Elves of the Swarm (Budget)

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Post Rotation Thoughts - Updated: 8-1-17 —July 31, 2017

A new Standard rotation is happening soon, when Ixalan is released less than two months from now. At this rotation both blocks Battle for Zendikar and Shadows Over Innistrad rotate leaving only Kaladesh, Amonkhet blocks and Ixalan's first set as Standard legal. We'll say goodbye to Sylvan Advocate, Skyrider Elf, Tireless Tracker, Radiant Flames as well as the creature lands, Lumbering Falls. Truth be told this deck only loses 14x cards including sideboard cards at the rotation not a lot, but unfortunately eight of these 14 are Elves which is a big deal. The loss of Skyrider means this deck is due for a complete change as the strong energy theme is here for him. An even bigger loss is Advocate because he's been the best overall Elf in Standard since Oath of the Gatewatch and he's so good with Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Tireless Tracker has proven herself to be one of, if not the best green card, in Standard since Shadows Over Innistrad. The card advantage she provides can't be replaced and will be extremely missed. It's time to start thinking about post rotation and how it will shape this deck moving forward. This update is comprised of my thoughts about this deck post rotation including a look at the Elves who are left, possible new directions to go, the upcoming land situation and the Ixalan leaks.

The fate of Elves in Standard is very undetermined. Battle for Zendikar block rotating leaves only the Elves of the Kaladesh block left in Standard which is a small amount. Only 21x different Elves are left and nine out these are playable or may become playable post rotation. If Ixalan doesn't have Elves which it looks like it doesn't it would be fair to say the tribe is on it's way to extinction in Standard. Servant of the Conduit becomes the best overall Elf which really means no matter what new strategy I use, energy will most likely still be here. Whether it's the primary strategy or a supporting strategy with just Aether Hub is still to be determined. Rishkar, Peema Renegade becomes the second best Elf with his ability as the most abusable with other Elves and creatures. Most likely any new strategy I use will be taking advantage of Rishkar's strengths. Narnam Renegade who hasn't seen much play as well as any in this deck may be set to take the place of Sylvan Advocate. Advocate is the real reason that Narnam hasn't seen play in this deck. There just hasn't been deck space for both him and Advocate and Advocate is a much better Elf. With Advocate rotating Narnam makes the most sense as his replacement.

Other Elves left in Standard are another 2 drop mana Elf Druid of the Cowl, Metallic Mimic who's seen play in Zombies, but is slowly being cut for other options and Rashmi, Eternities Crafter. Druid and Servant of the Conduit are the two mana Elves who are left in Standard and both are quite strong. Druid's three toughness is not to be ignored. Having access to 8x possible mana Elves along with Rishkar has the makings for a good ramp strategy. Mimic is seeing Standard play in Zombies, but recently has been cut for other options because well Mimic is not a good card. I've expressed my disdain for Mimic in past updates and have completely cut it from this deck because of it. Mimic worked in Zombies because the Zombie tribe has two lords to use and one has a great ability. For Mimic to be a playable option for a tribe the tribe must have lords who can pump Mimic while also giving it abilities along with the rest of the tribe. Elves currently don't have a lord in Standard because of this I don't see Mimic as an option. As most of you know I want Rashmi to be playable in Standard with Elves. I hate that she's a mythic Elf who's wasted in Standard because current strategies don't work with her. Unfortunately, I don't see this changing because emerge was best with Rashmi and her along with it are not played, the emerge mechanic is also rotating out. I hope that for some period of time while Rashmi is in Standard I can build a playable/competitive Elf centric deck around her. Maybe Dominaria can help with this?

Some Elves may become more playable post rotation, a big may, but possible. Armorcraft Judge has seen some play in this deck, but not a lot because there's just better options in Standard namely Tireless Tracker for draw, but Tracker is rotating. Judge also needs to be played along with Metallic Mimic which I'm not a fan of Mimic. Greenwheel Liberator hasn't seen play because of Sylvan Advocate which is much better and because revolt is pretty hard to trigger consistently to make Liberator worth it. Peema Aether-Seer is one of the more interesting Elves which can use and make energy in Kaladesh, but in an dedicated energy deck the four drop spot belongs to Bristling Hydra, even though it isn't an Elf. It's just too good with energy not to play and I don't see that changing any time soon. These nine out of the 21x different Elves in Standard are in my opinion the playable ones or ones who could be come playable post rotation.

Being realistic this is the Elf core we are left with in Standard:

• 4x Narnam Renegade
• 4x Servant of the Conduit
• 4x Druid of the Cowl
• 3-4x Rishkar, Peema Renegade

Using this core can a competitive deck be built around it? I'm not sure, but I'm willing to try.

When examining the core of the Elves that are left the first direction that sticks out is ramp. Servant, Druid and Rishkar are mana Elves they can all create mana and Rishkar can make other creatures able to make mana. If ramp is the first possible direction what are some cards that are worth ramping into post rotation? All Eldrazi are gone from Standard after rotation, thank god. Since Battle for Zendikar they've been the prime targets for top end ramp with them gone are there any good cards to ramp into? God-Pharaoh's Gift is starting to see some play in Standard mostly because Gate to the Afterlife can tutor and put it directly into play which is very powerful. What about combining a self mill strategy with Champion of Wits, Gate to the Afterlife to power Gift and use Elves to ramp it into play? The best creature to reanimate with Gift is Angel of Invention. Yes, this forgotten mythic Angel is broken when reanimated with Gift because it becomes a 6/6 flying, lifelink, vigilance Zombie Angel with haste. If she gets to attack she can by herself swing any game in my favor. Another thing that Invention does is give all other creatures +1/+1, she's a lord for all creatures. Her problem however is she's a five drop lord with only three toughness which currently is not good enough in Standard.

A strategy around Gift can do two things that Elves want. Gift gives Elves reach because when Elves die and they will die or are put into the graveyard by other means Gift can reanimate them into 4/4s or stronger Zombie Elves with haste. Invention gives Elves a lord which they need. This lord happens to also have a broken interaction with Gift. Here's the first version of God-Pharaoh Elves:

deck-large:god-pharaoh-elves/

A creature who has potential to ramp into play is Aetherwind Basker. This seven drop Lizard uses and makes energy it would become the new reason to use energy as the prime strategy in a deck with Elves. To realistically play Basker I need to also be using a ramp strategy to ramp him into play ahead of curve which is perfect with the remaining Elves in Standard. Because the energy mechanic is so powerful and is proven to almost be broken with an energy sink; Basker can keep this deck in energy. Basker also has fantastic synergy with Bristling Hydra and we know how much I like Hydra with energy. One of the more powerful land ramp spells printed in a while is Hour of Promise and although post rotation it can't tutor for Shrine of the Forsaken Gods any longer, it can tutor for Ramunap Ruins which has already proven itself as a land to be respected. Here's the first version of Aetherwind Elves:

deck-large:aetherwind-elves/

An underrated card for card advantage is Lifecrafter's Bestiary. It's seen minimal play in sideboards in Standard. It's been overshadowed by other better options of the same casting cost and purpose namely Tireless Tracker. With Tracker gone Bestiary could become much more playable. Bestiary could be great with Elves because of Rishkar, Peema Renegade's ability to make Elves or other creatures into mana dorks who can then be used to make green mana to pay for the cost of drawing cards when Elves are cast as well as keeping a steady stream of Elves in my hand to be cast. Bestiary brings a draw direction with Elves and Rishkar brings ramp with Elves making Approach of the Second Sun an interesting ramp top end target. For Approach to be powerful I need to have the ability to draw a lot of cards to find it in my top seven to cast it again and win the game. When so much draw is happening from Bestiary as well as scry each turn and other means of drawing cards such as Driven / Despair and Armorcraft Judge. Maybe this could work? Here's the first version of Rishkar Elves:

Rishkar Elves

Commander / EDH Aquafier

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Before this deck was Temur it was Sultai with Winding Constrictor. Constrictor has proven itself to be a formidable creature in Standard and one of the creatures that just happens to have some of the best synergy with it is Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Using these two together in a strategy is the safest and most proven of the possible new directions this deck can go. It keeps me in energy and gives me a proven powerful strategy to start with. I stopped playing Constrictor because red with Harnessed Lightning became much better with energy then any removal that black can offer. I couldn't play both red and black at that time because of Skyrider Elf. With Skyrider leaving Standard I can now cut blue for red possibly playing both Constrictor and Harnessed. Driven / Despair is one of my favorite cards from Hour of Devastation and it's been great with a Constrictor/ Rishkar strategy because trample and menace are very good with large creatures. I've already presented Driven Elves in my last update, but here's an updated post rotation version:

deck-large:driven-elves/

Three cards I want to play around with and see if they are viable together post rotation are Nissa, Steward of Elements, Vizier of the Menagerie and Rhonas's Monument. This might also be a deck for Rashmi, Eternities Crafter.

I had high hopes for Overcome when it was first spoiled, but I overrated it. As it's turned out Driven / Despair which I also had high hopes for is just a much better card. Although Driven doesn't pump an army of Elves, giving them trample and menace or both with the ability to draw or make my opponent discard or both if they get through doing damage to my opponent far out weights the +2/+2 trample for five mana of Overcome. Even in a mono-green deck if that's viable Driven at two mana is better than Overcome at five mana. What I'm saying is I can't see myself playing Overcome instead of Driven and playing both together seems like overkill for this effect. Playtesting may change my mind, but I doubt it.

Battle and Shadows rotating takes away a large amount of playable dual lands from Standard with the enemy colors being the most affected. The land situation in Standard is going to be interesting post rotation because the ally colors have a huge advantage over the enemy colors. There will be two playable sets of ally colored duals and only one of enemy colors. For example, a green and white two color deck can have Sunpetal Grove and Scattered Groves as dual lands, but a green and black two color deck only has Blooming Marsh as a dual land. Enemy and ally colors also have access to the bad duals, Foul Orchard, Woodland Stream and others; I only consider them playable as budget replacements.

Three color decks such as Temur like this one or Sultai are less affected because they have access to two different enemy colored Fast lands, for example Botanical Sanctum and Spirebluff Canal. However a Jund, Naya or Bant three color manabase either may be better moving forward because these color combinations can take the best advantage of the Check land and Cycle land interaction along with Basic lands. Naya seems like the best color combination when using green as the primary color in the manabase because a single Forest is good with two Check lands Sunpetal Grove and Rootbound Crag.

The Cycle lands have great synergy with the Check lands because a Cycle land can allow a Check land of the same type to enter play untapped. Check lands only need one land in my control to meet the criteria to enter play untapped. Cycle lands are two different types of lands for example Scattered Groves is a Forest and a Plains it alone in my control allows Sunpetal Grove, Rootbound Crag or Glacial Fortress to enter play untapped. This interaction is great and gives decks using ally colors in my opinion a huge manabase advantage. Theoretically, a turn one Cycle land or Forest followed up by Check lands and Basic lands can be just as fast of a manabase then a manabase built on enemy colored Fast lands and Basic lands like this deck. Not only can it be just as fast, but also better in the mid to late game because after turn three Fast lands are not good to play because they enter play tapped where as Check lands are fine and Cycle lands can be used to draw.

The Fast lands such as Blooming Marsh don't have any synergy with either Cycle lands or Check lands making them more of a liability then an asset in three color manabases. If I'm choosing to move away from Temur colors than some combination of ally colors is the most logical next step.

Aether Hub has proven itself to be one the best lands to ever be in Standard because energy is so powerful and easy to make. Hub will continue post rotation to be excellent, but it having zero synergy with Cycle lands and Check lands will most likely take it down a notch. Evolving Wilds with Basic lands may become another staple in non-energy manabases like it was in BFZ Standard because Basic lands are good with Check lands.

Ixalan Leaks Show

*Note: In this update I will only show images of Ixalan that have already been offically revealed. I'm not showing images of new cards as well as naming or discussing in real detail about the new cards that have been leaked.*

The Ixalan leaks revealed the entire rare and mythic rare printed sheet and there are no cards with Elves on the sheet. It appears although not official yet that Elves are not in the Ixalan set. If this is true I'm upset; I'm not really ready to accept that the options for the tribe who we have now are the only Elves to play in Standard because they're just plain not good enough compared to other tribes in Standard. The real excitement of the set is however Dinosaurs and Pirates and even though I'm upset about no Elves I'm still really excited to see and play Dinos.

The Ixalan set has a strange amount of total cards, 279, roughly 10+ cards more than usual large sets. The last sets that had this strange number of extra cards were the two sets in Shadows Over Innistrad. The extra cards in those sets were double faced cards(DFC). Speculation is that the extra number of cards in Ixalan are also DFCs just like in Shadows Over Innistrad. If there are DFCs in the set then they will be separate from the other rares and mythic rares that can be seen in the leaked sheet. DFCs get there own print sheet that has only DFCs on it, no matter the rarity of each card.

On the Ixalan product page the description of the set says "saddle up a Dinosaur" and the main image has a creature riding a Dinosaur, but there are no cards showing creatures riding Dinosaurs, lets call them Dino riders and no mechanic that suggests a creature can mount a Dinosaur on the leaked rare sheet. Further speculation is these Dino riders are the DFCs of the set. Adding to this speculation are if the Dino riders are DFCs then they will not be on the leaked printed sheet they will be on there own separate printed sheet for DFCs. At first I thought that the Dino riders could possibly be Elves, but after the leaked image of both the Ixalan artbook cover and the promotional image of Rivals of Ixalan shown above which features a lead female Planeswalker character of both sets and her Dino, she's a Dino rider, although not official the tribe who's riding the Dinos are Humans.

The Ixalan leaks reveal a plane that's very tribal centric welcoming tribal synergies back into Standard. When I say tribal I mean cards that work for all tribes; I get to choose a tribe that's affected by the card when it enters the battlefield. If I can get excited for anything in the set other than Dinosaurs and the Dino riders then tribal cards will do it. The leaks show three rare tribal cards and I'm not going to mention them by name or discuss them in this update, the only thing I'll say is they aren't creatures. I assume in the set there are other uncommons and commons that haven't been leaked yet that will also be tribal.

The mechanics of the set which have been leaked I'm not going to name them, but one is very interesting with Elves because of Rishkar, Peema Renegade. It lets me look at the top card of my library if it's a land card I put it into my hand if it's not a land I choose to put the card back on top of my library or into my graveyard and then put a +1/+1 counter on a creature. Yes +1/+1 counters are back in the Ixalan set. It's not original design which I dislike, but it's good with Rishkar which means it's good with Elves and that I like. There are other cards leaked that care about +1/+1 counters. Several of the green and blue Merfolk's main abilities use +1/+1 counters either on themselves or on lands or give abilities to creatures who already have +1/+1 counters.

Final Thoughts

Can Elves survive in Standard post rotation? Does Ixalan have Elves? I hope these questions and more were some what answered in this update. I've been thinking a lot about post rotation and how I can still play Elves in Standard and I've come up with several deck options that have potential. I look forward to hearing any and all thoughts about Elves in Standard post rotation, the deck builds I've presented and Ixalan. As always stay tuned for more.