Elves super secret sideboard tech
Legacy Deck Help forum
Posted on June 2, 2015, 6:16 p.m. by kyuuri117
New forum woo!
Alright so i'm thinking of tossing an Elvish Piper into my sideboard. You might ask, why? Well. Let me tell you.
See, there is something very few people know about. And that is that Progenitus is an attention whore. She isn't happy, at all, unless hhe's staring you right in the eyes, from the safety of your hand.
You might say, "pfft, yea right, she's one card in sixty, just how often are you gonna draw her". If you are thinking this, you would be wrong. So, so, soooo wrong. I'd say something outlandish like, "there's an 80% chance you end up with Progenitus in your hand", but that would be lying. Because there's a 95% chance.
Anyway, thoughts on elvish piper?
I generally put progenitus in against stuff like Death n Taxes, Delver, Painter, Miracles, Lands. Basically, if a deck's sole focus is to combo off before elves, you don't stick it in. If they are going to try and keep your board clear so that you cant Craterhoof, you bring in Progenitus. So i'd prob be putting piper in as well, cutting the third abrupt decay from my sideboard.
June 2, 2015 6:23 p.m.
Short answer: No.
I would run something to make you discard Progenitus- maybe Cabal Therapy. Thus, shuffling the hydra into your library, allowing it to be naturally ordered again. I also love decay. Its so good. But yeah, against miracles piper is awesome. But same goes to decay. I just like Abrupt Decay all around more. Assessing your match ups to side in Elvish Piper, i see it's better than decay in Death n Taxes, iffy about delver, and lands. Abrupt Decay is lackluster against lands.
June 2, 2015 6:28 p.m.
I thought it was a known fact that all big monsters in movies and shit were female. Cloverfield, godzilla, jurassic park, etc. etc. Was just continuing the tradition.
June 2, 2015 6:35 p.m.
She can be bolted, decay'd, swords to plowshares'd, and much more. it also takes a turn for her to be useful.
June 2, 2015 7:40 p.m.
vampirelazarus says... #11
klone13: Neither of the two cards (Elvish Piper or Progenitus) can be Abrupt Decayed :3
June 2, 2015 8:55 p.m.
Wasn't referring to progenitus btw, but yeah I'm an idiot as usual.
June 2, 2015 8:57 p.m.
I realize that Elvish Piper is fragile, and can die easily. But... it's not something you're going to be playing on turn three. It's more of a, "well, i've got progenitus in my hand, let's hope I draw piper. Until then, time for deathrite burn or beatdown". And it's not something you'd just play to play.
June 2, 2015 10:44 p.m.
Ah, yea I wasn't like, looking for ways to improve the combo match ups haha, sorry if it came across that way. I've got 4 cabal therapy in the sideboard and yea, basically I draw it early or lose against stuff like Storm and Omni-tell.
I just wanted to contemplate Elvish Piper. It really is ridiculous how often you draw progenitus when you side it in. And since you're siding out a behemoth to do so, it just feels really bad. Figured having a piper in the deck would give you an out to a grindy game where progenitus could just end it.
June 2, 2015 10:57 p.m.
julianjmoss says... #17
You should never include a card where your reasoning is "well one of my outs already got f'ed up lets just pray to God that I can now find my fringe card that can do something a turn after it is played and my opponent ignores it even though it's super frail and let's me win next turn."
But seriously, elves can't afford to spread itself that thin and the format isn't forgiving whatsoever nor is it slow enough for that card to be good
June 2, 2015 10:58 p.m.
Considering that elves can infinitely stall a board state against a fair deck that doesn't have a flier on the board, i don't think that's a fair assessment.
Again, i'm not bringing this in vs. combo decks, because you don't bring progenitus in against combo decks.
And honestly, with delver being the deck to play in legacy at the moment, the format is slow enough for it to work.
Hell, i have no idea if it would work or not. Sure, it will prob just eat a kill spell. But it's something that can't be hit by chalice on 1, it's something that can't be decayed, and it's not a huge loss if it dies instead of a combo piece.
June 2, 2015 11:04 p.m.
julianjmoss says... #19
I think it is a very fair assessment. The decks you talk about (the fair decks and delver decks) all run the more common removal. Lightning bolt, swords to plowshares,forked bolt, dismember, and have sideboard cards like disfigure and others. You are also ignoring the fact that many of the fair decks in the format still have counterspells (BUG delver, RUG delver, other delver variants, fish) and that stoneblade decks have jitte and sword of fire and ice and can find them quite easily. Not to mention stifle, revoker and many other cards in the format. This is also post board so you are assuming that the fair decks will be boarding in cards so that they can keep the board state calm and not let you just stall willy nilly (toxic deluge, golgari charm, engineered plague).And just because you can stall the game and not allow them to attack you doesn't mean you can prevent any of this.
The point is that you are having bad luck when boarding a card in and drawing it and your answer is to try and jam a fix to this that is incredibly flimsy. In my opinion this is just playing bad magic. Cards like cabal therapy in the board can deal with this issue and most elves decks already play them in the side. Or you can just natural order for the crater hoof or go the combo route. Don't dilute.
June 2, 2015 11:22 p.m.
maybe Quicksilver Amulet instead of the piper? If you have 8 mana you can cast and use it immediately and the amulet is immune to creature removal.
June 3, 2015 3:25 p.m.
Depends on your build.I used to run 3 Elvish Pipers in my (pre-Progenitus) Leviathan deck...roughly for the same reason as you wish to run your Piper. Never regretted it. The fact that you can play an enormous monster at the end of your opponents turn and attack with it during yours is such a huge advantage. (yes, i did have stuff to untap the Leviathans:) )
June 5, 2015 7:54 a.m.
I don't think Piper's worth a slot. If you're using the Deathrite shaman package in your elf deck you already should have discard cards in your SB that you can use on yourself. You're bringing in Progenitus versus grindy midrange decks like Jund or DNT anyway so it's not a stretch to board in discard.
klone13 says... #2
IDK who's subbed to this but I, for one, am. Anyway against what matchup? Control?
June 2, 2015 6:20 p.m.