[Primer] Elves!

[Koby]

Definitely this is true, but their tutors aren't nearly as scary in the first couple turns without LED mana. I've found it puts them back enough so you can find Teeg. I'll keep at it some more. A big reason is the fact that I always just guess between Wish and Tutor - whereas LED is clearly the best at what it does.

While this is true, they cannot go off with a single LED regardless. Cabal and Dark Rituals are just as analogous to Tutor/Wish. It's a guessing same no matter which combination they have.

[Lemnear]

While this is true, they cannot go off with a single LED regardless. Cabal and Dark Rituals are just as analogous to Tutor/Wish. It's a guessing same no matter which combination they have.

T1 Therapy for Infernal instead of LED is pointless because the TES/ANT/TNT needs the LED to turn on the Infernal during the first 2 turns 90% of the time (with additional cantrips, Silence and Shit often blocking hellbent otherwise).

You have no idea how many games i won on the back of that flaw in theory

[trevaftw]

Still working on getting 2x more cradles and 2 more NO before SCG Minn so this is the list I played last night at weekly Legacy:

Creatures - 32
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wirewood Symbiote
2 Quirion Ranger
4 Birchlore Rangers
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Regal Force

Spells - 12
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Glimpse of Nature
2 Natural Order
2 Crop Rotation

Lands - 16
8 Fetches
1 Bayou
1 Savannah
2 Forest
2 Gaea's Cradle
2 Cavern of Souls

Sideboard - 15
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Krosan Grip
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Dryad Militant
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ruric Thar

Round 1 - Show and Tell (loss, 0-2)
This against someone who I know typically plays this or enchantress so depending on his first turn i would know what he was playing.After he won the roll he decided to play first and lead off with a volcanic island followed by preordain so I knew he was on SnT and then passed the turn. This being game 1 I knew it wouldn't go well since next turn he dropped Ancient Tomb,Show and tell, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. After this he passed and I drew for the turn. I really didn't have anything to go off with and I had less than 6 permanents so I just scooped and went to game 2.

In: 4 Cabal Therapy, 2 Krosan Grip, 1 Ruric Thar
Out: 3 Wirewood Symbiote, 3 Elvish Visionary, 1 Viridian Shaman
Thoughts - Since he was going to win on the early turns Wirewood Symbiote and Elvish Visionary were too slow and Viridian Shaman was a dead card.

Since I lost I started and opening my hand I saw Forest, Deathrite Shaman, Cabal Therapy, and some other creatures. Don't recall exactly what else there was but it seemed good enough with the discard to get me a couple extra turns (In hindsight with no way of having to actually cast the Cabal Therapy turn one I think I should have mulliganed). I lead off with Forest, Deathrite Shaman, go. He then plays and island, leads with Preordain again, and passes. I untap and luckily draw a fetchland and get a Bayou and proceed to cast Cabal Therapy. It resolves and I name Show and tell and got one and saw 3 lands, 1 Griselbrand, 1 Sneak Attack, 1 Ponder. After this I passed I consider if I should flashback Cabal Therapy and what is the most relevant:
1 Griselbrand - A win condition
1 Sneak Attack - a way to put down his win condition
1 Ponder - a way to find a either
I decided on Griselbrand since he could play Sneak Attack eventually with his land hand and this would then force him to use his Ponder to find a win condition. (Was this the right card to take?). He did end up finding a win condition before I could go off and so I lost.


Round 2 - BG Veteran Explorer (Win, 2-0)
The elf lords treated me much better this game with a turn 3 Natural Order for Craterhoof Behemoth and 30+ damage with trample.

In: 2 Krosan Grip, 1 Ruric Thar, 1 Bojuka Bog
Out: 1 Viridian Shaman, 1 Nettle Sentinel, 1 Heritage Druid, 1 Birchlore Rangers
Thoughts - He plays Recurring Nightmare main and Engineered Plague side so I brought in Krosan Grip, Ruric Thar because he had more spells than creatures, and Bojuka Bog against Recurring Nightmare and Cabal Therapy. Since I didn't need to be as explosive I sided out the combo enablers rather than the secondary draw engine.

Game 2 he started with Veteran Explorer and I lead with fetch, Nettle Sentinel, go. He then proceeded to play two Cabal Therapy and flashback one of them and tore my hand apart. Luckily, I drew an elvish visionary the next turn and off of that I drew a Wirewood Symbiote and proceeded to rebuild my hand and win off of Ruric Thar beats.


Round 3 - Budget Monoblack Control (Win, 2-0)
There really isn't much to say about this. He did have discard and some removal, but I was just ab'e to go off before he could effectively do anything.

[lochlan]

T1 Therapy for Infernal instead of LED is pointless because the TES/ANT/TNT needs the LED to turn on the Infernal during the first 2 turns 90% of the time (with additional cantrips, Silence and Shit often blocking hellbent otherwise).

100% agree. After turn 1 it's less clear, since most decent storm players will play out their artifact mana (or at least their LED) in the face of opposing discard.

[Koby]

T1 Therapy for Infernal instead of LED is pointless because the TES/ANT/TNT needs the LED to turn on the Infernal during the first 2 turns 90% of the time (with additional cantrips, Silence and Shit often blocking hellbent otherwise).

You have no idea how many games i won on the back of that flaw in theory

I don't follow.

It's turn 1 for Elves on the play. Elves has access to additional creatures in hand and a Cabal Therapy. One connection with Therapy is enough to get to turn two. Combo has a turn 1 kill which likely includes both LED and Infernal Tutor. (Let's assume it's ANT for simplicity). Naming either IT or LED will break up the combo. Where is the flaw in naming IT here?

Obviously, against TES/TNT things get fuzzy because of a higher concentration and variety of tutors.

[Lemnear]

I don't follow.

It's turn 1 for Elves on the play. Elves has access to additional creatures in hand and a Cabal Therapy. One connection with Therapy is enough to get to turn two. Combo has a turn 1 kill which likely includes both LED and Infernal Tutor. (Let's assume it's ANT for simplicity). Naming either IT or LED will break up the combo. Where is the flaw in naming IT here?

Obviously, against TES/TNT things get fuzzy because of a higher concentration and variety of tutors.

If you Name Infernal you have a less than 50% Chance to stop a T1 combo in hand because the Storm Pilot can Hold Infernal, Wish or diggin spells like Ponder to gain access to the primer 2. If you strip the combo player from his strongest accelerant, which is moreover the likely only method to gain hellbent in a reasonable timeframe, it's almost given that the combo guy like me needs TURNS to replace that +3 mana of LED.

The math for lethal turn 1 is broke Down to LED + Infernal, LED + Wish and Ritual/Rite + Wish in a majority of cases. Taking those 3 combinations into account, naming Infernal doesn't make Sense. As a second step in thought you have to consider that the effect of LED is irreplacable unlike the Infernal/Wish which is a 8-off and the odds of gaining access to additional copies (cantrippin, topdeck) are much higher than +3 mana (and/or hellbent) with a Single draw/cantrip

For ANT the math is easy as you mentioned because it completely lacks the flexibility of Wish. For UBr ANT it doesn't matter that much if you name Infernal or LED, but this subtype of Storm will give you a Second turn in 97% of all cases regardless. So the question to either play an elf or a Therapy is a non-topic.

[andrebonotto]

Hello guys,

Here’s a report from a tournament that took place yesterday.


I played Matt Nass’ list with the following modifications:

MD:
-2 Fetch land / +1 Forest, +1 Dryad Arbor
-1 Priest of Titania / +1 Scavenging Ooze (there’s always Burn, UR Delver and RUG Delver on my LGS)
-1 Regal Force / +1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed (for testings purposes, as I feel he could do some damage on my metagame)
-2 Quirion Ranger / + 2 Birchlore Rangers (to support Ruric Thar better)

SB:
-2 Mindbreak Trap / +2 Duress
-1 Cabal Therapy / +1 Thorn of Amethyst
-1 Qasali Pridemage / +1 Harmonic Sliver
-1 Sylvan Library / +1 Viridian Shaman
-1 Dryad Arbor / +1 Scavenging Ooze

The matches were:

R1: vs. "Show and Tell" = 2 x 0
R2: vs. "Enchantress" = 2 x 0
R3: vs. “RUG Delver” = 0 x 2
R4: vs. “Rw Burn” = 1 x 2
R5: vs. “ANT” = 2 x 0

=====================

Here's a follow up on the matches:

>>> ROUND 1: vs. "Show and Tell" = 2 x 0

G1: (I already suspect he plays SnT, and I’m on the play). Me: some elves. He: some cantrips. On T3 I start a mini-combo with Glimpse and Birchlore, get 10-12 creatures and mana for NO>Behemoth, with an untapped and “unsickened” elf.

G2: I mull to 5: Fetch, Duress, DRS, GSZ, Progenitus. His T1: Sol Land, Petal > SnT > Griselbrand (vs. me: Progenitus). I Fetch> Bayou, attack him with Prog. (his life = 10) and cast Duress, seeing a Mountain (misplay! should not have Duress'ed here!). He attacks me with Grisel. (his life = 17; mine = 12). I attack him (his life = 7), Fetch for another Bayou (my life = 11), and cast DRS. He attacks me (his life = 14; mine = 4). I attack him (his life = 4), play Cradle, GSZ>Quirion Ranger. I use Bayou #1 to activate DRS once (his life = 2), then activate Quirion, bouncing this tapped Bayou #1 to untap DRS. Then I activate DRS the second time, using mana from Bayou #2 (his life = 0). *Phew*, that was close!


>>> ROUND 2: vs. "Enchantress" = 2 x 0

G1: I almost empty my hand on T2, playing my accelerant elves. He plays an accelerant enchant, and then plays an Elephant Grass. On my T3 I’m able to NO>Behemoth, and use Cradle + some elves to pay the “Grass tax” to attack with Behemoth + 2 elves for lethal.

G2: A very long game. The turn before I’m prepared to NO>Behemoth and go for lethal, he lands a Moat (! ). I change my plans and I go NO>Ruric Thar, to try to make him “lose to himself”. He has 2 Argothian Enchantresses in play, and lands a Confinement (his life = 11), and with both draws on stack, I Decay his Confinement (my life = 13). We play Draw-go for too many turns - me trying to find Harmonic Sliver (and gathering creatures for a possible mini-Glimpse combo to help find it faster); him, with Mirri’s Guile in play, he's trying to find another Confinement. After I had to discard 2 Cradles (having already 1 in play and leaving the 4th at hand), I try the mini-combo (my life = 5, due to some fetches) and find no Sliver, but a GSZ. I do the math, activate DRS to gain me 2 life by eating my Dryad Arbor in GY (my life = 7), then use GSZ>Harmonic Sliver (my life = 1), break his Moat, and attack with many critters to lethal.


>>> ROUND 3: vs. “RUG Delver” = 0 x 2

G1: I don’t know what he plays. I mull to 6, with Fetch + Dryad Arbor as lands. He’s on the play, and plays a Fetch. I play Fetch and crack it > he responds cracking his own > Stifle. He then plays a Delver and flips it next turn, while I play my Forest with summoning sickness. His Insectile Aberration keeps a real clock, while he FoWs my Visionary in one turn, then FoWs #2 my Birchlore Rangers in another one. When he also gets a Goyf online, it’s game.

G2: I mull to 5, due to no-land hands. I lead with Forest>Llanowar Elves. He plays a Delver and Submerges>elf. I play it again. He flips his Delver and Submerges #2> my elf. Delver keeps attacking, and when I got to stick Llanowar Elves + DRS, he Rough / Tumbles my elves. I never got anything to recover. Such a mess!


>>> ROUND 4: vs. “Rw Burn” = 1 x 2

G1: I know what he plays, and mull a fair hand to find a Glimpse/NO hand, but I’m forced to keep five cards with neither. He burns my face and gets some critters. I got some elves and attack a few times through his tapped guys. A Symbiote-bouncing-my-blocker interaction isn’t enough to buy me the required time to survive. He ends with the precise damage he needed: Fireblast>threshold>Barbarian Ring.

G2: I keep a hand with some elves and NO. His attacking Goblin Guide reveals my secret Ruric Thar on top, and he seems very surprised and worried about it. But since I do not have Birchlore nor DRS in play/at hand, I promptly crack my fetch in play to shuffle it away, so that my NO can get it. I do it next turn, but to my surprise he has a hand full of creatures (3 Guides + 2 Hellspark Elemental). I loose some critters to some chumpblocks, fog one of his Guides with Symbiote + elf and kill one Elemental with Ruric blocking. This repetas for some turns, but eventually my attacking Ruric puts him on lethal range, and with most of his creatures dead, I win next turn.

G3: I mull to 5 and keep a hand with Fetch, Thorn, Glimpse, and 2 elves. I draw anther land and then another Thorn, so I’m able to mini-combo on T3, ending it by playing both Thorns and passing. It slows down his game, but he keeps paying 3 for his successive bolts. I attack him some times and think I stabilized the game, but the turn before I would cast NO, he gets his 4th land and is able to double Fireblast me for lethal. #$@#¨%#¨ !!!


>>> ROUND 5: vs. “ANT” = 2 x 0

G1: I suspect he’s playing Storm combo and keep a hand with Glimpse, Ruric Thar, some elves and 1-2 Fetch-lands. He seemed to keep a hand with only cantrips and discard. I start with the aggro plan and try to put him on some pressure, while gathering lands/creature cards to combo. He cantrips a lot, discards my Glimpse (the turn before I would cast it), then discard my Ruric Thar. I keep the pressure, and the aggro route + double DRS activation are enough to finish him.

G2: I keep a 6-card hand with Dryad Arbor, Fetch, Thorn, NO, and 2 elves. He mulls to 4 (good for me!). T1 I play Dryad. He cantrips. T2 I play Thorn. He draws many lands and keeps cantripping. I eventually gather both elves, Dryad, Cradle, and I’m able to NO(Dryad)>Ruric Thar. Next turn he cantrips again, finds Deathmark and cast it > Ruric (his life = 10). I attack him (his life = 8). He Pyroclasms my board. We Draw-Go for many turns. He eventually Burning Wishes > Meltdown and destroy my Thorn. We Draw-Go for some more turns, but I draw Visionary, cast it, draw Quirion Ranger and cast it (keeping in hand Duress, Cradle #2, and NO #2). On his turn he BW > IT (hellbent), cast it and pass (it was Brainstorm that he got). On my turn I cast Duress > he BS in response > I discard something random that he left in hand (and he told me later that he prepared a Past in Flames for next turn). I finally can cast safely: NO > Behemoth (his life was 7) and attack for lethal with it + an elf.


=====================


Sadly, for losing that two matches (R3 and R4), I ended up in 5th (out of 16-20 players), away from prizes, (1st place would win a Tundra; 2nd place would win a playset of Enlightened Tutors - besides the boosters), except from two Promos: Render Silent and Breaking / Entering.

That was pretty disappointing...


SOME THOUGHTS:


1) As I hoped, Ruric Thar had an effective impact on my metagame – at least against the decks which I was paired against. I think I may stick to it for some more time.

2) However, on 2 games I got Ruric stuck in hand and unable to be cast (no DRS; no Birchlore; no GSZ). Had I a Taiga maindeck, I would be able to cast it, for in both situations I had a fetch-land available (one of these times was against RUG, and I also had a Cradle available, to make it easy to hardcast it. I think it would have made a difference there). I’m thinking about cutting something to squeeze a Taiga in. Maybe Bayou #2, but I’m really not sure. What do you guys think?

3) Also, on the UR / RUG Delver MUs. How the hell do you play it, guys? What hands do you keep? What are your plans against those? I just don't know what I do on these, but I never am able to win! Or it happens that they always have the counterspells for my NO/Glimpse; or they always have the "hate for my mana" (Burn/Lavamancer for my elves / Wasteland or Stifle for my non-basics) + a flying Delver keeping my under pressure. Not the mention my no-lands hands that force me to mull and start behind. I need some serious help here...




That’s it. Thanks for the reading, and I would appreciate any feedback.

Sincerely,

- André

[MD.Ghost]

1) As I hoped, Ruric Thar had an effective impact on my metagame – at least against the decks which I was paired against. I think I may stick to it for some more time.

2) However, on 2 games I got Ruric stuck in hand and unable to be cast (no DRS; no Birchlore; no GSZ). Had I a Taiga maindeck, I would be able to cast it, for in both situations I had a fetch-land available (one of these times was against RUG, and I also had a Cradle available, to make it easy to hardcast it. I think it would have made a difference there). I’m thinking about cutting something to squeeze a Taiga in. Maybe Bayou #2, but I’m really not sure. What do you guys think?

3) Also, on the UR / RUG Delver MUs. How the hell do you play it, guys? What hands do you keep? What are your plans against those? I just don't know what I do on these, but I never am able to win! Or it happens that they always have the counterspells for my NO/Glimpse; or they always have the "hate for my mana" (Burn/Lavamancer for my elves / Wasteland or Stifle for my non-basics) + a flying Delver keeping my under pressure. Not the mention my no-lands hands that force me to mull and start behind. I need some serious help here...

thanks for the report!

1) good - i like the Ogre as a maindeck choice

2) i play one taiga (and also 2 bayous, 1 savannah) as a fetch target to get ruric online without specific elves (bircholore/deathrite)

3) against RUG it is a 50:50 very draw dependent matchup, if they have waste, stifle, removal and clock you lose against perfect tempo hands, if you have enough pressure (2x glimpse, or 1 NO+1 Glimpse etc.), Deathrites, Ooze, Bojuka Bog, Ruric etc. you win. Against Wasteland + Stifle, try to get a hand with 2 lands without cradle, if you can get one basic forest online you can play, quirion ranger also helps to protect your duals or reuse lands to operate with only a few mana sources.
Abrupt Decay early delvers, against nimble you have some time until he transforms into 3/3, against gofy you can also bounce elves/arbor, both ground units also need the graveyard, Deathrites, Scavenging Ooze, Bojuka Bog (or 2nd Ooze etc.) helps to handle the swings.

Against UR Delver i would also bord in Thorns.

[chinEsE girl]

Had another good tournament today, went 5-0 at my local monthly legacy event. I played pretty much the same list that I posted a while back. I'm wondering when other people are going to figure out just how insane this deck is, but until then I'll just keep crushing people with the little green dorks. The matchups I played today were:

Junk 2-1
Sneak and Show 2-0
TES 2-1
Past in Flames storm combo 2-1
Elves 2-1

I didn't expect to play against so much combo, but cabal therapy was a gigantic beating against each and every one of them. After I got my one bad name out of the way, I tightened up and named the right stuff for the rest of the day, and it would always give me a ton of time to establish my board and then flash it back later to get more value. Honestly it was the most important card out of my sideboard today by a mile. I also had the Ruric main today and it was real sweet. Being able to T2 that guy against one of my opponents felt reeaaallll nice.

I'm pretty sad that I won't be able to make the SCG invite in Sommerset this weekend, but for anyone else who is going you should really play this deck. It's been a while since I've had the "wow, I just can't lose with this deck" feeling, but I've gotten it back with this deck. If my opponent isn't playing a faster combo than me, I just feel utterly invincible with Elves. And even if they are running something lightning quick, there are a ton of good options to side in against them, first and foremost is therapy. The only thing I really want to do with the deck moving forward is to figure out exactly what creature suite I want for NO targets main (number of hoofs, ruric and regal force yes/no) and how the sideboard is built. Other than that the deck is absurd and I'll be continuing to play it unless there's some major change to legacy.

[unemployer]

Used the Elven Battalion yesterday at a tournament here in Manila and landed in the 8th seed. All my matches were fair and got lucky but my 3 losses (including the Top8) were all from RUG Delver decks. I was having a hard time winning since they have a lot of removals and counters but it was fun nonetheless. On the list I had, I only played 17 lands (3 Cradles and 1 D.Arbor), 2 Craterhoofs (no Regal), 1 Archdruid (since I don't have Priest) and 1 Wirewood Hivemaster.
Here is the breakdown of my match ups:
R1 - Shardless BUG - 2-0 - He started all games with a mulligan and had bad hands
R2 - RUG Delver - 0-2 - One of my playtest group. He knows how to fight my elves
R3 - Junk - 2-0 - G2 he played with a deed, I had Progenitus on the board
R4 - Death and Taxes - 2-0 - (lucky game. G1 I had a GSZ and with 5 elves but no mana. Top deck, Cradle. G2, he had mindcensor, I played Nat.O and found Craterhoof on the 3rd top card)
R5 - Omni Show - 2-0 -
R6 - RUG Delver - 1-2 - An experienced player who I see play good decks. He cannot attack due to my Deathrite in play. He Brainstormed and found 1 Grafdiggers cage (while I had Nat.O in my hand) and the next card was Rough/Tumble. GG for me, thought I had the match :|
R7 - Belcher - 2-0 - G1, he kept a bad hand and I won on turn 3. G2, I had a Mindbreak trap while he played the Belcher as the 3rd spell on T1. He never recovered
Top8 - RUG Delver - 0-2 - Experienced Player + Top Tier Deck = GG. Also on a bad note, G2 gave me 8 lands including 1 Cradle in my hand and a fetchland that I just drew. From there, I had no way to win while he had 2 Goyfs (4/5), 1 Insectille and 2 Nimble Mongoose while I had 4 Elves and 1 D.Arbor (7 life)

I will post my decklist when I have time

[Kayradis]

Alright,
Played Saturday. We were expecting 25-35+ people, but only 20 showed. Still, a good afternoon followed by camping with my good buddy.

Decklist:

Lands // 17
3 x Windswepth Heath
3 x Verdant Catacombs
1 x Misty Rainforest
1 x Forest
2 x Bayou
1 x Savannah
1 x Tropical Island
1 x Dryad Arbor
3 x Gaea's Cradle

Creatures // 31
4 x Deathrite Shaman
4 x Elvish Visionary
4 x Wirewood Symbiote
2 x Quirion Ranger
4 x Nettle Sentinel
4 x Heritage Druid
3 x Birchlore Ranger
1 x Viridian Shaman
1 x Llanowar Elves
1 x Priest Of Titania
1 x Ruric Thar, The Unbowed
1 x Cratherhoof Behemoth
1 x Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Spells // 12
4 x Glimpse Of Nature
3 x Natural Order
4 x Green Sun Zenith
1 x Crop Rotation

SB //
2 x Mindbreak Trap
1 x Flusterstorm
1 x Qasali Pridemage
4 x Cabal Therapy
3 x Abrupt Decay
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Natural Order
1 x Progenitus
1 x Karakas


Rd 1 : vs MUD (Josh Pyle-Carter)

I played Josh multiple times, most of them in Rd 1 of PTQ or GPT. I know he's on either MUD or Affinity, since he has both those
deck foiled out and likes to blind his adversaries. I win the die roll.

Game 1
T1 : Fetch into Bayou (I know he doesn't run any land distruption), DRS. He goes Great Furnace, go.
T2 : Fetch into the second Bayou, Exile fetch with DRS, Birchlore Ranger, Quirion Ranger, Tap for Nettle Sentinel, Bounce Bayou, Untap DRS. He plays a second Great Furnace and pass turn.... :/
T3 : NO into Hoof, Exile Ranger, swing for lethal.

SB : -1 Glimpse, -1 Quirion Ranger, + 1 Qasali Pridemage, +1 Teeg, +1 NO, +1 Progenitus

Game 2
T1 : City of traitors into Chalice on 1. I play fetch then pass turn
T2 : Great Furnace, Grim Monolith, Grim Monolith, Goblin Welder(that's gonna be fun!). I play an Elvish Visionary, hoping to find one of my piece of hate.
T3 : He assemble a Duplicant/Welder Loop. Can't beat that.

SB : +1 Scavenging Ooze, -1 Behemoth (I raged at myself for that, you'll read later)

Game 3
This game was a long grinder and based on my notes, it went to time or close to it.
Unfortunately, I don't know why I boarded out Behemoth when my main idea was to board out Ruric Thar....that ended up costing me G3 and the first round. Well, I keep my moral high, saying that I'm here to do mistakes and not do them again in the future.

Games 1-2
Match 0-1

Round 2 vs RUG Delver(Tempo *****) (Mike Sheng)

Mike is another acquaintance of mine. I know he's on RUG since he's been on RUG since the world was world and Richard Garfield created that game. I did some testing against RUG, and I do believe it's a decend matchup both pre and post board.

Game 1
T1 : Fetch into Bayou, DRS, got Forced. Shit happens. He play a fetch then pass.
T2 : Play Forest, Birchlore ranger, pass turn. He cracks the fetch, brainstorm, miss his land drop then pass turn. Im expecting a daze back up here. Possibly a stifle as well.
T3 : Glimpse? No counter. Draw into a cradle, a crop rotation, a NO, tons of little green men. Natural Order for Ruric Thar? GG

SB : -1 Glimpse, -1 Viridian Shaman,-1 Crop Rotation, +3 Abrupt Decay, +1 Ooze (Jeez, I love the new SB rules!!!)

Game 2
I know at this point he's -2 Stifle + 2 Rough//Tumble and possibly - X Daze for X Submerge ,since that's a pretty standard SB plan against elves.

I keep a pretty standard 7. Nothing to fancy, but grindy.
T1 : He plays a fetch, pass turn. Fetch, Crack, Bayou, DRS? FORCE? Shit. Again. Alright.
T2 : Delver, miss his land drop, pass turn. Fetch, crack, for Forest, GSZ = O, fetch Dryad Arbor, play birchlore. Pass Turn.
T3 : Delver doesn't flip. Miss another land drop, pass turn. Play DRS, doesnt get forced, Pass turn.
T4 : Delver still grounded, hits a land drop. Play goyf. Pass turn. Draw into NO. NO, Sac Dryad Arbor, Ruric Thar? Yep. Resolve. Pass turn.
T5 : The delver just wont flip. He lands another goyf. Pass Turn. At this point I'm like WTF. He either got shit or he's holding into something. Swing with Ruric, exile the creature from the GY, kill a Goyf. It's turning into a board stall. Im dropping green dude hoping to top deck anything and got for an alpha strike next turn. Symbiotes, Visionary, Cradle, Quirion. The whole family!
T6 : Untap, delver still a-ground. Rough//Tumble. Wipe my board except Ruric Thar, the dryad arbor I bounced, and the Deathrite I used twice in response to the Rough. Draw into GSZ. Play DRS, Dryad Arbor, GSZ = 2? Take 6 damageResolve. He got shit in his hand. Go fetch Scavenging Ooze. still have a couple mana left, ate some dork.
T7 : Nothing Happenned. The ooze ate more dorks, so now I have a 6/6 Ooze and a 6/6 Vigilance with a DRS. Should be easy eh?
Swing with the goyfs. Remove Sorcery from the GY, Block both, ate dorks with the ooze, Submerge it in response, take 6 more. Rough//Tumble. AGAIN? He takes 6 more, kill my board. Goyf dies as well. Draw into the Ooze, replay it.
T8 : Fetch, pass turn. Draw into glimpse, swing with the Ooze, pass turn.
T9 : Nothing. Like. Nothing. I draw into Nettle. At this point I have DRS, Glimpse, Nettle Sentinel and a fetch in my hand. Game ON! Glimpse? Resolve, DRS, Draw, Nettle, Draw into Birchlore, Birchlore, Draw into Nettle, Until I drew a second cradle and the hoof. GG.

Games 3-2
Match 1-1

Round 3 VS Reanimator (Unknown Fella...)

I don't have a clue about his deck. Haven't seen him play and I was too interested in my own games to care.

Game 1

T1 : I win the dice roll, Keep a solid 7. Fetch, Bayou, DRS? Force Of Will. DAMMIT! He plays Polluted delta, pass turn.
T2 : I start a chain that end nowhere, got a fair amount of green dude, enough to NO for Lethal next turn. He cracks the fetch, underground see, Entomb. Elesh Norm. Untap, swamp Reanimate? FUCK!

Game 2 was similar but with Iona on Green. I don't want to talk about it.... The fella ended up winning the tournament since nobody prepared himself against Reanimator.

Games 5-2
Match 1-2

Round 4 vs BUG Stifle-naught (Chris Misner)

Chris a friend of mine. I know he always has fun and weird brews. I know he's on bug since he borrowed the Underground seas and polluted deltas from our cardpool.

Game 1 : Chained a quick T2 Ruric Thar. That was GG
Game 2 : Grinded the hell outta me, was able to stabilize at 1 life thanks to Symbiote + Visionary and Quirion + Dryad Arbor interactions, Top decked Hoof, Played 2 cradles in 1 turn. Swun. GG. Damn. I love this deck so much.

Round 5 vs Affinity (Unknown Girl)

Im at 2-2. If Misner and Josh lose, Im jamming myself 8th seed. Top 4 are all I.D. so the rest of us have to play. My buddy Jared is first seed, so I send him on a mission to bring back some chinese food.

Game 1
T1 : She wins the dice roll, have a pretty good start of Ancient Den, Ornithopther, Mox Opal, Springleaf Drum. I fetch a bayou into DRS.
T2 : She plays a steel overlord and pass turn. Im like....Yeah!!! I draw a Cradle. I empty my hand, play Ezuri, Renegade leader, play cradle, pass turn.
T3 : She swings into my green wall of death. Overrun Ezuri and friends, block. Untap Tap cradle for 7, play another cradle, tap for 7, tap a land Overrun 3 x? Swing? GG.
Game 2
She has a super slow play. I go T3 Hoof for lethal. GG again.

Bad tie breakers, finished in 10 place.
No bad.
Got drunk after.
Way better.


End toughts?
Ruric is amazing in certain match.
Never board out Behemoth.
Reanimator is a nightmare to play against.

[andrebonotto]

thanks for the report!

1) good - i like the Ogre as a maindeck choice

2) i play one taiga (and also 2 bayous, 1 savannah) as a fetch target to get ruric online without specific elves (bircholore/deathrite)

3) against RUG it is a 50:50 very draw dependent matchup, if they have waste, stifle, removal and clock you lose against perfect tempo hands, if you have enough pressure (2x glimpse, or 1 NO+1 Glimpse etc.), Deathrites, Ooze, Bojuka Bog, Ruric etc. you win. Against Wasteland + Stifle, try to get a hand with 2 lands without cradle, if you can get one basic forest online you can play, quirion ranger also helps to protect your duals or reuse lands to operate with only a few mana sources.
Abrupt Decay early delvers, against nimble you have some time until he transforms into 3/3, against gofy you can also bounce elves/arbor, both ground units also need the graveyard, Deathrites, Scavenging Ooze, Bojuka Bog (or 2nd Ooze etc.) helps to handle the swings.

Against UR Delver i would also bord in Thorns.

Thanks for your reply.

2) What is your exact manabase playing Ruric Thar? I need to figure out what to cut for the Taiga...

3) Against RUG Delver, it seems that they just always have the answers to my cards. When I keep a hand w/ Ooze, I don't get the mana to cast it burn-proof; when I keep a hand w/ Glimpse or NO, they have plenty of counterspells for them. In general they almost always have disruption + pressure against me.
To avoid excessive mulligans on this MU, do you by any chance keep "fair hands" (a couple of lands + some random elves w/out shenanigans)?
I use to avoid them, but maybe this is setting me too far behind, due to mulliganing a lot...

Against UR Delver, yeah, the Thorns seem good.
I think I didn't have them on my SB las time I faced this deck (I guess I had Pithing Needles in their place), but I'll keep them around and maybe side this way:

+2 Thorn
+2 A.Decay
+1 S.Ooze
-1 NO
-3 E.Visionary
-1 H.Druid / D.Arbor

[andrebonotto]

Had another good tournament today, went 5-0 at my local monthly legacy event. I played pretty much the same list that I posted a while back. I'm wondering when other people are going to figure out just how insane this deck is, but until then I'll just keep crushing people with the little green dorks. The matchups I played today were:

Junk 2-1
Sneak and Show 2-0
TES 2-1
Past in Flames storm combo 2-1
Elves 2-1

I didn't expect to play against so much combo, but cabal therapy was a gigantic beating against each and every one of them. After I got my one bad name out of the way, I tightened up and named the right stuff for the rest of the day, and it would always give me a ton of time to establish my board and then flash it back later to get more value. Honestly it was the most important card out of my sideboard today by a mile. I also had the Ruric main today and it was real sweet. Being able to T2 that guy against one of my opponents felt reeaaallll nice.

I'm pretty sad that I won't be able to make the SCG invite in Sommerset this weekend, but for anyone else who is going you should really play this deck. It's been a while since I've had the "wow, I just can't lose with this deck" feeling, but I've gotten it back with this deck. If my opponent isn't playing a faster combo than me, I just feel utterly invincible with Elves. And even if they are running something lightning quick, there are a ton of good options to side in against them, first and foremost is therapy. The only thing I really want to do with the deck moving forward is to figure out exactly what creature suite I want for NO targets main (number of hoofs, ruric and regal force yes/no) and how the sideboard is built. Other than that the deck is absurd and I'll be continuing to play it unless there's some major change to legacy.

Hey, congrats for your finish!

That other Elves guy that you played against had a "tuned" deck too? If so, to what do you atribute your winning on this MU?

I never played the Elves mirror, despite sometimes finding one or two other guys playing Elves around here, but being more of budget lists...

...

Used the Elven Battalion yesterday at a tournament here in Manila and landed in the 8th seed. All my matches were fair and got lucky but my 3 losses (including the Top8) were all from RUG Delver decks. I was having a hard time winning since they have a lot of removals and counters but it was fun nonetheless. On the list I had, I only played 17 lands (3 Cradles and 1 D.Arbor), 2 Craterhoofs (no Regal), 1 Archdruid (since I don't have Priest) and 1 Wirewood Hivemaster.
Here is the breakdown of my match ups:
R1 - Shardless BUG - 2-0 - He started all games with a mulligan and had bad hands
R2 - RUG Delver - 0-2 - One of my playtest group. He knows how to fight my elves
R3 - Junk - 2-0 - G2 he played with a deed, I had Progenitus on the board
R4 - Death and Taxes - 2-0 - (lucky game. G1 I had a GSZ and with 5 elves but no mana. Top deck, Cradle. G2, he had mindcensor, I played Nat.O and found Craterhoof on the 3rd top card)
R5 - Omni Show - 2-0 -
R6 - RUG Delver - 1-2 - An experienced player who I see play good decks. He cannot attack due to my Deathrite in play. He Brainstormed and found 1 Grafdiggers cage (while I had Nat.O in my hand) and the next card was Rough/Tumble. GG for me, thought I had the match :|
R7 - Belcher - 2-0 - G1, he kept a bad hand and I won on turn 3. G2, I had a Mindbreak trap while he played the Belcher as the 3rd spell on T1. He never recovered
Top8 - RUG Delver - 0-2 - Experienced Player + Top Tier Deck = GG. Also on a bad note, G2 gave me 8 lands including 1 Cradle in my hand and a fetchland that I just drew. From there, I had no way to win while he had 2 Goyfs (4/5), 1 Insectille and 2 Nimble Mongoose while I had 4 Elves and 1 D.Arbor (7 life)

I will post my decklist when I have time

Congrats for you too!

It's been some time since I played a 7-round tournament w/ Elves, but I remember it to be very "draining". Maybe, therefore, it's "good" to be paired against Belcher on R7, so that the game doesn't take to long/be defined more quickly. What do you think?

On R4, your op. cast Mindcensor in response to your NO? Or did he already had the censor in play, and you risked casting the NO despite it?

(Also, as I posted earlier, I'm having trouble with RUG Delver too.)


Sincerely,

- André

[Dice_Box]

2) What is your exact manabase playing Ruric Thar? I need to figure out what to cut for the Taiga...

Now I am not ghost but I can tell you what I run if that helps.

2x Dryad (I do not class her as a land when I deck build. Just here for completeness)

3x Cradle
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Taiga
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Forest

When my 4th Cradle arrives it will take the place of one of my Birchlore's. Good luck.

[andrebonotto]

Now I am not ghost but I can tell you what I run if that helps.

2x Dryad (I do not class her as a land when I deck build. Just here for completeness)

3x Cradle
2x Bayou
1x Savannah
1x Taiga
4x Misty Rainforest
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Forest

When my 4th Cradle arrives it will take the place of one of my Birchlore's. Good luck.

Thanks!

Taking in consideration the change you plan to do (4th Cradle), I guess I could test:

-1 Birchlore R. / +1 Taiga

This way at least I do not lose Bayou #2, not hindering the MUs where I need early for discard.

If I make this change, I guess I would get 19 ways of accessing for Ruric Thar (1 Taiga + 8 Fetchlands + 2 Birchlore R. + 4 DRS + 4 GSZ) versus the current 11 ways (3 Birchlore R. + 4 DRS + 4 GSZ) of getting it.

This almost doubles it! Only worry is to not get mana flooded due to the higher land count. I'll have to try it for some time and see how does it goes...

Sincerely,

- André

[andrebonotto]

Alright,
Played Saturday. We were expecting 25-35+ people, but only 20 showed. Still, a good afternoon followed by camping with my good buddy.
(...)

Hey man,

Congrats for your performance, and thanks for the detailed report!

It's good to see that many reports are coming


Well, you say that IRT RUG, you "(...) believe it's a decent matchup both pre and post board". Would you discuss a little more on why you think so, as there are experiences from others that appear to be a little different?

On this MU, What are the hands that you keep and the ones that you mull? What are the plans you try to develop? When do you risk a NO/Glimpse?

For example, you say that on R2G2 you "keep a pretty standard 7. Nothing to fancy, but grindy". What kind of hand would that be?

Some more detail on this issues may greatly help.

...

Also, did you ever get to cast that lonely SB Flusterstorm?



Sincerely,

- André

[Kayradis]

Ruric Thar against RUG is a beat.
You play 1-CMC dudes, they counter it? Take 6.
Stifle my fetch? Take 6
Combat Phase? Take 6 from ruric.

He's such a great tool box card. he shuts down combo and tempo decks relying on counter magic.

IRT Standard hands
1-2 Tutor effect (GSZ/NO)
2 Lands
3 Dorks?!

[unemployer]

Congrats for you too!

It's been some time since I played a 7-round tournament w/ Elves, but I remember it to be very "draining". Maybe, therefore, it's "good" to be paired against Belcher on R7, so that the game doesn't take to long/be defined more quickly. What do you think?

On R4, your op. cast Mindcensor in response to your NO? Or did he already had the censor in play, and you risked casting the NO despite it?
- André

Belcher: The game didn't take long (around 15-20 mins I think). After the game, I had a lot of time so I ate dinner hoping I get to the top8. I wondered what happened to the Becher game on G1 but he played only a Mox Opal on T2 and thats it. When the game was over, he said he just needed an SSG to combo off. I dodged a bullet there

On DNT: On my Turn 3, I fetched and he played the mindcensor. I don't know what I was thinking but I had 2 NO at that time and 2 fetches (1 I just played). I searched for a land and the top 4 had none (I also found no significant creatures, not that it matters). I played another fetchland and found no lands as well. When he played the flickerswisp and then attacked me on the next turn (down to 7 or 8), that's when I had to gamble and play the NO. 3rd card was the Craterhoof and a total of 25 damage, he had 3 creatures, 2 Revokers and 1 Flickerwisp (which is a total of 3 toughness)

The meta that night was clearly a RUG metabase. 3 of the Top 8 were RUG decks

[chinEsE girl]

Hey, congrats for your finish!

That other Elves guy that you played against had a "tuned" deck too? If so, to what do you atribute your winning on this MU?

I never played the Elves mirror, despite sometimes finding one or two other guys playing Elves around here, but being more of budget lists...

Yeah the other Elves deck was tuned, was pretty close to my list except he only had 3 cradles while I'm playing the full 4. Honestly the mirror feels like a coin flip, where you just don't have a good way to interact game one. You just have to keep a hand with either speed or a definite combo turn hand, like say something that can NO or glimpse on turn 3.

After sideboard you need the full 4 therapy. Discard is incredibly important since its your best best to interact with their spells in hand. I almost always name natural order, since it kills the quickest and is the easiest to set up. Spells like glimpse and GSZ take more setup to be lethal, so unless you have a sick read on your opponent I would lead with therapy on NO and then flash back on another win con that you saw from the first therapy. In all honesty though the matchup is just super swingy. You both just get to vomit all your creatures onto the board and then see who puts down their crater hoof first.

[Lemnear]

Ruric Thar against RUG is a beat.
You play 1-CMC dudes, they counter it? Take 6.
Stifle my fetch? Take 6
Combat Phase? Take 6 from ruric.

He's such a great tool box card. he shuts down combo and tempo decks relying on counter magic.

IRT Standard hands
1-2 Tutor effect (GSZ/NO)
2 Lands
3 Dorks?!

Out of a recent brainstorming with Zombie:

The Problem is alone landing him before you are dead with only 3 Cradles and 3 NO against decks with FoW, Daze, Spell Pierce, Duress, Therapy, Silence and Co.

Arguing with stifled fetches or random Elves AFTER Ruric entered is nonsense. What does Ruric against Terminus, StoP, PtE, Submerge, CoV? Yes, 6 damage after you invested 2 cards and at least 5 mana for NO and an Elf. Not so impressive imo.

Even removing it with Double Lightning Bolt is only 12 damage. How many times you NO'd for Hoof and doing less than 12 damage with the following Swing?