern.
In 10+ years, modern may have its own issues, and making some sort of "post modern" might be likely to happen.
At this point, I don't think wizards is interested in endorsing a new format, especially one so similar to two that already exist.
Thanks to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the amazing sig!