Elves! - Legacy | Channel Reid

An Elf gets banned and, ironically, Elves was one of the decks that cared least. Reid returns once again to one of his favorite Legacy archetypes!
Deck list: www.channelfire...
Round 1: 02:28
Round 2: 27:12
Round 3: 27:12
Round 4: 01:28:28
Round 5: 02:04:08
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[@martinrosschou]

1:43:20 - The Poem: Wow - would have been easier with GSZ for eight, But slow and steady won the race, In this particular case, Cause my opponent couldn't find an other Jace...

[@alexmandalios8174]

The exclamation mark in the title promises exciting content, and for good reason.

[@MatthewOrlettiJustForFun]

It's impressive that Reid can concentrate so well recording his videos in the kitchen of a busy restaurant.

[@captainstash8645]

pretty sure it's a school cafeteria or mcdonalds either one

[@josephpement9285]

Reid, the way you talk through your decisions and calculate your plays is an invaluable service to the viewer. Thanks for the great content! =D

[@williamwalker8409]

The Duke provides.

[@Freezmaz]

The best part of playing elves online is "Always yes, always yield"

[@airlinefood6069]

I love Reid, I love Magic, I love Legacy, and I love Elves. Quality content again, Dukester.

[@DuffyElmer]

12:45 For a remaining deck of 54 cards with 18 lands (including the 2 dryad arbors), your odds of any given card being a land are exactly one in three (33.33%) Using a binomial distribution, we can determine that the odds of one or both of the top 2 cards of your deck being a land are ~0.555... or 55.56% If you don't count the Dryad Arbors because they don't tap for G the turn you play them, then the odds of a usable green mana source in your top two cards are 29.6%, which gives you a probability of 0.504, which is negligibly smaller and still around 50%.

[@Boozamooz]

Please never stop playing magic Reid!

[@rrrrrrr1398]

Reid your seriously one of the best love to watch your content!

[@emmettochrach-konradi2785]

You’re great for listening so closely to fans, Reid. I’d love to see you play more combo decks at some point.

[@llescarini]

It's been a while i didn't see such tough games, pretty interesting! Never played elves but imho if you board in progenitus you do not want to cut a natural order because this increments the odds to get progenitus in your hand as dead card. Cheers!

[@timw9745]

Christmas came early this year

[@Hoochbazooka]

love these reid videos. just modest and talented like always.

[@ggwtf2273]

I love Reids videos, I love Elves. Thanks for the content!

[@idiotmartyr]

Can we all take a moment to appreciate the fact that someone in Reid's house does the dishes immediately after dinner every night? That's some grade A adulting right there folks. Be like whoever Reid lives with.

[@Jackledaman]

Reid is such a saint. Truly a gift to the magic community.

[@Barcelonia4]

Happy to see you playing Legacy Elves! Since you're taking suggestions, how about another Legacy Pox video? Thanks for the fantastic content!

[@SebaOW]

I would love to see you return back to Taking Turns in Modern! Great content as always, thank you Reid.

[@ViolenceisJustice]

REID LEGACY ELVES

[@TurnOneMagic]

Thanks for the vids! They're great, the commentary is always amazing!

[@venacava6054]

Yes, finally another reid video

[@justinpolotan4185]

thanks for answering the call Reid.

[@keelyfreudenstein4318]

That game two vs Death n Taxes when you drew progenitus, I was howling in dismay

[@JohnMartinSAaS]

You can play Elves in every video, just swap format!

[@alessandroboscaini8424]

Fastest like in the history of the internet!

[@edwardyueh7157]

Thanks Reid for the annual legacy elves video! First match: I would've personally boarded out cards like Wirewood Symbiote or a Visionary over mana dorks in the mirror match. I think 3 of each is fine in the mirror. It very seldom becomes a grind and the dorks allow for more explosive starts and much better when you want to combo with glimpse or NO early on. Symbiotes are okay with glimpse to continue the combo, great with visionaries if you have the time, but overall it never goes to a grind even with both players bringing in TS. Seeing multiple symbiotes/visionaries in the opener also feels awful in a solitaire match :P.

[@giobot]

A L E G A C Y V E E D I O

[@ricardoaugusto3373]

G San legacy video with the boys!

[@PatduDMD]

This ain't Gucci's GTFO

[@Semiomni]

For the last Round, after Symbiote got shut down by Revoker, I don't get why you did not play a Quirion ranger, and started blocking whatever had Jitte with Dryad Arbors, and bouncing those to hand. Does that not work?

[@Alkoholwioslaidziwki]

13:00 14 out of 54 is more like a quarter of the deck but still that's some fast and fairly accurate math on the probability (the actual number is 45%). I think mulligan is the correct choice, 55% chance of having a very bad t1 (no land, slow land or land that doesn't tap for mana) is unacceptable in legacy.

[@マル-n4x]

"55% is unacceptable in Legacy" is a useless truism that doesn't mean anything nor provide reinforcement for the decision. Provided that you're 45% to have a good hand, the only question is: "do I have a greater than 45% chance of having a good hand on a mulligan to five?". I don't know the answer to that question. Even Reid Duke doesn't know the answer, as he was quite unsure about the mulligan. But the question was never "is 45% chance to win acceptable", it was "is 45% better or worse than my odds to win on a mulligan to five?". Maybe a 55% chance to lose is "unacceptable", but if a mulligan to 5 gives you a 60% chance to lose, that's clearly even more unacceptable; simply proclaiming things unacceptable doesn't change the math. (For a normal fair deck, based on data mined from hundreds of thousands of tournament matches of MTGO when that was still allowed, keeping a hand with a 45% chance to win is generally better than a mulligan to 5, but Elves is not a normal deck and is likely better at recovering from mulligans, which makes the judgment much more murky.)

[@carocobcc]

That first match's last turn was JUICY

[@danilogison7359]

I'm really interested in that gggggggg deck you have in your collection.

[@joaotessmann3326]

Duke is hiding his sick gigantosaurus jund list, confirmed

[@lordtyrus1]

You are a true master reid, game 3 match one was mind boggling

[@jordanwenzlaff3321]

So I’m curious.. At 30:00 you said symbiote + visionary wasn’t as good as just saging. Wasn’t it possible to symbionts+visionary with the 3 green, sentinel untaps, then play the rec safe anyways? It draws you a card, makes good use of the mana, and ends up with the same outcome with two other creatures in play?

[@jordanwenzlaff3321]

Also, I typed that on my phone and autocorrect severely hates magic names. That’s my bad

[@bolassnowman7429]

2:28:03 got a visionary. couldn't you have gotten a wirewood symbiote so you wouldn't lose a creature every time you attacked into his T-N Nemesis?

[@AndrewHunter]

30:10 - if you play visionary + symbiote, nettle untaps and you can play rec sage too (right?) Seems better.

[@danumd87]

I really wanted to see that M1G2 mull kept. I think it would have been great to see how that played out. Maybe err on the side of keeping hands like that for testing/article purposes?

[@Fireslingerpirate]

The hand you mulliganed in game 2 match 1 was a hard choice. You had a 39.1% chance of getting your land drop which isn't great but that hand was beautiful. Personally I would've kept it and hoped but that has screwed me a lot of the time and lost me a lot of games. Glad you turned it around for game 3 and won the match!

[@Alkoholwioslaidziwki]

Fireslingerpirate The probability is actually 45% you didn't include the case that both cards on top are playable lands. I don't know the deck very well but it seems to me that most 5 card hands would be better than risking practically an instant loss with odds over 50% against you.

[@Fireslingerpirate]

Indeed I didn't.

[@ChadZeluff]

Skipped Statistics class - can you run quickly run through the math?

[@Fireslingerpirate]

stattrek.com/probability-distributions/hypergeometric.aspx This explains it a lot better than I could. The kCx it refers to is the combination formula C(k,x) = k!/(x!*(k-x)!) where k is the number of things you can choose from and x is how many you are choosing. You basically just solve the combinations of each different option that the hypergeometric formula asks for and multiply them together in the order it says. Alternatively, the calculator makes it a lot easier once you understand the math behind it because calculating factorials is a bit tedious. Scroll to the bottom for the cumulative distribution. That is the probability of drawing a land on both draws. I forgot to do that part which is what Alkohol was pointing out to me.

[@utterlyj1277]

Alkoholwioslaidziwki you'd be right in most cases, but in this specific matchup the average 5 just isn't going to help that much.

[@LoRe-nm8gd]

it's incredible to me his "ok" button still works

[@benschlauch6436]

Love, love, love your videos! It would be awesome to see you play a control deck! Legacy or modern.

[@guybrushthreepwood8174]

Forget emrakul, we got elvish visionary!!

[@samliveshere88]

that sneak and show match was some of the worst luck ive seen in my life.

[@chanm01]

Heartbreaker, you got the best of me / But I just keep on coming back incessantly

[@Bladerxdxi]

at the end, it only looked like the deck wanted to be sarcastic

[@Lucarioguild7]

I am so sorry Reid, that sneak and show match was painful to watch

[@captainstash8645]

why?

[@captainstash8645]

okay I seen now

[@exaltedyeti5847]

Trying to get familiar with Legacy meta: What is the Archive Trap in the board coming in against?

[@depokegamer]

Shouldnt you run one of each of the 1mana dorks?(switch a fyndhorn to mystic)

[@motmontheinternet]

Anybody got a pic of that Quirion Ranger that looks all wooden? It's not on the Gatherer and google search just gives the default.

[@PoodlestarGenerica]

Can't tell if you're trolling, but one of his rangers is a promo I believe and old promos look weird sometimes.

[@motmontheinternet]

Trolling to ask for a picture....

[@stonebeard2194]

Google Quirion Ranger MTGO Promo. It was only printed online I believe.

[@PoodlestarGenerica]

I meant light trolling not mean trolling. It is not a special card it is messed up because it's a foil. Like promo priest of titania.

[@FrankHerfjord]

play Dack Fayden / punishing thieves! Oh and that Izzet control deck was sweet.

[@yoriisoet]

At 1:22:30 you had the game won didn't you? Why did you pass with 4 green mana and two natural orders in hand?

[@RespectYourViews]

opponent had a grafdigger's cage. natural order tries to put a creature onto the battlefield from the library, cage says NO! to the NO.

[@julianb.f4007]

Why does this deck not spash blue for edric or even dramatic reversal

[@the_ratman_]

Bolts are red. Counters are blue. Reid Duke plays Elves, and he's pwning you.

[@anonofyesterday4650]

I would've kept that 6-card hand game 2 match 1. I feel that when you're on the draw in the mirror AND you've already mulliganed you can't mull hoping to settle for a bad/mediocre hand. A minute ago you even stressed the importance of going first. In that position your hand has to be quite a bit above average to be able to compete with opponent's average 7-card hand. If you manage to find the land in top 2 cards of library that hand has potential of being much better than most of the hands you get by muliganing once again. Sure, not finding one is essentially GG but a lot of the time there going down to 5 is also a loosing play.

[@Alkoholwioslaidziwki]

Filip Tryhuk I don't know exactly how important card advantage is for this deck but it mulligans very well. Risking a pretty much instant loss with probability around 50% just to keep a hand that's strong but definitely not a guaranteed win IMO sounds very bad. Mulling into servicable 5 (at least 1 of the good lands) has probability somwhere around 80%.

[@christopherlundgren1700]

LSV would've kept that hand for sure, then proceed to rip like a champ.

[@utterlyj1277]

Alkoholwioslaidziwki problem is a serviceable 5, while good in some matchups, is never gonna win the elves mirror on the draw, against seven cards. You'd need a nuts 5, and in that case you might as well keep the 50/50 chance at a great 6.

[@tomasgomez6142]

Great conent as always! One question. Why do you use always Yield but not always yes on sentinel?

[@PinkFluffyify]

That second opponent didn't know Reid plays elves apparently. huh.

[@ChrisTian-ce2xp]

Any non Jund- G/B/(x)-Midrange in Modern (you made Jund recently) we be cool :)

[@TopSetUK]

Really interesting "keep or mull" during the second game. I have no idea what the right answer is.

[@Alkoholwioslaidziwki]

everyonedoesit2 Looking at raw numbers it's 55% chance of instant loss if you keep. The probability of a 5 card hand with 1-3 lands including the scry is above 80%. I think that if you take away all the hands that are unplayable regardless of the number of lands you would end up with like 70ish% chance of good enough or better 5. IMO mulling is the way to go, especially since the deck mulls very well with all those 1-drops.

[@TopSetUK]

Not sure I agree with your analysis. You're on the draw, facing the mirror and an opponent who has kept his opening 7. A "serviceable" 5 is going to have a terrible time in that spot, and there are plenty of "1-3 land hands" which are awful. You can definitely make a good argument for keeping that 6. Mulling from 6 to 5 drops your average win% by at least 10 points anyway. It's all academic though, that 5 was crazy good.

[@legoking5499]

Why 1 llanowar elves and 2 fyndhorn elves? Why not 3 of one?

[@michelspode423]

would like to see u drafting maybe even arena quick draft

[@Ziddletwix]

is 3 natural order standard? It feels like it's your best card in quite a few matchups, and if you don't draw Glimpse the deck doesn't "see" many cards.

[@entrer1]

It is standard. You really don't want to draw multiple.

[@alessandroboscaini8424]

I‘ve been playing elves for about 5 years and NO is your best card in mu where you have to race and you’re mostly unmolested (Burn, d&t, maverick, stompy.dec, combo decks, etc) but it’s one of your worst cards in interactive mu...they give you a chance g1 against many decks (combo, lands, ecc) but you don’t want to see multiples of it in any mu (they still cost 4 and put you down a card)...3 main and possibly the fourth in the board (if the meta is mostly uninteractive) is the right choice imho

[@utterlyj1277]

It's one of your best cards when you get to goldfish, but that happens less than you might think. In any interactive matchup they're one of your worst cards, and 3 is usually plenty to find one when you need it.

[@ashafloki]

I can swear Reid does his dishes while playing...

[@AndrewHunter]

I don't know much about legacy elves, but I had kinda thought Dwynen's Elite is good enough - no?

[@captainstash8645]

too slow

[@matthewdove3639]

Reid legacy content

[@mishrazz]

Playing Q Ranger instead of the visionary at 2:16:00 would have solved the jitte problem

[@shadowcatX2000]

For Game 2 Match 1, I think for learning (us, not you) purposes keeping the hand might have been better.

[@KevinWyattStone]

8:04 Hey someone else says Titania the same way I do!

[@goldcobraarima9819]

No leovold vs those pesky blue Decks that are everywhere?

[@lucamasseroni7]

Never land in first hand. Then when u need to draw there are even too much in this deck... I don't understand if I want less land or not in this deck

[@ErroneousClique]

This is not a new format. It is still Legacy, however the meta has shifted.

[@heller166]

reid your mic is not working properly. There is a lot of static in the background

[@Vuurgeest]

Sounds like someone cooking to me, noticed someone in the back having trouble with the lighter for the stove, it was there on previous videos too

[@ALWalserauthor]

I'm pretty sure it's his mic picking up the sounds of the fan on his computer.

[@utterlyj1277]

I think that no land 6 was a keep, personally. I understand why you would mulligan, but given you're already not favoured on the draw, and your opponent kept seven, I think you need to go for the high risk, high reward play.

[@Alkoholwioslaidziwki]

If the 6 was a guaranteed win in an unfavorable matchup then sure 45% are acceptable odds. I still think you have higher odds of drawing equivalent or better 5 with much lower risk of instant loss.

[@utterlyj1277]

Alkoholwioslaidziwki I really think you underestimate the gap between 6 and 5. No 6 is an instant win, but that 6 was pretty much as good as it gets, provided he found the land. The fact that he had Quirion Ranger also meant that he could function pretty well off one land.

[@Charlottiedottie]

i wish i could subscribe to just reid's videos

[@arcaneprofet]

WOOO LEGACY ELVES!!!

[@PoodlestarGenerica]

Love that acolyte

[@felipemedeiros9050]

You rock

[@bee6377]

Humility like!

[@oldirtysean00]

1:43:27 Lol Reid the Poet.

[@harunabestwaifu5675]

Play a vintage control deck!

[@arturopatricio974]

Pox or loam pox please

[@jamesspencer7516]

More modern elves

[@degausser5495]

I would havce kept the six on game 1 round 2, personally. You're already the underdog off the draw, it's going to take some luck to win. Roll the dice, brother. You took game 1 so you're on the play game 3 anyway.

[@PercyWellington]

legacy bug deck next!

[@TheThousandthPrinny]

Use elvish mystic instead of second fyndhorn elves to dodge card name shenanigans.

[@richardkaneferguson]

crop rotation for cradle

[@filipkevely]

Shame you do not edit out opponent's thinking time - that would cut the video at least by one third.

[@chappy6817]

Does Reid have a Patreon? If not he should...

[@goldcobraarima9819]

No Leovold against those blue trash decks?

[@Sidenonra]

In match one you could have easily gotten a turn 3 kill.

[@MasterSchatz]

Legacee Veed... Oh wait...

[@GeorgeAlone2277]

I'm so glad I don't play elves anymore. Too much math for me 😂

[@mr_anderson6136]

Reid my man please get a new mic, your audio is so grainy.

[@HeadShotKilla10]

Wow Reid, i would never play elfs again if i was you. I just dont think this is your deck. Iam so use to Reid knowing all the right plays its weird watching him play a deck hes un sure how to pilot correctly

[@AsumaBob]

Lippy lol are you kidding? It’s one of his favourite decks and he has been playing elves forever

[@captainstash8645]

how is he unsure how to pilot elves he's one of the best elf players out there sure he still makes very few mistakes but usually he makes the best plays possible and his math is flawless