Elspeth Assault V2

After many hours of testing and seeing what works and doesn't work I've made some changes to my original Red/White Elspeth Assault deck that I posted after Pro Tour-Austin. The old list just wasn't quite strong enough to deal with the really powerful decks that are making the rounds in today's meta-game. The newest deck to make a splash is Eldrazi Green which took 1st place at a 5K tourney in Nashville recently. It features Elves, Elves, and more Elves combined with token producers Ant Queen and Master of the Wild Hunt. Toss in 3 Eldrazi Monuments and you've got yourself a very powerful Aggro deck that destroys other Aggro decks. It has a tougher time against Control but still holds its own very well. Here is the list that placed first in Nashville...



Artifacts
3 Eldrazi Monument

Creatures
3 Ant Queen
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Elvish Visionary
3 Great Sable Stag
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Master Of The Wild Hunt
4 Nissa's Chosen
2 Noble Hierarch

Planeswalkers
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Nissa Revane

Lands
20 Forest
4 Oran-rief, The Vastwood

Sideboard:
1 Eldrazi Monument
3 Pithing Needle
4 Acidic Slime
1 Great Sable Stag
1 Mold Shambler
3 Mycoloth
2 Windstorm

Its biggest weakness is that it doesn't main deck any removal and the only creature removal it has is 2 Windstorm in the sideboard. But, it gets around that with the Master of the Wild Hunt which can act as a removal spell every turn. I'm not sure how my Elspeth Assault V2 would do against this powerhouse as I haven't tested it out yet but I would like to think it would be able to compete. Here's my latest installment of Elspeth Assault...



Creature Spells:
Goblin Ruinblaster x3
Hellspark Elemental x4
Hell's Thunder x3

Non-Creature Spells:
Ajani Vengeant x4
Elspeth, Knight-Errant x3
Goblin Assault x4
Lightning Bolt x4
Journey to Nowhere x4
Day of Judgment x3
Martial Coup x2
Oblivion Ring x2

Lands:
Arid Mesa x4
Terramorphic Expanse x4
Plains x8
Mountain x8

Sideboard:
Celestial Purge x3
Goblin Ruinblaster x1
Luminarch Ascension x3
Intimidation Bolt x3
Volcanic Fallout x2
Oblivion Ring x1
Banefire x2

I decided to take out the 3 Scepter of Dominance and put in 3 Goblin Ruinblaster instead. I think the Ruinblaster is a little better because I can permanently take out an important non-basic land and have a hasty creature on the board to do some possible damage as well. Ruinblaster is an absolute monster against all of the 3 or more color decks out there. Take out a Savage Lands against Jund on turn 4 and it could really hurt them down the stretch.

I also took out the 4 Burst Lightning and put in 4 Journey to Nowhere. There were too many times that I ran into a situation where I needed something a little more powerful than Burst Lightning to play on a troublesome creature like Baneslayer. Path to Exile was my first choice until I realized how it would negate the effect of Ruinblaster. It doesn't make sense to play Path to Exile and give your opponent a free land in a deck that has land destruction as a way to control the board. Journey to Nowhere gives me the same power albeit a little more expensive than Path to Exile.

Another addition to the main deck is Martial Coup in place of Banefire. Martial Coup is one of the best spells out there for late game board control. To be able to wipe the board and reinforce your side at the same time is pretty sick. This is a very important spell when dealing with late game monsters like Broodmate Dragon and Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

The last change I made to the original main deck is a small one. I decided I needed to main deck one more Elspeth, Knight-Errant and took out one Oblivion Ring to make room. There were too many games where I was waiting for an Elspeth to swing the game in my favor and came up empty handed. This decks main win condition is Goblin Assault comboed with Elspeth, Knight-Errant. It's hard to stop a 4/4 flying Goblin that comes at you every turn no matter what.

The sideboard has been changed up a bit as well. I took out the Baneslayers and put in Luminarch Ascension. This spell kills other control decks and Baneslayer just becomes a big target for removal because I have so few creatures to begin with. I'm planning on testing this version out quite a bit. If you guys decide to use it let me know how it fares against the other decks out there. Peace out and good luck on your next coin flip!