Elfsphere

[k2thej]

Elves make lots o' mana so they can pay higher costs that other decks can't. Usually, this is used to play more or larger spells in hopes that they will be better than your opponent's cheaper spells. Instead, I thought we could make all the spells cost more and the elves would be the only ones who could play much of anything. Check it:

Main:

Lands:
15 forest
1 dryad arbor
1 Gaea's Cradle

Taxes:
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Root maze
3 Winter Orb

Rest:
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Fyndhorn Elves
3 Arbor Elf
4 Priest of Titania
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Sprit guide
1 Rofellos, llanowar emissary
1 Ezuri, renegade leader
1 Regal Force

SB:
3 Defense Grid
3 elephant grass
2 hum of the radix
2 thelon's curse
1 Elvish champion
2 skyshroud poacher
2 ?


The only worry is there might not be quite enough beef in the main, but in a bit of testing it's surprising how quickly you can choke your opponent and survive just fine on your own.

[Poron]

Elvish Visionary
Glimpse of Nature
and in your deck Cavern of Souls is just strictly better than Forest

[Koby]

Tanglewire would work well here due to the abnormally large amount of permanents you can pop out. Spheres still work when tapped too, so all the more better to run it.

[k2thej]

Tanglewire would work well here due to the abnormally large amount of permanents you can pop out. Spheres still work when tapped too, so all the more better to run it.

It definitely has synergy but it is needed? There is so much tax action going on that it's already preeetty difficult for the opponent to play anything really. Might be overkill. Try testing it without tangle and see if you think it's needed, I think you'll like what you find!

[k2thej]

Elvish Visionary
Glimpse of Nature
and in your deck Cavern of Souls is just strictly better than Forest

You're def right about cavern (save for wastes), I'll make that change now. Visionary and glimpse don't work in testing given the unusually low number of spells that are cast. I'm primarily an elves combo player so if I could fit those in in any way I would haha. They don't really work well though.

[Michael Keller]

Elvish Visionary
Glimpse of Nature
and in your deck Cavern of Souls is just strictly better than Forest

Glimpse is a more combo-esque card. Although it's nuts with Elves, I just don't know if it's needed here. This is more of a prison deck than anything else.

[Koby]

Elvish Messenger would be a great replacement for Glimpse in the card advantage department. It's actually insane with Wirewood Symbiote too.

[k2thej]

The idea is to have every elf produce mana on their own so you can be sure to not mana screw yourself though, so it's hard to fit in other stuff.

[joemauer]

Take out Green's Sun's Zenith. Add Elvish Messenger.

GSZ won't do what you want it to in this deck. All your elves are interchangeable except for Elvish Archdruid. GSZ doesn't seem to play well with your taxing effects. Also, Messenger can be uncounterable thx to caverns.

Steely resolve seems like a must in the Sideboard. Am I right? Also, throw some graveyard hate in the SB for good measure.

Neat deck btw. How has testing been going? Tough to imagine how the games would go with something so obtuse.

[k2thej]

GSZ is super important for Dryad arbor, that's it's number one reason for being included.

Elvish messenger isn't a card I don't think, did you mean sylvan messenger?

Steely resolve is def a great sb option, I shall add!

[joemauer]

Elvish messenger isn't a card I don't think, did you mean sylvan messenger?

Yes, yes I did. I was reading Koby's post and don't know names of cards either.

[k2thej]

I'd probably just play it as a 1-of GSZ target. The deck's success is entirely dependent on establishing an early mana advantage so I don't want many non-mana producing elves.

[igri_is_a_bk]

You pretty much have 16 mana dorks available turn one. That seems a bit excessive. I'd drop 4x Arbor Elf for 4x Quirion Ranger. And with 8x Priests (well, 12x with GSZ), you could abuse Joraga Warcaller to really put the pressure on your opponent. Then of course, because it's elves in any fashion, Wirewood Symbiote is going to be an auto-include.

[k2thej]

I'll test it more but warcaller is hard since GSZ doesn't let you kick him and he's really best as a one-of. This is also one elf deck that might not want symbiote. Not sure yet, but he doesn't seem immediately relevant to the goal of this particular deck.

[Greenpoe]

Ezuri, Renegade Leader seems tailored perfectly to this deck. At an easy 3 CMC, you can GSZ for him even with Thorns out. Since his buff is an ability, that means you can use your mana without being inhibited by Thorn/Sphere. With Archdruid and Priest, you could easily activate his ability, perhaps even two or three times. He seems like a better 1-of than Elvish Champion for sure.

[k2thej]

Ezuri, Renegade Leader seems tailored perfectly to this deck. At an easy 3 CMC, you can GSZ for him even with Thorns out. Since his buff is an ability, that means you can use your mana without being inhibited by Thorn/Sphere. With Archdruid and Priest, you could easily activate his ability, perhaps even two or three times. He seems like a better 1-of than Elvish Champion for sure.

I think this is a great point. I will make the change.

[igri_is_a_bk]

I'll test it more but warcaller is hard since GSZ doesn't let you kick him and he's really best as a one-of. This is also one elf deck that might not want symbiote. Not sure yet, but he doesn't seem immediately relevant to the goal of this particular deck.

Saving your Priest or Archdruid is very relevant to the goal of this Elf deck. You don't really have a way to win unless one of those two survive.

edit: I would say up the Cradle count, too. It never hurts to have a second with Wasteland in the format. It's more likely they'll have a Wasteland than you'll draw the first Cradle anyways. Point being, you can expect it to get Wasted.

[k2thej]

Saving your Priest or Archdruid is very relevant to the goal of this Elf deck. You don't really have a way to win unless one of those two survive.

edit: I would say up the Cradle count, too. It never hurts to have a second with Wasteland in the format. It's more likely they'll have a Wasteland than you'll draw the first Cradle anyways. Point being, you can expect it to get Wasted.

This deck usually wins with only 3 creatures on the field, so you really want those to be elves. You dont have to worry about spot removal that much because its too expensive for them to cast most of the time, especially once you would start thinking about playing a symbiote.

Im upping the forest count because arbor only works with them, and you often have one land starting hands.

[wilsonbonifaciojr]

ELFSPHERE
lands:
5 forest
4 rishadan port
2 Gaea's Cradle
4 wastedland
1 dryad arbor

Taxes:
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Root maze
3 Winter Orb
3 tagle wire
2 Smokestack

Rest:
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Priest of Titania
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Sprit guide
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Omnath, Locus de Mana

My list has been found effective in format, with the smokestack permanent taking the opponent can put into play

[k2thej]

ELFSPHERE
lands:
5 forest
4 rishadan port
2 Gaea's Cradle
4 wastedland
1 dryad arbor

Taxes:
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Root maze
3 Winter Orb
3 tagle wire
2 Smokestack

Rest:
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Priest of Titania
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Sprit guide
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Omnath, Locus de Mana

My list has been found effective in format, with the smokestack permanent taking the opponent can put into play

Am I correct in seeing that you only have 9 chances to get that first green mana (5 forest+4 spirit guide)? That doesn't seem like enought to me.

Wasteland and port are not needed in this deck; the spheres do more than enough, and we want to be sure that we have the lands we need to outrun the spheres ourselves!

Smokestack could help, but I think it's more of a sideboard thing. It's not that helpful against a lot of decks. Same with tangle wire. I found the spheres, thorns, orbs, and mazes to be more than enough! If you were to include either in the main I would do tangle wire though.

No idea how omnath would be, haven't tested yet. Seems potentially ok since we can pump him and then still spend the mana on something else; def a 1-of though.