Forest of Illusion

Modern Creature Cheat Eldrazi Elves Indestructible Mono-Green Ramp

Balaam__

Creature (30)

• 4x Arbor Elf
• 4x Elvish Mystic
• 4x Elvish Piper
• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 4x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Impervious Greatwurm
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 4x Llanowar Elves
• 4x Spellskite
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Worldspine Wurm

Land (19)

• 4x Cavern of Souls
• 13x Forest
• 2x Pendelhaven

Sorcery (3)

• 3x Harmonize

Artifact (4)

• 4x Lightning Greaves

Instant (4)

• 4x Fog

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Maybeboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Dungrove Elder

Instant (1)

• 1x Veil of Summer

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This is a very simple and straightforward deck in concept. Easy to learn, fun to play. The shell is stable yet fairly modular, allowing for a healthy amount of fine tuning and customization.

The Strategy

Quite simply the goal is to cheat in a large game ending creature earlier than expected. A turn 4 win is not uncommon.

The Mana Base

• Forest s are all we really need, so if the spectre of expense looms too large, a great chunk of cost can be cut by removing Cavern of Souls and Pendelhaven in favor of regular old forests. This is effectively a mono green deck so figuring out the mana base just comes down to ‘how many lands?’.

• Pendelhaven was recently added thanks to sergiodelrio reminding me it exists. Not sure how I missed it, but in any case here it is—and what a great component. This land can contribute a green mana which is nice, but it really shines when used to add some buffness and toughness to our mana making elves. It’s like a reusable Thrill of the Hunt on a stick! Well, I suppose that term would only apply if it were a creature. But Pendelhaven is a tree...which is a literal stick...so...

• Cavern of Souls is here to protect our means of production, at least at the point they transition from hand to battlefield. Just choose ‘elf’ as the creature type and you’re good.

Ramp

Since we’re in Modern format and speed is of the essence, the more mana we can generate and the earlier we can do so, the better the position we’ll be in. To that end we have a few different ways of accelerating mana output:

• Arbor Elf makes the cut. This little guy lets us ramp early and ramp steeply, and can chump block if necessary. I originally had 4 copies of Utopia Sprawl in the deck, and as ClockworkSwordfish pointed out to me Arbor Elf really excelled when used to untap one of those enchanted forests. I’ve since removed the enchantments in favor of more mana ramp creatures, but the elf still performs well.

• Llanowar Elves is the quintessential ramp card. In 1879, when given the words ‘Green’ and ‘Ramp’, Francis Galton immediately responded ‘ Llanowar Elves ’. True story.

• Elvish Mystic : Like the previous card, only with better artwork.

Buying Time

Sometimes things don’t go as planned. To that extent we have a few means to stall the game just long enough to assemble what pieces we may yet need.

• Spellskite is the most straightforward of our lines of defense. Should the opponent cast a spell targeting one of our key pieces, simply paint a bull’s eye on our skittering friend and have him tank whatever damage or ill effect was meant for more important cards.

• Fog is a cheap and effective stall if ever there was one.

• Fauna Shaman ’s built in tutor-for-a-price ability is a way to smooth out the logistics of delivering all our pieces on time. Discard a mana dork to scour through your library to acquire Elvish Piper if you’re not set up yet, or else find one of the monstrosities if you’re just about ready to close out the game.

Elvish Chicanery

Once our ducks are all in a row, it’s time to capitalize on what we’ve worked toward.

• Elvish Piper has a nasty ability. For a mere single green mana, you can tap her (Giggity) and put a creature card from your hand directly into play. Playing a top tier juggernaut early on can be quite demoralizing, and may result in a scoop right on the spot. Otherwise the path to victory is clear: Bulldoze everything in your path for the win.

Utilitarian Cards

These cards are the viscous grease with which we oil our flim-flam machine.

• Harmonize gives us draw power. A hand of a couple mana dorks and a Forest or two is going to empty FAST. Gas up with Harmonize and be ready to keep slamming stuff down.

• Lightning Greaves was pointed out for inclusion by sergiodelrio, and it’s dynamite here. Say you make it a Turn 2 play; plop down an Arbor Elf , have him try on his new shoes, then use him to play an Elvish Mystic . Then he can borrow the shoes to play a Llanowar Elves , and so on and so forth. Then next turn play Elvish Piper , equip the shoes, play Emrakul, the Aeons Torn , equip the shoes (don’t ask me how Emrakul would wear shoes), and attack. With all the equipping and unequipping of the shoes, it’s reminiscent of the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time—if instead of sluggish Iron Boots Link was putting on the Hover Boots or the Pegasus Boots.

TL;DR

•Turn 1 play a Forest , then play Arbor Elf .

Board: Forest x1, Arbor Elf x1

•Turn 2 play another Forest , play another Arbor Elf , play a Llanowar Elves , then use the first Arbor Elf to untap a Forest to play an Elvish Mystic .

Board: Forest x2, Arbor Elf x2, Llanowar Elves x1, Elvish Mystic x1.

•Turn 3...Deep Breath...play another Forest , play Lightning Greaves by tapping two Forest s, use two Arbor Elf ses to untap the two Forest s, play Elvish Piper , attach the shoes, use Elvish Piper to play a heavy like Kozilek, Butcher of Truth , equip the shoes, and attack. Whew

Board: Forest x3, Arbor Elf x2, Llanowar Elves x1, Elvish Mystic x1, Elvish Piper x1, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth x1, Lightning Greaves x1.

”And the LORD said unto him, “What is that in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.” And he said, “Cast it on the ground.” And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent...”

Top Ranked	Achieved #24 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #3 position in Modern 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Creature Cheat 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Eldrazi 3 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 weeks
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 12 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.34
Tokens	Wurm 5/5 G w/ Trample
Folders	Modern