In my experience, Manaless Dredge is the best matchup you can face with Elves. In sanctioned Paper matches I am something like 10-0 against it, and my MTGO record is about quite similar. The deck is inherently slow + you get the bonus of running 4 Time Walks in the form of Thoughtseize postboard. Don’t forget to make them go first so you can draw the extra card. Regarding their graveyard, I usually let them dredge as much as they want and won’t attack their early dredgers with Deathrite Shaman or Surgical Extraction , because they can punish you with Street Wraith . Of course, if you have perfect information and removing their dredger would screw them hard, go for it. But otherwise just attack their recurring creatures like Narcomoeba , Ichorid , Nether Shadow and Prized Amalgam . Killing them is just of very secondary concern to me. There will be quite a few games where you can just deck them. I’ve even had Game 1s where just DRS+ Quirion Ranger + Pendelhaven were holding the fort long enough for them to never get into the game and eventually just deck out.

Another great matchup that only rarely gets tricky. The card you fear the most is a turn2 Ethersworn Canonist because it stops both your mana acceleration and mass-card draw plan. Other than that, you are usually in a great position. Their gameplan heavily revolves around connecting with Umezawa’s Jitte , so be wary of that. Also note that in an emergency, morphed Birchlore Rangers has no colour and can still block through Mother of Runes; just make sure to then unmorph and bounce it back to your hand with Wirewood Symbiote .

Sideboarding against GWb Maverick heavily depends on the kind of hate bears you’re seeing. Karakas bounces Gaddock Teeg , which is a very scary card in this matchup. Depending on which hate bears you feel they have the most, once again shuffle around your Glimpse of Nature and Green Sun’s Zenith numbers. When I’m on the play, I’m much more willing to keep more Glimpse of Nature . If they have like 2 Gaddock Teeg, I would also consider cutting Nissa, Vital Force on the draw and bring in Scavenging Ooze , which is an ok card, but not great in the matchup.

Oh, how the tables have turned. Miracles was once our second worst matchup int he metagame, but following the ban of Sensei’s Diving Top I now consider it amonst the more favourable decks to face in Legacy. My gameplan against them is heavily focussed on abusing how little actual cards the deck runs. They do have a ton of card draw, but their density of cards that actually interact with the board is very low. You will often find me discarding their Swords to Plowshares and extracting or, allowing you to play a much more fluid game with Wirewood Symbiote , forcing them into bad trades with Terminus . Or you take out their mass removal with Surgical and suddenly get to play a game where you can more freely overextend, putting a lot of pressure on Jace, the Mind Sculptor . Their most threatening cards are Entreat the Angels (if they run it) and Jace, the Mind Sculptor , as the card advantage and utiltiy of the planeswalker will pile up over several turns and is the only way the deck can actually outgrind you. Note that a lot of them do not run Counterbalance or will even side it out against you. I still like Decay because it hits cards like Monastery Mentor, Containment Priest or at the very least a Snapcaster Mage , which can be problematic to beat without Pendelhaven .

The main reason this matchup isn’t ranked higher is Reality Smasher . Most of your losses will come from starts involving this card. Remember: you are not in it to win vs turn1 Chalice of the Void , turn2 Thought-Knot Seer , Turn3 Reality Smasher . Fortunately those openings don’t happen that often; and even if they do, you can sometimes still beat them with an early Progenitus. I like Nissa, Vital Force in this matchup because she can actually stop Reality Smasher and then quickly follow things up with a quite devastating ultimate ability.

The matchup is overall really good, except for their April 1st draws that we just can’t beat. Remember that you can exile Academy Rector from the graveyard in response to its triggered ability and you should be good to go. Once the Rector is out of the game, this just becomes a walk in the park…for most of the year.

Used to be a very good matchup, but ever since Fatal Push, we don’t always get to establish this huge tempo advantage we had because of their previous lack of cmc1 removal. It’s still a decent matchup, but you can sometimes be blown if they pack a ton of mass removal like Marsh Casualties . Can be worth siding into Progenitus on the play; it’s also quite likely they will side out Liliana of the Veil on the draw. If they to have Leovold, Emissary of Trest , you must bring in Karakas .

The boogeyman of the format. It used to be an even better matchup but these days it seems everyone and their mother have like 2 Marsh Casualties and sometimes even Izzet Staticaster . I still like the matchup overall as their 1/1 tokens only become threatening once they hit critical mass. When you do lose the matchup, the overwhelming majority of times it will be because they played a very aggressive game with Lighting Bolt , Wasteland and Daze , making you struggle really hard on your mana. That’s why my primary focus in this matchup is to establish a solid board position with regards to mana. It’s one of the very few matchups where I will (early on) often Green Sun’s Zenith for Deathrite Shaman instead of Wirewood Symbiote , because the bottleneck is usually mana, not cards. If you have Choke, slam that card HARD!

I used to not bring in Progenitus vs Czech Pile and I wouldn’t say siding out Natural Order was incorrect here. Lately though I’ve gone back to trying the Operation Hydra plan vs them to decent success. Especially on the play you will sometimes get a strong early start where starting with turn3 you just chain must-counters or enter a topdeck war (because of Hymn to Tourach ) where I like having Natural Order as a serious out. Choke isn’t as great here as it is vs Delver, but it’s still a solid card to bring in. If you do lose the matchup, it’s usually because their mana curve lines up very well, allowing them to untap into a favorable board with either Leovold, Emissary of Trest of Liliana, the Last Hope. Once this deck untaps into an advantage starting with turn 3 or 4, you really are in trouble. Card advantage is key to winning – get it!

Mulligans: if your opponent goes first and keeps 7, if your hand doesn’t have a Surgical Extraction you should think really hard before keeping it. If it’s really strong (usually 2 out of these 3: DRS, Karakas and Discard) I would consider keeping it. However if your opponent mulligans, don’t mulligan too much. If I have the luxury of seeing them mulligan first, I will gladly keep a turn1 DRS most of the time.

Overall though, I still don’t mind the matchup too much. Surgical Extraction is a great card as unlike UB Reanimator, RB Reanimator has a harder time rebuilding. The most important thing is to not panic. Both Chancellor of the Annex and Sire of Insanity are cards that Elves will very often beat rather easily. If they show you a Chancellor in the pregame, don’t be afraid to throw away a useless card (often Glimpse of Nature ) in order to get the trigger out of the way. If you can’t afford to throw away a card, remember that you can cast Surgical Extraction for life and then pay for the trigger with your turn1 Land.

There’s not much to say about this matchup strategically; it’s heavily dominated by tactics. Game1 they have a hard time beating an active Deathrite Shaman; even more so once Quirion Ranger becomes involved. I’ve even seen them getting a Griselbrand down turn2, but then not being able to do much with it since DRS still shut down all their other angles of attack before Craterhoof Behemoth eventually hit the board. However, you’re only gonna be on the play with an active DRS on turn2 in less than 20% of game 1s. The biggest problem in this matchup are their god draws, which do happen rather regularly. Fortunately for us, these sometimes involve “only” getting a turn1 Chancellor of the Annex (which can just be raced) or an Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite (which we can Karakas ). If they end up getting a Griselbrand game2, things become a lot harder even if we can untap into an active DRS as they will have sided in ways around it.

Trick: If they go for Ad Nauseam , go for Surgical Extraction on LED in response. This way it will be very likely all their Infernal Tutors are turned off post-Ad Nauseam, requiring them to find either Dark Petition or natural Tendrils, which will on average cost them a lot more life.

Note that it has been a concerning trend for them to have and bring in Ground Seal vs us. That card is devastating! I would already often keep Reclamation Sage anyway because they tend to play out Lion’s Eye Diamond s to protect them from discard; but with a list this light on discard, I am ok with siding out the RecSage. However if you do see Ground Seal game2, definitely bring it back in again.

If you manage to do this, then both Ad Nauseam and Past in Flames becomes really hard for them to pull off as they’re on an effective 8 life while you have 2 DRS activations up. At this point you only lose to them chaining Infernal Tutor s and/or Dark Peition into Tendrils of Agony , which happens rarely enough for me to be ok with it; you still play discard after all.

Lost Legacy is a card I haven’t really had the chance to test a lot int he matchup, but taking out Craterhoof Behemoth will dramatically decrease the number of winning topdecks your opponent has by taking GSZ, Natural Order and a hardcasted Behemoth out of the picture. You will still lose in the long run or to an active DRS during a perfect Glimpse of Nature chain, but on average Lost Legacy should buy you at elast some time.

The mirror sucks, avoid it. It’s pretty close to both players just goldfishing. Bring in Discard but leave that stupid 2 mana removal ( Abrupt Decay ) in the board. On turn 2 you are more busy setting up a turn 3 kill than trying to kill a Quirion Ranger .

Generally speaking you should try to hit their recurring creatures and leave their dredgers alone, unless you have perfect information (usually through their LED) and can safely blow them out with Surgical Extraction. Even just typing this hurts a bit, because I really hate wasting a Surgical on a Dredger though. Also, don’t be too concerned with winning, as just like vs Manaless Dredge, you can play the matchup from a controlling role, only slowly advancing your board as long as you control their graveyard. Good Dredge players will eventually stop dredging once they’re behind, trying to either find a Firestorm or overload your DRS/ Scavenging Ooze with multiple draw spells and/or Cephalid Coliseum . Be prepard for that.

The matchup hinges a lot on Firestorm , but we don’t really have viable ways to try and play around that card. Since Dredge is quite limited in which hands it can keep, my best plan thus far has been to just close my eyes and wait until it’s my turn again. No seriously, I actually do that…at least on Magic Online. If they end up having a proper draw AND you don’t have Surgical Extraction there’s a good chance they will run away with the game, but fortunately that constellation doesn’t happen often enough to make it a bad matchup.

Also, Price of Progress is a card. Try playing around it if you can. Fortunately, they somehow often take it out vs us.

Kill them as soon as you can. Trade your turn1 Nettle Sentinel for their Goblin Guide unless you have a likely turn2 kill or can heavily advance your board with it. Eidolon of the Great Revel is a big problem, which is another reaosn I like Progenitus . They will usually aim almost all of their early burn at your creatures, so be prepared for potential issues with mana. Postboard they sometimes get Grim Lavamancer, but we already brought in Abrupt Decay for Eidolon anyway. Tough matchup on the draw, but very manageable on the play.

The games usually come down to race, but there’s a few things to keep in mind: if you can help it, stay at 19 life or higher. Should they have to use Vampire Hexmage, you can then eat it with your Deathrite Shaman to get another turn, which often give you the victory. Note that their Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth will allow you to tap Fetchlands for mana, thus avoiding unnecessary life loss; you can even cast DRS with black mana, what a deal! If you have Crop Rotation in hand, don’t try playing it too early in order to make them run blindly into Karakas . However (and this is a painful lesson I had to learn) also note that they run discard and might just randomly take away your Crop Rotation if you are tapped out. So especially once they have seen Karakas in g2 and the surprise effect of it is gone, try not exposing your Crop Rotation to discard. There’s still some value to holding on to it and not fire it off for Karakas prematurely, as it can sometimes be a crucial element of a double Gara’s Cradle into GSZ/ Craterhoof Behemoth draw.

One card that probably sticks out to you in my sideboarding is Scavenging Ooze . Since this matchup is heavily influenced by boardwipes and a very threatening Planeswalker, Scavenging Ooze will often be a major factor in your more scrappy postboard games. It also helps that Moon Stompy has some issues lining up proper blocks, as throwing away a Magus of the Moon just to protect Chandra, will often free up a bunch of ressources on your side they’d rather not see you having access too. Often enough, the Ooze just gets in a couple of games for a quick kill vs the Ancient Tomb deck.

The way you often win this matchup is by either getting Reclamation Sage + Wirewood Symbiote going early into the game and then just grind them out through their mass removal spells. OR you ensure access to a second green mana through Blood Moon early on, to get a Progenitus down before Fiery Confluence becomes a factor. Be wary of Ensnaring Bridge, which usually is just a formality to deal with; but if you’re relying on Abrupt Decay instead of GSZ for Reclamation Sage, make sure that you’ll have a black source of mana around, as Deathrite Shaman isn’t very reliable in this matchup. Birchlore Rangers are you guys here!

The card that actually broke the matchup is Fiery Confluence . Previous versions of Dragon Stompy would often have issues with Elves if they didn’t turn1 Blood Moon them or hit a Chalice-draw that lined up well with a cmc1-heavy draw from Elves. Many times, Elves could still just swarm them and abuse cards like Wirewood Symbiote , Elvish Visionary , Green Sun’s Zenith and Natural Order . All of those cards are still MVPs in the matchup vs Moon Stompy, but all of them suffer a lot from the constant threat of Fiery Confluence clearing your board before you’re able to use them to full extend. On top of that, Chandra, Torch of Defiance is surprisingly good against us as well. Not only is she able to destroy one of your elvish sources of extra green (e.g. Quirion Ranger or Heritage Druid ), she also helps out a ton in the scramble for ressources, the midgame often develops into.

Moon Stompy has several ways to completly break the game. First, there’s the dreaded turn1 Blood Moon which will lock you out much harder than any Chalice of the Void ever could if you don’t happen to have a basic Forest in hand; it’s the major reason I’m running 3 Forests in the current build. Now how do you deal with the threat of Blood Moon? A good rule of thumb to help you make a decision is to on the draw keep all otherwise good enough hands that are able to beat a turn 2 Blood Moon . If your hand can’t even do that (because it’s all nonbasics and no Fetchlands etc.), then you should strongly consider mulliganning, unless the upside of keeping was just too high. In general, Blood Moon remains annoying throughout the game ( Magus of the Moon even more so since Reclamation Sage can’t hit it!), but the first two turns is where it shines the most.

This is the deck that finally did away with the rule that any deck with Chalice of the Void is a decent matchup for Elves. Moon Stompy (or as a lot of us still call it: Dragon Stompy) does something that all the other Stompy decks in the format fail to achieve: follow up their disruptive elements with something relevant. Yes, Eldrazi has turn1 Chalice into turn2 Thought-Knot Seer , but even that draw can often be beaten.

On GSZ: I take out 3 copies because there’s really not much else to take out, even though it’s a good card vs Chalice of the Void . Like I said, I’m more looking to beat Punishing Fire through aggressive Heritage Druid -based draws, where GSZ is just a turn too slow many times.

Or you just go turn2/3 Progenitus after they had kept a marignal hand. I wish I could tell you more, but 4c Loam presents such a wide variety of hate ( Chalice of the Void , Punishing Fire , Hate Bears, recurring Wasteland s, Toxic Deluge , a potentially quick kill with Dark Depths ), you often really have to wing it and hope you just get there on tempo. Seeing them play a Dark Confidant on turn2 after doing nothing turn1 is great…it’s just that they usually have much more threatening things to do.

So, how do we beat them? If they don’t have Mox Diamond , you can usually grind them out the way you’d grind out a (Punishing) Maverick deck: establish card advantage and/or get an early Progenitus postboard before their hate comes down. If they do open on turn1 with Punishing Fire, you have to evaluate your hand: do you have enough explosiveness to just play right through it? – After all, Punishing Fire ist “just” a Dark Banishing that returns to your hand after casting it, which is something Elves can sometimes just plow right through. However, if your hand is slow, consider making your landdrops (…you have Lands, do you?) and hope they’re busying doing a couple of things that don’t affect you (like Dark Confidant , Knight of the Reliquary or the wrong hate bears). Sometimes they will just do literally nothing for a couple turns as their deck does in fact have an ok amount of dead draws. Eventually, usually with around 4 lands (+1 land drop), I like going for Glimpse of Nature and either win the game outright (very unlikely) or at least set up a board position that just laughs at their Punishing Fire . At this point you only have to hope they also didn’t draw into their Toxic Deluge (I haven’t mentioned that one yet?) so that you can untap into the win.

While Moon Stompy is unfavorable, with 4c Loam we now arrive at the matchups I would really like to avoid. Like with RG Lands, it hinges a lot on whether your opponent will get down a Mox Diamond on the first turn: if they do, they are usually signifcantly favored, whereas any other opening at least allows you to play the game with Elves. This doesn’t sound too bad as less than 40% of their opening hands will actually have Mox. However, if they do, I’d say that our average hand is like 25% to win at best. Make that less than 15% if they have Punishing Fire – even if they are on the draw. And even if they don’t have Punishing Fire, Chalice of the Void is another annoying roadblock, because they don’t give you enough time to actually find your way around it: not only do they attack your mana heavily, they also have Abrupt Decay and Punishing Fire to take out the few creatures you managed to get past Chalice. Postboard they get access to a ton of hate bears, including Gaddock Teeg , Ethersworn Canonist and Containment Priest . Especially Canonist + Punishing Fire is one of the hardest locks to escape from if you don’t have the Decay to climb back into the game.

Once again, wins in this matchup are all about speed. You don’t really get to grind them out a lot in this matchup; it sometimes happens but it’s nothing to really rely on. In the past I used to side out Natural Order against them (like I do vs the other Delver-decks), but eventually realized that I need to really force their hand early on in the game, and test them for Force of Will . It’s not a great plan, but between Glimpse of Nature and Force of Will , there’s a chance you’ll get there – especially if they don’t play a creature on turn1, which will usually end up allowing you to get around 1-2 more turns.

Really not thrilled whenever I’m sitting across from this. I know that the matchup isn’t as bad as it often feels to me, but when you lose, you do lose hard. They’re like a slightly more sophisticated Burn deck, which is unfortunately sometimes all it takes for them to narrowly get there. Against regular Burn, they will often aim most of their spells at your creatures while theirs get in for a big chunk of damage. It’s similar with UR Delver, but on not only do they get Elves’ biggest natural foe ( Delver of Secrets ), they also have Force of Will , which will often buy them another, potentially game-winning turn.