Hi multimedia,

I wanted to thank you for your amazing work on this deck. I started MTG with Origins too, and I only wanted to play elves. I found your thread a fews months after starting, and now I check every uptdate you make and every explanation you wrote, and it helped me a lot !

I'm looking forward to read your returns on Drana, Liberator of Malakir in this deck. It certainly looks like a very good card in it.

I saw that you cutted one Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen and one Sylvan Messenger to add Drana, Liberator of Malakir. I can understand that, as you now only have 2 creature cards that can't be found by Collected Company. Why not cut the 2 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen as Drana, Liberator of Malakir can block flying creatures and buff creatures too ? In the case you are able to put both on the board and add their effetcts ? Wouldn't it be better to keep 2 Sylvan Messenger to assure more draws ?

In my case, I only own one Collected Company. Is it better for me to keep 4 Sylvan Messenger in my deck to compensate ?

Again, thanks a lot for all you've already wrotten, it's a pleasure to read you and you're very helpfull.

Greetings from Belgium :D

Hello Aenorian, greetings!

Thanks for your continuing interest and the props, means a lot. I have put a lot work into this deck, haha, I'm glad it has benefited you and others.

The more I playtest with Drana the more I am excited about her with Elves and Nissa. We will just have to wait and see if there is another Mantis Rider like flying creature in SOI that can roadblock her. I did cut 1x Dwynen and 1x Messenger for 2x Drana. I left one of each because both have their specific uses. Oath of Nissa can also find both of them. I still like Dwynen with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and as the lone life gaining source. I don't want to cut her completely. Later on, she might find her way into the sideboard after rotation for her life gaining ability.

If Drana gets more focus in this deck then this really hurts Messenger's effectiveness, but doesn't hurt Company's or Oath's. Both Company and Oath can interact with Drana, but Messenger can't. I have been slowly cutting Messenger, the namesake of this deck, haha, because Company and Oath are just better now. Oath being able to find both Drana and Nissa is huge and something Messenger can't do. Company does have a huge target on it right now and that target is only going to get bigger after rotation. Because of this Messenger might make it's way into the sideboard to bring in vs Blue and White decks that will be packing Company sideboard hate, such as Dispel and Hallowed Moonlight. This is all theory currently because we don't know what is going to happen after rotation.

In your case, you should still play your 1x Company, but also 3-4x Messenger. Messenger is a fine replacement; it's still a ridiculous card with Elves, Company just happens to be a little better. If you are using 3-4x Messenger instead of Company than Dwynen is still an excellent creature for your deck, more so than Drana, because Messenger can get Dwynen, but she can't get Drana. Try starting with using 2x of each Dwynen and Drana, 3-4 Messenger and 3-4x Oath. You might want to consider increasing Oath to 4 since you aren't relying on Company because it can get Messenger, Drana and Nissa.

multimedia, im a big fan of this deck and am currently running a similar build to this. Was looking at the new Innistrad set and wondered if it would be worth adding a splash of white into the deck and using Eerie Interlude. aswell as being defensive ( assign creatures to block then cast Eerie Interlude which would remove then return creatures to the board unharmed at the next end step aswell as trigger Shaman of the Pack and any other elf triggers like Elvish Visionary, Dwynen's Elite , Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip ect.

there is also the enchantment "Always watching" which would offer the +1+1 that Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen would but to all creatures aswell as vigilance.

just suggestions but would appreciate your view, cheers

wheeler, hey, I was going to wait to talk about Shadows Over Innistrad after the entire set had been released; do a complete review in the updates. I have decided that the set is too exciting to wait therefore I'm starting my review early. Look for an update very soon. The update will just be a continuing update until the rest of the set is revealed. Just like I did for Battle for Zendikar spoilers.

Until now I didn't think 3 color decks could work in Standard, but new allied colored dual lands were revealed today. They are Reveal Lands that can come into play untapped. In Standard they work by revealing a Basic Land or a Battle Land that shares a color from your hand. These lands will make it much easier to play 2 color allied colored decks as well as 3 color decks. Using your suggestion of Eerie Interlude, White can now be splashed with Fortified Village and Canopy Vista both have excellent interaction with Forests. Caves of Koilos and Shambling Vent can also be used to splash White, but they have less interaction.

Very good job spotting Interlude. It does look great with Shaman, Elite and Visionary like you said, but not so good with Drana and Nissa. Both Drana and Nissa are used in this deck to put counters on your Elves. This doesn't work very well with Interlude because exiling creatures and then bringing them back removes the counters from them, thus making them weak again. This might not matter if you have a battlefield of Elves and blink Shaman with Interlude, but still it is a drawback.

Splashing White for Interlude and others would most likely require cutting either Drana or Nissa because the manabase can't support a double Black and a double Green card as well as a White splash. If an Abzan manabase using 22-23x lands can be configured and have support for a turn 1 Trapper and one of Drana or Nissa then maybe White can be splashed for Interlude and others.

White also gives access to two very good removal spells in SOI, Declaration in Stone and Anguished Unmaking. Both these removal spells would be excellent sideboard cards. Much better than anything Golgari colors can offer.

If you are thinking about splashing a color then the cards you splash for will most likely need to cost only 1 mana of the splash color. This means, for instance any double White cost card would theoretically be to hard to cast. If choosing to use a 3 color deck, Abzan for instance, then it is best to choose one color to use double colored costs and not use any double colored cards of the other two colors. For example, you wouldn't want to use all of Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Eternal Vigil in an Abzan colored deck. Eternal Vigil is the enchantment your suggesting. The card looks very good, but unfortunately because of it's double White cost I don't think it is an option for this deck. This is all theory after all, I could be completely wrong, playtesting will have to be done.

Try creating an Abzan manabase using the new Reveal Land, Battle Lands, Pain Lands, Creature Lands and Basic Lands. Try to keep the land count at 22-23 if possible. Keep in mind that using the least amount of come into play tapped lands is best.

Thanks for all your detailed write ups, much appreciated. I also think the new set will help the elf decks. I will definitely be trying some of your suggestions.

I played Jund elves with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Atarka's Command, Flameshadow Conjuring, and Mina and Denn, Wildborn to good effect. Even tried a 4C version to have Skyrider Elf and Mirror Mockery, but it was too much. The multiple Shaman of the Pack hits with one play of the card was quite fun. All the enter the battlefield triggers doubling, and a token for attacking with, created a lot of pressure.

Seems the namesake of the Messenger Elves, Sylvan Messenger, should return in a Cryptolith Rite oriented deck. You'll need elves to play, to play more elves... Also, if one stays with the BG version, Might of the Masses is still a good trick, especially with Gnarlroot Trapper out. If they let your one attacker through, get a bunch of damage. If not, deathtouch and get the damage next turn when they are leery of losing another creature. Or end game attack with more creatures than they can block, and add the damage then. Old school elvish tricks...

CloudThumper, Thanks. Lets hope Elf decks can be more competitive in SOI Standard. It certainly looks like on paper that Elves have all the tools to be successful we just have to discover the right strategy that adds to Shaman of the Pack and the right combination of cards to make a winning deck.

I've been playtesting Jund Elves the most. Trying to find a good enough stable manabae and it's not looking good. Using 3 colors, Jund is just not working for an aggro strategy with Elves. I really want to play Jund because of Arlinn, she is so good, but I don't think it's going to work out. It's nice that Jund can use two of the new Reveal lands, but even using 10 basics in a Jund manabase is not enough to reliably have them come into play untapped. Pain lands, in this case Llanowar Wastes don't work at all with the Reveal lands which is a huge problem. I will continue to try to find a Jund manabase that works.

Great suggestion of adding Sylvan Messenger to Rite Elves, she would definitely help to refill your hand with Elves. Is she better than Soul of the Harvest for this strategy? I am finding Soul to be kind of slow. You have to essentially make it to your next turn with him on the battlefield to have any possible way of comboing off. This means he has to live past your opponent's turn. Any Elves you play the next turn you draw cards from which is great, but you can't tap them for mana which does put a huge damper on the amount of Elves you can play and cards you can draw for a turn. Burn from Within is great with lots of Elves and Cryptolith Rite it might be better to just focus on Burn and Shaman for this strategy.

I think for the next 6 months, Elves are a worthy project. The mana is going to be wonky for everyone while we get used to a post-fetch standard. But Elves (or maybe just green) seem like they should have the mana advantage. All the cards you highlighted, and even Deathcap Cultivator seem to be good. Craig Wescoe likes Traverse the Ulvenwald among other things. He pointed out the Shadow and Battle lands (Cinder Glade) will enter untapped if you time it right. No doubt we aren't in the Wooded Foothills anymore.

You are really going to want a Gnarlroot Trapper or Beastcaller Savant in your opening hand. Cryptolith Rite would be great too. Obviously, you have tested it out and are dubious at this point. I may join you soon. My plan is stick with Elvish Visionary and Sylvan Messenger to get the card draw going.

With the Rite or mana dorks, Soul of the Harvest also seems like a good winner mid - late. And is a decent response to Languish, the thing that makes me want to go Sultai (GUB), for blue counter spells. I'd also considered a couple Woodland Wanderers before you mentioned Soul (only if 3 colors works).

Elves will be the deck I play FNMs for the first part of SOI and then I'll assess their potential locally. Played in a local GPT LAX this weekend, and lost to Modern Elves and I was just fine watching Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Elvish Archdruid crank out mana and big time elves and destroy me. The Cavern of Souls didn't hurt any. But Shaman of the Pack and Dwynen's Elite made a good showing too. Elves are fun, winning or losing...

Thoughts on Westvale Abbey? I feel like it would be easy to transform in this deck.

bartlettphoto, Great suggestion, thanks.

I really overlooked Westvale Abbey at first as well as Seasons Past. I'm playtesting both in my Cryptolith Rite version of Messenger Elves, Rite Elves. Abbey is excellent with Rite and Elves because you can tap the Elves for the 5 mana to pay for Abbey and then sac them to flip Abbey. Abbey is also great with the Plants that Nissa makes. Finding more and more uses for the Plants really strengthens the deck.

Hi multimedia, I'm very excited by the new version of messenger elves, it look amazing !

The use of Cryptolith Rite is a wonderfull addition from SoI, I can't wait to try it out. I'm more reserved about Seasons Past, but I'm sure you'll prove me wrong and I'd love that, the art is beautifull :p For the moment I think I'll stick with Ruinous Pathor Ultimate Price or Eyeblight Massacre, but I'll try your version with Seasons Past too, probably has a lot more synergy.

I love the various ways to win this deck has now. The additions from Oath of The Gatewatch (Sylvan Advocate, Hissing Quagmire) and from SoI (Cryptolith Rite, Westvale Abbey  ^Flip) really add a lot of win conditions on top of the shaman bomb and the aggro-midrange timing attack with a lot of elves with a lot of +1/+1 counters the deck has before. Also, it becomes more difficult to counter, as you can't just Transgress the Mind Collected Company like before and slow down the deck a lot.

I'm also very excited as someone who only owns 1 Collected Company, not having but buy 3 mores is kind of a relief :p Cryptolith Rite and Westvale Abbey  ^Flip are kind of cheap atm (well, maybe not the Abbey, but that's still ok I guess). I hope I'll get one of those at the prerelease, then order the rest for the Game Day at the end of the month.

I'm looking forward on your thoughts about the Sideboard, but I guess we'll have to wait to see what's strong in this meta and what we should pick to counter it.

I forgot to ask you one more question : With Cryptolith Rite in the deck, plus the other 2 mana elves, and the fact that you don't play Collected Company anymore, what do you think of Gilt-Leaf Winnower ? It's capable of destroying a lot of those annoying new flip cards, can be cast very early with this deck, and still is a problematic creature by itself (menace makes it annoying to deal with, menace with two +2/+2 counters makes it a pain in this ***). I think I'll try to play it, because it's my the card that got me started in Magic, but I'd be glad to read what you think of it.

Aenorian, hey, glad you like it. If you look at the deck price it has been cut in half, haha, due to no Fetchlands, which is crazy.

Having reservations about using Seasons Past is fine because it's a six drop after all. I could definitely see using some type of removal in its place and instead just using it as a 1 or 2 in the sideboard if at all. You will only realistically get to cast it with a Rite on the battlefield. It's very powerful and plays right with the strategy of sacing Elves to flip Abbey. Languish is back in a big way and I foresee it being just a big as problem as it was during BFZ Standard. It's too good vs Vampires, Humans, Werewolves to not see extensive play. Past gives you a way to somewhat recover from a Languish or another board wipe.

Your instinct about Gilt-Leaf Winnower is right on point. I think he will be a fantastic sideboard Elf maybe even 1 or 2 main deck in the end in SOI Standard. If you look at a majority of the creatures in SOI many of the best have different power and toughness. Winnower kills a huge amount of problematic creatures including a lot of very annoying fliers. This is especially true for a lot of the Angels, Werewolves, and as you mentioned most flip cards the flip creature side has different power and toughness stats. I think many Angels will be top of the curve creatures for many decks in Standard. Flipped Avacyn is a huge problem once she flips she will most likely wipe your battlefield, but then she can be killed by Winnower. Goldnight Castigator is going to be huge in red decks. Sigarda, Heron's Grace will most likely be the top end of W/G Humans decks. Archangel of Tithes could be a center-piece in white weenie or W/G Humans.

Control will be using both of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip, Thing in the Ice  ^Flip, Reflector Mage, Dragonlord Ojutai Winnower can kill all of them. Not to mention he can also kill Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Mindwrack Demon, World Breaker, Dragonlord Silumgar, Asylum Visitor, Heir of Falkenrath  ^Flip, Incorrigible Youths, Sin Prodder etc. all these cards look like they will be used a lot in various decks in SOI Standard.

Hey multimedia, I was wondering about the card Soul of the Harvest. Is that being reprinted in SOI or is that just a mistake? I'm about to start testing the new deck and I can't play with a non-standard card :p. Also, twitch is amazing. I really hope you get it up and running soon because I would love to watch.

Oh many I've answered my own question. It's in welcome deck 2016. Carry on. I will report back my testing to you see. Take care

codach, great, good luck with your playtesting. You might try testing Collected Company if you have it in place of Sylvan Messenger. I have been testing it and I'm finding Messenger to be very explosive, but some games kinda slow. Company still works incredibly well with Cryptolith Rite and since it puts Elves you find with in on the battlefield this is great with Rite.

Both Soul of the Harvest and Seasons Past are placeholders as the top end of this deck. I don't want to use both of them, but I'm not sure which is better main deck. One will end up main deck mostly likely as a 2 of and the other sideboard if at all. I've very impressed with both cards. Soul is amazing if you can ramp him onto the battlefield. I like that Beastcaller Savant can be used to cast him. He is excellent as Languish and flipped Avacyn insurance because any Elf you play after this is drawing you cards. Past is very good when you are sacrificing your Elves to flip Westvale Abbey  ^Flip as well as a late game way to get back dead Elves from a board wipe. There is no restriction of what cards you can get back with Past just has to be different mana costs which is quite strong.

Abzan Elf players may want to try an Ally sub-theme, Tajuru Warcaller, Beastcaller Savant, and Sylvan Advocate are Allies. Then use Elf-Friend Veteran Warleader to bring the damage in. When to Eerie Interlude would take some planning, as Rally triggers but on your end step, so holding up the little Allies for next turn would be good. Lantern Scout might make the sideboard against Red decks. And if you really want an elf in every slot, there is always the Tajuru Pathwarden which could get quite large...

CloudThumper, The BFZ version of this deck was Sultai Elf Allies using Savant, Advocate, Skyrider and Warcaller with Messenger. It was very fun, but I found it lacking in overall power level. I most likely will not be returning to using an Ally strategy with Elves. Having said that, Veteran Warleader and Lantern Scout are excellent suggestions if going with Abzan, especially Scout for his lifegaining ability. Since he can trigger again from either Savant or Advocate in this deck.

Eerie Interlude and Declaration in Stone are the reasons to go Abzan with Elves. Especially Eerie because it's so good with Shaman of the Pack, but it can also save Elves from Stone, Avacyn, the Purifier  ^Flip and Languish three of the worst cards you want to face.

Having a card, Eerie, that can protect Elves from both Stone and Avacyn is very strong. I'm finding that both Stone and Avacyn are warping the way I go about playing any opponent playing White. I can't double up with the same Elf on the battlefield because then Stone will wreck me. This means sometimes holding back an Elf in hand that's already on the battlefield is the safer play. In this current Golgari version both Duress, Ultimate Price and Clip Wings out of the sideboard are helping. Duress to take Stone and Price/Clip to kill Avacyn before she flips. I basically have to have a Price or Clip in hand and 2 mana open when Avacyn hits the battlefield or I will lose the game if she flips.

The problem with Abzan is the manabase. Using Fortified Village and Canopy Vista which can come into play tapped thus slowing you down or use Caves of Koilos and Llanowar Wastes together which means having lands that come into play untapped, but losing a ton of life using your lands. The happy medium is to not play a third color and stick with Golgari. The trade-off sticking with Golgari gives you a better manabase which lets you use more Westvale Abbey  ^Flip, but doesn't allow access to these excellent White cards.