[Deck] Water Elves

[KillemallCFH]

I know Elves are a deck that has been tried in Legacy, but due to their enourmous vulnerability (one WoG or Engineered Plague usually means gg), they could never really work. Here is my attempt at fixing that, by adding some blue for disruption. Any feedback is very welcome. I very much want to make this deck work.

//Non-Creature Mana
3 Chrome Mox
3 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Tropical Island
//Elves
/Mana
4 Fyndhorn Elves
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Priest of Titania
2 Quirion Ranger (Yeah, I know he's not technically mana, but his main function is to produce mana.)
/Pump
4 Tribal Forcemage
/Beat
3 Skyshroud Elite
4 Gaea's Skyfolk
4 Llanowar Sentinel
/Other
4 Multani's Acolyte
3 Wirewood Herald
//Other Creatures
4 Wirewood Symbiote
//Other Spells
4 FoW
4 Daze
SIDEBOARD:
4 Caller of the Claw
4 Wellwisher
2 Quirion Ranger
3 Viridian Zealot
2 Krosan Grip

Card Explanations
Llanowar Sentinel - With a PoT out, who can almost always produce 9 mana, this card allows you to get 4 2/3s at once.
Multani's Acolyte - Green needs some sort of card advantage. I chose the Acolyte+Symbiote engine over Sylvan Messenger, simply because I didn't want to miss out on my non-elf draws.
FoW/Daze - Simply, any mono-green deck has very little access to any sort of disruption. This is meant to help that. My only concern is the lack of pitchable cards to FoW (only 11 pitchable to every FoW [3 FoW/4 Daze/4 Skyfolk]).
Krosan Grip - The problem with relying soley on Zealots for artifact/enchantment removal is that they have a toughness of one, so engineered plague still kills them.

Thanks a lot in advance for your comments/suggestions.

(P.S. I'd also like to mention [If you couldn't tell by my post count] that I'm new to The Source, having just left the dreadful Legacy boards at mtg.com. I hopw this site is as good as everyone says it is, and I hope I enjoy it here.)

[EDIT: I realized I forgot a Sideboard. I will need help on that too]

[Cavius The Great]

12 blue spells isn't enough to support Force of Will. If you want Elves to have disruption, you're better off splashing black for Duress and Cabal Therapy.

[porcupinetreeman]

12 blue spells isn't enough to support Force of Will. If you want Elves to have disruption, you're better off splashing black for Duress and Cabal Therapy.

I'll second that

More content please. Posts like this are considered spam. If you're going to take the time to post, please add something new to the conversation. Thanks. - Zilla

[Rastadon]

Hey there, I've also been trying to address Elves' vulnerability issues. Some suggestions:


wtf@ no Gaea's Cradle? They're insane! Completely and utterly nuts! Add them!

If you're going blue, there is absolutely no reason to not run Coiling Oracle. Strictly better than Acolyte, and helps fix your FoW problem.

I'd also do something with that Skyfolk, either swap it with Elvish Vanguard or throw in some Timberwatch elves to abuse it's flying. As it stands now it's just a 2/2 flyer, so it doesn't solve that durable goal you're looking for. I'd find something more durable or find a way to exploit its other qualities. I personally like Vanguard because once it hits 4/4 (very easy to do) it becomes a game winner alone and gets around major problems for you like Plague and Sharpshooter.

Just for the sake of being less creature dependent, I'd also trade in a forcemage or two for Gempalm Striders. They can't be killed preemptively and are extremely useful being uncounterable.

3 Herald MD, 4 Caller SB AND 2 Krosan Grip SB too? A little excessive, don't you think? I think you can ditch at 2 callers at the least, they are awfully redundant with Herald.

The 3/2 split on Zealot/grip is a little weird, seeing as you're not running Messanger. Why go out of the way to use not-so-stellar elves?

Pithing Needle solves Sharpshooter. Unless Goblins pack Tin-Street Hooligan. But it also has a thousand other uses, including stopping Jitte, pernicious Deed, and other troublesome permanents.

I'm also concerned about Wellwisher. I don't see what issues it addresses. It's fun but it's very tangential to what you're trying to do, which is smash face/protect your creatures. There's a number of elves that fit that bill better, Elvish Vanguard, Timberwatch Elves, Elvish Champion, Gaea's Herald, the very spiffy Elvish Hunter, etc.

MD:
-4 Multani's Acolyte
-2 Tribal Forcemage
+2 Gempalm Strider
+4 Coiling Oracle
SB:
-3 Viridian Zealot
-2 Caller
-4 Wellwisher
+3 Anything
+4 Pithing Needle
+2 Krosan Grip

All the best. If you need someone to play test against send me a pm.

[Cavius The Great]

Why not just build a deck around Wirewood Channeler and Pemmin's Aura? That seems viable enough.

[Rastadon]

There are a number of blue/green elf combo decks but usually a bolt on an important creature shuts them down. Stuff like Intruder alarm elves that rely on a single priest/channeler to pull them through. I've always wondered why they never packed protection like Lightning Greaves. Though that's an entirely different direction than the one presented here.

[KillemallCFH]

Hey there, I've also been trying to address Elves' vulnerability issues. Some suggestions:


wtf@ no Gaea's Cradle? They're insane! Completely and utterly nuts! Add them!

If you're going blue, there is absolutely no reason to not run Coiling Oracle. Strictly better than Acolyte, and helps fix your FoW problem.

I'd also do something with that Skyfolk, either swap it with Elvish Vanguard or throw in some Timberwatch elves to abuse it's flying. As it stands now it's just a 2/2 flyer, so it doesn't solve that durable goal you're looking for. I'd find something more durable or find a way to exploit its other qualities. I personally like Vanguard because once it hits 4/4 (very easy to do) it becomes a game winner alone and gets around major problems for you like Plague and Sharpshooter.

Just for the sake of being less creature dependent, I'd also trade in a forcemage or two for Gempalm Striders. They can't be killed preemptively and are extremely useful being uncounterable.

3 Herald MD, 4 Caller SB AND 2 Krosan Grip SB too? A little excessive, don't you think? I think you can ditch at 2 callers at the least, they are awfully redundant with Herald.

The 3/2 split on Zealot/grip is a little weird, seeing as you're not running Messanger. Why go out of the way to use not-so-stellar elves?

Pithing Needle solves Sharpshooter. Unless Goblins pack Tin-Street Hooligan. But it also has a thousand other uses, including stopping Jitte, pernicious Deed, and other troublesome permanents.

I'm also concerned about Wellwisher. I don't see what issues it addresses. It's fun but it's very tangential to what you're trying to do, which is smash face/protect your creatures. There's a number of elves that fit that bill better, Elvish Vanguard, Timberwatch Elves, Elvish Champion, Gaea's Herald, the very spiffy Elvish Hunter, etc.

MD:
-4 Multani's Acolyte
-2 Tribal Forcemage
+2 Gempalm Strider
+4 Coiling Oracle
SB:
-3 Viridian Zealot
-2 Caller
-4 Wellwisher
+3 Anything
+4 Pithing Needle
+2 Krosan Grip

All the best. If you need someone to play test against send me a pm.
Hey, thanks alot for all the suggestions.

Gaea's Cradle: This deck runs very few land and often gets one-land hands, which normally suffice with all the mana-producing elves. With Gaea's Cradle, however, I would have to mulligan. I will do some testing with it though.

Coiling Oracle: *smacks self in head* I completely forgot that that was an elf! I will definately add that, getting rid of the Acolytes like you suggested.

Gaea's Skyfolk: I need blue cards for FoW, so I won't get rid of it. I do think that Timberwatches would do well. What should I get rid of to add them?

Gempalm Striders: Good idea. I think I will go 2 and 2 with the Forcemage, or 3 Forcemages if I can find another card to get rid of.

All the things involving the sideboard: On most accounts you are right. I just threw that SB together in a few minutes after I realized I didn't have one. As for Wellwisher, however, I very much like it. Current legacy is very aggro-based. The ridiculous amounts of life I gain can often give me 2 - 3 more turns in which I can beat them down to oblivion. I'd like to get some other opinions on this matter.


As for the other posts, I don't want to make this a combo deck. I've tried a Glimpe of Nature-elf combo and didn't like it. I've also tried elf-ball. I really want to stick to an aggro deck here.

[Rastadon]

If your mana curve can afford it swap the elites with the timberwatches. Otherwise swap one or two of them for Tribal Forcemages.

[KillemallCFH]

Ok, here is the current list. As always, suggestions are welcome.
// Mana
3 Chrome Mox
3 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
4 Tropical Island
// Elves
3 Tribal Forcemage
3 Timberwatch Elf
2 Gempalm Strider
3 Wirewood Herald
4 Coiling Oracle
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Priest of Titania
3 Gaea's Skyfolk
4 Llanowar Sentinel
// Other Creatures
4 Wirewood Symbiote
// Disrupt
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
// Sideboard
SB: 4 Pithing Needle
SB: 4 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Quirion Ranger
SB: 2 Caller of the Claw
SB: 3 Wellwisher