Elves of the Swarm (Budget)
Standard
SCORE: 916 | 684 COMMENTS | 231305 VIEWS | IN 450 FOLDERS
Bye Messenger —March 20, 2016
If you have been following along with the evolution of this deck then you know that I have had a love and hate relationship with Collected Company and had nothing but positive praise for Sylvan Messenger. Times have changed and now Company has the upper hand. Slowly over the past couple of weeks I have been cutting Messengers until now they have been completely removed from the main deck. The namesake is now gone, for now. Does this mean I will change the name of this deck? I'm not sure, for now it will stay as is.
The two main reasons for cutting Messengers are they don't interact with Company or Drana, Liberator of Malakir. Drana has been added again as a 3 of. Oath of Nissa has now really taken the place of Messenger because it has much better interaction with both Drana and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
. Other than Shaman of the Pack, both Drana and Nissa are now the win conditions of this deck. Company is also a win condition, but that is very situational; requiring you to hit a Shaman of the Pack or two. Both Drana and Nissa are more straight forward reliable ways to win a game with Elves. A great thing about Company is that it can now get two of these win conditions, Drana and Shaman, even both at the same time.
Relying more on Company and Oath rather than Messenger also opens up tremendous design space for the sideboard. Using creatures that Company can interact with gives you a great leg-up in a variety of matchups. Which will only increase as more new creatures enter Standard from future sets until this Fall.
One possible storyline that might happen is this coming rotation will most likely make Company a huge target for sideboard, maybe even main deck hate. If this turns out to be the case then having some Messengers in the sideboard might be very beneficial. Sideboarding in card advantage which is immune to this hate replacing Company.
Since the rotation of Elvish Mystic out of Standard the best mana Elves can only be used to cast creatures. In Gnarlroot Trapper's case only Elves. This was really a positive for using Messenger because all the mana Elves can help to ramp Her turn 3 where as they can't help to cast a Company. This is just something I have to now except and change my game play to adjust to this minor drawback. Oath of Nissa helps a lot with making land drops since it can find a land. It's really the reason that this deck can function using only 20x lands with 4x Company. In it's current form this deck can't cast a turn 3 Company, but instead must wait until turn 4 or beyond. This is ok because cutting Messengers has also lowered the mana curve allowing for many more explosive early plays with Elves; essentially filling the battlefield which makes Drana, Nissa, Shaman or Company just that much better.
Shadows Over Innistrad is one super exciting set. Even though no Elves currently have been revealed I'm still thrilled to play test quite a few cards. Most notably the Delirium mechanic and a ridiculously good 2 drop Vampire that might just be card advantage on a stick in this deck. Stay tuned for my official review of SOI after the entire set has been revealed, April 8.
Goodbye Messenger you had a great run, but times have changed and the Company of others has begun.
multimedia says... #2
Hello Aenorian, greetings!
Thanks for your continuing interest and the props, means a lot. I have put a lot work into this deck, haha, I'm glad it has benefited you and others.
The more I playtest with Drana the more I am excited about her with Elves and Nissa. We will just have to wait and see if there is another Mantis Rider like flying creature in SOI that can roadblock her. I did cut 1x Dwynen and 1x Messenger for 2x Drana. I left one of each because both have their specific uses. Oath of Nissa can also find both of them. I still like Dwynen with Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and as the lone life gaining source. I don't want to cut her completely. Later on, she might find her way into the sideboard after rotation for her life gaining ability.
If Drana gets more focus in this deck then this really hurts Messenger's effectiveness, but doesn't hurt Company's or Oath's. Both Company and Oath can interact with Drana, but Messenger can't. I have been slowly cutting Messenger, the namesake of this deck, haha, because Company and Oath are just better now. Oath being able to find both Drana and Nissa is huge and something Messenger can't do. Company does have a huge target on it right now and that target is only going to get bigger after rotation. Because of this Messenger might make it's way into the sideboard to bring in vs Blue and White decks that will be packing Company sideboard hate, such as Dispel and Hallowed Moonlight. This is all theory currently because we don't know what is going to happen after rotation.
In your case, you should still play your 1x Company, but also 3-4x Messenger. Messenger is a fine replacement; it's still a ridiculous card with Elves, Company just happens to be a little better. If you are using 3-4x Messenger instead of Company than Dwynen is still an excellent creature for your deck, more so than Drana, because Messenger can get Dwynen, but she can't get Drana. Try starting with using 2x of each Dwynen and Drana, 3-4 Messenger and 3-4x Oath. You might want to consider increasing Oath to 4 since you aren't relying on Company because it can get Messenger, Drana and Nissa.
Aenorian says... #1
Hi multimedia,
I wanted to thank you for your amazing work on this deck. I started MTG with Origins too, and I only wanted to play elves. I found your thread a fews months after starting, and now I check every uptdate you make and every explanation you wrote, and it helped me a lot !
I'm looking forward to read your returns on Drana, Liberator of Malakir in this deck. It certainly looks like a very good card in it.
I saw that you cutted one Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen and one Sylvan Messenger to add Drana, Liberator of Malakir. I can understand that, as you now only have 2 creature cards that can't be found by Collected Company. Why not cut the 2 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen as Drana, Liberator of Malakir can block flying creatures and buff creatures too ? In the case you are able to put both on the board and add their effetcts ? Wouldn't it be better to keep 2 Sylvan Messenger to assure more draws ?
In my case, I only own one Collected Company. Is it better for me to keep 4 Sylvan Messenger in my deck to compensate ?
Again, thanks a lot for all you've already wrotten, it's a pleasure to read you and you're very helpfull.
Greetings from Belgium :D
March 13, 2016 8:29 a.m.