[Deck] Elves Combo

Post board the important thing is to try to race out as many Lords as possible. You bring in 1 Elvish Champion and keep one to Wish for so that your total count is 13, with 9 ways to get evasion going. You also want to prepare for Jitte early by getting out Symbiotes. But the main emphasis should be on making sure that Plagues don't kill you.

That's based on my testing/tournament experience, which isn't that extensive really. There might be more strategies here that I'm missing. Just don't empty your hand without having out a Lord, preferably two.

RE Junk... (goes for any White or Black deck too)
Bring in Krosan Grip for Canonist/Plague. Be wary of running out a bunch of elves w/o a Lord effect (or two). Try to hold back as many creatures as possible to make the most out of your Glimpses. Prey they don't run Sinkhole or Hymn your land drops.

If they're a major metagame presence, one of the best cards against Junk is probably Wilt-Leaf Liege. I don't agree with the holding back a full hand suggestion, though. I think you want to race out a full board as soon as possible, as Canonist and Jitte are actually even harder to deal with than Plague. You just have to try and make sure that you're not overexposed to Plague. It seems like kind of a balancing act.

Is Elvish Skysweeper a terrible out to Emmy/Iona? Normally I don't try to post budget ideas on the competitive boards, but I can't for the life of me afford a Karakas with stuff that's going on. Furthermore, Skysweeper does actually stop a sneaked Emmy (which Karakas does not) and has the same vulnerability to a reanimated Iona.

When it comes out, Phyrexian Metamorph will probably be better than Karakas anyway, since it answers Progenitus as well.

In Elves it might be worth running several of those in the board, to be able to bring in extra answers to big Legendary guys that at worst turn into expensive versions of any elves you already have out.

Also deals with Jitte, as a side note.

Holy shit you're right.

I'm pretty sure that warrants a 3-of at least.

Dodges Iona unless they want us to combo them out, too.

Question: What would be the best way to deal with Pyrokinesis out of Goblin boards? The same method one uses to prevent sweepers?

That or try to slowroll a Priest, combo off in a single turn. Not like you have to worry about discard.

True enough. Preboard the match seems fairly easy though. Lackey will only get through if they're lucky, and Siege-gang and Gempalm are a tad slow to stop the deck from shitting bodies.

In my experience pact pretty much has never lost me a game except when I forget to pay for it (now I just put a die over my deck so i don't forget). I have tested it in tournaments such as SGC San Jose and a few 16 player tournaments. I really think the cons of GSZ are worse than Pacts upkeep cost.

I'm ok with losing to Iona (dredge, reanimator), but we can race an Emrakul. Metamorph seems more cute than useful - Krosan Grip already answers Jitte, Canonist, and Plague. Grip solves a lot more problems than Metamorph does (Progenitus? I mean really we have 2 turns to win as it is, how much time do you need?)

Or have answers to all of them in a wishboard? It's really not that hard to pull off.

My experiences with Pact is that I die more often to it than 1/30 times. People really wait to do all kind of nasty tricks to kill you with it.

I still run 4pact/4wish with 4 priest / 4 archdruid.
Having 8 lords I dont think it is too often necessary to tutor for them to set up the combo, because you just draw them more naturally.
So the often discussed Turn 2 play with pact for archdruid is not my favourite thing to do and I think this specific situation has been stressed too much.

The biggest reason to run pact for me is that you are actually able to combo off without an active mana-lord or in other tight situations, where GSZ is simply not enough (+1 mana, -1 draw with symbiote).

I totally aggree that the list with 4GSZ is more resilient vs. countermagic/removal, but you loose your biggest weapon: speed ... I think the of interaction with our opponent makes it necessary to put them under a lot of pressure. T1: elf, T2: lord, T3: glimpse/regal force + ~5 elves + 5 cards sets up a turn 4 win. I can recall many situations where it would be devastating to give them an extra turn.... Decks like entchantress, affinity, high-tide, painted-stone and burn can just try to race you without bothering. Control gets perish or some silver bullet to stop you and you suddenly have to deal with Jitte or equipments which K2 mostly smiles at. ANT/TES .. well no comment.

I will still test both options, but to IBA and K2, I don't think you can black/white this question. Both cards have their strength and I don't think it is that easy to say 1 is clearly better...As mentioned: also meta dependent.

Against StP, Force and Spell Pierce? I mean Bant is a pretty favorable matchup on the whole, I think, but when they get a Progenitus down things can get ugly pretty quickly. I'm also not okay with just losing to Reanimator and Dredge.

Also racing an Emrakul seems like a terrible idea.

I definitely think it replaces Karakas, although the idea of bringing in multiples just might be an overreaction to losing to Iona over the weekend with Force backup for my Living Wish.

Yeah, that can be rough. I don't think multiples are really necessary, though. If they counter one, just go for E. Witness with another. Also, this deck's combo is fairly slow, as far as combo decks go, so I value resilience and a stronger aggro plan over goldfish speed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bakofried

Yeah, that can be rough. I don't think multiples are really necessary, though. If they counter one, just go for E. Witness with another. Also, this deck's combo is fairly slow, as far as combo decks go, so I value resilience and a stronger aggro plan over goldfish speed.

---

How is this even possible with Iona on green? Like I said, there is not much we can do outside of anticipate Iona entering play next turn. Once she's out, we're toast. Against Show n Tell -> Emrakul - we just drop a lord and attempt to go off on our turn. Against Show n Tell -> Progenitus, this gives us 2.5 turns to combo off. Against NO -> Pro, this gives us 1 to 1.5 turns to go off. All these situations happen on turn 3 or 4. This isn't enough time to win with Glimpse/tutors?

We're talking about Reanimator here - it's not difficult to pick out. Look for Personal Tutor, Entomb, that sort of thing. And then G2, you can just bring in Phyrexian Metamorph (Or Skysweeper, I don't care) via Wish prior to getting Iona'd out of the game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bakofried

We're talking about Reanimator here - it's not difficult to pick out. Look for Personal Tutor, Entomb, that sort of thing. And then G2, you can just bring in Phyrexian Metamorph (Or Skysweeper, I don't care) via Wish prior to getting Iona'd out of the game.

---

Ok granted. I would still prefer Karakas however, as it's uncounterable. I also doubt this deck could even be a serious choice in tournaments, as Mental Misstep completely obliterate's this deck's chances.

Oh, bullshit. It's a 1-for-1 counter, it's not going to destroy the deck. Vary your gameplan. Hell, play GSZ.