Do you enjoy watching tendrils destroy someone? Are you not
Japanese hentai? Then here’s a deck you might enjoy. Hey, that’s deck: d – e –
c – k. Alrighty, now that those readers are gone, let’s take a look at our
cards; which combine a swarm/aggro-type strategy with an alternate Storm combo
win condition. Today we are going to be talking about Tendrelves.
Concordant Crossroads, despite not being in the deck name,
plays a very important role in Tendrelves. While it does provide Haste to your
opponent’s creatures as well, this deck has been built to optimize Crossroads,
giving it the advantage. How does it do this? By using mana and card drawing to
keep its creature-casting engine working.
As mentioned, the ‘engine’ pieces are what allow Tendrelves
to play its strategies so well. The card drawing super team – Wirewood Symbiote,
Multani’s Acolyte and Sylvan Messenger – all synergize in numerous ways to do
this. The only caveat really is that while each card can work with the other, Symbiote
doesn’t get drawn by Messenger, so you don’t want them in your top 4 when
playing Sylvan. Symbiote’s uses in re-playing mana dorks and Acolyte/Messenger do
make it amazing however, even without considering its combat shenanigans, so
never not include a play set in the deck.
While the super team allows you to swarm an opponent, it can
also allow you to storm an opponent. By drawing and casting your creatures, you
are also building a storm count, allowing you to hit your opponent with
Tendrils. Both Sylvan Messenger and Multani’s Acolyte are great here, as they
let you draw into spells. It’s worth noting that should you be hoping to win
via Storm, unless the Tendrils are in your hand, you want to draw deep with
Multani’s Acolyte when you can as it allows you to draw the Storm card.
Alright, now the other ‘engine’ pieces – the mana dorks team. When you look at the creatures listed in the deck, you might notice that nearly every one not in the card drawing super team create mana. The only one that doesn’t, Quirion Ranger, can be used to untap them and thus can also be included on the mana dorks team. This is also the team that wants to abuse Concordant Crossroads by allowing you to use the creatures you just put on the board to play the other creatures you just drew with the other engine. Sweet synergy, right?
While I normally mention several strategic examples in these
articles, Tendrelves has such a high number that I didn’t want to tackle them.
Instead, I wrote about their uses so that you can look at the cards and
discover them on your own. Elves decks all have several tricky plays so just
remember to keep the board state in mind with each play. Happy Brewing!
Tendrelves
Land:
5 Forest
4 Gaea’s Cradle
4 Bayou
5 Fetch lands
1 Pendelhaven
Total: 19
Creatures:
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Priest of Titania
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Birchlore Ranger
4 Multani’s Acolyte
4 Sylvan Messenger
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
Total: 34
Spells:
4 Concordant Crossroads
1 Regrowth
2 Tendrils of Agony
Total: 7
Sideboard:
4 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Wellwisher
2 Naturalize
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Duress
1 Elvish Scrapper
1 Elvish Lyrist
