Bramblewood should really remain no matter what, and she is only a pseudo-lord - the bonuses only apply to warriors that come into play after her, so that ability is limited. Also she is 2cc, which puts her on a different level from the other 3, so she doesn't interfere with them as much as they do with each other (potentially). However, if you are dead set at limiting yourself to 8 lord effects total, I would recommend Imperious Perfect and Gaea's Anthem - one is a creature with all the benefits and negatives of being a creature, and the other is an enchantment, which also carries certain advantages and disadvantages. This way if creature hate is heavy, you at least have an enchantment to fall back on.
Point taken. It's just that I feel I never get as much out of her (paragon)as I'd like. I'll try to explain: I wan't to play her early like the second turn to get the +1+1 counters on my elf warriors, but if I'm going aggro I'd much rather play an Imperious Perfect or Wren's Run Vanquisher. And if I try to ball out, I'd rather play my band of druids and there is no use in playing her before that happens due to the loss of speed. Well, I just realized I have to improve my play with him or something.
But of course on the other hand there isn't many lord-effects that stay after the lord is gone....
hi there.... i'm really interested in building this deck, but since the time spiral block is phasing out, can somebody post out a build from lorwyn-shadowmoor-10th ed version of this deck?
(i'm born to play with elves!! hahaha!!!)
P.S.: Can give me some 'not so expensive' version of it? cos' i can't afford mutavaults, garruk and the like...
This is one of the deck that survives the rotation best imo. The cards we loose is Boreal druid, Pendelhaven, and maybe gaea's anthem if you play it. Here's a budget deck i'd like to play after the rotation:
I know its only 54 cards but the last slot may you decide. I would put in 4 Wolf-Skull shaman, but you may also use 2 elvish champion and 2 lands or whatever really. Snakeform has also been mentioned. Regardless of your last choice the deck is budget and without any of the rotating cards.
Is there no Summoner's Pact love happening at the moment? Seems like a fine way to make sure you get the guys you need out.
Its a bad solution if you're not 100% certain that you will win the same turn by playing it. Usually you would fetch Heritage druid to combo out turn two or three. But even if your best druid survives, four mana to survive takes the most out of next round anyway. Generally it doesn't fit the deck because we don't have any creatures that's winning by itself.
Does this deck actually have a plan against board sweepers or is that when you just scoop-em up?
The plan is to win before the board sweep... There isn't really many decks that play a playset of boardsweepers maindeck. So game one usually go in our favor. Game two is harder but its only firespout i'm really afraid of. The other boardsweepers are to slow and you need the right mana to pull it of.
Yes, why don't they run Coat of Arms? As I see it you need to run 4 game-winning cards. And then you've got these options:
Coat of Arms: My favourite. Good because you get the defense, and is easy to cast with as many Mutavaults and Boreal Druids you want. Bad because it pumps your opponents faerie's, merfolk or of course elves just as much. It doesn't do squat after a board wipe.
Overrun: Good because you get the trample, and doesn't make any difference between elves and other creature types you may have (wolves?). Bad because you only get +3 in boost (which most of the time is good enough), no defense in opponents turn, and the biggest drawback is that it is a sorcery. This means you must use at least two mana elves to cast it turn three and at least one elf turn four. In my deck/meta this matters.
Garruk Wildspeaker: Solid in the lategame allthough easier to get rid of. Most of elfballers think he is too slow. And he doesn't support the "best budget deck around" theme.
The last version is to use many lord effects like Bramblewood Paragon, Elvish Champion, Imperious Perfect and Gaea's Anthem. This is probably the best option once you land it on the table because the +1+1 is coming from so many different sources. But then on the other side, as the most of you know, running out of gas is the decks biggest weakness. And therefore using three or four slots for lord effects is a tad much, when you can do it with one (or two) slots.
(And of course Door of destinies is out of the question. Just look at the first 15 pages of the thread, I think...?)
Anything I forgot?
I also want to say a few words pro the Wolf Skull Shaman. He is great because it is hard to counter him turn two, and he gives you free uncounterable creatures 62% of the draws in my deck. Great both late game and in the first turns.
Any thoughts? Which of the options do you use and why?
I don't think people are going to use Batwing Brume or Pollen Lullaby against us unless you meet a BW turbosmog deck that's been discussed other places on this forum. Batwing Brume may be a decent card that may se play in other decks but only the BW decks.
I definitely see the drawback to Snakeform, but I like to keep the deck mono green and can't find a better card in standard right now to imitate removal. Mercy killing are only fyn versus a Doran deck.
People seems to run away from Coat of arms something I disagree with. I mean Overrun doesn't give your elves protection from the most common mass removal spells. Both sulfurous blast and firespout quickly destroy our game if we don't have some defense. If you third turn have three guy's that boost your 1/1 elves up to 4/4 I would say you were lucky. Coat of arms is easier than you might think to drop at turn three. You dont even need two Heritage druids if you play four Llanowar elves and four Boreal druids like I do. Of course Damnation or Wrath of God will always cripple us but firstly they are not as much maindecked in tournaments now as they used to be, and secondly we may beat them at our speed especially with the new Nettle sentinel.
And then of course people side against enchantments theese days understandably with cards like oblivion ring and bitterblossom, but not as many have an answer to a strong artifact card. I also feel that if we get wiped of the field it doesn't really matter if the Coat of arms is on the table or not. The thing that matter is that we need to rebuild an army before the opponent does.
As you see I use lots of 4of's because I want the concistency and want to have a chanse of seeing cards I just sided in. I don't use mutavault because I hate wasting that much money for a card. And as someone already stated, Elfball-decks are the cheapest(?) competitive deck and the deck that does best without them. I don't see too many using my friend Chameleon Colossus allthough he's imo the best around. I use him in case the balling goes wrong. Any thoughts on the deck? I think it will be the one i take to grand prix.
Have anyone raised the question (or playtested) how Nettle Sentinels are going to change the gameplay? I fear he's going to make the deck more aggro and a little bit slower. That, of course only when you don't get the Heritage Druid + Nettle Sentinel combo.
I like to play the mono green version and i'm going to the grand prix in copenhagen at the end of august. The deck i almost have made up my mind about but the sideboard is definitely harder. Of course fae will be a natural deck to side against and I'll have 4 Cloudthreshers ready, but whats the best answer to bitterblossom? Krosan grip or elvish hexhunter? Sure the hexhunter is faster and fits the decks balling theme but is Krosan grip better because of the non-counter ability and the option to take out artifacts as well? Is riftsweeper an option against gargadon, ancestral vision, epchrasite, what about vexing shusher or maybe a kitchen finks against RDW? Has anyone done some testing sideboarding these cards?
Hi everyone. New to the forum played magic for years.
Been playing elfball for quite a while... One question though, how about the new snakeform? it may be a potent removal and gets you the extra card, or am I wrong?
Point taken. It's just that I feel I never get as much out of her (paragon)as I'd like. I'll try to explain: I wan't to play her early like the second turn to get the +1+1 counters on my elf warriors, but if I'm going aggro I'd much rather play an Imperious Perfect or Wren's Run Vanquisher. And if I try to ball out, I'd rather play my band of druids and there is no use in playing her before that happens due to the loss of speed. Well, I just realized I have to improve my play with him or something.
But of course on the other hand there isn't many lord-effects that stay after the lord is gone....
This is one of the deck that survives the rotation best imo. The cards we loose is Boreal druid, Pendelhaven, and maybe gaea's anthem if you play it. Here's a budget deck i'd like to play after the rotation:
4 Heritage druid
4 Nettle sentinel
4 Llanowar elves
4 Imperious perfect
4 Bramblewood paragon
4 Wren's run Vanquisher
4 Hunting Triad
4 Gilt leaf ambush
4 Overrun
18 Forest
2 Treetop Village
I know its only 54 cards but the last slot may you decide. I would put in 4 Wolf-Skull shaman, but you may also use 2 elvish champion and 2 lands or whatever really. Snakeform has also been mentioned. Regardless of your last choice the deck is budget and without any of the rotating cards.
Its a bad solution if you're not 100% certain that you will win the same turn by playing it. Usually you would fetch Heritage druid to combo out turn two or three. But even if your best druid survives, four mana to survive takes the most out of next round anyway. Generally it doesn't fit the deck because we don't have any creatures that's winning by itself.
The plan is to win before the board sweep... There isn't really many decks that play a playset of boardsweepers maindeck. So game one usually go in our favor. Game two is harder but its only firespout i'm really afraid of. The other boardsweepers are to slow and you need the right mana to pull it of.
Coat of Arms: My favourite. Good because you get the defense, and is easy to cast with as many Mutavaults and Boreal Druids you want. Bad because it pumps your opponents faerie's, merfolk or of course elves just as much. It doesn't do squat after a board wipe.
Overrun: Good because you get the trample, and doesn't make any difference between elves and other creature types you may have (wolves?). Bad because you only get +3 in boost (which most of the time is good enough), no defense in opponents turn, and the biggest drawback is that it is a sorcery. This means you must use at least two mana elves to cast it turn three and at least one elf turn four. In my deck/meta this matters.
Garruk Wildspeaker: Solid in the lategame allthough easier to get rid of. Most of elfballers think he is too slow. And he doesn't support the "best budget deck around" theme.
The last version is to use many lord effects like Bramblewood Paragon, Elvish Champion, Imperious Perfect and Gaea's Anthem. This is probably the best option once you land it on the table because the +1+1 is coming from so many different sources. But then on the other side, as the most of you know, running out of gas is the decks biggest weakness. And therefore using three or four slots for lord effects is a tad much, when you can do it with one (or two) slots.
(And of course Door of destinies is out of the question. Just look at the first 15 pages of the thread, I think...?)
Anything I forgot?
I also want to say a few words pro the Wolf Skull Shaman. He is great because it is hard to counter him turn two, and he gives you free uncounterable creatures 62% of the draws in my deck. Great both late game and in the first turns.
Any thoughts? Which of the options do you use and why?
Hey! Someone did think there was something to Snakeform
after all.
And then of course people side against enchantments theese days understandably with cards like oblivion ring and bitterblossom, but not as many have an answer to a strong artifact card. I also feel that if we get wiped of the field it doesn't really matter if the Coat of arms is on the table or not. The thing that matter is that we need to rebuild an army before the opponent does.
No Llanowar elves in a dedicated elf-deck? That's blasphemy!:D
4 LLanowar elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Boreal Druid (Nettle Sentinel)
4 Bramblewood Paragon
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 Imperious Perfect
3 Coat of arms
3 Overrun
4 Gilt-Leaf Ambush
4 Hunting Triad
2 Chameleon Colossus
Lands:
18 Forest
2 Pendelhaven
3 Vigor
4 Krosan grip
4 Cloudthresher
4 Riftsweeper
As you see I use lots of 4of's because I want the concistency and want to have a chanse of seeing cards I just sided in. I don't use mutavault because I hate wasting that much money for a card. And as someone already stated, Elfball-decks are the cheapest(?) competitive deck and the deck that does best without them. I don't see too many using my friend Chameleon Colossus allthough he's imo the best around. I use him in case the balling goes wrong. Any thoughts on the deck? I think it will be the one i take to grand prix.
Have anyone raised the question (or playtested) how Nettle Sentinels are going to change the gameplay? I fear he's going to make the deck more aggro and a little bit slower. That, of course only when you don't get the Heritage Druid + Nettle Sentinel combo.
Been playing elfball for quite a while... One question though, how about the new snakeform? it may be a potent removal and gets you the extra card, or am I wrong?