Elves of the Swarm (Budget)

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Guilds of Ravnica - Updated: Sept. 4 —Sept. 2, 2018

Check out MythicSpoiler for all the revealed cards in GRN: http://mythicspoiler.com/.

Official spoilers for Guilds of Ravnica (GRN) have already started. This is the second return and third time Magic has visited Ravnica. GRN is the first of three new sets on the Ravnica plane and in this set are five of the ten Ravnica guilds: Golgari, Selesnya, Dimir, Izzet and Boros. Of these five guilds I'm most interested in Golgari and Selesnya since Elves have been confirmed to be in both guilds. This update is about spoiled cards from the set that I think have potential with tribal Elves. Including new Elves, new lands, potential new build around cards and cards that put me in different colors other than green.

PAX West happened this weekend and Saturday evening during the Magic GRN presentation new cards from the set were revealed. Most people, including myself, have suspected/hoped, since it just makes sense, that Shock lands (Overgrown Tomb, etc.) will be reprinted in GRN. Well, It's now official that Shock lands have been reprinted, the first five are in the set :) I'll be making updates to this update as more cards in the set are spoiled. Enjoy the return, return to Ravnica.

Jump to colors:

Lands Green Black White Blue Red Colorless

Jump to guilds:

Golgari Dimir Selesyna Boros

Elves

Emmara Tandris is back and this time, wow, she's so much better than her first card. Emmara, Soul of the Accord is the first Selesyna Elf spoiled and she's a good one. In the set convoke is the main mechanic of the Selesnya guild and Emmara looks to be a great two drop enabler. She creates a white Soldier token with lifelink, yes Soldier not Elf, when she becomes tapped. This Solider can then be used the same turn it's created or later to convoke a spell.

A spell with convoke, to use convoke requires that I tap creature(s) I control to reduce the cost of the spell. This is good with Emmara since tapping her to convoke then makes more fuel (creatures) for other spells with convoke. Emmara is both green and white this is versatile with green and white spells with convoke since she can pay one of either one green mana, one white mana or one colorless mana of the spell's cost. Emmara doesn't make Elf tokens which is a huge disappointment, but she's still a two drop Elf. She alone can get benefits from Elf tribal and that's good enough. Song of Freyalise and Mox Amber are cards especially Song that stand out to me as having potential with Emmara. Song can turn Emmara into a mana Elf as well as a token producer for up to turn turns. If I choose to play Selesyna with Elves, Emmara is an excellent early reason.

Underrealm Lich is the first Golgari Elf spoiled, it's a five drop and it's powerful, but not sure if it's for Standard or for tribal Elves. The card art is really amazing and I'm glad Zombie Elves are back. Lich seems to me to be a card that was designed for Commander or Brawl not Standard. It seems like a fun midrange card especially with card drawing in blue and surveil in Dimir, but not with Elves. Lich's draw ability is powerful because it says when I draw a card meaning the card I draw at my draw step counts. Instead of drawing a card for the turn at my draw step I get to look at the top three cards of my library and choose one of them, the other two are then put into my graveyard. Undergrowth is the Golgari mechanic in the set and it cares about how many creatures are in my graveyard. Lich is an undergrowth enabler putting up to two possible creatures a turn into my graveyard, but it's a five drop which makes it very slow.

Five drops in Standard need to be one of three things to be playable: they need to have an ETB ability (give me some kind of value), or have haste, or be completely busted if I untap with it alive then it could win the game (The Scarab God). Lich is not the Scarab God because he can't actually use the cards I put into my graveyard from his ability and he doesn't have an ability to draw a card. Lich only has 3 toughness which is not good for a five drop. The best thing going for Lich as a five drop is his ability to save himself from most removal for no mana cost, only the cost of 4 life. This means I can tap out to play him and have to worry less about him being killed before my next turn. Lich can also save himself from nonSettle the Wreckage board wipes. Unfortunately, the mythic rare Golgari Elf doesn't make me want to play Golgari with Elves :(

Lands

The Shock lands are a big help for Elves because two of them (Overgrown Tomb and Temple Garden) of the five in the set can ETB untapped turn one (for the cost of 2 life) to make green mana, allowing me to play Llanowar Elves turn one. This is also very good with Steel Leaf Champion making it easier to play other colors with green and still play Champion on curve. All ten Check lands (Woodland Cemetery, etc.) are already in Standard and Check lands have fantastic interaction with Shock lands because Shocks are two types of basic land types. Manabases of the guilds that are in the set can technically have 12 dual lands (4x Tomb, 4x Cemetery, 4x Foul Orchard) making color fixing really good in Standard. Wedges and shards (Abzan, Sultai, Jeskai, Naya, Grixis) that can use two Shock lands are also well-set to be really good in Guilds of Ravnica Standard.

Of the green wedges (Abzan, Sultai and Temur) Abzan is the only one in this set that can use two green Shock lands. This makes it a very attractive color combination to play with Elves because of Llanowar. It also helps that Elves are in both Golgari and Selesnya guilds. Sultai can use two Shocks, but only one green Shock land. Temur has zero green Shock lands from the set to use making it pretty much unplayable until Jan. 2019. The green shards (Jund, Bant and Naya) of these Jund and Bant are less attractive color combinations because they all can only use one Shock land from this set. Naya can use two Shocks including one green Shock making it the most attractive shard in the set. As far as only wanting to splash red (Grand Warlord Radha, Banefire) as third color in the manabase than Jund and Naya are options.

Green

Impervious Greatwurm is the Guilds of Ravnica buy-a-box promo card. Like Nexus of Fate *list* it's also a mythic rare, but unlike Nexus I think it's much less of a problem that it's the buy-a-box promo. Greatwurm is 16/16, it's the biggest creature with the most power/toughness in Magic, yes even bigger than Emarkul... Greatwurm has convoke which makes it a much better card because it can technically be cast for free if I have 10 creatures including three green creatures. Getting 10 creatures or even seven with tokens can still be difficult, but Emmara, Soul of the Accord and other convoke spells can help a lot.

I don't think Greatwurm is better than Ghalta, Primal Hunger and they will both be in Standard for the same amount of time. Ghalta's mana cost reduction is better than Greatwurm's because Ghalta doesn't care about how many creatures are in play only the total power of the creatures I control which is much better with Elves because of Steel Leaf Champion and Thorn Lieutenant's pump. Greatwurm has indestructible whereas Ghalta has trample. I think trample is more important on a big creature with a lot of power who can be cheated into play than indestructible. I could be completely wrong about Greatwurm it could along with convoke or Thud dominate Standard, just have to wait and see.

Black

Necrotic Wound is the first card spoiled with undergrowth. It's pretty good for an uncommon, lets hope this is a sign that the power level of uncommons in this set is high. Undergrowth is the new Golgari guild mechanic. Wound looks good for only one mana and it's an instant. It's very situational though since it doesn't do anything unless I have some creatures, realistically at least three, in my graveyard. If I do and the creature I target dies that turn then it's exiled which is a huge bonus.

I like Wound with three or more creatures in my graveyard as a one mana instant answer to Rekindling Phoenix. Phoenix is a very annoying creature because it can keep being reanimated by sacing the token for free the following upkeep after it dies. It can't be reanimated if it's exiled and I'm pretty sure if it dies from Wound then my opponent doesn't get a token (not sure on the ruling of priority effects). Wound can be good as a combat trick to give my opponent's creature -X/-X equal to the number of creatures in my graveyard. Even if this is only -1/-1 it's possible that the creature could still die than be exiled after combat and for my creature to live. It's early, but I need more cards as enablers to get creatures into my graveyard; so far Wound doesn't make me want to play black.

White

Conclave Tribunal is a new Oblivion Ring removal spell for Standard and it's a good one. First powerful uncommon in the set and has potential to be a real staple in Standard. Any deck playing white with creatures wants this card because of convoke. Convoke pushes this card to great territory because it can technically be cast for free with only four creatures or for two with only two creatures and two lands. More times than not in white creature decks this will be a two drop exile any nonland permanent removal spell and that's powerful especially with Emmara, Soul of the Accord.

I get value from using Emmara to convoke Conclave and she makes any other additional copies of Conclave even better because she makes creatures. She can also pay when convoking for the one white mana requirement to cast Conclave. Elves with vigilance (Radiant Destiny) seem very good with Conclave and convoke. I'm a big fan of convoke with Elves and this card alone makes we want to play white.

Blue

Unexplained Disappearance looks like a very good instant two drop tempo spell for blue. Bouncing my opponent's creature and then getting to look at the top of my library and choose if I want to keep the card there or put it into my graveyard. In my opinion the power of surveil lies in the one and two drop instants or creatures as graveyard enablers. Reanimation strategies will like Disappearance since it's early game pseudo removal to slow down opponent while being an enabler to get a possible creature into the graveyard at the same time. For Elves blue is the most difficult color to splash with green due to Guilds of Ravnica post rotation land situation. Disappearance is a two drop it's not a card you splash for, it requires blue as the primary or secondary color of the manabase. Until Jan. 2019 I don't think the land choices are good enough to play blue with Elves other than a splash.

Golgari

Split cards are back as well as hybrid mana in set. Status / Statue is the first split card spoiled and the second powerful uncommon in the set. It seems amazingly versatile for Golgari because both halves of the card are instants and both halves can be removal spells. Status is only one mana and Statue is four. Status can be cast as long as I have a creature in the early game (turns 2-3) and then Statue can be cast in the mid game (turns 4-5) to late game (turns 6 and above).

Status is the return to hybrid mana, it's one mana (cast it with either one green or one black) it gives an Elf a pump and deathtouch. This is a strong combat trick that can turn an Elf into a creature removal spell (deathtouch) in combat. Statue is not hybrid mana instead it's Golgari colors which is also good, much easier on a primary green manabase than if it was . Being able to destroy one of three different types of cards for four mana at instant speed is great. These new split cards don't have fuse which allows me to combine the total mana cost of each side of the card and get both effects. I can only use one of Status or Statue then the card is put into my graveyard. This is the first Golgari card that makes we want to play Golgari with Elves.

Dimir

Thought Erasure is yet another good uncommon in the set. It's discard of any nonland permanent and it has surveil 1. Surveil is the new Dimir guild mechanic. One drop and two drop surveil cards have real potential in Standard because surveil is an enabler for the graveyard. The faster I can put cards into my graveyard the better graveyard strategies are. As a graveyard enabler it combines very nicely with explore (Merfolk Branchwalker) at getting cards into my graveyard. Unlike explore though surveil doesn't give me card advantage. If I reveal a land with explore than I put it into my hand if not a land I choose to put the card on top of my library or into my graveyard. With surveil I don't put any cards into my hand I simply choose if I want to put the cards on top of my library or put them into my graveyard.

Thought is a two drop in Dimir colors and two drop discard is very frowned upon in Magic. Discard is playable at one mana (Duress, Thoughtseize, etc.) at two mana it's much less playable with a few exceptions being Hymn to Tourach and Transgress the Mind (when it was legal in Standard). Duress is in Standard and will be for as long as Thought is, this might be a problem for Thought. For Elves Duress is superior because it's one black mana and it can take Settle the Wreckage, removal or a Planeswalker. Because of Duress I don't see Thought as a card that puts me in black or blue.