Tron is on the rise again. God, I hate that deck. Anyway, anyone testing Rishkar yet? Haven't been able to play that much cause of school stuff.
Haven't tested, but we're pretty full in 3 drops as is. Is what he brings to the table better than our other options? I'd almost always rather cast a archdruid, ezuri, sotp in lieu of him and probably the other. 3 drop lords too on most board states. I guess he can turn a dwynen's elite into a stronger beater or ramp for mana 4+ through removal? Not sure regular coco elves benefits much.
Players who have used Mark of Asylum in S/B against bolt-snap-bolt decks, what are your thoughts? Did it significantly increase your chances? Did it feel like it did nothing? Was it worth keeping in your sideboard?
It's a bad topdeck but it helps a lot with our early game which is where we struggle if we're hit by removal.
I'am running into U/R/W Jeskai type decks a lot now with the meta change. About every 1 in 3 games online it seems like. And I have a feeling it's going to be a problem next weekend at SCG Regionals. I keep finding myself getting them down to 3 or 4 life and just cant keep anything on long enough to finish the game.
Jeskai matchup plays out slightly differently depending on whether they're playing Nahiri or not. Without her, you can chip away for 1-3 life each turn with nothing more than a couple of dorks on board. Eventually they have to start spending their removal 1-for-1.
With Nahiri however they present us with a T2-3 clock if she's left unanswered which puts more pressure on us. That being said, they usually tap out on the turn they cast Nahiri which is the best time to sneak in that EoT CoCo or Chord.
Be careful about a potential Spell Snare waiting for your Mark, though from what I've seen they mostly side out counterspells especially if they see us running Cavern of Souls.
Another great card against Jeskai is Thrun, the Last Troll. Outside of Wrath of God it's extremely hard for them to remove it.
Match 1: GW Tron - Won Roll
G1: Kept a 7 card 1 lander. Built my board destroying a map to delay him getting tron. Punted on a critical turn where I cast a nettle sentinel with my Palce instead of a dork while having 7 other elves in play with a Shaman and a chord in hand while he was at 10. Didn't see the line to hard cast shaman into chording for another until it was too late and was promptly punished with an Ugin the next turn. Never recovered
Side out 2 visionaries and a Mana Dork for Stain the Mind (Intended Target: Ugin), 2 Thoughtseizes (Feel like this should just be another Stain the Mind and something else. Never really wanted Thoughtseizes all day)
G2: Kept another 7 card 1 lander. Drew into lands and won despite O-Stone due to leads and Shaman after Staining an Ugin out of his hand and the other out of his deck.
G3: Couldn't beat T4 Ulamog into T5 O-Stone on an awkward mull to 6.
Record 0-1
Match 2: Jund, Lost Roll
G1: Had a moment of temporary amnesia and lack of RTFC-titude while trying to block and kill a Kalitas and forgot about the saccing ability. Instead of double blocking with Visionary & Shaman with an Archdruid on field block with just Shaman and he pumps and Kalitas takes over game and keep playing because he makes awkward attacks that give me hope to pull the game out but I never draw 2nd Ezuri, Lead or Coco and concede with 20 mins left in round.
Side out Chord, Rec Sage, and 2 Mana Dorks for Champion, Colossus, Scooze, and Stain the Mind (Intended target Damnation)
G2: Do elf things against a greedy 1 land thoughtseize/bolt keep.
G3: Early attacks,shamans get him down and Chameleon Colossus finishes him off by sneaking past 2 Bobs.
Record 1-1
Match 3: Eldrazi Tron, Won roll
G1: Turn 3 I have Led Stampedes to find 3 nettle sentinels and a heritage druid in combination with 2 leads a coco and the eternal witness. End the game by attacking with 2 Nettle Sentinel and a Llanowar elf at 10+ power each and 20 Elves on board.
G2: Mull to 6: T3 Thoughtknot steals my CoCo and an anemic hand is blown out by t5 Ulamogg into T6 Return to Dust
Board in Stain the Mind (Intended Target: All is Dust, probably should have been Ugin or Ulamogg)
G3: Have an above average hand against a shaky mull to 6. Stain his mind for a single All is Dust that blew me out in the prior game. He does Engineered Explosives for 1 when only 1 drop is Heritage druid and Archdruids allow me to blow him out on T4 with Shaman into Coco for Shaman/Dwynen's Elite
2-1
Match 4: Bant Eldrazi, Won Roll
G1: Friend of mine, we both knew what each other was playing; He kept a shaky mull to 6 looking for a green land with Double Stirrings and Double Hierarch with a Temple and Displacer. Didn't find it and I roll over him on T4
G2: More of a game than the first one. Chose to EE on 1 instead of 3 when I had Nettle Sentinel, Heritage Druid and 3 Mystics over 2 Archdruids and a Shaman. Draw another shaman, cast another Heritage druid into shaman into flipping Ormendahl to fly over his Displacer (No mana open) and Reality Smashers for exactly lethal.
3-1
Match 5: Bant Coco Spirits, won roll
G1: Played around a spell queller by going to end step. He pops fetch I CoCo in response. He never recovers from the double Archruid that I found.
Side in Elvish Champion, Dwynen, & 2 Chords for 2 Leads and 2 Visionary
G2: He brought in static casters and had paths for my lords to keep me off elves.
Side in Spellskite & Dismember for 2 Mana Dorks
G3: He didn't find paths and I found Dwynen and Elvish Champion to sneak through his forests after Shaman into CoCo for Elites with trigger on the stack.
4-1
Match 6: Merfolk, Lost Roll
G1: Kept another 1 lander but drew into another on T3 after having a dork on 1 into a Spreading seas on my land on T2. Top decked sage to destroy on seas only to have another one put on the 2nd land the next turn. he built his board up faster than I could deal with the denial of mana.
Board in Dywnen, 2 Chords, and Dismember for 2 Visionaries and 2 Leads
G2: Kill on T4 after T2 Archdruid into Lead into Nettle Sentinel+Heritage Druid on T3 and Company into Elite and another Shaman in response to a Shaman cast from my hand.
G3: He starts with Vial andtries to race until a good Coco on T3 gets Archdruid and Ezuri while he was tapped down. Casts Master of Waves into vialed in Phantasmal Image copy of Master but Ezuri plus archdruid allows me to trample over his field.
5-1
Top 8: 2 Seed
Match 1: Eggs Variant
G1: Killed him on T3 with Double Nettle Sentinel Heritage Druid chains with 2 leads a company and a eternal witness.
Wasn't exactly sure what he was doing since I killed him so quickly and just figured it was eggs since he had a bunch of stars/spheres and random janky artifacts and overhearing someone cast Faith's Reward earlier in the day.
Side in Scooze, 2 Chords & Stain the Mind for 2 Visionaries & 2 Leads
G2: Pretty much the same as game 1.
Match 2: Fairies
G1: T4 Kill: Bitterblossom helped. lulz
Side in Chameleon Colossus & Dwynen for 2 Mana Dorks
G2: T5 Damnation with Kalitas on board = quick loss.
Side in Stain the Mind (Intended Target: Damnation) for a Nettle Sentinel
G3: Mull to 5. Keep a hand with a bunch of dorks but no payoff. Drew a Coco and a Lead but both we countered. Kept the small ball beats until he got to 10 when he drew a Kalitas. He got greedy and tried to repeat G2 Magic by killing my 5 dorks with Damnation and get a board of Zombies but he missed my foil Westvale Abbey. The Profane Prince made his appearance in response to the Damanation and closed out the game 3 turns later.
Match 3: Other player didn't feel like playing it out since we had already split T4 Cash for $200 each and was on Esper Control and hadn't had much time between rounds all day so he just wanted to leave so he gave me the finals win.
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Has anyone already tested Heroic Intervention in G/B build sideboard? How was it and how many did you include on the side? Looks promising since we don't have the luxury of using Selfless Spirit.
Hello there, Mistermuffin21 here. I'm a bit of a newbie on this forum, but I've been playing magic for a couple of years (mostly modern competitively and Commander casually) and felt like giving some love to the tribal deck that made me start playing magic altogether, and since this primer has been updated with an incredible amount of info from the last time I've checked it a year ago, I felt like now was a good time to post some questions to upgrade my build from mono Green to Black Green.
Tips, comments, suggestions and especially criticism are very welcome and appreciated.
Originally my build was kind of like the GW version but only green (lots of silver bullet to be searched with Chord of Calling) and it still retain a lot of that, but after a few tournaments, I personally felt like Lead the Stampede was better than Chord of calling in many ways. And after reading the primer, it looks like the GB version of elves definitely fits my playstyle more. It just feels more tribal. More Elf! Also, I already have a playset of both Gilt-Leaf Palace and Blooming Marsh and I'm waiting for Modern master 2017 for a hopeful reprint of Cavern of Souls, so the manabase is pretty much done already.
With that being said... I don't know for sure what to cut or put in... There's a lot of good options and even the monogreen version felt like I was cutting so many cards, with black it only feels worse. I know I shouldn't complain about having too much good cards to choose from, but the choices just seem heartbreaking sometimes. Like, do I run both Dwynen's Elite and Elvish Visionary? Do I run 3 or 4 Shaman of the Pack? Is 2 Nykthos, Shrine to nyx too much in GB? Should I really cut Nettle Sentinel? Is Spellskite still important now that we value quantity over quality?
Maybe some of these question could answer themselves if I brought the deck to more events and experiment a little, and I do plan to do that but... Still... I could do with some help.
I'm going straight GB on this one mainly because of Shaman and having Duress/Thoughtseize in the side. What do you guys think of the sideboard and landbase? The idea is to keep the Abzan shell, having lifegain in the mainboard, cutting the Visionaries completely while putting a few bullets in the main and having access to bullets in the side. The thing is, I'm not sure if this is optimal since some of the strongest bullets that we want are white. Or do you guys think Duress/TS is not worth it? I think the format will have more boardwipes than before, hence the Duress. Thoughts and criticisms are very welcome.
Hello there, Mistermuffin21 here. I'm a bit of a newbie on this forum, but I've been playing magic for a couple of years (mostly modern competitively and Commander casually) and felt like giving some love to the tribal deck that made me start playing magic altogether, and since this primer has been updated with an incredible amount of info from the last time I've checked it a year ago, I felt like now was a good time to post some questions to upgrade my build from mono Green to Black Green.
Tips, comments, suggestions and especially criticism are very welcome and appreciated.
Originally my build was kind of like the GW version but only green (lots of silver bullet to be searched with Chord of Calling) and it still retain a lot of that, but after a few tournaments, I personally felt like Lead the Stampede was better than Chord of calling in many ways. And after reading the primer, it looks like the GB version of elves definitely fits my playstyle more. It just feels more tribal. More Elf! Also, I already have a playset of both Gilt-Leaf Palace and Blooming Marsh and I'm waiting for Modern master 2017 for a hopeful reprint of Cavern of Souls, so the manabase is pretty much done already.
With that being said... I don't know for sure what to cut or put in... There's a lot of good options and even the monogreen version felt like I was cutting so many cards, with black it only feels worse. I know I shouldn't complain about having too much good cards to choose from, but the choices just seem heartbreaking sometimes. Like, do I run both Dwynen's Elite and Elvish Visionary? Do I run 3 or 4 Shaman of the Pack? Is 2 Nykthos, Shrine to nyx too much in GB? Should I really cut Nettle Sentinel? Is Spellskite still important now that we value quantity over quality?
Maybe some of these question could answer themselves if I brought the deck to more events and experiment a little, and I do plan to do that but... Still... I could do with some help.
First, I really think that Kitchen Finks is much better in the side. If you want lifegain in the main, I suggest Essence Warden. Copperhorn Scout is great but I don't thinks it's worth the spot. It doesn't do anything on turn one, it needs to attack to be useful, and once your board goes wide, it doesn't really matter if you have one or not. Eternal Witness and Rec Sage are also potential cuts and are good sideboard cards. Shaman is good because you don't need to attack to win. Elvish Visionary is more of a meta choice. It's better against grindy decks like Jund and Grixis. Spellskite is an amazing G1 card since it trades for a removal which is relevant when your opponent doesn't have boardwipes main.
I did always feel like Copperhorn Scout was a winmoar card, probably gonna cut it. As for life gain, I'm definitely switching the Kitchen Finks for Essence Warden simply to up the Elf count for Shaman of the pack. I don't know about cutting Reclamation sage, it's pretty good at getting rid of Ensnaring Bridge, it could definitely all go in the side though. As for Eternal Witness, that's a no-no. I'm definitely keeping one copy main. This girl saved my life way too many times I've lost count.
I'm still not sure about Elvish Visionary. My meta has a lot of aggro and burn deck. I could do with an additional chump blocker, but I feel Dwynen's elite shines more here. And I am well aware of Spellskite utility. It's an awesome card to save Ezuri, renegade leader, but I feel the GB variant need to swarm more than it needs to protect singles. Although, it can be an interesting answer to both Bogles and Infect. I dunno, I'm gonna test the card before cutting it.
Thanks for the quick response Larriepogi, also your build looks interesting and very similar to what I was thinking of building. Might give it a go next tuesday at my locals.
I did always feel like Copperhorn Scout was a winmoar card, probably gonna cut it. As for life gain, I'm definitely switching the Kitchen Finks for Essence Warden simply to up the Elf count for Shaman of the pack. I don't know about cutting Reclamation sage, it's pretty good at getting rid of Ensnaring Bridge, it could definitely all go in the side though. As for Eternal Witness, that's a no-no. I'm definitely keeping one copy main. This girl saved my life way too many times I've lost count.
I'm still not sure about Elvish Visionary. My meta has a lot of aggro and burn deck. I could do with an additional chump blocker, but I feel Dwynen's elite shines more here. And I am well aware of Spellskite utility. It's an awesome card to save Ezuri, renegade leader, but I feel the GB variant need to swarm more than it needs to protect singles. Although, it can be an interesting answer to both Bogles and Infect. I dunno, I'm gonna test the card before cutting it.
Thanks for the quick response Larriepogi, also your build looks interesting and very similar to what I was thinking of building. Might give it a go next tuesday at my locals.
If your meta is artifact heavy keep your Sage main, otherwise cut it. There aren't really that many decks that play Ensnaring bridge (8 rack and lantern are the biggest ones - but with the latter your best Bet iz Shaman them anyway).
I know how you feel like Eternal witness might've saved you and how attached you can become to the things you think work - I'm guilty of this bias myself (ahem, Nykthos, ahem) but Larriepogi is right. Your g1 plan is always to outpace and outrace your opponent and post Sideboard it's to protect and counter their strategy.
Although I've seen decks that run the toolbox variant, with GB precisely you don't have the luxury of doing that. It's all about the speed with GB.
Also Narnam Renegade. Geez what a card. I've tested some more with it and it's just great. It really feels like a removal spell when you can Chord for it, it's got a decent sized body for a 1 drop and if revolt is turned on it can be even insanier. It's almost never a bad draw, especially if your board is empty and now you're staring down a tarmo or a Kalitas or Tasigur (a problem both essence Warden and nettles face).
What would you replace in favor of Narnam Renegade? I'm thinking of cutting the Sentinels.
I also totally forgot about Heroic Intervention. I just really don't like having noncreatures in my sideboard unless they're really REALLY good (Duress/Thoughtseize). If you really want the toolbox approach, I suggest looking at GW or Abzan lists.
I agree there. GB elf seem like it just want to dump its hand as quickly as possible to then proceed to drop the Shaman of the Pack or Ezuri, renegade leader of victory. And that's particularly what lures me to the build, the almost mindless speed of the plays. Perhaps I should drop the toolbox nature of the deck I'm more used to if I really want to adopt that playstyle. Like I said, Chord of Calling is my least favorite of the trio of tutors. (First being Collected company and second Lead the Stampede)
I'm gonna try putting the Eternal Witness out, or at least in the sideboard for the next couple of times and see what happens, I'm also definitely playing Heroic Intervention (Kind of a fantastic upgrade). Has for the Reclamation Sage, I might try them in the sideboard too, my meta has one or two pretty active affinity players as well as a lantern control player. Also Burn. Lots and lots of burn. To the point where I'm kind of sick of seeing Anger of the gods.
Has for Narnam Renegade, I don't really know. If I am to go for a more straight for the troath approach instead of toolbox, I might not try it in my GB build. But I do keep that in mind for when I try the GW or abzan variant, or if decide to go back to my monogreen's simplicity. Still, with the pretty low amount of fetches in the deck, Revolt doesn't seem like a reliable trigger, yet Deathtouch is deathtouch, and at instant speed, it might as well be removal. That I can agree.
Been seeing a recent trend in these parts moving away from Chord. Its mostly a personal preference, but I still prefer Chord in a game one setting for numerous reasons:
a) Lead is much worse in a game one setting where you typically don't have to play around sweepers and only need to focus on the goldfish.
b) Its a turn faster which makes us slightly more live against Affinity/(notquitedead)Infect/Ad Nauseam/Valakut (tutoring Ezuri against Valakut does a great Burrenton Forge-Tender impression.)
c) Tight play with the deck is usually rewarded in midrange/control game 1's anyway. We also don't need the recovery against Jund or Abzan game 1 as their boardwipes are mostly in the board.
That being said, I'm back on Elves for the GP. I erred a lot but I'm back, thought I might as well pilot the deck I'm known for at GP Brisbane. Here's my tentative list for the GP considering I'm not gonna have too much time to test outside of broad theoretics.
Things you might notice:
a) straight GB, as I still believe its the best version of the deck.
b) no boardwipe recovery stuff post board, as I still believe that tight play is the ultimate reward against sweepers
c) no cavern, 4 fetches - this one not a budget decision, a conscious one. I want to reliably cast Thoughtseize, and with the downturn of U based control, Cavern gets much worse. Thoughtseize is an all-star post board and the fetches are a concession to them.
I'm mostly debating on the 4 Nettle's vs 4 Narnam - anyone done much testing with them? Also, I'm still searching for an answer for Valakut decks. I've sorta accepted the difficulty in RG Tron (but non-RG tron is a breeze), but Valakut still haunts me. The one Stain the Mind is a concession to it but something tells me that's not good enough.
Any updates on card choices since I've been gone? I think it was only Narnam...but I might as well ask.
I think Narnam is good. I have been playing with two of him in my main deck. It's very effective against non flying creature decks and a potential 2/3 for one mana seems good. I don't run any fetches, so I rarely get Revolt. That doesn't really bother me though as I see it more as removal. And you can chord into it to kill those pesky creatures if need be. I will continue to run him, maybe even a playset eventually.
The more I play with elvish visionary the more I want to play something else. I've found it to lead to clunky draws with heritage druid and to be terrible in the beatdown plan. If I wanted to substitute do you think that more one drops such as essence warden should be played? Or is a different two drop such as metallic mimic worth a shot? I currently run three visionaries in my list.
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Haven't tested, but we're pretty full in 3 drops as is. Is what he brings to the table better than our other options? I'd almost always rather cast a archdruid, ezuri, sotp in lieu of him and probably the other. 3 drop lords too on most board states. I guess he can turn a dwynen's elite into a stronger beater or ramp for mana 4+ through removal? Not sure regular coco elves benefits much.
It's a bad topdeck but it helps a lot with our early game which is where we struggle if we're hit by removal.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
I'am running into U/R/W Jeskai type decks a lot now with the meta change. About every 1 in 3 games online it seems like. And I have a feeling it's going to be a problem next weekend at SCG Regionals. I keep finding myself getting them down to 3 or 4 life and just cant keep anything on long enough to finish the game.
With Nahiri however they present us with a T2-3 clock if she's left unanswered which puts more pressure on us. That being said, they usually tap out on the turn they cast Nahiri which is the best time to sneak in that EoT CoCo or Chord.
Be careful about a potential Spell Snare waiting for your Mark, though from what I've seen they mostly side out counterspells especially if they see us running Cavern of Souls.
Another great card against Jeskai is Thrun, the Last Troll. Outside of Wrath of God it's extremely hard for them to remove it.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Dywnen's Elite
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Eternal Witness
4 Lead the Stampede
1 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
Lands (18)
5 Forest
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Elvish Champion
1 Dywnen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Viscera Seer
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
2 Thoughtseize
2 Chord of Calling
1 Dismember
2 Fracturing Gust
1 Stain the Mind
Match 1: GW Tron - Won Roll
G1: Kept a 7 card 1 lander. Built my board destroying a map to delay him getting tron. Punted on a critical turn where I cast a nettle sentinel with my Palce instead of a dork while having 7 other elves in play with a Shaman and a chord in hand while he was at 10. Didn't see the line to hard cast shaman into chording for another until it was too late and was promptly punished with an Ugin the next turn. Never recovered
Side out 2 visionaries and a Mana Dork for Stain the Mind (Intended Target: Ugin), 2 Thoughtseizes (Feel like this should just be another Stain the Mind and something else. Never really wanted Thoughtseizes all day)
G2: Kept another 7 card 1 lander. Drew into lands and won despite O-Stone due to leads and Shaman after Staining an Ugin out of his hand and the other out of his deck.
G3: Couldn't beat T4 Ulamog into T5 O-Stone on an awkward mull to 6.
Record 0-1
Match 2: Jund, Lost Roll
G1: Had a moment of temporary amnesia and lack of RTFC-titude while trying to block and kill a Kalitas and forgot about the saccing ability. Instead of double blocking with Visionary & Shaman with an Archdruid on field block with just Shaman and he pumps and Kalitas takes over game and keep playing because he makes awkward attacks that give me hope to pull the game out but I never draw 2nd Ezuri, Lead or Coco and concede with 20 mins left in round.
Side out Chord, Rec Sage, and 2 Mana Dorks for Champion, Colossus, Scooze, and Stain the Mind (Intended target Damnation)
G2: Do elf things against a greedy 1 land thoughtseize/bolt keep.
G3: Early attacks,shamans get him down and Chameleon Colossus finishes him off by sneaking past 2 Bobs.
Record 1-1
Match 3: Eldrazi Tron, Won roll
G1: Turn 3 I have Led Stampedes to find 3 nettle sentinels and a heritage druid in combination with 2 leads a coco and the eternal witness. End the game by attacking with 2 Nettle Sentinel and a Llanowar elf at 10+ power each and 20 Elves on board.
G2: Mull to 6: T3 Thoughtknot steals my CoCo and an anemic hand is blown out by t5 Ulamogg into T6 Return to Dust
Board in Stain the Mind (Intended Target: All is Dust, probably should have been Ugin or Ulamogg)
G3: Have an above average hand against a shaky mull to 6. Stain his mind for a single All is Dust that blew me out in the prior game. He does Engineered Explosives for 1 when only 1 drop is Heritage druid and Archdruids allow me to blow him out on T4 with Shaman into Coco for Shaman/Dwynen's Elite
2-1
Match 4: Bant Eldrazi, Won Roll
G1: Friend of mine, we both knew what each other was playing; He kept a shaky mull to 6 looking for a green land with Double Stirrings and Double Hierarch with a Temple and Displacer. Didn't find it and I roll over him on T4
G2: More of a game than the first one. Chose to EE on 1 instead of 3 when I had Nettle Sentinel, Heritage Druid and 3 Mystics over 2 Archdruids and a Shaman. Draw another shaman, cast another Heritage druid into shaman into flipping Ormendahl to fly over his Displacer (No mana open) and Reality Smashers for exactly lethal.
3-1
Match 5: Bant Coco Spirits, won roll
G1: Played around a spell queller by going to end step. He pops fetch I CoCo in response. He never recovers from the double Archruid that I found.
Side in Elvish Champion, Dwynen, & 2 Chords for 2 Leads and 2 Visionary
G2: He brought in static casters and had paths for my lords to keep me off elves.
Side in Spellskite & Dismember for 2 Mana Dorks
G3: He didn't find paths and I found Dwynen and Elvish Champion to sneak through his forests after Shaman into CoCo for Elites with trigger on the stack.
4-1
Match 6: Merfolk, Lost Roll
G1: Kept another 1 lander but drew into another on T3 after having a dork on 1 into a Spreading seas on my land on T2. Top decked sage to destroy on seas only to have another one put on the 2nd land the next turn. he built his board up faster than I could deal with the denial of mana.
Board in Dywnen, 2 Chords, and Dismember for 2 Visionaries and 2 Leads
G2: Kill on T4 after T2 Archdruid into Lead into Nettle Sentinel+Heritage Druid on T3 and Company into Elite and another Shaman in response to a Shaman cast from my hand.
G3: He starts with Vial andtries to race until a good Coco on T3 gets Archdruid and Ezuri while he was tapped down. Casts Master of Waves into vialed in Phantasmal Image copy of Master but Ezuri plus archdruid allows me to trample over his field.
5-1
Top 8: 2 Seed
Match 1: Eggs Variant
G1: Killed him on T3 with Double Nettle Sentinel Heritage Druid chains with 2 leads a company and a eternal witness.
Wasn't exactly sure what he was doing since I killed him so quickly and just figured it was eggs since he had a bunch of stars/spheres and random janky artifacts and overhearing someone cast Faith's Reward earlier in the day.
Side in Scooze, 2 Chords & Stain the Mind for 2 Visionaries & 2 Leads
G2: Pretty much the same as game 1.
Match 2: Fairies
G1: T4 Kill: Bitterblossom helped. lulz
Side in Chameleon Colossus & Dwynen for 2 Mana Dorks
G2: T5 Damnation with Kalitas on board = quick loss.
Side in Stain the Mind (Intended Target: Damnation) for a Nettle Sentinel
G3: Mull to 5. Keep a hand with a bunch of dorks but no payoff. Drew a Coco and a Lead but both we countered. Kept the small ball beats until he got to 10 when he drew a Kalitas. He got greedy and tried to repeat G2 Magic by killing my 5 dorks with Damnation and get a board of Zombies but he missed my foil Westvale Abbey. The Profane Prince made his appearance in response to the Damanation and closed out the game 3 turns later.
Match 3: Other player didn't feel like playing it out since we had already split T4 Cash for $200 each and was on Esper Control and hadn't had much time between rounds all day so he just wanted to leave so he gave me the finals win.
BWZombiesBW
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Legacy
GBW Natural Order ElvesGBW
First, My decklist:
1 Copperhorn Scout
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
4 Elvish Archdruid
1 Eternal Witness
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Lead the Stampede
2 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
Lands (18)
16 Forest
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Beast Within
2 Choke
2 Fracturing Gust
1 Gaea's Blessing
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
2 Wrap in Vigor
Tips, comments, suggestions and especially criticism are very welcome and appreciated.
Originally my build was kind of like the GW version but only green (lots of silver bullet to be searched with Chord of Calling) and it still retain a lot of that, but after a few tournaments, I personally felt like Lead the Stampede was better than Chord of calling in many ways. And after reading the primer, it looks like the GB version of elves definitely fits my playstyle more. It just feels more tribal. More Elf! Also, I already have a playset of both Gilt-Leaf Palace and Blooming Marsh and I'm waiting for Modern master 2017 for a hopeful reprint of Cavern of Souls, so the manabase is pretty much done already.
With that being said... I don't know for sure what to cut or put in... There's a lot of good options and even the monogreen version felt like I was cutting so many cards, with black it only feels worse. I know I shouldn't complain about having too much good cards to choose from, but the choices just seem heartbreaking sometimes. Like, do I run both Dwynen's Elite and Elvish Visionary? Do I run 3 or 4 Shaman of the Pack? Is 2 Nykthos, Shrine to nyx too much in GB? Should I really cut Nettle Sentinel? Is Spellskite still important now that we value quantity over quality?
Maybe some of these question could answer themselves if I brought the deck to more events and experiment a little, and I do plan to do that but... Still... I could do with some help.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
4 Elvish Archdruid
2 Essence Warden
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Shaman of the Pack
3 Lead the Stampede
1 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
Lands (18)
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Forest
1 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Elvish Champion
1 Chameleon Colossus
2 Chord of Calling
4 Duress
EDIT: Forgot about Caverns lol
First, I really think that Kitchen Finks is much better in the side. If you want lifegain in the main, I suggest Essence Warden. Copperhorn Scout is great but I don't thinks it's worth the spot. It doesn't do anything on turn one, it needs to attack to be useful, and once your board goes wide, it doesn't really matter if you have one or not. Eternal Witness and Rec Sage are also potential cuts and are good sideboard cards. Shaman is good because you don't need to attack to win. Elvish Visionary is more of a meta choice. It's better against grindy decks like Jund and Grixis. Spellskite is an amazing G1 card since it trades for a removal which is relevant when your opponent doesn't have boardwipes main.
I'm still not sure about Elvish Visionary. My meta has a lot of aggro and burn deck. I could do with an additional chump blocker, but I feel Dwynen's elite shines more here. And I am well aware of Spellskite utility. It's an awesome card to save Ezuri, renegade leader, but I feel the GB variant need to swarm more than it needs to protect singles. Although, it can be an interesting answer to both Bogles and Infect. I dunno, I'm gonna test the card before cutting it.
Thanks for the quick response Larriepogi, also your build looks interesting and very similar to what I was thinking of building. Might give it a go next tuesday at my locals.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
GR Tron - hardcasting Emrakuls and playing Forest in the sideboard
URB Grixis Delver - Bolt-Snap-Bolt
What would you replace in favor of Narnam Renegade? I'm thinking of cutting the Sentinels.
I also totally forgot about Heroic Intervention. I just really don't like having noncreatures in my sideboard unless they're really REALLY good (Duress/Thoughtseize). If you really want the toolbox approach, I suggest looking at GW or Abzan lists.
I'm gonna try putting the Eternal Witness out, or at least in the sideboard for the next couple of times and see what happens, I'm also definitely playing Heroic Intervention (Kind of a fantastic upgrade). Has for the Reclamation Sage, I might try them in the sideboard too, my meta has one or two pretty active affinity players as well as a lantern control player. Also Burn. Lots and lots of burn. To the point where I'm kind of sick of seeing Anger of the gods.
Has for Narnam Renegade, I don't really know. If I am to go for a more straight for the troath approach instead of toolbox, I might not try it in my GB build. But I do keep that in mind for when I try the GW or abzan variant, or if decide to go back to my monogreen's simplicity. Still, with the pretty low amount of fetches in the deck, Revolt doesn't seem like a reliable trigger, yet Deathtouch is deathtouch, and at instant speed, it might as well be removal. That I can agree.
(W/B)BW Tokens(W/B) | (B/R)Rakdos Burn(B/R) | (U/R)Gift Storm(U/R)
a) Lead is much worse in a game one setting where you typically don't have to play around sweepers and only need to focus on the goldfish.
b) Its a turn faster which makes us slightly more live against Affinity/(notquitedead)Infect/Ad Nauseam/Valakut (tutoring Ezuri against Valakut does a great Burrenton Forge-Tender impression.)
c) Tight play with the deck is usually rewarded in midrange/control game 1's anyway. We also don't need the recovery against Jund or Abzan game 1 as their boardwipes are mostly in the board.
That being said, I'm back on Elves for the GP. I erred a lot but I'm back, thought I might as well pilot the deck I'm known for at GP Brisbane. Here's my tentative list for the GP considering I'm not gonna have too much time to test outside of broad theoretics.
4 Forest
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Windswept Heath
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Pendelhaven
//the gang:
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Shaman of the Pack
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Collected Company
3 Chord of Calling
//allied squads:
3 Thoughtseize
2 Natural State
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Spellskite
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Dismember
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Stain the Mind
Things you might notice:
a) straight GB, as I still believe its the best version of the deck.
b) no boardwipe recovery stuff post board, as I still believe that tight play is the ultimate reward against sweepers
c) no cavern, 4 fetches - this one not a budget decision, a conscious one. I want to reliably cast Thoughtseize, and with the downturn of U based control, Cavern gets much worse. Thoughtseize is an all-star post board and the fetches are a concession to them.
I'm mostly debating on the 4 Nettle's vs 4 Narnam - anyone done much testing with them? Also, I'm still searching for an answer for Valakut decks. I've sorta accepted the difficulty in RG Tron (but non-RG tron is a breeze), but Valakut still haunts me. The one Stain the Mind is a concession to it but something tells me that's not good enough.
Any updates on card choices since I've been gone? I think it was only Narnam...but I might as well ask.