wow this comment section has some very interesting people

what's your reasoning behind not running Shaman of the Pack? the guy can win games out of no where, completely ignore Ensnaring Bridge (if you have lanterns in meta), and go great against ds. it also has a great body, being a 3/2 that can potentially hit your opponent for lethal just by dropping.

How often do you mulligan?

I always say this on almost every deck, but if I haven't already, +1 to you!

WiltLeafElves because I don't have the budget for Abzan and I prefer GW to GB and I've played against Lantern once in my life and I beat it with a Reclamation Sage ;)

I mull sometimes, I'd say about a quarter of the time, and I normally start with 6 or more cards in hand.

I know im gonna sound like a broken record, but especially now that you have the infinite mana combo, 4 Chord of Calling or at least 2 should be included alongside of or instead of the pacts

Reasoning:

Pact may seem good, but it technically costs 4 and can easily lose you the game if your opponent manipulates it

Secondly, on top of the 4 mana upkeep cost it tutors TO HAND, meaning it costs an extra 1-3 mana to cast the creature and also makes the creature counterable as well as the pact

On top of that, casting a pact followed by an elf triggers Eidolon of the Great Revel twice per pact, and burn is pne of your harder matchups which makes it even harder for you whereas chord does not trigger it (chord where x>=1 Is 4+ cmc) and the creature goes straight to field, meaning it is not cast so eidolon does no damage, as well as not being targetable by Essence Scatter and similar cards

Pact is just too easy to manipulate for you to cause a loss, for example if your opponent blows up your lands or elves and you cant pay it, giving your opponent a free win, they can alsp let pact resolve and counterspell your creature, unlike chord

Lastly, with infinite mana from Devoted Druid, chord can tutor Craterhoof Behemoth and any other creature with ease onto field without any awkward counterspells or damage from eidolon after chord resolves, and can, unlike pact, summon a surprise creature on an OPPONENTS TURN for flash speed blocking

If thats not enough, go to mtggoldfish and look up modern elves list, more than 90% run 4 chords, including the one that went 5-0 a week ago at competitive modern.

If you want to run pact, so be it, but know that its strictly worse than chord for consistency in every possible way

Also for some insight, i used to play modern back before Birthing Pod was banned, and pod decks often ran chord with it, as soon as pod was banned everyone replaced it with 4 chord (this was before coco got printed.) And none of the pod toolbox decks ran pact, even after the ban.

If you still arent sold, run a single copy in the deck for playtesting, and uI guarantee after a few casts you will see why it is a 4 of in elves like it was before coco

I used to run chord, and I've found that the deck is faster and runs smoother with pacts. The combo isn't the focus of the deck, it's just a random "I win" button. Also, there are a lot of times when I pact for Ezuri or Craterhoof and win immediately after, so I don't even have to pay.

And what about the other 50% of the time when u do pay?

Point is, pact is very situational and is only "sometimes" good, whereas chord is good/consistent 100% of the time and has no downside.

Yes, 1 out of 10 games pact is faster, but its strictly worse unless you can win the turn you cast it, which is unlikely without haste, and the other 9 games chord works as intended and doesnt have you paying 4-16 mana on your upkeep.

You probably arent playing chord correctly then, because you cast it on your opponents end step or declare blockers phase to give pseudo haste/flash and "win that turn" like you said as well as being able to block lethal damage.

Ask any elfball player at a pro tour or grand prix and they will tell you the same thing, i asked my LGS elfball player whose been playing the deck for 3 years and he runs 4 chord 0 pact

Elfball decks run chord and always have, if you want a different and strictly worse/far less consistent deck than pro players thats your choice, but im speaking from statistics that elfball runs chord and not pact.

Here's proof

1st place elf deck from 2 weeks ago

Average modern elf deck

Notice how the 5-0 placer runs 4 chord 0 pact, as does literally every other elf deck in the database, so why then would EVERY elf player not run pact except for you if its so good? Did the player go 5 wins 0 losses with pact? Or chord. Do any of the decks/players in the online database run pact? Nope. Idk where u get the idea pacf is better but you're the only elfball player i know who thinka so, and i know at least 10 that regularly attend grand prix with 3 chords, but i can see that you arent going to listen so i will cease trying

Scrolling down om the Second link shows 100% of elf decks run 4 chord, whereas 0% run pact, could ALL of those players be wrong? I doubt it.

I don't think they're wrong necessarily, I just think Pact fits my personal playstyle better.

Also, pact isn't "strictly worse unless you can win the turn you cast it". You can pact a turn faster than you can chord-the fastest chord can come online is turn 3, but pact on turn 2 can complete a heritage druid draw to be able to pay on turn 4.

If you look on the MTGSalvation Elves forum, there are people who play Pact. For example, here's a quote-

"I play a list with 4 pact instead of chord. It speeds up the whole deck by a turn (or more) by allowing you to fetch a heritage druid or nettle sentinel if you've got the other one, and kick-start an early chain into a huge turn 2 board presence, or perhaps a turn 3 craterhoof behemoth. The list plays like legacy elves in that sense.

Good luck, it's a really explosive build"

you may be better off running chord, especially now that you have the vizier combo. Being able to shoot a chord and combo off at instant speed is much better than having to pact for your creature, giving your opponent information before you attack.

As I said before, the combo is a backup plan. My main plan is still the Heritage Druid + Nettle Sentinel plan.

How is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx working for you? I had it as a 2 of then a 1 of then took it out as it mana screwed me in terms of colored mana a couple of times. Also I found it to be a "win more" card, if I wasn't doing too well then I couldn't use it to help but if I was doing well already and didn't need mana anyway then it just provided extra mana. Then again my deck is Abzan and yours is Selesnyea. Also Since you now have 4 Chord of Calling main-deck, I highly suggest you take out the 3 Lead the Stampede out of your sideboard and replace it with cards easily found by Chord of Calling that wreck decks like Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Kataki, War's Wage, Scavenging Ooze, Spellskite, and Aven Mindcensor

My deck relies more on Ezuri, Renegade Leader to win then yours does, so Nykthos is pretty good. Also,do you prefer Kataki or Stony Silence?

You could probably do one of each, Kataki, War's Wage is good because you can get it for 5 mana with Chord of Calling whereas Stony Silence you just have to rely on drawing it.

Couple recommendations.

First one that I think should definitely be implemented is Horizon Canopy. If you get ahead early, you're not going to need lands later. Filtering it out for draws is super effective and definitely worth it. Cavern of Souls needs to be one of the lands too. I'd at least run two. At a high competitive level, which seems to be what you're doing with this, Cavern of Souls is really important.

Second recommendation would to consider Lead the Stampede for the mainboard, or at least the sideboard. It's really effective against board sweeps, or if you get very ahead early and you're able to dump your hand by turn two. It basically refills you with more gas. Overall looks fine though.

Personally I wouldn't have selfless spirit mainboard - it wastes a slot that can go towards playing aggressive in game one. And as well, having three Ezuri, Renegade Leader plus a Craterhoof Behemoth seems a little much. Maybe two Ezuri's, one Craterhoof, or just three Ezuri.

Just some suggestions! :)

icehit6

Thanks for the suggestions! I want to get Horizon Canopy and Cavern of Souls at some point to make the deck more competitive, but both are pretty expensive.

I like Lead, but I've found that Chord of Calling-->Selfless Spirit is more effective against boardwipes, and it's not as good for consistency (which also explains the mainboard Selfless Spirit).

I started playing Craterhoof Behemoth in case they had a Surgical Extraction to remove my Ezuri, Renegade Leader, but now that I have a Westvale Abbey  ^Flip plan I think you may be right.

Thanks for the suggestions!

In a deck like this, I don't think Craterhoof Behemoth is bad! It's definitely a viable option :)

Westvale Abbey  ^Flip is an extremely good card. But you also have to remember, Westvale Abbey is also protection against board clears in a sense. That's why I question the Selfless Spirit mainboard. If you sacrifice your elves in response to a board clear, your opponent then has to deal with a 9/7 lifelink, indestructible, flying, haste. Getting 5 mana for the sacrifice is also really, really easy.

I'd also consider Growing Rites of Itlimoc for your mainboard. It makes the deck one turn faster essentially. Take a look at my build (it's essentially a primer for modern elves) if you'd like. I explain the interactions with the new Gaea's Cradle in it. I've seen yours circulate around on here, but I've never really put in my feedback because I saw you were getting help from others. I think it still has some improvements even from the advice you've gotten.

Let me know what you think of my build! Definitely take a look at it as well, I've been playing elves a long time, so there's a lot of helpful information in there.

Selesnya Elves of the Sun

I've played with Growing Rites of Itlimoc a little, it's always seemed kind of clunky and win-more. If a list emerges that uses it well I might reconsider but for now I'm not buying into the hype. I also think that between it and Vizier of Remedies you're starting to push the amount of non-elves I feel comfortable with and I want to keep the combo in for now.

The problem with Westvale Abbey  ^Flip as protection is that it means you've wasted a land and 5 mana if they have a Path to Exile or a Liliana of the Veil on two or more counters. I can just sac spirit in response to either of those two, so my elves have indestructible anyway.

Ah, well my list actually doesn't run Vizier of Remedies. I definitely see your point if you run it haha, however I don't really like the whole combo with Devoted Druid.

Think about updating with a few Beast Whisperer, they really speed up card draw