Elves of the Swarm (Budget)
Standard
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Post Rotation Thoughts - Elven Menagerie —Aug. 12, 2017
I mentioned Tireless Tracker in the last update, but didn't say much about her other than her loss in Standard will be huge. The card advantage she provided was unmatched in green. Nothing currently by itself in Standard can compare with this advantage in draw that Tracker gave. Getting this advantage from a single card is what made Tracker amazing. Looking forward to post rotation, currently there's not a single card drawing engine like Tracker left, but there's a two card drawing engine and this update is about how this engine can fit with a Elven strategy.
Lifecrafter's Bestiary and Vizier of the Menagerie is the two card, card advantage drawing engine I think has real potential because together they can be great and alone they're still good. It's a big positive that either can stand alone and give advantage alone. Bestiary and Menagerie have synergy because both care about creatures. Vizier lets me cast creatures from the top of my library and Bestiary lets me pay green mana to draw cards when these creatures are cast. Both can look at the top of my library. Bestiary can scry away at upkeep a non-creature card which helps to make Vizier better. They can also curve into each other three drop into four drop. The downside is these two cards don't do anything on curve when they first come into play, making this engine slow to set up, but this is where Elves can help.
The best Elves left in Standard care about ramp and a lot of mana is needed for Bestiary and Vizier to function to the fullest. Both Vizier and Bestiary are excellent with Rishkar, Peema Renegade which is needed post rotation because he along with Servant of the Conduit become the best Elves. Using a strategy that can take advantage of his abilities is the way to go. Being able to ramp Vizier into play turn three with either Servant or Druid of the Cowl helps to speed up the assembly of this engine. Rishkar's ability to turn creatures including himself into a mana dork is very good with Bestiary because I can use these creatures to make green mana to pay for the cost of drawing a card after casting a creature. Using an engine like this is also good with mana Elves because drawing them in the mid to late game is most of the time not good, but if I'm getting to draw after I've cast them or I'm getting to cast them off the top of my library thus not drawing them at all then it's much better.
Red looks very good post rotation. Chandra, Torch of Defiance currently most likely becomes the best Planeswalker in Standard. Although we don't know anything about the Planeswalkers in Ixalan they weren't leaked, how convenient. Many cards that kept Glorybringer in check are rotating making it even better post rotation. Abrade is and will continue to be an excellent creature removal spell. Red also has Harnessed Lightning and Magma Spray. I want to find ways to play Chandra with Elves and I think Vizier of the Menagerie gives the best chance. Vizier's ability lets me use mana of any color to cast creature spells this includes mana that Chandra's +1 makes. She makes two red mana, but because of Vizier's ability I can use this mana to cast creatures as green mana. This interaction is also good with Lifecrafter's Bestiary because I need green mana to draw when casting creatures. Chandra's other +1 ability lets me exile the top card of my library and cast the card. This ability is good with Vizier because it lets me look at the top of my library and I can do this before I +1 Chandra giving me some information about what card I'm about to exile before I do it. Chandra's exile ability is also good with Bestiary because I can cast the card that's exiled; if it's a creature I can pay an additional green mana to draw a card.
I like Chandra with this engine because she's also good as ramp and especially great at ramping Glorybringer into play. Glorybringer is also an excellent creature for Elves to ramp into play because the faster I can get it into play the more devastating it can be. Turn four Glorybringer, yep that's good.
I mentioned in the last update about post rotation land situation how ally colors are poised to have quite the advantage over enemy colors for manabases. I went mildly in depth about how Check lands will be very important in manabases post rotation and how manabases that can take full advantage of the Check land and Cycle land interaction will be better because of it. I want to play Chandra with Elves which means red and green are the two colors I want to play meaning Gruul. A Gruul manabase can take advantage of the interaction between Rootbound Crag, Sheltered Thicket, Forest and Mountain. If I'm going to use a two color manabase then my choices are really Gruul or Selesnya. Simic and Golgari are out matched in the dual land area only having Fast lands.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Glorybringer have double red casting costs and there's not a card like Oath of Nissa, it's rotating, that can help me to cast Chandra with other colors. Vizier can help to cast Glorybringer, but he can't help Chandra. Because of her double red casting cost this really limits a version with her as two color instead of three. The possibility of a splash for either black or white is however still an option thanks to energy and Check lands, but for now just two colors is what I'm building with.
This potential Gruul version is using a strategy of ramp, powering a draw engine with a secondary energy theme with Servant of the Conduit, Aether Hub and Harnessed Lightning. It's Elves, Vizier of the Menagerie, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Glorybringer and red creature removal. I'm using an Elf core of 15-16x Elves: 4x Servant of the Conduit, 4x Druid of the Cowl, 3-4x Rishkar, Peema Renegade and 4x Narnam Renegade. Adding to this is the engine of 4x Vizier, 4x Bestiary and 3x Chandra. Red creature removal Abrade and Harnessed fill in the rest.
Here's the first version of Elven Menagerie:
deck-large:elven-menagerie/