Creature Challenge #7 Elves

by Jessie on 05 May 2014

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (0 cards)

No sideboard found.

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Deck Description

Deck # 7 in Creature Challenge. Elves.

I had several choices here. Last time I built an Elf deck was when Rofellos was still Standard. Choice #1 was using stuff like Rofellos and Elvish Piper to draw out huge creatures. Choice #2 was to run Tribal (something new and unknown to me...something about being cheap and using a bunch of tokens). And Choice #3...since Elves just can't seem to get enough of mana ramp...why not combo them up with x damage/gain life cards? So that is what I picked.

Idea is to gain vast amounts of Mana to cast a Hurricane or Squall Line, to kill your opponent. Since Hurricane and Squall Line deal damage to yourself too...I have Life gaining cards in the deck, too.

Tell me what you think. How do Elves compare with Humans? Or Beasts? Can they take Angels? Vampires or Merfolk? Follow the Creature Challenge to find out!

How to Play

Idea is to by Turn 5 or 6 to have 20 to 30 mana to cast a Hurricane or Squall Line on your opponent.

To have 20 something mana by Turn 5, you better have some of the best mana ramp creatures in Magic. Welcome Priest of Titania and Rofellos. Go check out what they do. Awesome right? Both of them, with a good draw, will be giving you 4 or 5 mana each by Turn 4 or 5! You have 4 Elves in play, then Tap Titania to add 4 mana. Have 4 Forest in play, then Rofellos gives you 4 mana.

What is going to protect all of your elves long enough for you to gather the small army necessary to mana ramp over 20 mana? Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. He provides all or your Elves shroud. Nice. He makes all of your Elves very difficult to kill.

So, notice how the win cards in this deck kill both you and your opponent? Hurricane and Squall Line deal x damage to me and my opponent. If we both have 20 life, we both lose. So I need to have more life than my opponent when I cast a Hurricane. Here is where Wellwisher and Steam of Life comes into play. Wellwisher gives me 1 life for each Elf in play. So, 4 Elves, I tap Wellwisher and i gain 4 life. Two Wellwishers in the game, and I gain 8 life! Stream of Life, is simple, a x spell. Gain 1 life for each mana I spent to cast the spell. With huge amounts of extra mana available every turn, Steam of Life can give an extreme boost of life.

What happens with all of my mana, when i cast everything in my hand and start top decking? Here comes Sylvan Messenger. Cast him onto the battlefield, now draw 4 cards, and keep any of those 4 cards that happen to be Elves. He provides speed, cards in your hand, and extra Elves to be able to cast, considering all of your mana.

Naturalize/Fog. These two cards should probably be in the sideboard, but i want to make this deck be able to survive if my 1 win condition doesn't seem to be working out. Naturalize is for artifact and enchantment hate. There are many artifacts/enchantments in Magic that could absolutely stop this deck in it's tracks, so cast Naturalize to nuke their threats. Fog is genius. I love it. Old school Magic, for you. Here comes a Goblin deck, attacking with everything they have on Turn 5. Coming at you with 38 damn damage!!! Surely it is game over for you, right? Nope, simply cast Fog for one single mana, and all of a sudden, 38 damage is erased, your opponent looks like an idiot, and is completely open your turn.

Running 1 Gaea's Cradle...any more seemed mean. The card is broken, or should be.

Finally, Vitalize and Quirion Ranger. A Magic card is ranked 1 out of 5 stars, right? 1 star card sucks, and Ancestral Recall/Black Lotus do not even rank 5 out of 5 stars. Anyways, if you add Vitalize and Quirion Rangers score...you get an amazing. 8.9 out of 10 stars. What makes them game changers?

Vitalize, for 1 mana you untap all of your creatures. Sounds okay, but not great, right? Well, consider this example with Vitalize: You just tapped Priest of Titania for 4 mana, and tapped Wellwisher for 4 life, and just tapped Rofellos for 4 mana. They are all tapped. You have 8 mana and gained 4 life. Now, BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE, use 1 of those 8 mana (you now have 7 mana left) to use Vitalize. Now Titania is untapped, Wellwisher is untapped, and Rofellos is untapped. Guess what you get to do now? Retap Priest of Titania for 4 more mana. Tap Wellwisher for 4 more life. And Tap Rofellos for 4 more mana. So...to sum it up, you went from having 8 mana and 4 life to having 15 mana and 8 life, all for ONE MANA!!!

Quirion Ranger. This card, at first, looks like a crappy card. This card is what separates long time Magic players with Noobs. A noob sees this card, thinks it sucks, and gives it away. Quirion Ranger is rated a 4.5 out of 5 stars (just like Priest of Titania and Rofellos) for a reason. This is what she does, return 1 forest to my hand and untap one creature. Again, lame right? Consider 1 more example for me. Let's say it is Turn 5. I have Priest of Titania on the field, and 4 other Elves on the field too. So I tap Priest of Titania to add 5 mana to my mana pool. I return 1 forest to my hand through Ranger, and now I untap Titania. Guess what, she retaps again for 5 more mana!!! So, for 1 tapped forest I just got 5 mana!!!

Hurricane/Squall Line. These are my win cards. Do x damage to each player and each creature without flying. I am more interested in the x damage to my opponent part. All the silly Elves tapping and untapping are meant for these 2 cards.

Deck Tags

  • Challenge
  • Elves
  • Mono Green
  • Mana Ramp

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

3
Likes

This deck has been viewed 1,853 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

300053

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Not Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Creature Challenge #7 Elves

may i suggest 2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader for a back up plan?..

1
Posted 07 May 2014 at 12:55

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Yes, you may. And I added him, and liked your comment. Thanks.

Any decks you need help out?

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Posted 07 May 2014 at 17:37

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Stream of Life is horrible! At the very least, replace that with Taste of Paradise ... but in this deck it should probably be Oracle of Nectars instead.

Then again, I am not sure if you need lifegain at all. You want to kill with big X-Spells and don't want to die yourself ... enter Glacial Chasm. Solves other problems, too, like opposing hordes of attackers that you can't afford to block because then you would lose valuable mana.

Fog. There are some dozens of spin-offs of this card, you have lots of mana in this deck and you chose the plain old vanilla one? Respite grants life, Constant Mists and Moment's Peace can be used more than once and my favourite is Spore Cloud, both for the old-school-ness factor and because it buys you two turns.

You could also consider Bubble Matrix since you plan to win via X-spells and not by attacking. This would protect your creatures from destruction as well as turn them into formidable blockers. But, you probably won't need the latter if you pick the right Fogs and include Glacial Chasms. Protecting your creatures, otoh, is key, because this deck will do nothing if creatures are swiped. Of course, adding stuff like Bubble Matrix somewhat dillutes the deck, but personally, I don't like all-or-nothing decks, first, because I feel uncomfortable with them, secondly, because they rarely result into fun games - they usually end quick one way or the other.

Won't comment on the creature mix, though, too much math involved to find the right mix of mana rampers :P

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Posted 09 May 2014 at 22:08

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Put in Oracle of Nectars, for sure. Glacial Chasm scares me...don't have nerves enough to play it. Constant Mist, absolutely, considering all of the mana that I have coming from my creatures, I can afford to sac a land.

Awesome suggestions!!! I hate to ask, Puschkin, but can you do the same for my other Creature Challenge Decks?

I am having a tourney between the Creature Challenge Decks. To see which creature type is the best. Or sort of. Mainly have time on my hands. Check any of them out (the creature types that you may be familiar with) and see if you see any cards that you would add/take out.

I think you just gave the Elf deck a better fighting chance.

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Posted 09 May 2014 at 23:53

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What scares you about Glacial Chasm? The life payment is actually an upkeep cost and that means optional. You can always decide to not pay it and let the Glacial Chasm die. You can drop it the turn you cast Hurricane and sacrifice it next upkeep, never paying a single life, just a land, and attack again if needed.

I'll have a look at the others when I find the time. Should they be away of each other? Or should I tweak them individually and try to not metagame?

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Posted 10 May 2014 at 09:46

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Not sure...i mean, they are all going to be playing against each other. Any suggestions would rock!

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Posted 10 May 2014 at 16:11

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I don't know, but maybe Drove of Elves and/or Heedless One?
Imperious Perfect wouldn't be bad either...

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Posted 10 May 2014 at 12:16

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jagged scar archers is a nice 1 elvish archdruid might be good to

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Posted 16 May 2014 at 04:22

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Wow...did not expect this. Elves vs. Goblins. Goblins built up a massive army on Turn 4 and 5....but it was Elves that came out in front via 2 back to back squalls, 5th and 6th turn. Elves let Lacky attack unblocked for 3 turns while they built up their Elf count...taking massive damage with Krenko and Wizards, getting down to 3 life before they dealt a 10 damage Squall to the Goblin deck. In all rights, after the 6th turn, Goblin deck had Elf deck, but thankfully for the Elves...it didn't go to Turn 7.

Elves vs Goblins
Turn 6
Elves 3 life and Goblins 0
Elves 1-0
Goblins 0-1

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Posted 22 May 2014 at 20:45

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Now think how much a Glacial Chasm would have made that an easy win for Elf-Deck :)
Not only that, if the Squall Lin would have been a Hurricane, they would have lost.

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Posted 22 May 2014 at 21:01

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Okay. Okay. :)

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Posted 22 May 2014 at 22:26

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