[Deck] Elves Combo

I also fail to see Scapegoat's usefulness in the deck. Against mass removal Wrap in Vigor does the job (Perish, WoG, aside) in protecting the horde - but noone plays that card either. I don't see the added benefit of replaying all your elves as it becomes overkill. Two ways to go with this deck are such:

1. Storm via Grapeshot/Tendrils/etc
2. Elf-ball into Emrakul

Bouncing all your guys as a defensive measure seems good on paper, until you realize that reset the board state won't always help you recover in time, and essentially not against Counterbalance. On the offensive, its just plain Win More.

You mentioned that with Kobolds it's a great card. I agree for this purpose. Elves aren't as explosive as Kobolds with retriggers on Glimpse, even when Elves effectively cost 0 or negative mana, and much more interaction based than simply casting a Kobold. (tap 3 elves, untap X Nettle Sentinels, draw a card for each elf cast - this can get tedious after several rounds)

Wirewood Symbiote works well enough in bouncing Quirion Rangers. At that point, you should have more than enough mana and Glimpse triggers to sustain the combo through the end. Symbiote also is a lightning rod that protects against spot removal (both in countering the removal, and by eating the removal himself).

RE: Crop Rotation and Gaea's Cradle
This has been mentioned over and over. It's a preference call, but it appears most of the people in this thread prefer a rock solid mana base (basic Forests, fetchland) to the chance of opening up a must-mulligan hand contaning 1 or more Gaea's Cradle. The risks outweigh the benefits of the extra mana boost.

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Originally Posted by rukcus

Maindeck
// Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Priest of Titania
3 Llanowar Elves
3 Quirion Ranger
2 Elvish Visionary
2 Elvish Archdruid

// Utility
3 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Anger
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Sylvan Messenger/Regal Force
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Eternal Witness

// Engines
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Survival of the Fittest
2 Summoner's Pact

// Lands
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
6 Forest
1 Svannah
1 Taiga

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by (nameless one)

So, would you say that this list that you're rocking with would be the most optimal of your lists?

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This list is indeed very solid. I'm very satisfied with it, with the only exception being the pre-existing bad matchups. Those can be solved using any number of various sideboard packages:

3-4 Natural Order/Progenitus
4 Leyline of Lifeforce
0-8 Combo hate cards
0-3 extra utility dorks (Magus of the Moon, Gaddock Teeg, Faerie Macabre, Terastodon, Caller of the Claw, Nullmage Shepherd, etc)
2-4 Krosan Grip
0-4 Graveyard hate

Hey all,

Placed 5th in a 32 person tourney at Die Hard Games in Pawtucket yesterday. Here is the list I ran:


4 Birchlore Rangers
3 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
6 Forest
4 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Gaea's Cradle
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Heritage Druid
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Regal Force
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wirewood Symbiote

SB:

1 Elvish Champion
3 Fecundity
3 Krosan Grip
4 Leyline of Lifeforce
4 Tormod's Crypt


Tournament Report:

Round 1: Zoo build that edged towards burn
Game 1- I summon an Archdruid turn two and he burns enough guys away that I can't pay for the pact.
Game 2- on turn four I don't have anything I can do except summon, and I realize I made the same mistake the previous game, but if he had burn spells I was going to lose whether or not I summoned, so I figured I'd just go for it. He burns, I scoop.
(0-1)

Round 2: Dredge
Game 1: I combo into Emrakul the turn before he is going to Dread Return.
Game 2: I have a crypt out and he tries to Dread Return so I crack the crypt and it fizzles (not sure what he was thinking would happen), I combo next turn.
(1-1)

Round 3: Some weird control burn hybrid
Game 1: He messed up his decklist and started with a loss
Game 2: I combo through his control into Emrakul
(2-1)

Round 4: Bant Surival
Game 1: He gets some decent guys out and swings me down to 8, then I bounce a warcaller back to my hand with symbiote and recast him giving all my guys +4/+4, as well as +2/+2 from 2 Archdruids on the field. I out aggro him.
Game 2: Turn 2 combo into Emrakul
(3-1)

Round 5: NO Bant
Game 1: He gets Prog out turn 3. I was at 22 life cause he swordsed a Nettle. He swings me to 12. I get a shitload of guys out. He swings me to two, I bounce a warcaller and give them all +8/+8. Swing for the win.
Game 2: I mulligan to 5 and have no lands, but I keep the hand out of fear of having no lands at 4. I don't see a land till turn 3. He gets a goyf and a clique out. He swings at me each turn, and by turn 6 I have a fair amount of guys out. On his turn he swings me to 4 life, and then on mine with some untapping shenanigans I hardcast Emrakul for the win.
(4-1)

I go into top 8 with the top seed.
I play the 8th seed.
Matchup: the Rock
Game 1: He goes first and triple hymns me, there's nothing I can do
Game 2: He boards in Plagues and gets 3 on the field. That was that.

End the tourney with a 5th place finish and a grim monolith, dci meggling made, sundering titan, and 3 boosters. I'll take it. Changes that I think I will make is replacing one fecundity in the board with a 4th grip. The rest of the board is fucking awesome.

Oh another thing to note, I was top seed going into top 8 before I got triple hymned/triple plagued. The tournament size was 32 players.

The new Genesis Wave card that just came out looks broken good in elves @.@ Check it out

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Originally Posted by Mystical_Jackass

The new Genesis Wave card that just came out looks broken good in elves @.@ Check it out

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Just in case anyone don't know it:

Genesis Wave XGGG

Sorcery
Reveal the top X cards of your library. You may put any number of permanent cards with converted mana cost X or less from among them onto the battlefield. Then put all cards revealed this way that weren't put onto the battlefield into your graveyard.

Nah. It's way too mana intensive to be anything but win-more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Grollub

Just in case anyone don't know it:

Genesis Wave XGGG

Sorcery
Reveal the top X cards of your library. You may put any number of permanent cards with converted mana cost X or less from among them onto the battlefield. Then put all cards revealed this way that weren't put onto the battlefield into your graveyard.

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Regal force is better. Period.

Regal force is definitely better. In the tournament I reported above I summoned Regal a bunch of times for the win. The fact that you can summon for him is a huge advantage, on top of the fact that he will probably yield more cards than genesis anyway, and he's a 5/5 incase you need it.

I know regal force is a great card, but I did find this one card that might be good. Distant Melody. The problem with it is that it is not a creature and it is not green. It does cost less than regal force though. I think regal force better, what do you guys think?

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Originally Posted by Neil

I know regal force is a great card, but I did find this one card that might be good. Distant Melody. The problem with it is that it is not a creature and it is not green. It does cost less than regal force though. I think regal force better, what do you guys think?

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Yep! Regal force is definately better :)! I can only imagine playing this in a version that runs Burning wish.

Distant Melody shouldn't be played in Elves. Regal Force is used when going off. At this point you would already have a lot of mana, so why would you run a card that costs less (not really relevant) but screws up your entire mana base?

Regal Force is much better because it can be fetched by pact. Genesis Wave and Distant Melody can't. Regal Foce also allows you keep hands like t1 llanowar, t2 archdruid, t3 untapper,pact-> regal force, win.

Okay here's another card: Copperhorn Scout. My thoughts are that he won't be that good in the deck. although if he is played turn 2, you could do a pre-combo turn 3 attack with this guy and then combo off. Any thoughts?

Probably too slow for most decks. He is a one-drop elf, so not all that terrible in Glimpse builds. My instinct is that it's win more. (he doesn't tap for mana just like Quirion Ranger, who is terrible as a first turn play unless you're packing Taiga and expecting Wasteland)

P.S.: I may not be sober, so the analysis may be off.

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Originally Posted by rukcus

Probably too slow for most decks. He is a one-drop elf, so not all that terrible in Glimpse builds. My instinct is that it's win more. (he doesn't tap for mana just like Quirion Ranger, who is terrible as a first turn play unless you're packing Taiga and expecting Wasteland)

P.S.: I may not be sober, so the analysis may be off.

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Quirion is a phenominal first turn play in hands with only one land. Ex:

Turn 1: Forest, quirion
Turn 2: birchlore, tap quirion and birchlore for nettle, bounce forest to untap birchlore, play forest again, tap forest for glimpse and use burchlore and nettle to start comboing

That's a turn two combo and I do this all the time. If you look a few posts back you can see the list I run, I have tested literally every possible build with this deck and this one smokes every other build (including the survival build).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by k2thej

Quirion is a phenominal first turn play in hands with only one land. Ex:

Turn 1: Forest, quirion
Turn 2: birchlore, tap quirion and birchlore for nettle, bounce forest to untap birchlore, play forest again, tap forest for glimpse and use burchlore and nettle to start comboing

That's a turn two combo and I do this all the time. If you look a few posts back you can see the list I run, I have tested literally every possible build with this deck and this one smokes every other build (including the survival build).

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Don't like storm-based wincons?
Is Emrakul better than NO-Prog?

My list (minus Skullclamp to be Legacy-legal):

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Regal Force

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Land Grant
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Skullclamp

11 Forest

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Caspid

Don't like storm-based wincons?
Is Emrakul better than NO-Prog?

My list (minus Skullclamp to be Legacy-legal):

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Regal Force

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Land Grant
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Skullclamp

11 Forest

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I do like storm based win kills but there is pretty much never an instance where you can storm but not cast emrakul since you get the mana increase as you build your storm count. The biggest advantage to Emrakul over storm is that if you are not mid combo, you can usually finagle a way to cast him for the win if you have an archdruid/priest and untapper out. Basically, there is no disadvantage to Emrakul over storm, and hardcasting Emrakul wins me games fairly frequently (put me top seed going into top 8 last month at a 32 person tourney last month), so since I obviously want to win as many games as possible, this was the obvious choice. I used to run tendrils for a while but will never go back.

Yo, rukcus! Whatchu rockin' now?

I haven't touched Elves since going 1-3 vs.

Boros (2-1)
CB Bant (1-2)
RDW (1-2)
CB Top (0-2)

I even had the Leyline to help the CB matchup, but failed to draw sufficient land to do anything with my uncounterable 1 drops.

I don't think LA is a friendly place for Elves with all the CB top we have around.