I've been playing 4C Elementals since Kanister cracked the deck by cutting the two-drops and adding Teferi, Time Raveler. The deck is powerful, fun, and boasts even-to-positive matchups against Modern's top decks, with its worst matchup being Tron, followed by Mill and then probably Burn.
Gameplan
The Early Game
In a blind matchup, you're looking to do two things in the early game: interact enough to stop an opponent from snowballing, and establish a value engine. Interaction comes in the form of Prismatic Ending, Solitude, and Fury. Prismatic Ending is always good early, while Solitude and Fury are slightly more conditional. If you have a Risen Reef or an Ephemerate, their stocks go up; if you're forced to pitch a card to answer one threat, their stock goes down. Regardless, do not be afraid to pitch when the situation calls for it, particularly if you can steal a two-for-two with Fury. Zero-mana interaction is a huge part of why this deck can compete.
In the dark, the best opening hands contain Utopia Sprawl with Risen Reef, though Sprawl and Teferi, Time Raveler is close behind (and preferable in specific matchups). Sprawl/Reef hands are further improved if your hand includes pitch Elementals and/or Ephemerate. The deck has such a wide range of keepable hands that you don't need to mulligan too often, and when you do, it mulligans well.
Outside of the best hands, other typically keepable hands include:
- Utopia Sprawl, any interaction, and Omnath, Locus of Creation
- Any interaction and a three-drop
- Risen Reef, a pitch Elemental, and a card of the proper color to Evoke it
- Multiple pieces of interaction and a card advantage piece (Risen Reef, Mulldrifter, Omnath)
In matchups where you know what you're up against, there are other hands that become keepable.
- An Evokable Fury and Ephemerate is good in matchups where the opponent doesn't have much interaction, but has a fast clock (Tron)
- Teferi is so powerful against Cascade decks and some other Modern strategies that Teferi + one or two other spells is often sufficient
- An Evokable Fury or Solitude/Ephemerate against aggressive creature decks
The one thing to keep in mind when evaluating an opening hand is that Flamekin Harbinger is highly unlikely to be a Turn 1 play. On Turn 1, you're either Sprawling, casting Prismatic Ending, or fetching a Raugrin Triome. The worst hands to keep include no Sprawl, two lands, and Flamekin Harbinger. Because you can't cast Harbinger until you find a third land, you've essentially taken a mulligan to six already. If you have a Fury that you can pitch it to, it gets marginally better, but it's still a risky keep for a deck that requires three mana to hardcast any of its permanents.
The Midgame
You admittedly tend to be behind in the early game (Turns 1-3). The midgame is where you should be able to not just catch up, but pull ahead. This is possible because once you begin hardcasting cards, every permanent in your deck that costs three or more is a two-for-one. Risen Reef, of course, is the best of these. If you are not under substantial pressure and have a Reef and an Ephemerate, you'll want to consider waiting to cast the Reef until you can hold up Ephemerate to not just protect it, but pull even farther ahead on cards.
The midgame is where Ephemerate shines. The instant often acts as a one-mana counterspell that nets you one or two cards just on its first casting. It then forces the opponent to expend additional resources to try to clear your board to prevent value from the Rebound.
Omnath replaces itself, and, more importantly, lets you double- or triple-spell by cracking a fetchland. It's easy to catch up when you untap with Omnath, crack a fetch, and suddenly have nine mana to spend on your chonky Elementals. In this way, you don't only go up in card advantage with cards in hand, but you tend to develop a more powerful board than opponents as well. Omnath threatens to put your life total out of reach, and Solitude and Fury can quickly turn a race around.
Risen Reef is always the card you most want to have on-board, but in the midgame, Omnath is a close second. Elementals draws a lot of cards, and Omnath is vital in generating sufficient mana to cast them all.
The Late Game
If you've survived this long, it's unlikely you'll lose the late game. There isn't another deck in Modern that can compete with the simultaneous absurd card advantage and powerful pressure and interaction. Elementals truly does it all; at this point, you just have to decide how you'd prefer to kill your opponent, and make sure you don't deck yourself.
Tips and Tricks
- If it's not clear, this is the best card in your deck.
- If you cast Mulldrifter or Omnath with Reef out, stack the triggers so that you draw first, especially if you don't have a land drop. If you don't draw a land off the card draw, and then see one off Reef, you'll likely want to put the land into your hand instead of onto the battlefield so that it will come in untapped. This is extra-important if you want to trigger Omnath off a Fetchland.
- Be sure to stack your Risen Reef triggers on top of any Evoke triggers; you may draw an Ephemerate and want to cast it before your Evoked Elemental dies. Because of this, be sure to leave up a White mana if you're going to Evoke an Elemental and have a Reef.
- Flamekin Harbinger with Risen Reef can tutor any Elemental into your hand so long as you stack the Reef trigger underneath the Harbinger trigger.
- In the late game, when you have access to all the mana you need, set your Sprawls to Black. This allows you to Prismatic Ending for X=5 when you need to.
- Remember that you can reset your Sprawls by bouncing them to your hand with Teferi. This can be relevant against land hate, particularly post-board.
- If you have a Sprawl in your opening hand, you're looking to have Bant mana on Turn 2. Ideally, this means Sprawling Turn 1 onto a Forest and naming either W or U, then fetching the missing color on Turn 2. If you are in Game 1 or in Game 2 and are confident they don't have a way to interact with your lands, then you can just fetch a Temple Garden or Breeding Pool and Sprawl naming the missing color. This is risky, as Blood Moon and similar hate cards will be doubly painful if you've thrown a Sprawl away.
- On the other hand, remember that if you choose to play Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, you can Sprawl onto any land you control.
- When you can afford to, it is best to play Ephemerate conservatively. Ephemerate is a card that can pull you dramatically ahead if it is successful, but destroy any advantage you have if a creature is killed in response. Use it to counter a removal spell or as a late-game nail in the coffin.
- Of course, if you have Teferi, do whatever you want with Ephemerate.
- Whenever you can, leave up a White mana. Ephemerate can be such a blowout that opponents will sometimes play conservatively if you're representing it.
- Ephemerating Flamekin Harbinger with Risen Reef onboard is an instant-speed tutor. Typically, you can use this even with no more mana up to fetch an Evoke Elemental. Post-board, this is particularly powerful, as you can grab a surprise Endurance or Subtlety.
- Rebound is a trigger. As such, if you have multiple Ephemerates in exile, two triggers go onto the stack at the beginning of your upkeep. You can resolve the first trigger, cast the Ephemerate to blink something, then resolve the second trigger, and cast the second Ephemerate to blink the same creature. The spells themselves do not go on the stack at the same time, which means you choose a target for the second only after the first has fully resolved.
- Ephemerating Omnath can reset its Landfall triggers. In the very late game, with enough Risen Reefs, you can usually go off and trigger Omnath's “Deal 4” ability enough times to burn out an opponent. In fact, Omnath's second WURG ability generates enough mana to keep the party going.
- It often gets pitched to Fury, and that's fine.
- Despite its mana cost, it is usually better on Turn 4 or 5 than on Turn 2 (unless you'd like to trade with a Ragavan).
- If you want card advantage and have Elementals in hand (particularly Evokable ones), you probably want to grab Risen Reef. If you have nothing in hand, grab Mulldrifter.
- Use its -3 on your own Elementals.
- Remember that if an opponent casts one of your cards off Ragavan, you can bounce it back to your own hand.
- Teferi's greatest generic value in this deck is giving you permission to Ephemerate whenever you'd like. It is hard to lose after you've blinked an Elemental twice.
- Almost always go up against Cascade decks.
- Sometimes, you will choose not to use Solitude's triggered ability. A common instance of this is when an opponent attacks with a 1/2 Monastery Swiftspear and you have a Teferi. In this case, you just block the Swiftspear and gain three life.
- It is quite common to put Kaheera into your hand specifically to pitch it to Solitude, which is a great way not to go down a card, turning Solitude into a Swords to Plowshares that costs an investment of 3 mana any time before you cast it.
- Remember you can Solitude your own creatures in a pinch to gain life.
- Solitude is guaranteed to kill all Death's Shadows if you target any of them with its ability.
- This card attacks really well, particularly when you cast Kaheera.
- Remember that Kaheera both gives and has Vigilance.
- Post-board, remember that you can pitch it to Endurance as well as Solitude.
- In the late game, particularly if you already have Cavern of Souls set to Elemental, you can set a Cavern to Cat or Beast to make your friendly Companion uncounterable.
Fetchlands
- In the late game, leave fetches uncracked. You'll be happy you did if you draw an Omnath.
- It has Reach, and its favorite meal is Dragons's Rage Channelers.
Matchups
In this section, I'm going to highlight generally what your role is and what is important in the matchup.
UW Control
- You need to keep their planeswalkers off the board. If their planeswalkers stick, they will win; if they don't stick, you will win.
- If you can, try to hold Prismatic Ending for Torpor Orb and T3feri. If they do cast Torpor Orb, take advantage of it by Evoking Fury, attacking them, and hoping they can't answer it fast enough.
- Do your best to walk the delicate line between enough pressure to keep their walkers away and not overextending into Supreme Verdict
Hammertime
- Cast pitch Elementals and then Ephemerate them. If you do, you'll win.
- Use Prismatic Ending on Sigarda's Aid when you can.
- Teferi is surprisingly decent, as it makes Fury safer and can buy you time by bouncing Aid.
Burn
- Omnath. Omnath. Omnath. Cast it. Play lands. Gain life. Win games.
- It is okay to cast Omnath on Turn 4, especially if you have another. The resources Burn has to expend to answer Omnath will often put it far enough behind for you to buy some time to stabilize with Solitude.
Jund Saga
- This matchup is a lot of fun because you both grind so well. Their best starts are early hand disruption into pressure, forcing you to go down on resources and fail to get an engine online. You win by drawing more cards than them.
- Save Solitude for Tarmogoyf; it gets big fast, and you don’t have a great answer otherwise.
- Use Teferi to bounce Karnstructs or Sagas.
- Remember that Wrenn and Six kills Reef; holding Ephemerate for the right moment is really key in this matchup.
- Your goal is to stall as long as possible while building up cards and a board before eventually overwhelming them.
Elementals
- Risen Reef is the most important card in the matchup. Play accordingly by killing theirs ASAP and protecting yours with Ephemerate. A side-effect of the importance of Reef is that Teferi becomes the second most important card, since it enables the killing of their Reef and the protecting of your own.
- Cavern of Souls is great. Hold it as long as you can so that they leave up mana for countermagic that doesn’t do anything.
- Early Furies are great to keep their board clean.
- Solitude is your cleanest answer for Murktide Regent, so save it if you can. Murktide Regent is annoying because it’s bulky and it flies.
- Ephemerate/ Fury also deals with Murky.
- Post-board, prioritize fetching basics. If you do, Blood Moon has little effect on you, but often keeps them to a single impactful spell a turn due to the restriction on their blue mana.
Cascade (Rhinos, Living End)
- Teferi is great. Post-board, your playset of Forces are also great, but mainboard access to T3f is quite wonderful.
- They grind well, but so do you; even if they have a pair of fast Rhinos, Solitude, Fury, and Ephemerate can grind through them.
- Against Living End, remember that you can Evoke your Elementals in response for no value to get them to return when Living End resolves.
Tron
- Good luck.
If you haven’t given Elementals a shot, I highly recommend it! It’s a remarkably flexible deck that can shift its role in accordance with the matchup, and it has the tools to fight against almost every other deck in the format.
Ryan Normandin (@RyanNormandin) is a grinder from Boston who has lost at the Pro Tour, in GP & SCG Top 8's, and to 7-year-olds at FNM. Despite being described as "not funny" by his best friend and "the worst Magic player ever" by Twitch chat, he cheerfully decided to blend his lack of talents together to write funny articles about Magic.
