12th with LOL elf survival

[beastman]

Lets start out with the list.

6 forest
4 heath
4 foothills
2 taiga
2 savannah
4 survival
4 llanowar elves
3 fyndhorn elves
3 natural order
1 progenitus
3 queer ranger
4 imperious perfect
3 elvish champion
3 elvish archdruid
4 sylvan messenger
3 priest of titania
3 wrens run vanquisher
1 wrens run packmaster
1 squee
1 anger
1 viridian zealot

Sideboard
3 Gaddock teeg
3 Krosan grip
3 choke
3 relic of progenitus
1 caller of the claw
1 magus
1 ethersworn canonist


Ok, now you know what I played. So, the day before the tournament, I picked up Mike Keller (Hollywood), Phil Sagnay (Snorlaxcom) and Jonathan White from dreamwizards(Shitty store, except for chris harten, whos cool). We made the 6 hour drive with the help of Mike keeping me awake with his endless banter. And deciding whether he should play white green stax or mono green stax. We named the deck as we sat in pennsylvania traffic and finally got to the daze inn at about 11:30.

Now for the tournament.


Round 1 Tariq Zahzam with U/W/R/b landstill

Game 1: I really don't think that tariq could have built a version of landstill that would be worse for me. I got a bunch of guys out after having survival countered, and then he wraths and starts dominating me.

Game 2: I get a bunch of quick beats, and he gets an early wrath, I respond with a natural order and when he doesnt have the wrath, we're off to game 3.

Game 3: I get a survival countered and he gets fire/ice along with swords into standstill. At that point he's just going through the motions.

0-1

Round 2 ??? Merfolk

Game 1: I keep a 1 land hand with queer ranger and llanowar elves, but he has a wasteland and gets lots of big fishies before I can do anything.

Game 2: I mull to 5 and slump, it seems I'll be out early. But I land a couple dudes early and I land natural order somehow and take the game.

Game 3: Its his turn to keep a 1 lander, and by turn 3 I have 3 lords and a few other dorks on the table and I get the win for a round I shouldn't have.

1-1

Round 3 Drew Levin (Ansset) It's the fear

Game 1: I get a survival to stick and the card advantage slowly brings him down, as he failed to find a deed.

Game 2: I manage to land a few lords which he picks off with his plethora of removal. He gets a plague down, which wipes my board, and next turn he gets a second, being the dumbass that I am, I didnt bring in grip, so we march off to the next game.

Game 3: I get a survival going and get lots of dudes, but then he deeds away my board. The next turn, he lands a plague and I frown. My next draw is 1 of the 3 lords left in my deck, and I swing for 1. He draws and says go, I draw, and slam the natural order I drew for thewin. Go me!!!

2-1

Round 4 ??? Goblins

Game 1: he gets a bunch of vials down but doesn have many creatures. I meanwhile have 3 lords down by turn 4, and just keep turning them sideways until he dies.

Game 2: I get a few guys then land a natural order. The turn before he dies though, He drops double piledriver and goblin king...Really?
( I had a taiga out)

Game 3: I get a survival and start tutoring up mana men. Turn 4 I have 3 archdruid, a priest, and a queer ranger, so I make over 30 mana, tutor up packmaster, make about 10 wolves and kill him. It pleased me.

3-1

Round 5 David Gearhart 5 color Thresh

Game 1:I get lots of guys and beat him to about 6. He draws a lot of goyfs though, and a shackles to take my only lord, we play draw go for a while, until I draw a packmaster with double priest on the table and kill him.

Game 2: I land a turn 2 choke, then a turn 3 survival, and hes done.

4-1

Round 6 Alix Hatfield Zoo

Game 1: I mull to five and have 1 land and a mana guy. He kills the mana guy and I do nothing for the next 4 turns and die.

Game 2: I mull to 5 again and keep almost the same hand, with the same result.

Final 4-2


Making it to the last round and not being allowed to play sucks ass. Changes to the deck would be to take out teeg and put in absolute law. I love the way the deck plays, it just mulligans very, very badly.

[GreenOne]

I'd never play white just for 3-4 SB cards. I even tried to keep it monogreen (losing anger) and it works much better against mana denial decks (no more stifles and wastes for you!)

[beastman]

I've never had a problem with those decks anyway. And the sideboard cards that you get are absolutely necesary

[Ewokslayer]

I've never had a problem with those decks anyway. And the sideboard cards that you get are absolutely necesary

How is it absolutely necessary?

Teeg can be replaced in some manner by Thorn of Amethyst.
Absolute Law wasn't needed for you to beat Goblins and in the match you played against Zoo would have done nothing as it sounds like you wouldn't have been able to cast it since you were stuck on one land after your mana elf got burned.

Some Questions.

How have you found Packmaster?
You used him twice to win games but at least one of them it sounds like it was just an overkill cool thing.

[Di]

Nice job, and it's good to see you can still incorporate Sylvan Messenger in the list. How did he do given you still have 28 non-elves in the deck?

@sb

The white is necessary against bad matchups like Sligh and Zoo and Pyroclasm/Fallout. And Stifle/Waste very rarely shuts this deck off given you have a lot of basic lands and over a dozen mana-producing creatures. You should be beating those decks regardless as they have a tough time with rushing aggro. However, if you really wanted to keep it monogreen Steely Resolve works over Absolute Law, but Law shuts off Volcanic Fallout as well.


Teeg can be replaced in some manner by Thorn of Amethyst.

Not that it's a huge thing, but given Teeg is there for the deck's worst matchups and you have the ability to either Survival or Natural Order for him gives it the nod. Trying to rely on drawing Thorn is a lot more difficult than being able to find it.


How have you found Packmaster?
You used him twice to win games but at least one of them it sounds like it was just an overkill cool thing.

Packmaster is really good against a lot of the hate the deck sees because it's big enough to dodge Engineered Plague and Volcanic Fallout. The fact that it can build a horde on its own is strong against those decks because odds are you won't have many other creatures. Plus, he's good against aggro to put more creatures into play than the opponent can and not have to worry about attacking with your lords and potentially having them killed.

[beastman]

Packmaster was amazing, and I would never cut him from the list. He can get you out of a stalemate better than any card in the deck.
Messenger was great, but for different reasons than I expected. He rarely chains with himself even with survival out, but he's just so damn good against control that I wouldn't cut him.
Edit: anger is absolutely necesary in the deck, and the match against zoo and sligh is horrendous. so law is needed to have a chance. Teeg was useless all day and I hate him.

[keys]

Is Mirror Entity not as good as Packmaster?

[Ewokslayer]

the match against zoo and sligh is horrendous. so law is needed to have a chance. Teeg was useless all day and I hate him.

are you just saying that because your last round was against zoo and not Tes?

@Di
Does tes really give you enough time to No or survival for tegg?

[Di]

Occasionally. If you have either NO or SotF you can get him in turn 3, but he's also there for Landstill. Having to deal with him before they can play half their deck helps a lot as well. But I only run him as a singleton and pretty much punt the Tendrils match as I don't expect to see it.


are you just saying that because your last round was against zoo and not Tes?

Regardless on how his round went, the match is abysmal. It's incredibly tough to win outside of hitting a turn 3-4 Natural Order because they just fry your lords and run you over. Absolute Law limits their removal strictly to Path, and then you can easily match them with the high number of creatures you have, or even possibly race them if you hit 3+ lords.


Is Mirror Entity not as good as Packmaster?


Packmaster is a better mana sink because it is naturally huge and puts creatures into play which helps virtually every matchup. Entity is rather weak on its own despite being able to make your team huge, and does nothing to help against hate.

[beastman]

Occasionally. If you have either NO or SotF you can get him in turn 3, but he's also there for Landstill. Having to deal with him before they can play half their deck helps a lot as well. But I only run him as a singleton and pretty much punt the Tendrils match as I don't expect to see it.

This. Tendrils really isn't stopped by teeg at all. It slows you down a turn or two to get him down and it only takes them about a turn to get rid of him, so I never really employ him any way, just squeeze my butthole tight and hope that they fuck up.

Against landstill, I sided him in and he just got killed immediately every time. I feel like after board, they have too many point kill spells anyway, as alot of versions are boarding into the 4 swords 4 path plan.