Thank you. It’s interesting to see how diverse that 5-0 list is. Not many doubles at all. So this Jund Elf deck runs double Overgrown Tomb and a set of Gilt-Leaf Palace. Meanwhile, only runs 1 Stomping Ground. I’m sure it has something to do with that sidedeck of his and why he’s also running the Gnarlroot Trappers. The Trappers could make for some fun interactions, potentially forcing them to remove it first. Never thought I’d ever see it in modern! But it’s a pretty cool list and I’m happy to see it did well. Let the discussions commence!!
Just wanted to say grats on the top 16. GW Combo has definitely shown its strength through several top 8 finishes and players like yourself continue to prove that it's capable.
You'll find that at the moment BBE is the talk amongst us Elfies. The unbanning has given us a new avenue that most of us here are excited to explore. Incase you're wondering this is why you won't see much discussion on GW Combo. Feel free to chime in.
Interesting choice of cards. I see the strength of trapper but it weakens BBE and Coco hits by having that instead of visionaries. Aside from this Visionaries is MUCH more important in Jund because it doesn't run canopies for draw power.
2 Forest is also very risky against decks that runs Path or Blood Moon.
Interesting choice of cards. I see the strength of trapper but it weakens BBE and Coco hits by having that instead of visionaries. Aside from this Visionaries is MUCH more important in Jund because it doesn't run canopies for draw power.
2 Forest is also very risky against decks that runs Path or Blood Moon.
This is true. However, one of trapper doesn’t seem bad. I have run a ninth mana dork in my list for a while (for GB). I think ramping up to mana 4 becomes so vital, that hedging in the direction of “missed” BBE is not a bad thing.
Does Bloobraid make eldrich evolution viable? can use it to get her in play, and can also hit off her cascade.
I thought about Eldritch Evolution too. But decided the downsides outweighed the upsides. Hitting it on an empty battlefield for example. You would have no target to sac since cascade resolves first.
Just wanted to say grats on the top 16. GW Combo has definitely shown its strength through several top 8 finishes and players like yourself continue to prove that it's capable.
You'll find that at the moment BBE is the talk amongst us Elfies. The unbanning has given us a new avenue that most of us here are excited to explore. Incase you're wondering this is why you won't see much discussion on GW Combo. Feel free to chime in.
Thanks! I haven't scratched the surface much with bbe, but I am curious how y'all are trying to make it work with and/or without Collected Company. Obvs it doesn't work with Chord, which makes me a bit sad considering how much I enjoy casting that card. My chief concern with bbe, above all else, is that Elves is the worst of the "bbe" decks. Any cascade into a dork is essentially a miss, and even hitting dwynen's elite can be mediocre a lot of the time. In my mind, Jund is the best and most well known/solved "bbe" deck because it is clearly designed to make the card reach its maximum potential.
One of the greatest strengths of the Elves archetype, in my opinion, is aggresive flexibility; we utilize our mana advantage to adapt to whatever our opponents throw at us. In the aggro matchups we dig to one of our combos or just try and play a normal aggro gameplan if it seems feasable. Against combo decks we do the same, and against midrange decks we rely on redundancy and mana advantage to prevent our opponent from applying pressure (think ezuri/archdruid lock stuff), and then we in turn apply enough pressure to force our opponent to commit too many resources. Against control decks, we strike a middle ground where we apply enough pressure while leaving up ways to deal with potential boardwipes, as they are truly the only way for a control deck to beat any reasonable draw on our part. With bbe being integrated into the deck, I feel as though we become more one-dimensional, meaning that we are just another aggresive deck that doesn't race as well as other proactive strategies. We lose our toolbox capabilities along with our combo kill, which takes away two of our flexible parts. Then again, I might be wrong, and I would love to be wrong considering how much I actually like bbe from a gameplay perspective. Just some food for thought I guess
I've recently gotten back into Elves and was wondering what our matchups currently look like against the tier 1 and tier 2 decks? I'm mainly asking for the GW Version
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Decks Modern UGWRB Humans G Mono-Green Tron UWBR Ad Nauseam
*grumpy old man's voice* I don't understand what's the fuss with BBE, at best by hitting Lead the Stampede it's a slightly better Sylvan Messenger, and the second won't stretch our mana. *grumpy old man's voice*
Anyway, i'm back to a GW version with a splash of B for 3x Shaman of the Pack (almost as toolbox targets) - being able to have Stony silence, Rest in peace and whatnot in the sideboard is way better than any of the toolbox counterparts!
I don't actually mind using fetchlands and shocklands to support this plan to be consistent, the deck is super fun and has both a plan A (aggro/beatdown) and a plan B (druid + vizier/druid and ezuri combo), with plan C (grinding) made possible by 3x Shaman of the pack and 1x Eternal Witness (which is awesome against discard/targeted removal because it can reactivate either plan A or plan B once they're dealt with by the opponents: in fact it represents +1 of any card in the deck).
There is actually a plan D (surprise!) represented by Westvale Abbey.
All of these lines are backed up by a mainly GW sideboard with powerful hate cards and the option to go even more grindy (plan C, when plan A is difficult and plan B is shut down) with 2xlead the stampede and 1xshapers' sanctuary.
I'm finding this iteration of Abzan elves much more interesting than the usual GW version, and it has a ton of free wins!
Any chance you can post your list? I take it the one in your sig is out of date? I'm curious to see how your deck is structured.
I think their policy is no functional reprints of Reserved List cards.
Also a bear that's also an Elf Shroud Lord could easily push the deck way too far. All the cheap removal in the format is one of the biggest checks against everyone getting run over by Elf Balls.
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Playing UX Mana Denial until Modern gets the answers it needs.
WUBRG Humans BRW Mardu Pyromancer UW UW "Control" UR Blue Moon
Greetings everyone! Long time lurker and long time casual Elves player. Finally put together a deck for Modern, essentially the same as the list mikeintosh posted a few pages back. Basically a standard GW build splashing Shaman. Here's the list, planning to swap out a forest for a canopy once I get one.
Where I need advice is the regarding the sideboard. My local meta is Tron heavy (mostly G or R/G), with Jeskai also being popular, a couple of Abzan players, burn, and I'm expecting to see a lot of Jund now that BBE is unbanned. I don't have many reps with this deck so I'm still unsure of how to sideboard against these matchups.
So my questions for you more experienced players:
1) Is my sideboard missing any key cards against this field?
2) Am I running cards I don't need in my board?
3) Is it worth it maindecking anything from my board?
4) What should I be looking to board in against Jund/Jeskai/Tron and what to take out?
Thanks! Yeah, Revoker has been in and out of my board so, although there are affinity players around, they aren't as numerous as either Tron or Jeskai so I can probably cut one of Kataki/Gust for Revoker and a Path for the second Stony Silence. There is a guy at my LGS who occasionally brings Bogles but it's not a widely played deck. I should probably drop Eidolon for another Rest in Peace as well since Storm isn't really a big concern.
Busted out the old elves as a mental break from storm. I cut the two beast withins in the board for a second corrosion and the nissa. I have to say that I was extremely impressed. The deck seems to have gotten better positioned; I crushed Mardu Pyro zoo and Affinity, narrowly lost to GW Valuetown on a blindsided worship g2 and a topdecked linvala game 3 when I got mana screwed and relied on dorks (both were a one of in his deck). Although storm is still my main deck, Elves is good against what storm is unfavored in. Thus, I will probably be using the deck more than I thought !
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Gnarlroot Trapper seems odd. But I suppose the built in removal could be something.
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
Thank you. It’s interesting to see how diverse that 5-0 list is. Not many doubles at all. So this Jund Elf deck runs double Overgrown Tomb and a set of Gilt-Leaf Palace. Meanwhile, only runs 1 Stomping Ground. I’m sure it has something to do with that sidedeck of his and why he’s also running the Gnarlroot Trappers. The Trappers could make for some fun interactions, potentially forcing them to remove it first. Never thought I’d ever see it in modern! But it’s a pretty cool list and I’m happy to see it did well. Let the discussions commence!!
You'll find that at the moment BBE is the talk amongst us Elfies. The unbanning has given us a new avenue that most of us here are excited to explore. Incase you're wondering this is why you won't see much discussion on GW Combo. Feel free to chime in.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
Interesting choice of cards. I see the strength of trapper but it weakens BBE and Coco hits by having that instead of visionaries. Aside from this Visionaries is MUCH more important in Jund because it doesn't run canopies for draw power.
2 Forest is also very risky against decks that runs Path or Blood Moon.
GBRJund Elves
GWDevoted Elves
WDeath & Taxes
GWUBRHumans
EDH:
GTitania, Protector of Argoth
This is true. However, one of trapper doesn’t seem bad. I have run a ninth mana dork in my list for a while (for GB). I think ramping up to mana 4 becomes so vital, that hedging in the direction of “missed” BBE is not a bad thing.
BGElvesBG and BUGNissa ElvesBUG Faithful Elfer since May 1st, 2015
Results: SCG IQ Top 8, Monthly Modern Masters Top 4
I thought about Eldritch Evolution too. But decided the downsides outweighed the upsides. Hitting it on an empty battlefield for example. You would have no target to sac since cascade resolves first.
Thanks! I haven't scratched the surface much with bbe, but I am curious how y'all are trying to make it work with and/or without Collected Company. Obvs it doesn't work with Chord, which makes me a bit sad considering how much I enjoy casting that card. My chief concern with bbe, above all else, is that Elves is the worst of the "bbe" decks. Any cascade into a dork is essentially a miss, and even hitting dwynen's elite can be mediocre a lot of the time. In my mind, Jund is the best and most well known/solved "bbe" deck because it is clearly designed to make the card reach its maximum potential.
One of the greatest strengths of the Elves archetype, in my opinion, is aggresive flexibility; we utilize our mana advantage to adapt to whatever our opponents throw at us. In the aggro matchups we dig to one of our combos or just try and play a normal aggro gameplan if it seems feasable. Against combo decks we do the same, and against midrange decks we rely on redundancy and mana advantage to prevent our opponent from applying pressure (think ezuri/archdruid lock stuff), and then we in turn apply enough pressure to force our opponent to commit too many resources. Against control decks, we strike a middle ground where we apply enough pressure while leaving up ways to deal with potential boardwipes, as they are truly the only way for a control deck to beat any reasonable draw on our part. With bbe being integrated into the deck, I feel as though we become more one-dimensional, meaning that we are just another aggresive deck that doesn't race as well as other proactive strategies. We lose our toolbox capabilities along with our combo kill, which takes away two of our flexible parts. Then again, I might be wrong, and I would love to be wrong considering how much I actually like bbe from a gameplay perspective. Just some food for thought I guess
Modern
UGWRB Humans
G Mono-Green Tron
UWBR Ad Nauseam
Any chance you can post your list? I take it the one in your sig is out of date? I'm curious to see how your deck is structured.
2 mana forestwalk lord would be excellent
Is this a new era or empty hype? Is BBE actually playable here or a big flop?
Would like to know the consensus on it for sure.
Maybe a functional reprint of Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. It would be nice
I think their policy is no functional reprints of Reserved List cards.
Also a bear that's also an Elf Shroud Lord could easily push the deck way too far. All the cheap removal in the format is one of the biggest checks against everyone getting run over by Elf Balls.
WUBRG Humans
BRW Mardu Pyromancer
UW UW "Control"
UR Blue Moon
4 Devoted Druid
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Elvish Mystic
3 Nettle Sentinel
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Dwynen's Elite
1 Vizier of Remedies
3 Shaman of the Pack
4 Forest
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
Instant
4 Chord of Calling
4 Collected Company
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
2 Shapers' Sanctuary
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Fracturing Gust
3 Path to Exile
Where I need advice is the regarding the sideboard. My local meta is Tron heavy (mostly G or R/G), with Jeskai also being popular, a couple of Abzan players, burn, and I'm expecting to see a lot of Jund now that BBE is unbanned. I don't have many reps with this deck so I'm still unsure of how to sideboard against these matchups.
So my questions for you more experienced players:
1) Is my sideboard missing any key cards against this field?
2) Am I running cards I don't need in my board?
3) Is it worth it maindecking anything from my board?
4) What should I be looking to board in against Jund/Jeskai/Tron and what to take out?
Thanks everyone!
Green/White:
1x Elvish Champion
2x Essence Warden
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Kitchen Finks
1x Stony Silence
1x Burrenton Forge-Tender
4x Lead the Stampede
Black:
3x Toughtseize
2x Abrubt Decay
2x Dismember
2x Fatal Push
Artifact:
1x Phyrexian Revoker
Busted out the old elves as a mental break from storm. I cut the two beast withins in the board for a second corrosion and the nissa. I have to say that I was extremely impressed. The deck seems to have gotten better positioned; I crushed Mardu Pyro zoo and Affinity, narrowly lost to GW Valuetown on a blindsided worship g2 and a topdecked linvala game 3 when I got mana screwed and relied on dorks (both were a one of in his deck). Although storm is still my main deck, Elves is good against what storm is unfavored in. Thus, I will probably be using the deck more than I thought !