Dime a Dozen #112: Elves Come off Their Shelves

Jason dusts off the tribe responsible for some of Pauper’s most degenerate mana! But will the 2-Mans be too manly for these Forest dwellers?

Enjoy!

You can find Jason
on MTGO as BambooRush
and on Twitter @dimecollectorsc.

 
  1. Hi Jason, nice deck, nice videos. I felt one thing that could be improved in that list is getting blue mana more reliably. I would probably try to add more sylvan rangers, civic wayfinders, maybe silhana starfletcher.

  2. I think elves have a hard time dealing with decks packing a lot of removal, because the strength comes from sinergy and not from individual power.

    The second problem with elves is against really fast, non-interactive decks, like infect and kiln. Sometimes those can kill you before you get the chance to set up.

    I would consider for the sideboard (or even the maindeck) cards that can bring a bit more of resiliency. Safehold Elite and Wirewood Herald are decent choices. They might help to keep the elf count high under heavy fire. Another interesting card for that is Llanowar Sentinel, bringing 2 or 3 bodies to the table at once.

    If you go the “search land” route, retrace can be a thing. Monstrify can transform lands into pumps, making the little guys harder to block.

    both prismatic strands and thrill of the hunt are interesting options. Thrill could help you dodge 2 burn spells at a very low cost, also might help in combat. Prismatic strands can help against removal and against infect/kiln fiend decks, it is a versatile card. Adding a few GW elves in the mix will provide ways to flashback strands. Shelter is interesting also, saving a key elf from removal and replacing itself with more elves.

    One thing to consider is having one plain in the sideboard, so you can swap the island or add the plain to the deck, making your landsearch elves give you access to white mana.

    One more thing: I would be careful about keeping the 4 distant melody after sideboard against heavy removal decks. If they kill a lot of your elves, melody becomes a bit of a dead card. I would consider some alternate draw in the sideboard (like deep analisis) or simply swaping those melodies for defenseive spells against some decks.

    Reaping the Graves is interesting to consider (altho I like white better as a support color against removal).

  3. The local shop that I play at has a lot of red based decks (tho we’ll see how that shakes up with Drake leaving) and I’ve been really happy with a mix of Magnify and Spidersilk Armor from the board. The Magnify acted as a way to fight Electricity and also just bring out some surprise wins when have a handful of elves out.