[Deck] The EPIC Elf Survival

[Hawdes]

Wirewood Herald + Caller of the Claw and Cabal Therapy offer good protection against Perish.

We run 12 lords. Engineered Plague is a joke.

Umezawa's Jitte out of the sideboard would be a house in this matchup since it makes every elf scary and can remove his Jittes.

If you can play Progenitus with another elf out to protect against Edicts, you shouldn't have a problem.

The problem was, that I playtested against a guy who just hit my lords with his spot removal. Which resulted in that Engineered Plague got lethal instantly... But you're right. It might just have been bad luck when piloting my deck...

[Teumie]

I tested the relics instead of therapy's, but was not very happy with it (tested against counter/top which played goyf).
In these matchups, goyf is generally not the problem (they play green, and racing them should not be a problem since you create lots of creatures all with forest walk). The biggest problem in this matchup is counter/top (they have to keep something of cc1 and cc3 in their top 3 cards and hold a fow for NO).

I was toying with the idea of discarding black altogether. I know it has very nice SB options, but nothing so fundamental that it requires 2 splashes in an essentially mono color deck (at least pre-side).

I also tried the new 'lord' card, but was not very happy with it. You only want to cast it when you have some mana (so it waits in your hand untill you do, and in most cases you play it as a finisher) and it costs 1 mana, which sucks against cotv and cb/top ...
I thought that running mirror entity would be better in most cases (only exception is against plague) also allowing more versatility. I was hoping that bouncing the new lord and than re-playing it with lots of mana would be awesome, but it didn't make it most of the time (when short on creatures/cards, bouncing messenger is just better)

I am thinking of running a GW version which includes mirror entity and maybe some oblivion rings, just to have an answer to threats to which we have otherwise no answer (e.g. moat, humility, cb, wort, a fast tombstalker, etc.). In that case, the manabase gets a bit more consistent and less stifle-able.

Regarding the previously mentioned matchups:
zoo is very hard, you need a good hand and just hope that their hand is bad. Even playing an absolute law will only stall them untill they resolve a qasali (which in general, they play 4 maindeck ...) and even then you will have to sack creatures in order to block theirs (which are generally bigger) because you cannot afford to take more than 8 - 10 damage since they will just shoot you through the head ...

Engineered plague is only bad when they also play lots of spot/other removal. perish is just bad and the only thing you can do (when not playing caller of the claw) is just not overextend. in this case, one active imperious perfect is excellent since they cannot edict it (just create a token) and in it can generate a whole army (especially if you can untap with the other elf)

anyway, I was hoping on some feedback on the GW build since I was not very happy with the therapy's nor the relics.

Thanks!

[Hawdes]

I tested the relics instead of therapy's, but was not very happy with it (tested against counter/top which played goyf).
In these matchups, goyf is generally not the problem (they play green, and racing them should not be a problem since you create lots of creatures all with forest walk). The biggest problem in this matchup is counter/top (they have to keep something of cc1 and cc3 in their top 3 cards and hold a fow for NO).

I was toying with the idea of discarding black altogether. I know it has very nice SB options, but nothing so fundamental that it requires 2 splashes in an essentially mono color deck (at least pre-side).

I also tried the new 'lord' card, but was not very happy with it. You only want to cast it when you have some mana (so it waits in your hand untill you do, and in most cases you play it as a finisher) and it costs 1 mana, which sucks against cotv and cb/top ...
I thought that running mirror entity would be better in most cases (only exception is against plague) also allowing more versatility. I was hoping that bouncing the new lord and than re-playing it with lots of mana would be awesome, but it didn't make it most of the time (when short on creatures/cards, bouncing messenger is just better)

I am thinking of running a GW version which includes mirror entity and maybe some oblivion rings, just to have an answer to threats to which we have otherwise no answer (e.g. moat, humility, cb, wort, a fast tombstalker, etc.). In that case, the manabase gets a bit more consistent and less stifle-able.

Regarding the previously mentioned matchups:
zoo is very hard, you need a good hand and just hope that their hand is bad. Even playing an absolute law will only stall them untill they resolve a qasali (which in general, they play 4 maindeck ...) and even then you will have to sack creatures in order to block theirs (which are generally bigger) because you cannot afford to take more than 8 - 10 damage since they will just shoot you through the head ...

Engineered plague is only bad when they also play lots of spot/other removal. perish is just bad and the only thing you can do (when not playing caller of the claw) is just not overextend. in this case, one active imperious perfect is excellent since they cannot edict it (just create a token) and in it can generate a whole army (especially if you can untap with the other elf)

anyway, I was hoping on some feedback on the GW build since I was not very happy with the therapy's nor the relics.

Thanks!

The only thing that white adds to the picture (if running Survival of the Fittest) it's Mirror Entity creaturewise. The main reason to ditch black for white would be the access to PtE, StP, Oblivion Rings or enchantments that battle combo imo.
I do not like the fact that the elf deck bends over to a resolved Ioona, that's why I pack Planar Void and Relic of Progenitus in the deck.
Which makes it harder for them to play against.
Relic main depends much on the meta aswell. Dredge is a popular deck in my meta, aswell as other decks packing graveyard manipulation.
I have even speculated in running 3-4 Viridian Zealots maindeck in the Relic slot, for more elves and the ability to combat our other weakspots as Engineered Plague, Moat, etc. and even hitting some artifact mana sources.
I might try it though.

[Teumie]

i was considering the same thing (including zealots instead of relics), mostly because the matchups against 'graveyard' decks is not soo bad (I actually won 2 times on tournaments against dredge). If they cannot kill turn 1 or 2, then you should be OK. especially since NO removes their bridges.

I know that white brings not a lot creaturewise (although mirror entity is a bomb and also good against firespout (which i see VERY much here)) white is especially useful for absolute law and maybe some combo 'hosers' although that still remains a very bad matchup (you can only win if they screw up basically ...)

Regarding Ioona: if you pack white for oblivion ring (lets say a 3 or 4 off) she isn't such a big of a problem: if they say green you ring her, if they say white you continue bashing their face up (ok they got a clock, but so do you) or am I missing something here?
In my meta I see very few reanimator decks ...

[Azania]

I have been testing the new lord somewhat, I agree it was not as great as I thought it was, most of the time it ended up being in my hand for longer then I wanted it to.. And even then casting most of the time as a single lord for 3. But whenever I did play it it was usefull, I found it better then elvish champion since it does offer to play it as 2 lord effects for 5.

I agree it is more like a finisher elf, are rarely a saver but it did happen to me. Also an engeneerd plague at turn 3 is scary since it can kill all you elves, if you are sitting at 1 land it will loose badly >< But that is just very bad luck tbh.

It is still good enough to keep testing it. It was not as great as I hoped it to be but still not bad at all. Am playing as a 2-off having 12 lords total with it. 2 champion, 4 perfect and 4 aqrchdruid and 2 warcaller atm with 7 other 1-mana elves.

[Hawdes]

My new list after some serious tweaking and testing on MWS and with friends:

4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Bayou
2 Taiga
4 Wasteland
4 Forest

1 Wren's Run Packmaster
1 Progenitus
4 Priest of Titania
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Elvish Champion
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Quirion Ranger
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Imperious Perfect
3 Tribal Forcemage*

4 Natural Order
4 Relic of Progenitus*

Sideboard:

4 Blood Moon
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Planar Void
1 Woodfall Primus
4 Krosan Grip*

*: Cards that are questionable and flexible. Searching for better replacements.

Ok, lets cut past all the chitchat and go straight down to the discussions.
I recently cut Wirewood Symbiote, all though he's nice in theory, he seldom pulls his weight. Of course, Sylvan Chinnanigans are always welcome and bouncing other elves to dodge spot removal are what he's supposed to do, but in playtesting he more than often never goes online with either Sylvan Messenger nor protecting the other elves. He eats a StP, Bolt of any kind or a PtE and goes to the bin.
I replaced him with a more synergestic overrun ability in the deck, in the form of Tribal Forcemage. Played morph Game 1 often results in him getting hit by a spot removal, people might be afraid of what it could be, so he does the same thing as Wirewood Symbiote does in that department.
The added Trample and +2/+2 to all my elves has been pretty satisfying both in tempo increase and when I'm battleing various aggro decks.

I've also added Blood Moon to the sideboard, cutting Absolute Law and white all together. The reason for this is simple. The impact from Blood Moon on decks are far more heavy than Absolute Law, which almost only gets boarded in against Gobs or Zoo. Zoo already packs other removal in StP or PtE and their creatures aren't as red as you could believe.
On a closer inspection I realized that decks tend to pack tons of non basics since the fallback of Dragon Stompy decks. Most Zoo decks (one of our problem matchups) packs very little basic lands.
In fact, I played a total of 14 games against different Zoo decks last night and all in all four out of these 14 decks had a total of two basic lands each. The odds of Blood Moon having a great impact in these games are far better than Absolute Law doing anything except dodging a bolt now and then.

And due to the addition of Blood Moon, I could easily cut Choke from the board. Adding a mana denying enchantment over another.
If we compare the pros and cons of Blood Moon against Choke, you quickly realize that Blood Moon has little or no effect against Merfolks (except making Mutavaults and Wastelands mountains), it doesn not in fact deny them mana, which Choke did. But considering the upswing Blood Moon gives us in other matchups would, in my opinion, justify the cut of Choke for Blood Moon.

Further into the discussion, I still think that the Relic of Progenitus maindeck is a "ok" card, but there could be better ones, no doubt. I'm trying to come up with something that could replace this (I still think that Relic is good in battles against Grim Lavamancers, Tombstalkers, Nimble Mongeese, Goyfs, etc.).

I'm not that happy with the Krosan Grips actually, I would rather see these as Viridian Zealots or something of the like, due to the fact that they are elves. But they don't have Split Second now do they? Very hard decision here.
I don't know how many times I've been so unsatisfyed when I resolve a Sylvan Messenger, revealing no or one elf and the rest being lands, Natural Orders and borded Krosan Grips, resulting in them ending up on the bottom of my library. I've been testing Viridian Zealots in this slot, although they're pretty underwhelming when there's a Engineered plague on the board and it doesn't dodge CB that effective. I've had my eyes on Nullmage Sheperd, with it's cmc at 4 and a pretty fat body, but she requires 3 other guys to actually do anything. Would be a house against Enchantress though. The cmc 4 enables it dodge CB a bit easier.
Anyone have a thought on how I could adress this issue?

[arebennian]

I replaced him with a more synergestic overrun ability in the deck, in the form of Tribal Forcemage. Played morph Game 1 often results in him getting hit by a spot removal, people might be afraid of what it could be, so he does the same thing as Wirewood Symbiote does in that department.
The added Trample and +2/+2 to all my elves has been pretty satisfying both in tempo increase and when I'm battleing various aggro decks.
If you are going to run a universal pumper such as this, I believe that Gempalm is better. It avoids removal AND counters and as such, his +2/+2 can only be Stifled. Forcemage is a sitting duck and costs 1extra mana for the trample which with 3-4 5/5 Elves is overkill; either you opponent will be open, you will be able to swarm around him, holding back blockers that he will be forces to use to chump all of which allow you to win on the next turn (that is, if he doesn't topdeck an answer).


I've also added Blood Moon to the sideboard, cutting Absolute Law and white all together. The reason for this is simple. The impact from Blood Moon on decks are far more heavy than Absolute Law, which almost only gets boarded in against Gobs or Zoo. Zoo already packs other removal in StP or PtE and their creatures aren't as red as you could believe.
It isn't the creatures that are the problem (either forestwalk, their bigger, swarm, Lords to oversize them), it is the R spells which by playing Blood Moon you allow them still to use. A Mountain spells death to a Lord without another 2 lords in play. Sure they can't play Path/Swords, but they pack upwards of 8 burn spells. In addition, they will also see you coming the third game and search out their basic Plains and Forest (I still seem to see most lists with at least one basic of each type) nullifying BloodMoon and allowing Pride-Mage to kill off the enchantment.
In addition, Law is their specifically for the 'Red' based matchups, which are really Elves primary weak matchups (forgoing combo). Sure Bloon Moon will have more impact against Merfolk, Landstill, Eva Green Etc. than Law, but your primary concern should be strengthening the Zoo matchup, (which Blood Moon doesn't do that well) and finding a card that perhaps works well against a range of other decks.
If your looking for a card that might screw Zoo over and other decks (which seems to be your goal) try Root Maze or Winter Orb, both of which are probably too weak an option against Zoo and the other decks to ever board them in (ala Moon).


On a closer inspection I realized that decks tend to pack tons of non basics since the fallback of Dragon Stompy decks. Most Zoo decks (one of our problem matchups) packs very little basic lands.
In fact, I played a total of 14 games against different Zoo decks last night and all in all four out of these 14 decks had a total of two basic lands each. The odds of Blood Moon having a great impact in these games are far better than Absolute Law doing anything except dodging a bolt now and then.
Sample mana base taken from Zoo thread:
2 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Taiga
2 Plateau
2 Savannah
2 Horizon Canopy
More than enough Basics and Fetches to get around Blood Moon


And due to the addition of Blood Moon, I could easily cut Choke from the board. Adding a mana denying enchantment over another.
If we compare the pros and cons of Blood Moon against Choke, you quickly realize that Blood Moon has little or no effect against Merfolks (except making Mutavaults and Wastelands mountains), it doesn not in fact deny them mana, which Choke did. But considering the upswing Blood Moon gives us in other matchups would, in my opinion, justify the cut of Choke for Blood Moon.
Blooon Moon is better than Choke in other matchups; I agree. Still, Choke is questionable in the SB as Elves have decent game against Blue based decks as it is. It certainly shouldn't be a 3-4 of.


Further into the discussion, I still think that the Relic of Progenitus maindeck is a "ok" card, but there could be better ones, no doubt. I'm trying to come up with something that could replace this (I still think that Relic is good in battles against Grim Lavamancers, Tombstalkers, Nimble Mongeese, Goyfs, etc.).
If your that concerned you could try Eyeblight's Ending...


I'm not that happy with the Krosan Grips actually, I would rather see these as Viridian Zealots or something of the like, due to the fact that they are elves. But they don't have Split Second now do they? Very hard decision here.
I don't know how many times I've been so unsatisfyed when I resolve a Sylvan Messenger, revealing no or one elf and the rest being lands, Natural Orders and borded Krosan Grips, resulting in them ending up on the bottom of my library. I've been testing Viridian Zealots in this slot, although they're pretty underwhelming when there's a Engineered plague on the board and it doesn't dodge CB that effective. I've had my eyes on Nullmage Sheperd, with it's cmc at 4 and a pretty fat body, but she requires 3 other guys to actually do anything. Would be a house against Enchantress though.
Anyone have a thought on how I could adress this issue?
Grips are Grips. Anything else isn't any better (and most of the time far worse) otherwise you would have heard about it by now. It's interaction with Messenger (or lack of) sucks but there isn't much you can do.

Hope that helps

[Hawdes]

Hope that helps

Regarding the Relics vs. Eyeblight's Ending... I do believe that 1 mana vs. 3 is a big deal, since when you hit 3 you usually want to play a lord or invest the mana in abilities/other elves.
Blowing a Relic also nets you a new card. Which seems pretty decent in a deck that otherwise only rely on Sylvan Messenger. But I don't know. Might be a bomb. I will try it out.

[evilgorrilaz]

Is Thorn of Amethyst worth it in the sideboard? Ive been testing a list similar to Hawdes, and against decks like ANT/Belcher, it seems a lot better to put in something like Thorn since I don't seem to be able to outrace their combo.

By the way, sorry if this has been addressed previously. I haven't seen it.

[Hawdes]

Is Thorn of Amethyst worth it in the sideboard? Ive been testing a list similar to Hawdes, and against decks like ANT/Belcher, it seems a lot better to put in something like Thorn since I don't seem to be able to outrace their combo.

By the way, sorry if this has been addressed previously. I haven't seen it.

The problem of the deck isn't availability of boardcards against combodecks. The main issue is if it would matter to add x amount of cards against a matchup that's not even slightly favourable after sideboard.
In my opinion, it's better to make other matchups better at the cost of losing to combo. Combo decks only win fast if they get the nuts draw. Otherwise every point of damage counts, especially against ANT which is the most popular combo deck.
My play strategy against ANT is to overextend and attacking with every creature available, to inflict the most damage possible before they go off.
Sometimes it can win you games, resulting in them having to stop drawing cards due to low lifetotal, and they might end up without the win on hand.
If they play angels grace, they need to ANT twice, casting a Angel's Grace in between the ants, to not lose to themselves.

But if your meta is all combo, then an anti combo sideboard is the way to go.
My meta isn't that much combo, so I've totally neglected the combohate in my board.
As combo hosers, you always have City of Solitude, Amethyst, Sphere of Resistance, Rule of Law, Gaddock Teeg, Canonist etc. Try out the cards that would work for you. But be aware of the sideboarding plans Combo tend to have, bounce in Chain of Vapor, spot removal etc.
But if the meta is all combo, then this deck isn't the way to go.

Hope that helped.

[Teumie]

Given the new red 'board sweeper' I guess it becomes more necessary to pack anti-sweepers or white for absolute law or mirror entity.

The new card:

RR2
sorcery: does X damage to all creatures where X is the number of creatures on the battlefield ...

Sounds like a bomb to me (I'll be getting 4 of those, that's for sure)

[arebennian]

Firespout is just better.
- How often do you have more than 2 Lords in play. And even then the opponent doesn't have another burn/removal spell as well...
-How may decks that run a red based sort of sweeper can actually get to RR?
-Costs CMC4
-There are 5 Elves on the field. You sweep. Your Tarmo dies too.
-It isn't an instant.


If anything, and this is a big IF, it might get played in Goblins to reset the board and overwhelm the opponent with CA.

[Teumie]

what about that new "Omnath, locus of mana"?
I'm really intrigued by his abilities and maybe he could fit in a deck as this (which is able to generate lots of mana, as well as 'excessive' mana (mana which is not used during normal gameplay).

As I understood it, you can 'keep' your mana floating over several turns?

Only disadvantage is that he (again) costs 3 mana, which makes the mana curve very 3-based. unless you modify the whole concept of the deck ...

anyway, just my toughts

[Tivon]

That mana is better used for otherthings.

A packmaster or Mirror Entity (or chaining/bouncing Sylvan Messengers) are much better mana sinks than a legendary creature which isn't even an elf.

Messenger refills your hand, Packmaster gives a nice big body and lots of little death touch dudes, Mirror entity can allow you to "win now"

Ohmnon lets you get a basic forest or gain x life


I also wouldn't worry about the red sorcery. most likely its coming out turn 3, and if they have to reset the board at that time, you should already have gotten in for a fair amount of damage, in addition to forcing them to burn up their turn 4 to reset the board in a color that probably doesn't want to be playing control. Elves pumps out dudes real fast, which allows for a pretty quick recovery

[Radiant]

Right now, the only thing this deck wants from Worldwake is Joraga Warcaller. I tested this guy a few days ago and he was almost always really huge.

[woremak]

I've played a couple of games with warcaller and he's fairly bonkers. He definitely helped against red sweepers, as he's at worst another lord and usually the difference maker. The scalable factor is pretty sweet as we now get a lord that gives +3/+3 regularly. Though somebody did manage to play a vampire hexmage and remove all the counters...

[Hawdes]

Hey guys,
I thought that I should report my latest results from taking this deck for a spin. I attended at a Mox-tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden. I placed 11 out of 49 players with a meta filled with Zoo, Combo (ANT, Dream Halls, Belcher etc.), different Loamdecks, 43 Lands, Team America.
Pretty good in my opinion.

This was the list I took for a spin:

4 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Bayou
2 Taiga
4 Wasteland
4 Forest

1 Wren's Run Packmaster
1 Progenitus
4 Priest of Titania
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Champion
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Quirion Ranger
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Natural Order
3 Blood Moon
2 Boreal Druid

Sideboard:

1 Magus of the Moon (didn't have a 4th Blood Moon at the time)
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Eyeblight's Ending
3 Planar Void
1 Woodfall Primus
4 Krosan Grip

It performed very well, and the maindeck Blood Moons made a big difference in a lot of matchups. Although I don't have very detailed step by step match reports, I do have the matchups and results from the matchups.

Round 1: 43 Land
Started game 1 with a turn 2 Blood Moon played from Forest, Taiga and a Mana Elf, which bought me tons of time against his deck. Eventually I lost the first game with him at 6 life. He got a Constant Mists/Crucible of Worlds lock just in time. I would've finished him off the next turn. I had to scoop due to no maindeck answer to this.
0-1

I boarded:
+1 Magus of the Moon + 1 Woodfall Primus +2 Krosan Grip
-1 Boreal Druid -1Wren's Run Packmaster, -1 Elvish Champion, -1 Sylvan Messenger

Started with a turn 3 Blood Moon, crippling him enough to go full beatdown. He did resolve a Natural Emergence against my team, although I had a nice Krosan Grip waiting for it. Got him down to 7 and he had one forests in play. In his turn he plays a Forest and passes. In my turn, I alpha strike his empty board, hoping that he didn't have Constant Mists, but what do you know, he fogs and I pass the turn with a NO in hand. He draws a card and passes the turn.
I play NO, getting Woodfall Primus, shoots his forest last forest, in response he plays Constant Mists with buyback.
The next turn he doesn't get a forest and scoop.
1-1

In the last game I get a T2 Magus of the Moon, followed by tons of elves and lords, beating his face in due to him not being able to fog me.
2-1

Game2: Zoo

I win the first round due to a turn 2 Blood Moon and a turn 3 Packmaster, accompanied by tons of mana elves. He can't simply find the removal or mana for my Packmaster and he gets out of hand.
1-0

I boarded:
+3 Umezawa's Jitte
-1 Sylvan Messenger, -1 Boreal Druid, -1 Quirion Ranger


Round two, I keep a pretty decent hand of 6 cards with Jitte and some mana elves/titania and two lands, not a fast one, but not a slow either. He plays a turn 1 Lynx, and bolts almost every elf I play once my Jitte hit's the table. Can't race the Lynx, who were accompanied by 2x Wild Nactal.

1-1

Round 3, what can I say... Turn 4 Progenitus seals the deal even with a bolt directed towards my priest of titania. I took some early damage from a 3 Pyrostatic Pillar, and another one got resolved in his turn 4. But as NO costs 4, it sealed the deal.

Game 3: Team America

Won 2-0. He didn't do much more than destroy some lands and Snuff some dudes, setting me back in time, although I had tons of mana from my elves and I was able to swarm him after I shot down his lonely Tombstalker with Eyeblight's Ending. His Goyfs wasn't a huge threat at 3/4 against my 6/6 elves.

Game 4: Zoo again
This player did the right thing, aiming all removal for my lords, resulting in me ending up with 1-1 guys in all three rounds.
They couldn't simply race his Nactal's, Lynxes and Apes.

Game 5: ANT

Lost round 1... Duh... This deck can't simply battle combo that efficient.
0-1

Round 2 resulted in a win for me, due to me maximizing the damage output from my elves. He went off with the combo at 13 life and revealing poorly, ending up in him killing himself.
1-1

Round 3 was lost on a Turn 2 win. Couldn't do much more than attacking with a Mana elf for 1 putting him at 19 life.

Game 6: Monoblack Whatever

I was faster than him, drew like a god and had 7/7 elves beating his Gatekeepes, Vampires and what not to oblivion. (Note to self, Imperious Perfect is huge against Gatekeeper of Malakir if he's online).
1-0

I boarded:
+2 Jitte
+3 Krosan Grip
-3 Blood Moon
-1 Boreal Druid
-1 Quirion Ranger

I got the taste of Engineered Plague (as expeted) and Darkblasts, leaving my team crippled. Couldn't come back and he finished me with a Nighthawk with Confidant backup.
1-1

In round 3 we went back and forth. Me trying not to overextend and him resolving Plagues and Damnations over and over again. I traded Krosan Grips for his Plagues and so on. He killed off my Progenitus 2 times in this game. But once I resolved it a third time with NO, he didn't stand a chance.

It was a blast to play, although I would do some changes with the list. Especially since Warcaller wil be out later. Might replace 2 Elvish Champions with 2 Warcallers and edit some other cards.
All in all I placed 11/49. My mate ended up in top 8 with ANT and we had a great time playing. Too bad I never used the Planar Voids, not a single ichorid deck in the tournament.

[bluesbro]

Hey Source,
I’ve been following this thread and deck for the past month or so and wanted to give it a try. I played this list to 6-3 at the Starcity Richmond 5k over the weekend:


Lands:
5 Forest
3 Taiga
2 Savanah
4 Windswept Heath
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Pendelhaven

Creatures:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Quirion Ranger
4 Priest of Titania
1 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
4 Elvish Archdruid
3 Imperious Perfect
2 Elvish Champion
3 Elvish Spirit Guide

2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Anger
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Progenitus

Spells:
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Natural Order

Sideboard:
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Krosan Grip
2 Choke
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Faerie Macabre


The deck was a blast to play and I felt like I had game vs. a lot of the field, though the Zoo and Combo match ups need help. I didn't miss the Sylvan Messengers because Survival just gives you so much advantage. The ESGs were also good, powering out guys and protecting from Dazes. Here’s how the tournament went:

Round 1: Richard with White Stax
In testing, my group found that this match up is actually not that bad because of all the mana the little green dudes make. Game 1 involved spewing lords and running him over. Game 2 he used Powder Keg to get rid of my Priests and I don’t have time to recover. Game 3, I Grip his Powder Keg and he plays Armageddon with Crucible in play. After I use my remaining mana elves to Grip his Crucible, the game is pretty much over.
1-0

Round 2: Stephen with U/r Painter Countertop
Game 1, he is able to get off Painter/Grindstone on me. I have a Survival in play and draw the Progenitus, attack with my onboard guys, and then Survival away the big guy each turn so that I don’t deck. I don’t have enough creatures to get there though and lose. Game 2, I establish a board of elves and lords to his 2 Painters. I resolve a Natural Order and actually grab a Pridemage to keep him off his combo long enough to win. Game 3 goes the same way, using Natural Order into Pridemage to keep his combo off. One of the 2 maindeck Pridemages should probably be a Harmonic Sliver to more efficiently attack artifacts/enchantments.
2-0

Round 3: Stephen with Belcher
My opponent makes 8 goblins turn 2 on the play and passes. I’m able to use Archdruid and Priests to 6 or so mana elves and another lord to stall him. When he plays a Taiga for mana to recombo, I can forest-walk through with Champion for the win. Game 2, I sideboard in Gaddock Teeg and the 2 Traps and hope to get there. His hand was very slow and I was able to Survival for Teeg. He didn’t have an answer and scooped. I’m pretty sure this match up is awful and my opponent’s hands must have been sub par.
3-0

Round 4: Jon (Avier) with Merfolk
I get paired up with my buddy Avier playing fish. Game 1, he plays Aether Vial and then dazes my Llanowar. He’s able to Vial out dudes while keeping my mana elves off the board. By the time I get out Survival and try to stabilize, he has a flying Kira and I have no way to block it. The maindeck Vanquisher should probably be a Thornweald Archer to give me a chance against flying attackers. Game 2, I’m able to run him over with dudes. Game 3, I crack a fetchland at his end of turn. He Submerges my Llanowar Elves in response and I can’t get to the 3 mana I need to play Choke. Jitte eventually comes down on his side and I can’t comeback.
3-1

Round 5: Alex with Zoo
I win Game 1 by grabbing Progenitus with Natural Order, probably the best game plan vs. Zoo. I sideboard in the 3 Kitchen Finks to stall his more powerful guys. Game 2, he is able to burn my mana guys while beating down with Goyfs and Steppe Lynxes. Game 3, I keep a sketchy 6 card hand with Natural Order and one elf. He has the burn for my guys and keeps me off of 4 mana and a guy while beating down for the win.
3-2

Round 6: John with Mono Black
Game 1, I dropped multiple lords and he never caught up. I side in 2 Grips for his sideboard Engineered Plagues but I’m not that worried with Qasali Pridemages in the deck. Game 2, he plays Hypno and then Hymn and I can’t recover fast enough. Game 3, I again drop lords, Grip his Plague and then beat him down.
4-2

Round 7: Jesse with Bant Countertop
I’m not able to get my mana guys out through his counter magic and then his Counterbalance stops my lords. Game 2, I resolve a Choke but he just uses Knight of the Reliquary to cash in his locked Islands for new ones and I lose. This match up should probably be in my favor but I didn’t have much practice with it. A Vexing Shusher in the sideboard might be needed to force through the lords vs. a heavy control deck.
4-3

Round 8: Christian with Belcher
I’m out of the prizes but the deck feels fine and I want to get some more experience with it. When my opponent plays first and simply passes to me, I put him on Belcher or Reanimator. Great. However, as I drop guys, he keeps passing waiting for a land to go off and then scoops to lethal damage on turn 4. Game 2, I keep a solid hand with dudes and a Mindbreak Trap. He goes off turn 2 but just loses to the Trap and scoops.
5-3

Round 9: Josh with Dredge
The lost round is against my buddy playing Ichorid Dredge. His dredges Game 1 don’t get there and his deck doesn’t do much of anything. Game 2, I remove 2 Ichorids with Faerie Macabre in response to a Cabal Therapy and, again, his deck doesn’t do much.
6-3

Survival Elves was a lot of fun to play, and all the Survival targets for the maindeck and board let you call the metagame and help the rough match ups. As for changes, I would go with:

Main
-1 Qasali Pridemage
-1 Wren’s Run Vanquisher
+1 Thornweald Archer
+1 Harmonic Sliver
SB
-1 Tormod’s Crypt
+1 Loaming Shaman

[Elvish-Champion]

Hey Guys,
I' ve tested my Survival Elves List very often last weeks, and I have to say, that it works fine.

Here's the list.

3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
8 Forest

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Natural Order

4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Elvish Archdruid
3 Priest of Titania
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Imperious Perfect
2 Elvish Champion
3 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Quirion Ranger
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Anger
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Progenitus
2 Wren's Run Vanquisher


Sideboard??

3 Krosan Grip/or elves that can destroy artifacts, enchantments.
4 Chalice of the Void/ Thorn of Amethyst?
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Red Elemental Blast
4 Relic of Progenitus



I'm not really sure what to put into sideboard.
I hope you have suggestions to help me.
Thanks

[swoop]

What about Caller of the Claw vs board sweepers?

That could be nice as 1 off in Survival builds, or, in other builds, in SB.