Long story short, I don’t think Elves is a contender for a Tier One in 100CS, period. It’s like Goobos, but in reverse. Where Gobbos has explosive synergy, it simply doesn;t need it. Elves most definitely THRIVES upon this synergy. Topdecking burn and cannon fodder men is different than mana producers and the like. I have long said GW is just more solid, albeit less in the synergy department.

What makes decks great in this format is cards that have an overall deck synergy, but can also stand alone. while a deck can’t be made entirely of cards like this, you can come pretty darn close. Elves works the opposite on this philosophy, making it prone to horrifically random draws, blank top decks, and fragile combo disrupted byt the one thing all decks pack: creature removal.

So if you play Elves, win fast!!!

If i was to build elves today i would aim heavily at the red decks, if you can’t find a way to have a hugely positive matchup there scrap it and find something that does. No point playing a deck that just top 8′s your likely to face red at least in the top8 so prepare for it (or play it with something to wreck the mirror match).

when i was playing alot. Not drastically different to today, but obviously their are some changes (like the RDW decks leaning more towards “repeatable” burn (creatures) now). The biggest difference is the comparitive paucity of forests in your average opponents list now, forestwalking was borderline broken at the time.

Remeber suggestions were only that, i put a ton of work into my later lists (first one was pretty bad) digging out random tech (bathe in light and elvish skysweeper are my favorites, but there were many others) to gain % points here and there.

The deck definately rewarded familiarity back then more so than any other deck i have ever played, theres alot of non obvious intereactions that should be considered when devising your gameplans on a turn by turn basis, this makes it a hard deck to just pick up and pilot and is also probably why most people complain that the decks massively inconsistant/weak etc.
If your just trying to throw out dudes fast as you can and beat face then your missing alot of the power that the elf synergies bring to the table.

I thought Oath of Ghouls would be better than Oversold Cemetery because you start getting your guys back almost immediately.

Senseis Divining Top- remember that enemy triads can play nine (!) fetch lands.

Birchlore Rangers- the fact that he needed a pal meant I was losing out on a nice attacker or he was standing around, wishing he had a friend to cook me a rainbow mana pie.

If I were to rebuild Elves!, I would look into GW with a lot of basics. The power of Black made the deck act very clunky.