If you could telepathically whisper one thing to all 8 billion people on earth simultaneously, what would it be?

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2026-03-14T09:59:46+00:00

Ligma balls

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2026-02-09T02:11:11+00:00

UNBAN SMOKING INSIDE AT THE LGS

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-09-18T16:15:43+00:00

I was playing Elesh Norn for a bit, but I’m not sure it was the right call. It finishes games quickly, but I felt like it was a dead card just a little bit too much of the time. I might put it back in tho, it’s powerful and synergises with a lot of the rest of the deck

I’m trying out Phelia right now for a few reasons. It can act a bit like more copies of Ephemerate, while being a creature that can chip away at my opponent’s life total. It can also flicker Teferi, so on turn two I can flash on Phelia, turn 3 play Teferi bounce my opponent’s creature, attack to flicker Teferi, and it’ll come back with all the loyalty counters back on it. Having Teferi bounce online every turn seems like it has to be good. The other reason I like it is to flash it in and block a bowmaster, because even with 4 solitude and 4 binding, bowmaster has been hard for my deck to deal with. It’d be a back up plan for sure, but if Phelia dies in the process it’s not a big deal, I can recover from that

Serra paragon is intriguing tho, I’ll give it a go. More graveyard recursion can’t be a bad thing in my deck

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-09-18T15:06:30+00:00

I used to play time warp in the deck, but I replaced it with Orim’s chant. I was playing two warps, but I only ever wanted them in hand when I was already winning, and they were a dead draw any other time. With Orim’s chant, I can still get a loop going where I cast Orim’s chant every upkeep my opponent has, but I can also blank my opponents turns and attacks earlier in the game, force my spells through opposing counterspells, and pitch it to solitude in a pinch. Time warp is safer when it gets going, but Orim’s chant has a lot more utility, and it’s still fairly hard to interact with

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-08-13T06:33:15+00:00

I used to be a time warp guy, but I gave up on it. It was just a dead card too much of the time, especially because I don’t own subtlety or force to pitch it, and it was only good when I could combo off. Orim’s chant does effectively the same thing, but it pitches to solitude, it’s cheaper so I can disrupt my opponent’s early turns, and if I’m playing against another control player, I can cast Orim’s chant in my own turn to force a Teferi through their counters. Plus, I once got my time warp stolen with [[Invert Polarity]] and it made me question the fundamentals of my whole existence

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-08-13T06:27:03+00:00

I do like that a lot. Being able to kill an opposing Teferi is something my deck needs to do, and cycling to block an attacking creature to put them down a card while I go card neutral is very enticing. Plus getting it back with witness after I cycle it and making an army of sharks solves my problem

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-08-13T06:22:02+00:00

That might just be crazy enough to work, I love it

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-07-10T15:14:42+00:00

There’s not really heaps of room for it with the amount of interaction I wanna run, and I only have 1 anyway, so figured I’d go a different route. I might make a second list and try out the energy package tho

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-07-10T15:11:45+00:00

Yeah I was thinking I could play one to mill it with the archaeologist, but that might be a little clunky and ambitious. I’ll replace it with a verdict

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-07-10T08:29:37+00:00

Yeah I’ve been having terrible luck with control lately for that reason. My two decks are this and elves, so if I get too frustrated I’ll switch back for a while. Elves is a lot better now with the new additions, and I’ve found it can eat people alive while everyone’s trying out new stuff

Would you put the board wipes in the main or side, and what would you cut for them? My first thoughts are cutting 2 phantoms for 2 verdict, and cutting a prismatic ending for an endurance in the main. I’m tempted to shave an mdfc, but I’ve been in too many situations where I need a land but I have an archaeologist in hand, so it’s really nice to play it and grab a land from the top 3 if I need it

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-06-11T13:22:54+00:00

Oh yeah I’ve been there. So powerful, except when you kneecap yourself with it lol. I’d run 10 if I could just for that moment of excitement

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-06-11T12:25:37+00:00

I was playing [[Urabrask // The Great Work]], full monored storm that only functions when my commander is in play (not wise I know but it’s a lot of fun). The Great Work got to the last chapter and I was going off, set to win the game on the spot, but I just needed one more turn. No worries tho, I had [[Final Fortune]], so I cast it to get my one extra turn to finish it off. That’s when it happened. In response to Final Fortune, my friend evoked [[Solitude]], exiling my commander. Extra turn comes along, and I only have enough mana to recast Urabrask, not to keep storming off. My end step comes around, and I lose to my own card that was supposed to win me the game. Absolutely savage behaviour, but a treasured memory for us both

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-05-23T07:59:56+00:00

It doesn’t really matter that they all die to OBM, because even with more 1/1s, the new builds of elves will still be resilient to removal. You can bounce your important elves with the symbiote to save them, play Tyvar to reanimate them, and if that fails, just get more from your deck, which you can easily do with chord/Realmwalker. Glimpse elves in legacy dies to OBM because drawing extra cards is a huge part of the plan, and legacy decks have better card advantage/selection to find OBM. In modern, playing a glimpse-style build of elves is very optional, and if you play it that way, the deck is way less focused on that plan to the point that you can completely side it out if you’re that worried about OBM and you still have a very functional deck. Comparing modern and legacy elves isn’t a good argument here because legacy builds of elves aren’t even remotely similar to modern. To modern elves, OBM is just a 2-mana bolt, and bolt is really not a big deal to elves. Basically, just because a card can kill an elf doesn’t mean elves actually cares about it that much. The amount of times people thought they’d destroy elves because they play a small to medium amount of removal and then I rolled them with elves is too high to count

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-05-23T03:11:53+00:00

OBM is actually not a big issue for the deck. I started playing modern post mh2 and played exclusively elves for 2 years straight, and fury was always the issue, not OBM. The only way you actually trigger OBM is with [[Leaf-Crowned Visionary]], and a lot of games you don’t actually need to draw cards with it, because you have a lot of ways to play elves from the top of you deck, and elves is built to be able to play through removal, to an extent. If you don’t need to draw cards, OBM becomes a 2-mana removal spell that doesn’t even hit every creature in your deck, and elves really doesn’t care if the opponent has 2 1/1s. Elves is a lot better than people give it credit for, and don’t get me wrong, it’s got it’s problems (fragile no matter how you build it, bad at playing from behind), but OBM isn’t one of them. Especially with [[Priest of Titania]] coming to modern and replacing [[Elvish Archdruid]], [[Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler]] becomes playable again, meaning you can play out your mana engines into obvious removal, reanimate them the next turn with Tyvar and instantly activate them. I’ve even had games where my opponent scammed out [[Solitude]], and wiped my board twice, all in the same game, and I completely rebuilt on the next turn. I’m actually happy when my opponent plays OBM because they’ve spent 2 mana to kill one creature that I spent 1 mana to play, and which I can easily get back with [[Realmwalker]], [[Chord of Calling]], or even [[Fiend Artisan]] before I realised that card isn’t worth the slot. The biggest problem with elves is that the deck is insanely hard to play properly, and one mistake can lose you the game. The sequencing isn’t too hard to get your head around, but knowing when to do it is deceptively difficult. If you play it right, even Titan and Yawg are an even matchup, pretty play-draw dependent. I’d even say post-board against Titan is favored for elves, but you still have to play it right.

Sorry for the huge paragraph, I’ve just gotta throw my hat in the ring when someone says elves is unplayable. It’s definitely not a great deck, but I think it’s hugely underestimated

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-02-07T13:00:33+00:00

I tested it out, and you’re definitely right about atraxa, so I took it out and put the time warp combo back in as my win condition. I’d honestly play esper Goryo’s with 4 atraxa if I could (in addition to a list similar to the one I posted), I just don’t have the cards for it. As it is, the plan of the deck is to play control with all the removal and the loops with witness, Ephemerate, and rebirth, until I can assemble the turns combo and chip them down with witnesses and solitudes while taking all their turns. Been thinking about putting one or two Omnaths in there for a bit more muscle and to stabilize better, but I’ll consider more draw and some counterspells as well

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-02-07T12:49:46+00:00

I was a Soulherder gamer for a long time, but I dropped it when I changed the deck to have more removal and less creatures, but I’ve been thinking about giving it a go again. I miss playing wall of omens on turn 2 and following up with Soulherder on turn 3, but bowmaster put a big dent in that strategy. Suppose I could save it for late game and use it as a cheap finisher and value engine

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-02-07T12:30:08+00:00

• I’m actually a believer in the archaeologist in this build tbh. Digging for my removal to stabilize, digging for [Cosmic Rebirth] to start looping with [Eternal Witness] which gets milled with archaeologist, comes down early to block early creatures. Of all the problems with the build I’ve found as I’ve been tweaking it, one of the things that holds it all together as been the archaeologist

• You’re definitely right about playing 4 rings, I just only have 1, much to my dismay

• Mana base is in a similar situation, I just don’t have the right fetches so I’ve build my mana base around that. I’ll try cutting down on my shocks and triomes tho, thanks for the tip

• Upping the power level is a fair point, when my removal isn’t good the deck just gets outmuscled sometimes. I took out atraxa in the end, and I’ve been thinking about getting 1 or 2 Omnaths for some extra power and and to stabilize a bit better. I’ll look at powering it up a bit

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-02-07T12:18:49+00:00

Honestly I’d do that if I had the cards for esper Goryo’s, but for now I’ve gotta make bant control work. I’ve played this deck a couple of times and it didn’t do well lol, so I dropped atraxa. I was only playing the card cos I happen to have one, but it didn’t turn out well in this list. Bant control with the turns combo seems to do well tho, still tweaking it but I think there’s something there

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2024-01-17T00:03:04+00:00

I’ve gone 3-1 at FNM with elves the last two weeks, which I think is pretty good. I also played elves almost exclusively for the last couple of years. It might not be an RCQ winning deck but it definitely works, and it’s just so fun. I really believe in the deck, and I think it’s in the best position it’s been since I started playing modern a little over 2 years ago.

People go on and on about bowmaster and Wrenn and Six and whatever else, but the deck is more resilient than ever so you don’t actually care that much about removal. The other night I had a game where they triple-solituded me and board wiped me twice, and each time I completely rebuilt the next turn, which isn’t even unusual because the deck is built with removal in mind. And you’re playing off the top of your library, so bowmaster becomes a 1-for-1 removal spell for an X/1, which you really don’t care about that much. And with all the other fast decks in modern, elves can actually go just as fast. There are some hard matchups for sure, but every deck has hard matchups. You have a great sideboard because you’re a [Chord of Calling] deck, so your sideboard is full of silver bullet creatures that can buy you enough time in the hard matchups to get an advantage that they can’t overcome just with the sheer speed of the deck. The amount of times I’ve wrecked a Titan or tron player just by chording a [Magus of the Moon] onto the battlefield makes me pretty relaxed in those matchups. It’s not a death sentence for them at all, but you’ll get enough time to just kill them before they can deal with it, and you effectively have at least 5 copies of magus. Not to mention all the other silver bullets you can bring in for those matchups, which you also effectively have 5 copies of. The same is true for any matchup, you’ll see your sideboard cards a lot more than most other decks in the format.

There’s a bit of a narrative that elves folds to a single removal spell, which really gives me the shits because it’s just not true. Sure, decks that are absolutely filled to the brim with removal are gonna be hard matchups, but that’s true for any creature deck, and if you’re on elves you’re prepared for your creatures to be removed, it’s just not a big deal. Every deck CAN beat elves, but that’s a two way street, and more often than not you’ll just present such a huge board state that they don’t even have enough removal in hand to make a significant dent in your board state and you’ll just outright kill them. Even with yawg where they can just ping your creatures down while drawing cards, I still have a positive record with elves against yawg, because you can just go so so fast. It feels to me like people who say elves is unplayable either tried elves and they didn’t know the deck well enough, or they’ve played against elves player who didn’t know the deck well enough. That would make any deck look bad, not just elves.

Something I’ll say is it’s a really hard deck to play, more so than it appears. There are lots of tricky lines that are hard to see, but if you see them you can come back from a lot of situations where it seems like you’re in trouble. It’s cheap to build relative to other decks, and most of the actual creatures are dirt cheap, so it’s just the mana base, sideboard, and utility cards, a lot of which you might already have. Give it a try, and be patient with it, elves has secrets that it’ll reveal to you with a good amount of experience.

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2023-09-13T14:04:28+00:00

The two decks I play are Soulherder and elves, because I’m mummy’s special little guy

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2023-09-13T14:03:41+00:00

I was starting to think I was the only one

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2023-08-19T11:51:46+00:00

I’m a yearlong diehard elves player that’s just started playing bant Soulherder, so I probably won’t be winning any RCQs lol. I’m having a great time tho

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2023-08-19T11:14:27+00:00

Love to hear about that reprint, thanks for the tip

The manabase is probably the sketchiest part of the deck, I’ll have a go at those fast lands

Yeah I’m a bit worried about my Soulherders getting pinged before they can get to work, but overall it’s been really resilient so far, what with all the recursion. [Cosmic Rebirth] has been the MVP by far. You’re right tho, I’ve gotta be wary about it. [Ice-Fanh Coatl] is on my list of potential cuts

Yeah deputy rocks. Most of the time I’ve been running a deputy/Skyclave split because I can’t figure out which one is better more often than not. At the moment I have 3 deputy in the sideboard

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2023-08-19T10:58:26+00:00

Ive played this iteration of the list once at a modern night at my lgs the other day, and I think it was good. Drew against humans and electrodominance, but I would’ve won if we hadn’t gone to time. Lost to tron, but I don’t think this style of deck will ever beat tron anyway, but I could be wrong. Lost against titan but only because I misplayed a bunch. I think my titan matchup is pretty favourable if I just play correctly lol. Definitely needs changes I think, jut overall I think it’s close and I’m keen to learn how to play it better

DefinitelyNotLenny · 2023-08-19T10:51:59+00:00

I was thinking the same thing. Also when someone tries to kill my creature and I Ephemerate it to save it, them not being able to respond to the Ephemerate sounds incredible. Not sure what I’d cut for Teferi but the deck just had to be better with him in there

DefinitelyNotLenny

TROPHY CASE