Even if we don't end up running damping sphere ourselves, its mere presence as a sideboard option in the format will drive down the number of storm and tron players out there, which helps our deck.
Does anyone know where you could go to find some good elves content? There is a shocking lack of it out on the internet, and what is there is often rife with misplays.
Do you guys have any hate cards for Tron deck? I will try 4 Crumble to dust and a Stomping ground MB next time in play in my LGS. I'm expecting at least 2 tron every tourney, do 4 card slot too much? any ideas?
Tron can be a real problem for elves, and honestly its highly unfortunate that you have so much in your meta. The cards you really don't want to see are ugin and kozilek's return. If its a red green tron build with return then I suggest bringing in selfless spirit and praying that you will have a chance to chord for it and prevent the wipe. Also bring in a phyrexian revoker to try and shut down ugin. I've found that trying to beat tron via land destruction is not only incredibly difficult, but also incredibly costly in terms of sideboard slots. The last thing you could try is beast within as a land destruction spell, as it at least might be usable in other matchups. The best way to beat tron is to practice the matchup repeatedly to learn how to sniff out when they have a board wipe and how to play around it. Even when you have mastered the matchup, you will likely have to accept that the matchup will never reach 50% for elves.
So I would like to pose a question to everyone out there who is trying GB throne, or GW vizier versions. What matchups are the thrones or viziers helping in, and what matchups do their additions hurt the deck the most?
I wouldn't describe slotting it in as "effortless" Infinite mana doesn't always win the game, you need a sink, and vizier isnt an elf, so it is bad when you draw it without devoted druid. In addition, devoted is a 2 drop that doesn't do anything when it enters so visionaries, having 0 power makes them terrible for beating down as well. In light of this, I think it is rather cute for an elves deck, but you are welcome to playtest and report it on here. I would love to be wrong about this, as an infinite combo for elves sounds like a blast.
M3. Affinity.
Initial impression, I don't like this matchup for the green men, we are a synergy based creature deck, for the most part they do that better. The fliers on their side in addition to infect make this a rough position for us, not to mention whipflare out of the board. That being said, I think we are not too heavily unfavored, out of the board I have kataki, double fracturing ugst, and a rec sage, so drawing hate could swing the match in games 2 and 3. I must say, I have been wanting to fracturing gust an affinity player for a long time, I go into the match hoping this is my chance.
G1.
t1. Opponent plays a memnite, inkmoth nexus, and opal. I play heritage druid go.
t2. Opponent finds some other artifact, and turns on his opal, but does....nothing... I play dwynen's elite into archdruid.
t3. Opponent shows his hand to his friend, they don't mention a specific card, but I gather he has just drawn his fourth opal.I play a second archdruid and an ezuri.
t4. my opponent yet again attacks with his inkmoth, but I am nowhere close to dead. I untap and trample over for something above 20.
G2. I bring in all the aforementioned hate, and hope to draw it.
t1. ornithopter, opal, citadel, drum, memnite. (oh dear.) I play an dork and pass.
t2. he plays double ravager off an inkmoth nexus. I do something not quite as good.
t3. he gets i for 1 with inkmoth. I again play some spells, but I know it is over.
t4. He sacs his board and makes his moth a 9/9. GG
G3.
I honestly don't remember xactly how this game played out, but I remember that he didn't have much going on, merely an inkmoth and a blinkmoth, and I used shaman plus an ezuri to kill him on turn 5. Sadly I didn't get to fracturing gust, but a win is a win. (2-1)
Match 4. UW control.
Initial reaction. YUSSSSS (these games didn't get too complex, so I won't break it down turn by turn, instead I shall opt for a brief summary.)
G1. G1 my opponent only has double condemn, which I just 1/1 beatdowned through easily for the win.
G2. I had a decent hand, but it wasn't great. I got supreme verdicted, I rebuilt with a company,and then he snapcastered and verdicted again. That was enough to bring out the concession on my part.
g3. He had a decent amount of removal, so the lords didn't stick, but he didn't find a wrath. Elites, sentinels, and dorks kept attacking, but eventually a timely reinforcements stabilized him. I drew my third shaman ( I had boarded one out because of spreading seas making mana difficult) and killed him without attacking. (3-1) (Quick aside, my opponent got SUPER salty about shaman of the pack, he was ranting and raving to everyone that shaman was broken. Honestly I was pretty incredulous, and it was definitely bad form on his part, I pushed it out of my mind and went to match 5.)
M5. Ad nauseam. (I've decided to stick with the summary format, as these posts are getting too long)
Initial reaction: Well, I was terrified to play against (what I thought was) this earlier. This matchup is basically the worst. The only option is to race, and that was my gameplan as soon as I saw the scry land.
G1. He has a medium start, so the combo isn't a threat right away. I absolutely explode with shamans, and elves. Eventually we reach a spot where I coco on his endstep, bating out the pact of negation, then I tap my six elves and chord for a shaman for exactsies.
G2. This game was the story of kataki. I let him get out a mana rock and then played the spirit off of a cavern (that was a risky play, since I had double shaman in hand and no way to cast them without cavern.) I watched as he was forced to play another rock into it, and his lands were kept tapped long enough for the elves to steal the win 2-0 against ad nauseam. 4-1
M5. My tiebreakers are the worst of the top players, so I am in a position where I cannot draw into fantastic wealth and riches. Unfortunately, between me and all that sweet sweet cardboard was scapeshift.
Initial reaction: sigh. This is going to be rough.
G1. I do elf things and kill him before he does anything of consequence.
I am relieved to be up a game, but the sideboard yields nothing. I have no selfless spirit, my local store has been out of stock for months, forge tender doesn't block the combo, spellskite is okay but not great. Thats about all that I have, and I know my opponent is on wrath of god and bring to light thanks to my brother's earlier match. Unfortunatley, I don't know if hes on anger, so I risk keeping forge tender out, as it is useless otherwise.
G2. I come out at a decent clip, but run straight into the face of bring to light into wrath of god. I don't have enough time to rebuild before he combo's me out and we go to g3.
g3. I think this was a punt. I kept a hand with no two drop, and absolutely stacked on lords.I know he really only has two izzet charms as removal, so I believe that I can stick all of these lords and win that way. Two things go wrong. 1, the all lord plan isn't inherently all that fast, and 2, he had both izzet charms in hand. The chamrs take down my lords, and I sit helplessly as he builds up to a lethal scapeshift. By the time he finds it I had built a decent board back up, but it was a tad too late. Post game he shows me that he had an anger in hand the entire time, and that gives me mixed feelings.
(4-2)
overall i had an excellent night, I I hadn't played elves in nearly 4 months, and I certainly made some misplays, but the deck overperformed all night long. I played really only 1 good matchup, and it beat everything else too. I'm going to be busy for a few more months, so I'll have to see how it does this summer. (Also humble brag, I opened up an invocation dark ritual at pre-realease later that night, made up for not making the payout.)
Match 1. RG Ponza
initial impression on the matchup: ugh, I'm on an abzan build so LD can be pretty backbreaking, but the scariest thing is the often 8 maindeck anger effects.
G1: My opponent kept a hand with a lot of LD because he didn't know what I was on, I had one of the best hands I have ever seen and snap keep on the play.
t1, Llanowar elves go, opponent plays an arbor elf and I silently panic.'
T2, heritage druid, elite, archrduid. Opponent plays a land, utopia sprawl, into an acid moss.
t3. I tap three elves to play an ezuri, leaving up chord of calling. Opponent tries Bonfire x=2, in response I chord out a third archdruid and everything lives.
t4. Tap two archdruids and swing over for an arbitrarily large ammount. Up a game.
G2
T1. OP: Tapped stomping grounds pass. I play a land and cast elvish mystic.
t2. Second land, plus utopia sprawl. I play out my some elves, but none of the powerful stuff.
t3. Anger #1. I dont hit a land and play a nettle sentinel.
Over the next few turns he keeps LDing me, and I play out some lords.
T5 or T6 Anger#2, I scoop it up as I am now hellbent and on 1 land.
G3.
T1. Elvish mystic, opponent leads on tapped stomping grounds.
t2. Forge tender, dwynen's elite. Opponent tries to kill my forge tender with sudden shock, and I remind him that the card he just spent a minute reading has pro red, so it fizzles.
t3. Ezuri, get in for a few points. Opponent plays a land and doesnt do anything.
T4-6. Im beating down with the crew, and lower him to a roughly life total, but he has ramped up to a point where double anger is a serious concern.
I decide I need to prevent draw steps, so Instead of leaving ezuri up to counter a wrath with a pump, i go in for a big swing. In my mind I am concerned about countering an anger with forge-tender, and then getting blown out by a miracle bonfire all in the same turn, but in hindsight that was a major punt, since he would have had to cast the miracle card first. The punt goes unpunished, and I get lethal after two attacks. (1,0)
Match 2. Jeskai control.
Initial impression, I would rather play against UW every dak of the week, these lists are loaded up on removal to the point where it is near impossible to stick lords.
G1.
t1. I keep a very fast elf hand on the draw. Opponent plays seachrome cost and I panic believing my opponent is on ad naueseam. Serum visions follows. I play heritage druid.
t2. Island, from opponent, double serum visions. I play double 1 drop into archdruid.
To keep this long post short, all you really need to know is that my opponent does stone nothing, and I swing for approximately a billion on turn 4 for lethal.
Game 2.
t1. Opponent leads on needle spires and I suddenly get very confused. I play a dork.
t2. he shocklands and bolts my dork in addition to serum visions.I play some stuff.
t3. he play timely reinforcements. I play a dwynens elite or something and trade off with the tokens.
t4. supreme verdict, i begin a feeble attempt to rebuild/ recover from my stunned amazement, this is not ad nauseam...
t5. he cantrips and I play more dudes.
t6. He snapcaster supreme verdicts, I go to my drawstep and draw a hate card for ad nauseam, I scoop it up.
G3.
t1. I play a dork. he plays a needle spires.
t2. I play an archdruid, he untaps and bolts it and visions.
t3. I make my third land drop and play some elves. He double visions, finding a land drop, but scrying all 4 to the bottom.
t4, I attack and get in for a few points, he timely reinforcements and goes to 23. He misses his land drop
t5: I am forced to go in for trades hoping to force through damage at some point, he trades, untaps, and reinforces me agian, but with no life.
t6-infinity I draw nothing but lands, I eventually reach twelve lands, 2/3 of everything in my deck. Spot removal destroys my board, but opponent does not draw a forth land.
turn 20ish, he finds his forth land and plays nahiri, eventually getting emrakul and finishing what an earlier snapcaster mage had started. (1,1)
The collective internet is going crazy over harvest season, a newly spoiled ramp card, in elves. I'm not nearly as confident in it, as they all talk about the nut draws with it, and I tend to look at the medium to bad draws when evaluating. What do you guys think?
I know some old lists used to run it but it has fallen out of favor. The meta has shifted drastically since I've last seen it and somewhere along the way it likely fell out of favor and no one ever picked it up again. I like the idea but I'm not sure it's good for more modern versions of elves or for the current metagame. Its only really decent against tron in the current meta and it's not chordable so you have to actually draw into it. Not to mention the fact that tron is really good at finding more pieces through ghost quarter effects, so it will take multiple copies to keep the Tron player off Tron.
Tron can be a real problem for elves, and honestly its highly unfortunate that you have so much in your meta. The cards you really don't want to see are ugin and kozilek's return. If its a red green tron build with return then I suggest bringing in selfless spirit and praying that you will have a chance to chord for it and prevent the wipe. Also bring in a phyrexian revoker to try and shut down ugin. I've found that trying to beat tron via land destruction is not only incredibly difficult, but also incredibly costly in terms of sideboard slots. The last thing you could try is beast within as a land destruction spell, as it at least might be usable in other matchups. The best way to beat tron is to practice the matchup repeatedly to learn how to sniff out when they have a board wipe and how to play around it. Even when you have mastered the matchup, you will likely have to accept that the matchup will never reach 50% for elves.
M3. Affinity.
Initial impression, I don't like this matchup for the green men, we are a synergy based creature deck, for the most part they do that better. The fliers on their side in addition to infect make this a rough position for us, not to mention whipflare out of the board. That being said, I think we are not too heavily unfavored, out of the board I have kataki, double fracturing ugst, and a rec sage, so drawing hate could swing the match in games 2 and 3. I must say, I have been wanting to fracturing gust an affinity player for a long time, I go into the match hoping this is my chance.
G1.
t1. Opponent plays a memnite, inkmoth nexus, and opal. I play heritage druid go.
t2. Opponent finds some other artifact, and turns on his opal, but does....nothing... I play dwynen's elite into archdruid.
t3. Opponent shows his hand to his friend, they don't mention a specific card, but I gather he has just drawn his fourth opal.I play a second archdruid and an ezuri.
t4. my opponent yet again attacks with his inkmoth, but I am nowhere close to dead. I untap and trample over for something above 20.
G2. I bring in all the aforementioned hate, and hope to draw it.
t1. ornithopter, opal, citadel, drum, memnite. (oh dear.) I play an dork and pass.
t2. he plays double ravager off an inkmoth nexus. I do something not quite as good.
t3. he gets i for 1 with inkmoth. I again play some spells, but I know it is over.
t4. He sacs his board and makes his moth a 9/9. GG
G3.
I honestly don't remember xactly how this game played out, but I remember that he didn't have much going on, merely an inkmoth and a blinkmoth, and I used shaman plus an ezuri to kill him on turn 5. Sadly I didn't get to fracturing gust, but a win is a win. (2-1)
Match 4. UW control.
Initial reaction. YUSSSSS (these games didn't get too complex, so I won't break it down turn by turn, instead I shall opt for a brief summary.)
G1. G1 my opponent only has double condemn, which I just 1/1 beatdowned through easily for the win.
G2. I had a decent hand, but it wasn't great. I got supreme verdicted, I rebuilt with a company,and then he snapcastered and verdicted again. That was enough to bring out the concession on my part.
g3. He had a decent amount of removal, so the lords didn't stick, but he didn't find a wrath. Elites, sentinels, and dorks kept attacking, but eventually a timely reinforcements stabilized him. I drew my third shaman ( I had boarded one out because of spreading seas making mana difficult) and killed him without attacking. (3-1) (Quick aside, my opponent got SUPER salty about shaman of the pack, he was ranting and raving to everyone that shaman was broken. Honestly I was pretty incredulous, and it was definitely bad form on his part, I pushed it out of my mind and went to match 5.)
M5. Ad nauseam. (I've decided to stick with the summary format, as these posts are getting too long)
Initial reaction: Well, I was terrified to play against (what I thought was) this earlier. This matchup is basically the worst. The only option is to race, and that was my gameplan as soon as I saw the scry land.
G1. He has a medium start, so the combo isn't a threat right away. I absolutely explode with shamans, and elves. Eventually we reach a spot where I coco on his endstep, bating out the pact of negation, then I tap my six elves and chord for a shaman for exactsies.
G2. This game was the story of kataki. I let him get out a mana rock and then played the spirit off of a cavern (that was a risky play, since I had double shaman in hand and no way to cast them without cavern.) I watched as he was forced to play another rock into it, and his lands were kept tapped long enough for the elves to steal the win 2-0 against ad nauseam. 4-1
M5. My tiebreakers are the worst of the top players, so I am in a position where I cannot draw into fantastic wealth and riches. Unfortunately, between me and all that sweet sweet cardboard was scapeshift.
Initial reaction: sigh. This is going to be rough.
G1. I do elf things and kill him before he does anything of consequence.
I am relieved to be up a game, but the sideboard yields nothing. I have no selfless spirit, my local store has been out of stock for months, forge tender doesn't block the combo, spellskite is okay but not great. Thats about all that I have, and I know my opponent is on wrath of god and bring to light thanks to my brother's earlier match. Unfortunatley, I don't know if hes on anger, so I risk keeping forge tender out, as it is useless otherwise.
G2. I come out at a decent clip, but run straight into the face of bring to light into wrath of god. I don't have enough time to rebuild before he combo's me out and we go to g3.
g3. I think this was a punt. I kept a hand with no two drop, and absolutely stacked on lords.I know he really only has two izzet charms as removal, so I believe that I can stick all of these lords and win that way. Two things go wrong. 1, the all lord plan isn't inherently all that fast, and 2, he had both izzet charms in hand. The chamrs take down my lords, and I sit helplessly as he builds up to a lethal scapeshift. By the time he finds it I had built a decent board back up, but it was a tad too late. Post game he shows me that he had an anger in hand the entire time, and that gives me mixed feelings.
(4-2)
overall i had an excellent night, I I hadn't played elves in nearly 4 months, and I certainly made some misplays, but the deck overperformed all night long. I played really only 1 good matchup, and it beat everything else too. I'm going to be busy for a few more months, so I'll have to see how it does this summer. (Also humble brag, I opened up an invocation dark ritual at pre-realease later that night, made up for not making the payout.)
Match 1. RG Ponza
initial impression on the matchup: ugh, I'm on an abzan build so LD can be pretty backbreaking, but the scariest thing is the often 8 maindeck anger effects.
G1: My opponent kept a hand with a lot of LD because he didn't know what I was on, I had one of the best hands I have ever seen and snap keep on the play.
t1, Llanowar elves go, opponent plays an arbor elf and I silently panic.'
T2, heritage druid, elite, archrduid. Opponent plays a land, utopia sprawl, into an acid moss.
t3. I tap three elves to play an ezuri, leaving up chord of calling. Opponent tries Bonfire x=2, in response I chord out a third archdruid and everything lives.
t4. Tap two archdruids and swing over for an arbitrarily large ammount. Up a game.
G2
T1. OP: Tapped stomping grounds pass. I play a land and cast elvish mystic.
t2. Second land, plus utopia sprawl. I play out my some elves, but none of the powerful stuff.
t3. Anger #1. I dont hit a land and play a nettle sentinel.
Over the next few turns he keeps LDing me, and I play out some lords.
T5 or T6 Anger#2, I scoop it up as I am now hellbent and on 1 land.
G3.
T1. Elvish mystic, opponent leads on tapped stomping grounds.
t2. Forge tender, dwynen's elite. Opponent tries to kill my forge tender with sudden shock, and I remind him that the card he just spent a minute reading has pro red, so it fizzles.
t3. Ezuri, get in for a few points. Opponent plays a land and doesnt do anything.
T4-6. Im beating down with the crew, and lower him to a roughly life total, but he has ramped up to a point where double anger is a serious concern.
I decide I need to prevent draw steps, so Instead of leaving ezuri up to counter a wrath with a pump, i go in for a big swing. In my mind I am concerned about countering an anger with forge-tender, and then getting blown out by a miracle bonfire all in the same turn, but in hindsight that was a major punt, since he would have had to cast the miracle card first. The punt goes unpunished, and I get lethal after two attacks. (1,0)
Match 2. Jeskai control.
Initial impression, I would rather play against UW every dak of the week, these lists are loaded up on removal to the point where it is near impossible to stick lords.
G1.
t1. I keep a very fast elf hand on the draw. Opponent plays seachrome cost and I panic believing my opponent is on ad naueseam. Serum visions follows. I play heritage druid.
t2. Island, from opponent, double serum visions. I play double 1 drop into archdruid.
To keep this long post short, all you really need to know is that my opponent does stone nothing, and I swing for approximately a billion on turn 4 for lethal.
Game 2.
t1. Opponent leads on needle spires and I suddenly get very confused. I play a dork.
t2. he shocklands and bolts my dork in addition to serum visions.I play some stuff.
t3. he play timely reinforcements. I play a dwynens elite or something and trade off with the tokens.
t4. supreme verdict, i begin a feeble attempt to rebuild/ recover from my stunned amazement, this is not ad nauseam...
t5. he cantrips and I play more dudes.
t6. He snapcaster supreme verdicts, I go to my drawstep and draw a hate card for ad nauseam, I scoop it up.
G3.
t1. I play a dork. he plays a needle spires.
t2. I play an archdruid, he untaps and bolts it and visions.
t3. I make my third land drop and play some elves. He double visions, finding a land drop, but scrying all 4 to the bottom.
t4, I attack and get in for a few points, he timely reinforcements and goes to 23. He misses his land drop
t5: I am forced to go in for trades hoping to force through damage at some point, he trades, untaps, and reinforces me agian, but with no life.
t6-infinity I draw nothing but lands, I eventually reach twelve lands, 2/3 of everything in my deck. Spot removal destroys my board, but opponent does not draw a forth land.
turn 20ish, he finds his forth land and plays nahiri, eventually getting emrakul and finishing what an earlier snapcaster mage had started. (1,1)
M3. to be continued in my next post