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Tribal decks in Modern have seen their fair share of popularity for the past couple years. Eldrazi, and more recently Humans, have been roaming free—by far the most popular tribes. Elves is an archetype that has been around for quite a while, but has never been able to reach the same popularity. After the printing of Collected Company, people became a lot more interested in the archetype, but consistent and frequent results never came.
Enter the Devoted Druid combo. People became enthralled with it when Vizier of Remedies was printed, and they were putting it in everything, including Elves. This gave the deck some additional attention, and drew more players to the archetype. It put up results here and there, but still never became a powerhouse of the format. Devoted Druid became a mainstay, but more frequently seen via a dedicated Company deck, Counters Company.
More recently, Modern has been shaken up in a way that you are most definitely aware of: the unbanning of Bloodbraid Elf and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Interestingly enough, most people did not think of Elves first when deciding where to play Bloodbraid despite uh, you know... it being an Elf. Elves is not usually a red deck; generally you see a light white splash, and maybe a light black splash. In addition, when people think Bloodbraid, they think of decks like Jund. Some instead may think of aggressive Naya-style decks. Most decks in that realm have turned to Company in the past as Elves has done.
This past weekend Andrew Richardson asked, 'Why not both?' as he piloted a Jund Elves deck to a 25th Place finish at GP Phoenix. I had seen other content creators trying similar decks after the unbanning, but this is the first notable result I had seen, so it regained my attention. The list has the small black splash that others have used in the past for both Shaman of the Pack and some sideboard action. Additionally 4 Bloodbraid were present, alongside 2 Lead the Stampede—and not a Chord of Calling to be found.
If you were hellbent on playing Elves in the past few weeks, this was the way to do it. The format has been flooded with midrange and control decks since the unbannings—decks interested largely in killing everything the Elves player plays. With the package of 2 Lead, 4 Bloodbraid, and 4 Company, this list is really well set up to try and slog through these matchups—much better suited than its Vizier Counterpart. That said, if you find yourself wanting to play Elves and expecting a linear meta, this is not the way to go. On average it's going to be a bit slower without the Vizier combo, and that can hurt you in the combo matches where all you need is speed. This list can still achieve turn-three kills, but they will occur far less frequently.
My results have been nothing special with the deck so far, but my sample size is pretty small. Only a pair of leagues before this one, both ending in 3-2s. I think the archetype has legs, but I certainly don't think it will become a Modern powerhouse. Humans and Eldrazi will remain far more popular without some major changes. That said, at this point in time Elves may be more popular than Merfolk, so at least Ezuri, Renegade Leader and crew can pat themselves on the back for that one.
I hope you enjoy the matches and, as usual, I'm interested to hear what kind of content you'd like to see moving forward, so I can continue to evolve and improve my videos. Please let me know your thoughts, and any improvements you would like to see concerning formatting, presentation, or whatever else strikes your fancy. If you'd like to see similar content, check out my Twitch channel for some more live Modern!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL261kJ_cAQC-G-VCPJEHoB5MZLTj5fMp-]
There is considerable stratification in the data. Burn is the most represented deck by a large margin, boasting 28 copies to Jund's 22. There is another steep drop from Jund down to BR Hollow One and Humans at 16. The next drop is by three, down to Mono-Green Tron, after which the line smooths out. The fact that Hollow One, Burn, and Tron were popular is very interesting. All are considered to have favorable matchups against Jund, which is the second most popular deck. Whether this actually means anything is hard to say. Player tend to play their decks regardless of metagame, and this could easily be a prime example of that phenomenon. It could just as easily metagaming.
The one Elves deck in the Top 32 
There are nine decks that have Jace, the Mind Sculptor in the Top 32. Yes, most only have two copies, and Taking Turns only has one, but Jace is there nevertheless. Meanwhile, there are five decks with Bloodbraid Elf, and it is a four-of in every case.
At one point, Affinity was everywhere, both on the wider metagame stage and in my LGS. However, we didn't see a single copy 
Burn put the most copies into Day 2 and not a single member into the Top 32. That is a huge flop. This is the same thing that happened in Dallas, and I'm not sure why. The metagame certainly doesn't look unfavorable and I don't see many anti-burn cards anywhere. Burn is a fine deck and powerful in its own right, but it thrives against greedy manabases and durdly decks as a predator. I see plenty of decks that fit that description, so I think that there may be a problem with Burn. Two consecutive tournaments where Burn had a good population in Day 2 and failed to turn that into a good Top 32 suggests that the deck lacks the power necessary to close the tournament. Burn can be fragile in the face of the right interaction at the right time. This is something else to watch, as if this keeps happening it will be necessary to rebuild the deck.
As with the Dallas Classic, Humans took the top slot. It also won the Grand Prix. Admittedly, Steve Locke did get very lucky in the finals when his opponent got mana screwed and unfavorable Dark Confidant triggers. However, that doesn't diminish the work he did to get to that point, nor the success the deck had in the overall tournament. I would not have expected Humans to do well; the Jund matchup is not great, and neither is Affinity. Yet it got there nonetheless, and with fairly standard lists as far as I can tell.
I believe that players are picking up on the 
Azami certainly has her problems, chief among them costing five mana. Each time I tried a Wizards shell, I found it much better to include a powerful, on-theme non-Wizard or two over the clunky 0/2. So I benched the project indefinitely.
Bedlam Reveler joins Snapcaster Mage as a way to recoup card advantage against attrition decks (especially Jund). It attacks from an angle that requires opponents to bring in graveyard hate, which incidentally does little against our post-board plan of Precognition Field. If we see Rest in Peace and the like coming after a Bedlam-fueled victory, we can easily sidestep the hate with our board plan, gaining virtual card advantage and tempo in the process. It turns out Snapcaster Mage is totally reasonable as a 2/1 Wizard with flash in this deck, ability or no; it lets us generate pressure or present a hard counterspell out of nowhere.
Naturally, we max out on Dominaria's new Wizard spells, which inspired this deck in the first place. I was worried the full set of Retort would prove too much, but it turns out Counterspell is pretty darn good. With even a minor clock established, it's easy to buy time with Retort and Snapcaster Mage for a couple turns until we can cleanly burn opponents out.
Field is a "fixed" Future Sight in that it only lets pilots cast instants and sorceries from the tops of their libraries. But in a deck full of instants and sorceries, the restriction is trivial. Manamorphose and Opt let us filter through our decks blazing-fast, but the strongest enabler is Serum Visions. Seeing three cards is great with Field, as it puts useless lands and creatures to the bottom while usually "drawing" us a card or two in the process. Of course, Lightning Bolt and Wizard's Lightning are the actual best cards to pair with Precognition Field, as they single-handedly turn the enchantment into a win condition. Whenever we see either of these cards on the deck, we can simply point them at opponents and continue digging.
As far as boarding strategy with this deck, I have found it ideal to keep cheap threats in against linear decks like Burn, removing card advantage engines like Bedlam Reveler for more interaction. Fair decks tend to bring in lots of removal against us, so siding out Delver for Fields is a winning strategy there. The only way for decks like Jund to beat Field is to Maelstrom Pulse it or just go under us.
Birds ramps us into Field itself, which I found was important for a pre-board plan revolving around the card. Otherwise, we need a ton of interaction to not just get rolled by aggro decks. It's also a high-priority removal target on turn one, drawing Fatal Pushes away from Tarmogoyf and Bolts away from Young Pyromancer. Goyf easily grows to 5/6 in this deck since we can Loot away extra fields, and Pyromancer spirals out of control fast both with Field and with good ol' Manamorphose.
I really wanted to build a Precognition Field deck with Traverse the Ulvenwald. Without delirium, the card casts off the top for a basic, letting us immediately cast whatever instant remains or get a shuffle. And with, it gives us a way to functionally cast creatures off the Field.
More Pyromancers give us a plan against graveyard hate, and the counterspells let us beat spell-based combo and Tron. Field isn't necessarily dead in these matchups since we can push it out a turn early; having one in play lets us set up permission off the top of the deck with Serum Visions, for example, or otherwise just draw into what we need.
While Fatal Push is dead on some boards, Collective Brutality and Faithless Looting ensure we can use the cards in our hand for something. Similarly, we have no trouble maxing out on Precognition Field.
