[Primer] Elves!

[Julian23]

Streaming the Legacy Daily Event with Elves! Join us over at twitch.tv/itsJulian

Thanks for tuning in, had a great time :) We beat EsperMentor, Goblin Prison and Reanimator, lost to Infect. 3-1 in the Daily! #Elves

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Happy New Year slingers o' the sylvan.

Our local store had NYE 64-person tourney last night (lots of prizes and frivolity, food and festivities). It was a blast and it brought in good tidings for the new year . . . I won. I'm still a little sleepy, so a report soon.

[Julian23]

Back home from the JK Entertainment "End of Year" Event in Frankfurt. We gathered 173 players for Legacy, this is how I performed:

R1: 1-2 vs 4c Delver LOSS (Feature Match)
R2: 0-2 vs Reanimator LOSS
R3: 2-1 vs 4c Loam WIN
R4: 2-1 vs UWr Delver WIN
R5: 2-1 vs 4c Loam WIN
R6: 2-1 vs Merfolk WIN
R7: 2-1 vs Burn WIN
R8: 2-1 vs TES WIN
6-2 for 22nd out of 173. My tiebreakers were so bad, I was the last of the 18 pointers; one of them actually made it into the Top8. But I guess that's what you get for an 0-2 start ;-)

Played the same list I played in Madrid:

CXyOHldWEAAYmxJ.jpg

Would still very much recommend the exact list, with only the two Chokes as felix slots in your sideboard. Might be good to have additional help vs 4c Loam, which is super popular in Europe.

[Lans89]

Very exiting tournament Julian! All those wins in 3 games after such a sad start.. Gratz with your finish :)!

[Valentino_Marino]

I also performed in the Event, had a great start. In the evening I got more and more tired and nerveless.

R1: 2-1 vs Grixis Delver WIN
Great Match had a lot of fun and a nice fight. 1st NO - Hoof and in the 3rd hard cast Hoof for the win. Ooze perfomerd also very well.

R2: 2 - 1 vs Pox WIN
1st Round: Classic NO for Hoof on turn 3
2nd Round: I mulled to 5 and he had Marit on turn 2. Yeah.
3rd Round: He mulled to 5 and did nothing NO on turn 3.

R3: 0-2 ANT LOSS
1st: He discarded my NO. I glimpsed on turn 3 and drew about 20-30 cards and didn't find a second Order. Even Shaman of the Pack with GSZ had won me the game at that point. Next turn he killed me.
2nd: He saw my hand with discard and took my CT and put no artifact in play on Turn 2. I flashbacked on Infernal - no IT but AN in his hand next round I was death.

R4: 2-0 Dredge WIN
Inexperienced player but ok.
1st: NO Turn 3 he did nothing
2nd: Dread Return on Turn 3 with DRS active he did know what happend and then 2 DRS took over the game.

R5: 2-1 vs Grixis Delver WIN
I like the MU =) It's fun to fight it.
1st: Classic NO kill, before that he CT on Abrupt Decay ok =)
2nd: Darkblast gave me a rough time, then Ooze cleared the Way but I didn't find something to stop his Delver.
3rd: His 2 DRS were dangerous. He probed me, saw 2 NO and CT both, fortunately he had won with the 2 DRS then he flashbacked CT with fear for a unexpected kill named GSZ there was none. WRP took over the game.

R6: 2-0 vs Maverick WIN
1st: NO on turn 3
2nd: Very grindy Decay on DRS Engineered Plague on Elves, killed a EV and I returned a BR and morphed him afterwards. He got badly beat up from them. Needle on Symbiote. He found a Jitte, I found the DEcay after it got 2 counters, there he made the wrong decision. I had a Ooze without counter and he didn't kill it. Nettle and the Symbiote went to the grave yam yam for the Ooze wich took over the game after ich SE his other AD.

R7: 2-1 vs Cloudpost WIN
1st: NO kill
2nd: Needle on Candelabra. EoU found Emrakul, ha had not enough mana but one turn later Emarakul said hello an thats it.
3rd: Chasm bought him time after turn 3 NO for 16. Brought him down to 5 and died.

R8: 1-2 vs Lands LOSS (Feature Match)
Worst MU in my life maybe I was nervous as hell don't know
1st: NO kill
2nd: grindy as hell Marit killed me
3rd: Marit on turn 2...

6-2 for 18th out of 173. The Feature Match was hell didn't know what to do nobody was there we were very confused and yes I was tired nervous and hungry and performed not so well =DD

Great Event

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

4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
3 Heritage Druid
2 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
4 Wirewood Symbiote

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


//Sideboard
SB: 3 Abrupt Decay
SB: 3 Cabal Therapy
SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
SB: 3 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Cavern of Souls
SB: 1 Wren's Run Packmaster
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

While I venture that some will argue that there is some upside here for us, I think there is a whole lot of sideboard badness against elves with this:

Stompy, MUD, Eldrazi, D&T, and others will pose new disruptive challenges for us.

[Julian23]

Not worried about this clunky card at all. D&T won't play it and MUD is already one of our very best matchups, that will probably also not play this too much.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Not worried about this clunky card at all. D&T won't play it and MUD is already one of our very best matchups, that will probably also not play this too much.

History heralds your instincts over mine, so I'm hoping history repeats itself.

I just stumbled across this video, which I hadn't seen before . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sytuuUDOrgM
This is a great way to start off the new year.

LoR

[Julian23]

You can find my article about my 12th place at MKM Madrid over here: http://www.mindsportsacademy.com/News/Index/241

Regarding the video you linked, oh man that was some really awesome time down in the Lille castle. Can't believe it's already almost half a year ago!

[Julian23]

Streaming the Legacy DE with 5̶c̶ ̶M̶e̶n̶t̶o̶r̶G̶o̶y̶f̶ ELVES! Join us over at twitch.tv/itsJulian

[toletole]

Hello everyone, a quick question, where can I find your most updated sideboard strategies? I think that's probably my weak spot atm. Thanks in advance

[PendelSteven]

History heralds your instincts over mine, so I'm hoping history repeats itself.

LoR

Just wanted to add it's simply a 2 mana counterspell that only counters a Sorcery. The last mode isn't interesting in Legacy and the first doesn't even kill Insectile Aberattion, DRS, Goblin Guide...
And mind you, all those deck you mentioned won't be playing a basic land Wastes which they can't fetch, so their precious colourless mana is weak vs Wasteland.

Anyhow, it's not even as good as Negate and that's not played. So there.

The trick is to think Elves is merely like at most 5 % of the field and there aren't much more decks that rely on sorceries. Okay, sneak attack, but I doubt that's actually a bad matchup for MUD or D&T.

[PendelSteven]

Hello everyone, a quick question, where can I find your most updated sideboard strategies? I think that's probably my weak spot atm. Thanks in advance

'Ello,

What I've seen around is putting the Sylvan Library in the main deck (vs Miracles). Then there's a rise of Surgical Extraction (vs Lands), Choke (vs Miracles), Mindbreak Trap (vs Storm?) and Elderscale Wurm (vs Burn?). The latter especially online - apparently both Reid Duke and Andrew Cuneo played 1-2 Mindbreak Trap and 1 Elderscale Wurm.

That's my analysis of the situation. Also, if anyone can explain why Duke and Cuneo played those exactly: thanks, cause Storm and Burn are my guesses...

[dte]

wurm is not only good vs burn: vs lands it is an excellent choice as well. It is also OKish (not great) in the mirror, and against most delver variants.

[square_two]

Just wanted to add it's simply a 2 mana counterspell that only counters a Sorcery. The last mode isn't interesting in Legacy and the first doesn't even kill Insectile Aberattion, DRS, Goblin Guide...
And mind you, all those deck you mentioned won't be playing a basic land Wastes which they can't fetch, so their precious colourless mana is weak vs Wasteland.

Anyhow, it's not even as good as Negate and that's not played. So there.

The trick is to think Elves is merely like at most 5 % of the field and there aren't much more decks that rely on sorceries. Okay, sneak attack, but I doubt that's actually a bad matchup for MUD or D&T.

I believe Warping Wail will see some play. It -does- kill DRS along with a ton of other pesky legacy staples, kills anything power or toughness 1 or less. And there is usually at least a turn to kill Delver before he flips. Stompy decks gain an easy interactive spell. D&T gains a way to avoid annoying stuff like Terminus and from our side, Glimpse and NO. I haven't been keeping up with their thread but over time I'm confident that the wail will see some play. If you see Rishadan + other land untapped during your turn on game 2, I would at least be aware of the possibility.

[Zombie]

Just wanted to add it's simply a 2 mana counterspell that only counters a Sorcery. The last mode isn't interesting in Legacy and the first doesn't even kill Insectile Aberattion, DRS, Goblin Guide...
And mind you, all those deck you mentioned won't be playing a basic land Wastes which they can't fetch, so their precious colourless mana is weak vs Wasteland.

Anyhow, it's not even as good as Negate and that's not played. So there.

The trick is to think Elves is merely like at most 5 % of the field and there aren't much more decks that rely on sorceries. Okay, sneak attack, but I doubt that's actually a bad matchup for MUD or D&T.

Uh, read the card. Warping Wail DOES kill DRS. The only creatures from our maindeck it doesn't kill are Nettle, Ooze and a morphed Ranger.
The third mode is spice, but it does carry Batterskull and work as ramp for landing 4cc bombs T3 (without having to commit, importantly. You can keep counter/removal up and make a token EOT).

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

As I mentioned above, I would trust Julian's instincts over mine.

That said, Warping Wail looks to be a nice sideboard card for some decks, especially those that already use lands like Wasteland and Ancient Tomb and the like that produce colorless mana because it offers some useful versatility.

It exiles most of our main deck creatures at instant speed.

It allows non-blue decks to counter all our main deck spells (Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith, and Glimpse of Nature) and some of our most common sideboard spells (Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy).

Beyond our have significant consequences our deck, it will exile many of the most salient legacy creatures in other decks and stop a number of their important sorceries as well. Its versatility is what I had thought would make it attractive as a sideboard card for many decks. The downside of us is that it affects our deck more than most. Were I a D&T player, I would be playtesting this card, seriously. I could see Imperial Painter/Strawberry Shortcake taking an interest here as well, but they do have a tight sideboard, so there may not be room.

Again, I don't consider myself to be the caliber player that many of our regular posters are, so my judgments come from the cheap seats.

LoR

[dte]

I cannot see a single deck that would want to play Warping Wail, even if it had access to 30 cards SB.

First because it's not versatile, it's just terribly bad. Even if the cost was 2 generic manas, I'm not sure it would see play.

When I read that it can kill non-transformed delvers, I wonder who would want to side in a 2-manas, counterable gut shot against delver? Delver decks do not play sorceries (or very few of them), so it would be only a 2 mana removal that does nothing against goyf, a zombie fish or an insectile aberration. If your deck wants that against delver, change it (your deck, I mean).

Then, you can read that it can counter terminus. again, it is useless against all the other cards miracle runs. And in a deck without other countermagic, it does not seem really reasonnable to want to fight this one spell on the stack. Additionnaly, ancient tomb decks are usually tapped-out decks.

Against combo decks such as ANT or S&T, while the card seems great, I do not believe it is. These decks are performing well in the metagame because they are able to fight through multiple counterspells (remember that the metagame is mostly constituted of blue deck with at least 10 counters in the 75). They play discard or counterspell of their own.

Elf is one of the only decks this card is good against, because it is made of 1/1s and sorceries. And Elf is not so well represented that it warrants such a dedicated card in any SB.

Non free counters are not great in decks that tend to not play as draw go. Any blue deck has access to better counterspells. Any non blue deck does not want to keep mana open all the time. There is a reason why in this very deck (elf I mean), we run seize & therapy rather than one trop with swan song & envelop.

So, do not worry about warping wail. The card is not legacy material.

[Echelon]

So... Vines of the Recluse.

Cheap/budget on-color combat trick to kill a flipped Delver. Perhaps combined with an untapped fetchland to get a Dryad Arbor.

I just loathe Delvers. Unfortunately Abrupt Decay does the same thing while providing more utility.

[Zombie]

So... Vines of the Recluse.

Budget on-color combat trick to kill a flipped Delver. Perhaps combined with an untapped fetchland to get a Dryad Arbor.

I just loathe Delvers. Shame Abrupt Decay does the same thing while providing more utility.

Don't you 2-for-1 yourself with that unless you use it on DRS, Nettle, Ooze or the like or use it with Pendelhaven? At that point, we should just use Aerial Volley or Plummet.