Magic: the Gathering - The Resurrection

[Izulde]

I forgot to mention a couple updates ago that I also added Soul Attendant (Gain 1 life every time a creature comes into play).

Dropped
Launch the Fleet
Outpost Siege
Impetuous Sunchaser
Nav Squad Commandos
Expedition Map

Added
Sol Ring
Walking Atlas
Soul Warden
Wojek Halberdiers
Fortune Thief

Sol Ring and Walking Atlas are mana ramps. Soul Warden is gain 1 life every time a creature enters play. Wojek Halberdiers is 1R1W for 3/2 and battalion with at least 2 other creatures attacking gives it first strike. Fortune Thief means any damage that would take me to less than 1 life, my life total moves to 1. It's 4C1R, or I can play it as a 3C morph, then flip it for 2R. So it's expensive to cast, especially since it's a 0/1 creature who won't contribute anything unless Doors or Coat of Arms is out, but it's still a nice nerf effect that allows me to last longer.

We're now at the point where I have to hem and haw over what gets cut.

And don't forget, Yuan Shao is still on his way. The Plateau will probably take the place of a Mountain, so that's an easy one.

So if Gisela and the elephant pop in today... I'll likely drop Secure the Wastes, as I don't see it having much value when my mana is going to be spent elsewhere, and seems like a win-more con, rather than helping me when I'm behind. And probably Word of Seizing, since it's a 5 mana (3C2R) single shot control of a permanent.

[Izulde]

Unfortunately the event got cancelled because the air conditioning broke down at the store. Boo.

I'm rethinking Walking Atlas' inclusion, as its mana ramp is only effective if I have two lands in hand, which is likely only to happen in the first few turns. As a late game draw, he's not very useful.

Borderland Marauder was an underrated card on the Saturday night games, by the way. Although a 1/2, she becomes a 3/2 when attacking, which with the Warhammer made her a 6/2 when attacking with trample and lifelink.

Also, Angel of Glory's Rise became a 7/6 flier with first strike, trample, and lifelink with the Warhammer on her plus Archetype of Courage out.

A lot of my current creatures have first strike and/or vigilance built in, so I'm pondering Heliod's utility in this deck. Then again, with the amount of white, getting five white devotion to make him a 5/6 indestructible isn't difficult.

I considered removing Combat Medic because I felt like indestructible duplicated Iroas' damage prevention ability. Nope! Destruction is different from damage, even though damage can destroy a creature. Confusing? Welcome to Magic!

Also, the protections only apply to creatures while attacking. Once the combat phase ends, and the second main phase is entered into, they can once again be damaged and/or destroyed. And the protections don't prevent exile effects or cards that would take their toughness to 0, because reducing a creature's toughness to 0 is a state-based effect, not damage or a destroy effect. That's the two ways to get rid of indestructible things - exile them, or reduced their toughness to 0 if they're a creature.

[BYU 14]

Ho about adding Dormant Volcano, have to pull back a Mountain when playing it, but from then on 1 red and 1 colorless mana every turn.

[Izulde]

A bounceland is a possibility, but if I do that, I'm going with Boros Garrison for RW rather than CR.

[Izulde]

Went to an informational meeting about learning to be a judge today. The shop is still closed due to AC issues, so it was held elsewhere. Very interesting, and while I'm probably not ready for that step, it's a cool option to keep in the back of my mind.

Played a couple games of Judge Tower. The rules of that format are everyone shares a library. Infinite mana, infinite life. If it's possible for you to perform an action, you must perform that action immediately. You lose if you don't perform the action when you can, or when you're asked about the game state and don't answer correctly.

First game I lost because I cast something during my draw step. I wasn't sure if it was still draw step or main phase. At first I thought it was main, then the judge was like "Are you sure?" And then I debated aloud with myself as to when exactly the draw step ended - was it when I drew the card, or was it when the stack resolved, with the card draw the last step of the stack? I stuck to main and was wrong.

Second game I lost because I didn't immediately tap a land after playing it. Simple mistakes, but provoking.

So everyone is still playing Judge Tower, and after a couple guys drop out, I ask if they want to play EDH/Commander. One says sure, but has a couple things to do first, so asks me to meet him at another table.

I go to the table, and am set up and shuffling, when another guy comes by and says, "Hey is that an EDH deck?" "Yeah." "Wanna play?" I hesitated a moment, but first guy was on the phone still, so said sure. We start going through the mulligan phase when first guy comes by and asks if he can join, since we haven't started play. I say sure. Then a fourth guy sees what's happening and asks to join as well. No problem. *Then* a fifth guy says, "Wait, you guys are playing EDH?! I want in!"

So it went from me setting up from a 1 v 1 to a 5 way EDH game.

As luck would have it, I draw Leyline of Sanctity in my opening hand, and Leylines in your opening hand can be played without having to pay the mana cost before the game. I happily put it in play (it would later save my bacon in preventing my creatures from getting sacrificed).

Accorder Paladin is my first actual play, and Loxodon Warhammer hits the board next turn, to the uh ohs from the rest of the group. Next turn, I equip it to the Paladin and start swinging at open boards (ie no creatures in play for those opponents). I gain 6 life every turn as a result, and get up to 68 life at one point. My girl Monastery Swiftspear is in, as Heliod, and while the Swiftspear never gets huge, she gets to 3 power a couple of times. Iroas makes an appearance as well, and Heliod is officially online.

Then a guy I've whittled to 7, who has Child of Alara as his commander, but refuses to play it despite the table's advice. Then he Black Sun's Zeniths for 2 to kill my Paladin and Swiftspear, thereby taking Heliod offline, and keeping himself alive.

More board wipe stuff happens as a result of a Norin player, and I'm able to play Mob Rule for the first time ever, knocking 8 life off the guy I view as the biggest threat (running a Wizards deck). The Wizards guy eventually wins, and though I scooped when his combo went off, I essentially took 2nd, because he couldn't kill my 68 life in one turn - only knock me down to 20something.

He would have wiped me out next turn, because his hand was full of counterspells and it'd have taken me a few turns to build back up (I only had 6 mana available at the time - missed a lot of land drops despite 38 lands in the deck).

I bought a couple Avacyn Restored packs and a Conspiracy pack. Nothing too exciting in those, but then I saw an Avacyn Restored sealed box for $150, and the temptation proved too much.

I've only opened 5 of the 36 packs so far, but I've already gotten some interesting cards that could cause a remodel of the Iroas deck - but we'll have to wait and see what happens once the other 31 are opened.

I also drew one of the mythic rares on pack 5, which made me quit for the night on a great note:



In certain cases, she can be a wincon if she survives long enough to Ultimate. But I need to research more for the best possible ways to use her for that, and decide what colors I want to build with her other than blue. Blue/White control and blink is a possibility, but so is Blue/Green with ramp fun - plus Doubling Season, which is $30ish, means I can ultimate her the minute she hits the board if she's not countered or removed. Doubling Season would also allow me to ultimate Vraska, the Unseen and Garruk, Apex Predator incidentally, so would be a fit in either my Glissa deck, or the hypothetical deck built with Tamiyo as a core piece.

So... stuff to think about.

[Izulde]

What a week it's been Magic wise. Cliff Notes: Opened up the rest of my Avacyn Restored boosters, reworked my Commander deck during FNM (I avoid Modern), and played the prerelease event. Oh, I got a few games of EDH in before the prerelease event.

But all that will have to come when I'm not so flipping tired.

[BYU 14]

So if you go green/blue what do you use for a commander?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

So if you go green/blue what do you use for a commander?

Currently the best green/blue option I have is Prime Speaker Zegana. But I'm also pondering blue/white with a general I have, so it's going to be a wait and see thing for that. I do, however, have a new general to rework my Glissa deck into:



Unlike Glissa, who really needs to be built around artifacts to be truly a competitive deck, Teneb opens up a lot of different possibilities because of his reanimate/steal effect, and being Abzan colors as opposed to the B/G limitations of Glissa or the G/W limitations of Dragonlord Dromoka - just to name the previous two generals of my essentially elf tribal deck.

The last time I went tri-color general was Surrak Dragonclaw (R/G/U), who also headed up the elf tribal. But with Teneb, I think I can *finally* break out of that mindset (which was largely based on the fact that the original Green commander deck I bought to get started in EDH is elf tribal).

But I'll reserve discussion of Teneb for another time. The next post is going to be about prelease tournament for Origins, and Friday night in general.

[Izulde]

I text Merchantess Friday morning and ask if she and Mr. Merchantess are going anywhere for prerelease, and it turns out my old Standard place is where they're going, and that they'll give a ride. Awesome.

We get stop for food on the way (Carl's Jr), and get to the shop in time for FNM, which is Modern. I have no interest in Modern (though Merchantess later said she would have loaned me one of her Modern decks, which was really cool of her), and besides I wanted to take time to rework my Iroas EDH deck.

Suffice it to say, the changes were substantial, and involved a lot of tough cuts, due to the pulls I got from the Avacyn Restored box. I won't talk about all of them, but I do want to mention the two other money cards I got from the AR box:



The card for whom the set is named. Powerful, oh so fucking powerful. Was at $34.something when I opened it last week - now it's up to $35, and will probably creep up more as time goes by. There's a guy on the local Magic FB page who has an Angels Commander deck built around this card, and everyone has just been like, "...Your mana curve is too high, bro." And a fellow Iroas player commented that he'd had an Iroas Angels deck not too far off from that angels deck, but realized that the mana curve was too high, so he shifted to Soldiers/Angels.

And then the *other* card I pulled...



BAAAAAM! Remember when this was $43.97 a few weeks ago? It's up to $49 now. See, the thing is, Avacyn Restored didn't have a huge open rate, compared to say, Khans of Tarkir where freaking EVERYONE was opening packs of that. So the rare cards from the Avacyn Restored set that are good have a higher value.

...Which means I probably should have bought Gisela when I had the chance. Nope. She's actually dropped slightly, at $11.06. Really need to get her today.

In any event, those cards both hit the deck faster than you can say, "Thrun is balla." Long story short, I reworked the deck to try and lower the mana curve overall, having greater concentration in the 1-3 range, and reserving the high mana cost for the true finishers.

Drops
Land
Reliquary Tower

Creatures (9)
Bloodfire Enforcers
Children of Korlis
Dragon-Style Twins
Dromoka Warrior
Herald of Dromoka
Palace Guard
Seeker of the Way
Tivadar of Thorn
Walking Atlas (Artifact)

Planeswalker (1)
Ajani Goldmane

Enchantments (2)
Spear of Heliod (Artifact)
Spirit Loop

Instants (3)
Secure the Wastes
Silence
Word of Seizing

Additions
Land (1)
Cavern of Souls

Creatures (8) (-1)
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Devout Chaplain (Foil)
Kessig Malcontents
Kruin Striker
Lightning Mauler
Nearheath Pilgrim
Riot Ringleader
Zealous Conscripts (Foil)

Artifacts (2) (+2)
Otherworld Atlas
Vessel of Endless Rest

Enchantments (2) (NC)
Cathars' Crusade
Commander's Authority

Instants (3) (NC)
Battle Hymn
Cursebreak
Dangerous Authority

Basically, the creature swaps are about Human things, soulbonding (pairing creatures together to give them some type of ability), artifact/enchantment exiling, and of course, indestructibility. The Zealous Conscripts allow for stealing of a thing as well.

Enchantments see us exchange recurrable lifelink and minor buff/creature revenge destruction for repeatable buffs (+1/+1 counter every time a creature comes into play under my control), and the ability to have a 1/1 Human enter the battlefield on my upkeep (which triggers Coat of Arms and Cathars' Crusade - but *not* Door of Destinies, because it's an enchantment effect, not a spell I cast).

Instants, we're moving out a one shot token generator that doesn't have synergy with the rest of our deck, a one shot permanent stealer, and a white thing that I thought was a counterspell, but isn't. Coming in we have a one shot red mana boost, a one shot enchantment destroyer/minor lifegain, and a 2 card draw that's useful when I have an empty hand, or a 1 or 2 card hand that's dead.

Artifacts is about group hug card draw (though *very* slow to get going), and minor mana ramp and moving a card from graveyard to bottom of the library.

So once that's done (and I may make a couple more tweaks before today), I see a guy I know a little from before, but I can't remember if I ever named him. I'll call him Jolly, though, because I forgot his other name if I did. Anyway, Jolly dropped out of Modern after losing his first couple rounds, so I ask him if he has an EDH deck, and upon learning he does, if he wants to play. He does and does.

Jolly plays his fair deck whose commander I don't remember, and I, of course, have my Iroas deck.

Game #1
Champion of the Parish is my Turn 1 play, and he gets very big, very quickly, thanks to my having a lot of opening low mana humans in my hand. Iroas hops out, and it's looking like I'm going to win easily, when Jolly gets out Platinum Angel, which means nobody can win or lose the game. But I had out Devout Chaplain, and enough humans on board to exile Platinum Angel, so I won that one, too.

Game #2
Man, this game SUCKED! I was red mana screwed, yet flooded with white mana, and most of my opening hand was red. *Finally* I get Vessel of Endless Rest, which tap ability is add a mana of any color to my pool, and I rode that 1 red mana to build up the board state and come back for the win.

Then a third guy shows up and asks if he can play. We say sure. He plays Zur the Enchanter. Jolly brings out Narset, Enlightened Master, because he's no longer playing nice after getting steamrolled twice in a row by Iroas.

Game #3
I build up board state and aggressively attack via random dice rolls to choose my opponent while the others work on building their combos. I see Grim Monolith and I'm thinking to myself I need to blow that shit up before infinite mana hits. I didn't, for some stupid reason, and the infinite mana + Exsanguinate combo hits, losing us the game.

Game #4
End game is the same as Game #3, but in this one, I hit Zealous Conscripts, stole Zur, and attacked him with his own commander. Unfortunately, the enchantment I fetched (has to be 3 or less casting cost) was Banishing Light to try and blow up Hermit Druid that Jolly was playing... and he managed to protect it. Then Zur guy wiped the Druid out next turn, and Jolly suddenly wasn't so jolly. It was a rough night for EDH for him, for sure.

After that, we packed up. With an hour left before prerelease, Jolly and I somehow ended up at the same food place and chatted about the prerelease before heading back.

By that time, it was gametime...

[Izulde]

Side note: My Yuan Shao was supposed to have shown up by now. It hasn't. If it isn't here by the time I get home from work Monday, I'm contacting the seller to find out what happened.

So... Origins... the storyline of this set is the origins of five planeswalkers:

White: Gideon
Black: Liliana
Blue: Jace
Red: Chandra
Green: Nissa

I'm a little surprised Gideon and Nissa made it in over Ajani and Garruk respectively, but Liliana, Jace, and Chandra are no-brainers for their respective colors.

I debated between White, Green, and Red for my color, but ultimately went with White.

The following card was my foil promo: Suspicious Activity Blocked | Distil

Yeah. Cool card, but absolute shit in value, and I got shit for value overall in my 6 packs + seeded color pack. Needless to say, I was fairly well pissed off, especially since the guy next to me pulled a Jace and a Gideon, I think it was. Someone else pulled a foil Nissa in his green box.

Still, despite my aggravation, I put together the following deck, figuring I'd go 0-4 because sucky pulls suck:

Lands (17)
10x Plains
7x Forests

Artifacts (1)
1x Alchemist's Vial (Card draw ETB effect, 1 mana and sac so target creature can't attack or block this turn)

Creatures (14)
3x Cleric of the Forward Order (2/2; ETB effect gain 2 life for each creature controlled named Cleric of the Forward Order)
2x Consul's Lieutenant (2/1, First Strike, Renown: 1, Whenever attacks, if renowned, other attacking creatures I control get +1/+1 until end of turn)
1x Elvish Visionary (ETB effect card draw, 1/1)
1x Orchard Spirit (2/2, can't be blocked except by creatures with reach or flying)
1x Patron of the Valiant (4/4, flying, ETB effect add +1/+1 counter to each creature I control with a +1/+1 counter on it)
1x Pharika's Disciple (2/3, deathouch, Renown 1
1x Rhox Maulers (4/4, Trample, Renown 2)
1x Sentinel of the Eternal Watch (4/6, Vigilance, At the beginning of combat step on each opponent's turn, tap target creature that player controls)
1x Somberwald Alpha (3/2, whenever a creature I control is blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn, 1C1G Target creature I control gains trample until end of turn)
1x Topan Freeblade (2/2, Vigilance, Renown 1)
1x Valeron Wardens (1/3, Renown 2, Whenever a creature I control becomes renowned, draw a card)

Enchantments (1)
1x Mantle of Webs (creature gets +1/+3 and reach)

Instants (4)
1x Might of the Masses (Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature you control)
2x Reclaim (Return target card from your graveyard to the top of your library)
1x Vine Snare (Prevent all combat damage dealt by creatures 4 or less this turn)

Sorceries (3)
1x Tragic Arrogance (read above link)
2x Wild Instincts (Target creature I control gets +2/+2 until end of turn and fights target creature opponent controls)

Things I've learned from prior 40 card formats (prerelease and draft):
1. Unless you're playing burn or mill, make sure you have enough creatures.
2. Card draw is of utmost importance.
3. Removal is at a premium.

At 14 out of 23 non-land cards as creatures, and 3 ways of getting card draw, I was doing okay. And for removal, I had the 3 sorceries. Still, I felt like this deck was going to be weak.

Round 1
Playing against a guy who was black/green. Game 1, Tragic Arrogance bails me out of a sticky situation, and I get the win. Game 2, Tragic Arrogance saves the day again, although as he pointed out afterwards, I missed my renown trigger on Rhox Maulers a trillion times and he was dead long before that. 2-0 win for me, and I'm surprised.

Round 2
Went up against the dude who pulled the foil Nissa, and I'm like uh oh. He's playing blue/green, which is a smart combo if he got the right cards in his box, because blue has the most draw power, and quicker chance of getting Nissa. Game 1, I have Rhox Maulers out, and he casts an enchantment to permanently tap Maulers. No problem. i cast Patron of the Valiant, and he can't stop the flying, so I win.

Game 2, he's well aware of my having Rhox Maulers and Patron of the Valiant. I have both in my hand. Maulers are 4 mana cost; Patron 5. I decide to play Maulers and see if he A) has the paralyzing card, and B) he'll take the bait. The answer to both is yes. He remarks, "Now watch, you'll topdeck* that damn Angel". I chuckle and say, "Funny thing is.... *taptaptaptaptap* ...I had it in my hand the whole time." Commence swearing from my opponent, and doubly so when Might of the Masses hits to deal him 9 points of damage. He gets Nissa out, but by that point, he has 4 life left, and though he manages to freeze the Patron a couple times, it's just delaying the inevitable.

Afterwards he mentions that he screwed up by not holding the paralyze for the Angel, and that his 0/6 wall would have stopped my Rhox Maulers. I pointed out that I simply would have Might of the Masses on the Maulers instead, trampled over the wall, and gotten renown on the Maulers anyway.
Still, that's another 2-0 win for me, and suddenly I'm 4-0 in games played, 2-0 in matches, and I'm guaranteed 7 packs of Origins boosters. I'm also wondering WTF is going on. I mean, I'm usually decent at 40 card formats, but nothing like this.

Round 3
I go up against an amazing mono white deck. Mono color decks are rare in limited. He's also gone 4-0 his first two matches. Game 1, he squashes me. Game 2, I make him sweat by his own admission, but he pulls out the win. I'm cool with this.

Round 4
The store recently flipped owners, and I draw one of the new owners for the last round. If I go 3-1, I get 11 packs. 2-2, I stay at 7 packs. I joke to the guy (who obliterated me the one Modern tournament I did play here), that, "There goes my shot at 11 packs."

Game 1, much as I have a lot of times, I get out an early Cleric of the Forward Order. This is a a tight, white-knuckle affair, but I pull out the win thanks to Patron of the Valiant Order. White Mono Guy is watching the game with interest, since he beat us in Rounds 1 and 2, and he commented that it was a really close game. New Owner says, "Yeah, but he hit me with that Angel, and I couldn't get out an answer to it." Foil Nissa guy overhears this and says, "Same fucking thing happened to me."

Game 2, for the second time that night, I get out *2* Cleric of the Forward Orders early to go up to 26 life. This time, when I get out Patron of the Valiant (I was seriously lucky with the number of times I pulled it), he has out a guy with Reach to stop it. Cue up Wild Instincts to eliminate that threat, and he just couldn't find any of his other flier or reach cards to stay alive.

2-0, and I go 6-2 through the 4 rounds, and win 11 booster packs of Origins!!!!


The bounty

Heroes of the Night
Suspicious Activity Blocked | Distil

The ETB effect only kicked in once, but this was a limited format that had very few fliers in the meta I was playing in, so he wreaked a lot of havoc. Would he make it in competitive play? *Maybe* EDH, but even that's doubtful, and would require very specific types of decks. Perhaps a heroic Standard deck, too. But even that's iffy. Still, I'll always be fond of this card because of tonight.

Suspicious Activity Blocked | Distil

I really like the fight mechanic if the buff is big enough. In this format, it was, and served as my de facto removal spell by tossing it on one of my bigger guys, which when cast in my first main phase, had the effect of having clear the board for my large dudes to then charge through for damage.

Suspicious Activity Blocked | Distil

The stack effect on these was great. Not as useful in 60 card, but for 40 card? Hell yeah!

Suspicious Activity Blocked | Distil

Designed to be the finisher in every deck that had it. In Round 1, both of us had these guys out, but then I cast Wild Instincts on my Rhox Maulers to take out his Rhox Maulers. These guys were phenomenal. Either they got me the win, as they did in Round 1, both games, or they served as decoys like they did in Round 2. Can't remember if I pulled them Round 3 or 4.. I don't think so, though. Still a winner of a card in limited. Actually a pretty damn useful card, and I'm a little surprised it's a common.

Merchantess went 2-2, and Mr. Merchantess went 1-3 after a really horrible misplay on his part that could have salvaged a 2-2. I wasn't the only one to make that renown mistake, however. Another guy I was talking to outside between rounds made the same error, and it cost him not just the game, but the match.

Anyway, Merchantess asked to see my deck that went 3-1, and she said, "Wow, that's actually a really strong deck." And I mentioned Mono White, and both of them laughed. Mr. Merchantess said, "Yeah, Racer X is really, really good. He can put together a great deck out of a crap pile of cards."

11 packs... even in the draft tournament I won, I only got 7 packs. This is the biggest haul I've gotten yet, and 40 card formats are still my strongest.

[BYU 14]

Knowing your love for all things elf, origins has some really sweet cards. I put together a G/B Elves deck and Shaman of the Pack is absolutely busted. It has singlehandedly won me no fewer than a dozen games in magic on line.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Knowing your love for all things elf, origins has some really sweet cards. I put together a G/B Elves deck and Shaman of the Pack is absolutely busted. It has singlehandedly won me no fewer than a dozen games in magic on line.

Damn. Just damn. This and pulling Planeswalker Lilliana might get me back into Standard.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Damn. Just damn. This and pulling Planeswalker Lilliana might get me back into Standard.

It is actually now directly responsible for over half my wins. Winning about 80% with this deck.

[Izulde]

what's your decklist?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

what's your decklist?

Creatures
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Gnarlroot Trapper
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Shaman of the Pack
3 Thornbow Archer
3 Leaf Gilder
3 Sylvan Messenger
3 Dwynen Gilt-Leaf Daen
2 Llanowar Empath

Spells
4 Collected Company
2 Ultimate Price

Lands
8 Forest
4 Swamps
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Jungle Hollow (Will replace these with Temple of Malady at some point)

Sideboard
3 Pharika God of Affliction (These will be replaced with Nissa, Vastwood Seer which will go main deck over the Messengers)
3 Hero's Downfall
2 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Naturalize
2 Unmake the Graves
1 Ultimate Price

[Izulde]

Just got a huge deal from a local shop... Got 4x Shaman of the Pack, 2x Thornbow Archer, 3x Leaf Glider, 2x Dwynen's Elite, 2x Dwynen Gilt-Leaf Daen... for $4.75. Completely forgot about Collected Company until now but maybe I can pick that up before GameDay event tomorrow.

[Izulde]

Lilliana's Elves V. 1
Lands (20)
9x Forests
7x Swamps
4x Jungle Hollow

Creatures (36)
1x Brutal Hordechief
3x Dwynen's Elite
2x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daean
4x Elvish Mystic
2x Elvish Visionary
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
3x Gnarlroot Trapper
5x Leaf Glider*
1x Lilliana, Heretical Healer
2x Llanowar Empath
1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
4x Shaman of the Pack
3x Sylvan Messenger
4x Thornbow Archer

* - This is illegal, and it was an honest mistake on my part. Good to know though, as that's a cut.

Artifacts (2)
1x Angel's Tomb
1x Sigil of Valor

Instants (1)
1x Might of the Masses

Enchantments (1)
1x Palace Siege

Round 1
Went up against an Abzan deck. Game 1, he squashed me, and I'm thinking this deck is really underpowered. Game 2, I get out Angel's Tomb and Sigil of Valor, and keep hitting him with flying damage that he can't answer, because all his removals are sorceries or monocolor creatures, neither of which help him against Angel's Tomb, which turns into a 3/3 flier every time a creature comes into play under my control. But just when I'm about to win, he casts two Feed the Clans for 20 life, and comes back to win it. After the game, he congratulated me on the surprise insertion of Angel's Tomb, which isn't normally see in these decks. Not a single Shaman of the Pack in either game.

Round 2
A dreaded mirror match. His decklist was very close to BYU 14's. First game, I lose because I attacked at the wrong time. This is also the game that saw Brutal Hordechief hit the battlefield, leading to lots of jokes from people nearby about an orc leading an elf army. Second game, I'm down to 3 life when I get Palace Siege out. He's sitting at 14 life. Naturally, I choose the gain 2 life, opponent loses 2 life, on my upkeep. And that drain and gain is ultimately what wins me the game, even when he could have Nissa, Sage Animist creature/planeswalker's ultimate go off. So Palace Siege, another surprise inclusion, got me the win. Third game, it's back and forth until I double-block his Dwynen, Gilt-leaf Daean, while keeping mine alive. Shaman of the Pack hit the table multiple times on both sides. The guy was mad about losing, too, though he's a cool, laid back dude overall, who has a carefree attitude while playing. He's also the one who had the foil Nissa in the prerelease. Beat him then, too, as you'll recall. In one game, I don't remember which one, Shaman of the Ways hit the board, which not only got props, but provided a great mana source to get more board presence.

So at 1-1, having gone 0-2 and 2-1, I still have an outside shot at Top 4...

Round 3
First game, I place my Shaman of the Packs right to drain him down, and then was able to finish him off because he only had 3 blockers to my elf swarm coming in. Erebos, God of the Dead made his first appearance in this one. Second game, he gets out Managorger Hydra, who fucks my world up. I still manage to come close to coming back, thanks to Shaman of the Pack, Might of the Masses, and Sigil of Valor, but it just wasn't enough. Third game, I got the land pocket from hell, and it was all she wrote. Oh, and I was up against yet another Abzan deck.

Heroes of the Afternoon
Shaman of the Pack
While not *quite* a wincon as such the way I played it (though it did get me the Game 3 win in the mirror match as a finisher), it's still a fantastic card that really drives this deck.

Palace Siege
It literally won me a game, so of course it's going to go here.

Shaman of Forgotten Ways
The mana ramp is real, and perfect for this deck. Although he got killed once, when he was able to stay on board, he was brilliant.

Sigil of Valor
Put me in position to come back and/or win the game twice, and even though it failed both times,

Duds of the Afternoon
Brutal Hordechief
Good idea in theory. In practice, he wasn't the finisher I anticipated, so he's going to get dropped. It also goes against the minor exalted theme I have going with Sigil of Valor and Might of the Masses.

Lilliana, Heretical Healer
Hit the board twice, but couldn't manage to pop her either time. I think it came down to bad luck, however, because she's quite easy to turn into a Planeswalker.

Overall Thoughts
This deck is competitive, but it's not a top tier deck. Languish hits the field, and it's good night. Which is why I'm surprised BYU 14 has ~80% win rate. But it just might be that my meta runs heavy on Abzan, so I can expect to see Languishes.

There's a distinct lack of punch, in addition to that very real vulnerability. I was also sitting with a lot of empty mana sources in a deck that wants to play defensively. There's a couple of ways I can go about this - add bigger fatties or find ways to make creatures fatties. Collected Company gets a lot of love in this deck, but when I saw it in play, I just wasn't impressed by it. I'd rather be able to control my Shaman placements, and it'd take out my Dwynen, Gilt-leaf Dean, which is kind of necessary to keep this deck alive.

Chord of Calling is something I saw in the mirror match, but also didn't like it. Llanowar Empath was very meh to me. I mean sure, I got deck thinning and a creature out of it every time, but for 4 mana, it seemed a little too expensive. I'd rather those slots went to Elvish Visionary.

Cuts
1x Brutal Hordechief
2x Llanowar Empath
1x Leaf-Glider

Adds
2x Elvish Visionary
1x Gnarlroot Trapper

Which leaves one slot open.

I realize most are considering this as an aggro deck, but for me, because of the amount of waiting you're doing to build up enough elves for Shaman of the Pack to hit, it's a defensive mid-range in reality.

I don't know... maybe cut back on some of the high costing cast elves and put in Managorger Hydras? I think that's the direction I'm pushing for now. A playset will currently run me under 10 bucks... something to think about, at any rate.

Or, if I did go CoCo, cut every single 4 drop and make everything a 3 drop or less. Hmm.

[BYU 14]

I can't stress enough how much I would consider collected company. You can use it to get card advantage early or hold if you don't draw Shaman OTP early as the odds are good you will pull one out of 6 cards.

I have hit two Shamans in the 6 reveled 3 times and won the game right there each time.

I would also sideboard 2 or 3 Unmake the graves for those Abzan matchups to pull creatures back from the graveyard.

Palace siege is an interesting addition for the drain/gain, but also the ability to pull cards from the graveyard. I may try two of those main and sideboard ultimate price for mono-red aggro or mirror matches.

And put another Dwynen's Elite in that last slot, that extra Elf Token comes in handy with Shaman OTP as well.

And you are right, I have not played a lot of Abzan, but if I started to see a lot of it I would board some drown in sorrows to take out things like Siege Rhino or Doomwake Giant after Languish was cast.