Those Nath-ty Elves

VJ's Critical Deckbuilding: Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

 Discard + Elves = Annoying

Hello Planeswalkers, and welcome to my first deck critique on TGZ.

This post is dedicated to my roommate Joe, who after several years of playing MTG (he started getting serious during Lorwyn), has finally decided to start playing Commander. I've taken up the task of helping him build a winning deck, or at least a fun one to play.

Seeing as Joe has mostly cards from Lorwyn in his possesion, it would make sense that he should use a general from that set to start out with. Nath is a great elf and his discard/token generating ability makes him both a hassle and an intimidating force, very much like the other Lorwyn decks my roommate has built. Fearsome kithkin, crazy boggarts, and tricky merfolk have led me to my defeat many a duel.

But enough about how awesome my roommate's cards are.

Seeing how Nath is exactly $1 in price ($0.99, if you want to be technical about it), this immediately qualifies it for the Dollar General format. Now, to find the rest of the deck for under $40...

After some research, I found a complete decklist on tappedout.net, built by a fellow named PresidentLiberty. The list is as follows:

General:
 Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

Creatures:
 Augur of Skulls
 Avatar of Woe
 Creakwood Liege
 Deity of Scars
 Dread
 Elvish Archdruid
 Elvish Champion
 Eternal Witness
 Guul Draz Specter
 Imperious Perfect
 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
 Joraga Warcaller
 Liliana's Specter
 Lord of Extinction
 Myojin of Night's Reach
 Nezumi Bone-Reader
 Priest of Titania
 Primeval Titan
 Sadistic Hypnotist
 Silent Specter
 Vigor
 Vulturous Zombie
 Yavimaya Elder

Planeswalkers:
 Garruk Wildspeaker
 Liliana Vess

Artifacts:
 Anvil of Bogardan
 Darksteel Ingot
 Eldrazi Monument
 Grim Monolith
 Lightning Greaves
 Mana Vault
 Sensei's Divining Top
 Skullclamp
 Sol Ring
 Sword of Light and Shadow

Enchantments:
 Contamination
 Defense of the Heart
 Earthcraft
 Grave Pact
 Necrogen Mists
 Oppression
 Pattern of Rebirth
 Phyrexian Arena
 Quest for the Nihil Stone
 Words of Waste

Sorceries:
 Cruel Edict
 Damnation
 Demonic Tutor
 Diabolic Tutor
 Elvish Promenade
 Hymn to Tourach
 Mind Twist
 Pox
 Reprocess
 Syphon Mind
 Temporal Extortion
 Tooth and Nail

Instants:
 Doom Blade
 Krosan Grip
 Worldly Tutor

Land:
 Forest (x7)
 Swamp (x16)
 Bottomless Vault
 Cabal Coffers
 Evolving Wilds
 Gaea's Cradle
 Gilt-Leaf Palace
 Golgari Rot Farm
 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
 Polluted Mire
 Slippery Karst
 Strip Mine
 Tainted Wood
 Temple of the False God
 Treetop Village
 Twilight Mire
 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
 Vivid Grove

Right away, I saw some very expensive cards that I considered unnecessary in the concept of an elf/discard deck. Things like Gaea's Cradle, Cabal Coffers, and other really fancy lands, although very cool, are just too expensive. Hell, the price of Gaea's cradle alone is more than most of my decks. Honestly, you can't go wrong with a simpler land selection.

Forest
Swamp
Evolving Wilds
Gilt-Leaf Palace
Ghost Quarter
Golgari Rot Farm
Jund Panorama
Llanowar Wastes
Terramorphic Expanse
Tainted Wood


I was also questioning the logic behind using some of the artifacts such as Mana Vault and Sword of Light and Shadow. Although, Sword of Feast and Famine would be a good replacement for the aforementioned sword, it is a bit costly, average price being $15.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other, reasonably-priced discard engines:

Cunning Advisor
Corpse Traders
Scythe Specter
Hypnotic Specter
Painful Quandary

Also, I wanted this deck to be a little more focused on discard, so adding a few more benefits to opponents discarding cards can't hurt.

Sangromancer
Liliana's Caress
Megrim

And of course, what would a discard deck be without:

Unnerve
Tendrils of Despair
Despise

Also, Savra is a good way to gain life

Savra, Queen of the Golgari

When playing green/black, I'm a traditionalist, so a couple removal spells/mana ramp spells help to boost the deck:

Doom Blade
Murder
Rampant Growth
Harrow
Cultivate

After a few tweaks and some price calculating, the revised decklist looks more like this:

Creatures:
Acidic Slime
Augur of Skulls
Bloodgift Demon
Corpse Traders
Cunning Advisor
Elvish Archdruid
Elvish Champion
Elvish Visionary
Essence Warden
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Guul Draz Specter
Hollowborn Barghest
Hypnotic Specter
Imperious Perfect
Joraga Warcaller
Liliana's Specter
Myojin of Night's Reach
Nezumi Bone-Reader
Rhys the Exiled
Rune-Scarred Demon
Sangromancer
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Scythe Specter
Silent Specter
Voice of the Woods
Vulturous Zombie
Yavimaya Elder

Instants:
Doom Blade
Harrow
Murder
Naturalize

Sorceries:
Cultivate
Despise
Diabolic Tutor
Distress
Elvish Promenade
Mind Rot
Rampant Growth
Reprocess
Smallpox
Syphon Mind
Tendrils of Despair
Unnerve

Enchantments:
Exquisite Blood
Liliana's Caress
Megrim
Necrogen Mists
Oppression
Painful Quandary
Quest for the Nihil Stone
Words of Waste

Artifacts:
Disrupting Scepter
Geth's Grimoire
Library of Leng
Otherworld Atlas
Possessed Portal
Scepter of Fugue
Scroll of Griselbrand
Shrine of Limitless Power
Specter's Shroud
Whispersilk Cloak

Land:
Evolving Wilds
Forest
Gilt-Leaf Palace
Ghost Quarter
Golgari Rot Farm
Jund Panorama
Llanowar Wastes
Swamp
Terramorphic Expanse
Tainted Wood

Since this is a black deck, I included a few demons: Rune-Scarred for its tutoring, Bloodgift for extra cards, and the Hollowborn Barghest to piss opponents off. Exquisite Blood, Rhys the Exiled, Savra, and Essence Warden offer some life-gain to counteract the very likely possibility of losing life from the deck's own creatures and artifacts. Geth's Grimoire makes your opponents' discarding more fruitful for you and Otherworld Atlas is an excellent way to force players to draw (all the more cards for them to discard).

I also put more emphasis on the elf aspect of the deck by adding Voice of the Woods, which gives all those untapped elf tokens something to do besides look menacing. The 7/7 elementals that Voice of the Woods produces are great blockers, attackers, or chumps to sacrifice. Keeping the Elvish champion, Imperious Prefect, and Elvish Promenade definitely made the deck more expensive, but the boosts they give to elves/the elves they produce are essential to the deck's mechanism.

There are no board wipes in this deck, and conversely, after a few test runs, board wipes crippled the deck. However, if I added any reanimate spells, that would take away from the deck mechanic as well, seeing how I'd have to take out either discard spells or elves to make room for things like Disentomb or Reanimate.

The deck certainly has some cards that don't seem to follow the deck theme entirely, though. Elvish Visionary is just a nice elf that lets you draw a card and Whispersilk Cloak is both a defense for any creature of importance and makes for an awesome offensive advantage (unblockable creatures are difficult to block).

So that's the deck! I posted the list on tappedout.net, which has a handy estimated cost tool. According to the price tool, the deck's total cost was $66.81, but that's based on the mid-ranged prices of all the cards. So it's only twenty six dollars too expensive to qualify as a dollar general deck, but I'm sure that if one bought all the cards at the low-end, the deck would be under $40.

I have yet to play this deck at length, and Joe still has yet to play around with it, but I'm fine with publishing first drafts.

Stay classy!

-Venser's Journalist