[Deck] Combo Elves? The new mono-green:

[C-Aleric]

Hey, I just posted this over at SCG, and was asked to post this over here, looking for some more discussion.

Thanks :)

The deck: Combo Elves

Okay. So, this thread isn't a joke at all. A few days ago, I took my friends Elves? deck, and I had my way with it. There weren't many changes. He used a Recycle engine to drop a s*** load of elves, and then procede to essentially arbitrairly untap/tap Timberwatch elf, and pound face. This was a common turn 4/5/6 move, with a reasonably stabilized board early. I decided that if an elf deck was going to win in Legacy consistantly, it needs to be faster. Plain and simple. So, I went home, and started researching some elves, and for the style of play I wanted, I found some goodie goodie elves.

Here we go. The combo elf deck.

Lands:
4x Windswept Heath
2x Wooded Foothills
3x Gaea's Cradle
8x Forest

Creatures:
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Fyndhorn Elves
4x Boreal Druid
4x Quirion Ranger
3x Wirewood Symbiote
3x Priest of Titania
3x Seeker of Skybreak
2x Gaea's Hearld

Spells:
4x Coat of Arms
3x Staff of Domination
3x Recycle
3x Living Wish
3x Concordant Crossroads

Side Board:
3x Naturalize
3x Caller of the Claw
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Priest of Titania
1x Masticore
1x Timberwatch Elf
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Tribal Forcemage
1x Gaea's Herald
1x Elvish Champion
1x Viridian Zealot



Alright. This is what it looks like right now.

Yesterday, I tested this deck pretty heavily against Solidarity, and Goblins, and a deck we've created called Shenanigans (GWB LD, control. Beats tier decks like none other. List isn't up yet though).

So, against solidarity, I went 18-1 yesterday. This deck, as you notice, other than herald, has no hate for it. It's just faster. I think in the 19 games, I won on turn 3, 14 times. I won on turn 2, 3 times, and turn 4, once. The game I lost was on turn 3, where solidarity happened to go off after I was swinging for lethal. Goblins is a tough matchup. Tribe vs Tribe with 4 MD coat of arms can get really damn nasty. Thankfully, if you dodge some key spot removal early, you can gain infinite life. This occurs pretty relatively often. So it's not a game which is one sided. It just sucks. And it's in this matchup we have Wirewood Symbiote as the MVP. Against Land destruction, you just have to laugh a little, then win. Because clearly my deck is FULL of mana elves. Which is the key to it's speed.

So, I suppose I should justify some of the card choices that aren't completely obvious.

3x Seeker of Skybreak - This untaps Priest of Titania. There is really little else I can say. It's an elf, and it untaps elves/creatures. This card, is intense in this deck. A good piece to add to a turn 2 win.

2x Gaea's Hearld - This prevents them from countering your Priest if you're in a heavy control matchup. And this is key. If you draw a counter for this spell, and can sneak priest in, then mana leak and remand become boderline useless. Along with Rune Snag, and other things similar.

4x Boreal Druid - I can't believe this card wasn't in this deck as soon as Coldsnap came out. Let's see why it's here. It costs G, and produces colorless. It's an elf. So, you can, drop Priest turn 2, just like you could with any other mana elf. Plus. The one G for an elf is essential in getting priest up to 5 mana per tap. Because this is the lethal range you're looking for.

3x Living Wish - Holy CRAP! Who would have guessed that elves needed a wish board. If you don't use a wish board in any deck you play, I recommend trying it sometime. It makes the games simply funner. Plus, this allows me to have 6 chances to get a priest, and 6 chances to get a cradle in play. I feel this is a good improvement. It also makes your game one more diverse. If you know what you're playing against, and they're running sweepers, and early living wish for Caller of the Claw can just outright win the game, if you play it right.

3x Recycle - How about, I play and elf, I draw and elf, I play an elf, I draw an elf. I tap priest for an arbirtary amount of mana. I play Coat of arms. I draw Staff of Domination. I play Staff. I gain infinite life, I draw my deck. I wish for timberwatch elf. I tap and uptap it arbitrarily. I deal you infinite damage with every elf on the table. Fun? This happens on turn 3. How can that happen on turn 3? Wtf?

3x Staff of Domination - Okay. So this card breaks this deck right in half. Like, completely in 2. 5 elves are on the board with priest, and you go infinite. Like, infinite life, infinite damage. It's pretty hilarious. Especially when you're looking at Goblins "Warchief, Piledriver, Piledriver, Lackey" after turn 2. Then, on your turn, you beat them so badly they feel inadequate in every way possible.



Sample hands (Some I got yesterday):

(on the draw)
Forest, Priest, Quirion, Llanowar, Fyndhorn, Concordant Crossroads, Staff of Domination.

Draw: Seeker of Skybreak (giggles a little bit)
Turn 1: Play Forest, Llanowar. Pass.
Draw: Wooded Foothills.
Turn 2: Play Fetch land. Fetch. Tap one forest, play Concordant crossroads. Then, tap other land to play Fyndhorn. Tap both elves for priest. Tap Priest for GGG, and play Seeker and Quirion. Return a forest to your hand, untap priest. Tap priest for GGGGG. Play Staff of Domination. GG floating. Tap Seeker to untap Priest. Tap Priest for GGGGG again, giving GGGGGGG floating. Now, Tap staff to untap Priest. GGGG floating. Untaf Staff. GGG floating. Repeat. You now have infinite mana, and infinite life, can draw as many cards as you want, can play all your elves, and swing.
(Board is: SoD, Crossroads, Llanowar, Seeker, Priest, Quirion, Fyndhorn, Forest)


(on the play)
Forest, Gaea's Cradle, Living Wish, Living Wish, Quirion Ranger, Llanowar, Concordant Crossroads

Turn 1: Play forest, Llanowar. Pass
Draw: Boreal Druid
Turn 2: Tap forest, play Crossroads. Tap Llanowar, play Quirion. Play Gaea's Cradle. Return Forest, untap Llanowar, play Boreal Druid. Tap Gaea's Cradle for GGG. Cast living wish finding priest of Titania. Tap Boreal Druid for 1, giving 1G. Play Priest. Tap priest of titania for GGGG, and cast living wish #2. It doesn't really matter what you get here. I think, so long as it's an elf. So, grab Gaea's Herald, and play it with the remaining GG you have. Pass.
Draw: Coat of Arms
Turn 3. Tap Gaea's Cradle for 5, play Coat of Arms. Now, swing with your 5, 5/5 elves.
(Board is: Crossroads, CoA, Boreal, Quirion, Herald, Priest, Llanowar, Cradle)



So, the deck is just soooo funnn to play. Tooo many neat little things you can do to talk about. Let me know what you all think. Could this be the next tribal deck? Only in COMBO form? Hehe...

~C-Aleric

[umbowta]

Welcome to The Source, C-Aleric. The deck you've made is pretty cool and is very fun to play. There are many, many similarities between this and "Elf Staff" which was built over 2 years ago when the Staff was first printed. I personally played a version of ElfStaff which splashed red for Words of War and white for Enlightened Tutor. The combo between Staff and Words of War should be obvious.

I can see that your version is more inclined to go for the aggro, smash mouth win, so I guess I can understand why you're running only 3 Staff of Domination. If you happen to want to combo out more often in the future, try cutting 2 of the Recycles and 2 of the Coat of Arms. Add the fourth Staff and splash for E-Tutor and Words of War.

[C-Aleric]

Words of War definitely looks like a solid card. But, is splashing white and red viable? Getting wastelanded in a deck that splashed two colors seems like it would slow you down so badly (if you needed to get one of those cards in play). I suppose the elf base would change quickly though. You need a couple elves that filtered the mana that cradle give you I'd think. So, Gaea's Herald would be out, for something like, Quirion Elves. Perhaps even a seeker as well.

I really like how with WoW, you have a response kill. That's fantastic. That's one of the things I wanted to add. But, I don't know if I'd splash white for it. I may just add 4 to the deck, and go from there. Change the mana base, and add Quirion Elves to the MD instead of Herald and one seeker.

But splashing two colors, really seems like it would slow the deck down a full turn, as well as just make it more fragile.

[Cavius The Great]

Have you considered Skyshroud Elf? It filters into all the red and white mana that you'll ever need.

[Watcher487]

But splashing two colors, really seems like it would slow the deck down a full turn, as well as just make it more fragile.

Birchlore Rangers allows for the splash. I would also suggest either Sylvan Messengers or Elvish Champions or Glimpse of Nature or Multani's Acolyte over the Recycles and Coats and Wishes.

I'm kinda non-plussed over the Seekers of Skybreak. I know it's another untap effect that's an elf, but there is so many other untap effects that are cheaper too.

My last version of this deck was G/w/b w/Tendrils and Overrun as 1-of's and 3 Enlightened Tutors to grab either Staves MD or E.Plagues in the board. Elves of Deep Shadow was the reason why I didn't need to splash Black either and with Birchlore I didn't need to worry about White. As long as the main combo of Staff + Priestess of Titania doesn't require another color to go off your fine.

As for how your deck is built, I would find it difficult to actually go off with Staff since your only playing 24 Elves w/ 3 Living Wish and 3 Symbiotes. I can picture a quick Recycle into more elves but that is still a bad situation especially since the format is creature heavy. I would probably just run something along the lines of 30+ elves w/ 3 Tutors, 4 Staves, 4 Crossroads, 1 Tendrils and 4 Symbiotes. You really only need 2 land to go off either way.

[umbowta]

Words of War definitely looks like a solid card. But, is splashing white and red viable? The viability of elves in general is in question. Adding a single Savannah and Taiga shouldn't be a huge problem.

Getting wastelanded in a deck that splashed two colors seems like it would slow you down so badly (if you needed to get one of those cards in play). Quirion Ranger can bounce your duals. I also seem to remember playing with one or two Birchlore Rangers to provide colored mana in a pinch.

I suppose the elf base would change quickly though. You need a couple elves that filtered the mana that cradle give you I'd think. So, Gaea's Herald would be out, for something like, Quirion Elves. Perhaps even a seeker as well. You only need the red once to play Words and the white once or twice for Tutor so its really not that big of a deal.

I really like how with WoW, you have a response kill. That's fantastic. That's one of the things I wanted to add. But, I don't know if I'd splash white for it. I may just add 4 to the deck, and go from there. Change the mana base, and add Quirion Elves to the MD instead of Herald and one seeker. I don't agree with Quirion Elves at all. Priest is the only mana elf I'd pay 1G for. Also, adding 4 Words of War is unnecessary. You only need it after you have Staff/Priest up and running, at which point you can draw your whole deck to find a single WoW anyway. The tutors are there to help get Priest/Staff going.

But splashing two colors, really seems like it would slow the deck down a full turn, as well as just make it more fragile.It's been about 6 months since I've played Elf Staff but, from what I remember, it was goldfishing turn 3-4 at the fastest, but I wasn't running Concordant Crossroads because I really didn't want my opponents bennifitting from it too.

[C.P.]

Well, The way I see the deck is that you will have to give up the deck's viablity or take few tricks out. It has way too many tricks to concentrate on winning efectiviely(or so it seems). And I see the wirewood simbiote as 4-of. It is too vesatile to not use.

And maybe a single mana source in the board? or a wasteland, even.

[Cavius The Great]

And maybe a single mana source in the board? or a wasteland, even.

Check the list again, he has a single Gaea's Cradle in the SB.

[insertnamehere]

Skyshroud Elves + KiKi-Jiki + Deranged Hermit = Tons of Nuts running over your opponents.

Try these cards:
Tangle Wire
Voice of the Woods
Word of Wilding (Infinate bears with the Staff)

[syssc9]

The Combo-Elf deck I built a while back used Voice of the Woods, Intruder Alarm, and Concordant Crossroads. The discusson of Staff of Domination has really opened my eyes and I will probably rebuild the deck. Watcher487's comment above about only needing 2 land is key. The deck really began to work well for me when I began using Armageddon.

[Drathro]

I checked this deck out, since I've been working on a similar Elf-Staff list that uses Sylvan Messengers and Multani's Acolytes for draw. My comments:

1. I like the idea of Living Wish in Elves, and I'm definitely going to try it for tutoring in my list. I've always wanted to include Wirewood Heralds for tutoring, but there is no elf that sacrifices other elves. Stupid elf loyalty.

2. I really think you need to up your land count. I tested this for a while against a worse-than-mediocre burn/first strike deck, and I frequently had to mulligan aggressively to get a hand I could start with, mana-wise. A single removal spell on your first mana elf spells disaster when you don't have enough land. I recommend -2 Boreal Druid, +2 Forest. That still leaves you with 10 1cc mana elves, but adds consistency to your opening hands.

[insertnamehere]

There is a Spirit from Kamigawa block (I think Champions) that does the same as Glimpse of Nature. I saw this in an Elf deck. The player drew chunks at a time from his deck and beat a few Top Tier decks.

[Moczoc]

I'm curious which card you meant. I've searched for some time, but i can't find something that fits your description :confused:

[Poron]

I surely would run Glimpse of Nature instead of Recycle. It's far faster, cheaper and it has the same effect since you can only draw 1 more card by Recycle for the turn-land and then you just draw by castin creatures...

So, imho Glimpse of Nature >>>>> Recycle

[DeathwingZERO]

LinkXwing has had an Recycle-Elf combo deck built for years for one of our lesser rules-inclined buddy to play with, and we've actually found a very good kill condition that was really easy to come by: Dark Depths

With 4x Crop Rotation, no need for Coat of Arms, and Concordant Crossroads in the maindeck, the core of elves can put that thing on the table and swing with it as soon as turn 2, and consistently by turn 4. It also made the deck much more streamlined, since you weren't looking for Recycle, Slate of Ancestry, or Coat of Arms repeatedly. You either drew into Dark Depths, Crop Rotated for it, or had Slate get you 10-20 cards when you "combo out".

If I can get his list, we can compare notes. We consider the deck a "pet" deck, mainly just because elves die off to so many random things. We never considered it anything capable of racing tier decks, though to admit, we never tried.

[insertnamehere]

I'm curious which card you meant. I've searched for some time, but i can't find something that fits your description :confused:

Primordial Sage from Ravnica

[Cavius The Great]

Primordial Sage from Ravnica

That's right Bill, I actually saw that guy play that in the FoW tourney last week while watching the game. The deck looked kind of janky though, do you know how well he did?

[insertnamehere]

That's right Bill, I actually saw that guy play that in the FoW tourney last week while watching the game. The deck looked kind of janky though, do you know how well he did?

He went 2-2

I recently built a mono green deck somewhat similar.
I used tangle Wires to stall my opponent and had to use Fires of Yavimaya over Concordant Crossroads.

[insertnamehere]

I just played a varient of this dek at our local tourney. I went undefeated into the top 4 only to lose to Threshold that had tons of counter and bounce to fend off anything I played.
I will be posting my version of the deck soon.

[Illissius]

How about, er, Survival of the Fittest? Instead of situational cards like Crossroads and Staff.

Like this, for example:

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Priest of Titania
4 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
4 Timberwatch Elf
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Deranged Hermit
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Anger
1 Viridian Zealot
3 Gaea's Cradle
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
5 Forest
2 Taiga

If you draw a Survival, you can goldfish on turn three just by twiddling Survival, Messengers, Symbiotes, Priests, and Timberwatches.* Without it, turn four is possible. (I haven't goldfished enough to use words like "likely"). This is not a suggested build, just an illustration. Other possibilities are ESG; dropping Rofellos and adding Moxen, Wastelands, and/or Ports; ESG and Moxen plus Chalices and Spheres in the board against combo; single copies of Nomadic Elf and Wizard Mentor to go infinite with; Weird Harvest plus a single Wild Mongrel (to discard Anger) for redundancy... in other words, there's many directions to take it.

* It is, incidentally, quite annoying that (in contrast to Goblins) Messengers don't let you keep Survival or Symbiote, but such is life.