Elves of the Swarm (Budget)

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Bant Radiant Elves - Updated: 1-20-18 —Jan. 7, 2018

I'm continuing the strategy of +1/+1 counters and ramp, but now with a radiant twist, adding white and blue. I'm saying goodbye to energy as the main strategy and the name Energy Elves because honestly energy is getting boring to play. Energy is not completely gone though it's still here, but only for Servant of the Conduit and Aether Hub to help fix colors of mana for the three color manabase. Counters are still good with Elves because of Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Metallic Mimic. Yes, I'm welcoming back Mimic because white in my opinion gives Elves a lord, what I need to make Mimic playable.

There's still some nice hidden interactions with counters; Armorcraft Judge I think has potential as well as a new card from RIX that gives me another reason to continue the counters strategy. I've decided to drop black and red in favor of white and blue, going with a Bant manabase. This means also saying goodbye to Winding Constrictor and Harnessed Lightning in favor of a more Elf tribal version. I'm preparing this deck to once again be tribal for the anticipation of Dominaria, the next set in Magic; Elves are in the set. Welcome to Bant Tribal Radiant Elves.

Rivals of Ixalan (RIX) is about to hit Standard and I was hoping for a tribal matters card in the set that could possibly be good enough to change this deck, make it more tribal and move away from energy. Radiant Destiny is it, it has major potential because it gives something Elves in Standard need a three mana lord. It's the reason to play white. Radiant isn't a creature it's an enchantment which is unfortunate, but it's also not legendary which is good because I can have more than one in play giving more pump to my Elven army. All copies of Destiny on the battlefield in my control count toward ascend which is nice.

One of the biggest playable aspects of Destiny is the single white mana in it's casting cost. This is big because Elves are primary green and most anthems that are similar to Destiny such as Always Watching or Glorious Anthem have double white casting costs making it much harder to cast for a manabase that wants green more than any other color.

Ascend is the new mechanic in RIX. If I control 10 permanents I get the city's blessing for the rest of the game; these permanents include lands. Once I get the city's blessing which is represented as a token, like an emblem, I can't lose it for the rest of the game. If my permanent count goes below 10 I don't lose the city's blessing if I already achieved ascend. 10 permanents is not hard to get with Elves making this mechanic have some potential for the tribe. If I have the city's blessing then Destiny gives all my Elves vigilance. Vigilance is a great ability for Elves with counters on them because of Rishkar. A bonus that the tribe can really benefit from.

Hadana's Climb  ^Flip in RIX is a reason to play blue. It can be a counters engine or a win condition land which is very good for three mana. It can be a counters engine because it puts a counter on a creature I control each combat. I get to choose which creature I put the counter on letting me spread out the counters among all my creatures and then when the turn is right put a third counter on a creature and flip Climb.

Climb flips into Winged Temple of Orazca  ^Flip, it can flip the same turn it's played and pump a creature, but this requires seven mana. However, with Rishkar, Peema Renegade and other Elves with counters or Servant of the Conduit this is surprisingly consistently not hard to do. I can play Climb in my first main phase and then at combat put a counter on a creature I control if that creature has three or more counters then Climb flips. Orazca is a powerful land because for only four mana, three mana and tapping it, it gives a creature I control flying as well as doubling it's power and toughness. Orazca can win the game out of nowhere.

Using Orazca's ability can be done at instant speed. I can attack with Elves and then if my biggest creature isn't blocked by a flier or creature with reach I can pump it with Orazca doing potential game winning damage. Likewise, I can simply target the creature who isn't blocked or save a smaller Elf in combat by giving it flying. It's also a Rainbow land; it can tap for any one color of mana which is nice if I'm not using it for it's other ability.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is one over the top monster. Cards with cost reduction are traditionally very good to broken. Ghalta reminds me of delve which is one of the best mechanics printed in Magic. The difference is it doesn't care about cards in the graveyard it cares about the total power among all creatures under my control. The key wording here is power among my creatures. The counters strategy has the ability to put a lot of power into play fast, but this power is most of the time spread out among all my creatures since I want to put at least one counter on each of them. This counters spread is fine with Ghalta since I can count the total power of all my creatures and reduce it's casting cost up to . Ghalta costs 12 total mana to cast, 10 of this cost can be reduced with my creatures power. I can potentially consistently cast a 12/12 trample monster for .

Ramp is an important strategy this deck is using with Rishkar, Peema Renegade and other Elves. Ghalta is a fantastic creature for ramp and particularly good with Rishkar because with 10 power among my creatures including Rishkar I can tap two of them and play Ghalta without even needing lands. Without Rishkar being disrupted, Ghalta has the potential to be cast turn four with Blossoming Defense protection without needing lands which is pretty powerful.

Exile permanently any creature with converted mana cost 3 or less for two mana. Baffling End is the new white removal enchantment to combat tribal decks specially Merfolk, Vamps and Pirates. It can exile a lot of other important creatures in Standard: Servant of the Conduit, Longtusk Cub, Winding Constrictor, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Earthshaker Khenra, Champion of Wits, Walking Ballista, Gifted Aetherborn, Jadelight Ranger, etc. Just about all matchups have a creature who Baffling can exile.

Baffling exiles, but it's not an Oblivion Ring exile effect, any creature exiled with Baffling is permanently exiled. The first drawback is it can't exile a creature with power 4 or greater. This is a big drawback because it can't exile Hazoret the Fervent, The Scarab God or Glorybringer three of the most played and powerful creatures in Standard. The second drawback which is not as bad as it seems is if Baffling is destroyed then my opponent gets a 3/3 Dino token with trample. If my opponent is wasting an enchantment removal spell on Baffling then I'm fine with this play. It's one less removal to stop Radiant Destiny or kill Verdurous Gearhulk. Since Baffling is an enchantment all copies of it in my control count toward ascend for Radiant Destiny which is great.

The Elves

The Elves who are left in Standard care about counters and Rishkar, Peema Renegade stands above the rest for this strategy. He combines the counters with ramp which is what I'm continuing to do with Elves. Vigilance that Radiant Destiny can give Elves is great with his ability to make any Elf who has a counter into a mana Elf. I can attack for the turn with Elves who have counters and then tap them to make mana to play other spells for the turn.

Armorcraft Judge is making his first appearance in this deck as a main Elf for the tribe. The downside of Judge is just like the downside of Metallic Mimic they require other cards to make them good, but with other cards they can be broken. Without having a creature in play with a counter then Judge is not giving me value for four mana. These two Elves need a lord that way they can at least have power that can match their casting costs. Destiny is the new lord for Elves, it in my opinion makes both Judge and Mimic tribal playable. Hadana's Climb  ^Flip can put counters on my creatures it's slow, but I can spread out the counters among all the creatures I control which is good with Judge; the more Elves with counters on them the better.

A strategy built entirely around +1/+1 counters is very good with Judge. It has fantastic interaction with Mimic since Mimic puts a counter on it as it ETB; I get to count Judge as a creature with a counter getting to draw at least one card. Curving Mimic into Rishkar into Judge into Climb or Destiny is the new powerful line I'm going for because this puts a lot of power on the battlefield as well as giving me card advantage, draw. When thinking of a strategy of how I can play Elves to match the new powerful Merfolk and Vampire tribes of RIX, draw from Judge and flying from Climb are it. Merfolk and Vampires both got two drop nonlegendary lords in RIX, these alone can possibly propel them into actual viable tribal decks in Standard.

There's still a very good one drop Elf in Standard, Narnam Renegade and a proven mana Elf Servant of the Conduit. Both are still being played in this deck. Energy is only being used now for mana fixing, making Servant not as good as he can be, but he can still make white or blue mana and help to power Aether Hub for the three color manabase.

Welcome Ajani's Comrade to the tribe. Comrade has trample; trample is a very good ability with pump from Radiant Destiny and counters. Comrade is another possible turn two Elf who can really benefit from a turn three Rishkar, Peema Renegade or Destiny.

Verdurous Gearhulk is back as the top-end creature. It's the only nonElf here and that's because of it's powerlevel for a counters strategy as a counters enabler or finisher. Because Judge is such an important Elf now in the deck I need to play a lot of other cards that can put counters on all my creatures. Verdurous, Riskar, Mimic and Climb are all the counter enablers now making a large portion of the deck dedicated to these enablers. Turn four Gearhulk with ramp from Servant of the Conduit or Rishkar, Peema Renegade is also a perfectly expectable consistently powerful play, putting a lot of power in the from of counters into play.

Other Spells

Because of Radiant Destiny and wanting to achieve ascend, removal main deck are permanents. Cast Out is a fine removal spell that can also be a draw if I want that.

Blossoming Defense is necessary to protect for one mana my biggest creature with counters on the battlefield. The counters strategy requires a lot of resources and mana to build a powerful enough army. Being able to protect or pump a vital Elf to the strategy such as Rishkar, Peema Renegade or Metallic Mimic is important. Protecting and pumping the creature I've targeted with Winged Temple of Orazca  ^Flip can potentially win the game.

Bant Manabase

Bant colors have access to a lot of good dual lands, lots of options for this color combination. Forest, Sunpetal Grove, Botanical Sanctum and Aether Hub is the base for the manabase. There's also Scattered Groves, Irrigated Farmland and Glacial Fortress as more options, but these lands pretty much always ETB tapped which is something I would like to avoid. Scattered and Farmland have synergy with Sunpetal Grove since they count as a Plains, but I'm choosing to only play Scattered because it can make green mana or be a draw if I don't need lands. Aether Hub is a Rainbow land, but I'm not using energy other than it and Servant of the Conduit. Hub can ETB untapped and make either green, white, blue or colorless mana which is amazing.

Final Thoughts

I hadn't planned on changing this deck until Dominaria in April, but two cards from RIX: Radiant Destiny and Hadana's Climb  ^Flip gives me hope that tribal Elves can finally work again. I've decided to cut black and red going instead with Bant colors; these colors let me play Elves, Destiny as a lord and Climb, as a counters engine as well as win condition land. Energy is being reduced to only Servant of the Conduit because he's still the best mana Elf in Standard and Aether Hub, a Rainbow land that always ETB untapped which can benefit from the energy that Servant makes. Energy Elves is no more, the Radiant Elves era begins.

Armorcraft Judge and Ajani's Comrade two Elves who are making their first appearances as main Elves for the tribe. With a dedicated counters strategy Judge can give me a edge in games with draw. Metallic Mimic and Verdurous Gearhulk are back. I cut Mimic quite a while, many versions, ago when this deck was Sultai, but it returns because Destiny is a lord which is what Mimic needs to be tribal playable. Gearhulk returns because it's one of the best enablers for the counters strategy as well as ramp targets and can overall be an excellent finisher.