Elves receives no respect.
Despite winning a GP, despite Top Eighting and winning several PTQ’s each weekend, despite its robust strength and versatility, Llanowar’s finest Elves continue to be an undervalued PTQ choice.
One main reason why the deck is so undervalued is that it can’t perform as well online. The swirling mix of triggers a frustration to deal with when comboing off to the untrained player, but that’s not the real issue. Without the ability to “go infinite” on Magic Online, Essence Warden looping doesn’t work — and the deck becomes worse as a consequence. And without the subsequent Magic Online results, many people have built their decks without heeding Elven worry. Despite all of this, the deck holds up fine in real life testing. What’s more, people seem light on hate for it.
Instead of playing all the ridiculous subgames people are playing right now, you just attack from a different beatdown angle and a different combo angle.
My Elves maindeck is still very similar to the one I showed you last. Here is the maindeck I would definitely play:
Lands:
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Pendelhaven
6 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Temple Garden
Creatures:
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Arbor Elf
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Elvish Visionary
2 Essence Warden
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Regal Force
1 Viridian Shaman
Other spells:
4 Summoner’s Pact
4 Glimpse of Nature
2 Primal Command
3 Cloudstone Curio
I eventually decided to split Ranger and Regal Force because Ranger is better on its own. Regal Force number two is just a mulligan early, and a maindeck Ranger is excellent to tutor for when grinding them out.
Two Essence Wardens is good against Zoo, and just gives you the infinite life nut draw more often.
Joraga Warcaller proved unnecessary. You just didn’t need it against Zoo that bad, and making your creatures infinitely large was seldom relevant.
I’m still a big believer in two Primal Command over one Command one Eternal Witness. Command is often just great when you draw it, whereas Witness was usually unspectacular on its own. The second Command makes your Dredge and Burn matchups a lot better, and can lead to free wins against control and combo if you cast one early on.
I tried playing with four Curios instead of three and they both interfered with my Glimpse combo turns and created too many slow hands with multiple copies of the three cost Ravnica artifact. I definitely feel as though three is the right number to be at, even though there are list running around that play the full four.
The only card I want to try out is Enshrined Memories, a forgotten Kamigawa block rare which recently debuted in an Elf deck that showed up at Grand Prix: Yokohama. It seems as though it could be very powerful going long, so it might be an interesting card to look into.
Otherwise, as you can see, Elves is still pretty much Elves. The core seldom changes. Sure, a Ranger here and an Essence Warden there, but you have to play a core of so many cards and there’s not much variation outside of that.
The crux of the deck’s variation — the one area you can tweak and make a large difference with — is its sideboard.
Steven Birklid recently brought to my attention how the decks that have been doing well, especially in Extended, are the ones with the best sideboards. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Many Dark Depths matchups are solely dependant on how well you know how to sideboard with the deck, and the Zoo decks that have been floating to the top have well-tuned sideboards with the cards they need to beat well pinpointed. It should hopefully come as no surprise when I say that the sideboard for Elves is just as crucial — and a lot more finicky.
Jesse Mason says if you ever sideboard out more than six cards with Elves you’re making a mistake, and, while there are cases where you might want to do so, I think in general Jesse is correct. I want you to sideboard correctly, and to build a sideboard that will be best for your metagame. The vast majority of e-mails and comments I’ve had on my Elves list, save for the obligatory “why aren’t you playing Manamorphose and Grapseshot?” (it’s just worse than Primal Command) and “how does this combo work?!” (read my first article on Elves this season,) are all about sideboarding. What should be in it, what cards you should take out, and so on.
But I’m not interested in tossing you some skinny piece of cod, only delicious in certain situations. I’d rather teach you how to go catch a wild salmon, so you can reel it in, savor the sideboard’s flavor, then do it over again.
So, I’m going to let you build the sideboard.
Here is the list of cards I feel you can reasonably sideboard with Elves depending on the decks you expect to face:
Loaming Shaman
Nissa Revane
Path to Exile
Gaddock Teeg
Ranger of Eos
Umezawa’s Jitte
Blood Moon
Thoughtseize
Thorn of Amethyst
Gluttonous Slime
Ghost Quarter
Viridian Shaman
Krosan Grip
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Harmonic Sliver
Damping Matrix
Primal Command
Note that Proclamation of Rebirth is no longer on the list. Ranger of Eos is usually just better, so I would run four Rangers before touching Proclamation.
If you play Blood Moon or Thoughtseize, you are going to want to add a Stomping Ground of Overgrown Tomb to the maindeck over a forest, respectively.
Here’s how this is going to work. I’m going to post a matchup, and what cards you can take out, in what order, then talk about how the matchup goes and which cards I would want to bring in, in what order. It’s your job to properly calibrate the number of cards you want to sideboard. You can overboard if a deck is really prevalent, but by and large you do not want to be sideboarding in more cards then you want to take out. With an intricately built deck like Elves, often it’s better to just sideboard four cards instead of eight cards for a major archetype. You’re just going to end up removing cards crucial to your combo, then wish you had a Gluttonous Slime to board in against Living End.
Okay. With that in mind…
Dark Depths is close. The Thopter combo is pretty ineffectual against you, so it’s a race to Marit Lage. Their Thoughtseizes are a huge disruption issue, and they are likely going to have one Explosives, one Chalice maindeck and possibly more in the sideboard.
The newer lists of Dark Depths are running Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and they’re going to have them for you after sideboarding. This is important because it makes gaining infinite life irrelevant. If you expect people to be savvy enough to play Jace — which I think they will be at the better tables of a PTQ — you want to remove both Wardens.
After that, Archdruid is your next weakest card. They’re going to be bringing in Smothers, Deathmarks, and Wrath effects, so you don’t want to go all in on a creature plan or tap out for an Archdruid only to be Time Walked by a Deathmark.
After sideboarding, they’re going to try and kill all of your creatures and lock you out with a Chalice, while Thoughtseizing away anything like Damping Matrix. Ghost Quarter is very effective here because it can’t be Thoughseized and stops the half of the combo you care about.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Dark Depths is:
Ghost Quarter
Blood Moon
Viridian Shaman
Harmonic Sliver
Krosan Grip
Damping Matrix
Path to Exile
Thoughtseize
Ranger of Eos
Gaddock Teeg
Quarter is just the best card to have against them, as mentioned above. You can also cut one land for every two Quarters you bring in, making it easier to sideboard with. Blood Moon is a close second, because often it will just shut down their plan — especially if cast quickly. But, at the same time I wouldn’t want to run Moon without having access to more Shamans or Slivers. Being able to remove their Chalice or post Blood Moon Chrome Mox is crucial. After that, Damping Matrix is okay, but they probably have answers to it. Path is a card which is going to sit in your hand and just get Duressed, Thoughtseize is fine but less impressive than any of the others, Ranger is okay if you’re going to attrition them out, and Teeg shuts off a couple of their spells.
I would not sideboard cards on that list from Path downward just for Depths, but if they were in my board anyway I would consider bringing them in.
Tribal Zoo
Tribal Zoo is another close matchup which is usually a blowout for either side. You want to have as strong of a combo draw as possible. Ranger helps a lot here, because it keeps you in it if they have a healthy mix of creatures and burn — usually a dangerous problem for Elves. Jitte is great when it becomes active and is very good at killing Canonists and Meddling Mages, but often it’s just a tempo black hole as you spend time equipping creatures which are just removed. You don’t want to max out on Jittes here, though bringing in some can be okay.
Speaking of Canonist, Shaman can be a good card to bring in if you think they have Canonist — though usually that’s more of a Boom/Bust Zoo card to sideboard.
Blood Moon is great against them and gives you plenty of time to do what you want, especially if they’re not expecting it and don’t fetch out basics.
You can shave both Primal Commands against Zoo. When you’re going off with Glimpse, you can gain sufficient amounts of life with Essence Warden. There’s nothing they can do to remove all of creatures. If you just gain enough life to put yourself out of burn range and dump your hand of creatures into play, you will be well positioned enough to win that you won’t need to put all of their lands on top of their library.
Cutting one to two Summoner’s Pacts against Zoo is okay as well. You don’t want your opening hand to have multiples, and it’s a scary card to draw multiples of early because you can’t afford to use them except when comboing off. Usually you need to build some board presence first.
If you don’t think they’ll have Canonist, Jitte, or otherwise, you can cut the Shaman. However, since you usually won’t know, it’s often right to leave at lease one in your deck just in case.
If you absolutely have to fit more cards in, you can trim a couple of Elvish Archdruids on the draw. On the play, though, having an early Archdruid presents a threat your opponent has to deal with or lose.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Tribal Zoo is:
Blood Moon
Ranger of Eos
Umezawa’s Jitte
Path to Exile
Viridian Shaman (If they have Canonist or Jitte)
Harmonic Sliver (If they have Canonist or Jitte)
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Boom/Bust Zoo
Boom/Bust Zoo is a lot better for you that Tribal Zoo — and fortunately it seems to be what a lot of the players are moving toward. They don’t have many removal spells that matter, they’re slower, have Blood Moon which doesn’t do anything against you, and both halves of Boom/Bust are fairly weak in this matchup. You can usually combo out without much issue.
After sideboarding, things can get rougher. They bring in everything from Canonist, to Chalice, to Lightning Helix, to Volcanic Fallout, to Jitte. They’re likely going to be in on artifacts though, so if you bring in just load up on more Viridian Shamans you’re going to be in good shape.
Blood Moon is bad against them. Their deck is set up to work around it. Boarding it in is going to be ineffectual.
What you take out against them is fairly close to Tribal Zoo. You don’t need either Command, and you can cut down on Pacts and Archdruids as necessary.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Boom/Bust Zoo is:
Viridian Shaman
Harmonic Sliver
Ranger of Eos
Umezawa’s Jitte
Path to Exile
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Faeries
Faeries is unfavorable, though with a good draw or clever sideboarding you can take some games off of them. Jitte and cards like Spellstutter Sprite are both issues, and after sideboarding you are subjected to all of the Zoo splash hate they have like Deathmark.
Umezawa’s Jitte is the key to beating Faeries. An active Jitte keeps them in check, and if you can follow it up with reasonable pressure or a Blood Moon you can lock them down.
What you want to remove entirely depends on what plan you’re on. If you bring in Jittes and Moons, then you probably want to be cutting your Pacts and then Archdruids. Otherwise, you’re just going to have to play tightly and try to combo them, in which case I would remove Archdruids on the draw and a Primal Command alongside some Pacts on the play.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Faeries is:
Umezawa’s Jitte
Blood Moon
Harmonic Sliver
Viridian Shaman
Ranger of Eos
Thoughtseize
Sometimes you can win post Hypergenesis, but most of the time it’s a race to them cascading. Often you’re about one turn too slow, so it’s all a matter of buying a little extra time. If they can’t cascade you reasonably on turn 3 or 4, you’re probably going to win most of the time.
You can just cut the cards that don’t do very much. You don’t need two Primal Commands against them; one should do so you can make sure they cant’ draw Hypergenesis the turn after you go off and put something disastrous like Blazing Archon into play. Viridian Shaman goes out. Ranger of Eos goes out. Archdruid can also go out if you’re on the draw, and you can also remove some on the play. Essence Warden is a blank if their deck contains Magister Sphinx.
Blood Moon and Thorn of Amethyst are both very good cards against them. Thorn buys you two extra turns, while Blood Moon hopefully shuts them off of ever casting Hypergenesis. Blood Moon gets the nod as being slightly better because of its absolute shutdown of their deck, but they’re both very good.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Hypergenesis is:
Blood Moon
Thorn of Amethyst
Thoughtseize
Whether you consider it a real deck or not, Hive Mind is something I have faced several times offline. It’s obviously a race to comboing, with very little interaction save for their sideboard Firespouts. If you put Thorn of Amethyst or Thoughtseize in your sideboard, this matchup becomes very good for you. Gaddock Teeg is also very good if you put it into play, though you are probably not going to play more than one and it is susceptible to Firespout.
You can safely remove a Primal Command and the Essence Wardens, since infinite life is irrelevant. Ranger of Eos is also pretty poor in this matchup.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Hive Mind is:
Thorn of Amethyst
Thoughtseize
Gaddock Teeg
Living End is actually a pretty intricate matchup. If you rush headfirst into a cascade spell you’re going to lose, and likewise for them not respecting your combo. When I’ve had the most success, however, is when I force them to go for a small Living End early and then rebuild up with the rest of my hand. At that point, if I try and go off and they Living End then I can continue with the cards they removed the first time around.
Of course, just comboing them out quickly never hurt either.
If you sideboard a single Gluttonous Slime, then this matchup becomes insane. If you just tutor for it in response to their Living End, then you keep all of your creatures and can easily win from that position. Thorn of Amethyst is okay against them to buy a turn or two, but they will have Ingot Chewers and more lands to ensure they can cast their Living End
The Shaman doesn’t do anything in this matchup, and can come out. After that, Archdruid is fairly mediocre.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Living End is:
Gluttonous Slime
Thoughtseize
Thorn of Amethyst
Loaming Shaman
Primal Command
Mono Red Burn
Mono Red Burn is a very good matchup. If they burn your creatures they aren’t burning you, and you have plenty more creatures where those came from. You can combo them out fast with little disruption usually.
You don’t really need to sideboard any cards for them, but the Shaman can come out as well as the Ranger of Eos and some Archdruids.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Mono Red Burn is:
Nissa Revane
Umezawa’s Jitte
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Primal Command
Boros
Boros is a slightly unfavorable matchup. They have a lot of ways to interact with you, and a fast clock. You either need to combo them out fast with Essence Warden, or need for them to have a slow enough draw for you to stabilize.
Shaman, Ranger, Archdruid, and some Pacts can all come out here.
Jesse swears Jitte is bad against them, but it seems like one of the few ways you can cement an advantage and win. Otherwise, Path and Forge Tender are probably the best way to try and contain their creatures and turn them into a burn deck.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Boros is:
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Umezawa’s Jitte
Path to Exile
In an ironic twist, I played some games on Magic Online with Elves, Essence Warden working or no, and immediately ran into the Ultimecia deck I had posited two matches in a row. That deck is highly advantaged against Elves, and there’s not a lot you can do. Tons of removal, infinite life not mattering, and Night of Souls’ Betrayal.
Your best shot is to Thorn of Amethyst, Gaddock Teeg, and Thoughtseize them. You can cut the Essence Wardens, a Pact, an Archdruid, and possibly a mana elf in the process depending on how many cards you have to bring in.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Grixis is:
Gaddock Teeg
Thorn of Amethyst
Thoughtseize
Harmonic Sliver
Krosan Grip
Viridian Shaman
Bant
Bant is a favorable matchup. They have a lot of Explosives, which is thoroughly annoying, and some removal spells, but they don’t have a ton of ways to beat up your combo and they aren’t very fast. You should make sure to watch out for Aven Mindcensor. Otherwise, feel secure in setting up to combo as fast as you can.
Since they have Jace, you can remove Essence Warden. After that, you can cut a Primal Command, some Visionaries, and some Summoner’s Pacts as needed. You want to make sure you have a way to remove Jitte after sideboarding.
They’re going to have Canonists after sideboarding, so you want to make sure you can deal with those too.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Bant is:
Umezawa’s Jitte
Viridian Shaman
Harmonic Sliver
Path to Exile
Ranger of Eos
Blue Scapeshift
Your matchup against blue Scapeshift is pretty good. You have a lot of ways to combo them quickly, and their light permission is bad against you. If they have maindeck Firespout, it can be a huge problem. Most of the time, you’re going to develop your board, get in some damage, and then combo right before they do. After boarding, you can gain access to Blood Moon which helps a lot as well.
You want to cut your expensive cards against Blue Scapeshift because of their countermagic. Regal Force is important to leave in for comboing, but the Ranger of Eos, Archdruids, and Viridian Shaman all go out. One Primal Command is a necessary evil to make sure they can’t kill you the next turn when you don’t gain infinite life, but you can safely remove one.
In addition to Blood Moon, Thorn of Amethyst can be a powerful card against Blue Scapeshift. Blood Moon is better, but Thorn can slow some of their draws to a crawl if you have it turn 2. Gaddock Teeg is also very good against their strategy.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Blue Scapeshift is:
Blood Moon
Thoughtseize
Thorn of Amethyst
Gaddock Teeg
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Aggro Scapeshift
Aggro Scapeshift is a lot harder than U/G Scapeshift, mostly because they have Jitte and Punishing Fire, as well as other burn. If you can contain those two cards you’re good, but Punishing Fire can be a big problem. You want to overload on the board so if they get the engine going you still have a chance. After boarding, they might have access to hate cards like Volcanic Fallout or additional burn.
Blood Moon is still good here because it turns off Valakut and Grove of the Burnwillows, but it’s not insane because they still have creatures and Jitte to battle you with. You want to board in your own Jittes, if you have them, to trade with theirs or to push ahead in case of a board stall.
It depends how many cards you’re bringing in this matchup, but you can cut one or two Pacts, one or two Archdruids, and some mana elves if necessary.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Aggro Scapeshift is:
Blood Moon
Umezawa’s Jitte
Thoughtseize
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Viridian Shaman
Harmonic Sliver
Ranger of Eos
Dredge
Dredge is a great matchup. Occasionally they can nut draw you, but between Primal Command, a fast combo, and Loaming Shaman, you have plenty of ways to make sure you can kill them before they kill you.
The Viridian Shaman does nothing so that can go, and Ranger and Archdruid are both a little slow for against dredge. You just want to bring in whatever hate you have.
Be wary of Darkblast. It’s one of the few cards they can have which significantly hurts you.
The order of cards I would want to sideboard in against Dredge is:
Loaming Shaman
Primal Command
Gaddock Teeg
Thoughtseize
Gluttonous Slime
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Hopefully this sideboarding guide helped you out. This way, instead of just providing the sideboard I most recently used you can build one yourself based on what you expect. My current sideboard that goes with the above decklist is 4 Blood Moon, 3 Umezawa’s Jitte, 2 Ranger of Eos, 2 Ghost Quarter, 2 Viridian Zealot, 1 Gaddock Teeg, 1 Loaming Shaman, but cards like Thorn of Amethyst and more Gaddock Teegs can be very good depending on the metagame. With some forethought and these lists, you should be able to tailor your Elves deck into exactly what you want for your upcoming PTQs.
I’d be happy to take any questions in the forums or via e-mail at Gavintriesagain at gmail dot com. I think Elves is an incredible choice in the right field and, if you have experience playing it, can recommend it for this weekend’s PTQs. If you’d like to talk about sideboarding at all, or even your maindeck, I’d be happy to help.
Talk to you soon!
Gavin Verhey
Team Unknown Stars
Rabon on Magic Online, Lesurgo everywhere else