how did you counter the languish? might of the masses?

No, with Warping Wail. It allows me to counter sorcery spells.

Might of the Masses is a great card to get extra damage in, kill off blockers, and get unexpected damage even after being blocked with Sylvan Messenger.

I just built an elves/rites deck that seems to do the same job. Crazy plays I've seen with the deck involve double shaman on turn 5 for game from full life. Did not expect the deck to perform, but it's working insanely well for me.

Honestly can't believe elves isn't being seen more. Might just be Bant CoCo is mote versatile, but this deck is super explosive and much more budget friendly.

Big thanks to Skwarka . Just came back off a 15 year break. Finished 8th out of 25. 5 rounds. Lost to mono white in top 8 final. He managed to hit my mana dorks on turn 2 both games I couldn't recover. I sideboard 2 Westvale Abbey  ^Flip in for might of masses. Can't wait till next week. With testing I crank 5 elves by turn 3 or more. And can flip Abby on turn 4 to 6. My sideboard is 2 Duress, Grasp of Darkness might of masses Warping Wail. IV yet to side anything in due to the speed of this deck.

Glad it worked out for you!!!

Thank you for reporting in how this ran, but I'm curious about your mana base if you can get the Abbey off so quick, care to enlighten me?

I played against this deck on MTGO today. I was really surprised, I recognized every card lol.

I was playing a Rakdos Aristocrats Token Burn deck that had been doing really well until I ran into this thing. That Eyeblight Massacre did a number on me, I wasn't allowed to keep a board. They seemed to be using Leaf Gilder instead of Beastcaller Savant though. I was actually pretty mad at one game I lost because he did so much aggro with the stupid Leaf-Gilder. He kept my side of the board down with Warping Wail, Virulent Plague, and Eyeblight Massacre and then Leaf-Gilder and Thornbow Archer backed me into a corner over several grueling turns...

Needless to say, the deck works. I did have some pretty terrible mulligans, but even if I had been able to put more creatures down they just would have fallen as an army. Not a great match-up. The other thing I've been seeing all day are the Sylvan Advocates.

Oh, and he was also running Sword of the Animist which was ridiculous. He had one on his Sylvan Advocate and that thing ramped up to six lands in a hurry, it was gross.

Absolutely, on turn 4 given the heart of the cards is with you. You'll have 1 Abby 3 basic lands and 5+ creature, 2 being mana dorks. Tap 3 basic and 2 dorks for mana, sac 5, then flip Abby

You can't use the mana from either dork for the Abbey.

Have you thought about Stoneforge Masterwork?

I have, and its just to slow.

Why no cryptolith rite?

Because I don't know what to cut for it. But I'll try playtesting it.

What would you need Cryptolith Rite to build to? You won't usually have many cards in hand after the first few turns and nothing costs very much mana so you can focus on using those creatures to attack.

If there was something with X in the cost that could end the game with enough paid, I could see that. Like tap all your lands and creatures for a really expensive Damnable Pact or something.

I'm pretty sure if there's enough creatures for a move like that he's going to win without doing that.

Unless you had something else in mind?

reason for cryptolith rite: beastcaller savant is equal in cmc, but only gives you 1 mana, no matter when you play it. If you wind up with savant at turn 6, it's basically a dead card. Cryptolith Rite adds mana at any point in time, and adds much more than 1, usually. It's also more likely that a mana-producing creature will be removed quickly, whereas an enchantment is less likely to be removed.

Skwarka is right, rite is only fully effective if you are ramping into something. In this case say Gilt-Leaf Winnower or Gladehart Cavalry or even crazier Descent of the Dragons! Which might be fun... This deck is an alagory of playing mono red aggro with green and black. Pump out tiny fast creatures and direct damage them to the face. As soon as you go below 28 creatures Coco loses effectiveness. So moving out Beastcaller Savant for rites would mean replacing 3 cocos for a big threat.

Turn six?

I don't think I've heard of this turn six...

Exactly. You want to win in six turns, not continue ramping. If they waste all their removal on mana dorks, so what. By then you can still drop 2+ elves a turn from regular mana. And only be slightly behind schedule. Chandra showing up and -X everybody is a very real problem though. I have at least 2-3 people a night that do that crap and crush my dreams...

I'd say if there was more card draw to merit more ramp to keep up with dropping everything it may be worth it. Like drawing 4 elves at once with Sylvan Messenger and then playing them all would be sweet, especially if the 4th one was Shaman of the Pack.

Hm.

Collected Company does that way more efficiently though and still leaves your elves free to attack.

I'm not buying it. Not for main board anyway.

With rites, you can basically shaman them to death with ten elves on the board on turn 5. Like mentioned above though, it has to be built around it. I'd even consider throwing in Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip to power out ten or eleven elves as early as possible if you go that route.

I just found an extra CoCo sitting on my floor in the corner...

I changed the deck to reflect this development.

How do you feel about the fourth coco? I feel like the elf lord helps solidify turn 4-6 kills and coco just slows you down. The fourth coco seems more appropriate for the sb...?

Playtesting it, it's actually slotted in in favor of the messenger, not the lord.