[Primer] Elves!

[Dice_Box]

Now you make me miss the old days... I am going to go over to the corner and cry over my shattered pile of goblins... Oh never mind, I found my Elves on the way.

Also, if you want to know how far Goblins have fallen, Lackey is a great sideboard card....

[Zombie]

Now you make me miss the old days... I am going to go over to the corner and cry over my shattered pile of goblins... Oh never mind, I found my Elves on the way.

That's the feeling I get whenever I remember TS-Lor Standard and look at current Standard, TNN and Griseltard. The downhill trend is insane. Thank goodness for Elves and thank goodness for

[Julian23]

GTFO! Haas-Bioroid Masterrace!

[Lemnear]

Congrats guys, you "out-nerded" me. I have no more clue,what you are talking about here ?:)

[Zombie]

Congrats guys, you "out-nerded" me. I have no more clue,what you are talking about here ?:)

Another build-your-own-deck card game created by Richard Garfield. Was a CCG, died, got picked up by FFG and reincarnated as an LCG called Android: Netrunner. It's really fun, way cheaper than Magic and FFG is dedicated to keeping the cards in print. The cards they make feel a lot like pre-Alara MTG to me somehow. They're not afraid of complex boardstates or drawbacks, and a lot of cards just improve on basic functions players can already do. It's a whole game about nuance, basically. Not that you can't just blow people out either, but the fundamental character is very different to modern Magic.

[LeoCop 90]

n short: Goblins are too slow without Lackey to get their 3cc and 4cc engine cards going before they are mauled by combo or quicker aggro (Delver). The Goblin Tribe would either need cheaper engine cards or more ways to cheat on their mana-development. If you ask me, the tools are there in Warren Instigator and a black Splash to bridge the gap Delver and combo decks opend in the last couple of year

If you have the time to read the goblin thread, black splash with warren instigator and even chrome moxes is what die hard goblin players are doing since some months. All of them (including me) recognize that the format sped up quite a bit and rishadan port is less effective. But if you ask me, all goblins need to become as competitive as ever is a very good one drop or 2 drop. I mean as good as deathrite shaman is for elves or true name nemesis is for merfolks . After all, death and taxes strategy is not very different from goblins one, but they have thalia which is great while we have goblin piledriver that is the worst card in the deck. And Tarkir block may be the good occasion for goblins, since there likely won't be elves or merfolks but goblins are confirmed to be printed there.

[danyul]

Jeez. Julian is a champ at so many things! Leave a few trophies for the rest of us!

I only need 3 Cradles to having a fully fleshed Elves deck. My question would be what do you guys think how likely or unlikely it is for Elves to become tier1.5 or even tier2 deck in a year or two? Another tribal deck Goblins was also a very competitive deck a while ago, but they are basically disappeared now. Can it realistically happen to Elves as well or are there some reasons that make it very unlikely for Elves?

I would hate to spend lots of money on Cradles and then see their prices crash due to Elves not being played anymore (and there would be no other deck playing Cradles).

(incoming wall of text)

As far as Elves being viable into the future, it was solidly a Tier 2 deck for many, many years. Only in the last couple years has it become a major player in the metagame. It's better now that it has ever been. And after the printing of Reclamation Sage, things only seem to be getting better.

However, because of all the latent synergies in the deck, its core is very solid and it's not often that newly printed cards can break through to become new additions.

In this way, the deck is very similar to Goblins. Actually, all tribal decks tend to have this problem. Merfolk is still adapting to True Name Nemesis. I don't know if they have settled upon a core list yet but it seems like the optimal Merfolk list has yet to be discovered. And the Goblins dudes are always playing around with utility slots but their core is largely the same as it was back when Landstill was a deck to beat. And that isn't a bad thing necessarily. It's kind of cool and shows just how strong the core strategy is. It's also nice that tribal pilots don't have to buy as many new cards over time. You just build the core and add a few things once in awhile. It's nice for the lazy Legacy player.

If you want to play a deck that will never be bad, you honestly should play RUG Delver. The Canadian Thresh shell has been good for almost the entire lifespan of the Legacy format. It's not that hot right now, but it will always be a viable deck choice in any metagame. But let's be honest. That deck is boring. And nobody sits down across from a RUG Delver player and thinks "Oh boy, this should be a fun and interesting match!" I can only speak for myself, but I'm usually thinking "If this guy gets even a hint of smugness when he Stifle/Wastelands me out of the game, I'm gonna rage."

Now if you want a deck that is fun to play and always full of interesting decisions, then Elves is the deck for you. If you want a deck that can hit from several angles and switch gears on the fly, then Elves is for you. I've been playing the deck for years and was having fun even when the deck was kinda bad. And it's perhaps even more fun today now that it's a real contender. But again, I can only speak for myself.

You should proxy it up and see how you like it. Or borrow some Cradles and take it for a test run at your local shop. You can always sub X Crop Rotations for X Cradles if you can't find the real deal. That isn't optimal but it will give you a feeling for how the deck plays. If you like it, play it!

As far as Cradles dropping in value, they are of course on the reserved list. And Price Memory is very strong when it comes to Legacy cards. Also, Cradles are an EDH staple. I don't see their price dropping in the event that Elves starts to suck. Lands (the deck) isn't really that great right now but Tabernacle is still expensive as shit, and recently jumped up a bunch. Prices tend to only go up in this format. And actually, that's true for Magic in general right now.

Buy those Cradles. We'll see you in The Great Forest.

[Zombie]

nobody sits down across from a RUG Delver player and thinks "Oh boy, this should be a fun and interesting match!"

I do.

[danyul]

You brave, brave soul. I envy your intestinal fortitude.

[Lemnear]

If you have the time to read the goblin thread, black splash with warren instigator and even chrome moxes is what die hard goblin players are doing since some months. All of them (including me) recognize that the format sped up quite a bit and rishadan port is less effective. But if you ask me, all goblins need to become as competitive as ever is a very good one drop or 2 drop. I mean as good as deathrite shaman is for elves or true name nemesis is for merfolks . After all, death and taxes strategy is not very different from goblins one, but they have thalia which is great while we have goblin piledriver that is the worst card in the deck. And Tarkir block may be the good occasion for goblins, since there likely won't be elves or merfolks but goblins are confirmed to be printed there.

Bet that I did browse through the last 6 pages of the Goblin Thread before I made that post. :)

There are still a lot of Wasteland/Port-Lists there and i'm confused why Warren Instigator is still not an Auto 4-off in every list given the time the card is legal now, but some people rather run Moxen to adress the problem of High cmc I mentioned, which I'm sure about, being THE issue for Goblins. For my taste there is still too much space wasted for cute stuff or for Sligh-like cards ... Slots which would be better spend for disruption and/or Warchiefs (which are often dismissed ... No idea why). I would even go that far and question Aether Vial atm for various reasons, but this is not the place. :)

[Zombie]

GTFO! Haas-Bioroid Masterrace!

[Fancy trophy because Julian wins everything for some reason]

Heresy! NBN for life. I mean, drawing cards is fun, right? It's one reason we play Elves, right? Look at these:

[danyul]

I love that this just became a Netrunner thread.

SUPERSERIOUSELFPILOTQUESTION:

What kind of basic Forests are you guys running? Right now I'm using the Arena foils with Beta art. I'm looking to upgrade but I'm not sure which direction I should go.

[Dice_Box]

[Zombie]

You evil bastard :D

I'm running Future Sight Arbors and Zendikar Full Art basics.

[Lemnear]

Coldsnap Snow-Covered Forest + FtV Fyndhorn Elves

[danyul]

@Dice - lol I can't tell of you're trolling or not. Actually, true or false, I guess you're still trolling. GG well played.

@Zombie - solid. Are you rocking the floaty colorful ones? Those are my personal favorite. I kinda wanted to pick up the new judge foils but they are expensive and hard to find right now. Also the art doesn't really speak to me. Hmm.

@Lemnear - I like the Snow theme. I may look into that.

Let's keep it up with the extremely relevant techy posts about basic lands.

[Zombie]

@Zombie - solid. Are you rocking the floaty colorful ones? Those are my personal favorite. I kinda wanted to pick up the new judge foils but they are expensive and hard to find right now. Also the art doesn't really speak to me. Hmm.

[Elfkid]

I love that this just became a Netrunner thread.

SUPERSERIOUSELFPILOTQUESTION:

What kind of basic Forests are you guys running? Right now I'm using the Arena foils with Beta art. I'm looking to upgrade but I'm not sure which direction I should go.

Im running this:



And to upgrade, easy,

guru > new judge forest

Or you can just buy summer forest...

[andrebonotto]

(...)

What kind of basic Forests are you guys running? (...)

I'm running two Foil portuguese units of this one:



And I have the Future Sight Dryad Arbors.
My deck is almost all Foil, with half the playsets portuguese/half english (whenever avaiable). (I'm lacking Cradle #4, most of the Fetchlands, NO #4, DRS #3-4 and some sideboard cards).

My long-term project is to finish Foil all of the deck and get my basic Forests to be Foils of this one:




... Boy, I love John Avon's landscape artwork...

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Yes it's good even though it is computer generated, but give the man a pen and he can barely write his own freakin' name. Go guru.