[Primer] Elves!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trevaftw

SCG articles are no longer premium after a month, so everyone can reid duke's legacy report on 1st place with elves

http://www.starcitygames.com/article...1st-Elves.html

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Duke wanted afterwards to play with:

http://8e8460c4912582c4e519-11fcbfd8...ulSabotage.jpg

Because he faced an Affinity deck in the swiss. Now I've seen decks running

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers...4029&type=card

for that. But I'm I so smart or something? 'Cause this one is better imho:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers...3410&type=card

Destroying all 0cc artifacts for 1GG? I'd rather cast that in that case! Heck and even if you destory artifacts which cost mana to cast, it's still like a Mass Swords To Plowshares vs Affinity!

1st card. Not Sold
2nd card. Negative Ghost Rider. Negative Fly By
3rd Card? HOLY SHIT! The affinity match up just became fun. Getting rid of lands, creatures and such? FUCK YEAH!

I think that Corrosion is better. We can make that extra mana with ease and not handing over a mass of life helps us if we have to go full beatdown for whatever reason. (Esperblade for example.)

To provide a bit more of explanation, Affinity is too fringe of a matchup to actually directly account for in the sideboard.

What Gleeful Sabotage is for is an additional way to hit Enchantments, especially the cmc>3 ones. It's also a nice workaround for Counterbalance. The main downside however, is the Sorcery speed which has sometimes been an issue for me during testing.

Have you guys ever tested against Affinity? It's basically a bye. We already have Abrupt Decay in the SB and some people are playing Viridian Shaman. That's good enough. There's no need to dig up some random green hatecards from a bygone era.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trevaftw

SCG articles are no longer premium after a month, so everyone can reid duke's legacy report on 1st place with elves

http://www.starcitygames.com/article...1st-Elves.html

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I feel like this article should not have been premium. It gave no new information whatsoever and was garbage as a tournament report since he talked about like, two matches in any sort of depth. Fail.

While that may be true, Elves was the flavor of the week at that time. So from an business standpoint it made sense to capitalise on that and charge for the article. Also that was no new information for US. But if your a common visitor to this site you are unlikely to need to pay SCG for info anyway.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Julian23

What Gleeful Sabotage is for is an additional way to hit Enchantments, especially the cmc>3 ones. It's also a nice workaround for Counterbalance.

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Julian: Can you explain the "workaround" portion of this. Is it that tapping two creatures is uncounterable by Counterbalance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trevaftw

Elves got 15th at the 2013 SCG Legacy Open in Milwaukee

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=59877

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Yeah, I drove down with him. He had been playing RUG delver for a long time but he want to play elves but lacked the cradles. I think he was happy with the result.

If you think Seeds of Innocence is fun at 3 mana,

Check out this card:

http://magiccards.info/scans/en/wl/140.jpg

But really, Viridian Shaman is more than enough to turn that around, as danyul pointed out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord_of_Rivendell

Julian: Can you explain the "workaround" portion of this. Is it that tapping two creatures is uncounterable by Counterbalance?

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In a sense, yes. Conspiring puts a copy directly onto the stack (not actually casting) so it won't trigger counterbalance.

Alright, so here is the list I am going to run for GP DC:

Creatures - 31
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wirewood Symbiote
3 Quirion Ranger
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Ruric Thar
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Elvish Archdruid

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

Lands - 18
4 verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Taiga
4 Gaea's Cradle


Sideboard
1 Natural Order
1 Progentius
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Krosan Grip
1 Viridan Shaman
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress

And this is my sideboard strategy for "Decks to Beat"

Miracle control
+2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Krosan Grip, +1 Viridian Shaman, +1 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, - 1 Nettle, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore

Sneak Attack
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +1 Krosan Grip, +4 Cabal Therapy, +2 Duress
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -3 Elvish Visionary, -3 Wirewood Symbiote, -1 Birchlore

Maverick
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

ANT
+1 Natural Order, +4 Cabal Therapy, +3 Duress
-1 Elvish Archdruid, -3 Elvish Visionary, -3 Wirewood Symbiote, -1 Birchlore

RUG Delver
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Scavenging Ooze, +2 Abrupt Decay
-1 Craterhoof, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Goblins
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Viridian Shaman,
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Nettle Sentinel, - 1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Team America
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Craterhoof, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

DnT
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Viridian Shaman, +1 Krosan Grip
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Shardless BUG
+1 Progenitus, +1 Natural Order, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze
-1 Craterhoof, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

Mono U Omnitell
+1 Natural Order, +4 Cabal Therapy, +3 Duress
-1 Elvish Archdruid, -3 Elvish Visionary, -3 Wirewood Symbiote, -1 Birchlore

Jund
+1 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Scavenging Ooze,
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore Rangers, -1 Cradle

Blade Decks
+1 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Viridian Shaman, +1 Krosan Grip
-1 Ruric Thar, -1 Elvish Archdruid, -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Heritage Druid, -1 Birchlore, -1 Cradle

If birchlore comes out in every dtb and natural order comes in wouldn't main decking the fourth order be a reasonable change? Possibly adding the second arbor to the board

i would definatly keep birchlore in, when boarding decay. sometimes that Black mana it produces is just what you need.

I've talked about 4 NO and Progenitus main before. Look how often you side Progenitus in....
Progenitus is just GG against a wider % of the field than Ruric is. Simple decision...
And with Progenitus main the preconditions to cast NO are less difficult making 4 the correct choice. Random Archdruid is also an easy cut and you even get another sideboard slot for a high impact card out of the deal.

Backup-Archdruid = Elvish Training-Wheels?!

If you are playing against combo, you should not side out any 1cc creatures. Not a single one.

I've been going with -3 Visionary, -1 Shaman, -1 Symbiote, -1 Heritage/Birchlore (+4 Therapy, +2 Thorn. I run Teeg+Ruric main, so swap them in if you don't.) and have been doing quite well.

I usually take out Multani's Acolyte, Crop Rotation and X or Y card that is less important for that specific matchup.
Im not scared of going over 60 tho.