Remember when I said there was one faction considered to be way too difficult to bother playing? You did read the primer, didn't you? Well guess what. Today we're talking about Elves, because in the space of an evening after some hard (ha) lessons learned about rocks, I branched (ha) into the forest and tried my hand at designing my own list with the intention of entering the next tournament and learning on the job.
Sounds stupid, right? The results MAY surprise you!
First of all, a little bit on exactly how Legolas and friends plan to win games of Shadowverse, and why anyone should play the deck in the first place.
Rose Queen
Fanfare: Choose any number of followers with the <Fairy> trait in your EX Area. Transform them into Thorn Bursts. Activate: [Act this card]: Recover X play points. X equals the number of Thorn Bursts in your EX Area.
Thorn Burst
Choose an enemy leader or enemy follower. Deal 3 damage to it. Draw a card.
The finisher of choice in this deck is a little expensive at 8PP, but comes down and does a significant amount of damage while drawing cards at worst. If you untap with Rose Queen, you're probably winning the game then and there, as the direct damage from Thorn Burst is very difficult to interact with. There isn't really an alternative choice at this point, but she's good enough that we're going to try to build a control deck around her to get to 8 and close out the game from there.
So we just need to get to 8PP? Let's find the cards that will facilitate that. Elves generate a lot of value with Fanfare (enter the battlefield) and bounce triggers which have obvious synergy, and sometimes have escalated effects depending on how many cards you've played that turn (Combo_X). The idea is to combine bounce, Fanfare, and Combo together to control the board and get some attacks in along the way.
Baby Elf Mei
When this card is returned to your hand from play, choose an enemy follower. Deal 1 damage to it.
Fanfare: Choose an enemy follower. Deal 1 damage to it.
Evolve (1): Evolve this follower.
Whenever another allied follower comes into play, choose an enemy follower. Deal 1 damage to it.
Ancient Elf
Evolve (1): Evolve this follower. [Ward]
Fanfare: [Return another allied card in play to the hand]: Get +1/+1.
The slim end of this deck is looking to replay Mei as often as you need to to clear small threats, with Archer adding more damage as she sits on your board pinging away. It's worth mentioning in this game that damage persists across turns, so shooting non-lethal shots rarely feels like a waste. Ancient Elf does double duty in that it serves to recycle Fanfare abilities, but also has [Ward]. It's probably secretly the best card in the deck. Also, Mei triggers when she's returned to hand as well. Happy days.
Noble Fairy
[Ward]
Fanfare: [Combo_3] Choose an enemy follower. Destroy it. Your opponent summons a Fairy.
[Ward]
While this follower is in play, all other allied followers with the <Fairy> trait have [Rush].
Fanfare: From among 9 Fairies, summon any number of them. Put any number of them into your EX Area.
The middle section of the deck contains some answers to larger Followers that are too big for the Mei/Archer wombo combo, as well as Aria. Aria is particularly crucial in this deck because she is the easiest way to fill your EX Area with Fairies, which is what Rose Queen needs to get Thorny. Other than that, I didn't bring much in the 3-6PP range.
So it feels like I'm very well covered against aggro decks, and as far as I know no one has ever been punished for building a deck to crush 40% of the meta without thinking about the other 60%.
14th Sep - Locals - Cardlab 博多 10人 ~ Control Elves
Round 1: Nightmare Control
Ah, stupid sexy vampires, my old nemesis. I almost felt sorry for my opponent as they revealed they were playing Nightmare in the pre-game setup, as I knew that if it was the omnipresent Nightmare Aggro deck that I warped my deck to beat then they surely had no chance.
I lose the die roll and my opponent elects to go second. This is actually typical of Aggro Nightmare as they make really good use of the extra resources you get for going second (the player going first doesn't draw on their first turn, and the player going second gets three one-time-use "PP" cards that they can use up to once per turn, but ONLY for paying evolve costs).
Turn one I play out Baby Elf Mei, with the intent to return it to my hand next turn to the Ancient Elf I've already drawn and kill their impending 1PP play (I know, must be nice having the two best anti-aggro cards in your opening hand). My opponent takes their first turn and does... nothing. The Aggro deck is like 25% 1PP cards, so to have nothing to do on the first turn makes about as much sense as a fly-screen door on a submarine.
Then, on my second turn of playing Elves ever, I make a mistake so bad that the repercussions rippled throughout the entire game. I attacked with Mei. Why is that a problem? It's a huge problem because while tapped, Mei can be attacked, and though my opponent had no Followers on the board, they immediately played one, evolved it, and killed Mei.
Ok, so I lost one of the best anti-Aggro cards in my deck to nothing, but my opponent is going to have done exactly no damage to me by my third or even fourth turn, so surely things aren't going that badly, right?
It turns out the reason my opponent isn't doing anything in these early turns is they're NOT playing the aggressive variant of Nightmare, but the incredibly sticky control variant.
The control variant forgoes the aggressive 1PP plays and instead opts for more removal, and then starts dropping bombs from 5PP onwards.
Today's menu was a degustation of high impact Angels, Demons, and Vampire Queens, served with a garnish of 2/1 Bat Tokens with Ward, produced by this hellish piece of cardboard:
Vampire Queen
Whenever an allied Forest Bat comes into play, give it +1 attack and [Ward]. Fanfare: Summon 2 Forest Bats.
Activate: [Act this card & Subtract 1 from your leader's defense]: Summon 2 Forest Bats.
Forest Bat
Like a wet market in Wuhan, I wasn't able to get anything done due to the constant outpouring of juiced up bats with [Ward], so I was left to rue what could have been if I hadn't thrown away my best tool to deal with 1 defense Followers in the opening exchange.
Huge Blunders: 1
Losses: 1
0-1
Round 2: Dragon Midrange
Another day, another matchup that isn't quite aggro. I sniped off the little dragons with Archers and Mei and traded damage into the late game but was one turn short of killing with Rose Queen. I had to balance not being dead to the 7/3 [Storm] Dragoonbag while dealing as much damage as possible, which meant I had to clear the board as I was at 8 life. Here's where huge blunder number two happened.
Noble Fairy
[Ward]
Fanfare: [Combo_3] Choose an enemy follower. Destroy it. Your opponent summons a Fairy.
I used Noble Fairy as a part of cleaning up aisle Dragon, which as a drawback for being able to kill any enemy Follower compensates them with a 1/1 Fairy. I had a spare Thorn Burst to kill the Fairy, but I mean... It's a 1/1 Fairy. Aren't Fairies the good guys?
For all your big brain brads out there, 7+1 is indeed 8, and my opponent slammed a Dragoonbag and hit me for exactly lethal with the help of my own goddamn card.
Look at this fucking traitor
Huge Blunders: 2
Losses: 2
0-2
Round 3: Dragon Control
While the midrange version of Dragons at least gave my low curve anti-aggro deck a purpose in life for a few turns, playing against the control variant didn't afford me such luxury. Playing Mei and Archers into an empty board to try to muster some pressure just feel embarrassing, and it felt like my opponent was removing my 1 Attack threats out of pity more than urgency.
Without any value in the deck's mid PP range, and with less ways to remove bigger Followers, I ran out of resources very quickly and was top decking to his full grip of nasty dragons like Fafnir and Shenlong.
Fanfare: Deal 5 damage to all enemy followers.
Evolve (2) : Evolve this follower.
[Ward]
Fanfare: Draw 2 cards. Discard a card from your hand.
With my opponent at such a high life total, I was drawing dead for the back end of the game, but of course I played it out for practice piloting the elves and the slim chance my opponent had a stroke (always play to your outs). I don't think I necessarily made any terrible plays this game, but instead I chalk this loss up to a crucial error in deck construction.
Huge Blunders: 3
Losses: 3
Funny how that works.
0-3
Post Event Thoughts
Ok, so piloting this deck is very punishing, especially when you've cut the mid section out and don't get the dream matchups, but honestly I really loved playing this deck. Elves are so underrepresented here that people are a little unfamiliar with playing against it, and I kinda like being the only one in the room not playing Nightmare/Dragon/Royal. Also, finding the right lines of play with so many options in a long drawn out game is incredibly rewarding. With that being said, the deck needs work. Here's what we're doing.
Out
Evolve (0): Evolve this follower.
[Rush]
Fanfare: Gain +X attack. X equals the number of other cards you played this turn.
Rhinoceroach
Evolve: Choose one of the following: [1] Gain [Storm]. [2] Choose an enemy follower. Deal X damage to it. X equals this follower's attack.This card looks so flexible and aggressive on paper, but in reality the (0) cost evolve often blocks you from evolving other things in that turn (evolve is once per turn) and getting it to a decent Attack to shoot something is harder than expected. It's more work than Archer and Mei to repeatedly kill smaller things, and it's too hard to get to a big enough Attack to kill bigger things.
Also, look at the art. Does it really look like it belongs here?
Titania's Sanctuary (Amulet)
While this amulet is in play, all allied tokens with the <Fairy> trait have [Direct Attack] (They can attack untapped Followers). Whenever an allied token with the <Fairy> trait comes into play, give it +1/+1.
Fanfare: Give all allied tokens with the <Fairy> trait +1/+1.
This card stunk up my hand like a quickie at a 3 day music festival. I get that it will sometimes win you games by pumping up the Fairies you have lying around, especially if you replay it a couple of times on a full board, but man it just feels so unwelcome 80% of the time. You have to have Fairies, you have to have space, you have to be able to afford the tempo loss, and drawing the second one feels awful. Sorry Titania, we'll take our chances in the wild for now.
Evolve (1): Evolve this follower. [Ward]
Archangel Reina (Evolved)
[Ward] Evolve: Recover X play points. X is equal to the number of EVOLVE Followers put face up in your Evolve Deck. Turn them face down.We're looking at workshopping the 3-6 area of the deck, and this card is just a bit too passive for my taste. Instead of presenting my opponent with a large [Ward] Follower, I'd like to opt for midrange cards that I know I'll get value from immediately, as you'll see. The PP recovery thing is cute for Combo_X plays, but without the (0) cost evolving Rhinobugs I think it's too much work.
IN
Rose Deer
[Rush] Fanfare: Put a Thorn Burst into your EX Area.
Oh dear oh dear. Look at this magnificent son of a bitch. Not only is he the best looking Follower in Shadowverse Evolve, he also gives you a 2PP Lightning Bolt that draws a card, and has [Rush] to charge his antlers straight into some unsuspecting dragon's ass. 4 Attack is a tiny bit low as the typical defense threshold is 5, but remember that on board with an Archer or with a Mei handy it easily becomes 5. Bargain for 4PP, in my opinion.
Robin Hood
Fanfare: Choose an enemy follower. Deal 4 damage to it. Activate: [Pay 1pp & Act this card]: Choose an enemy follower. Deal 4 damage to it.
Again, we're looking to fix up our midrange and control matchups by bringing in some very efficient removal, this time in the form of England's most notorious left-wing marksman. With the help of the other blandly named Archer, this is hitting the sweet spot of 5 damage on Fanfare, and can also continue to tap and shoot down bigger things including on the same turn its played, if you have the PP. (Followers cannot attack but they CAN activate their abilities on the turn they're played, even if they have to act (tap) to do so).
Before
After
We'll get some wins soon, I feel a change in the air (or that might be imminent Typhoon here in Fukuoka). As always, leave a comment if you actually read this or you have some ideas about what you want to read, and I hope you're enjoying the journey.
By the way, in case you didn't notice, there's a way to register your email to receive mail when I make a post on the sidebar of the main page. I post around 1-2 times a week, unsubscribe any time. Cheers!
Great summary!
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up!
ReplyDeleteAmazing quotes like "makes about as much sense as a fly-screen door on a submarine." and
"Like a wet market in Wuhan" cracked me up!
Keep em coming!