AjaniShaman, me too. I'm particularly liking the possible line of a turn 3 Sylvan Messenger, Eldritch Evolution on turn 4 sac Messenger 4+2=6 getting a Woodland Bellower and Shaman of the Pack or Sylvan Advocate there can be a lot of possible value in this line of play.

Thats some value right there, now we just need an elf that has "When this creature dies..."

AjaniShaman, we do have Deadbridge Shaman from Magic Origins. Is he good enough to main deck just for his interaction with Eldritch Evolution? There is also Matter Reshaper who isn't an Elf, but can give some great value when it dies. I like that both these creatures also work well with Collected Company.

I played a deck similar to this last night at FNM. I cut Gilt-leaf Daen and I don't have the displacer to play with but I ran 4 Eerie Interludes main board. Im also running four zulaport cutthroats right now.I went 3-1 and placed second. Pretty happy with the results. No one saw it coming.

bflow1988, well done at FNM. In the budget version of this deck, Budget Rite Elves I too am using Eerie Interlude, but using a purer Elf approach with Cryptolith Rite without Cutthroats. If you can get Displacers he really strengthens the deck. Are you using Collected Company or Sylvan Messenger or both?

Im using Collected Company without Messenger. When I get the Displacers I'm going to put them in instead of Cutthroat and see how it goes but I'm nervous because Cutthroat has won so many games for me. I do see the strength of Displacer though.

As a Flameshadow Conjuring / Jund Elves fan, I'm onboard with the Bellower... The BIG PLAY scenario... Sylvan Messenger (better) or Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen (worse) on board, play Eldritch Evolution, sacrifice the 4-drop => get Woodland Bellower, it's ability triggers => get Shaman of the Pack for a reasonable hit. With Flameshadow Conjuring in play, you can have 2 Bellowers (1 creature/1 token with haste), and thus 2 Shamans, if you have an extra red mana source. Have more 'red' (tap Nissa, Voice of Zendikar's plants with Cryptolith Rite?) and a big finish might include 2 Woodland Bellowers (1 creature/1 token) and 4 Shaman of the Packs (2 creatures/2 tokens), if you can tap for red with each creature's ETB. For a total of 6 mana, a minimum 16 damage, and the tokens have haste. This is how the Elves deck is supposed work!

Should work without Eldritch Evolution, if you have a Woodland Bellower in hand, normal land drops, Cryptolith Rite, and/or a couple Leaf Gilders.

Flameshadowing the Decimator of the Provinces (BIG PIG scenario) is also appealing, even though there is no pump with the token since it is not a casting. The Distended Mindbender probably doesn't need the extra red, but what the hey...

CloudThumper, hey, do you have a Jund list I can see? Your deck sounds very interesting, love your enthusiasm. I do like the idea of having both Cryptolith Rite and Flameshadow Conjuring in play at the same time making it easier to get red mana to duplicate various creatures. I admit I haven't playtested with Flameshadow partly because it seems like too much setup for the pay off. The play scenario you described sounds great and fun, but is it really practical in a real game situation?

I've had high hopes for Evolution but, unfortunately, I've found it to be lackluster. Maybe I'm not using it right, but just too many times its been card disadvantage. I just don't think it's competitive enough than other other strategies. Maybe I will use it in the sideboard or in a budget version of this deck, not sure yet.

One thing I really dislike about Evolution is it doesn't work at all with the emerge Eldrazi. My card instinct tells me as well as the playtesting I have done so far that adding emerge is the direction I want to go. Building this deck with Elves and around the best ways to support emerge with them.

I think you need to run 3 or maybe even a playset of Conduit of Ruin, the ability to fetch into the Decimator of the Provinces then next turn emerging it off the Conduit for the hefty mana cost of..... 3 green mana, and with mana dorks turn 4 Conduit into turn 5 Decimator is very realistic; and if you have 4 other creatures on the field Decimator adds 17 damage to board and trample to boot.

If you do like the sound of ramping then Eldrazi Scions and Loam Dryad would be useful as mana + extra 3/3 tramplers, it would make the Elf synergy weaker though so Shaman of the Pack would be worse, but may allow you to cut black entirely make Cryptolith Rite questionable.

Anyhow hopefully something to consider!

RunningPigeon, nice suggestion of Conduit of Ruin to find Decimator of the Provinces, that interaction seems good. This deck is about Elves though your suggestions are to remove Elves for other cards?

The problem is Ruin costs 6 mana. Using him as a 3-4 of I will rarely get to cast him in games without relying too much on both Leaf Gilder and Cryptolith Rite. The problem I'm having with Decimator is he costs too much, 6 mana and sacing a 3 drop to emerge him. I've now moved Decimator to the sideboard because of this. I don't think the answer is to add additional 6 drops just to make Decimator better.

Both Loam Dryad and Eldrazi Scion makers, such as Catacomb Sifter are great cards for other archetypes such as Golgari Rites. I do like Catacomb Sifter and if Foul Emissary didn't exist he would most likely be in his place. If I was to cut Emissary for Sifter I think this would hurt the Elf synergies which Emissary helps with because he can find Shaman of the Pack.

I'll give Sifter a playtest because he can help to get a turn 4 Distended Mindbender he is the reason why this deck is using additional non-Elf creatures.

I think that emerge will really want ramp more than anything which would mean running mainly mana dorks in the early game and personally I've not found Cryptolith Rite to be a solid ramp card, it's hard to fetch into, takes up the turn 2/3 play which takes up playing a creature (namely a mana dork) which means even with it you're only equaling creature based ramp, and without it your deck doesn't get any ramp, and again since you can't fetch for rite it's too inconsistent for my liking, Beastcaller Savant adds Elves to the pool and quick mana to boot.
If Rite is to stay in I think you'll need some mana sinks, Tireless Tracker or Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip seem the logical choices, turning weenies into draw is undeniably useful.

I like Eldritch Evolution it could allow for turning an Elvish Visionary into Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen, Shaman of the Pack or Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip is solid, 3 mana tutor creature to field is such a boost to deck consistency.

Another card to consider is Duress, pretty simple card just there to eat up board sweeps and comes down early enough to grab Kozilek's Return or Languish which are big threats to Elves, and although Distended Mindbender could hit both at the same time it'll probably come down too late to save any board state you have, rarely see him before turn 6 ; I'm not saying he can't hit before then (could be turn 4) but it would assume your opponent doesn't interact with your board at all though.

Ok, so the short version of that; if you want emerge use ramp, if want Elves don't use emerge, at least that's my conclusion.

RunningPigeon, thanks for your input and suggestions. What is your version of Elves in Standard that you're playtesting?

I'm a fan of Beastcaller Savant, but not when using Collected Company in the same deck. He can't help to cast a turn 3 or 4 Company and getting him from a Company is terrible. You say you would rather play mana dorks than Cryptolith Rite? I don't understand this, Rite makes all creatures into mana dorks this lets you use the best Elves and all your other creatures to cast any spell with no restrictions. Rite is one of the best ramp cards when using small creatures strategies that has ever been in Standard. It's is own archetype, not a lot of cards have this honor.

I agree with you that Rite wants some mana sinks to take full advantage of it's power. I've been using Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip with Elves and Rite for a long time now, same with Westvale Abbey  ^Flip. They're great combos. I have just in the last couple of days or so cut Duskwatch in favor of new strategies. He might come back in some form I don't know yet. Tireless Tracker is in the sideboard he's excellent in control matchups because Company can get him.

All of those Eldritch Evolution scenarios you describe you are losing two cards and gaining one card. Then what happens if the creature you tutor for gets killed or bounced? In my playtesting with Elves and Evolution I need Sylvan Messenger to make the card worth it. Collected Company is better than Messenger and there is currently no room for both cards in this deck. Evolution is most powerful when you can hugely jump forward in the curve otherwise I have found it pretty lackluster. Spell Queller also makes Evolution too risky of a play. Getting it Quelled after I have sacrificed a creature to pay for it's cost to cast is brutal.

Transgress the Mind is better discard than Duress right now because of Emerge, Delirium and Kozilek's Return. Being able to exile these cards rather than put them into my opponent's graveyard is a huge plus.

My biggest issue with Cryptolith Rite with Elves is generally speaking all the creatures are so cheap that you don't ramp to cast them, lets say you have 4 land and 4 creatures and Rites on the field so basically 8 mana and how many targets in the deck need that much mana; as it stands 3 namely Distended Mindbender.

If the mana sinks were in then I would be all for it, but at least from my view point (whatever that's worth... probably not much ha!) currently you're running 6 cards to get 3 creatures all of which can't be hit by CoCo, so the reason why I would run the dorks instead is that they're additional targets for CoCo (although I'll admit it's already unlikely you'll whiff on a CoCo as it stands), plus they become targets for Westvale Abbey  ^Flip and also increase the potential of Shaman of the Pack.

Totally agree regarding Transgress the Mind, don't know why I forgot that existed; I always drafted that thing when I could during BFZ, ended up with about 20 by the seasons end, glad to see they're over $1,50 each still.

Sure Eldritch Evolution is a risk being a 2 for 1, but if you're in neutral board state; i.e. topdeck battle or both have lethal swing-back situations then being able to sac off your weakest creature(s) to fetch probably Shaman of the Pack can actually win the game on the spot if their life is low enough even if they respond by removing/bouncing him.

Just checked to see if Foul-Tongue Shriek is still standard legal, turns out it is and works quite well with Thornbow Archer as a potential way to get early damage in and gives the deck a decent amount of life drain, might be a little bit janky but again more cards to consider.

multimedia, I have started with this list for a Jund version. After playing GR Tokens for the last several weeks, I am still convinced Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is good for Elves too, no matter which colors you go with. I think she's best as a 3-of or 4-of though, as you don't need to protect her as often with a second in hand. She's an excellent distraction.

Opening Night EMN: this Fresh Abzan Elfness, went 4 - 0 at FNM, defeating BUG Emerge, Naya Collected Company, Abzan Control, and GB Delirium. Elves! Getting it done.

Created and piloted by my son, with a little guidance from the Rite Elves list. He has yet to see the light from the Elvish Flameshadows (EMN). There's still time though.

RunningPigeon, you're right it would be much better to be able to use mana Elves than Cryptolith Rite the problem with this currently are the mana Elves are not good right now because of Collected Company. Not only can they not cast Company, but hitting any of them off of a Company is so bad. The reason to use Company is to get a huge value advantage as well as board presence very quickly. If all I'm hitting off Company are mana Elves this defeats the whole advantage that Company gives me. I even don't like using Leaf Gilder because of this, but he can at least be used to cast a turn three Company which can give a huge advantage.

My versions of these decks are all looking to utilize the best ways to use Collected Company with Elves. If Company didn't exist that would open this deck up to a lot of different options, including using more mana Elves, but it's here, it's overpowered and is the best. I honestly wish that Wizards would of banned or restricted Company in Standard in the July Banned and Restricted announcement, but they didn't.

Rite in this current version is kind of wasted because I'm not using many mana sinks just 2x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip. I'm not trying to ramp into anything big; I'm looking to emerge Distended Mindbender not pay 8 mana for him. It still lets me create a lot of mana to use to play many more Elves than normal. This powerful effect is the reason I'm still using it. It's the only card that gives me this ability to possibly get the most Elves onto the battlefield the fastest.

I'm back to playtesting an Abzan version with Mindbender added, EMN Rite Elves. The manabase is still terrible and is the reason I stopped using Abzan in the first place, but Rite is so good with Eldrazi Displacer as a mana sink that I think even though I don't like the manabase using white looks to be the best with both Rite and Elves.

CloudThumper, huge congrats to your son. Go Elves! Wish there were some videos of his matches I would love to see the beat down!

I'm also back to playtesting Abzan, EMN Rite Elves because of Eldrazi Displacer.

Your son's decklist is very interesting, it has a lot of different options especially in the sideboard. Did any of them not work as well as others? How was Decimator of the Provinces did he get to cast it? I see no Distended Mindbender, not a fan?

CloudThumper, I like your Jund list you have a lot of interesting interactions going on, but I think it needs more land, 22-23x. You're really cramming a lot of different options into your deck maybe try to streamline it some?

I too like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, but only when using a lot of good defensive creatures to protect her or a lot of other pump effects and being very aggressive. If I could get Sylvan Advocate turn two every game and Nissa turn three then she would be incredible, but this is not practical. The other Elves are just not very good at defending her. I also want to use Oath of Nissa when using her because it can find her this is hard to do if using Collected Company and/or Sylvan Messenger.

Atarka's Command is excellent with Nissa and Elves. Collective Defiance and Cryptolith Rite could be also be great. It's the manabase that's holding Jund back in my opinion.

The Abzan elf deck that I went 4-0 with at my FNM, in my opinion, had a lot of things going for it. The deck became very resilient when I added the 10+ spells that gave me card advantage (Collected Company, Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip, Foul Emissary, Sylvan Messenger) and they allowed the deck to play more of a long game and they gave the deck more consistency. I attempted to streamline the mana base with as few tapped lands as possible because the deck can afford a tapped land on turn one (no one drops) but it needs untapped mana on turns 2 and 3 to really get going. every game the ideal draw would either be turn 2 Leaf Gilder into 2 2 drop elves or turn 2 any elf into untapped land Cryptolith Rite, elf. Decimator of the Provinces was insane and every single game I cast it, I either won the game on the spot or won the game the following turn. Casting it wasn't to much of a problem if I drew Cryptolith Rite, but even when I didn't I was usually able to cast it. The different options of the way the deck played gave it a lot of power in the late game. All of the different styles I used were: 1) Beat down with elves 2) Decimate the provinces 3) Pressure them with elves and finish them with Shaman of the Pack 4) Combo kill them with Eldrazi Displacer+Shaman of the Pack 5) Ormendal 6) Chump block and draw cards until you can take over the board. All of these lines of play so to speak won me differrent matchups and having all of the different options were helpful to make the deck work. In terms of sideboarding, through testing I had determined that my bad matchups were Languish decks, hence the 4 Duress, and decks with flyers, specifically spirits, hence the 4 Aerial Volleys. I have the same problem with mindbender in this deck as with Sylvan Advocate. They are both really powerful but don't very well synergize with the rest of the deck and I feel like the best thing that elves has going for it is the vast amount of synergy in the deck.

I like the new changes you have made here.

Have you considered 4 decimator of the provinces main? I am running 4 sylvan messengers as well to emerge from instead of coco. Eldritch evolution is also a wonderful way to grab a shaman or soul of the harvest! I'm using decimator as a craterhoof and have been swinging for 20 on turn 4/5 pretty reliably. Elves forever!! (Well, at least for a month or two)

CloudThumper, thanks for your detailed writeup. It's great you're doing so well with your version.

I also think having options is good especially when the options have good synergy. The problem with using so many options is consistency of gameplay. I'm definitely a main deck builder of 4ofs and practice this line of deck building philosophy; using the maximum amount of the best cards to have the best chance of drawing them. If I was to again use white it's for 4x Eldrazi Displacer as he's the reason to use white. I tend to believe that the sideboard is the better place for options. Then these options can be applied to the deck as see fit for different matchups. You said that both Sylvan Advocate and Distended Mindbender don't have as much synergy with the rest of your deck and you're right, but having cards like these two that can win the game by themselves is a very important part of deck building. Don't cut down the most powerful cards for other cards that might give you more options.

TheFirst, hey, please post your list. Sounds like you are playing a variation of SaffronOlive's version, Decimator Elves. I'm just not a fan of Eldritch Evolution. Sylvan Messenger is definitely powerful with Decimator.

I like Olive's version, I think it has some problems, but I like it. The biggest problem is if you don't draw Decimator the deck just falls flat which is a problem with using Messenger instead of Collected Company. I really want a way to search for emerge if using it. While Messenger is excellent as emerge fodder she can't actually find these Eldrazi.

Really the ideal scenario would to use all four, Decimator, Messenger, Company and Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip or Foul Emissary as ways to find emerge together in one deck which is what I'm playtesting here, EMN Golgari Rite Elves.

Or a version without Company, using Decimator, Messenger and Oath of Nissa, Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip to find emerge here, EMN Rite Messenger Elves.

multimedia SaffronOlive's decimator elves looks to be almost exactly what I'm running, actually. It does have issues, as you mentioned. I hope your deck lists work out!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to post my list soon, but it basically is a carbon copy of Saffon's list, with one or two changes.

I'm a very devoted player of the GB Sacrifice deck, and I have to point out that we Rites decks now need at least 3-4 Clip Wings in our sideboard. It deals with Early Quellers, Avacyns, and Emrakuls. I would also advice anyone in the Emrakul matchup to sideboard in only this disruption spell, so as to basically nullify the efficacy of the extra turn.