[Primer] Elves!

[PendelSteven]

SCG articles are no longer premium after a month, so everyone can reid duke's legacy report on 1st place with elves

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26901_SCG-Legacy-Open-Philadelphia-1st-Elves.html

Duke wanted afterwards to play with:

http://8e8460c4912582c4e519-11fcbfd88ed5b90cfb46edba899033c9.r65.cf1.rackcdn.com/sales/cardscans/MTG/ARC/en/nonfoil/GleefulSabotage.jpg

Because he faced an Affinity deck in the swiss. Now I've seen decks running

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=214029&type=card

for that. But I'm I so smart or something? 'Cause this one is better imho:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=3410&type=card

Destroying all 0cc artifacts for 1GG? I'd rather cast that in that case! Heck and even if you destory artifacts which cost mana to cast, it's still like a Mass Swords To Plowshares vs Affinity!

[Kayradis]

1st card. Not Sold
2nd card. Negative Ghost Rider. Negative Fly By
3rd Card? HOLY SHIT! The affinity match up just became fun. Getting rid of lands, creatures and such? FUCK YEAH!

[Dice_Box]

I think that Corrosion is better. We can make that extra mana with ease and not handing over a mass of life helps us if we have to go full beatdown for whatever reason. (Esperblade for example.)

[Julian23]

To provide a bit more of explanation, Affinity is too fringe of a matchup to actually directly account for in the sideboard.

What Gleeful Sabotage is for is an additional way to hit Enchantments, especially the cmc>3 ones. It's also a nice workaround for Counterbalance. The main downside however, is the Sorcery speed which has sometimes been an issue for me during testing.

[danyul]

Have you guys ever tested against Affinity? It's basically a bye. We already have Abrupt Decay in the SB and some people are playing Viridian Shaman. That's good enough. There's no need to dig up some random green hatecards from a bygone era.

[th3 w1z4rd]

SCG articles are no longer premium after a month, so everyone can reid duke's legacy report on 1st place with elves

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26901_SCG-Legacy-Open-Philadelphia-1st-Elves.html

I feel like this article should not have been premium. It gave no new information whatsoever and was garbage as a tournament report since he talked about like, two matches in any sort of depth. Fail.

[Dice_Box]

While that may be true, Elves was the flavor of the week at that time. So from an business standpoint it made sense to capitalise on that and charge for the article. Also that was no new information for US. But if your a common visitor to this site you are unlikely to need to pay SCG for info anyway.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

What Gleeful Sabotage is for is an additional way to hit Enchantments, especially the cmc>3 ones. It's also a nice workaround for Counterbalance.

Julian: Can you explain the "workaround" portion of this. Is it that tapping two creatures is uncounterable by Counterbalance?

[jbone2016]

Elves got 15th at the 2013 SCG Legacy Open in Milwaukee

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=59877

Yeah, I drove down with him. He had been playing RUG delver for a long time but he want to play elves but lacked the cradles. I think he was happy with the result.

[Koby]

If you think Seeds of Innocence is fun at 3 mana,

Check out this card:

http://magiccards.info/scans/en/wl/140.jpg

But really, Viridian Shaman is more than enough to turn that around, as danyul pointed out.

[trevaftw]

Julian: Can you explain the "workaround" portion of this. Is it that tapping two creatures is uncounterable by Counterbalance?

In a sense, yes. Conspiring puts a copy directly onto the stack (not actually casting) so it won't trigger counterbalance.

[trevaftw]

Alright, so here is the list I am going to run for GP DC:

Creatures - 31
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wirewood Symbiote
3 Quirion Ranger
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Ruric Thar
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Elvish Archdruid

Spells - 11
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Lands - 18
4 verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Taiga
4 Gaea's Cradle


Sideboard
1 Natural Order
1 Progentius
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Krosan Grip
1 Viridan Shaman
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress

[trevaftw]

And this is my sideboard strategy for "Decks to Beat"

Miracle control
+2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Krosan Grip, +1 Viridian Shaman, +1 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, - 1 Nettle, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore

Sneak Attack
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +1 Krosan Grip, +4 Cabal Therapy, +2 Duress
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -3 Elvish Visionary, -3 Wirewood Symbiote, -1 Birchlore

Maverick
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

ANT
+1 Natural Order, +4 Cabal Therapy, +3 Duress
-1 Elvish Archdruid, -3 Elvish Visionary, -3 Wirewood Symbiote, -1 Birchlore

RUG Delver
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Scavenging Ooze, +2 Abrupt Decay
-1 Craterhoof, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Goblins
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Viridian Shaman,
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Nettle Sentinel, - 1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Team America
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Craterhoof, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

DnT
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Viridian Shaman, +1 Krosan Grip
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Shardless BUG
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Craterhoof, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Mono U Omnitell
+1 Natural Order, +4 Cabal Therapy, +3 Duress
-1 Elvish Archdruid, -3 Elvish Visionary, -3 Wirewood Symbiote, -1 Birchlore

Jund
+1 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze,
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore Rangers, -1 Cradle

Blade Decks
+1 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Viridian Shaman, +1 Krosan Grip
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

[uncletiggy]

If birchlore comes out in every dtb and natural order comes in wouldn't main decking the fourth order be a reasonable change? Possibly adding the second arbor to the board

[Phelix]

i would definatly keep birchlore in, when boarding decay. sometimes that Black mana it produces is just what you need.

[catmint]

I've talked about 4 NO and Progenitus main before. Look how often you side Progenitus in....
Progenitus is just GG against a wider % of the field than Ruric is. Simple decision...
And with Progenitus main the preconditions to cast NO are less difficult making 4 the correct choice. Random Archdruid is also an easy cut and you even get another sideboard slot for a high impact card out of the deal.

[Lemnear]

Backup-Archdruid = Elvish Training-Wheels?!

[igri_is_a_bk]

If you are playing against combo, you should not side out any 1cc creatures. Not a single one.

[Zombie]

I've been going with -3 Visionary, -1 Shaman, -1 Symbiote, -1 Heritage/Birchlore (+4 Therapy, +2 Thorn. I run Teeg+Ruric main, so swap them in if you don't.) and have been doing quite well.

[Kayradis]

I usually take out Multani's Acolyte, Crop Rotation and X or Y card that is less important for that specific matchup.
Im not scared of going over 60 tho.

[Kayradis]

@Lemnear:
Whats your opinion on 4 x Mindbreak trap in the SB?

[Julian23]

You definitely side out Heritage Druid over Birchlore Ranger when playing against combo.

Sometimes I also like keeping Viridian Shaman if my opponent plays out his LEDs aggressively in order to circumvent discard; not sure if that's the right call though as 3 mana is a pretty hefty investment.

For me, against Storm I like

+4 Cabal Therapy
+1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
+1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
+1 Natural Order to get Ruric Thar ASAP

-3 Elvish Visionary
-3 Wirewood Symbiote
-1 Heritage Druid

I'm still fighting hard to find room for the one Thorn of Amethyst I used to run and like but the most recent and profitable addition of 2 Choke and 2 Pithing Needle leave basically no room for that next to the 2 Abrupt Decay, Harmonic Sliver and Progenitus. Also, lost last tournament to Dredge :-(

[Kayradis]

I can see the usefulness of Pithing Needle, but I cant get behind that idea. Sorry.

[Lemnear]

@Lemnear:
Whats your opinion on 4 x Mindbreak trap in the SB?

People I don't know or care about should run 4 in the side ... mainly because I'm tired of seeing the topic pop up every 2 pages in various threads on several boards.

The few others can count on me for serious advice :)

[Kayradis]

To be honest, I was debating ordering 4 foils and send them to you ;)

[Lemnear]

To be honest, I was debating ordering 4 foils and send them to you ;)

Lol ... you really hate me, hu? XD

[Kayradis]

I think it would be hilarious signed and framed by yours truly ;)

[Dice_Box]

Mind break trap? Meh Discard and Thorn. Trap has limited uses. I took possession of 3 Fluster today for my upcoming fish deck tho. They I think are gold. Pity sometimes we don't run blue.

[trevaftw]

Backup-Archdruid = Elvish Training-Wheels?!

I still stand by archdruid as a one of. Helps against e-plague and can help the aggro back up plan

[Julian23]

Will be streaming the Legacy Daily Event on MODO in 15 minutes. Join us at http://www.twitch.tv/itsJulian!

[th3 w1z4rd]

I still stand by archdruid as a one of. Helps against e-plague and can help the aggro back up plan

Even I don't advocate that anymore and I always use ancient technology lol

[Kayradis]

Then....Maybe running 2 x Mirror Entity could help you!

[Kayradis]

Possible SB against Enchantress and artifacts shenanigans?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=146931&stc=1&d=1381723903

[Lemnear]

Possible SB against Enchantress and artifacts shenanigans?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=146931&stc=1&d=1381723903

Not unless Affinity, Enchantress or MUD are main-contenders in your store. Still competes with Viridian Shaman

[Kayradis]

I dont know if you remember, but a couple month ago I was saying that reanimator was gonna come back in force. With the cycling meta, Rise Of The Reanimator Decks is coming.

I think we might need faster GY hate in the SB.

[MD.Ghost]

I dont know if you remember, but a couple month ago I was saying that reanimator was gonna come back in force. With the cycling meta, Rise Of The Reanimator Decks is coming.

I think we might need faster GY hate in the SB.

I my current build has 1 maindeck ooze and 1 more ooze as a sideboard slot.

Against Combo i have 5 Discard Spells and 3 Thorns in my sideboard (+ Ruric Maindeck).

I think you can easly cut 1 ooze, 1 thorn and/or 1 Discard Spell to make room for 2-3 Surgical Extractions/Faerie Macabre. Extraction Spells have also a little splash damage against other combo decks. I prefer Surgical Extraction, fast enough for the crucial turns and compared to Deathrite/Ooze not affected by Pithing Needle/Bounce as some common sidebord answers in Reanimator Decks.

[Phelix]

Played Elves again at a trial. Last time i lost in the finals, not this time:cool::


http://mtgpulse.com/event/14594#206775

// Elves by Felix Munch
// Exported from MTGPulse.com

2 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Regal Force
1 Priest of Titania
1 Viridian Shaman

1 Crop Rotation
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order

4 Gaea's Cradle
3 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Savannah

// Sideboard:
SB: 4 Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 3 Abrupt Decay
SB: 1 Progenitus
SB: 3 Cabal Therapy
SB: 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Joraga Warcaller


As previously discussed, I liked the 2 hoof. And I cut 4 Dread of night in the board.

Im not sure if im doing it right w. the many one offs, and the 3 2-offs (manaelves considered two-.off despite random different names)

[Lemnear]

Cut the random Regel, Viridian an priest

[Dice_Box]

I am a fan of having Shaman main. Not only are some of our biggest issues Artifacts, but if we are kept off our combo Stoneforge fetches them. Add on that hitting a Vial, a Mox or other such enablers and you have a strong card all round.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[Lemnear]

We discuss the same cards for more than 6 months now and Jitte/Sword of X & Y/B.Skull are turn 3 plays of a single archtype. Destroying a Vial for 3-4 mana isn't a value play but the same mental safe-haven as Priest, Archdruid, Ooze, Regal, Ezuri and others.

None of these slots are worth running in the current Tempo&combo-meta (local meta aside) imo.

[Dice_Box]

Locally there are two stompy decks, having to deal with 3shpere, chalice and the mox that the land decks run, on top of the Stoneforge decks. No that cards a godsend and I will use it. If you feel like it's unneeded then that is your call, but not losing the game at a cost of 3 mana is an ok trade in my eyes.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[Kayradis]

Congrats on the finish.

Get rid of Regal Force. Please...

[Phelix]

cutting priest absolutely has merit.

cutting shaman - not so much. perhaps its just the meta ive faced (quite alot of DnT, but also combo) I really like recurring artifact destruction. I won several games, that I woulda lost without it.

wether or not regal force is worth a slot, we will see. I quite like the card, especially vs decks that can wipe board. often i played it when i dont have enough attackers, either summoning sick or tapped, to attack w. hoof.

I will test non regal force version, for sure.

[Kayradis]

-1 Regal Force
+1 Ruric Thar, The Unbowed.

I know, I know, I've been harrassing everybody about it for months. Try it.

[Lemnear]

cutting priest absolutely has merit.

cutting shaman - not so much. perhaps its just the meta ive faced (quite alot of DnT, but also combo) I really like recurring artifact destruction. I won several games, that I woulda lost without it.

wether or not regal force is worth a slot, we will see. I quite like the card, especially vs decks that can wipe board. often i played it when i dont have enough attackers, either summoning sick or tapped, to attack w. hoof.

I will test non regal force version, for sure.

Regal is pointless against sweepers. It's a 7-mana-5/5-cantrip lol

[Phelix]

cantrip? ive often drawn 6-11 cards with it, and passed the turn.

[Dice_Box]

At what time are you drawing 7 cards with Force that a Hoof was not a better option? Really, he is either a cantrip, or the second best option. There really is no in between.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[Phelix]

when i play him, its either to load up, or to ensure resiliency.

if I could win w. hoof, id ofc take that.


but those situations, despite me experiencing them, might be so fringe and unusual that they dont warrant regal force inclusion.

[Dice_Box]

I am not sold. I mean even if everything else is tapped down, I would still swing with a 12/12 if there is 7 total creatures in the table. Even if that does not kill, their likely facing down lethal. Force gives you Card Advantage, Hoof gives you the kill. Force was what the deck need before Hoof was printed, he's obsolete now. You can face down combo with Thar and Kill with Hoof. Force does not need to be there.

Plus we already have two perfectly fine draw engines in Glimpse and Visionary.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[LeoCop 90]

I think regal force has merits only in the miracle matchup.... if they have a top with W open natural ordering for behemoth could lead to a terminus and auto loss for us.... natural ordering for regal force can still put pressure on the opponent while having cards to play after terminus.

[Lemnear]

I think regal force has merits only in the miracle matchup.... if they have a top with W open natural ordering for behemoth could lead to a terminus and auto loss for us.... natural ordering for regal force can still put pressure on the opponent while having cards to play after terminus.

Nope, they can still Terminus with Regal, GSZ or NO on the Stack and StoP/bounce the fatty. In either case they can drop CB/EtA after the sweep and laugh at your new hand.

This topic lost my attention after "drawing 6-11 cards and pass". Knowing what Quirion and Symbiote do or being able to do combat math helps.

[Phelix]

marginal situations.

also ur statement is kinda arrogant.

[danyul]

A well-timed Terminus isn't *that* marginal.

Also, can you use grammar and capitalization and spelling and all that? Regardless of how you feel about Lemnear, at least I can read what he is writing.

...

And knowing combat math and untaps and stuff really does help.

[Lemnear]

marginal situations.

also ur statement is kinda arrogant.

It's not intented to sound that way. All you hear is a kind of annoyance about discussing the same cards and situations over and over in this thread. One dear user even made a chart for Hoof vs. Regal aka damage vs. Cards drawn.

You have 8 untap effects in that deck and Nettle untaps himself ... It's quite impossible to draw 11 cards but have not at least 1 other creature without summoning sickness to join Hoof after an untap-effect. That's that I was aiming for.

[danyul]

One dear user even made a chart for Hoof vs. Regal aka damage vs. Cards drawn.

LOL was that me? I feel like that might have been me...

I'm sorry! Please don't banish me from the forest!

[Lemnear]

LOL was that me? I feel like that might have been me...

I'm sorry! Please don't banish me from the forest!

I can't quite remember who it was. :)

It was a prime example why Regal was replaced. You may want to add that important part to the primer, so we don't have to repeat the topic every 6 pages

[Julian23]

In case you guys are playing on MODO these days, note that there is a bug with Harmonic Sliver. I just dropped it off my opponent's Show and Tell when he selected Omniscience. Sadly, it didn't trigger and I lost the game I should have won :mad:

[nudon]

As evident on multiple occasions on this thread, we green mages like to do math. ;)

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

In case you guys are playing on MODO these days, note that there is a bug with Harmonic Sliver. I just dropped it off my opponent's Show and Tell when he selected Omniscience. Sadly, it didn't trigger and I lost the game I should have won :mad:

That sucks.

By the way, I really enjoyed watching your last twitch. You cracked me up with your attempts to hide cards off the end of the screen. Your commentary is fun and interesting. I continue to learn more about how to think about the deck while watching your games.

[Eternal]

God, i'm scared about this card.

http://www.magicspoiler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Toxic-Deluge-Commander-2013-Spoiler-190x265.jpg

Very bad thing for Elves.

What's happened now ? Am i right to be scared or not ?

[264505]

God, i'm scared about this card.

http://www.magicspoiler.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Toxic-Deluge-Commander-2013-Spoiler-190x265.jpg

Very bad thing for Elves.

What's happened now ? Am i right to be scared or not ?

Idk how much more play it will see vs the options already available. Theres already Infest and Perish for black sweepers against us.

[Eternal]

Idk how much more play it will see vs the options already available. Theres already Infest and Perish for black sweepers against us.

Wrath will be more present now with the new merfolk. It's an evidence :/ This Wrath is an "anti-Nemesis" and in the same time an anti Elves deck...

[Dice_Box]

It's going to hurt, but we will live. Times change, we adapt and change with them. I am sure we will be just fine.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[LeoCop 90]

Nope, they can still Terminus with Regal, GSZ or NO on the Stack and StoP/bounce the fatty. In either case they can drop CB/EtA after the sweep and laugh at your new hand.

Yes, regal force is pointless if they terminus with the trigger on the stack. Anyway I'm not claiming that force must be played, I'm 100% sure that 2 behemots are better.

[catmint]

-1 Regal Force
+1 Ruric Thar, The Unbowed.

I know, I know, I've been harrassing everybody about it for months. Try it.

Can you explain why you prefer maindeck ruric thar over Progenitus although Prog is almost always the better NO target versus fair decks?
Because you can cast it? A lot of combo in your meta?

[Dice_Box]

I understand the question is aimed at Kay, but I run Thar main as well and in short, yes to both questions. With the rise of decks running Young Pyromancer and Cabal Therapying my hand, having an option that means they take 6 damage per token is too strong.

I have a strange meta, it is in the middle of a big change up due to Tax Return time. But I have seen the rise of Burn, Delver and Pyromancer. Thar helps against each.

Thar main I feel is a Meta choice though and should not be pushed on others. He is a choice you make not because he is the best card in that slot, but because he does the most damage locally. If I was walking into a new location blind, Thar would be in the side unless the changes I have mentioned become the norm. If Thar was not so easy to remove though, he would be an auto include.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[Zombie]

I agree with that. Thar/Hoof2/Prog is very much a meta thing. Regal is wrong in any case, 1 Hoof a must in any case. I don't think the second fatty slot has any absolutely correct options, though. I'd kinda lean towards Ruric in an unknown meta, though. We have a ton of slower tools that do the Shardless thing of drawing a crapton of cards and we have Hoof against them too. Against combo, less so, and Delver is a hard matchup and Ruric is a beast there. Plus it's often not that much worse than a Hoof for "not much" (which is what Hoof 2 is there for anyway, "Hoof for a lot" = Hoof 1).

[Julian23]

Can you explain why you prefer maindeck ruric thar over Progenitus although Prog is almost always the better NO target versus fair decks?
Because you can cast it? A lot of combo in your meta?

Against any fair deck, the marginal benefit of having Progenitus is very low, compared to not having it. You win game1 against fair decks the overwhelming % of times and having access to Progenitus adds very little +%.

Ruric Thar however, greatly increases your outs against Combo in game 1, providing a very big marginal benefit. Having or not having it, is a huge relative difference in win%.

[Julian23]

Won our 52-man Legacy tournament at Nuremberg today. Just writing a short report from memory:

Round1 vs Jund - 2:0
Game1: I lead with Symbiote, my opponent Bolts it on his turn and I continue to develop my board while all he has is some more removal and Tarmogoyf. I believe I NO away all his hope of actually getting into this game on turn4 and he just conceedes.
Game2: My opponent keeps a slow hand, I believe 2-3 Abrupt Decays, some Tarmogoyfs again and Inquisition. He takes a random Elf while I start grinding with Symbiote and Visionaries. He Decays one of my two Symbiotes but thus fails to develop his own board. On turn5, I NO for Progenitus with two other (tapped) Elves on the table to ensure the Hydra lives thrugh Liliana. Turns out he sided out all his Liliana.
1:0

Round1 vs UW Faeries- 2:0
Game1: My opponent leads with Flooded Strand and cracks it eot to StP my first-turn Symbiote. So far, so good. On his turn he plays a Mutavault, Aether Vial and passes the turn...so I'm like "UW Merfolk?". When he Forces a Heritage Druid (really dude, a stupid Heritage?!) pitching Jace I'm completly set off. He proceeds to play a 2nd Mutavault and passes once more. I try for another Symbiote and he Spellstutter Sprites it - finally I know what he's up to! I drop Cradle and cast my misers Viridian Shaman to get rid off his Aether Vial. I also offer the trade of his Mutavault vs. Nettle Sentinel which he happily accepts. So do I. Needless to say, his mana never works out and I run away with the game.
Game2: I lead with Deathrite, while he just plays a Tundra and passes. On turn2 I miss my landdrop but drop a Nettle Sentinel. He just plays another Tundra and passes. I topdeck a Fetchland, crack it and could try to resolve Choke, which seems like a very bad move though. Not only were his both lands untapped, this plan would also fall victim to Daze. So I play out some random Elves and act in a way that I really, really didn't want my last Elf countered - he Dazes a useless random Elf once again. On his turn he plays a Mutavault, a Stoneforge Mystic for Jitte and passes. I Choke one of his lands aways and continue to force him into tapping lands so he never gets Jitte online. Choke just goes the distance while I eventually NO into Progenitus and finish him.
2:0

Round3 vs Marius Hausmann with Imperial Painter - 2:0
Game1: I'm on the play which is a huge in this matchup as otherwise Blood Moon gets us pretty good. After a mulligan to 6 I fetch for a basic Forest and cast LLanowar Elves. He goes for City of Traitors, SSG and drops Magus of the Moon - dodged a bullet here! On his second turn he goes for Faithless Looting and drops Painter + Grindstone on the third tun. I move all in on a Glimpse on turn4 with only 1 creature in hand but Symbiote in play. He doesn't monkeyblast the Glimpse and I eventually get there. After drawing 3 cards off Glimpse I realize that even if I where about to fizzle, I could still easily GSZ for Viridian Shaman and devastate his board. Instead I GSZ for my 1st Nettle Sentinel, draw into my 2nd one soon after. He scoops when the 2nd Glimpse resolves.
Game2: On the draw this matchup is a nightmare. I mulligan to 5 in search for a basic Forest but eventually settle with a Fetchland, Deathrite, Abrupt Decay, Visionary and Therapy. He plays Goblin Welder on his first turn and passes. He then spends turn 2 and 3 casting and flashbacking a Looting. Since he also had a mulligan to 6, he's only got 2 more cards left in hand which I read to be Grindstone and Painters Servant looking at what he had discarded to Looting. I Therapy his Grindstone, then flashback on Painter and drop some more dudes. He untaps, doesn't draw an artifact and passes. NO into Behemoth gets there.
3:0

Round4 vs Sneak Show - 2:1
Game1: My opponent complains about having no idea what to do vs Elves and figures this might be a very bad matchup for him, lol, fine with me. I take advantage of his insecurity and mindgame him into Forcing the most random cards, e.g. my 1st turn Symbiote. Fine with me, I've got a backup one...not that I really want one in this matchup anyways, lol. This guy was completly out of control, throwing Forces and Flusterstorms at the most random spells all the time! After the early card-disadvantage has settled, he does some cantripping and later hardcasts Force of Will on my potentially lethal GSZ=8 on turn5. He still doesn't draw into anything other than Cantrips and Counterspells. I go for a hardcast Behemoth on the next turn to which he responds with Intuition, targeting me. He gets FoW, Flusterstorm and Misdirection. I happily give him Misdirection and he conceeds. Turns out he didn't have a pitch card anyways and was hoping I would screw up. I don't.
Game2: He goes for Show and Tell on turn2 and I consider dropping my Harmonic Sliver. He seems really inexperienced and I genuinely believe him when he tells me he doesn't have Omniscience. Still, he might have Sneak Attack, in which case I could easily just hardcast the Sliver on the next turn BUT he might be able to then FoW it. So I select Sliver (other option was Visionary) but he turns over Griselbrand. He does some pretty bad sequencing, drawing his 7 cards at strange moments and not trying to assemble the kill before attacking on the next turn, but he eventually still gets there. At least I get to see his sideboarded Pyroclasm. First loss game of the tournamnet against turn2 Griselbrand seems fair.
Game3: I Cabal Therapy on turn1 hitting Show and Tell and see a had of 3 lands, Daze, Ponder and Intuition of which I also strip the the later on my next turn, sacrificing Dryad Arbor. One turn later he taps out to cast Sneak Attack (seriously, whats up with all those Lotus Petals he kept drawing?!) and I have perfect information about his hand at this point (Griselbrand, Ponder, Daze and a land). I'm shitting my pants when I realize that I'm still 1 mana short of resolving Harmonic Sliver to unimpededly kill the red enchantment...He of course rips the red mana he was missing at this point from the top; to be fair, he still knew about it from a previous Ponder, now that I think about it. Griselbrand hits the battlefield but because of his excessive use of Ancient Tomb and 2 Nettle Sentinels withering away on his life total, can only draw 7 cards after attacking. On my turn I manage to attack and DRS him down to exactly 1 life but have to give him one more turn to draw into Emrakul ftw since I was already at under 15 life from the Griselbrand hit and several Fetchlands. He bricks and I figure he might Sneak in a Griselbrand during blockers to stay alive, so I just mainphas DRS him. Get's there and I win probably the most exciting match of this tournament.
4:0

Round5 vs I-kid-you-not POX - 2:1
Game1: He laments about standing no chance in this matchup. His first turn Liliana (off Dark Ritual) on the play says otherwise...2 Hymns and several Lilana activations later, we're off to game2.
Game2: I just run him over with a neverending stream of Elves off Symbiote and Visionary. He seems completly inexperienced with what he's actually meant to do to win and just randomly plays discard spells while behind on board and forgets Bloodghast triggers left and right - not that it would have mattered but it tells you a lot about his mindset. On 4 life and a Liliana at 2, I attack him with Nettle Sentinel while Symbiote and Dryad Arbor attack his planeswalker. He tries to Cabal Pit the Nettle Sentinel which is of course to be rescued by Symbiote and he randomly loses Liliana. He tries to topdeck Infest. He doesn't. Even had drawn it, Nettle Sentinel (saved by Symbiote) would have just come down on the next turn.
Game3: He's once again on some pretty bad sequencing and also misses my NO with his Hymn. I try to hide my intention of setting up the Natural Order on the next turn when I pass with just Forest, Fetch and Quirion Ranger in play. He falls for it, taps out for Ratchet Bomb. I draw Cradle, play Visionary, tap my legendary land for 3 mana, use Quirion Ranger on Dryad Arbor and summon the-one-and-only Progenitus to the battlefield. He doesn't run Perish and even Infest into Liliana does/would not get there as I have another Fetchland online on the next turn.
5:0

Round6 vs Sebastian Bartl with Jund - 2:1
Since I'm the only person at 15 points, I actually have to play out this round. My opponent is no Jon Doe to me and has been doing incredibly well in 2013 thus far with Jund.
Game1: He goes first and handles my early Elves with a Punishing Fire and Abrupt Decay off Bloodbraid Elf. I randomly topdeck Heritage Druid with DRS and Visionary in play. Since I've only got 2 Forests, I have to unfortunately tap all my Elves so it's likely a Behemoth wouldn't get there over time. Instead I NO for Ruric Thar which then closes out the game as he's unable to draw the Tarmogoyf which was basically his only out of ever getting rid off Thar ever.
Game2: Turn1 DRS for him. Turn2 Hymn. Fine. Turn3 Hymn + DRS. It's getting old, you know? Turn4 Hymn and double Tarmogoyf. Ok fine, let's get into the next game.
Game3: I keep one land and run out DRS which he Bolts on his turn. I brink on land for a turn but manage to eventually get some 1 mana dudes into play while his two Hymns eat 2 of my three NOs in hand. Just as he taps out to lay down Dark Confidant and another DRS, I say to myself "Cradle would be pretty boss here". What do you know, it actually was. Ripping it from the top, I summon my favorite Hydra Avatar onto the battlefield with 2 more Elves left as vanguard protection. GREAT SUCCESS! :-)

6-0 in matches, 12-3 in games.
1st place of 52 players and after a day's work I collect my foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor!


My list for reference (61 cards, yeah, it rocks; added Ruric right before the event to the main).

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order
4 GreenSun's Zenith
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Birchlore Ranger
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
4 Gaea's Cradle
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Dryad Arbor


Sideboard:

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Choke
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Natural Order
1 Progenitus
1 Harmonic Sliver
2 Pithing Needle
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1 Surgical Extraction

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Thanks for posting this report. Congratulations. All that practice pays off.

Did you cast Ruric Thar other than in that one game? Would you keep it in the MD in the future? Did you ever have it in your hand wishing you could cast it?

[Dice_Box]

Might have a shot at your list, see where it gets me. But I will do that in two weeks. I am taking a break from elves this week.

How do you find the 9 fetches? I like the two basics a lot. Also, why not try and fit in a Taiga?

[danyul]

Nice report Julian. I wanna see more!

[trevaftw]

Woo! Won the local GPT for DC. Only 10 people showed up, but that still meant 5 rounds then top 4 (making 7 rounds total). Made an adjustment based on the suggestion since I always take out 1 birchlore when siding and bring in a 4th NO that I just permanently made the switch. That means I added a 3rd Abrupt Decay to the sideboard and loved it.

R1 - Esper counter-top w/stoneblade 2-0
R2 - Slivers 2-0
R3 - BURG 2-0
R4 - D&T 2-1
R5 - Nic Fit 2-0
Semi's - Nic Fit 2-1
Finals - TES 2-1

Overall 14-3.
I had some great draws and some of my opponents had poor. I'll try and do a writeup sometime tomorrow.

[Absolutflipz]

Nice report Julian. I wanna see more!

GL in Top 8, man. Just saw the bracket for SCGSea. Live now.

I've also been on board with 1 Craterhoof/1 Ruric as my maindeck NO targets. The redundancy of 2x Hoof is marginalized by the ability of Ruric Thar to give us a singular threat that gives us very good game against Storm game 1, as well as being very good against other decks such as RUG.

[Lemnear]

GL in Top 8, man. Just saw the bracket for SCGSea. Live now.

I've also been on board with 1 Craterhoof/1 Ruric as my maindeck NO targets. The redundancy of 2x Hoof is marginalized by the ability of Ruric Thar to give us a singular threat that gives us very good game against Storm game 1, as well as being very good against other decks such as RUG.

I mentioned it several times in this thread and do it again: discussing 4cc+ cards against a deck that kills within a range of 3 turns is off. RUG can just Daze, Pierce, FoW your NO, Fork Bolt your Elves and/or Submerge your Ogre, aside from denying your initial mana with Stifle.

Hoof has no MB application unless your meta is 30%+ combo (like in Berlin)

[Absolutflipz]

I mentioned it several times in this thread and do it again: discussing 4cc+ cards against a deck that kills within a range of 3 turns is off. RUG can just Daze, Pierce, FoW your NO, Fork Bolt your Elves and/or Submerge your Ogre, aside from denying your initial mana with Stifle.

Hoof has no MB application unless your meta is 30%+ combo (like in Berlin)

That's part of the reason Ruric is better than Craterhoof against RUG. You need multiple guys out against RUG in order for Craterhoof to be meaningful, and with all their removal, dazes, etc, it's difficult to get Hoof out with friends. Ruric is a solitary threat that you can out off of a single guy. This speaks to what you're saying...Craterhoof is not good against RUG (stifle, multiple guys needed, etc..)

This is in the same vein where Hoof comes out against RUG in sideboarded games, and Progenitus comes in. The games are grindy and having multiple creatures out is difficult, but NO for a single threat: #1 Prog, #2 Ruric in most cases, is very do-able.

And Storm is a top tier deck that you're going to have to get through, and being basically completely cold to it game 1 isn't a place I like to be, when I can make a reasonable switch of 1 card (-Hoof +1Ruric) gives you a pretty good shot at winning game 1.

I don't see other matchups where you would need 2x Hoof to win where 1x Hoof/1x Thar wouldn't get the job done. Thar adds a lot of versatility at very little opportunity cost in my experience.

**I'm assuming you meant "Thar has no maindeck value...**

[resum]

HUGE misplay with not playing around daze there.

[Absolutflipz]

And playing out random 1/1s with an active Jitte -- here, eat my guys for free.

[danyul]

I'm at a diner eating away my sorrows. But I super punted my top 8 match due to not really caring if I won or lost. There was some drama in the swiss that carried over into the top 8 rounds and I wasn't really focusing on the game. Also that guy who beat me was the only one to do so all day so whatevs. I'll have a report up when I can.

[danyul]

Sorry about that. I should have grabbed your ass again for good luck. Or maybe my ass grab was the drama you are referring too? If so, sorry about that too...

You are a wild and cuh-razy guy.

[nudon]

I'm at a diner eating away my sorrows. But I super punted my top 8 match due to not really caring if I won or lost. There was some drama in the swiss that carried over into the top 8 rounds and I wasn't really focusing on the game. Also that guy who beat me was the only one to do so all day so whatevs. I'll have a report up when I can.

Still nice seeing two elf players in the top 8. Congrats!

[feline]

Grats on another top 8 Danyul, that's 2 SCG Seattle's in a row!

[danyul]

Thanks nudon! I talked briefly with the other Elf pilot and he's a swell guy. I hope to see him doing well at other west coast events.

Thanks feline! I saw you around but wasn't sure if you recognized me so I didn't wanna bother you. Also you were always talking to Joe Lossett and I didn't feel cool enough to be a part of that crew. lol. But I was happy to see that you are still out there battling, trying to drown people with the highest of tides. See you in the finals of the next SCG Seattle?

[Zombie]

Thanks nudon! I talked briefly with the other Elf pilot and he's a swell guy. I hope to see him doing well at other west coast events.

Thanks feline! I saw you around but wasn't sure if you recognized me so I didn't wanna bother you. Also you were always talking to Joe Lossett and I didn't feel cool enough to be a part of that crew. lol. But I was happy to see that you are still out there battling, trying to drown people with the highest of tides. See you in the finals of the next SCG Seattle?

Of course you aren't - you only play the second-best colour in the game, not blue.

[feline]

Thanks nudon! I talked briefly with the other Elf pilot and he's a swell guy. I hope to see him doing well at other west coast events.

Thanks feline! I saw you around but wasn't sure if you recognized me so I didn't wanna bother you. Also you were always talking to Joe Lossett and I didn't feel cool enough to be a part of that crew. lol. But I was happy to see that you are still out there battling, trying to drown people with the highest of tides. See you in the finals of the next SCG Seattle?

Of course. I would have chatted with you while there and such but I didn't realize it was you until after it was all over. As far as the next one goes for Seattle, it's at the end of March so I'll cya there!

[nudon]

Of course you aren't - you only play the second-best colour in the game, not blue.

To be fair, we're playing color-shifted "fixed" versions of Ancestral Recall and Tinker. Elvish Visionary > Silvergill Adept too. :)

[feline]

Also have to give a shout out to Spencer who was the other top 8 elf deck at SCG Seattle this weekend. Likely unknown to most readers, we went at it at a previous SCG Seattle & he got me on a 2-0 sweep. Always awesome to see someone you went against & talked to for a bit a previous event, make the top 8 at the next one!

[danyul]

Also have to give a shout out to Spencer who was the other top 8 elf deck at SCG Seattle this weekend. Likely unknown to most readers, we went at it at a previous SCG Seattle & he got me on a 2-0 sweep. Always awesome to see someone you went against & talked to for a bit a previous event, make the top 8 at the next one!

Yeah we talked a bit before and during the top 8. He's a very nice guy and clearly a powerful ally of the forest. I don't travel very far out of the Seattle area but I hope to see him doing well at other events in the future.

[Kayradis]

Congrats on your finish!
Too bad I couldn't watch it since I was at work!

[Lemnear]

A bit late, but my congratulations, Daniel!

Hope I won't disappoint the crowd of theSource in 1,5 weeks

[Kayradis]

Are they gonna stream the BoM? I'll be watching!

[Lemnear]

Are they gonna stream the BoM? I'll be watching!

Coverage on LotusNoir.fr

[Kayradis]

Sweet!

[danyul]

Congrats on your finish!
Too bad I couldn't watch it since I was at work!


A bit late, but my congratulations, Daniel!

Hope I won't disappoint the crowd of theSource in 1,5 weeks

Thanks guys. The report is in progress. Lemnear, good luck at BOM!

[Kayradis]

Me and m1n1l337 were discussing your list last night since Im trying to improve mine for DC

[Lans89]

Are you not going to play TES Lemnear =)?

[andrebonotto]

Thanks guys. The report is in progress. Lemnear, good luck at BOM!

Congrats for you, Daniel! :)

I'm eager to read that report! (as many others are, I'm sure...)

[Lemnear]

Are you not going to play TES Lemnear =)?

Possibly play a Trial with the green Tinker and Ancestral Recall xD

For the Mainevent I cannot dismiss the new storm list I tuned for hatebears and combo matchups. Hope you guys are not mad at me though and I'm still welcome here ^_^

[nudon]

Possibly play a Trial with the green Tinker and Ancestral Recall xD

For the Mainevent I cannot dismiss the new storm list I tuned for hatebears and combo matchups. Hope you guys are not mad at me though and I'm still welcome here ^_^

Though technically colorless, we have access to the green Tolarian Academy too! I got my 4 birchlore build from you so I can't be mad. :P Good luck!

[Lemnear]

Though technically colorless, we have access to the green Tolarian Academy too! I got my 4 birchlore build from you so I can't be mad. :P Good luck!

Indeed! May I should step up to my doods crazy challenge to enter the Vintage Mainevent with Elves ...


Edit: 2000 posts on TheSource! Woooooooo!

[SpencerS]

Hello All! Long time lurker, and the Elf who "Hoofed" his way into 3rd at SCG seattle here.

Thought I would do a little report, but I lost my sheet with the names of my opponents (rude). So I will write a brief synopsis and explain certain choices etc. I went 7-1-1 in the swiss with my only match loss going to Brian on UWR which I promptly lost to in the semi finals as well. Note: I know if you saw my game 3 on camera you would say what a 'effin punt on the daze, I'll explain that later but suffice it to say 3 hours sleep and then playing 10 hours of magic is quite exhausting. On to the deck!


http://www.mtgpulse.com/event/14621#207208

Basically I opted for the additional 18th land as a 2nd forest for fears of more imperial stone being present. I also went with a sideboard plan of combo hate and creatures for the midrange match. I am personally not a fan of the 7 hand attack sideboard but I can see how that is a legit strategy, I prefer the Mindbreak traps as they do a similair thing and you can draw into them vs high tide and can bring them inside the mirror ( surprisingly good)

Match 1 vs U/B Tezzeret 2-0

G1: I mulliganed to a 5 card hand and played draw go until i was able to bait out a FOW with glimpse and go for a NO kill.
SIDEBOARD: +3 Abrupt decay -2 Visionary -1 NO
G2: I managed to turn 2 NO combo while his shields were down after casting Strix.

Match 2 vs ANT 2-1

G1: I got stormed out, tried to get him off thresh for cabal ritual with my Deathrite, but alas.
SIDEBOARD: +4 Cabal Therapy +1 Ruric That +1 Gaddock Teeg +2 Mindbreak Trap / -3 Visionary -1 Quirion Ranger -2 Craterhoof -1 Birchlore -1 Nettle
G2: I therapy away some vital parts of the hand ( I always name Infernal vs ANT) and get a Thar online.
G3: He goes all in early while I have a mindbreak trap active.

Match 3 vs UWR 2-1

Don't remember that much except I was able to "machine gun" him with shaman activations.
SIDEBOARD: I was still trying to figure out the UWR match, and I went +4 Cabal Therapy in this.

Match 4 vs UWR (Brian 2nd place) 1-2

G1: I managed a turn two on the play.
SIDEBOARD: +4 Therapy
G2: An early lavamancer spelled disaster and a few well timed daze/stifles got me.
G3: I had a land light hand and got 1 for 1'ed until he got jitte online.

Match 5 vs Merfolk 2-1

G1: I got a little too cocky in the merfolk match and tried to bait out a FoW to try and get a set up for a turn 3 NO, and he just let it resolve and I drew some cards, then assumed the coast was clear and went for it the next turn only to get both pierced then FoW, lost to pressure.
Sideboard: +1 Harmonic
G2/G3: Match went as it usually does with the "best friends" package being very strong, and even if they have the counter magic you can reload very easily with Glimpse or No or even GSZ.

Match 6 vs Monored 2-0 ???

G1: He opened with an aggressive start of Goblin guide into burn into vortex, however I was able to eek out a non lethal craterhoof that pushed him into the danger zone.
SIDEBOARD: +1 Ruric That +1 Prog +1 NO -3 Visionary
G2: I got a That on a turn two NO and he cannot win througt the card.

Match 7 vs Grixis Delver 2-0

G1: We had a pretty grindy match, with the iteration of his cabal therapy value town ( with young pyromancer) shutting me down in the early game. He got a lavamancer online and I knew it was a hail mary time. I value glimpsed through birchlore and went off unfortunately I wasn't able to GSZ for the right pieces and had to combo "the hard way" netting 0 or 1 mana. I ended up nearly decking myself and having to cycle GSZ for 0 to hard cast both craterhoofs through countermagic while note decking myself due to 3 active glimpse. Probably the hardest game of magic I had played in a year.

SIDEBOARD: -1 NO +1 ooze

G2: I managed a turn 2 glimpse combo

Match 8 2-1 vs UWR landstill

This was a bit of a bubble match and we both wanted top8.

g1 I stumbled into landstill after landstill and got locked down by removal. Team Patriot is pretty strong in the removal game
SIDEBOARD: UWR is such a silly matchup, its so hard. However, seeing standstill made me think that I would have enough time to bait out FoW and get a No-Pro. so +1 No +1 PROG

g2: The plan works.
g3: The plan works, although he had a misfortunate series of draws I imagine.

Match 9 ID


TOP 8:

I felt in a pretty good spot in the top 8, I just wanted to dodge UWR and Reanimator. I also wasn't keen on the mirror as Dan has a lot more experience than I do for sure in the mirror.

Match 1 vs RUG quarterfinals

g1: I kept a land heavy hand after a mull, hoping to bait out a early waste. Unfortunately 3x stifle in a row made that difficult.
SIDEBOARD +1 ooze
g2 I managed to value glimpse the match and get ahead on board.
g3 He played an early delver and drew 3 turns and didnt flip, I was able to use that knowledge to expand the board without fear of pyroclasm and win with a hoof.

Match 2 vs UWR Semifinals.

there is a report on the SCG website that describes it pretty well.

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/semifinals_spencer_sachtlund_v.html




ANYWAYS: As Dan surely knows the UWR is tough as nails, they have it all, far far far worse than any RUG matchup and the match feels abysmal. I am still not sure how to SB the match. Originally I thought like RUG that a 4x Therapy and Ooze plan would work to fight the problem cards post board. However, jitte and Stoenforge are the real problem so you want abrupt decays most likely, however that plan isn't great because it is too reactive. Anyways, the more that deck shows up the lower the chances for us pointy eared folk :( POSITIVE ENERGY AND WE CAN GET "EM next time.....

Shout out to my Canadian Homies! (Ben Wheeler < a delver degenerate> , Brett, Kayda,Blake and Jeremy Chad, Matt ) and Dan and Feline who I got to speak with briefly!


Changes: I would go 2x birchlore in the main, and I would go 4x Abrupt decay in the Sb.

Thoughts going forward: I think that deathrite is a mini plainswalker who is almost overpowered. HOWEVER, i think that the deck has started to lean on him and snaplands a little too much and it makes you weaker to stifle, land issues and the invasion of bloodmoon decks.. I am testing into alternatives.

[Benjammn]

Changes: I would go 2x birchlore in the main, and I would go 4x Abrupt decay in the Sb.

Thoughts going forward: I think that deathrite is a mini plainswalker who is almost overpowered. HOWEVER, i think that the deck has started to lean on him and snaplands a little too much and it makes you weaker to stifle, land issues and the invasion of bloodmoon decks.. I am testing into alternatives.

I'm currently playing three Forests due to an infestation of Blood Moon at my local meta. DRS also significantly reduces early combo-ability of the deck since most of the T2-3 kills involve Qurion Ranger untapping Llanowar Elves rather than DRS since there usually isn't two fetchlands in the GY on T2. There is something so soothing about going Forest, Llanowar Elves...I like DRS as much as the next guy, but his versatility comes at a price of deck consistency.

4 Abrupt Decay....seems harsh. Why specifically 4? What MUs do you want this against?

Also, does anyone have a good SB plan written up? I'm preparing for GP:DC and would love to compare notes on how to SB vs. various MUs....right now my SBing is a bit haphazard as I generally take out a bunch of 1-ofs but I feel that isn't really correct.

[Lemnear]

I'm currently playing three Forests due to an infestation of Blood Moon at my local meta.

What does this mean? Is everybody playing imperial Painter and dropping T1 Bloodmoons on the play? If that's not the case, I have no clue what your problem is, because the deck plays very well off 1-2 Basics, especially if DRS are not your "only" mana dorks

[Benjammn]

What does this mean? Is everybody playing imperial Painter and dropping T1 Bloodmoons on the play? If that's not the case, I have no clue what your problem is, because the deck plays very well off 1-2 Basics, especially if DRS are not your "only" mana dorks

That's exactly what I mean. :P

Something like 4 regulars at my LGS are on Imperial Painter for the GP so all of them have been playing it recently. Just a local thing though, I wouldn't run 3 in the GP.

[danyul]

Hello All! Long time lurker, and the Elf who "Hoofed" his way into 3rd at SCG seattle here.
(...)
ANYWAYS: As Dan surely knows the UWR is tough as nails, they have it all, far far far worse than any RUG matchup and the match feels abysmal. I am still not sure how to SB the match. Originally I thought like RUG that a 4x Therapy and Ooze plan would work to fight the problem cards post board. However, jitte and Stoenforge are the real problem so you want abrupt decays most likely, however that plan isn't great because it is too reactive. Anyways, the more that deck shows up the lower the chances for us pointy eared folk :( POSITIVE ENERGY AND WE CAN GET "EM next time.....

Howdy Spencer. It's good to e-meet ya again. I agree that the UWR Delver matchup is not fun. They have all the tools of RUG with hardly any of the weaknesses. They don't have to run Nimble Mongoose or Goyf, which can be dead cards against us. Instead they get more removal + a Stoneforge package. I may have dismissed the matchup before, but that's because only one guy around here played it. It has become very popular all of a sudden, and that could be a problem.


I'm currently playing three Forests due to an infestation of Blood Moon at my local meta. DRS also significantly reduces early combo-ability of the deck since most of the T2-3 kills involve Qurion Ranger untapping Llanowar Elves rather than DRS since there usually isn't two fetchlands in the GY on T2. There is something so soothing about going Forest, Llanowar Elves...I like DRS as much as the next guy, but his versatility comes at a price of deck consistency.

4 Abrupt Decay....seems harsh. Why specifically 4? What MUs do you want this against?

Also, does anyone have a good SB plan written up? I'm preparing for GP:DC and would love to compare notes on how to SB vs. various MUs....right now my SBing is a bit haphazard as I generally take out a bunch of 1-ofs but I feel that isn't really correct.

I have been on 4 Decay for awhile now. They kill everything that gives us trouble - hatebears, Lavamancer, Jitte, Counterbalance, Ensnaring Bridge...I could go on. Everybody knows how good Decay is. I had 2, but always wanted them when I boarded them in. Then I went to 3 and still wanted more. So fuck it. 4 it is.

IRT a SB plan - I was drafting one but then SCG happened so I've been trying to write that stuff up while it's fresh in my mind. But trust that there will be a SB plan along with an updated primer in due time. Taking out a bunch of 1-ofs is generally how I go about SBing. We are an engine deck, afterall. You don't want to dilute the power of that engine by taking out 4 copies of something and killing your chances of drawing that thing. Did you have any super specific questions about a particular matchup?

[Benjammn]

I guess the main one that I haven't seen been addressed is Imperial Painter. Also, has there been a debate on Thoughtseize vs Thorn/Thalia in this thread? I've read back about 20 pages but it seems most here have opted for Thorn, just curious how most of you came to that conclusion.

[Dice_Box]

This deck really has issues with Moon. Honestly I think almost everyone has just kind of hoped to dodge the matchup or hope to go first. The best defence we have is to play a basic ASAP. Otherwise I would bring in Decay, all my discard and any art hate I had in the side.

As a painter player I would like to say, if we do not draw a moon, or a turn 2/3 kill, I would put my money on elves. The deck is just so much slower than elves. Also do not be totally worried about a turn one moon. That's not as simple to pull off as people make out and I run a bunch of turn one accel. Also after postboard, expect Ensnaring Bridge, its somewhat of a standard in the side.

[Benjammn]

This deck really has issues with Moon. Honestly I think almost everyone has just kind of hoped to dodge the matchup or hope to go first. The best defence we have is to play a basic ASAP. Otherwise I would bring in Decay, all my discard and any art hate I had in the side.

As a painter player I would like to say, if we do not draw a moon, or a turn 2/3 kill, I would put my money on elves. The deck is just so much slower than elves. Also do not be totally worried about a turn one moon. That's not as simple to pull off as people make out and I run a bunch of turn one accel. Also after postboard, expect Ensnaring Bridge, its somewhat of a standard in the side.

OK, that is about what I expected and what I did at my GPT two weekends ago. I played Imperial Painter twice and went 1-1 (unfortunately the loss was in T8...) and the games pretty much went how you described. I beat the one in swiss 2-0 since I turn-3-NOed him game 1 and decayed his bridge and NOed him game 2...he had very little gas both. The one in T8, however, T2ed me game 1 and repeatedly blew up my lands game 2 off of a mull to 5 for me.

[SpencerS]

Thoughts on the future for the UWR match? If you thought RUG was hard, this is a whole new ball game. RUG was winnable due to good game 1 and their slow clock. UWR has a stone forge/jitte package and grim lavamancer......maindeck......plus the usual sweepers post board.

During testing and the SCG SEA I tried various starts;

4x Cabal Therapy +1 Harmonic
and
1x NO 1x Prog 1x Harmonic
and
3x Abrupt decay, +1Ooze.


thoughts? Personally I actually like trying to go for NO PROG on g3 because they should have sided out daze on the draw and sided back in force, which is sometimes easier to bait out with glimpse. If their gameplan is to wipe you or use their absurd amount of spot removal, putting into play an invincible creature seems like the best bet.

I know this seems counterintuitive versus blue/x decks.............*shrug*

[yuMi-]

+1 NO +1 prog +1 ooze +2 abrupt +1 harmonic

-2 heritage -1 craterhoof -1 neetle -1 birchlore -1 fyndhorn

At my last tourney that was my sb plan against UWR delver and I won 2-0 twice (swiss and top8). I don't have the abrupt nº3 at my sb. I just had more threats than he had counters, at one point he just had to FoW my Ooze and I went NO->prog.

[danyul]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27195_Leaving-A-Legacy-A-Lesson-In-The-Warriors-Way.html

My article about my Top 8 performance at SCG Seattle is up. There isn't a ton of Elfy content in there though. It's more of a personal story.

I'll have a proper technical tourney report up in the next couple days or so.

Also, UWR Delver is for big jerks!

[Julian23]

If you want to take the time to actually read a meaningful article, read Dan's Leaving a Legacy. One of the best reads I had in quite a while; funny, authentic and different.

On another note, I will be streaming the Legacy DE in ~1h! Join us on twitch.tv/itsJulian. As usual, taking all kinds of music requests as I have Spotify Premium.
Also, you want me to try any card in particular? I believe I will try to setup a test session agaisnt our new Nemesis UWr Delver later this week and stream it.

[Kayradis]

Multani's Acolyte

[andrebonotto]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27195_Leaving-A-Legacy-A-Lesson-In-The-Warriors-Way.html

My article about my Top 8 performance at SCG Seattle is up. There isn't a ton of Elfy content in there though. It's more of a personal story.

I'll have a proper technical tourney report up in the next couple days or so.

Also, UWR Delver is for big jerks!


Daniel,

As Julian put it, it was great reading, indeed.

I've been more than once harassed by such "gentleman's agreements", and I find it really an embarassing situation.

It was a good reminder for not to give in to these "Cowards proposals" and just play the game, like "true Warriors" do.

[andrebonotto]

Thoughts on the future for the UWR match? If you thought RUG was hard, this is a whole new ball game. RUG was winnable due to good game 1 and their slow clock. UWR has a stone forge/jitte package and grim lavamancer......maindeck......plus the usual sweepers post board.

During testing and the SCG SEA I tried various starts;

4x Cabal Therapy +1 Harmonic
and
1x NO 1x Prog 1x Harmonic
and
3x Abrupt decay, +1Ooze.


thoughts? Personally I actually like trying to go for NO PROG on g3 because they should have sided out daze on the draw and sided back in force, which is sometimes easier to bait out with glimpse. If their gameplan is to wipe you or use their absurd amount of spot removal, putting into play an invincible creature seems like the best bet.

I know this seems counterintuitive versus blue/x decks.............*shrug*

I'm also hesitant regarding sideboarding on this match up.

I think I'm inclined to try a "mix" of two aproaches:

1) Avoid his Jitte/serious threats (Delver/Lavamancer) = +3x Abrupt Decay; keep the MD Viridian Shaman in
2) Present some threat of my own = +1 NO*, +1 Progenitus, +1 Ooze**

The possible side-outs might be: a) -1 Behemoth***, -2 Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Glimpse

...or b) -1 Behemoth, -2 Sentinel, -1-2 Heritage Druid, -1-2 Elvish Visionary

My feeling is that the Glimpse plan is less likely to succeed, so I'm not really counting on it besides being a "counter bait"**** or a "draw 2-3" spell.

Does that make any sense?

I got the feeling that I'm over-sideboarding here...

______________________
* - To be honest, I'm not really sure about NO#4, due to it being hardly castable early.
** - I'm not sure about Ooze, because of the Submerges. But if he arrives late (late enough to survive, but soon enough to matter), maybe after Submerge was cast, he would have plenty of food to eat...
*** - Leaving the second one in. (Or, if playing a Ruric build, I'd probably keep the Ruric in).
**** - If I assume Glimpse will be a "counter bait", then should I run the full playset, to have plenty of counter magnets?

[Benjammn]

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27195_Leaving-A-Legacy-A-Lesson-In-The-Warriors-Way.html

My article about my Top 8 performance at SCG Seattle is up. There isn't a ton of Elfy content in there though. It's more of a personal story.

I'll have a proper technical tourney report up in the next couple days or so.

Also, UWR Delver is for big jerks!

Great article. My experience like this was interesting but thankfully not detrimental to my friendship...one time a friend and I found ourselves paired together in a small tourney both at X-0 with one more round after to go. Rather than play it out and secure T8 for the winner, we drew thinking if we won the next round we could both make it in. I was on TES and he was playing Gobilns so I probably would have crushed him, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. However, I encounter Jin Gitaxias Reanimator in the final round (before Griselbrand was printed) and promptly lose to a turn 2 Jin game 1 and to my most epic punt in Magic ever game 2. I look over to my friend and he lost as well.

Also, UWR is definitely for jerks. I did some practice games last night on Cockatrice and encountered the matchup and lost in 3 games. I sided in discard, Abrupt Decays, and Progen and the NO-Progen plan worked well game 2 (Therapy protected my NO from FoW), but game 3 he literally drew and threw Bolts and Swords at every creature I played and I scooped when he found a Grim Lavamancer. I hope it doesn't grow in popularity before the GP because I don't think Elves can handle it without drastic SB tech like Steely Resolve or something.

[PendelSteven]

My take on the 8-round Legacy side-event on GP Antwerp today!

Hello people. It's unfortunate that I left the GP about 40 minutes too early to catch my bus back home, otherwise, I was home in a little more than 1h30 - by public transport. Bus. So yeah, I guess you could say GP Antwerp was a home GP.

My decklist? I loaned a Thalia and a Abrupt Decay with my pal who comes from my hometown, but lives in a city about, I think 125 km away from Antwerp, and that's to to the northeast, I live in the east of Antwerp.

So, I registered:

1 Birchlore
2 Kraterhoofd
4 DRS
2 Llanowar / Fyndhorn Elves (one of both actual)
4 Heritage Druid
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Viridian Shaman
4 Glimpse Of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Natural Order

2 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbour
3 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
1 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

---
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order
1 Progenitus
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Ruric Thar
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thalia
1 Thorn Of Amethyst
2 Thoughtseize


Yup. I feel like a real Elvesplayer since this weekend. I spotted a Cradle at a vendor's table this saturday and eventually we settled that I bought my Cradle for € 10 if I traded in five cards, one of them a LED. Good trade? Well, for me it was. Probably some chap or gal will be glad to buy the 2 Dream Halls or Arcbound Ravenger I traded in as well. I reckon'I made a loss there, 'cause I traded in a foiled Blood Moon as well, but you know what? I don't care! I play Elves! So that's how I got my 4th Cradle... Thanks to GP Antwerp :).

So. The side event. Well, first up, I have a cold, not that the symtoms are too bad at the moment, but last friday I couldn't keep my lunch in wholly.

Let's start at round 1 and see how I fared though...

ROUND 1 vs Benjamin,
I guess a relatively young and inexperienced player from Germany who's English was sub-par, but I can talk a decent German, so we met in the middel communicationwise :).

was 2-0 vs Miracles with Helm-combo. Yup. 2-0. Just nibbling away at an oppononent who couldn't block. Game 2 was interesting though: he thought he won, but in response to his Helm-activation, I Abrupt Decay's his Rest In Peace.

Thought Benjamin that he can find a template for a single-page decklist on the website on wizards.com and also that he probably can bring his deck to such a competative event in a single deckbox: he had one of those 4-in-one boxes. Not handy during deckchecking, huh?

Matches: 1-0, Games 2-0


ROUND 2 vs Daniel,
Daniel was more experienced than me. I think he was German and played Modern the day before and when he declared that people around me told him they hate Modern. I said I don't like Modern and a little later that I don't despise Modern. That's sort of the truth. It does interest me, but I'd rather play and watch Legacy.

IIRC 0-2 vs RUG Delver. Not much more to say or that I can remember. Did get him to 9 on game 2. Oh well.

Matches: 1-1, Games 2-2


ROUND 3 vs Murat,
I guess Murat, totally a southern Dutch player from Den Bosch with fitting accent and attitude by the way, played Legacy some years ago and is now returning. Anyhow. Great guy. Oh. Yeah. Great (Dutch) headjudge as well, I forget his name, but I found out I forgot to sideboard out my 61th card laast match, so I called the judge (together with Murat), but since I found my Scavening Ooze in my opening hand, he gave me a warning, let me shuffle back and mulligan to 6. Well, I can live with that :).

vs Team Italia, it turns out. Yeah. Played Legacy some years ago and was suprised by the Craterhoof Behemoth. Although we did get 4 minutes more on the clock, after two games in about 50 minutes, we settled on a 1-1 draw. He won game 2 with lingerous souls tokens and an Elspeth, Knight Errand activation. To be hones though, if we didn't settled on 1-1, it probably would've been a 1-1-1. Hymn vs Glimpse... doesn't really speed up the game, you know?

Matches: 1-1-1, Games 3-3


ROUND 4 vs Phil
If I'm right, Phil is from Hengelo, the east-part of the Netherlands. Had interesting hair and a hatred for Elves. Of course, guess what he played?

vs Maverick. I should've won game 2. He played a Jitte and because of that I GSZ't for 3 for a Vidian Shaman, while I had a Natural Order in hand. Totally should've NO--> Progenitus. Who cares about a Jitte if you have a Progenitus, right? So it was a 1-1-1 instead. Sigh.

Matches: 1-1-2, Games 4-4-1


ROUND 5 vs Boris
From the Czech Republic, I think. Yeah. Not much to say about Boris, I guess. I did have fun playing with him though.

vs RUG Delver. And this case, I went 1-1-1, which I'm glad about. Finally, not a 0-2 vs Delver. I played in two 8-players last night and long story short, both elimination 8-players ended with a 0-2 loss vs Delver. The 2nd one was WRU though. Next time, I hope to win 2-1 vs a Delver.

Matches: 1-1-3, Games 5-5-2


ROUND 6 vs Tom
IIRC, Tom is from Ghent. So I told him where I'm from and he's like "I went there some day", so I replied, "yeah, I went to Ghent some day :P". Of course. Some of my furniture I bought in Ghent: it's about 35 km away from me.

vs... wait for it... Yeah. Wait for it.... High Tide
(!). Sigh :D. Somehow in turn 5 after Time he could go off with a Thorn of Amethyst in play, that's why in my mind for a while I registered this as a draw. No, officially it's a 1-2 loss. Sigh.

Matches 1-2-3, Games 6-7-2. And I kept playing? Of course!


ROUND 7 vs Michael
From somewhere between Manchester and Leeds. Didn't see much of his deck though which was?

ANT. Went 2-0! Thank to the sticking Thorn he was sort of dead in the water game 2 and when he eventually had to go off, he totally killed himself with Ad Nauseum. Yeah well. Better to suicide yourself than losing assuredly the next turn, or something in that vein :D

Matches 2-2-3, Games 8-7-2. Could end up with 12 points afterall... Oh yeah. And endede game 1 with a good old fashioned Glimpse-combo. The only game i won that way incidently. Nice to note at the end...

ROUND 8 vs Simon
From North-Ireland who came along with his other gothic friends. Not that I have something against Gothics, but guess what he played?

Reanimator. Sigh. Totally had him on game 2 though. I think I actually resolved a Craterhoof after I played a Thorn of Amethyst on turn 3, after a Thoughtseize on turn 1 and a Therapy on turn 2... Yeah. Unfortunately, game 3, turn 1 he went something like Petal, Ritual, Entomb, Reanimate, Griselbrand. Actually even worse than that. So yeah. 1-2. :(

Matches 2-3-3, Games 9-8-2. And only of those 8 matches was won by the Glimpse-Combo. Elves is not a combo-deck, it is an aggro-combodeck!


Should be 3-3-2, 10-8-1. That's one thing I know for sure. And such mistakes you make once and then never forget it again. It perhaps would've given me better matchups, although after winning 2-0 vs Miracles and 2-0 vs ANT I don't know what a bad matchup is anymore. My worse matchup seems to be RUG Delver! Is that just me?

Maybe I'll make a small report on the 8-player events, although for now suffice to say: 2-0 vs Big Zoo, 0-2 vs RUG Delver, 0-2 vs WUR Delver. Delver :-/.




But what I'm most happy with? I just need a Thalia and an Abrupt Decay and I totally own the deck I registered. Might've switch that Thalia for a Thorn though. So all in all, for less than € 20, my deck sort of is complete. Sort of. Might add another Dryad Arbor or a 9th fetchland, but for now, the maindeck will do fine. So since this weekend I feel officially part of the NO Junk Elves family of players!

And I think I played better this tourney than the last. Also, since I spoke to someone from Ghent, there might be a chance I will get to play more Legacy during the week, which would be great to learn to play better, of course.

Then again, who knows? I saw the stars weren't right for my sunsign. Maybe I just a bunch of bad luck as well. I leave with a content feeling for where I am in my experience: 9 games won, 8 lost, 2 draws.

Goes to show even I don't lose 0-16 in an 8-round Legacy event :P

[B4L4]

Chris Andersen (Elves!) vs Joe Lossett (Miracles) currently live (Rnd 9) #SCGINVI

[Shawon]

Chris Andersen (Elves!) vs Joe Lossett (Miracles) currently live (Rnd 9) #SCGINVI

Chris just won, 2-0. Joe landed Counterbalance on turn 2, and seeing no 1-drops for the rest of the game after the turn 1 Brainstorm. I hate Miracles, but damn even I felt bad.

[Kayradis]

Playing in a GPT for DC this weekend.
I was quite hungover.
Lost in Rd 2 against Stiflenaught....

Anyway. Still 76 PWP away from a bye.

[PendelSteven]

This weekend I have tested out Julian21's theory a bit. That is too say: I often put in 6 cards from my sideboard and removed 5. You won't be the first to play with 61 or even 62 cards who wins a tournament (Jamie Wakefield anyone?).

The manaratio in Elves is very hard to determine. If you don't count things in like Wasteland or Blood Moon for the ratio of lands vs nonlands, the Cradles are still dependent on how many creatures you can stick. Even if you consider your opponent a goldfish, wether you have a Birchlore or a Heritage in play makes a difference as well, not too mention untapping a Priest of Titania...

So wether 61 cards with 14 initial lands is right?

Well, there are 60 cards with 13 initial lands. If we devide it simply like that, it's 13/60 which is 21 2/3 % vs 14/61 which is almost 23%. Even 14/62=a little more than 22,5 %...

So I guess just adding another Dryad Arbor to a 14 initial land deck with 60 cards is no problem at all.


Debate please!

[YamiJoey]

IMO Dryad Arbor doesn't count. If you can't make a T1 Llanowar Elf from it it ain't a Land.

[PendelSteven]

If you can't make a T1 Llanowar Elf from it it ain't a Land.

Exactly the point.

That's why I don't count it as a land and why I personally need to find some space to put a 2nd arbour in. And in this case I definately spell it like that, since it is an arbour, although it's named wrong :P.

So. With 61 cards and 2 Dryad Arbor instead of 60 cards and 1 Dryad Arbor, the "initial land math" is 14/61 instead of 14/60 which still is more than 13/60:
almost 23 % instead of 23 1/3 % is still more than 21 2/3 %. Even 14/62 is still almost 22,6 % which is almost a % more than 13/60=21 2/3 %. And I reckon if you're 62th card is a Birchlore Ranger or a Llanowar Elves it's worth a try.

Actually. Wakefield's archetype was 62 cards, 26 lands. If you count Birchlores, Heritages, Llanowars, Fyndhorns, Mystics, Priest (the druids) and DRS (the shaman), I think every Elvesdeck has 26 "lands": initial lands + druids + shamans. For example, 8 druids + 4 shamen + 14 initial lands = 26, which is exactly in line with the Wakefield theory!


If you don't know Wakefield theory. Here's a deck from Magic History with Gaea's Cradle and Natural Order in it for you
--> http://www.wizards.com/sideboard/article.asp?x=sb20011105a
with Mana Elves and Overrun - nowadays are Overrrun goes by the name of Craterhoof Behemoth if you put 2 and 2 together... Although that deck is 60 cards. Oh well.

[PendelSteven]

http://www.mythicspoiler.com/c13/cards/restore.jpg

The best timing to use it is after an opponent makes a mistake and tries to wasteland your dryad arbor while you have a Quirion Ranger in play for example: you take your opponents wasteland and waste their volcanic island. :D

But if they waste your cradle... it's better than a Shrine To Nyx :D

If you're just gonna want to get your Wasteland back, Life of The Loam is the better card of course, so I don't worry about it. That being said, Jeff Hoogland will be happy to put this card in his Legacy deck, I think...

[PendelSteven]

http://www.mythicspoiler.com/c13/cards/baneofprogress.jpg

Seems like our sideboard keeps on getting better... Totally beats non-blue pesky Affinity decks and if you bait out blue Affinitydecks (you might view Tezzerator as one) it's quite devastating as well.

[danyul]

Steve, you make me sad.

The land ratio discussion has merit, but I am kinda against running 61 cards just on the principle of the thing.

That weird land-grab spell thing is cute, but Elves has already reached the upper limit of non-creature spells it can play without making Glimpse absolutely suck. Any new spell you introduce must compete with the likes of GSZ, NO, and Glimpse. Unless it's some SB tech. Stealing an opponent's Wasteland is kind of cute, but completely antithetical to this deck's gameplan. Also, if you are afraid of somebody blowing up your G.Cradle then you should be playing a little tighter or working a few extra hours at the office to purchase your 4th copy. Or just drop 15 cents on a Crop Rotation and call it a day.

That Serenity-creature is kinda cool but I wouldn't bother even buying a copy if the only matchup you can think to use him in is Affinity. We already roll that matchup. If anything, you would want that guy VS Miracles/Helm Combo or the rare Enchantress matchup. He's pretty narrow, but useful enough to keep in mind if you want some weird edge vs those decks. But if you really need to beat Miracles every week then you might actually want to play a different deck entirely.

/thoughts

[Julian23]

It's been a pretty good month for us, I hear.

http://i.imgur.com/La5cVgD.jpg

[Kayradis]

4th Cradle in the mail (thanks to sdematt)
1st Foil Glimpse acquired as well.

Fuck.
It was a good day

[Zombie]

Just wait until everyone is packing Golgari Charms in the board because of TNN.

[Julian23]

On Magic Online, everyone and their mother are already running a plethora of Golgari Charms... :frown:

[Kayradis]

I've noticed that as well recently!
What are the options for us at this point?

[Zombie]

Land, Petal, LED, LED, Infernal for Ad Nauseam.

[Julian23]

Land, Petal, LED, LED, Infernal for Ad Nauseam.

...Tried it, didn't like it in this deck :wink:

Seriously, there's not much you can do about Instant Speed sweepers. Try to play around them when possible, only have 2-3 creatures (one of them being Symbiote) in play and try not to get blown out during Glimpse Chains. Keeping two mana open is also not always easy for them, especially considering that Shardless Bug and Junk-style decks like to tap out a lot. Your best bet is still Natural Order here.

[Kayradis]

NO -> Ruric Thar. GG

[MD.Ghost]

Just wait until everyone is packing Golgari Charms in the board because of TNN.

Answer with Leyline of Vitality (http://magiccards.info/m11/en/183.html) :wink:

Normally a 2/2 Nettle or 1/2 Deathrite into NO (Progenitus, Ruric) is enough. Otherwise Elvish Archdruid is a card, or you can chose weird stuff like Caller of the Claw etc.

[Koby]

On Magic Online, everyone and their mother are already running a plethora of Golgari Charms... :frown:

So play Elvish Archdruid...

[trevaftw]

LSV did a legacy daily with elves

http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-lsv-legacy-elves-3/

[Kich867]

So play Elvish Archdruid...

I'm moving back into elves and this was immediately what jumped in my head. Why not run a few Elvish Champions post-board? Just go the aggro-elves route against BUG / Junk / Jund / Maverick.. They all sort of have issues with swarms of dudes and Golgari Charm is a pretty common answer to the deck. Now imagine the swarm being slightly larger and unblockable.

[Lemnear]

because Petish and Deed are still cards. It's pointless to invest 4 mana to GSZ into a Archdruid if you can pay the same amount to NO into Hoof (thus I run 4). They can still use the charm in response in either case

[Kich867]

because Petish and Deed are still cards. It's pointless to invest 4 mana to GSZ into a Archdruid if you can pay the same amount to NO into Hoof (thus I run 4). They can still use the charm in response in either case

That doesn't follow though.. Because you can natural order, green sunning for 3 is inherently bad? I guess I don't get it. Like yes, Natural Order and GSZ for 3 are the same mana cost but that's..several different cards that require different lines of play and consideration and priority.

In your hypothetical situation, you can't rule the card as bad because another card costs the same amount of mana--what if you don't have a natural order, what if it got discarded, what if gaddock teeg is out? I was thinking of putting 3 in the board and just swapping them for bullets from the main that aren't actually that amazing to give me the option to draw into them, or tutor them. But if you did have a natural order you'd totally just jam it and if you didn't you might just play a champion and make all your guys unblockable and bigger. Sometimes your only plan is plan C: Beat them to death with a bunch of dudes.

[P-E]

caller of the claw against sweeper ^^
transform your 1/1 into 2/2 bears :laugh:

[Lemnear]

That doesn't follow though.. Because you can natural order, green sunning for 3 is inherently bad? I guess I don't get it. Like yes, Natural Order and GSZ for 3 are the same mana cost but that's..several different cards that require different lines of play and consideration and priority.

In your hypothetical situation, you can't rule the card as bad because another card costs the same amount of mana--what if you don't have a natural order, what if it got discarded, what if gaddock teeg is out? I was thinking of putting 3 in the board and just swapping them for bullets from the main that aren't actually that amazing to give me the option to draw into them, or tutor them. But if you did have a natural order you'd totally just jam it and if you didn't you might just play a champion and make all your guys unblockable and bigger. Sometimes your only plan is plan C: Beat them to death with a bunch of dudes.

I was trying to Highlight: Playing Archdruid over the 4th NO is inherently bad. It's not like GSZ is any better than NO against teeg. Guys like Archdruid are removal Magnets so I expect him being a 3- or 4-mana-sink which either a) gets handled by 1cc-instants, b) sweeped by common global removal c) impossible to play (in a decent timeframe and with a Notable impact) once your first mana-dork eats removal

[nudon]

I played my way to another top 4 split at MTGDeals this past Sunday with elves. There were a total of 6 Swiss rounds and 48 players. Here is my tournament report (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26962-Elves!-Top-4-Split-at-MTGDeals-10-27-2013) if you guys are interested.

[Julian23]

Leaving for the BoM in 1 hour — Awesomeness ensues!

[Lemnear]

Leaving for the BoM in 1 hour — Awesomeness ensues!

Flight @ 9am for me

[Eternal]

good luck to the elvish alliance. :laugh:

[Elvish Visionary]

Congrats to all of the recent success to this deck. It's great watching the deck evolve and become fine tuned. I wanted to ask about ruric. I haven't played with him at all but he does seem like a beast. I know 2 craterhoof main is very popular, and I have seen a few decks with 2 crater/1 ruric main - which I feel is a little much(maybe 1 each). What is the general consensus?

Being that I have never played with him what is everyone's opinion - is he better from the board or main. Also if he is main I would think to go with more than 1 birchlore.

On a separate topic. I feel 2 forest are important for this deck especially with blood moon being more popular which is why I think 9 fetchlands seem right, along with the 4 cradle, 2 bayou, 1 savannah and I like 2 arbor - one seems fine until he is in your graveyard.

[LeoCop 90]

Chris Andersen played ezuri last starcitygames legacy open. He lost against bant in top8.... ezuri won him a game because he naturally topdecked him when the opponent had gaddock in play.

I don't think it's right to run an elf lord as a tutor target, but anyway wich do you think is better.... ezuri, elvish champion, elvish archdruid, or imperious perfect ?

[andrebonotto]

Leaving for the BoM in 1 hour — Awesomeness ensues!

Good luck for you (and everyone who is going to play Elves) there!

Reports will be appreciated :smile:

[Kayradis]

I'm still fine tuning the list for DC.
Ezuri is always in the back of my mind as a back up win condition.

Im running 2 Hoof/1 Ruric MD at the moment, but that could change again.

[Dice_Box]

The thing I find about Ezuri is if you can make enough mana to use him to his fullest, you likely have enough creatures where bye an attack with Hoof will win you the game. So I am not his greatest fan.

Sent from my mobile, forgive spelling and grammatical errors.

[Zombie]

Yeah, Ezuri is kinda iffy. I mean, obviously depends on what the hate is going to be. Golgari Charm and it's ilk are probably going to be much more common in light of Colossal R&D Fuckup #27163, so that would suggest traditional Lords. Untap with Archdruid, win? Ezuri works for Pyroclasm, but not much else. There is a line where you do stuff like Ezuri, pass with mana open. Pump deals with 'clasm, Charm, most small Deluges. Mass Regen deals Verdict. Untap, win. Just skirts awfully close to the GSZ=> Hoof you line.
If it's just Charm hate, I'm curious about Perfect. Because unlike Ezuri or Archdruid, she's a threat by herself in low-resource situations and can take games over all by herself if unanswered (Consider that Shardless mirrors are won on the board, Shardless wins against most any fair deck, and our fair gameplan is already very Shardless-y). Add one Symbiote and answering her will be hell.

[Mr. Froggy]

I have the money for a 4th Cradle, but aren't you guys afraid of awkward openings with Cradle as your only land?

[Koby]

I have the money for a 4th Cradle, but aren't you guys afraid of awkward openings with Cradle as your only land?

Nope. That's why you can Mulligan.

[Mr. Froggy]

Nope. That's why you can Mulligan.

I might just be unlucky then..

[danyul]

You need to know when to acknowledge variance.

You gotta learn to "write off" a loss due to variance and ignore the FeelBads of drawing a few too many poor hands. It is a basic part of human nature to more clearly remember the bad feelings than the good. You can topdeck that Cradle to win you the game 99 times but you will be scarred, stained, and traumatized by those 2 or 3 times you drew Cradles as your only lands.

Run 4. Shuffle better. Mulligan. Don't freak out when you lose once in awhile. Or even a lot.

[Mr. Froggy]

You need to know when to acknowledge variance.

You gotta learn to "write off" a loss due to variance and ignore the FeelBads of drawing a few too many poor hands. It is a basic part of human nature to more clearly remember the bad feelings than the good. You can topdeck that Cradle to win you the game 99 times but you will be scarred, stained, and traumatized by those 2 or 3 times you drew Cradles as your only lands.

Run 4. Shuffle better. Mulligan. Don't freak out when you lose once in awhile. Or even a lot.

danyul, become a motivational speaker

[danyul]

Don't put crazy ideas in my head. I'm just stupid enough to try them.

[theross]

Cradle doesn't necessarily require you to play a less than appropriate number of turn 1 G sources, which is the only variable that affects the type of hands you describe. Cradle isn't a land in the typical sense. It is, however, the best card in the entire deck and has been for the entirety of its existence. So my advice would be to play 4 and be glad that WotC continues to let you play such an obscenely overpowered mana source.

[Kayradis]

Im finalizing my decklist this weekend the PTQ in Augusta.
The 1000PWP would help by bumping me up to 3 byes too.

Wish me luck mofos.

[YamiJoey]

It's 1500 for 3-BYEs.

[Kayradis]

Im well aware of that! But thanks for the reminded!

[trevaftw]

Went 4-0 last night at weekly legacy.

R1 - UB Tezz/affinity 2-0
R2 - BURG 2-1
R3 - UWR 2-1
R4 - Trisonomy 2-0

[andrebonotto]

Went 4-0 last night at weekly legacy.

R1 - UB Tezz/affinity 2-0
R2 - BURG 2-1
R3 - UWR 2-1
R4 - Trisonomy 2-0

Congrats!

But what deck is this, "Trisonomy" ? :eyebrow:

Also, would you comment a little on your MUs? (specially against UWR)

[Einherjer]

Trisomy 21 = Loam decks in general, though mostly associated with LoamPox and AggroLoam.

[Lemnear]

@ Julian:

Did you made it dood? :)

Still thinking about returning to the woods for tomorrow ^^

[nudon]

@ Julian:

Did you made it dood? :)

Still thinking about returning to the woods for tomorrow ^^

Good luck! May the power of Gaea be with you. :D

[Julian23]

7-0 with Elves in the 278-man Legacy Trial today - 1st place! :cool:

Met a lot of fellow Sourcers as well, such great times! Because some people asked me, I might write a tournament report next week. My matchups were:

Round1: UWr Delverblade 2-0
Round2: Junk 2-1
Round3: Shardless BUG 2-0
Round4: Elves 2-0
Round5: Imperial Painter 2-0
Round6: MUD 2-1
Round7: Bant Aggro 2-0
-----
7-0 (14-2 in games)
+10 dual lands
+3 Byes

Today was a good day :smile:.

[danyul]

Dayum! What a beast! Nice job Julian. I want to see a report ASAP!

[nudon]

Congrats Julian! Ditto to what Daniel said!

[lordofthepit]

Dayum! What a beast! Nice job Julian. I want to see a report ASAP!

[trevaftw]

Congrats!

But what deck is this, "Trisonomy" ? :eyebrow:

Also, would you comment a little on your MUs? (specially against UWR)

Trisomy, the junk loampox version.

R1 - UB Tezz/affinity 2-0
This match isn't too terrible as long as he doesn't have a nut draw. Sometimes he can just be too fast. It wasn't pure UB tezzeret nor was it pure affinity. The guy who plays is is trying to find a version he likes best.

R2 - BURG 2-1
This matchup has become easier now that they (RUG) have added black. While out of the board they do have fire coveneant, I think they've become too spread thin to keep up with us.

R3 - UWR 2-1
The guy who was playing this this week switched to it from his normal Blue Zoo deck. Wanted to try a new deck so it wasn't the most optimal play on his part. I will say Grim Lavamancer main board is a bitch.

R4 - Trisonomy 2-0
This matchup I used to be not a fan of since they could keep off our one land and get rid of our ealry creatures that we used to rely so much on because of glimpse. I think now that there is natural order this matchup is a lot better.


Also I like having 4 Natural Order main deck.

[Kich867]

Also I like having 4 Natural Order main deck.

So do I. My list I went for a great deal of consistency:

4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Heritage Druid
4x Nettle Sentinel
4x Quirion Ranger
4x Wirewood Symbiote
4x Elvish Visionary

4x Glimpse of Nature
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Natural Order

1x Regal Force
1x Craterhoof Behemoth

4x Gaea's Cradle
2x Forest
1x Dryad Arbor
3x Bayou
1x Savannah
4x Verdant Catacomb
3x Windswept Heath

// Sideboard:
4x Abrupt Decay
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Elvish Champion
1x Progenitus

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Way to go Julian!! Congratulations. I can't wait to read the report. I'm particularly interested in reading about the UWR and Painter match ups. You keep this up and you're going to earn yourself one of Daniel's precious titles soon.

[HammafistRoob]

The great Fyndhorn Favorite.
#notdanyul
#poundsign

[Einherjer]

Elves is being labelled as "Elves!" at the Eternal Weekend - maybe they peeked over to TheSource? :D

Greetings

[danyul]

Way to go Julian!! Congratulations. I can't wait to read the report. I'm particularly interested in reading about the UWR and Painter match ups. You keep this up and you're going to earn yourself one of Daniel's precious titles soon.

Getting 1st in a 278 player event is pretty much the same as taking down an SCG Open. I'm not sure if there are any official rules for titles. And I don't know if I'm the official title-giver.


The great Fyndhorn Favorite.
#notdanyul
#poundsign

But I like this one.

[Julian23]

8-0-1 in the main event today.
Currently 3rd of about 700 players.

My matchups:

Round1: *BYE*
Round2: *BYE*
Round3: *BYE*
Round4: UW Miracles 2-0
Round5: UWb Miracles 1-1-1
Round6: UW Miracles 2-0
Round7: Team America 2-1 (on a mulligan to 5 otp in the last game..)
Round8: Elves! 2-0
Round9: Junk 2-1

Pretty insane tournament so far but for now, I've really had enough Miracles for my taste. I'm currently 20-0-1 over the last three tournaments...


Daniel Nguyen · University of Washington
Welcome, Reid Duke, to the Elven Alliance! As our newest champion, you may choose from a stable of honorable titles: Ambassador of Argoth, Lieutenant of Llanowar, Titan of Titania, Guardian of Gaea, Master of Mirkwood, Prince of Pendelhaven, Warden of Wirewood, Brother of Birchlore, Founder of Fyndhorn, Yardmaster of Yavimaya, Queller of the Quirion, Unifier of the Uktabi, Herald of Havenwood, Scion of Skyshroud, Judge of Jamuraa, Noble of Norwood, Viceroy of the Viridian, and of course... Duke of Deepwood.

We are happy to have you among our ranks. May the nourishing shade of your elder tree always bring you respite.


Getting 1st in a 278 player event is pretty much the same as taking down an SCG Open. I'm not sure if there are any official rules for titles. And I don't know if I'm the official title-giver.

You are.
Hm. I can haz Lieutenant of Llanowar please?

[lordofthepit]

8-0-1 in the main event today.
Currently 3rd of about 700 players.

My matchups:

Round1: *BYE*
Round2: *BYE*
Round3: *BYE*
Round4: UW Miracles 2-0
Round5: UWb Miracles 1-1-1
Round6: UW Miracles 2-0
Round7: Team America 2-1 (on a mulligan to 5 otp in the last game..)
Round8: Elves! 2-0
Round9: Junk 2-1

Pretty insane tournament so far but for now, I've really had enough Miracles for my taste. I'm currently 20-0-1 over the last three tournaments...





You are.
Hm. I can haz Lieutenant of Llanowar please?

Teach us other elven mages how to be so awesome. Especially against Miracles, that is extremely impressive.

[catmint]

Indeed quite impressive results! You clearly have a significant edge over the field. Good luck for day2!

Do you might sharing more about how you approach the miracles matchup or was it mostly variance?

[Lemnear]

Teach us other elven mages how to be so awesome. Especially against Miracles, that is extremely impressive.

I asume taking the Aggro Route without overcomitting?

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

8-0-1 in the main event today.
Currently 3rd of about 700 players.

My matchups:

Round1: *BYE*
Round2: *BYE*
Round3: *BYE*
Round4: UW Miracles 2-0
Round5: UWb Miracles 1-1-1
Round6: UW Miracles 2-0
Round7: Team America 2-1 (on a mulligan to 5 otp in the last game..)
Round8: Elves! 2-0
Round9: Junk 2-1

Pretty insane tournament so far but for now, I've really had enough Miracles for my taste. I'm currently 20-0-1 over the last three tournaments...





You are.
Hm. I can haz Lieutenant of Llanowar please?

As far as I'm concerned, you can have any title you like. You are representing these boards so well. I really can't wait to see your reports. It would really have been fun to have watched you play. (Moreover, with that record, I'm amazed that you're only third.) Go get 'em. You da man, Julian.

[danyul]

Hm. I can haz Lieutenant of Llanowar please?

I hereby decree that you are now, and forever more, the Lieutenant of Llanowar!


Teach us other elven mages how to be so awesome. Especially against Miracles, that is extremely impressive.

And yeah. Teach us the secretz so I can stop trying to brew TNN decks.

[lordofthepit]

And yeah. Teach us the secretz so I can stop trying to brew TNN decks.

TNN in Elves. Stops Jitte counters dead. Survives Rough/Tumble. It's even better than Nissa's Chosen.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

I hereby decree that you are now, and forever more, the Lieutenant of Llanowar!

Let his reign be long and joyous. Now let the party, fireworks, and confetti fly.

[Benjammn]

Elves took me 6-3 at Eternal Weekend good for 45th. Won vs Ad Nauseum twice, Jund, Dark Maverick, RUG Delver and Burn (man, Ruric Thar is hilarious in that MU), lost to TES, Jund and MUD. Not the most crazy finish but certainly the best I've done at a large event. Elves was well represented; at one point I was flanked by fellow pilots.

[Eternal]

Nice Job Julian. I made 6-3 with elves too.

2-0 Jund
2-0 Merfolk
2-1 Maverick Punishing
2-0 Patriot aggro
1-2 Miracle (humilty + moat)
0-2 Bug Delver
1-2 Patriot Control Landstill (last round)
2-0 Jund
2-0 Junk/Rock

Good luck to you !

[Einherjer]

Julian on camera with Elves + TheSource playmat.

http://www.twitch.tv/lotusnoirtv

Greetings

[Fatal]

Terrible mistake with GSZ target - Ruric Thar, the Unbowed would end that game.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Thanks for the twitch link. Not much you can do against storm that hits like that. Go get a nother win, Julian. With luck we'll see you in the top 8.

[Humphrey]

Thanks for the twitch link. Not much you can do against storm that hits like that. Go get a nother win, Julian. With luck we'll see you in the top 8.

he could have won easily..

[andrebonotto]

Trisomy 21 = Loam decks in general, though mostly associated with LoamPox and AggroLoam.


Trisomy, the junk loampox version.

R1 - UB Tezz/affinity 2-0
This match isn't too terrible as long as he doesn't have a nut draw. Sometimes he can just be too fast. It wasn't pure UB tezzeret nor was it pure affinity. The guy who plays is is trying to find a version he likes best.

R2 - BURG 2-1
This matchup has become easier now that they (RUG) have added black. While out of the board they do have fire coveneant, I think they've become too spread thin to keep up with us.

R3 - UWR 2-1
The guy who was playing this this week switched to it from his normal Blue Zoo deck. Wanted to try a new deck so it wasn't the most optimal play on his part. I will say Grim Lavamancer main board is a bitch.

R4 - Trisonomy 2-0
This matchup I used to be not a fan of since they could keep off our one land and get rid of our ealry creatures that we used to rely so much on because of glimpse. I think now that there is natural order this matchup is a lot better.


Also I like having 4 Natural Order main deck.

Thanks for the explanation and the comments. :smile:



7-0 with Elves in the 278-man Legacy Trial today - 1st place! :cool:

Met a lot of fellow Sourcers as well, such great times! Because some people asked me, I might write a tournament report next week. My matchups were:

Round1: UWr Delverblade 2-0
Round2: Junk 2-1
Round3: Shardless BUG 2-0
Round4: Elves 2-0
Round5: Imperial Painter 2-0
Round6: MUD 2-1
Round7: Bant Aggro 2-0
-----
7-0 (14-2 in games)
+10 dual lands
+3 Byes

Today was a good day :smile:

(...)


8-0-1 in the main event today.
Currently 3rd of about 700 players.

My matchups:

Round1: *BYE*
Round2: *BYE*
Round3: *BYE*
Round4: UW Miracles 2-0
Round5: UWb Miracles 1-1-1
Round6: UW Miracles 2-0
Round7: Team America 2-1 (on a mulligan to 5 otp in the last game..)
Round8: Elves! 2-0
Round9: Junk 2-1

Pretty insane tournament so far but for now, I've really had enough Miracles for my taste. I'm currently 20-0-1 over the last three tournaments...

(...)

You are.
Hm. I can haz Lieutenant of Llanowar please?

Wow, great performance! Congratulations for you, recently-named Lieutenant of Llanowar !

I eagerly join our elven fellows in the petition to read your field report, Lieutenant. :smile:

Also, congrats for all the others who are fighting for the elven community these days! You all honor Gaea's cause.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

he could have won easily..

By saying . . . "dark ritual"?

[Humphrey]

By saying . . . "dark ritual"?

by winning game2


Terrible mistake with GSZ target - Ruric Thar, the Unbowed would end that game.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

I appreciate the clarification. I had thought the reference was to a misplay in the third game, which was the only game I saw in the twitch link. I didn't see the second game or any of the other games. Is there a good place to see the second and other games?

[Humphrey]

I appreciate the clarification. I had thought the reference was to a misplay in the third game, which was the only game I saw in the twitch link. I didn't see the second game or any of the other games. Is there a good place to see the second and other games?

tomorrow you can search for the stream on twitch

[Kayradis]

Im at a PTQ in maine and Jackie Lee is here. Should i ask her to never play the deck again?

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Im at a PTQ in maine and Jackie Lee is here. Should i ask her to never play the deck again?

Ouch.



tomorrow you can search for the stream on twitch
Thanks.

[catmint]

Julian in the finals defeating storm in the semis!... Finals will be vs. death and taxes (Shenhar Shahar).

[blindspotxxx]

Julian in the finals! Go go go!

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Excellent news. Bring it Lieutenant of Llanowar!!!

[catmint]

Tough playing against the world champion though.. :eek: On the plus side he plays Death and Taxes. :wink:
I think Julian will take it down and give anyone who is interested in a bet 4:1. :laugh:

[andrebonotto]

Julian in the finals! Go go go!

That's great! Go, Julian!

[Humphrey]

I wonder if Ethersworn Canonist will ruin its day

[mrjumbo03]

As a dedicated DnT player, there is no match that I dread the most than Elves.

It's probably 90-10 in favor of Elves. This one is gonna be for Julian.

[Happy83]

Congratulations Julian, nicely done!

[danyul]

I just woke up to watch game 2. May the greatness of Gaea empower our Lieutenant of Llanowar!

Oh crap he won as I was typing!!!!

CONGRATS!

[nudon]

Congrats to Julian for taking down BoM!

[catmint]

Hope we get a detailed report. Congratulations!!!

[unemployer]

Congrats Julian! Good job!

[litenkatt]

Congrats

[warai]

Congratulations Julian!

[Tormod]

Congrats Julian!

[andrebonotto]

Congratulations Julian, Lieutenant of Llanowar!

Please enlighten/entertain us with a detailed report, whenever possible :cool:

[MD.Ghost]

Glückwunsch Julian! May our enemies fear every path through the deep forest :cool:

[Dia_Bot]

First of all, congratz to Julian! Quite a nice winning streak there!

One question though: in the first game against Shahar, when he NO for Craterhoof I don't think he could attack for lethal. This was supposed to be a T2 kill but the only creature not having summoning sickness was the Nettle Sentinel (and the behemoth ofc).
There were 4 creatures on board including the behemoth so I think it was only for 15 dmg. Or am I missing sth here?

[PendelSteven]

I still don't agree with the MBT and Needles, but...


Julian did show us that a 61 card maindeck Elves can win a high profile almost 700 man Legacy tournament!


Congratulations and thank you for proving that 61 cards isn't a bad idea!

[Dice_Box]

Ok I am going to need to watch this. Link ASAP please guys. This is great having two of the guys in this thread making high placements is a short amount of time. Congrats to you both.

[trevaftw]

Did anyone else find it amusing that Julian beat DnT at the BoM and at the Eternal Weekend DnT took first?

[Eternal]

Congratulation Julian !!!!

[Myelectronicdays]

great job man! I ended up watching that match while sitting on at the airport on my phone. well done!

[lordofthepit]

I think the Lieutenant of Llanowar should be promoted to 5-star General of Gaea.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Fan-fricken-tastic, Julian. Congratulations!!. Enjoy your spoils! I can't wait to see the games and your report.

[Julian23]

Guys, thank you so much for your support! Winning this tournament was possibly the most awesome thing I ever did in Magic - and all my friends were there to celebrate! I really wish I could give shout-outs to all of you!! :smile:

The deck and the event were such a blast to play! I think you can find my matchups for Day1 some pages back. On Day2 I played:

Round10: Merfolk 2-0
Round11: ANT (Grzegorz Jezierski ) 2-1
Round13: UWr Miracles 2-1
Round14: ANT (Jamie Westlake) 1-2
Round15: Patriot (Stuart) 2-1
Round16: ANT (Timo Schünemann) - ID

Get into Top8 with 12-1-2 as 2nd seed, sweet.

Quarterfinals: Fabian Görzgen - Punishing Maverick 2-1
Semifinals: Grzegorz Jezierski - ANT 2-1
Finals: Shahar Shenhar, the freaking World Champion! - Death & Taxes 2-0

You bet your ass I will follow this up with a huge tournament report! Right now I'm sitting in the hotel lobby after treating my friend's for out for dinner. I'll be catching my train to Munich tomorrow noon - and still got the rest of the week off of work - wait a second, Raphael Levy comes around for a talk :cool:


Regarding the finals, the Quirion Ranger was summoning sick! I feel so bad about it now, I felt literally sick the moment I realized it way later. After the finals, I went to my team and explained how I killed him on turn2 without Cradle. After I failed to explain after like 4 attempts, I pulled out my cards and recreated the gamestate - only there did I realize that the Quirion Ranger was in fact summoning sick. Neither Shahar, the judge, the stream nor did I recognize it.

My friends now like calling it the Raging Quirion Ranger. Although I like the name, I feel really bad about it and I didn't get the chance to apologize to Shahar for it.


Anyways, Bazaar of Moxen Paris 2013 - I'm loving it! Thank's again so much for your support despite my epic missplay in game2 against Jamie, who's a great guy I previously only knew from MODO. It's funny, had I not lost to him, I would have been undefeated over the entire weekend (including the 7-0 in the trial; and the 6-0 at our local tournament one week earlier, if you want to count that!) But...you can't win it all, hu? Pretty sure I will definitely the next sanctioned match of Legacy I'll be playing next weekend at Nuremberg. I hit some SICK variance in my favor of the last days :laugh:

Thank you so much!!
Yours, Julian

[Griselpuff]

Really interested in hearing how the Ruric Thar MD did.

[blindspotxxx]

Congrats! That Mtgthesource playmat is super sexy! Didn't watch after you got into the finals because I knew Elves was gonna take it and had to sleep lol

[P-E]

Congrats Julian i'm happy combo finally won with 4 decks in top8 ^^

[Kayradis]

Congrats Julian!Now that you revealed my super-secret tech for DC I gotta find something new :p

[Phelix]

Clearly i lack the skills.

Played virtually identical list at the 3 bye trial, and resolved turn 2 Ruric Thar vs Omnitell, (with me going first). Then lost that game.

[mariobross]

My warmest congratulations Julian!!!

I would like to make a few questions about your side:

- Why you play the 2xPithing Needle instead of other cards? What usually name?
- How is your side and in-side-out against tempo(RUG and UWR) decks and combo(ANT and S&T) decks? (I have the problem of side-out cards in these match up...)

sorry for the questions but I'm really soo curious,

again congratulations

[Dia_Bot]

Regarding the finals, the Quirion Ranger was summoning sick! I feel so bad about it now, I felt literally sick the moment I realized it way later. After the finals, I went to my team and explained how I killed him on turn2 without Cradle. After I failed to explain after like 4 attempts, I pulled out my cards and recreated the gamestate - only there did I realize that the Quirion Ranger was in fact summoning sick. Neither Shahar, the judge, the stream nor did I recognize it.

My friends now like calling it the Raging Quirion Ranger. Although I like the name, I feel really bad about it and I didn't get the chance to apologize to Shahar for it.



Don't worry about it. It's still a tremendous performance and nobody (except me maybe :tongue:) seemed to notice it when it was going on.
Anyways I'm looking forward to your report and keep slinging those little pointy eared creatures for the win :wink: !

[Benjammn]

Clearly i lack the skills.

Played virtually identical list at the 3 bye trial, and resolved turn 2 Ruric Thar vs Omnitell, (with me going first). Then lost that game.

Huh. Did he have a sick read and side in Wipe Away or something? Or did he T3 Show and Tell into Emrakul or Omniscience -> Emrakul? That's incredibly unlucky. :/

[Dia_Bot]

Huh. Did he have a sick read and side in Wipe Away or something? Or did he T3 Show and Tell into Emrakul or Omniscience -> Emrakul? That's incredibly unlucky. :/

Show and Tell into omnicience -> enter the infinite -> emrakul happends sometimes if they play one main. Still a bit lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) but plausible.

[Benjammn]

Show and Tell into omnicience -> enter the infinite -> emrakul happends sometimes if they play one main. Still a bit lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) but plausible.

That isn't a win though unless they have a card that allows them to put more cards in their library in the main deck. They only get one draw to use during the extra turn and then their library is gone. Sure, you have no permanents in play, but you are at 5 life and your opponent has an empty library.

[sdematt]

Any chance you know the Junk player you played last round and could ship me his list? Considering you were both doing well, I'd love to see the list Julian.

Congrats! :)

-Matt

[Zombie]

That isn't a win though unless they have a card that allows them to put more cards in their library in the main deck. They only get one draw to use during the extra turn and then their library is gone. Sure, you have no permanents in play, but you are at 5 life and your opponent has an empty library.

They do that. They're dead to a swing. Ruric swings because it must, Emralolol blocks. Next turn, they draw their one card. Emralolol swings, annihilating your board. They cast Enter the Infinite now that Ruric is dead, putting a card on top of their library so they have time. Or they can just Wish=> Ants you.

EDIT: Actually, Time Walk. So you just lose. SnT(Omni), Enter, Emralolol. 1 card in deck. Timewalk, draw for turn, no cards. Swing, Annihilate Ruric. Then you Enter again(Draw 0, 1 Enter on top) and either pass, they do something irrelevant, swing with Emrakul again or just Cunning Wish => Ants them. I guess there's some lulzy line where you Wish=>Bounce spell, bounce and cast Emrakul to Time Walk and swing again too if you want to humiliate the opponent.

[Dia_Bot]

That isn't a win though unless they have a card that allows them to put more cards in their library in the main deck. They only get one draw to use during the extra turn and then their library is gone. Sure, you have no permanents in play, but you are at 5 life and your opponent has an empty library.

Most builds do play either noxious revival or research//development in their sideboards.
If they don't then it will indeed not work.

[Berger]

Round4: Elves 2-0


Hehe thx for the game, and gratz on winning all ;)

[Phelix]

He played show and tell, dropped omniscience. cast cunning wish, cast, that thing that lets u find a creature. hardcast emrakul.

take extra turn, -swing and win.

[Kayradis]

Julian, are you gonna start streaming DE again? Im finishing my prep for DC and probably gonna do at least 1 a day.

[Julian23]

Pretty sure I'll be streaming the Daily Event, although I have a feeling I might be screwing up pretty bad...I just arrived back home yesterday night and feel extremly exhausted. I also wanna be watching the Naniwa vs. Revival sc2 playoff match for Blizzcon, starting 1,5h before the DE. So we'll see but I'm pretty sure I'll be streaming at http://twitch.tv/itsJulian.

/Edit: Still not sure about streaming the DE tonight. I've got sooo many things to do and I really don't want to do a "ok-let's-just-play-some-games-without-focus" stream with poor play quality!

/Edit: To anybody I didn't responde yet, thank you so much for your messages and forum posts. I'm currently working on my tournament report and I'll make sure to answer all the questions you sent me. I still haven't decided where to publish it but I guess the usual suspects will be interested... :wink:

[Tammit67]

That isn't a win though unless they have a card that allows them to put more cards in their library in the main deck. They only get one draw to use during the extra turn and then their library is gone. Sure, you have no permanents in play, but you are at 5 life and your opponent has an empty library.

They have 4 of them, they are called enter the infinite. :)

[Megadeus]

Oh so you're the Elves player I was watching the other night! Cool cool.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

I've searched on Twitch--my fu failed me. Anyone have links to Julian and the other Elves players at BoM Paris?

[Julian23]

The entire Day2 broadcast VOD can be found at http://www.twitch.tv/lotusnoirtv/b/476240912. The final for example starts at 6:20:00 but you can also find footage of my 1/4 finals match vs. Fabian and Round13 vs. Jamie.

I decided not to stream the DE today because I'm just too busy right now. You'll find lots of new, awesome Legacy Elves! content on my Twitch stream later this week though :-)

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Thanks, man.

[Benjammn]

They have 4 of them, they are called enter the infinite. :)

Rats, you and your logic! Well, then Ruric isn't as good against them as I thought it was. Makes me question why I run him in the main then...I don't like him against Bolt decks since Bolt + blocker usually means a dead Ruric, STP is even better against him than Bolt is, and you want Progen in most other fair matchups anyway. When I was played against Storm three times weekend at Legacy Champs, I'm pretty sure I lost all three G1's despite winning two of the matches.

[Koby]

Rats, you and your logic! Well, then Ruric isn't as good against them as I thought it was. Makes me question why I run him in the main then...I don't like him against Bolt decks since Bolt + blocker usually means a dead Ruric, STP is even better against him than Bolt is, and you want Progen in most other fair matchups anyway. When I was played against Storm three times weekend at Legacy Champs, I'm pretty sure I lost all three G1's despite winning two of the matches.

If they have at least 13 life, they don't care about Ruric Thar -- cast S&T, cast EtI, cast Emrakul, take an extra turn, attack and annihilate your board.

[Zombie]

If they have at least 13 life, they don't care about Ruric Thar -- cast S&T, cast EtI, cast Emrakul, take an extra turn, attack and annihilate your board.

In other words, fuck that deck.

[2Rach]

Put in a couple more Crop Rotations for Karakas? Can also help against Teeg.