You asked me to look at this on my deckIt looks great, it's been a while since I've played elves or standard, so I may not see something obvious.

So I just ran this deck through a few matches of standard on MTGO and confirmed what I already knew. I love the deck. It is so fun to play. I went 4-1 winning against b/r control twice, b/r vampires, some mill deck and losing to a grixis control(mulled to 4 first game and drew 8 lands in the third still should have won without my bad clicks). I played your list except I didn't have the CoCos in. Instead I played +1 Gilt-Leaf Winnower +1 Eyeblight Assassin and +2 Duress(with 2 more in the SB). IMO Collected Company is a waste of resources, in this deck.

Thoughts on not playing COCO:I loved duressing my opponent to see what they were playing and plan my moves. For the 2-1 that coco can give you, it's infrequent, that it's for elves that make a difference. Duress came in 100% more useful in all of my matches. Being able to take my opponents cards that would 2-1(or 3-1 or 4-1) me was far better for my tempo then attempting to recover from a board wipe with a coco. Last bash on Coco would be with 18 lands in the deck getting to 4 to play coco can be brutal sometimes.

I must admit that coco being played as an instant certainly has it's perks. However, this deck doesn't want to last that long.

Other thoughts: Sylvan Messenger is just sexy. Drawing 4 cards off this guy makes me want to adopt orphan cats and feed them tuna steak dinners.

Thornbow Archer is a mini MVP on turn 1. So annoying and admittedly powerful in this deck.

Gilt-Leaf Winnower was fun to play. Do a card search for standard creatures. There are a CRAP TON(non elves whos P/T don't match) being played. Plus a big menacing body as fast as turn 3 is just sassy.

Moving Forward:I will keep my changes for now. I will experiment with +1 more Gilt-Leaf Winnower in MD. Also will experiment with Tajuru Warcaller. I am skeptical on the usefulness of Taj but seems a mini overrun might be interesting.

bigreid57 I never used CoCo anyway. With a similar build I have Sylvan Messenger was suffice, sometimes getting 4 elves in my hand instead of the 2 elves on the battlefield which yes does have its perks but I mainly use the refuel after a boardwipe that I didn't counter.

Yeah, cocos are for the inevitability of a board wipe

I just used the messenger to refill my hand afterwards. In this deck I never have mana untapped to play an instant on their turn anyway unless I knew they had a boardwipe like using Duress or Transgress.

Recently I've been considering Gather the Pack over CoCo, thoughts anyone?

Or Fork in the Road, I'm tring to slim the lands down while mantaining the integrity of the deck.

Gather the Pack does have a similar ability to Coco however it puts other cards in the graveyard. In a creature heavy deck this may be problematic if you reveal 5 creatures that you would want to keep. Fork in the Road would get rid of lands from the deck, that's good, but good enough to put it in the deck?

Have you thought about Behind the Scenes It would be funny until you draw a Lord

I took out 2 might of masses and 1 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen. Added 2 Zulaport Cutthroat and 1 Cryptolith Rite. IV been having more success per round. Tho it takes away from elf only deck. The rite cures all mana problems, great early or late. The cutthroat , make them hold off on languish until they can kill single target. IV had 2 people miscalculate and almost kill themselves with languish

Behind the scenes is fun but where to fit it? I just can't see trading out any more creatures. Messenger needs a critical mass of creatures to hit as much as possible. And we need to naturally draw add many as possible too.

@honeybadger

I like the rites idea but with one out makes it too inconsistent for my liking. I have thought about using the cutthroat as well. What are your thoughts on him so far?

The rite is a test phase. Why there's only 1. But it's worth it at the loss of a masses. The cutthroat have played really well. It's definitely a languish deterrent. I messed up tonight and went 2-2 on free standard. The rounds I loss were by my own error and letting them go back on triggers. I like this deck alot. It's so hard to choose what to add and what to loose.

Cutthrought is worth considering, but due to its nature with this deck and the fact that this deck doesn't have a sac-outlet it should be delegated to the sideboard because not everyone runs a board wipe and that is really the only thing that card has going for it.

Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip I have them in testing also. When they flip it's free casting for creatures. Possibly 2 Zulaport Cutthroat and 2 Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip. Side out 2 might of masses and 2 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen

I agree with that, too. That would be an amazing deterrent for Languish considering the number of creatures you will consistently grow to. That's a solid idea right there.

I know gather the pack puts them into my graveyard, however CoCo puts them on the bottom of my library and I never shuffle my deck, so what's the difference?

@skwraka your right. I like to blitz them on the first game. Then side Zulaport Cutthroat so when they start wiping my board. A cutthroat is as deadly as a Shaman of the Pack. :)

You have a point. Go for it.

Honeybadger, I like that idea. I'll playtest those over 2 lords a might, and since I'm starting away from elves some, a messenger.

I got a standard night tomorrow. I'll post results and feedback. If it does well. There's a qualifer event this Friday near me. I might drive down and rain some elves on that sheet ;)

Though I'm now worring about the mana as now four of it doesn't work for ALL my creatures.

bigreid57 it would go instead of the lord

I just noticed you have more access to black mana by having more swamps than forests and way more green creatures/spells. Is that because of Ruinous Path and Eyeblight Massacre both requiring 2B?

With Rite and Savant I'm sure it hasn't even come up.

Just curious.

@poshakitoo: I just don't like the idea of that being my turn 3 play.

@Hobbez9186: That, and becuause all my turn one plays need a swamp.

Good answer.

:)