I’m not too sure about BBE. It is hard to combo (heritage Druid) with it since we need to keep a red/black up. It disrupts our flow and make it difficult to cast sideboard cards. I’m thinking just straight up GB with Lead since meta will shift towards sweeper, Jace lists. I’m actually trying Lead(for value) and Fauna Shaman (getting bullets or extra shaman of the pack) in replacement for visionaries (my opinion as the weakest link). Been working so far.
PS I also think getting up to 4 mana consistently with only 18 sources may be difficult
I thought you're usually the kind to like new tech mike - don't let yourself get too hesitant. BBE has been pretty unreal for me, and 4 mana off 18 sources is an untrue evaluation; try 4 mana off a lot of our dudes making mana and casting spells. You were so quick to jump on the GB gravy train when it started, and Shaman has the same peculiarities about it in how it distrupts our flow and 'is difficult to combo'. Our sideboard cards are still castable! We didn't cut any black sources so Thoughtseize is still a go-ahead! I even park Lead in the sideboard for the grindy matchups (cutting Nettle)and you absolutely bury any grindy deck in permanents, its pretty crazy.
Give it a try before you buy. It's definitely proving to be as good an option as I dreamed it would be years ago.
Alright. I finally finished up the maths on Bloodbraid Elf (hence BBE) vs Collected Company (hence Coco)
Thesis: BBE is a strong card because as a baseline, it generates four power. This makes it worthy to stand up and be counted as a spell worth including in the deck.
Approach: Determine the amount of power the average Collected Company generates.
Assumptions:
a) We are assuming this decklist for the purposes of the simulation:
b) We're casting Coco onto an empty board and a 59 card library. This allows us to have a clean slate to compare both BBE and Coco in a vacuum.
c) For the purposes of the maths, we assume that Archdruid is a 3 power creature as it would pump the creature that also comes into play with it.
d) We are taking the best combination of cards possible every Coco.
e) We are not including Shaman of the Pack's trigger in our simulation.
Working:
With 34 creatures, simple hypergeometric distrubution tells us that statistically, 4.4% of our Cocos are what I dub 'misses' - 0 or 1 creature hits. For the purposes of the simulation, they are Cocos that are worse than the baseline power provided by Coco. This also means that the other 95.6% of our cast Cocos hit at least two creatures.
With that in mind, I needed to assign a power value to each possible creature combination from our deck. To simplify things, we're going to average it out.
As an example, for 2 one drops, the average power (hence avg p.) is (12 x 1)+(2 x 4)/16 which leaves us with 1.25 power. Now, since its 2 one drops, we multiply that by 2 and we get the avg p. of 2.5/Coco. Makes sense, right?
*note* Elvish Archdruid + Dwynen's Elite is 7 power, but the original calulations assigned values of 3 and 3 to each card. This does not change the maths significantly, however.
So for each possible mana combination:
2 one drops: 2.5 avg p./Coco
2 two drops: 4.0 avg p./Coco
2 three drops: 5.6 avg p./Coco
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 3.0 avg p./Coco
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 3.7 avg p./Coco
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 4.8 avg p./Coco
This is already pretty staggering as 3 of the categories are already under the baseline BBE. But, how do we assign these numbers to the original number of resolved Cocos with at least 2 dudes in it of 95.6%? I then added the amounts of cards together that was initially used to divide whilst making the avg p. of each variant of Coco (102), then found the percentage of how much each category gets in terms of percentage from that 102.
2 one drops: 15.69%
2 two drops: 7.84%
2 three drops: 9.80%
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 23.53%
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 25.39%
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 17.65%
In this case, this means that our most likely combination of cards to hit from Coco is 1 one drop, 1 three drop in descending order down to 2 two drops.
I then put these percentages to get the percent of these from 95.6% to get our final percentages:
2 one drops: 15%
2 two drops: 7.5%
2 three drops: 9.37%
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 22.49%
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 24.27%
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 16.87%
Now, we add the percentages of the ones that add over or equal to four average power together, and add the ones less than four average power together with the 4.4% natural 'failure chance' which leads us to...
Cocos with four or greater avg. p: 33.74%
Cocos with less than four or greater avg. p: 66.26%
Working with BBE:
BBE maths is simple, as we don't need to account for lands. If you cascade into:
one drop: 47.06% (4.25 avg. p/BBE)
two drop: 23.53% (4.50 avg. p/BBE)
three drop: 29.4% (5.8 avg. p/BBE)
Conclusion:
The results are pretty comprehensive and they allow me to conclude that, on average, Coco generates less power than your baseline BBE. Infact, only one in three Cocos generate the same or more power.Worst of all for discreditors of BBE, 52.93% of the time, BBE generates more power than 74.10% of all average Coco combinations. Its statistically better from a 'worst' perspective, in a vacuum.
So there you have it. Some mathematical basis to the strength of Bloodbraid Elf.
Hello elven friends.
Now, after the unban of BBE, where do we go?
I've read the thread and I agree that BBE is worth at least a try. Specially right now when everybody will be playing grindy jund decks or controlling with jace. Before the unbannings I was on GW as I said before, since the format was full of fast decks and we needed a way to be able to win before they did. Now, relying on a 0/2 to win against a LOT of removal seems risky.
I like the lists you people are showing, but I would like to know what you think about Domri Rade. Right now I'm working with this list:
So far I've casted Domri 3 times and it's been amazing all 3 of them, drawing cards, killing creatures and making our opponent spend resources managing it.
I've added 2 Elves of Deep Shadow in place of 2 Nettle sentinel since our explosiveness potential is already lower because we play several cards that can't be casted with only 3 green mana and it provides black mana for our powerful SB cards. I'm thinking about cutting 1 Ezuri (going down to 2) and play a 2nd Domri because I'm loving it.
Thoughts on this forgotten planeswalker?
On the other hand. I've always loved the idea of a creature based toolbox and that's out the ecuation for obvious reasons if we go chord-less. So what's the base of a GOOD elf sideboard with the jund composition?
I think Domri is a great addition out of the board for us in the RG variant of the deck. I'm not so certain its strong in the Jund variant, as I'm pretty sure we don't have enough mana sources to cast it reliably. So if you're keen on Domri, I recommend RG Elves with some Domri's in the sideboard alongside your Blood Moons and Ancient Grudges.
Sideboarding with Jund will be mostly spell based as we can't use the toolbox. I posted previously about a sideboard that looked like this, bristling with removal:
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Lead the Stampede
3 Graveyard hate (Leyline/Scooze/Relic)
2 Dismember
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Fracturing Gust
We can also just play something like this:
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Phyrexian Revoker (as a catch all for all the matchups we were going to bring them in anyway)
3 Lead the Stampede
3 Reclamation Sage
It's certainly something we need to figure out, but Jund's predecessor GB had the same sorta issue with sideboarding too.
A final option, for when you want speed instead of grindy cards, you can park Chord of Calling in the sideboard and increase your velocity while bringing in bullets. Every time you'd bring in Chord of Calling, you'd cut BBE naturally so theres no fear of cascading into it.
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Chord of Calling
3 Lead the Stampede
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Reclamation Sage
I am going to try for an uber-wide approach. I am not sure it is going to be as good as the CoCo-Jund varieties, but I am putting it here because it resembles this more than Combo versions. 18 Lands, 42 creatures.
My goal here is to go wide as possible and combo off as possible. I like Sylvan Messenger more than lead because it will find itself and bloodbraid elf.
Haha! Very good point, I admit defeat. I am all for innovation and considering that my current iteration of Elves is BUG, I think you are right in saying I should hold my judgement on it for now and go back to my original self of loving innovation. The only issue I have had is the tri-color thing, so perhaps, I will simply try it out first.
With that, I will go order a Stomping Grounds with the points I have accumulated on Yahoo Auction Japan...
Very well put Syreal94. This is more so for every one else.
It's important to note that when comparing BBE to Collected Company we're not trying to replace it but instead figure out a better card in the spot of Chord of Calling for Shaman builds. Anybody who has played GB in the past knows that having Chord has never been the plan to having a winning chance against fast decks. If you guys want to win against fast decks then play GW Combo. You can't have your cake and eat it.
@Worldsaverinc
No Company will make the deck too slow. Being able to cheat out two creatures at instant speed is still much more powerful than chaining Sylvan into BBEs. As I said, we don't want to replace Company. After all that's the card that put us in the map in the first place - hence the name of this thread.
So far I've casted Domri 3 times and it's been amazing all 3 of them, drawing cards, killing creatures and making our opponent spend resources managing it.
I've added 2 Elves of Deep Shadow in place of 2 Nettle sentinel since our explosiveness potential is already lower because we play several cards that can't be casted with only 3 green mana and it provides black mana for our powerful SB cards. I'm thinking about cutting 1 Ezuri (going down to 2) and play a 2nd Domri because I'm loving it.
Thoughts on this forgotten planeswalker?
On the other hand. I've always loved the idea of a creature based toolbox and that's out the ecuation for obvious reasons if we go chord-less. So what's the base of a GOOD elf sideboard with the jund composition?
I'm with Syreal94 on this one. I like Domri in our deck but Jund just cannot afford the space IMHO. For GRx it would make sense because by not having Shamans it has much more room and flexibility in both the MB and SB. The Naya list I posted intrigues me for this reason of space and flexibility - also Kessig Wolf Run is Nuts. I think there's still room for innovation with GRx builds and that's pretty exciting.
I also agree with Syreal94 on GBx builds relying primarily on a noncreature sb. The Jund list I posted has a version of what I think is most optimal to have a fighting chance in an open meta. For metas that I'm familiar with I would obviously try to adapt my sb.
So far I've casted Domri 3 times and it's been amazing all 3 of them, drawing cards, killing creatures and making our opponent spend resources managing it.
I've added 2 Elves of Deep Shadow in place of 2 Nettle sentinel since our explosiveness potential is already lower because we play several cards that can't be casted with only 3 green mana and it provides black mana for our powerful SB cards. I'm thinking about cutting 1 Ezuri (going down to 2) and play a 2nd Domri because I'm loving it.
Thoughts on this forgotten planeswalker?
On the other hand. I've always loved the idea of a creature based toolbox and that's out the ecuation for obvious reasons if we go chord-less. So what's the base of a GOOD elf sideboard with the jund composition?
I'm with Syreal94 on this one. I like Domri in our deck but Jund just cannot afford the space IMHO. For GRx it would make sense because by not having Shamans it has much more room and flexibility in both the MB and SB. The Naya list I posted intrigues me for this reason of space and flexibility - also Kessig Wolf Run is Nuts. I think there's still room for innovation with GRx builds and that's pretty exciting.
I also agree with Syreal94 on GBx builds relying primarily on a noncreature sb. The Jund list I posted has a version of what I think is most optimal to have a fighting chance in an open meta. For metas that I'm familiar with I would obviously try to adapt my sb.
GB relying on non-creatures have been the norm forever. When I play GB, I rarely rely on creature bullets unless warranted. TS x3 is basic, I believe, and that leans us more towards spells. At least, that’s how i’ve Played the last two and a half years.
You're absolutely right. Any GB veteran such as yourself knows that a noncreature sb has been the norm. What I said was directed to amni92.
TS: I think the 4th TS is more important now than before with the replacement of Chord for BBE. BBE being able to cascade into noncreature spells like TS could be life or death in an open meta where you could potentially play against combo.
Also BBE into Collective Brutality is a missed opportunity I think we should take advantage of.
You're absolutely right. Any GB veteran such as yourself knows that a noncreature sb has been the norm. What I said was directed to amni92.
TS: I think the 4th TS is more important now than before with the replacement of Chord for BBE. BBE being able to cascade into noncreature spells like TS could be life or death in an open meta where you could potentially play against combo.
Also BBE into Collective Brutality is a missed opportunity I think we should take advantage of.
Actually, that is a very interesting point. Turn 3/4 TS into BBE could be very powerful. Stripping their sweeper than BBE for the mass amount of damage (against control/Jace) is a sweet place to be.
I think BBE Jund Elves could really be good against grindy decks as predicted. That will give us some sideboard room to hedge against combo, quick creature decks. BBE being in the deck naturally makes our strategy more grindy and thus, having potent answers to combo/tron in sideboard could go a long way. I do like this direction, it is interesting.
What do people thing about Lead the Stampede with Bloodbraid? I’ve been using 2 in my sideboard to replenish after board wipes (basically CoCo numbers 5 and 6), and it plays better with Bloodbraid Elf than CoCo or Chord on both ends (both hitting BBE and being hit by it).
CoCo is just straight gas, despite missing BBE. So I can’t imagine cutting them, but it does seem like it may be worth checking out Lead as a main-deck inclusion in some configurations.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Hey guys, just wanted to chime in and share something ive been discussing on other threads. A few other posters have been reporting the new temur BBE/Jace deck is pretty gross which reduces the value of 1v1 removal since the CA in the deck is so high. Also, creatures like goyf/knuckleblade/courser line up well against bolt/helix Eldrazi and now hollow one also make damage based removal look fairly weak. If the meta shifts from bolt/push/helix to maybe go for the throat, dreadbore, terminate or even counters to keep combo in check from going under Jace etc., elves may see a bump in survival against these decks.
The shift could take months, if it even happens. I'm going to encourage a lot of sideboard discussions at my LGS and I'll try and follow up with what kind of removal or sweepers I'm seeing here. I'd like to encourage the rest of you guys to do the same. While I don't expect jund to go to 0 bolts, any shift in a bolt/kcommand/terminate/dreadbore/push removal suite should be noted so we can see how we line up. Nothing feels better then blanking a kcommand when your last card in hard is a coco and you hit lord(s) to push out of damage range and have nothing to discard.
Actually, that is a very interesting point. Turn 3/4 TS into BBE could be very powerful. Stripping their sweeper than BBE for the mass amount of damage (against control/Jace) is a sweet place to be.
I think BBE Jund Elves could really be good against grindy decks as predicted. That will give us some sideboard room to hedge against combo, quick creature decks. BBE being in the deck naturally makes our strategy more grindy and thus, having potent answers to combo/tron in sideboard could go a long way. I do like this direction, it is interesting.
Couldn't have said it better myself. As great as the deck seems on paper, I think there is still some room for tuning the mb.
More specifically, there are two problems I have been having with the deck. The first is the mana base. The deck always needs to have red and black mana on the field in the event of me having or potentially drawing into a Shaman/BBE.
Here's an example I faced. I fetched early on for an overgrown tomb because I had Shaman in my opening hand. Makes sense right? Well I had no way to generate red mana incase I drew into BBE - which I did. Because I had no red mana I could not use BBE on T3/T4 BBE. I lost because of this.
The same situation happened when it was the other way around. I had a BBE in my opener then fetched for Stomping ground with no way to generate black for Shaman and lost because of that as well.
It could have been a really bad day and quite frankly it was only one day of testing so there's not much data but I personally rather be safe than sorry. Here's my solution.
Brace yourself because it's a bit painful. I think adding a Blood Crypt as the 19th land is optimal. Blood Crypt is great in those situations when you need both colors and already have a forest on the field. Why do we need a 19th land? Great question.
Here is the second problem I was facing. It was not drawing enough lands to consistently have 3/4 lands by T4/5. This is a problem when we have 8 4cmc cards. I think 19 lands will give is that safety net we need.
Couldn't have said it better myself. As great as the deck seems on paper, I think there is still some room for tuning the mb.
More specifically, there are two problems I have been having with the deck. The first is the mana base. The deck always needs to have red and black mana on the field in the event of me having or potentially drawing into a Shaman/BBE.
Here's an example I faced. I fetched early on for an overgrown tomb because I had Shaman in my opening hand. Makes sense right? Well I had no way to generate red mana incase I drew into BBE - which I did. Because I had no red mana I could not use BBE on T3/T4 BBE. I lost because of this.
The same situation happened when it was the other way around. I had a BBE in my opener then fetched for Stomping ground with no way to generate black for Shaman and lost because of that as well.
It could have been a really bad day and quite frankly it was only one day of testing so there's not much data but I personally rather be safe than sorry. Here's my solution.
Brace yourself because it's a bit painful. I think adding a Blood Crypt as the 19th land is optimal. Blood Crypt is great in those situations when you need both colors and already have a forest on the field. Why do we need a 19th land? Great question.
Here is the second problem I was facing. It was not drawing enough lands to consistently have 3/4 lands by T4/5. This is a problem when we have 8 4cmc cards. I think 19 lands will give is that safety net we need.
I've settled on 19 lands being the solution also, but I think the answer is the 5th fetch. Can't afford to play a Blood Crypt as it destoys our 1 land opener. Also just as a bit of sequencing advice, always fetch red first. You're more likely to draw a way to cast Shaman than you are BBE, so play safe and get the red source.
I've settled on 19 lands being the solution also, but I think the answer is the 5th fetch. Can't afford to play a Blood Crypt as it destoys our 1 land opener.
Blood Crypt acts as a colorless land in that regard. It sacrifices the utility we would get from a true colorless land like Westvale for consistency. That's the way I see it anyways.
Aside from that it is after all an extra land and just like other Elf builds we never needed the 15th green source for creatures.
That being said, a 5th fetch is by no means a bad idea. It's what I was originally going for.
Hey guys! I don't post here often, but I've been playing modern elves for close to 2 years now and I have a tournament report + deck tech I was planning on sending to modernnexus. I'm all for sharing valuable information and testing with the elves community, so here's the article. Enjoy!
The Rowdy Horde of Pointy-Eared Plebeians: Modern 1k Tournament Report + Deck Tech
Greetings! My name is Josh, I’m 17, and I’m a competitive magic player and Modern fanatic from Northern California. Today I want to share with you my experience playing at the CFB Game Center’s Modern 1k, where I made the top 16 playing a deck very near and dear to my heart: Elves! I came into the event with a clear expectation of facing lots of interactive decks trying to respond to the PT meta, and needless to say I was rewarded for it. With over 64 players, seven rounds of swiss were in the workings for my rugged band of tree-huggers and I. My testing buddy and GP Santa Clara Legacy player Raj (I got to slug some Standard that weekend) showed up playing the Todd Stevens special (G/W Value Town!), and I came in hoping to break a long streak of scrubbing out of tournaments going back to a Modern PPTQ last year where I lost both of my win-and-ins for top 8.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty round details, let’s start with a basic overview of the deck and my expectations going in. My list, for reference:
The first thing you should notice here is that there isn’t much to notice: this list is relatively stock compared to most Elves lists, which means that most of the innovation comes from small choices and gameplay. The least well known card to make my list is most likely Shaper’s Sanctuary, which I certainly believe deserves consideration as a 2-of after playing in this tournament. This card is usually an ancestral recall against interactive decks, which is exactly what you’re looking for in those sort of spots. Sanctuary basically means that all of your creatures eventually replace themselves, which does a number against any fair deck’s arsenal of spot removal.
The next thing that deserves a mention is the inclusion of an Elvish Visionary in the mainboard, which earns its pay for a number of reasons. The first is consistency; Visionary is almost never the worst thing you can be doing in this deck because it replaces itself and provides a relevant body for Heritage Druid, Elvish Archdruid, and Ezuri. The second is flexibility; while it may not be a silver bullet, it can do more things (albeit not always in a super powerful manner) than something narrower like Selfless Spirit. Although the same could be said for Reclamation Sage, I chose to include Visionary over Sage in this slot because Visionary is more relevant, consistent, and flexible against the multitude of different interactive decks in the format I expected to face.
The final point I want to discuss is Kor Firewalker, which I have been seeing less and less in Elves sideboards over the last few months. While I understand that it appears to be a narrow inclusion, I would argue that it has more applications than on first glace. Imagine playing this against Storm; the little Kor that could essentially shuts off Storm’s Grapeshot plan (it doesn’t gain life for the copies, but it gains a life for every ritual and Manamorphose that contributes to the storm count), leaving them with just the Empty plan, which doesn’t seem very effective in the face of a swarm of Elves. Additionally, Firewalker is the best toolbox option for fighting burn, which I believe to be a very volatile and semi-random matchup (50/50 but hard to control much beyond playing well and praying a bit). Firewalker gives the deck more consistency in its plan to actually win games against burn, which helps lead me towards the decision to give it the nod.
With a close to the card choice discussion, let’s move into the tournament itself! As I move through, pay close attention to how I describe my play patterns; this is the key to understanding how I work through tough situations and (hopefully) win games. Without further ado…
Round 1: Wyatt (B/G Tron) Loss (1-2) Record: 0-1
Game 1: When my opponent played a Tron piece and passed, I felt my stomach sink a little bit. It is my belief that Tron can be a very hard matchup if my opponent knows how to sequence and prioritize against me, so my plan was to give my opponent as few outs as possible over the course of the game. Like a champ, however, I went for an aggressive attack that left my opponent at 2 but gave me no mana to regenerate my team with Ezuri in response to an Oblivion Stone. As it happens, my opponent completed tron and had exactly 8 mana to finish off my team and kill me with Ulamog while strangling on at 2 life.
As you’ll find out soon enough, I board out Nettle Sentinel in almost every matchup. Many Elves players cut it entirely (in their decklists), but I think that is a mistake (more on that towards the end), so indeed I registered good ol’ Nettle in preparation to sideline it frequently.
Game 2: My opponent drew a bunch of spheres and stars and I killed him on turn 4. A little less exciting but I’ll take the game W.
Game 3: I took a mulligan to five, which I insist is correct despite the fact that my first two hands were playable-ish. The problem was that I had exactly zero turn 1 plays with both of my first two hands, and against tron you can’t take your turn 1 off, especially on the draw. As a result, I aggressively mulliganed for a hand with turn 1 action, and what I found on five was a bit medium but suitable. I tried my best to stay in the game, but turn 4 Tron overwhelmed my hand that failed to find payoffs until it was too late.
To recap, this round wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but the games were interesting for the most part and I learned a lot. Both of my friends present lost as well, so we were all in the same boat.
Round 2: Abel (U/R Pyromancer) Loss (0-2) Record: 0-2
Game 1: (Play) I first took a mulligan to 6, which helped my opponent out-resource me with Cryptic Commands and double Young Peezy (he had this both games). His lines of aggressively chipping in for damage with elemental tokens and leaving enough back to chump block my dudes, along with multiple Cryptics when I finally found Ezuri, left me constantly on the backfoot and quickly dead.
It quickly became time to execute “The Grind Plan”, which consists of attrition-y bullet stuff (it’s exactly what it sounds like). Not much more to say that that, though my mind wandered and images of Gut Shot flashed in my head in regret and sorrow.
Game 2: I mulled to 6 again, and things essentially went the same as in game 1. Not much else to say here, other than double Young Peezy is brutal when I don’t have a solid clock to work with.
Both of my friends lost again, so it became apparent that we might eventually play each other to knock each other out of contention for prizes. As it turns out, I’d have to do that real soon.
Round 3: Adrian (Abzan Midrange) Win (2-1) Record: 1-2
To preface, Adrian is a friend of mine from our LGS, so we played a little bit more calm than we would’ve otherwise. Adrian is always on Abzan, and he knew what I was on, so there wasn’t much surprise at all.
Game 1: (Play) My hand was pretty strong, and Adrian drew a few too many threats and not enough answers to stop my oncoming horde. A few rounds of beats and the game was over in short order.
It was time to employ The Grind Plan once again, with the only slight change being the addition of Colossus, which is nigh impossible for Abzan to get rid of apart from Path.
Game 2: I took a mulligan, and Adrian’s hand lined up well on the play to deal with my threats. Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf picked me off in short order.
Game 3: I got the play again, which became very relevant very fast. Chameleon Colossus came in just in time to seal the deal and win the race to victory.
At this point Adrian became the first of our troupe to fall. Raj on G/W Company won his match, so we became the last two left standing.
Round 4: Daniel (Abzan Midrange) Win (2-1) Record: 2-2
Game 1: (Draw) The game began with hand disruption from Daniel’s side and a swarm of dudes from mine. After getting in a few spare beats, Daniel locked up the board with his own horde of Tarmogoyfs and Bobs. Fortunately for me, he kept hitting Lilianas off of his Bobs, and eventually his creatures’ lust for power burned him.
Sideboard: Same as in Round 3
Not much to say here. Similar deck, similar plan. The biggest difference between Daniel’s list and Adrian’s list was the emphasis on Tireless Tracker and Dark Confidant, which Daniel maxed out on (as far as I could tell) and Adrian did not (I think he had two Bobs and zero Trackers, but I’m not positive on that).
Game 2: This game was a bit more straightforward. Daniel was better able to maximize the play, making all of his discard better and landing threat after threat before I could fully recover. Although Bob got close to killing him again, his superior board presence was well able to race it.
Game 3: Daniel kept a hand low on interaction, which surprised me with him being on the draw and needing reactive spells to stay alive. Chording for Ezuri with Archdruid out was the nail in the coffin, and I was well able to attack for lethal and seal the deal.
As it turned out, Raj also stayed at x-2, which meant that he was still in the hunt for prizes along with me. Moving to an even record helped boost my morale, and I was pumped to keep the party going.
Round 5: Joseph (Grixis Shadow) Win (2-1) Record: 3-2
Game 1: (Play) I took a mulligan to 5, and I kept a hand with a turn one play and little else. Without any card advantage engine in my hand or draws, I was quickly dispatched by Shadow beats.
Sideboard: Same plan as in rounds 3 and 4. The sideboarding doesn’t change much, but Chameleon Colossus is my best card in the matchup because most, if not all Shadow decks cannot deal with it.
Game 2: The second game went about as well as I could’ve hoped. I got off to a fast start, and I was able to combo off quickly and effectively to force a third game.
Game 3: This was an interesting one. Once again I got off to a fast start, but Joseph more or less kept up with me. Eventually, I sat back with a hand featuring both Chord and CoCo, and I felt unstoppable. Yet, just like that I let a Gurmag Angler resolve before casting my spells, giving my opponent the window to Stubborn Denial both of my haymakers. Out of sheer luck, I pulled a Chameleon Colossus off the top, and with exactly zero ways to kill it my opponent scooped up his cards.
Round 6: Scott (Jeskai Tempo) Win (2-0) Record: 4-2
Game 1: (Play) It felt as though my opponent had a reasonable hand, but once I saw Spell Queller I knew I would be safe from the horrid wrath of Supreme Verdict. With that in mind, I got to work using Heritage Druids and Dwynen’s Elites along with a Nettle Sentinel to slam multiple CoCos and put close to 15 creatures on the board by the time the game ended. I baited a removal spell from Scott in order to safely cast my Chord for Ezuri, and the game was shortly over.
Selfless Spirit gets the nod in the Grind Plan over Colossus as a protective measure against any sideboard Supreme Verdicts or Anger of the Gods from Scott’s side (and it’s a good way to bait out a key piece of removal). With no black mana in Scott’s deck, Colossus is clearly not good enough.
Game 2: Shaper’s Sanctuary plus Selfless Spirit made it excruciatingly hard for Scott to kill my creatures, and a lack of Supreme Verdict punished my opponent dearly. ‘Twas a jolly day to play Elves indeed.
Both Raj and I made it to 4-2 after starting from the bottom, and it became clear that a win for either of us would clinch top 16 and a loss would knock us out of prize contention. It was our goal to both cash, so if we played each other it would be the end of the road for one of us. Luckily, we dodged a bullet, and we started round 7 directly next to each other.
Round 7: Nick (Grixis Control) Win (2-0) Record: 5-2
Game 1: (Play) I was able to overwhelm my opponent in the early game with multiple creatures, making his 1-for-1 removal spells less effective. Eventually, a topdecked Ezuri sealed the deal.
Sideboard: Same as rounds 3, 4, and 5
Game 2: The game devolved into a topdeck war, with Nick smashing in with Tasigur beats (3, to be exact) and me trying to assemble my combo pieces and dodge removal. Luckily, I drew the last combo piece (can’t remember whether it was Chord, Ezuri, or Vizier, but I do remember that I had Devoted Druid plus one other piece on board), and the game ended in a handshake.
I was especially relieved after the match, as I had just won my last five matches in a row to finish in the top 16 and walk away with some store credit to boot! Unfortunately, my friend on G/W Company failed to draw any of his 2 sideboard Stony Silences after beating Affinity in game 1, losing a close match that knocked him out of prize contention. Despite this, we both had a great time grinding our favorite format (he likes Modern better than Legacy, so that’s a W on the scoreboard) and playing for relevant prizes.
I want to conclude this piece with two decklists. The first list is what I would play after playing in the 1k, and the second list has an interesting twist in response to a potential metagame filled with Jace the Mind Sculptor + Terminus. Feel free to leave comments for me about these decks or the article in general if you have any questions whatsoever!
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you all will have the chance to read more content from me in the future! Just remember, the horde of elvish tree-huggers is always at your service.
I thought you're usually the kind to like new tech mike - don't let yourself get too hesitant. BBE has been pretty unreal for me, and 4 mana off 18 sources is an untrue evaluation; try 4 mana off a lot of our dudes making mana and casting spells. You were so quick to jump on the GB gravy train when it started, and Shaman has the same peculiarities about it in how it distrupts our flow and 'is difficult to combo'. Our sideboard cards are still castable! We didn't cut any black sources so Thoughtseize is still a go-ahead! I even park Lead in the sideboard for the grindy matchups (cutting Nettle)and you absolutely bury any grindy deck in permanents, its pretty crazy.
Give it a try before you buy. It's definitely proving to be as good an option as I dreamed it would be years ago.
Thesis: BBE is a strong card because as a baseline, it generates four power. This makes it worthy to stand up and be counted as a spell worth including in the deck.
Approach: Determine the amount of power the average Collected Company generates.
Assumptions:
a) We are assuming this decklist for the purposes of the simulation:
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Windswept Heath
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Pendelhaven
1 Stomping Ground
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Bloodbraid Elf
b) We're casting Coco onto an empty board and a 59 card library. This allows us to have a clean slate to compare both BBE and Coco in a vacuum.
c) For the purposes of the maths, we assume that Archdruid is a 3 power creature as it would pump the creature that also comes into play with it.
d) We are taking the best combination of cards possible every Coco.
e) We are not including Shaman of the Pack's trigger in our simulation.
Working:
With 34 creatures, simple hypergeometric distrubution tells us that statistically, 4.4% of our Cocos are what I dub 'misses' - 0 or 1 creature hits. For the purposes of the simulation, they are Cocos that are worse than the baseline power provided by Coco. This also means that the other 95.6% of our cast Cocos hit at least two creatures.
With that in mind, I needed to assign a power value to each possible creature combination from our deck. To simplify things, we're going to average it out.
As an example, for 2 one drops, the average power (hence avg p.) is (12 x 1)+(2 x 4)/16 which leaves us with 1.25 power. Now, since its 2 one drops, we multiply that by 2 and we get the avg p. of 2.5/Coco. Makes sense, right?
*note* Elvish Archdruid + Dwynen's Elite is 7 power, but the original calulations assigned values of 3 and 3 to each card. This does not change the maths significantly, however.
So for each possible mana combination:
2 one drops: 2.5 avg p./Coco
2 two drops: 4.0 avg p./Coco
2 three drops: 5.6 avg p./Coco
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 3.0 avg p./Coco
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 3.7 avg p./Coco
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 4.8 avg p./Coco
This is already pretty staggering as 3 of the categories are already under the baseline BBE. But, how do we assign these numbers to the original number of resolved Cocos with at least 2 dudes in it of 95.6%? I then added the amounts of cards together that was initially used to divide whilst making the avg p. of each variant of Coco (102), then found the percentage of how much each category gets in terms of percentage from that 102.
2 one drops: 15.69%
2 two drops: 7.84%
2 three drops: 9.80%
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 23.53%
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 25.39%
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 17.65%
In this case, this means that our most likely combination of cards to hit from Coco is 1 one drop, 1 three drop in descending order down to 2 two drops.
I then put these percentages to get the percent of these from 95.6% to get our final percentages:
2 one drops: 15%
2 two drops: 7.5%
2 three drops: 9.37%
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 22.49%
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 24.27%
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 16.87%
Now, we add the percentages of the ones that add over or equal to four average power together, and add the ones less than four average power together with the 4.4% natural 'failure chance' which leads us to...
Cocos with four or greater avg. p: 33.74%
Cocos with less than four or greater avg. p: 66.26%
Working with BBE:
BBE maths is simple, as we don't need to account for lands. If you cascade into:
one drop: 47.06% (4.25 avg. p/BBE)
two drop: 23.53% (4.50 avg. p/BBE)
three drop: 29.4% (5.8 avg. p/BBE)
Conclusion:
The results are pretty comprehensive and they allow me to conclude that, on average, Coco generates less power than your baseline BBE. Infact, only one in three Cocos generate the same or more power.Worst of all for discreditors of BBE, 52.93% of the time, BBE generates more power than 74.10% of all average Coco combinations. Its statistically better from a 'worst' perspective, in a vacuum.
So there you have it. Some mathematical basis to the strength of Bloodbraid Elf.
I think Domri is a great addition out of the board for us in the RG variant of the deck. I'm not so certain its strong in the Jund variant, as I'm pretty sure we don't have enough mana sources to cast it reliably. So if you're keen on Domri, I recommend RG Elves with some Domri's in the sideboard alongside your Blood Moons and Ancient Grudges.
Sideboarding with Jund will be mostly spell based as we can't use the toolbox. I posted previously about a sideboard that looked like this, bristling with removal:
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Lead the Stampede
3 Graveyard hate (Leyline/Scooze/Relic)
2 Dismember
1 Creeping Corrosion
1 Fracturing Gust
We can also just play something like this:
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Phyrexian Revoker (as a catch all for all the matchups we were going to bring them in anyway)
3 Lead the Stampede
3 Reclamation Sage
It's certainly something we need to figure out, but Jund's predecessor GB had the same sorta issue with sideboarding too.
A final option, for when you want speed instead of grindy cards, you can park Chord of Calling in the sideboard and increase your velocity while bringing in bullets. Every time you'd bring in Chord of Calling, you'd cut BBE naturally so theres no fear of cascading into it.
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Chord of Calling
3 Lead the Stampede
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Reclamation Sage
4 Unclaimed Territory
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Pendelhaven
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
3 Elvish Visionary
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Shaman of the Pack
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Essence Warden
2 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Reclamation Sage
2 Gut Shot
2 Fracturing Gust
1 Chameleon Colossus
2 Elvish Champion
My goal here is to go wide as possible and combo off as possible. I like Sylvan Messenger more than lead because it will find itself and bloodbraid elf.
Haha! Very good point, I admit defeat. I am all for innovation and considering that my current iteration of Elves is BUG, I think you are right in saying I should hold my judgement on it for now and go back to my original self of loving innovation. The only issue I have had is the tri-color thing, so perhaps, I will simply try it out first.
With that, I will go order a Stomping Grounds with the points I have accumulated on Yahoo Auction Japan...
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
It's important to note that when comparing BBE to Collected Company we're not trying to replace it but instead figure out a better card in the spot of Chord of Calling for Shaman builds. Anybody who has played GB in the past knows that having Chord has never been the plan to having a winning chance against fast decks. If you guys want to win against fast decks then play GW Combo. You can't have your cake and eat it.
@Worldsaverinc
No Company will make the deck too slow. Being able to cheat out two creatures at instant speed is still much more powerful than chaining Sylvan into BBEs. As I said, we don't want to replace Company. After all that's the card that put us in the map in the first place - hence the name of this thread.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
I'm with Syreal94 on this one. I like Domri in our deck but Jund just cannot afford the space IMHO. For GRx it would make sense because by not having Shamans it has much more room and flexibility in both the MB and SB. The Naya list I posted intrigues me for this reason of space and flexibility - also Kessig Wolf Run is Nuts. I think there's still room for innovation with GRx builds and that's pretty exciting.
I also agree with Syreal94 on GBx builds relying primarily on a noncreature sb. The Jund list I posted has a version of what I think is most optimal to have a fighting chance in an open meta. For metas that I'm familiar with I would obviously try to adapt my sb.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
GB relying on non-creatures have been the norm forever. When I play GB, I rarely rely on creature bullets unless warranted. TS x3 is basic, I believe, and that leans us more towards spells. At least, that’s how i’ve Played the last two and a half years.
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
TS: I think the 4th TS is more important now than before with the replacement of Chord for BBE. BBE being able to cascade into noncreature spells like TS could be life or death in an open meta where you could potentially play against combo.
Also BBE into Collective Brutality is a missed opportunity I think we should take advantage of.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
Actually, that is a very interesting point. Turn 3/4 TS into BBE could be very powerful. Stripping their sweeper than BBE for the mass amount of damage (against control/Jace) is a sweet place to be.
I think BBE Jund Elves could really be good against grindy decks as predicted. That will give us some sideboard room to hedge against combo, quick creature decks. BBE being in the deck naturally makes our strategy more grindy and thus, having potent answers to combo/tron in sideboard could go a long way. I do like this direction, it is interesting.
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
CoCo is just straight gas, despite missing BBE. So I can’t imagine cutting them, but it does seem like it may be worth checking out Lead as a main-deck inclusion in some configurations.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
The shift could take months, if it even happens. I'm going to encourage a lot of sideboard discussions at my LGS and I'll try and follow up with what kind of removal or sweepers I'm seeing here. I'd like to encourage the rest of you guys to do the same. While I don't expect jund to go to 0 bolts, any shift in a bolt/kcommand/terminate/dreadbore/push removal suite should be noted so we can see how we line up. Nothing feels better then blanking a kcommand when your last card in hard is a coco and you hit lord(s) to push out of damage range and have nothing to discard.
Couldn't have said it better myself. As great as the deck seems on paper, I think there is still some room for tuning the mb.
More specifically, there are two problems I have been having with the deck. The first is the mana base. The deck always needs to have red and black mana on the field in the event of me having or potentially drawing into a Shaman/BBE.
Here's an example I faced. I fetched early on for an overgrown tomb because I had Shaman in my opening hand. Makes sense right? Well I had no way to generate red mana incase I drew into BBE - which I did. Because I had no red mana I could not use BBE on T3/T4 BBE. I lost because of this.
The same situation happened when it was the other way around. I had a BBE in my opener then fetched for Stomping ground with no way to generate black for Shaman and lost because of that as well.
It could have been a really bad day and quite frankly it was only one day of testing so there's not much data but I personally rather be safe than sorry. Here's my solution.
Brace yourself because it's a bit painful. I think adding a Blood Crypt as the 19th land is optimal. Blood Crypt is great in those situations when you need both colors and already have a forest on the field. Why do we need a 19th land? Great question.
Here is the second problem I was facing. It was not drawing enough lands to consistently have 3/4 lands by T4/5. This is a problem when we have 8 4cmc cards. I think 19 lands will give is that safety net we need.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
I've settled on 19 lands being the solution also, but I think the answer is the 5th fetch. Can't afford to play a Blood Crypt as it destoys our 1 land opener. Also just as a bit of sequencing advice, always fetch red first. You're more likely to draw a way to cast Shaman than you are BBE, so play safe and get the red source.
Blood Crypt acts as a colorless land in that regard. It sacrifices the utility we would get from a true colorless land like Westvale for consistency. That's the way I see it anyways.
Aside from that it is after all an extra land and just like other Elf builds we never needed the 15th green source for creatures.
That being said, a 5th fetch is by no means a bad idea. It's what I was originally going for.
Just my 2 cents.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
The Rowdy Horde of Pointy-Eared Plebeians: Modern 1k Tournament Report + Deck Tech
Greetings! My name is Josh, I’m 17, and I’m a competitive magic player and Modern fanatic from Northern California. Today I want to share with you my experience playing at the CFB Game Center’s Modern 1k, where I made the top 16 playing a deck very near and dear to my heart: Elves! I came into the event with a clear expectation of facing lots of interactive decks trying to respond to the PT meta, and needless to say I was rewarded for it. With over 64 players, seven rounds of swiss were in the workings for my rugged band of tree-huggers and I. My testing buddy and GP Santa Clara Legacy player Raj (I got to slug some Standard that weekend) showed up playing the Todd Stevens special (G/W Value Town!), and I came in hoping to break a long streak of scrubbing out of tournaments going back to a Modern PPTQ last year where I lost both of my win-and-ins for top 8.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty round details, let’s start with a basic overview of the deck and my expectations going in. My list, for reference:
Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Devoted Druid
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
1 Vizier of Remedies
1 Elvish Visionary
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Horizon Canopy
3 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
1 Temple Garden
1 Pendelhaven
3 Path to Exile
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Shapers' Sanctuary
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Eternal Witness
The first thing you should notice here is that there isn’t much to notice: this list is relatively stock compared to most Elves lists, which means that most of the innovation comes from small choices and gameplay. The least well known card to make my list is most likely Shaper’s Sanctuary, which I certainly believe deserves consideration as a 2-of after playing in this tournament. This card is usually an ancestral recall against interactive decks, which is exactly what you’re looking for in those sort of spots. Sanctuary basically means that all of your creatures eventually replace themselves, which does a number against any fair deck’s arsenal of spot removal.
The next thing that deserves a mention is the inclusion of an Elvish Visionary in the mainboard, which earns its pay for a number of reasons. The first is consistency; Visionary is almost never the worst thing you can be doing in this deck because it replaces itself and provides a relevant body for Heritage Druid, Elvish Archdruid, and Ezuri. The second is flexibility; while it may not be a silver bullet, it can do more things (albeit not always in a super powerful manner) than something narrower like Selfless Spirit. Although the same could be said for Reclamation Sage, I chose to include Visionary over Sage in this slot because Visionary is more relevant, consistent, and flexible against the multitude of different interactive decks in the format I expected to face.
The final point I want to discuss is Kor Firewalker, which I have been seeing less and less in Elves sideboards over the last few months. While I understand that it appears to be a narrow inclusion, I would argue that it has more applications than on first glace. Imagine playing this against Storm; the little Kor that could essentially shuts off Storm’s Grapeshot plan (it doesn’t gain life for the copies, but it gains a life for every ritual and Manamorphose that contributes to the storm count), leaving them with just the Empty plan, which doesn’t seem very effective in the face of a swarm of Elves. Additionally, Firewalker is the best toolbox option for fighting burn, which I believe to be a very volatile and semi-random matchup (50/50 but hard to control much beyond playing well and praying a bit). Firewalker gives the deck more consistency in its plan to actually win games against burn, which helps lead me towards the decision to give it the nod.
With a close to the card choice discussion, let’s move into the tournament itself! As I move through, pay close attention to how I describe my play patterns; this is the key to understanding how I work through tough situations and (hopefully) win games. Without further ado…
Round 1: Wyatt (B/G Tron) Loss (1-2) Record: 0-1
Game 1: When my opponent played a Tron piece and passed, I felt my stomach sink a little bit. It is my belief that Tron can be a very hard matchup if my opponent knows how to sequence and prioritize against me, so my plan was to give my opponent as few outs as possible over the course of the game. Like a champ, however, I went for an aggressive attack that left my opponent at 2 but gave me no mana to regenerate my team with Ezuri in response to an Oblivion Stone. As it happens, my opponent completed tron and had exactly 8 mana to finish off my team and kill me with Ulamog while strangling on at 2 life.
Sideboard: +1 Aven Mindcensor, +2 Reclamation Sage +2 Path to Exile
-4 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid
As you’ll find out soon enough, I board out Nettle Sentinel in almost every matchup. Many Elves players cut it entirely (in their decklists), but I think that is a mistake (more on that towards the end), so indeed I registered good ol’ Nettle in preparation to sideline it frequently.
Game 2: My opponent drew a bunch of spheres and stars and I killed him on turn 4. A little less exciting but I’ll take the game W.
Game 3: I took a mulligan to five, which I insist is correct despite the fact that my first two hands were playable-ish. The problem was that I had exactly zero turn 1 plays with both of my first two hands, and against tron you can’t take your turn 1 off, especially on the draw. As a result, I aggressively mulliganed for a hand with turn 1 action, and what I found on five was a bit medium but suitable. I tried my best to stay in the game, but turn 4 Tron overwhelmed my hand that failed to find payoffs until it was too late.
To recap, this round wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but the games were interesting for the most part and I learned a lot. Both of my friends present lost as well, so we were all in the same boat.
Round 2: Abel (U/R Pyromancer) Loss (0-2) Record: 0-2
Game 1: (Play) I first took a mulligan to 6, which helped my opponent out-resource me with Cryptic Commands and double Young Peezy (he had this both games). His lines of aggressively chipping in for damage with elemental tokens and leaving enough back to chump block my dudes, along with multiple Cryptics when I finally found Ezuri, left me constantly on the backfoot and quickly dead.
Sideboard: +1 Shaper’s Sanctuary, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Selfless Spirit, +1 Eternal Witness
It quickly became time to execute “The Grind Plan”, which consists of attrition-y bullet stuff (it’s exactly what it sounds like). Not much more to say that that, though my mind wandered and images of Gut Shot flashed in my head in regret and sorrow.
Game 2: I mulled to 6 again, and things essentially went the same as in game 1. Not much else to say here, other than double Young Peezy is brutal when I don’t have a solid clock to work with.
Both of my friends lost again, so it became apparent that we might eventually play each other to knock each other out of contention for prizes. As it turns out, I’d have to do that real soon.
Round 3: Adrian (Abzan Midrange) Win (2-1) Record: 1-2
To preface, Adrian is a friend of mine from our LGS, so we played a little bit more calm than we would’ve otherwise. Adrian is always on Abzan, and he knew what I was on, so there wasn’t much surprise at all.
Game 1: (Play) My hand was pretty strong, and Adrian drew a few too many threats and not enough answers to stop my oncoming horde. A few rounds of beats and the game was over in short order.
Sideboard: +1 Shaper’s Sanctuary, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Eternal Witness, +1 Chameleon Colossus
-4 Nettle Sentinel
It was time to employ The Grind Plan once again, with the only slight change being the addition of Colossus, which is nigh impossible for Abzan to get rid of apart from Path.
Game 2: I took a mulligan, and Adrian’s hand lined up well on the play to deal with my threats. Grim Flayer and Tarmogoyf picked me off in short order.
Game 3: I got the play again, which became very relevant very fast. Chameleon Colossus came in just in time to seal the deal and win the race to victory.
At this point Adrian became the first of our troupe to fall. Raj on G/W Company won his match, so we became the last two left standing.
Round 4: Daniel (Abzan Midrange) Win (2-1) Record: 2-2
Game 1: (Draw) The game began with hand disruption from Daniel’s side and a swarm of dudes from mine. After getting in a few spare beats, Daniel locked up the board with his own horde of Tarmogoyfs and Bobs. Fortunately for me, he kept hitting Lilianas off of his Bobs, and eventually his creatures’ lust for power burned him.
Sideboard: Same as in Round 3
Not much to say here. Similar deck, similar plan. The biggest difference between Daniel’s list and Adrian’s list was the emphasis on Tireless Tracker and Dark Confidant, which Daniel maxed out on (as far as I could tell) and Adrian did not (I think he had two Bobs and zero Trackers, but I’m not positive on that).
Game 2: This game was a bit more straightforward. Daniel was better able to maximize the play, making all of his discard better and landing threat after threat before I could fully recover. Although Bob got close to killing him again, his superior board presence was well able to race it.
Game 3: Daniel kept a hand low on interaction, which surprised me with him being on the draw and needing reactive spells to stay alive. Chording for Ezuri with Archdruid out was the nail in the coffin, and I was well able to attack for lethal and seal the deal.
As it turned out, Raj also stayed at x-2, which meant that he was still in the hunt for prizes along with me. Moving to an even record helped boost my morale, and I was pumped to keep the party going.
Round 5: Joseph (Grixis Shadow) Win (2-1) Record: 3-2
Game 1: (Play) I took a mulligan to 5, and I kept a hand with a turn one play and little else. Without any card advantage engine in my hand or draws, I was quickly dispatched by Shadow beats.
Sideboard: Same plan as in rounds 3 and 4. The sideboarding doesn’t change much, but Chameleon Colossus is my best card in the matchup because most, if not all Shadow decks cannot deal with it.
Game 2: The second game went about as well as I could’ve hoped. I got off to a fast start, and I was able to combo off quickly and effectively to force a third game.
Game 3: This was an interesting one. Once again I got off to a fast start, but Joseph more or less kept up with me. Eventually, I sat back with a hand featuring both Chord and CoCo, and I felt unstoppable. Yet, just like that I let a Gurmag Angler resolve before casting my spells, giving my opponent the window to Stubborn Denial both of my haymakers. Out of sheer luck, I pulled a Chameleon Colossus off the top, and with exactly zero ways to kill it my opponent scooped up his cards.
Round 6: Scott (Jeskai Tempo) Win (2-0) Record: 4-2
Game 1: (Play) It felt as though my opponent had a reasonable hand, but once I saw Spell Queller I knew I would be safe from the horrid wrath of Supreme Verdict. With that in mind, I got to work using Heritage Druids and Dwynen’s Elites along with a Nettle Sentinel to slam multiple CoCos and put close to 15 creatures on the board by the time the game ended. I baited a removal spell from Scott in order to safely cast my Chord for Ezuri, and the game was shortly over.
Sideboard: +1 Shaper’s Sanctuary, +1 Eternal Witness, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Selfless Spirit
-4 Nettle Sentinel
Selfless Spirit gets the nod in the Grind Plan over Colossus as a protective measure against any sideboard Supreme Verdicts or Anger of the Gods from Scott’s side (and it’s a good way to bait out a key piece of removal). With no black mana in Scott’s deck, Colossus is clearly not good enough.
Game 2: Shaper’s Sanctuary plus Selfless Spirit made it excruciatingly hard for Scott to kill my creatures, and a lack of Supreme Verdict punished my opponent dearly. ‘Twas a jolly day to play Elves indeed.
Both Raj and I made it to 4-2 after starting from the bottom, and it became clear that a win for either of us would clinch top 16 and a loss would knock us out of prize contention. It was our goal to both cash, so if we played each other it would be the end of the road for one of us. Luckily, we dodged a bullet, and we started round 7 directly next to each other.
Round 7: Nick (Grixis Control) Win (2-0) Record: 5-2
Game 1: (Play) I was able to overwhelm my opponent in the early game with multiple creatures, making his 1-for-1 removal spells less effective. Eventually, a topdecked Ezuri sealed the deal.
Sideboard: Same as rounds 3, 4, and 5
Game 2: The game devolved into a topdeck war, with Nick smashing in with Tasigur beats (3, to be exact) and me trying to assemble my combo pieces and dodge removal. Luckily, I drew the last combo piece (can’t remember whether it was Chord, Ezuri, or Vizier, but I do remember that I had Devoted Druid plus one other piece on board), and the game ended in a handshake.
I was especially relieved after the match, as I had just won my last five matches in a row to finish in the top 16 and walk away with some store credit to boot! Unfortunately, my friend on G/W Company failed to draw any of his 2 sideboard Stony Silences after beating Affinity in game 1, losing a close match that knocked him out of prize contention. Despite this, we both had a great time grinding our favorite format (he likes Modern better than Legacy, so that’s a W on the scoreboard) and playing for relevant prizes.
I want to conclude this piece with two decklists. The first list is what I would play after playing in the 1k, and the second list has an interesting twist in response to a potential metagame filled with Jace the Mind Sculptor + Terminus. Feel free to leave comments for me about these decks or the article in general if you have any questions whatsoever!
Post 1k Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Heritage Druid
3 Nettle Sentinel
4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Devoted Druid
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
1 Vizier of Remedies
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Selfless Spirit
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Horizon Canopy
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Forest
1 Temple Garden
1 Pendelhaven
3 Path to Exile
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Phyrexian Revoker
Simic Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
4 Coiling Oracle
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Windswept Heath
4 Botanical Sanctum
3 Forest
1 Breeding Pool
1 Pendelhaven
2 Reclamation Sage
4 Unified Will
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Eternal Witness
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Scryb Ranger
Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you all will have the chance to read more content from me in the future! Just remember, the horde of elvish tree-huggers is always at your service.
All the best,
Josh
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
Any way to link us to that? The image is tiny and it’s hard to read it. Thanks for finding that!
It's an attachment, so you can click it and it will enlarge. (Maybe it's wonky on mobile, I suppose.)
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
Yeah I guess on mobile it’s just weird. It’s tiny.