[Primer] Elves!

[Zombie]

I blame the lack of coffee in my bloodstream. Thank you for correcting that piece of abject braindeath.

[Lord_of_Rivendell]

We seem to be experiencing a little down time. With that in mind, I thought it might be an interesting project to think about sideboarding against some decks Julian didn't mention in his superb sideboarding overview.

Here are some decks that still have a pulse and may be worth for considering sideboarding approaches

43 Lands/Turbo-Depths
Affinity
Bant
Belcher
Burn
Canadian Thresh
Deathblade/Stoneblade
Goblins
High Tide
Landstill
MUD
Nic Fit
Team America
Turbo Eldrazi
Zoo

[AznSeal]

We seem to be experiencing a little down time. With that in mind, I thought it might be an interesting project to think about sideboarding against some decks Julian didn't mention in his superb sideboarding overview.

Here are some decks that still have a pulse and may be worth for considering sideboarding approaches

43 Lands/Turbo-Depths
Affinity
Bant
Belcher
Burn
Canadian Thresh
Deathblade/Stoneblade
Goblins
High Tide
Landstill
MUD
Nic Fit
Team America
Turbo Eldrazi
Zoo

I know against Zoo and Canadian Threshold, I SB out some number of glimpse, nettle sentinel, and heritage druids for NO+Progenitus+Abrupt Decays. This is because their burn makes it hard to establish a board presence to hoof off.

[Shagstaman]

the double shuffle off gsz was an anomalous card design... I always just place gsz back into my library as I shuffle to find the dude. No one has ever said anything and if they did I'd probably call them out in front of their peers for being a tool.

Any judge in their right mind would recognize this as shortcutting and allow it.

Also.....I lost to two combo decks in the last open.. I love my matchup vs fair decks but it might be time to go back to 7 discard. I feel like discard, abrupt decay, and NoPro are the only real necessary sb cards. We have everything else main..

[jarvisyu]

Went to SCG Charlotte Invitational.

I played U/W/r Miracles in the Legacy portion for it, and decided I didn't really want to lose to all of the BUG decks again in the Legacy Open, so I went back to the Elves:

r1: 2-0 over shardless
r2: 2-0 over UB Tezzeret
r3: 1-2 vs 74 card elves mirror (i sent this guy my list a few days ago)
r4: 1-2 vs pfire jund
r5: 2-1 over reid playing UW Miracles
r6: 2-1 over D+T
r7: 2-0 over pfire jund
r8: 2-0 over deathblade
r9: 2-0 over D+T (with mishra's factory)

played this list:

//20
9 Green Fetchlands
3 Forest
2 Bayou
2 Dryad Arbor
4 Gaea's Cradle

//29
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Heritage Druid
2 Birchlore Rangers
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Craterhoof Behemoth

//11
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Sideboard
2 Krosan Grip
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Progenitus
4 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Natural Order

Krosan Grip was a response to the larger number of humilities that I was expecting due to a lot of good players choosing U/W or U/W/R miracles. White splash is pretty unnecessary if you decide to play Krosan Grip, IMHO, and it means you can play a 3rd basic forest versus wasteland / blood moon decks.

[Shagstaman]

lol jarvis I played 3 forest and kgrip in the board as well... damn humility!

[jarvisyu]

lol jarvis I played 3 forest and kgrip in the board as well... damn humility!

i forgot, what's your name?

[okazakc]

anyone going to the ck ptq side event on the 12th?

[Shagstaman]

James Hess =)

[trevaftw]

So my shop is hosting a Super SCG IQ this saturday and with a turn out of 43 people last time we're expecting the same if not more for this event. I am expecting a decent portion to be Delver and Combo. I need some input on my 75. I feel fairly comfortable with the main board, but the sideboard is where I could use the most help.

Creatures - 30
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
1 birchlore Rangers
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Craterhoof Behemoth

Spells - 12
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Glimpse of nature
4 natural Order

Lands - 18
9 green fetches
2 Bayou
1 Taiga
2 Forest
4 Gaea's Cradle

Sideboard - 15
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Krosan Grip
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Worldspine Wurm
1 Viridian Shaman

This is what I normally play. I think for Saturday I might take out Elvish Mystic from the main and put in Viridian Shaman (which opens up a sideboard slot). Also, I have never played with two dryad arbors before, is it owrth taking out the fyndhorn elves for a second arbor? Or even a second land, since lately 14 initial mana sources hasn't been treating my the best.

WRT the sideboard, my main hate against combo decks have been my 7 discard and ruric thar. Lately though I've been running into more leyine of sanctity so my discard just gets blanked. I am unsure if there will be any fast combo (TES, Charbelcher, etc.) so I am not sure if I should take out the 3 Duress for 3 Mindbreak Trap or 3 Swan Song. Also because I have moved Viridian Shaman main I will have one more SB slot open but I don't know what to put.

Thoughts are much appreciated :)

[Absolutflipz]

Went to SCG Charlotte Invitational.

I played U/W/r Miracles in the Legacy portion for it, and decided I didn't really want to lose to all of the BUG decks again in the Legacy Open, so I went back to the Elves:

r1: 2-0 over shardless
r2: 2-0 over UB Tezzeret
r3: 1-2 vs 74 card elves mirror (i sent this guy my list a few days ago)
r4: 1-2 vs pfire jund
r5: 2-1 over reid playing UW Miracles
r6: 2-1 over D+T
r7: 2-0 over pfire jund
r8: 2-0 over deathblade
r9: 2-0 over D+T (with mishra's factory)

played this list:

//20
9 Green Fetchlands
3 Forest
2 Bayou
2 Dryad Arbor
4 Gaea's Cradle

//29
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Heritage Druid
2 Birchlore Rangers
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Elvish Visionary
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Craterhoof Behemoth

//11
4 Glimpse of Nature
3 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Sideboard
2 Krosan Grip
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Progenitus
4 Thoughtseize
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Natural Order

Krosan Grip was a response to the larger number of humilities that I was expecting due to a lot of good players choosing U/W or U/W/R miracles. White splash is pretty unnecessary if you decide to play Krosan Grip, IMHO, and it means you can play a 3rd basic forest versus wasteland / blood moon decks.

Humility still seems like such a narrowly-played 1-of card (even if Miracles builds are hot, aka maybe 8% of the field), in which I don't think you're going to win games that play out in such fashion where you're relying on reactionary 3mana grips to deal with a potential Humility.

I personally think replacing those with Pithing Needles goes a lot further to helping the matchup, as locking them out of Top (and secondarily, Jace) goes a lot further and more efficiently to stopping their entire plan, including handicapping their ability to find said Humility (and obv. terminus, verdict, etc..). Needles also have utility in other match-ups, whereas Krosan Grip may have some, but not of the same level.

[andrebonotto]

Greetings, fellow elves,

After some long months of "retirement", last sunday I finally could put my Elves deck to some work.

I had some high hopes, since just a few days before, it was "my twenty-ninth name day feast" (27th, March), so I was feeling specially blessed by Gaea.

It was a 6 round, 55 man tournament.

My matches were:

R1) 2 x 1 vs UW STONEBLADE
R2) 2 x 0 vs D&T
R3) 2 x 0 vs BUG DELVER
R4) 2 x 0 vs MERFOLK
R5) 2 x 0 vs S&T
R6) 1 x 1 vs RUG DELVER

• Results: 5-0-1 ==> 16 pts ==> 1st place ! \o/

TOP 8) 2 x 0 vs UWr MIRACLES-THOPTER-STONEFORGE (?)
TOP 4) 1 x 2 vs POX

I had never played against Pox before. I didn't even know some of the cards that go into the deck (e.g.: Night of Souls' Betrayal?! Really !?!).
This, coupled with me being tired as hell, facilitated me making some awkward misplays (e.g.: GSZ > Quirion Ranger, while that hateful enchantment was in play), and sub-optimal sideboarding (according to my opponent, I should have loaded the full discard package, which I didn't).

Well, I'll try to be a little more prepared for that next time... Any particular tips for this MU?


The good part is that with the prize money from my Swiss finish I was able to get some (overpriced) Modern fetch-lands and shocklands. I guess I'm building a Modern UR Storm deck now




It was a nice birthday present!

Regards,

- André

P.S.1: I posted a long and "imaginative" report of this tournament on the brazilian forum, LigaMagic.
If anyone reads Portuguese (or don't mind relying on Google Translator), feel free to take a look. I'm just too tired to try to translate that into english and post here...


P.S.2: It's half past midnight here. I desperately need some sleep... Tomorrow (or the day after) I'll try to keep up with the previous messages (and the next ones) on the thread. I just wanted to post this here ASAP, before moving on to do other things...

[Shagstaman]

Humility still seems like such a narrowly-played 1-of card (even if Miracles builds are hot, aka maybe 8% of the field), in which I don't think you're going to win games that play out in such fashion where you're relying on reactionary 3mana grips to deal with a potential Humility.

I personally think replacing those with Pithing Needles goes a lot further to helping the matchup, as locking them out of Top (and secondarily, Jace) goes a lot further and more efficiently to stopping their entire plan, including handicapping their ability to find said Humility (and obv. terminus, verdict, etc..). Needles also have utility in other match-ups, whereas Krosan Grip may have some, but not of the same level.

I don't think you understand HOW MANY Humilities were being played.. Me and Jarvis came to the same conclusion despite not having talked about it...lol Almost every miracles player had it in their 75, and there were even a handful of BW, Junk, and Stoneblade style decks that were playing it. I lost to a BW tokens deck with Humility in the main at the invitational...and I am the type of person that hates being COLD to a single card...so I replaced the null rod with kgrip (never got to cast null rod, so I can't speak to its efficacy, as opposed to grip which has obvious applications in some of our worst matchups). I was running needles too btw.. =)

[Dice_Box]

the double shuffle off gsz was an anomalous card design... I always just place gsz back into my library as I shuffle to find the dude. No one has ever said anything and if they did I'd probably call them out in front of their peers for being a tool.

Any judge in their right mind would recognize this as shortcutting and allow it.

While this is true, the card needed to be worded the way it is. If someone hijacks the spell and it was worded to make you shuffle only one time, they would shuffle the card into their library not you into yours or they would get to look for a creature and not shuffle at all. The effect needs to trigger twice to get around these issues.

[Shagstaman]

that would be hilarious...is it sad that I kinda wish it worked that way??

[Julian23]

that would be hilarious...is it sad that I kinda wish it worked that way??

Welcome to Standard, where everyone and his mother plays Neightveil Specter and has black sleeves.

[jarvisyu]

Welcome to Standard, where everyone and his mother plays Neightveil Specter and has black sleeves.

?__?

[jarvisyu]

I don't think you understand HOW MANY Humilities were being played.. Me and Jarvis came to the same conclusion despite not having talked about it...lol Almost every miracles player had it in their 75, and there were even a handful of BW, Junk, and Stoneblade style decks that were playing it. I lost to a BW tokens deck with Humility in the main at the invitational...and I am the type of person that hates being COLD to a single card...so I replaced the null rod with kgrip (never got to cast null rod, so I can't speak to its efficacy, as opposed to grip which has obvious applications in some of our worst matchups). I was running needles too btw.. =)

I've been wanting to try 1-2 Krosan Grip for a while.

The fact that you can grip a Top out of nowhere even if they don't have Humility when they are leaning on it is a Big Deal to me.

[Dice_Box]

?__?

When you attack with Specter, the top card of the other players Library normally finds its way under Specter. Like you would place an equipment. When the game is over, if you forget to give the spells back to the other player, they fine there way into your deck. If you have the same sleeves its really hard to notice.

[jarvisyu]

When you attack with Specter, the top card of the other players Library normally finds its way under Specter. Like you would place an equipment. When the game is over, if you forget to give the spells back to the other player, they fine there way into your deck. If you have the same sleeves its really hard to notice.

I understand what happens with Specter given that I've played a metric ton of standard trying to re-qualify.

I don't see why we are getting to this from green sun's zenith, I guess