[Primer] Elves!

[PendelSteven]

With Spirit of the Labyrinth in play, 4 Glimpse + 4 Visionary + 4 Symbiote are pretty dead. Visionary and Symbiote can be used with Heritage Druid, attack/block, etc, but let's be honest, being able to get Symbiote+Visionary going is a HUGE part of Elves ability to go.

So. We board them out, we board in the 4th NO, the discards spells, the fatties, Scavenging Ooze, all Abrupt Decays in the world we have. Basicly, we'll see it as a combodeck and just side out the cards that the hatebears are targeting. You'd be surprised what we can come up with. Maybe wel'll even resolve a Gaddock Teeg ourselves so the Dark Maverick player can't use their GSZ's anymore!

No. I'm not worried at all. Although true enough, my line of thiking since I already run Savannah is perhaps just add the Pridemage from the board maindeck, run 20 lands and in my case 62 cards. I'll see what I can do to cut, but there have been more 62 card decks that won tourneys than you might think.

But, the general idea is: Elves! can morph into a Junk deck. Think about it. DRS, Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay, Scavenging Ooze. VS decks that actually want to use Spirit of the Labyrinth it's actually not bad to morpth into a slow attrition deck. WW can't cope with your fatties eventually and your DRS and ScOoze handle Maverick's Knight decently.

Think about. There's not much difference between a FoW'd Glimpse and a Spell Snared Visionary. So in practice, with SotL the MU functionally just to another Delver deck in a way. Without the irritating poking flying insect. Meh. Nothing new here.

Also the case: functionally there is not much difference between Canonist + Teeg vs SotL + Teeg. Not to mention they need to find their answers - and threats - too!



... Also: why do non-Elves! players think this is a combodeck in the first place?

[Zombie]

Also, if you're really, really concerned about sweeper resilience, Prowess of the Fair is one of the absolute worst ways to do it. First, because it does jack against Miracles or Reanimator. The other alternatives don't really work vs. Reanimator either but have value vs. Miracles. It requires you to invest Elves on the board that then die. Yay tokens that just don't do much. Prowess also does absolutely nothing until your army gets swept. It's a blank. It does not stack. It's not searchable. It's just a bad, slow card. I'd rather play Bitterblossom, at least it can kill/forcefield Delvers.

What can be done proactively and in a way that synergises with the rest of the deck's subsystems:
Wirewood Hivemaster. Hivemaster+Symbiote allows you to deploy, and then just aggressively undeploy your hand, generating a token army in the process. Many of our cards can be used ASAP, or just a couple things kept on the board. If the token horde gets wiped out, so sad, you have a new board at the snap of your fingers. And tokens for one mana is something that has to be dealt with, especially in a deck capable of NO-Hoofing you out of nowhere.

Imperious Perfect. Counteracts all the -1/-1 nonsense that's popular, and again allows you to develop a board without investing a huge amount of real cards necessarily. You can do the DRS machinegun tricks with her, except you don't actually need a graveyard, the tokens can be used to mass block stuff and you can spend green mana on it - uh, hello, Cradle, Heritage Druid. Bam, instant army. Opponent plays Pyroclasm? Symbiote it back. Next turn, want to start fighting the token generator again?

[Julian23]

Just so you guys are aware, I just lost to this card out of Death & Taxes:

It doesn't die to Abrupt Decay and isn't an artifact. It's still beatable with the best friends drawing into either GSZ=8 or natural Behemoth. Good thing is that they will have to use their Swords to Plowshares early in order to buy enough time to drop that angel, so there's a good chance they won't be holding any more once you go down the BFT route later.

As you might have guessed though, I was kinda surprised...

[Benjammn]

Just so you guys are aware, I just lost to this card out of Death & Taxes.

Amusing. Very specific hate there. Was this main deck? I can't imagine they ran more than 2 copies... I'd just hope to hit it with discard next time.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Yanley]

What is the card? Sorry but the image isn't loading from where I'm working... :(

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

What is the card? Sorry but the image isn't loading from where I'm working... :(

Angel of Jubilation

[lordofthepit]

Amusing. Very specific hate there. Was this main deck? I can't imagine they ran more than 2 copies... I'd just hope to hit it with discard next time.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

That has to be some budget replacement for Wilt-Leaf Liege.

If they actually cared about hating Elves, they'd be playing Linvala, which happens to not suck against the rest of the format.

[BJeagle]

I think this i my first post that people will like ;)

Versus Series: Deck Tech - Elves with Brian Braun-Duin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFzMs_QOq5k

[andrebonotto]

I think this i my first post that people will like ;)

Versus Series: Deck Tech - Elves with Brian Braun-Duin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFzMs_QOq5k

Everytime I read his name I remember of the title of this song

[Julian23]

Nothing special one might think. Until you read about the whole story.

Should I retire now?

[Griselpuff]

Would be more impressive if you beat a real deck

Isn't there some unwritten rule where you never mull to less than 4?

[Zombie]

No. If the 4 is truly vile, I ship it. Not to say "keep" requirements for 4's aren't pretty lax.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Nothing special one might think. Until you read about the whole story.

Should I retire now?

You've pulled the rabbit out of a hat on more than one occasion. I remember that Griselbrand game, as well. Good on you.

[HammafistRoob]

Seriously a mull to 1? That's ridiculous man, your opponent must have been furious as all hell about that. He probably instantly sold off that deck, or smashed his monitor.

EDIT- I wonder what hand he kept...

[Yanley]

I don't understand why Tormod's Crypt is there at all...am i missing something?

What was the sequence of the cards that were drawn here?

[xterminans]

Hello fellow Elves-players,

I was at a tournament yesterday that I finished 4-2 and 10th place out of 40 people (which I find pretty okay for my second tournament overall).
I came into the last round 4-1 and played BUG Delver (I've beaten UWR Delver before so I was fairly confident that I could win that one, too). A win would have gotten me in the top 4 and a dual land.

I had a situation where I'm not sure if I did the right thing. I hope you guys could give me some advice about the right mulligan-ing.
So, the match was at 1-1 and I drew my opening 7. It was 4 lands, one elf (visionary) and 2 spells (I think a glimpse and and craterhoof). So I took a mulligan since I didn't want to fall behind in tempo.
The following six cards where no lands at all. I took a mulligan.
The following five cards where no lands at all. Took a mulligan again.
The following four cards where 2 elves (a deathrite shaman, heritage), a glimpse and a cradle. I took a mulligan again.
The following three cards where no lands. I didn't want to mull to 2 so I kept that hand and didn't draw a land for the following 5 turns and got beaten up by a two flipped Delvers.

I'm unsure if I should have kept the four cards, since there was a deathrite and a cradle in it. Should I have mulled to 2?
What would you guys have done here?

This kind of draw didn't happen the entire tournament. I run the following list:
(Please excuse the nykthos and crop rotation. I don't own 4 cradles yet. Also I only own 1 Bayou yet and plan to switch the Taiga for a Savannah)

1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
2 Gaea's Cradle
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Taiga
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Crop Rotation
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Heritage Druid
2 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Viridian Shaman
3 Natural Order
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Progenitus

#60

Sideboard:
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Meekstone
3 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Natural Order
2 Confusion in the Ranks


Thank you in advance!

[Echelon]

I would have kept the original hand. You can usually afford to keep a slower hand vs. RUG, often they won't kill you all that quickly.

[xterminans]

I would have kept the original hand. You can usually afford to keep a slower hand vs. RUG, often they won't kill you all that quickly.

It was BUG Delver and I was afraid of too much discard. Still the opening hand?

[Echelon]

Yup. You didn't have all that much interesting stuff to discard in the first place and everything you draw you can pretty much play on the spot. Manage to land the T2 Visionary and all you need to start going making progress is either a GSZ or a Wirewood Symbiote

[danyul]

I would have made all the same mulligans you did. You just drew some terrible hands. That happens sometimes. I would have snap-mulled that opening 7. Knowing that you drew a bunch of terrible hands afterwards shouldn't influence my opinion of your opening 7.

Poor hands get mulliganed. That rule is not made false just because sometimes you draw into crappydoodoo after mulling a questionable 7. Variance happens. You just gotta hope that it doesn't matter when it matters, although it somehow finds a way!

Edit - Also, I'm pretty sure BUG Delver sides out Hymn in favor of Thoughtseize postboard, so you probably didn't need to be that afraid of their discard. I would be more afraid of the Golgari Charms and Disfigures.