[Deck] Elves Combo

[1maarten1]

What is the name of guy who made top15 at Grand Prix Providence??? HE does any report or somthing similar?

go ahead and read the last couple pages man. Theross is his account name here and since the GP he has been posting here, alot.

[mooN_MTG]

go ahead and read the last couple pages man. Theross is his account name here and since the GP he has been posting here, alot.

Ok, thanks :D

[theross]

Yeah, that was me. I never posted a complete report given that I wasn't expecting such a good finish and didn't have any notes. Also, most of my games were straightforward ranchings since I ran pretty well most of the weekend. Any further questions can be posted once you read through what everyone has posted.

[blind]

Hi,

I am French so sorry for my English.

2 Llanowar Elves
2 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Priests of Titania
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Regal Force
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Summoner's Pact
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Gaea's Cradle
7 Fetches
4 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor

SB:
4 Buried Alive
4 Vengevine
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Beast Within

I have several questions :

- Emrakul.. why? It's good when you have already won. Ezuri is just better all times !

- 1 Birchlore.. why? It's good for Combo (Nettle + Glimpse) and it's good post SB for your splash B.

- 2 Regal Force.. why? When do you want your 2nd Regal Force? If you have played your Regal Force, you are win and if isn't the case so it's not this card that you need to win.

- 1 Elvish Spirit Guide? I don't unerstand...

My decklist :

1 Dryad Arbor
2 Bayou
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Regal Force
1 Vexing Shusher
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Fyndhorn Elves
2 Llanowar Elves
3 Quirion Ranger
4 Birchlore Rangers
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
3 Summoner's Pact
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
SB: 2 Beast Within
SB: 4 Vengevine
SB: 4 Cabal Therapy
SB: 4 Buried Alive
SB: 1 Krosan Grip

I have see decklist with Mortarpod in SB. It's for what? Moat and Blazing Archon?

[Koby]

I have several questions :

- Emrakul.. why? It's good when you have already won. Ezuri is just better all times !

- 1 Birchlore.. why? It's good for Combo (Nettle + Glimpse) and it's good post SB for your splash B.

- 2 Regal Force.. why? When do you want your 2nd Regal Force? If you have played your Regal Force, you are win and if isn't the case so it's not this card that you need to win.

- 1 Elvish Spirit Guide? I don't unerstand...

I have see decklist with Mortarpod in SB. It's for what? Moat and Blazing Archon?

Emrakul gives you another turn. This is important more often than having a 15/15 monster. Eruzi, on the other hand, only allows the elves you have out in play and untapped to attack for the win. Sometimes, you don't start the turn with enough elves to achieve this, hence Emrakul provides the free turn to achieve it.

Birchlore Rangers - you answered your own question. It's also another 1-drop elf that allows you to continue producing mana with a Glimpse chain.

2 Regal Force - For the longest time I only played with one as well. Having a second allows you not to rely on Glimpse of Nature to combo off. It's really handy to have.

Elvish Spirit Guide - allows you to cast Priest of Titania on turn 1, and gives you a critical mana when you need it via Summoner's Pact. This card could be cut for another elf, but some like to have it in the deck to accelerate Priests. I wouldn't consider it unless you do run them.

Mortarpod - This card is insane at what it achieves. It's great against Dredge, Control, any deck with Dark Confidant. When you bring in Vengevines, it's a great compliment to keep applying pressure. It helps you to defeat planeswalkers (Jace) and kill Peacekeeper, which we otherwise have very few outs for. In past lists, this card might have been a Masticore.

[blind]

Emrakul gives you another turn. This is important more often than having a 15/15 monster. Eruzi, on the other hand, only allows the elves you have out in play and untapped to attack for the win. Sometimes, you don't start the turn with enough elves to achieve this, hence Emrakul provides the free turn to achieve it.

If you cast Emrakul, you are win. It's just overkill and it's good when you are win. Forthemore you can't search it with GSZ or Pact, it's problematic when you are played Glimpse.
Emrakul is just good when you are in Combo. Ezuri is good when you are in combo (lot of mana, boost + trample = win) and it's good when your are Aggro, you play Cradle !

Ezuri is just better.

[Infinitium]

Not arguing with you, but Emrakul is convenient when facing damage prevention and/or Moat. Still not worth it maindecked, especially as Elves have access to Concordant Crossroads, which is heavily synergistic with Priest effects. Not really getting 'Pod over Masticore to be honest; both are inherent card disadvantage and mana consuming, but at least Masticore beats for 4 and survives deed and EE.

[1maarten1]

Hi,

I am French so sorry for my English.



I have several questions :

- Emrakul.. why? It's good when you have already won. Ezuri is just better all times !

- 1 Birchlore.. why? It's good for Combo (Nettle + Glimpse) and it's good post SB for your splash B.

- 2 Regal Force.. why? When do you want your 2nd Regal Force? If you have played your Regal Force, you are win and if isn't the case so it's not this card that you need to win.

- 1 Elvish Spirit Guide? I don't unerstand...

I have see decklist with Mortarpod in SB. It's for what? Moat and Blazing Archon?

On mortarpod: If you play beast within it becomes less important because you have an answer for Peacekeeper then. Ofcourse it is very strong against dredge, but I think if you want to improve that matchup your better off playing other hate cards. If however, you play krosan grip over beast within because your meta has alot of landstill or countertop in it or whatever its good to have mortarpod as an out to peacekeeper.

On 2 regals: Since MM people have started to struggle a bit more with going off with glimpse. However getting a priest of titania with GSZ is pretty common, which enables a quick regal force. If they counter that with FoW, you are pretty much done. So a second Regal force is just as backup to start up the combo again.

1 Birchlore: Again since MM the ''quicker'' combo got worse then the ''slower'' one where you start with heritage or with titania, so the remaining copy's were cut to increase the chances on a more resilliant combo, less all-in. Keeping 1 is still good against non-control decks because it allows you to simply combo a turn quicker.

1 ESG: Great with Summoner's pact, if for some reason you get stuck during mid/early combo this can give you the extra G that you need to go off.

@your decklist
Dont you think 3 forests is a little too low? I really dont want to fetch for bayou's game 1, ruining the surprise of buried alive.

I dont really agree on the Ezuri point. When I have mana to pump my elves several times when I go aggro, I usually rather spend that mana to play regal force and combo off and kill them with emrakul. And I have had several times where I just hardcast emrakul without ever playing Glimpse. Titania and Cradles simply make alot of mana. I could see cutting the one birchlore for the Ezuri since when you go GSZ for 1 you rather grab heritage druid anyway.

EDIT: wow reading beyond the post you reply on is tech. others already answered most of the questions xD. Sorry for that.

[theross]

@blind:

Emrakul vs Ezuri: Since my aim was to build the most dedicated combo deck possible, it became positive EV to play a card that wins the game immediately, especially against other combo decks. Playing the deck, I found that in the rare instances I was forced to take an aggressive game plan, my swarms of creatures were sufficient despite their size. It's also not uncommon to hard-cast him without Glimpse of Nature after finding the Priests of Titania. Lastly, having an near un-losable matchup against Painter, a deck I expected to be somewhat popular is not insignificant.

Birchlore Rangers: Certainly one of the weakest cards but it's useful when you're cut off from Heritage Druids so using the slot on this guy over another mana elf was fine. In the wake of the GP Hive Mind has become a deck so I certainly would not cut it now.

2 Regal Force: Absolutely necessary since anyone who knows what is going on will try and counter your card drawing engines. In any attrition matchup the first is typically used to get ahead and the 2nd puts you over the top.

1 ESG: I would say the worst card in the deck since it primarily functions by allowing an extra Pact to become a Lotus Petal. I could see this becoming another mana elf.

On Mortarpod: It has some functionality in game as some have noted, but it's primary purpose is as an alternate win condition with the combo. 40 mana and 20 creatures is not difficult to assemble after combo-ing.

[resum]

Hey is the buried alive plan the best one to be on against the U/w stoneblade decks?

[nexus blue]

I'm curious regarding Ross's list, as well as some others I've seen - what's the story with only running a few priests, and no archdruids as well? Are they considered too slow? I like the points made regarding the extra Regal Force, and I've cut back the Archdruids in my build to 3, but he seems to always do well - if he stays, great, but often people will choose to kill him over priest, scared of the aggro danger and then losing to a hard-casted Emrakul. Anyways, just curious, maybe its the Pact, as I don't run any of those right now, just the GSZ.

[Mr. Safety]

I think I'm going to be playing a 2nd Regal Force now...I see many good points for it.

Concerning Ezuri...I've been using a singleton Joraga Warcaller...would Ezuri be better? It works well now, I'm not sure I'd drop the Warcaller.

Questions:
1) Is everyone using GSZ, or are some folks still sticking to Living Wish?
2) How has Beast Within been doing as general hate, anyone tried it?

[Koby]

Living Wish can replace 2nd Regal Force, Emrakul and 1 Gaea's Cradle - all of which move to the sideboard. This puts 3 Living Wish into the maindeck. However, now you must find room to cut some of the spells to make it fit.

In terms of game play, this has no difference from GSZ and Pacting - except against UW/x Stoneblade which runs Spell Snare. This is where Living Wish is weaker against. As this deck is starting to become prevalent, I would advise not to play the Living Wish versions right now.

[Mr. Safety]

Gotcha...how do you feel about Joraga Warcaller vs. Ezuri?

[Koby]

Same idea with, Joraga Warcaller is vulnerable to Mental Misstep. Ezuri, while weaker, is going to work out better against blue decks. Warcaller is marginally better, as even a StP/PtE will ruin your day too. (in combat)

[theross]

On lords: I don't like the lists that overload on lords as this ties up too much mana in a single creature, thus making you more vulnerable to spot removal. Given the synergy with untap effects, I simply play 1 which I can tutor for. Priests is cheaper, so it gets the nod.

@nexusblue: If you're not running Pact, I suggest doing so. It's nearly a free DT.

@MrSafety: Fortunately, most people have realized that the power of Summoner's Pact and GSZ far outweigh the marginal utility of Living Wish, although many proponents of the latter have not posted in a while, so this may also be a contributing factor to the newly found consensus.

I've played Beast Within several times and still haven't cast it, but it's the best general hate the deck can play.

I prefer War Caller since it should be better when trying to go off as a 1 mana guy who can be bounced later with Symbiote but I don't think either is necessary.

[catmint]

I also think wish builds are not the best ones, however I don't think you convinced everyone theross. :)

Probably people are posting and arguing less, because elves struggle to compete at the moment...

Are you currently still successfully playing elves theross?
It is my pet deck, however it is not a lot of fun in the current meta..

[Godmode]

@catmint : The 4 Buried Alive + 4 Vengevine changes a lot the 2nd/3rd game outcome and becomes a lot of fun then. I haven't been playing much elves latelly, but Ross proved it in the GP...

[theross]

I haven't played a Legacy event since June, where I scrubbed the Jupiter Games invitational before getting top16 with a MD Vengevine list I wrote about briefly. I think I'd go with a similar list the next time I play barring a metagame shift. The RUG decks cannot deal with Vengevine and bringing them to the main gives you much more room in the SB against poor matchups like Dredge, Reanimator, Hive Mind, etc.

[Godmode]

If you come up with some nasty MD Vengevine list, feel free to share it dude. I thought of one similar to the Nicholas Malatesta but with black instead of blue and without the faunas, but it wasn't necessary for my metagame.