[Primer] Elves!

[Krasman]

Streaming the Legacy Daily Event with #Elves! Join us over at twitch.tv/itsjulian

European stream times...

[Julian23]

European stream times...

That's why we upload all my VODs (Entire steam VODs + Matchup VODs) to itsjulian.com

[Krasman]

That's why we upload all my VODs (Entire steam VODs + Matchup VODs) to itsjulian.com

I've started going through some of them already.

[Julian23]

Won the Ingolstadt Legacy Event today, piloting a rather stock list with an old allstar in the sideboard.

R1: Manaless Dredge - WIN 2:0
I had Scavenging Ooze turn2 each game, once natural and once NO'ed for. My strategy in this matchup is to always just go for the business cards, so I eat every Ichorid, Narcomoeba and Nether Shadow, while allowing him to dredge as much as he wants. It works. I win.
He didn't know you could choose to be on the draw so he played first game2..

R2: Food Chain - WIN 2:0
Game1 he fails to find his Food Chain until I kill him on turn4. Game2 I have 2x Abrupt Decay and 1x Krosan Grip along with Glimpse, Natural Order, Glimpse, an Elf and a Nettle Sentinel+Quirion Ranger in play. I can't value-Glimpse because that would leave me unable to cast Abrupt Decay or Krosan Grip on his turn. I Draw-Go for 2 turns until he drops Food Chain, which I Decay. I still only attack with the two Elves. He goes for it on his next turn and drops Food Chain with Misthollow Griffin already exiled. In response to the Griffin, I Abrupt Decay his Food Chain. He Brainstorms into Misdirection and redirects Decay to my Nettle Sentinel. I Krosan Grip his Food Chain. Food Chain is destroyed. On my turn I value-Glimpse into lethal damage onboard. He untaps, casts Wall of Blossoms and fails to find his 3rd Food Chain. I attack. He dies. I win.
At one point he cascades into Brainstorm, then puts the two cards for Brainstorm on the bottom(!) of his library. I correct him.

R3: Shardless Vengevine Madness - WIN 2:0
The only way I am able to lose to him is if he gets to Intuition for 3 Vengine on my turn, then untaps into them, so I develop my board much slower than I could have. Instead I keep up DRS+Quirion Ranger at all times. It works as his hand is just some cantrips, Shardless Agents and a Decay. He eventually loses to Natural Order. Game2 he has 2 Engineered Plague but it's not enough. I Reclamation Sage one of them and ignore the other. He loses to overwhelming forces and hardcast Behemoth.

R4: Deathblade - WIN - WIN 2:0
Game1 is super easy as Deathblade is way too clunky to really put Elves into much danger. Game2 he brings in more mass removal. His first land is a basic Island. On turn2 he fetches for Scrubland, then casts DRS. I decide to Abrupt Decay his DRS because unless he just topdecked the DRS, doesn't have a 3rd land. I am correct and he just plays SFM on turn3 and passes. I cast Natural Order. It resolves. He loses. I win.

R5: 12 Post Miracles - ID, Played it out, won 2:0
He plays regular 12 Post with 4 Terminus. We decide to ID, but he really wants to play it out so we do. G1 I Natural Order him out on turn3. Game2 I draw 4 extra cards and put 9 Elves to the table on turn2 without Glimpse. His only out is to Crop Rotation for a white source, then blindly Brainstorm into Terminus on my turn. He tries. He fails. I win.

I'm first after the Swiss. There are 3 Miracles in the Top8, ALL of which in my bracket. I try to retroactively concede the 5th round of the swiss but of course the judge doesn't allow that


Quarterfinals: Miracles - WIN 2:0
Game1 I go first. Seeing him shuffling after Ponder twice I sense weakness and put 3 guys to the table. On my next turn I cast Craterhoof Behemoth. He only has Brainstorm as a pitch-card for Force. He instead Brainstorms in response, hoping to find a pitch card, which he didn't. I win. I think it was still correct for him to do it this way as he *really* needed to put his Terminus on top; otherwise he would just lose to regular beatodwn. Game2 he accidentally draws another card after naturally miracling a Entreat the Angels on his turn4. We call a judge and he is issued a game loss. I win.

Semifinals: Miracles - WIN 2:0
Game1 I'm just to fast while he makes a mistake with his Ponder, putting back cards in the incorrect order. Game2 I destroy him as hard as I have never ever destroyed a Miracles player. Null Rod, Choke, vaue-Glimpsing for 7, Sylvan Library - all of which in play. Krosan Grip and 6 more cards in hand. I manages to Terminus to Jace, but then I Choke all of his 4 Islands. Jace doesn't get there. I win.

Finals: UWr Delver - WIN 2:1
He plays UWr Delver with Young Pyromancer, Snapcaster Mage and True-Name Nemesis but not Stoneforge Mystics. Game1 has has some removal, permission and cantrips but his only pressure is a turn4 Young Pyromancer, which is the only reason I'm still in the game. He quickly ups the pressure with 3 Delvers, a Snapcaster Mage and Treasure Cruise. I see zero mana acceleration that game so I have to slowly advance my board with Wirewood Symbiotes, Elvish Visionary, Nettle Sentinel and Quirion Ranger. Pendelhaven was the MVP of this game, allowing for some great blocks. On my very last turn and on 1 life I go for Natural Order. To my surprise it resolves. I win.
Game2 is basically a copy of game1..except for his turn1 Delver which this time seals the deal. This was the only game I dropped over the entire tournament.
Game3 he keeps a 1-lander with Delver. I have some acceleratio, more Elves and Wirewood Symbiote on the board turn2, but he FoWs (pitch Snapcaster) my turn2 Elvish Visionary. When he fails to make his second landrop I immediately think that he must have Electrickery because there must be a reason he kept Basic Island+Delver. So instead of just GSZ'ing for Elvish Visionary to continously develop my board, I instead Natural Order right away. It resolves. I win. Again.

In the end I'm 16-1 in games played. As a reward, the storekeeper hands me a Revised Tundra. I like.


This is the list I played:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Heritage Druid
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze

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

4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Dryad Arbor
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Pendelhaven

SB:
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Choke
2 Krosan Grip
1 Null Rod
1 Sylvan Library

Krosan Grips, even though I ended up not really needing them vs Miracles still felt super strong. As in, incredibly strong and maybe even better than Needle. Maybe it's the next level of beating Miracles considering they are really heavy on Artifact/Enchantment removal these days. I know that Philipp Schönegger is looking into adding a 2nd Wear/Tear to his SB so I guess it's only a matter of time until the rest of the field will do the same. Not having Needle hurts your Sneak Show matchup but I wouldn't worry too much about that anyways these days.

Keep Glimpsing, guys. Good night

[starfox444]

Maybe it's the next level of beating Miracles considering they are really heavy on Artifact/Enchantment removal these days.

This is one of the reasons I went away from relying on choke in the matchup like I used to a few months ago, kept getting wrecked by basic plains casting Tear or Disenchant. Also sucks getting Sylvan Library blown up, not sure what other sources of direct card draw we have available to us (besides the obvious bff) that are viable.

[EluThingol]

Won the Ingolstadt Legacy Event today, piloting a rather stock list with an old allstar in the sideboard.

R1: Manaless Dredge - WIN 2:0
I had Scavenging Ooze turn2 each game, once natural and once NO'ed for. My strategy in this matchup is to always just go for the business cards, so I eat every Ichorid, Narcomoeba and Nether Shadow, while allowing him to dredge as much as he wants. It works. I win.
He didn't know you could choose to be on the draw so he played first game2..

R2: Food Chain - WIN 2:0
Game1 he fails to find his Food Chain until I kill him on turn4. Game2 I have 2x Abrupt Decay and 1x Krosan Grip along with Glimpse, Natural Order, Glimpse, an Elf and a Nettle Sentinel+Quirion Ranger in play. I can't value-Glimpse because that would leave me unable to cast Abrupt Decay or Krosan Grip on his turn. I Draw-Go for 2 turns until he drops Food Chain, which I Decay. I still only attack with the two Elves. He goes for it on his next turn and drops Food Chain with Misthollow Griffin already exiled. In response to the Griffin, I Abrupt Decay his Food Chain. He Brainstorms into Misdirection and redirects Decay to my Nettle Sentinel. I Krosan Grip his Food Chain. Food Chain is destroyed. On my turn I value-Glimpse into lethal damage onboard. He untaps, casts Wall of Blossoms and fails to find his 3rd Food Chain. I attack. He dies. I win.
At one point he cascades into Brainstorm, then puts the two cards for Brainstorm on the bottom(!) of his library. I correct him.

R3: Shardless Vengevine Madness - WIN 2:0
The only way I am able to lose to him is if he gets to Intuition for 3 Vengine on my turn, then untaps into them, so I develop my board much slower than I could have. Instead I keep up DRS+Quirion Ranger at all times. It works as his hand is just some cantrips, Shardless Agents and a Decay. He eventually loses to Natural Order. Game2 he has 2 Engineered Plague but it's not enough. I Reclamation Sage one of them and ignore the other. He loses to overwhelming forces and hardcast Behemoth.

R4: Deathblade - WIN - WIN 2:0
Game1 is super easy as Deathblade is way too clunky to really put Elves into much danger. Game2 he brings in more mass removal. His first land is a basic Island. On turn2 he fetches for Scrubland, then casts DRS. I decide to Abrupt Decay his DRS because unless he just topdecked the DRS, doesn't have a 3rd land. I am correct and he just plays SFM on turn3 and passes. I cast Natural Order. It resolves. He loses. I win.

R5: 12 Post Miracles - ID, Played it out, won 2:0
He plays regular 12 Post with 4 Terminus. We decide to ID, but he really wants to play it out so we do. G1 I Natural Order him out on turn3. Game2 I draw 4 extra cards and put 9 Elves to the table on turn2 without Glimpse. His only out is to Crop Rotation for a white source, then blindly Brainstorm into Terminus on my turn. He tries. He fails. I win.

I'm first after the Swiss. There are 3 Miracles in the Top8, ALL of which in my bracket. I try to retroactively concede the 5th round of the swiss but of course the judge doesn't allow that


Quarterfinals: Miracles - WIN 2:0
Game1 I go first. Seeing him shuffling after Ponder twice I sense weakness and put 3 guys to the table. On my next turn I cast Craterhoof Behemoth. He only has Brainstorm as a pitch-card for Force. He instead Brainstorms in response, hoping to find a pitch card, which he didn't. I win. I think it was still correct for him to do it this way as he *really* needed to put his Terminus on top; otherwise he would just lose to regular beatodwn. Game2 he accidentally draws another card after naturally miracling a Entreat the Angels on his turn4. We call a judge and he is issued a game loss. I win.

Semifinals: Miracles - WIN 2:0
Game1 I'm just to fast while he makes a mistake with his Ponder, putting back cards in the incorrect order. Game2 I destroy him as hard as I have never ever destroyed a Miracles player. Null Rod, Choke, vaue-Glimpsing for 7, Sylvan Library - all of which in play. Krosan Grip and 6 more cards in hand. I manages to Terminus to Jace, but then I Choke all of his 4 Islands. Jace doesn't get there. I win.

Finals: UWr Delver - WIN 2:1
He plays UWr Delver with Young Pyromancer, Snapcaster Mage and True-Name Nemesis but not Stoneforge Mystics. Game1 has has some removal, permission and cantrips but his only pressure is a turn4 Young Pyromancer, which is the only reason I'm still in the game. He quickly ups the pressure with 3 Delvers, a Snapcaster Mage and Treasure Cruise. I see zero mana acceleration that game so I have to slowly advance my board with Wirewood Symbiotes, Elvish Visionary, Nettle Sentinel and Quirion Ranger. Pendelhaven was the MVP of this game, allowing for some great blocks. On my very last turn and on 1 life I go for Natural Order. To my surprise it resolves. I win.
Game2 is basically a copy of game1..except for his turn1 Delver which this time seals the deal. This was the only game I dropped over the entire tournament.
Game3 he keeps a 1-lander with Delver. I have some acceleratio, more Elves and Wirewood Symbiote on the board turn2, but he FoWs (pitch Snapcaster) my turn2 Elvish Visionary. When he fails to make his second landrop I immediately think that he must have Electrickery because there must be a reason he kept Basic Island+Delver. So instead of just GSZ'ing for Elvish Visionary to continously develop my board, I instead Natural Order right away. It resolves. I win. Again.

In the end I'm 16-1 in games played. As a reward, the storekeeper hands me a Revised Tundra. I like.


This is the list I played:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Heritage Druid
2 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Birchlore Rangers
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze

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

4 Gaea's Cradle
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Dryad Arbor
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Pendelhaven

SB:
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Choke
2 Krosan Grip
1 Null Rod
1 Sylvan Library

Krosan Grips, even though I ended up not really needing them vs Miracles still felt super strong. As in, incredibly strong and maybe even better than Needle. Maybe it's the next level of beating Miracles considering they are really heavy on Artifact/Enchantment removal these days. I know that Philipp Schönegger is looking into adding a 2nd Wear/Tear to his SB so I guess it's only a matter of time until the rest of the field will do the same. Not having Needle hurts your Sneak Show matchup but I wouldn't worry too much about that anyways these days.

Keep Glimpsing, guys. Good night

I've been on K-Grip for months and never regretted it. I honestly can't see why it hasn't been more popular. I run it instead of Needle and it's always been an all-star.

I've also been using Choke a good bit and when it's good, it's fantastic. (It's a trap against Miracles so I never bring it in there.) The one problem I have to watch for is bringing in too many 3-drops, but if you're judicious about it you can mitigate the problem.

[Kyle]

Lemnear, you win 2014 because of "Ogre Tea."

[Lemnear]

Lemnear, you win 2014 because of "Ogre Tea."

That one was nasty ^_^

Still looking for a balance between being hardcore and informative :/

[Kyle]

Hey Julian, what were you expecting at the Ingolstadt event that made you go with your sideboard plan?

Specifically, I can't imagine cutting Progenitus just about ever. Then again, I do get paired up against the single D&T player just about every time at my weeklies.

Krosan Grip mostly for Miracles and Stoneblade?

Choke for anything blue, or just midrange matchups?

[Shagstaman]

choke dominated uwr stoneblade the few times I got to use it. They may be expecting it now though, so the impact shouldn't be as high.

grip gives utility vs humility, moat, and omniscience as well as the obv applications. I'd bring it in against any junk/esper list too since most of them run deed, ee, EP, night of souls betrayal, etc.

I was running m.pulse for a while in the grip slot, but yea the decks you want it the most against (humility from miracles) also run counters. =(

[Julian23]

I know it's different in the US. In Europe, especially southern Germany, Miracles is beyond anything I've seen over in the US. The deck is dominating and you can expect to play against it several times even in smaller tournaments. It's the only thing I care about beating. Each week/month is an ongoing game of "how can I surprise them in order to catch them off guard?". I went through several configurations; Choke, Surgical Extraction, Extirpate, Bitterblossom, Garruk, Primal Hunter. Then early 2014, Philipp started telling people to always bring in Disenchant or Wear/Wear against Elves. Truth is, all of the really heavy hitting cards die to it. Needle has always been nice but you've all had nightmares about those games were they just EE it+your board away.

For me, the next level of fighting them is Krosan Grip now. Choke is at best "ok" vs Miracles. Thus far, I've only won about 50% of games where I managed to resolve it vs Miracles, probably even less. At Prague Eternal, I had it in game2 and game3, then proceeded to take 20 damage of a Containment Priest.

The reason for the inclusion of Choke is the flood of U(W)r Delver/Midrange that's currently in the meta. While most of these decks are a real dog to Miracles, they still put up their fair share of numbers; from what I see, even more so in the US. [Insert rant about US players still not picking up Miracles more and just crushing the inbreed Delver metagame]. Choke is right now really good vs all of them. UR can't handle it at all, leaving them at mercy of you not being able to Abrupt Decay their Delver. If you do, the game is pretty much over. UWr Control and Stoneblade really have to go out of their way when it comes to removing it as their preferred removal of EE is incredibly slow and will probably not work. Until it becomes more likely to also see Wear/Tear out of them after boarding, I really like Choke there.

Of course you don't side in Choke vs most combo decks unless you feel like going for a bad Hail Mary approach. I don't recommend it.

/Edit: Because some people were actually confused: Krosan Grip's sole purpose is to fight Sensei's Divining Top. I don't care about the Counterbalance all that much. Terminus and Miracles is what the matchup mostly revolves around.

humility, moat, and omniscience [...] deed, ee, EP, night of souls betrayal,

Of course, if those cards are highly represented in your meta, Krosan Grip provides even more value. However, I strongly recommend not to factor in cards that see no play right now in a general sense. To me Deed, Night of Soul's Betrayal and Humility carry zero significance right now. Catching EE is also unlikely as they usually have to play it in a way to use it the moment they play it because of Decay and Reclamation Sage. Against decks with Engineered Plague I either side nothing to fight it (outside of Reclamation Sage) or bring in Decays as they are more versatile anyways. There's no way I'm bringing in 3 Decay + 2 Krosan Grip against e.g. Jund.

[Krasman]

What is your current sideboard configuration Julian?

[Shagstaman]

his list is literally a few posts up...-_-

[Krasman]

his list is literally a few posts up...-_-

It could of change in 3 days! But yeah you are right.

[Julian23]

Streaming the Legacy Daily Event with #Elves! Join us over at twitch.tv/itsJulian

[danyul]

I Top 8'd the premier IQ at SCG Seattle. I scrubbed out of the Invitational because Standard is kinda gross. I lost in the premier IQ Top 8 to the Miracles guy who gave me my only loss in Swiss. Ugh!

Anyways I'm dead tired and about to eat some Greek foodZ. I took very poor notes so a report is unlikely. But Elves is still a deck! Fear us! Also, Julian, how the shiz do you beat Miracles all the time? Teach me your secrets.

[starfox444]

I Top 8'd the premier IQ at SCG Seattle. I scrubbed out of the Invitational because Standard is kinda gross. I lost in the premier IQ Top 8 to the Miracles guy who gave me my only loss in Swiss. Ugh!

Anyways I'm dead tired and about to eat some Greek foodZ. I took very poor notes so a report is unlikely. But Elves is still a deck! Fear us! Also, Julian, how the shiz do you beat Miracles all the time? Teach me your secrets.

Remember the matchups? I've been getting demolished online lately, it's probably just me playing badly but if other people are still doing ok then I can at least be sure that I need to work on my play rather than worrying about metagame changes. I've had more electrickeries and gut shots cast against me in the last few days than in my entire life.

[danyul]

If you're going to eat at It's Greek to Me, get the potato as your side.

Congrats on another good finish.

Thanks man.

I wasn't quite as prepared as Julian is for Miracles. I'll know better next time. And we did end up going to It's Greek to Me on Leremy Deadwards' suggestion. Everybody got the moussaka with potatoes on the side. I didn't know any better and just got a gyro with fries. But I sampled other people's food and everything was super delicious. We even saw CVM stop by to quite literally take out the trash. I forgot his mom owned that restaurant. I'll definitely eat there again.

Remember the matchups? I've been getting demolished online lately, it's probably just me playing badly but if other people are still doing ok then I can at least be sure that I need to work on my play rather than worrying about metagame changes. I've had more electrickeries and gut shots cast against me in the last few days than in my entire life.

That sounds like a super hostile meta. You can only play around so many board wipes.

My pairings were:
Elves 2-0
Shardless BUG 2-0
UWR Pyromancer Blade 1-1-1
UWR Pyromancer Blade 2-0
Lands 2-0
Death and Taxes 2-1
Miracles 0-2
Burn 2-0
Top 8/ Miracles 0-2 (same pilot)

My notes suck but I'll try to write something up later.

[shopshopshop]

I played in an event yesterday and got wrecked by a timely Arc Trail on a Nettle Sentinel and some other elf. It was not pleasant. Then got 9th place. Ew.

[Shagstaman]

scenario time: playing vs dredge..they're on the play:

t1 (them): city, putrid imp, go.
t1 (us): forest, drs, go.
t2 (them): dump bridge, ggt, narcomeba (?), dredge 6, hit cabal therapy, narco, stinkweed imp...play cephalid land, crack it, dredge 6, dredge 5, dredge 6 with the end result being 4 bridges, no dread returns, 1 narco, 2 ichorids, no dread return targets and a faithless looting. Cast cabal therapy on us and name DRS (since he wasn't sure what deck I was playing and only knew one card in my deck)..miss. he has 4 zombies. pass.
t2 (us): draw for turn- dryad arbor...our hand is 2x dryad arbor (sigh), heritage, nettle, wws, gsz (there are plenty of lands in his grave)

what's the play?

I definitely lost that game but feel like maybe I coulda done something more.. I'll see what u gents think then I'll post what I did and my reasoning for it.