Elves!

On Tuesday I realized I had only 4 days left to pick a constructed deck, get the cards online, test it, and get the paper cards. This isn't a lot of time but I was still no closer to a decision. The problem is I am too apt to believe whatever it is I read/hear when I don't have any basis to disagree. Give me some actual knowledge and I'm front and center when it comes to being polemic about any argument but when it comes to an area I have no ability to critique I'm apt to just believe what I read.

I'd been reading a lot of constructed posts on various sites and they all espouse playing their own pet decks. RUG Twin-Pod is awesome says the guy who won Australian Nationals. Many people say to play Caw-Blade because it's powerful and the mirror is highly skill intensive. Of course these people are all in desperate need of having you believe they're an authority (they need you to come back to their sites to generate more ad revenue) so making claims implying that the choices they made show they're skilled may be more self-serving than true. Basic blue-red Twin had an article about it and made it seem to easy. Use your card filtering spells to build an unbeatable hand, then win with your unbeatable hand. I could do that! If I tested for weeks and weeks and knew what an 'unbeatable hand' was against each deck in the format, anyway.

The last article I read talked about playing cheap discard, removal, counters, and bombs. 6/6 flyers for 4. Gideon for 5. Some sphinx that draws a ton of cards for 6. Who cares that the mana for that sequence is BB2, WW3, UU4. You'll draw that mana mix, no problem. I was all set to get that monstrosity online when I realized just how many of those were mythics. A quick search online put the deck at about $400. I'd probably need to sink more money into online tickets to even put that together, but since the deck is clearly awesome it must be worth it, right? As a comparison I also looked up an elf deck and it was substantially cheaper... (I also wasn't looking forward to spending another $400 for paper cards for the deck either.)

I was still no closer to a decision but Duncan had recently posted on Facebook that he'd have to miss Sky's birthday since he was going to be at Nationals. Pretty much everyone I know has shifted into playing board games or having children instead of playing Magic and Duncan is no different. At least compared to the past where I could count on Duncan having pretty much all the cards. I decided to send him an email asking if he was playing or not, and what his card situation actually was. Then I put off playing constructed for another day and drafted a bunch, including the mono-green deck I posted yesterday.

Falling asleep is not something I do easily and I ended up playing sample games with the UBW deck in my head that night. It all sounded so simple in the article but I kept casting my discard spells in my (day?)dreams and not knowing what to take. I kept taking the wrong things, people kept mana leaking my 6/6 for 4, and wrecking me. Of course this has no actual basis in reality but the idea was implanted anyway... I still don't know what I'm doing so playing a deck with a lot of interactive choices can't be right.

I checked my email before going to work on Wednesday and Duncan had replied back saying he was judging, that he didn't have a ton of cards, but if I sent him a list he'd see what he could lend me to cut down on how much I had to buy which is awesome of him. But I didn't have a deck. I still had the elf deck open in my browser from the price comparing the night before and I didn't recall it being very interactive so I sent it to Duncan.

I got home from work to another email. Duncan has a lot of the elf deck (it being terrible draft commons and all) and gave me a list of what was missing. Perhaps a smart person would build the deck online but time was running short so I went downtown to 401 to buy the missing cards without having played the deck or even really knowing what it did. It turns out Duncan runs a board game night at 401 on Wednesday so he was also there.

It turns out 401 installed a second air conditioner upstairs since I went to the M12 pre-release event. Unfortunately the second AC wasn't working so the room was sweltering and I didn't feel like sticking around to play board games. I did go and get someone who worked there to fix the AC which helped a little, but I still just hung around a bit to talk to Duncan about cards and left. 401 didn't have everything I needed and Duncan pointed me to Harry Tarantula with a warning that they tend to be overpriced but as a result probably had what I need in stock. They did, with Vengevine being $25 there instead of $16 at 401. Ouch. (Though between the two stores they didn't have enough Ezuris and I had to buy a foil one for an extra 2 bucks. It was either that or risk that Marv would have one for sale at Nationals and knowing Marv it would probably cost $20 and a kidney.)

New cards in hand I headed home, put a tv dinner in the over, and bought the deck online as well. Thankfully the online marketplace is a lot more efficient and I was able to find all the cards in short order. The set of Vengevines was 65 tickets but the entire rest of the deck combined was under 20. Including the 10 forests I had to buy for a penny since I somehow only had 9 on my account. I then went to the solitaire room to give the deck a few spins to see what cards were in it and what they did. The first game I won on turn 4. I played probably 20 more solitaire games while eating and always won on either turn 4 or turn 5. In one game I did 47 by turn 4.

Ok, but that's goldfishing for no opponent who can block, cast counters, or burn out my dudes. So I headed to the tournament practice room to get some actual games in. I joined the first open table and it turned out to be one mcguirecj, former roommate and team sealed teammate. It turns out Chris is coming down from Ottawa for Nationals this weekend and was also getting some testing in. Small world! At any rate Chris was playing goblins. The first game he played a 2/2 haste for 1 on turn 1, then a grim lavamancer and a bolt for my elf on turn 2, and then just killed all my dudes and eventually me. So much for the goldfish, huh? I did manage to take games 2 and 3 after siding in an army of large men.

From there I went on to play against illusions, poison, hawkward, puresteel, GUB pod, some terrible deck that scooped before game 2, and finally caw-blade. I beat them all, though some of the players failed to take guaranteed wins on board so I'm not sure I can really be too thrilled. At the very least the deck actually seems to have game which is nice. The next step, tonight and probably Friday night, is to dive into the constructed queues on Modo for actually games with people willing to pay to play with their decks.

One trouble I had was I didn't have a clue how to sideboard. I had a rough idea what to bring in but no clue what to take out. I actually haven't found an article about how to play elves anywhere online so I thought it might be instructive to go over how it seems the deck plays and what I should do and solicit feedback from others. This is going to be a pretty long post, so here's a jump...



First things first, what the heck is in the deck?

1 drops

4x Llanowar Elves - He's a one drop, he's an elf, and he gets you to 3 mana on turn 2. The deck is all about powering out a lot of dudes early with fast mana and then making them all huge and bashing face. This guy starts it all off with the mana and becomes huge with the elf pumpage.

4x Arbor Elf - At first glance this looks to be llanowar elves numbers 5 through 8. For the most part they do fill exactly the same role but there are two differences that make them not equivalent. In some cases one is better, in some cases the other, and frequently they are essentially the same. The two differences are that untapping a land is an instant and therefore can be responded to (with removal or bounce) and that mana pools empty each step now so untapping a land can get you mana to use later while tapping the llanowar elf requires you to use the mana now.

4x Copperhorn Scout - Why does the last point on the arbor elf matter? This guy! When he beats in I get to untap the other two elves. With just one of these guys they remain basically the same (you tapped them for mana before combat and get to do it again after combat). The difference comes when you get 2 of these in play. Then, assuming you tapped more lands pre-combat, the arbor elf can generate an extra mana in the next main phase. The llanowar elf mana has to be used during declare attackers. Maybe I was just getting weird draws but this certainly seemed to come up a surprising amount of the time. This guy is insane and the key to most of the sick early draws. But he's an enabler and without friends who tap for things he doesn't do a whole lot.

4x Joraga Treespeaker - I'd never even played with level up before. Basically as a sorcery I can pay G1 to put a counter on this guy, leveling him up. At base he's a 1/1 with no abilities. At levels 1 through 4 he's a 1/2 that taps for GG. At level 5 he's a 1/4 who gives all your elves the ability to tap for GG. It's a little odd, but this guy is actually sick on turn 1. Then on turn 2 you level him up (which is essentially free since you spend 2 and then he can tap for 2) and can bust out a 2 drop or a couple of 1 drops. Then just from him you have 5 mana on turn 3. I did level him up all the way to 5 once and it did interesting things but it feels like that's never what I want to do. Maybe the best start would be this guy into scout + arbor elf.

2x Joraga Warcaller - Calling this guy a 1 drop is a bit of a misnomer. Apparently they made kicker better by letting you use it multiple times and this guy is one way to turn a lot of mana into a lot of damage. I've been casting him for 5 or 7 for the most part, and a 4/4 that gives your team +3/+3 is pretty sweet. The only problem with him is he doesn't interact well with the scout. I want to play him pre-combat so all my attackers get the boost but as such anyone who wants to attack can't provide mana to make the boost even bigger. Still, he's very powerful.





2 drops

4x Fauna Shaman - The card that makes me think. I haven't been using him very much so far because thinking is hard. On the plus side he has 2 power and is an elf so just beating with him has worked out well so far. I'm pretty sure he exists as a way to dominate caw-blade when combined with vengevine. But just having the ability to search up the specific piece needed to go off is quite good. Also, he does untap with the scout for multiple searches in one turn!

2x Sylvan Ranger - I'll be honest, I don't know what this guy is here for. I guess the deck only plays 19 lands so sometimes I have a land light hand and can make use of an extra land in hand. But for the most part he just seems like a bad body to get pumped by the team. I guess there just aren't enough 1 drops that make mana? He's the first thing I've been siding out.







3 drops

4x Elvish Archdruid - Now we're talking. Every good tribal deck needs a lord and this is a pretty great lord. It's not a huge pump, but it's powerful. The second ability is deceptively awesome. He routinely taps for 5 or more mana. Combine that with a scout and Ezuri and the game is over in a real hurry. He's also the primary way to make use of joraga warcaller.

4x Ezuri, Renegade Leader - When you're running 4 of an expensive legend you know he's got to be good. Continuing from above, what's the best way to spend 5 mana earned from an archdruid+scout combo? How about casting overrun. As an instant. Joraga warcaller's boost may persist turn after turn (unless he gets killed) but if you resolve one of these there probably aren't any more turns anyway. Overrun is awesome. But that's not even the best part... They reprinted Wrath of God but they took away the no regeneration part. Which means all these control decks (ok, maybe just caw-blade) are running a spell which kills everything. Unless you regenerate. Then it only kills Ezuri. Most spot removal is either -5/-5 or targets Ezuri anyway so it's only really good against new wrath and Gideon but it's insane there.

1x Viridian Corrupter - Sometimes you just need to kill an artifact. Fauna shaman exists to help make that happen. (I beat caw-blade in game 1 by blowing up their sword with this guy after faunaing him up.) There's an identical elf without infect and I'm not sure why the deck uses this one in particular. I guess it's an answer to regeneration or infinite life?

4x Lead the Stampede - This is the only non-land, non-creature in the deck and it's a doozy. Maybe you've stalled out. Maybe you just have a huge amount of mana and nothing to sink it into. Why don't you draw 5 cards for 3 mana? Ok, you rarely get all 5 cards but even 3 or 4 is a huge deal. And if you happen to filter past 4 lands? Not what you wanted but you were probably going to lose if you drew those. Casting sylvan ranger after filtering lands to the bottom is the worst feeling.






4 drops

4x Vengevine - Worth more than 3 times the rest of the deck combined and the only 4 drop in the deck. He's an interesting dude. Casting two creatures in one turn with this deck is really easy since most of the deck is creatures. Especially after a lead the stampede it's practically guaranteed. The deck can play for a 'longer' game with fauna shaman by searching up one of these guys and then every turn pitching a vengevine to get another vengevine. Then they all come back with haste and smash face. They aren't elves so they don't get any of your pump effects but they keep coming back. Wrath is really bad when you regenerate most of your team and the rest of it comes back after you cast 2 creatures. 4 mana early isn't that uncommon either (if you don't have it on turn 3 you probably missed land drops), and I have played him out on turn 3 with the plan of just beating down. Against goblins I was even busting them out to block since even if they get burned away they just come back for more. In one game I ran the 'tech' play of turn 1 elf, turn 2 lead the stampede, turn 3 lead the stampede. This got me up to 10 cards in hand so I discarded 3 vengevines at end of turn. Turn 4, in with 12 power of hasty dudes and even if you kill them they're coming back again the next turn since my hand is chock full of dudes.

Land

19x Forest - That is all. Part of me wonders why the deck doesn't play fetch lands to filter away lands like goblins does. I can't really imagine the life matters much, though I guess if they don't kill my early elves they're dead so having lands to draw to actually cast my bigger stuff should they kill my early stuff is good.








Sideboard

2x Creeping Corrosion - Presumably against hawkward and puresteel.

4x Nature's Claim - Kills birthing pod and swords from caw-blade. I sided 4 in against caw-blade and had 2 in hand the entire game while he didn't cast a sword. I still won and it may be right to side 4 in since sword is pretty much game over and I have a lot of play if he doesn't have one.

4x Leatherback Baloth - 4/5 on turn 2 with no drawback? Suck on this, goblins! (What's that? You just paid 4 life and gave him -5/-5? GRR!)

1x Obstinate Baloth - I sided this in against goblins too. Gaining 4 life seems ok there.

4x Torpor Orb - Pretty sure the Splinter Twin decks just beat me unless I resolve one of these. Also good against Pod, maybe? I feel like I'm diluting my deck too much if I side in 4 of these and artifact removal though.










This is the deck that made top 4 at Slovakian Nationals. There was also an elf deck that came 3rd at French Nationals (and now that I look at it there are three match reports in French there so maybe I should try to read those to get ideas...) and he played a few cards differently. In particular:

Maindeck: +1 forest, -1 corrupter, +1 wolfbriar elemental, -1 vengevine
Sideboard: -4 torpor orb, +4 leyline of vitality, -3 leatherback baloth, +3 spellskite, -1 creeping corrosion, -1 nature's claim, +2 corrupter

This feels like a win more card. It's another way to spend a lot of mana in order to get a big effect but this one is guaranteed to not do anything until the next turn. On the plus side it doesn't die to a single spot removal spell. (Well, it does, but you keep your large number of wolves.) Having 1 in the deck to search up with fauna shaman might not be a terrible idea.

I'm at a bit of a loss here. I guess you want this against decks running pyroclasm? The life gain might buy you a turn against Valakut too?

A different way of attacking the splinter twin deck. This one can be searched for with fauna shaman and can be bounced/killed with creature removal.











So, thoughts?