Elves of the Swarm (Budget)
Standard
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Evolutionary Leap —Oct. 16, 2015
Evolutionary Leap is a gem of a card. It wasn't used much last Standard, but this is a new Standard and it is fitting in quite nicely.
The only drawback with Leap is you don't want to draw too many of them. You only really want and/or need one on the battlefield at a time since for 1 green mana you can use Leap's ability as many times as green mana and creatures you have on the board will allow.
Since this deck is playing 8x one and two drop mana elves as well as other weak elves like Elvish Visionary and Dwynen's Elite some games you just draw too many of them. Like other ramp decks drawing too many mana dorks is just something you have to deal with if you want fast mana. This deck is kind of different in that aspect because the mana dorks help the overall strategy of the deck because they are elves which means they count toward life drain from Shaman of the Pack.
Still some games you can get dork flooded. This is where Leap shines because you can sac an unused dork or any other creature to get another creature into your hand. Leap is a fantastic engine in this deck because you are filling the battlefield with little creatures which is great fuel for Leap.
Elves in this deck are going to die in the course of a game either by chump blocking, attacking into bigger threats or by targeted removal and board wipes. Leap gives this deck just another way to get value out of creatures dying.
Using Leap guarantees that you get another creature into your hand. After finding the creature all other cards before it are put on the bottom of your library. This is nice especially in the middle to late game because this means Leap is putting lands that you don't want to draw on the bottom of your library and giving you creatures instead.
When you sac creatures for Leap you are putting them into your graveyard. This interaction is great with both Den Protector and Mortuary Mire. Both these cards need cards in the graveyard to be most effective and Leap puts creatures there.
Both Abzan Charm and Complete Disregard are good removal spells vs this deck because both exile the creature they hit. Leap can stop this exile from happening. Sacing the creature that is targeted by a removal spell in respond kills the creature and puts it into the graveyard instead of exiling it. This has very good implications especially with Shaman of the Pack, but all this deck's other single threats as well, such as Skyrider Elf and Drana, Liberator of Malakir.
I'm currently using 2x Evolutionary Leap main deck. Every game I draw Leap I'm very happy because of this I want to run more copies, but two is a good number, anymore starts to create too many dead card situations if Leap is already on the battlefield.