Leaf-Crowned Visionary Elfball in Explorer | Magic: the Gathering (MTG)

[@stewyxtreme]

To be honest, Realmwalker is what truly made the difference. knowing what you were gonna draw next is amazing information to have to not waste mana on drawing an elf that you can play off the top anyway. Paying a single G to knowingly draw away non-elves off the top was a massive advantage.

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah, it works really well with Leaf-Crowned Visionary's ability for sure.

[@shmerelize]

@@MTGGoldfish I have 4 in my Reflectamentals deck in Explorer

[@xSekireiz]

Elves are hilarious. You're always one draw from going off no matter what your board state looks like lmao

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah! That's what makes the deck so fun to play!

[@SmashPortal]

'Bolt the 'Bird? Nah. Strangle the 'Elf? Hell yeah.

[@shmerelize]

Eliminate the Elf

[@jamesrule1338]

Reminds me of the elf deck I built that a friend of mine threatened to to burn if I ever played it again.

[@ther3aper561]

That's how you know you're playing elves correctly!

[@dkres82]

@@ther3aper561 true

[@Jason-ji8ql]

Elf decks in Magic are both fun and annoying to watch played. It's so satisfying to see the engine come together and feel the synergy. And always a groan to watch when it rolls over the opponent 😆. Either way, always love these vids!

[@olafthemoose9413]

At the end of the day the good elf decks are more like storm decks than creature tribal decks

[@JackPowerX]

Game 2 you whiffed on CoCo, putting *2* other copies of CoCo to the bottom, and ended up drawing the fourth anyway. Arena was like, "Sorry I whiffed your CoCo. Here's some gold."

[@TheOnlyDalenHD]

i also was like wtf? all 4 copies in a bunch of 7

[@wormspeaker]

That Grixis match was a heartbreaker.

[@ther3aper561]

The "but, eh? Dog life" comment... I felt that in my bones 😂

[@SuenteusPi]

always wild when Seth plays a rogue deck and then faces the mirror within a few matches

[@andrewgolubiewski3463]

Personal opinion, any elfball deck benefits highly from a 2 of might of the masses. The ability to turn an unblocked 1/1 into something massive for lethal is great. It really lets you pull out wins where you only needed another turn.

[@alexleblanc6364]

"Crim in more ways than one" -Seth after he mutes the opponent Couldn't have said it better myself seth...

[@F0r3v3rT0m0rr0w]

The elves will continue untill moral improves

[@gaberubin2585]

Played a guy who had basically this deck but with nyxbloom ancients in it, he had 574 mana from tapping 1 creature

[@nvvv_]

i'm a ramp player and this statement brought me no end of joy.

[@csys690]

Yes! You're finally doing elves! Right off the bat, I saw how much you underestimated Elvish Warmaster. It finishes 90% of my winning games.

[@DJTrulin]

39:30 Oh the missed opportunity. Untapped gaea's cradle going into double beast master and visionary

[@g.thomasesmay4974]

"I feel like Crim is a bad influence on Grixis players everywhere" - SaffronOlive, 2022

[@MrJbojo]

I was the bolas deck in match 3...not sure why the raz about the emotes. I'm a fan and was pumped to play you and was just trying to show some love in the limited ways arena allows...

[@MTGGoldfish]

Hey! Sorry. I just always raz emotes on Arena. Hopefully it didn't come across as personal.

[@MrJbojo]

@@MTGGoldfish:)

[@Latman2k]

That coco whiff against phoenix was mind blowing

[@bye1551]

On march 3 I don't blame the opponent for the angry emote. Said hello, hit you with the love and you didn't say hi back 😢

[@Unknown360DD]

That collected company wiff made me scream

[@davidthompson6861]

I'm always down for more Elfball content! My personal build dips into black for the sideboard & mains the Heroic Interventions to block G1 wraths for extra protection. I've also been testing out Wildborn Preserver to add an extra trigger to Warmaster & to handle flyers

[@bryanpadula]

The write up said Shaman of the Pack was the one thing the deck was missing, but Skemfar shadowsage exists. Is it that bad comparatively being mono back and cost 1 more colorless?

[@ImJustHereToWatch14]

Not being able to hit it off Collected Company is probably what keeps it out of the deck.

[@bryanpadula]

@@ImJustHereToWatch14 oh, you're completely correct.

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah, being too expensive for CoCo is rough for this deck.

[@spriy7794]

As a blue player, this deck embodies everything I hate about Explorer, but a very fun watch nonetheless. Thanks for the great content, Seth!

[@GelidGanef]

Last season I made mythic _for the first time_ with a 67% wr explorer stompy green deck. Elves was my second most played deck, but just because I loved it so, I never got it above even 50% with it. I've been fascinated since kaldheim tho, and i've been actively tinkering since explorer anthology introduced 8elf. Tinkering and hoping Leaf crown changed everything. This season, i'm well through diamond again, riding elves all the way. My golgari build is 68% rn! That's like stompy green numbers or rakdos numbers. Several matchups are much improved. The few really bad matchups left I think are sideboardable... working on a bo3 version now. Or working on affording the wildcards for it anyway 😂

[@ChilleDINJerseY]

sounds like a cool deck! I;d love to see it

[@GelidGanef]

@@ChilleDINJerseY Sure I'd love to show it! My spicy black includes in the main are 3 Skemfar Avenger 2 Harald Unites the Elves As they're really nice for going over the top in grindy matchups. They're really my pull to black. And being in black I even split 2 Collected Company 2 Call of the Death Dweller Since I find in many spots that Call is as good as a medium Coco. The rest is nothing special, something like 4 Llanowar, 4 Mystic, 3 Sentinel 3 Visionary, 2 Dwynen's Elite 4 Warmaster, 4 Leaf-crowned, 2 Clancaller 3 Realmwalker, 3 Marwyn 4 shock lands, 2 slow lands, 2 Garenbrig 10 Forest, 1 Swamp

[@ChilleDINJerseY]

@@GelidGanef dopeee ima try it out!

[@GelidGanef]

@@ChilleDINJerseY sweet lemme know if you have any notes!

[@EJN64]

Opponent be like: Meatball Massacre for 2

[@Xoulrath_]

Lol, you could Meathook often against the boards Seth had for 1.

[@jaydenyamada2916]

Whiff on coco in an elf deck. Wow.

[@Linky609]

Gotta remember for that coco whiff you also had creatures on board and in grave so it was probably more like 23-25 hits. Still low odds to miss.

[@MrBunt]

the amount of cards in the deck would be lower as well (

[@ItsLLogical]

I first used realmwalker in my first sliver commander deck and my goodness has it become a favorite for tribals since

[@marowakcity3727]

every time bear makes an appearance it puts a smile on my face

[@KnicKnac]

Reminds me of the elf decks during the Onslaught block. So much forestwalk during that time

[@rodneyholke-farnam7911]

Thanks for pointing out Crim's emote training. I can't watch his videos anymore because of the video where he trained people on how to maximize being annoying with emotes.

[@smegmalasagna]

Depending on if elves are going to get popular i’m definentally going to be playing with Goblin Chainwhirler again :p

[@jcastigon]

Thanks for the nice work! Are you going to talk about this leaf-crowned visionary in modern??

[@JoshRudis]

RE: gala greeters. They seem decent but slow. You get some incremental advantage but only if you can keep them on the board for 2+ turns. Most matchups I expect them to be kinda bad (for this style of deck anyway).

[@MaledictusPod]

I built something similar recently, but it had less mana dorks and filler elves, but added Nissa, Great Henge, and Wildborn Preserver. Not as fast, but easily the same amount of beatdown.

[@Zander2212]

I figured you'd run Circle of Dreams Druid for another Gaea's Cradle type effect, is that not viable? Dies to easily to removal or something?

[@MTGGoldfish]

Circle of Dream Druid is solid, it's just hard to find room for it alongside Marwyn and Growing Rites. I think Growing Rites is probably better just because it's harder to kill (and the ETB dig for a creature is pretty decent).

[@Zander2212]

@@MTGGoldfish understandable. I only play commander, but if I did this, I'd probably swap Marwyn for Dreams druid at least.

[@robertshannon5442]

Add red for bane fire? I’m not sure if it is in explorer but red to get haste might be good as well.

[@klydewithak9456]

One of crims minions: a crimion

[@t.beckettchristensen3493]

@Mtggoldfish My personal build used to run red for rhythm of the wild. I don’t know if you’ll do elves again, but it is surprisingly effect

[@Dalenthas]

Surprised Circle of Dreams Druid didn't make the cut.

[@michaelcraven2554]

Each deck can be good based on what they play. Ik, nostradamus thoughts.

[@godtiermtg]

What are your thoughts on Circle of Dreams Druid, maybe over Steel Leaf?

[@gordonpetty8591]

I’m here for the Bear content

[@seanclark4071]

I wonder if this deck wants green defiler as a pseudo craterhoof type card

[@markcarr154]

I miss when elves was more popular in historic. It was always a low brain effort game, either they win super quickly or I drew my witch’s vengeance I mainboarded for bo1.

[@coreysierchio4650]

Huzzah for Mono-Green!

[@austinlange1410]

I wonder if a one-of defiler of vigor would be good here or if it’s a little win more. You can cheat even more elves while extra pumping your team though

[@baileynicholson251]

What's funny is legacy elves are moving away from glimpse of nature. Still a great video

[@gaminggeckos4388]

52:28 But wasn't that purely because of its combo with Book of Exalted Deeds? I feel like having a jank combo like that doesn't really qualify that card as being super good when used outside of that combo

[@benjaminheinje66]

id throw an ulamog in there because its got a lot of mana and could use the removal.

[@ryanhebertson7457]

I ran a version of this deck to get to mythic in explore! Instead of beast whisper and realmwalker tho I run circle of dream dryad and end-raze forerunner for the turn 4 wins

[@kylersaunders6539]

@saffronolive @channelfireball im obsessed with the elf arch type and ive built my own spin on it callin it elf storm because instead waiting a turn to win or just beating down my deck aims to storm off and when it does it has serveral ways to kill via attacking out that turn/ Aetherlux karn combo im using cards like vigor and silver to grow taller make things cheaper and silverback gains a ton of life while also being able to pull lands from the deck have you all tried something along those lines

[@kennethwebb4937]

Love elfball decks. Thanks for all the ideas. 😁

[@ODIRGO]

You are RIGHT with the thing you said at the begining of match 3, Seth. That's why I don't watch Crim's videos, unless they're Naya o Selesnya.

[@Xoulrath_]

I don't watch Crim's videos because he's just boring. To give an example of how exciting Seth is, my mother heard me watching the vid on my TV. She asked me if I was watching sports. Seth is just like a great announcer. Crim isn't. I've got nothing against the guy. He has solid takes on the podcast. But he is not fun to watch.

[@bizzarroh]

Now because of Doggo we need a Dog/Skeleton deck...

[@kallinblackburn717]

Why not run the great henge? If you have the lords and the mana and the steel leaf champ

[@Cap_Olimar]

Nice to see Seth CoCos like I do

[@_cephalotus4187]

could this work in modern also?

[@ToadallyMemes]

What's Elves really waiting for in explorer...Shaman of the pack?

[@WitherFang]

I'd say chord of calling.

[@MTGGoldfish]

I think Shaman is the biggest missing piece. Honestly I'm not sure there's much else that I'd play in Pioneer Elves that isn't already on Arena.

[@Pyrodactyl]

Love spbkaso 😁

[@aliensshi6656]

so i think somethings really messed up with the land alg. they need to fix it

[@Dareianrc36]

Love the vids as always but I'm pretty sure Elvish Warmaster is suppose to be once per turn. I actually looked it up and it can only make a token OPT. Is this an alchemy change or something I'm missing?

[@nyxknight7555]

Timestamp?

[@MTGGoldfish]

I don't think Elvish Warmaster has been rebalanced for Alchemy (although we are playing Explorer, so it would be the real version either way). I don't remember it making more than one token in a turn though, do you know where in the video it happened?

[@Dareianrc36]

@@MTGGoldfish Oh my god I feel dumb. I'm watching the mirror game back and I didn't realize Dwygen's Elite was being played during these giant boards and I thought the tokens were all from the same Warmaster.

[@Dareianrc36]

@@nyxknight7555 I messed up lol. Didn't realize Dwygen's elite was coming down at the same times having multiple tokens being made at the same time.

[@AzelRavenWood]

That third match was depressing in how much your deck hated you!!!

[@Myrrith16]

How is this Elfball? There's no Fireball or Hurricane to dump mana into.

[@Saffron-mb8mp]

So what did you do against Meathook?

[@MTGGoldfish]

Cry, mostly. (Although really we hope to stack up enough lords or draw enough cards to fight thought it).

[@dyerwolf5014]

Sweet list do you think this could work in pioneer?

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah! We'll probably try it there too. I think the list would be almost the same, but with Shaman of the Pack being the one big upgrade.

[@jasoncornwall6379]

are elvish pipers playable in elfball??

[@TheRealCakekey]

I honestly find elfball decks boring as dirt to watch in pretty much any format, but I'll watch anyway for Seth's dulcet tones

[@MidgarMerc]

Seth really over here with the Realmwalker still paying the G to draw cards he can just play...

[@bounceday]

Explorer is Arena sets pioneer right?

[@matthewlohmeier2056]

Explorer is pioneer in Arena. They just called it Explorer because Arena doesn't currently have all pioneer cards available in the game yet. Wizards says they are working on it though. It is suppose to eventually become pioneer.

[@piranha9411]

Does anyone else get kind of angry seeing him not cast the marowin when he has a bunch of elves in hand he can chain?

[@sneakep]

i'm surprised you don't seem to respect Marwyn that much. She is SO OP where I would never take her out of the deck and I play 3 of her because she snowballs in power and is her own gaia's cradle in elves.

[@heypaul2143]

Bruh at 48:57 I realized that the deck cover was a merfolk lord

[@nicholasperez5716]

play with 19 basic forest, draw every single basic forest

[@veganeconomist7453]

Should be in black for Skemfar, board wipe control is unwinable without it.

[@dsshelf1995]

I feel like allosaurus shepherd would have been a great sideboard card against control. It makes all your green stuff uncounterable, not just itself. Yeah it’s mythic, but this ain’t budget magic.

[@pioneerplayablemtg]

That's not legal in Explorer, only in Historic

[@alaya1347]

If in historic archdruid is playable so I do elves there

[@alaya1347]

I Also splash black

[@petrsevcik5044]

#DogLife

[@Xoulrath_]

The losses that this deck had, that could have been wins, is exactly why I'll never run Elves without splashing Black and running Shaman of the Pack.

[@mikemoyer8162]

I appreciate this, but being an old man: I hate elfball.

[@robthehood1765]

Build a deck around force of savagery or no balls >.> (joke)

[@collinthrash4005]

Anyone ever wander how does he ever get this many wildcards

[@t.beckettchristensen3493]

He’s made videos about all the money he has to spend on packs

[@MidgarMerc]

He buys those $100 pack bundles. Cracking packs gives wildcards

[@joshuacrumley2031]

Arena? That's interesting........I don't think I'll ever consider it until same cards are available that are there in MTGO, and Wizards will have to let me move my collection to it. And more robust formats. It's just not appealing to me at all.

[@mitchhak2]

Mtgo stuff plz. Also, are Arena videos more popular than MTGO videos?

[@MTGGoldfish]

Don't worry, more MTGO will be coming. It's just been a lot of Arena lately because of new Standard and rotation (and it makes sense to play Standard on Arena), it will normalize a bit in the next week or two with a mixture of formats.

[@psychomagi]

I am sorry but the mull to 5 no lander into all lands in a row with only 19 in the deck... do THAT on the calculator. That was one in hundreds of games likely, and that's the second instance in a row with that level of rare calculation. Arena's Algorithms are totally fine...

[@logansmall5148]

You think that is bad, i run a mono red aggro deck in arena with 16 lands (mana curve is 1.2 in it) and i have had multiple games where I have mulled to 4 or 5 due to 6-7 land hands. I keep 1 land hands all the time and win about 60-70% of the time with them, lol

[@Nitestorm1985]

Where is your craterhoof you would win so much faster if you had at least 1 or 2

[@MTGGoldfish]

There isn't really a Hoof in Explorer. I guess there's End-Raze Forerunners, but it's a lot worse than Hoof.

[@MistaZiggy]

Too much card draw in green. Blue now needs to get hyper efficient creatures and mana making and then the color pie is obsolete

[@kal54321]

your ability to add non-existent vowels and syllables to words is unparalleled.

[@MTGGoldfish]

It's my secret talent.

[@kal54321]

@@MTGGoldfish I don't think it's a secret

[@Razdasoldier]

Goldfish: has Cradle ALSO GOLDFISH: THEY HAVE A BETTER BOARD STATE. What!?

[@jgroen5545]

I can watch these videos up to the moment where he says ooooppooonent. Get a voice coach, damn. I try, I really try, but as soon as the pronunciation on that word drops it is just too much for me. Sorry, just being honest here.

[@Mando0Melkor]

Not a single defiler? For real?

[@drewgregory4079]

Defiler of Vigor is terrible in this build. It's not an elf so it's just lowering your tribal density and its main upside, other than being a big body, is helping you mana cheat creatures. Making additional mana is the one thing elves absolutely don't need more help doing. If you're running a big top end non-elf in an elves build it's something that lets you alpha strike and end the game like Craterhoof.

[@MTGGoldfish]

It's not an elf or cheap enough for CoCo :(

[@Mando0Melkor]

@@MTGGoldfish but aren't it kinda short sighted, because he is the payoff for your gameplan the deck is not the traditional elfball because the elements are not the same, they are not so mana efficient, going wide is payed off by him and he has direct sinergy with the elf lord by making his tax for draw none exitant. You can be a mutch better kinda midrangy elf strategy because the format is a little slower. I understand the point of keeping them on the same elf shell but it is not the same thing at all.

[@Xoulrath_]

@@Mando0Melkor give it a try and let us know what happens.