As for the main page, I think we need to update the SB card guide for 2018. Merfolk is getting an update thanks to it's community.
I would like to propose a list of cards to update as well for 2018.
scavenging ooze is the main GY hate card that can be tutored off chord and LTS, you can play it off heritage Mana and almost instantly attack their GY. It is a very MB-able card atm thanks to all the snap decks and hollow one. It is even good against burn and the control decks because of logic knot. MB 1/ SB 1 or MB 2 to attack your regionals metagame.
It is very good against a heavy hollow one, creature based format like humans. You want it on the draw vs. control decks because you want a bit less spells, and more creatures for them to deal with. Since G1 will always be a linear gameplan, this isn't an elf to produce Mana.
reclamation sage is a powerful toolbox elf atm. It is very good against amulet Titan, aethervial, and hollow one. All of which are recently popular decks. MB interaction against affinity is also a plus, and killing off a t2 azcanta against control means they can't filter their draw step, which is good for you to hasten your gameplan.
MB 1/ SB 1 seems to be the main plan with this card atm, which is fine since there is no way to know if the card will interact with the lower rounds of the tournament (i.e. non pyromancer storm decks, ad nauseum, etc.)
I'll continue with more cards later since I have to work, but I'll continue to update with my thoughts and choices on MB and SB cards.
I'll be updating the primer in the coming days. Lots of new information as well as new variations (RG, Jund etc.) to add
playing Elves now for about a year, i am glad to share my experience with you.
I think the pure G/W List is too prone against removal. If they disrupt your Combo you are just out of cards, if you play with chord.
Playing GB with Shaman and Lead for the last couple of Tournaments it felt just better in grind out your opponents and have another good wincon alongside Ezuri. I rly dont wanna Cut Shaman entirely, even in the combo List.
Shaper´s Sanctury is defefinitly a great Sideboard Card and a must have i think!
That's what I thought at first too. But I tried out GW and having a single copy of Vizier doesn't significantly dilute our elf base and in return it gives us the oops-I-win combo, especially in game 1. Devoted Druid's can also go infinite on their own with 2 of them and an Ezuri out.
I definitely miss Shaman but current metagame (at least my local one) is better suited for GW version rather than grindier GB. And like Larriepogi said, white sideboard options are plentiful.
I tried out Eldritch Evolution when it was spoiled but instead of going for a sideboard like yours, I focused on turning 2CMC cards like Dwynen's Elite & Elvish Visionary into 4CMC threats like Chameleon Colossus, Thrun and even Thought-Knot Seer. Could be worth trying out again as there aren't many counterspells being played, at least in my local meta.
If you're seeing a lot of burn, you can always switch Nettles for Essence Wardens. You'll give up the Nettle + Heritage shenanigans but with an early Warden, you can easily go out of burns reach.
Mark of Asylum was discussed in the primer as a potential sideboard but I've never really seen it used by any Elves deck this year (as far as I remember). What could be the reason behind it? Seems really good (in theory) against decks that mostly rely on burn spells for removal (Burn, Valakut, Ponza, etc.)
I ran Mark of Asylum in my Abzan list for quite a while. My local meta game at the time was full of Jund, RG Tron, Jeskai with the odd Skred here and there. That meant lots of Bolts, Angers, Pyroclasms and other red damage based spells. Mark makes our elves immune to all those spells which is a huge advantage. It also works against creatures like Grim Lavamancer.
But with the printing of Fatal Push the meta game shifted as well with damaged based removal being far less prevalent than before. If that's the case with your meta game then you can easily skip Mark altogether.
Keep in mind that you need to return a Forest to untap a creature. Generally we only run about 3-4 basic Forests and perhaps a copy of Temple Garden/Overgrown Tomb. Rest of the land base is nonbasics. Even then you need to have an Archdruid down since he's the one tapping for big amounts of mana plus something to sink all that mana into.
I took the primer decklist and just slammed the deck.
2 things worth mentioning:
It seems that collected company is the real payoff card of the deck.
I wish i could just have a 5th one because i just demanded it in some situations.
Sideboard:
What is Monastery Siege for? Burn?
It's a clunky card that doesn't seem to do so much on it's own.
Also the 4 Counterspells have been a bit too much.
I just wish to board in an all-around counter, but the most problematic things for this deck are Karn, Anger, Engineered Explosives, Liliana...
Monastery Siege is brought in against decks heavy with spot removal like BGx or Grixis. Early on it taxes their mana so they can only play a spell per turn and late in the game if you draw one, you can pick Khans to draw additional card on your draw step.
Thought-Knot Seer proved as a viable option in my limited testing with Eldritch Evolution back when it was spoiled. People simply weren't expecting an Eldrazi from an Elves deck.
I tested Unified Will and it served me well. Playing counterspells slows down our game plan a tad but they're generally played on the same turn as Thoughtseize to counter that nasty Anger/Damnation/Karn etc. So rather than going all in and dumping our hand, you play a little more conservatively to keep mana for counter up. Later on we're keeping mana up for Chord/CoCo anyway so they don't always know what might be coming.
As far as cards themselves go, unless your meta game is really creature heavy, I'd rather go for Negate than Unified Will. Creatures generally aren't a problem for us and they can mess with Unified Will if they lower our creature count in response to casting it. Another great early game option is Spell Pierce but this one loses effectiveness later in the game.
I just went 5-1 for a fourth place finish in a mid size event here in Japan. I used my sultai elves I have been working on for a while. My deck list will be posted on the Monthly Modern Masters site, so I will post my list on here once it's up. I will write a short report once I have a good nights rest. Didn't face many grindy matchups, but faced a lot of fast, linear strategies. I equipped my sultai list with Nissa to beat grindy matchups, but apparently, they weren't bad against fast decks either lol my testing has been that nissa actually helps us combo and become a turn 4 kill deck consistently, rather than hinder it. It has versatility and does some cool things. The main winner for going blue, however, was playing phantasmal image. It was probably the all star of the deck.
It's cool to see @Syreal94 back and rocking the world and see some results from elves decks. Keep the innovation going fellow elves! The deck is not dead at all!
Haven't thought about Phantasmal Image. We've got some ETB targets like Elite, Visionary and Shaman which is nice. Though if you get an Image and a Shaman off CoCo, Image won't see the Shaman since they're coming in at the same time. Would love to see your decklist, asap.
Two questions about the GB build (but also abzan)
first question: is Lost legacy a viable option? I was thinking to split with stain the mind, the reson being it's easier to cast in a more interacting matchup (you need 3 mana instead of any combination of 5 lands and creatures). The double black scares me a bit.
second question: in the fetch versions (in which i really rarely find myself without forest lands) Arbor Elf is a strictly better llanowar elves as it can tap for multiple colours (sometimes we will need to produce multiple black for Shaman of The Pack or black spells). Isn't it a better choice than boreal druid?
Double black would require 20 black sources to reliably cast on turn 2 or 19 to cast it by turn 3. That's more than out total land count so Lost Legacy sadly doesn't fit in our deck.
As for you second question, the only lands Arbor Elf is able to untap are basic Forests and a copy of Overgrown Tomb/Temple Garden. It doesn't work with Razorverge Thicket/Blooming Marsh/Gilt-Leaf Palace/Cavern of Souls/Horizon Canopy which makes it pretty useless as they usually represent our mana base.
So is throne decent sideboard material then? Would it be good to side in against non-fast aggro decks?
I'm not too sure I'd want to dedicate a SB slot for it. I like it as one copy in MB precisely because of the surprise factor in G1. But as I've said, it's a legendary artifact that we cannot tutor and it needs to come down as early as possible to maximise its effect while also relying on a board presence to increase its potency. It works against BGx/Grixis decks in those cases where neither player can favourably attack and we can drain them for 2-3 points each turn by tapping our mana dorks but both can remove it via Abrupt Decay/Kolaghan's Command.
Playing multiple copies to increase the odds of seeing one would in my opinion dilute our mainboard too much to warrant that.
Has anyone done anymore work on throne of the god pharaoh? If so how has it been performing?
Played with it as a one of in mainboard (Green-Black) and I've found myself sideboarding it out a lot. When it hits the board early, it can chip in nicely. But as Larriepogi said, too slow against aggro and other linear decks.
It's also legendary so having multiple copies to increases the odds of drawing one is negated by the fact that you can only have one copy on the battlefield.
I'll be updating the primer in the coming days. Lots of new information as well as new variations (RG, Jund etc.) to add
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
That's what I thought at first too. But I tried out GW and having a single copy of Vizier doesn't significantly dilute our elf base and in return it gives us the oops-I-win combo, especially in game 1. Devoted Druid's can also go infinite on their own with 2 of them and an Ezuri out.
I definitely miss Shaman but current metagame (at least my local one) is better suited for GW version rather than grindier GB. And like Larriepogi said, white sideboard options are plentiful.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
I tried out Eldritch Evolution when it was spoiled but instead of going for a sideboard like yours, I focused on turning 2CMC cards like Dwynen's Elite & Elvish Visionary into 4CMC threats like Chameleon Colossus, Thrun and even Thought-Knot Seer. Could be worth trying out again as there aren't many counterspells being played, at least in my local meta.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
I ran Mark of Asylum in my Abzan list for quite a while. My local meta game at the time was full of Jund, RG Tron, Jeskai with the odd Skred here and there. That meant lots of Bolts, Angers, Pyroclasms and other red damage based spells. Mark makes our elves immune to all those spells which is a huge advantage. It also works against creatures like Grim Lavamancer.
But with the printing of Fatal Push the meta game shifted as well with damaged based removal being far less prevalent than before. If that's the case with your meta game then you can easily skip Mark altogether.
@Mikeduges: Congratulations!
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Monastery Siege is brought in against decks heavy with spot removal like BGx or Grixis. Early on it taxes their mana so they can only play a spell per turn and late in the game if you draw one, you can pick Khans to draw additional card on your draw step.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
As far as cards themselves go, unless your meta game is really creature heavy, I'd rather go for Negate than Unified Will. Creatures generally aren't a problem for us and they can mess with Unified Will if they lower our creature count in response to casting it. Another great early game option is Spell Pierce but this one loses effectiveness later in the game.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Haven't thought about Phantasmal Image. We've got some ETB targets like Elite, Visionary and Shaman which is nice. Though if you get an Image and a Shaman off CoCo, Image won't see the Shaman since they're coming in at the same time. Would love to see your decklist, asap.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Double black would require 20 black sources to reliably cast on turn 2 or 19 to cast it by turn 3. That's more than out total land count so Lost Legacy sadly doesn't fit in our deck.
As for you second question, the only lands Arbor Elf is able to untap are basic Forests and a copy of Overgrown Tomb/Temple Garden. It doesn't work with Razorverge Thicket/Blooming Marsh/Gilt-Leaf Palace/Cavern of Souls/Horizon Canopy which makes it pretty useless as they usually represent our mana base.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
I'm not too sure I'd want to dedicate a SB slot for it. I like it as one copy in MB precisely because of the surprise factor in G1. But as I've said, it's a legendary artifact that we cannot tutor and it needs to come down as early as possible to maximise its effect while also relying on a board presence to increase its potency. It works against BGx/Grixis decks in those cases where neither player can favourably attack and we can drain them for 2-3 points each turn by tapping our mana dorks but both can remove it via Abrupt Decay/Kolaghan's Command.
Playing multiple copies to increase the odds of seeing one would in my opinion dilute our mainboard too much to warrant that.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW
Played with it as a one of in mainboard (Green-Black) and I've found myself sideboarding it out a lot. When it hits the board early, it can chip in nicely. But as Larriepogi said, too slow against aggro and other linear decks.
It's also legendary so having multiple copies to increases the odds of drawing one is negated by the fact that you can only have one copy on the battlefield.
WBG Elves WBG
Cheeri0s
EDH:
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage RG || GWUB Atraxa, Praetors' Voice GWUB
R Zo-Zu the Punisher R || WU Brago, King Eternal WU
UB Gisa and Geralf UB || BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW