As far as Standard goes, it’s been an interesting week.
The original plan this week was to unveil the Destructive Force deck I hinted at in my last article. It was beating everything! How could I not want to display all the latest in deck technology?
Turns out, that’s what everyone else thought too.
Not only was the first Destructive Force deck I was going to talk about more or less the same as the ones now happily frolicking around the internet, but my second Destructive Force deck — a U/R land destruction deck — couldn’t beat the first Destructive Force deck due to its mana ramp.
Oops.
I started building new strategies to counteract the ones centered around Primeval Titan, but I started on Tuesday and neither of the two decks I’ve grown a liking toward are refined enough to write about, and I make it a point to only write about decks I would personally be happy playing in a tournament. I’d tell you what they are and promise to show them off next week, but, um, yeah. (Okay, I’ll give you a hint — one contains four copies of a recently artifact released in the past two sets and the other contains four copies of a five mana instant — see if you can guess what they are in the forums.)
Fortunately, Standard isn’t all I’ve been doing lately.
Though my hopes of going to Amsterdam have unfortunately been dashed like a semi-colon in an undergraduate essay, Extended is always a format I have always enjoyed. Eager to see what the new rotation would be like and to help my qualified friends playtest, I began work on a deck which has an incredible amount of potentiality and pseudo-survives the rotation: Elves.
When we left off last Extended Season, the deck had varying amounts of success. Some weeks it seemed unstoppable, and others the hate was primed for it. Fortunately, some of the most problematic pieces of the format for you are now gone. Cards like Engineered Explosives and Chalice of the Void no longer exist. The beatdown decks slow down. A lot of the fast combos that could beat you no longer exist.
Of course, the rotation has made its fair mark on the Elves deck as well. You lose both Glimpse of Nature and Cloudstone Curio, making your kill turn change by about two turns. You lose dual lands, which make it harder to splash. You lose Jitte out of the sideboard. That could seem like too much a loss to bear.
However, while your kill turn is slower and you have lost a few options, the same is true for most other decks. One of the largest arguments against Elves right now has nothing to do with what Elves lost, but rather how the format changed. Namely, how Faeries, Punishing Fire deck, U/W control, and Living End seem to be at the top of the format — each of which seem dubious matchups for Elves at best.
The good news is: that’s just what you want them to think. But more on that later.
Jesse Mason — my Elves cohort from last season — and I are in cahoots again for Elves this season, and we’ve worked through a lot of changes. It’s a lot like old Standard combo Elves, only we gain access to Summoner’s Pact, which is a gigantic boon. Before I present our decklist, a few words on how it has changed since last season. Aside from the obvious banned cards being removed, there have been a few other important modifications.
First up, Essence Warden has been removed entirely. Last season, the Warden was a major player. It kept your life up against Zoo, put you above 20 against Dark Depths to buy you a turn, and, most importantly, allowed you to very easily gain infinite life with Cloudstone Curio and Heritage Druid. This year, none of those situations are really a factor. Yes, it is good in certain situations and against red burn, but, in general, you don’t consistently want it over other cards you could be playing.
Second, you will notice more expensive cards. No, don’t worry, Jace isn’t in Elves now. What I actually mean is Regal Force, Ranger of Eos, and Primal Command take up 11 slots in the deck. The reason is you are no longer a combo deck that uses Glimpse to cycle through cheap cards. Instead, your higher end cards are your form of gas. The deck combos out in a fashion similar to Standard, which involves playing Primal Command over and over while casting Regal Forces and Rangers. In addition to the draw spells, the maximum number of Primal Commands are necessary as they serve as both your kill condition and a good tutor. Plus, if you just run a Primal Command out on turn 3 it can seriously stunt your opponent’s growth fallow your opponent’s earth.
Finally, you don’t really need Viridian Shaman like you once did because there just aren’t enough artifacts you really need to blow up. There’s no Jitte or Chalice; Explosives or Moxen out there to concern you. If Ethersworn Canonist becomes popular I could see sideboarding one, but until them I’m not worried.
Before I end up discussing the whole decklist prior to just showing it to you, I should give you a better idea of what I’m talking about.
Creatures (33)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Heritage Druid
- 4 Nettle Sentinel
- 3 Regal Force
- 4 Ranger of Eos
- 4 Elvish Visionary
- 4 Elvish Archdruid
- 2 Joraga Warcaller
- 4 Joraga Treespeaker
Lands (19)
Spells (8)
For those who aren’t familiar with how this deck works, allow me to give you a short explanation. Unlike previous iterations of this deck in Extended, this kill is a lot more straightforward. You use Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel to generate a lot of mana, but then, instead of using something like Glimpse of Nature, you will do something like cast Regal Force, play some Elves, Primal Command, Play some Elves, and then Primal Command them again. It depends on how your draws are, but you could end up doing anything from playing Regal Force and saying go, then casting a pair of Primal Commands next turn on one end of the spectrum, or, on the other end, you could Primal Command your opponent 4+ times in the same turn. It’s all in the timing.
Let’s start with the lands.
The manabase is pretty straightforward, but there are a few things to note. First off, the fetchands are absent. Not only are there no dual lands to find, but the thinning is less important when you aren’t looking for every edge to go off when casting Glimpse for Nature and instead drawing huge chunks of cards with Regal Force. Second, the White splash for Ranger of Eos and a few sideboard options is necessary, and these are the best lands for the job. I tried both Wooded Bastion and Sunpetal Grove, but the problem is neither comes into play untapped on turn one for your first turn elf which is unacceptable. Without fetchlands, I feel okay about taking the pain from Brushland.
There are a few other options, but this is how I like the mana right now. Jesse likes a basic Plains to search for to make sure you can cast Ranger in attrition matchups when they Path you, but the problem is if you ever draw the basic Plains you, more or less, want to hop in your DeLorean, time travel back to the wild west, insult some bearded guy in a bar, and then purposely lose a quick draw gun fight at 20 paces just to shake the feeling of drawing that Plains. It’s that bad.
As far as creatures go, you have the expected Elves of the Llanowar, Archdruid, Nettle, Heritage, and Visionary variety. There are a few other elves that fit in the other slots though, and I’d like to go over those.
Joraga Treespeaker is a little worse than Arbor Elf — if everything goes right. The problem is, unlike last year where you had just a Pendelhaven and a few Horizon Canopies as non-Forests, you have nine in your arsenal this time around. That puts the chances of drawing an Arbor Elf and a non-forest at way too high for me to consider running the French-speaking elf. If you thought what happened when you drew that basic Plains was bad, just wait until you draw an Arbor Elf and a hand of non-Forests.
On the other hand, the tree whisperer has his upsides. While he can’t deploy a second turn Archdruid, he can ramp you scarily fast. Turn 1 Treespeaker, turn 2 level, Heritage Druid, one-drop elf is a frightening start that can but you on track for a third turn Regal Force. Also, don’t underestimate the Treespeakers ultimate level. I have done it in a few games, and, well, I’ll let your imagination run wild with visions of Nettle Sentinels that tap for two Green mana.
Next, you have four Ranger and three Regal Force. As mentioned earlier, the high numbers are important. While you do board some out in a couple matchups, you want them in general to be able to combo out as often as possible in the first game.
Finally, I’ve found you go aggressive a lot this year, since part of the time your “combo” turn becomes playing Regal Force, casting a few elves, and saying go. Warcaller just gives you more lords, and allows you to overpower through any creatures they might have.
The spells are mostly self explanatory. I’ve seen a few other lists which have played fewer than four Pacts. While yes, some of them do come out in a couple matchups, they are crucial on the whole and are especially good game one when you’re more in combo mode than grind mode.
A lot of people think they have a solid Elves matchup, but they really underestimate how explosive this deck can be. The sideboard helps a lot too, as we have some elegant answers that really mess with their game plan.
Take, for instance, Tajuru Preserver. He might deserve a double take. You might know what he does… But in Extended? Why? Well, it turns out Living End is a sacrifice effect. As long as you have this 2/1, it’s pretty hard for Living End to get rolling because, not only is your board immune, but you still get all the creatures in your graveyard back. Sure, they have Shriekmaws and such to deal with him, but if they have to Shriekmaw your Preserver that just leaves the rest of the deck at the ready to doing its thing. Plus, the Preserver is even an Elf!
Vengevine is another great solution. The control decks — especially Faeries — are hard pressed to deal with a 4/3 haste that comes back. It’s very easy to rebuy in this deck, and it’s also very easy to chain multiples with Primal Command and Summoner’s Pact on your side.
Dauntless Escort is a neat addition for the control decks, and the rest of the cards are just bullets for particular matchups. Here is a guide to some of them, but Extended is still fleshing itself out so keep in mind you could really face any build of anything and you should plan accordingly.
Mono Red Burn
+1 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
-1 Joraga Warcaller
If you want to sideboard more cards for red you can, but it’s a pretty favorable matchup anyway — especially now that you have the full set of Primal Commands. You can board some Nissa Revanes or even more Forge-Tenders if you want to. However, basically they can’t afford to kill your early guys, but they kind of have to. You just stretch their resources so thin and recoup card advantage on them that it’s pretty easy to swarm then unhindered. Watch out for cards like Volcanic Fallout after sideboarding, though!
Living End
+4 Tajuru Preserver
-2 Regal Force, -2 Summoner’s Pact
Game one can be rough if you aren’t sure how to play around Living End. The trick is to force them to Living End once early, then unleash a second wave of creatures the next turn. They can’t ever really Living End again, because you bringing back Ranger of Eos and a handful of Elves is so bad for them. Game one is even better than last year precisely because there is so much card advantage around on your side and the full set of Primal Commands.
After boarding, they get some removal, but you get Preserver which warps the game around it. Because you want to protect your Preservers, you want to be pretty aggressive after boarding which is why some Forces go out. It’s a little counterintuitive to take out Pacts when you want to find a particular creature, but at four mana and the risk of skipping your next turn it’s not really worth it.
Faeries
+4 Vengevine, +2 Cloudthresher, +1 Oversoul of Dusk
-2 Primal Command, -2 Summoner’s Pact, -2 Elvish Archdruid -1 Regal Force
As usual with Faeries, buckle yourself in and get ready to grind like you’re in a Lindsey Lohan music video. You don’t have Jitte this year, but fortunately Vengevine helps the matchup out a lot. They can Clique it away, but they don’t have many good answers otherwise. Apply a lot of pressure and don’t ever give them the time they need to string together some lethal plays. Remember, it just takes one turn of you doing nothing for the Faeries to swing the game toward themselves.
U/W
+4 Vengevine, +3 Dauntless Escort
-3 Joraga Treespeaker, -2 Joraga Warcaller, -2 Summoner’s Pact
U/W seems almost tailor-made to beat us, and, to be honest, I think it’s a harder matchup than Faeries. You have to play a longer game and rely on card advantage most of the time, but it’s hard to win that way because that is precisely what they want you to do. Dauntless Escort and Vengevine can help, but they do have Paths for both.
Treespeaker isn’t bad in this matchup because he ramps you up to your card advantage spells fast, but rather, you don’t want to use him early on to play a bunch of Elves because you’re going to end up with none when they Wrath you a turn later. You need to play more carefully than the Treespeaker wants you to be.
Merfolk
+1 Oversoul of Dusk
-1 Joraga Warcaller
Merfolk is a deck that has started to pick up online. So far I seem advantaged against it, but it’s too early to tell. If this starts to become more popular, I could see sideboarding even more cards for them.
RUG
+4 Vengevine, +1 Oversoul of Dusk
-4 Joraga Treespeaker, -1 Elvish Archdruid
The Punishing Fire deck is no doubt frustrating to play against, but fortunately while they’re busy rebuying Fires you can command a Vengevine start. This matchup is way better than it looks on paper, and your long game is surprisingly solid.
Hopefully this helps you foray into Extended. The Daily Events are starting to fire online, and before you know it, we’ll have a thriving world of Extended decks to work with. Now is the time to get in on the format if you can and help shape the future of the format — and the Pro Tour. Elves is even pretty cheap to build.
If you have any questions about the deck, post in the forums or send me an e-mail at Gavintriesagain at gmail dot com. I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. Hopefully I’ll talk to you soon!
Gavin Verhey
Rabon on Magic Online, Lesurgo everywhere else