ATTENTION! This deck is from the aether revolt meta!I haven't played standard since amonkhet came out, so i dont know the current meta. The Natural Obsolescence's might not be needed any more... idk
Mainboard is now complete, but sideboard is lacking
It turns out that the elves has quite a lot of +1/+1 counter synergy in the new expansion, so i just felt like creating a "budget" standard deck. The deck counts on the counters to work (HaHa). With counters on your stuff, you get all the mana you could ever want, a lot of strong creatures, and almost never run out of cards. Without counters the deck is garbage...
Starting hand:You will generally be quite happy if you have the following in your hand: 2x Forest, 1-3x Metallic Mimic (
Sylvan Advocate
also gets the job done) and 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade. The rest of you hand doesn't really matter, as long as it is not just pure mana. The optimal hand would probably have a Armorcraft Judge and a Forest more. Actually, the most important thing is that you have at least 2-3 mana avalible in your starting hand. Otherwise the deck probably wont really get off the ground in time.
Game plan:The game plan is quite simple: Set your board up for as much value as possible with cards like Ridgescale Tusker and Armorcraft Judge, maybe with a Rishkar's Expertise beforehand. After the value train has left the station, you'll simply overrun the enemy with large creatures.
Assuming you can play a land every turn until t3:
T1: Peema Renegade for defence. Forest and skip is fine too.
T2: Metallic Mimic (as an Elf, obviously) and skip. If you don't have any, play a
Sylvan Advocate
instead.
T3: This turn is a bit awkward if you don't have Rishkar, Peema Renegade in your hand. If that is the case, prioritize getting a Mimic out rather than any other creature.
T4: This is one of the most crucial turns for the deck. This is where you are supposed to evaluate whether you have time to go for the value payload or if you have to play a little faster. If you have the time, play more small stuff like
Sylvan Advocate
as a body more for tusker to hit, or even an off-curve Metallic Mimic. If you have to play a little faster, you can afford to throw out your Armorcraft Judge for just one or even zero cards.
T5+: Now you just have to follow the path you set yourself up for on T4. You can also switch path whenever you feel a shift coming in the game's tempo.
