Legacy Elves Help
Legacy Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 28, 2018, 7:03 p.m. by Dankey
Hey, what's worse? Cutting a Dryad Arbor going down to 29 creatures, or cutting a Pendelhaven while we're mainboarding a Crop Rotation?
The reason for this compromise is to include Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, and therefore Taiga, and therefore Blood Moon in the sideboard. If it wasn't for blood moon I would simply cut a basic forest.
I run 2 Dryad Arbors and 1 Pendelhaven.
It may help to know that I'm also running 2 basics, 2 Bayous, 9 fetch lands (the ideal number is 10, some lists run 7 or 8), and 1 Crop rotation. I like how CR can act as a 5th Gaea's Cradle.
February 28, 2018 10:08 p.m. Edited.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #4
In that case I'd remove 1 Dryad Arbor. Pendelhaven is useful enough to include 1. Dryad Arbor is, to my understanding, best as a target for GSZ or an EOT fetch. You never really want to draw it; you only want it as a fetch target. With only 1 you'll find that you'll draw it (and then have 0 in your deck to fetch) more often, but I think that should be fine.
This is pretty speculative on my part, as I am by no means an expert of legacy or elves.
February 28, 2018 10:41 p.m.
We only want to fetch and not draw Craterhoof Behemoth as well, which is why we traditionally run 2 in the main. I only care about Pendelhaven when our opponents' play Umezawa's Jitte.
On the other hand, I can see why Dryad Arbor is different; you usually only ramp with it on turn 1 compared to Behemoth, where it has plenty of chances to be topdecked before you're given the opportunity to tutor for it.
February 28, 2018 10:55 p.m. Edited.
Ask itsJulian23 in Twitter. He is Elves master and knows the deck better than anybody here.
March 1, 2018 1:31 a.m.
I've been playing Legacy Elves for a few years. I looked at the list on your profile. Looks like you only have one Craterhoof? I'd shave the second Birchlore for the other Hoof. You REALLY don't want to draw your only Hoof before Natural Order.
Also, you have nine fetches and one Dryad Arbor. You only ever need eight fetches, and sometimes seven to fit in a single Cavern (especially in the Crop Rotation builds.) Dryad Arbor is an extremely useful card. Don't underestimate it, even if there are some disadvantages. An Arbor with a Ranger out is essentially Maze of Ith against ground units (since you can block/bounce.)
March 1, 2018 7:26 p.m.
Have you considered making Deathrite Shaman more reliable by running extra fetches and a second Birchlore?
I'm assuming you want me to cut my 9th fetchland for a 2nd Dryad Arbor (to keep the 20 land count). My issue is overestimating DA and neglecting alternate lines of play if Deathrite is in my opening along with a Greensun's Zenith. I usually always just go for the ramp on turn 1 if I have a Zenith in my opening hand, but sometimes ramping with Deathrite instead seems like a much better option.
You're right, though. Cutting a 2nd Craterhoof is probably wrong. I'm a big fan of Ruric Thar being a NO target along with stopping combo/control players in their tracks if it resolves. It's also an easier GSZ target than Hoof, which is useless if you tap your creatures to ramp anyways.
For now, I suppose dropping the 2nd Birchlore Rangers for a 2nd Hoof is the right call. I appreciate all the feedback!
March 2, 2018 1:24 a.m.
According to this article: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27386_28-1-2-With-Elves-Winning-The-Bazaar-Of-Moxen-Part-1-.html
Julian23 seems to use 2 DAs and 0 Pendelhavens. So I guess I'll follow suit.
March 2, 2018 2:52 a.m. Edited.
Julian is one of the best Elves players there is. There are several videos with him on youtube where he talks fundamental theory for the deck. They're a bit dated, but the core of the deck hasn't changed since then.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #2
How many of each do you run? Going from 2 to 1 in either is fine, but if they're both singletons then I don't know.
February 28, 2018 9:49 p.m.