Only about 30 people showed for last night's tourney, so it was a quick 3-rounder. I am genuinely surprised at how competitive this deck was, even when the combo pieces didn't arrive or were removed. I was able to pick up a 3rd copy of Craterhoof beforehand (thanks to ZooGambler for that tip) and it definitely made a difference. I also slipped in a couple Fervors. Here's the breakdown of the evening:
Round 1: Golgari Aggro W 2-0: I have lost to this guy a couple of times with real decks, so beating him with a janky deck like this was pretty sweet. He runs a Zombie Golgari build that I envy- Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Lotleth Troll, Dreg Mangler, etc. with lots of Rancor. My real decks that have had removal have had problems with this bunch, but since Elfball just tries to do its thing without interfering with the opponent much, it was actually a really good matchup for me. In game 1, I was able to land a t3 Soul of the Harvest and it only took me to t5 to Elfball into my Craterhoof. In Game 2, my deck showed me some real love, as my opening hand consisted of 2 Becks, 3 one-drop dorks, and an Archdruid but only one Breeding Pool. Being on the draw and having my good combo pieces in hand, I decided to roll with it and luckily drew lands 2 of my first 3 turns. The other card of the 3 was a Burning-Tree. I was able to pull off a pretty ridiculous t3 Elfball as I drew into another Burning-Tree and an Elvish Visionary, got my Craterhoof, and dropped it for lethal turn 4. Not sure how much better it can get than that.
Round 2: 4-Color Slivers L 2-1
Unlike the Slivers guy I playtested against previously, this guy was also running Blue for the flying Sliver and had the new Garruk in there. Still a good matchup for Elfball tho since there was little to no removal. In Game 1, I got stuck with one land and had to drop most of my dorks (normally I try to reserve as many as possible in my hand), so by the time I was ready to Beck, I was only able to roll out about 3 creatures. He got out the mana Sliver early and used it to summon Garruk, which +1'd him into the flying and double-strike Slivers. Since he had a couple +1/+1 Slivers out already, that was pretty much all she wrote. In Game 2, I was able to get my core combo of Soul of the Harvest and Fervor with a Beck (& an Archdruid out there), which unless you get ridiculously unlucky on your draws should end the game, and it did in this case. My opponent was totally enthralled by my deck so he didn't seem to mind losing that one for the chance to see the combo in action. In game 3, I only had one Beck in my opening hand and didn't draw into my Craterhoof or any more draw spells, so I was out of luck after one round of Elfball. He got his Garruk again and didn't get the ridiculous +1 like in game 1, but still got his flying Sliver and enough +1/+1 Slivers to end the game pretty quickly.
Round 3: Monoblack Control L 0-2
I'm not sure how many worse matchups there are for Elfball. Doomblade, Mutilate, it's all terrible. Still, I actually had a decent shot in both games. In game 1, I had no draw spells and he killed my Archdruid, but I was still able to get a Craterhoof on t4 or 5 with my little dorks. Unfortunately, since so many of them had to tap to pay Craterhoof's cost, I was only able to swing for about 15, and after he Doombladed Craterhoof, my gang of elves wasn't able to muster more than 3 damage. What really sucked was that I had Kessig Wolf Run out but no Red mana to pay its cost. I def would've won if this had happened- hence me adding the max G/R lands. In Game 2, he was a bit mana-screwed and missed his turn 3 land drop. I was a little slow out of the gate but was able to get a really good Elfball on t5 for like 10 creatures and drew my Craterhoof. I was a bit reluctant to dump all the creatures since he was at 3 lands, but I decided to chance it and hope he didn't draw his 4th land. Bad move. He did, and his Mutilate defined the term "boardwipe" since we could actually see the table again. I did manage to get out a Craterhoof with a couple creatures, but again, I only got him down to about 5 life before his Desecration Demons et al took over.
All in all, a pretty successful run for a BS deck like this one, and I'm actually excited about some of the potential changes I've thought of. I'm going to try Judge's Familiar instead of Spire Tracer to stave off the Mutilates & such for one more turn- which in the case above would've made all the difference. I'm going to sideboard some Slumbering Dragon to sub for Judge's familiar against aggro. Also, I NEED to get the new Garruk in this deck. I actually think this could be a competitive deck with him in there, which is absolutely ridiculous to think but that's how good that card is.
