[Deck] Elves Combo

[(nameless one)]

Thats unfortunate because I love Rucku's take with Survival. I am actually trying to save up to get survivals and NOrders.

Do you still play this deck online?

[Koby]

Not anymore - I've ran out of time to play online, so I'm a weekend warrior. I've started assembling other lists to play for tournaments, and testing out an aggressive version of UG Madness.

I still hold that the list I last posted is one of the better and consistent lists for hybrid Glimpse/Survival elves. Anger is very beneficial for the deck to be able to combat D.o.B. conditions (dead on board), and to give a slow roll against decks with mass removal.

[Shadowdale]

Hey Rukus great thread. I have a couple of questions.

I am trying to do a one land combo elves with land grants lotus petal and elvish spirt guide. Have you tried this build? Also what do you think about the inclusions of Copperhorn Scout and Genesis Wave? I have fallen in love wth Genesis Wave as it just lets me fill the board with permanents so fast.

[Lio]

Hey, I'm looking for some legacy deck and combo elves seems like what im looking for. But I wasn't playing for more than 4 months, so I don't have overview as I had before. Do you think its good or bad choice for today's metagame? And can somebody write here matchup analysis please? Just good, even and bad matchups. It could be great :).

[lorddotm]

I don't think LA is a friendly place for Elves with all the CB top we have around.

Amen.

Someone needs to start throwing Merfolk at them.

[DarthVicious]

My brother is putting together an elf combo deck. Keep in mind he's very stubborn and most likely won't take any advice whatsoever, he loves making his own 70 card homebrews out of decks and saying they're good...

Anyway, I suggested the following list to him. He, of course, says it's junk. You guys actually play the deck, so I'm wondering how I did with the list. Keep in mind I've only glazed over the thread and threw a MD together. No SB. I don't play this deck, I won't pretend I know how to build a board for it.


4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Joraga Warcaller
3 Elvish Visionary
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Vitalize
2 Concordant Crossroads
2 Grapeshot
14 Forest


Vitalize I figured would be ridiculous in a deck like this, feel free to tell me if I'm wrong on that. The rest of them I'm pretty sure some of you have tested before. Obviously the deck wants to go nuts into an all out attack, with Grapeshot as a backup.

On a side note, his justification for running Tangleroot is that it does the same job as Vitalize, Ranger, and Symbiote in the same card...

I don't even play this deck, and I want to slap him silly.

[1maarten1]

That actually looks like a fairly interesting and resilient build. Thanks for posting it. I do think both Priest of Titania and Elvish Spirit Guide are quite important to the deck.

ESG regularly speeds the deck up by a full turn, and also works great with Archdruid and Priest (lets you play them a turn earlier), and lastly is a great card to draw off of Sylvan Messenger.

Priest really lets you abuse Warcaller. I wouldn't play 4 Warcaller without a full set of Priest and Archdruid, and Priest goes fantastically with Glimpse, Sylvan Messenger, Quirion Ranger, Symbiote, Crossroads and your ability to combo.

But I think I can play a similar list while making room for both cards.

What do you think of something like this...

13/12 Forest
3/4 Elvish Spirit Guide

4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Priest of Titania
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Joraga Warcaller
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Sylvan Messenger
4 Quirion Ranger
3 Wirewood Symbiote

4 Glimpse of Nature
2 Concordant Crossroads

This looks to me like a list that might be able to abuse Genesis Wave, dont you guys think? It powers out elves insanely fast with ESG, Crossroads, archdruid titania, so I think it might work. What do you guys think?

[k2thej]

Yo dudes, went 4-2-1 yesterday at the Star City Games Open in Boston. (Should have been 5-1-1 gah!). Will post tournament report soon, but the general gist of it is that ELVES SMOKES SURVIVAL EVERY FUCKING TIME and survival is everywhere. So THAT'S awesome!!!

[k2thej]

Star City Games open Nov 7th:

Round 1: Smoke GW survival. Didn't even get to see which survival he was playing cause I beat him so fast
1-0

Round 2: Beat Ichorid. I am starting to come to the conclusion that we don't need GY hate in SB cause we can just outrun Ichorid every time.
2-0

Round 3: BARELY lose to Sneak attack/reanimator. Kid ended up placing 5th. Lost by a turn, and it was an insane turn he pulled to win. He told me had never been so nervous in a match against elves.
2-1

Round 3: Tie goblins, game 3 we went to time since we both built up decent armies and couldn't get through each other in time. I made a bad play game 1 though and would have won in 2 if I had played this right, so chock this one up to a player mistake.
2-1-1

Round 4: Beat a GW survival that had the triscilion/ooze combo
3-1-1

Round 5: Smoke another survival build, it was either UG or UWG.
4-1-1

Round 6: Lose in 3 games to countertop/painter's stone. Still not sure what to side in against countertop decks (grip or leyline). I usually go with leyline but it's up to some debate. He firespouted me 3 times and I think Fecundity should go up to 4 in the sideboard since this was the only significant problem I ran in to.

End the day at 4-2-1 since I dropped once I knew I was out of top 8

Let me know if you guys would like a decklist, and really think about playing this in tourneys with the popular of survival, I went 3-0 against survival that day, and it wasn't a coincidence.

[DrHealex]

I'd certainly like to see you post it. Ever since the fall of the great website known as deckcheck.net, I have been wanting to see decklists posted with more frequency on here... unless anyone knows of another site that is almost as great as deckcheck...

[Shabbaman]

Star City Games open Nov 7th:

Round 1: Smoke GW survival. Didn't even get to see which survival he was playing cause I beat him so fast
1-0

Round 2: Beat Ichorid. I am starting to come to the conclusion that we don't need GY hate in SB cause we can just outrun Ichorid every time.
2-0

Round 3: BARELY lose to Sneak attack/reanimator. Kid ended up placing 5th. Lost by a turn, and it was an insane turn he pulled to win. He told me had never been so nervous in a match against elves.
2-1

Round 3: Tie goblins, game 3 we went to time since we both built up decent armies and couldn't get through each other in time. I made a bad play game 1 though and would have won in 2 if I had played this right, so chock this one up to a player mistake.
2-1-1

Round 4: Beat a GW survival that had the triscilion/ooze combo
3-1-1

Round 5: Smoke another survival build, it was either UG or UWG.
4-1-1

Round 6: Lose in 3 games to countertop/painter's stone. Still not sure what to side in against countertop decks (grip or leyline). I usually go with leyline but it's up to some debate. He firespouted me 3 times and I think Fecundity should go up to 4 in the sideboard since this was the only significant problem I ran in to.

End the day at 4-2-1 since I dropped once I knew I was out of top 8

Let me know if you guys would like a decklist, and really think about playing this in tourneys with the popular of survival, I went 3-0 against survival that day, and it wasn't a coincidence.

It would be nice to see your decklist, or at least what kind of build you're running.

[k2thej]

Here is the list I ran at the Star City Games open:


4 Birchlore Rangers
3 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
6 Forest
4 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Gaea's Cradle
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Heritage Druid
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Regal Force
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wirewood Symbiote



SB:
1 Elvish Champion
2 Fecundity
4 Krosan Grip
4 Leyline of Lifeforce
4 Tormod's Crypt


The main deck is near perfect for how I like to play Elves, which is go for combo when you see a glimmer of hope that you might be able to pull it off, this build is designed to maximize the number of times that you will actually pull it off in scenarios like this.

The SB needs a bit of work, the Champion is boss, leylines are great for swapping for glimpses and going straight uncounterable aggro against control. Not sure about the rest though..

[Koby]

Can you share how you sideboard vs different matchups? I've been struggling to figure out how to bring in the Grips and Crypts.

[k2thej]

Sideboarding is definitely hard with elves combo more than other archetypes, since every card you take out dilutes your strategy. The question always obviously comes to, is the benefit of the cards I'm putting in worth diluting the deck with the cards I am taking out. Here is how I boarded in the Star City Games open:

Against Survival:
Nothing, we can outrun them every time. It's not worth putting in the grips for survival, just combo them.

Against Ichorid:
I boarded in Crypts but I never say them in game 2 or 3. I am beginning to thing these slots can be used for other things. We can outrun Ichorid and Reanimator doesn't really matter anymore. What would we need GY hate against?

Against Goblins:
Added Fecundity for the sweepers I knew he was adding. I unfortunately didn't see them and they would have helped a lot. I think I should have more than 2 in the board. I was debating about putting the grips in for vials but I ended up not doing it because I thought it would be better to just race him. Game 2 I tried to out aggro him when I had a chance at the combo in hand (something I almost never do) and it was the wrong choice. Aggro is strictly a backup plan unless it is a sure thing, and grip would help me out aggro him but not speed the combo up so I think it was a good choice to leave them in the board.

Against Sneak Attack/Show and tell:
This was a touch choice. Game 1 I ran him over but he showed me a lot of counters, game 2 I boarded in leylines for glimpses and go uncounterable aggro, which I think was a good choice. They just keep saving their counters for the glimpses, which arn't in the deck, and they let you summon anything, it's great!
Unfortunately though, I had to mull to 5 to get the leylines and didn't see any lands and I kept the hand since I thought it would be a better chance at drawing a land than landing a leyline after the start of the game. I didn't see any lands the whole game so he solitaired me but I still think it was the right sb choice.
Game 3 I swapped the leylines back out for the glimpses since I thought he would board out all his counters, which he did. This happens frequently if you show leylines to control game 2, you just go with your usual main deck game 3 against a deck with no counters. It sets you up real nice.

Against countertop:
This is always the hardest choice for me. Do we put in leyline or grip? I usually go leyline aggro. Game 2 he showed me the painter's grindstone combo so I had to use grip instead.

Definitely some hard choices, hope that helps though.

[k2thej]

Oh and I also put in Fecundity against top since he showed me firespouts

[keys]

What's the goldfish of this deck?

[Koby]

Combo Elves can conceivably go off turn 2. Turn 3 is very common start up as well. 4 Summoner's Pact make it easy to get the right pieces; just watch out for potential mass/spot removal in case you need to pass the turn.

[k2thej]

My goldfish is about 2.8 with this. Out of ten games I say I combo turn 2 two or three times, turn 3 5-6 times, and turn 4+ one to three times

[k2thej]

Could we get a discussion of the sideboard for my build going? I think a few changes to sideboarding choices and I would have won both of the rounds I lost. I need help though, since I am having trouble deciding these for myself, especially against Top, namely Grip or Leyline?

[1maarten1]

Could we get a discussion of the sideboard for my build going? I think a few changes to sideboarding choices and I would have won both of the rounds I lost. I need help though, since I am having trouble deciding these for myself, especially against Top, namely Grip or Leyline?

I used the following board, and it worked very well

4 Choke
4 Tormod's
3 vengevine
2 krosan grip
2 reverent silence

If it needs explanation tell me ;)!