MTG Salvation

Quote from Kizzel »

Sylvan Recruiter - 1(G)
Elf Warrior
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature spell. You may put that creature onto the battlefield, put the rest into the graveyard.
2/2

Too good? Lol.
Thinking of a new elf that could take us up a tier.

FAR too good.

If you intended this is an ETB trigger, it basically just reads 1(G) - Put Emrakul into play.

If you intended it as a cast trigger, it's still far too busted and will just end up being used as a combo enabler instead of being used as an elves value card.

Quote from LeoTzu »

Quote from Kizzel »

Sylvan Recruiter - 1(G)
Elf Warrior
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature spell. You may put that creature onto the battlefield, put the rest into the graveyard.
2/2

Too good? Lol.
Thinking of a new elf that could take us up a tier.

FAR too good.

If you intended this is an ETB trigger, it basically just reads 1(G) - Put Emrakul into play.

If you intended it as a cast trigger, it's still far too busted and will just end up being used as a combo enabler instead of being used as an elves value card.

I edited it. Still broke tho I think. Lol

http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=18961&d=319150&f=MO

No nettles and no company’s.

If we had to pick one, which would you want in Modern more: Wirewood Symbiote or Birchlore Ranger? I'm thinking Symbiote to bounce Shamans or BBEs or Visionary but the ability to fix mana to be able to cast Shaman and sideboard cards through Blood Moon is really tempting.

I was looking at the Envoy as well. The two main drawbacks are the 2G casting cost and the previously mentioned 1G filtering cost, but we generally generate enough mana that this is not an issue. The casting cost being the most prohibitive as it has a lot of competition for that spot. As potential SB tech vs. Blood Moon it does have some merit.

I recently switched to the abzan build, away from the combo based.




Pretty happy with it so far. But I am still working on the sideboard. I am more and more stepping away from the creature based SB, since i got rid of the last two chords.


For now I will continue playing with my Abzan build. White sideboards are simply too good not to play.

I think wirewood Symbiote is too busted to be unbanned. But I can see them reprinting Birchlore Ranger. Or even Quirion Ranger.

FYI I think your list is missing Shamans. Also, Symbiote isn’t banned, it just hasn’t been printed in a modern legal set.

Quote from Piney_Tinecones »

Think I’m gonna stick with BG Elves for now and leave BBE in my Jund deck. I was playing solitaire last night with the deck and had forgotten how stupid good it is. I think I’m gonna run it this Wednesday at my LGS. It’s been awhile though and could use some help. I want to make sure everything is still relevant. I’d like y’all’s opinions.

Here’s the list as it stands atm:

Piney_Tinecones's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures (34) 4x Llanowar Elves (foil 7th ) 4x Elvish Mystic 1x Elves of Deep Shadow 4x Nettle Sentinel 4x Heritage Druid 4x Dwynen’s Elite 2x Elvish Visionary 1x Scavenging Ooze 4x Elvish Archdruid 4x Shaman of the Pack 2x Ezuri, Renegade Leader	Instants & Sorceries (8) 4x Collected Company 2x Lead the Stampede 2x Chord of Calling Lands (18) 4x Blooming Marsh 4x Gilt-Leaf Palace 3x Cavern of Souls 3x Forest 1x Pendelhaven 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Llanowar Wastes 1x Westvale Abbey	Sideboard (15) 1x Elvish Champion (Foil 7th) 1x Glissa, the Traitor 1x Chameleon Colossus 2x Garruk Relentless 2x Fracturing Gust 1x Abrupt Decay 3x Thoughtseize 2x Nihil Spellbomb 1x Prowess of the Fair 1x Shapers’ Sanctuary

I like the MB Scooze and effectively have three copies with the Chords. The card is essential sometimes. Still trying out the Elves of Deep Shadow in that flex spot. If might be replaced with Gnarlroot Trapper or the third Visionary. I have liked having the 9th dork though as well as an extra B source for Shaman and SB cards, which is why I’m running the Llanowar Wastes instead of the fourth Cavern of Souls or second Horizon Canopy. I want to reliably have B sources for my SB cards, as well as for multiple Shamans if need be.

I’ve been very happy with the 2/2 split of Lead/Chord.

The SB is very tentative. I’d love some advice on it. Honestly I’d like to run 4x Thoughtseize and 3x Nihil Spellbomb to shore up the combo MU’s. A second Abrupt Decay would be nice too. I think I have the fair decks pretty well beat. Garruk Relentless is awesome tech that someone brought up awhile back and I’ve used him since with great results for grindy/control MU’s, but I don’t know that he’s necessary. I like the split between Shapers’ Sanctuary and Prowess of the Fair, but I wonder if Sanctuary should be an Evolutionary Leap instead? Maybe I would run something like:

Piney_Tinecones's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
	Sideboard (15) 4x Thoughtseize 3x Nihil Spellbomb 2x Fracturing Gust 2x Abrupt Decay 1x Prowess of the Fair 1x Evolutionary Leap 1x Lead the Stampede 1x Elvish Champion

Should Spellbomb be Relic? Is so, why?

I appreciate any and all help/advice. Thanks I’m advance. I’m looking forward to running this deck again. I’ve been running Jund every tournament for awhile now.

Bump. Any advice? Opinions? Any BG advocates here? I just haven’t played the deck in awhile and wanted to make sure this list is still relevant. What looks good? What would you change?

Quote from Driemer84 »

FYI I think your list is missing Shamans. Also, Symbiote isn’t banned, it just hasn’t been printed in a modern legal set.

IT has Not Seen a Reprint because IT is too good.
Yes I forgot to write them down.
Of course they are in my list.

Quote from Khalar89 »

Quote from Driemer84 »

FYI I think your list is missing Shamans. Also, Symbiote isn’t banned, it just hasn’t been printed in a modern legal set.

IT has Not Seen a Reprint because IT is too good.
Yes I forgot to write them down.
Of course they are in my list.

I wasn't trying to be smart by pointing that stuff out. I know I would want to edit my list to make it correct if I forgot something.

I can't confidently say if Wirewood would be too good or not. After the recent unbannings that had people worried modern would be unplayable turned out to be a minor blip in the format, I've become a lot more open to adding cards to the pool. The only real target we'd want to untap is Archdruid, but we don't have glimpse to abuse recasting whatever we bounced, or Birchlore Rangers for another source of mana. Not that two activations out of Archdruid isn't powerful, but Archdruid is no Gaea's Cradle so Symbiote being an insect powers it down a bit. Being able to bounce a Visioinary or Dwynen's Elite would actually be a pretty sweet grinding engine though.

Will be attending GP: Hartford over the weekend with G/W Elves using the below list. Will try to take notes and right a tournament report on Monday. First time playing Elves in person, only played it in about 10 leagues on MTGO but feel comfortable. Anyone have any last second opinions on my list or spicy SB tech?



I wouldn't mind another targeted disenchant, maybe another Rec Sage or Fracturing Gust but I value Kataki more than those. The 2nd Shaper's Sanctuary is also close since EE on 1 is popular vs us. I wouldn't mind another Chamelleon Colossus as well.

I personally never cared for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and if you're going to run the 2 Boreal Druid you can probably afford to go down to 18 land.

Speaking of Boreal Druid, I think those two slots and the 19th land could be filled by some of the cards you are considering in the board. Maybe a mainboard Rec Sage and Selfless Spirit while keeping the 19th land or 1 Boreal Druid. That'll free up a slot in the board for another Rec Sage and Colossus.

Just dropping a note. I have begun testing SLC. I’m testing it in a UGc shell with twenty lands. Hope that that piques your interest for my full update.

Let’s just say, it is very very interesting. But, the full report will come once it has been through a couple of small tourneys.

My current list that has been been playing really well, albeit against a weak meta at my LGS, with a couple good decks. Although after beating Burn 2-1 the other night w/o lifegain was sketchy, as he didn't kill my T1 Heritage and I was able to dump my hand T2 with an Elite into 3 Mystics, still hasn't killed Druid so T3 I top a Pact and drop Hoof for 12 leaving him at 4 😁. I don't think he's going to allow a Heritage Druid to live ever again. But, still felt like it was a crap shoot w/o access to Essence Warden. My inclination is to drop the Choke's in favor of Wardens. Choke just seems to be somewhat easy to play around for decks that it would be decent against.

Quote from Driemer84 »

I personally never cared for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and if you're going to run the 2 Boreal Druid you can probably afford to go down to 18 land.

Speaking of Boreal Druid, I think those two slots and the 19th land could be filled by some of the cards you are considering in the board. Maybe a mainboard Rec Sage and Selfless Spirit while keeping the 19th land or 1 Boreal Druid. That'll free up a slot in the board for another Rec Sage and Colossus.

To your post before, I did not take it that way, just admitted that I forgot to write them down.

Banlist says no changes.

So i am looking forward to put damping Sphere in my Sideboard.
Also I think i will put in Another Scooze for Grindy Matchups.
Hope to Attend a Tournament soon to get some feedback.
Too bad I did not have much time lately to join some.

@pheasanttail, what was your record @ GP Hartford?

I personally do not like Boreal Druid. Would also consider some protection against your local meta. For example Selfless spirit, if you play a lot against sweepers.

Why do people think that Damping Sphere is a good SB option for us, we don't play many 1 or 2 spell turns. I guess if you are playing it after you have the board you want and before you can go off and Storm potentially can or Tron can play Eugene, then ok. Problem is that these decks are already packing Artifact hate so they are not really forced to make any deck changes for it. Now other decks that want to play the limited spells a turn game like control and walker midrange type of decks will love it. It is actually REALLY good against us, so we must start assuming that it will be coming in against us from a lot of decks and SB accordingly in the future.

Example : On the draw. T1 Land > H.Druid. T2 Land > D.Elite trigger, get token. Tap all 3 get GGG cast at the most 1 more creature that cost less than 3 if Sphere is in play. So no Archdruid, Ezuri, Sage or Stampede. We have to basically take a turn off to deal with it and if you can't, it is going to severely hurt you.

As fun as Jund has been, I’ll be going back to the Pure GB builds. I miss the painless mana base and consistency it brings. BBE just always felt clunky to me. Personal preference I suppose.

Good choice to my mind.

Ich have never tried BBE anderen never will. It's a Lot Like GLC.
It's a good Card in it's own but IT does Not Support our Main Game plan. You more or less always want to Cast Coco in t4. And you offen do end Up Not beeing able to Cast BBE because of the stretched Mana base.
Still a big Fan of the abzan build.
You do Not have to commit that much into the Mana Base to be able to Cast the White cards when you want to.

Just wanted to chime in on the damping sphere discussion. We've already had access to Thalia for storm and she wasn't showing up along side some of the other options for storm like eidolon of rhetoric. Storm can and will board in bolt/anger, but savvy players were already bringing in echoing truth for the turn that it mattered to go off because eidolon dodged anger and bolt. Echoing truth also hits Thalia/meddling mage from humans, rip, and more. Sphere slows them down less than eidolon on digging to this particular out. I honestly thcan't no you want spellskite with many of these options to protect them. All of the cards they typically being in can be redirected to it.

The question is does it add enough to our tron match up to matter? I think phyrexian revoker or reclaimation sage can be quite potent here and they are seeing play already. The card is also quite weak against eldrazi tron because hitting 4-5 mana naturally and just curving out threats that outclass us is realistic. Tron is just a aspect of the deck, not the engine.

Now the sphere does hurt us, but only in turns 2-3 usually. We certainly wouldn't mainboard it and without a ton of card draw the sphere is fine to board in. I wouldn't run it alongside lead the stampede because it hampers your goal of rebuilding. But you can sequence it after you dump your hand just fine.

All that being said, it's a tool for us but we lack the dig and tutors to grab it. I've historically not been a huge supporter of noncreature spells in the sideboard because coco/chord make those cards so much more consistent when it's on a creature. Given the success of that GP Hartford list, there is certainly room to argue otherwise.

At first glance 8 black sources doesn't seem like enough for a duress or 2 thoughtsieze, but these are not turn one plays for us. Going over whatever someone is doing turns 1-2 is usually easy enough, it's post t2 plays that sway the game one way or another.

Anyway just food for thought. I'll buy damping sphere for my collection and will test in elves because I can choose when to sequence it and play it. I also expect to see it from time to time as people test it out because it looks good against us on paper ( even though I don't think it's very good against us because unless you drop it t2 on the play I don't care about it more often then not).

Will post my GP Hartford analysis probably tomorrow. Ending up going 5-1-2 and missed day 2 by 1 point with G/W Elves. For my first time playing the deck in person it was a decent accomplishment, but my one lose came in the last round so not making Day 2 is disappointing.

Was a great deck choice, probably would change 1 card from my 75. The draws were against Mardu and Jeskai Control so grindy removal decks. I beat B/W Taxes, Humans, Mardu, and Blue Moon and had 1 bye. Lost to Bogles.