Except those who don't currently own an elf deck and now have to pay more for staples that need reprints, lol. I got my list filled out except for Titania and Quirion Ranger and now I'm regretting not just going for them when they were cheaper.
Placed 1st and 3rd the last two weeks running your elves, Professor. So much fun to play. Lead the Stampede has repeatedly been a straight up game winner, along with the all star Ranger twins.
While I disagree with your opinion regarding Land Grant, I really like this list! Wouldn't mind seeing a Kaervek's Torch somewhere in the 75, but to each their own.
I will say: if you're not planning on running Land Grant, you might think about running 3 or 4 Tranquil Thicket in place of a few Forests to help protect against flooding.
What is the value of running land grant? Reshuffling some lands I've bottomed with LtS doesn't seem worth the downsides; especially not in a list like this that foregoes Dmelody.
Sharpe 3 One fringe benefit is that it's an additional green spell which you cast for free, giving you another untap trigger for Nettle Sentinel, but that's a minor consideration. The main draw is that Land Grant is basically a fetch land, essentially removing two lands at once (9 forests and 4 Land Grant in your deck, cast Land Grant, you're left with 8 forests and 3 Land Grant) which improves the quality of future draws and helps mitigate getting mana flooded.
I dropped about 1k on my elf deck for Modern, and honestly I prefer the gameplay of Pauper as a whole a lot more than Modern. The cheap price of Pauper is definitely a huge plus, but I don’t think it should be thought of as just being a lesser format for people who can’t afford to play other formats, because that isn’t really accurate.
I personally love elves; it was the first deck I ever built in MtG, one of my favs to pilot, and it was my plan to build an elf deck in every format (eventually) - thanks for giving me the pauper lowdown!
Thanks so much Professor! I've been wanting to get into Pauper, and this one is so much fun to play. I had about 1/3 of the cards, and only spend another $20 to make a budget version of this deck (I left out the higher dollar playsets). It still plays very well and is one of the most fun deck's I've played thus far. I made the mistake of challenging my wife with it against my mono white token white guys deck and an hour and a half later my final life total was 518, and I hit her for a final whopping 100+ swing with the Elvish Vanguard and two tokens, plus the other 39 cards that were in play by then. It was a crazy match, but one of the most fun I've played in a while. Towards the end we were each taking 90+ damage swings at each other, and managing to regain that much life back each time (my white token deck is ridiculous...a budget build I came up with myself). SO mcuh fun, thanks so much for the build suggestion. It works well even in a budget version.
Great video, Prof! I've played a slightly different version of the deck (9 forests and Land Grant + another elf) against a friend's casual deck. The thing is that he didn't know I was playing Elves... but he was too! Result: an incredible amount of powerful and ridiculously numerous creatures that just got him sick to play green elves. Super! He learned a lesson that day: never underestimate the power a Pauper deck ;-) haha!
Prof thank you for the pauper content. I truly love the format, I am lucky enough to own a handful of legacy and modern decks; however, I enjoy pauper just as much of not more. It’s a great format and allows more people to enjoy the game we all love
I've been playing elves in MTG for over 20 years now and it never ceases to amaze me how absolutely broken you can make them. The fact that they're so versatile is one of my favorite things about them. My first real discovery of that versatility came when day of the dragons came out I think in scourge and ever since then Day of the dragons has been a staple for me alongside Mass Hysteria for surprise dragon sweep And it's a win can I have never personally seen someone else use so I take pride in using it even though it's just a jank way to win with elves when you could do something else like burn or overpower or whatever lol. It's just so satisfying.
I think I'm waiting for M25 to get in to pauper. It's tough looking at $4 commons knowing they could be $0.10 in a month or two. This is probably the deck I'll be building, though. I've always loved elves!
David Kadonsky I was debating which Pauper deck to build back when I discovered the format earlier this year. I'm not normally an aggro player, but that Nettle Sentinel opening combo hooked me immediately. Oh, I'm just dumping my whole hand on turn 2, excuse me while I win.
Zeviander Hence why it's $4 common. :P Certainly reprintable in a Masters set, tho, fingers crossed. I might play one tournament running Pauper once in my life so I'm going to try to keep my costs down.
It is a wise move, friend. There is a chance of even more reprints for this deck with the Elves vs Artificers duel deck coming out soon. As for M25 though, Wizards certainly did not see the Pauper craze coming (I bet that 3 months ago even Prof wouldn't believe how quickly it spread), so it did not impact set design at all. I would not hold my breath for most of the money staples being reprinted, but certainly some rarity downshifts are likely - and with it, hope for new decks to emerge in the format.
shiki8 I wouldn't expect them to have targeted expensive Pauper cards (yet), but it's not unreasonable to think they may just want to reprint some of the strongest cards from history, in general. They have a lot of common slots to fill in the set and something like Gush would've been on their radar without Pauper. For Elves, specifically, Ancient Grudge could provide a good utility common since they already just reprinted Naturalize. If they want Elves represented without making the tribe a set them (likely, imo) something like Nettle Sentinel would be a great fit since it just refers to "green" and not "Elf". Quirion Ranger is another card that would fit and a Masters set is the only place they'd feel they could print such a complicated card at common. The duel decks is an interesting point and something like Timberwatch Elf or Wellwisher seem like a good fit.
Pauper Elves is such an amazing deck. Prof fogot to mention the Ulamog's Crusher is another option for this deck. It used to be a staple until Elvish Vanguard was down shifted to common. However it still shows up in builds from time to time.
Thanks for giving us another elf pauper deck to tinker with. I'm gonna build one(have already gathered several and I play a modern golgari coco list already) I'm excited to try it. I love my elf decks.
When I first learned to play magic in grade school I only played with my brother and a couple other friends and we made really Kano decks of whatever cards we had. Elves was my favorite tribe before I ever knew that they were a top tier deck in any format. Looks like collecting all of those elves so long through trade will finally pay off. I’ve been looking for the right pauper deck and I have this deck halfway built already.
I was in an attempt to get my friend to go with me to scg con looking for something easy for his limited skills set, when I came across pauper. And I realized how fun it looked. And, as a legacy player, this price is nothing! I was looking for a casual format, that was rather cheap to play. And I feel pauper is absolutely a way to go! Thanks prof for opening my eyes, and turning me on to an amazing format!
I recommend "Seedling Charm" for protection and the chance to give your pumped elf trample. "Rangers Guile" to avoid exiles. "Vitalize" you can go for even more mana, if you try to combo-elves. "Wirewood Herald" tutors the Elf you need and gives you a kind of toolbox-deck.
Very good argument for the ratio of mana elves, might hang on to them on the side in case I move from my meta, a very casual one, to a more competitive one. My build always ran playsets of all three. Lead the Stampede is definitely going in now that I found my old copies of it. That card is nuts. Interesting sideboard tech with Electrickery. I have some modifications to work on for now. Thanks for more Pauper goodstuff Prof!
This deck looks like a lot of fun. I lucked out by buying most of my modern elf cards before they jumped up in price. I only run 2 copies of Caven of Souls unfortunately, but the total cost of my modern elf deck was only about $250.
I’m kind of new to the game but doesn’t the silver symbol on (Timberwatch elf) mean that this is uncommon? I looked up the rules it says they all have to be common, but I’ve seen several decks now with cards with the silver symbol?
Thanks Prof! Just ordered the main board x 2 (I'll get the sideboards a bit later) for $131 ish .... My daughter and I look forward to some epic 1 on 1 battles, plus teaming up together with our MTG friends for some 2 Headed Monster fun. Muwahahaha!
You must be psychic. I just started back up magic after, well a 10ish year hiatus. I used to run a very cheap but VERY overwhelming elf deck. This is very close to it but I ran birds and biorythm also. Thanks for the psychic vibes and solid video.
i love elves. i have a casual/legacy elf deck, the entire deck costs around 140 dollars to make. though of that 140, 30 of that budget is from two optional cards. left to its own devices it will be able to deal lethal damage on turn 5 every single time unless you just pick a potato hand. one of the most flexible tribes to build.
Hey Professor... I have an old Casual elf deck which has maybe 4 Rares and 8 Uncommons in it... and contains MANY MANY of the Pauper elves stuff in it... I just might have to dismantle it and rebuild as pauper. The only two cards I would be sad to lose would be Headless one (Imagine if that got a downshift) and Wirewood lodge which would be an even better downshift.
Professor this build looks fun and I shall try this deck for my daughter as she plays EDH commander and this looks like a good way for her to get into modern. Thank you.
I like Vizier of Menagerie in a low land count elf deck with a Winter Orb to annoy other players. With elves you have little problems getting mana, and you can keep playing elves from your deck as long as you have mana, and you have very little non-creature spells in the deck.
my lgs had their first pauper tourney thurs at the long requests of me and my crew I took 2nd with ur skred ( btw I eat elves ALIVE lol) LOve the vids!! I sold all my modern , legacy and vintage cards and bought myself and litteraly 12 other people fully decked out top tier pauper decks and managed to throw an amazing pauper party with the proceeds I DO NOT miss spending 200$ on a single lol
I hope you succeed in promoting pauper into a big thing. I believe it needs some fun videos where the format is played, like the LRR gaming videos or the Game Knights videos from the command zone. Not just deck techs.
Priest of Titania spiked at the beginning of 2021, I imagine Lathril is the culprit. Now there’s not a competitive pauper elves deck below $100 dollars.
8:39 i personally prefer llanowar visionary. It’s basically if elvish visionary and llanowar elves were mixed together. For 2G u get a 2/2 that taps for G and when it ebbs draws a card
Christopher Sofsky six might be hyperbole. But I have friends who like magic but don't feel like buying cards. If I had. A box of similar power level decks we'd play more often.
shiki8 And now, over a year later, that isn’t true. This elf deck is still about the same price as in this video. One of the top performing red pauper decks is even cheaper, at around 60 bucks. Pauper decks over $100 are a pretty rare thing for the most part, and it can still be played competitively at well under $50. There are just way too many commons out there for it to become too expensive. Let’s say, hypothetically, that all pauper decks were at $200. That’s still significantly more affordable than a well performing Standard, Modern, or Legacy deck. Besides the cost, the format is just fun to play. Recently I started playing it online, because I don’t have many people to play with here in paper, and I am playing against such a wide variety of decks compared to when I play Modern. It’s well worth the cost.
love how prof makes a new pauper video card kingdom loses all these commons. ps prof dare you to try the red black vampire pauper madness deck see what you think I enjoy it personally just needs more answers and I think you might find some sweet commons to bump this up
Hey there! This is an awesome deck, awesome video ! I've REALLY gotten into Pauper on mtgo over the last year or so. I've also really been enjoying your pauper videos! , I've built myself a handful of fun & competitive decks (Mono B Control, Izzet Blitz, GW Slivers, Mono R Gobbos, and Mono U Delver/Control (but not the typical cookie cutter meta build )) so after watching a few elves videos, I'm DEFINITELY building this elves deck, especially considering it'll cost me less than 25 tickets .....ezpz what a sleezy! Question : are there any commons out there that give 2+ creatures trample? Like an overrun type effect? Thanks , CHEERS! P.s. $70+?!?!?! This deck is competitive for 35 tickets , even as low as 27 tickets . Maybe you were referring to paper prices and not mtgo ticket prices .....regardless, it's HELLA CHEAP!
Prof, I recently brewed up a Modern Elf deck using Nissa Revane and lots of ramp! I am buying the cards now. If I were to send that to you, would you take a look? Maybe you could make a video about it. It's also under $150 to make, so that's a big plus.
Yeah.... Nettle Sentinel seems like a much better damage engine paired up with that Viridian Longbow that the Priest of Titania thing you were talking about...... a lot better.
I need to go through my old onslaught cards for timberwatches and wellwishers now! I wonder if any other secret off colour tech might replace electrickery
However Blazing Volley is a Sorcery while Electrickery is an instant. So honestly it's a bit of a give or take. Honestly, in my opinion, Electrickery is better given the deck doesn't need to really be all that stingy with mana, and instances are better then sorceries. But that's just my opinion on the matter.
Tapping due to a card having the "tap" symbol or an attack is not legal, but if a card states that you can tap to use its ability in actual text and text only, it is legal.
Why does Taunting Elf not dominate in Pauper? I've been looking at various Pauper elves deck lists and I never see Taunting Elf. It looks OP to me. Anyone understand why?
Probably won't get seen as this is an older video, but is there a reason you wouldn't run Seeker of Skybreak? Seems like an obvious pick with Wellwisher, Priestess and Timberwatch.
I think that's the point of the Quirion Ranger. Does a lot more for one Mana. Tap a land for mana, cast something, return that land, untap something. If you haven't dropped a land that turn, play that land again.
It is funny how Priest of Titania, Quirion Ranger, Nettle Sentinel put the price through the roof for this deck. A budget player can win with just a Taunting elf, Venom and a Elvish Scout, also Copperhorn Scout for more budget silliness. Cool deck though, I got most of the stuff for this already and found some beat up copies for cheap on the stuff I don't got. What I find weird though is not even one copy of Rancor?
Would like to see the modern and legacy decks for comparison. Yes, I could google, but I could also google this list. I'm too lazy. That's not what I am here for ;-)
Also, Prof, you forgot by far my favorite Elf Tribal common: Wirewood pride. Target creature gets +x/+x until end of turn, where X is the number of elves in play? At common for 1G? Yes please!
That is cool but I'd sooner untap my Timberwatch, actually I added, come to think of it, Untamed Might, instant X pump spell with all those mana dorks hanging out. That card makes one elf basically lethal:P
Hi! Can someone please explain me how it is that you can tap llanowar elf for mana on the turn it was cast? I had the impression that the cards with the (tap symbols) couldn’t be tapped on the turn they are summoned. Other ability can be activated if they don’t include the tap symbol. Please explain?
It's a little bit late but I can explain : the abilities with a tap symbol can be activated without summoning sickness only of It's a mana ability Mana abilities are particular in this game, It's one of their particularities
@@jessicalepins1433 that's not how it works, he used birchlore rangers, and birchlore rangers doesn't have a tap symbol, it just taps two of your creatures, meaning creatures with summoning sickness can be tapped for mana with birchlore rangers.
if you have all these elves lying around, you should make Modern elves. Spending 600$ is unnecessary as fuck to make a competitive Modern Elves deck, just go Green Black and stick to lands like Llanowar Wastes and Blooming Marsh.
