Elspeth, My Knight-Errant

Elspeth, Knight-Errant is still slightly underrated when speaking about the planeswalkers and their power levels. Usually Jace, the Mind Sculptor sits atop, with Ajani Vengeant a close second. Elspeth is above Ajani Vengeant in my book, let’s look at some examples of why you should be playing her anytime you are playing white.

Planeswalkers are leading the pack in terms of card power in standard. And it’s pretty obvious that if you don’t have a planeswalker in your deck, you’re probably not winning as much as you want. All the top decks, except maybe Red Deck Wins (RDW) run planeswalkers. Let me let you readers in on a secret. There are very few flyers hovering the skies in standard right now. You have Baneslayer Angel, and… wait for it… Birds of Paradise! Think about the top decks, Conscription (BSA, Celestial Colonnade), Jund (maybe Broodmate Dragon, Sarkhan the Mad sort of has flying), Next Level Bant (Birds, Colonade), UW Control (BSA, Colonade). Besides the aforementioned decks, flying creatures eat removal or win the game, period. Evasion is so important in standard right now, the problem is the fantastic cards are all tied to the ground. Luckily my lady Elspeth is feeding our children Red Bull!

Elspeth is a supermom. For only 4 mana (and in the deck you should be playing her she’ll be on board turn 3) you get a near indestructible superwoman that wins games, period. I’ve been sticking with Naya builds for the last month, as I feel Naya is extremely underrated, in fact you can see my list in the decklists section! For a while I was splashing blue in my Naya for conscription because I could play with Bloodbraid Elf (the best card in standard) and get the power of conscription. However after some clunky hands I changed my mind, but the concept of swinging in for tons of damage with trample was what I was looking for. In comes Elspeth, she effectively does the same thing. She turns any creature into a threat, and turns your Bloodbraid Elf’s and Vengevine’s into lethal threats. Especially with Noble Hierarchon board. In fact Vengevine swings through Baneslayer Angel, because Elspeth has got it like that.

In standard right now you want haste, and I mean that in any form of it. Even planeswalkers have haste, basically any card that does something right here and now. Slower cards aren’t as good right now because of the control decks around (and Jund’s mass removal). Which is why Vengevine is so incredible at the moment. Elspeth allows you to play her the turn after you play a Vengevine, and if your Vengevine got through the prior turn, it’s going to get through for 7-8 this turn, leaving your opponent near lethal range for your next turn. Literally 3 turns of swinging with moderate sized creatures and you can win the game with Elspeth. Her +3/+3 flying ability is so unbelievably powerful I’d almost put Elspeth above Jace, the Mind Sculptor in terms of threatening power. Sure, go ahead and draw cards, you better hope there’s lots of removal in that brainstorm!

Against other agro decks she’s so hard to kill. She’ll just throw out chump blockers until you can outclass your opponents with other cards. In fact she basically has Gideon Jura’s +2 ability, because if they aren’t killing Elspeth your opponent is going to lose.

If these points haven’t settled in, or you don’t believe me, just take a look at some of the recent Mythic Conscription decks. Do you see 3 Elspeth? I do, and there’s a reason for that. Want to know that reason? She makes every crappy creature a threat, and wins games on her own! But I still think these decks have it wrong, the best and most fun I’ve been having beating my opponents is when they pulseElspeth (wasting their whole turn) only to have my next turn consist of tapping 4 mana for another Elspeth. And guess what? She has haste, so the opponent is probably taking a minimum of 4-5 damage and way behind on board presence now. How come I’m living in lala land where I always have an Elspeth in my hand? So why do these other decks have it wrong? Because they aren’t running 4 copies of her. I, and you, should always want her. Even if she just sits in your hand, because I don’t usually need to cast many more cards if Elspeth is sticking on the battlefield, at that point I’m winning. You can never have too many Elspeth.

However, enjoy her while you can she’s rotating out of standard. Therefore she won’t be around much longer, and this will be a sad day as I will have to find another answer to beating every single deck I’m playing against. Welcome to 60cards.com!