Elves of the Swarm (Budget)

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WTF Rally? —Feb. 26, 2016

Where did 4-Color Rally come from? All of a sudden it's the most feared deck. The Standard meta game has been completely turned around. No longer is Abzan with Rhino the king. Rally has always been a strong deck, but lacked an efficient way to deal with Anafenza, the Foremost. The printing of Reflector Mage in Oath of the Gatewatch has really taken it over the top. Mage is an excellent creature who also happens to have a pretty broken ability that can help to stall for a lot of turns allowing the Rally player to set up.

The two best Standard decks currently, 4-Color Rally and Bant Company share one powerful theme, taking full advantage of Collected Company. Company is now in my opinion the best card in Standard. Being the best means every deck is playing a lot of hate to beat it. I'm seeing a lot of main deck Hallowed Moonlight, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Dispel to try to combat these two decks.

What does all this mean for this deck? All this Company hate main deck and sideboard is also excellent vs this deck because it's also taking advantage of the power of Company with Shaman of the Pack and Elves. All this hate is not enough for me to completely stop using Company because Company is just too powerful to not play. However, using other plans of attack are more important than ever now. No longer can this deck or any other deck rely on Company as much as a win condition as before.

I'm using a somewhat unorthodox approach to beating 4-Color Rally that has been working very well for me. Sideboarding in a combination of Transgress the Mind and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and sideboarding out Collected Company. What I realized in the beginning in games vs Rally is game 2 my opponent would bring in Dispel to counter my Companies. Even if my opponent didn't see a Company game 1 they would still sideboard in Dispel because they are just expecting that I was using Company. Taking out Company makes the Company hate from my opponent dead, giving me an advantage in the matchup. Company can't interact with Kalitas and since he is so important in this matchup using both just doesn't work.

Transgress the Mind is a very good card in current Standard. Not only is it good in the Rally matchup, but It's excellent vs all the current top decks. The top decks in Standard are all centered on a 4 or more casting cost card. Why use Transgress instead of Duress? Transgress can take creatures and it exiles any card you take with it. Duress doesn't exile. This exile ability is needed when dealing with so many ways to reuse cards from the graveyard, with the biggest culprits being Rally the Ancestors and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip. Besides these two there is also a slew of other cards that take advantage of this. Basically, when you take a card from your opponent's hand you don't want them to be able to use that card ever again in a game.

In the Rally matchup Transgress can take most of the important pieces of the Rally strategy except Rally itself. This is where Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet shines. My strategy in the matchup is to use Transgress to clear the way for Kalitas to lock the game out from my opponent. Kalitas's exile creature ability means any creature that is sacrificed by my Rally opponent exiles that creature instead of putting it into the graveyard, where they want it to go. If I don't have to worry about any creatures from my opponent going to the graveyard then I don't have to to worry about Rally the Ancestors.

The two biggest targets for Transgress are number one Collected Company and two Reflector Mage. Company can find two pieces of the Rally strategy this includes Mage and Mage is the best way that Rally deals with Kalitas. For sideboard removal Rally is using Murderous Cut. If my Rally opponent sideboards in Cut after seeing Kalitas game 2 then Transgress can also take it.

Rally can't really deal with a protected Kalitas in this instance Sidisi's Faithful or top decking a Reflector Mage are their best plays. Your hoping that the Rally player has to chew through a lot of resources to find a Faithful. Bouncing Kalitas with Faithful is annoying, but also not as bad as it sounds. Since you can just play Kalitas again the next turn. Bouncing him with Mage however can be back-breaking and game winning.

Reflector Mage is busted when combined with the ability to put him onto the battlefield with Collected Company or Rally the Ancestors. He is the best answer to a graveyard hate creature in Standard which is Kalitas. Other than Company he is the card I'm targeting with Transgress. Other than bouncing Kalitas, Mage is not really that good vs a bunch of Elves. If he is not bouncing Kalitias he is most likely bouncing Sylvan Advocate, Gnarlroot Trapper or an Elf Warrior token because neither of these Elves have an enters the battlefield ability.

Since I'm not relying on Company with Shaman of the Pack to help me win the game I need other ways to win. Kalitas is my number one way with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar as my second. Rally is playing a large amount of 2/3 creatures which are a pain for this deck since they make good blockers vs Elves. Putting counters on your Elves with Nissa can make them just as big or bigger than Rally's creatures. Kalitas makes Zombies, Nissa can put counters on those Zombies making them a deadly force. Gumming up the board with tokens either Plants or Zombies in combination with Elves is a good strategy in the Rally matchup.

I have found that Kalitas creates board stalls if my Rally opponent doesn't have an immediate answer for him. Having a Planeswalker that can continually make creatures or pump up your team of creatures is a very nice thing to have in these instances.

Oath of Nissa is important in this matchup. Since I'm sideboarding out Collected Company this means I'm removing a key piece of selection from this deck. Oath can find both Kalitas or Nissa. It is especially important that the selection I use in this matchup can find Kalitas.

The good news is 4-Color Rally will not survive this coming Standard rotation, which means it has a little more than a month to dominate Standard. Rally the Ancestors rotates out taking away the name sake of the deck. Fetchlands also rotate which means no more using of 4 color manabases.

Rally really came from no where and is now completely warping the format around beating it. Elves are by no means favored in the Rally matchup, but I think using a combination of Transgress the Mind and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet gives them an excellent chance to win.