So far there a couple of promising cards from Kaladesh. Notably - Paradoxical Outcome and Panharmonicon but the enemy fast lands are also enablers.
Has anyone busted out their old brews to poke around with the new cards?
Personally, my Beck/Intruder Alarm elves build is going to take Paradoxical Outcome for a spin..
edit: I love Panharmonicon but I can't tell if it's just the Johnny in me or if it's actually good/viable. For us it doubles Eternal Witness/Elvish Visionary/Coiling Oracle/Dwynen's Elite/Shaman of the Pack (!!!) but at 4 CMC it might just be a win-more card. It does It makes Craterhoof Behemoth lethal with just two other creatures on the board (Two separate triggers of +3/+3 and trample. So Craterhoof itself is 11/11 and everything else is at least a trampling 6/6!)
I have been playing elves in legacy for around 4 years now but I just picked up the deck in modern. I found the collected company elves boring. I started goldfishing the beck/Cloudstone curio deck about a week ago. I'm hoping to play it at GP Dallas/ft worth. I could using any advice. I watched the videos LSV made and I feel like there were lots of situations where Craterhoof could have finished the game sooner. I feel like the deck didn't need regal force because we can already draw with beck and visionary. I don't really have anyone to play test modern with in my town. What are some of our good/bad matchups?
There are few combo elves lists running around. If you provided a general list we could probably help out more.
In most lists you'll need to keep you Heritage Druid safe. In Modern we don't have Birchlore Rangers as a backup and all of the combos rely on the card.
Burn - This will likely be your worst match-up no matter what build you are in. The upper level players will know to keep back a burn spell for Heritage Druid.
Merfolk - game 1 is a race, but they don't have much in the way to interact besides vapor snag. It is rare, but also remember Curio can bounce you lands to remove Spreading Seas. Game 2 you bring in as many Chokes as you put in your sideboard.
Jund - They have Olivia and Night of Soul's Betrayal, but since many builds combo on turn 4-5, usually I see the Jund player tap out for Olivia then get combo-ed out next turn. In this match up remember that you can bounce both Heritage Druid and Dwynen's Elite when you combo for infinite tokens. If the Jund player draws Damnation you are then free to combo again next turn.
Affinity - Game 1 usually goes to them. It is the way of affinity. But Green is a great color against the artifacts. We get Reclamation Sage as well as Fracturing Gust. Usually, it we have to find out if they draw whip flare before I draw gust. Also, combo elves is nice that it isn't completely blown out by Flare like Company Elves. If we have a Curio out draw into a Visionary and some more elves and your good to go again.
I have been testing the decklist LSV used in his videos. I also watched some videos of CVM playing evolutionary leap. That card seems really good against removal but I'm not sure if I like it other then in certain situations.
After playing the beck version I have decided that they seem to clog up my hand most of the time. I was just about to proxy up some evolutionary leaps. Thank you so much for posting your decklist. I was reading through the thread and I saw people talking about Garruk Relentless. Can anybody tell me what they think of the card?
Since relinquishing OP of CoCo elves (currently in the works); I can now focus my time here. As some know; I actually Started my OP tenure when the thread/Primer was just "elves". The community decided it was best to split the two with the rise of COCO elves. Between this, Green Devotion, and CoCo (along with a new baby, our father's cancer and passing, and our company) I was spread to thin and I let this Primer fall by the wayside.
Well I'm back and here to devote more time to making Combo elves a deck worth playing
I hope many of our stalwarts are still here! They had already made great and viable decks...now we just need to talk about them and get them out there!
So, three months later and Corbin Hosler has an article on SCG about Panharmonicon in elves. His build is a lot closer to more traditional aggro, but the panharmonicon gives it a bit of extra flavour that we might consider in our brews.
I'm still a believer in Intruder Alarm, but maybe you're right - maybe Paradox Engine (without any colour requirements) is a better option in combo elves.
Hmm.. Intruder Alarm
pro
- triggers on any creature ETB
- strong synergy with Forbidden Orchard
- hard to remove
- affects both players
- mana cost of 3 can be played on turn 2
con
- requires U
Paradox Engine
pro
- no colour requirements
- triggers on cast for all spells (woo convoked Chord of Calling?)
- only affects you
con
- 5 mana cost, effectively need 6 before you can actually play it
- artifact hate is expected
I'm not convinced of much except that it's a cool card that will require some investigation.
Greenbelt Rampager (G)
Creature - Elephant {rare}
When Greenbelt Rampager enters the battlefield, pay EE (2 energy counters).
If you can't, return Greenbelt Rampager to it's owner's hand and you get E.
It looks like you must pay the energy if you 'can' (I don't know the rules for when text says 'can') so it's not quite a repeatable ETB trigger for G but it's pretty close. I know there was some experimentation with Temur Sabertooth as a pseudo Cloudstone Curio #5, maybe this beast will have more sticking power.
Extremely interesting...its a card so chock full of value it is hard to see it's total power right away...at minimum once we have the combo he can infinitely pump our creatures 2 counters at a time
Not certain of the name yet, but what they are calling Lifecrafter's Bestiary looks like a [/card]Glimpse of Nature-esq card for us...
3
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may pay G. If you do, draw a card.
I have always played Cloudstone Curio variants; and I'm starting to wonder if I can somehow jam a Trophy Mage into the deck without diluting it...most likely I just need to run my go too Elves, this, Curio, and call it a day
Curdbros yeah..i prefer much more the collected elves.. been thinking about these two cards the artifact to draw and the heroic intervention one. I was thinking about either to include the white creature that makes my permanentes indestructible until end of turn or heroic intervention. Cant seems to decide..but for chord to be able to pull it off maybe the white creature is better right?
Has anyone been playing around with combo elves recently? From my testing (mostly with Intruder Alarm as opposed to Cloudstone Curio) Rishkar hasn't been nearly as impressive as I expected. Maybe I haven't managed enough grindy matchups, but in the games where he appeared he was clunky and provided unnecessary redundancy. That said, I'm strongly considering getting some sort of elf combo together for GP Vancouver this weekend and I'd love to know what people are up to. At this point, if I go with elves I think I'd probably go with an (slightly) updated version of the evolutionary leap / curio combo based on the post tournament report from CVM (ie: include a couple of Defense Grid at a minimum). Unfortunately, it looks like it might get caught by the Storm / Cheerios hate (at least Eidolon of Rhetoric / Spirit of the Labyrinth) (Holy cow - the UR Gifts storm seems like a real deck!)
Anyway, I'd love to hear if anyone's been brewing and any success they've had !
Alright guys....I hadn't changed much in several months (kinda just felt like a bad time and nothing new); but I think this card may actually change things a little...
With dorks and Heritage Druid; we have a distinct ability to be able to win with "going infinite" as well as this and Shaman of the Pack. We could win and not attack once! This is the kind of crazy stuff I love Got my brewing juices flowing again...so I will post what I brew and how it goes!
I always get it with Chord if I don't have a combo pieces ready. It do wonders in elf deck whatever version you have because we can produce an insane amount of mana. It also great in a Evolutionary Leap variant. Once Menagerie reveals a non-creature card, Evo leap can reset your library.
Any Thoughts?
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Has anyone busted out their old brews to poke around with the new cards?
Personally, my Beck/Intruder Alarm elves build is going to take Paradoxical Outcome for a spin..
edit: I love Panharmonicon but I can't tell if it's just the Johnny in me or if it's actually good/viable. For us it doubles Eternal Witness/Elvish Visionary/Coiling Oracle/Dwynen's Elite/Shaman of the Pack (!!!) but at 4 CMC it might just be a win-more card. It does It makes Craterhoof Behemoth lethal with just two other creatures on the board (Two separate triggers of +3/+3 and trample. So Craterhoof itself is 11/11 and everything else is at least a trampling 6/6!)
There are few combo elves lists running around. If you provided a general list we could probably help out more.
In most lists you'll need to keep you Heritage Druid safe. In Modern we don't have Birchlore Rangers as a backup and all of the combos rely on the card.
Burn - This will likely be your worst match-up no matter what build you are in. The upper level players will know to keep back a burn spell for Heritage Druid.
Merfolk - game 1 is a race, but they don't have much in the way to interact besides vapor snag. It is rare, but also remember Curio can bounce you lands to remove Spreading Seas. Game 2 you bring in as many Chokes as you put in your sideboard.
Jund - They have Olivia and Night of Soul's Betrayal, but since many builds combo on turn 4-5, usually I see the Jund player tap out for Olivia then get combo-ed out next turn. In this match up remember that you can bounce both Heritage Druid and Dwynen's Elite when you combo for infinite tokens. If the Jund player draws Damnation you are then free to combo again next turn.
Affinity - Game 1 usually goes to them. It is the way of affinity. But Green is a great color against the artifacts. We get Reclamation Sage as well as Fracturing Gust. Usually, it we have to find out if they draw whip flare before I draw gust. Also, combo elves is nice that it isn't completely blown out by Flare like Company Elves. If we have a Curio out draw into a Visionary and some more elves and your good to go again.
https://deckbox.org/sets/1530403
Since relinquishing OP of CoCo elves (currently in the works); I can now focus my time here. As some know; I actually Started my OP tenure when the thread/Primer was just "elves". The community decided it was best to split the two with the rise of COCO elves. Between this, Green Devotion, and CoCo (along with a new baby, our father's cancer and passing, and our company) I was spread to thin and I let this Primer fall by the wayside.
Well I'm back and here to devote more time to making Combo elves a deck worth playing
I hope many of our stalwarts are still here! They had already made great and viable decks...now we just need to talk about them and get them out there!
I've always played a Devotion-heavy theme; so it kinda falls in line with Combo.
The new Paradox Engine looks VERY promising!
Hmm..
Intruder Alarm
pro
- triggers on any creature ETB
- strong synergy with Forbidden Orchard
- hard to remove
- affects both players
- mana cost of 3 can be played on turn 2
con
- requires U
Paradox Engine
pro
- no colour requirements
- triggers on cast for all spells (woo convoked Chord of Calling?)
- only affects you
con
- 5 mana cost, effectively need 6 before you can actually play it
- artifact hate is expected
I'm not convinced of much except that it's a cool card that will require some investigation.
Greenbelt Rampager (G)
Creature - Elephant {rare}
When Greenbelt Rampager enters the battlefield, pay EE (2 energy counters).
If you can't, return Greenbelt Rampager to it's owner's hand and you get E.
It looks like you must pay the energy if you 'can' (I don't know the rules for when text says 'can') so it's not quite a repeatable ETB trigger for G but it's pretty close. I know there was some experimentation with Temur Sabertooth as a pseudo Cloudstone Curio #5, maybe this beast will have more sticking power.
Extremely interesting...its a card so chock full of value it is hard to see it's total power right away...at minimum once we have the combo he can infinitely pump our creatures 2 counters at a time
3
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may pay G. If you do, draw a card.
I have always played Cloudstone Curio variants; and I'm starting to wonder if I can somehow jam a Trophy Mage into the deck without diluting it...most likely I just need to run my go too Elves, this, Curio, and call it a day
Herioc Intervention
1G
Instant
Permanents you control gain Hexproof and Indestructible until end of turn.
Saves our lands from land destruction, Walkers from maelstrom pulse...everyone from destroy boardwipes...unreal.
Anyway, I'd love to hear if anyone's been brewing and any success they've had !
With dorks and Heritage Druid; we have a distinct ability to be able to win with "going infinite" as well as this and Shaman of the Pack. We could win and not attack once! This is the kind of crazy stuff I love Got my brewing juices flowing again...so I will post what I brew and how it goes!
Vizier of Remedies and Devoted Druid
This could make for a great infinite combo deck using a lot of the pieces we already use!
I always get it with Chord if I don't have a combo pieces ready. It do wonders in elf deck whatever version you have because we can produce an insane amount of mana. It also great in a Evolutionary Leap variant. Once Menagerie reveals a non-creature card, Evo leap can reset your library.
Any Thoughts?