dont be a jerk...

I killed myself turn 4 because I ran out of cards :'(

The cards on the right side of table are the non-land cards from the second wave i cast that turn, and as you can see, 2 cards left in the library just don't cut it!

The life total was actually a little less, took 2 from 2 fetches and another 2 for that shock land you see over there on the left side.

also, forgot to sac the other elf lord, all three were from last wave and i only put 1 in graveyard. so many TRIGGERS!

and god i love the new legend rule for the nykthos lands(:

so yeah, forgot how fun your decks were since before the TAPPEDOUT BLACKOUT ! and yes, the new druid lord is a feisty little thing. works well in here.

HAHA! That's awesome Dreno33....I've never done that....but I've been down to 3 cards left!

That's actually one of the reasons I wanted to add a 1-of Intruder Alarm in the deck. When you get in a position of a Turn-3 "Dual Wave" as I put it; I want to make sure that any elf that would be tapped that doesn't have summoning sickness (in most cases an Arbor Elf could be used to attack with a triggered Ezuri, Renegade Leader (as at this point you have more than enough mana to trigger Ezuri 6+ times to get it to 20/20.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader is a better win-con. It kills the opponent. Gilt-Leaf Archdruid effectively wins (as they have no mana to respond); but it does take another turn.

Gilt-Leaf Archdruid was my attempt at adding a second instant-speed win-con. There are situations where it can do it's thing without a Genesis Wave .

And, yes Dreno33...I do change decks quite a bit before I feel they are in a "stable" point. I like to try to put up every idea I have to the TappedOut community so that anyone that wants can provide suggestions, comments, criticisms, etc. to get the deck perfect.

This deck is pretty darn close to "done" or "stable". I have to decide whether I want to (a) stream-line the deck and add 1-2 additional Intruder Alarm and Ezuri, Renegade Leader to focus solely on Ezuri, Renegade Leader as a win con and ensuring that your un-summoning-sick elves are always able to attack or (b) keep it as-is and see if both Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Gilt-Leaf Archdruid should be utilized as win-con's (just in case someone has some type of means of shutting off Ezuri or removing all copies....this is so rare though and the deck would be so fast that I'm not even sure Gilt-Leaf Archdruid is entirely necessary...but I LOVE it :)

Decisions, decisions....what do you think? I'm going to test it both ways, but I am only one person. I'd love to hear your opinion on it.

jaggthemiller....I LOVE Courser of Kruphix ...I honestly believe it is Modern-Playable and is one of the best cards in BNG.

Coiling Oracle , however, is pretty strong in this deck. It draws us a card (and card draw is super important in the deck), can ramp (if it reveals a land it is directly put into play), and is a "druid" (which can be important if we end up keeping Gilt-Leaf Archdruid in the deck as a win-con).

And I did have Coat of Arms in the deck at one point. I only used it over Door of Destinies because Door of Destinies requires you to cast the elves (where Coat of Arms works if they are put into play from a Genesis Wave . It may make it back in if I switch back to not using Gilt-Leaf Archdruid .

I do run 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ; but you are absolutely right that it is UNREAL in this deck. Especially with the new legend rule (as Dreno33 said). It is so ridiculous to put one in play off of a Genesis Wave only do wave all over again :)

I really do appreciate your suggestions. I have to find a way to use Courser of Kruphix somewhere, because it is really good (in my humble opinion).

The ONLY big question remaining for me is whether to run the deck with:

(a) Three Gilt-Leaf Archdruid 's

OR

(b) One additional Garruk Wildspeaker , Abundant Growth , and Intruder Alarm

Version (a) provides for a second win-con and a way to build back my board against heavy removal match-ups more easily, but Gilt-Leaf Archdruid may not be entirely necessary (as Ezuri, Renegade Leader is a better win con).

The pros of removing Gilt-Leaf Archdruid is that the deck is more streamlined; and will generate more turn 3 and turn 4 wins. The downside is that Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Garruk Wildspeaker or the decks only win-cons. I am testing both to see; but I am truly torn...

What do you think Dreno33? Keep Gilt-Leaf or go back to just Ezuri with a more efficient means of getting to him? What does anyone think? This is a choice I honestly am not sure of....

If you want the most hardcore elf devotion on this side of the nuthouse, use Nissa Revane and Nissa's Chosen . Adds 4 devotion, then 2 per turn!

Bigbadbear88

I know! I love Nissa Revane !

I actually had her in the first version of this deck. You are right that she was one of the "free" cards (in the fact that her devotion was equal to her casting cost after putting out a Nissa's Chosen ). For Devotion, she is extremely strong. The only issue I ran into is that she didn't get us much closer to killing the opponent. The life-gain is great against aggro; but Nissa's Chosen was kind of a dead card in many instances...

She's currently in the sideboard; but I will definitely take another look at her in the main (along with a Nissa's Chosen ) Thanks for the suggestion!

Nissa Revane by herself (i have expressed this multiple times before and am not backing down) should be a 2-3 of in SB for hardcore aggro matches.

• just let the bitches in when you have her in your hand, build the elf board up a bit, then drop her and gain back the 9 life you just lost plus 3 more in a cinch.

and personally, i would keep the gilt leaf. the card draw is essential to the deck for 8 of your creatures will be drawing you two cards with her out. that alone is good enough for me. the land steal is just devastating and MOST (as in prob 9/10 opponents) will scoop to her shitting on their board (as in, she ruins their land and "claims" it as her own. like a dog does with territory. . you know . . jokes? whatever)

anyways, the gilt leaf is the PERFECT substitution to Nissa Revane because its against aggro.

• aggro runs well on 2-2 lands all game, they can pick their pace back up by drawing 1 land and playing half their deck again. so the gilt leaf's second ability because null and unnecessary.

• the card draw is always good, but not enough for 5 mana when against aggro decks the Nissa Revane is only 4 mana.

• the life gain the most crucial component. lets you keep your field without blocking their cocaine weenies and gain the life back. (refer to top of my post again :D )

Dreno33 over and out.

HAHAHAHA!!! I love it Dreno33.

And you are absolutely right. I can't count how many grindy control match-ups I've played where Gilt-Leaf Archdruid drew me 5+ cards). The Cavern of Souls alone make it very difficult for control to do much about it.

And I love Nissa Revane in the sideboard. She single-handedly beats aggro; but this deck starts out in a pretty strong position against aggro.

Nissa is amazing; but you are right that her place is in the sideboard...we learned that in our first round of testing...I did clean up the comments though; so I completely understand the new suggestion of course.

It is great to have set "builds" against different archetypes (aggro, control, combo, etc.) and its nice to be able to easily sideboard out. I feel like this deck is in a really good place now.

I will be testing heavily against control and removal-heavy decks (UWR Control, Twin, Jund, RDW, Scapeshift, UW Control, etc.) the next few nights; so this will really help me make up my mind on exact numbers; but I feel like the deck is getting very close to it's "stable" point (with a few changes needed in the sideboard....I rarely side in Ground Seal but I think graveyard based decks are light right now and that it may be more useful with shifts in the meta).

Thanks so much for the help and suggestions Dreno33! and for making it fun at that :)

Thanks as well to Bigbadbear88, jaggthemiller, Vito1014, ProfessorDucky, Aldazar, and dcarpntr for recent help, suggestions, and comments!

np the deck really fun deck to look at, i played one slightly different it only crushed me cuz it had more enchantment removal then a ton of elfs

I want to say to the author of this deck that you are awesome. Seriously. This deck is one of the coolest card drawing engines I've seen in green basically ever. You have inspired me. Truly.

Here are some things I found fun to do: You can take advantage of the 1-mana enchantments that you're casting on your land by converting them into cantrips with Argothian Enchantress or Verduran Enchantress , depending on what format you're playing. Guess what creature type they are? Druids. So, you could run 4 of her instead of your 4 Elvish Visionary , or something along those lines. In the long run, she draws you more cards, and she activates your Gilt-Leaf Archdruid too. At the end of the day, the fact that she's a human doesn't really hurt the deck too much. Green Sun's Zenith is also legal in legacy, so you can throw in 4 of those to fetch her early, so ideally, you get her out turn 2. This is nothing new, but with all the crazy Arbor Elf Garruk Wildspeaker and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx shenanigans added into the mix, you can effectively go quasi-infinite by ramping and drawing cards continuously. I was able to hard cast an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on turn 4 with the deck that I built just playing around. It did not happen every time, but I was surprised to find how consistently it reached "critical mass" and just drew my whole library. The weird thing is, when you get the enchantress out early, she draws you so many cards that you just start blowing through your deck, and you draw so many cards that you find another one fairly quickly. And then another. Lol, the card drawing engine is so fascinating that I barely put any finishers in the deck.

Anyways, thanks so much for posting your deck. Elvish driuds ftw!

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/druids-25-02-14-1/

deep_shadow....Thank you so much!! It has been a long time coming, as I have been playing green devotion style decks for some time and found early in my playing that I ran out of cards SUPER fast and often had TONS of mana and nothing to do with it. I call it "top deck mode" and it is what ramp decks often get into (especially when playing decks that can remove creatures).

The only way to combat this was either (a) play cards to protect everything (like Privileged Position , Asceticism , etc.) or (b) draw enough cards that you could continually refill your hand no matter what your opponent did :) I thought (a) sounded a little slow and put cards in the deck you didn't want in every match-up where (b) allowed me to change a few cards to develop card draw; but the cards would be useful in nearly every match-up.

I LOVE your idea about Verduran Enchantress ! You could easily remove Ezuri, Renegade Leader from this build and replace them with here to go all out on the Gilt-Leaf Archdruid win-con. You'd definitely draw into it!!! The card draw would be UNREAL at that point....I can guarantee you I will be trying this out :)

Your deck looks awesome by the way :) I will link it up here. I can't thank you enough for the kind words and your building on the idea. It really means a lot to me that other people get enjoyment out of building on and improving upon anything I've put on here :)

Druids for life! :)

Also, Cyclonic Rift . ;)

Hey, have you thought about one or two Eternal Witness to allow you to chain Genesis Wave ? I find when I test this deck I get a lot of "Waves in Graves" and the Witness could bring them back occasionally, while adding some devotion. On the other hand, it can be a dead card...

ha! I have no idea how you did that ProfessorDucky , but that looks hilarious :)

You are right that in most games at least one (a most likely two) Genesis Wave s will end up in the graveyard (as when you "wave" into them they get discarded). It's definately a great way to get one back...

This doesn't seem like it would be a dead card very often. I will certainly test it because chaining waves is extremely powerful in this deck (and this would be a great way to ensure that happens). Truly great idea. Thank you!

Just out of curiosity, what's the smallest Genesis Wave you would do? Do you frequently cast them with X at 3-6, or do you wait for enormous ones?

ProfessorDucky....in all honesty, Eternal Witness may be better than Intruder Alarm in this deck...I'll definitely be testing this...

I have cast Genesis Wave with X as low as 4 (but that was in a dire situation :), but I've cast it where X = 6-9 quite often. A lot of the time, you will build such a board off of the first wave that you can cast the rest of your hand, including "chaining waves" where you cast a second Genesis Wave for much more (as the mana it generates will generally allow you to cast the remainder of your hand)...

I like to try to cast my first wave by turn 3 in every situation where it is possible (as you give your opponent less mana to react with). Obviously there are some match-ups where you have to quite patient, but the norm I try to cast the first wave as early as I can; so sometimes it may only be 6-9. I would say my "average" wave is around X=10-12 (and obviously the second would be over 20).

The nice part about having so many "draw a card" EOB effects is that AFTER the wave is cast; you often will draw into a second Genesis Wave through triggers and then can chain them...

To answer your question, however, No...I wouldn't say I wait for the wave to be huge or over 10, or at any set amount...a wave for X=6 can still be pretty darn powerful!

i know it would be very hard to add, but the deck would explode a lot more quicker. In this case, a turn earlier.

Adding a few (I say 2, no more) Lightning Greaves . I freaking hate the stupid summoning sickness. it allows your 7 CRUCIAL elves to tap for mana that turn. You will notice in the play tests with it in here that it lets you "POP" mostly on T3 rather than T4 when in your opening hand or first draw or two.

I highly doubt you haven't thought of it, but I could see it as a definite boost to speeding the deck even more (which in all honesty is best at this point since you're on the verge of the best modern devotion deck, compared to your devotion rival: black)

In another note, the haste can be crucial in just giving you that one extra man to swing in at your opponent after a wave (or 2 ;) always nice just to swing in with an extra Elvish Visionary that's been pumped out that turn (pun SOOO intended. and if my jokes are only clear to me, I meant pumped out from a wave and the elvish lord that looks a lot like Lord Elrond from Lord of the Rings Side note in side note: pics below for comparison! gotta love my posts)

Ezuri, Renegade Leader

The resemblance is remarkable, I know I know. Lord Elrond truly is the Lord of the Elves (hence why he could not be the Lord of the Rings simultaneously)

You may not be Lord of the Rings, but you are the Lord of the Green . . . Devotion. And I am your faithful Samwise Gamgee the Brave.

I am totally not taking this too far. . . Okay a few more to full grasp how much I love Lord of the Rings, specifically its true hero, Sam.

That's me giving suggestions. (and that's your deck on my back) :D

---

Alright, I think my work here is done. Carry on people.

I just realized something hilarious. Nylea's Presence can turn your Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx into a forest, which then can be untapped with arbor elf. And it's a cantrip. lol.

That...is....awesome! haha.. I don't know how you do it Dreno33, but I wish I could update like that :)

I do like the idea of Lightning Greaves . I haven't tested it yet; but I will do so tonight. I thought about things like Akroma's Memorial , and even tried Mass Hysteria at one point splashing red....Lightning Greaves may be the best fit yet. I've removed Intruder Alarm for one and will try an array of different switches for the other.

Thanks for the help and for the amazing update :) And yes...that is a freakish likeness...and I do have to agree that Sam is the unsung hero of the story (as you are with this deck :)

I just watched Lord of the Rings again. So great comment Dreno33.

For the time being, I have removed 2 Abundant Growth for the 2 Lightning Greaves ...I will test this throughout the evening to see how big of an improvement this is. Also, the sideboard is still not absolutely perfect; but it is much closer than it has been in the past :) I'm continuing to play the "tougher" match-ups (control, twin, jund, etc.) with a ton of disruption to get a feel for what works best and what to side out / in.

As always, thanks to Dreno33 for the new idea. The deck seems REALLY close to it's perfect spot...and at this point it actually is holding its own against the meta. I will keep testing tonight and put up any results / ideas and of course thank anyone and everyone who provides suggestions, comments, etc....Lord of the Green....too funny :)

deep_shadow....the Nylea's Presence idea actually is a good one....it may be worth the extra mana to be able to untap a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ....this could lead to big Genesis Wave 's....I could switch out the Abundant Growth 's for these (especially if I only end up running two)....

I am gonna test this tonight as well. It is nice that Abundant Growth only costs 1-mana (as it cycles and adds to your devotion while fixing); and 2-mana is quite a bit more than 1 for a card like this....but you are right that it could lead to some interesting interactions with Arbor Elf ....I wouldn't need Garruk Wildspeaker to untap the Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx at that point....interesting indeed. Certainly something that must be tested.

Great idea and great suggestion!

deep_shadow...I've put the Nylea's Presence in the main board while I'm testing it so that others can do the same...I will literally be testing to see if the potential interaction with Arbor Elf outweighs its additional one-mana cost. I hope (and think) it will.

I'm always happy to throw ideas out there. I'm having so much fun with this. I was entertaining myself by throwing in things like Masticore just because of how hilarious it would be on turn 4 to swing with it, and simultaneously wipe that ugly smirk off Mother of Runes face by bathing her in colorless direct damage.

I did notice that enchantresses can slow the immediate ramp aspect down a bit though. Elvish Archdruid really does make for some crazy Genesis Wave s early on (not to mention some crazy big elves), especially if you have a Heritage Druid in play. It's like there is a give and take between speed so you can get a high-mana Genesis Wave off early, while still having the card drawing resources on hand in case your first attempt gets countered.

In any case, that's one of the things I like most about this deck. You can take it so many directions, because the synergy at its base level is so good.