MTG Salvation

Quote from Tenshirou »

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

We did it! Lantern takes the PT.

Quote from Clouds95 »

Hey Guys,

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.

CoCo Elves is an aggro-combo deck that uses early mana acceleration to transform into an unstoppable elfball of death. So how does one turn a field of inconspicuous 1/1 creatures that tap for G into a possible turn 3 kill? You take all that mana and you turn it into a massive card advantage via cards such as Collected Company, Chord of Calling, Eldritch Evolution or Lead the Stampede. Use Ezuri, Renegade Leader to overrun your opponent with an army of trampling elves or completely skip the combat step and drain them via Shaman of the Pack. The versatility provided by these cards is what allows the deck to be consistent against a wide range of decks. The sideboard further provides access to additional silver bullets for specific matchups such as Melira for Infect, Kataki for Affinity, Selfless Spirit against boardwipes etc. or a variety of noncreature spells such as Thoughtseize, Dismember or Mark of Asylum.


Early versions of Elves used Cloudstone Curio as a combo piece along with Heritage Druid + Nettle Sentinel to generate infinite mana, Elvish Visionary to draw the entire deck and powerful beaters such as Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or Craterhoof Behemoth to finish the game. Some lists included Beck // Call to imitate Glimpse of Nature as well as now banned Green Sun's Zenith which has since been replaced by Chord of Calling. With the printing of Collected Company the deck shifted from its combo roots to the more aggro-combo orientated builds using Ezuri, Renegade Leader as finisher. Shortly after, Magic Origins brought us Dwynen's Elite and Shaman of the Pack which have both found their new homes in many lists played these days.

PROS:

• Resilience - Boardwipes can be tough but Elves have the ability to rebuild with cards like Collected Company, Elvish Visionary and Lead the Stampede. Once you're experienced with the deck, you know how to play around them and minimize the losses.
• Explosive - If left unattended we can quickly flood the board and overrun via Ezuri or drain via Shaman of the Pack.
• Linear - All games follow the same game plan. Reach the critical mass of Elves and get your opponent down to 0 life. Outside of Reclamation Sage or Spellskite, there is almost no interaction with your opponent in pre-sideboard games.
• Cheap to build. Cavern of Souls, Horizon Canopy and fetch lands are the most expensive cards but deck works perfectly fine without them.
• Synergy - Almost all of our cards have some sort of interaction with one another. Archdruid buffs our army and provides mana for each elf we control. All our creatures have CMC3 or less which increases the potency of Company. Heritage Druid turns elves with summoning sickness into mana. By taking advantage of these interactions we maximize our chances of winning.

CONS:

• Linear - As mentioned under Pros, you follow the same game plan every game which can get stale after a while.
• Mass removal spells doom - Cards like Anger of the Gods, Pyroclasm, Damnation etc. aim to hit as many elves as possible which makes rebuilding more difficult and affects how you approach the game to minimize the fallout.
• Math & skill intensive - Much like Infect, a lot of games will end with one big swing or drain for the win. This means you need to carefully evaluate the current board state. Is your opponent tapped out? How many Lightning Bolts has he played this game? Are there any combat tricks you need to look out for? Failure to acknowledge these things can turn a "sure victory" into a blowout.
• Weak against Combo - Because of our linear game plan, we are weak against combo decks. Chord of Calling and Thoughtseize can alleviate some of these problems but you need them in your opening hand or it can be too late.

Core:
Llanowar Elves & Elvish Mystic - These two represent our typical Turn 1 play and allow us to generate 3 mana on Turn 2. Some lists also use additional copies of Boreal Druid or Elves of the Deep Shadow.

Heritage Druid - Unlike its "T: Add G to your mana pool." brothers it doesn't do anything on its own. However its strength stems from the synergy with every other Elf card in our deck turning them into mana generators even if they have summoning sickness. This allows plays such as Turn 1: Heritage Druid, Turn 2: Dwynen's Elite then tap Heritage + Dwynen's Elite + Token to generate GGG and play something like Elvish Archdruid or Ezuri.

Elvish Archdruid - The mana producing engine of our deck. Provides 1 mana for each elf we have in play as well as buffing our team for +1/+1. Play him as early as possible to kickstart the elfball.

Nettle Sentinel - At first it might look like a vanilla 2/2 with pseudo-vigilance and most of the time it's just that. The reason for its inclusion is the pairing with Heritage Druid. Imagine a situation where you have Heritage and two Sentinels on the board. You tap them for GGG and play something like Elvish Visionary. You're left with G, Sentinels untap and you draw a [card]Collected Company off Visionary. Tap the Visionary and both untapped Sentinels for GGG and use the leftover G from before to cast your newly drawn Company. You get the picture.
However keep in mind that if it's tapped and you don't follow up with a green spell, it will remain tapped and therefore unable to attack, block or be tapped for mana. Because the card only shines when paired with Heritage Druid, you might see some lists that don't run the Sentinels at all.

Elvish Visionary - One of the weaknesses of the deck is running out of gas and this is where Visionary comes in. With the card draw stapled to a 1/1 body it serves both as card advantage and board presence.

Coiling Oracle - If you're running U, you can pick Oracle over Visionary. Oracle reveals the top card whereas Visionary just draws it but if we hit a land, Oracle ramps us and thus thins our library while still allowing us to play a land for the turn if we haven't already. It's mana requirement is also a tad trickier but with proper mana base, it shouldn't be a problem.

Dwynen's Elite - Three power spread across over 2 bodies for mere 1G is as good as it gets. Can be used with Heritage Druid to provide GGG on Turn 2 and is basically free to play with an untapped Archdruid on the board. Requires another elf on the board to generate the token which means if Elite hits an empty board, you'll only get a vanilla 2/2.


Tutors & Card Advantage:
Collected Company - The one and only, the Company. This was the missing piece that pushed Elves into the competitive territory. For a mere 3G we get to see 6 cards and put two creatures on the battlefield at instant speed. Running 30 or more creatures with 3CMC or less gives us at least 90% chance of hitting two of them. Magic is a game of variance though, so be prepared for the godly Archdruid + Ezuri hit or a complete whiff.

Chord of Calling - Tutor effects are one of the most powerful effects in Magic allowing you to grab a specific card depending on the situation at hand. Board full of elves with lots of available mana, but nothing to spend it on? Grab an Ezuri. Opponent controls Sylvan Caryatid and Worship which renders your attacks useless. No problem, grab a Shaman of the Pack and drain them. Flexibility is the key. Convoke allows us to tap any untapped creature even if it has summoning sickness. Mana cost depends on the CMC of the creature we're after. The downside is that leaving elves untapped for Convoke means we're losing out on the potential damage from combat step but that it usually offset by the advantage of the creature we're tutoring up for. A more detailed look into different silver bullets can be found here.

Eldritch Evolution - The newest addition from Eldritch Moon comes in a slightly different form than Chord. The cost is always 1GG compared to the variable cost of Chord which depends on the CMC of the target. However the CMC of the creature we're tutoring depends on the CMC of the sacrificed creature. So if we want to grab a Shaman, we cannot tutor it up by sacrificing a token (their CMC is 0) and if we want to grab something like Chameleon Colossus, we cannot do it by sacrificing an Elvish Mystic or Nettle Sentinel. Because of the additional cost it's also useless with an empty board and especially vulnerable against counters since they present a 2-for-1 situation.
On the other hand because it only costs 3 mana, we can use it as early as Turn 2. Remember the Heritage Druid + Dwynen's Elite interaction we mentioned earlier? Evolution gives us the option of having a 4CMC threat as early as Turn 2 by tapping them for GGG, casting Evolution and sacrificing the Elite.

Lead the Stampede - Certain decks pack a lot of spot removal and even board wipes which makes it very hard to punch through especially after we've emptied our hand. Lead is another tool at our disposal that digs 5 cards deep and puts all creatures in our hand. With 30 creatures we have 50% chance of hitting 3 or more creatures which is pretty good for 3 mana. Note that unlike Company, it doesn't advance our board position so it's less effective against aggro decks.

Sylvan Messenger - 2/2 trample with a similar effect to the Lead except it only digs 4 cards deep and only hits Elves which can work against us if we're looking for non-elf silver bullet. Doesn't get hit by Company.


Win Conditions:
Ezuri, Renegade Leader - This is how we turn our small army of lowly 1/1 dorks into a trampling horde capable of alpha striking for the win. A typical scenario involves 3 random elves, Ezuri and an Archdruid. Tap Archdruid for GGGGG and attack for 21 damage. Voila! The ability to regenerate other elves is just a cherry on top, but can be very relevant as it allows us to stall the board and chump block without losing any creatures.

Shaman of the Pack - Sometimes winning via combat doesn't work. Either due to clogged board or some other effect that prevents us from attacking (Ghostly Prison, Worship etc.). Shaman allows us to win out of nowhere while completely skipping the attack phase. Its enters-the-battlefield ability is life loss which means it ignores the effects that care about damage or prevent it.

Mirror Entity - It's 2W casting cost makes it more suitable for Green-White (GW) or Abzan (WBG) builds. It's not a finisher in the same way that Ezuri or Shaman are since it lacks evasion, but it can serve as a mana sink later in the game which can be enough to push through.

Nissa, Steward of Elements - Newest toy from Amonkhet which is pushing some BUG lists. What makes her attractive is her variable mana cost and her abilities that are all very relevant. Scry is very important as it filters our deck and gets rid of the undesirable cards. The deck is already built around Collected Company meaning that we only need her on 3 loyalty when we use her second ability. This can be easily achieved by playing her on turn 2, ticking her up for scry then using her 0 on turn 3 to advance our board even more. Where she really shines is when we have 8 mana at our disposal. Turning two lands into 5/5 flying haste creatures can easily close a game. Because of her X casting cost, she is a relevant threat at all times and much like other planeswalkers, needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Throne of the God-Pharaoh - Similar effect as Shaman of the Pack except it wants tapped creatures. You can use Heritage Druid to tap our board for mana at the end of main phase even if we don't have anything to cast. The earlier it hits the board, the more value it provides.


Flexible slots:
Most lists operate with 2-3 flexible slots that are filled depending on the meta game in that particular area or personal preference of the player. The cards listed below are the ones most widely used, but feel free to experiment with anything you might see fit. If it works for you and you know why the card is there, go for it!

Reclamation Sage - There are many problematic artifacts and enchantments in Modern and having a tutorable 2/1 body with such effect can turn the tide of the battle. Hits cards such as Inkmoth Nexus, Grafdigger's Cage, Engineered Explosives, anything played by Affinity, Spreading Seas etc.

Chameleon Colossus - With 4/4 it passes the dreaded Lightning Bolt test and with Protection from Black it dodges most of the common Modern removal like Dismember, Terminate and Fatal Push. Decks like Grixis or Jund can have a very tough time removing it and it's activated ability provides a very fast clock.

Essence Warden - Our very own Soul's Attendant. Extremely effective against Burn or creature heavy decks like Merfolk. Negates the life loss of fetchlands and shocklands.

Elvish Champion - Buffs our army like Archdruid but instead of mana it gives them Forestwalk. Great against decks playing Forests such as Abzan or Jund. Be careful in mirror match as it buffs all elves on the board, not just ours.

Scavenging Ooze - Very effective against any graveyard strategies such as Dredge or any Snapcaster Mage shenanigans. Turns our dead elves into life and +1/+1 counters.

Eternal Witness - Another non-elf but with a very powerful Regrowth effect attached to it. Hitting one off Company can return the Company back to our hand for another go.

Selfless Spirit - A recent addition from Eldritch Moon that offers protection from board wipes. Replaced Dauntless Escort.

Spellskite - One of the best non-elf cards that protects our board or life total if necessary. Can be used proactively to protect our elves against spot removal or reactively against combo decks like Infect or Scapeshift.

Narnam Renegade - Newest addition from Aether Revolt. Good choice if you're facing creature heavy decks. If you manage to activate Revolt, it's a 2/3 with deathtouch meaning it can kill any two power creature and trade with anything else like Tarmogoyf, Gurmag Angler or even Reality Smasher.


Lands:
Cavern of Souls - Turns off counterspells and helps in multicoloured builds that rely on creatures. Less useful with noncreature heavy sideboards since it doesn't provide coloured mana for them.

Horizon Canopy - Quite expensive but well worth the price. The ability to recycle it later in the game for another card is exactly what this deck needs when it runs out of gas.

Gilt-Leaf Palace - Untapped source of GB mana 99% of the time.

Blooming Marsh - Kaladesh brought us the much needed fast land option that fits perfectly in Green-Black (GB) or Abzan (WBG) builds.

Botanical Sanctum - With Amonkhet's arrival and possible Sultai (BUG) lists gaining traction, it's a must have.

Razorverge Thicket - Same as above except for Green-White (GW) or Abzan (WBG) builds.

Pendelhaven - Lots of our early drops are 1/1. This can turn them into formidable blockers against all 2-power cards like Snapcaster Mage, Dark Confidant, Goblin Guide etc.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Can provide serious amounts of mana to sink into an Ezuri or Entity but it comes with a big downside of not tapping for G. Some lists run two of these which allows us to tap the first one, get the mana, play the second one and get even more mana. Unfortunately it can also lead to opening hands with Nykthos as the only land which is not something we want.

Westvale Abbey - Like Nykthos it doesn't tap for G but has the advantage of turning 5 of our creatures into a huge flying, indestructible, haste, lifelink 9/7 monster that can win games on the spot. Weak only against decks running Path to Exile or bounce spells such as Vapor Snag or Cryptic Command.

Overgrown Tomb & Temple Garden - Fetchable shock lands that help with mana fixing especially in Abzan (WBG) lists.

Verdant Catacombs, Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills, Misty Rainforest - Standard set of fetchlands, any one of them can grab a Forest or previously mentioned shock lands.

Llanowar Wastes & Brushland - Budget options for multicoloured (GB, GW, WBG) lists.



Picking your 15 sideboard cards is very important so make sure you pick the right cards. Choices depend on your metagame and your playstyle. Whatever you pick, make sure you evaluate each card and the reasons for its inclusion. Does it cover a wide variety of decks or just one? Does it tip an unfavourable matchup in your favour? Feel free to experiment and report back your findings.


Silver bullets:
This section will focus mostly on the one-of creature cards that can be tutored for using Chord of Calling or Eldritch Evolution. They can be played in the Lead versions as well but without the tutor effect, you don't have access to them on the spot so they're less effective.

Green:
Melira, Sylvok Outcast - Strong against Infect and Affinity (Inkmoth Nexus). While it completely negates Inkmoth Nexus, both Glistener Elf and Blighted Agent are still threats except they deal regular damage.

Thrun, the Last Troll - Very effective against any control decks especially Jeskai Control or lists that are creature light.

Loaming Shaman - Flexible answer against a variety of graveyard interacting decks. Returns all the lands, Dredge cards and those pesky Prized Amalgams back to their library. Also works against GBx to shrink Goyfs and flood their deck with fetchlands, and prevent Grixis from delving for their Tasigur. You can use it defensively against mill to shuffle milled cards back into our deck.

White:
Kataki, War's Wage - Strong against Affinity, Lantern Control and any other decks that rely heavily on artifacts.

Aven Mindcensor - Often used in Green-White (GW) to prevent the opponent from effectively tutoring. Works on any card that searches their library (eg. Fetchlands, Chord of Calling, Nahiri, Sylvan Scrying etc.)

Eidolon of Rhetoric - Helps against decks that plan to cast multiple spells per turn such as Storm and Infect. Useful against Ad Nauseam as it prevents them from going off. The effect is symmetric so be careful to drop it after you've dumped your hand.

Burrenton Forge-Tender - Serves to protect our board against red based boardwipes such as Anger of the Gods, Pyroclasm etc. Very effective against Burn, but keep in mind that Skullcrack and other effects with "can't be prevented" negate its Protection from Red ability.

Black:
Yixlid Jailer - Mainly brought in against Dredge. Forces them to have Abrupt Decay, Darkblast or other removal in their hand and shuts down their dredging strategy.

Multicoloured & Colorless:
Anafenza, the Foremost - Passes the Bolt test, can be played on Turn 2 and its creature exiling ability is great against decks that rely on graveyard as a resource. Examples include Goryo's Vengeance, Abzan Company (Kitchen Finks) and especially Dredge. Can be tutored on T2 via Eldritch Evolution.

Athreos, God of Passage - This is an odd one because of the colour requirement but most of the time you're going to be Chording for it to protect your board. Because of its colours it's also very hard to remove him as we'll never reach the devotion to turn it into a creature. Its ability provides the opponent with a choice of either returning the killed elf back into our hand or them losing 3 life. While the effects that let an opponent choose aren't generally considered good, because they will always pick the option that we don't want, this one can work in our favour based on the fact that our mana curve is really low. We want to hit the critical mass of elves and them letting us put 2-3 dorks back into our hand rather than paying 6-9 life simply means we will recast them and reestablish our board presence.

Kitchen Finks - Shines versus Burn and creature heavy decks where we can use it as a chump blocker. Can be shut down by Grafdigger's Cage.

Phyrexian Revoker - Pithing Needle on a stick. Use it to shut down planeswalkers (Chord for it in response to Ugin/Karn against Tron), stop combos (Lightning Storm against Ad Nauseam, Viscera Seer against Abzan Company) or any other activated ability that might threaten your board (Oblivion Stone, Engineered Explosives etc.)

Gaddock Teeg - Certain decks rely on powerful noncreature finishers to close the game. These include Karn Liberated, Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and even sweepers like Damnation or Wrath of God to stop our elven army. Gaddock deals completely shuts down these threats and needs to be dealt with first, before they can advance their plans. Yes, it shuts down our own Company and Chord, but the protection gained can outweigh that. Especially since we have access to Lead the Stampede and Eldritch Evolution which both work even with Gaddock on the field.


Non-creature Spells:
While these spells lack the accessibility of being tutorable, their effects are powerful enough to sway the tide of the battle in our favour. Playing Thoughtseize to take away that Damnation or using Stain the Mind to get rid of Scapeshift can turn the game around in our favour..

Black:
Dismember - Very efficient removal spell that deals with all the major threats in Modern such as Tasigur, Angler, Restoration Angel and even Tarmogoyf if it doesn't grow too much. The biggest advantage over Path to Exile is its mana cost even though you'll be paying 4 life along with 1 most of the time.

Thoughtseize - Elves are weak against disruption especially in the form of boardwipes. Spending early turns establishing board presence only to be wiped clean by Anger of the Gods, Supreme Verdict, Damnation or Ugin is something you want to avoid at all costs. B and 2 life to get the information about your opponents hand as well as getting rid of the biggest threats is a low price to pay compared to the potential blowout. Keep in mind that most of the spells mentioned come into play on Turn 3 or 4 so make sure you don't fire it off too early. You can read more about Thoughtseize and how to effectively use it, here.

Stain the Mind - Mainly used against Combo decks to take away their combo pieces. At 4B it's more expensive than other cards with the similar effect but since we go wide it benefits from Convoke just like Chord of Calling.

Fatal Push - Black always lacked premium removal at 1CMC. For B it hits all the relevant threats in Modern. If we can enable Revolt it even deals with cards like Kalitas. And most importantly it also hits manlands which is something Abrupt Decay had problems dealing with.

Prowess of the Fair - It's an elf which means it can be tapped for mana by Heritage Druid, works with Archdruid and can be hit off Sylvan Messenger. Good against grindier matchups with lots of spot removal by replacing all our killed nontoken elves with 1/1 elf tokens. Due to being an enchantment it can be very hard to remove for some decks such as Grixis or Jeskai Control.

White:
Path to Exile - Permanently deals with any creature that doesn't have Hexproof or Protection from White but it does give your opponent a land in the process. Due to W casting cost it's best suited for Green-White (GW) or Abzan (WBG) lists.

Mark of Asylum - Lightning Bolt is the most played card in Modern and a major threat to every single one of our creatures. Mark completely negates any damage based spells and is therefore very effective against all decks running such removal especially those with Anger of the Gods or Pyroclasm.

Rest in Peace - The best option against all decks that use graveyard as a resource. It provides an immediate value once it hits the board. Kills Snapcaster Mage shenanigans, turns off Delve, shrinks Tarmogoyf to a lowly 0/1 etc.

Green:
Creeping Corrosion - 1 mana cheaper than Gust but only hits artifacts and at sorcery speed.

Choke - If you're running into a lot of decks running blue, this can be a good answer against them by taking away all their Island based blue sources. Hits basic lands as well as other lands with the Island subtype like shock lands or recently introduced BFZ lands (eg. Prairie Stream).

Fecundity - Turns all your opponents non-exiling removal into card draw for us and replaces our potential chump blockers into a new card. However the effect is symmetrical which means your opponent will get to draw cards when their creatures die. Good against various control decks that pack lots of spot removal.

Nissa, Vital Force - Planeswalkers are generally harder to deal with than creatures. Most of her power comes from her +1 which turns a land into 5/5 creature with haste until our next turn. She can protect itself or present a very fast clock. Her -3 allows us to get back important cards like Ezuri or Shaman of the Pack. We're light on lands so her ultimate isn't important to us.

Blue:
Unified Will - Running U opens up counterspells. Elves aren't generally known for running them so they can catch your opponent off guard. Because they require us to keep mana up, it means decks running them are played a little slower depending on the timing of the spell we want to counter. Usually it's a boardwipe or annoying cards like Karn Liberated or Ad Nauseam. Bring them against combo decks and those light on creatures to turn Unified Will into a hard counter.

Multicoloured & Colorless:
Fracturing Gust - Instant speed answer against artifacts and enchantments with an added bonus of gaining 2 life per destroyed permanent. Shines against Affinity and Bogles.

Wheel of Sun and Moon - Another choice against decks that interact with graveyard such as Dredge or Mill. Don't use it against decks with spot removal as it will simply return all the cast spells back into their library, ready to be drawn and used again.

Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Running out of gas is one of the weaknesses of the deck. While Bestiary doesn't do anything when it hits the board, the scry it provides on the following turns gives us some card selection before each draw step. With our curve also being reasonably low, we can turn every 1 drop into an Elvish Visionary.



While our core is consistent across all versions, you can customize your deck by splashing different colours without diluting the main plan. This is what makes CoCo Elves so versatile and allows us to adapt depending on the expected metagame and your preferred playstyle. It should be noted that in the hands of an experienced pilot, all variations are perfectly viable. Mono Green (G) is the cheapest to build with no constraints on your mana. Green-Black (GB) provides the reach via Shaman of the Pack and helps disrupt combo by using Thoughtseize and/or Stain the Mind, Green-White (GW) is generally known for its powerful sideboard cards which can often allow us to win game we had no business winning and Abzan (WGB) brings out the best of both worlds. Because there is no definitive answer on which version to play, we'll list each of them with their pros and cons and let you decide.


Mono Green is the most budgeted version of elves. However, its playstyle is streamlined to be as fast as possible and usually prefers to get a critical mass of elves and win through an Ezuri, Renegade Leader overrun, or a massive Craterhoof Behemoth hitting the board.

Pros:
Without lands like Cavern of Souls and Horizon Canopy elves is a rather cheap yet effective deck for the modern format. Even lands like Gilt-Leaf Palace, as well as shock and fetch-lands can add up in price rather quickly. The deck may run smoother with them, but you can always work your way towards them over time.

Due to being mono coloured, you won't run into problems of not having specific colour available when needed. There is still some number of nonbasic lands so Blood Moon can cause problems in some cases but it's much easier to play around than in multicoloured lists.

Cons:
Mono-green really lacks the strengths of both GW and GB. Without Shaman of the Pack you are heavily reliant on the combat phase and fizzle to decks like Lantern Control or other prison decks. Without white, you also don't have access to the silver bullets it offers and are therefore weaker in certain situations.




There are those who might find it curious to opt to play GB Elves when a plethora of builds and sideboard options exist in the GW category. And to an extent, they would be correct in casting doubt on this seemingly result-less build of our beloved Elves. But, to the comfort of us who love this style of Elves, there are ample examples of top 8s piloting this style. One simply must look beyond the border.

Pros:
One card rules them all, one card to find them, one card to take them all and in the darkness bind them. Shaman of the Pack is the single most vital reason to run a build in GB. It gives reach, consistency and a higher concentration of win-conditions to our deck. With a straight GW build, the lack of Shaman is felt in its inability to adjust to the situation. A single Ensnaring Bridge suddenly becomes a big blow and multiples a game loss. With Shaman, the deck can win without the combat step and often times, at instant speed. GB gives Shaman of the Pack ample space to shine and give the deck the punch it needs to plough through for a win where otherwise would be difficult.

With the introduction of Blooming Marsh, GB Elves now has access to twelve sources of painless mana. Gilt-Leaf Palace has been touted as one of the better mana base for Elves and it doesn't disappoint. There are few times when we don't have Elves in our hand and when we don't we are operating with many sources of mana with our mana Elves that a land coming in to play tapped hardly affects our strategy.

Though not the sole savior of the GB build, Thoughtseize gives the GB build (with its mana base and with Shaman) the icing that this cake sorely needs. Its versatility, price point of the spell and its proactivity gives this one mana discard the needed information, application and malleability to become the catch all it needs to battle any deck GB Elves struggle against. A sweeper? No problem. A large monster like Ugin? Discard it. Though not at instant speed, the 1 mana price point gives us the flexibility to cast it without the mana, bodies or bullets. All it requires is black mana, which gives the GB deck an edge to other builds.
Complementing Thoughtseize is Stain the Mind to take away the problematic combo pieces such as Ad Nauseam, Scapeshift or even Ezuri in the mirror matchup.

Cons:
Without access to W, you miss out on cards like Stony Silence, Mark of Asylum, Selfless Spirit, Aven Mindcensor or Path to Exile.







GW runs almost exclusively like a combo deck attempting to assemble Elvish Archdruid and Ezuri, Renegade Leader with the help of Collected Company and Chord of Calling. It also has a selection of silver-bullets to run against some of the more troublesome decks in the format.

Pros:
Cards like Kataki, War's Wage, Aven Mindcensor, Eidolon of Rhetoric and Selfless Spirit are the main appeal of GW Elves. These cards can turn challenging matches around quickly if played at the right moments. With the help and consistency of Collected Company and Chord of Calling, these moments happen much more often. With playing Chord, even green targets such as Reclamation Sage for troublesome artifacts and enchantments and Elvish Champion against green decks can be utilized much easier. GW gets help from Horizon Canopy which can replace itself when you become flooded or just need a little more gas. Lastly, GW Elves can play a selection of non-creature white permanents which can be incredibly strong against the right decks. Rest in Peace, Stony Silence and Mark of Asylum can stop many decks and are easily played with a heavier white splash.

Cons:
Although GW has much greater utility and can interact with your opponent, it still requires combat to finish the game. It relies heavily on sticking an Ezuri for lethal swings because it cannot play Craterhoof Behemoth as easily as mono-green.




Abzan Elves attempts to take the pros of both GW and GB elves and put them together. It has the power of Shaman of the Pack and utility creatures together with Chord of Calling, allowing it to be very versatile in its matches.

Pros:
Chord of Calling and Collected Company blend GW and GB almost seamlessly. Hitting your silver-bullet creature off of Collected Company in the nick of time or Chording for that lethal Shaman give you the option to play the card you need, when you need it.

Cons:
The downside of Abzan Elves is the mana-base. You either have to run a painful mana-base of fetches and shocks, or you have to trim what cards you have of the splash colors. Cards like Thoughtseize may be easy in GB, but it can be inconsistent in Abzan.




As mentioned in the introduction, lists with U are nothing new. But those lists focused on the combo approach using Cloudstone Curio and Beck//Call to go off. This one takes a different route. Amonkhet brought us Nissa, Steward of Elements along with Throne of the God-Pharaoh which provide two more ways of winning the game. As the lists are still being playtested and adjusted, the PRO & CONS columns are missing at the moment and we're only including a sample list.

Pros:
Coming soon...

Cons:
Coming soon...





For sample decklists for each version, check the section above. More can be found on websites like MTG Top8.
Below are lists from elf players here at MTG Salvation. Note that each players deck is tuned for their own expected meta game. Ask away if you have questions about any specific card choices or just the decks direction in general.




Okay, now that you've absorbed all the technical information about the deck and its variations, you're almost ready to go. This section will cover those little tricks that might not be obvious, but could tip the scales in your favour and give you the chance to squeeze the maximum out of your cards.

Mirror Entity
Use it's X ability for 0 in response to an opponents Living End. This will turn your entire board into 0/0 creatures, sending them off to the graveyard. Living End then brings them right back to life. Note that this only work if you have no more than one Lord effect in play.

It's changeling granting ability also comes in handy versus Merfolk if they have a Lord of Atlantis on the board. Since it gives +1/+1 and Islandwalk to all creatures on the field, you can use this to your advantage to buff your creatures and give them evasion (unless the Merfolk player has no Islands in play).

Shaman of the Pack
Shaman is a very complex card and you should know how to utilize it to its fullest potential. If you cast Collected Company and get both a Dwynen's Elite and Shaman from it, you should know how to stack your triggers. Put the Shaman trigger on the stack first and then the trigger from Dwynen's. Since both entered the battlefield at the same time you get to arrange the triggers however you like. Dwynen's will resolve first seeing another elf on the battlefield (the Shaman) putting an elf token into play and then the Shaman trigger will resolve seeing the token elf, draining your opponent for one extra life.

If you have the Shaman in your hand and either a Collected Company or Chord of Calling you should cast the Shaman first, then hold priority with its trigger on the stack. Proceed by casting Collected Company putting up to four (2x Dwynen's Elite) additional elves onto the battlefield or even another Shaman for a quick and unexpected win. You can do the same by casting Chord with Shamans trigger on the stack to grab another Shaman for double life loss.

Collected Company
Casting Collected Company isn't easy. Sometimes it's correct to cast it in combat, sometimes in a main phase, and sometimes on your opponent's end step. This depends on the deck you are playing against and will be different every game. I can't give you an end-all-be-all answer, but I can provide some guidance.

The key observation is the juxtaposition of risk and reward. The reward of casting Collected Company pre-combat is additional damage. The risk is, if you don't affect combat, your opponent now has much more information regarding your next turn. They can plan accordingly.

So when does the reward outweigh the risk? When there is a reasonable probability that you can represent lethal damage, you should cast it on your main phase. It is also important to look a full turn ahead. Sometimes finding an Elvish Archdruid or Shaman of the Pack doesn't kill them this turn but should next turn. This is another reason to use Collected Company to affect combat.

Matchups with a lot of interaction are ones where you want to play your Collected Company on their end step. Think of the ways your opponent will respond to the different outcomes. Can they beat an Ezuri, Renegade Leader? It can be better to wait until your opponent's end step to increase the probability they tap out in case Ezuri is in your top six cards.

The last factor that affects when to cast Collected Company is your mana. A very common situation is that you have Collected Company in hand and a couple of other things to do with your mana, such as Lead the Stampede or Elvish Archdruid. Here you cast Collected Company on your main phase: if you find a copy of Heritage Druid, you can cast both spells!

Heritage Druid
People who have played against Elves before will know that this card is too powerful to let go unanswered. A resolved Heritage Druid with 2 other elves on the battlefield spells disaster for your opponent and often leads to very degenerate turns, especially if you have a Nettle Sentinel or two in play. That is why most experienced players will kill the elf on sight. And this is where the tip comes in: play your Druid second! Cast your Dwynen's, Mystics, Llanowars and what have yous before you cast Heritage. This will force your opponent's hand to spend a removal spell on something that isn't your Heritage, effectively saving it.

This is the correct play 95% of the time. You might want to cast Heritage to bait out their removal if you have another in your hand or if there are other elves you want to save and are able to cast them without the help of Heritage.

Nettle Sentinel
Nettle Sentinel's best use is as a combo enabler (Nettle Sentinel + Heritage Druid = insane mana) since it can help you chain your elves together and Chord of Callings/Lead The Stampedes/Collected Companies. You can attack with it and in your second main phase cast a green spell untapping your Sentinel and leaving him as a blocker. And since nearly all spells in our deck are green, he'll be spending most of his battlefield time untapped.

The best way to chain your elves with Nettle Sentinel and Heritage Druid, is to make it a priority to cast your one drops first, using your one drops and the now untapped Nettle Sentinels again with Heritage Druid to produce more mana and so on and so forth until you have an Ezuri and/or an Elvish Archdruid in play. Sometimes (especially with Lead the Stampede builds) you'll be able to dig for so many elves that you won't know what to do with them and casting a Shaman will usually win you the game on the spot (provided you have enough black mana open).

Sideboarding with GB Elves may be one of the more difficult things to do, which in turn scares away potential proponents of this type of build. By the sheer fact of using spells rather than creatures, a player risks diluting the deck from its well-oiled engine to a clunky hodge podge of a deck that attempts to be midrange, but never quite make it. Since, a comprehensive sideboarding guide is near impossible with so many variables and changing situations, a mere guide is given in the following section.

This is the list of Tier 1 and Tier 2 decks we will be using to evaluate sideboards.

Tier 1: Jund, Affinity, Bant Eldrazi, Dredge, Burn, Infect, Abzan (Junk)
Tier 2: Grixis Delver, Death & Taxes, Ad Nauseam, Merfolk, Abzan Company, RG Titan Scapeshift, Zoo, RG Tron, Jeskai Nahiri, Death's Shadow Zoo


Specific Sideboarding Guide
In this section, we will highlight some key cards to bring in versus certain matchups and cards to take out. Again, note that this is a mere guide and thus, any specific instances must be evaluated by the individual and tested to improve accuracy.

In this experiment, we will assume an environment ripe with fast, linear aggressive decks on the one hand and a grindy, lightning bolt heavy control/midrange decks on the other. The following are the decks that we will assume present in the specific meta.

Jund, Affinity, Burn, Infect, Grixis Control, GW Tron, RG Titanshift

We will equip our deck to beat the grindy decks in our game 1 and strengthen our advantage in games 2 and 3. We will also rely heavily on the sideboard to combat the linear aggressive decks we cannot beat game 1, such as Infect and Affinity.



We will use the above generic example of a GB Elves deck for this metagame. The author chose Lead the Stampede for the following reasons.
1) The grindy matchups only get harder after sideboard. Winning game 1 is important and possible.
2) Though the versatility of the deck may take a hit, the speed of the deck hardly makes a difference between chord and non-chord versions, especially when abundant mana is available.
3) Game 2 and 3 against linear decks are either 1) speed dependent or 2) heavily relying on sideboard, that diluting the deck with bullets for game 1 is hardly worth the inconsistencies that come with it.
Although the sideboard guide will change if a Chord version is preferred, we encourage all forms of Elves and exploration of different builds.

The above examples should be considered merely as examples. Each player's playstyle will differ and results will vary according to how one plays. However, one thing that can be made certain is Thoughtseize's universal and general appeal. Although difficult to master, once it has been harnessed, it can be the tool that makes GB Elves compete with GW or Abzan. Now, it is you the reader that should add to this and make GB Elves a powerhouse it deserved to be.

In conclusion, sideboarding with GB is tricky and one must simply practice in order to know how to sideboard, when to sideboard, and how to use them. It is especially important to understand that, unlike their white sideboard brethren, black sideboard cards are not used to provide an answer for the enemy's strategy. They are used as a roadblock, to buy us the turn or two we need to achieve our plan A (or B with Shaman). A good illustration is found in Legacy. RUG Delver uses the card Stifle as a tempo advantage, to give it the needed turn or two to beat down with Tarmogoyf or Delver of Secrets. Using Stifle in the wrong timing will result in the deck losing to a plethora of cards that are better pound for pound than Stifle. But, used correctly, it gives RUG Delver the needed tempo advantage. Thoughtseize does the same thing. It doesn't stop the enemy's plan entirely, but it does give our deck the needed edge (information and tempo advantage) to strip them of their sweepers, win-conditions, or lock pieces to make sure our plan goes ahead as planned. Thoughtseizes does exactly what it is named after, seizes the thought of the opponents for just that moment to execute our lethal plan.


Coming soon...


Coming soon...




Old Primer
Frank Analysis – How many coloured mana sources do you need to consistently cast your spells? by Frank Karsten (31st December 2013)
Your complete guide to Elves in Modern by Ryan Saxe (9th December 2016)
Modern GW Elves by Reid Duke (14th March 2016)
Modern Elves Deck Guide by Eric Froehlich (19th September 2016)

Discord server

I would like to thank everyone who has posted in the old Primer thread and made any sort of contribution. Be it a card suggestion, link to an interesting build, anything. You are what makes Elves one of the most pleasant magic communities around.
Special thanks to mikeduges, ryansaxe, daikotatsumoto for help with the new primer. Thanks to destroyermaker and CurdBros for old primer and Fat_Buddha for our banner.

Ever since new Nissa, Steward of Elements was spoiled, I was overjoyed with the fact that my beloved Coiling Oracle might get its time in the spotlight. So I decided to sleeve up a Sultai (BUG) list and try it out this Monday, here's the list:



Went 3-0-1 with following matchups:

Won 2-1 against Eldrazi Tron
Won 2-0 against 4c Humans
Won 2-1 against Skred
Lost 1-2 against Eldrazi Tron (ID last round, played for fun)

Few thoughts about card selection:

Throne of the God-Pharaoh - love it. Having a recurring Shaman effect on the board for mere 2 mana helps close those grindy matchups where board gets clogged. Obviously the earlier we get it down, the more value it provides. Works wonders Heritage Druid by allowing us to tap our board for mana and drain via Throne.
Nissa, Steward of Elements - what got me interested the most is her X casting cost which provides flexibility depending on the stage of the game. We can drop her as early as T2, +2 to Scry 2 and tick her up to 3. Prone to bolt removal but we've already gotten the scry out of her. Since our deck is already built around Collected Company this works perfectly with her 0 ability as we only need her on 3 loyalty to put any creature in our deck straight onto the board. Where she really shines is her ultimate. Casting her for X=8 costs us 8 mana, the same as Ezuri + overrun activation but allows us to attack for 10 over air and close the game on the spot.
Coiling Oracle - running U allows us to replace Elvish Visionary with this little gem. By putting lands straight into play it thins our library and ramps us. Notable difference is that it reveals the top card so your opponent will know what you're putting in your hand as opposed to Visionary that simply draws us the card. Oracle also works very well with new Nissa and her scry ability. If you need a land, use Nissa, scry 2, leave a land on top and follow up with Oracle which will put that land into play.
Unified Will - W has Selfless Spirit to deal with boardwipes, B has Thoughtseize to deal with that or combo. Blue provides us with countermagic. The downside of counterspells is that they force us to keep mana up but a well timed counter can turn the tide of the battle. Deck plays a bit slower than it's GB/GW counterparts which is why I feel it counterspells fit right in. People don't expect Elves to use counter magic so there's an element of surprise for now. There's also the option of playing Negate or even Spell Pierce.
Monastery Siege - a pet card of mine to deal with decks like Burn or BGx which pack lots of targeted removal. Haven't had the chance to cast it at all nor was I paired against any decks that would warrant boarding it in. 3 is probably too many, 1 feels like not enough.
Essence Warden - went for Wardens instead of Sentinels to offset the life loss from fetchlands.

Obviously the sample is very small and all this information should be taken with a grain of salt for now. Mana base feels particularly clunky at the moment especially since I'm only splashing black for the Shaman. I'll keep you posted.

Looks like a case of opponents not knowing the combo more than anything else. Druid has to live a whole turn and even then it can be killed in response to Vizier. Vizier isn't an elf and neither is Duskwatch Recruiter. Combo sounds good on paper but it's diluting the deck too much without being reliable enough to win on the spot.

Depends on whether you know what deck you're up against and how the rest of the hand looks like. If you're playing against a BGx deck which has both removal and discard, I rarely keep a one lander especially if I'm on the play.
If your hand looks something like 1x Forest, 3x Mystic/Llanowar, Visionary, Archdruid and CoCo then it might be worth keeping. While you need to draw a second land to generate 3 mana on T2, you can still play a Mystic T1, follow it up with two more dorks on T2 or simply go for the Visionary and see an extra card. If it's a land, you can play it and follow up with another dork.
When I'm evaluating starting hands, I think about how first 2-3 turns will play out. Then I take another look and ask myself, how will it play out if I assume my dork gets removed on T1. Do I have another play for T2 or am I stuck with a dead hand? It's trickier in game 1 where you're blind but as you get more experienced with the deck, the easier it gets in these kind of situations.

Thoroughly enjoyable read, Syreal. Haven't had that much fun reading a report in a while

Quote from Larriepogi »

@kavselj

This is quite interesting. However, I think it lacks one thing that makes Merfolk strong, Spreading Seas, Sea's Claim and islandwalk lords.

Quote from D90Dennis14 »

Lush Growth can serve as a bad Sea's Claim, Nylea's Presence as a bad Spreading Seas and Elvish Champion is the "Forestwalk" Lord.
But it probably doesn't have enough of the redundancy of "Merfolk" for this kind of plan.

Biggest difference between the two decks is that Merfolk has their lords on the 2CMC slot whereas Elves have them on 3CMC. Which means you'd rely on Vial to bring in 2CMC threats like Mimic and Greenwheel Liberator (though the problem of enabling revolt remains). Would need to be tested out, but overall seems too clunky compared to CoCo Elves lists. Then again we had months of playtesting to streamline the current iteration of the decks

Quote from sibin »

Finished the deck this week and went to my first FNM today. Sad to say I was totally destroyed =(

Lost round 1 by Lantern Control (I did not see a SINGLE sideboard card game 2, and game 1 he did the combo)

Win round 2 against Naya Zoo (I played very well)

Lost round 3 Jeskai Control (Anger, Snapecaster > Anger)...started to get upset here

Win Round 4 BYE

Lost round 5 Valakut (Anger, Valakuts, 3 damage...game 2 I empty my hand turn 2 and he did MANA Simian Spirit Simian Spirit and Anger turn 2).



Since Im very new to elves I would like to ask:

1)Controls/mass removals are our terrible matchs?

2)Against Anger decks did you try to race or play slowly?

3)Silver Bullets wansnt enough to handle Angers decks...terrible matchup, Im with a big headache to be honest after this FNM =(


Any advices ???

Don't let the losses discourage you. You faced a couple quite hard matchups for Elves.
Lantern Control is race against the clock before they establish their lock. Shaman of the Pack helps here as it goes under the bridge, but generally they won't let you draw one. So you need a CoCo or Chord in hand to fetch one when needed.
Jeskai and Valakut rely heavily on red damage based spells. They're tricky to play against because obviously you don't want to overextend to minimize the fallout from Anger of the Gods. On the other hand you need a board presence to deal with Nahiri, the Harbinger once it hits or be ready to kill before Scapeshift hits. Mark of Asylum is great against these matchups (especially Jeskai) since they'll need sideboard answers to deal with it while completely blanking their removal.
Against Anger decks just play a creature or two and keep swinging with them. Chipping away at their life for 1-2 points per turn along with their fetchland use can bring them down to 10 quite fast. This way they're forced to use Anger on just 1-2 creatures while you have your hand stocked up to re-establish board presence afterwards.

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/767834-collected-company-elves

Here's the new primer! If you want to add anything, feel free to write it down and let me know and I'll add it. Still to-do is sideboarding for GW and Abzan versions.

Quote from XboxGreg »

A lot of people have been discussing AA as a card in the deck. I wasn't high on it, but if so many people are liking the card I might consider it now. I find that a large enough portion of my games have been won because I seem like a Jeskai deck and it changes my opponent's early game decisions so I can sneak though a win. AA kind of gives that up, but is worth at least trying.

In my testing, it makes it impossible to miss your combo. With AA down, you can comfortably go off on turn 2 even if you don't have the ideal hand. Every equipment digging 2 deep is CRAZY good. Serum just gets you to a combo piece. Birds can do that, plus keep a single land-land draw from fizzling you.

Hello everyone,

Ben Reilly here. I didn't realize that this thread existed but I want to participate in this discussion more often if possible. Also, thank you for all the kind words. There's been some discussion about my list so I thought I'd clear a few things up.
The big deck that I was worried about going into the weekend was Mardu. Out of all popular decks it is probably the worst matchup. For this weekend I preboarded the 2nd Nox and the Paradoxical outcome. I liked this a lot, it evened out a lot of bad matchups that I ended up seeing and honestly we can afford to lose some points because our good matchups are so good.

This is my first time using this sight so I'm not quite sure how to reply to multiple different people so I'm just going to comment on things that stand out...

G-Grid is relatively new for me. I did not like it in other people's lists for a long time but now I'm under the impression that it is essential. First of all, we need access to a 2nd win condition in the 75 because of cards like though knot seer. I'd prefer if it is not a second grapeshot because you never know when someone is going to cast Surgical or something like that. For me this used to be Lab maniac to great effect. However I have a new sideboard plan for Mardu and Jeskai that has been testing really well. I board out grapeshot and board in grids. Those matchups are so tough because they are so filled with interaction. With grid we have a way to grind out their clocks. Jeskai has a hard time winning if we keep their snapcasters and v cliques at bay. If they are forced to animate a colonnade to increase their clock it pinches their mana enough so that we can sneak a combo through. More often than not they have been dead to 4 damage a turn. The same is true against Mardu, as you can kill their pyromancer and kind of wait out a paradoxical outcome. Previously in boarding for these matchups I found myself cutting 3-4 equipment which is a lot. With my current plan I only take out 2-3.

Cutting grapeshot does not mean that we cut a 1 turn kill either. A few people have asked me about this. When you are comboing off chances are you draw your whole deck, once you get to this point cast all of your equipment, deal 10, mox, retract, play them again and deal 10. If you have a sram out you will have to kill it first so that you don't deck yourself. If you are missing any peices you can Nox your mox or retract to be sure that you have enough. Often times you are comboing later than turn 2 in these matchups so mana usually isn't an issue.

Looking forward I have a few cards that I am trying to fit into the deck again. 4th Serum definitely sticks out, along with a 3rd repeal. Both of those cards are super powerful. If you haven't been convinced about repeal yet I would try it out. It acts as a cycler, a thoughtcast, and a removal spell and there is almost no cost to it in the main. It ends up being boarded out a lot for more specific hate. It also is essential to have main in the current meta where meddling mage and leyline find themselves in the main board of some of the top decks.

A lot of people have been discussing AA as a card in the deck. I wasn't high on it, but if so many people are liking the card I might consider it now. I find that a large enough portion of my games have been won because I seem like a Jeskai deck and it changes my opponent's early game decisions so I can sneak though a win. AA kind of gives that up, but is worth at least trying.

I see people on Leave and Hurkyl's instead of Paradoxical. I've tried all three and they are all playable. Leave seems slightly worse than Hurkyl's to me, as the big benefit of hurkyl's is to bounce their chalice. The graveyard ability is decent, the main benefit that I found was being able to keep one equipment behind and equipped to a creature to survive bolt. Paradoxical as a one of main does a lot of work in fixing some bad matchups, and in terms of retract #5+ repeal does a great job of bridging the gap. If I were to give a personal preference order to that slot in the main right now it would be paradoxical > repeal #3 > Hurkyl's > Leave.

At GP phoenix I registered my first 4 red cards I've ever played in COMP Rel and went 12-3 in the main event. This was my first time going to a GP and it was a grind. Bloodbraid Elf is a blast to play, and here is the list of my matchups. Feel free to ask me anything and I will do my best to respond and answer any questions

EDIT: Edited in the list and SB notes plus a reason why I ran the deck in the bottom of the write up.


Creature (36)
* 4 Llanowar Elves
* 4 Elvish Mystic
* 4 Heritage Druid
* 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
* 3 Nettle Sentinel
* 1 Elvish Visionary
* 4 Dwynen's Elite
* 4 Shaman of the Pack
* 3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
* 4 Elvish Archdruid
* 4 Bloodbraid Elf

Sorcery (2)
* 2 Lead the Stampede

Instant (4)
* 4 Collected Company

Land (18)
* 4 Windswept Heath
* 4 Cavern of Souls
* 1 Stomping Ground
* 1 Overgrown Tomb
* 4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
* 1 Pendelhaven
* 3 Forest

Sideboard(15)
* 2 Lead the Stampede
* 2 Relic of Progenitus
* 2 Thought seize
* 2 Shaper's Sanctuary
* 2 Abrupt Decay
* 1 Essence Warden
* 1 Elvish Champion
* 2 Reclamation Sage
* 1 Fracturing Gust

 

**Round 1: vs Jeskai Control/Tempo, 2-1**

I went 2-1 to start off the day. Blood Braid Elf is fantastic in control matchups.

SB Out: -1 Nettle Sentinel, -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Ezuri

SB In: +2 Shaper's Sanctuary, +2 Thoughtseize

 

**Round 2: vs Dredge, 2-0**

He stumbled turn 2 both games getting poor setups for lootings allowing me to vomit my hands out and get into the red zone.

SB Out: -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Elvish Visionary

SB In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Elvish Champion

 

**Round 3: Eldrazi Tron, 2-0**

In game 1, I beat him through an X=1 Chalice of the Void on turn 2, and beat him the second game through a Grafdigger's Cage turn 1. Archdruid Ezuri feels good man.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves

SB In: +1 Abrupt decay, +1 Thoughtseize

 

**Round 4: Storm, 1-2**

This matchup goes with them sculpting their hand and bolting our dorks early to just cast Past in Flames for the win around turn 4/5. I kept a 1-lander with a Heritage Druid plus a dork. I need the dork to survive the Bolt he most likely had, since he decided to snap keep his first draw of 7. So I play Palace, revealing the Heritage druid, but I play Llanowar Elves instead, to show him what will happen if he wastes what I hope is his only Bolt in hand on my turn 1 play. It works he doesn’t Bolt it, so I vomit my hand turn on 3 with what proves to be lethal the following turn. It didn't matter since he won the match in the end, but I sure do love mind games.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves, -2 Lead the Stampede, -1 Ezuri

SB In: +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Relic of Progenitus

 

**Round 5: vs Breach Moon, 1-2**

Game one is quick, I just do the elf thing. In game 2 he Breaches me, leaving me at 3 life, but I have 2 dudes on field. He gets Anger of the Gods and clears the last 2 dudes, and I can’t draw enough gas to close it out from that point. In game 3 he Madcaps me and I don’t have Reclamation Sage, so that will end that.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Llanowar Elves, -1 Nettle Sentinel

SB In: +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Shaper's Sanctuary

 

**Round 6: Burn, 2-0**

I feel like I got a bit lucky on this one. I barley squeak out game 1, and he mulls to 4 cards in game 2.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede

SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +2 Reclamation Sage

 

**Round 7: Grixis Control, 2-0**

This write-up is really showing how tired I am with only 12 hours of sleep the last 72 hours. In my notes I made before writing this I totally thought he got a game off me but according to the DCI I got it 2-0. I end up getting him to 1, but he cleans up my elves, then lands a Tasigur. I’m sitting there with no black source with a Shaman of the Pack in hand after landing 3 during the game. I top deck a Cavern of Souls, slam the Shaman, and he extends the hand.

SB Out: -1 Nettle Sentinel, -1 Ezuri, -1 Lead the Stampede, -1 Llanowar Elves

SB In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Thoughtseize

 

**Round 8: Jund, 2-0**

Finally! This is the matchup I've wanted to play all day. Elf on elf violence! Who can Bloodbraid harder?! Turns out I can. Cascading into a Lead the Stampede is usually lights out for the 1-for-1 deck. With that, I'm off to play day 2 in my first ever GP.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel

SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede

 

**Round 9: vs Jund, 2-0**

Day 2 starts off vs. what I assumed was a decent matchup for me. Turns out with Lead the Stampede and Bloodbraid Elf, I was correct with my choices. Sideboarding went the same as in round 8.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel

SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede

 

**Round 10: Burn 0-2**

I met this guy late at registration for a 3-round Modern event after the day 1 main event. He's a super nice guy and the matchup goes as I expect. He Bolts my mana dorks, then got in with his creatures. He used Searing Blaze and Lightning Helix to clean up my blockers. It was quick, and it was painless. At least he was a super nice guy, and I hope he did well for the rest of the event.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede

SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +2 Reclamation Sage

 

**Round 11: Mono Red Prison, 2-1**

In game one, he basically only shows me a foil Snow-Covered Mountain. I closed it out so quickly, I assumed he was on Skred Red, but I was wrong. In game 2 he gets Chalices of the Void and Ensnaring Bridges on board, (so I'm locked out of doing anything) with a Chandra about to ult and clean it up. Game 3 is a grind, but I eke it out in the end with some solid CoCo casts. Turns out he plays Elves, so he gave me some advice on the deck. Nice guy. I hope he sees this. I want his Abzan list he was telling me about.

SB Out: -1 Elvish visionary, -1 Nettle Sentinel

In: 2 Thoughtseize

I got locked out in Game 2 and figured out he was on Mono Red Prison so for game 3 I went with:

SB Out: -1 Ezuri, -1 Llanowar Elves, -1 Thoughtseize

SB In: +2 Reclamation Sage, +1 Abrupt Decay

 

**Round 12: Jund, 2-1**

Oh boy, Jund again. Oh crap! He gets game 1 off me. Maybe it was a fluke beating Jund all those times. Nope! Turns out CoCo, BBE, and Stampede are great cards. I get the next two.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel

SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede

 

**Round 13: Hollow One, (vs. Eric Severson) 2-0**

Eric is a super nice guy and I recognized the name right away as a high end magic player. He plays Goblin Lore, but ends up with nothing but air after. I slam in with the boys, and we're off to game 2. He fires off several Faithless Lootings and find some phoenixes and a Gurmag Angler. However, Shaman of the Pack is a hell of a drug, and I end up draining him for the win. The dream is alive! I'm off to round 14; can I prize my first GP?

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Nettle Sentinel
SB In: +2 Reclamation Sage

I thought about going with 2 Relics, but it felt like it would be way to slow. I would rather snipe a Hollow One with a Sage while adding a body to the board, rather than worry about trying to pop Relics.

 

**Round 14: Jund, 2-0**

At this point I’m super excited to see turn 1 Raging Ravine tapped, then a pass. I do elf things he does elf things. My elf things hurt more and now I’m 11-3.

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -1 Ezuri, -1 Nettle Sentinel

SB In: +1 Elvish Champion, +2 Lead the Stampede

 

**Round 15: Goblins, 2-1**

GOBLINS! We finally get to answer the age old question of which tribe is on top. Game one he savages me with a Bushwhacker swing for 10. I whiff on a CoCo (seeing 5 lands and a BBE) to make enough blocks. On the next turn he closes it out with Goblin Grenade and a swing for lethal. In Game 2 I do elf things and get the win. I open Game 3 with a nutty hand of Shaman of the Pack into making 4 green same turn. I cast CoCo and find 2 more Shamans, which is enough to seal the deal. He extends the hand, and I’m super excited! This is also the same guy who Goblin Grenade'd my buddy out of Day 2. It was also super cool to see another tribe in contention for Top 32. My goblins opponent was also a super nice guy as well. Go tribal violence!

SB Out: -1 Elvish Visionary, -2 Lead the Stampede

SB In: +1 Essence Warden, +1 Elvish Champion, 1 Reclamation Sage (I didn’t want to get caught with my pants down vs. a Blood Moon.)

 

My tie breakers were okay. I managed to squeeze into 25th place for my first GP.

 

There are some things I would change going forward. I don’t like Elvish Visionary in this list, as it felt weak in most Matchups. I even boarded it out vs Jund lists. BBE is amazing in against Control and Midrange, and is wildly okay versus Aggro. I found it was not so great against Combo Decks. Overall, it seems like a meta dependent call on GBr versus straight GB with Chords of Calling.

 

Things of note: I left my 4th Nettle Sentinel at home for some reason, otherwise I would have ran it over the first Visionary. I don’t like it in the list with BBE. It just feels bad to play for some reason. It’s no Silvergill Adept. (I’m a dirty Fish player as well.) The Deep shadow was fine for casting the black sideboard cards, but was also not really needed most of the time. It should probably have been main deck Reclamation Sage. The second Lead the Stampede in the mainboard could be pretty much anything you wanted it to be.

 

I ended up running Jund elves because I went to a modern staples event a week before the GP with a few friends. One of them plays a janky Enchantress pillow fort deck and he went to time at the lower table’s vs. an elves player. I watched him cast a BBE and I stopped for a moment and went yeah I’m going to try that too. I borrowed 4 Bloodbraid Elves and 1 stomping ground from a buddy. We played in 8 matches at two small weekday events before deciding it was good enough to take to the GP.

 

During the weekday events I played against:

* Breach Moon (Loss)
* Jund Gitrog/Loam/Seismic Assault Brew (Win)
* Humans (Loss)
* Intruder Alarm/Jace Jank Brew (Win)
* Mill (Win)
* Counters Company (Win)
* RG Christmas Skred (Loss)
* RG Tron (Win)

 

As you can see I didn’t do to well, but the deck felt fine. I cut a land from 19 and added in the Deep Shadow, and here we are.

 

*Edited because my teacher friend read the post and asked if his seventh graders wrote it for me. We are both working off four hours of sleep.
*Edited again, because my friends are anal-retentive.

Alright. I finally finished up the maths on Bloodbraid Elf (hence BBE) vs Collected Company (hence Coco)

Thesis: BBE is a strong card because as a baseline, it generates four power. This makes it worthy to stand up and be counted as a spell worth including in the deck.

Approach: Determine the amount of power the average Collected Company generates.

Assumptions:
a) We are assuming this decklist for the purposes of the simulation:

b) We're casting Coco onto an empty board and a 59 card library. This allows us to have a clean slate to compare both BBE and Coco in a vacuum.
c) For the purposes of the maths, we assume that Archdruid is a 3 power creature as it would pump the creature that also comes into play with it.
d) We are taking the best combination of cards possible every Coco.
e) We are not including Shaman of the Pack's trigger in our simulation.

Working:
With 34 creatures, simple hypergeometric distrubution tells us that statistically, 4.4% of our Cocos are what I dub 'misses' - 0 or 1 creature hits. For the purposes of the simulation, they are Cocos that are worse than the baseline power provided by Coco. This also means that the other 95.6% of our cast Cocos hit at least two creatures.

With that in mind, I needed to assign a power value to each possible creature combination from our deck. To simplify things, we're going to average it out.

As an example, for 2 one drops, the average power (hence avg p.) is (12 x 1)+(2 x 4)/16 which leaves us with 1.25 power. Now, since its 2 one drops, we multiply that by 2 and we get the avg p. of 2.5/Coco. Makes sense, right?

*note* Elvish Archdruid + Dwynen's Elite is 7 power, but the original calulations assigned values of 3 and 3 to each card. This does not change the maths significantly, however.

So for each possible mana combination:
2 one drops: 2.5 avg p./Coco
2 two drops: 4.0 avg p./Coco
2 three drops: 5.6 avg p./Coco
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 3.0 avg p./Coco
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 3.7 avg p./Coco
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 4.8 avg p./Coco

This is already pretty staggering as 3 of the categories are already under the baseline BBE. But, how do we assign these numbers to the original number of resolved Cocos with at least 2 dudes in it of 95.6%? I then added the amounts of cards together that was initially used to divide whilst making the avg p. of each variant of Coco (102), then found the percentage of how much each category gets in terms of percentage from that 102.

2 one drops: 15.69%
2 two drops: 7.84%
2 three drops: 9.80%
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 23.53%
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 25.39%
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 17.65%

In this case, this means that our most likely combination of cards to hit from Coco is 1 one drop, 1 three drop in descending order down to 2 two drops.
I then put these percentages to get the percent of these from 95.6% to get our final percentages:

2 one drops: 15%
2 two drops: 7.5%
2 three drops: 9.37%
1 one drop, 1 two drop: 22.49%
1 one drop, 1 three drop: 24.27%
1 two drop, 1 three drop: 16.87%

Now, we add the percentages of the ones that add over or equal to four average power together, and add the ones less than four average power together with the 4.4% natural 'failure chance' which leads us to...

Cocos with four or greater avg. p: 33.74%
Cocos with less than four or greater avg. p: 66.26%

Working with BBE:
BBE maths is simple, as we don't need to account for lands. If you cascade into:
one drop: 47.06% (4.25 avg. p/BBE)
two drop: 23.53% (4.50 avg. p/BBE)
three drop: 29.4% (5.8 avg. p/BBE)

Conclusion:
The results are pretty comprehensive and they allow me to conclude that, on average, Coco generates less power than your baseline BBE. Infact, only one in three Cocos generate the same or more power.Worst of all for discreditors of BBE, 52.93% of the time, BBE generates more power than 74.10% of all average Coco combinations. Its statistically better from a 'worst' perspective, in a vacuum.

So there you have it. Some mathematical basis to the strength of Bloodbraid Elf.

So overall the data is showing that we win less games with Mox Opal in our opening hand than we do with Mox Opal not in our opener? That's what I am gathering from you've said (too early in the morning for me too parse all that XD)

So with that in mind, I'd like to throw out a hypothesis.

Do people keep riskier hands because they have a Mox Opal in it? I know personally, that I have kept hands that would have been instant mulligans if the Mox Opal I had, had been a land. However instead I've usually kept the hand because with the Opal I am able to play Lantern + Rock on turn 1. Let me give you an example hand:

Lantern of Insight, Codex Shredder, Mishra's Bauble, Mox Opal, Glimmervoid, Botanical Sanctum, Spire of Industry

There is a good chance I would keep this hand against most decks. Maybe I'm just playing poorly, I don't know, but if that Mox Opal were another land, I'd mulligan this hand, and there are a few reasons for it:

1. With a land instead of Opal, I already know I won't be able to have an empty hand for a Bridge. And this gets even worse if my next card if a land.

2. I can only play Lantern or Shredder turn 1, not both. If I was able to play both I'd be able to get the lock started from my opponent's turn 0 which is great. Having only one of them allows me to either mill a random card from my or my opponent's deck, or I get to see what they and myself are drawing.

I think the draw of getting the start of the lock set up on Turn 1 is a draw that cause a lot of people to keep hands that contain an Opal, which could explain the win percentage drop. It isn't that Opal is bad, it's just that psychologically it makes us play bad.

I've only played 8 matches with the deck so far and haven't yet felt the need for an alternate win condition. But I did lose a match where if it ended up going to G3 it would definitely be nice.

Last night's outing was 2-2. Beat robots and bant druid company. Lost to abazan druid company due to drawing 4 mox opals in my first 9 cards G1 and misplaying pithing needle both games. Say it with me, Qasali Pride Mage. Learning I am. Lost to burn 2-1 because I lost the die roll and didn't aggressively mull for a leyline G3.

MD 1 of grafdigger's cage is a mutha****in MVP. And LOL at whir making bridge CMC 6 to dodge spell queller.

Quote from RochiTomRochi »

Fairly new to Elves, running the GB Shaman build...

I have a few questions:
1. CoCo - do I want to use it pre-combat so I know how much mana I have to play with (if I hit Ezuri, Renegade Leader for example), or do I want to do it after blocks but before damage to maximise the chance of Elvish Archdruid and/or Shaman of the Pack?? Or is my opponent's End Step always the best time if possible?

2. Opinions on Throne of the God-Pharaoh? I've played against it and it did good work, I've seen a few lists run 1 or 2 of them as an alt win-con as it gets around Ensnaring Bridge too.

3. Opinions on Westvale Abbey over Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx? I'm running a single Growing Rites of Itlimoc and feel the deck generates enough mana anyway without the need for Nykthos. Westvale is a good alt win-con too.

1. There are too many scenarios to answer your first question with a definitive answer. Precombat can be good if you have the potential to create more mana from Heritage Druid to do other things. After blocks can be good if you are hoping to get in extra points with Archdruid or Shaman like you mention. Post combat is good if you want to play around counter magic and you're sure you don't need to play around sweepers. Post combat is also good to entice opponents to use removal suboptimally. They may take an extra point or two of damage in combat by holding back removal for something you may flip off collected company if they are expecting it. Opponent's end step always feels good since it plays around sweepers and can cause opponents to use their mana less efficiently if they know they need to hold up removal for the unexpected.

TLDR: The best time to cast Collected Company will constantly change in relation to board state and stage of the game.

2. I've only played Throne a couple of times. It did some work when it was out and was the target of discard other times which is probably a good thing. I think I could see myself going back to playing one, but probably no more than that. I don't really have enough experience with the card to give a more in depth answer.

3. I love Westvale Abbey. I've flipped it several times now and have stolen games I had no business winning with it. Nykthos plays better in to your primary game plan though. It can create an extra burst of mana to activate Ezuri or cast a Chord or Ccco a turn earlier. These two lands are both great, but they attack from different angles. It's up to you if you want more resilience from Westvale or a faster clock from Nykthos.

Quote from ElvesotShelves »

"This card has the potential to both grab Ezuri and give you the mana you need to overrun the following turn" -EmberFlux

This times ten.

Unlike the Archdruid, it doesn't die to wraths. Unlike Gargantuan, it also ramps an extra land. Elves will have little trouble transforming it provided strong draw/dig power.

I've been reading a lot about Elves lately and am probably going to switch from Reliquary

Plan A is and will always be Ezuri, any less than 4 is a mistake. Legendary rule be damned, let them remove one.

The other aspect of the deck is its weakness to mass removal. I'm not sure here. Stampede seems best for this. Blue offers both Beck and plenty of draw X cards.

There's people who like vanilla and there's people that like chocolate.
Personally, I like chocolate and I look forward to testing this core, eventually:

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Collected Company 3 Lead the Stampede 2 Growing Rites of Itlimoc 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Heritage Druid 4 Dwynen's Elite 4 Elvish Visionary 2 Viridian Zealot 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Ezuri, Renegade Leader 4 Shaman of the Pack

In a deck with so much explosiveness, I'd prefer to ram plan A and Plan B.

I'd like to iclude Eternal Witness, Scavenging Ooze. Worth cutting something, or Sideboard them?

The reason for Scooze is its really really really good against both burn(chump elfs, grow scooze, bye skred) and grave-hate

Throne of the God-Pharaoh seems really really good with Heritage Druid. Or even simply attacking. Is it overkill? Tapping Elves to play Elves to tap more elves can add up damage pretty quick.

Anyone toyed with Oak Street Innkeeper? Seems kinda fun to Coco for. But seriously Chord/Pharaoh/Heritage synergy. It could easily be a one-of in Chord Elves.

In a perfect world:
turn 1: mystic
turn 2: heritage, dwynen, itlimoc
turn 2.5: CoCo
Scoop.

Slow down. I get that you're eager, but you can't just throw away conventions that other people have been using for a while now.

You don't need 4 Ezuri in the GB lists - Shaman is a consistent game finisher to the point where Ezuri is a sideplan.

Throne of the God-Pharoah has been Throne of the God-Inconsistent and is awful outside of very limited situations.

I also have some growing pains about Growing Rites, which I addressed in a previous post on the page back. I don't think its the second coming of Gaea as people suggest it to be. It's simply another tool to use, which likely won't push us over the line.

I recommend starting with a stock list - especially in Modern. I would tend not to change my maindeck and only change one or two cards in my sideboard for maybe...3-6 months before I start to tinker with the main. Its a good habit to have and it teaches you why each card was picked for its role.

Quote from cloudscraper »

thanks, you indirectly answered quite a few of my questions, in particular about nettle sentinel being very very bad (you sb it out extremely frequently) and both chord and the combo being unreliable against decks with 8+ spot removal spells + 6/8 between discard spells + counterspells.

I see this type of thinking come up here and there and it needs to be quashed. Just because a card is sideboarded out a lot does not mean it is a bad card. You need to look at the deck as having a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A of elves is to combo or beat down as fast as possible and a one drop 2/2 that is both good at beating down and synergizes well with Heritage Druid to help us explode on to the board is what we're looking for game 1 when we never know what we're up against. Post board, when people start to tune their decks toward attrition, Nettle Sentinel's value is diminished. This is when we go to Plan B of playing a grindier game by bringing in interaction and cards to help us go long. I'm not saying Nettle Sentinel is a bomb in our deck, but he serves a purpose and in my opinion, gives us the luxury of making sideboarding a bit easier. We know that when we need to go long he comes out and that immediately gives us 4 slots to bring in planeswalkers, removal, and silver bullets.

Another way to look at is is when you point out that Chord and the combo comes out a lot against decks that pick our hands apart and pack counterspells. This doesn't make Chord or the combo bad, it just means we have a different game plan post board and the same logic is applied to Nettle Sentinel.

http://imgur.com/a/65ufX

Just bodied Sam Pardee in 5 minutes. He didn't say hello or good luck so I taught him some manners ;).