New Deck: Eldrazi Elves

Okay so today started out pretty boring, but turned into one of the most epic days of magic that I've had in long time. After some trading I was able to procure 3 copies of Eldrazi Monument for my mono green Elf Deck. The deck was not something that I played often because it had no removal and was vulnerable to burn and other forms of creature destruction of which their is plenty in this format. After a few small changes I transformed it into an Eldrazi Elves deck.

I playtested the deck against my best friend/archenemy Ryan. I played against Enchanting Angels, Niv-mizzet Pyromancer, and Bant-Allies. They were all close games, well except for the Bant Allies matchup. Here's how it went down:

Turn 1:
Ryan won the roll and mulliganned to 5 cards. He played a Seaside Citadel and passed the turn. I atarted with a forest and followed up with a Llanowar Elves.

Turn 2:
Ryan dropped down a Island and played an Oran-Ried Survivalist and ended his turn.
I responded with my second Forest and and Elvish Archdruid.

Turn 3:
Ryan sadly missed his land drop and instead played a Jwari Shapeshifter as a copy of Oran-Rief Survivalist. This pumped up his first Oran-Rief to a 3/3. The Jwari entered as a 2/2. Ryan then passed the turn.
I played a Forest and then I threw down an Arbor Elf. I tapped the first Archdruid to play a second Elvish Archdruid. Using my remaining mana I cast a Nissa's Chosen and pasted the turn.

Turn 4:
Ryan missed his second land drop and played a second Oran-Rief Survivalist. This pumped up the 1st one to a 4/4 and the Jwari Shapeshifter (which is a copy of Oran-Rief) to a 3/3. Ryan chose not to attack and passed the turn.
I played a Forest, tapped one of the Archduids to play a Joraga Warcaller kicked twice. I played Eldrazi Monument and attacked for lethal damage.

There you have it turn 4 win with Eldrazi Elves. I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't even know that a turn 4 win was possible with the deck. Needless to say I was pretty happy. I ended up winning 2 games straight to take the series.

In the game agaist Niv-Mizzet I had control of the board for most of the game. Ryan continued to draw more draw spells and at the end had only played 1 Burst Lightning and 1 Lightning Bolt. So for me it was spam elves and attack, pretty simple. I didn't even play Eldrazi Monument.

The game against Enchanting Angels was by far the most exciting. Enchanting Angels uses Sigil of the Empty Throne to put 4/4 flying Angels into play. Mesa Enchantress is used to draw cards and Wall of Omens and Wall of Denial help to slow down the game. Wall of Denial was key in this matchup for Ryan because it really slowed down my attack. Another key card was Ghostly Prism which requires that your opponent (me) pay 2 colorless mana to declare a creature as an attacker. The game went on long enough that I was able to have an Eldrazi Monument in play and use Nissa Revane's ultimate. You would think that all that would be enough to take down Ryan even with creatures being take out with cards like Journey to Nowhere, Pacifism, and Oblivion Ring (this is also generating a 4/4 angel with Sigil of the Empty Throne plus card drawing). I was sure that 17 attackers all with a base power of 2-3 which were all recieving +5/+5 flying and indestructiblity (after several Warcaller's and Archdruid's were taken out) would be enough to kill him (and remember I am paying 2 mana per attacker, thank you Archduids). But no, a timely Angel's Song prevented all the damage. Ryan by that time had 7 4/4 Angel tokens on the battlefield. So he attacked for what I thought at the time was lethal and so I concede, absolutely furious at myself that I did not see the Angel Song coming. However, now that I am writing this blog I realized that on a piece a paper I had next to me I written down 32 life from using Nissa Revane's ability to gain 2 life per elf becuase I already had 4 Nissa's Chosen on the battlefield. So had I not made two mistakes that game I should have won. Ryan played well though and definitely deserves the win on that one though.

Thanks for reading, Peace.