MTG Salvation

You can easily replace Cavern with Unclaimed Territory, fetches, Overgrown Tomb, or any GB source really. Cavern isn't necessary, it's just that we are able to run it without much downside so it gives you some percentage points against anyone with Chalice or counter magic.

I'm not sure I'm on board with 2-3 copies of Walking Ballista in the deck. Ballista provides no synergy with Heritage Druid, Archdruid, Shaman of the Pack, or Dwynen's Elite, and it can't be hit off Collected Company or Chorded for. But, if you're going to go that route, I might run 1 Ballista and 1 Duskwatch Recruiter over multiple Ballista. If you are able to assemble infinite mana then Recruiter will find you a Walking Ballista. Recruiter can also be hit off of Collected Company and will provide value as a mana sink without needing an Archdruid or the combo on board. But if we're going to start attacking from this angle, we should probably just play Counters Company.

What do we cut to fit another 3 drop in? Also, it's putting it on top of your library and not in to your hand so it's a very slow tutor. I feel like if you are in need of finding an Ezuri quickly you'd be better off with Summoner's Pact. Then at least you can cast and activate him immediately and surprise your opponent rather than show them what's coming.

As a disclaimer, I don't think Summoner's Pact is worth a slot either, but I'd lean towards that before Harbinger.

Quote from Pe7er89 »

Quote from Driemer84 »

Quote from Pe7er89 »

Revoker is good in so many matchups.
I never leave home without one. If you're letting it die you didn't play it right imo.

Make or break situations with revoker:
Tron plays: Oblivion Stone or Ugin. chord revoker win next turn.
Ad Nauseam plays: Ad Nauseam. Chord revoker name Lightning Storm win next turn.
BGx plays LtlH: Chord revoker kill lili next turn.
Tron plays Walking Ballista: ....
Affinity plays Ravager, Plating, Overseer:...
Abzan coco or Elves play devoted druid:...

These are some of the important plays.
Sounds good enough to me.

I don't know if I'm sold on Revoker either. I don't think it's a bad sideboard choice, but I think you make it sound a lot better than it actually is when you add "win next turn" after every time it hits the battlefield.

The issue is if you're chording for revoker, you aren't chording for Ezuri or Archduid or something that actually wins you the game. Revoker usually stops you from losing, but it doesn't win you the game.

Well, i'm talking GB Elves with SotP, so it's easy to win without chord.
With Tron and Ad nauseum it always comes down to this. They are about as fast as GB Elves and stopping them the turn before you win is a very common scenario.
Same against GW Elves and Abzan coco.
Affinity really needs all the hate, they are just faster. Sometimes you're not even able to chord in time so you need to hardcast some hate.

Anyway, this is the way i use Revoker: Having the option to secure my win.

Oh I definitely see the value in Revoker, I just don’t put that much stock in it. You can name karn, ugin, or o stone, but whatever you don’t name still deals with Revoker or your entire board. Against ad nauseam, they just slaughter pact your Revoker once their deck is in their hand, or pact of negation the chord/Revoker in the first place.

Quote from Pe7er89 »

Revoker is good in so many matchups.
I never leave home without one. If you're letting it die you didn't play it right imo.

Make or break situations with revoker:
Tron plays: Oblivion Stone or Ugin. chord revoker win next turn.
Ad Nauseam plays: Ad Nauseam. Chord revoker name Lightning Storm win next turn.
BGx plays LtlH: Chord revoker kill lili next turn.
Tron plays Walking Ballista: ....
Affinity plays Ravager, Plating, Overseer:...
Abzan coco or Elves play devoted druid:...

These are some of the important plays.
Sounds good enough to me.

I don't know if I'm sold on Revoker either. I don't think it's a bad sideboard choice, but I think you make it sound a lot better than it actually is when you add "win next turn" after every time it hits the battlefield.

The issue is if you're chording for revoker, you aren't chording for Ezuri or Archduid or something that actually wins you the game. Revoker usually stops you from losing, but it doesn't win you the game.

Budget or Blood Moon.

My other modern deck is Merfolk. Everyone at my LGS gives me crap about Merfolk and Elves being the same deck because you're turning creatures sideways, but I think they play out quite differently.

I personally never cared for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and if you're going to run the 2 Boreal Druid you can probably afford to go down to 18 land.

Speaking of Boreal Druid, I think those two slots and the 19th land could be filled by some of the cards you are considering in the board. Maybe a mainboard Rec Sage and Selfless Spirit while keeping the 19th land or 1 Boreal Druid. That'll free up a slot in the board for another Rec Sage and Colossus.

Quote from Khalar89 »

Quote from Driemer84 »

FYI I think your list is missing Shamans. Also, Symbiote isn’t banned, it just hasn’t been printed in a modern legal set.

IT has Not Seen a Reprint because IT is too good.
Yes I forgot to write them down.
Of course they are in my list.

I wasn't trying to be smart by pointing that stuff out. I know I would want to edit my list to make it correct if I forgot something.

I can't confidently say if Wirewood would be too good or not. After the recent unbannings that had people worried modern would be unplayable turned out to be a minor blip in the format, I've become a lot more open to adding cards to the pool. The only real target we'd want to untap is Archdruid, but we don't have glimpse to abuse recasting whatever we bounced, or Birchlore Rangers for another source of mana. Not that two activations out of Archdruid isn't powerful, but Archdruid is no Gaea's Cradle so Symbiote being an insect powers it down a bit. Being able to bounce a Visioinary or Dwynen's Elite would actually be a pretty sweet grinding engine though.

FYI I think your list is missing Shamans. Also, Symbiote isn’t banned, it just hasn’t been printed in a modern legal set.

2 druids, an untapped mana source for the 5th land and Ezuri will do it. Or one Druid and vizier amd Ezuri.

I put in about 15 games last week and I felt like it was very clunky. My hand was constantly jammed with 3 and 4 drops in the Jund shell. I like the idea of its potential to play a longer game, but too often I'd have some combination of BBE, Shaman and Coco in hand with only 2 or 3 land on the board and my early dorks in the graveyard. When I did have enough mana to cast multiple 3 and 4 drops it was difficult to make the mana line up to cast two BBE in a turn or a BBE and a Shaman since you are getting your off color mana almost strictly from lands.

For now I'm going to stick with the consistency, speed, and smoothness of the traditional GW or GB builds.

Great write up. I'll make sure to get over to Reddit and send some upvotes your way.

Starting with your shell and thoughts on changes I'm going to swap out the 2nd Lead and the Visionary in the main for a Rec Sage and Elvish Champion. This gives the deck a couple more powerful cascade targets. I want to give the Elves of Deep Shadow a little more of a chance before I cut it to bring in the 4th Nettle Sentinel. I think it might be important to cast an Abrupt Decay and other black spells through Blood Moon and land hate. This frees up two slots in the sideboard which I may use to bring in two more Essence Warden. Looking at the day two meta game break down it looked like Burn was pretty popular. I think we have a shot against burn. Usually when I lose to burn it's only by a turn or two and a few Essence Warden is probably enough to slow them down.

Have you played around with Kitchen Finks over Essence Warden at all? It comes down a turn slower with acceleration, but it's a much better blocker. Were you happy with the rest of your sideboard?

Here is what your deck would look like with some of the changes.

I know the elf community would love to read a write up or at least how cards, and especially the sideboard, performed if you have the time!

Andrew Sullano showing us why we play the deck at GP Phoenix.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/240138323?t=01h46m56s

Top 32 list at GP Phoenix. Ctrl+F on Ezuri to skip the chaff.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gppho18/grand-prix-phoenix-top-32-decklists-2018-03-18