my elves

Legacy Elves is not very good. It has bad matchups against some of the best decks, and fairly difficult ones against some of the combo decks. I play it because it's the deck I'm best at, so it gives me better results than anything else. Is it the best deck in a format where people are playing Pernicious Deed, Stoneforge Mystic, and Grim Lavamancer? Of course not, have you READ those cards? Good lord they're incredible.

The rest of this assumes that, for whatever reason, you still want to play Elves and know how the basic deck works (Glimpse draws cards! Elves make mana!).



The following is the agreed-upon foundation of the deck:

>=12 land
X Fyndhorn/Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Regal Force
4 Glimpse of Nature
Y ways to tutor

...with X being >=4 and Y being somewhere from 4-8 of some combination of Green Sun's Zenith, Summoner's Pact, and Living Wish. After this, one needs to decide what the deck should accomplish. The options are basically: combo as fast as possible, or have a better linear beatdown plan, or have a better backup plan, or slow the deck down to be more reliable (well, in theory). Because so many decks have few answers game one against the combo option of the deck, it's my opinion that going for the combo is the best option. Running more aggro creatures or a backup plan is just going to dilute that for fear of cards that will mostly come post-board anyway. The data I collected from my MTGO games backed this up: the game one win percentage of the deck was outrageous, somewhere around 75%. How does one make the combo the best it can be?

4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Llanowar Elves

This is because the most common turn two win is turn one F/L Elf, turn two Glimpse, Quirion, Heritage, continue from there. Because of that, doubling the number of turn one elves will almost double your turn two goldfish wins that happen in this manner.

4 Summoner's Pact

It's the only tutor that helps the above happen; it's the only tutor that doesn't set you behind mana for the privilege of running your combo. If you're trying to win this turn, Pact is better than any non-Glimpse card you can have in your hand (since it can become anything else, silly).

4 Green Sun's Zenith

If the deck never had to play a real opponent, you'd rather have 8 Summoner's Pact. Since we're playing real Magic with both deckbuilding rules and opponents, 4 Green Sun's Zenith is necessary as a card that can set up the next turn, or be a poor mana's Summoner's Pact. It's also ways 5-9 to find Regal Force. The most common usage of the card is finding Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid to win the following turn. Speaking of which:

3 Priest of Titania
3 Elvish Archdruid

Basically, if you untap with one of these and a hand that's at all reasonable, you'll win nearly every time. The three-ofs aren't four because they can clog opening draws something fierce if a hand has more than two; the equal numbers are because mana curves make them equal in quality, but slightly better to have one of each. Usually. Feel free to experiment here, but I'm quite happy with that. Archdruid is fantastic in making your last-ditch aggro plan into a real threat, though; I've won plenty of games just playing my entire hand ending with an Archdruid or two on turn two.

4 Wirewood Symbiote

Oh my god this card is so fucking good. It draws extra cards with Glimpse, it recurs Viridian Shaman and Elvish Archdruid, it lets Quirion Ranger activate multiple times in a turn, it creates even more mana with Nettle Sentinel but most importantly, it's a one-mana dude that people want dead before Priest/Archdruid. That means that you get to untap with those guys, and well, see above.

1 Elvish Visionary

Instead of explaining why it's good, I'll explain why I don't play more: it's a next-turn card in a build that wants to combo faster. Most games don't go long enough against slow enough decks to make Visionary + Symbiote a realistic way to gain card advantage, and Visionary is plain bad at trying to win immediately. The one-of is to tutor up in situations where card advantage is relevant, or last-ditch efforts trying to stop oneself from fizzling. Usually, Symbiote is the better pick.

1 Emrakul

It's the best kill condition because it dodges Moat and basically everything else.

8 green fetchland
5 Forest
1 Bayou
1 Savannah

Fifteen lands. Lots of people cheat and play less; really, it's just costing you games to mulligans for the benefit of less mana flood losses. It's a careful balance but I'm pretty sure fifteen is where the sweet spot lies. One land is still optimal while goldfishing because of Quirion Ranger, but not everything works out perfectly all the time. Elvish Spirit Guides are not lands! Stop cheating.

0 Living Wish

Why Living Wish is worse than Pact: It costs two mana. Seriously, that's the answer. Costing mana is so bad. If you're going to tutor something up, it's almost always to set up a win next turn in which case it's difficult to afford both Wish and the mana to play the creature; or it's to win this turn, and then Wish is just horrid. Why play Emrakul main instead of Wish? That's certainly a reasonable question, and something I've considered. I just don't feel that it's worth the sideboard slot, really.

0 Elvish Spirit Guide

This card's benefit is an illusion. What are you trying to accomplish with it? Make your deck faster? Random one-drop Elves can do that just fine, and aren't dead after turn two like this is. Stop using it to cheat on lands, you're just making control decks fantastic for no real reason.

The complete list:

1 Bayou
5 Forest
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Savannah
4 Verdant Catacombs

3 Elvish Archdruid
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nettle Sentinel
3 Priest of Titania
4 Quirion Ranger
1 Regal Force
4 Wirewood Symbiote

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Summoner's Pact

Sideboard:

3 Buried Alive
3 Vengevine

Backup plan! Basically the best thing you can do against decks that want to kill all your guys. Buried Alive is pretty much an auto-win against those sorts of things if it resolves; Vengevine hardcast isn't nearly as good, but can be fine.

3 Sylvan Library

For when your opponent has basically no way to damage you before turn a million, the deck can negate their one-for-ones.

3 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Qasali Pridemage

Should be self-explanatory. Pridemage might not be needed any more, as I haven't faced too many troublesome enchantments where I can really take the time to tutor it up.

A rigid in/out sideboarding guide would be pointless not just because Legacy has a million decks, but because it wouldn't teach people a thing. Regardless of the specific configuration of the sideboard or the exact list, keep the following concepts in mind:

Against decks with lots of removal (Zoo/BUG/RBW/etc), you want your backup plan. Comboing off isn't very likely post-sideboard, so take out all the Pacts and a couple Priests/Archdruids because they'll hardly ever live a turn, and if they do, you won't have many guys in play. Your goal in the matchup is to win on a combination of beatdown and card advantage, mostly the former against slower decks and the latter against faster ones. Using Glimpse to draw a few cards is wonderful.

Against decks with lots of counterspells but not much removal, the deck doesn't want to change much, since the basic framework does very well at flooding the board with too many Elves for the opponent's Force of Wills to deal with. I usually take out a couple Pacts for tutorable creatures, but it's really important not to go overboard here. It's a good matchup, don't fuck it up by making your deck slow and awkward. Buried Alive is subpar, because they can just counter Buried Alive and Vengevine isn't really as scary as winning the game.

Against other combo decks, sideboard as little as possible. The Visionary is the weakest card, followed by Archdruids. Hope you practiced goldfishing.

Against creature decks without much removal or countermagic, your maindeck is great. Sideboard in a couple one-ofs and Archdruid them to death. Taking out a couple Pacts is probably the best call, just to reduce risk.

If your opponent has creatures, it’s not a bad idea to bring in Viridian Shaman because of Jitte and Canonist.

You might notice how often Pact comes out in some number. This isn’t because it’s a bad card; it’s just a lot better game one than games two and three when the opponent has some chance of stopping you from going off.

On playing the deck: no advise I can give can shortcut the massive amount of goldfishing and playtesting that the deck requires to be capable of winning a match against even the most basic forms of resistance that Legacy will put up. I already wrote an article back in Extended season with tips on playing that version of the deck, and almost all of it holds true now. The biggest changes to the goldfishing tactics come from Quiron Ranger; namely, how it acts like two elves for purposes of making mana. Practice comboing a lot. Set up hands with one or two Summoner’s Pact and try to puzzle them out; if you can’t win turns two or three 80% of the time, you’re not ready to even play the Tournament Practice room on Magic Online. That’s not a judgmental statement, it’s simply the procedure to learn to play the deck. Most players, at first, will rely on Glimpse too heavily. That one-of Regal Force isn’t there as a last-ditch effort; it leads to combo wins almost as often as playing Glimpse does, simply due to the huge amount of mana the deck can make.

On strategy outside of goldfishing, the biggest thing to keep in mind is to know what the next lines of play will be at any one time based on your hand and the matchup, and know what cards you can draw that will change your decisions. For example, if your hand is a bunch of one-mana Elves and a couple of Archdruids on the second turn, for god’s sake play as many as you can, don’t wait around thinking that you’re making the pro decision by holding back and waiting for Glimpse or playing around removal. The proper decision is to go kill your opponent. Remember, if your hand/board is nothing but Elves, you have a way higher chance of drawing a way to get Regal Force than you do of drawing a Glimpse. Play as if you’re not going to get it.

Questions on the deck or anything else? Message me in the comments or on twitter (KillGoldfish). Follow me on twitter even if you have nothing to say.