Last week was rough. While piloting GB Elves through a Modern Competitive League on MTGO I went 1-4 in matches and 6-8 in games. My losses were to two UR Storm decks, Krark-Clan Ironworks, and Jund Death Cloud, though I managed to win a game against Gb Tron. These are the changes I made to the deck this week:
Maindeck:
+ 1 Elvish Visionary
+ 1 Overgrown Tomb
– 1 Sylvan Messenger
– 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Sideboard:
+3 Duress
+1 Stain the Mind
+2 Scavenging Ooze
– 3 Essence Warden
– 2 Choke
– 1 Krosan Grip
Ultimately, the sideboarding changes were a concession to all of the combo decks I encountered last week. One of the virtues of playing GB Elves is the option to play discard spells in the sideboard, which my week one deck was not doing. I was initially worried I didn’t have enough black sources to reliably cast an early discard spell so I kept my sideboard more or less mono-green. This was a mistake and one I paid for after narrowly losing games to Storm and KCI.
In an ideal world, I would play 3-4 Thoughtseize in the sideboard, however, given they are $20 each, the Duress is a budget stand-in that fills nearly the same role while being marginally better against Burn. Stain the Mind is a card I wanted to test out against the linear combo decks such as Ad Nauseam, UR Storm, and KCI and is better in Elves than something like Cranial Extraction thanks to how quickly Elves can go wide to pay the Convoke cost.
I wanted more Scavenging Oozes to fight combo decks that rely on the graveyard, Dredge, and Snapcaster decks that use the graveyard to generate value so I added them to the sideboard. I cut Choke because I don’t think the card is very good right now, Essence Warden because I couldn’t think of a match-up I really wanted four, and the Krosan Grip because we already have plenty of ways to destroy artifacts and enchantments.
The main deck choices were pretty minor but I wanted an additional black source, one that could be fetched if we eventually swing for Windswept Heaths, and I felt that the fourth Visionary added a little consistency to the deck that wasn’t there with the over-costed Sylvan Messenger.
Using StarCity pricing on singles, I spent 18.47 on improving the deck:
MH Elves Week Two
| Creatures (35) 4 Dwynen's Elite 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Elvish Visionary 2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader 4 Heritage Druid 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Nettle Sentinel 1 Reclamation Sage 4 Shaman of the Pack Spells (7) 3 Chord of Calling 4 Collected Company | Lands (18) 4 Blooming Marsh 9 Forest 4 Llanowar Wastes 1 Overgrown Tomb Sideboard (15) 3 Duress 1 Essence Warden 2 Evolutionary Leap 2 Fracturing Gust 2 Lead the Stampede 1 Reclamation Sage 3 Scavenging Ooze 1 Stain the Mind |
Here are the videos for this week, I will be back next week to discuss how we did and the next round of changes to the list. As always thanks for watching.
In terms of Magic, Shawn Massak is a Modern enthusiast, with a penchant for tier two decks, counterspells, and pre Eighth Edition frames. In terms of life, Shawn lives in Brighton, MA where he works as an employment coordinator for people with disabilities, plays guitar in an indie-pop band, and spends his free time reading comics, complaining about pro-wrestling, and wishing his apartment allowed dogs as pets.