MTG Salvation

So at the prelease this past weekend, I picked the color white as my seeded pack and ended up going with g/b elves, I ended up drawing a Gilt-leaf winnower and shaman of the pack, so I basically grabbed every elf i had and made a deck. I ended up going 2-2 and basically mono red out ran me.

Well long story short, G/B elves is one of my favorite past tribal decks and since this new set has some cool elves I thought I post a deck list and hopefully yall have some insight or have tinkered with this type of deck.



Other cards I am thinking about tinkering with

Den Protector Bring back cards from the graveyard would be a nice toolbox
Thornbow archer Cheap one cost spell, adds to the aggressiveness
managorger hydra I really think this card could be a sleeper in the origins set
sword of animist I had this card during my prelease and it was a house especially when I also had a nissa planeswalker in play
Surrak, the Hunt Caller add to the aggressiveness

I'm playing around with a G/B Elves deck. Played a lot of matches, haven't really ran into any problems. Pretty much outraces every deck in the format except for a U/B control deck I ran into playing a lot of weird MB aggro hosers.



Here's my list, if you wanna see where I'm going with it.

I actually playtested last night on Ctrice for a hr or two, I played against mono black and mardu midrange. I will say mono black didn;t have much of a chance, I went 4-0 and with mardu midrange I believe we were 2-2. Do you miss not having any creature kill in your deck. I really like having the gilt-leaf winnower in my deck. I will saw I wasn't impressed by having Nissa in the deck. I will say Shaman of the pack is awesome and can hit with some damage, Sylvan messenger is awesome card to fill your hand back up.

Is 17 lands enough for the deck?

How good is the obelisk of urd in the elf deck?

I have been playing with elves for a few days now. My thoughts and experience:
- it is unreasonable to try to be a small aggro, because elves are just too small and inefficient attackers
- Shaman of the Pack can give you reach or even a combo kill if you are able to get multiples and flood the board
- Sylvan Messenger provides enormous card advantage, it is basically a 3 for 1, which is better than most midrange or even control decks can do
- Languish is a thing, you have to be able to beat it in maindeck
- Eyeblight Massacre after sideboard makes every small aggro matchup easy
- Gnarlroot Trapper lets you get damage through large midrange threats
- Nissa positively surprised me, she smooths out the mana curve, counts as third to fourth land drop and provides inevitability in late game (always + to find Shaman or to get t oultimate)
- Dwynen is good against Goblin tokens, in damage races and she can block mantis Rider, but she is a miserable lord, therefore I run only one
- Winnower eats Rhinos, Tasigurs, Coursers and many more and it is basically unblockable especially with Gnarlroot Trapper
- I have been happy with three Whisperwood Elementals maindeck, because it helps against Languish and enables Shaman kills
- Thoughtseize maindeck solves all the problems and thanks to Messenger you see it less often in late game
- Chord enables Shaman kills and helps to find situational cards like Dwynen, Winnower, Whisperwood, Nissa, Reclamation Sage or even just Trapper or Elite.
- Collected Company seems not to fit, because it is at tension with Sylvan Messenger as 4 drop, but it provides less card advantage and you don't really get muchtempo out of it

I don't understand the hype around Whisperwood Elemental . We got too many creatures with Enter the Battlefield abbilities we don't want to see get manifested.

Chord of Calling : Playset or at least 3 a must have.

Lands: We should run 19-21. We don't have Heritage druid or any Priest of Titania Effekt.

I'm going to use 2-3 Obelisk of Urd. In my opionion it's not only for aggressive plays, also protect our elvs for some mass removal.

Quote from Coony123 »

I don't understand the hype around Whisperwood Elemental . We got too many creatures with Enter the Battlefield abbilities we don't want to see get manifested.

Chord of Calling : Playset or at least 3 a must have.

Lands: We should run 19-21. We don't have Heritage druid or any Priest of Titania Effekt.

I'm going to use 2-3 Obelisk of Urd. In my opionion it's not only for aggressive plays, also protect our elvs for some mass removal.

Obelisk only helps vs two of the sweepers...there is 4 heavily played ones. The EtB effects arent nearly as beneficial as a 2/2 creature generator. While killing one creature or dealing some direct dmg is nice...an army is usually more helpful. The card advantage is unrivaled in standard atm. As well as hosing ANY of the board sweepers.

I have wanted to build this since the lord was spoiled. Honostly i think a combo/tempo set up is better than aggro. Use the elves as a buffer to set up for later turns. No coco, four chords to tutor for the winnower, lord, or rec sage when needed. Also i think one nykthos, a polukranos or two and some number of temur sabertooth would be good. Have the elemental in the sideboard for control matches. Use the cat to bounch the packmaster for shenanigans

The lord card is alright, I decided to sideboard it, there were too many times where it just sat in my hands because I needed to do something else. I have put in thoughtseize main deck and surprising just for fun I put in managorger hydra. This is card is so much and ridiculous, especially on turn 2. If they don't have a early answer, it is a house.

Right now I play with a playset of collected company and no Chord of Calling, I can try it out right now I like how the deck is. it may work out where Collected company isn't needed and we just run Chord of calling and a playset of sylvan messenger.

The Winnower is a great elf card too, but I have put it in my sideboard,

I remember the old G/B elf dck back in lorwyn, the deck was way more controlling but we had better elf pump up cards and plus we had overrun. Did anyone play a elf deck this week at their FNM. I am going to play the deck this week at my FNM in Dallas, TX.

Im looking to play this week. Have boxes coming by wednesday. Might put the deer bear in the deck for uber value. I thought about adding the hydra too consodering the deck should be able to vomit its hand

I decided to go abzan colors for Abzan Ascendancy, Anafenza, the Foremost, and Sunblade Elf, going for the more pump the team strategy with +1/+1 counters and Sunblades activated ability.




This is what I am testing right now. So far I prefer the swarm strategy with Urd over the more midrange build.

That does seem solid. Probably the only way to actually do an aggro varient. I may consider it depending how my local meta looks

What about Joraga Invocation as a potential board wiper/finisher?

I considered that too as well as nylea. The main issue is one gives trample but thats about it, and one pumps but with no stampede effect. To me this is the main issue with elves in standard. There is no play this and win with a board full of elves card. Maybe in bfz, but until then that is why i am adding a few polukranos and the cat as well as using chord over coco

if you are running the abzan build, do you think rally the ancestors would be good. I can see them board wipe then you bring everything back out for one big swing.

I may end up switching to abzan colors but right now I am going to play G/B this week. I don't have any chord of calling and I have a playset of collected company. I can see them competing with sylvan messenger for slots. I may end up running 4 sylvan messenger and either 2-3 collected company after some playtesting.

Another card I didn't think was that great was deadbridge shaman. When playing thoughtseize MB, deadbridge shaman could really destroy a hand. I haven't made up my mind, but I am starting to lean towards G/B elves is going to need to be more controlling.

Well this is what I am going to run this week, I am up for comments and I will post my results this weekend. It be cool make this thread the main Elf thread so lets keep it going.

I've put in three Might of the Masses as an alternate win-con. It helps to quickly end those games when your opponent is on 7 health after two Shamans. I also put in two Evolutionary Leap mainboard. It's ridiculous how good they are at keeping your tempo up. You can chump block for days and keep your creature count stable, or even increase it when you flip Visionaries, Elites, and Messengers.

Why not run a Woodland Bellower or 2 as a potential Chord target?
Seems like grabbing a big guy and then getting a shaman or nissa for value seems powerful.

I agree, the deck cant be strictly elves really. The idea of even two bellower in the mb seems really good with that interaction. Gives the elves something to do other than sit there. I am thinking of running two bellower and two polukranos mb with one nykthos as a way to close out the game quick. That much green, you can monsterous polukranos and then run through the empty board.

Anyone see that the G/B elf deck that was posted for the Starcity open standard?

He ran 4 collected company, 4 chord of calling and 4 sylvan messenger

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck_search_result.asp?Location=2015 StarCity Open Standard - Chicago - 7/18

That's a pretty interesting list. Why no Nissas or Obelisks?

It was easy to believe that CoCo fits well in this deck, but I'm starting to agree with the people suggesting that we run just Chords and Sylvans.

I think so too. That seems like way too much situation dig. Meanwhile chord just gets you what you need and best case scenario thats a bellower on turn 4 or 5, plus a relevant elf.

I am still a firm believer on the CoCo, maybe a playset isn't needed from all the sylvans and running a chord or two

A 2/2/2 split might do well depending on the meta. Chord is good because you know what you get and its instant speed. Better for jack of all trades setup. Coco is nice if you run pretty much all creatures and no spells, but i personally have ***** luck so i know all i will get is mystics(lol). With messanger it once again works well with a lot of creatures, but this time those creatures have to be all elves. You want to have an average of at least 2-3 cards with messanger to make it epic so you really can not run anything that is not an elf creature.

I don't mind getting dorks with Company since the idea behind the card is either get elves and nothing else. Same for Messenger. You really should only be winning with multiple Shamans. Chord is amazing since it gives you so many options and flexibility and unpredictability, especially when paired with Company for the EOT shenans.

Like the only time I actually don't want Mystics is when I want to close out the game. Otherwise they definitely help me play more cards the next turn.

Im not playing this week due to a d&d game, but i will post a list this week. I am 90% sure i am going with the toolbox build using chord, gilt leafs, bellower, polukranos and probably a whisperwood or two in the side.

I'm trying out going "bug" and splashing blue for disdainful stroke, and negate in the board, to beat the turn 4 plays from Abzan and and control decks