Elves
Elves is still the best deck in Extended. Shock, Horror. The thing is that it’s so difficult that almost no one on the planet can play it perfectly, and most of us cannot even play it well. Combine with this the fact that (a) a lot of people aren’t playing it and (b) that everyone is still packing all the hate for it, and you are left with two paradoxical conclusions. First, don’t worry about playing all those board cards for it (a bit of a gambit I know, but one that I think will pay off); and second, if you are good enough to play the deck (and have tested it infinitely), play it for exactly the same reasons!
I’ve never really warmed to the Weird Harvest version of the deck because I’ve found that the Chord of Callings are so strong in a myriad of matchups, and they make building your sideboard a little easier. I’ve found that the Wirewood Hivemasters are not as good as they were in Berlin, where the mirror was so prevalent and Chording up a Pontiff was so often an easy win. They get countered by Spell Snare but play around Engineered Explosives, and can keep games going a long time against Rock-like decks. All in all, I’ve not really found much excuse to change them for anything else.
The eternal debate about how to kill still rages, and I’m still a fan of Predator Dragon. Mirror Entity has a ton of advantages and is easier to cast, but the deal clincher for me is the Dragon’s ability to kill out of nowhere. Often, you won’t have a creature in play without summoning sickness in the Mirror Entity version, especially if you’re going off immediately after a mass removal spell, meaning that you have to wait a turn to kill. In a lot of matchups this isn’t very important, even if they have an additional Wrath effect your hand will be packed with goodness and ready to go off again if need be. However, against the decks which you can wait a turn to kill, you don’t even need a win condition. The swarm of little Green men you dump into play is enough to kill them anyway! It is for decks like TEPS and the mirror where killing immediately is so vital, and the Dragon almost always guarantees that. It should also be noted that the Dragon is by the most boarded out card in the deck because if you don’t need to kill in one turn, then you don’t need a win condition.
If there are no reasons for other colors of mana in the sideboard, then I think the best maindeck land configuration is sixteen Forests and a Pendelhaven. However, I think the deck should probably run a Gaddock Teeg in the sideboard. This then means that the addition of eight fetch lands, a Temple Garden and a Horizon Canopy or two becomes necessary. If you like Thoughtseize too, then you’ll want to play a set of Gilt-Leaf Palace and an Overgrown Tomb. If you want to do both, then you can only afford to play six fetch lands and no Canopy. I feel that you want at least six Forests so you can cast your Regal Force without too much problem; added to this is the fact that you don’t really need your other colors very much at all! I do play a Teeg, but I’m not a big fan of the discard, which means my maindeck looks like this:
Creatures (31)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Wirewood Symbiote
- 4 Wirewood Hivemaster
- 1 Viridian Shaman
- 4 Birchlore Rangers
- 4 Heritage Druid
- 4 Nettle Sentinel
- 1 Regal Force
- 1 Predator Dragon
- 4 Elvish Visionary
Lands (17)
Spells (12)
The more observant of you will notice that there are sixteen cards in my sideboard. This is because I have found it incredibly difficult to decide which card not to play and I tend to make the decision by what decks I expect to come across in any given metagame. The answer may well be to cut a Chord main for the Vexing Shusher.
My particular pet card is the Ranger. This is here for Faeries. Most people do not realise how Fae manages to beat Elves, they assume it s the combination of counterspells and Engineered Explosives/Firespouts. They are wrong. The first thing Fae does to Elves is deny it the ability to ‘go off’ by having counters to stop the Glimpse of Nature, this is part one of their game plan. However, unless they put Elves on a clock, then all the board sweepers in the world are not going to stop them from winning as Elves has a much better late game. Fae wins because of Vendilion Clique and Umezawa’s Jitte. Now Sprite stops them from winning. Not only is his untap ability useful whilst going off, but he blocks and kills all of Fae’s threats apart from Mutavault, and stops the Jitte getting counters.
Another card that vies for a slot is Scattershot Archer, which does a similar job to Scryb Ranger and has the advantage of being both cheap and elvish. Upon more testing since the first draft of this article, I’ve found that the Archer is probably better, though if I were to run a singleton, it would be the Ranger, for surprise value if anything, but mainly because it does the job better, is more powerful when Chorded up, and does a better job of evading Engineered Explosives and Firespout.
A few further sideboard notes: Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender stops Pyrostatic Pillar from killing you, which is probably the best board card around against Elves (even though, for some reason, I’ve never lost to it. I think this is because Burn (the card that plays Pillar) is such an easy matchup anyway). The seventeenth card in the sideboard is either an Elvish Champion or a Imperious Perfect, but as no one seems to be playing Night of Soul’s Betrayal, it doesn’t really seem worth a slot. When sideboarding, the Dragon tends to come out first and then normally a collection of Pacts and Chords come next against decks with removal, Chord comes out against decks where speed is important and Hivemasters and Birchlores get removed if you have time and need a few more slots.
I’ve played the deck a lot (Berlin, Worlds, and two PTQS) and I don’t think I’m good enough at playing it, in real life at least. On MTGO, where I can think forever, I have had an insane amount success with the deck. However, the deck with which I have won just as much is my particular brand of Fae.
Fae
I’ve played with Fae a lot and I’ve come to a bunch of conclusions, I’ll just list them to save time:
• Affinity really isn’t that bad.
• Engineered Explosives is awful. Re: Elves it wasn’t as good as the other cards in the deck (Jitte and Clique), it’s awful against everything and too slow against the decks it’s meant for. Sure it keeps the artefact count up for Thirst but boohoo. Sower of Temptation is more cost efficient most of the time and does a better job. On top of all of this, EE is only good against cards that Spell Snare and Spellstutter Sprite are good against; one of Fae’s biggest problems are cards that slip through this net.
• Chrome Mox is poo. You don’t need the speed pump if you build your deck correctly and keep the right hands. Often against the fast decks you think you need Mox against, all you really need are enough cheap spell to stay alive in the early game and enough good spells to nail them away — Mox is neither of these, which just leads to bad hands and bad situations. About the only justifiable reason to play it is to keep the artifact count up.
• Vedalkan Shackles is insane in the mirror and pants everywhere else. It also means you have to play a lot of Islands to make good use of it and this is hard to do if you play Mox or Academy Ruins.
• I’ve played the Gifts Ungiven trickery, and it’s just not worth it. You gain a little, especially an edge in the mirror, but you lose out on mana consistency.
• Glen Elendra Archmage is not very good. It’s not good in the mirror, against Elves or TEPS, which are the three most important matchups and it’s not even good vs. Zoo, Naya Burn or Affinity. It shines in the matchups you’re already good — Burn, Death Cloud and Slide, and is vastly inferior to Cryptic Command in general.
• Sower of Temptation is super solid. It’s great in the mirror, it’s amazing against Affinity and just plain solid versus everything else. Against every deck that isn’t TEPS (and maybe Burn), it is one of your best cards.
• Vendilion Clique is phenomenal. It’s the best card against TEPS and Elves. It’s a great threat in the mirror. It is practically a removal spell against Zoo and Affinity, where it either snatches their post-combat follow up threat or digs you closer to your Sowers.
• TEPS is a bad matchup, but maindeck Stifles are very helpful, as well as being awesome in the mirror and in all sorts of situations. I’ve won countless games from them against decks they are bad against: Jitte charging, suspend, Cranial Plating equipping, and not to mention getting that turn one fetch land.
• Venser, Shaper Savant is great against storage lands, resolved Shackles and as an EOT threat in the mirror. I can see it being another Stifle main, particularly if there are lots of TEPS players in your neighbourhood.
• The format has slowed down and evened out a lot, so Cryptic Command is back in the picture as the deck often needs an actual counterspell as well as an answer to tricky permanents. This means that the deck can’t run a fourth Riptide Laboratory, any Academy Ruins or Ghost Quarters because it needs as much Blue mana as possible. This is a great thing anyway as you often need up to three Blue mana a turn anyway for multiple counters or to suspend a Vision with back up for their turn. The deck used to never have enough Blue mana, this list is here to help solve that.
• Spellstutter Sprite is probably the most powerful card in Extended right now. It is a two mana two for one — it is more efficient and easier to cast than the original Counterspell and does more. Almost everything you want to stop can be countered with the Sprite. There is a reason that decks are diversifying their threats right now and that’s because Spell Snare and Sprite force people to rely on slower, three casting cost and greater threats. Consequently, Fae have adapted by running Cryptic Commands again.
When you learn all of those facts a bunch of things become both clear and simple. First off, all those crappy artifacts (apart from the brilliant Jitte) can go, meaning Thirst becomes a lot less attractive (although we can run 4 Seat of Synod), and now that the Shackles of gone we can happily add four Choke-resistant lands. This all leaves us with the following deck which I’ve played a lot and love:
Creatures (13)
Lands (26)
Spells (21)
Sideboard
I’ve recently cut two Thirst for Knowledge, a Venser and a Stifle for the set of Cryptic Commands, and like this change a lot. The format has slowed down a lot and this deck is perfect to surviving to the fourth turn relatively unscathed. Lots of decks are now specialised in running threats that escape the Spell Snare/Spellstutter Sprite trap, which places too much reliance on your Mana Leaks; this is where the Cryptics come in. They also provide both some much needed card advantage and solutions to permanents. I’ve played over thirty games with the full set now and do not regret it in the slightest.
Delving deeper into the sideboard:
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is poor, and I’ve tried Future Sight extensively and like it a lot. However, it doesn’t do enough and it does it too late. Bitterblossom does a similar job, but better and cheaper. A lot of the time versus Raven’s Crime, you have to discard the Future Sight, and Bitterblossom is definitely better in the mirror matchup. Firespout is my coverall card. It’s the best card in combination with the rest of the deck against Elves, and it does enough against Zoo so that I’m happy with it. Some versions are now running a Hallowed Fountain and three Path to Exile, but I prefer to keep it clean and run as few dual land as I can; having to rely on them by turn three for Firespout is difficult enough as it is. Trickbinds are just the best card against TEPS there is.
There has been a massive gain in popularity online of Life From The Loam based decks, mainly because of the Conflux addition of Knight of the Reliquary. These come in two forms: the original GB version much like Jacob’s list with the addition of Knight and Path to Exile; and a GRw version with Lightning Helix, Seismic Assault, Path to Exile, and Countryside Crusher. These have warranted the return of Relic of Progenitus (in favour of Future Sight) to the sideboard, as it’s the best card there is against these decks. They do bring in Krosan Grip for it, but you will also have Jittes and Bitterblossoms for them to deal with so you easily overload their hate.
Matchup Analysis:
Life From The Loam decks:
In addition to the above paragraph, the key in these matchups is to neutralize their win conditions. They might faff about with LftL, but you can keep this under control by either Cliquing it to the bin or through running counterspells. The key is to deny them any clock as, believe it of not, your late game is better than theirs as they dig and dig and dig, but they only have about twelve creatures you need to counter. Ancestral Vision is phenomenal here, as is Spellstutter Sprite. Sower is golden but it’s worth waiting to protect it if you can (no Raven’s Crime). Bitterblossom is game by itself. Try not to commit into Boil against the Red variant, especially as it’s normally very obvious if they have it. GB is 55/45 if you play it right, as Darkblast is a pain until you get Bitterblossom online, whereas I’ve yet to lose versus the RG variant, though the games are long and hard fought and, I find, very enjoyable.
Out: -3 Spell Snare, -2 Stifle
In: +3 Bitterblossom, +2 Relic of Progenitus
Rock:
If you want to play with Green Men, then you should play with Life From The Loam, but some people persist in not doing so. As such, their decks have little to no card advantage and a bunch of dorks. Bitterblossom is just as strong against them but Relic has no effect which is just as good as they play a bunch more two casting cost guys for Spell Snare, like Dark Confidant and Tidehollow Sculler. Still a tight matchup, but they are very clunky and can do little once you pull ahead; their removal is precious and key to them succeeding is resolving big men and you not having Sower or Command.
Out: -2 Stifle, -1 Spell Snare
In: +3 Bitterblossom
TEPS:
Not a good matchup, though it is significantly worse without the Stifles in the main, as they pretty much give you a free victory if you draw them. Maindeck you will need to aggressively mulligan to Stifle or Vendilion Clique. The key is to put a clock on them as fast as possible and counter every spell they cast whilst trying to build up to critical mass. Cryptic Commands and Venser are solid at bouncing their storage land. After boarding, you gain a couple of Trickbinds whilst they get Pact of Negation and Gigadrowse. Keep your fetch lands uncracked to play around the ‘Drowse if at all possible, otherwise the same tactics apply. A lot of your boarding is done to speed up your clock and help you dig to the cards that matter. Do not forget to leave Stifle open; it might seem like it’s safe, but you should always leave it up there, and with an additional U if possible to play around Remand.
Out: -4 Sower of Temptation, -3 Umezawa’s Jitte
In: +3 Bitterblossom, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Trickbind
Elves:
Counter everything as soon as it moves. The key here is to use counterspells to stop them from going off with Glimpse so it becomes a beatdown race; this brings your Sowers and Cryptics into play. Jitte and Clique are your best friends here, as is Spellstutter in combination with Riptide Laboratory. After boarding, make sure you have access to Steam Vents for your blowout Firespout, but you have to watch out for Choke. If you have the Mana Leak, try and keep it open for as long as possible; if you can get the Steam Vents at a later time, do it so as to keep it safe; Clique them during their drawstep to minimise the damage; don’t give up faith, it’s still easy to win under Choke, especially as you have several non-Islands, and you always have five bounce spells to get it off the table.
I know everyone says that this matchup is easy, but it’s not. It is your favor, but not by much, and you have to play flawlessly to keep it that way as they can explode out of nowhere, so take a long time to figure out what they do and do not have by what they do and do not play — this information is critical to victory.
Out: -2 Spell Snare, -2 Stifle
In: 4 Firespout
Mirror:
The mirror comes in lots of shapes and sizes, but it’s fair to assume that they have Shackles and Explosives. You don’t care about the latter; you have to try and keep Shackles off the table, but it’s by no means the end of the world. Because you run the full compliment of Cryptic Commands, it means that you are more likely to win the counterwars and if you win the slow fight over Visions, you will pull ahead enough to beat the Shackles.
After boarding, you gain the game breaking Bitterblossoms. I find it’s normally a good idea to bring in two Ancient Grudge for the second game and adjust as you feel fit for the third. It becomes obvious what counterspells they’re holding by what they let resolve, how they tap their mana and how they fight counter wars. Your non-Blue lands are golden here as they turn your threats unto overdrive. Even though Stifle effects are good fighting Visions and doing tricky things like reducing Jitte/Shackles’ impact and reducing the Sprite’s effect, I think they sit idle in your hand too often and do not have as powerful an effect as other cards available to you. Jitte loses power after boarding when it becomes more about getting threats to stick; it can also be neutered by opposing Riptide Laboratories, and by taking them out you also nullify any artifact removal you opponent brings in assuming that you still play Shackles.
Out: -3 Umezawa’s Jitte, -2 Stifle
In: +3 Bitterblossom, +2 Ancient Grudge
Zoo/Naya Burn:
Of the two, Naya Burn is much harder to beat. The key to these matches is to throw everything you can into reducing the amount of damage you take early; it’s just that Naya Burn has more actual finishing power. After TEPS, this is the only matchup I would describe as tough, but in reality it’s very close to 50/50, and even though it might not seem like it, it often comes down to how good your opponent is; there’s a lot of room for them to screw up. Stabilising with Sower and Jitte is key, and you’ll be surprised by just how strong Cryptic Command is if you don’t stumble on land drops. I won’t deny though that maindeck it’s difficult to come back if they’re on the play and have the nuts draw. It should be noted that you can get a cheeky win off a random first turn Stifle!
After boarding, the Firespouts give you a way to come back from their speedier starts, but the import is still on stopping their early game as much as possible. Much like against the other fast decks of the format (Elves and TEPS), the trick is to mulligan hands that have little impact on the early game. A lot of the match is about setting yourself up for an equipped Jitte swing, once this happens, it’s very difficult to lose.
Out: -2 Stifle, -2 Cryptic Command
In: +4 Firespout
Affinity:
Despite contrary belief, this is a good, if not great, match up. Now this is probably because I’ve cut almost all the crap cards for this specific match (EE, Archmage and Shackles), but over the course of all three games, you are definitely the favourite. Having four Sowers to deal with their big problem cards and four Cryptic Commands to take care of whatever sneaks through the early game, combined with four Ancient Grudge in the board and if you play it right, then you shouldn’t have a problem.
There are only twelve cards in their deck that should really concern you — Arcbound Ravagers, Cranial Platings, and Master of Etheriums. These are the cards that you save your counterspells for. If you’re on the draw and you have the option between a first turn Visions or leaving Spell Snare mana open, the latter is almost always correct. It’s almost impossible to lose if you keep those cards off the board. Soul’s Fire and Fatal Frenzy can be a problem, but if you have the luxury to play around them then do, if not, then don’t, it’s that simple. I let Thoughcast resolve, more often than not, as it’s not actually one of the crucial cards. After boarding, aggressive mulliganing towards your Grudges/solid hands will pay dividends.
Out: -2 Stifle, -2 Umezawa’s Jitte
In: +4 Ancient Grudge
Burn:
To start with, I thought that this was going to be an awful matchup before I realised that they have to cast enough spells to deal you twenty. This tends to be around seven successfully resolved spells before you either kill them or get a Jitte online. With all your counter magic, you can stop a bunch of their early spells (all that you can counter) and then your Visions, Sprites, Cliques and Commands will slowly mean you have the late game to outlast them. The Stifles either counter Rift Bolt or stop Mogg Fanatic and Keldon Marauder getting you or your men. You’ve nothing better in your board than what you’re already packing so leave it as is.
You will need to attack them when you can as it is most definitely a race, one that you normally win, but a very close one at that. You will survive half the games on around eight life, the rest you will be clinging to a single point of life, either with a counter in grip or praying they don’t rip. When you look at the match like this you realise that you win around 70% of the games, so just hope that they don’t get lucky enough to put you into the situation where they can rip to kill you, and do, twice.
Out/In — No change
Summary
I just, once again, want to note how bad EE and Shackles are against the metagame. Take a quick look back up. EE is good against two, okay against two, and bad against one. Shackles is good against one, okay against two, and bad against five! The same can be said about Archmage, whereas Command is awesome against all of them (being so versatile, it’s hard not to be).
I keep winning and winning and winning with this list. I’m hoping to play my first non-PT North America PTQ in a couple of weeks in Seattle. Now that I’ve been living in Canada for a while, it’s time to get to grips with live Magic again.
Success…
Q