[Deck] Elves Combo

[trevaftw]

I doubt anyone on this thread would ever gsz for hivemaster. In contrast, I can see [multiple] scenarios which merits a gsz for every other creature in the deck. That should be indicative of why the card doesn't add much value to the deck. It's a very fun casual card for sure. However, it doesn't help with our bad matchups and even matchups (i.e. stoneblade). The only decks it really helps against are ones we should already beat.

I think that Hivemaster is only good with beck because it makes every creature a draw two, but then again beck is a little too slow in my opinion for legacy so it will fit right in with modern very well.

[bruizar]

I think that Ready // Willing deserves a spot in the deck before Beck // Call.



Ready 1GW // Willing 1WB
//
Instant // Instant
Creatures you control are indestructible this turn. Untap each creature you control.
//
Creatures you control gain deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)

Ready looks like a Turnabout for Elves that could also double as a Fog or a way to deal with a removal spell. The Turnabout would allow you to reuse your heritage druid abilities again or attack on the same turn even though you tapped for Heritage Druid.

Willing would let you play the aggro role better by catching Tarmogoyfs and such off-guard.

This deck could actually afford to pay the fuse cost. What do you guys think.

[Oiolosse]

Hivemaster should only be played with skullclamp, in which case it's fantastically broken.

[chinEsE girl]

I just top 8'd my second Jupiter games tournament in a row that I've played with elves. I'll post an actual tourney report in a while, but the list I played was mostly the same as my previous list. The biggest change I made was running a 2-2 split of crop rotation and cradle instead of 1-3, so I could play a Karakas and bojuka bog in my sideboard. It was good but I only played one matchup where Karakas did anything. Otherwise the deck was insane as usual, I'm kinda wondering when people will start respecting its power as much as they should.

[Mr. Froggy]

I went 1-2 at my weekly today... -_-


Rnd 1: Gobbos 1-2
Rnd 2: Mav 1-2
Rnd 3: Bye

-_- I fail..

[igri_is_a_bk]

I went 4-1-1 today to take 2nd at my LGS. I played LSV's list with [-1 Bayou, -2 Cradle; +1 Forest, +2 Crop Rotation] because I don't own a second Bayou yet. Here's what I noticed though. I sided out the Priest and Birchlore Rangers slots every single game two. I don't think it's correct to drop the Birchlore Rangers, just in case you need B or W mana, but the Priest slot... That's likely going to get cut for a seventh mana dork, second Dryad Arbor, or fourth Natural Order. Has anybody else found this slot wasted?

[danyul]

I went 7-1-1 at SCG Seattle to get into Top 8, drawing into the 7th seed. And then I promptly lost to Hive Mind, although I managed to take game one off of him. I had a good run. I might write a tourney report but I haven't even gotten around to writing an updated primer yet so no promises on that. K I'm going to go pass out now.

[nudon]

Congrats to danyul for the top8 finish at scg Seattle!

['Nilla Pac]

It was worth seeing Daniel do well if only just to see him freak out during the last couple swiss rounds. Nice job, brother.

[feline]

Was awesome to see the top 8 list and see Danyul in it, I've played against him once at a previous SCG, though he was pushing BUG control if I remember correctly. I've also, at another SCG back in July, been seated near him during the middle of the swiss rounds and it was when he was pushing Elves, while his opponent at that particular round was pushing, Hive Mind. I will still never forget what happened, the way Danyul was describing the situation to the judge I think blew everyone away as my opponent & myself, as well as others around pretty much stopped to look over/listen in as it was explained.

From my perspective, I actually wrote a tournament report at that open, and my round 5 section doesn't really talk about my match that much, it just says, mostly this:
Again, still round 05, I THINK Table #16, (The table next to us, not the match I was in myself) it was Hive mind on one end for sure -vs- (I just remember seeing green) the players, now confirmed by one of them themselves, was Daniel -vs- Brian, now confirmed as well as what actually happened, so you can read what I speculated happened at the time, or skip the green ink and scroll down to their post below >^,^<

One player has a Hive mind in play, and does something like "pact of the titan" (Forgive me if I have the order wrong or if this is not exactly accurate, it was flippin nuts, but since you're reading this, you probably know what "the stack" is in magic, and this was most ridiculously funny stack I have ever seen develop from something like this it was so nutty) After "pact of the titan, give you a copy" -I think- was an "in response, spell of some kind, give them a copy" which was then -I think- a "pact of negation, targeting spell, give you a copy" which -I think- was a then "ok in response I'll use my pact of negation copy to target your pact of the titan copy you gave me, in which I don't remember the rest at this point because it just went haywire!

In the next 2 minutes, they had to explain to eachother just exactly what they were chosing to do, targeting, the order of the spells in, what they were doing with their copies, & since they were pointing at the cards to show which one's they were referring to, to eachother, all everyone else heard was the word "Pact your Pact to target your Pact using my Pact copy for this Pact in response to Pacting that Pact" or something totally crazy like that, I swear the word "PACT" was used like 50 times in those 2 minutes..

A Judge got involved, the word pact was used like another 30 times! The judge had to go get another judge If I recall correctly, or had to go look something up, I just remember the judge leaving and then having to come back.

After a bit of time the word pact is used some more, the round only started not too long ago, everyone is still playing their matches, but me and im sure my opponent are kinda half paying attention to this situation as are just about every other match around that area, (I don't know how someone could NOT have noticed), I could not stop giggling it was so absurd! It was more hilarious than watching someone resolve a thieve's auction in a chaos match with a dozen people.

Later I got lucky enough that Danyul actually saw that I posted this and then explained exactly what happened with this:

I can tell you what happened in that round 5 match because I was playing that round 5 match.

It was me, Daniel, with Combo Elves, versus Bryan, with Hive Mind.

I won the die roll and had a pretty fast start. I think I had emptied my hand by turn 2 and just started swinging in with elves. I didn't have the right combination for a combo finish but I had enough guys to be swinging for like 5-6 a turn. His board had like a Grim Monolith and some lands and I knew he had no removal if he was playing Hive Mind so I just went aggro mode. Eventually he taps out to drop a Hive Mind and passes the turn. He couldn't win on the spot because, as it turns out, the only pacts he had in hand were Pact of Negations. So he needed to counter something in order to kill me. Also, I have a hand full of lands and a single Crop Rotation, with some elves and a Gaea's Cradle on the board. I almost used the Crop Rotation earlier to grab a Cradle but I ended up drawing into one the turn before. So now I have a hand full of blanks, six damage worth of elves, and a Gaea's Cradle on the board.

My turn comes and I draw a Heritage Druid. I have a tapped Nettle Sentinel, a Birchlore Ranger, and three other elves in play. I need to play the Heritage Druid to untap my Nettle Sentinel to continue the beatdown plan, because I am definitely not able to combo out. So I play the guy and Byron immediately casts Pact of Negation, targeting my Heritage Druid. I freak out because I hate the stack. That's why I play elves. So I figure, ok, I'll just pact his pact with my pact copy. So I do that. I have enough elves to pay for a single Pact of Negation (I need UU. I have Birchlore, Quirion untaps, Other elves, etc) so I'm not scared at this point. Then, Byron plays another Pact of Negation, I think still targeting my Heritage Druid. At this point I flip my shit. He doesn't have enough mana to pay for two of his own pacts, and I don't have enough elves or untap effects to use Birchlore Rangers to make UUUU, to pay for two pacts either. So I use my second pact copy to target my original pact copy, because at this point the Heritage Druid is not going to resolve and man, I just don't want to pay for another Pact.

So the stack is -
My Heritage Druid
His Pact of Negation targeting druid
My Pact targeting his pact
His pact2 targeting my druid
My pact2 targeting my pact1

Then, because Bryan enjoys insanity, he plays a Misdirection targeting my pact2, moving it off of my pact1 and onto my druid.

I flip my shit again. I play elves because I don't like the stack and I don't like combat and I guess that means I don't like Magic. I just like tapping cards and drawing cards. So the stack is completely confuddled at this point and I don't know how to use my Misdirection copy. I actually forget what I had my Misdirection copying but after I chose my target, I waved a judge over and had him clarify the stack to me, and my opponent, and apparently everybody around us because I was being kinda loud and crazy in my confusion.

I had several D6s, with the 1s up, using those to represent my pact copies and I pointed the 1s at whatever they were targeting. I showed the judge the stack, putting the D6s on top of the cards on top of the D6s on top of the cards, and made a little D6/card sandwich to show in what the stack was at this point. So he carefully resolved the stack for us and because I wasn't smart enough to do that myself, and my opponent kinda was, at the end of all the spell resolutions I had to pay for my 2 pact copies while my opponent had to pay for zero, since one of his was countered and the other fizzled, since one of my pacts countered my druid, causing his original pact to have no legal target.

So the judge backs up from the sad pile of D6s and stupid blue cards and tells me that I lost the end of that exchange and that my Heritage Druid is countered. At the very least my Nettle Sentinel still got to untap so now I have 6 damage on the board and my opponent is at 7. I know that he doesn't have to pay for shit on his next turn while I have to finance, with my poor mana, all the little shenanigans that just took place. So I'm a bit flustered at this point. I might even say I was Flusterstormed.

But then I look in my hand, at two unhelpful forests and a Crop Rotation, and I recall that moment, a couple weeks ago, when I bought a foil FNM Pendelhaven on ebay and slightly regretted it, since I could have gotten a Timeshifted Time Spiral foil Pendelhaven for just two dollars more (my Elf deck is almost fully foiled). And I was worried that perhaps an FNM foil Pendelhaven is less pimp than a foil Timeshifted Pendelhaven. And then I thought, Wait a minute.

Pendelhaven!

So I start cackling maniacally and throw down my foily, sexy Crop Rotation like it was Shivan Dragon and I was playing at the lunchroom table back in 1995, then I laugh even more as I pick up my deck and start leafing through it, looking for my blessed savior - that FNM Pendelhaven.

I slammed that bastard down, tapped all my elves, and started laughing in my opponent's face like a rude, mannerless heathen. When Bryan saw that I had him dead on board, he smiled and extended the hand and we shook after a great game.

That was game one.

I know it's a bit of a paragraph, but I just felt I had to share what happened again, it was just too memorable, it's one of those things you just don't forget.

[danyul]

Thanks nudon. I'll finish that primer someday!

It was worth seeing Daniel do well if only just to see him freak out during the last couple swiss rounds. Nice job, brother.

LOL I'm glad you could enjoy my nervous squirming. When Top 8 was announced I freaked out so hard that I jumped up and stumbled over my backpack and fell flat on the floor. You would have loved that.

@feline - lol I remember all that. As long as I can walk away from an SCG with a good story, it was a good day. Also, I should retroactively apologize for being a sourpuss the last time we played. I knew what you were playing as soon as I saw your name on the pairings and I didn't like the matchup at all, especially against a good pilot. But you won that year so it's all good. Powerful wizard is powerful. Much respect.

I'll see you crazy kids at the next SCG Seattle!

(Also I guess I'll try to finish a primer/write a tourney report eventually)

[feline]

You were fine, I could tell you were a bit annoyed but I expect that as a part of playing High Tide, but it really was fine because I could tell it was because of the situation, not because of anything personal, so I never took anything personally there. ^.^

[danyul]

@feline - good to know. We will battle again :)

Tourney report up now in the appropriate thread. Link here - http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...e-Open-4-21-13

[feline]

Hey Danyul, is Edward Nguyen related at all to you being that you both have the same last name and were both at the same event? I just realized I played against a player with that name pushing Shardless BUG and he crushed me round 8 playing the deck very well, I also made a huge mistake game 1 that basically led me to saying "Oh crap, I can't cast Time Spiral with 5 mana!" I still can not figure out how in the world I made that mistake.

[danyul]

No relation. It's just a very common last name among my peopleZ.

[nudon]

Thanks nudon. I'll finish that primer someday!

Sounds good! Let me know if you want me to proofread again. :)

[kirdie]

How do you keep track of which creatures have summoning sickness or have their "only once per turn" used already? I find that hard when I have 10+ creatures and play a Craterhoof Behemoth and some creatures have been returned to my hand and played back out.

[trevaftw]

How do you keep track of which creatures have summoning sickness or have their "only once per turn" used already? I find that hard when I have 10+ creatures and play a Craterhoof Behemoth and some creatures have been returned to my hand and played back out.

With Wirewood i rotate him 180 degrees. If I start comboing off I'll try and keep the non summoning sick to the side or say something once I start going.

[Kayradis]

With Wirewood i rotate him 180 degrees. If I start comboing off I'll try and keep the non summoning sick to the side or say something once I start going.

Spinning the Symbiotes and Quirion Ranger 180 degrees really helped me a lot of time in the past with the deck. It the easiest way to deal with the tons of effect you have. It used to be way worse when the Mirror Entity list was kicking around.

[Blastoderm]

Spinning the Symbiotes and Quirion Ranger 180 degrees really helped me a lot of time in the past with the deck. It the easiest way to deal with the tons of effect you have. It used to be way worse when the Mirror Entity list was kicking around.

I usually just put little dice on the guys I've used.