[Standard] Elvish Mirror

[Churchill42]

Another take on the Mirror Mockery approach.  An initial draft, and I haven't playtested.  Very cheap deck, going to try it out tonight I think.

http://deckstats.net/decks/42866/294366-elvish-mirror/en

I've substantially changed the Delve/Mirror deck I previously made/posted, but this is a different deck.

[Drunk Cynic]

Stronger blue mana base if running Mirror Mockery is a focus.

[Churchill42]

Ah, that Jungle Hollows should have been  Dismal Backwater.  How many Blue sources do you recommend?  I guess I'll hammer that out when playtesting it, but I was thinking 7 initial-tapped seemed reasonable.  Maybe given the fact that the elves provide Green themselves, I can exchange one or two forests for one or two islands.

[kurufal]

More blue sources would be good to justify the splash, and luckily Sagu Mauler would make a huge bomb in this deck. It's hard enough dealing with a 6/6 trample, hexproof. One enchanted with Mirror Mockery would be ridiculous.

Turn 3 cast Sagu Mauler as a morph
Turn 4 cast Mirror Mockery on Sagu Mauler and save mana for Negate
Turn 5 Morph and tell your opponent sorry.

[Drunk Cynic]

Mirror Mockery does nothing for Sagu Mauler. Gilt-Leaf Winnower, Shaman of the Pack, Elvish Visionary, and Sylvan Messenger would be valid targets on your side of the table, but Sagu Mauler does not interact with Mirror Mockery.

21 Lands is not enough. Though you have the Elvish Mystic and Gnarlroot Trapper to boost your green sources, you should aim for 23 lands. Assuming no sac/search or pain lands:
4 Dismal Backwater, 7 Forest, 4 Opulent Palace, 4 Swamp, and 4 Thornwood Falls
To make room, I pulled Grave Strength, and added a Shaman of the Pack. At 20 creatures, your statistical chances is only one counter. There will be an additional space to be used soon:

With the investment in blue, remove Naturalize, and pull in Sultai Charm. addresses Enchantments/Artifacts, and other stuff.

Given the recent Pro tours, side board thoughts: Disperse for Darksteel Citadel+Ensoul Artifact, Back to Nature for Sphinx's Tutelage mill.

[kurufal]

You're right, for some reason I read it as enter combat and not 'attack'. werps.

[Drunk Cynic]

On that then, I think you may need a rules clarification. Flipping a morph, manifest, and a megamorph wouldn't trigger "whenever X enters combat." They already exist as a 2/2 colorless creature with no abilities. Flipping them just changes their characteristics.

[Churchill42]

Thanks for the thoughts--they were quite helpful, and I will be incorporating several of them.

Regarding the Ensoul, I've been having a lot of trouble with this issue--is Disperse the way that most playing a non-aggro deck have dealt with this issue? Apologies for my ignorance, as I've only just started back following the pro tour (haven't really followed since the late 90s/early 2000s).

[Drunk Cynic]

I haven't watched much of the Pro Tour, just tracking the decks. With the resurgence of Ensoul Artifact, being the corner stone of two top 8 decks and that it is very affordable short the Hangarback Walkers, it is going to show up at FNM.

In your colors, you want a cheap effect that either exiles or returns the voltron. With Darksteel Citadel, destroy effects are dead draws. As an answer, Disperse is a 1 for 1 that can bounce everything else, Fade into Antiquity is 2 for 1 that is limited to enchantments and artifacts.

[Churchill42]

Updated:  http://deckstats.net/decks/42866/294366-elvish-mirror


4 Mirror Mockery
3 Thornbow Archer
4 Elvish Mystic
2 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
3 Gnarlroot Trapper
2 Become Immense
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Murderous Cut
3 Elvish Visionary
2 Sylvan Messenger
9 Forest
2 Gather the Pack
2 Sultai Charm
7 Swamp
4 Opulent Palace
2 Thornwood Falls
1 Dismal Backwater
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Grave Strength

//Sideboard
SB: 3 Eyeblight Massacre
SB: 2 Disperse
SB: 3 Back to Nature
SB: 2 Profaner of the Dead
SB: 1 Sultai Charm
SB: 2 Ultimate Price
SB: 2 Negate

Thoughts? [Edit: Land count is at 23--should probably swap out one Forest and one Swamp for two Islands--since this deck is faster, the usefulness of the two-mana option lands is probably outweighed by their tapped effect, esp in the (for this deck critical) early game]

Only concern re: using Back to Nature is that there's no analogue I can use once it rotates out of standard in October; though I suppose that at the same time, the Ensoul Artifact build will be broken in its current iteration for Standard.

[Drunk Cynic]

Not really, though you shouldn't need such a nuke in the future.

The UR ensoul artifact deck may be short lived, don't know what is coming with the next expansion, but you'll need answers for it while it's here.

[Churchill42]

Version I'm going to try to run tonight: 

Elvish Mirror

4 Mirror Mockery
2 Thornbow Archer
2 Leaf Gilder
2 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
4 Dwynen's Elite
3 Gnarlroot Trapper
2 Become Immense
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Murderous Cut
2 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
2 Sylvan Messenger
8 Forest
2 Gather the Pack
2 Sultai Charm
7 Swamp
4 Opulent Palace
3 Thornwood Falls
1 Dismal Backwater
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Grave Strength

//Sideboard
SB: 3 Eyeblight Massacre
SB: 2 Disperse
SB: 3 Back to Nature
SB: 2 Profaner of the Dead
SB: 1 Sultai Charm
SB: 2 Silumgar's Command
SB: 2 Negate

Want to try with the Leaf Gilder over the Elvish Mystic just to see how it works once the Mystic is rotated out.

[Drunk Cynic]

I'd aim for 10 blue sources, to increase the chance of getting at least one blue source by turn three on the play. On the play, with 8, your odds are 75%; with 10, you're up to 85%. Given the creature crush, I'd replace Become Immense with Murderous Cut.

[kurufal]

On that then, I think you may need a rules clarification. Flipping a morph, manifest, and a megamorph wouldn't trigger "whenever X enters combat." They already exist as a 2/2 colorless creature with no abilities. Flipping them just changes their characteristics.

Yeah, I was wrong, but I'm not oblivious to the ruling now that I know what it says.

Version I'm going to try to run tonight: 

Elvish Mirror

4 Mirror Mockery
2 Thornbow Archer
2 Leaf Gilder
2 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
4 Dwynen's Elite
3 Gnarlroot Trapper
2 Become Immense
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Murderous Cut
2 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
2 Sylvan Messenger
8 Forest
2 Gather the Pack
2 Sultai Charm
7 Swamp
4 Opulent Palace
3 Thornwood Falls
1 Dismal Backwater
2 Stubborn Denial
2 Grave Strength

//Sideboard
SB: 3 Eyeblight Massacre
SB: 2 Disperse
SB: 3 Back to Nature
SB: 2 Profaner of the Dead
SB: 1 Sultai Charm
SB: 2 Silumgar's Command
SB: 2 Negate

Want to try with the Leaf Gilder over the Elvish Mystic just to see how it works once the Mystic is rotated out.

This looks awesome, everytime you attack with the Dwynen's Elite and Shaman of the Pack you should hit for a lot even before blockers are decalred. Let me know how you do cause it seems like a lot of fun.

[Churchill42]

Worked out great.  Small sample size, so I ended up having a lot of mana flooding early game just by draw chance, but the mechanics of Mirror Mockery was pretty devastating--at one point I had two on one Shaman of the Pack, which dealt just huge damage.

Played some mill decks:  the fast early game worked very well with the fact that Grave Strength can be a finisher against Mill late game.  This is great because I have some mill mechanics in the deck as a preliminary matter, so first game non-sideboarded, I still have trumps over Mill despite Gather the Pack and Sylvan Messenger becoming dead draws.

Didn't get a chance (surprisingly) to play any Ensoul. 

One tweak I'm going to make is to flip my Forest/Swamp numbers to 7/8 and to have 2 Dismal Backwaters and 2 Thornwood Falls.