[Deck] Elves Combo

[lep]

I drew Wave 4 times during the tournament. 3 Times I cast it, and I won all 3 games. The 4th time it was Thoughtseized out of my hand. I think the card is great; 2 seemed like the right number.

If I had to cut anything, it would be 1-2 Birchlore Rangers. I was pretty ok with just the 3 Pacts.

By the way, was good talking to you today, and nice job on the top 8.

Were those games in which you cast Wave contingent upon it resolving or were you in a winning situation already? After talking to you I shifted things around some in my build and cut to 3 pacts and 3 Symbiotes and 3 Birchlore to fit in the 4th Archdruid and 2 Waves but I have no testing with it.

Thanks. Tough beats for both of us.

[catmint]

I drew Wave 4 times during the tournament. 3 Times I cast it, and I won all 3 games. The 4th time it was Thoughtseized out of my hand. I think the card is great; 2 seemed like the right number.

If I had to cut anything, it would be 1-2 Birchlore Rangers. I was pretty ok with just the 3 Pacts.

By the way, was good talking to you today, and nice job on the top 8.

Why did you decide to leave out the black disruption and NO / Progenitus?
IN the SCG genesiv wave build I saw 2 thoughtseize and NO in the SB

I can imagine that genesiv wave is fun to play, but if i have enough mana to cast a huge wave, I would rather cast a regal force.
what i also don't like about it is that decks which have an answer against 4 elves (ee, deed, firespout,...) also have ananswer to 8 elves.

[Elvish Visionary]

I would like to say congrats to Matt Sperling for getting 13th at SCG Las Angeles yesterday. Below is his decklist and there is a write-up of a featured match HERE: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...am_Miller.html


2 Llanowar Elves
5 Forest
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Qasali Pridemage
4 Glimpse of Nature
1 Regal Force
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Summoner's Pact
3 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Pendelhaven
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Heritage Druid
2 Birchlore Rangers
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Savannah
1 Priest of Titania
4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard
1 Progenitus
1 Mortarpod
2 Viridian Shaman
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Krosan Grip
4 Natural Order

Now this is a different build but looks to of had a pretty good run.

[Elvish Visionary]

Also on a different topic; i posted my version of the deck a few pages back. Is it the consensus that Elvish Archdruid is better than Priest of Titania. I run 3 priest, 1 Archdruid for the pure fact that priest cost 2 and archdruid costs 3 and while comboing out does matter. I mean yes the extra +1/+1 pump ability of archdruid is awesome but i always run 1 archdruid and 1 warcaller for the aggro plan.

Another thought. I have been thinking about Eldamiri, Lord of leaves as a potential SB or wish target; if for some reason your combo fails you can atleast protect your elves from lots of hate. The counter argument would be that Eldamiri would really shut down all of the cool Elf abilities(herritage, nettle, quirrion) but i was thinking that you could always bounce a eldamiri with wirewood because eldamiri himself wouldnt be affected by its ability. Maybe its a dumb thought all together but its a pretty good card.

[gotohells]

@Elvish Visionary

Eladamri does prevent other elves from being targeted, but he doesn't have shroud so he can be untapped with either quirion or symbiote. You can also bounce any elf with symbiote ability because the bouncing effect doesn't target (but the untap effect does)

[1maarten1]

To all:

Very nice article here: I found it a supernice read. He pretty much mentions every single build we discussed here and more:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...acy_Elves.html

I really like his SB, and the 2 genesis wave seem really nice also. Ill test the list :)!

[Shabbaman]

Also on a different topic; i posted my version of the deck a few pages back. Is it the consensus that Elvish Archdruid is better than Priest of Titania

In the list you posted I think it makes a bit more sense to play a Priest so you can get it out with GSZ. Outside GSZ builds I don't think the 1 mana matters that much, but then the lord bit of Archdruid saves space in the deck. Archdruid has two roles, where Priest only has one.

To all:

Very nice article here: I found it a supernice read. He pretty much mentions every single build we discussed here and more:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l...acy_Elves.html

I really like his SB, and the 2 genesis wave seem really nice also. Ill test the list :)!

I hope you realise that the guy who wrote this article (excellent as always, Matt!) is the same guy that shared the exact same list on the previous page of the thread, right? ;)

[1maarten1]

In the list you posted I think it makes a bit more sense to play a Priest so you can get it out with GSZ. Outside GSZ builds I don't think the 1 mana matters that much, but then the lord bit of Archdruid saves space in the deck. Archdruid has two roles, where Priest only has one.



I hope you realise that the guy who wrote this article (excellent as always, Matt!) is the same guy that shared the exact same list on the previous page of the thread, right? ;)

Oops ;) I just came back from vacation and I only looked at the last page to see if someone posted already :P Sorry!

[k2thej]

@prog vs vv sb plan- vv clock is a full turn faster and even more resilient than prog. I think it´s better in pretty much every way.

@priest vs archdruid- problems occur when you go above one mana, and then further problems occur when you go above 3, but the difference between 2 and 3 when comboing is actually mathematically negligable

@eladmri- The problem is that spot removal is the biggest concern in the early turns of the game, since we increase elf production as we go. Eladamri as a wish target would be too slow to stop this. MD he slows the combo down too much because of him cockblocking symbiote and ranger, so he is very difficult to find a spot for.

@catmint- traveling right now, will work out skype when I get back on wednesday.

[bakofried]

Hi, I'm testing with Matt Elias's list from the article, and I was wondering if anyone could shoot me some tips on playing the deck? As in, what should I bait counterspells with, what's a decent hand, how dependent is the deck on Glimpse, that sort of thing.

I was really hoping for some tips on the Deadguy/Junk MU, as that's floating around over here.

*EDIT
Matt Elias's list, sorry. Too many Matts floating around right now.

[k2thej]

4th place at scg open? Not too bad to that dude. ESGs too. Interesting.

[Darklingske]

So, this weekend another top 8 performance of elves! But to me it seems a strange list. No birchlore, 2 GSZ, 1 concordant crossroads, 4 archdruid, 4 priest, 3 ESG and only 12 lands. Anyone who has tested a simular list? I tested a few times with only 14 lands and found that I needed to mulligan too much.

[Mulligan]

Well, the ESGs were mainly so he could get turn 1 priests, double 1 drops or thorn, which all seem fairly good, but I think the times they could good are outweighed by the times they could be bad.

I have found 2 GSZ is really good to fight through hate as a supplementary tutor to Pact though.

Is Birchlore all that necessary, it has been underwhelming to me, it doesn't accelerate you in early turns, most lists are mono green, and I never have too much trouble finding a heritage druid when i'm going off?

[Mr. Froggy]

I was wondering, maybe I missed it because I'm blind or something, but how do you tutor for Emrakul? I see the Zenith and the Pact, but they're strictly for green creatures. Does the deck intend on drawing a billion cards and then hoping for the Emrakul?

Sorry if I missed something, I'm just interested in the deck. :)

[(nameless one)]

I was wondering, maybe I missed it because I'm blind or something, but how do you tutor for Emrakul? I see the Zenith and the Pact, but they're strictly for green creatures. Does the deck intend on drawing a billion cards and then hoping for the Emrakul?

Sorry if I missed something, I'm just interested in the deck. :)

Im pretty sure that when you're comboing out, you will draw Emrakul.

[Mr. Froggy]

And if you don't draw Emrakul you go on the beatdown I suppose? :)

Good enough for me :)

[bakofried]

Once the combo really gets going, it's pretty hard to fizzle. If you draw your entire deck (all but 1, I suppose) and don't see Emmy, pass the turn and pray they don't have a good enough sweeper. If they don't, they die.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Alternative:

-2 Green Sun's Zenith
-1 Emrakul
-1 Gaea's Cradle

+4 Living Wish

This is basically like running 4 Gaea's Cradle also which seems good. Plus you get Bojuka Bog, Karakas, random answers.

I'd also want to move Viridian Zealot off for Caller of the Claw, since it seems like there's a lot of reasonable situations where Summoner's Pact for Caller turns a game loss into a win.

[Neil]

Alternative:

-2 Green Sun's Zenith
-1 Emrakul
-1 Gaea's Cradle

+4 Living Wish

This is basically like running 4 Gaea's Cradle also which seems good. Plus you get Bojuka Bog, Karakas, random answers.

I'd also want to move Viridian Zealot off for Caller of the Claw, since it seems like there's a lot of reasonable situations where Summoner's Pact for Caller turns a game loss into a win.

Yeah living wish makes the deck so much better in my opinion. although I would go with three living wishes instead. 4 seems unnecessary.

[k2thej]

4 is def unnecessary, here is the wish build that I am currently testing with:

Main:

4 Birchlore Rangers
3 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Heritage Druid
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Regal Force
4 Wirewood Symbiote

4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Living Wish
4 Summoner's Pact

2 Bayou
4 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs


Board:

3 Buried Alive
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Masticore
1 Regal Force
3 Vengevine
3 Vexing Shusher
1 Viridian Zealot