HoD Elspeth

starfall
starfall Posts: 1,727 Chairperson of the Boards
in MtGPQ General Discussion
Are any strategies for Elspeth in HoD as good as Deploy? Are they even close?

Comments

  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    Sure there are other strategies.  Deploy is really expensive to cast, so if you get unlucky and don't have white matches (easy to happen since you aren't running a lot of supports) it isn't great.  Also, you tend to win too fast when you play it (cost me a point and about 300 jewels this event).

    But yeah, Deploy is a great card.  Works pretty well in most decks.
  • EvilDead
    EvilDead Posts: 167 Tile Toppler
    I've been running Chord and Deploy with a lot of paying attention. Sometimes you have to sacrifice your own creatures to avoid missing some of the objectives. Luminarch Ascension will end a game prematurely too so be careful if you're running it. A white first strike deck is very popular with those who don't have a lot of good cards as there are alot of rares and (un)commons that have first strike. 
  • Tilwin90
    Tilwin90 Posts: 662 Critical Contributor
    Mburn7 said:
    Sure there are other strategies.  Deploy is really expensive to cast, so if you get unlucky and don't have white matches (easy to happen since you aren't running a lot of supports) it isn't great. 
    Except Elspeth matches green and blue like a pro too. She is not Koth-one-trick-pony who cries if he cannot match red (though admittedly his first ability ramps him pretty nicely). So yes, Deploy is superb with Elspeth, especially for HoD.

    Besides, to get into the "late game" (what a paper term that does not even apply here) you can always stall the game with removal. I had to reset the board once or twice to ensure I don't win too quickly but even in those cases they were preemptive and possibly unnecessary.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    Since no one uses a lot of dinos, I went Dino tribe with oath of terefi.
    It's maybe not as potent as deploy, but took good care of the deploy decks I faced!
  • Mburn7
    Mburn7 Posts: 3,427 Chairperson of the Boards
    Laeuftbeidir said:
    Since no one uses a lot of dinos, I went Dino tribe with oath of terefi.
    It's maybe not as potent as deploy, but took good care of the deploy decks I faced!
    I mean, you can deploy the Dinos, if you really want to.

    My deck for this used a surprising number of DDZE cards, so it was a little less thematic than I would normally like.  But it only dropped 1 point!  (I accidentally won too fast and missed my 4th spell by a couple mana)
  • Tremayne
    Tremayne Posts: 1,756 Chairperson of the Boards
    I lost one point in the first match, which ended to soon.

    result I placed 52nd in my bracket. 😵🤨
  • Feden
    Feden Posts: 79 Match Maker
    I had the same exact thing! My 6-spell Elspeth deck couldn't pull one for 5+ turns my first match of the event, but I was perfect after that.

    "Luckily" I got 47th for it (in the second bracket?) though.  Still wish the rewards didn't drop off so quick or the game was challenging enough to actually have some separation.
  • madwren
    madwren Posts: 2,261 Chairperson of the Boards
    Feden said:
    I had the same exact thing! My 6-spell Elspeth deck couldn't pull one for 5+ turns my first match of the event, but I was perfect after that.

    "Luckily" I got 47th for it (in the second bracket?) though.  Still wish the rewards didn't drop off so quick or the game was challenging enough to actually have some separation.

    The game is challenging--You have to navigate your way through a treacherous maze of bugs and unintended effects to achieve victory!

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