Why are Elves so sELFish?

Modern emrakulinsmugglers

SCORE: 116 | 116 COMMENTS | 11434 VIEWS | IN 37 FOLDERS


you have 4 different kinds of forest arts. mmm, me likey

June 9, 2017 5:31 a.m.

EpicFreddi says... #2

Not a fish-pun in the title. 0/10 wouldn't splash blue.
I really don't like Gnarlroot Trapper since it doesnt help you playing CoCo. I'd prefere Noble Hierarch or Elves of Deep Shadow. But for my limited experience 8 Dorks are enough.

June 9, 2017 5:52 a.m.

demonicgrizzly says... #3

i agree with EpicFreddi 100%

June 9, 2017 9:15 a.m.

Rarelyfly says... #4

Eyeblight's Ending for some removal?

June 11, 2017 4:45 p.m.

i already have abrupt decay and fatal push in sideboard for that. although my removal is quite limited, i'll test those out (probably have them lying around considering i have so many lorwyn cards)

June 11, 2017 6:41 p.m.

ChaosJester says... #6

Holy shit, the combo with Collected Company is the hell! How is it to play and does this deck have any weaknesses?

June 14, 2017 3:25 p.m.

Enral says... #7

Love the deck name and this deck seemed well thought out +1

June 14, 2017 4:33 p.m.

A definite weakness would be against Lightning Bolts. They can basically take care of anything, and the only card I have against those are Prowess of the Fairs (which are great against boardwipes).

Black Green is great against Death's Shadow, due to Shaman of the Pack.

This is definitely a fun deck to play for me, especially since I have gotten some of my friends to play elves as well.

June 14, 2017 10:36 p.m.

ChaosJester says... #9

Yeah, Lightning Bolt is almost always a very annoying spell, but I mean hey, Prowess of the Fair is also a very annoying answer to that which is very cheap haha. I must say, this deck rocks! Thank you for creating and sharing this dude.

June 16, 2017 5:08 a.m.

Daedalus19876 says... #11

This deck looks good, and you get my +1! A few minor tweaks...

I would go up to 4x Nettle Sentinel probably.

And from an aesthetic point of view I would group your 4 Elvish Archdruids together rather than specifying by set. It's hard to read this way :(

June 22, 2017 2:21 a.m.

Bulldawg1310 says... #12

Have you considerd Throne of the God-Pharaoh? I run it in my golgari elves deck and its frickin fantastic when you swing out. I imagine it would be even more nasty with your Heritage Druid

June 30, 2017 2:06 a.m.

lonker says... #13

Elfish and Selfish

June 30, 2017 11:47 a.m.

This deck.is a monster!!

July 17, 2017 12:05 a.m.

Bulldawg1310 says... #15

this deck is very good but for the sake of black splashing, I think you have enough, you don't need the Elves of Deep Shadow especially when you pretty much are only hoping to chord or coco for your shaman of the pack. what I would recommend is you cut those and 2 ezuri's because of the legend rule, 2 is really all you need. and add another coco, another chord and a Throne of the God-Pharaoh your throne will work amazingly with chord and for your Heritage Druid. hope this helps make an already awesome build, that much better!

July 17, 2017 12:30 a.m.

Elves of Deep Shadow is just taking up the role of 2 more mana dorks, but I'll keep them for now because it is very hard to get color screwed with them, and this deck works well with 9 mana dorks.

The 4th coco hasn't been added because of its price, but I'll make the revision right now, and cut 1 ezuri.

As much as I like throne of the god pharaoh, I'm hesitant to add it as it requires me to tap out, and usually when I tap out, its to cast a coco or chord, and I usually cast that on my opponents endstep or when I get priority after my opponent has tapped themselves out (which is usually on their endstep) and casts a spell. Not being an elf like Prowess of the Fair makes it less profitable to cast on turn 2, or turn 3.


Thanks for the help! Do you have any recommendations for my sideboard?

July 17, 2017 1:11 a.m.

Bulldawg1310 says... #17

sideboard is where elves struggle, because we really don't have any answers to the meta other than Reclamation Sage. if there was an elf that granted graveyard hate wed be in good shape, but theres not, so elves are really just pretty linear. which is why a card like throne is good, it can be a win con where there wasn't one. picture this, its turn 5 your opponent is down to 10 life, or less depending on the deck theyre using. you coco a shaman with 4 elves out, then you tap em out for a chord, on another shaman, plus they lose life from all the elves you tapped for chord, its really really good with chord of calling. and if youre in a position where you need to be on the defensive, that's okay, just don't play chord. I will say this though, if you are cocoing for blockers during your opponents turn, youre not using it with elves properly. I don't mean to sound condescending but you should only be on the defensive with elves in dire situations and if that's the case, you've probably already lost the match anyway.

July 17, 2017 1:51 a.m.

Casting on their endstep or anytime you have priority and your opponent is tapped out isn't defensive, it's just not casting your collected company unless you need to. If an opponent has a counterspell, they will try to stop coco, so casting it whenever they're tapped out is better than losing it to a Spell Pierce. I disagree on the sideboard, as elves have a lot of options by using silver bullets. Spellskite and Scavenging Ooze are easily found with coco and chord, and adding black lets you play Thoughtseize. Phyrexian revoker is a chord-able Pithing Needle on a stick.

There is actually an elf with graveyard hate, Deathrite Shaman. its merely banned in modern.

Try watching every elf deck in feature matches. Common sideboards you'll see are Burrenton Forge-Tender <, Fracturing Gust, Thoughtseize, Spellskite <, Scavenging Ooze < , Abrupt Decay, Kitchen Finks, Kataki, War's Wage <, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Elvish Champion, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Thalia, Heretic Cathar, Stony Silence, Rest in Peace, &c. I don't mean to sound imperious, or bothersome, but you may want to change your sideboard, as it seems to be directed against flyers. That is fine, but since you have 15 cards against multitudes of decks, you really shouldn't spend more than 2 cards against one thing. Your Lys Alana Bowmaster is all you need against flying, the other cards get in the way and cause you to have less bowmaster triggers.

By the way, your example of throne of the god pharaoh sounds more like winning just from shaman of the pack, your example didn't include throne at all. Including heritage druid lets you win earliest on turn 3, while throne seems much better as a sideboard, or in a deck made to easily tap out all their creatures. of your 33 creatures, only 11 of them are able to tap for mana. That means most of the life your opponent loses from throne comes from you attacking, and not tapping for mana (unless you don't plan for throne to make your opponent lose much life.


TL;DR: If you want, here's a for sideboards (as well as many elf strategies in general), but really, the best guide is just testing out cards yourself. I can't tell you how many times Prowess of the Fair has saved me from boardwipes, kataki from just about any artifact loving deck.

July 17, 2017 11:01 p.m.

Bulldawg1310 says... #19

okay, start at the bottom. my example clearly, included throne of the god pharaoh, as I said youll do the damage from shaman of the pack AND THEN the damage from throne, late game it can turn into an instant win. it might take a little bit more arguing for aggro creature decks to buy into it, but it just helped affinity top 8 at a major national tournament.

youre right my sideboard needs hella work. when I built this deck the majority of my home games were spirits and dragons, so yeah. Prowess of the Fair is fantastic and im going to add it immediately, so I thank you for that. as for your other suggestions, most of them were white and I have no means to cast white mana costing spells so those are out, while I agree with most of what you posted. as for the spellskite, I don't really care about one or two elves getting path to exiled or fatal pushed so im not gonna invest the deck slot for as many as id need for them to be effective. I like meliria but my meta doesn't call for infect hate right now and shes a legendary so im apprehensive about her. thoughtseize is out because I would much rather get on the aggro side of things and play a dork turn one rather than disturb my opponents hand, plus with the addition of prowess of the fair, I don't really care if my board gets wiped cuz im gonna have a small army to defend myself with once it does. fracturing gust is fantastic and I will add that immediately and same goes for kitchen finks, its good for some lifegain, and its a pesky bugger to remove. only downside is, its not an elf so it goes a tad against our strategy.

I actually did know about Deathrite Shaman but as you said its banned in modern so I didn't even bother to bring it up.

July 17, 2017 11:23 p.m.

Bulldawg1310 says... #20

WiltLeafElves taken some of your advice, go ahead and check out my deck now! let me know what ya think.

July 17, 2017 11:51 p.m.

Your example said opponent at 10 life, cast chord into shaman with 4 other elves, then chord again for another shaman, making them lose 11 life. and then they lose all the life from throne, but they're already dead. I think you meant that they were at 16 life, so they lose 5 + 6 + 5.

But yeah, green white elves generally has more answers than black green, which is why i run both. running silver bullets does go against the strategy, but it lets you win games where your mainboard couldn't.

July 18, 2017 1:22 a.m.

Bulldawg1310 says... #22

it was super late, I just threw a number out there. I didn't figure youd get all technical on me. atleast you get what im sayin and that's what counts.

July 18, 2017 1:24 a.m.

Sorry, I'm just used to looking at detail, however you twice said that your example clearly had throne, but it clearly didn't include it. Most of the people in my playgroup play competitively, so I rarely run into dragons (which can take a couple turns to be dangerous). the only fliers I see are delvers, and removal can usually take care of your blockers, which is why I don't run any creatures with reach, and instead just have abrupt decay.


Do you play elves competitively? cause that would change a lot of my suggestions, as your sideboard should fit your meta, and if it is all dragons and spirits, then you wouldn't need ooze or thoughtseize.

July 18, 2017 1:35 a.m.

DonaldFuck says... #24

Oh man cool deck. I already regret the money I spent on my mono blue tron...

July 18, 2017 10:25 a.m.

Adakul says... #25

I'm loving it. I have to make the suggestion for Llanowar Mentor though. I suggest it for every elf deck because of the fact that you can through away forests to make more Llanowar Elves and it protects you from dealing with things like Ankh of Mishra. Check it out if you haven't already. Other that that great looking elf deck.

July 21, 2017 noon

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