Hey there Sean, I hope all is going well. I'm having a bit of a problem getting my green deck to run right. It's supposed to be an elf centered deck that I push out big creatures quick but I also have some cards in there to combo off where I can draw cards rather quickly to speed thru my deck. I can't seem to get the deck to work as a collective whole, my hands are usually a pain to work with and it takes me a while before I get up and running. Usually when I win I would be dead next turn and games last a lot longer than I like them to. My idea for the deck is for me to be putting out my little elves to help ramp up lands and use my card draw combo to help get to my big creatures faster while gaining life at the same time. I'm hoping you can use your expertise at fixing decks to fix mine into a winner. I pretty much strictly play casual with friends so you can use any cards you think would help.

Lands
20 Forests

Creatures
2 Llanowar Elf
1 Ancient Ooze
2 Thorn Elemental
3 Fierce Empath
3 Thornweald Archer
3 Krosan Drover
2 Krosan Cloudscraper
2 Argothian Enchantress
3 Priest of Titania
2 Elvish Aberration

Spells
1 Overrun
1 Hush
1 Seal of Primordium
2 Stream of Life
3 Nature's lore
4 Rancor

Artifacts
1 Akroma's Memorial
2 Claws of Gix
2 Planar Portal

Total: 60

The break down of the deck is I use my Priests to ramp up tons of mana because majority of my creatures are elves. I use Krosan Drovers to make my big creatures cheaper, Fierce Empath to tutor big creatures out, and Argothian Enchantress + Claws of Gix to sacrifice my Rancors in and out of play multiple times a turn so I can tap 2 lands, play Rancor then sacrifice it, since whenever it goes into graveyard from play I get to return it to my hand, to draw a card and gain life, plus use Rancor to give my Ancient Ooze and Krosan Cloudscrapers trample to deal massive damage per swing to my opponent. Planar Portal is my way to tutor cards out that I need, and if they become useless I sacrifice them to Claws of Gix to gain an extra life. Akroma's Memorial and Overrun are my drop, swing, kill cards. I've had Krosan Cloudscrapers hit table as early as fifth turn and it always puts a funny look on opponents face. Any help at all you can give me for this deck would be much appreciated. Thanks and keep up the good work. - Carl

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    Well, it’s been a while since I last updated hasn’t it?  Between school preparation, real life, and.. Er.. Other attention sucking things, I haven’t had much to time to write up an article, being long-winded as I am.  So, here we have an elf deck that summons up big, nasty, over-costed creatures and then beats the opponent to death with them.  And interesting concept, and the older cards definitely exemplify that strategy well.  However, decks that win by cheating out massive creatures traditionally do so via Sneak Attack, Elvish Piper, or Hunting Grounds.  And while I could rebuild the deck around this premise, looking at the creamy elfin center of the deck makes we want to do something else entirely.  With the release of Lorwyn, Magic added a fresh new selection of very powerful and synergistic elves to the mix, and this deck begs to be brought into the modern age.  That and rebuilding the deck out of old cards can tend to be extremely pricey, so I am to help you create a more tribal-oriented deck that won’t break your budget!

    Let’s take a look at what should stay, and what should go.  Llanowar Elves is a great first turn mana accelerator, and a cheap elf, so it can go up to four.  Ancient Ooze only works when you’ve got a lot of expensive creatures in play, and with no evasion ability, and with the new direction of the deck, it becomes pointless.  Thorn Elemental is a good, if expensive beater because of it’s “better than” trample mechanic, so two copies is fine.  Fierce Empath because pointless, even though it is an elf, and so out it goes.  Thornweald Archer is quite the aggressive little 2/1 and with death touch in the mix, makes for some hard blocking decisions by your opponent.  You can add one of him to max his presence out in the deck.  Krosan Dover, Cloudscraper, and Argothian Enchantress all become pointless in this new direction, and for the Enchantress/Claws/Rancor strategy to be truly effective you’d need four Enchantresses anyway, so out they go.  Priest of Titania is the Cadillac of elfin mana accelerators and so you can increase their count to four.  Lastly for creatures is the Elvish Aberration who, while useful for his forest cycling ability, is unnecessary and can therefore be removed.

    On the non-creature front you’ve got a single copy of Overrun, and I must ask why just one?  Overrun is the “I win” spell of any aggressive green deck and can be upped by at least 1 of in the deck (normally you‘d want more since this is a “I Win” card, but the new deck will have other options that makes overrun merely one of several routes to victory).  If it doesn’t win out right, it can screw up combat math enough to allow you some maneuvering room against your opponents blockers.  Hush and Seal of Primordium are both almost worthless at one each, and even so should be relegated to the sideboard since they are purely situational removal.  Spring of Life is unnecessary and Nature’s Lore is terribly outdated.  As for Rancor, well, it’s Rancor, not too much needs to be said about the reddest card in green, and there’s a reason it’ll never be reprinted, power like that is hard to find these days.

    And as for your artifacts, drop them all.  Akroma’s Memorial is simply too expensive to be played normally, Claws of Gix are silly without the Argothian Enchantress and with only Rancor as your reliable enchantment, and Planar Portal is just unnecessary, especially with it’s prohibitive cost.

    And as for your land, 20 forests is pushing it, even with elfin mana production, so let’s toss in a couple Treetop Villages.  They produce mana like forests, and they can turn into creatures to smack your opponent in the head if need be.

    Now, what shall we add to this deck to make it truly abusive?  Three creatures that should join your deck’s roster are, Imperious Perfect, Immaculate Magistrate, and Voice of the Woods.  The Perfect pumps up all your other elf creatures, and can produce what are essentially 2/2’s every turn.  The Magistrate takes advantage of the tribal set up to make any one elf positively massive (do this to a Thornweald Archer and watch your opponent’s creatures die).  As for the Voice, he serves as a way to produce pseudo Thorn Elementals and functions as a win condition in the deck.  As for spells, throw in four Giant Growth (greens staple combat trick), played correctly you can kill of some of your opponents more valuable creatures in combat, or just give yourself the last few points to swing for the win.  And as for artifacts, add 3 each of Coat of Arms and Slate of Ancestry.  If you were having issues drawing cards before, the Slate will solve that problem, and you needn’t have any cards in hand to use it either!  And as for Coat of Arms, it is a card at which people (especially those who aren’t playing tribal decks) will always groan at.  With it in play your elves will swell in power with each one you play.

    Below is the deck list for this remained deck of yours, and I think it would prove to be quite painful for any of your opponent’s to deal with!  I present to you Elvish Assault!


Creatures:
4 Llanowar Elf
4 Thornweald Archer
4 Priest of Titania
4 Imperious Prefect
2 Immaculate Magistrate
2 Voice of the woods
2 Thorn Elemental

Non-creature Spells:
4 Rancor
4 Giant Growth
2 Overrun
3 Slate of Ancestry
3 Coat of Arms

Land:
20 forest
2 Treetop Village


    I hope I’ve been able to help you Carl, and may all your alpha strikes be successful!