One of the things I love about Chord is that I can cast in my opponent's upkeep if he's playing counterspells and leaving mana up. The instant speed aspect of Chord is really effective. Also, the reason to play a "creature grabber" is that you accelerate your damage, imo. If you got wrathed, for example, returning an Ezuri or an Archdruid from you graveyard doesn't seem all that relevant then. I believe you play Finale of Devastation not for the graveyard thing, nor for the 10 plus thing, but for the Chord effect. But Chord seems a better choice. I might be wrong, of course. Maybe against target removal decks, which you are more likely to play against, the graveyard effect becomes more relevant, since you recover the key creature they killed with Fatal Push or something.
By the way, nice avatar, @Piney_Tinecones. I love Meddle. Echoes is my favorite Pink Floyd piece
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
I see, sorry. Arbor Elf is already there, heh. You may consider Boreal Druid instead of Elves of Deep Shadow, then. Ezuri does indeed offer protection. That's a good point. Saffron Ollive from MTGGoldfish played a similar deck in 2015, as you may check in /watch?v=SYGS7LYfkNM&t=63s
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Hey guys! I came up with this build off how fun and unexpected gilt-leaf archdruid can be And was wondering if anyone has done a Druid based build before? Would love to hear your thoughts!
Well, this seems interesting. However, I don't know how much are Ezuri and Clancaller necessary in this list. In a Gilt-leaf Archdruid list, I'd focus on this win condition rather than going also with the beatdown plan. Also, Arbor Elf should definitely replace Elves of Deep Shadow. And replacing the beatdown creatures by protection/support spells might be better.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Yeah. I believe that this is a beauty of Elves: lots of options. Especially when it comes to splashing (or even not splashing at all). I like to go Abzan, which I got IRL, and I've been trying Sultai lately. Anyway, thanks @spec.ops for contributing to the topic. Don't hesitate to post something or to share experiences with us.
Well I am a low level content producer. I wonder if I should start off mono green or go right into golgari? Golgari almost seems to eliminate the need for Ezuri.
And green blue? What blue spells are worth the splash? White and black are powerful colors in modern. I can’t see a gruul splash being all that needed in elves. But you have me curious on that blue splash.
Starting at Mono Green is okay, but I'd rather go directly into GB, which is much more resilient. The splash for U I was mentioning does not involve Beck // Call (while it could be). I'm testing a U splash for a couple of Nissa, Steward of Elements as another win condition, Coiling Oracle as a better version of Elvish Visionary and Unified Will as a support card. GBU version goes well against grindy matchups, although the GBW version is much more used in the competitive scene, since W gives you access to great sideboarding options, like Eidolon of Rhetoric. You wanna try to use creatures with CMC<4 as sideboard cards, since they are hit by Collected Company.
I did it. I pulled out the green and bought a bunch of knife ears on MTGO and...I have been quite disappointed. I think I won one round out of 10 plus matches? When ever I versus Elves its mana dork into Heritage in to a million elves that crush dreams. As for me? It's mana dork into dorks and more thin skinned bodies that lie down and die. If I do get a creature I need i.e. lord - it anticlimactically dies. every. single. time. And, if I get close to wining next turn they beat me to the win condition. I am quite shocked Elves are under performing. I feel like the only win condition is dropping two Shaman of the Pack on turn three or four or five. :/
Well, that's kinda unexpected. On MTGO I play friendly tournaments with a Mono Green beatdown version with more lords and no CoCos and Heritage Druids and the result is almost always like 50/50 in the end. Maybe you don't have experience with the deck yet, or you're running out of luck. Can you please share the list you're running?
Also, sometimes it's correct to not run out a lord, and play the dorks instead, or settle mana for CoCo or Lead the Stampede. Like:
I'm not saying this is the best play period, since it depends. It's just an option. The early Elvish Archdruid+Ezuri, Renegade Leader is appealing, but also fragile. You would play Archdruid turn 3, and hope it doesn't die. Then, you play Ezuri, tap for mana and swing for... something like 8 or 10 damage.
Let's look at another situation, where we have a worse hand than the other time: Hand: 2x Land, 4x Elvish Mystic, 1x Elvish Archdruid.
Here, you have the option to play Archdruid turn 3 if nothing dies. But look at this: Turn 1: Land, Elvish Mystic Turn 2: Land, Elvish Mystic, Elvish Mystic, Elvish Mystic
If you opponent didn't kill your first Mystic, he's not gonna kill the other three we just casted. If he killed, we would have others that will be more than enough the next turn. If we had played Archdruid, they would definitely kill it if they had the chance, and we would have accomplished nothing. Turn 3: Archdruid, swing or cast things you drew. If it's Lead the Stampede, it has high priority. If you have the chance to Lead when the mana is available, do it, unless there is a huge reward to attack.
Even if your opponent, let's say, couldn't kill Archdruid turn 2 anyway, you would have accomplished nothing playing it that early. If your opponent kills Archdruid on turn 3 when you play it in this case, fine, you have the Mystics mana to play whatever you drew.
Now, another one: Hand: 2x Land, 2x Elvish Mystic, 1x Elvish Archdruid, 1x Collected Company, 1x Elvish Visionary Turn 1: Land, Elvish Mystic
Now, here's the thing. The upside of playing Archdruid turn 2 here is huge. It would be turn 3 Land, Archdruid. Then turn 4 Mystic, Visionary, and swing for something or cast things. But there's another option: Turn 2: Land, Elvish Mystic, Visionary
Now you can either CoCo in their turn or play Archdruid. Either option is great, and you played in a way that your opponent is encouraged to kill your mana dorks. They don't know you have a lord until you play it on turn 3 or 4.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Yeah. I believe that this is a beauty of Elves: lots of options. Especially when it comes to splashing (or even not splashing at all). I like to go Abzan, which I got IRL, and I've been trying Sultai lately. Anyway, thanks @spec.ops for contributing to the topic. Don't hesitate to post something or to share experiences with us.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Good stuff there and it feels good to be part of the shard! I come from a Robots and Goblin background so of course I gravitate to an artifact. Haha
I’m buying elves foil, but one slot at a time. I just got the full art llanowars for 6 bucks each so it was a steal.
What is the deal with Sentinel? I read an article where one guy said they were a win more card and would rather have a mana dork in staring hand. Any truth to this?
Good question. Well, although it may seem obvious that Nettle Sentinel is a "must" on Elves, this is actually very discussed between Elves players. Reid Duke, for example, plays Boreal Druids instead of Sentinels, quoting: "All builds of Elves are going to win an extremely high portion of the games in which they have a good draw including Heritage Druid, other cheap Elves, and enough action to spend the mana on. Because of this, all cards that were only good alongside Heritage Druid quickly got the axe. This includes Cloudstone Curio and, notably, Nettle Sentinel. Sentinel does painfully little in your less-than-perfect draws, and is often overkill in your good draws anyway".
As we all know, Modern isn't very flexible. It's very common to get Thoughtseized turn 1 and suddently your hand with two Sentinels, a Heritage Druid, a Elvish Archdruid and a Chord of Calling becomes significantly worse. We can describe a lot of similar scenarios. Drawing Sentinel even mid-game feels really weird. I'm one of the guys that prefer to play mana dorks, although playing Nettle Sentinel can lead you to quick victories with a bit of luck, so you essentially start the game 1-0.
My point is that mana dorks do a similar job compared to Sentinels when you play them instead, and sometimes are even more useful. For example, let us compare a scenario with and without the Sentinel: Scenario 1 Turn 1 Land and Mana Dork; Turn 2 Land, Heritage Druid, Dwynen's Elite, 3-drop. Scenario 2
If we had Nettle Sentinel instead of that first Mana Dork, for example, the play would've been Heritage Druid on turn 1 and Dwynen's Elite + 3-drop on turn 2. We wouldn't even have played Sentinel there.
The difference is that in Scenario 1 we would have in the folowing turn more power and mana. Nettle Sentinel is good when you play like... Land, Sentinel -> Land, Heritage Druid, Sentinel, 3-drop, 3-drop --> I win. But thats kind of a dream scenario. There are also scenarios that you tap them to convoke a Chord of Calling and then, as they untap, you convoke them to Chord again or you Collected Company if you have Heritage Druid on the field. But those are also dream scenarios. In general, I believe Mana Dorks are indeed more efficient. Look at this other scenario, when you don't have Heritage Druid in your hand: Land, Mana Dork --> Land, 3-drop. This is much simpler, more efficient and easier to achieve. A Nettle Sentinel there would've done nothing having no Heritage Druids in hand.
It's hard to tell what's the correct call, though. I believe it's another personal matter. The only way is to keep testing, hehe.
Of course, the discussion doesn't exist when you're playing the Combo Elves version with Beast Whisperer, as Asmodeus666 mentioned above, or with Beck // Call. Sentinel is fundamental there.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
So, I have finally decided, after finishing my primary deck, to move onto another deck. I have chosen elves! But, only because the art has improved. I never understood why punk rock and withered old men seemed to be MTGs vision of what elves looked like. With that out of the way, I most defiantly want to go Golgari for Shaman of the Pack and Stain the Mind to close out asap and counter Terminus.
Now, being new to elves, but having played against them many times, I have a question. How come Throne of the God-Pharaoh is not abused. It seems, at least to this untrained elf player, that it would add a lot of pressure to the opponent since elves seem to tap a shard of elves every turn. You can't tell me it is a win more card when it helps close games quicker and works in conjunction with SotP.
Welcome to the elvish society, my friend. I have always hated the old Llanowar Elves art, too.
Anyway, about Throne of the God-Pharaoh... by the time it was released in Amonkhet, everybody was testing it and it felt like a great option. When Bloodbraid Elf was unbanned though, it seemed like Kolaghan's Command became a nightmare, specially because at the same time Death's Shadow became a very popular deck. On the other hand, it is very good against control still. Cryptic Command becomes a lot less powerful when the Throne is on the battlefield. It also plays around Ensnaring Bridge when you have a Heritage Druid on the field and no Shaman of the Packs available to cast/search. Overall, it is still playble of course, but not as good as it seemed to be when released. An interesting otpion, I would say. Maybe it's kinda personal. You should definitely try it if you can.
Just a tip: if you're playing on MTGO, wait a bit before getting Heritage Druid. It spiked suddently for certain reasons in the end of january, but it will surely go back to normal soon (around 2 tickets).
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Anyone here playing around with the mono green Beastmaster and Craterhoof deck SaffronOlive put together this week? I wasn't aware of it until I got run over by Craterhoof and pals to -34 or something turn 4, preventing me from a 5-0. Looks more like Legacy Elves than anything, with Beastmaster replacing Glimpse.
Well, the list was already being tested by Elves players, I guess. Seth just increased the value of Heritage Druid to 4 tix, preventing me to buying it now (I just joined MTGO). But hey, the list seems good. But I believe it's rather a budget version for GB or GW. Relying on Beast Whisperer to win, with no CoCos and stuff to reach Ezuri... I don't know, it seems too fragile.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of Stain the Mind, either. Against Storm, the GBW and GW versions of Elves run not that bad because of Eidolon of Rhetoric. That's the advantage of playing W: you have a lot of good sideboard options.
About Nettle Sentinel, I think it's an interesting question. Reid Duke, for example, prefers to play Boreal Druid instead. He states: "Nettle Sentinel does painfully little in your less-than-perfect draws, and is often overkill in your good draws anyway. I replaced them instead with Boreal Druids, which are never bad, and contribute to your best non-Heritage Druid draws, which involve turn-2 Elvish Archdruid". But note that Reid Duke is a GW player. When considering playing GB, he states: "Replacing Boreal Druid with Elves of Deep Shadow and adding Overgrown Tombs and fetchlands to your deck is worth an average of about 3 life points per game—starting things off at 17 instead of 20 is a very real cost".
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
I'm going to a tournament this sunday with the following list, what are you thinking about ?
[...]
Not sure about main deck Scavenging Ooze. I mean, it could be that your meta is in such way that it's reasonable to play 2 copies, but otherwise, in some matches it just does nothing.
In case of a neutral meta, I'd take 2 Scavenging Oozes off and add Lead the Stampede and Chord of Calling, 1 copy each. Chord is amazing because you can, for example, play Shaman of the Pack and then cast Chord in response to the trigger, searching for another Shaman. It is such a versatile card, and it's instant speed. Of course, there are even much more ways to make good use of it, as you might agree. If you don't have copies of Chord of Calling available, I'd suggest adding 2 Lead the Stampedes instead of 1 or add Lead the Stampede and Ezuri, Renegade Leader, 1 copy each, if you'd like. As far as I can tell, 3 Ezuris is not too much, and some people apparently agree with me, like Reid Duke, although he's a GW player. But the reasons that make him like lots of copies of Ezuri in his deck can be applied to GB too.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Thanks everyone for the help, I really appreciate it. I believe the conclusion is: just rebuild with Lead the Stampede and Collected Company if possible. And play 3 copies of Lead at minimum, ideally. That involves, of course, skill and knowledge. I can tell that it is not that hard to rebuild if you're careful. As you guys said, it's like a 50/50 matchup.
Besides, I would like to make another interesting question about the Control matchup (not necessarily UW), and yes, that involves playing around stuff, but you'll understand the point. Is it Vexing Shusher worthy to be in the sideboard? I think it would be a good budget option to put in the sideboard in the lack of Cavern of Souls copies. I'll be testing. By the way, it is probably unnecessary if you've got enough copies of Cavern of Souls already, right? Each slot of the sideboard is precious I believe, heh.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
I would just hope to play Lead the Stampede in some window before Terminus happens. And rely on your Companies to rebuild. There's really no other way around it. Terminus costing 1 mana leaves the UW opponent with mana for countering whatever you respond with. It should be less of an issue after board, especially if you show Cavern of Souls, but they still should keep in some countermagic. UW Control is not necessarily the best matchup for Elves. I feel like it's around 50/50, but I found some success by just going all-in and not trying to play around too much. The more turns you give them to Terminus, the more likely they'll find it. If there's a lot of UW Control in your meta, Elves is probably not the best choice, but it's still a solid option. (I know my own 50/50 matchup analysis is not going to be agreed with by many.)
I see, that's a solid point. Thanks for the advices. As an alternative to this, I was also thinking about using a couple of Loaming Shamans to shuffle their library when needed (and maybe it's also good against a flipped Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, if they are playing this card). The good thing about this idea is that it's a good card for other matchups as well. Is this reasonable?
Another interesting topic is: how many Lead the Stampede copies we should run? I see that it might depend on a lot of things, but the standard choice would be 1~2, right? I also know that this probably has been discussed here early. If that's so, then alright, I'll make a research and test.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Hello, everyone. I've been testing with some people at my LGS and... how do you guys play around UW Control? It seems hard now to protect the board because their sweepers exile rather than destroy, and more importantly, they can set Terminus into Miracle pretty easily with Opt and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Selfless Spirit is not being useful here, anymore.
Are there playabe cards in Elves to dodge Terminus, for example?
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Can I ask why more decks don't run throne of the god-pharaoh? To my novice eyes it seems very good - a repeatable shaman of the pack that you don't need to splash with and rarely gets removed.
I know it's been a while since you made the question, but I would like to give my opinion about this interesting topic. I believe that this is because Kolaghan's Command has been used a lot since the Bloodbraid Elf release in the format and the ascension of decks like Mardu Pyromancer. Before that, it seemed like the Throne was very good indeed. On the other hand, it was a mere option: you could prefer to either use it or not. Since the meta is not good for it anymore for reasons expalined above, turns out it's not an option anymore.
UBRGrixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
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By the way, nice avatar, @Piney_Tinecones. I love Meddle. Echoes is my favorite Pink Floyd piece
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
At least 2x Scavenging Oozes in maindeck and Eidolon of Rhetoric/Yixlid Jailer in sideboard if you're Abzan Elves, which should be the case.
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Well, this seems interesting. However, I don't know how much are Ezuri and Clancaller necessary in this list. In a Gilt-leaf Archdruid list, I'd focus on this win condition rather than going also with the beatdown plan. Also, Arbor Elf should definitely replace Elves of Deep Shadow. And replacing the beatdown creatures by protection/support spells might be better.
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Starting at Mono Green is okay, but I'd rather go directly into GB, which is much more resilient. The splash for U I was mentioning does not involve Beck // Call (while it could be). I'm testing a U splash for a couple of Nissa, Steward of Elements as another win condition, Coiling Oracle as a better version of Elvish Visionary and Unified Will as a support card. GBU version goes well against grindy matchups, although the GBW version is much more used in the competitive scene, since W gives you access to great sideboarding options, like Eidolon of Rhetoric. You wanna try to use creatures with CMC<4 as sideboard cards, since they are hit by Collected Company.
Well, that's kinda unexpected. On MTGO I play friendly tournaments with a Mono Green beatdown version with more lords and no CoCos and Heritage Druids and the result is almost always like 50/50 in the end. Maybe you don't have experience with the deck yet, or you're running out of luck. Can you please share the list you're running?
Also, sometimes it's correct to not run out a lord, and play the dorks instead, or settle mana for CoCo or Lead the Stampede. Like:
Hand: 1x Land, 3x Elvish Mystic, 1x Elvish Archdruid, 1x Collected Company, 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Turn 1: Land, Elvish Mystic
Turn 2: Elvish Mystic, Elvish Mystic
Turn 3: pass and CoCo in their turn.
Turn 4: Archdruid and swing
I'm not saying this is the best play period, since it depends. It's just an option. The early Elvish Archdruid+Ezuri, Renegade Leader is appealing, but also fragile. You would play Archdruid turn 3, and hope it doesn't die. Then, you play Ezuri, tap for mana and swing for... something like 8 or 10 damage.
Let's look at another situation, where we have a worse hand than the other time:
Hand: 2x Land, 4x Elvish Mystic, 1x Elvish Archdruid.
Here, you have the option to play Archdruid turn 3 if nothing dies. But look at this:
Turn 1: Land, Elvish Mystic
Turn 2: Land, Elvish Mystic, Elvish Mystic, Elvish Mystic
If you opponent didn't kill your first Mystic, he's not gonna kill the other three we just casted. If he killed, we would have others that will be more than enough the next turn. If we had played Archdruid, they would definitely kill it if they had the chance, and we would have accomplished nothing.
Turn 3: Archdruid, swing or cast things you drew. If it's Lead the Stampede, it has high priority. If you have the chance to Lead when the mana is available, do it, unless there is a huge reward to attack.
Even if your opponent, let's say, couldn't kill Archdruid turn 2 anyway, you would have accomplished nothing playing it that early. If your opponent kills Archdruid on turn 3 when you play it in this case, fine, you have the Mystics mana to play whatever you drew.
Now, another one:
Hand: 2x Land, 2x Elvish Mystic, 1x Elvish Archdruid, 1x Collected Company, 1x Elvish Visionary
Turn 1: Land, Elvish Mystic
Now, here's the thing. The upside of playing Archdruid turn 2 here is huge. It would be turn 3 Land, Archdruid. Then turn 4 Mystic, Visionary, and swing for something or cast things. But there's another option:
Turn 2: Land, Elvish Mystic, Visionary
Now you can either CoCo in their turn or play Archdruid. Either option is great, and you played in a way that your opponent is encouraged to kill your mana dorks. They don't know you have a lord until you play it on turn 3 or 4.
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Best MTG colour test ever: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/8905d5/what_kind_of_mage_would_you_be_test_your_colors/
UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Good question. Well, although it may seem obvious that Nettle Sentinel is a "must" on Elves, this is actually very discussed between Elves players. Reid Duke, for example, plays Boreal Druids instead of Sentinels, quoting: "All builds of Elves are going to win an extremely high portion of the games in which they have a good draw including Heritage Druid, other cheap Elves, and enough action to spend the mana on. Because of this, all cards that were only good alongside Heritage Druid quickly got the axe. This includes Cloudstone Curio and, notably, Nettle Sentinel. Sentinel does painfully little in your less-than-perfect draws, and is often overkill in your good draws anyway".
As we all know, Modern isn't very flexible. It's very common to get Thoughtseized turn 1 and suddently your hand with two Sentinels, a Heritage Druid, a Elvish Archdruid and a Chord of Calling becomes significantly worse. We can describe a lot of similar scenarios. Drawing Sentinel even mid-game feels really weird. I'm one of the guys that prefer to play mana dorks, although playing Nettle Sentinel can lead you to quick victories with a bit of luck, so you essentially start the game 1-0.
My point is that mana dorks do a similar job compared to Sentinels when you play them instead, and sometimes are even more useful. For example, let us compare a scenario with and without the Sentinel:
Scenario 1
Turn 1 Land and Mana Dork; Turn 2 Land, Heritage Druid, Dwynen's Elite, 3-drop.
Scenario 2
If we had Nettle Sentinel instead of that first Mana Dork, for example, the play would've been Heritage Druid on turn 1 and Dwynen's Elite + 3-drop on turn 2. We wouldn't even have played Sentinel there.
The difference is that in Scenario 1 we would have in the folowing turn more power and mana. Nettle Sentinel is good when you play like... Land, Sentinel -> Land, Heritage Druid, Sentinel, 3-drop, 3-drop --> I win. But thats kind of a dream scenario. There are also scenarios that you tap them to convoke a Chord of Calling and then, as they untap, you convoke them to Chord again or you Collected Company if you have Heritage Druid on the field. But those are also dream scenarios. In general, I believe Mana Dorks are indeed more efficient. Look at this other scenario, when you don't have Heritage Druid in your hand: Land, Mana Dork --> Land, 3-drop. This is much simpler, more efficient and easier to achieve. A Nettle Sentinel there would've done nothing having no Heritage Druids in hand.
It's hard to tell what's the correct call, though. I believe it's another personal matter. The only way is to keep testing, hehe.
Of course, the discussion doesn't exist when you're playing the Combo Elves version with Beast Whisperer, as Asmodeus666 mentioned above, or with Beck // Call. Sentinel is fundamental there.
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Welcome to the elvish society, my friend. I have always hated the old Llanowar Elves art, too.
Anyway, about Throne of the God-Pharaoh... by the time it was released in Amonkhet, everybody was testing it and it felt like a great option. When Bloodbraid Elf was unbanned though, it seemed like Kolaghan's Command became a nightmare, specially because at the same time Death's Shadow became a very popular deck. On the other hand, it is very good against control still. Cryptic Command becomes a lot less powerful when the Throne is on the battlefield. It also plays around Ensnaring Bridge when you have a Heritage Druid on the field and no Shaman of the Packs available to cast/search. Overall, it is still playble of course, but not as good as it seemed to be when released. An interesting otpion, I would say. Maybe it's kinda personal. You should definitely try it if you can.
Just a tip: if you're playing on MTGO, wait a bit before getting Heritage Druid. It spiked suddently for certain reasons in the end of january, but it will surely go back to normal soon (around 2 tickets).
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Well, the list was already being tested by Elves players, I guess. Seth just increased the value of Heritage Druid to 4 tix, preventing me to buying it now (I just joined MTGO). But hey, the list seems good. But I believe it's rather a budget version for GB or GW. Relying on Beast Whisperer to win, with no CoCos and stuff to reach Ezuri... I don't know, it seems too fragile.
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
About Nettle Sentinel, I think it's an interesting question. Reid Duke, for example, prefers to play Boreal Druid instead. He states: "Nettle Sentinel does painfully little in your less-than-perfect draws, and is often overkill in your good draws anyway. I replaced them instead with Boreal Druids, which are never bad, and contribute to your best non-Heritage Druid draws, which involve turn-2 Elvish Archdruid". But note that Reid Duke is a GW player. When considering playing GB, he states: "Replacing Boreal Druid with Elves of Deep Shadow and adding Overgrown Tombs and fetchlands to your deck is worth an average of about 3 life points per game—starting things off at 17 instead of 20 is a very real cost".
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Not sure about main deck Scavenging Ooze. I mean, it could be that your meta is in such way that it's reasonable to play 2 copies, but otherwise, in some matches it just does nothing.
In case of a neutral meta, I'd take 2 Scavenging Oozes off and add Lead the Stampede and Chord of Calling, 1 copy each. Chord is amazing because you can, for example, play Shaman of the Pack and then cast Chord in response to the trigger, searching for another Shaman. It is such a versatile card, and it's instant speed. Of course, there are even much more ways to make good use of it, as you might agree. If you don't have copies of Chord of Calling available, I'd suggest adding 2 Lead the Stampedes instead of 1 or add Lead the Stampede and Ezuri, Renegade Leader, 1 copy each, if you'd like. As far as I can tell, 3 Ezuris is not too much, and some people apparently agree with me, like Reid Duke, although he's a GW player. But the reasons that make him like lots of copies of Ezuri in his deck can be applied to GB too.
I also prefer to have creatures with CMC<4 in the sideboard instead of instants and sorceries, like Eidolon of Rhetoric, Phyrexian Revoker and things like that, since they're hit by our precious cards Collected Company, Lead the Stampede and Chord of Calling. But I can be wrong.
Well, I'm not an expert, so let's see what other people say about the list. Also, good luck in the tournament.
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Besides, I would like to make another interesting question about the Control matchup (not necessarily UW), and yes, that involves playing around stuff, but you'll understand the point. Is it Vexing Shusher worthy to be in the sideboard? I think it would be a good budget option to put in the sideboard in the lack of Cavern of Souls copies. I'll be testing. By the way, it is probably unnecessary if you've got enough copies of Cavern of Souls already, right? Each slot of the sideboard is precious I believe, heh.
Cheers!
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
I see, that's a solid point. Thanks for the advices. As an alternative to this, I was also thinking about using a couple of Loaming Shamans to shuffle their library when needed (and maybe it's also good against a flipped Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, if they are playing this card). The good thing about this idea is that it's a good card for other matchups as well. Is this reasonable?
Also, why is Gaddock Teeg bad, exactly? Is the nombo with Collected Company annoying enough for it to be bad? I was thinking about giving up on Chord of Callings, replace them by Lead the Stampede (since I currently split the copies 2 each) and slam Gaddock Teeg in the sideboard.
Another interesting topic is: how many Lead the Stampede copies we should run? I see that it might depend on a lot of things, but the standard choice would be 1~2, right? I also know that this probably has been discussed here early. If that's so, then alright, I'll make a research and test.
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
Are there playabe cards in Elves to dodge Terminus, for example?
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.
I know it's been a while since you made the question, but I would like to give my opinion about this interesting topic. I believe that this is because Kolaghan's Command has been used a lot since the Bloodbraid Elf release in the format and the ascension of decks like Mardu Pyromancer. Before that, it seemed like the Throne was very good indeed. On the other hand, it was a mere option: you could prefer to either use it or not. Since the meta is not good for it anymore for reasons expalined above, turns out it's not an option anymore.
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UBR Grixis Shard: Grixis believes in a bold and impassioned search for satisfaction, perfection, and self expression. Those of Grixis colors have an eagerness to break the status quo and remake things in their own image. They disregard tradition and conventional approval, seeing them as unnecessary to achieve their goals, the well behaved rarely make history. Blue wants perfection. Black wants power. Red wants freedom.