Hi. Have read most of the primer and have been slowly building this deck. I have most of the basic pieces.. Ezuri, Heritage, 4 Verdant Catacombs, etc. Building the GB version. Playtested with a few cards proxied..
Just a few questions please.
1. Getting Pyroclasm'd even once is most of the time fatal, unless I have a Lead the Stampede in hand. Hard to recover from the 3 for 1 or even 4 for 1. What are the solutions for it in the GB versions? Would 2 or Golgari Charm in the sideboard be enough?
2. For those using the GB. What's our main win condition. Overrun them with Ezuri or try to drain opponent with Shaman of the Pack? Most of the time I won with the Shaman, because Ezuri is often killed right away by spot removal.
3. How many Dwynen's Elite? I currently have 3 in the main, and trying to find a slot for the 4th one.
1. It's important to know what you're up against. If you know the opponent is running Pyroclasm or similar wipes then it's good to keep a hand with Lead the Stampede/Sylvan Messenger/Elvish Visionary/Coiling Oracle etc. In general cards that refill your hand. Another option is to play around the wipes. Instead of unloading your hand just play a threat per turn and keep attacking for 1-3 if possible. This way they'll be forced to eventually use their boardwipe while you still have enough gas left in your hand to recover.
2. I'd say it's Shaman most of the time simply because it allows us to win with a stalemate board position. Doesn't require a combat step, can be tutored for (Chord/Evolution/CoCo) and leaves a formidable 3/2 body.
Are you running Eldritch Evolution in place of CoCo or Chord? Very interested in this. Also, how many Visionaries, if any, are you running?
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Ok, thank you. Will remember the things that you said.
Probably due to inexperience with elves that I keep walking into Pyrocclasm.. oh btw, I'm testing against a deck that has delver, goyf, and the 4/4 monkey that delves, game 1 is ok, but on game 2 my friend has 2 pyro from the side which he finds often due to the large number of blue draw spells in that deck. Sort of had the state of mind that I need to have a lot of elves on the board ASAP - which is a bad idea against Pyroclasm.
Oh, and just one last question. Is a single Temur Sabertooth too slow? I have used it's return to hand ability a few times to re-use the drain ability of Shaman or draw more cards from Visionary. Planning to replace the sabertooth with one Sylvan Messnger because red mass damage effects are a real problem for this deck.
I've dropped CoCo count down to just 2 because of the five 4CMC drops. With just 29 targets of which 12 are dorks I just don't see CoCo as reliable as it can be in lists without any 4CMC drops.
As you can see I've also chosen Coiling Oracle over Elvish Visionary. Cavern of Souls along with 4 fetches and a Breeding Pool allows me to cast it quite reliably on T2. It's ability to put a revealed land into play means we can cast a dork afterwards and allows line of play such as T1 Heritage -> T2 Oracle revealing land, play 1CMC elf, tap all three for 3CMC spell. Note that while Visionary simply draws us a card and doesn't reveal any information to the opponent, they will always know what you got from Oracle so they can play around it. In my testing so far I haven't found this to be detrimental to our plan.
Regarding 4CMC creatures I checked out which ones have the most impact on board and how well they perform. All of them can be "cheated" into play via Eldritch Evolution on T2 with Heritage/Dwynen's Elite or T3 via Oracle/Dwynen's Elite. Sylvan Messenger - Acts as a slightly worse copy of Lead the Stampede but provides us with a 2/2 trample body. Chameleon Colossus - Dodges all the common modern removal such as Dismember, Terminate, Lightning Bolt (2 for 1, if they burn 2 bolts on it), Abrupt Decay etc. Later in the game we can sink mana into it to force blocks or simply win via damage. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen - Out of bolt range, lord and reach which can help against flying threats such as Delver of Secrets, Restoration Angel etc. It's 2nd ability can sometimes be relevant against burn or similar matchups. Thrun, the Last Troll - Nearly impossible to remove against decks that don't run Wrath of God/Damnation.
There's also Wren's Run Packmaster which I might put a copy of in SB. 5/5 body, mana sink and can champion an elf with ETB effect for more value in case they remove it.
There's more testing to come in the next couple of weeks leading to GP Lille. I traded some of the instant speed ability via Chord/CoCo for a more resilient shell. So far I've noticed that my hand is rarely empty which allows me to keep dropping threats one after another.
Hi everyone. I have been wanting to play Elves since weeks ago, but I don't have the budget to build it with Caverns, CoCos, Chord etc. I came up with a budget list to start building with and upgrade it slowly from there. Opinions and advices are very much welcome.
My sideboard is a mess. I do not know how to SB yet with this kind of deck. Is this a good deck to begin playing Elves with? Or is it just too cute and too far from being at least semi-competitive? Thanks!
Edit: Sorry if I posted in the wrong thread. My list is literally Coco-less Elves, but I can't seem to find another active thread discussing the performance of Elves in the current meta.
I've dropped CoCo count down to just 2 because of the five 4CMC drops. With just 29 targets of which 12 are dorks I just don't see CoCo as reliable as it can be in lists without any 4CMC drops.
As you can see I've also chosen Coiling Oracle over Elvish Visionary. Cavern of Souls along with 4 fetches and a Breeding Pool allows me to cast it quite reliably on T2. It's ability to put a revealed land into play means we can cast a dork afterwards and allows line of play such as T1 Heritage -> T2 Oracle revealing land, play 1CMC elf, tap all three for 3CMC spell. Note that while Visionary simply draws us a card and doesn't reveal any information to the opponent, they will always know what you got from Oracle so they can play around it. In my testing so far I haven't found this to be detrimental to our plan.
Regarding 4CMC creatures I checked out which ones have the most impact on board and how well they perform. All of them can be "cheated" into play via Eldritch Evolution on T2 with Heritage/Dwynen's Elite or T3 via Oracle/Dwynen's Elite. Sylvan Messenger - Acts as a slightly worse copy of Lead the Stampede but provides us with a 2/2 trample body. Chameleon Colossus - Dodges all the common modern removal such as Dismember, Terminate, Lightning Bolt (2 for 1, if they burn 2 bolts on it), Abrupt Decay etc. Later in the game we can sink mana into it to force blocks or simply win via damage. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen - Out of bolt range, lord and reach which can help against flying threats such as Delver of Secrets, Restoration Angel etc. It's 2nd ability can sometimes be relevant against burn or similar matchups. Thrun, the Last Troll - Nearly impossible to remove against decks that don't run Wrath of God/Damnation.
There's also Wren's Run Packmaster which I might put a copy of in SB. 5/5 body, mana sink and can champion an elf with ETB effect for more value in case they remove it.
There's more testing to come in the next couple of weeks leading to GP Lille. I traded some of the instant speed ability via Chord/CoCo for a more resilient shell. So far I've noticed that my hand is rarely empty which allows me to keep dropping threats one after another.
A 4 CMC creature you should be considering is Thought-Knot Seer. It can be eldritch'ed into from your 2 cmc guys just like the other 4 cmc bombs, its a thoughtseize that not only doesn't eat your life total but comes stapled to a 4/4 body and thus works wonders against Burn, and its castable off of Nykthos and Cavern even with elves named. To increase the odds of hardcasting this if it gets drawn, you can swap 1 or 2 forests out for Yavimaya Coast and/or Llanowar Wastes.
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Nice catch. Didn't think of TKS at all and yeah, very relevant effect. Thanks!
You're welcome!
I too have been experimenting with replacing my SB chords with Evolutions because 1. They're faster to go online, possibly fetching anything between 1-4 cmc on turn 2, and 2. it enables 4 cmc so easily in the first place.
Turn 1 dork, turn 2 heritage, dwynen's elite, tap token+heritage+elite for GGG, evolution sacking elite, tutor and put into play TKS and taking away that naughty, naughty Anger of the Gods. Pass the turn 2 with 7 power on the board and no impending wipe. An equally backbreaking turn 2 play is pretty much the same thing except you sack the 0 cmc token to get Kataki! I dont have to mention who he comes in against.
With Eldritch Evo I've been incentivized to use an almost completely creature based sideboard, and the exciting part is being faster and reaching out to 4 cmc. Here are some other silver bullets I've been looking at, theres some overlap, naturally, because great minds :
VS: GY-based creature decks
Anafenza the Foremost (sack a dork), on turn 2. This can catch even most dredge hands apart from their T1 neonate.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet (sack a 2 cmc) on turn 2 can be really discouraging for burn and abzan.
VS: Control
Thought-Knot Seer (sack a 2 cmc)
Sylvan Messenger (sack a 2 cmc to tutor and play a 2/2 with a Lead stapled to it is OMG)
VS: Burn
Kalitas again
Dwynen, Gilt Leaf Daen as you've pointed out
Kitchen Finks (now comes down turn 2, off of a Dork!!)
Thragtusk (vicious spiral here, sack that Kitchen Finks and grab this. you've won the game.)
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Hope you guys are doing alright. I haven't been able to play much these two weeks taking care of my family, but I do want to share a list from Japan.
This list made top 8 of a 152 man event. I truly love the fact that there is a fatty aside from CoCo to shore up the control matchups. The list is slower, probably due to Japanese love of blue and its slower metagame, but has some resiliency vs wipes and certainly against black lists. I think the player compensates with the sideboard to try and beat faster combo.
Hope this gives you guys something to chew on. I think I will give something similar a go and let you guys know how it does.
Hope you guys are doing alright. I haven't been able to play much these two weeks taking care of my family, but I do want to share a list from Japan.
This list made top 8 of a 152 man event. I truly love the fact that there is a fatty aside from CoCo to shore up the control matchups. The list is slower, probably due to Japanese love of blue and its slower metagame, but has some resiliency vs wipes and certainly against black lists. I think the player compensates with the sideboard to try and beat faster combo.
Hope this gives you guys something to chew on. I think I will give something similar a go and let you guys know how it does.
I see dredge must be making waves in japan, given the 4 very conspicuous leylines of the void. I'm thinking of putting in 3 into my SB myself.
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After making a ton of changes to my list(I think it's still on the page back)I removed the white and just run G/B now. The mana base feels much better now but I have another question. How many of you feel like Cavern of Souls is a must? I have never had a game where I felt I needed it because it doesn't help push a Chord of Calling or Collected Company. If my opponent feels like wasting a Remand on a mana dork fine. If they wanna Mana Leak a lord, I will just pull one out with a Chord or Collected once they run out of cards.
I own Caverns but never really felt the need yet to test them out, even if I see most list run them.
And why do most of you run Lead the Stampede over the Chord of Callings? I feel the end of turn putting a dude into play or after attacking is better then adding them to the hand.
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And why do most of you run Lead the Stampede over the Chord of Callings? I feel the end of turn putting a dude into play or after attacking is better then adding them to the hand.
Because with Chord of Calling you get 2 for 1ed if you opponent has a removal spell. With Lead the Stampede you are able to "overload" the removal from your opponent or recover from a board wipe much better. Take the Jund-Matchup for example: With Chord I felt it was a bad matchup. Changing to the Lead-Version it went from bad to god, since there are too much elves for their removal and discard.
The Tech Hightlights:
Anafenza, the Foremost was the silver bullet I sought against GY-based creature decks. Ooze was good, but sometimes isn't fast enough.
The Temple Garden was a call by me to cater for drawn white creatures like Anafenza or Kataki or burrenton. I was getting sick of drawing them and being stuck. Secondly, You wanted Leads to stay in against wipes, but you also want to Chord for BFT. The solution? Have white mana to cast BFT if you lead into it.
The Matches:
MU1: Blue Moon
G1: He manages to lock me out of all but 1 green mana on a Forest on turn 3. Unfortunately, I have a Heritage in hand, and all hell breaks loose from there. I overrun him without much resistance.
Sideboard: 2 Duress IN, 1 Westvale Abbey, 1 Joraga Warcaller OUT.
Blue moon typically runs multiple Crytpic Commands. It'd be pretty lame to have my 9/7 bounced. Warcaller is good if you've built a board, but I don't intend to overextend.
G2: I cast a turn 2 Duress and make a stupid move: I pick the Vedalkan Shackles instead of Blood Moon, when I've got 2 shocklands in Play. Maybe I was overconfident that I would draw a forest, or that I'd rely on my elves. But the dorks get electrolyzed and the moon comes down, and I'm locked out. Should have just taken the moon.
G3: I fetch a Forest T1, and build a medium sized army while holding on to a Lead. I don't have to use it, because he doesn't draw a wipe. Kind of unlucky, because he had boarded in 2 Pyros and 2 Angers. Welp, that's Magic.
MU2: Abzan Coco
G1: Nothing much to be said here, Elves does its thing and the opponent doesn't find his combo fast enough. A Kitchen Finks buys some time but its a small obstacle in the path of a rapidly multiplying elvish army. Heritage into Elite into Archdruid blah blah Shaman, trigger on stack, Collected Company blah blah "Am I dead?" "Uh, let me count... yea you're dead." "OK, let's play the next game."
Sideboard: Anafenza, Scavenging Ooze, 3 Chords IN, Joraga and 4 Leads OUT.
All the elves in the world, no matter how large, can't beat infinite life. Rather than race the combo on the draw, I elect to have 2 stoppers.
G2: Its a very tight game with many long combat phases as we did creature counting. Anafenza and Ooze both make the board but Anafenza ends up exiled under a Fiend hunter. Ooze runs out of things to eat and I fall in a very close game with him at 4 life and me not having enough blockers against his ragtag army buffed by Township. At the very least, the Ooze and Anafenza stop the combo from ever happening. I'm not swapping them out. We're at 4 minutes on the clock at this point, and spectators are doubting we can finish. Challenge. Accepted.
G3: My newly sleeved Temple Garden goes to work in this game. My starting hand has Dork, Anafenza, Palace, Windswept and 3 other cards. That's a turn 2 hardcast Anafenza on the play. Judge calls last 5 turns. On my turn 3 (last 3 turns) I'm beating for 4 while going off from the 3 mana sources. By turn 5 (my final turn), even with Finks buying some time again, he's looking at lethal trample damage and no way to combo off or block enough damage.
I'd never felt so good about new tech before.
MU3: Bant Eldrazi
G1 and 2: Eldrazi at its prime had a hard time against Elves, which was a bad match up. Without Eye of ugin? Its just not fair. I had average-ish hands, but they were plenty for dealing with turn 3 Thought Knot Seers. I ignored a Reality Smasher in game 2. I mean, what's it going to do? The only mainboard removal Eldrazi has is 4 path to exile, and that's just tempo for us, if they draw it anyway.
Sideboard: I don't really recall what I changed. I think probably 2 Duress out for Westvale (dangerous to use against Paths) and Joraga. I wanted to make sure I caught Sweepers, if any.
The Summary:
One FNM does not a solid list make, so I'll be running the list again at Monday Night modern tonight. Temple Garden and Anafenza are probably here to stay, given the insane amount of dredge in the Format. I like that she also screws over Dredge and even Living End, if I can get her out fast enough. I intend to get 3 Eldritch Evolutions to replace my SB Chords. Speed is usually more important than tempo when seeking silver bullets.
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@MarcWizard, that's a very innovative idea putting all the silver bullets as well as the Chords into the sideboard, running the 4 Leads and CoCos in the MD.
Honestly, I like this Anafenza idea. I'm tempted to put some white in for this and the other critters. So far I've been GB to da bone, baby {flashes dark elf gang signs}. Not that I play much Modern. I just came into a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, so who can blame me?
I randomly won an 8-man tournament today despite never even having seen Modern Dredge before and getting paired against it in the final round. Living End was my round 1 opponent, so it seems the GY decks are a huge thing in my area.
Played against the aforementioned Living End, Jeskai Delver, and Modern Dredge. The highlights:
vs. Living End: G3 I'm on the draw and my hand is nutty fast. By T3 it's all on the table: 2 mana dorks, 2 Nettle Sentinels, 2 Heritage Druids, 1 Archdruid, and an Eternal Witness. Three lands (one of which is a Shrine), and my only card is a Collected Company (which I had just used Eternal Witness to get back). I hold up mana for it and pass the turn.
Opponent, facing this heap of militant elves about to bash his face back to the Stone Age, cascades. I add mana, put my dudes in the graveyard, and CoCo at end of phase putting a Scavenging Ooze and Elvish Archdruid. Opponent attacks with his pretty meager dudes. I draw an Elite, play it and pass. When the opponent attacks, I make a huge Ooze but don't block, fearing a trick or something and the Ooze is made of gold, strong enough to win by itself almost. Opponent, in desperation, cascades again to kill it. Fortunately I hadn't exiled anything important, and apparently he'd forgotten about the Witness in my GY saved for just such a contingency. Opponent scoops when he sees the Witness.
vs. Jeskai Delver: Honestly I just won the die roll, got a mana dork down, and steamrolled him while he cantripped desperately for answers. That was G1. G2 involved 3 Nettle Sentinels, 2 Heritage, 2 Llanowar Elves, and CoCos that I never needed to cast.
vs. Dredge: these games were so fun that I'm sad there were only two of them. G1 I win the roll and make a few elves while he stocks his graveyard in a rather threatening manner. I get an Archdruid down and present lethal next turn if CoCo reveals any two creatures at all, so I hold up mana for it and pass. Mr. Scary throws some kind of flashbacked X damage board wipe at me, 2 damage declared on my Archdruid and 1 on each of my innocent little elves. I fine the CoCo, it gives me a Lord, and the opponent concedes.
G2 was more or less the same thing on a grander scale. This time we both had pretty threatening armies (mine threatening lethal in 1-2 swings, his in 2-3) and he casts his fire magic again. This time he's more careful, assigning 4 damage to my Archdruid and 1 to my innocent little elves. I fire off my CoCo, getting an Eternal Witness and a Scavenging Ooze, and Golgari Charm to regenerate my army. Opponent concedes.
It was a fun day.
Honestly, I'm not sure what I would have boarded out even if I were playing Chords. Most of the time I took out my Leads, since I was playing against combo decks and didn't think I'd have time for them.
Yup, the leads come out in favor of chords against combo opponents who are potentially more explosive than us. We just want that silver bullet down on the board ASAP.
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Hey everyone! I went to a PPTQ this weekend and top8ed with GB Lead Elves. In the swiss I was the 1st with 15 points, 6 rounds, with a 5-1 record.
Lost in the quarter-finals to Abzan CoCo.
I am running the exactly same list that Sullano used in GP Piths (I think). Just some changes in the sideboard, with the toolbox strategy.
- match 1 - RG Tron - 2x1
Game one he plays Ugin and I scoop.
Game 2 he dont pyroclasmed and dont close the tron on turn 3, on turn 4 I play Shaman, chord for another, drain for about 15 and attack for the win.
Game 3 he flood a lot after 2 Kozilek's Return and I beat him for the win with Shamans and Dwyene's.
- match 2 - UR Delver Thing in the Ice - Lost 1x2
Game 1 I just played one land the entire game and never could see a fair game. Delvers flipped, Snapcasters targeting bolt..
Game 2 I played a "stompy" game, beating him with nettle sentinels and shaman. No CoCos, no leads, just beating.
Game 3 Same as game 2 but the thing in the ice flipped and in the same turn he plays a blood moon. just 1 forest in play. GG.
- match 3 - Ad Nauseam - 2x0
Game 1 I Elfstorm him with Nettles and Heritage to win the race.
Game 2 Same as game 1, but he cast a Angel's Grace when I attacked for lethal. After that I cast a Shaman and he scoop.
- match 4 - Burn - 2x1
Game 1 I win the die roll (sweet agains burn) and on turn 3 cast CoCo to two Shamans and drain for 8, he scooped.
Game 2 Lose to Monastery on t1, Blaze on t2 and Eidolon on t3.
Game 3 Same as game 1.
- match 5 - Jeskai Nahiri - 2x0
Game 1 I am in doubt if he has some mass removal and played very carefully. Went for the beatdown plan with Nettles, withouth elfstorming. Played some Elvish Visionary (all-star in this match), and win with Shamans. (He path a visionary lol, bolt another, soo the win was easy).
Game 2 Pretty similar with the first game. I overrun for the win after 2x Timely Reinforcements from his side (I love when people dont know what to side in against elves).
- match 6 - Jund - 2x1
I am at 12 points and cant draw for top8 because my opponent is at 10 points. Soo, lets play.
Game 1 I mulligan to 6 and he crush me with bolts, abrupts and Kalitas.
Game 2 I mulligan to 6 to a weak hand but topdecked a CoCo in turn 3 after he seize. Pass with 3 untapped lands and a dork, he cast Liliana, -2 and I coco in response, put Shaman and Dwynen's in play. In my turn I cast a lord and beat for 9. I pass and he Pulse the lord and pass to me. I show another lord in hand and he scoops.
Game 3 He dont side out the Seizes or Inquisitions and made a T1 Inquistion, discarding a dork and reading a lot my Chameleon Colossus. "Just 4/4 and pro from black" I said. on ther turn he seize me and discard the colossus and play a goyf. I draw CoCo and cast at EOT and win with overrun in 2 turns.
15 Points and 1st in the swiss. I won 20 boosters from eldritch moon and a playmat (the prizes is in accordance to the swiss, the top8 was just for the acess to the ptq). It seems strange but ok, no complains here.
top8 - Abzan CoCo - An good player from my local city and extremely nice guy.
Game 1 I started with dork, t2 lord, t3 prepared for CoCo at EOT to win on t4 with ezuri in hand, but he combos me on t3.
Game 2 The game goes longer, he is at 3 because of 2 Shamans but I cant go for the beatdown because he has a lot of creatures. Topdecked a Chord and win.
Game 3 Same as game 1. T3 combo in my face.
some thoughts:
CoCo and Shaman are the best cards in the deck. No news. The synergy is just great.
Combo sucks. We cant interact soo, its a hard match to us. Even reading a lot of people talking that we are faster.
In this actual meta with a lot of midranges decks we are in a good shape.
Maybe I wanna cut finks from side to change for Scoozes. Maybe is better agains Snapcasters deck and Abzan. In GB list Burn seems a fair match to us, since with Shaman of the Pack we can race.
Top8 from event: GB Elves, Abzan midrange, 2x Merfolks, Death and Taxes, Affinity, Grixis Delver and Abzan CoCo.
I would preffer face any other deck in the top 8 than Abzan CoCo, but no complains, the event was great. 55~60 players.
I played a lot with GW Sylvan Messengers list, another list with Duskwatch Recruiter, gb elves with 18 lands with no Canopies and 4x wastes instead, and neither of these lists impressed me like the list from Sullano. 19 lands with 4x Horizon Canopy is great. Wouldnt change anything. 2 Ezuris and 4 Visionaries is great too.
Well, I think thats all. Sorry about some gramatical errors or inaccurate report.
I am loving the direction of this list. Its been mentioned here by some of you, but I really do like the colorless, transformation sideboard we are able to have with our lands. It is easier than adding a third color since we won't need to add a shock land and many of our lands produce colorless as it is (Cavern, Nykthos). Having a beefy target like Reality Smasher or Thought-Knot Seer for the control/combo matchup (respectively) really makes it hard for the opponent to deal with, especially against red sweepers. Maybe even taking up 8 slots to add all eight? Perhaps going too far, but it would catch opponents by surprise and they won't know how to deal with them.
The list that went third in this event had some spicy ideas too.
The longer I play elves, the more I fall in love with it. The depth of this deck makes me really excited to brew, especially now that I know it so well after a year and a couple of months.
Have any of you tried this approach in a tournament?
1-2 Affinity (D)
Played about 25 games against Affinity last night in preparations for GP Lille so I figured this will be a hard matchup since they're just too fast. Being on the draw G1 certainly wasn't in my favour.
G1: He dumped 5 cards T1, followed by Steel Overseer and Arcbound Ravager next. Swing with Inkmoth Nexus for 10.
G2: Early Thoughtseize got rid of a Ravager while Thought-Knot Seer (hardcast via Caverns) took care of Cranial Plating. That was enough to build up a board and drain with one Shaman followed by Evolution into 2nd one.
G3: Kept opener with 2 dorks, 3 lands, Dismember and Fracturing Gust. T2 he plays Master of Etherium which is a 4/4 and he's tapped out. Instead of simply waiting with my Fracturing Gust up to catch his Inkmoth Nexus, I wasted my Dismember on the Master. Next turn he casts Whipflare (as if they need a onesided Pyroclasm :() and I cast Fracturing Gust in response. I had no way of getting rid of his Nexus and I lost.
2-1 Norin Sisters (P)
He played a version of Soul Sisters with Purphoros, God of Forge, Norin, the Wary and Myr Chamber to gain silly amounts of life.
G1: I'm on the play and lack of interaction from his side along with my Ezuri allows me to overrun for win.
G2: He stalls long enough to drop Purphoros which bring me down with the help of Norin.
G3: This one was tense until the last moment. He had Soul's Attendant, 2 Auriok Champions and 2 Myr Chambers on board meaning he gained 6 life for each Elf I played. It looked really grim with him being at 78 life and about 5 minutes left on the match clock. My board consisted of ~10 elves of which 3 were Archdruids and around 18 Myr tokens. I had nothing to dump all that mana into so all I could do was just attack for 33 damage to bring him down to 45. The following turn the goes up to 60 and passes. I had 4 cards in hand, 2 of them being Shamans. After careful calculations I decide to attack with most of my force leaving 6 mana up to cast the two Shamans afterwards. Attack and Shamans combined hit him for 59 bringing him down to 1. He cannot recover and I win with about a minute left on the clock. I was hoping to see Ezuri to dump all that mana into but never saw the second copy after he path'd the first one.
2-0 Abzan Company (P)
Classic Abzan Company build with Viscera Seer+Melira/Anafenza combo.
G1: He starts with Birds followed by Viscera and Melira. Luckily for me he couldn't find Finks and 4th land to cast CoCo and I slowly chipped at his life down to 4 and finish him off with a Shaman for 5.
G2: I keep a questionable hand with Llanowar Elves, Heritage Druid, Lead the Stampede and 4 lands. He starts off with Viscera Seer and passes. I follow with Llanowar Elves. His T2 Tidehollow Sculler takes away my Lead and I thought that was it. However I drew Eldritch Evolution and figured the best shot I have is to turn my dork into Anafenza. It turned out it was the right choice as he was unable to find removal for it. He got another Tidehollow Sculler and Cartel Aristocrat off CoCo but it wasn't enough.
Anafenza definitely an MVP against decks relying on GY shenanigans.
0-2 Infect (P)
G1: Even though I won the die roll, Distortion Strike on a Glistener Elf being unblockable won him the game.
G2: T1 Thoughtseize got rid of his Blighted Agent but he still had two Glistener Elves and Noble Hierarch. I chumped for two turns but in the end was left with 1 blockers and he just pumped the unblocked Glistener Elf for the win.
Spellskite is definitely being readded to the list. With Eldrazi Winter and meta shift he wasn't particularly useful in the past months but with the rise of Infect he's ready to make a comeback.
G2: He angers and bolts my early board presence while establishing his with Koth and Thunderbreak Regent. I manage to take down first Koth and the second one while he dropped me to 3 life. I use Evolution to grab a Kalitas for the lifelink. Turn later I get Dwynen with Archdruid on board to prevent his Thunderbreak from attacking. Eventually I flood the board and win.
G3: T1 Thoughtseize off a fetch for 5 life reveals Bolt, Anger of the Gods, Koth and Thunderbreak Regent. I decided to take Anger and hope he doesn't draw lands. My dork gets bolted, he slowly makes it to 4 lands and drops Thunderbreak Regent followed by Thundermaw Hellkite. GG.
Overall I didn't really miss CoCo. Evolution scales greatly late game as it always costs 3 mana which allowed me to tutor up Ezuri and overrun on the same turn if needed or have mana left to regenerate. I forgot to adjust my manabase to lower the Gilt-Leaf Palace count by two and add two more Yavimaya Coasts. There's more testing to be done and possible new inclusions at the moment are Fulminator Mage to deal with manlands such as Inkmoth Nexus and Spellskite for protection and to deal with Infect.
As far as grindier matchups go such as UWR/Jund/Grixis I feel pretty favourable now. The amount of card advantage is simply too much for them with Lead the Stampede, Sylvan Messenger and Coiling Oracle as well as 4 copies of Eldritch Evolution allowing me to fetch Messenger.
Don't get me wrong, I like CoCo and it's a great card but with increased 4CMC count I feel the variance is just too high to justify it's inclusion in this build. There's more testing to be done and I'll report how it goes.
Hi guys! It's been a while. Anyone mind giving me tips for a small meta like this? I play GB Lead.
UR/Grixis Delver, Tron, ScapeBreachTrap, Infect, Eldrazi DnT, UW Control, Dredge, MonoW DnT
EDIT: do you guys think Eldritch Evo would drop in price? I kinda have budget issues of late.
EDIT: do you guys think Eldritch Evo would drop in price? I kinda have budget issues of late.
At $5.00 I can't see the card dropping any more than another dollar or two. I think there is too much potential in this card to let it fall in to bulk status.
Yeah, it's probably a good time to pick up the card. Modern playables can generally hold a $5 tag, and the day someone wins a tournament with a silly combo utilizing a just-printed creature the price will rise to $10 and stay there unless it's banned. No such combo exists at this time.
Maybe I'll pick up a few copies and get on the Anafenza hype train myself.
that horrible feeling of not being able to stop abzan company is why I added anafenza and temple garden to my other stock GB list. Do give it a go since you also pack 3 chords in the side.
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BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Performed very well (and a bit fortunate at times but yknow, gotta get there somehow). The old lists still have some play - and from what I've seen from the last couple of pages, theres still some tinkering about with Eldritch Evolution that seems promising yet not promising at the same time (don't wanna ***** on innovation too much, but the EE lists do feel very forced.)
Just a few questions please.
1. Getting Pyroclasm'd even once is most of the time fatal, unless I have a Lead the Stampede in hand. Hard to recover from the 3 for 1 or even 4 for 1. What are the solutions for it in the GB versions? Would 2 or Golgari Charm in the sideboard be enough?
2. For those using the GB. What's our main win condition. Overrun them with Ezuri or try to drain opponent with Shaman of the Pack? Most of the time I won with the Shaman, because Ezuri is often killed right away by spot removal.
3. How many Dwynen's Elite? I currently have 3 in the main, and trying to find a slot for the 4th one.
Thanks. :>
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2. I'd say it's Shaman most of the time simply because it allows us to win with a stalemate board position. Doesn't require a combat step, can be tutored for (Chord/Evolution/CoCo) and leaves a formidable 3/2 body.
3. I'm running 4 copies at the moment because I'm testing out Eldritch Evolution and it's 2CMC allows me to ramp into 4CMC drop on T2/3 such as Sylvan Messenger/Chameleon Colossus/Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen.
WBG Elves WBG
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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
BWZombiesBW
Modern
BG Collected Company ElvesBG
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Wed 7-10 Sat 7-10 Sun 6-10
Legacy
GBW Natural Order ElvesGBW
Ok, thank you. Will remember the things that you said.
Probably due to inexperience with elves that I keep walking into Pyrocclasm.. oh btw, I'm testing against a deck that has delver, goyf, and the 4/4 monkey that delves, game 1 is ok, but on game 2 my friend has 2 pyro from the side which he finds often due to the large number of blue draw spells in that deck. Sort of had the state of mind that I need to have a lot of elves on the board ASAP - which is a bad idea against Pyroclasm.
Oh, and just one last question. Is a single Temur Sabertooth too slow? I have used it's return to hand ability a few times to re-use the drain ability of Shaman or draw more cards from Visionary. Planning to replace the sabertooth with one Sylvan Messnger because red mass damage effects are a real problem for this deck.
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4x Llanowar Elves
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Heritage Druid
4x Dwynen's Elite
4x Coiling Oracle
4x Elvish Archdruid
3x Shaman of the Pack
3x Sylvan Messenger
2x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
3x Eldritch Evolution
2x Lead the Stampede
2x Collected Company
Lands (19):
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Gilt-Leaf Palace
4x Forest
4x Windswept Heath
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Breeding Pool
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3x Thoughtseize
2x Dismember
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Fracturing Gust
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Thragtusk
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Fecundity
I've dropped CoCo count down to just 2 because of the five 4CMC drops. With just 29 targets of which 12 are dorks I just don't see CoCo as reliable as it can be in lists without any 4CMC drops.
As you can see I've also chosen Coiling Oracle over Elvish Visionary. Cavern of Souls along with 4 fetches and a Breeding Pool allows me to cast it quite reliably on T2. It's ability to put a revealed land into play means we can cast a dork afterwards and allows line of play such as T1 Heritage -> T2 Oracle revealing land, play 1CMC elf, tap all three for 3CMC spell. Note that while Visionary simply draws us a card and doesn't reveal any information to the opponent, they will always know what you got from Oracle so they can play around it. In my testing so far I haven't found this to be detrimental to our plan.
Regarding 4CMC creatures I checked out which ones have the most impact on board and how well they perform. All of them can be "cheated" into play via Eldritch Evolution on T2 with Heritage/Dwynen's Elite or T3 via Oracle/Dwynen's Elite.
Sylvan Messenger - Acts as a slightly worse copy of Lead the Stampede but provides us with a 2/2 trample body.
Chameleon Colossus - Dodges all the common modern removal such as Dismember, Terminate, Lightning Bolt (2 for 1, if they burn 2 bolts on it), Abrupt Decay etc. Later in the game we can sink mana into it to force blocks or simply win via damage.
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen - Out of bolt range, lord and reach which can help against flying threats such as Delver of Secrets, Restoration Angel etc. It's 2nd ability can sometimes be relevant against burn or similar matchups.
Thrun, the Last Troll - Nearly impossible to remove against decks that don't run Wrath of God/Damnation.
There's also Wren's Run Packmaster which I might put a copy of in SB. 5/5 body, mana sink and can champion an elf with ETB effect for more value in case they remove it.
There's more testing to come in the next couple of weeks leading to GP Lille. I traded some of the instant speed ability via Chord/CoCo for a more resilient shell. So far I've noticed that my hand is rarely empty which allows me to keep dropping threats one after another.
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 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Heritage Druid
3 Nettle Sentinel
2 Joraga Warcaller
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Archdruid
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Imperious Perfect
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Lead the Stampede
2 Eldritch Evolution
Lands
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
16 Forest
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Dismember
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Back to Nature
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Elvish Champion
2 Wrap in Vigor
My sideboard is a mess. I do not know how to SB yet with this kind of deck. Is this a good deck to begin playing Elves with? Or is it just too cute and too far from being at least semi-competitive? Thanks!
Edit: Sorry if I posted in the wrong thread. My list is literally Coco-less Elves, but I can't seem to find another active thread discussing the performance of Elves in the current meta.
A 4 CMC creature you should be considering is Thought-Knot Seer. It can be eldritch'ed into from your 2 cmc guys just like the other 4 cmc bombs, its a thoughtseize that not only doesn't eat your life total but comes stapled to a 4/4 body and thus works wonders against Burn, and its castable off of Nykthos and Cavern even with elves named. To increase the odds of hardcasting this if it gets drawn, you can swap 1 or 2 forests out for Yavimaya Coast and/or Llanowar Wastes.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
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
You're welcome!
I too have been experimenting with replacing my SB chords with Evolutions because 1. They're faster to go online, possibly fetching anything between 1-4 cmc on turn 2, and 2. it enables 4 cmc so easily in the first place.
Turn 1 dork, turn 2 heritage, dwynen's elite, tap token+heritage+elite for GGG, evolution sacking elite, tutor and put into play TKS and taking away that naughty, naughty Anger of the Gods. Pass the turn 2 with 7 power on the board and no impending wipe. An equally backbreaking turn 2 play is pretty much the same thing except you sack the 0 cmc token to get Kataki! I dont have to mention who he comes in against.
With Eldritch Evo I've been incentivized to use an almost completely creature based sideboard, and the exciting part is being faster and reaching out to 4 cmc. Here are some other silver bullets I've been looking at, theres some overlap, naturally, because great minds
VS: GY-based creature decks
Anafenza the Foremost (sack a dork), on turn 2. This can catch even most dredge hands apart from their T1 neonate.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet (sack a 2 cmc) on turn 2 can be really discouraging for burn and abzan.
VS: Control
Thought-Knot Seer (sack a 2 cmc)
Sylvan Messenger (sack a 2 cmc to tutor and play a 2/2 with a Lead stapled to it is OMG)
VS: Burn
Kalitas again
Dwynen, Gilt Leaf Daen as you've pointed out
Kitchen Finks (now comes down turn 2, off of a Dork!!)
Thragtusk (vicious spiral here, sack that Kitchen Finks and grab this. you've won the game.)
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Hope you guys are doing alright. I haven't been able to play much these two weeks taking care of my family, but I do want to share a list from Japan.
This list made top 8 of a 152 man event. I truly love the fact that there is a fatty aside from CoCo to shore up the control matchups. The list is slower, probably due to Japanese love of blue and its slower metagame, but has some resiliency vs wipes and certainly against black lists. I think the player compensates with the sideboard to try and beat faster combo.
Hope this gives you guys something to chew on. I think I will give something similar a go and let you guys know how it does.
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
I see dredge must be making waves in japan, given the 4 very conspicuous leylines of the void. I'm thinking of putting in 3 into my SB myself.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
I own Caverns but never really felt the need yet to test them out, even if I see most list run them.
And why do most of you run Lead the Stampede over the Chord of Callings? I feel the end of turn putting a dude into play or after attacking is better then adding them to the hand.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=392928
Modern - Mardu Death's Shadow(needs work)
DnT(mono white cause I had the cards)
Legacy - RUG Delver(almost foiled out)
RG Lands
Because with Chord of Calling you get 2 for 1ed if you opponent has a removal spell. With Lead the Stampede you are able to "overload" the removal from your opponent or recover from a board wipe much better. Take the Jund-Matchup for example: With Chord I felt it was a bad matchup. Changing to the Lead-Version it went from bad to god, since there are too much elves for their removal and discard.
The List:
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
3 Nettle Sentinel
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Lead the Stampede
4 Collected Company
18 lands
4 Forest
3 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Windswept Heath
1 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Westvale Abbey
2 Duress
2 Leyline of Vitality
2 Fracturing Gust
3 Chord of Calling
1 Anafenza, the Foremost
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Spellskite
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Burrenton Forge Tender
The Tech Hightlights:
Anafenza, the Foremost was the silver bullet I sought against GY-based creature decks. Ooze was good, but sometimes isn't fast enough.
The Temple Garden was a call by me to cater for drawn white creatures like Anafenza or Kataki or burrenton. I was getting sick of drawing them and being stuck. Secondly, You wanted Leads to stay in against wipes, but you also want to Chord for BFT. The solution? Have white mana to cast BFT if you lead into it.
The Matches:
MU1: Blue Moon
G1: He manages to lock me out of all but 1 green mana on a Forest on turn 3. Unfortunately, I have a Heritage in hand, and all hell breaks loose from there. I overrun him without much resistance.
Sideboard: 2 Duress IN, 1 Westvale Abbey, 1 Joraga Warcaller OUT.
Blue moon typically runs multiple Crytpic Commands. It'd be pretty lame to have my 9/7 bounced. Warcaller is good if you've built a board, but I don't intend to overextend.
G2: I cast a turn 2 Duress and make a stupid move: I pick the Vedalkan Shackles instead of Blood Moon, when I've got 2 shocklands in Play. Maybe I was overconfident that I would draw a forest, or that I'd rely on my elves. But the dorks get electrolyzed and the moon comes down, and I'm locked out. Should have just taken the moon.
G3: I fetch a Forest T1, and build a medium sized army while holding on to a Lead. I don't have to use it, because he doesn't draw a wipe. Kind of unlucky, because he had boarded in 2 Pyros and 2 Angers. Welp, that's Magic.
MU2: Abzan Coco
G1: Nothing much to be said here, Elves does its thing and the opponent doesn't find his combo fast enough. A Kitchen Finks buys some time but its a small obstacle in the path of a rapidly multiplying elvish army. Heritage into Elite into Archdruid blah blah Shaman, trigger on stack, Collected Company blah blah "Am I dead?" "Uh, let me count... yea you're dead." "OK, let's play the next game."
Sideboard: Anafenza, Scavenging Ooze, 3 Chords IN, Joraga and 4 Leads OUT.
All the elves in the world, no matter how large, can't beat infinite life. Rather than race the combo on the draw, I elect to have 2 stoppers.
G2: Its a very tight game with many long combat phases as we did creature counting. Anafenza and Ooze both make the board but Anafenza ends up exiled under a Fiend hunter. Ooze runs out of things to eat and I fall in a very close game with him at 4 life and me not having enough blockers against his ragtag army buffed by Township. At the very least, the Ooze and Anafenza stop the combo from ever happening. I'm not swapping them out. We're at 4 minutes on the clock at this point, and spectators are doubting we can finish. Challenge. Accepted.
G3: My newly sleeved Temple Garden goes to work in this game. My starting hand has Dork, Anafenza, Palace, Windswept and 3 other cards. That's a turn 2 hardcast Anafenza on the play. Judge calls last 5 turns. On my turn 3 (last 3 turns) I'm beating for 4 while going off from the 3 mana sources. By turn 5 (my final turn), even with Finks buying some time again, he's looking at lethal trample damage and no way to combo off or block enough damage.
I'd never felt so good about new tech before.
MU3: Bant Eldrazi
G1 and 2: Eldrazi at its prime had a hard time against Elves, which was a bad match up. Without Eye of ugin? Its just not fair. I had average-ish hands, but they were plenty for dealing with turn 3 Thought Knot Seers. I ignored a Reality Smasher in game 2. I mean, what's it going to do? The only mainboard removal Eldrazi has is 4 path to exile, and that's just tempo for us, if they draw it anyway.
Sideboard: I don't really recall what I changed. I think probably 2 Duress out for Westvale (dangerous to use against Paths) and Joraga. I wanted to make sure I caught Sweepers, if any.
The Summary:
One FNM does not a solid list make, so I'll be running the list again at Monday Night modern tonight. Temple Garden and Anafenza are probably here to stay, given the insane amount of dredge in the Format. I like that she also screws over Dredge and even Living End, if I can get her out fast enough. I intend to get 3 Eldritch Evolutions to replace my SB Chords. Speed is usually more important than tempo when seeking silver bullets.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Honestly, I like this Anafenza idea. I'm tempted to put some white in for this and the other critters. So far I've been GB to da bone, baby {flashes dark elf gang signs}. Not that I play much Modern. I just came into a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, so who can blame me?
I randomly won an 8-man tournament today despite never even having seen Modern Dredge before and getting paired against it in the final round. Living End was my round 1 opponent, so it seems the GY decks are a huge thing in my area.
Played against the aforementioned Living End, Jeskai Delver, and Modern Dredge. The highlights:
vs. Living End: G3 I'm on the draw and my hand is nutty fast. By T3 it's all on the table: 2 mana dorks, 2 Nettle Sentinels, 2 Heritage Druids, 1 Archdruid, and an Eternal Witness. Three lands (one of which is a Shrine), and my only card is a Collected Company (which I had just used Eternal Witness to get back). I hold up mana for it and pass the turn.
Opponent, facing this heap of militant elves about to bash his face back to the Stone Age, cascades. I add mana, put my dudes in the graveyard, and CoCo at end of phase putting a Scavenging Ooze and Elvish Archdruid. Opponent attacks with his pretty meager dudes. I draw an Elite, play it and pass. When the opponent attacks, I make a huge Ooze but don't block, fearing a trick or something and the Ooze is made of gold, strong enough to win by itself almost. Opponent, in desperation, cascades again to kill it. Fortunately I hadn't exiled anything important, and apparently he'd forgotten about the Witness in my GY saved for just such a contingency. Opponent scoops when he sees the Witness.
vs. Jeskai Delver: Honestly I just won the die roll, got a mana dork down, and steamrolled him while he cantripped desperately for answers. That was G1. G2 involved 3 Nettle Sentinels, 2 Heritage, 2 Llanowar Elves, and CoCos that I never needed to cast.
vs. Dredge: these games were so fun that I'm sad there were only two of them. G1 I win the roll and make a few elves while he stocks his graveyard in a rather threatening manner. I get an Archdruid down and present lethal next turn if CoCo reveals any two creatures at all, so I hold up mana for it and pass. Mr. Scary throws some kind of flashbacked X damage board wipe at me, 2 damage declared on my Archdruid and 1 on each of my innocent little elves. I fine the CoCo, it gives me a Lord, and the opponent concedes.
G2 was more or less the same thing on a grander scale. This time we both had pretty threatening armies (mine threatening lethal in 1-2 swings, his in 2-3) and he casts his fire magic again. This time he's more careful, assigning 4 damage to my Archdruid and 1 to my innocent little elves. I fire off my CoCo, getting an Eternal Witness and a Scavenging Ooze, and Golgari Charm to regenerate my army. Opponent concedes.
It was a fun day.
Honestly, I'm not sure what I would have boarded out even if I were playing Chords. Most of the time I took out my Leads, since I was playing against combo decks and didn't think I'd have time for them.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
Lost in the quarter-finals to Abzan CoCo.
I am running the exactly same list that Sullano used in GP Piths (I think). Just some changes in the sideboard, with the toolbox strategy.
- match 1 - RG Tron - 2x1
Game one he plays Ugin and I scoop.
Game 2 he dont pyroclasmed and dont close the tron on turn 3, on turn 4 I play Shaman, chord for another, drain for about 15 and attack for the win.
Game 3 he flood a lot after 2 Kozilek's Return and I beat him for the win with Shamans and Dwyene's.
- match 2 - UR Delver Thing in the Ice - Lost 1x2
Game 1 I just played one land the entire game and never could see a fair game. Delvers flipped, Snapcasters targeting bolt..
Game 2 I played a "stompy" game, beating him with nettle sentinels and shaman. No CoCos, no leads, just beating.
Game 3 Same as game 2 but the thing in the ice flipped and in the same turn he plays a blood moon. just 1 forest in play. GG.
- match 3 - Ad Nauseam - 2x0
Game 1 I Elfstorm him with Nettles and Heritage to win the race.
Game 2 Same as game 1, but he cast a Angel's Grace when I attacked for lethal. After that I cast a Shaman and he scoop.
- match 4 - Burn - 2x1
Game 1 I win the die roll (sweet agains burn) and on turn 3 cast CoCo to two Shamans and drain for 8, he scooped.
Game 2 Lose to Monastery on t1, Blaze on t2 and Eidolon on t3.
Game 3 Same as game 1.
- match 5 - Jeskai Nahiri - 2x0
Game 1 I am in doubt if he has some mass removal and played very carefully. Went for the beatdown plan with Nettles, withouth elfstorming. Played some Elvish Visionary (all-star in this match), and win with Shamans. (He path a visionary lol, bolt another, soo the win was easy).
Game 2 Pretty similar with the first game. I overrun for the win after 2x Timely Reinforcements from his side (I love when people dont know what to side in against elves).
- match 6 - Jund - 2x1
I am at 12 points and cant draw for top8 because my opponent is at 10 points. Soo, lets play.
Game 1 I mulligan to 6 and he crush me with bolts, abrupts and Kalitas.
Game 2 I mulligan to 6 to a weak hand but topdecked a CoCo in turn 3 after he seize. Pass with 3 untapped lands and a dork, he cast Liliana, -2 and I coco in response, put Shaman and Dwynen's in play. In my turn I cast a lord and beat for 9. I pass and he Pulse the lord and pass to me. I show another lord in hand and he scoops.
Game 3 He dont side out the Seizes or Inquisitions and made a T1 Inquistion, discarding a dork and reading a lot my Chameleon Colossus. "Just 4/4 and pro from black" I said. on ther turn he seize me and discard the colossus and play a goyf. I draw CoCo and cast at EOT and win with overrun in 2 turns.
15 Points and 1st in the swiss. I won 20 boosters from eldritch moon and a playmat (the prizes is in accordance to the swiss, the top8 was just for the acess to the ptq). It seems strange but ok, no complains here.
top8 - Abzan CoCo - An good player from my local city and extremely nice guy.
Game 1 I started with dork, t2 lord, t3 prepared for CoCo at EOT to win on t4 with ezuri in hand, but he combos me on t3.
Game 2 The game goes longer, he is at 3 because of 2 Shamans but I cant go for the beatdown because he has a lot of creatures. Topdecked a Chord and win.
Game 3 Same as game 1. T3 combo in my face.
some thoughts:
CoCo and Shaman are the best cards in the deck. No news. The synergy is just great.
Combo sucks. We cant interact soo, its a hard match to us. Even reading a lot of people talking that we are faster.
In this actual meta with a lot of midranges decks we are in a good shape.
Maybe I wanna cut finks from side to change for Scoozes. Maybe is better agains Snapcasters deck and Abzan. In GB list Burn seems a fair match to us, since with Shaman of the Pack we can race.
Top8 from event: GB Elves, Abzan midrange, 2x Merfolks, Death and Taxes, Affinity, Grixis Delver and Abzan CoCo.
I would preffer face any other deck in the top 8 than Abzan CoCo, but no complains, the event was great. 55~60 players.
My side:
3x Chords
1x Viscera
1x Spellskite
2x Colossus
2x Fracturing Gust
1x Melira
2x Rec Sage
3x Finks
I played a lot with GW Sylvan Messengers list, another list with Duskwatch Recruiter, gb elves with 18 lands with no Canopies and 4x wastes instead, and neither of these lists impressed me like the list from Sullano. 19 lands with 4x Horizon Canopy is great. Wouldnt change anything. 2 Ezuris and 4 Visionaries is great too.
Well, I think thats all. Sorry about some gramatical errors or inaccurate report.
The list that went third in this event had some spicy ideas too.
The longer I play elves, the more I fall in love with it. The depth of this deck makes me really excited to brew, especially now that I know it so well after a year and a couple of months.
Have any of you tried this approach in a tournament?
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Heritage Druid
4x Dwynen's Elite
4x Coiling Oracle
4x Elvish Archdruid
3x Shaman of the Pack
2x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1x Reclamation Sage
3x Sylvan Messenger
1x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
4x Eldritch Evolution
3x Lead the Stampede
Lands (19):
3x Forest
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Gilt-Leaf Palace
4x Windswept Heath
1x Breeding Pool
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3x Thoughtseize
2x Dismember
2x Fracturing Gust
1x Thought-Knot Seer
1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1x Anafenza, the Foremost
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Thragtusk
1x Chameleon Colossus
1-2 Affinity (D)
Played about 25 games against Affinity last night in preparations for GP Lille so I figured this will be a hard matchup since they're just too fast. Being on the draw G1 certainly wasn't in my favour.
G1: He dumped 5 cards T1, followed by Steel Overseer and Arcbound Ravager next. Swing with Inkmoth Nexus for 10.
Out: 3x Sylvan Messenger, 2x Lead the Stampede, 1x Heritage Druid, 1x Dwynen's Elite, 1x Coiling Oracle
In: 2x Fracturing Gust, 2x Dismember, 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast, 2x Thoughtseize, 1x Thought-Knot Seer
G2: Early Thoughtseize got rid of a Ravager while Thought-Knot Seer (hardcast via Caverns) took care of Cranial Plating. That was enough to build up a board and drain with one Shaman followed by Evolution into 2nd one.
G3: Kept opener with 2 dorks, 3 lands, Dismember and Fracturing Gust. T2 he plays Master of Etherium which is a 4/4 and he's tapped out. Instead of simply waiting with my Fracturing Gust up to catch his Inkmoth Nexus, I wasted my Dismember on the Master. Next turn he casts Whipflare (as if they need a onesided Pyroclasm :() and I cast Fracturing Gust in response. I had no way of getting rid of his Nexus and I lost.
2-1 Norin Sisters (P)
He played a version of Soul Sisters with Purphoros, God of Forge, Norin, the Wary and Myr Chamber to gain silly amounts of life.
G1: I'm on the play and lack of interaction from his side along with my Ezuri allows me to overrun for win.
Out: 1x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen, 1x Reclamation Sage, 1x Sylvan Messenger, 1x Coiling Oracle
In: 1x Thought-Knot Seer, 2x Dismember, 1x Thrun, the Last Troll
G2: He stalls long enough to drop Purphoros which bring me down with the help of Norin.
G3: This one was tense until the last moment. He had Soul's Attendant, 2 Auriok Champions and 2 Myr Chambers on board meaning he gained 6 life for each Elf I played. It looked really grim with him being at 78 life and about 5 minutes left on the match clock. My board consisted of ~10 elves of which 3 were Archdruids and around 18 Myr tokens. I had nothing to dump all that mana into so all I could do was just attack for 33 damage to bring him down to 45. The following turn the goes up to 60 and passes. I had 4 cards in hand, 2 of them being Shamans. After careful calculations I decide to attack with most of my force leaving 6 mana up to cast the two Shamans afterwards. Attack and Shamans combined hit him for 59 bringing him down to 1. He cannot recover and I win with about a minute left on the clock. I was hoping to see Ezuri to dump all that mana into but never saw the second copy after he path'd the first one.
2-0 Abzan Company (P)
Classic Abzan Company build with Viscera Seer+Melira/Anafenza combo.
G1: He starts with Birds followed by Viscera and Melira. Luckily for me he couldn't find Finks and 4th land to cast CoCo and I slowly chipped at his life down to 4 and finish him off with a Shaman for 5.
In: 1x Thought-Knot Seer, 2x Dismember, 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, 1x Anafenza, the Foremost
Out: 3x Sylvan Messenger, 1x Reclamation Sage, 1x Coiling Oracle
G2: I keep a questionable hand with Llanowar Elves, Heritage Druid, Lead the Stampede and 4 lands. He starts off with Viscera Seer and passes. I follow with Llanowar Elves. His T2 Tidehollow Sculler takes away my Lead and I thought that was it. However I drew Eldritch Evolution and figured the best shot I have is to turn my dork into Anafenza. It turned out it was the right choice as he was unable to find removal for it. He got another Tidehollow Sculler and Cartel Aristocrat off CoCo but it wasn't enough.
Anafenza definitely an MVP against decks relying on GY shenanigans.
0-2 Infect (P)
G1: Even though I won the die roll, Distortion Strike on a Glistener Elf being unblockable won him the game.
In: 2x Dismember, 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast, 3x Thoughtseize
Out: 1x Reclamation Sage, 3x Sylvan Messenger, 1x Lead the Stampede
G2: T1 Thoughtseize got rid of his Blighted Agent but he still had two Glistener Elves and Noble Hierarch. I chumped for two turns but in the end was left with 1 blockers and he just pumped the unblocked Glistener Elf for the win.
Spellskite is definitely being readded to the list. With Eldrazi Winter and meta shift he wasn't particularly useful in the past months but with the rise of Infect he's ready to make a comeback.
1-2 Skred (D)
G1: Lightning Bolt, Blood Moon, Koth of the Hammer into Thunderbreak Regent. You guessed it, didn't stand a chance.
In: 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, 3x Thoughtseize, 1x Thought-Knot Seer
Out: 2x Sylvan Messenger, 1x Coiling Oracle, 1x Reclamation Sage, 1x Dwynen's Elite
G2: He angers and bolts my early board presence while establishing his with Koth and Thunderbreak Regent. I manage to take down first Koth and the second one while he dropped me to 3 life. I use Evolution to grab a Kalitas for the lifelink. Turn later I get Dwynen with Archdruid on board to prevent his Thunderbreak from attacking. Eventually I flood the board and win.
G3: T1 Thoughtseize off a fetch for 5 life reveals Bolt, Anger of the Gods, Koth and Thunderbreak Regent. I decided to take Anger and hope he doesn't draw lands. My dork gets bolted, he slowly makes it to 4 lands and drops Thunderbreak Regent followed by Thundermaw Hellkite. GG.
Overall I didn't really miss CoCo. Evolution scales greatly late game as it always costs 3 mana which allowed me to tutor up Ezuri and overrun on the same turn if needed or have mana left to regenerate. I forgot to adjust my manabase to lower the Gilt-Leaf Palace count by two and add two more Yavimaya Coasts. There's more testing to be done and possible new inclusions at the moment are Fulminator Mage to deal with manlands such as Inkmoth Nexus and Spellskite for protection and to deal with Infect.
As far as grindier matchups go such as UWR/Jund/Grixis I feel pretty favourable now. The amount of card advantage is simply too much for them with Lead the Stampede, Sylvan Messenger and Coiling Oracle as well as 4 copies of Eldritch Evolution allowing me to fetch Messenger.
Don't get me wrong, I like CoCo and it's a great card but with increased 4CMC count I feel the variance is just too high to justify it's inclusion in this build. There's more testing to be done and I'll report how it goes.
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
UR/Grixis Delver, Tron, ScapeBreachTrap, Infect, Eldrazi DnT, UW Control, Dredge, MonoW DnT
EDIT: do you guys think Eldritch Evo would drop in price? I kinda have budget issues of late.
At $5.00 I can't see the card dropping any more than another dollar or two. I think there is too much potential in this card to let it fall in to bulk status.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
Maybe I'll pick up a few copies and get on the Anafenza hype train myself.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
1-0 Grixis Delver
2-0 Jund
2-1 Jund
3-1 Mardu Nahiri
Performed very well (and a bit fortunate at times but yknow, gotta get there somehow). The old lists still have some play - and from what I've seen from the last couple of pages, theres still some tinkering about with Eldritch Evolution that seems promising yet not promising at the same time (don't wanna ***** on innovation too much, but the EE lists do feel very forced.)