Elves at the Oasis

Standard* Murphy77

SCORE: 3 | 8 COMMENTS | 676 VIEWS


Re-think after M19 Draft —July 15, 2018

Played an M19 draft on 14 July and got a lot of value from Blanchwood Armor and Root Snare, neither of which I had considered for this deck. trying to work them into a deck where I have already dropped a number of other cards that fit into the theme.

DesArthes says... #1

Hi, Throne is pretty nice addition into deck and Heroic Intervention is fine too, but with rest I am not so sure.
Problem is, most of creatures here are mana dorks, so Song of Freyalise is redundant. Ghirapur Orrery is pretty risky in mainboard, especially with current red hazoret meta.
And last thing, It feels strange when in mana ramp deck missing some high CMC finisher.

June 8, 2018 4:17 a.m.

Murphy77 says... #2

Thanks for the feedback DesArthes

Working backwards through your comments; Steel Leaf Champion or Marwyn, the Nurturer could be finishers. Marwyn just grows over time and can become big. The idea with Steel Leaf is to, at the third effect of Song of Freyalise, sac a desert for Hashep Oasis and attack with a 9/8 creature with vigilance and indestructible. The big plus for Song of Freyalise is not that it acts like a Cryptolith Rite for 2 turns (which might be useful), but that it facilitates a swarm attack with all your mana-dorks that become indestructible for the turn.

Yes, Ghirapur Orrery would be risky against Hazoret Red decks, but once your ramp takes effect you want to be drawing extra cards - card advantage is good. Against a Hazoret Red deck, I would side in Sylvan Awakening, again for the swarm attack. My biggest worry is that I have little to counter U/W control decks (Approach of the Second Sun) and rely heavily on early game tempo, which is not fantastic.

June 11, 2018 5:04 a.m.

multimedia says... #3

Hey, go with 4x Marwyn and 4x Llanowar and don't look back :)

Try to consistently be able to play Marwyn turn two or turn three. If only her and Llanowar are 4 ofs here then this helps to do this. Getting her onto the battlefield early two turn makes all your turn three, four, plus turns of playing Elves so much better.

You want to be able to play Llanowar turn one. To consistently be able to do this in games you want 4 of him main. I see no reason not to play 4 of him he's your best turn one play and he helps to pump Marwyn.

I'm a big fan of Adventurous Impulse with Marwyn and creature strategies. I see it in the sideboard consider moving it main deck? It's better than many cards in the main including Discovery, Throne, and Orrery. I like that Impulse can potentially help to find Marwyn turn one. Any other turns after it can help to find an Elf: Champion or Judge or a land: Oasis.

Consider cutting 3x Elfhame Druid for 2x more Marwyn and 1x more Llanowar? Consider cutting 2x Orrery and 2x Discovery for 4x Impulse?

Good luck with your deck.


June 11, 2018 5:49 a.m.

Murphy77 says... #4

Had a problem fitting in every sub-theme that I wanted. Ended up cutting Elfhame Druid, but then added Llanowar Scout. The reasoning behind this is that the Scout is an extra card in the deck that acts only to facilitate you playing multiple lands per turn. With Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun or Song of Freyalise, you could get to tap it for extra mana, but you should have more than enough mana available fairly quickly. You can then start to use Memorial to Unity and Adventurous Impulse to search for your Steel Leaf Champions. Use the effects of Hashep Oasis and Song of Freyalise to make a big, indestructible Steel Leaf with trample.

June 12, 2018 5:05 a.m.

multimedia says... #5

Hey, I like your new game plan here it's well thought out and explained. Is it a viable budget strategy? I'm not sure, but it looks fun. Your deck currently has 64 cards I suggest trimming 4 cards making it 60. Also wouldn't hurt to add your deck to the budget hub.

In nearly all instances you're much better off playing two drop Elves who can actually make mana. Llanowar Scout can't make mana, to be able to use his ability you have to have a land in your hand, this is a big drawback. If you have a land in hand then great, if it's a Forest or Oasis even better, but sometimes you don't have a land in hand and in those times you can't make mana with Scout. Elfhame Druid or Servant of the Conduit are better Elf options than Scout because either one can make mana without needing something else. They're both more consistent in making mana. Even being able to use Servant's mana ability two times because of only having two energy is still worth it.

Scout's ability is nice when it works, but do you really need it? Having a lot of lands is not something you should be concerned about because of all Elves your playing who can make mana: Llanowar, Marwyn, Cowl and Rishkar with a counter. Making mana is not a problem thus having a lot of lands in your control doesn't need to be part of your strategy.

Another two drop Elf who has synergy with Marwyn, Rishkar and Armorcraft is Kujar Seedsculptor she adds to the counters strategy, give her a playtest. Verdurous Gearhulk is a great creature with a counters strategy. It's budget $2.50 good creature to ramp into with all the mana that's made with Elves and can be a fine finisher. It's not an Elf, but it can put counters on Marwyn which is just as good as being an Elf.


June 12, 2018 5:59 a.m.

Murphy77 says... #6

Yeah, I was kind of kidding myself that I could throw in a few extra cards if they are cheap to summon and might just draw some removal. I started this deck with 10 mana-dorks, which was the main reason that I brought in Throne of the God-Pharaoh - consistent direct damage. All my other creatures were in pairs. The more that I worked on the build, the more I wanted another Steel Leaf Champion or Marwyn, the Nurturer in there. Yes, I suppose that I have always known that 2 types of mana-dork is likely to be enough, I was just trying to hang onto a bigger number of self-tapping weenies.

Oh well ...... now to test this at an FNM.

June 12, 2018 1:19 p.m.

Murphy77 says... #7

A dream sequence of play:

Turn 1: Forest and Llanowar Elves

Turn 2: Forest + tap Llanowar Elves for Marwyn, the Nurturer(1/1)

Turn 3: Hashep Oasis - tap 2 Forest for Elvish Clancaller then tap Hashep Oasis and Llanowar Elves for Song of Freyalise- tap Marwyn, the Nurturer for 3 and cast Steel Leaf Champion (keeping 1 mana in reserve for a Blossoming Defense)

Turn 4: Hashep Oasis - tap 2 Forest and Llanowar Elves to cast another Steel Leaf Champion

Turn 5: Tap 2 Forest for Elvish Clancaller, tap Marwyn, the Nurturer for 7 mana, sac 2 Hashep Oasis to boost the 2 Steel Leaf Champion and swing with 2 Steel Leaf Champion (10/9 vigilance, trample and indestructible), play Blossoming Defense on Llanowar Elves (5/5 hexproof, vigilance, trample and indestructible) and Elvish Clancaller (2/2 vigilance, trample and indestructible)

As we get deeper into the game other dream sequences could be more dramatic, specially if you can protect a swarm attack with Heroic Intervention

June 20, 2018 5:02 a.m.

Murphy77 says... #8

I don't know where to go next - think that this deck has potential

Considering: Dropping 2 Lifecrafter's Bestiary for Nissa, Vital Force and Huatli, Radiant Champion - if you had the 2 emblems (which should be relatively easy to get) you could end up drawing lots of cards for free. If this works, do we need the Adventurous Impulse? Or should we rather double up on the planeswalkers and add another Elvish Clancaller? (I only have 1 Huatli, Radiant Champion at the moment and would need to source another)

June 20, 2018 5:45 a.m.