#elvish clancaller

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Elvish Clancaller

No single root feeds the forest.

Artist: Matt Stewart TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Elvish Clancaller by Matt Stewart

[slugsupmywall]

“No single root feeds the forest”

-Olympus OM1

-Kodak Gold 400

[silentone2k]

Multicolor Balance

This started as a reply to @markrosewater​, but I realized that fitting into the constraints of asks/replies wasn’t conducive to what I was trying to say. 

As background; after seeing an answer that repeats long-standing understanding at MTG R&D, I asked about it. Mr Rosewater answered and, as always, I appreciate the time and energy he puts into doing so. However, as I said, don’t feel like the  character limitation on the ask/answer format captures the discussion well.

To frame my intent with this conversation; I’m considering the power level of MM vs MN cards. Particularly, the long stated position that MN cards should be more powerful than MM (”mono-colored”) cards.

This seems to conflict with one or both of two other assumptions of magic card development. Note, I am not arguing that many, or any, specific multi-color cards have too high of power level or inappropriate flexibility. In fact, currently, additional flexibility (with the relative power bump that represents) seems the most common approach to multi-color cards rather than increased raw power.

However, there are a handful of historical examples with clear power relationships. The clearest I’m aware of being lightning helix vs sorin's thirst/pharika's cure.

The three assumptions that I am aware of that seem relevant to MM vs MN power distribution are;

1) Mono-color decks are going to be limited in ability based on color pie.   2) The number of dual color lands in maintained in standard. 3) MN cards are more powerful than MM cards.   Each of these has specific impacts on the viability of multi- and mono-colored decks. I do want to say that I believe the 1st of these is essentially immutable to the health of the game. The second ebbs and flows, but has a steady state that I’ll attempt to address below. It’s only with full consideration of the first two, which I’ll get to in a moment, that I start to find the third questionable.

1) Mono-color decks are going to be limited in ability based on color pie.

A related restriction mono-color decks suffer under is the card pool that can be selected from. A dual color deck can replace the second best card in one of their colors with the best card in the other if it is better.

An example of both of these aspects in action; Murder (BB1) vs Bedevil (BBR), or Mortify (WBB). While neither Bedevil or Mortify have greater effect, they are examples of how that second color increases the capability of the deck. They are consequently preferred to Murder when the second color is available. I am aware the change from MM1 to MMN is a clear difference from my main point. However, there is not currently a BBB upgrade to Murder to provide clear comparison. In fact, one question is what the current "multicolor is better than monocolor" would allow a MMM card to do in comparison to these MMN cards.

2) The number of dual color lands maintained in standard.

As I said at the top, I recognize this ebbs and flows. However, the rough steady state over the last few years has made it possible to maintain a minimum of 8 dual lands which come in untapped on the critical first four turns.

Land rates have been published for decks to make dual+ color decks work on-curve with ~90% reliability. While a mono-color deck, accepting the restrictions listed for point 1, can reach MM at 100%, this represents only a 10% loss in reliability, and is still considered competitively viable.

As an example; a dual color deck trying to cast Elvish Clancaller requires ~20 green sources in the deck to reach >90%. By contrast, attempting to cast a member of the guildmage cycle would require only 14 sources of green. This makes the MM requirement much more demanding for a dual color deck. Meanwhile, an MN requirement remains completely out of reach for a mono-color deck.

If we begin to talk about “splashes,” this becomes much more significant.  It can be argued that MN and MMN cards can be treated as N1 or N2 cards for splashability into mostly M decks. While this is a limitation, it is not a significant one for gaining access to a desired ability outside the main color. Given that a splash is only done if the improvement for the deck is already potentially significant, it calls into question the statement that additional power is added to the card just *because* it’s multicolored. Which brings us to 3.

(I’m relying on this excellent article for an in-depth breakdown of manabases and their relationship to multicolor deckbuilding.)

3) MN cards are more powerful than MM cards. Perhaps a clearer way to make the point that I’m looking at is to rephrase this in its inverse; MM cards are less powerful than MN cards. Given, as I’ve outlined, that mono-color decks have sharper limitations in available cards and abilities this is a significant statement.

The result has been that recent mono-colored decks are often limited in number and sharply linear. They rely on a few must-repeat cards that have sufficient power and synergy. Meanwhile multi-colored decks are able to proliferate in type and style, trading out a larger pool of usable cards at a higher level of power. Allowing MM cards a higher level of raw power in their given effect while MN cards have higher levels of flexibility is one solution. This would allow more mono-colored decks to function as their individual cards gain higher levels of power without being as easily splashable; requiring the manabase sacrifices intended for multi-color decks to use those “powerful” cards.

This does lead to the note that I’m not saying mono-colored cards, which would include M1, M2, and other “splashable” casting costs. Given the recent printing of Goblin Chainwhirler and Steel Leaf Champion, that may be the actual point of confusion. Though, the cards Searing Blaze and Searing Blood compared to Lightning Helix are interesting question marks. If this entire discussion has been simply a misunderstanding, all the better. I’ve found that clarity in language is often important in preventing true statements from shading into false assumptions over time.

For anyone who’s taken the time to read this, thank you. I look forward to any comments.

[edh-a-to-z]

M19 - Green

 Finally Green. TOP 10 9 TIME!!!

Honorable Mention: Elvish Rejuvinator

Feels like Farhaven or Wood Elves. Sure, you can’t search your deck, but you can get nonbasic lands randomly, and it gets better with decks with insane topdeck manipulation. 

But because it’s more ramp, and less mana fixing, I like it a lot less. So why didn’t I put it in the top ten? I felt it didn’t quite cut it, and I’d rather cut the list short than have to fluff it out.

(9) Elvish Clancaller

Grade: D

Home: Elvish Tribal

Range: Very Narrow

Does this card get played just for a cheap buff? I’m on the fence - Adaptive Automaton feels like a better option, and it’s ability is functionally unusable in EDH. 

(8) Gigantosaurus

Grade: C

Home: MonoGreen Fatties, Dino Tribal

Range: Very Narrow

This is a rather elegant beastie. Phenomenal stats for an unbeatable price - if you can fix the mana right. Nominally relevant creature type is nice.

That is one big vanilla creature.

Unfortunately, it’s just a big dumb creature.

(7) Rampant Prodigious Growth

Grade: C-

Home: Any Green deck, Casual oriented

Range: Average

It’s basically a big creature - a six drop to make a 7/7 trampler. The aura equivalent of a big dumb creature. Not so bad, not so good, just is. Cheating it out is the name of the game, so Bruna 1.0 in a bant deck or other options, or perhaps as a form of buff and evasion on a Voltron’d commander.

(6) Pelakka Wurm

Grade: C+

Home: Green Ramp, Green Fatties

Range: Narrow

A “strictly better” big dumb creature, Pelakka is great to cheat in, reanimate, and occasionally have die. Evasion is nice, and unconditional removal is the best option to deal with this - and card draw is a nice reward for it’s loss.

A nice reprint to have in your stable - not impressive, but one of my favorite workhorses. Er, workwurms.

(5) Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

1 of the 99: B

Commander: D

Builds: Ramp, Fatties

I know, I know. It’s not even a “bear.” Nor does it have tribal synergies (looking at you Ulrich). But instead, we have a mechanically interesting legendary. Reduced cost for 4+ Power creatures can make for some explosive turns, and the second ability to push through damage as part of an overwhelming charge is a great go-wide win-con.

Sure, the She-Bear needs some special protection, but so does every Voltron or Combo commander. Big whoop.

(4) Reclamation Sage

Grade: A

Home: Any Green Deck, every

Range: Very Wide

You know it, you love it, you have seven copies of it.

This Naturalize stapled to a fair body with a relevant tribal type makes a nice small resurrection target, tribal choice, and all-around good utility card. 

(3) Aggressive Mammoth

Grade: B

Home: Creature-Heavy Decks

Range: Wide

Yeah, the starter deck thing was a bit of a mess. This is a rare that doesn’t appear in Boosters and it’s almost at $4. 

Efficient body made for a format that rewards games that go long, wide, and massive. An 8/8 Trampler that makes everyone a trampler that’s undercosted is pretty dope. The only problem is getting an EDH-only card of a casual nature at a price that feels reasonable.

(2) Vivien Reid

Grade: A-

Home: Any Green Deck

Range: Wide

Gas, removal, win-con. An almost perfect planeswalker - if it had a better way of defending itself it’d be even better! A 5 loyalty planeswalker for 5 is a really good rate. And firing off with Doubling Season the turn it lands, with 2 loyalty left? Even better!

I love topchecking 4 for some useful permanent, and Green Removal is nice (feels like Freyalise’s second ability with another option), and an emblem that feels like something Elspeth would make? Just amazing. A 2/2 Grizzly Bear becomes a 4/4 Vigilance, Trample, Indestructible creature - pretty sweet.

(1) Runic Armasaur

Grade: A

Home: Any Green Deck, Dino Tribal

Range: Very Wide

The only thing keeping Viven off the top spot is this nastily efficient Dino. I swear, it’s the Consecrated Sphinx of Green, or could be one day.

Half the CMC, immune to 3 damage removals and things like Languish, it can block 4/4 beast tokens too. And the “may” clause makes it even better

So Ravnica is coming out soon. Working on reviews at top speed. Stay tuned campers.

[15-dollars-and-a-dream]

Elves

k4z3y requested a Standard Elf deck back in mid September, and I’ve been patiently waiting for cards to settle so I could try and make it as strong as possible. Sadly, Elves are rad and cards like Pelt Collector have maintained a price point I think is unrealistic to include in the amount I would like too. The request included no price, and I feel it would be a disservice to try and make the deck any cheaper than it is right now without specific directions to do so as the power level would continue to diminish rapidly. It’s sitting at ~60$, and I don’t foresee that changing much any time soon so lets just dive right in. 

Elves and Two Angel Friends (30)

3x Beast Whisperer 4x Conclave Guildmage 2x Druid of the Cowl 4x Elvish Clancaller 4x Llanowar Elves 3x Marwyn, the Nurturer 2x Shalai, Voice of Plenty 4x Steel Leaf Champion 4x Thorn Lieutenant

Spells (10)

4x Conclave Tribunal 4x Flower // Flourish 2x Vanquisher's Banner

Land (20)

12x Forest 4x Plains 4x Selesnya Guildgate

What is a Tribal deck without it’s lords? Elvish Clancaller is not the most exciting Elf lord ever printed, but it will definitely do the work that needs to be done. Fetching another copy of itself is a pretty powerful ability that can often generate large amounts of power/toughness to your board. If you have 3 other elves out and a Clancaller, it’s just six mana for 6 power at no ‘card’ cost. That is a fantastic rate. I will say it is extremely weak to Goblin Chainwhirler unless in duplicates, so holding it in hand VS. mono red decks if you have another play to make might be a smart move. The difference in mana cost between Vanquisher’s Banner and Radiant Destiny made it kind of hard to settle on Banner, but I feel the snowball upside of having 6 cards in our deck making our creatures cantrip is just too good. Beast Whisperer should often be cast able on turn 3 with our 6 dorks, and will almost always require a quick answer before we just completely snowball. All of our creatures drawing us a card makes spot removal atrocious and even wraths become marginally less effective, but are still super scary. There can be funny situations where we get like 6 for 1′d with a wrath and have it impact us very little as we’ve still got a hand full of spells to start casting again. With the amount of mana sinks the deck boasts it can also be extremely resilient to cards like Settle the Wreckage as we have plenty of stuff to do with tons of mana, ESPECIALLY if each creature is drawing us a card.

While Steel Leaf Champion might lack some of the fluff and crazy snowball potential of the other cards in the deck, I can basically guarantee the strongest draw the deck can have is Llanowar turn 1 into Steel Leaf turn 2. It demands an answer or the clock is ridiculous. Shalai is just a powerful card, and a great mana sink for us. It turns off Settle the Wreckage and any burn spells heading at us, becomes the only possible target for removal, and quickly grows our army. Marwyn is a little less oppressively powerful by herself, but can also be a ridiculous card to cast turn 2 after Llanowar as she basically guarantees us a double spell turn 3 with all of our elves. She grows at a pretty rapid rate in a deck with 28 Elves to even herself become a serious threat, and we also have plenty of stuff to be doing with the extra mana. 

Flower allows us to salvage a kind of poor mana base, run fewer lands with little worry, and function as an overrun to close the game out. Modality has always and will always be an extremely powerful tool in Magic. Conclave Tribunal is one of the best removal spells available to any color in Standard, so hellyeah. Conclave Guildmage can help us push passed the token decks with trample as we not only intend to go almost as wide but intend to go much taller and also just births more elves when we need it to. There’s an argument to cut the guildgates and run 14-15 Forest // 5-6 Plains with flower pushing us to 18-19 sources of green and 9-10 sources of white, but I feel like playing a little on the safe side is fine here.

I will say a larger budget would go a long way with this deck. I’ve been fiddling with Elf decks since spoilers started for Ravnica as I loved playing the GW Modern version, and a better mana base with shock-lands paired with some of the more expensive cards really adds a lot. 

And don’t forget if you’ve got a deck request, hit us up here!

-G

[mtggoldfish]

Can Elvish Clancaller make a mono-green beatdown build of Elves work in Modern? Let's find out! Much Abrew: Beatdown Elves (Modern). https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/much-abrew-beatdown-elves-modern

[housebeleren]

M19 Prerelease

Going to blaze through M19, with just two quick posts on my limited experience. Core sets are never particularly exciting, but M19 seemed like a well-designed set, with some thoughtful reprints and surprisingly interesting synergies, considering. And, in all honesty, I was really looking forward to a set that got back to basics: threats, removal, combat, interaction. Without crazy tribes or overly complex mechanics. And I'm very happy to say that Core Set 2019 was an absolute pleasure. I'm not delusional enough to think that it will be the best Limited format of all time, but I think it will be well remembered as a high point for core sets.

Art: Alex Konstad

My Prerelease promo was Elvish Clancaller. Good Rare for Modern, but not exactly what I was going for in Limited. I also had Lathliss, Dragon Queen, Remorseful Cleric, and Sai, Master Thopterist as great Rares, plus a few weak or conditional Rares like Ajani's Last Stand (sideboard material), Open the Graves (highly synergy-dependent), and Magistrate's Scepter (unplayable). So, with decent Rares in 3 colors, it left me looking to the Commons & Uncommons for guidance.

In White, I had a two Star-crowned Stag, and two Gallant Cavalry, plus an Uncommon payoff for the Artifact archetype. However, I had no good enablers, very few good Artifacts, so that plan was pretty much out. Plus, I had no removal whatsoever in White, so I quickly abandoned the color. Blue was also out, with so few playable Artifacts for Sai, Master Thopterist. I had multiple Salvager of Secrets, but my removal across all colors was practically nonexistent, so I didn't feel like Blue was a solid pick either. Black had some okay threats, like Skeleton Archer and Skymarch Bloodletter, but really no great way to close out the game, so I left Black by the wayside too. That left Green & Red. In Red I had some okay removal and several solid midrange creature, including two Dragons to synergize with Lathliss, Dragon Queen. In Green I had some good ramp cards, some good midrange creatures, and a Rabid Bite as the best piece of removal in my pool. Despite how disjointed my pool was, I felt like I came up with a reasonable midrange/ramp deck in R/G.

Turned out, I was right, and the deck took me 3-0 for the night, restoring my winning streak that I briefly lost during Dominaria.

General Format Notes

Core Set 2019 feels like it's going to have a nice, midrange feel to it. While I doubt it will be as slow as Dominaria, it's definitely got room to breathe for a variety of strategies to flourish.

The fixing in this format is solid, but not incredible. Between the common cycle of dual lands and Manalith at Common, it's pretty easy to splash for a third color. I'd expect most decks to be 2 color, with maybe a third or so splashing.

Aggressive 2-drops are not particularly good in this format. Many of them are 1-toughness, which are punished heavily by cards like Skeleton Archer and several other Commons & Uncommons. As a result, midrange creatures are much better, and it's perfectly acceptable for a curve to start at 3, since 2-drops are not going to run away with the game like they did on Amonkhet or Ixalan.

As a result, unconditional removal is at a premium. Electrify is better than Shock, and Lich's Caress is better than Strangling Spores.

Lots of the best creatures have good ETB effects, so bounce is a little worse than usual, in particular against Black & Red. It's stronger against colors that use Enchantment-based removal, like White (Luminous Bonds) and Blue (Dwindle), as well as Green, which has the best buffing Auras in the game.

Overall, this format seems like a lot of fun. It's got some surprisingly deep interactions for a core set, and seems really well balanced overall.

Card Specific Notes

Chaos Wand and Transmogrifying Wand are both totally playable in this format, and that makes me all kinds of happy.

Dryad Greenseeker is pretty much incredible. It blocks effectively in the early game, and draws cards surprisingly fast. Overall, it's one of the best Uncommons in the set.

Dragon tribal is totally a thing, with Sparktongue Dragon and Common and multiple Uncommon dragons. This makes Lathliss, Dragon Queen a game-ending powerhouse of a bomb, and she overperformed for me every time.

Lich's Caress is the best Common removal in the format. Killing bombs is critical, and the life gain is super relevant.

If you can cast it, Phylactery Lich is really strong in this format. Preferably you'll have a noncreature Artifact to put the counter on, but if he sticks around, White is really the only color that can deal with it reliably.

Ravenous Harpy and Reassembling Skeleton are gross together. The skeleton in particular is playable with or without synergy, but the Harpy really needs enablers to work. Of all the enablers, Reassembling Skeleton is by far the best.

Take Vengeance is awesome with Star-Crowned Stag. Definitely play the combo.

All the horses are playable, but Vine Mare is the best by far. It hits hard, evades removal, plays well with pump spells and Auras, and absolutely slaughters Black decks. Take it and love it.

In all, M19 was super fun, and definitely a high point for core sets, at least so far as I can tell from the prerelease.

[goddesstrolls-archive]

i found another 8 m19 boosters for a good price so i got em

kinda wish i’d found a different set but w/e

my haul this time, all gold

Infernal Reckoning x2 Djinn of Wishes x2 Alpine Moon Phylactery Lich Elvish Clancaller Transmogrifying Wand

[dailymtgflavortext]

No single root feeds the forest.

-Elvish Clancaller

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Elvish Clancaller

No single root feeds the forest.

Artist: Matt Stewart TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Elvish Clancaller

No single root feeds the forest.

Artist: Matt Stewart TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Elvish Clancaller

No single root feeds the forest.

Artist: Matt Stewart TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Elvish Clancaller

No single root feeds the forest.

Artist: Matt Stewart