m4ver1k....you're of course welcome to your opinion! No offense taken. Simply saying "I disagree" isn't extremely helpful; but I can understand it for brevity purposes. I didn't take it as confrontational. We're both here to help Grimgrinner the best deck he can; so if you truly believe he shouldn't add certain cards; it doesn't hurt to say something.

I agree with you that Genesis Wave is great in elf decks...both of mine run 4 of them :) Please feel free to look at either. They are Elf Devotion (Modern) and Elves and Friends (Modern). I didn't wish to re-hash this idea though as you had already suggested it (and he may simply not have wished to play them).

It appears as though the things you disagreed with are trying out a 1-of Nylea, God of the Hunt (which I can understand if you are not a fan of 1-of's) and all of my sideboard suggestions...out of curiosity, if you don't like Creeping Corrosion , Nature's Claim , Beast Within , Grafdigger's Cage , Thrun, the Last Troll , Wrap in Vigor , and/or Defense Grid in the sideboard....what do you think should go in his sideboard? Not trying to argue...I just want to make sure the best sideboard options are available to Grimgrinner (or at minimum he knows the reasoning behind each choice). Most likely his tough matchups will be mid-range decks with large amounts of removal and control decks...but he will see the truly worst match-ups through testing.

Conversation is always better than the opinion of one person; so don't feel bad at all. It can only make the deck stronger (if there even is any room for improvement)!

Since elf decks traditionally have so much mana, I prefer Fracturing Gust in the sideboard for a variety of reasons. By the time you have to destroy artifacts & enchantments, they've already had a bunch of time to likely throw a bunch out. In an elf deck by the same token, you've likely built your board up to have plenty to float. 5 mana should be no big deal. So on their end step you simply cast Fracturing Gust (It's an instant) to clear up the board of everything, gaining life for it all as a bonus and enabling you to break through their defenses and wrap things up.

Next sideboard and possibly 1 of mainboard I prefer is Asceticism . Again 5 mana, shouldn't take too long to generate. Throw it down and keep your elves safe from most everything.

Lastly is dealing with the graveyard. Grafdigger's Cage would work against your own Genesis Waves. Most decks that care about the graveyard are running either black or blue for reanimation & flashback respectively. Those colors are often entwined (in modern anyways) with red in some way. What those 3 colors have in common is they suck at removing enchantments. The recommendation is kind of silly even, but 4x Leyline of the Void . You either mulligan until it's in your opening hand or Genesis Wave into it. I'm not kidding. Some pro players will run leylines (Usually Sanctity) outside their mana base for the opportunity to get that in their opening hand. I think Jon Finkel was running 2x in his sideboard in his UR Storm deck. If he doesn't get it in his opening hand he can manamorphose into casting it as a backup solution. This deck's backup solution would be Genesis Waving into it.

I suppose I should note that you can run Manamorphose additionally in the sideboard for this deck as well if casting it became a concern.

Side note, I do see some potential in Wrap in Vigor and Defense Grid , but I think for the most part this deck won't have too much of a problem recovering if things went awry.

I like some of those ideas! I traditionally fall on the other side of Asceticism (I'm not a fan of the card...I think by the time you want to use the card against the decks you would side it in it's too late); but it is a card that is literally split 50/50. 50% of people thinks its the perfect side board card and 50% think its too slow...so it is a definite viable choice to at minium test and see it if works in Grimgrinner's meta for sure!

I do like Fracturing Gust ....again, it's just a choice between speed and utility (between Nature's Claim / Creeping Corrosion vs. Fracturing Gust . Fracturing Gust is a great card though; so if it can be played in the meta; it is a great choice!

I LOVE Leylines! I've never tried them outside of my colors; but I can't see why it couldn't happen. I often use Leyline of Sanctity because especially online RDW is a big deck and it's SOO good against so many things. I also have been known to use Leyline of Anticipation in my Simic Devotion build. Leylines are truly awesome :)

I don't know if I'd play Leyline of the Void over something like Relic of Progenitus or something like that that can be cast after turn-1 (but I am OCD about potential "dead draws" so that plays into this). You are right that the Genesis Wave would go a long way to making it far more viable in the deck (as it gives it another way to be placed on the battlefield).

I didn't assume Grimgrinner would be adding Genesis Wave to his deck; so I based my comments on his current build; but you are right that there are other graveyard hate options outside of Grafdigger's Cage if Genesis Wave was added. That potential interaction is a good thing to point out (if he planned on adding either or both). I just often prefer Grafdigger's Cage when it can be used do to its effect on Birthing Pod decks.

These are all great points! Fracturing Gust is especially a great card; and 5-mana is not impossible. Especially If you're not playing Nature's Claim or Naturalize ; it's probably better than Creeping Corrosion for one more mana to include enchantments as well and get the life gain. I always worry about Blood Moon which is why I always worry about getting to Fracturing Gust before I can be Blood Moon -ed;; but my mana base(s) in my elf decks are always far more "non-basic"...and in a deck with 18 forests; I don't think he has to worry about that :). And while I'm not a huge fan of Asceticism ; I do know there are a lot of people who are...so this could entirely be a meta thing for me.

Great suggestions! While the deck doesn't need much (if anything) as it is a great deck as it is; at least this way Grimgrinner gets to see plenty of potential options (especially for the sideboard)!

Wow, I didn't expect all the sudden attention! Great discussion. The only things I'm outright rejecting are Mutavault for monetary reasons and Cavern of Souls for similar reasons. Keep in mind the deck is tagged as budget. I brewed it because my other modern deck:

I'm liking the idea of a 2x Genesis Wave . Could be a powerful finisher, and solves one of the problems that I have: too much mana with no outlet for it besides Joraga Warcaller .

1x Nylea, God of the Hunt is going in. I already have one.

I'm also mulling over a lot of the sideboard options that have been discussed. As to the graveyard hate, I've found that Dryad Militant has been a decent hoser for Snapcaster Mage , but not many other graveyard strategies.

Coat of Arms is great but if one of the creatures dies, they all get weaker. Door of Destinies lets your other dudes keep the counters even after one or even all of them die. say you have 5 elves out, either way they get +5+5, but then a board wipe resolves. the door lets the next creature you play get the +5 from before and another +1 when it hits the field. with Coat of Arms it goes back to square one

The problem with Door of Destinies though, is it doesn't start working until it's already on the field and then you begin casting elves. It's bad at blitz plays. It takes time to get it built up. In a combo deck where you can Genesis Wave into it, Coat of Arms is immediately very useful and you stand to win next turn anyways.

i understand. i just prefer it a little over the coat. i used it in a myr deck i made not to long ago and fell head over heels for it haha

Yeah...Door is better if you are casting all or most of your elves, Coat is better if you are playing Genesis Wave ...it all depends on the wave :)

And this deck is especially great as a budget build! I'd +10 it if I could :)

A lot of the older comments are not really relevant any more, as I'm no longer using Craterhoof Behemoth or Primal Surge . Going to be doing a comment reset soon, so if you want to reply to any of the current comments do it now.

Grimgrinner - If you just post a deck update, there's an option to essentially archive all comments under that update and effectively hiding it from this front page. Then if you click on the link for the update the old comments will populate there, that way you have some type of historical tracking of comments and what have you.

Beck / Call and dual lands.

This deck actually used to be G/u elves, focusing on trying to combo with Master Biomancer , and finish out with Craterhoof Behemoth . I realized though that without Misty Rainforest , a playset of Breeding Pool , and maybe a couple Hinterland Harbor , the mana base just wouldn't work. It's harder to ramp in G/U than straight up G, and the build also lacked focus. It had a lot more explosive potential than this current list, but it cost 3 times as much, and was far less consistent. I had to rely on "nut draws" a lot, even with some blue draw and such. (part of why i hate the ban on Ponder / Preordain )

I decided to save myself a buttload of money and made the deck Mono-G. It never really felt right, until I added Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx . Now this deck is loads of fun to play, and its very much a budget deck.

I can't imagine there is a much more competitive deck for under $125. Looks great!

Overwhelming Stampede for the win

I forgot all about this deck! I've been running affinity IRL, but this thing was fun to pilot. Overwhelming Stampede and Overrun kind of tend to do the same thing in this deck. They both average out to +3/+3 since i'll probably have 2 lords out, but If i have LESS than 2 lords, stampede becomes worse. If there's more than 2 lords, it's better. It by no means bad, but i'd prefer the consistency of overrun. If you want to run it in your elves list go ahead.