I just posted about it in Modern magic reddit and the elves reddit i could try to post it here but im not sure the formatting would work well. should i post a link to it here or attempt to post it all here?
At GP phoenix I registered my first 4 red cards I've ever played in COMP Rel and went 12-3 in the main event. This was my first time going to a GP and it was a grind. Bloodbraid Elf is a blast to play, and here is the list of my matchups. Feel free to ask me anything and I will do my best to respond and answer any questions
EDIT: Edited in the list and SB notes plus a reason why I ran the deck in the bottom of the write up.
Sideboard(15)
* 2 Lead the Stampede
* 2 Relic of Progenitus
* 2 Thought seize
* 2 Shaper's Sanctuary
* 2 Abrupt Decay
* 1 Essence Warden
* 1 Elvish Champion
* 2 Reclamation Sage
* 1 Fracturing Gust
**Round 1: vs Jeskai Control/Tempo, 2-1**
I went 2-1 to start off the day. Blood Braid Elf is fantastic in control matchups.
SB Out: -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Ezuri
SB In: +2 Shaper's Sanctuary, +2 Thoughtseize
**Round 2: vs Dredge, 2-0**
He stumbled turn 2 both games getting poor setups for lootings allowing me to vomit my hands out and get into the red zone.
SB Out: -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Elvish Visionary
SB In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Elvish Champion
**Round 3: Eldrazi Tron, 2-0**
In game 1, I beat him through an X=1 Chalice of the Void on turn 2, and beat him the second game through a Grafdigger's Cage turn 1. Archdruid Ezuri feels good man.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves
SB In: +1 Abrupt decay, +1 Thoughtseize
**Round 4: Storm, 1-2**
This matchup goes with them sculpting their hand and bolting our dorks early to just cast Past in Flames for the win around turn 4/5. I kept a 1-lander with a Heritage Druid plus a dork. I need the dork to survive the Bolt he most likely had, since he decided to snap keep his first draw of 7. So I play Palace, revealing the Heritage druid, but I play Llanowar Elves instead, to show him what will happen if he wastes what I hope is his only Bolt in hand on my turn 1 play. It works he doesn’t Bolt it, so I vomit my hand turn on 3 with what proves to be lethal the following turn. It didn't matter since he won the match in the end, but I sure do love mind games.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves, -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Ezuri
Game one is quick, I just do the elf thing. In game 2 he Breaches me, leaving me at 3 life, but I have 2 dudes on field. He gets Anger of the Gods and clears the last 2 dudes, and I can’t draw enough gas to close it out from that point. In game 3 he Madcaps me and I don’t have Reclamation Sage, so that will end that.
I feel like I got a bit lucky on this one. I barley squeak out game 1, and he mulls to 4 cards in game 2.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede
SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +2 Reclamation Sage
**Round 7: Grixis Control, 2-0**
This write-up is really showing how tired I am with only 12 hours of sleep the last 72 hours. In my notes I made before writing this I totally thought he got a game off me but according to the DCI I got it 2-0. I end up getting him to 1, but he cleans up my elves, then lands a Tasigur. I’m sitting there with no black source with a Shaman of the Pack in hand after landing 3 during the game. I top deck a Cavern of Souls, slam the Shaman, and he extends the hand.
SB Out: -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Ezuri, -1 Lead the Stampede, -1 Llanowar Elves
SB In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Thoughtseize
**Round 8: Jund, 2-0**
Finally! This is the matchup I've wanted to play all day. Elf on elf violence! Who can Bloodbraid harder?! Turns out I can. Cascading into a Lead the Stampede is usually lights out for the 1-for-1 deck. With that, I'm off to play day 2 in my first ever GP.
Day 2 starts off vs. what I assumed was a decent matchup for me. Turns out with Lead the Stampede and Bloodbraid Elf, I was correct with my choices. Sideboarding went the same as in round 8.
I met this guy late at registration for a 3-round Modern event after the day 1 main event. He's a super nice guy and the matchup goes as I expect. He Bolts my mana dorks, then got in with his creatures. He used Searing Blaze and Lightning Helix to clean up my blockers. It was quick, and it was painless. At least he was a super nice guy, and I hope he did well for the rest of the event.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede
SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +2 Reclamation Sage
**Round 11: Mono Red Prison, 2-1**
In game one, he basically only shows me a foil Snow-Covered Mountain. I closed it out so quickly, I assumed he was on Skred Red, but I was wrong. In game 2 he gets Chalices of the Void and Ensnaring Bridges on board, (so I'm locked out of doing anything) with a Chandra about to ult and clean it up. Game 3 is a grind, but I eke it out in the end with some solid CoCo casts. Turns out he plays Elves, so he gave me some advice on the deck. Nice guy. I hope he sees this. I want his Abzan list he was telling me about.
SB Out: -1 Elvish visionary, -1 Nettle Sentinel
In: 2 Thoughtseize
I got locked out in Game 2 and figured out he was on Mono Red Prison so for game 3 I went with:
Oh boy, Jund again. Oh crap! He gets game 1 off me. Maybe it was a fluke beating Jund all those times. Nope! Turns out CoCo, BBE, and Stampede are great cards. I get the next two.
Eric is a super nice guy and I recognized the name right away as a high end magic player. He plays Goblin Lore, but ends up with nothing but air after. I slam in with the boys, and we're off to game 2. He fires off several Faithless Lootings and find some phoenixes and a Gurmag Angler. However, Shaman of the Pack is a hell of a drug, and I end up draining him for the win. The dream is alive! I'm off to round 14; can I prize my first GP?
I thought about going with 2 Relics, but it felt like it would be way to slow. I would rather snipe a Hollow One with a Sage while adding a body to the board, rather than worry about trying to pop Relics.
**Round 14: Jund, 2-0**
At this point I’m super excited to see turn 1 Raging Ravine tapped, then a pass. I do elf things he does elf things. My elf things hurt more and now I’m 11-3.
GOBLINS! We finally get to answer the age old question of which tribe is on top. Game one he savages me with a Bushwhacker swing for 10. I whiff on a CoCo (seeing 5 lands and a BBE) to make enough blocks. On the next turn he closes it out with Goblin Grenade and a swing for lethal. In Game 2 I do elf things and get the win. I open Game 3 with a nutty hand of Shaman of the Pack into making 4 green same turn. I cast CoCo and find 2 more Shamans, which is enough to seal the deal. He extends the hand, and I’m super excited! This is also the same guy who Goblin Grenade'd my buddy out of Day 2. It was also super cool to see another tribe in contention for Top 32. My goblins opponent was also a super nice guy as well. Go tribal violence!
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede
SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +1 Elvish Champion, 1 Reclamation Sage (I didn’t want to get caught with my pants down vs. a Blood Moon.)
My tie breakers were okay. I managed to squeeze into 25th place for my first GP.
There are some things I would change going forward. I don’t like Elvish Visionary in this list, as it felt weak in most Matchups. I even boarded it out vs Jund lists. BBE is amazing in against Control and Midrange, and is wildly okay versus Aggro. I found it was not so great against Combo Decks. Overall, it seems like a meta dependent call on GBr versus straight GB with Chords of Calling.
Things of note: I left my 4th Nettle Sentinel at home for some reason, otherwise I would have ran it over the first Visionary. I don’t like it in the list with BBE. It just feels bad to play for some reason. It’s no Silvergill Adept. (I’m a dirty Fish player as well.) The Deep shadow was fine for casting the black sideboard cards, but was also not really needed most of the time. It should probably have been main deck Reclamation Sage. The second Lead the Stampede in the mainboard could be pretty much anything you wanted it to be.
I ended up running Jund elves because I went to a modern staples event a week before the GP with a few friends. One of them plays a janky Enchantress pillow fort deck and he went to time at the lower table’s vs. an elves player. I watched him cast a BBE and I stopped for a moment and went yeah I’m going to try that too. I borrowed 4 Bloodbraid Elves and 1 stomping ground from a buddy. We played in 8 matches at two small weekday events before deciding it was good enough to take to the GP.
As you can see I didn’t do to well, but the deck felt fine. I cut a land from 19 and added in the Deep Shadow, and here we are.
*Edited because my teacher friend read the post and asked if his seventh graders wrote it for me. We are both working off four hours of sleep.
*Edited again, because my friends are anal-retentive.
Awesome. I really appreciate the write-up, man. Glad to see GB(r) Elves alive and well in the meta. I've always preferred Shaman way more than the combo and I felt GB has been underrepresented for some time now. Congratulations and thanks for representing!
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MODERN: BRGJUNDGRB---BRHOLLOW ONERB---BGELVESGB---BRGLIVING ENDGRB---GWBOGLESWG EDH: BRGKARRTHUS, TYRANT OF JUNDGRB
Great write up. I'll make sure to get over to Reddit and send some upvotes your way.
Starting with your shell and thoughts on changes I'm going to swap out the 2nd Lead and the Visionary in the main for a Rec Sage and Elvish Champion. This gives the deck a couple more powerful cascade targets. I want to give the Elves of Deep Shadow a little more of a chance before I cut it to bring in the 4th Nettle Sentinel. I think it might be important to cast an Abrupt Decay and other black spells through Blood Moon and land hate. This frees up two slots in the sideboard which I may use to bring in two more Essence Warden. Looking at the day two meta game break down it looked like Burn was pretty popular. I think we have a shot against burn. Usually when I lose to burn it's only by a turn or two and a few Essence Warden is probably enough to slow them down.
Have you played around with Kitchen Finks over Essence Warden at all? It comes down a turn slower with acceleration, but it's a much better blocker. Were you happy with the rest of your sideboard?
Here is what your deck would look like with some of the changes.
At GP phoenix I registered my first 4 red cards I've ever played in COMP Rel and went 12-3 in the main event. This was my first time going to a GP and it was a grind. Blood braid elf is a blast to play and here is the list of my match ups. Feel free to ask me anything I will do my best to respond
tie breakers were okay I squeezed into 25th place for my first GP. Things I would change going forward I don’t like visionary in this list it felt weak in most matchups i even boarded it out vs Jund lists. BBE is amazing in the Control and Midrange matchups and wildly okay in the aggro ones. Not great in the combo ones. So it seems like a meta dependent call on GBr vs straight GB with chords.
things of note I left my 4th Nettle Sentinel at home for some reason otherwise i would have ran it over the first Visionary, I don’t like it in the list with BBE just feels bad to play for some reason. It’s no Silvergill adept. (I’m a dirty fish player as well) the Deep shadow was fine for casting the black sideboard cards but also not really needed most of the time it should probably be a main deck rec sage. And the second lead in the main could be pretty much anything you wanted it to be.
Hey Andrew! Congrats on the finish, that’s awesome encouragement for the rest of the elf community. After watching your gameplay, I have to ask, is your whole deck foiled? Mine is almost there, all my creatures and half my lands are foiled.
Also, did you ever miss Chord of Calling? I never seem to find success with Lead the Stampede. Also, what were some of the hits off BBE?
The post has been edited because my friends think my writing is an eyesore, so they helped me clean it up.
Kizzel I was never on stream and i have zero foils so that must have been a different elves player. the best hits were all of the three drops though hitting Elites was also huge for 4 mana 3 bodies and 6 power. shaman of the pack was probably the weakest of the 3 drops because it resolves before BBE but it was still nice to get the extra 3/2 body and the drain.
Driemer84 I do want a rec sage back in the main for sure, not sold on the champion main but im willing to try it out. 3 wardens in the board seems heavy maybe 2 essence wardens 1 scooze could work out well?
Hi everyone. I am a long-time blue control player but am in need of a change. I have long wanted to try Elves, specifically Shaman Elves. This recent 5-0 list grabbed my eye. I like the look of it but I question the landbase and its ability to reliably cast Shaman.
Thanks for all the feedback everyone. How do yo feel about Gilt-Leaf Palace? If I go the shock/fetch route, it looks like I will have to remove them to make room. This is the list I copied:
A 3 mana 5/4 elf that can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
No downside.
What...
It's a really interesting card. Some are down on it since it doesn't work with the elfball strategy, but I think it's worth a serious look since it lets us fight on an axis that isn't "Have tons of dudes" or "Ezuri combo."
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
the biggest strike against it are probably ezuri and archdruid. Our 3-drop curve is thicc, and it'll be hard to justify replacing any of those 2 with SLK. I'm sure mono-green stompy will swallow it whole; I just don't see this card pushing us to the next level.
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I put in about 15 games last week and I felt like it was very clunky. My hand was constantly jammed with 3 and 4 drops in the Jund shell. I like the idea of its potential to play a longer game, but too often I'd have some combination of BBE, Shaman and Coco in hand with only 2 or 3 land on the board and my early dorks in the graveyard. When I did have enough mana to cast multiple 3 and 4 drops it was difficult to make the mana line up to cast two BBE in a turn or a BBE and a Shaman since you are getting your off color mana almost strictly from lands.
For now I'm going to stick with the consistency, speed, and smoothness of the traditional GW or GB builds.
Hey there people, checking in as I have decided to come back to my roots and play me some Elves in Modern. I played Legacy Elves regularly back in the day so I have a decent familiarity with a lot of the different lines that Elf decks can present. Recently watched the GPPHX Elf match and was thoroughly impressed. I do have a few questions as to some deck building options as I am plan on playing BBE Jund Elves. First question pertains to running Craterhoof Behemoth with a pair of Summoner's Pact either in the main or the side, as this was/is still one of the cleanest kills. Not really out of the question to have 5-6 elves online turn 3 with one being an Elvish Archdruid, Pact for Craterhoof, tap Archdruid for 5 G tap 3 lands, Hoof go boom for +6/+6 and trample to 5 elves plus the +1/+1 from Archdruid, so that's 35 trample dmg across 5 dudes before base p/t on T3. Secondly, as I am Jund what's the opinion on running the following in the sb as some really hard answers.
Any constructive criticism is appreciated. This is my current list. The Verdant's will be Heath's, just borrowing Catacombs for now as I get everything.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
EDIT: Edited in the list and SB notes plus a reason why I ran the deck in the bottom of the write up.
Creature (36)
* 4 Llanowar Elves
* 4 Elvish Mystic
* 4 Heritage Druid
* 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
* 3 Nettle Sentinel
* 1 Elvish Visionary
* 4 Dwynen's Elite
* 4 Shaman of the Pack
* 3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
* 4 Elvish Archdruid
* 4 Bloodbraid Elf
Sorcery (2)
* 2 Lead the Stampede
Instant (4)
* 4 Collected Company
Land (18)
* 4 Windswept Heath
* 4 Cavern of Souls
* 1 Stomping Ground
* 1 Overgrown Tomb
* 4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
* 1 Pendelhaven
* 3 Forest
Sideboard(15)
* 2 Lead the Stampede
* 2 Relic of Progenitus
* 2 Thought seize
* 2 Shaper's Sanctuary
* 2 Abrupt Decay
* 1 Essence Warden
* 1 Elvish Champion
* 2 Reclamation Sage
* 1 Fracturing Gust
**Round 1: vs Jeskai Control/Tempo, 2-1**
I went 2-1 to start off the day. Blood Braid Elf is fantastic in control matchups.
SB Out: -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Ezuri
SB In: +2 Shaper's Sanctuary, +2 Thoughtseize
**Round 2: vs Dredge, 2-0**
He stumbled turn 2 both games getting poor setups for lootings allowing me to vomit my hands out and get into the red zone.
SB Out: -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Elvish Visionary
SB In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Elvish Champion
**Round 3: Eldrazi Tron, 2-0**
In game 1, I beat him through an X=1 Chalice of the Void on turn 2, and beat him the second game through a Grafdigger's Cage turn 1. Archdruid Ezuri feels good man.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves
SB In: +1 Abrupt decay, +1 Thoughtseize
**Round 4: Storm, 1-2**
This matchup goes with them sculpting their hand and bolting our dorks early to just cast Past in Flames for the win around turn 4/5. I kept a 1-lander with a Heritage Druid plus a dork. I need the dork to survive the Bolt he most likely had, since he decided to snap keep his first draw of 7. So I play Palace, revealing the Heritage druid, but I play Llanowar Elves instead, to show him what will happen if he wastes what I hope is his only Bolt in hand on my turn 1 play. It works he doesn’t Bolt it, so I vomit my hand turn on 3 with what proves to be lethal the following turn. It didn't matter since he won the match in the end, but I sure do love mind games.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves, -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Ezuri
SB In: +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Relic of Progenitus
**Round 5: vs Breach Moon, 1-2**
Game one is quick, I just do the elf thing. In game 2 he Breaches me, leaving me at 3 life, but I have 2 dudes on field. He gets Anger of the Gods and clears the last 2 dudes, and I can’t draw enough gas to close it out from that point. In game 3 he Madcaps me and I don’t have Reclamation Sage, so that will end that.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Shaper's Sanctuary
**Round 6: Burn, 2-0**
I feel like I got a bit lucky on this one. I barley squeak out game 1, and he mulls to 4 cards in game 2.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede
SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +2 Reclamation Sage
**Round 7: Grixis Control, 2-0**
This write-up is really showing how tired I am with only 12 hours of sleep the last 72 hours. In my notes I made before writing this I totally thought he got a game off me but according to the DCI I got it 2-0. I end up getting him to 1, but he cleans up my elves, then lands a Tasigur. I’m sitting there with no black source with a Shaman of the Pack in hand after landing 3 during the game. I top deck a Cavern of Souls, slam the Shaman, and he extends the hand.
SB Out: -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Ezuri, -1 Lead the Stampede, -1 Llanowar Elves
SB In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Thoughtseize
**Round 8: Jund, 2-0**
Finally! This is the matchup I've wanted to play all day. Elf on elf violence! Who can Bloodbraid harder?! Turns out I can. Cascading into a Lead the Stampede is usually lights out for the 1-for-1 deck. With that, I'm off to play day 2 in my first ever GP.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede
**Round 9: vs Jund, 2-0**
Day 2 starts off vs. what I assumed was a decent matchup for me. Turns out with Lead the Stampede and Bloodbraid Elf, I was correct with my choices. Sideboarding went the same as in round 8.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede
**Round 10: Burn 0-2**
I met this guy late at registration for a 3-round Modern event after the day 1 main event. He's a super nice guy and the matchup goes as I expect. He Bolts my mana dorks, then got in with his creatures. He used Searing Blaze and Lightning Helix to clean up my blockers. It was quick, and it was painless. At least he was a super nice guy, and I hope he did well for the rest of the event.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede
SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +2 Reclamation Sage
**Round 11: Mono Red Prison, 2-1**
In game one, he basically only shows me a foil Snow-Covered Mountain. I closed it out so quickly, I assumed he was on Skred Red, but I was wrong. In game 2 he gets Chalices of the Void and Ensnaring Bridges on board, (so I'm locked out of doing anything) with a Chandra about to ult and clean it up. Game 3 is a grind, but I eke it out in the end with some solid CoCo casts. Turns out he plays Elves, so he gave me some advice on the deck. Nice guy. I hope he sees this. I want his Abzan list he was telling me about.
SB Out: -1 Elvish visionary, -1 Nettle Sentinel
In: 2 Thoughtseize
I got locked out in Game 2 and figured out he was on Mono Red Prison so for game 3 I went with:
SB Out: -1 Ezuri, -1 Llanowar Elves, -1 Thoughtseize
SB In: +2 Reclamation Sage, +1 Abrupt Decay
**Round 12: Jund, 2-1**
Oh boy, Jund again. Oh crap! He gets game 1 off me. Maybe it was a fluke beating Jund all those times. Nope! Turns out CoCo, BBE, and Stampede are great cards. I get the next two.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede
**Round 13: Hollow One, (vs. Eric Severson) 2-0**
Eric is a super nice guy and I recognized the name right away as a high end magic player. He plays Goblin Lore, but ends up with nothing but air after. I slam in with the boys, and we're off to game 2. He fires off several Faithless Lootings and find some phoenixes and a Gurmag Angler. However, Shaman of the Pack is a hell of a drug, and I end up draining him for the win. The dream is alive! I'm off to round 14; can I prize my first GP?
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +2 Reclamation Sage
I thought about going with 2 Relics, but it felt like it would be way to slow. I would rather snipe a Hollow One with a Sage while adding a body to the board, rather than worry about trying to pop Relics.
**Round 14: Jund, 2-0**
At this point I’m super excited to see turn 1 Raging Ravine tapped, then a pass. I do elf things he does elf things. My elf things hurt more and now I’m 11-3.
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede
**Round 15: Goblins, 2-1**
GOBLINS! We finally get to answer the age old question of which tribe is on top. Game one he savages me with a Bushwhacker swing for 10. I whiff on a CoCo (seeing 5 lands and a BBE) to make enough blocks. On the next turn he closes it out with Goblin Grenade and a swing for lethal. In Game 2 I do elf things and get the win. I open Game 3 with a nutty hand of Shaman of the Pack into making 4 green same turn. I cast CoCo and find 2 more Shamans, which is enough to seal the deal. He extends the hand, and I’m super excited! This is also the same guy who Goblin Grenade'd my buddy out of Day 2. It was also super cool to see another tribe in contention for Top 32. My goblins opponent was also a super nice guy as well. Go tribal violence!
SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede
SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +1 Elvish Champion, 1 Reclamation Sage (I didn’t want to get caught with my pants down vs. a Blood Moon.)
My tie breakers were okay. I managed to squeeze into 25th place for my first GP.
There are some things I would change going forward. I don’t like Elvish Visionary in this list, as it felt weak in most Matchups. I even boarded it out vs Jund lists. BBE is amazing in against Control and Midrange, and is wildly okay versus Aggro. I found it was not so great against Combo Decks. Overall, it seems like a meta dependent call on GBr versus straight GB with Chords of Calling.
Things of note: I left my 4th Nettle Sentinel at home for some reason, otherwise I would have ran it over the first Visionary. I don’t like it in the list with BBE. It just feels bad to play for some reason. It’s no Silvergill Adept. (I’m a dirty Fish player as well.) The Deep shadow was fine for casting the black sideboard cards, but was also not really needed most of the time. It should probably have been main deck Reclamation Sage. The second Lead the Stampede in the mainboard could be pretty much anything you wanted it to be.
I ended up running Jund elves because I went to a modern staples event a week before the GP with a few friends. One of them plays a janky Enchantress pillow fort deck and he went to time at the lower table’s vs. an elves player. I watched him cast a BBE and I stopped for a moment and went yeah I’m going to try that too. I borrowed 4 Bloodbraid Elves and 1 stomping ground from a buddy. We played in 8 matches at two small weekday events before deciding it was good enough to take to the GP.
During the weekday events I played against:
* Breach Moon (Loss)
* Jund Gitrog/Loam/Seismic Assault Brew (Win)
* Humans (Loss)
* Intruder Alarm/Jace Jank Brew (Win)
* Mill (Win)
* Counters Company (Win)
* RG Christmas Skred (Loss)
* RG Tron (Win)
As you can see I didn’t do to well, but the deck felt fine. I cut a land from 19 and added in the Deep Shadow, and here we are.
*Edited because my teacher friend read the post and asked if his seventh graders wrote it for me. We are both working off four hours of sleep.
*Edited again, because my friends are anal-retentive.
BRGJUNDGRB---BRHOLLOW ONERB---BGELVESGB---BRGLIVING ENDGRB---GWBOGLESWG
EDH:
BRGKARRTHUS, TYRANT OF JUNDGRB
Starting with your shell and thoughts on changes I'm going to swap out the 2nd Lead and the Visionary in the main for a Rec Sage and Elvish Champion. This gives the deck a couple more powerful cascade targets. I want to give the Elves of Deep Shadow a little more of a chance before I cut it to bring in the 4th Nettle Sentinel. I think it might be important to cast an Abrupt Decay and other black spells through Blood Moon and land hate. This frees up two slots in the sideboard which I may use to bring in two more Essence Warden. Looking at the day two meta game break down it looked like Burn was pretty popular. I think we have a shot against burn. Usually when I lose to burn it's only by a turn or two and a few Essence Warden is probably enough to slow them down.
Have you played around with Kitchen Finks over Essence Warden at all? It comes down a turn slower with acceleration, but it's a much better blocker. Were you happy with the rest of your sideboard?
Here is what your deck would look like with some of the changes.
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Heritage Druid
4x Elvish Archdruid
4x Dwynen's Elite
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Shaman of the Pack
3x Nettle Sentinel
3x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1x Elvish Champion
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Elves of Deep Shadow
4x Collected Company
1x Lead the Stampede
Land (18)
3x Forest
4x Gilt-Leaf Palace
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Windswept Heath
1x Stomping Ground
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Penedelhaven
2x Thoughtseize
2x Shaper's Sanctuary
2x Lead the Stampede
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Fracturing Gust
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Relic of Progenitus
3x Essence Warden
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
Hey Andrew! Congrats on the finish, that’s awesome encouragement for the rest of the elf community. After watching your gameplay, I have to ask, is your whole deck foiled? Mine is almost there, all my creatures and half my lands are foiled.
Also, did you ever miss Chord of Calling? I never seem to find success with Lead the Stampede. Also, what were some of the hits off BBE?
Kizzel I was never on stream and i have zero foils so that must have been a different elves player. the best hits were all of the three drops though hitting Elites was also huge for 4 mana 3 bodies and 6 power. shaman of the pack was probably the weakest of the 3 drops because it resolves before BBE but it was still nice to get the extra 3/2 body and the drain.
3 Elvish Mystic
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
3 Elvish Visionary
4 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Champion
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Shaman of the Pack
1 Lead the Stampede
4 Collected Company
1 Blooming Marsh
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Pendelhaven
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Temple Garden
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Thoughtseize
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Rest in Peace
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Selfless Spirit
2 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Fracturing Gust
What do you think? Would you feel more comfortable with fetchlands and more shocks?
At the moment I play 4 shocks (2Temple/2Tombs) plus 6 fetchies in my abzan list.
Feels pretty good so far.
I run Black and white cards in my SB
Modern:
Heartless Gitrog
Pauper:
Zombies
Delve
Canadian Thresh
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/989885#paper
http://www.mythicspoiler.com/dom/cards/llanowarelves.html
A 3 mana 5/4 elf that can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
No downside.
What...
It's a really interesting card. Some are down on it since it doesn't work with the elfball strategy, but I think it's worth a serious look since it lets us fight on an axis that isn't "Have tons of dudes" or "Ezuri combo."
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
For now I'm going to stick with the consistency, speed, and smoothness of the traditional GW or GB builds.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
Any constructive criticism is appreciated. This is my current list. The Verdant's will be Heath's, just borrowing Catacombs for now as I get everything.
4x Bloodbraid Elf
4x Dwynen's Elite
1x Elves of Deep Shadow
4x Elvish Archdruid
4x Elvish Mystic
3x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4x Heritage Druid
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Shaman of the Pack
4x Cavern of Souls
2x Forest
4x Gilt-Leaf Palace
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Pendelhaven
1x Stomping Ground
2x Windswept Heath
3x Wooded Foothills
Instant (4)
4x Collected Company
Sorcery (2)
2x Lead the Stampede
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Choke
2x Fracturing Gust
1x Heroic Intervention
2x Lead the Stampede
2x Reclamation Sage
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Thoughtseize
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG