This started out as a fun Elf Deck, but it has grown into a fairly fast deck, capable of turn 3 wins vs goldfish, and with enough mana dork redundancy to handle the loss of a couple. The deck doesn't like matchups that can remove our early dorks, as we don't always draw enough of a given type to replace, but we can usually get to 4 or 5 mana, at which point the deck starts to do work, but it will always slow us down, especially if we don't draw many lands in those matches. The deck generally needs to set up for the first 1-4 turns, and wins on turns 3-5 generally, with turn 4 coming up an awful lot. The way this deck usually plays out is that I ramp up and either drop a fatty, or tutor for one, or CoCo if I don't have enough mana for a big spell, because odds are very good after I CoCo that I will have gobs of mana for next turn.
Collected Company plays pretty well usually, almost always finding me two elves, with no guarantee they will be anything more than bodies on board (9 Llanowar Elves means lots of them show up), meaning I can usually cast a big spell the next turn, which is often turn 4. If I find Archdruids, my elves get a bit taller, which isn't nothing, and Jagged-Scar is always nice to see. Once Upon a Time feels pretty good as the game goes on, it feels like cards that dig for what you want are good, something that playing Blue should make clear, and with this deck's paltry land base Once is a very, very key card actually. It turns most hands that it's in into a keep, which is really nice actually, because this deck struggles if it has to mulligan many cards. Joraga Warcaller is pretty much a win con, and is very likely to be tutored for this purpose. It can also be played early to add to your elf count, or played for 3 to protect your dorks in a pinch. Terastodon is pretty close behind, usually be a bit bigger, and able to clear out a messy board situation all at once, though giving 3 3/3s to your enemy can be risky. Sometimes I just nuke my own lands and drop 18 power on turn 4 and pray they have no wipes, which is usually a safe bet in Legacy. In any situation where people might have a wipe, you should knock out their mana with Terastodon, and just tolerate the 3/3s. I love Primal Command to find creatures to win, but the bounce can be really, really salty, and the life gain can be enough to keep me alive if I don't want to cost them a draw and still want to tutor. The life gain can also power up my Blossoming Bogbeast enough to be quite relevant, something Wellwisher can also do (and redo sometimes). Bogbeast is a sneakily useful card, synergizing with my buffs that don't provide Trample even if I can't gain extra life. A Joraga played at 3 into a Bogbeast is a very plausible turn 3, allowing me a huge swing on turn 4, with each elf getting at least +3 and trample, and I might have played an Elvish Archdruid. Bogbeast also works well with Immaculate Magistrate and Jagged-Scar Archers to provide closing power for otherwise chumpable creatures. Ezuri, Renegade Leader offers a mana sink that can work with infinite mana for example to provide infinite power/toughness and trample, even if Ezuri himself can't attack. The deck can also use a Bogbeast with Instill and cycle between my two Primal Commands to gain infinite life, but that can have things go wrong with it, and Ezuri is nice and compact. He can also work with 5 mana to generate enough board presence to close, even if you've drawn pretty badly.
The Sideboard is very much in progress, but the things I'm looking for are obviously answers to decks that I struggle vs. I feel like some removal is probably fine (and I can afford the big mana for Desert Twister), but I like the idea of adding a bit of a CoCo package with deathtouch reach blockers and 2 more Jagged-Scar to hit flyers. I'd probably put 2 more CoCo in the board then, with the intention of pulling out some of the more sluggish stuff in the hopes of CoCoing out enough of a presence to win off of.
As for a possible avenue to improve, I'm considering a more Staff of Domination build, because it can technically close on turn 3, all my other wins are slower. The problem with going all in on it is that I'd be running even more ramp dorks, and would still be at best a turn 3 combo deck. I can run the full 12 1 drop dorks, and maybe the new Gaea's Cradle dork to put my total high enough to maybe be reliable, it just seems so much less consistent/stable, like I'd lose more games this way to just not having combo. I can't find Staff readily, and I need the draw off it as much as the untap to win, so is it sane to build around getting a 4 of in hand reliably, when you can't afford to mulligan much without losing access to cards? I mean, there are draw elves I guess, I guess I'll have to see. Turn 4 fairly consistent with possible turn 3 seems better than turn 3 sometimes and otherwise usually losing. Are enough Legacy games finished by turn 3?
