Also, about the Undying Evils, I think it is a perfectly logical first choice to sideboard against U/B creatureless control decks, since you obviously don't need to kill their creatures, and honestly I think it's going to be game breaking. As it stands now their best chance against us if a creature like Thrun makes it into play they BSZ him down repeatedly, Phantasmal is being less played from what I'm seeing these days.

Undying Evil straight up cheats BSZ for 1 mana while they tap out to do it. Anything that makes it onto the board, they're going to have to rely on Vapor Snag/spot removal.

Defensive utility is just plain awesome and I can't wait to play it tonight. Although, I do think it's sad that 3 boxes of Dark Ascension and the only card I'm excited about using in my real competitive deck is a common really. Here's to us, the Elf underdogs~!

Also, I wanted to suggest Sylvok Replica as a sideboard to you vs Crusader. WORST CASE SCENARIO DEATH PREVENTION, straight up - They give their Crusader a Sword or Angelic Destiny. You declare chump block with Sylvok Replica, and pay the green to sac it instantly to destroy Sword/Destiny. I feel that's such a stronger play than being forced to copy their Crusader with Metamorph. If nothing else, it straight up buys us a turn to get Wurmcoil out, plus gets rid of destiny/sword. Plus, Glissa will retrieve him later so just 1 of him functions as multiple artifact/enchantment removal.

Sorry to wall you here, but one final suggestion, I feel really feel Thrun is dead weight in the mainboard. Really the only thing he brings to the table in mainboard, not vs control/counter decks, he's a 4/4 that can regen himself and is hexproof. We can chump block with Llanowar Elves all day with Ezuri for 1G if we have to. Not a strong enough reason for him to be in IMO, sure he's great vs counterspell, but that's about it.

As an alternative, this might be a crazy suggestion, but I'm really wanting a way to make it work: but if we're running 4x Metamorph and Spellskite, why not try Ezuri's Brigade? That gives us an actual green bomb creature to Green Sun later on, and 4 for 8/8 trample is no joke. Plus he has all the built in side benefits for being on team elf. Maybe in the next block we'll get some more artifacts worth running, but I could see Brigade being a very deadly, stronger, cheaper Primeval Titan.

@Cassiel - Lots to break down here. I'll do my best to address/consider each of your points. First, I'll cover the suggestions I think are totally viable and even preferable, depending on playstyle, and then I'll jump into the big Go for the Throat vs Undying Evil question.

Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger has been mentioned before, up above, and I personally think he's a swell guy. You are perfectly right that the deck could use a late game GSZ target, and he certainly has an impact befitting a 9G tutor. I say go for it. The only reason I'm not using him is because I've yet to buy a copy. Perhaps it's time I did so!

Sylvok Replica is a totally worthy sideboard choice. I'd personally rather use Tribute to Hunger when I know someone is running Crusaders and Saints, but that has its weaknesses as well, for sure. I think this choice mostly comes down to preference. Neither one can completely shut down a Mage Blade or Haunted Humans deck, but they do both help.

Spellskite is an interesting option, and definitely plays to your defensive style. It's not really my thing, but I definitely recognize its playability.

Ezuri's Brigade seems like another instance of playstyle preference to me. It's an elf and a half, to be sure, but the metalcraft seems a bit demanding. It would definitely fit in with a Glissa Metalcraft deck of some sort, along with Carapace Forger, but inclusion here is obviously up to you.

Thrun, the Last Troll is always handy to me, but your mileage may vary. Every other deck in my meta has access to Mana Leak, and even those that don't are never thrilled to have an extremely persistent 4/4 blocker/attacker in their path. He's just a good, solid creature, and a good 3-drop when I draw my first turn Llanowar Elves but not my second turn Elvish Archdruid. Against removal-heavy control decks, he's a constant stream of 4-damage hits, and against aggro he's a brick wall that hits back. Thrun and I are pals.

Now then, Undying Evil. You make some interesting points about its effectiveness, but I'm going to defend Go for the Throat to the, er, undying death:

These are the scary creatures I saw only two weeks ago, in one tournament setting, that threatened to eat my face:

Olivia Voldaren, Grave Titan, Rune-Scarred Demon, Hero of Bladehold, Massacre Wurm, Primeval Titan, Sun Titan

And here are the scary creatures I'm looking forward to have eating my face in the near future:

Drogskol Reaver, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Withengar Unbound

The card that has stopped, and will continue to stop, all of the above is Go for the Throat. Karn can do it, but he is 7 mana, the removal is sorcery speed, and he has to take breaks to exile cards in hand before he exiles his second permanent. Instant kill is just so, so sexy.

If you're playing a deck that doesn't have at least one worrisome creature, then you shouldn't be losing anyway, and if you are (because of some combo, weenie swarm, etc.), then that's when you sideboard. But I'd feel naked without a kill spell in my main deck, when such a spell is so cheap to cast and efficient in its effect.

Undying Evil's effect is nifty though. I'm personally not that troubled if the opponent is burning removal on an Elvish Archdruid, because that's mostly a tempo play, and it gives them one less thing to throw at Wurmcoil Engine, etc. But I can understand wanting to keep your druids around. The druids really tie the deck together, after all.

I think Undying Evil would make a great sideboard card, but keep in mind it does compete with Autumn's Veil, which can protect your creatures from U/B removal like Vapor Snag (which is VERY common in my meta) and kill spells, but is also capable of shielding you from countermagic so you can cast your big stuff. Undying Evil is more appropriate against red decks or combat-heavy strategies, though, so I guess it depends on who you're playing.

If you're playing your deck as-is in FNM tonight, let me know how the Undying Evil works for you. See if you're ever in a situation where you'd prefer removal, and I'll do the same for the times in which I'd prefer undying. Maybe we can come to some consensus on the subject.

Thanks for the feedback! This has given me something to do this afternoon, haha.

New FNM report is up, as well as a massive update covering the switch from a black splash to a white one. I've reset the discussion to make room for comments on the new direction.

As always, any and all suggestions are welcome, and I am happy to talk through whatever you've got!

Thanks thanks.

Hey, Great build! I've been testing my U/W aggro build against this and it's been a pretty good match up! I love how your cards all sinergize together. Anyways, my only suggestion would be to add a few more answers, Beast Within is a personal favorite

Hmm, I'm not sure where I'd fit Beast Within. The 3x Oblivion Ring, 2x Acidic Slime, and 1x Karn Liberated already cover a wide swath of permanent types, and I don't want to clog my hand so much that I can't play creatures when I need them.

Any suggestions on what to take out? I did have a fourth Oblivion Ring originally, but replaced it with Karn for his late game usefulness. Maybe I should put it back on the sideboard.

Hey, I would take out all three Fogs from your sideboard and replace 1 with an O-ring and the other two with Beast Within . As for your mainboard, I would take wurmcoil and Oblivion Ring down to 2 and add in 2 Beast Within . Wurmcoil Engine is fantastic however at 3 it's a little heavy. You need a few more early game answers. On a different, unrelated note, I would take out Karn and replace him with a third garruk.

Great build, I personally love elves and am extremely happy to see them being playable in the current meta.

I did have 4x Wurmcoil Engine, haha. I like the consistency of being able to play them on turn 3 or 4. Four copies WAS a bit too heavy though, so now I'm at 3. I'm apprehensive about going lower than that, since I can't tutor them up with Green Sun's Zenith like I can with my elves, oozes, trolls, and titans. They're one of my principle win conditions, are difficult to remove, kill opposing titans, and keep me alive against RDW and Mirran Crusaders, so, ya know.

Fog is actually a similar story. Goblin(!) decks (#@%! GOBLINS! Seriously!) and Mirran Crusaders are the two things that have rocked my face off in the past couple of weeks. I frakking relish the idea of Fogging them. I'll probably replace them with better removal after next week though. I just need to get the hate out of my system first. I also have some concerns about armies of spirit tokens. Fog and Ratchet Bomb seem preferable to single target removal.

Beast Within is a very good card, particularly in mono-green. The 3/3 beast token doesn't usually even matter, but sometimes, sometimes it does. O-ring feels safer, even if it is only sorcery-speed. I'll do some playing around and see. So much also depends on where the meta is going to go, now that DKA is circulating.

I just won in a three-player chaos against two heavy control decks. The game took an hour, and the aggro deck actually won.

Opponent 1 (decent fellow) was playing a pretty standard U/W control, with Gideon Jura, Mana Leaks, Forbidden Alchemy, Snapcaster Mages, Day of Judgments, Oblivion Rings, that sort of thing. He kept a fairly low profile, countering and sweeping when the game state called for it, and generally kept the most threatening cards off the table. He had an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, but Opponent 2 took her out pretty quickly.

Opponent 2 (dramatic reactionary) had a much scarier deck, running Wurmcoil Engines, Unburial Rites, Havengul Liches, countermagic, and three very annoying copies of Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Oh, and Drogskol Reaver. He was able to generate a -frak- ton of life, but I was so incessant in my attacking that he never got over 20.

Over the course of the game, I played several elves, one early Thrun, the Last Troll , one Primeval Titan, one Wurmcoil Engine, two Garruk, Primal Hunter, one Karn Liberated, two Oblivion Rings, and fourteen lands. By the end of game, my only permanents were an 8/8 Thrun (thanks to Gavony Township), two 4/4 wurm tokens, and lands. I ended the game at 36 life. Thrun did most of the work.

I like this deck. The white splash suits it.

Hmm. Looks familiar. Even some of the cards. deck:standard-elves-believe-it

@zandl Elves in standard are good stuff, I have a ton of fun playing them. I like your deck as well, though I wish standard had a larger selection of elves available so there wasn't so much overlap. Then again, I hadn't even considered using Elder of Laurels! I can imagine him coming in handy for sure.

As T/O Green Master, did you have any decks which stuck out as being problematic for you while you were playing standard elves? I've been playing as much as I can with this thing, for the past month or so, but I still feel like I'm only scratching the surface of standard archetypes so far. Can't say I'm complaining about a varied format, I'm just always worried I'm overlooking something.

Had problems against mono-Red. It's just a bad match-up. Gutter Grime helped stop a lot of the hate, but it was a turn-3 play minimum. By then, my Elves are already getting roasted.

But Day of Judgment doesn't hold any water against Elves with Gutter Grime out.

Yeah, I got roflstomped by some goblins recently. It wasn't a proud moment. Losing all of the ramp to burn is painful. I feel like I can usually stabilize with a sweeper resistant Thrun or Wurmcoil by the time Day of Judgment is online, but an early elf-killing Slagstorm ruins my day.

Stupid fire.

Well what u got here is a fast paced bad to the bone standard elf deck...+1... now, what u need to realize is that the problem is that u just need more then 20 life...RDW and the like get thereby thinking about 20...what i suggest is adding +1 primeval titan -1 wurmcoil...btw this is to grab...drum roll...da dam...glimmerpost...i know i know...heck just ask zandi...this works a lot....oh and switching the other garruk too will be a great answer...dont get me wrong primal hunter is the bomb but i would run 2x rentless main n primal hunter in the 2nd match depending on the match up

Wildstallion

True, I can use Primeval Titan to grab Glimmerposts, but Wurmcoil Engine has lifelink, so I get a pretty similar effect without having to dilute my mana base with colorless lands.

As for the choice of Garruk, I prefer Garruk, Primal Hunter more for his -3 card drawing ability, as there are few things more frustrating than having tons of mana and no spells to spend it on. If I drop the Hunter after a Wurmcoil Engine or Primeval Titan, he basically restocks most of my hand for me.

very true about the primal hunter in that respect...and very powerful play indeed...i was just thinking about removal for green and searching out another bomb after a flip. wurm coil is where it's at though...i just was trying to think how to help, and life gain is RDW worst enemy...i'll think on this a little and get back to you

Sure thing! Thank you for the suggestions!

you could drop/side in 1 green sun's zenith and 1 elvish archdruid for 2 gnaw to the bone or (can't believe i'm suggesting this)2 brindle boar.

Ehhh, I wouldn't run Glimmerpost in Elves. Getting those first two Green sources is really crucial. But then ramping to Primeval Titan involves using your creatures. If your mana dorks die, you'll be slowed down too much to even get out Primeval. I'm not sure the best way to go about fighting mono-R, but Thrun, the Last Troll is a fantastic start. Red can do anything to him, aside from double-Whipflare/Slagstorm while you don't have the mana to regenerate him.

i like what your saying here zandl...great points which is why i would probably lean toward gnaw to the bone as a two of...mass removal is gonna be at an all time high in the meta with all the tokens running rampant...might as well gain life...twice...lol

Interesting to see this deck is still developing even further into such creative realms. Now that I see you've moved into G-W tertiary, I think I can once again provide some helpful input ;D

Looking at your meta, the path of white could give you options like Faith's Shield, or Aposite's Blessing, as a lot of the creatures would become targets quite quickly for removal. That being said, Ranger's Guile could be an interesting option there as well, especially for those last few points of damage when your forced into a race situation.

I also see Sun Titan in the maybe board. Personally I don't think he would shine to brightly (flavour text irony!) here, I mean a lot of the time his only relevant target would be the Archdurid, however by the time you have hit the six drops, his work should have been done. I can see the idea, but a little risky.

We are agreed about Sun Titan. I put him in the maybeboard in case anyone brought him up, and also because I did play test the card a little. It would be cool to bring things like Ezuri, archdruids, or Oblivion Rings back from the dead, but the biggest turn off for me is the double white casting cost. If this were a different green-white deck, I'd be including him with absolutely zero hesitation. In here, however, I prefer his green and artifact siblings.

As for removal protection, I'm just going to have to see what the new meta is like before I think of including things like Ranger's Guile. These are definite sideboard considerations though, for sure.

Thanks again for the suggestions! I'm getting increasingly comfortable with the way this deck plays.

food for thought, -1 Green Sun and -1 Wurmcoil Engine or Forest +2 beast within?

On a different note, besides Garruk, you don't have any other card draw...i don't know if you've had that issue where it's too slow. I mean, with all of the mana excel perhaps a genesis wave?

You know, I do kind of want to include 1x Genesis Wave, just to have the option every now and then.

Going to sleep on it, I think.

Oh my planeswalkers, the DKA meta, it makes no sense! Goblins, mono-blue bounce, werewolves, curse decks! Where are these things coming from, where are they going, and why are they here?

I am afraid to send my spells into such a wilderness, even IF they're holding their own.