Hey 'yall. I trying to use collected company to speed up an idea for an elves deck featuring shaman of the pack. I think it's a great way to sneak in some nice finishing damage or shove some through using Collected Company. I'm open to suggestions so go ahead. Your early game is simple, lay a guy, and use your guy to make more guys, then finally... you repeat the process until you can either stabilize with elvisdh archdruid or ezuri+nykthos. So now I'll go into each of my choices alphabetically:
Abrupt Decay- Abrupt decay is an all-time favorite of mine. For two mana, you get an un-counterable removal spell that hits almost everything in the format. Liliana of the Veil, Scavenging ooze, delver of secrets, wild nacatyl, and tarmagoyf. The list goes on and on.
Chord of Calling- Chord of calling does a lot, and can be a late-game toolbox or an early-game accelerant. The best thing to do is to bring in ezuri at the end of your opponent's turn and one-shot your opponent the next turn or to bring in shaman of the pack for lethal damage, or close to it. The use is link of limitless. You can bring in dryad arbor for CMC 0 against liliana of the veil, grab elves of the deep shadow to gain access to black (if you don't somehow already), or reclamation sage at instant-speed.
Collected Company- Collected Company is your "wild card" of the deck. The ability to potentially grab 2 Shaman of the packs or one and an ezuri is too good to pass up at instant speed. But you've got to be smart about how ou go about it. End of turn usually just isn't enough. There are so many good times to play this and i think people just overlook it. The best time is when someone uses one of their fetch lands. When they are one land down or more makes it so much better. Usually, people just use them at the end of your turn, so take advantage of it. Imagine -you opt to end the turn- -he/she says, "end of turn fetch."- -you respond with, "in response to the fetch, I'll Collected Company."-
Dryad Arbor- just a really good way to protect yourself against sacrifice effects and can help you fight in a couple more points of damage. Just be careful. It will die to pyroclasm, lightning bolt, wrath of god, etc.
elves of the deep shadow
- I'm not so sure of this one. The damage is actually something you can overlook as the point of running it instead of dryad arbor is so that you can run better lands like Gilt-Leaf palace that can be less life intensive. But i need to test more at how often I'll "brick" and be stuck waiting a turn because i need green, nt black.
Elvish Archdruid- This guy is great! Drop him down and the game swings in your favor. No longer do you get 3-for-one'd by electrolyze, forked bolt, and other effects. the mana is also great because, potentially, you want to play and activate Ezuri in the same turn, but unloading your hand is also good.
Elvish Mystic- One-for-one acceleration. this card is too good and even R&D knows it. This is as close to a cantrip as green will ever get (to keep) for one mana.
Elvish Visionary- Good play as it keeps you going and can also be a good pick off of collected companyas it can get you what you really wanted if you didn't get it.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader- You know how collected company is your "wild card?" Well Ezuri's your ACE! Fairly costed at three mana, Ezuri gives you the whole win-con-ready package. Regenerating your elves, usually by just tapping them, and overrunning for the normal cost is too good to be true. The power here comes from his ability to be grabbed from the middle of your deck. You hit hime so consistantly, and your opponent can't counter the overrun, sure they can bolt in response, but it still happends. Better yet, overrun in response if you've got it.
Forest- I don't know why i run this card, it just looks pretty.
Gilt-Leaf Palace
- I'm testing this out guys, so don't hate on it so hard, but with all the aggro and burn in the metta right now, I'd like to see some more life-friendly lands. As a guy running grixis delver, i never seem to have enough lands.
Heritage Druid
- This card should read, "Elves you control have ""tap this creature: add G to your mana pool. You may use this ability as if this creature had haste. ""
Llanowar Elves- This lets you run an extra playset of elvish mystic that can't be surgically extracted, etc. Otherwise, *see Elvish Mystic
Nettle Sentinel -this card is a one mana 2/2 that lets you use heritage druid just a little more.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nix -This land is better than you might think. Basically, it lets you net just a bit more mana because of cards like Elvish Archdruid and Ezuri, Renegade Leader I only run two because you absolutely need that green on turn one.
Overgrown Tomb -if ya didn't know it yet, this card is amazing. You can fetch it up using Verdant Catacombs or Windswept Heath and always enter's untapped. You should know, if you forget to respond to them fetching out a land, you can still respond to the ETB trigger.
Pendelhaven
-This card is supposed to save your guys(and girls) from pyroclasm and electrolyze. Protect your
Heritage Druid
s first, because they'll do the best at helping you get back on your feet.
Shaman of the Pack -New from magic: origins is our whole reason for running black. Elves usually has a problem if you can one-shot your opponent quickly or at all, and this card can easily hit your opponent for five or six damage at instant speed with Collected Company or Chord of Calling.
Verdant Catacombs -This is the fetch land I've been talking about. Fetch lands have proven to be the most useful and fair cards in magic in it that they can do an assortment of things. Firstly: grabbing your Overgrown Tombs, Dryad Arbors, and Forests. But also, in the thin chance that it does happen, your opponent may put one of your cards on top of your library, and being able to shuffle them away can win you a game. but don't fetch until you have to after you hit four lands. Deck thinning is important, but it also opens you up to more damage, and as I've said, they can respond to it.
Windswept Heath -Reality being that this deck just needs eight green fetch lands, i just chose verdant catacombs and windswept heat to have one from Zendikar and one from Khans of Tarkir so that new and old players are familiar. in total, all the green fetch lands are Windswept Heath Verdant Catacombs Misty Rainforest and Wooded Foothills
You might be wondering why i run no scavenging ooze, spellskite,eternal witness, or reclamation mage. From what i can tell, all these do is slow down the deck, and you want to be as fast as you can game one because they aren't usually running their sideboard in the main and you just wanna beat them first. I know eternal witness is just good in general but i'd rather have her in the side for the grindy-er match-ups.
For the side, it's kinda random. I
Well, that's it guys(and gals). If you like the deck, +1 it Please so that more can see it. And if you would, leave a comment wrether you like it or not. Say things are good, or bad, and lets get the numbers in this deck tweaked. If you wanna contact me, the fastest way is my email, [email protected] so let's make a tier-one deck!
