[Deck] Elves Combo

[Hencules]

Whoa... DtB for Elves? Is that feasible for this deck?

[danyul]

You are clearly a nonbeliever, a blasphemer, and a traitor to all of Elvenkind. I will arrange to have you banished atop the Tower of Isengard! Where no grass will touch your feet and no earth will steady your stance. You, the banished one, will languish in doubt until the end times.

[Atikin]

My pet deck and the tribe which got me hooked on magic during onslaught, is now a DtB?! I never thought... this moment... could come true. *tears up*

On a more serious note, what are peoples thought on the split of cradle vs rotation? I'm currently testing out 2-2 and have liked it so far. Additionally it opens up room for karakas and bojuka bog in the sideboard, but I am not sold on these yet.

Also thoughts on qasali pridemage vs harmonic sliver in the board. Or both?

[KobeBryan]

I hate this deck...why is it now at DTB. I cannot beat this deck for the life of me.

[danyul]

My pet deck and the tribe which got me hooked on magic during onslaught, is now a DtB?! I never thought... this moment... could come true. *tears up*

On a more serious note, what are peoples thought on the split of cradle vs rotation? I'm currently testing out 2-2 and have liked it so far. Additionally it opens up room for karakas and bojuka bog in the sideboard, but I am not sold on these yet.

Also thoughts on qasali pridemage vs harmonic sliver in the board. Or both?

I like the 2-2 split. And it was the configuration that LSV was using in his last video with the deck. There are fringe cases where Crop Rotating into a Dryad Arbor or Pendelhaven can be techy. Also, when you have a Cradle in play and topdeck another Cradle, you just sigh. When you have a Cradle in play and topdeck a Crop Rotation, you get happy. The Karakas out of the board is super useful especially now that Sneak Attack is everywhere. The Bojuka Bog is something of a meta choice and can be a Scavenging Ooze if you aren't afraid of Dredge.

Qasali Vs Harmonic:

Qasali is a better attacker, clearly (although if it's just been used I guess it can't attack, clearly). It can be fetched/cast for one less mana when Daze is a concern. And it can be used proactively, before they have played whatever threat you want to zap with it. But it can also be Pithing Needled.

Harmonic is your only out to Cursed Totem but is mostly a holdover from when the deck ran Mirror Entity, as Mirror Entity + Harmonic Sliver + Wirewood Symbiote allowed you to cast Naturalize over and over.

They are very, very close. I wouldn't fault you for using one over the other. If it helps, LSV runs Qasali. I run Harmonic because I own one in foil, and there is a certain player in my meta who packs Cursed Totems for me from time to time. I think generally Qasali is the more versatile card, but by a slim margin.

I was using blowout in reference to midcombo being able to rotate a tapped land out for a cradle. Karakas is seldomly a blowout against show and tell decks.

Your second point (regarding crossroads) I'm only partially following. The whole point of playing it would be not to be obliged to have to pass the turn because topdecked mana elves (think priest) are so much more relevant. If it is in your opening grip for example I would only cast it when safe (2nd turn for example, to combo turn 3 with extra mana) or in the combo turn itself. Being obliged to pass the turn with all elves tapped seems kind of rare with a playset nettle sentinel, quirion ranger and wirewood in your deck.

I would disagree about the Karakas. Show and Tell players are playing their own Karakas now, both to legend rule a Karakas in play and to beat the mirror. I know some players use Blood Moon to blank Karakas as well. They fear it.

I think the whole Crossroads thing is overly optimistic. This deck will shit on you sometimes. You will fizzle mid combo. You will Glimpse into a bunch of lands. Shit happens. I've actually won alot of games by just playing out a bunch of dudes, tapping them for whatever, and winning with a Craterhoof + 1 other attacker, since my whole team became tapped in order to get me there. If you aren't passing the turn with the whole squad tapped once in awhile, then perhaps you aren't trying to combo off early enough. Also, IRT to abusing it with Priest, most lists are only playing a single copy of that card right now. And I think if you were in a position to abuse Crossroads, you were going to win anyway. So why dilute your deck with a win-more card that is only win-more in very specific situations?

I dunno. Just don't run Crossroads. For the sake of all that is holy and fair.

[MD.Ghost]

I play with 2 Cradle and 1 Crop Rotation and maybe add a third Cradle or one more Crop Rotation. I also play with 1 Karakas and 1 Bojuka Bog, as everyone mentioned their are nice (und uncounterable) answer vs SneakShow or Reanimate (also DtB now), not every opponent will expect hate lands in an combo elves deck.

Qasali Vs Harmonic:
I play both - Qasali as a Maindeck answer (hate to lose vs random Enchantments etc.), exalted is a nice addition in grindy games.

Harmonic is in Sideboard and replaced my Viridian Shaman, because i didnt need the Wirewood Loops now and like additional Flex-Hate vs Enchantments and Artifacts. So i have 2 Green Sun's - Targets and 2 Abrupt Decay for additional Hate, virtual 8 Cards shut be enough.

Deck to Beat now - nice, i startet with Onslaught Elves and now it feels like "mainstream" we will see if this deck can compensate additional hate pieces, you aren´t the random legolas anymore

[feline]

Just since Jan-1st-2013, about 6 weeks, Grats Elves, hot dam:
Jan:
5th Matthew Nass Grand Prix Denver 2013 http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...8&iddeck=72236
1st Riley Curran StarCityGames.com Legacy Open - Columbus http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...5&iddeck=72208
12th John Harduvel StarCityGames.com Legacy Open - San Diego http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...0&iddeck=72537

Feb:
10th Hayden Bedsole StarCityGames.com Legacy Open - Atlanta http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...7&iddeck=73586
13th Michael Thompson StarCityGames.com Legacy Open - Atlanta http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...7&iddeck=73589
24th Cody Napier StarCityGames.com Legacy Open - Atlanta http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...7&iddeck=73599
14th John Grudzina StarCityGames.com Legacy Open - Edison http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/dec...8&iddeck=73873

The # of Elf decks to do this in the time frame from Oct-1st-2012 -to- Dec-31st-2012? Only 2! that's a serious increase!

[Hencules]

Elves' progress is amazing, but is it desirable? Flying under the radar seems more interesting than having a target on your back.

On the upside: yay!! Amazing deck gets credit!

[dunk]

It always was an amazing deck but I guess it needed some help from prominent players to see more play.

[.dk]

wow, made DTB. Never thought I'd see the day... great job with the finishes and showing off the power of this deck. Wonder if any of the recent performances will help shake off the "kiddie tribe" image that Elves sometimes (undeservedly) gets.

[Kyle]

To those of you that are running Mortarpod:

What matchups do you find you're bringing this in postboard? Can't think if any really where one damage and a dead Elf helps. Or what... A max of maybe 5 damage? It requires a ton of mana to work well, which means having a Heritage Druid, 3 Sentinels, a Priest of Titania, and a Gaia's Cradle to be really effective, and kills your mana producers while it's at it.

My little grey cells are having trouble wrapping my head around this one.

[danyul]

I used to run it to fight Grim Lavamancers and get damage past the occasional Moat. It was also techy in the Dredge matchup. But Abrupt Decay kills problem creatures, Harmonic Sliver/Qasali Pridemage can handle Moats, and there are a number of cards we play that can help against Dredge.

I think it's safe to cut Mortarpod for now.

[Atikin]

What kind of sideboards is everyone running? For now I feel like the maindeck is pretty much solid other than the cradle/rotation number, but the sideboard a little less so. My current sb for a 2/2 split of rotation and cradle is as follows:


1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Progenitus
1 Quasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Abrupt Decay
2 Mindbreak Trap

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas

2 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order

[andrebonotto]

What kind of sideboards is everyone running? For now I feel like the maindeck is pretty much solid other than the cradle/rotation number, but the sideboard a little less so. My current sb for a 2/2 split of rotation and cradle is as follows:


1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Progenitus
1 Quasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Abrupt Decay
2 Mindbreak Trap

1 Bojuka Bog
1 Karakas

2 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Natural Order

What is the extra Dryad Arbor for?

[Atikin]

What is the extra Dryad Arbor for?

Any deck where you switch to the natural order and progenitus plan, or a deck which is good at keeping your board clean. Against such decks you usually only able to stick a guy or 2, and having access to an extra zero mana creature can be the difference between getting a progenitus or not being able to.


EDIT: Just beat the mirror on the draw on my second turn.

Hand looked like bayou, cradle, crop rotation, glimpse, quirion ranger, llanowar, and birchlore.
-He goes land quirion go.
-Drew another glimpse for the turn, land llanowar go.
-He plays a birch, returns and replays the same forest, zeniths for a heritage. Ends his turn.
-I have an extremely comfortable turn 3 win, but looking at 3 elves, one of which is heritage, and 4 cards in hand I decide to go for the turn 2 win.
-Draw nettle. Tap bayou, play glimpse, tap llanowar, play quirion, draw zenith. Return bayou to untap llanowar. Play cradle, tap for two, zenith for heritage. Tap guys for 3 green, play the second glimpse, play nettle, draw 2 dudes, rotate for cradle with my last mana, make 4 with cradle, and comfortably go off from there with double glimpse active.

[sherko7]

Can anyone give me a decent mono green list?

[Atikin]

Can anyone give me a decent mono green list?

This has been asked before, the search button or reading the last 2 pages is your friend. Its pretty easy to figure out just by looking at the list, as its already mostly monogreen.
Goes like this:
Take out the deathrites, replace with llanowars/fyndhorns. Take out the duels and fetches, replace with forests. Done.

[Kyle]

I used to run it to fight Grim Lavamancers and get damage past the occasional Moat. It was also techy in the Dredge matchup. But Abrupt Decay kills problem creatures, Harmonic Sliver/Qasali Pridemage can handle Moats, and there are a number of cards we play that can help against Dredge.

I think it's safe to cut Mortarpod for now.

I dropped it for a second Teeg. Seems to be working nicely, though it does shut down my big Sorceries.

[Atikin]

I dropped it for a second Teeg. Seems to be working nicely, though it does shut down my big Sorceries.

Why do you need a second? Seems like that slot could be much better used on another 1-of. I dont run mortarpod either, but I think you can find better things to put in than two teegs. The first teeg raises the amount of functional copies from 0 to 5, while the second only raises it from 5 to 6 giving you much less value out of it.

[Kyle]

Why do you need a second? Seems like that slot could be much better used on another 1-of. I dont run mortarpod either, but I think you can find better things to put in than two teegs. The first teeg raises the amount of functional copies from 0 to 5, while the second only raises it from 5 to 6 giving you much less value out of it.

Currently running:

1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Harmonic Sliver
1x Viridian Shaman
4x Cabal Therapy
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Wilt-Leaf Liege
1x Natural Order
1x Progenitus

Can't think of anything else the sideboard really needs. My meta hasn't needed Mortarpod once, though I understood the original merit of it. Teeg shuts down Miracles, which is why he's worth two in my opinion.