[Deck] Powered Nitro Elves: The First Skullclamp Deck

[Tempe]

This deck has been developed for quite a while, but most of it went unnoticed by the majority of the Type 1 community. I'll skip introductions and instead link you to here, which is the second thread about this deck (the first was deleted by a freak thread moving accident). It has all of the introductions, but the decklists themselves are not reliable. For that, I would go to the end of the thread or just follow along with what I post here, which is probably the best solution.

This thread is an attempt at making one of my favorite decks of all time, and also a quite viable deck, into a powerful power deck. I have been testing it for quite some time, but only recently put power in it. I do not own power, but many people do, and I get the chance to use power during the monthly proxy tournament held in Minneapolis.

Here is the current decklist I am working on:

//NAME: Nitro Elf Tornado (NET)
        4 Tropical Island
        4 Wooded Foothills
        1 Sol Ring
        1 Strip Mine
        1 Black Lotus
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Sapphire
        4 Elvish Spirit Guide
        1 Stroke of Genius
        4 Fabricate
        1 Ancestral Recall
        1 Time Walk
        1 Naturalize
        2 Lightning Greaves
        4 Intruder Alarm
        4 Skullclamp
        4 Wirewood Herald
        1 Snake Basket
        1 Quirion Ranger
        2 Birchlore Rangers
        3 Wirewood Hivemaster
        2 Timberwatch Elf
        4 Priest of Titania
        4 Fyndhorn Elves
        4 Llanowar Elves
SB:  4 Xantid Swarm
SB:  1 Winter Orb
SB:  4 Root Maze
SB:  4 Wellwisher
SB:  2 Naturalize

This is the "sure" list of the deck. I currently have other lists that I am working on as experimental versions. These are the decks that I am interested in developing, but if you'd like to pick up the deck and play it to get a feel for it, this top decklist is the one I would suggest.

I have been contemplating quite a few things in this newest variation of the deck. Celandro brought up that this deck can't go too much faster in terms of speed, so another element would be added. He suggested some form of disruption, and I took him up on the offer.

By far, the greatest disruption elements that will fit this dek are Root Maze and Winter Orb. Seperately, they are very good cards against their decks (Combo and Control, respectively), together they make a powerful soft lock that will slow down even the fastest deck. I have been trying to incorporate 3 or 4 of each of these into the maindeck, but the deck is so tight as it is that I am having troubles.

Some of the cool "tech" cards that I have in there as of now, and have proven themselves worthy are Stroke of Genius and Snake Basket. Stroke of Genius a good backup kill against anything that doesn't have counters, as I regularly get up beyond 100 with Intruder Alarm and Skullclamp. Its less dead than its Red Burn counterparts, as it can be used as moderate draw in the early game, and is a good topdeck when I have a lot of mana but nothing to do with it, and I need to get back in the game. I'm not too afraid of Misdirections, as they are at a low right now. If Snake Basket works how I think it does with Intruder Alarm, then it is simply an "I win right now" kind of card. It basically gives me infinite mana with Intruder Alarm by untapping my creatures 7-8 times. Not only that, but it gives me a lot of fodder tokens for Skullclamp to keep the engine. It is critical because it lets me get out a jam when I have a Fabricate in hand. Otherwise, Fabricate is often dead, because Lightning Greaves and Skullclamp are on the board.

Other cards I have considered, but rejected, are:
[card]Viridian Longbow[/card]: This card is not great for a kill condition, as it is often too slow, but it it decent versus aggro. However, aggro is this deck's best matchup usually, and it can really only ping off "normal" aggro here. I have a hard time trying to take down Juggernauts and Wurms with it. It picks off welders, which is helpful, and it might warrant a sideboard slot, but I can't fit it in yet.

[card]Skyshroud Poacher[/card]:

Skyshroud Poacher was in builds a _long_ time ago. I cut it for Survival of the Fittest, which was then cut for Wirewood Herald, all of which tutor for elves. I agree that Herald is reliant on Skullclamp, so I'll see if I can find a space for Poacher. The only thing I'm nervous about is that it would then be the most expensive spell in the deck besides a decent size Stroke. Not only that, but it takes a total of 7 mana to find your first creature, which is quite expensive. At that amount of mana, I should usually be winning. Add to that that I can't poach out any draw cards, as none of my elves draw anymore, and It doesn't help too much. The only thing I would do is to help when going off, or to get more mana when you have a Lightning Greaves out by fetchling Priest of Titania.

[card]Living Wish[/card]:

On Living Wish, I am reluctant to add it because it is not searchable. All of my utility is really searchable via either Wirewood Herald or Fabricate, so I don't have that difficult time finding it. Replacing all of my utility with Living Wishes would not only make the deck slower, but probably it wouldn't be any more consistant. I can find my utility usually just as fast as I could find Living Wish. Besides, most of my utility is not even creatures/lands anymore. Naturalize gets around Humility, and the artifacts are more powerful than any replacement elf.

These are mostly more recent suggestions, but I have tested a lot of other cards in the past. I would recommend at least glancing through the thread linked to at the top, as it has a lot of information on the deck.

I hope to bring this deck to even greater heights than it already is at. I believe it has the greatest potential of any of the Skullclamp decks so far posted. Thanks for all of the help from people in the past, and I hope to get a lot more development soon.

--Tempe

[Haksaw]

Just playing devil's advocate for my Workshop.dec cronies (I'm a big fan of the little green men), I'd have to say that they're going to give you 1st and 2nd turn trouble in the form of Chalice of the Void/Sphere of Resistance that even the Elvish Spirit Guide and the single mainboard Naturalize will have trouble dealing with.  The Trinisphere effect won't be as heavy...heck, you've got some 3 cost in there anyway.

There should be 1 Tinker in there in place of Fabricate.

Snake Basket is quality for Smokestack food, and Root Maze will be your 1st turn drop in game 2...but those scary Intruder Alarms give the Goblin Welder's pretty explosive access to stuff you don't want...Skullclamp seems to be popping up a lot lately, but I wouldn't be surprised by a lot of Chalice for 2 to stop Naturalize, Hivemaster, Herald, Priest of Titania

In all honestly, it's going to come down to speed and draw.  Man, it'd be real funny to be packing Hibernation in the sideboard.  I'd be fearful of early combo, i.e. Dragon and Trix.

[firebird365]

Intruder Alarm would be crazy with Welder... it would easily go infinite with things you wouldn't want it to. TnT comes to mind, as they switch in SuChi and Solemn Simulacrum.

[Tempe]

Yeah, I did notice in playtesting that Intruder Alarm lets Welder go infinite. This is why I would have to be very careful to play it only on a winning turn. I believe its impossible without Triskelion to win on an opponent's turn for TnT, so I have to make sure my opponent can not get a Triskelion in the graveyard that turn (no survival mana), and does not have one in play or in the graveyard either.

I'm debating whether to side them out, since they are so absurdly powerful on my side as well. I have been relying on avoiding the circumstance mentioned above against TnT.

If I see a lot of Workshop.dec in my area, the Naturalizes would probably go up to 2 or 3. My gameplan, in this case, would be to take out spheres, or in Muds case Metalworkers, and go for a blitz kill. NET has almost as many permanents, if not more, by the 2nd turn, so smokestacks and tanglewires are often relatively symmetrical. I also can generate close to as much mana as them, though not on the first turn. Unlike TnT, Mud/Stax do not have the creatures to go infinite consistantly under Intruder Alarm, so that is much less of a problem, and helps me get out from under Tangle Wire relatively easily. First turn Trinisphere is probably my biggest problem, but after sideboarding, a turn 2 naturalize isn't hard to pull off. Still, that puts me behind on tempo. I'll have to hope for a slower hand on my opponents side, or a faster one on mine. Chalice of the Void is also really painful, and luckily I haven't really seen it at all in my area. But, it always needs to be taken into consideration. A Chalice at 2 is the most painful, since I can't get rid of it then. Oxidize is a solution, but Naturalize is a better fit for this deck. Perhaps using some Elvish Scrappers instead, though the deck is really tight as is.

Tinker is actually, in this deck, inferior to Fabricate. I never thought I'd say that... I'll explain. Tinker and Fabricate cost the same to cast. The difference is that I have to have an artifact in play to cast Tinker, and I have to sacrifice that artifact. The only artifacts I'd be willing to sacrifice or moxen/sol ring, and its not too likely that I'll have one and tinker in the hand at the same time. Even so, the extra mana that the mox or sol ring provides me with counteracts the evading of the casting cost of Tinker. I might as well just cast the thing with that mana, as the cards I am fetching with Fabricate are 1cc or 2cc anyways. In the case of Snake Basket, I'll usually have boatloads of mana anyway, so its not relevant to the situation.

Hibernation would be harsh on the deck, but luckily I have yet to ever see one in any Type 1 game, ever.

Yes, I do believe that fast combo are my scariest matchups. Root Maze is good hate against Dragon, as well as most other combo decks, slowing them down by at least a turn usually. Combined with Winter Orb, it provides a nice soft lock, although Moxen get around this. Still, 4x Root Maze will buy me a lot of time to setup, and hopefully I'll be able to just blitz them out. Even so, I definitely have losing chances against almost all combo decks. Thats one of the weaknesses of the deck that I'm hoping to shore up a bit.

--Tempe

[jeremys]

Something I've seen mentioned in onther elf threads is faces of the past instead of intruder alarm.  It costs the same, although you'd probably have to be clamping elves to make it worth using since untapping snake and insect tokens isn't all that useful.

[urza_insane]

I just wanted to chime in and say how incredibly powerful Skullclamp is, it's rather insane and few people have realized its power. One thing that you have to worry about in the TnT and Mud matches (other than Trisk) is them messing with YOUR artifacts when Welder goes infinite. Just make sure you don't have any artifacts in the grave otherwise your clamps aren't very usefull. Also, how does this deck perform under a Null Rod? can it still easily pull off a win?

[Celandro]

The build Im working on uses 4 wirewood heralds and 4 cabal therapies as well as 1 viridian shaman to take care of nasty artifacts and provide hand disruption. Its not really in a good state to show as im not back down to 60 cards yet but you get the basic idea. Black also provides tutors, will and bargain if you want them.

[Tempe]

Jeremys: Faces of the Past puts more stress on a Skullclamp, and I rarely sacrifice an elf, which would be needed for me to untap elves; the whole point of Intruder Alarm.

Urza_Insane: I agree, Skullclamp is extremely good. I have seen it being used in a lot of decks, though. If you live in an area with a lot of Workshop decks, I highly suggest running 3 or so maindeck Naturalizes or Oxidizes.

I did forget about Welders messing with my artifacts, but the only artifact that _I_ put in my graveyard is snake basket, and I will rarely use both Snake Basket and have the oppurtunity to play Intruder Alarm after that and let them use this oppurtunity. Even if I have, if I have more skullclamps than I have artifacts in my graveyard, it is pretty irrelevent. Under a Null Rod, or even worse, a Damping Matrix, the only real way out is Naturalize/Oxidize, which is why I put so much important into these cards when you play against Workshop.

Celandro: I have discussed with you a bit about the black splash, but I am anxious to hear your results. I'm curious to see whether black hand disruption is better than artifact land disruption. Yawgmoth's will is promising, but I'm tempted to say that Recycle is just as good as Yawgmoth's Bargain. The tutors would also up consistancy, although Fabricate is pretty potent by itself. What tutors do you add, Vampiric and Demonic Tutor?

--Tempe

--Tempe

[RoadTrippin]

I don't know much about the deck and I haven't tested it all (although I'm considering it for fun)- but there seems to be a lot of talk about having to deal with artifacts and the fact that Alarm inherently lets Welder "go infinite" and dominate you with a trisk. Why not test out something along the lines of:
+ 4 Survival of the Fittest
+ 3 Goblin Welder
+ 1 Triskelion
+ 1 Squee

Now, by doing so you accomplish a few things. You bring in a powerful creature searching engine, you bring in a creature that does quite a bit to mess up hate and artifact prison, and you utilized a new combo. The Trisk is basically just there for safety, or so you can win right away. What do you think?

 -Originally I took 9 cards out of the list, but as I don't fully understand a lot of card choices I assumed you had reasons for them and I shouldn't be pulling them out left and right.

[Tempe]

Well, I had survival of the fittest in for the longest time, and if you are interested in it, I highly suggest you check out the beginnings of the thread linked to at the top.

There are a few reasons why I am not personally going that route, although it very well may be possible.

First, adding these cards requires splashing another color. I did play Gru for a bit, for anger and some sideboard cards, but I found it unneeded. Now that my mana base is under stress more because I"d like to fit mana denial, I would be hard pressed to add red back in. This means that it may come up to whether blue or red is better. Obviously I would need both for this specific combo as the combo is Intruder Alarm + Goblin Welder. It may be a metagame choice, but for now, I like the more powerful cards of blue. I'll add more on this later.

Second, adding these cards adds another combo, but at the risk of slowing down my original engine. I am reluctant to add a combo. In this case, it is Survival + Intruder Alarm, or Welder + Triskelion + Intruder Alarm. I feel it may be too inconsistant to be of any use, as it may just be better to find a Skullclamp and just win. Skullclamp is really a 1 card combo with this deck, as opposed to a 2 card combo. Yes, I already have one of the cards in there, and neither are dead on their own, but, at least as of now, Survival of the Fittest is suboptimal. For the longest time I used it, but now it seems a little too slow.

One of the most critical things I would like to talk about is the relatively drastic changes for different metagames. As many of you have mentioned, Workshop decks may be a difficult matchup. They have fast mana, evading some of my mana denial, and have a lot of powerful cards like Null Rod, Damping Matrix, and Trinisphere, to play against me, not to mention the Welder + Triskelion combo against Intruder Alarm. Through some of my testing, I have found the best solution when facing a lot of Workshop is to add red.

This requires dropping most of the mana denial components of the deck, as you no longer have room for wastelands and strip mine, and root maze and winter orb would probably be replaced by those extra red cards, which in turn lowers the matchup against combo. Along with red comes the great artifact hate Rack and Ruin, along with the mentioned Welder and Triskelion combo, which I could now use for myself. Other options are Fire/Ice against aggro, REB against control, and Gorilla Shaman for mana denial if I feel I need some.

Adding red would not just require fitting in another color, but if I were to go the route of the Welder combo, then I would need to fit in survival of the fittest, completely refitting the deck. Perhaps my older engine of Survival of the Fittest + Sylvan Messenger + Wirewood Symbiote + Priest of Titania would be better at that point, but that would require a lot more testing. I haven't been completely in touch with my local metagame here in Minneapolis, so I would have to find this out before taking the deck to a big tournament, but in a random field, I would much rather be more consistant and have more utility in a Gu build. I believe the Gu build is much better against a random field, as well as scrub aggro, which we all know happens, than Gru is. Celandro has also brought up a Gub version, so I am anxious to hear how that comes out.

RoadTrippin': If even only for fun, I encourage you to test the deck. You will be pleasantly surprised at not only how fun it is, but that it is perfectly viable in most metagames.

--Tempe

[Celandro]

Finally got some time to goldfish the black changes. It seems to slow down the deck slightly, more prone to color screw as well.  Cabal Therapy does guarantee a cleared out control decks hand before you kill them if they let you draw your whole deck.

Anyhow, without further ado:
// Lands
    3  Tropical Island
    2  Gaea's Cradle
    4  Polluted Delta
    1  Bayou

// Creatures
    1  Quirion Ranger
    2  Elvish Spirit Guide
    2  Birchlore Rangers
    3  Wirewood Hivemaster
    4  Llanowar Elves
    3  Fyndhorn Elves
    4  Priest of Titania
    1  Timberwatch Elf
    1  Viridian Shaman
    4  Wirewood Herald

// Spells
    3  Intruder Alarm
    4  Skullclamp
    1  Stroke of Genius
    1  Mox Emerald
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Time Walk
    1  Ancestral Recall
    3  Fabricate
    1  Lightning Greaves
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Demonic Tutor
    4  Cabal Therapy
    1  Crop Rotation
    1  Yawgmoth's Will

// Sideboard
SB: 2  Viridian Zealot
SB: 1  Caller of the Claw
SB: 4  Xantid Swarm
SB: 1  Glissa Sunseeker
SB: 4  Root Maze
SB: 1  Wellwisher
SB: 1  Timberwatch Elf
SB: 1  Viridian Shaman


Goldfish results: (turn listed is go off turn = more mana than you know what to do with + draw entire deck + tons of tokens + at least 5 very large timberwatch pumped creatures).

turn 4
turn 2
turn 3
turn 4
turn 5 (2 cabal therapies open hand)
turn 4 (turn 1 cabal therapy)
turn 7 (mana flood)
turn 3
turn 5 (2 muligans + mana screw)
turn 3 (turn 2 cabal therapy)
turn 4 (turn 1 cabal therapy, turn 3 viridian shaman equip skullclamp, sac to cabal, fizzle)
turn 5 (3 muligans due to color screwx1 then no landx2)
turn 3
= Exactly turn 4 average


I never used yawg will, it doesnt seem to be needed for goldfishing, but it would certainly help go off in a long match against control.

[Tempe]

Kudos on the testing, Celandro .

I can see why my version is a bit faster (Turn 3.5 average). It is running the full 4 Elvish Spirit Guides. I find that, if it isn't a 4x, I wouldn't really run it at all, since the chances of drawing it later and having it be dead are relatively high. I dropped Gaea's Cradle from my build to facilitate the moxen, ESGs, and a Strip Mine.

The main body is almost exactly the same. The Viridian Shaman is an interesting choice. It might be useful to run him since you can fetch him with the Herald, but you still don't have any answer to humility. Shaman does get around Damping Matrix, though, which is good. Also, neither of us run Symbiote any more, meaning he only gets 1 use instead of the engine-like use you might be able to get out of him otherwise. That would be another suggestion when infested with Workshop decks. I'm just running Naturalizes for now, as they are very versatile.

You also are running less Timberwatch Elves. I run 2 so that I'm not so succeptable to counters, but the cabal therapies should take care of that for you.

The other difference is mainly in the black spells. I  agree Cabal Therapy is great, and I especially love the extra sacrifice outlets for Herald. Demonic Tutor of course adds some more consistancy, but I disagree on Yawgmoth's Will for the most part. Amazingly enough, I don't really think its right for the deck. At a point where you have a lot of cards in the graveyard is either when you have gone off with Skullclamp, or are in a long and tiresome game with control. If you are in the latter, then I really doubt you could resolve a Yawgmoth's Will against them. Control almost always wins the topdeck game. Yawgmoth's Will is really geared towards the late game, which this deck, as much as it is resiliant, does not want to go to.

I really haven't made many tweaks to my build. I'm going to need to wait until another tournament roles around near my area which I can go to, so I can get some more real playtesting against actual tournament matchups. Who knows, maybe I'll take home the prize?

--Tempe