[Deck] Elves Combo

[TraxDaMax]

Ya I get the green sun thing, but I just never seem to need to use it.

2 things Gsz and dryad arbor do for you.

A) gives you 10 ways to have 3 mana turn 2.
B) Going Savannah into gsz for arbor, is one of my favourite plays. I saw Caleb do this once, even though he had other possibilities to create mad mana turn 3, but this play will easily mislead an opponent, letting them think you are on maverick, and that they have a lot of time still, while in reality you can combo out next turn.

[Mark1984]

Hi everyone! This is my first post but I have been a long time reader. I would like to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread since the information here has really helped my tune my deck.

I started to play Magic when 4th edition came around but I stopped playing during the Urza block due to my studies. Right now I have a decent job and I can finally afford to buy cards.

This is my deck right now and I would greatly appreciate it if someone can provide constructive criticism. I have scored multiple wins in MWS and I just wanted to get feedback before I assemble this deck in real life.

1 gaea's cradle
7 forest
4 misty rainforest
3 verdant catacombs

3 wirewood symbiote
3 quirion ranger
3 fyndhorn elves
3 llanowar elves
3 birchlore rangers
4 heritage druid
4 nettle sentinel
4 elvish visionary
4 priest of titania
2 regal force
1 emrakul, the aeons torn

4 glimpse of nature
4 green sun's zenith
3 summoner's pact

Sideboard:
4 faerie macabre
4 krosan grip
4 choke
1 gaddock teeg
1 dauntless escort
1 viridian shaman

I have a few questions regarding my deck.
1.) Is Emrakul still a viable win condition?
2.) What do I take out when I sideboard?
3.) I have seen some sideboards with Vengevine and Buried Alive. Is it worth it? What matchups does it solve?

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Alexeezay]

@ Mark1984:
Always play 4 Wirewood Symbiotes.
You also want more than 1 Gaea's Cradle and you can easily add Crop Rotation.
Cards to cut are the 2nd Regal Force, Priest of Titania, a Birchlore/Quirion Ranger or Summoner's Pact.
I don't like Summoner's Pact at the moment but I guess it's personal preference so do how you like :). Try Chord of Calling :)
I don't like the Chokes in the sideboard very much because a lot of blue decks (Miracle Control etc.) except Tempo decks run lands that work around Choke. You especially never ever really want to play 4 of them.

1.) Emrakul is not that good right now because of the Show and Tell decks. People adapt to it and run more "hate" cards, f.e. more Karakas,Humility etc.
You can win just as easy with Ezuri or Mirror Entity. If you still want to play it, run Chord of Calling in place of S.Pact, it tutors up Emrakul.
2.) Most of the time when sideboarding, I cut Priest of Titania (you play 4 of them so you could easily cut 3 after boarding) or 1-2 fyndhorn/quirion/birchlore
3.) Vengevine seems bad atm, no matter if you use Intuition,Buried Alive or Fauna Shaman.
Terminus is a beating and wrecks your VV plan. I'm still trying to find a solution for the UW Miracle Terminus matchup but I guess we have to live with it and grind by playing out guys to force a Terminus while refilling the hand with Glimpse of Nature.

[Mark1984]

@ Mark1984:
Always play 4 Wirewood Symbiotes.
You also want more than 1 Gaea's Cradle and you can easily add Crop Rotation.
Cards to cut are the 2nd Regal Force, Priest of Titania, a Birchlore/Quirion Ranger or Summoner's Pact.
I don't like Summoner's Pact at the moment but I guess it's personal preference so do how you like :). Try Chord of Calling :)
I don't like the Chokes in the sideboard very much because a lot of blue decks (Miracle Control etc.) except Tempo decks run lands that work around Choke. You especially never ever really want to play 4 of them.

1.) Emrakul is not that good right now because of the Show and Tell decks. People adapt to it and run more "hate" cards, f.e. more Karakas,Humility etc.
You can win just as easy with Ezuri or Mirror Entity. If you still want to play it, run Chord of Calling in place of S.Pact, it tutors up Emrakul.
2.) Most of the time when sideboarding, I cut Priest of Titania (you play 4 of them so you could easily cut 3 after boarding) or 1-2 fyndhorn/quirion/birchlore
3.) Vengevine seems bad atm, no matter if you use Intuition,Buried Alive or Fauna Shaman.
Terminus is a beating and wrecks your VV plan. I'm still trying to find a solution for the UW Miracle Terminus matchup but I guess we have to live with it and grind by playing out guys to force a Terminus while refilling the hand with Glimpse of Nature.

Thanks for the feedback. I already made changes to the decklist according to your suggestions. -1 birchlore -1 quirion ranger, +1 wirewood symbiote +1 gaea's cradle.

Last night, I tested the deck with the ezuri wincon. I used the decklist that won 2nd place somewhere but I didn't like waiting for another turn for me go berserk so I think I will be sticking with Emrakul for now.

I agree with you regarding Choke. What should I replace it with? My meta is full of tribal aggro, maverick, AnT, high tide, miracle, reanimator and rug.

[Godmode]

@Mark1984

Seems that you're not that long-time reader you call yourself. Actually read the last few pages and you'll get to some cool conclusions about Elves.

Cheers

[bruizar]

How important is it to own a Chord of Calling (on top of the GSZ's)? I'm trying to pick up all the cards for elves and am following the list that Caleb played, which has no Chord of Calling in it. Frank Roelofs used 1 chord of calling in his list.

Is that card outclassed and never going to be used again, or are there times when you would like 4 GSZ and 1 Chord of Calling? What are the reasons for including or excluding chord?

[Mark1984]

@Mark1984

Seems that you're not that long-time reader you call yourself. Actually read the last few pages and you'll get to some cool conclusions about Elves.

Cheers

Wow! Thanks for your help. This is really encouraging especially for new members.

[Godmode]

In conclusion I'd like to congratulate Timo for his awesome run and also thank my car mates for being patient and making this trip very enjoyable for me.

Congrats on the gigantic finish, thanks for the report and thanks for playing this deck, paving the way for new players and prove that this deck is a real force to be reckoned with in this crazy format.

[Atog]

How important is it to own a Chord of Calling (on top of the GSZ's)? I'm trying to pick up all the cards for elves and am following the list that Caleb played, which has no Chord of Calling in it. Frank Roelofs used 1 chord of calling in his list.

Is that card outclassed and never going to be used again, or are there times when you would like 4 GSZ and 1 Chord of Calling? What are the reasons for including or excluding chord?

Reason to include this in list would be that it makes EOT fetching mirror entity possible or another combo piece you are missing atm. GSZ can't fetch mirror entity neither your own turn, but usually you end with swarm of dudes and kill they during your next turn after that or you find mirror entity via glimpse and win in spot, either way 4x GSZ is usually enought.

[Mark1984]

I was planning to attend a local tournament during the weekend but only 5 people showed up because of the bad weather. I was really disappointed because I really wanted to test the deck out.

We just grabbed a couple of beers and played some games. I won 2-1 against maverick, 2-0 against goblins and lost 0-2 against reanimator. I really wanted to play against the guy who brought a miracle deck since I don't have any experience with that deck yet.

My first foray into legacy wasn't very successful but at least I was able to meet new people. I just hope the weather will be much better next week.

[jjflipped]

Played a small local legacy event last weekend, and ended up losing in top 8 to Ari Lax (TES).

I played the normal mirror entity list (with a maindeck ooze) with the following sideboard:

1 Pridemage
1 Teeg
1 Mortarpod
2 Armageddon
3 Energy Storm
2 Faerie Macabre
4 Thorn
1 Thalia

Rd 1: Ghandi Jagasia - Omnitell

Game one, he had turn two emrakul.

Game two, he had turn three omni --> bargain

Rd 2: Matt McColough - Miracles

The real miracle here was that he couldnt find more than a single FoW before the event started.

Game one, I had a turn three combo through a swords. I had the mirror, heritage, nettle, symbiote loop and he killed my mirror entity. I responded by tapping them down and going for a glimpse. I comboed easily.

Game two, I played a turn two cradle into some elves, turn three I had a mirror entity to bash down to 5. the next turn I bashed, but didnt activate entity to play around terminus. He didnt have it. I zenithed for teeg and passed with him at 1. He had a fetch on top that he couldnt use to wrath. (this was his explanation, not sure about the teeg there, maybe he had a sword/path too)

Round 3: Swindy - Dredge (LOL)

Game one, turn two ooze on the play with mana up.

Game two, turn two ooze on the draw with mana up.

(Lifetime X-0 in all formats vs dredge)

Round 4: Goblins

Somehow convinced people higher in standings to play it out. Was able to Draw in.

Game one, Walked to TK WU's chinese. Ordered General Tsao's. Was Delicious.

Top 8: Ari - TES

Game 1, on the play, dump hand on turn 2, have entity in hand to play on three to go infi. Died.

Game 2, played Elf, Died.

Got some credit, bought some korean packs, drafted a couple times.

[Rekk]

Hello everybody,
i built elves on a whim and decided i would pay this thread some attention, it's been kinda dead shame shame.

well first off some questions
how necessary is two cradles, i understand its ability to be explosive but also it can suck just blatantly spit in your face after a wrath, now of course its only a two of so what are the chances that's what loses you the game huh?

second with miracles on the uprising and counterbalance being a hugggeee knife in the back, whats the thought on a gaddock tegg or two in the board, since the real killer is terminus.

ok this was a bit of a ramble many apologizes

[TraxDaMax]

To an unknown meta would you bring the pro red enchantment or peedles? I'm really tinkering about this all day

[Darklingske]

In an unknown meta, I would opt for Absolute Law. Pro Red is huge and I see more opportunities for Law then for Peedle.

[(nameless one)]

My friend wants to borrow my Elf deck for a tournament tomorrow. I have most of the list (I don't have Gaea's Cradle, Crop Rotation and Savannah) but I haven't really been in the threads. I'm wondering what's the most optimal and fastest build against a combo-tempo meta.

Thanks in advance!

[joemauer]

My friend wants to borrow my Elf deck for a tournament tomorrow. I have most of the list (I don't have Gaea's Cradle, Crop Rotation and Savannah) but I haven't really been in the threads. I'm wondering what's the most optimal and fastest build against a combo-tempo meta.

Thanks in advance!

That is the small problem with elves. You can either strenghten your combo matchup or your tempo matchup but both is hard to do.

If you want something strong against tempo then the Fauna+Vengevine lists are solid. Resilent but slow and weak against combo decks, noteably TES, dredge, and Reanimator.

If you want something that might be able to fight combo then use a Birchlore+Summoner's Pact list. These are fragile against removal of any kind though.

[(nameless one)]

I'm more worried about Tempo actually. So the package would be:

4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Vengevine
4x Glimpse of Nature?

Which mana elves should I use?

[Darklingske]

how necessary is two cradles, i understand its ability to be explosive but also it can suck just blatantly spit in your face after a wrath, now of course its only a two of so what are the chances that's what loses you the game huh?

They accelerate you alot, but if you don't have them, then you can do just fine without them. You will slow down a bit though.

second with miracles on the uprising and counterbalance being a hugggeee knife in the back, whats the thought on a gaddock tegg or two in the board, since the real killer is terminus.

The key point with Terminus is to not overcommit on the board. Just drop a few elves and go all the way with them. Miracles doesn't have a lot of wincons and is slow, so a good hand should win you the game 1. After Sb you can put a Teeg MD and if CB is what you fear most, then play a Vexing shusher or Gaea's Herald.

[Darklingske]

second with miracles on the uprising and counterbalance being a hugggeee knife in the back, whats the thought on a gaddock tegg or two in the board, since the real killer is terminus.

Oh, back when CB was THE deck to beat, I played elves with Leyline of Lifeforce. Nobody ever saw it coming!

[Mr. Froggy]

I recently got into Elves for some reason, and this is my list:

Lands:
5 Forest
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Pendelhaven
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures:
1 Regal Force
2 Quirion Ranger
3 Birchlore Rangers
3 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
3 Priest of Titania
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Viridian Shaman

Win-cons:
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Mirror Entity

Other:
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Glimpse of Nature
1 Crop Rotation

As for SB:
4 Choke
3 Energy Storm
1 Essence Warden
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Mortarpod
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Thorn of Amethyst

Feel free to critique as you wish. :P

EDIT: Should I run +1 Ezuri and remove Mirror Entity?