I aggree with you. Adding Cavern to our deck makes wasteland a good card against us. And on top of that you can't cast Wirewood Symbiote (insect) & Regal force with it, and those two are pretty hardcore for us.
Add the fact that Glimpse & GSZ are also key spells for us and I don't think I want this land in my MD.
About the CB-MU: when it was heavily played I used Leyline of Lifeforce as a trumpcard.
What do you think about Soul of the Harvest?
Is it a good card for this deck?
I would not exchange Regal Force for this one. It needs to stay in play to let you draw cards, while Force lets you draw them instantly, which is a much stronger effect in this deck.
I do not think that Cavern of Souls will be a decent add for Elves b/c more ppl allow the creatures to hit the battlefield, they just end up removing it or ignoring it. So being exposed to Wasteland doesn't benefit the deck. If anything, it'd take attention off of Gaea's Cradle, but at that point we should be winning.
Started playing this a few weeks ago, tried a bunch of versions, turns out i like Vengevine a lot. :)
1 Dryad Arbor
9 Forest
4 Heritage Druid
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Viridian Shaman
4 Nettle Sentinel
3 Llanowar Elves
2 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Vengevine
1 Regal Force
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Fauna Shaman
2 Gaea's Cradle
SB: 2 Beast Within
SB: 4 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 1 Mortarpod
SB: 2 Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze
SB: 1 Dismember
I only have 2 Gaea's Cradles, i would play one more instead of a Llanowar Elves if i could, but i think crop rotation just sucks.
Greg Sochacki made it to the Semifinals at the StarCityGames.com Providence Legacy Open. He went undefeated on the day until he met David Rice (Aggro Loam) in the Semis.
Quarterfinals:
Greg Sochacki (Elves) 2 - 0 Garret Roosa (Death & Taxes)
Match Report: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...chacki_vs.html
Semifinals:
David Rice (Aggro Loam) 2 - 1 Greg Sochacki (Elves)
Match Report: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/..._vs_greg_.html
Top32 Decklists: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...ate=2012-05-13
Greg´s Decklist: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=45959
MD:
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Regal Force
2 Birchlore Rangers
3 Elvish Archdruid
3 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Living Wish
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Glimpse of Nature
1 Gaea's Cradle
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
5 Forest
SB:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Regal Force
1 Vexing Shusher
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Steely Resolve
2 Krosan Grip
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Gaea's Cradle
I don't like looking like a hater but.. Isn't steely resolve just bad because you can't use Quirion Ranger and Symbiote anymore while going off? By the way, you seem really weak against RUG with those 4 Pacts and the low forest count.. was it a concern ? Also, why Graffdigger's Cage ? Isn't Tormod's Crypt/Faerie Macabre just better ? Why no Scavenging Ooze or Loaming Shaman or something like that in the SB?
I don't get it. Anyway, congrats!
Btw, i won my local SCG Invitational Qualifier 2 days ago with this (anyone going to SCG Invitational LA in December2012?) ;
1 Dryad Arbor
9 Forest
4 Heritage Druid
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Viridian Shaman
4 Nettle Sentinel
3 Llanowar Elves
2 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Vengevine
1 Regal Force
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Fauna Shaman
2 Gaea's Cradle
SB: 1 Beast Within
SB: 4 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 1 Mortarpod
SB: 2 Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze
SB: 1 Dismember
SB: 1 Krosan Grip
30 or 32 players, something like that. 5 rounds. alright.
2-0 vs High Tide (G1 i kept a sketchy hand of 6 cards containing 4 Lands but i still won turn 4. Game 2 i win turn 2.) sb: Carpet, Beast within, Thorn.
2-0 vs Pox (G1 he didn't do much, G2 Vengevines did all the job.) sb: Grip, Beast Within, Ooze?
0-2 vs Zoo (G1 he rancored his T1 Nacatl, didnt draw combo material. G2 he went t2 Pillar, i had no answer and i was holding pure combo juice.) sb: Grip, Within, Ooze
2-0 vs Loam BG Deed Darkblast Entomb and so on (G1 I combo out turn 3. G2 I combo out turn 3 through a Pernicious Deed at 1 that killed 2 of my Elves. SB: 1 Ooze, 1 Krosan Grip.
2-1 vs Pox sb: Grip, Beast Within, Ooze? (G1 he raped my hand, lands, creatures and kept ripping the nuts off the top. Game 2 i grind him out with Symbiote+Visionaries and Vengevines. Game 3 is tight but he misplays a lot at the end. He plays in a way that restricts him from Curse Scrolling my face during two turns while i'm like at 10 or something like that and just after he plays a Liliana of the Veil and snap says ''We are gonna discard.. Owai..'' too late. My Vengevine is in my Yard and the judge was standing right there and said that Liliana's ability resolves. :P
Top 8
2-1 vs Stoneblade (Spellstutter version) (Should have been 2-0, i misplayed a LOT game 1. Game 2 Viridian Shaman + Symbiote and Vengevines all fueled by Fauna Shaman and Visionary card advantage grinds him and destroys all his equipments. Game 3, i rape him. SB : Dismember, Mortarpod, Krosan Grip, maybe Beast Within.
Top 4
2-1 vs RUG Lavamancer (Game 1, Delver flips. he kills all my guys, fows all my Zeniths, Glimpses or whatever. alright.)
I side in Carpets, Ooze, Dismember, Mortarpod. G2 i get enough basic forests and Vengevines to crush those Grim Lavamancers. Game 3 I play turn 1 Carpet, he fows and surgicals it.. really ? Looks like i'm winning this game. I dismember a Lavamancer, play a Veggie at some point and seal the deal by getting a 5/5 Ooze on board. SB: 1 Ooze, 3 Carpets, 1 Dismember, 1 Mortarpod
Final
2-0 vs Shot in the Dark
Game 1 he keeps a 7card hand with an Ancient Den, 2 Plowshares and a Force of Will because he knew i was on Elves. I mull to 5. I play some weak guys. at some point he fows a Glimpse because i have like 3 card in hands. I beat and pass the turn, he draws a second land on his turn 4, plays it. I untap and play Viridian Shaman, destroying Ancient Den.
i SB in 3 Thorns because he had Mox Opals and 4 Drops. (Humility, probably Wrath. Tezz. Jace. etc.) and Bwithin/Kgrip.
G2 he gets CB, ThopterSword, 3 Lands, a Mox and at some points he counters my Viridian Shaman by playing Enlightened tutor getting Ensnaring Bridge with CB trigger on the stack. He untaps, plays it. He had like 2 cards in hand and passed the turn. I untap. Glimpse. He brainstorms with CB trigger on the stack. No 1 drop. Cool. Glimpse resolves. i draw a bunch of cards, can't really play 2 drops because he had one on top. Still managed to kill him after playing like 15 1/1s or 2/2s through ThopterSword and Bridge because i dropped 3 Thorns into play after playing Krosan Grip on Mox Opal and Beast Within on a Land. He had an Ensnaring Bridge, but couldn't play anything to empty his hand.
@pich: I would love a report. I have grown very fond of that list and I would like to know how the altered SB worked for you. I personally really like the NO/prog plan.
I didnt put that much details about SB, but there ya go.
Thx pich. I was most curious about Thorns. For me that card hasn't ever worked like I wanted it to. Either it's irrelevant or doesn't show up when I need it.
Scavenging Ooze has been a beast in testing. Winning me close games versus delver decks(u/r and canadian thresh), and wins me random corner cases like against engineered plague.
Also, the NO/prog plan has been good as well. It beats Nic Fit and any other deed reliant decks. It makes surgical extraction dead in games two/three when I switch NO for the vengevines. It makes perish a much less profitable card.
Can you explain why you're using the Living Wish route? It's very interesting, because Living Wish lists have been around for a while, but nobody got a performance like you did with it. What was it? Was it something about the sideboard (cards like Steely Resolve, Shusher and even the LW targets)? Can you get into the reasons you're playing with it, oposing to the Mirror and Emrakul lists?
By the way, congrats on the finish!
Gratz to your finish Dragonryder124, nice report. The steely resolve trick is a forgotten tool of elvish defence. I used the enchantment long ago in standard, because i was often confronted with goblin sharpshooter (one of my friends is an all time goblin fan and a skilled sharpshooter user) I think against UR Delver and RUG - Removal heavy decks - it is an unaspected card.
TEAM MtG Berlin
Is Concordant Crossroads good to sb in for the combo matchup?
@UP
Why you want this card over Thorn of Amethyst or silence? i dont get it.
I tied for first place (3-1 with same tiebreakers, lost on head-to-head) at an itsy-bisty sanctioned Vintage event using Legacy Elves yesterday. Only five people showed up, and the decks were weird, so not a great sample, but I had fun. I literally forgot my Vintage deck at home and so I had a choice between Elves and Modern Knights.
Here’s what I ran:
3 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Heritage Druid
2 Llanowar Elves
2 Mirror Entity
4 Nettle Sentinel
2 Priest of Titania
1 Quasli Pridemage
1 Quiron Ranger
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Regal Force
4 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Eldrami’s Call
1 Crop Rotation
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
5 Forest
7 Green fetchlands (various)
2 Savanna
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaea’s Cradle
1 Pendlehaven
SIDEBOARD:
1 Motorpod
4 Faerie Macabre
1 Viridian Shaman
3 Energy Storm
3 Choke
1 Fecundity
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Gaddock Teeg
MATCH 1 - Versus Salvager Combo - LOSS 1-2
My opponent was on a fully powered blue-white salvager combo list, but even so this matchup was very even. He was packing lots of creature removal in the form of Swords to Plowshares, Balance, Sowers, and Tiagos to recast them. Game 1 was a big grind. His countermagic and spot removal stop me from going off, so I just keep summoning 1/1s. We both made mistakes, but he simply couldn’t find any gas and I eventually overwhelmed him by attacking for 2-3 each turn.
The post-board games were more trouble. Now, in addition to controlling my combo, he used Sowers to take my threats and beat me with them. It was not until time was called at the end of game 3 that he finally assembled Salvager combo for the first time, winning by drawing his library and then timewalking twice with a flying army.
MATCH 2 - Versus Landstill - WIN 2-1
This deck was mega-annoying; it was a mono-blue control deck, with three or four pieces of power, and it packed Stifle, Standstill and Counterbalance-Top. The first game, he forces a combo piece early, pitching a Counterbalance, and I comment how glad I am to see that in exile. He smiles and casts Counterbalance and Top next turn. A standstill reloads his hand, giving him plenty of hard counters to stop me from playing around the lock (though I do a darn good job of trying) and eventually finishes me with a pair of flipped Delvers.
Sideboard in the chokes and teeg. Game 2, I resolve a Choke on turn 2, catching him without Force. Things go rapidly bad for him, as he never finds a way to really get operating with lands that never untap, and I beat down. He concedes just as I’m about to actually go off for the first time that tournament.
Game 3, he forced my first Choke, but I’ve topdecked another! After Choke falls, he resolves Counterbalance-Top again. So we’re both sitting here doing very unfair things to one another... but I’ve got creatures on the board and he doesn’t. He’s so handicapped by the Choke that I am eventually able to kill Counterbalance (I glimpse when he has no mana open, forcing him to put Top on the library, allowing me to resolve and activate Quasli Pridemage). The little green men eventually put him out of his misery.
MATCH 3 - Versus Vampires WIN 2-0
I don’t know what this deck was. It was some sort of sui-black thing with a Vampire theme. Might have had Dark Times combo in it, but I never saw it. It did not do much. The funniest part was his reaction when I resolve Motorpod to wipe out his Vampire Hexmage - I don’t think he was expected that.
MATCH 4 - Burn WIN 2-1
Game 1, he’s simply faster than me and burns me out. I punted, though. I forgot to attack with my Arbor once, and he ended the game at 1 life. Bugger.
Game 2 and 3, I dropped Energy Storm and enjoyed some well-deserved “what the hell does that card do?!” reactions. Both times, he cast Browbeat against me after Storm had resolved, only to smack himself when I agreed to take 0. He was totally helpless against the Storm and I just beat with weenies for the win.
So, provided your Vintage environment is non-powered, quasi-legacy, apparently Elves is a solid choice.
Hey all, I played Elves in 3 events this weekend. I swept 2 of them, and got 2nd place today in a GPT. My biggest problem matchup is Sneak 'n Show. Aside from Tajuru Preservers and/or mulliganing to Emrakul, any advice on sideboarding? I just can't seem to beat them unless I have the turn 2 kill. Feel free to ask me any questions. My list, for reference: http://essentialmagic.com/decks/View.asp?ID=925833
Congrats to your sucess with the deck. Will you provide some sort of report of those events, or the GPT? That would be nice. Can you also please elaborate a bit why you're playing Fierce Empath main deck and what benefits does he bring to the table, despite possibly taking a bit of consistensy of the deck? By the way, by personal experience I've experimented Ezuri and never found a real need for him. Does he makes a significant difference when you bring him in?
Here is a quick run down of the events:
Friday Night Legacy!
Round 1 vs Sneaky Show:
Game 1 I have the turn 3 kill while he's digging.
I sideboard in Gaddock Teeg, Preservers, and Choke.
Game 2 He puts out a Griselbrand Turn 2 and thats the game.
Game 3 I mulligan to 6 and he has a turn 3 Griselbrand, but does not see a sweeper after he draws 30+ cards.
Round 2 vs Burn
Game 1 I end up aggro'ing out because he floods on lands.
Game 2 is close, but he gets there on the back of Bolt, Bolt, Fireblast.
Game 3 ends in a draw when he Flame Rifts when we're both at 3.
Game 4 I combo out on turn 4 (would've been turn 3 if he didn't kill my Heritage druid).
Round 3 vs Mono Blue(?)
This player was new to Legacy, and his plan was control until he had enough Sol Lands out to cast Emrakul. I ended up aggroing out games 1 and 2 and killing him.
At the end of the event, it turns out that my results from Round 1 were put in wrong, but I still got the first place prize anyway for X-0ing.
Saturday Night Legacy!
Round 1 vs Jank
My opponent was playing his U/R "Eventide Block" deck. I combo'd off at my leisure.
Round 2 vs RUG.
I absolutely love this matchup. The games are grindy and tight, but in the end Elves just has a better long game than RUG.
Game 1 I aggro him out simply because I draw less lands than he does.
Game 2 I attempt to combo, but he has enough burn to keep me off of critical creatures.
Game 3 I aggro him out when he mulligans to 5.
Round 3 vs Mono W Death and Taxes
This is a fairly easy matchup, despite their E Tutor sb. By the time they're tutoring for their answer and can cast it, I usually just combo off. The only notable thing is that Mirran Crusader with a Jitte is a BEATING! Also: Thalia is useless vs Elves and Ethersworn Canonist isn't the best ;)
Round 4 vs Maverick:
Intentional Draw. This matchup is similar to D&T in that by the time they have an answer, they're usually dead. Although they do play more spot removal in the form of Gut Shot and sometimes Punishing Fires.
Grand Prix Trial at The Encounter in Allentown, PA.
Round 1 vs RUG
He wins game 1 when I fail to gain traction after a mulligan to 6.
Games 2 and 3 I combo off when he has minimal counter magic.
After turn 1-2, Daze is useless vs Elves 8)
Round 2 vs Imperial Painter
I played against another Source member, sroncor1. This is a very close matchup in my opinion, but game 1 is almost always an auto win because they have no gy hate for emrakul.
I lose games 2 and 3 because he hits his combo turn 2 or 3 both games with Faerie Macabre and Tormod's Crypt backup.
Round 3 vs Deadguy
A very easy matchup, I win game 2 through a Hymn to Tourach, Thoughtseize and Path to Exile.
Round 4 vs Explorer Junk
My opponent and I are both aiming for the byes, so no scoops here. This is the win-and-in for us both; the winner of this round can ID the next round to get in to top 4.
Game 1: My opponent starts off with triple cabal therapy, stripping my mulligan to 6 of Green Sun's Zenith and Glimpse of Nature. 2 turns later he is able to land an Explorer and gets lucky and hits a 2nd glimpse I was sandbagging. Luckily, with the 2 new lands from the Explorer I combo off the next turn thanks to drawing the Regal Force.
Game 2 is close, my opponent has an Academy Rector out early and is able to sac it to cabal therapy for a Deed. On his next turn he taps out to Vindicate my Gaea's Cradle, but in response I crop rotation it for the 2nd Gaea's Cradle. I am able to win while he is tapped out.
Round 5: ID with Sneak and Show
Semifinals vs Imperial Painter: He doesn't want the byes, so he scoops to me.
Finals vs Sneak and Show: Unfortunately, it is a quick match. Games 1 and 2 he has Griselbrand on turn 2 and kills me. Lotus Petal is pretty good in that deck!
Thoughts on the deck:
I really like the 4/3 split between Pact and Zenith. I used to have it the other way around, but Pact is so much more versatile when going off and also lets me cast my creatures to draw cards off of Glimpse. For the event, I actually still had Crossroads still in the SB and found I was bringing it in almost everytime, so I'm going to try it main deck.
Godmode:
I'm playing Fierce Empath mostly to ensure that I hit Emrakul. I have had games where Emrakul is deep enough in the deck that if I cast a 3rd Glimpse for the turn I may deck myself when I cast him. Granted, I shouldn't because of Zeniths, but the possibility is still there. The empath can also find Regal Force. That said, I don't always keep him in and have sideboarded him out. He is definitely on the chopping block to get replaced with a 2nd Birchlore Rangers. Ezuri originally started out in the main deck, then got moved to the sideboard, then cut, then back into the sideboard. I always think I'll want him when I'm on the aggro plan, but 2 lords plus the pendelhaven is enough. I'll cut Ezuri for the 4th Faerie Macabre, the 2nd Creeping Corrosion, 2nd Krosan Grip, or any tech someone posts here. For now, I'm leaning towards the 2nd K Grip the most.
Greg Sochacki, respect on your placement in RI. One question- why steely resolve instead of Eladamri, Lord of Leaves?
It might be a good time dust off your elf decks guys. Sneak N Show is the combo deck of choice right now and elves actually has a chance against that combo deck. Anyone else been thinking that?
Speaking of Sneak N Show, does anyone have good sideboard tech against it? Best I could think up is Thorn of Amethyst.
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