Obligatory Update – Green/Black Elves

I haven’t updated in a little while but it’s been a busy weekend (mostly playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook and watching the Rap Chop video). I appreciate all the hits I’ve been getting lately. I guess a lot of people are doing the same thing I’m doing right now, scouring the ‘net for tech in the hopes of finding a golden nugget that crushes all. Sadly I don’t think it’s there. Standard will be the same until M10 becomes legal. After that… eh, it probably won’t change significantly. But in the meantime we have to deal with this metagame and the challenges it provides.

The top decks right now seem to be GB Elves, BW Tokens, Faeries, 5c Blood, Jund Aggro, Reveillark, GW Overrun, and BR Aggro. While a lot of folks think that Standard is stagnant and this metagame sucks, that’s eight different deck-types! And that’s not counting any of the other 10-15 decks that you might randomly lose to (hellooooo Swans!).
So the format is very broad, however, where I think the sour taste is coming from is Lorwyn block. That ridiculous block has been around for so long now it feels like Standard’s been the same ever since. I played GB Elves in last year’s regionals and I remember Cato won states the year before that with GB Elves. Now that’s just retarded! I for one can’t wait for Zendikar to give the tribes the boot.

I’m not too thrilled about a Cascade-dominated metagame, though, which is what Standard will become after LRW rotates. Unless Zendikar is stupidly powerful I guess (don’t hold your breath). But, as usual, we’ll have to wait and see.

So I’ve been tweaking GB Elves in the hopes that it can remain a serious contender. I think it really depends on the local metagame and the way the deck draws. I won so many matches in my last PTQ for a few reasons: consistency, topdecking, and opportunity. The consistency showed up simply by playing a 2-color deck with a solid mana-base of just the right number of lands. I typically didn’t draw too many and didn’t draw too few either. I was hardly ever color-screwed and if I was I would draw a land or wayfinder to pull out of it. The topdecking was… well… topdecking. In some games you just have to topdeck to win the match. The only way you can affect this in deckbuilding is to put as many “ooh topdeck!” cards in your deck as possible. Some that come to mind are Profane Command, Chameleon Colossus, Garruk Wildspeaker, and Loxodon Warhammer. Cloudthresher might have been good against Faeries but I actually didn’t play against them all day. As for the opportunities, they pop up all the time. Should I thoughtseize now or hold it? Should I pump Garruk’s counters or make a Beast? Should I overextend or hold back in case of Wrath/Fallout? This deck gives you several options with your permanents, not just your spells (ie Cascade.dec in which your greatest decision is which creature to Bituminous Blast).

Overall I still like the deck because it’s green and black and I’m a fan of all colors that aren’t blue. Here’s the revised decklist I’ve been tweaking:

BG Elves

3 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Mutavault
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
2 Twilight Mire

3 Chameleon Colossus
3 Civic Wayfinder
3 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Putrid Leech
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher

4 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
1 Chameleon Colossus
4 Scattershot Archer
3 Deathmark
3 Guttural Response
1 Hurricane
3 Loxodon Warhammer

As you can see, compared to the old list I’ve upped the Garruks from 2 to 3, the Inversions from 1 to 2, and lowered the Wayfinder/Perfect by 1 apiece. Garruk seems to be very good against Tokens as every token matchup I had was won by Overruning with Garruk. And Nameless Inversion just seems all-around good with it being an Elf Activator for Vanquisher and removal for swans, ramgangs, syggs, etc. Perfect and Wayfinder were my two most boarded-out cards and aside from the occasional Wayfinder getting me out of a mana jam or the occasional Perfect creating a token army, they didn’t show up much. I do like the ability of the Perfect to make tokens, though. That is very good in the mirror and against other aggro decks.

I’m still working out the sideboard, but I am very open to discussion on sideboard options. I think Scattershot archer is probably better than Cloudthresher in 90% of situations. Also, I’ve never successfully used Guttural Response but I assume it’s there for 5c Blood, Faeries, and Reveillark.

I should post some testing experience from MTGO in the next couple of days. I usually use the 8-man constructed queues to test because the casual and tournament practice rooms are just too unreliable. I mean last night I went into the tournament practice room to test out the RG Elves deck and I was playing against all kinds of random crap. And I mean RANDOM. Seriously, new players, if you don’t have a serious tournament-worthy Standard deck, stay out of the tournament practice room. The casual play room is where you want to be.

I’m Two_Towers on MTGO if you want to meet up for some testing, and I’m on Eastern Standard time. I’m almost always looking to test against good players so send me a PM!

~ by Doug on June 22, 2009.