While most elves are mono green, some powerful elves dabble in the other colors of the pie. There are elves in black, white, blue and red, so if you want to splash a color, what color do you splash? Most people just look at you with a "duh" face, and say "Without a doubt, Black" Well, I actually not sure. Black might not be the best color, just the most obvious.
Well, what do the other colors give you? Since elves decks can be easy targets for decks like Infect, Death's Shadow Zoo, and Affinity, It is nice to have some maindeckable removal. It can also help with have-to-beat-cards, like Edilon of the Great Revel. While dismember is good against infect, 4 life can be a huge disadvantage agaisnt decks like burn. Red offers the advantage of Lightning Bolt, which also can go to the face to get that final bit of damage in. White offers Path to Exile, the best removal spell in modern, but not much else in the maindeck. Black allows you to pay 2 or 3 for dismember to negate life loss, while blue lets you play
Vapor Snag
. I believe that in the removal category, I would go with red or white, but we have no clear cut winner.
What about damage support cards? White doesn't get much, with
Sigil Blessing
being the best. Red gets Atarka's Command, which has more flexibility than
Sigil Blessing
, and 3 damage to the face and +1+1 to team is normally better than +3+3 and +1+1 to team. Black has Foul-tounge shriek, an old standard favorite of mine, and blue gets, well nothing. I would probably go with Red here, with red coming in second.
And card Draw? Blue, which has been lacking in the previous two evaluations, takes it home here, stealing some pauper tech in Distant Melody. The Melody allows you to basically draw a new hand for the price of . Black has access the cards such as Read the Bones, but I would rather slot in Lead the Stampede. Red and white don't really have anything to offer for card draw.
Multicolor Elves? Black has the best multicolor elves, which is why most people like it the most. Shaman of the Pack appears here again, along side it's not-techinacly-multicolor friends, Elves of Deep Shadow and
Gnarlroot Trapper
. Blue gets MORE card draw in Coiling Oracle, red gets nothing until
Bloodbraid Elf
is unbanned (Free Bloodbraid Elf!), and white dosen't get much.
For the sideboard? White takes it home, packing Rest in Peace,
Leyline of Sancity
, Stony Silence, and more Path to Exiles if needed. Red gains Ancient Grudge and Blood Moon, Blue gets Hurkyl's Recall and counterspells, While black gets Leyline of the Void and discard.
Let's recap:Removal: 1 point, 2 points, and tied with 4 points.
Mass Buff: 1 point, 2 points, 3 points, 4 points
Card Draw: 1 point, 4 points
Multicolor elves: 1 point, 3 points, 4 points
Sideboard: 1 Point, 2 points, 3 points, 4 points
By my simple system, red in the winner by 1 point, black and white fall by 1 at 12, and blue comes up short with 10. What do you think? are yo going to hop along the black wagon, or play it risky with red or blue, or go for the sideboard with white? Fire away in the coments! Also, if you wan't to know, I prefere red myself, but blue is the most fun to play if you love drawing cards.
