Playtesting! Start playing the decks against one another, and record how often each one wins, maybe with a short note on how victory was achieved. Get 10 or 20 games and it should start becoming apparent if one deck is much better than the others, at which point you can balance things appropriately.
Implying a 7/9 Plague Wind can't win the game on its own?
Correct. Some generals, like geth, arcum dagsson, Damia, Scion, Rhys, Drana, etc., can have the deck revolve around them, and lock up the game for you by sticking around a few turns (either via advantage from using abilities, or the ability to easily kill with general damage with little need for equipment). Hythonia gets you a one time plague wind, but besides that she's mostly vanilla; she may get one swing in easy after you activate her, but she probably can't kill someone without help, and she won't take over the game by herself.
The main thing to look out for in elves is that it's very easy - especially with Ezuri - to build a deck that either
a) Comes out of the gate extremely fast and wipes the floor with your opponents before they get set up, or
b) Gets wrathed once or twice, then sits there doing nothing for the rest of the game.
Neither of these tends towards very interesting games, in my opinion. Thus, if you're going elves, I would advocate for a general that can cover up some of G's weak spots and give you a bit more staying power, like Rhys the Redeemed or Nath of the Gilt-Leaf. You could even go with Karador, Ghost Chieftain to make the most resilient elf deck ever!
Now this all depends on your meta, of course. If you happen to be in a particularly cutthroat meta, I'd go with a counterspell and tutor-heavy Edric deck. (Spoiler: there's an absolutely fantastic UG card in Theros for this type of deck.)
I'll second Zedruu - he's an excellent pillow fort general. If you really want to mess with people, give them actually useful stuff... then sit there in the corner behind your Sphere of Safety, drawing cards and gaining life, until you STRIKE!
Alternately, I'm having a lot of fun with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. He's hexproof, not immediately threatening, and lets you use your opponents' cards against them. Plus, he gets better in a bigger game, since more awesome creatures hit the graveyard more frequently. And UB has plenty of combos to pick from.
Of course, if you really want to fly under the radar, go with Phelddagrif voltron. Not even group hug, just straight voltron. No one will take you seriously as a threat until it's too late! (Plus being able to give your commander flying/trample or bounce it is actually pretty sweet for voltron.)
She's not at the top of my mono-black list, but I could definitely see her be pretty cool. Ramp up, use some nice discard spells to get rid of their removal, then drop her and get rid of their creatures. There you go, board's cleared!
Make sure you use Vedalken Orrery so you can keep mana up for wrath! And Conjurer's Closet lets you wrath every turn if you have the mana.
The tricky part is that besides her wrath, your deck is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting on its own - it's not like Geth, where if you have enough mana the general can win you the game on its own.
One thing to remember about the Bow: it combos with Overrun. Combining trample and deathtouch is like turning all your creatures into little Thorn Elementals.
I remember a game we had a while back. I forget whatthe other 2 decks were but a buddy (Player 1) borrowed my Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, and me (Player 2) I was playing my Teneb, the Harvester. Player 3 cast Bribery on me and got Griselbrand (before he was banned). Player 4 stole it with Treachery after he drew Player 3 a lot of cards and sacced it to Birthing Pod for some irrelevant creature I don't remember. On my turn, I Reanimated it, drew myself a bunch of cards and passed the turn. Player 1 drew for the turn and cast Gilded Drake targeting Griselbrand. With Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Psychosis Crawler on the battlefield, he simply stated, "I think I win..."
Chromium is bad and you should feel bad for trying to build around it. Taking away his flying just to make your opponents block him instead of beating them with 7 power flying beast is a ridiculous idea. If you really want chromium to be your general just try control build with couple of swords maybe and if you like idea of forcing blocks you should try something like Glissa, the Traitor voltron build. GB with it's acces to various deathtouch, regenerate and lure effects seems like best bet. Also Nemesis Mask mentioned earlier is absolute overkill on Glissa given your victim has no first strikers. Also Revenge of the Hunted
Ignore this guy. The day elder dragons can't be used in Elder Dragon Highlander is a sad day, indeed.
I think your best bet is taking away Chromium's flying and giving him trample, then forcing things to block him. Of course, all of these effects are in green, but we'll make do.
Seems to me like a card for red or white token decks that don't get access to cards like Fecundity or the aforementioned Dark Prophecy.
It is, of course, flavortastic. If you want to use it, go for it! But in terms of power, there are cards I'd rather have in BGW. (For example, if you're looking for recurring search, use Increasing Ambition or Rune-Scarred Demon; for deck filtering, Crystal Ball takes much less setup, but doesn't gain you card advantage.)
The thing is, Jar of Eyeballs doesn't really do anything unless you've already got 1 and 2 on the board (or at least 1). At that point it can help you find 3 or protection or something, but before then it doesn't really do much; whereas a tutor could simply find any missing piece for you. Similarly, if you're stuck on 3 or 4 lands but can't land any creatures, Jar won't help at all. Eventually you can get up to 5, play Ghave, and maybe activate it next turn... but by then, you're already in a pretty bad shape, most likely, and access to 1 of the top 4 or 6 cards of your library likely won't help a lot.
Sadly, it's a win-more card. Doesn't help much unless you've already got your deck doing what it's supposed to be doing.
Not if you're building a mostly artifact creature only deck :science:.
Lol, good point. I was thinking that if you played an artifact creature you could bounce another creature, but it's the other way around. Ixnay on the Uriocay, then - use Mirrorworks instead.
Remember that the main strength of this deck will be its ability to dump huge quantities of creatures on the board, since you're not as limited by colored mana. Make sure you have ways to keep the card flow coming - Soul of the Harvest, for example. Also, Cloudstone Curio is your friend.
Consider using your extra colored mana to cast counterspells and things like Krosan Grip.
I think my favorite would have to be Goblin Flectomancer. I love the mad scientist Izzet, and the art, name, mechanics, and flavor text really come together to embody them.
Bribery with Riku is awesome. Double Bribery, double each creature that comes out. Good times
Correct. Some generals, like geth, arcum dagsson, Damia, Scion, Rhys, Drana, etc., can have the deck revolve around them, and lock up the game for you by sticking around a few turns (either via advantage from using abilities, or the ability to easily kill with general damage with little need for equipment). Hythonia gets you a one time plague wind, but besides that she's mostly vanilla; she may get one swing in easy after you activate her, but she probably can't kill someone without help, and she won't take over the game by herself.
a) Comes out of the gate extremely fast and wipes the floor with your opponents before they get set up, or
b) Gets wrathed once or twice, then sits there doing nothing for the rest of the game.
Neither of these tends towards very interesting games, in my opinion. Thus, if you're going elves, I would advocate for a general that can cover up some of G's weak spots and give you a bit more staying power, like Rhys the Redeemed or Nath of the Gilt-Leaf. You could even go with Karador, Ghost Chieftain to make the most resilient elf deck ever!
Now this all depends on your meta, of course. If you happen to be in a particularly cutthroat meta, I'd go with a counterspell and tutor-heavy Edric deck. (Spoiler: there's an absolutely fantastic UG card in Theros for this type of deck.)
Alternately, I'm having a lot of fun with Lazav, Dimir Mastermind. He's hexproof, not immediately threatening, and lets you use your opponents' cards against them. Plus, he gets better in a bigger game, since more awesome creatures hit the graveyard more frequently. And UB has plenty of combos to pick from.
Of course, if you really want to fly under the radar, go with Phelddagrif voltron. Not even group hug, just straight voltron. No one will take you seriously as a threat until it's too late! (Plus being able to give your commander flying/trample or bounce it is actually pretty sweet for voltron.)
Make sure you use Vedalken Orrery so you can keep mana up for wrath! And Conjurer's Closet lets you wrath every turn if you have the mana.
The tricky part is that besides her wrath, your deck is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting on its own - it's not like Geth, where if you have enough mana the general can win you the game on its own.
Playing my Lazav, Dimir Mastermind deck against a couple of other players, including a Tajic, Blade of the Legion deck, who had a Chancellor of the Forge and a small army. I'd been dawdling behind some defensive enchantments and had a couple of creatures out. Then (choosing the Chancellor for all of them) I played Clone, Evil Twin[c/], greaves equip to Evil Twin/kill chancellor, Animate Dead on Sepulchral Primordial getting Chancellor and a clone from another yard...
I had a few spare tokens by the time I was done.
Aaaand now you know why he's banned.
Ignore this guy. The day elder dragons can't be used in Elder Dragon Highlander is a sad day, indeed.
Losing flying:
Giving trample:
Forcing blocks:
Step 1: Get out one of each of those, play Chromium, equip as necessary, and swing
Step 2: ????
Step 3: Profit!
It is, of course, flavortastic. If you want to use it, go for it! But in terms of power, there are cards I'd rather have in BGW. (For example, if you're looking for recurring search, use Increasing Ambition or Rune-Scarred Demon; for deck filtering, Crystal Ball takes much less setup, but doesn't gain you card advantage.)
For a typical sacrifice engine, you need three things:
1) A token maker (Avenger of Zendikar, Ghave, Guru of Spores, Ant Queen)
2) A sacrifice outlet (Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Sadistic Hypnotist, Attrition)
3) Something to take advantage of/loop 1 and 2 (Blood Artist, Genesis Wave, Phyrexian Reclamation)
The thing is, Jar of Eyeballs doesn't really do anything unless you've already got 1 and 2 on the board (or at least 1). At that point it can help you find 3 or protection or something, but before then it doesn't really do much; whereas a tutor could simply find any missing piece for you. Similarly, if you're stuck on 3 or 4 lands but can't land any creatures, Jar won't help at all. Eventually you can get up to 5, play Ghave, and maybe activate it next turn... but by then, you're already in a pretty bad shape, most likely, and access to 1 of the top 4 or 6 cards of your library likely won't help a lot.
Sadly, it's a win-more card. Doesn't help much unless you've already got your deck doing what it's supposed to be doing.
Lol, good point. I was thinking that if you played an artifact creature you could bounce another creature, but it's the other way around. Ixnay on the Uriocay, then - use Mirrorworks instead.
Consider using your extra colored mana to cast counterspells and things like Krosan Grip.