I'm not sure how, but I'd probably play mana dorks or something to try to ramp into enduring renewal faster. They'll die to summoning, but so what. Perilous Myr may also be a consideration. If you're playing a combo, game 1 I'd go all-in on the combo, ditch battle at the bridge, probably ditch bishop, and throw in ramp or more win conditions.
Though I played against it a lot, I never got the chance to actually play Birthing Pod back in the day. Now that it's gone, I got the itch to play it. But, since it's banned and all, I went with another variant, Eldritch Evolution & Chord of Calling.
Thing is, it struggles against midrange and control. It crushes face against just about any other deck out there, see below for my analysis of matchups from the last 27 games (19 wins, 8 losses, ~70% win rate)
Affinity - Favorable
BR Hollow One - Miserable if they're on, cake if they're not (or if I'm T3 combo)
Burn - Very favorable
Infect - Favorable
Mill - Laughable, free win game 1
Scapeshift - Favorable
Storm - Very favorable
Death's Shadow - Unfavorable
UW / Jeskai / Grixis Control - Very hard
Jund - Unfavorable
Creatures Toolbox - Even, depends who can fetch out Linvala first
Every random brew I've seen - Cake
It's fairly different from the old school pod decks, but shares a lot of similarities. If I can figure out how to play well against midrange and control, I'll be a happy camper. I recently put in Thrun maindeck, which has been exceptional, because usually I can evolution for him early if need be, or wait till mid game to ensure I can regenerate him in the face of a wrath.
I'm kinda running out of options on how to handle these matchups. I know there's no single "answer", but I'm sure there's more I can be doing than what I am. See below for the decklist.
In general, against non-interactive decks you can often go Turn 1 mana dork into Turn 2 Devoted Druid. Turn 3 evolution for huge value and/or the win (Vizier for infinite mana, chord for duskwatch, duskwatch into hard cast Emrakul). Surprisingly the opportunity to do this Turn 3/4 presents itself more often than I thought it would. Free wins help, but don't make a deck.
Beyond that, Voice & Finks help evolution into bigger bodies, often disruptive ones that can take over the game. The pod-like effect of toolbox creatures is handy against over half of the Modern field, even with just the toolboxes I maindeck.
At one point I had redcap in there, but with no way to hard cast it except rare times I had BB or B + birds, it's often just dead. Plus it's hard to Evolution into, plus the seer/vizier/persist combo is the "backup" combo that sometimes just happens.
Analysis of the non-obvious maindeck singletons:
Kambal - Burn, Storm, etc, all need to spend a card against him. Storm rarely has cards to spare to deal with him plus win sooner than later (buying me enough time to just win, or to evolution/chord into an Eidolon of Rhetoric.
Ooze - Self explanatory
Thrun - My first foray into dealing with Control
Sigarda - Kinda a "meh", but a flying 4/5 often just wins games. Plan on replacing her with the new 4 CMC 3/4 "all other creatures have hexproof" (Shalai, Voice of Plenty) in Dominaria
Sun Titan - Surprisingly easy to hard cast if needed, but evolving into it for value isn't uncommon, and Reveilark isn't really that hot here.
Main things I'm wondering are... how should I deal with control? Should I ditch some things and put in some tireless trackers? Another hexproof threat? Board in more value creatures like voice, etc? I'm just not quite sure what my game plan should be. Thrun seems to help, but isn't a solution by himself.
Ummm...probably not. We are consistent, but hate shuts us down easy.
What hate shuts us down easily? Rule of Law? Wish for a response. Leyline of Sanctity? So what, run my version and you have singleton thopter/sword, or just Detention Sphere away the leyline. Run Caryatids and no other mana dorks (seriously, 4 caryatids and 4 fatestitchers is more than enough with all the cantrips).
This deck is ridiculously resilient, more than interactive enough, and has very few dead cards. It threatens from multiple angles (thopter/sword, or an Aurelia's Fury to the face), and is very difficult for them to disrupt. Caryatids don't die unless you're playing against a very serious control deck that can sweep. Pyroclasm does nothing to this deck because rarely will you hard cast your fatestitchers. And, if you do hard cast them, they're handy squishy little icy manipulators that don't cost mana to activate.
Your post got me thinking that this thread could probably use a decent primer. It's had a dozen pages of significant development and the OP is from when dig through time was legal. I could try to do this if it was something people would like to see, but I've never done one before and I'm not sure I'd be considered qualified.
I wouldn't mind writing a new primer for this or the storm thread. Not sure which one exactly it falls under, mine is very combo-based as all ascendancy lists are, but also very interactive in the mainboard, and has plenty of answers in the sideboard.
Do people consider this deck dead now that TC is banned (since forever ago)?
I'm not a very good magic player, but I've had incredible, consistent success with a variant of this deck.
Long story short, I'm not even worried about allowing for the crushing, turn 2 kill in the 2% of my games I actually draw it. That said, I only run 8 mana dorks. 4 Caryatids, and 4 Fatestitchers. The Caryatids are my resiliency to anything shy of 3 mana sweepers or wraths. The Fatestitchers let me get the 2+ mana per cycle once I start comboing off. And, Fatestitchers that are hard cast also act as squishy little 1/2 Icy Manipulators, locking down your opponent's flyers (and, also, your opponent's Emrakul)
Glittering Wish, enough said. Muddle the mixture, finds almost anything I need in my deck, and is also a counterspell with no drawbacks on most cards that can threaten this deck.
Thopter/Sword, my multi-prong threat. I don't really need to combo off to win, if I draw the sword, I can often wish or muddle for the foundry, just outlast most decks, and control the matchup long enough to let the thopters win me the match.
But, most often, it's turn 2 caryatid, turn 3 ascendancy, and once this deck gets going, it's very rare that it fizzles out, especially with the ascendancy looting effect.
The rest of the deck, ideas unbound and tormenting voice do great work, manamorphose is what it is, it's rarely a dead card, but not a very good draw early on. Plus, the fact that it costs R to cast lets you wiggle your way out of a blood moon if you need to. Conjurer's bauble, you only have 2 wishes, and they self-exile, so you have to recycle your singletons sometimes. These are handy at recycling cards you really really need later on in some games (a wished-for Wear // Tear comes to mind...)
Mind Spring, sometimes you just find yourself with 12 floating mana and 1 card in hand. You cantrip into mind spring and you're back in business. Same story with Sphinx's Revelation in the SB. It's rare to wish for it, but it does happen.
Interactive elements, 2 remand is enough to slow down usually, dispel protects key assets, Izzet Charm is more flexible than other options, and even though it doesn't have flashback like faithless looting, and even though it IS net negative cards, its flexibility is great here. Gut shot, actually is very handy and can double as a 5th Git Probe in a pinch to get the combo moving. Other control elements, they are what they are.
Sideboard, Scarscale Ritual is such a great card in a pinch. If you're down to 1 card and enough mana to cast it, you can wish for Scarscale Ritual, cast it, and find another cantrip to keep life going along. Temur Ascendancy lets you win THIS turn, not next turn, once you have enough thopters on the board. Aurelia's Fury, same story, sometimes you just have 38 mana, may as well use it to fireball their face. Most of the rest of the sideboard speaks for itself. Mostly wish targets, plus three copies of "everybody hates pyroclasm".
Ummm...probably not. We are consistent, but hate shuts us down easy.
I think this can be pretty resilient. Run Sylvan Caryatid's instead of birds/hierarchs, put in 1 Thopter Foundry and 1 Sword of the Meek, run 2-3 Glittering Wish, 2 Muddle the Mixture, a butt-ton of 2 CMC effects main, and singleton multi-color answers/tools in the sideboard.
Here's my list in development. Might go down to 1 muddle, and add a 3rd wish, or something else, not sure yet. Erayo is probably not necessary unless you go more tempo with the deck:
The deck very rarely fizzles out with this setup, and is resilient enough to last till it needs to go off. Turn 2 win is very rarely possible with Turn 1 land, spirit guide, Caryatid into Turn 2 ascendancy, git probe. Turn 3 is possible with the same, minus the spirit guide.
Fatestitchers are obvious. Pitch them to ascendancy every time you can. Caryatid's are great because they dodge removal, and also don't die to any 2 cmc sweepers that I know of.
Muddles let you find a boatload of 2 CMC's in your deck, which also includes Glittering Wish, or a Caryatid if you really need a mana dork. Scarscale Ritual is handy to refill the hand while comboing off. Usually if you can get an Ascendancy on the board with a mana dork, as long as you have something in hand, you can usually combo out fairly reliably.
If you're comboing off, you're *probably* going to keep going through your whole deck, and will find the Mass Hysteria, make a butt-ton of hasty thopters, and win that turn. If you need you can also Wish for a Temur Ascendancy.
I'm sorry, but I fail to see how that's not a reasonable thing to do.
"I will continue to mill my opponent's deck until he has one card left in his deck". That is my determined end state, I mean, how is that slow play? Slow play to me sounds like the ruling that won't allow this to proceed.
And the hell is with this PM warning I just got... "warning, you didn't use deck tags.. we're going to hunt you down and kill you"... this is why I don't go on online forums very often, stupid crap pisses me off.
So, what... I'm stuck infinitely looping through the opponent's deck manually until he has, say, 2 cards left, maybe 3, and then I stop milling him?
So basically, in a tournament, if he has an Emrakul in his deck, we both have to sit there for 44 minutes while I say "flip". "flip". "flip". "flip". Damn, Emrakul. Ok, shuffle.
But, if he has say 6 cards in hand, then can I mill him "infinitely" until he has only 1 card in his deck? Basically, I keep tripping on Emrakul until he's the last card in his deck. I stop milling him, and pass the turn. He draws Emrakul, has 7 in hand, can't cast him, and can't discard him. He does whatever, and passes the turn. I pass the next turn, and he draws an empty deck and loses.
Would this be a legal "infinite recurrence" in a tournament? Basically can I put a condition on it?
Warning issued for lack of card tags. Card tags added.
- Teia
Here's my revised version, I've gone full combo into Intruder Alarm elves. With Sylvan Messenger now Modern legal, this deck has a *ton* of gas, and can often combo out and kill turn 3.
In summary, this version of Intruder Alarm elves can win from multiple angles. First the boring ones, then the ideal ones:
- It can often win in a straight-up fair game by going wide
- It can win without fully comboing out by having an Ezuri on the field, a few elves, and 5 mana.
- It can dial back its speed to outlast and card advantage most other decks via Evolutionary Leap or Prowess of the Fair, or better yet, both.
- It can search out any "elf" answer it needs via Elvish Harbinger
- Against non-interactive decks, turn 2 it can often have a mana dork, 1 or 2 lands, a heritage druid, another 1-drop elf or a dwynen's elite (which comes with his own buddy elf), and an Elvish Archdruid on the board. Turn 3 can do almost any number of things, if you have Intruder Alarm in hand, you've got basically infinite mana.
- Rhys the Redeemed Can make infinite tokens (I chose Rhys over Imperious Perfect because I'd rather spend G on a creature that's got a high likelihood of eating a bolt rather than 2G, and if we have Intruder Alarm on the board, either one of them are going to make infinite tokens pretty much in this deck.)
- Intruder Alarm + Evolutionary Leap almost always results in being able to filter through your entire deck for the "right" card you want (Ezuri or Emrakul).
- Elvish Harbinger can tutor Ezuri to top of your deck, plus it's an "any color" mana dork.
- Shaman of the Pack blows out anyone who thinks Ensnaring Bridge or Turbo Fog is going to shut you down.
- Joraga Treespeaker can be an alternative to Heritage Druid, untaps for double the mana himself at level 1, and double the fun than heritage druid if he hits level 5. He may be a "win more", I'm not sure, but he's more bolt-proof than Heritage Druid is at level 5 if a game goes long.
- Dwynen's Elite is good against 1-for-1 decks, you mostly want an "elves count" on the board, and 2 elves for 2 mana is nice.
- Sylvan Messenger is the all-star of this deck. It almost always reads "When Sylvan Messenger ETB, reveal the top 4 of your hand, put the one land you found on the bottom of your library, and put the other 3 elves into your hand". The 4 mana cost we don't really care about, it's why we run so many mana dorks. And with Intruder Alarm on the board, Sylvan Messenger often ends up feeding into a sequence that results in more card-draw engines going into hand, which eventually results in "gg" from your opponent.
- Prowess of the Fair gives you some amount of Wrath insurance.
- Prowess of the Fair also triggers Intruder Alarm when one of your elves goes to the yard. This is especially handy with Evolutionary Leap.
- Remember, having 2 Intruder Alarms on the board is almost certain to allow you to gain infinite mana, so long as you can continue dropping elves. This is where Evolutionary Leap is super handy again.
- Intruder Alarm CAN be used defensively against decks with a light creature count. Decks dropping a turn 2 Tasigur can be scary, but you can drop a turn 2 or 3 Intruder Alarm on their face and prevent them from attacking with Tasigur until they (or you) drop another creature to untap him. Same story goes for Bogles, Infect, etc. Sometimes they can swing in on you for 8 points of poison, only to have their creature locked down and tapped thanks to Intruder Alarm.
- Evolutionary Leap is an all-star multi-use card in this deck. If they're playing a lot of 1-for-1 removal control style, you can turn 1 land, go. Turn 2 land, evolutionary leap, go. Turn 3 mana dork, go. Turn 4... you get the point. You're keeping your board open so that when they bolt/STP/terminate/decay, you can sack the creature and get another in hand in return.
- Elvish Promenade with an Intruder Alarm on the board results in disgusting amounts of mana, even if you only have 4 elves on the board (1 of which is a heritage druid makes it even better). If you have 1 land + 4 elves on the board and 1 is heritage druid, casting an Elvish Promenade will result in you coming out the other end with 21 mana (15 if you leave all elves untapped). If you have 1 land + only 3 elves, casting Elvish Promenade ends up with 12 mana out the other end (6 if you leave all the elves untapped).
One thing to remember from this deck that I literally just found out yesterday. Heritage Druid CAN tap Prowess of the Fair as one of the "three elves you control" for GGG. It is also an "elf", so with Joraga Treespeaker at level 5, it can also tap for GG by itself. Thinking of this now, multiple Prowess of the Fair, just like multiple Intruder Alarms, can actually be a very scary thing for an opponent to face.
Sideboard choices currently:
Relic of Progenitus - Living End, Snapcasters, Tasigurs, Goryo's Vengeance and/or Footsteps, Gifts Ungiven, the list goes on and on. There's plenty of things you don't want lurking in graveyards, and in a pinch, you can always sack it to draw another card.
Essence Warden - Infinite life with Rhys the Redeemed combo. Needed lifegain against overly aggro decks, especially because you're often dropping 5+ creatures before turn 3.
Nullmage Shepherd - A tutorable answer to affinity (kinda), but also can destroy pesky enchantments or artifacts you otherwise can't deal with in the easiest way like ensnaring bridge, ethersworn canonist (holy hell this sucks), blood moon if you need U to cast your intruder alarm, etc.
Illness in the Ranks - Twin. This is a 1 CMC card that you can drop on turn 1 and shut down twin's combo. Twin is really my worst nightmare in this deck, because we're not interactive enough, nor are we faster than them on a regular basis to beat them with regularity. I don't care if they have infinite tokens if they're 0/3's or 3/0's. Used to run 4 of, may go back to that, you just sub out all the dwynen's elite, prowess of the fair, and Elvish Promenade.
Ego Erasure - A tutorable answer to merfolk and the mirror matchup (and any other tribal). They will know you have it in hand if you tutor for it, but this often forces them to just sit back and pass the turn rather than go aggro on you. If you draw it without them knowing, it can be a complete blowout.
Swan Song - Anger of the gods, Pyroclasm, Wraths... these are the bane of your existence. The only way you can hastily go infinite and still win when you're facing down a possible sorcery speed sweeper is by dropping 3 elves in one turn with an intruder alarm already on the board, and an evolutionary leap ready to go as well to keep feeding you cards (hopefully the right ones).
Thoughtseize - Disruption against almost anything besides lands.
Playing around with this lately. In too many games I've felt a little un-easy without any way to threaten the opponent if I don't drop an Ezuri or Warcaller. Changed it up a bit to have some decent threats that synergize well and solve some problems for me in the early/mid game. Changed the original decklist, take a look.
Elderscale Wurm
Has anyone tested with Elderscale yet? Is it just too slow, or does it blow out Burn and put that match back in the W category? I've goldfished with it and it seems doable.
I played with it in my bant version of combo elves. It was sideboard but never made it out because I didn't run into burn (weird huh?). Usually though the deck could get enough mana to summoner's pact into it, or even chord depending how long it's gone.
Elderscale is relevant in multiple matchups, besides just burn. If they have no removal, they're kinda SOL.
Extremely interesting idea. I like the idea of running some "Elf" spells.
I 100% agreed with DemannicTheOrc about running only 1x Eyeblights EndIF goal was to tutor it up when needed.
I run 3 because they're good almost all the time, and this deck is designed to last, and have some amount of control. If the game goes into turn 7 or 8 with you and your opponent trading 1 for 1, there's very few modern decks that can keep up with this one, with all your ability to refuel. Especially if you have an evolutionary leap on the field, you can bait out his removal and just refuel with leap. Plus this deck really doesn't lack in the mana department, so paying 3 for Eyeblight's Ending vs 2 for others doesn't matter too much usually.
I gathered that the Ego Erasure has a specific purpose. Sounds like a decent meta call.
Have you tried Nameless Inversion over Eyeblight's Ending ? Crib Swap looks really cool too, especially with Intruder Alarm, but the white might be pushing too hard. (edit: Crib Swap is probably a bad idea unless you're all in on Intruder Alarm since any elf lords would pump the token)
I also did at one point play Crib Swap in the more aggressive version of the deck (bant, not sultai) that mainly just tried to combo off into Craterhoof. If that failed, Mirror Entity was another option (and just fine to have in hand and hard cast early). Crib Swap is nice to have in a version of this that runs white instead of black (or blue).
Beastcaller Savant is an interesting thought for the deck. Being a 2 drop vs a 1 drop isn't insignificant, but considering it has haste, it's almost a wash in most situations, and can net some extra "mana range" while intruder alarm is on the field if you're just short a few from being able to go near-infinite.
Barwick,
Your list is an interesting approach. I've been playing around with Intruder Alarm builds and haven't found anything really worth reporting yet. (Admittedly though, my experiementation time has been limited and I'm still convinced there's something in it...) Your grindy/value approach looks really solid and has me reconsidering Sylvan Messenger, which I'd written off. (The synergy between Changeling Titan and Sylvan Messenger/Coiling Oracle/Elvish Visionary in particular is pretty sweet)
Ego erasure is sideboard for merfolk especially, but also mirror matchups or any tribal matchup. Plus, it too is an "elf card".
Thornweald Archer is a 1-of to fetch up to nab evasive flyers, or anything giant with hexproof. Or, at least keep them off our back till we can go into blowout mode.
If you want to be able to tutor for it x1 seems fine, but the rest of them cost three times more mana than most modern removal spells. I don't think the value of getting them off messenger is worth the cost. That makes it 7 mana across 2 turns to kill something. Which is too slow for a deck with 3 removal spells. When I think significant disruption I think 4-8 removal spells and then alteast 8 other cards that disrupt your opponent in other ways (discard, counters, wraths, etc).
Eh, I just find them handy to have, and I'd rather have "card in hand" with eyeblight's ending or reclamation sage off of sylvan messenger, than "not card in hand" with abupt decay.
I get that Eyeblight's Ending can be grabbed off of messenger, but it seems suspect at best. There are much better removal spells available to BG.
Yeah, but zero of them can be grabbed with Sylvan Messenger. Plus the mentioned harbinger being able to tutor it in a desperate pinch.
I'm not kidding, this version I play, even in a seemingly hopeless situation, you're literally often one topdeck away from being able to run away with the game. You have basically 8 messengers in this deck (with 4 harbingers). You also have basically 5 of any of your 1-of's, minus the two utility enchantments, plus you can't end up with 2 of them cluttering up your hand and duplicating their utility needlessly.
FWIW, and comparison, here's my "hardy" combo elves deck. It has significant amounts of disruption available to it inherent in the build, and can still combo off turn 3 without problem via intruder alarm and a few mana dorks. The purpose of this deck is to make a very resilient combo elves build, that rarely fizzles or runs out of gas. It has multiple ways to win, which can all be fetched with Elvish Harbinger. Lots of ways to keep in the game, some insurance policies, etc. Sylvan Messenger and Elvish Harbinger really make this deck strong.
Of note: NOTHING in this deck is infinite (unless I'm missing it). You don't need infinite to win, unless somehow they kitchen finks'ed themselves to a billion and a half life.
Thing is, it struggles against midrange and control. It crushes face against just about any other deck out there, see below for my analysis of matchups from the last 27 games (19 wins, 8 losses, ~70% win rate)
Affinity - Favorable
BR Hollow One - Miserable if they're on, cake if they're not (or if I'm T3 combo)
Burn - Very favorable
Infect - Favorable
Mill - Laughable, free win game 1
Scapeshift - Favorable
Storm - Very favorable
Death's Shadow - Unfavorable
UW / Jeskai / Grixis Control - Very hard
Jund - Unfavorable
Creatures Toolbox - Even, depends who can fetch out Linvala first
Every random brew I've seen - Cake
It's fairly different from the old school pod decks, but shares a lot of similarities. If I can figure out how to play well against midrange and control, I'll be a happy camper. I recently put in Thrun maindeck, which has been exceptional, because usually I can evolution for him early if need be, or wait till mid game to ensure I can regenerate him in the face of a wrath.
I'm kinda running out of options on how to handle these matchups. I know there's no single "answer", but I'm sure there's more I can be doing than what I am. See below for the decklist.
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Viscera Seer
4 Vizier of Remedies
4 Devoted Druid
2 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Eternal Witness
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1 Sun Titan
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Chord of Calling
4 Eldritch Evolution
Lands (22)
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Temple Garden
1 Shriekmaw
4 Windswept Heath
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
3 Razorverge Thicket
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
2 Plains
5 Forest
1 Acidic Slime
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Magus of the Moon
2 Collective Brutality
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Thoughtseize
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Stony Silence
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
2 Path to Exile
In general, against non-interactive decks you can often go Turn 1 mana dork into Turn 2 Devoted Druid. Turn 3 evolution for huge value and/or the win (Vizier for infinite mana, chord for duskwatch, duskwatch into hard cast Emrakul). Surprisingly the opportunity to do this Turn 3/4 presents itself more often than I thought it would. Free wins help, but don't make a deck.
Beyond that, Voice & Finks help evolution into bigger bodies, often disruptive ones that can take over the game. The pod-like effect of toolbox creatures is handy against over half of the Modern field, even with just the toolboxes I maindeck.
At one point I had redcap in there, but with no way to hard cast it except rare times I had BB or B + birds, it's often just dead. Plus it's hard to Evolution into, plus the seer/vizier/persist combo is the "backup" combo that sometimes just happens.
Analysis of the non-obvious maindeck singletons:
Kambal - Burn, Storm, etc, all need to spend a card against him. Storm rarely has cards to spare to deal with him plus win sooner than later (buying me enough time to just win, or to evolution/chord into an Eidolon of Rhetoric.
Ooze - Self explanatory
Thrun - My first foray into dealing with Control
Sigarda - Kinda a "meh", but a flying 4/5 often just wins games. Plan on replacing her with the new 4 CMC 3/4 "all other creatures have hexproof" (Shalai, Voice of Plenty) in Dominaria
Sun Titan - Surprisingly easy to hard cast if needed, but evolving into it for value isn't uncommon, and Reveilark isn't really that hot here.
Main things I'm wondering are... how should I deal with control? Should I ditch some things and put in some tireless trackers? Another hexproof threat? Board in more value creatures like voice, etc? I'm just not quite sure what my game plan should be. Thrun seems to help, but isn't a solution by himself.
What hate shuts us down easily? Rule of Law? Wish for a response. Leyline of Sanctity? So what, run my version and you have singleton thopter/sword, or just Detention Sphere away the leyline. Run Caryatids and no other mana dorks (seriously, 4 caryatids and 4 fatestitchers is more than enough with all the cantrips).
4 Fatestitcher
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
2 Glittering Wish
2 Muddle the Mixture
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Conjurer's Bauble
2 Ideas Unbound
2 Manamorphose
1 Mind Spring
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Dispel
1 Izzet Charm
1 Gut Shot
1 Dismember
1 Path to Exile
1 Forest
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Wear // Tear
1 Temur Ascendancy
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Pyroclasm
1 Aurelia's Fury
1 Swan Song
2 Dispel
1 Detention Sphere
This deck is ridiculously resilient, more than interactive enough, and has very few dead cards. It threatens from multiple angles (thopter/sword, or an Aurelia's Fury to the face), and is very difficult for them to disrupt. Caryatids don't die unless you're playing against a very serious control deck that can sweep. Pyroclasm does nothing to this deck because rarely will you hard cast your fatestitchers. And, if you do hard cast them, they're handy squishy little icy manipulators that don't cost mana to activate.
I wouldn't mind writing a new primer for this or the storm thread. Not sure which one exactly it falls under, mine is very combo-based as all ascendancy lists are, but also very interactive in the mainboard, and has plenty of answers in the sideboard.
I'm not a very good magic player, but I've had incredible, consistent success with a variant of this deck.
Long story short, I'm not even worried about allowing for the crushing, turn 2 kill in the 2% of my games I actually draw it. That said, I only run 8 mana dorks. 4 Caryatids, and 4 Fatestitchers. The Caryatids are my resiliency to anything shy of 3 mana sweepers or wraths. The Fatestitchers let me get the 2+ mana per cycle once I start comboing off. And, Fatestitchers that are hard cast also act as squishy little 1/2 Icy Manipulators, locking down your opponent's flyers (and, also, your opponent's Emrakul)
Glittering Wish, enough said. Muddle the mixture, finds almost anything I need in my deck, and is also a counterspell with no drawbacks on most cards that can threaten this deck.
Thopter/Sword, my multi-prong threat. I don't really need to combo off to win, if I draw the sword, I can often wish or muddle for the foundry, just outlast most decks, and control the matchup long enough to let the thopters win me the match.
But, most often, it's turn 2 caryatid, turn 3 ascendancy, and once this deck gets going, it's very rare that it fizzles out, especially with the ascendancy looting effect.
The rest of the deck, ideas unbound and tormenting voice do great work, manamorphose is what it is, it's rarely a dead card, but not a very good draw early on. Plus, the fact that it costs R to cast lets you wiggle your way out of a blood moon if you need to. Conjurer's bauble, you only have 2 wishes, and they self-exile, so you have to recycle your singletons sometimes. These are handy at recycling cards you really really need later on in some games (a wished-for Wear // Tear comes to mind...)
Mind Spring, sometimes you just find yourself with 12 floating mana and 1 card in hand. You cantrip into mind spring and you're back in business. Same story with Sphinx's Revelation in the SB. It's rare to wish for it, but it does happen.
Interactive elements, 2 remand is enough to slow down usually, dispel protects key assets, Izzet Charm is more flexible than other options, and even though it doesn't have flashback like faithless looting, and even though it IS net negative cards, its flexibility is great here. Gut shot, actually is very handy and can double as a 5th Git Probe in a pinch to get the combo moving. Other control elements, they are what they are.
Sideboard, Scarscale Ritual is such a great card in a pinch. If you're down to 1 card and enough mana to cast it, you can wish for Scarscale Ritual, cast it, and find another cantrip to keep life going along. Temur Ascendancy lets you win THIS turn, not next turn, once you have enough thopters on the board. Aurelia's Fury, same story, sometimes you just have 38 mana, may as well use it to fireball their face. Most of the rest of the sideboard speaks for itself. Mostly wish targets, plus three copies of "everybody hates pyroclasm".
4 Fatestitcher
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
2 Glittering Wish
2 Muddle the Mixture
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Conjurer's Bauble
2 Ideas Unbound
2 Manamorphose
1 Mind Spring
1 Tormenting Voice
1 Dispel
1 Izzet Charm
1 Gut Shot
1 Dismember
1 Path to Exile
1 Forest
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Wear // Tear
1 Temur Ascendancy
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Pyroclasm
1 Aurelia's Fury
1 Swan Song
2 Dispel
1 Detention Sphere
In summary, this deck is VERY... VERY resilient and consistent. Give it a shot.
I think this can be pretty resilient. Run Sylvan Caryatid's instead of birds/hierarchs, put in 1 Thopter Foundry and 1 Sword of the Meek, run 2-3 Glittering Wish, 2 Muddle the Mixture, a butt-ton of 2 CMC effects main, and singleton multi-color answers/tools in the sideboard.
Here's my list in development. Might go down to 1 muddle, and add a 3rd wish, or something else, not sure yet. Erayo is probably not necessary unless you go more tempo with the deck:
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Mass Hysteria
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Muddle the Mixture
2 Glittering Wish
4 Serum Visions
3 Sleight of Hand
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Manamorphose
1 Ideas Unbound
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Dismember
1 Path to Exile
1 Dispel
2 Remand
1 Izzet Charm
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Island
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Plains
1 Overgrown Tomb
Sideboard:
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Flesh // Blood
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Wear // Tear
1 Temur Ascendancy
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Dimir Infiltrator
1 Path to Exile
1 Lightning Helix
1 Terminate
1 Dispel
1 Remand
The deck very rarely fizzles out with this setup, and is resilient enough to last till it needs to go off. Turn 2 win is very rarely possible with Turn 1 land, spirit guide, Caryatid into Turn 2 ascendancy, git probe. Turn 3 is possible with the same, minus the spirit guide.
Fatestitchers are obvious. Pitch them to ascendancy every time you can. Caryatid's are great because they dodge removal, and also don't die to any 2 cmc sweepers that I know of.
Muddles let you find a boatload of 2 CMC's in your deck, which also includes Glittering Wish, or a Caryatid if you really need a mana dork. Scarscale Ritual is handy to refill the hand while comboing off. Usually if you can get an Ascendancy on the board with a mana dork, as long as you have something in hand, you can usually combo out fairly reliably.
If you're comboing off, you're *probably* going to keep going through your whole deck, and will find the Mass Hysteria, make a butt-ton of hasty thopters, and win that turn. If you need you can also Wish for a Temur Ascendancy.
"I will continue to mill my opponent's deck until he has one card left in his deck". That is my determined end state, I mean, how is that slow play? Slow play to me sounds like the ruling that won't allow this to proceed.
And the hell is with this PM warning I just got... "warning, you didn't use deck tags.. we're going to hunt you down and kill you"... this is why I don't go on online forums very often, stupid crap pisses me off.
So basically, in a tournament, if he has an Emrakul in his deck, we both have to sit there for 44 minutes while I say "flip". "flip". "flip". "flip". Damn, Emrakul. Ok, shuffle.
"flip"
"flip"
"flip"
?
That seems pretty absurd.
If I'm playing Heartless Summoning / Altar of the Brood combo, and keep recurring Myr Retrievers, but my opponent has one Emrakul in his deck, then in theory I can't mill him to death.
But, if he has say 6 cards in hand, then can I mill him "infinitely" until he has only 1 card in his deck? Basically, I keep tripping on Emrakul until he's the last card in his deck. I stop milling him, and pass the turn. He draws Emrakul, has 7 in hand, can't cast him, and can't discard him. He does whatever, and passes the turn. I pass the next turn, and he draws an empty deck and loses.
Would this be a legal "infinite recurrence" in a tournament? Basically can I put a condition on it?
Warning issued for lack of card tags. Card tags added.
- Teia
In summary, this version of Intruder Alarm elves can win from multiple angles. First the boring ones, then the ideal ones:
- It can often win in a straight-up fair game by going wide
- It can win without fully comboing out by having an Ezuri on the field, a few elves, and 5 mana.
- It can dial back its speed to outlast and card advantage most other decks via Evolutionary Leap or Prowess of the Fair, or better yet, both.
- It can search out any "elf" answer it needs via Elvish Harbinger
- Against non-interactive decks, turn 2 it can often have a mana dork, 1 or 2 lands, a heritage druid, another 1-drop elf or a dwynen's elite (which comes with his own buddy elf), and an Elvish Archdruid on the board. Turn 3 can do almost any number of things, if you have Intruder Alarm in hand, you've got basically infinite mana.
- Rhys the Redeemed Can make infinite tokens (I chose Rhys over Imperious Perfect because I'd rather spend G on a creature that's got a high likelihood of eating a bolt rather than 2G, and if we have Intruder Alarm on the board, either one of them are going to make infinite tokens pretty much in this deck.)
- Intruder Alarm + Evolutionary Leap almost always results in being able to filter through your entire deck for the "right" card you want (Ezuri or Emrakul).
- Elvish Harbinger can tutor Ezuri to top of your deck, plus it's an "any color" mana dork.
- Shaman of the Pack blows out anyone who thinks Ensnaring Bridge or Turbo Fog is going to shut you down.
- Joraga Treespeaker can be an alternative to Heritage Druid, untaps for double the mana himself at level 1, and double the fun than heritage druid if he hits level 5. He may be a "win more", I'm not sure, but he's more bolt-proof than Heritage Druid is at level 5 if a game goes long.
- Dwynen's Elite is good against 1-for-1 decks, you mostly want an "elves count" on the board, and 2 elves for 2 mana is nice.
- Sylvan Messenger is the all-star of this deck. It almost always reads "When Sylvan Messenger ETB, reveal the top 4 of your hand, put the one land you found on the bottom of your library, and put the other 3 elves into your hand". The 4 mana cost we don't really care about, it's why we run so many mana dorks. And with Intruder Alarm on the board, Sylvan Messenger often ends up feeding into a sequence that results in more card-draw engines going into hand, which eventually results in "gg" from your opponent.
- Prowess of the Fair gives you some amount of Wrath insurance.
- Prowess of the Fair also triggers Intruder Alarm when one of your elves goes to the yard. This is especially handy with Evolutionary Leap.
- Remember, having 2 Intruder Alarms on the board is almost certain to allow you to gain infinite mana, so long as you can continue dropping elves. This is where Evolutionary Leap is super handy again.
- Intruder Alarm CAN be used defensively against decks with a light creature count. Decks dropping a turn 2 Tasigur can be scary, but you can drop a turn 2 or 3 Intruder Alarm on their face and prevent them from attacking with Tasigur until they (or you) drop another creature to untap him. Same story goes for Bogles, Infect, etc. Sometimes they can swing in on you for 8 points of poison, only to have their creature locked down and tapped thanks to Intruder Alarm.
- Evolutionary Leap is an all-star multi-use card in this deck. If they're playing a lot of 1-for-1 removal control style, you can turn 1 land, go. Turn 2 land, evolutionary leap, go. Turn 3 mana dork, go. Turn 4... you get the point. You're keeping your board open so that when they bolt/STP/terminate/decay, you can sack the creature and get another in hand in return.
- Elvish Promenade with an Intruder Alarm on the board results in disgusting amounts of mana, even if you only have 4 elves on the board (1 of which is a heritage druid makes it even better). If you have 1 land + 4 elves on the board and 1 is heritage druid, casting an Elvish Promenade will result in you coming out the other end with 21 mana (15 if you leave all elves untapped). If you have 1 land + only 3 elves, casting Elvish Promenade ends up with 12 mana out the other end (6 if you leave all the elves untapped).
One thing to remember from this deck that I literally just found out yesterday. Heritage Druid CAN tap Prowess of the Fair as one of the "three elves you control" for GGG. It is also an "elf", so with Joraga Treespeaker at level 5, it can also tap for GG by itself. Thinking of this now, multiple Prowess of the Fair, just like multiple Intruder Alarms, can actually be a very scary thing for an opponent to face.
Sideboard choices currently:
Relic of Progenitus - Living End, Snapcasters, Tasigurs, Goryo's Vengeance and/or Footsteps, Gifts Ungiven, the list goes on and on. There's plenty of things you don't want lurking in graveyards, and in a pinch, you can always sack it to draw another card.
Essence Warden - Infinite life with Rhys the Redeemed combo. Needed lifegain against overly aggro decks, especially because you're often dropping 5+ creatures before turn 3.
Nullmage Shepherd - A tutorable answer to affinity (kinda), but also can destroy pesky enchantments or artifacts you otherwise can't deal with in the easiest way like ensnaring bridge, ethersworn canonist (holy hell this sucks), blood moon if you need U to cast your intruder alarm, etc.
Illness in the Ranks - Twin. This is a 1 CMC card that you can drop on turn 1 and shut down twin's combo. Twin is really my worst nightmare in this deck, because we're not interactive enough, nor are we faster than them on a regular basis to beat them with regularity. I don't care if they have infinite tokens if they're 0/3's or 3/0's. Used to run 4 of, may go back to that, you just sub out all the dwynen's elite, prowess of the fair, and Elvish Promenade.
Ego Erasure - A tutorable answer to merfolk and the mirror matchup (and any other tribal). They will know you have it in hand if you tutor for it, but this often forces them to just sit back and pass the turn rather than go aggro on you. If you draw it without them knowing, it can be a complete blowout.
Swan Song - Anger of the gods, Pyroclasm, Wraths... these are the bane of your existence. The only way you can hastily go infinite and still win when you're facing down a possible sorcery speed sweeper is by dropping 3 elves in one turn with an intruder alarm already on the board, and an evolutionary leap ready to go as well to keep feeding you cards (hopefully the right ones).
Thoughtseize - Disruption against almost anything besides lands.
4 Sylvan Messenger
3 Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Arbor Elf
2 Elvish Archdruid
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Elvish Harbinger
1 Shaman of the Pack
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Dwynen's Elite
1 Rhys the Redeemed
4 Elvish Visionary
2 Elvish Mystic
1 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Intruder Alarm
1 Prowess of the Fair
3 Evolutionary Leap
Instant (1)
1 Eyeblight's Ending
Sorcery (1)
1 Elvish Promenade
Lands (17)
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Breeding Pool
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
I played with it in my bant version of combo elves. It was sideboard but never made it out because I didn't run into burn (weird huh?). Usually though the deck could get enough mana to summoner's pact into it, or even chord depending how long it's gone.
Elderscale is relevant in multiple matchups, besides just burn. If they have no removal, they're kinda SOL.
I run 3 because they're good almost all the time, and this deck is designed to last, and have some amount of control. If the game goes into turn 7 or 8 with you and your opponent trading 1 for 1, there's very few modern decks that can keep up with this one, with all your ability to refuel. Especially if you have an evolutionary leap on the field, you can bait out his removal and just refuel with leap. Plus this deck really doesn't lack in the mana department, so paying 3 for Eyeblight's Ending vs 2 for others doesn't matter too much usually.
I've also looked at nameless inversion, I just found Eyeblights Ending more reliable
I also did at one point play Crib Swap in the more aggressive version of the deck (bant, not sultai) that mainly just tried to combo off into Craterhoof. If that failed, Mirror Entity was another option (and just fine to have in hand and hard cast early). Crib Swap is nice to have in a version of this that runs white instead of black (or blue).
Beastcaller Savant is an interesting thought for the deck. Being a 2 drop vs a 1 drop isn't insignificant, but considering it has haste, it's almost a wash in most situations, and can net some extra "mana range" while intruder alarm is on the field if you're just short a few from being able to go near-infinite.
Ego erasure is sideboard for merfolk especially, but also mirror matchups or any tribal matchup. Plus, it too is an "elf card".
Thornweald Archer is a 1-of to fetch up to nab evasive flyers, or anything giant with hexproof. Or, at least keep them off our back till we can go into blowout mode.
Eh, I just find them handy to have, and I'd rather have "card in hand" with eyeblight's ending or reclamation sage off of sylvan messenger, than "not card in hand" with abupt decay.
Yeah, but zero of them can be grabbed with Sylvan Messenger. Plus the mentioned harbinger being able to tutor it in a desperate pinch.
I'm not kidding, this version I play, even in a seemingly hopeless situation, you're literally often one topdeck away from being able to run away with the game. You have basically 8 messengers in this deck (with 4 harbingers). You also have basically 5 of any of your 1-of's, minus the two utility enchantments, plus you can't end up with 2 of them cluttering up your hand and duplicating their utility needlessly.
Of note: NOTHING in this deck is infinite (unless I'm missing it). You don't need infinite to win, unless somehow they kitchen finks'ed themselves to a billion and a half life.
4 Sylvan Messenger
3 Llanowar Elves
1 Changeling Titan
1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
1 Thornweald Archer
4 Heritage Druid
3 Arbor Elf
1 Elvish Champion
4 Elvish Harbinger
2 Shaman of the Pack
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Elvish Archdruid
3 Elvish Visionary
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Joraga Warcaller
4 Coiling Oracle
3 Eyeblight's Ending
Enchantment: 5
1 Prowess of the Fair
2 Evolutionary Leap
2 Intruder Alarm
Lands: 174 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Breeding Pool
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Forest
4 Scavenging Ooze
1 Gaea's Herald
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Swan Song
1 Nullmage Shepherd
1 Ego Erasure
1 Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
1 Essence Warden