Evolutionary Elves Primer
Introduction
Evolutionary Elves is a combo deck that was originally conceived by Chris VanMeter for the StarCityGames.com Modern Open on 8/22/2015. The deck functions, in theory, very similarly to Legacy Elves. The purpose of the deck is to use Evolutionary Leap to cycle through
1
- CMC creatures in order to both cycle through the deck, produce large amounts of mana, and ultimately, cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn once at least
15
has been produced. Also, this is my first attempt at a primer, any additional suggestions would be appreciated.
The Combo
In Legacy Elves,
Glimpse of Nature
is used in combination with Heritage Druid and
Nettle Sentinel
in order to draw large amounts of cards and cast Craterhoof Behemoth as early as Turn 2 and then swing in order to kill the opponent.
The theory behind Evolutionary Elves is very similar in theory. The object is to use Evolutionary Leap to cycle creatures by playing them, tapping them for mana, sacrificing them, and repeating the process until
15
or more mana has been produced and the casting Emrakul, The Aeons Torn. In an ideal world the combo looks something like this:
Step 1. Turn 1: The player casts either Nettle Sentinel or Heritage Druid
Step 2. Turn 2: The player casts until he or she has 2 Nettle Sentinels and 1 Heritage Druid on board.
Step 3. The player then activates Heritage Druids mana ability in order to float .
Step 4. The player casts a
1
CMC creature to go to .
Step 5. The player s the two Nettle Sentinels as per their triggers.
Step 6. The player activates Heritage Druids mana ability and taps the
1
CMC creature from Step 4 along with the two Nettle Sentinels to float a total of .
Step 7. The player casts Evolutionary Leap for
1
floating .
Step 8. The player can now the two Nettle Sentinels as per their trigger.
Step 9. The player then sacrifices the
1
CMC creature cast in Step 4 using Evolutionary Leaps activated ability floating .
Step 10. The player reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a creature and puts it into his or her hand and then puts the remaining cards on the bottom of his or her library in a random order.
Step 11. The player casts the creature that he or she has put into her hand so long as the creature is CMC or lower.
Step 12. The player repeats Steps 4-6 and 8-10, netting for CMC
1
creatures and for CMC 2 creatures, until he or he has
15
or more and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in hand.
Step 13. The player casts Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
Step 14. The player can at this point the player can pass his or her turn in order to take an extra turn.
Step 15. If the player does not win on his or her extra turn, he or she can sacrifice Emrakul, the Aeons Torn after the combat phase and repeat the process an infinite number of times.
Through this process, the player can swing with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn an infinite number of times, take infinite turns, gain infinite life with Essence Warden in play, or have infinite 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens on the battlefield with the help of Dwynen's Elite.
Note The amount of mana in the players mana pool will change after each repetition. I would suggest using dice or coins in order to keep track of mana.
The deck also features a combo using Cloudstone Curio, in which the player is able to cycle elves with 2 Nettle Sentinels and 1 Heritage Druid on board.
In order to understand how Cloudstone Curio functions, a bit of playtesting will likely be needed. The card can be very cumbersome and time-consuming to fully understand. The basic interaction is:
Step 1: The player taps 2 Nettle Sentinels and a
1
or CMC elf to activate Heritage Druids ability.
Step 2: The player casts a
1
or CMC creature that shares a creature type with a creature that is already on the battlefield
Step 3: The player untaps the Nettle Sentinels as per their ability on the stack before the creature returns to hand via Cloudstone Curios ability.
Step 4: The player returns a creature that shares a type with the creature that was played in Step 1 to his or her hand.
Step 5: The player casts the creature that he or she just returned to his or her hand in Step 3 and untaps the Nettle Sentinels.
Step 6: The player returns the creature that was cast in step 2 to his or her hand.
Step 7: The player repeats steps 2 through 6 until he or she has gained infinite mana, infinite life, infinite draws, or infinite 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens.
With any
1
CMC elf, the player nets off of each cycle assuming that the other creature is
1
CMC. This process can allow for an easy and early Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
With an Essence Warden on board, the player gains infinite life and nets off of each cycle, assuming that both creatures are
1
CMC.
With Dwynens Elite being looped, the player nets off of each cycle and gets infinite Elf Warrior tokens.
With an Elvish Visionary being looped, the player nets off of each cycle and draws infinite cards.
Card Choices
The Creatures
12 Mana Dorks: The deck needs mana dorks in order to produce mana when other combo pieces are not available. These cards arrive in the form of Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, and Arbor Elf
4
Nettle Sentinel
: This card is part of the combo engine in the deck.
4 Heritage Druid: This card is another part of the combo engine.
3-4 Essence Warden: This card allows the player to produce nearly infinite life during combos and can keep the player from losing games against Burn and other aggressive Strategies. Also, the life gain from this card is not optional.
4 Elvish Visionary: Card draw is an important part of any strategy and functions as a free cantrip when comboing off.
0-2 Dwynen's Elite: This card allows the player to create invaluable 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens.
0-1 Regal Force: This card allows the player to draw several cards and extend otherwise uneventful turns.
0-1
Lys Alana Huntmaster
: This card allows players to create many 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens that can be sacrificed or used to attack the opponent.
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: This card is the all-star in the deck and provides the finisher.
The Spells
4 Evolutionary Leap: Without this card, the deck would not function.
4 Summoner's Pact: Effectively copies 5-8 of Nettle Sentinel and Heritage Druid, also a tutor for any creature other than Emrakul, the Aeons Torn in the main board.
3-4 Cloudstone Curio: The alternative win condition, which takes some getting used to. This card is also bad in multiples, therefore, I have opted to run only 3 copies.
1 Weird Harvest: This card is a way to get additional combo pieces when they are needed. Be careful using it against decks that run cards like Snapcaster Mage.
The Lands
5-7 Forest: These do not get turned off by land hate such as Blood Moon.
7-8 Fetchlands: These allow the player to tutor up basic lands or shocklands.
1-4 Shocklands: These will depend entirely upon what colors are being sideboarded, in my case, I used Temple Garden for this build, but with other colors, other shocks would likely be necessary.
0-2 Horizon Canopy: This card functions as both a land and a cantrip.
0-1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: This card can aid in mana production in later turns. While it may seem like it functions similarly to Gaea's Cradle, it is not quite as much of a powerhouse in the deck. It also serves as the only mana source that cannot produce without additional resources.
0-1 Pendelhaven: This card allows for 1/1 creatures to become 2/3 creatures until end of turn for no additional cost, which can save against a well-timed Pyroclasm.
The Challenges
The deck has a lot of triggers, and missing one or two triggers can spell the difference between winning and losing a game.
In order to alleviate the stress of finding the right creatures, the deck runs a playset of Summoner's Pact and 1 Weird Harvest in order to tutor up needed combo pieces. In some situations, 5 tutor effects isnt enough though and more are needed. In such situations, the player can sideboard in 2 Ranger of Eos in order to put his or her combo pieces into hand.
In some situations, the player will be unable to combo off, and unable to gain the advantage, for such situations, the player should play one utility creature with a higher CMC, I have opted for the
Lys Alana Huntmaster
as a way to swarm the board. Other players have opted to include a Regal Force in order to draw large amounts of cards in hopes to extend the turn or combo off.
The Sideboard
The sideboard for this deck should be able to give the player the opportunity to excel against a variety of strategies. I will not go into specifics as to what to sideboard in against what matchups. I will, however, give the rationale for my card choices. Additional sideboard cards can be added depending on what colors, the player wishes to splash.
For this build of the deck, I have chosen to splash for Burrenton Forge-Tender and Ranger of Eos. However, each color has their own strengths as sideboard choices, some more than others. I would suggest splashing a maximum of 2 colors in order to be able to reliably hit each color.
Artifact and Enchantment Removal: The deck is weak against artifact and enchantment decks and needs answers to these strategies. I would suggest running 3 to 4 sources of removal. The best candidates for this job are Nature's Claim, Reclamation Sage and Krosan Grip. Since the banning of Splinter Twin in Modern and the printing of Natural State in Oath of the Gatewatch, it seems that Nature's Claim has been outclassed.
Graveyard Hate: The deck does not interact with other players very often, but in some cases, removing key pieces from an opponents graveyard can win the game. For these situations, I would recommend playing Scavenging Ooze because it allows the player to remove cards from graveyard for , but can also get +1/+1 counters and gain the player life.
Protection Against Blue Decks: Its a safe bet that someone at an event will be playing a control deck of some sort, be it Grixis Control, Delver, or an up and coming tempo deck. For situations like these, the player will want some way to slow down their game plan. For this, I recommend playing Choke.
Anti-Infect: Infect can beat this deck fairly easily and Affinity is not a favorable match-up either. Therefore, I recommend sideboarding Melira, Sylvok Outcast in order to stop infect in its tracks.
Utility Creatures: Sometimes the tools that are already in the deck are not enough to win the match, therefore, the player must have access to versatile catch-all cards. For this, I recommend running Eternal Witness in order to return cards that have been put into the graveyard to hand, and Ranger of Eos in order to fetch up creatures and get them into play quickly. Another potential addition is
Ezuri's Archers
because the deck does not do well against flying creatures. While I'm not sure that this addition is justified in the very tight sideboard, it could potentially replace 1-2 of the mana dorks as
1
CMC creatures.
Creature Removal: While the goal of this deck is to be faster than aggro decks, a well-timed Tarmagoyf can be difficult to deal with. For situations like this, I would recommend running either Dismember or Beast Within.
Tutors: Sometimes 4 copies of Summoner's Pact just aren't enough to guarantee combo pieces and sometimes the player needs instant speed creature responses. For this situation, it may be advisable to sideboard a few copies of Chord of Calling, as suggested by Gabtuls, who argued that it may even deserve a spot in the main board.
Anti-Spot Removal: Burn decks and decks with early game board clears can often slow the deck to a halt with a well-timed Pyroclasm or Lightning Bolt. Therefore, I recommend splashing for Burrenton Forge-Tender to alleviate this problem along with Spellskite to redirect damage as necessary. Another potential option for dealing with removal is including a 1 of Elvish Archdruid either in the board or in main deck to alleviate the stress from Electrickery, Pyroclasm, etc. This also adds a more aggressive creature storm element to the deck. Elvish Archrduid was a suggested addition from Gabtuls.
Other Sideboard Options: If the player is interested in splashing other colors, a variety of options are available.
In red, players have access to Blood Moon, which can help against many decks, but can also be a detriment to the deck if the player is not careful with timing.
In black, players have access to mainboarding Shaman of the Pack with the help of Beastcaller Savant and also gain access to key removal spells like Abrupt Decay, Thoughtseize, and Inquisition of Kozilek.
In blue, players have access to mainboarding Beck / Call which can be an alternative combo tool and also gain access to efficient counterspells like Swan Song and Spell Pierce.
Important Notes
If an opponent targets one of the players creatures with a removal spell, or attempts to clear the board, the player can sacrifice creatures on the stack using Evolutionary Leaps ability.
In order to play this deck, the player must understand the interactions of each card in his or her library. For instance, Heritage Druids ability is a mana ability, and therefore, it cannot be responded to.
Even if the player knows that he or she cannot combo out in a single turn, it can still be worth it for the player to use Evolutionary Leap because he or she may hit the rest of the combo pieces.
This deck is very difficult to playtest using Tapped Out due to the nature of Evolutionary Leap. Therefore, I recommend that potential players proxy out the deck in order to experiment with it.
