Hello! Return from Syracuse Open. Mostly wanted to make a quick post about my experience. I ended up losing my three rounds early in actual open. I didn't take any notes so I don't plan to post a breakdown. But overall, I felt I just got really unlucky. Most of my matches were non-interactive decks like Affinity, Merfolk, Spirits and others. The games i lost, I really felt they just happen to have gotten a faster clock than me. I ended the open round 7 but not upset. All my opponents played their deck well but I feel they just had a faster clock or I kept safe hands expecting Mardu or what not. Meanwhile there was a very large amount of U/W Control, Tron, Titanshift but I didn't get matched against them. I feel I just got unlucky in my loses and really wanted to try again in the classic the following day. In the classic I lost round 2, round 4 and ended 6-2 and got 23rd. Lost to Kevin Jones round 2 but both games I mul'd to 5 on the play and then I lost to Spirits round 4 with well times paths and a very strong clock on his side. I felt Elves were very well positioned the entire time. Aside from KCI and how terrible regular Gx Tron can be but very pleased.
Emmara looks very good as a 2 of to stall with tokens, and they are lifelink. So key at prolonging your game to get the combo pieces.
Assassin's trophy looks to take the spot of abrupt decay, since it should hurt Tron and land based decks more.
Beast worshipper looks to be very interesting, but I believe the format is too fast for this card. 4 Mana do nothing for one turn when the opponent is also 4 or up to 5 Mana. I rather keep up CoCo over playing this card, and if it happens over 80% of your games. You would just cut this card in general, I think it is a 1-2 of against decks like humans, where the only removal is PtE most of the time, this seems to be a SB card to me.
Knight of autumn is going to be the staple 4 of for every G/W build of every elf deck. It gains life for the burn match up, the most important thing for this card is that it helps with CONSISTENCY against random match ups that uses artifacts and enchantments like Cheerios, acension, etc.
The guild mages are bad, nothing to say as they are probably better for standard.
Izoni is the best top deck card in late game for 6 Mana, naturally playing your game u would get 6 tokens, which is a lot of attackers and nets you CA over time. Same as beast whisperer tho against grindier creature based decks. However, naturally getting to 6 Mana means you lose most of the time as well.
These are mostly the only stand out cards that everyone noticed.
But it indefinitely helps against your random match ups and the burn all in one without sacrificing SB slots. If you play G/W elves. You will have white Mana from your 11-12 Mana sources. Caverns naming knight isnt ever a bad thing and usually irrelevant that caverns names elves in non control match ups.
4 and 6 are definitely 'late game' in terms of the format. Izoni by itself can stall/win games, while beast whisperer does not. If we ever get to a top decking point and have 6 lands, which is a steep pre req.
I was a bit hasty on whisperer as it is a combo card. I am unsure if it will actually work since you can just play LTS and that IS a combo card as early as t3 without waiting for it stay on the board as a sorcery over a body.
I've tried to get you guys sold on gilt-leaf archdruid and what do you know after loads of me playing around I can admit it's not that good.
But at 1CMC less, not needing to restrict yourself to druids, it is going to be crazy. I actually think it will combine well with the pharaoh throne. Because with some heritage and nettle action, a constant draw is going to see you flood the board quickly and not run out of cards.
Can't wait to see how testing goes!
edit: just playing around with it. You draw a beast whisperer in your opening hand and its not that hard to unload your library onto the board in the fourth turn, even possible in the third turn. heritage and nettle is easy, having a archdruid even can work if you get lucky initially.
with absolute 100% confidence, this is going into your GW elves sideboard.
Drop your rec sages and life gainers for these.
You're playing chord and having 1 dude that brings 3 options is massive.
It not being an elf is not relevant compared to freeing up sideboard slots.
I'm playing GB, otherwise i would replace my kitchen finkses and rec sages for sure.
Yes I agree, although I think it's a tougher call in Humans. In Humans, I'm actually unsure about it.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Can I ask why more decks don't run throne of the god-pharaoh? To my novice eyes it seems very good - a repeatable shaman of the pack that you don't need to splash with and rarely gets removed.
With my love for beast whisperer I wonder if cloudstone could see a revival? If you have the mana you can bounce your own creatures in order to get more draw.
Can I ask why more decks don't run throne of the god-pharaoh? To my novice eyes it seems very good - a repeatable shaman of the pack that you don't need to splash with and rarely gets removed.
I don't know why more lists don't run it, but I'll give you my reason for not running it. It feels like a win-more to me. If I have that many creatures being tapped each turn, I'm probably winning.
I do think that it is not the best against removal heavy decks like Control or Midrange. But I do see the importance vs. Combo and possibly Aggro decks. It can make the damage much more explosive and often have you killing a turn earlier, which is invaluable vs. those decks. So far, I haven't seen too many of those decks in my meta, so I choose not to use it. The decks that I have trouble with the most are Lightning Bolt/Lightning Helix.dec. I know we are not the quickest deck, but we often can come very close to racing the quickest decks in the format in my honest opinion.
Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
After some play testing there is another odd problem the card has. The combination of: not being fetchable and being legendary. You don't want to run too many, but also when you need it it's hard to get. Compare with shaman who is nearly always a welcome draw, and when you don't have him and need him you can tutor him easily enough with evolution or chord.
The card is good vs. stall games like bridge decks/combo/control. It allows some form of damage in while promoting your game plan for the kill. It's a better SB card overall at this point.
I am really wanting to get back to 1 stomping ground and 4 unclaimed/caverns for 4 BBE. BBE is definitely a good card to ramp into next to coco, The haste part is relavant to push in some damage and if terminus is a problem, we can use chord to shuffle the deck and topdeck BBEs.
Beast whisperer is not in the best place right now. It's prob better in some other combo creature deck that can win in one turn.
Had a interesting turn 3 kill yesterday vs. Abzan Company. Was on the play and dead on his turn 3, but killed him on my turn 3. Turn 1 Nettle Sentinel. Turn 2 miss land drop, attack, Nettle Sentinel. Next turn go off with many Elves and Heritage Druid, float mana, CoCo, get a 13 point Shaman of the Pack, 3rd Nettle Sentinel, Lead the Stampede for 5 creatures, then pump the remaining mana and tap to pump the 2 Nettle Sentinel 3 times, swing for 18 damage with the opponent at 5 life (shocked on turn 1, then Devoted Druid on turn 2).
I guess maybe I should play this deck more regularly...
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
went 3-1 yesterday in a small tournament with my Golgari Band. Beaten Dredgevine 2:0, Burn 2:0 and some strange Umbral Mantle combo deck 2:1. Lost to UW control 0:2.
Any ideas how to improve UW control matchup? They stall us with PTE and Snapcaster blocks, then Verdict or Terminus our board, drop Jace and Collonade ugh it is so painfully boring to play against.
went 3-1 yesterday in a small tournament with my Golgari Band. Beaten Dredgevine 2:0, Burn 2:0 and some strange Umbral Mantle combo deck 2:1. Lost to UW control 0:2.
Any ideas how to improve UW control matchup? They stall us with PTE and Snapcaster blocks, then Verdict or Terminus our board, drop Jace and Collonade ugh it is so painfully boring to play against.
My experience here is limited, but I did some play testing vs. UW and here's what my preliminary results are. It was surprisingly around 60/40 in GB Elves' favor. I think you have to hope to explode on them; don't hold back unless there's a compelling reason to. You hope to dodge Terminus. If they Miracle Terminus, you most likely lose (except nut hands that refill easily). If they don't play Terminus, you probably win, depending on how many Path to Exile line up with your Lords or Ezuri.
Just my 2 cents. (play around the singleton Settle the Wreckage only if you can)
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
Can I ask why more decks don't run throne of the god-pharaoh? To my novice eyes it seems very good - a repeatable shaman of the pack that you don't need to splash with and rarely gets removed.
I know it's been a while since you made the question, but I would like to give my opinion about this interesting topic. I believe that this is because Kolaghan's Command has been used a lot since the Bloodbraid Elf release in the format and the ascension of decks like Mardu Pyromancer. Before that, it seemed like the Throne was very good indeed. On the other hand, it was a mere option: you could prefer to either use it or not. Since the meta is not good for it anymore for reasons expalined above, turns out it's not an option anymore.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
You wouldn't not stop playing 2-4 caverns because of field of ruin, that is an illogical argument. The point of elves is just be aggressive as much as possible and save refill cards. I went with the 2/2 chord and LTS split for a better control match up. Otherwise, I would do 3/1 split.
You can't hope to always win and put in niche cards to survive bolt/helix. Unless they are a large number, then SLC would be included in some form. The point of the combo deck is just play a bunch of dorks and play your win con, which is ezuri. Decreasing the amount of copies means u need to be hyper aggressive and wait for a chord/coco + elvish archdruid and hope to hit the ezuri.
The clancaller package helps with the aggression over the draw package. It's also definitely worth visiting to play 2-3 Nissa, voice of zendikar against any control match up.
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Saw a sweet elf deck that made 14th in the classic.
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/123775
Made 23rd myself but they only post to top 16 in a classic so here's my random SCG IQ with same 75.
http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/123021
Haven't looked at the top 32 for the Open when I posted this.
Emmara looks very good as a 2 of to stall with tokens, and they are lifelink. So key at prolonging your game to get the combo pieces.
Assassin's trophy looks to take the spot of abrupt decay, since it should hurt Tron and land based decks more.
Beast worshipper looks to be very interesting, but I believe the format is too fast for this card. 4 Mana do nothing for one turn when the opponent is also 4 or up to 5 Mana. I rather keep up CoCo over playing this card, and if it happens over 80% of your games. You would just cut this card in general, I think it is a 1-2 of against decks like humans, where the only removal is PtE most of the time, this seems to be a SB card to me.
Knight of autumn is going to be the staple 4 of for every G/W build of every elf deck. It gains life for the burn match up, the most important thing for this card is that it helps with CONSISTENCY against random match ups that uses artifacts and enchantments like Cheerios, acension, etc.
The guild mages are bad, nothing to say as they are probably better for standard.
Izoni is the best top deck card in late game for 6 Mana, naturally playing your game u would get 6 tokens, which is a lot of attackers and nets you CA over time. Same as beast whisperer tho against grindier creature based decks. However, naturally getting to 6 Mana means you lose most of the time as well.
These are mostly the only stand out cards that everyone noticed.
But it indefinitely helps against your random match ups and the burn all in one without sacrificing SB slots. If you play G/W elves. You will have white Mana from your 11-12 Mana sources. Caverns naming knight isnt ever a bad thing and usually irrelevant that caverns names elves in non control match ups.
4 and 6 are definitely 'late game' in terms of the format. Izoni by itself can stall/win games, while beast whisperer does not. If we ever get to a top decking point and have 6 lands, which is a steep pre req.
I was a bit hasty on whisperer as it is a combo card. I am unsure if it will actually work since you can just play LTS and that IS a combo card as early as t3 without waiting for it stay on the board as a sorcery over a body.
I've tried to get you guys sold on gilt-leaf archdruid and what do you know after loads of me playing around I can admit it's not that good.
But at 1CMC less, not needing to restrict yourself to druids, it is going to be crazy. I actually think it will combine well with the pharaoh throne. Because with some heritage and nettle action, a constant draw is going to see you flood the board quickly and not run out of cards.
Can't wait to see how testing goes!
edit: just playing around with it. You draw a beast whisperer in your opening hand and its not that hard to unload your library onto the board in the fourth turn, even possible in the third turn. heritage and nettle is easy, having a archdruid even can work if you get lucky initially.
Yes I agree, although I think it's a tougher call in Humans. In Humans, I'm actually unsure about it.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)same question as Discomute, why do not play Cloudstone Curio ?
Greetings,
B00NTY
With my love for beast whisperer I wonder if cloudstone could see a revival? If you have the mana you can bounce your own creatures in order to get more draw.
I don't know why more lists don't run it, but I'll give you my reason for not running it. It feels like a win-more to me. If I have that many creatures being tapped each turn, I'm probably winning.
I do think that it is not the best against removal heavy decks like Control or Midrange. But I do see the importance vs. Combo and possibly Aggro decks. It can make the damage much more explosive and often have you killing a turn earlier, which is invaluable vs. those decks. So far, I haven't seen too many of those decks in my meta, so I choose not to use it. The decks that I have trouble with the most are Lightning Bolt/Lightning Helix.dec. I know we are not the quickest deck, but we often can come very close to racing the quickest decks in the format in my honest opinion.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)After some play testing there is another odd problem the card has. The combination of: not being fetchable and being legendary. You don't want to run too many, but also when you need it it's hard to get. Compare with shaman who is nearly always a welcome draw, and when you don't have him and need him you can tutor him easily enough with evolution or chord.
I am really wanting to get back to 1 stomping ground and 4 unclaimed/caverns for 4 BBE. BBE is definitely a good card to ramp into next to coco, The haste part is relavant to push in some damage and if terminus is a problem, we can use chord to shuffle the deck and topdeck BBEs.
Beast whisperer is not in the best place right now. It's prob better in some other combo creature deck that can win in one turn.
I guess maybe I should play this deck more regularly...
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)You wont get him stronger than 2/2, maybe 3/3 during the game.
He has a beter place in Zoo Decks.
Modern:
Heartless Gitrog
Pauper:
Zombies
Delve
Canadian Thresh
Any ideas how to improve UW control matchup? They stall us with PTE and Snapcaster blocks, then Verdict or Terminus our board, drop Jace and Collonade ugh it is so painfully boring to play against.
My experience here is limited, but I did some play testing vs. UW and here's what my preliminary results are. It was surprisingly around 60/40 in GB Elves' favor. I think you have to hope to explode on them; don't hold back unless there's a compelling reason to. You hope to dodge Terminus. If they Miracle Terminus, you most likely lose (except nut hands that refill easily). If they don't play Terminus, you probably win, depending on how many Path to Exile line up with your Lords or Ezuri.
Just my 2 cents. (play around the singleton Settle the Wreckage only if you can)
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)I know it's been a while since you made the question, but I would like to give my opinion about this interesting topic. I believe that this is because Kolaghan's Command has been used a lot since the Bloodbraid Elf release in the format and the ascension of decks like Mardu Pyromancer. Before that, it seemed like the Throne was very good indeed. On the other hand, it was a mere option: you could prefer to either use it or not. Since the meta is not good for it anymore for reasons expalined above, turns out it's not an option anymore.
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
You wouldn't not stop playing 2-4 caverns because of field of ruin, that is an illogical argument. The point of elves is just be aggressive as much as possible and save refill cards. I went with the 2/2 chord and LTS split for a better control match up. Otherwise, I would do 3/1 split.
You can't hope to always win and put in niche cards to survive bolt/helix. Unless they are a large number, then SLC would be included in some form. The point of the combo deck is just play a bunch of dorks and play your win con, which is ezuri. Decreasing the amount of copies means u need to be hyper aggressive and wait for a chord/coco + elvish archdruid and hope to hit the ezuri.
The clancaller package helps with the aggression over the draw package. It's also definitely worth visiting to play 2-3 Nissa, voice of zendikar against any control match up.