Turns out this version of Elves is some kind of good.

After top 8ing the previous Jupiter games NELC that I was able to attend in February, I felt obligated to keep playing the deck until I started to lose with it. The list really didn't change much, since I only made a few small modifications. For reference, this is the 75 I played this weekend.

4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Regal Force
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Viridian Shaman
4 Glimpse of Nature
1 Priest of Titania
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Natural Order
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Birchlore Rangers
2 Crop Rotation
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
3 Quirion Ranger
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Gaea’s Cradle
1 Windswept Heath


3 Abrupt Decay
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Progenitus
1 Natural Order
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy

The biggest change was going to a 2-2 split of cradle and crop rotation, which let me play a bog and a karakas in the sideboard. It was ok, but not super impressive on the day. I did get to have the karakas be useful against one opponent, but the bog never got used. I could live without it moving forward. I also switched out the harmonic sliver for a pridemage, and looking back I think that was wrong. Sliver gives you a creature to natural order away after it destroys something or is an extra creature with a craterhoof trigger. In the future I will definitely be running the harmonic sliver instead. I also cut a quirion ranger in the main for the viridian shaman, which was fine since I didn't ever need multiple rangers, and having the shaman maindeck was not too clunky, even in matchups where it didn't matter. And now for a quick summary of the matchups I played.

Round 1 vs BG deathrite stuff

It seemed like the deck was straight BG with the standard base of deathrite, goyf, confindant, lilly, etc. Which is an insanely good matchup for elves. He got to play a turn 2 lilly in game one and I still easily hoofed him on turn 3 or 4. Game two I even had the turn 3 kill, but he played perish first so I had to just natural order for progenitus instead and that did the job.

Round 2 vs Maverick

Another matchup that is heavily in Elves' favor. Game one he kept a slow hand with jitte, but I killed him on turn 3 before he could equip and attack so it didn't matter. Game 2 he mulled to 4 and tried to make a game of it, but I was able to eventually get 9 or 10 permanents on the board to his 2, so it didn't take long to win the match from there.

Round 3 vs Sneak and Show

And now time for a matchup I didn't want to see. Game one I actually manage to win through an Emrakul attack of Sneak Attack. I had a ranger and a symbiote in play, allowing me to bounce a land and an elf. The next two turns I spent rebuilding my mana and then play a natural order while he only drew lands. Game 2 I got sneak attacked pretty hard and lost. Game 3 was very interesting, with me using a turn 1 thoughtseize to take his lotus petal, leaving him with an ancient tomb, cantrips, and a sneak attack. He had to wait a few turns to find a fetch, at which point I had already established a good amount of creatures in play. Eventually I was able to rotate for karakas when he play a cantrip, and he was always a mana short to double activate his sneak attack. I then made a series of plays which led to him discarding his fattie, and then GSZ for pridemage took out his attack, leaving him with no cards in hand and nothing but lands in play. It didn't take too long to win from there.

Round 4 vs Goblins

I'm not sure if this matchup is good or bad, it felt like it could go either way. Game one his hand is super slow, but mine doesn't pan out at all since I keep drawing lands after keeping a loose hand. He eventually punishes my sloppy keep by getting warchief, and then matron for sharpshooter. Turns out that card is kind of insane against a deck with a bunch of 1/1s and natural order. Games two and three are much better for me, since his draws are still a tad slow and my hands are much better. Game three in particular was interesting, since he kept a hand with pyrokinesis but not much else. I was worried that he had it, but there wasn't much I could do about it. So after the kinesis happened, he started to get out threats while I spent time rebuilding. I play out regal force and play on winning on the next turn. His turn piledrivers put me under some serious pressure, so I make blocks to go to 4 and try to go off. Thankfully my 3 glimpse plus creature hand was good enough to deliver the hoof knockout punch.

Round 5 vs Shardless BUG

Another fair deathrite deck, another good matchup. His ancestral vision plan was just not fast enough to stop me from assembling creatures plus natural order, which kills him in short fashion. Game two is even more brutal, with his disruption really not doing much while I assembled a bunch of creatures and natural ordered again to kill him.

Round 6 & 7 ID

Quarterfinals vs UR Delver

My quarterfinals opponent had 4 maindeck lavamancer, so I was in for a tough battle. Of course game 1 he played one out on the first turn, and I had to spend a lot of time fighting through it. Eventually he got a clique and a delver down to attack me while I tried to set up. He even drew the force of will he needed to exact turn before I drew craterhoof to kill him too. Games two and three are much better for me though, since his draws are slightly slow and I just assemble a massive amount of creatures and combo him out without too much trouble.

Semifinals vs Esper

And this is the round where I finally meet my end. I manage to steal game one with a natural order when he taps out and spends all his cards on his turn so I know my combo is safe. Games two and three are not so kind to me. I keep very good hands that don't pan out at all each game, drawing far too many lands while he gets double stoneforge draws with force of will backup. I try to fight through it both games but I can't draw enough business and some 1/2s with jittes and sword of feast and famines end my tournament run.


Overall I am still super happy with the current version of elves. The core of the deck is what really makes it tick, and doing stuff like playing other silver bullets is totally ok in my opinion. For example, I will probably find something other than the priest to play in the main, and maybe one less ranger. I'm still not totally sure yet, but I do know that I be continuing to play this deck for the foreseeable future. The deck has an incredibly strong game against all the fair deck, while also having the great visionary + symbiote combo to out attrition all the blue decks. Even the combo matchup isn't awful, since natural order gives you a great nutdraw of your own that can kill your opponents on turn 3, which is still pretty fast in the legacy environment. In short, I definitely recommend that people start playing this deck, then you'll get to see for yourself how powerful it is.

Until next time.