MTG Salvation

There has been talk about dreadhorde, but a list hasn’t been suggested.

Regarding the one drop issue I am currently testing a list that shaves some two mana spells for some path to exiles. Changed the mana base to reflect a bit more dependence on the white and relegated blood moon to the side. Shaved some revelers for some dreadhorde.

I just can’t get the notion that turn one discard, turn two, two mana drop is ridiculously powerful and dreadhorde increases the possibility of that. I played legacy a lot and maybe it comes from that. I feel like since we don’t have tarmogoyfs, our deck can go a different tempo direction.

Just my 2 cents and thinking out loud while testing.

Hi guys, first time posting on this Burn thread.

Just went 3-0 at a modern FNM. I played against tiered decks. Round 1 vs Titanshift, Round 2 vs UW Control and Round 3 vs Izzet Phoenix.

I played Skewer main and dropped Skullcrack to the sideboard.

I know its an FNM, but Skewer looked really good.

Just thought I would add a data point to your guys' discussion.

Just going to casually post this list that took 9th at scg classics with 4 clancallers.

I had a hunch, but my confidence is growing in this card.

Well friends, it didn’t take long before our discussion became a reality.

Hello elf friends!

It's a bit unrelated to the topic at hand and I apologize, but I thought you guys have been sort of like my virtual family that I thought I'd share. We added a new mini elf to our family (our third such mini elf) and she is a beautiful, healthy little girl. Her name is Natsumi, which means Summer Ocean.

@Planeswalkers

On a more related note, I think the planeswalkers are a highly underrated piece of technology in Elf sideboards. When I ran Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, it always shined since it helped with our tech and now that I run Steward of Elements, I see the value in them. They are especially important against snappy decks and anything that controls our board state.

@Syreal94

Thanks for your streaming! It is a lot of work and I hope you keep going. We all benefit greatly from your work, so I thought I'd share our appreciation.

Hey @kavselj,

Thanks for the inquiry. Phantasmal Image really shined and I am quite impressed with how it performed. Yes, I am aware that the reveal off of CoCo makes it so the Image can’t copy its partner. I only have one in the deck and with two Chord of Calling, it makes it easy to go pull it out of the deck when we need it. Since the website hasn’t been updated with my deck list, I will go ahead and post it on here and give a short report of what happened yesterday.



Reason for Sultai

Ever since Nissa was spoiled, I have been brewing with the idea that Nissa is actually stronger than she looks. Basically, I had this idea that she can be a flexible version of Lead the Stampede and a win-con on its own against grindy decks that have sweepers, but hard time within permanents (i.e. Path decks). I love the fact that we can use her as a three drop when we need to or a mega drop for a 10/10 when we untap with archdruid. Since grinding some matches, my conclusion that she definitely competes with the Lead slot has not changed, although I have cut down from the original three to two. She is great early, mid and late, but not so great in multiples.

Some may wonder why I have her “compete” with Lead the Stampede. Basically, she is a three drop that smooth out our draws and drop a creature for free for card advantage and help us elf ball. I was skeptical at first, but she actually does not slow our turn four kill anymore than Lead does and definitely give the deck flexibility to win different ways instead of digging for Shaman or Ezuri. Just like when Shaman was spoiled, I found her differing angle of attack to be her most valuable trait.

What I was not expecting, however, was discovering Phantasmal Image. I had traded a foil copy with my friend to help him get his pieces and decided to run some casual games with him. I was pleasantly surprised at how valuable his copying ability was and most importantly, that it costs only two to get another Kitchen Finks, Shaman or Archdruid. Chording for 2 is much easier, I find, than 3.

Games

Round 1 vs Bant Midrange

Game one I lose against a thrice exalted flying 1/1 and I was stuck on lands.

Game 2 we were tied at 4 life, but I found my shaman.

Game 3, I was stuck on two lands with only Heritage Druid on the field. Opponent had four creatures. He beat me down to 1 before I could find my second archdruid with a chord. I thought I had made a mistake since I didn’t have enough to untap and over-run. Somehow, I was thinking that two archdruid would be enough chord for Ezuri (I had two chords in my hand rotting the whole game) and overrun, but I didn’t. Opponent had 13 life and I thought I was dead to the flying beasts, so instead of chording for Ezuri knowing that I wouldn’t have enough damage, I decided to attack with my Druid, Archdruid and Archdruid to the opponent’s untapped creature. Somehow, he decided not to block?! And dropped his life down to 4. I had six mana, so I tapped and pulled a Shaman for the win.

1-0

Round 2 vs GW Tron

Game 1, I mulliganed a lot and he had three Karns!

Game 2, I elfballed before he could pull the trigger.

Game 3, our game stalled with me drawing lands and him drawing lands. The unfortunate thing is that his top deck was better.

1-1

Round 3 vs RG Ramp/Land destruction

Game 1, He ramped into Emperion and I had no answer.

Game 2, He stalled and I stalled, but I pulled a CoCo for the win.

Game 3, Longer game than it should’ve been, but he couldn’t dig for his angers and I CoCoed him to death.

2-1

Round 4 vs BW Aristocrats (friend)

TOTAL ELF BALL TO THE MAX

3-1

Round 5 vs Bogles

Game 1, he mulliganed down to 4! He played first, passed the turn without playing a land and won in three more turns O_0. I couldn’t believe it. He pulled two lands, an enchantment and the crown. It was unbelievable.

Game 2, I won right before he could get his life linker enchantment on.

Game 3, I Reclamation Saged and went faster.

4-1

Round 6 vs Naya Burn

Game 1, he top decked his last spell to kill me. I had brought his life down to 1.

Game 2, I blocked with Nettle Sentinels to drop creatures into the yard so I could eat up to power 4 with my Scavenging Ooze that I had been holding for a while. He couldn’t beat the ooze.

Game 3, I attacked with my ooze which he tried to block with Goblin Guide. I pushed the guide and ate it when he tried to finish my ooze with a helix. He shot two more spells to kill the ooze. His turn ended with only one mana up, so I chorded for kitchen finks. Then, I copied my finks with my image and pulled another finks for the win.

5-1



I hope this report helps. Let me know if you are curious about anything. As you can probably see from the matchup, I found myself pulling out Nissa in a few rounds, but that is expected since I faced many linear decks. It does, however, show the power of Nissa being able to compete in speed with some linear decks.

I don’t think Sultai is the ultimate answer, but I certainly think I it should be serious tested. I am going to stick a while with this deck and will let you all know if I have anything more to report.

I uploaded an image of my deck for those who are more visual

Happy elfballing friends!!!

Seems like the discussion on Simic/Sultai is picking up and I have been testing a little while now that I am comfortable throwing up my list.



As expected, Nissa has been very consistent and powerful. Since, I vision this card replacing Lead the Stampede, I will compare it with Lead. I believe Nissa makes the deck slightly faster than Lead. It is a card I don't mind dropping on turn two where Lead was a bit awkward at turn two. It is a good top deck late game and can facilitate some speed in the form of free elves (after a scry 2). I found that I want to be ticking up if I dropped it turn two, unless I am against grindy decks and/or I have some combo that I benefit from another body on the field (heritage druid, Shaman of the pack). Its scry ability is very useful. I would leave the bigger body below in order to maximize the free cast the following turn. Putting in a Shaman of the Pack for free makes the game swing quite a bit.

I am not sure about Coiling Oracle. It is technically better than Visionary, but only so if you dropped a land that turn. Otherwise, we can simply use the drawn land and place it onto the battlefield. I was trying to do some scry 2 and land shenanigans, but realized that putting it directly onto the battlefield only mattered when I had already used up a land drop. Since, it stops the chain, I might go back to Visionary.

Finally, I think going Essence Wardens is now correct with this build. Coiling Oracle stops chains and our deck becomes one tempo (not turn) slower. This would mean we have to buy some time somewhere else and I think Essence Warden does that.

I haven't tested sideboarded games extensively. That is where we will see if this makes it, since blue sideboard cards are deemed, usually, weaker.

To be continued...

Quote from kavselj »

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:

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
// 1 Artifact 1 Throne of the God-Pharaoh // 34 Creature 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Heritage Druid 4 Coiling Oracle 4 Dwynen's Elite 4 Elvish Archdruid 2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader 4 Shaman of the Pack 1 Eternal Witness 3 Essence Warden	// 4 Instant 4 Collected Company // 3 Planeswalker 3 Nissa, Steward of Elements // 18 Land 4 Botanical Sanctum 4 Windswept Heath 2 Breeding Pool 3 Cavern of Souls 3 Forest 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Pendelhaven	// 15 Sideboard 1 Reclamation Sage 1 Chameleon Colossus 2 Kitchen Finks 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 3 Monastery Siege 3 Unified Will 1 Nissa, Vital Force 3 Lead the Stampede

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.

Wow, looks like I have a fiend in sultai and we independently came to the same conclusions, down to monastery siege! I have been testing Sultai and it has game, especially dropping Nissa down has been really good against most decks not named affinity. My mana base includes two gilt-leaf palaces and one shock. Has been smooth so far.

Just as a comment, it might be better if our Sultai sideboards incorporate heavily towards fast and or unfair matchups. I think Lead the Stampede x3 in the board may be too much since Nissa is a replacement for it against grindy matchups. I have two chords in the main and one in the side. My sideboard is leaning heavily against Affinity, Zoo, Chord decks and the like. Of course, this is dependent on meta

Ton of tron, experimental decks and linear aggressive. Probably because of Tron.

When are you coming? Do you want to test with us at our house? I can ask my wife if I can host another (have already my friend coming). My friend has a house too. We are about an hour and a half from kobe. An hour away from the airport.

Just as an encouragement, but a Japanese guy brought this list to a 4-1-1 for a fifth place finish. Seems like the Japanese meta is picking up draw-go as well. I may have to migrate over to draw-go from my hybrid style I have been piloting.

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 ;).

Mimic is definitely worth a look. The problem is more of who to replace rather than whether the card is good or not. It's a 2 mana elf that bolsters everything coming after it. Very valuable, but our other 2 drops aren't slackers either. One of them even works particularly well with Mimic. 1G for a 3/3 and a 2/2, that can't be shrunk by bolting the lord? Also consider that archdruids that hit the board AFTER mimic will be pyroclasm and return of kozilek proofed. 2 mimics will place them out of bolt range.

Really attractive. And yea, visionary looks to be the next possible cut.

No content of value in this post, just wanted to say I really enjoy this thread and reading about all the opinions of people who play this deck. I really feel like we've got one of the best player groups around, which I feel like will mean good things for us as this deck evolves over time. Thanks for making this a fun place to check in on daily for new input on the deck!

Overrun will resolve before combat starts, it's an instant ability. I have activated it on my opponents turn to make huge blockers and eat his creatures.

Very often, I get Ezuri into play through CoCo or Chord at the end of my opponents turn. From there, you might as well attack with him unless your opponent removes him before that (also common and a big reason why I like playing 2 spellskites). Say your opponent for some terrible reason decides to bolt Ezuri during your draw step. You can activate Overrun, it will resolve before the bolt and Ezuri will be a 5/5 (or more if you have an Archdruid in play) then the bolt resolves and he gets 3 damage on him. Say your opponent instead responds to overrun with another bolt. Ezuri will die, then overrun will resolve, then the first bolt would fizzle. Your elves will still be pumped for the rest of the turn.

Hopefully that's an adequate explanation.

This is my decklist. It uses 4x thoughtseize main and has 23 creatures, plus garruck to extra removal/tokens. Another good option is Elspeth, to make jitte pass over TNN.

2 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Forest
1 Karakas
1 Plains
1 Kor Haven (worst than maze, but gives mana and opens enemy defenses)
3 Savannah
1 Scrubland
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath

1 Dryad Arbor
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Noble Hierarch
2 Deathrite Shaman
1 Stoneforge Mystic (to take jitte when garruk is flipped)
4 Mother of Runes
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scryb Ranger
4 Tidehollow Sculler (substitutes thalia)
1 Scavenging Ooze

4 Thoughtseize
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sylvan Library
4 Green Sun's Zenith

I wish they would fire whoever chooses the feature matches. I feel like each week for the Legacy Open they pick one deck, only show that on camera for the swiss and then, when top 8 hits and you see only one person playing the deck of the week, they show that deck until it gets knocked out. It makes me want to just not even bother with the stream anymore.