[Primer] Elves!

Had some success with Levold so far. My current list:

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

4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
3 Heritage Druid
2 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Leovold, Emmissary of Trest
1 Shaman of the Pack
--
30

2 Dryad Arbor
2 Bayou
2 Forest
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Gaea's Cradle
2 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
2 Cavern of Souls
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20
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61

SB: 4 Abrupt Decay
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 4 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze
SB: 1 Elderscale Wurm
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15

So far I had no Problems to cast Leovold from my Hand with this list. Thought about a Tropical to put some Flusterstorm in my SB but actual I'm fine. Really want a second Needle but I'm not sure if I want to cut a Trap.

Another List I want to test a little bit more is something like that:

- Leovold
- SotP
- 1x Cradle
- 1x Cavern
- Forest or Catacombs

+ Ruric Thar
+ Xenagos the Reveler
+ Crop Rotation
+ Pendelhaven
+ Taiga

not sure about the exact configuration but I like the red splash for Ruric and Xenagos felt good as one off with a Garruk in the SB. In the SB a pair of Blasts maybe. I don't like the Blood Moons so far what is your experience?

What are your special deck techs or experiments? I love testing new and other than the regular stuff and like to read your experiences.

Greets
V_M

Don't quote an entire post directly above you, especially when it's this long - Julian23

I love the use of leovold, how has he performed? he seems easy enough to cast (GSZ/deathright). I am thinking about using him as a one one of in the sideboard. I like the fact that when they target wirewood at least I am able to draw a card. I still think he might be a win more card, but potential is there.

He performed very well. Was insane against every Delver deck and nice against Miracles. They can't dig for removal so they have to natural draw it and that is not that easy for them. Most of the time, they shot their removal on the first target and when you have a symbiot in play ist even worse for them the Body isn't that bad against these MU's.

After SB I want him as fast as I can against ANT, while drawing 8 - 11 Cards it is not that difficult to find one of Two Mindbreak Trap copies.

I know he is no I Win button but in the battle of ressources he's great. And I like the idea to have only Elves, Behemoth and Symbiotes main deck.

V_M

I'll have to give him another try as I was completely underwhelmed with him in the ANT/TES matchup. Simply too slow to have too wait to hit 4 mana to tutor him with GSZ. I'm still saving up to drop some money on Blood Moons to give Blood Elves a spin on MTGO.

If you relay only on him it is too slow but if you have no other disruption and can bring him online on turn 2 it is great. With 2 SE 2 MT and 4 TS you have a lot to slow him down and bring him when you can can play him safe. He's not that great like Ruric but i like him in that MU. I'm not sure in which MU's I really want/need Leovold but up to now it is nearly every MU where he can shine.

Do you have any experiecens with Blood Moon in the SB? In which MU's do you want them? I tested 2 Blood Moon while I had the red splash and wanted nearly in every MU other SB Cards but I like the idea.

Blood Moon is somewhat similar to Choke. It shuts down most Delver and Eldrazi decks if you can get it early but does almost nothing if you're behind.

The bonus upside of Blood Moon is that it also works vs Lands. Overall I don't hate it as a SB card but I don't see it being worth the splash.

Definitely going to try out Leovold this weekend at Nerd Rage Gaming legacy tournament. Thanks for the comments.
Also sorry for quoting such a large section will not happen again.

Finnish Legacy Champs 2016 (Poro GP), 110 players, 7 rounds plus top8. Decided to go with Chaos Elves because I predicted a lot of blue decks in meta.

Decklist
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Heritage Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
3 Quirion Ranger
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shaman of the Pack
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Wren's Run Packmaster

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Bayou
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
1 Pendelhaven
1 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Choke
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sylvan Library
4 Thoughtseize
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1-2 vs WGRB punishing fire deathblade goodstuff.dec

2-0 vs Shardless BUG

1-2 vs Punishing Jund

2-0 vs Landstill, which I thought was Miracles until end of the match my opponent told me it was Landstill.

1-2 vs Elves (Natural Order version)

At 2-3 record I could not get to top8, nor to top16 for prices. So I decided to drop for beer.

How to summarize this. Two matchups were against heavy discard / liliana / punishing fire / wasteland decks, to which I lost. Two matchups were against blue decks which I felt great playing against. Then I got paired against normal Elves which I think is miserable - even though I get to play Gaddock Teeg in all three games, in game 2 it gets removed and then NO into win, in game 3 he just hardcasts Craterhoof Behemoth. Hnngh.

I think I made a wrong call choosing to play Chaos Elves instead of normal Natural Order build. But for the most part, I think Ezuri worked quite well in this shell, Shaman of the Pack and Wren's Run Packmaster were also able to finalize the win. In sideboard Garruk Relentless worked well, as well as Sylvan Library. However, I think Gaddock Teeg didn't do much (except slow down elves a little) and Umezawa's Jitte was also not doing well. If would probably drop Jitte to sideboard and lift Sylvan Library or 1-of Abrupt Decay to mainboard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Brendelton

Definitely going to try out Leovold this weekend at Nerd Rage Gaming legacy tournament. Thanks for the comments.
Also sorry for quoting such a large section will not happen again.

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Soooo, how did it go ? :-)

I was crushed. Leovold was ok, still need more testing. I was able to get him out in multiple games and he was simply destroyed on site. Another NO elves player made top 8 with my friend who was playing nic fit aluren. So elves is still a very competitive deck in the right hands.

I played a 4 games against a turn 2 Jitte which was very hard to overcome. There was also a Thalia Stompy deck that was really cool. THC is brutal and the first time I have played against her. I still love the deck and will keep practicing with Leovold. Most of my wins (almost all of them) were do to attacking with my green critters and abusing deathrite and wirewood/ranger. Not many wins with NO/GSZ/Craterhoof.

I played my first legacy tournament this weekend.
It was a local one with roundabout 30 players. I played the usual NO version plus Leovold. All in all I can say that I really liked him in the Mainboard. I was able to cast him whenever it was needed. I made 3 - 2 to finish somewhere in the middle.

I lost against cloudpost and miracles. Victories vs delver, death and taxes and miracles

Is this decklist for real?

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...?DeckID=108477


He's running only 11 Turn 1 Green sources in a 61 card deck! That's 77.10% to get a green source in the first 7 cards. Really, really greedy IMO, but I guess it worked for him.

Speaking of that list, what matchups are Elderscale Wurm intended for? It doesn't seem like a worthy inclusion, but I don't play the deck much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kirbysdl

Speaking of that list, what matchups are Elderscale Wurm intended for? It doesn't seem like a worthy inclusion, but I don't play the deck much.

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Elderscale means that a select few matchups are simply free wins. Dredge and Burn are the main ones. Lands too? Means 20/20 does nothing except block, and it takes a bit to PFire a 7/7 in a single turn. Basically non-white decks that intend to win through damage and don't have access to loss of life effects - NO your only green creature into the wurm and they can't do anything. I went to a tournament this past summer with NO RUG having 1 Progenitus, 1 Elderscale in the main and had a few easy wins with it.

Thanks! Are Wurm and Ruric Thar both essentially unplayable in the Chaos build, because getting them out takes so much build-up that by the time you have 7-8 mana to zenith for them, you can simply hoof for the win? Or is Ruric Thar still useful in Chaos Elves e.g. against Terminus/ToxicDeluge where you might not want to overextend with an army?

If anyone was able to watch, Elves top 8'ed the European Eternal Weekend. Watching Jan play against Miracles twice though was definitely interesting, as his sideboard strategy did not rely heavily on simply grinding out Miracles (he went for the keeping in the NOs in games 2 & 3) as well as bringing in Gaddock Teeg with no clear white source (no Savannah in his main). It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on why he chooses to keep them in, especially when Julian advocates the opposite and cuts them completely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jjkbb2005

If anyone was able to watch, Elves top 8'ed the European Eternal Weekend. Watching Jan play against Miracles twice though was definitely interesting, as his sideboard strategy did not rely heavily on simply grinding out Miracles (he went for the keeping in the NOs in games 2 & 3) as well as bringing in Gaddock Teeg with no clear white source (no Savannah in his main). It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on why he chooses to keep them in, especially when Julian advocates the opposite and cuts them completely.

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Hello, this is Jan. Usually I just read in this forum and then doing what ever I was doing anyway. But if there are questions about my decissions and my list I would be happy to answer that. For the people who ask: "Why did you fetch for a bayou in quarterfinal?" - that was a misplay.

I do play Gaddock Teeg even through there is no white source (except 4 DS, 2 Birchlore and if it´s necessary 2 Cavern). First: I think third Duelland is bad. Doesn´t matter if it´s a Savannah for gaddock, a tropical for flusterstorm or a Taiga for Blood Moon. I tried it and I am not convinced. But the Gaddock is in the SB because it´s very good against storm and Belcher. It´s still good vs Miracles but how you see in the coverage I never targeted it with my GSZ. On paper: It makes no sense to me to play 4 GSZ, 3 NO and Gaddock in the same deck. But keep in mind: If it´s in your library you have access to it. If it´s in your hand you have the option. play it and grind or hold it. Usually it get´s the sword anyway.

NO after Sideboarding. I boarded: +4 Abrupt Decay, +1 Garruk, +1 Gaddock Teeg, +1 Ooze. -4 Glimpse of Nature, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Gaeas Cradle.

My plan was to not overextend while playing NO with 2-3 Creatures in play. It resolves through the Counterbalance mostly (Glimpse doesn´t). That fact is in my opinion the answer to your question.

I usually win if I get Visonary and Symbiote online and the 2 Cavern of Souls really help holding on this plan. Then saving the the Decays for the Mentors. Against CB just if there is no other way.

mhmmm not sure If i could help.

Another thing: If you looking for Decklists at TC Decks and looking for my name: Don´t take the lists from Ollies Spielecenter. I just test there =)

I recently started getting into elves and have found that I prefer the chaos build. I have been having a little trouble against eldrazi. Has anyone here tried Ensnaring Bridge in the board, and if so has it been a reasonable card?

Thanks for the reply Jan. Just recently I was advocating cutting Glimpse in the Miracles matchup (though not as drastically as you do by cutting all 4 copies) and I am happy to see that another Elves' player shares my sentiments. While I am not a huge fan of keeping in all of NOs (too much of the time I find it to be a 2-1 that gets countered) I do understand the philosophy of keeping some of them in to allow yourself the option of "Hoofing" for the win.

Congrats on the top 8!

Top 8'd an Eternal Weekend trial this weekend with the following build:

Creatures:31
2 Dryad Arbor
1 Birchlore Rangers
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Heritage Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Wren's Run Packmaster
2 Craterhoof Behemoth

Spells:12
1 Crop Rotation
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Natural Order

Lands:17
2 Bayou
1 Cavern of Souls
2 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:15
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Null Rod
1 Sylvan Library
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Crop Rotation
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Karakas
1 Wasteland

Was looking to get some thoughts on the Crop Rotation package- I know I've seen some Chaos Elves variants running it, but I have found that it adds quite a bit of flexibility to our bad matchups (Reanimator/Sneak/decks with Tabernacle/Chasm), while acting as a green dark ritual when we're trying to become faster against Storm combo. Any thoughts? I've also considered cutting the surgical for a Bojuka Bog, although I really like having a Surgical against Miracles and as an out to T1 glass cannon lists.