The spell would not copy if the original spell is countered. Countering a spell occurs at the time of casting, prior to the spell being cast. If once all of the steps and conditions required to successfully cast a spell are met, then any abilities are added to the stack that trigger when that spell is cast. http://www.wizards.com/magic/comprules/MagicCompRules_20101001.txt See section 601, 601.2a and 601.2h. Similarly, if the original target is sacrificed prior to the spell being cast, then the spell will not have a legal target, and will not be copied. Or, if all Precursor Golems granting the replication ability are sacrificed prior to the spell being cast, then the source(s) of the trigger ability will not exist, and the spell will resolve as normal without being copied.
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Ezuri's Archers is another great card to block fliers with. He's a one-drop common, and an aggressive 4/2 blocker against creatures with flying (without any lords). Though, Thornweald is better, definitely run him before you would run Ezuri's Archers. Though my favorite to sideboard is Lys Alana Bowmaster. He deals 2 damage to a target flying creature every time you play another Elf spell.
*after turn 4, not by turn 4. *phew* that was long :)
I like Wellwisher, but she isn't terribly important in the deck. She's there mainly because she's a one-drop, which helps to ramp your mana with Heritage Druid, and because she'll help to mitigate loss of life due to aggressive direct damage decks. When you start dropping tokens like crazy, the amounts of life she provides isn't really that important (though sometimes it can buy you enough time to turn the game around), but it is rather intimidating to most opponents, which will also paint her as a proxy-target (as opposed to targetting a more important Llanowar Elf or Elvish Harbringer). If there's another one-drop to replace her, then by all means! Fyndhorn Elves would be a good replacement. The important thing about Ezuri is his first ability -- {G}: Regenerate another target Elf. In conjunction with Elvish Archdruid, you can regenerate every Elf you control (in a single phase) with the exception of Ezuri. On the other hand, if damage is causing your elves to die, Elvish Archdruid can also pay Ezuri's Overrun ability.. at /least/ once or twice.. maybe even 5 or 6 times! I would have included Elvish Champion, however he doesn't give much to your deck that other creatures don't already give. Elvish Archdruid, Imperious Prefect, and Joraga Warcaller each give Elves you control +1/+1, and something else. Elvish Archdruid gives you MAD amounts of green mana, especially with all of those tokens. Imperious Prefect can generate another token every turn. And Joraga Warcaller is the perfect use for all of that mana that Elvish Archdruid generates. You could easily drop him with ten +1/+1 counters, and that's +10/+10 to all elves! The only other thing Elvish Champion grants is forest walk, which is completely unneeded in a deck where you'll quickly be outnumbering any opponent 10-to-1. Gaea's Cradle would be a good addition. I forgot about that one. As a matter of personal preference, though, I would only include one, maybe two. As for how quick the deck runs.. I can't really say -- this is a slight modification to the elf deck I already run. Fast enough that you should be top-decking by turn 4, which is my only concern.. the lack of card draw. For the most part, that's not a problem though, since the ten cards already on the table by then should give you a very solid presence on the battlefield. Only an issue if you draw only mana production, and no buffs to cast along with them.
Also use Voltaic Key to untap the Time Vault. I used to run something similar when Mirrodin was first introduced. Energy Chamber, Coretapper, Power Conduit, and Voltaic Key, plus Darksteel Reactor and Magistrate's Scepter as my win conditions.
Oh! I'd also seriously consider replacing the Ichorclaw Myr with Perilous Myr. While Ichorclaw are pretty awesome, I'm willing to bet that once an opponent figures out that they're your only infect creatures.. they won't bother blocking them until they have to (IE, once they are around 8 or 9 poison counters). The same can be said for Perilous Myr, more likely than not they're going to try avoiding the 2 extra damage as long as possible. However, since the rest of your deck deals traditional combat damage, those 9 turns of poison counters could easily have been 9 turns of lost life instead, which is much more beneficial for you in the end.
Splinter Twins are amazing in a W/R myr deck. For example, if you only have one Myr Galvanizer in play, 4x Splinter Twins can replace the need for the other three Galvanizers.. meaning more chances of drawing that all important combo piece, as well as a combo to generate infinite Myr Galvanizers ;) I like what you've got here, only two gripes: You've more red mana symbol occurrences, and Splinter Twin is at least as important as casting Myrsmith.. so why more Plains than Mountains? IMO, it should be 11 Mountains and 9 Plains. Also, consider running Myr Propegators. They add another infinite combo in case Splinter Twins is not drawn, and even if the infinite combo is not set up, they still provide chump blockers when nothing else is available. The latter might not seem terribly important, but I've seen my friend's Myr deck in motion, it looked very similar to yours. Once the infinite combo begins to roll, it's nigh unstoppable. But sometimes you just don't draw those Galvanizers or Splinter Twins for a while, but still have plenty of mana at your disposal.. against a highly aggressive deck you could lose before your combo is in place, and those Propegators add something else to stack the odds in your favor. Any who, love what you did with the budget!
Turns out this deck needs some help. It looks good in a vacuum, but playtests have shown inconsistent results with Liquimetal -> Permanent destruction. Goblin Gaveleer can become ridiculously powerful, as can Spikeshot Elder, but both take too long to get pumped up to be considered effective aggro. I think the axes can be replaced with Sylvok Lifestaff. It's only +1/+0 but it's a 1-drop, 1-equip. Liquimetal can be replaced with Ornithopters, and Shatter with 1x Iron Myr and 3x Bolts or something.
They most certainly are ;) I love them, anyways. With proliferation in full swing, they're a reliable source of creature tokens, and have won quite a few games for me. Though, I'd rather lose a foundry than a chalice.. the mana potential would go to good use with Steel Hellkite, too. Updated the deck, what do you think? (I'm going to save my Wurmcoils for another deck, I think Steel Hellkite is a better fit here)
I've thought about it, between two Wurmcoil Engines or two Steel Hellkites, I'm not sure which to include, or what cards to remove to make room for them.. Everything in the deck has it's place, the only thing I can think of is maybe 1 Everflowing Chalice and 1 Steady Progress? They'd be sorely missed, although not entirely necessary.. thoughts?
Ooh, there's a search query I didn't think of! "is in your graveyard" Also shows up positive for Gigapede, Coffin Puppets, Nether Shadow, and Necrosavant... hrm >.< Some of those would be very good.. I'll have to do some reconstruction :3
Also, the single character abbreviation for blue is U. BBW means Big Breasted Women, you should change your title to BUW Elspeth. Or, then again maybe you shouldn't ;P
Actually, after taking a second glance, it does appear that you have enough control in the CMC 3 or less range to survive long enough to establish a creature base. Still though, I think you're way too heavy on the CMC 4+ range, especially with how weighted the mana symbols are. I'd completely drop the Conquerer's Pledges from the deck, add one or two more Elspeth Tirel, and perhaps consider 2 or 3 Lilliana Vess. She is, at the very least, a reusable tutor. But she is also capable of returning all creatures destroyed by Elspeth from the graveyard to play.. and that's freaking sweet ^_^ Otherwise, you might even consider running a Roc Egg. It's cheaper, provides defense (important for Luminarch Ascension), and generates a token when it goes to the graveyard. At any rate, I'm more on the line now, than one way or the other.. I'm curious to know how this deck works out for you :)
I'd recommend 3x of each, Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds. Then count your mana symbol occurrences (MTG Vault does this for you): You have 32 White, 12 Blue, 16 Black, out of 60 total mana symbols. White: (32/60) = 0.5333 x 14 = 7.46 Blue: (12/60) = 0.2 x 14 = 2.8 Black: (16/60) = 0.2667 = 3.73 Rounded to the nearest whole integer, 7 plains, 3 Islands, and 4 swamps. While that's fewer lands than Voron suggests, you also have 6 fetch lands, meaning you have a 13/62 chance to play a plains, a 9/62 chance to play an island, and a 10/62 chance to play a swamp (from a fresh deck), which is altogether greater odds than he suggested ;) In my opinion, though, your mana curve is way too heavy for three colors. You have 24 spells with CMC 3 or less, and 18 spells with CMC 4+, and amongst those 18x CMC 4+, every single one of them has a double or tripple colored mana symbol. You're going to have a hard time producing any creatures at all. And on top of that, you're essentially relying upon Elspeth Tirel to wipe the board for the GG, and you're only running two of her, and no Tutors (though Tutors would only serve to hurt your mana curve even more) Elspeth Tirel would be better suited for a mono white Myr deck. Golem Foundry, Myr Propegator, Myrsmith, and Origin Spellbomb can produce a lot of tokens. Otherwise, Day of Judgment in a deck with Totem Armors would also accomplish the same thing, and be overall more reliable. I really like that you're trying something against the grain, but I'm afraid it just won't work :(
Thanks ^-^ I'm glad you approve. I agree about Ornithopter being useless if I don't draw a Steel Overseer. I was thinking of dropping the 4x Ornithopters and 1x Chimeric Mass for 3x Snapsail Gliders, and 2x Culling Dias. The problem I foresee arising with this deck is not having enough card draw, and with Proliferate in the mix, Culling Dias could easily bring me back to 7 cards by turn 6.
I run a deck like this in blue. Except I also have counter spells, psychic venoms, propagandas, soul barriers, errant minions, and mana webs.. As fun as it is to run timmies, they're not aggressive enough to make effective win conditions, nor does red have the control necessary to buy enough time to use them. IMO, the best thing to do with a deck like this is to drop about half of the tims, run some dd / destruction spells, and do as MrBarrelRoll suggested and add some death touch equipment.
Also, I said I intend to construct a mono black deck with the theme of Liliana + Painful Quandary + Quest for the Nihil Stone. Here it is: http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=103395
Updated the deck, here's v2.0 http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=103353 As for Captivating Vampire, the deck did not rely on his ability, but with Liliana (aka reusable tutor), I could search for the vampire or two needed to steal a creature. It wasn't a reliable strategy, but it was the fact that it was possible, that if an opponent could get a creature out even through the lockdown, it would do them no good.
Pretty much agreed with all of the above. If I were building a discard deck (Of which, I have a mad decent vintage specter deck, but also intend to create a standard legal Quandary / Nihil Stone deck too) it'd be mono black. But, this was designed for a deck challenge requiring the deck to be B/R. I mistakenly designed this deck to be standard (which, Mind Shatter slipped in by accident), though the deck challenge is extended. There are likely much better ways to accomplish the discard / land destruction theme I set out to do within extended format, and I plan to explore those options sometime later tonight.
I rather like this, a lot better than the version I posted :) One thing though, and maybe I'm just picky about this.. but I really think you should go 3x Chandra's Spitfire, 4x Kiln Fiend, and lose one of each: Deprive, Into the Roil, Searing Blaze. In their place add 3x Distortion Strike. The ability to make a creature unblockable (especially a Kiln Fiend) for two turns in a row can be, in itself, enough to win a game! Just my preference though.
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