[Primer] Elves!

[SpencerS]

[QUOTE=Zombie;801220]3 manadorks, 8 fetches has to be wrong. -1 dork, +1 fetch plz.

Once you go 3 dorks, you will never go back. Superior in all the deathrite mirrors in my opinion, and enables more fast hands that don't involve GSZ-0

[okazakc]

[QUOTE=SpencerS;801233]

3 manadorks, 8 fetches has to be wrong. -1 dork, +1 fetch plz.

Once you go 3 dorks, you will never go back. Superior in all the deathrite mirrors in my opinion, and enables more fast hands that don't involve GSZ-0

It also increases your original 7 To be strong hands.
I would have dead hands but now I have a strong lead from the get go. GSz for zero always feels wrong. You just can become to vulnerable and if by chance you go late game you might need that arbor for defense with the ranger. Throwing it out turn 1 asks for it to die.
I will never go back

[Julian23]

I hope this is not getting old for you guys, but I just won the Legacy sideevent of GP Vienna.

Yes, that's a threepeat - Paris, Barcelona and Vienna.

[Pureparkour]

I hope this is not getting old for you guys, but I just won the Legacy sideevent of GP Vienna.

Yes, that's a threepeat - Paris, Barcelona and Vienna.

GZ!!!!!

same list as last time? with the Ruric Thar? lol at finding it on stream.

[andrebonotto]

I hope this is not getting old for you guys, but I just won the Legacy sideevent of GP Vienna.

Yes, that's a threepeat - Paris, Barcelona and Vienna.

Wow, congrats!

You, sir, is great inspiration for all of us!

[freyer]

I've found sideboarding to be pretty simple--I'm generally taking out some number and combination of Glimpses, Heritage Druid(s), and/or Nettle Sentinel(s). The idea being that diluting your deck with answers/discard/hate reduces your ability to combo anyways, so Glimpse becomes less effective.

A card you might want to test in your open sb slot for your meta is Meekstone--it's very solid vs the flavors of delver.

With sideboarding, try to think what is bad in the matchup - in fast matchups, Symbiote/Visionary is almost always too slow and you should probably go down to 1 of each. In matchups that constrict our resources a lot, like Delver and Pox, Nettle Sentinel and especially Heritage Druid tend to be bad because they require a lot of resources to become broken. The alternative plan for those matches is going down on NOs and trying to grind them out bigtime. See what works for you. Just make sure you have a plan and commit to it, because the deck can't support NO, Glimpse, Symbiote+Visionary and answers all at the same time, one has to be cut.
If you're boarding in a lot of spells, cutting down on Glimpse makes sense because it's power goes down, but answers+beats is a very valid strategy.

Maybe i never read this before, but your explanation look like a new beginning to me :)

I still play 8 fetch and 3 mana creature. I play often again a rug delver who kill my Drs asap.
I change to +1 taiga +1 rurik -1 viridian shaman -1 NO running 3 now



Sideboard:

3 Cabal Therapy
2 Pithing Needle
2 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Gaddock Teeg => 1 meekstone
1 Null Rod
1 Choke
1 Natural Order
1 Progenitus



I'm not sure for gaddock teeg. i can't resume all your point of view for him or again him.
Maybe my sideboard is not anymore balance.

Anyway thx for your feedback :)

And julian GG you show to the world elves are not dead yet :D

[nudon]

I finished 7-2 (23/375; $100) in my first SCG(LA) event yesterday with the following list. It would have been nice to make top8 but not bad for first time.

4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Craterhoof Behemoth

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Natural Order

2 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Gaea's Cradle

4 Cabal Therapy
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
2 Thoughtseize
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Natural Order
1 Progenitus
2 Pithing Needle
3 Abrupt Decay

Here's a real quick summary of the match-ups:

Round 1: Team America 2-0 (1-0)
Game 1 - Gsz for 8 ftw.
Game 2 - Glimpse combo into gsz for 8.

Round 2: Jund 2-0 (2-0)
Game 1 - Glimpse combo.
Game 2 - NO->hoof.

Round 3: Belcher 0-2 (2-1)
Game 1 - He goes first and puts 14 goblins onto the table...
Game 2 - I keep a shaky 6 card hand including viridian shaman. In hindsight, I probably should have went down to 5.

Round 4: Reanimator 1-2 (2-2)
Game 1 - He goes first and has Elesh Norn on turn 2.
Game 2 - I rip 2 entombs and 2 careful studies out of his hand while later tutoring for ooze via gsz. He shows in Empyrial Archangel which I kill with a non-lethal NO->craterhoof. I name exhume off my third cabal therapy but he reveals misty rainforest. He rips a exhume off the top to bring back the archangel. I follow by ripping a gsz and tutor for DRS. DRS + quirion untaps outraces the archangel. What a game!
Game 3 - He gets griselbrand on turn 1 so I try to race. Unfortunately, he echoing truths my nettle sentinels as I'm about to attack for lethal.

Round 5: D&T 2-1 (3-2)
Game 1 - I hard-cast craterhoof for lethal.
Game 2 - He plays canonist, jitte, and cataclysm.
Game 3 - Non-lethal NO->hoof (prog in hand) but hoof gets there.

Round 6: American Delver 2-1 (4-2)
Game 1 - NO->hoof.
Game 2 - He has delver with plenty of disruption.
Game 3 - My glimpse for value on turn 2 causes him to name NO for his meddling mage. I follow up with a second glimpse into gsz for 8 on turn 3.

Round 7: Miracle Control 2-0 (5-2); Against Ricky Sidher (runner-up in standard open)
Game 1 - First NO gets forced but second one on following turn gets through.
Game 2 - He completely devastates my board with terminus. He plays jace while I have 2 1/1s on the board. He fateseals me while I attack his jace and we play draw-go for 5+ turns. I eventually get a needle to stick on his top and have decay ready for his counterbalance. I finally get a glimpse to stick as well and build up card advantage. He e-tutors for a moat but I NO->birchlore and drain him down with DRS + quirion ranger untaps.

Round 8: Burn 2-1 (6-2)
Game 1 - I steal the game (facing lethal next turn) by glimpse combo out of nowhere with nothing but a quirion ranger and 1 land in play.
Game 2 - 3 goblin guides by turn 2 is too fast for me.
Game 3 - I flood like crazy but manage to glimpse combo with nothing but a llanowar and a few lands in play.

Round 9: D&T w/ black splash 2-0 (7-2)
Game 1 - Glimpse combo into NO->hoof.
Game 2 - NO->prog.

The sideboard felt fine since all of the cards were brought in at one point. It was unfortunate I had to face belcher and reanimator in back-to-back rounds. I didn't mind reanimator that much since we have the tools for beating them despite the bad match-up. Belcher is another story.

[Julian23]

Because some of you might have missed it on Twitter, here's a short interview after winning the tournament.

There should also be a short part about me interviewing 13-year old Fabian before that.

[Shagstaman]

we have the same 75 nudon... =) good to hear you did well. Dat belcher tho.. lol the belcher guy gets us all from time to time. Some people truly love trolling and variance.

[andrebonotto]

Because some of you might have missed it on Twitter, here's a short interview after winning the tournament.

There should also be a short part about me interviewing 13-year old Fabian before that.

Pretty cool!

Keep up the good work.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

Right on, Julian. That's fantastic. Third time is a charm. And now you've got the whole interviewer thing happening as well. Did they get any of your games on a stream? If anyone has links, please post them.

[th3 w1z4rd]

Just beat a guy on cockatrice who played turn 1 Blood Moon on the play lol. I had one basic forest in my opening hand and never drew another one, but Birchlore Rangers and Nettle Sentinel best friend teamed to get some reinforcements and then I Zenithed for a 1-of Priest of Titania. Nice Blood Moon.

[Kayradis]

I hope this is not getting old for you guys, but I just won the Legacy sideevent of GP Vienna.

Yes, that's a threepeat - Paris, Barcelona and Vienna.

Everytime Julian walks into a tournament people are suddenly like that....

[AznSeal]

I just want to post one of the most insane plays I did today one Elves.

It was game 2 against Aluren. I forgot what I SBed out/in but I wasn't concerned because Aluren is a really easy matchup. I was on the play.

Opponent Turn 1: Land, DRS, go.
My Turn 1: Bayou, GZS for 0, Dryad Arbor, go.

Opponent Turn 2: Land, Baleful Strix, attack for 1 with DRS, go.
My turn 2: Tap Dryad Arbor for Quirion Ranger, tap bayou for DRS, use Quirion Ranger to bounce Bayou to untap Dryad Arbor, play Heritage Druid with Dryad Arbor, tap 3 elves for 3 mana, use 1 mana for wirewood symbiote (GG floating), replay bayou, tap bayou (GGG floating), play Elvish visionary (G floating), use wirewood to bounce quirion ranger to untap Dryad Arbor, tap Dryad Arbor (GG floating), play Quirion ranger (G floating, use quirion ranger to untap Dryad arbor, bouncing Bayou, tab Dryad Arbor (GG floating), play second Elvish Visionary (no mana floating), i forgot the rest but I did some other Heritage Druid shenanigans to have like a million elves and just won. I just hardcast craterhoof the next turn.

This just made me realize the ridiculous interactions between Quirion Ranger, Wirewood Symbiote, and Dryad Arbor. Also, Aluren is reaaaaalllllllyyyy bad against elves.

Anyways this time last year there was no way I'd figure out this interaction. When I first started elves, all of my plays were really straight forward (like Symbiote/Visionar, Heritage/Nettle/random elf, etc but thanks to this thread and Julian's stream, i've learned all of these new plays :D

Also, sideboarding is still hard. Any tips on what to generally SB in against which matchups?

Specifically Miracles, DnT, RUG Delver, BUG Delver, UWr Delver, generic combo decks, lands, the mirror.

[B4L4]

I need the help of elves mages to clear my mind of a doubt.

I just realized that i was unsure about how to properly resolve a Green Sun's Zenith grabbing an Elvish Visionary. To be more specific, is the Green Sun's Zenith already shuffled back when the draw triggers resolves ? I have always performed the draw before the 2nd Green Sun's Zenith shuffle, but i may be wrong.

[Float4WeldSlaver]

Things don't happen in the middle of spells resolving. The Zenith puts the Visionary into play, its ETB trigger goes on the stack, and resolves when the Zenith finishes resolving. So you draw after the shuffle.

[Julian23]

Streaming the Legacy DE with Elves! Join us at http://twitch.tv/itsJulian

[Zombie]

3 manadorks, 8 fetches has to be wrong. -1 dork, +1 fetch plz.

Apart from that, 1 Needle just seems way too little and I don't like Ruric in the board. He's maindeck or bust material IMO.

With sideboarding, try to think what is bad in the matchup - in fast matchups, Symbiote/Visionary is almost always too slow and you should probably go down to 1 of each. In matchups that constrict our resources a lot, like Delver and Pox, Nettle Sentinel and especially Heritage Druid tend to be bad because they require a lot of resources to become broken, so you board some out and focus on answers and the more slow, grindy cards like Symbiote+Visionary and Deathrite Shaman. The alternative plan for those matches is loading up on discard instead of board disruption, going up to 4 NO and just forcing the Progenitus through, because that's often GG. See what works for you. Just make sure you have a plan and commit to it, because the deck can't support 4NO, Glimpse, Symbiote+Visionary and an answer suite all at the same time, one has to be cut.
If you're boarding in a lot of spells, cutting down on Glimpse (1-2 out max) can make sense because it's power goes down, but answers+beats is a very valid strategy. Still, useless-in-the-matchup creatures always go out before spells do.

Corrected a couple errors and brainfarts in the SBing nutshell.

[Zombie]

Things don't happen in the middle of spells resolving. The Zenith puts the Visionary into play, its ETB trigger goes on the stack, and resolves when the Zenith finishes resolving. So you draw after the shuffle.

?

Proper order should be:

GSZ starts resolving, search Visionary, put it into play. Shuffle deck. THEN the game notices that there's a trigger that should happen, and it and others (like Nettle triggers) are put onto the stack in APNAP order. Then start resolving triggers.

[Koby]

?

Proper order should be:

Cast GSZ
Nettle Sentinel(s) trigger and resolve

GSZ starts resolving, search Visionary, put it into play. Shuffle deck. THEN shuffle GSZ into the deck, THEN the game notices that there's a trigger that should happen, and it and others (like Nettle triggers) are put onto the stack in APNAP order. Then start resolving triggers.

Fixed that for you. Because, technically that's what you should be doing. :D
(Yes, you can shortcut this with one shuffle)