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The Lighter Side - Elves
Posted Mon - November 12, 2007 by Jonathan Mark Te
Categories » Magic: the Gathering
The Lighter Side
"Oh my!"
These are famous first words from a budding new writer. That's me.
Actually, the famous first words were my reaction to Billy/blasyrk's PM inviting me to write for a column that would talk about multiplayer/casual gaming in Magic. With no prior experience in writing other than 2 previous articles in the Neutral Grounds website and my own blog, I thought a weekly column would be kind of a giant leap forward. Well, better to be leaping forward rather than backward.
I was also concerned with my deckbuilding abilities as I have never had a major Magic tournament title connected to my name. Of course, I have numerous deck ideas (who doesn't?). But considering that there's no regular Standard tournament here in our area (I play in Cebu City that's 4 hours road trip from Dumaguete City) and I don't get to playtest any deck, I was hesitant to be writing about decks because they would probably just turn out to be weird and unsuccessful ideas. But since I'll be writing about casual Magic play, my column wouldn't need to be publishing decks (or deck ideas) as competitive as the decks that are in Mike Flores' column. The decks will probably be in the range of Ben Bleweiss and Chris Millar and I could go as weird as I want to be. I also wanted to give a little bit of focus on Magic art a la Matt Cavotta so Billy proposed that my column would be on the "lighter side" of Magic.
Okay, I'm Ready!
But allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Jonathan Mark Te. I'm a computer instructor at Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. I'm a Magic player and I learned to play the game in 1996 just before Mirage ushered a new kind of fantasy environment for MTG players. I semi-retired around 1998 when Urza's Saga came out and Tolarian Academy spurned turn one wins. After joining a Standard tournament that year, I found out my green-white beats could no longer match up with the rest of the decks available. Basically, I (and my deck) refused to improve and adjust to the metagame.
Fast forward to Fifth Dawn (pity me, I forgot the year). I sponsored one of my students to join a prerelease in Cebu City and before I knew it, I was back in the game. A couple of Inquest magazines helped me give a view of what Magic had become ever since I semi-retired. I joined subsequent prereleases and that was that.
So, with that in mind, I can relax a bit and not worry about the performance of my deck ideas. Mind you, the decks are concocted with the thought of them being casual or fun decks (with certain themes in mind) but with the mindset that these decks can possibly be improved or even used immediately in a Standard tournament (maybe with an eye on the metagame or not). I am, of course, always leaning towards using such decks in Cebu FNM tournaments as long as I get to complete the deck and my schedule permits me for such a travel. If ever I do, I'll try as much as I can to post its performance, be it disastrous or successful.
Though Block Constructed decks are probably the easiest to make, Standard Constructed decks are currently on top of my head. I still have lots of Standard Constructed ideas and I hope to get them all into fruition in the next weeks to come.
I also find it challenging trying to break a certain crap rare. Is break the proper term for now? Hmmm! Okay, maybe not break. I'll restate that: I also find it challenging creating a deck that utilizes a certain crap rare. That's more like it. Maybe once I can rack up my brains in putting these other deck ideas together, I'll be posting the decks soon.
It's kind of hard to move out of Block or Standard. Extended is currently a scary territory to explore though I've had my share in playing in one tournament in Cebu (right before X Edition Game Day). And I definitely won't delve into Legacy and Vintage. The only deck that I have that's (as I presume is) Vintage worthy does this:
Turn 1: Forest, tap, play Llanowar Elves
Turn 2: Tap Forest, play Rancor on Llanowar Elves, attack. Yay, 3 damage!
It's a Rancored Elf. Ey, this reminds me of MTGSalvation!
Elves in Standard
Speaking of Elves, it's time for me to start discussing about actual decks. The first deck on the plate utilizes the Lorwn elves. Lorwyn features a whole new batch of elves and they're killer elves at that. These elves conjure up memories of the Ravnica black-green (Golgari tribe) elves somewhat death-related elves.
Thus, the first Tribal themed deck I thought up for Lorwyn focuses on the elves. The decision is slightly biased since the Elf deck is the first preconstructed deck that I looked at the MTG website. I did get to look at the Kithkins but I was too lazy to think more in using its cuteness. So, elves it is.
Without further ado, the decklist:
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Waste
2 Swamp
11 Forest
2 Treetop Village
23 lands
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 Elvish Harbinger
4 Elvish Champion
4 Imperious Perfect
20 creatures
3 Terror
2 Prowess of the Fair
4 Harmonize
3 Elvish Promenade
3 Damnation
2 Overrun
17 other spells
Sideboard:
3 Viridian Shaman
1 Prowess of the Fair
4 Gaea's Herald
4 Eyes of the Wisent
3 Krosan Grip
A quick run-through of the deck and its construction:
- Lots of elves. Not just the 20 creatures (yes, they're all elves) but also the 2 Prowess of the Fair and the 3 Elvish Promenade. It seems that, in reality, there really are only 20 creatures in the deck. Looks numerous enough at first glance. Elvish Promenade helps in doubling the number of elves while Prowess of the Fair gets back one elf to play whenever an elf goes into the graveyard.
- Funny that the biggest of the 5 different creatures is the 2 casting cost Wren's Run Vanquisher at 3/3. I think it is one wicked card. The Deathtouch ability is just not fair for a 3/3 body at 2 casting cost.
- Speaking of Wren's Run Vanquisher being the biggest of the creatures, there are 2 other creatures that help make the other elves bigger: Elvish Champion and Imperious Perfect. They both add +1/+1 to your other elves. And if, unfortunately, these elf pumpers are hard to find, there's always the same mana costing Elvish Harbinger (read below).
- Elvish Harbinger is one of the keys to the deck. Elf tutoring will be crucial as it could help to make or break the outcome of the game. Ideally, with a Damnation in hand, a Prowess of the Fair could be searched. Prowess of the Fair makes Damnation a one-sided wipeout of creatures. In case of an Overrun already in hand, an Elvish Promenade will be the ideal Elf card to be searched. Double the elves already in play. Next turn, play Overrun and swing for a lot!
- 3 Terror? Oh, just in case there's a Tarmogoyf that you just can't get rid of. And there's Gaddock Teeg, the pesky Kithkin that's bound to stop more than half of the non-creature spells in the deck. Like I said, this is a fun deck with major designs on becoming a serious tournament-worthy deck.
And here are some initial flaws seen of the deck:
- I'm puzzled whether the 20 creatures would be enough to try and make a dent on the opponent. This deck might just yield to a faster and more efficient red deck.
- It's really not a cheap deck. Damnation is expensive and so are the Lorwyn "dual-lands". The consolation is that they can easily be replaced. Damnation can be replaced by Stonewood Invocation and the deck will still curve nicely. Removing Damnation might make Prowess of the Fair look useless so a replacement might be needed. The Gilt-Leaf Palace can be replaced by basic lands. No painlands also? Put in more basic lands! But an inclusion of Terramorphic Expanse might be needed to help in the color fixing. In any case, going mono-green might not hurt also.
- No real "Ooomph!"Â out of the gun. No big fatty and not even a Tarmogoyf (it's green and there's no Tarmogoyf). Overrun will provide the fatties and that's that.
- No remedy against flying creatures. It's going to be, your flying creature/s against all my landlubbers. What's it going to be?
Anybody out there who's got another nifty design on elves? Feel free to post at the forums! Comments, criticisms, and remarks are welcome. Just keep it clean.
Non-Magic Thoughts of the Week
Each week, I'll add some of my non-Magic thoughts to break the monotony. And for this week, it's all about Christmas! Yahoo! Too early? Not for me, because it's already the "ber-months".
I posted a similar topic at the NG forums (http://www.neutralgrounds.net/forums/index.php?topic=5526.0). It's all about putting in your (near impossible) Christmas wish list. Here's a listing of mine:
1. Luminox automatic watch
2. Nokia E90 Communicator
3. Nike Free
4. Obra ni Juan
5. Michael Chabon's Kavalier & Clay
Post yours! God help us all for being such materialistic fools. It's all in the spirit of selfishness during Christmas.
And that's it for me this week. I'm tapping out.
"Oh my!"
These are famous first words from a budding new writer. That's me.
Actually, the famous first words were my reaction to Billy/blasyrk's PM inviting me to write for a column that would talk about multiplayer/casual gaming in Magic. With no prior experience in writing other than 2 previous articles in the Neutral Grounds website and my own blog, I thought a weekly column would be kind of a giant leap forward. Well, better to be leaping forward rather than backward.
I was also concerned with my deckbuilding abilities as I have never had a major Magic tournament title connected to my name. Of course, I have numerous deck ideas (who doesn't?). But considering that there's no regular Standard tournament here in our area (I play in Cebu City that's 4 hours road trip from Dumaguete City) and I don't get to playtest any deck, I was hesitant to be writing about decks because they would probably just turn out to be weird and unsuccessful ideas. But since I'll be writing about casual Magic play, my column wouldn't need to be publishing decks (or deck ideas) as competitive as the decks that are in Mike Flores' column. The decks will probably be in the range of Ben Bleweiss and Chris Millar and I could go as weird as I want to be. I also wanted to give a little bit of focus on Magic art a la Matt Cavotta so Billy proposed that my column would be on the "lighter side" of Magic.
Okay, I'm Ready!
But allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Jonathan Mark Te. I'm a computer instructor at Silliman University, Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. I'm a Magic player and I learned to play the game in 1996 just before Mirage ushered a new kind of fantasy environment for MTG players. I semi-retired around 1998 when Urza's Saga came out and Tolarian Academy spurned turn one wins. After joining a Standard tournament that year, I found out my green-white beats could no longer match up with the rest of the decks available. Basically, I (and my deck) refused to improve and adjust to the metagame.
Fast forward to Fifth Dawn (pity me, I forgot the year). I sponsored one of my students to join a prerelease in Cebu City and before I knew it, I was back in the game. A couple of Inquest magazines helped me give a view of what Magic had become ever since I semi-retired. I joined subsequent prereleases and that was that.
So, with that in mind, I can relax a bit and not worry about the performance of my deck ideas. Mind you, the decks are concocted with the thought of them being casual or fun decks (with certain themes in mind) but with the mindset that these decks can possibly be improved or even used immediately in a Standard tournament (maybe with an eye on the metagame or not). I am, of course, always leaning towards using such decks in Cebu FNM tournaments as long as I get to complete the deck and my schedule permits me for such a travel. If ever I do, I'll try as much as I can to post its performance, be it disastrous or successful.
Though Block Constructed decks are probably the easiest to make, Standard Constructed decks are currently on top of my head. I still have lots of Standard Constructed ideas and I hope to get them all into fruition in the next weeks to come.
I also find it challenging trying to break a certain crap rare. Is break the proper term for now? Hmmm! Okay, maybe not break. I'll restate that: I also find it challenging creating a deck that utilizes a certain crap rare. That's more like it. Maybe once I can rack up my brains in putting these other deck ideas together, I'll be posting the decks soon.
It's kind of hard to move out of Block or Standard. Extended is currently a scary territory to explore though I've had my share in playing in one tournament in Cebu (right before X Edition Game Day). And I definitely won't delve into Legacy and Vintage. The only deck that I have that's (as I presume is) Vintage worthy does this:
Turn 1: Forest, tap, play Llanowar Elves
Turn 2: Tap Forest, play Rancor on Llanowar Elves, attack. Yay, 3 damage!
It's a Rancored Elf. Ey, this reminds me of MTGSalvation!
Elves in Standard
Speaking of Elves, it's time for me to start discussing about actual decks. The first deck on the plate utilizes the Lorwn elves. Lorwyn features a whole new batch of elves and they're killer elves at that. These elves conjure up memories of the Ravnica black-green (Golgari tribe) elves somewhat death-related elves.
Thus, the first Tribal themed deck I thought up for Lorwyn focuses on the elves. The decision is slightly biased since the Elf deck is the first preconstructed deck that I looked at the MTG website. I did get to look at the Kithkins but I was too lazy to think more in using its cuteness. So, elves it is.
Without further ado, the decklist:
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Waste
2 Swamp
11 Forest
2 Treetop Village
23 lands
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 Elvish Harbinger
4 Elvish Champion
4 Imperious Perfect
20 creatures
3 Terror
2 Prowess of the Fair
4 Harmonize
3 Elvish Promenade
3 Damnation
2 Overrun
17 other spells
Sideboard:
3 Viridian Shaman
1 Prowess of the Fair
4 Gaea's Herald
4 Eyes of the Wisent
3 Krosan Grip
A quick run-through of the deck and its construction:
- Lots of elves. Not just the 20 creatures (yes, they're all elves) but also the 2 Prowess of the Fair and the 3 Elvish Promenade. It seems that, in reality, there really are only 20 creatures in the deck. Looks numerous enough at first glance. Elvish Promenade helps in doubling the number of elves while Prowess of the Fair gets back one elf to play whenever an elf goes into the graveyard.
- Funny that the biggest of the 5 different creatures is the 2 casting cost Wren's Run Vanquisher at 3/3. I think it is one wicked card. The Deathtouch ability is just not fair for a 3/3 body at 2 casting cost.
- Speaking of Wren's Run Vanquisher being the biggest of the creatures, there are 2 other creatures that help make the other elves bigger: Elvish Champion and Imperious Perfect. They both add +1/+1 to your other elves. And if, unfortunately, these elf pumpers are hard to find, there's always the same mana costing Elvish Harbinger (read below).
- Elvish Harbinger is one of the keys to the deck. Elf tutoring will be crucial as it could help to make or break the outcome of the game. Ideally, with a Damnation in hand, a Prowess of the Fair could be searched. Prowess of the Fair makes Damnation a one-sided wipeout of creatures. In case of an Overrun already in hand, an Elvish Promenade will be the ideal Elf card to be searched. Double the elves already in play. Next turn, play Overrun and swing for a lot!
- 3 Terror? Oh, just in case there's a Tarmogoyf that you just can't get rid of. And there's Gaddock Teeg, the pesky Kithkin that's bound to stop more than half of the non-creature spells in the deck. Like I said, this is a fun deck with major designs on becoming a serious tournament-worthy deck.
And here are some initial flaws seen of the deck:
- I'm puzzled whether the 20 creatures would be enough to try and make a dent on the opponent. This deck might just yield to a faster and more efficient red deck.
- It's really not a cheap deck. Damnation is expensive and so are the Lorwyn "dual-lands". The consolation is that they can easily be replaced. Damnation can be replaced by Stonewood Invocation and the deck will still curve nicely. Removing Damnation might make Prowess of the Fair look useless so a replacement might be needed. The Gilt-Leaf Palace can be replaced by basic lands. No painlands also? Put in more basic lands! But an inclusion of Terramorphic Expanse might be needed to help in the color fixing. In any case, going mono-green might not hurt also.
- No real "Ooomph!"Â out of the gun. No big fatty and not even a Tarmogoyf (it's green and there's no Tarmogoyf). Overrun will provide the fatties and that's that.
- No remedy against flying creatures. It's going to be, your flying creature/s against all my landlubbers. What's it going to be?
Anybody out there who's got another nifty design on elves? Feel free to post at the forums! Comments, criticisms, and remarks are welcome. Just keep it clean.
Non-Magic Thoughts of the Week
Each week, I'll add some of my non-Magic thoughts to break the monotony. And for this week, it's all about Christmas! Yahoo! Too early? Not for me, because it's already the "ber-months".
I posted a similar topic at the NG forums (http://www.neutralgrounds.net/forums/index.php?topic=5526.0). It's all about putting in your (near impossible) Christmas wish list. Here's a listing of mine:
1. Luminox automatic watch
2. Nokia E90 Communicator
3. Nike Free
4. Obra ni Juan
5. Michael Chabon's Kavalier & Clay
Post yours! God help us all for being such materialistic fools. It's all in the spirit of selfishness during Christmas.
And that's it for me this week. I'm tapping out.
