TBUpdated~

OVERVIEW

The deck tries to develop mana and card advantage until we can cast Orb followed by [[Craterize]] for double site destruction and 17 damage (we have about 8 turns to deal 3 damage to our opponent ;). Next turn, [[Ruler of Thul]] and some friends backdoor our opponent!

Update#2: We were weak to aggro decks but the new anti-creature shell ensures we can dispatch any creature efficiently (3 [[Common Sense]] means we can tutor for any Ordinary removal on turn 2). Improved board control in the form of maindeck [[Root Spider]] means we can render additional lands a nightmare to traverse (on top of [[Free City]] and [[Gnome Hollows]]). All we have to do is buy time until we have 5 mana to drop an [[Earthquake]] or [[Atlantean Fate]] to breathe again and keep our site development going.

MANA ROCKS

Playing the full set of mana rocks means we have 33.75% odds to have one in our opening hand, which is quite important given we only run a few low-impact 2-drops, and we want to rather T1 core to T2 cc3 into card drawing. We have a 20.33% likelihood of doing so on the play and about 29% on the draw.

CARD DRAW ENGINES

Cantripping minions: [[Apprentice Wizard]] to dig and [[Land Surveyor]] to ensure we do not have to draw sites but rather dig for spells.
Drawing bombs: [[Grandmaster Wizard]] and [[Pact with the Devil]], which is fairly easy to connect with 7 casters in the deck.
Vulgar displays of advantage: [[Pact with the Devil]] with Orb in play and/or sacrificing GMW on [[The Geistwood]].

ATLAS STRATEGY

Playing the best bombs for each element is only half of the reasons we play [[Elementalist]]. The other half is that, since most of our spells require only 1 (hence 0) or 2 (hence 1) elemental thresholds, we can afford to play a wealth of colorless utility lands. These are instrumental in gaining much needed tempo advantage without having to sacrifice spells.

[[The Geistwood]] allows us to trigger our Genesis abilities once more after our minion die. Great starting site where you want to play all your card draw engines.
[[Crossroads]] is quite good to fix our threshold if needed or to search for silver bullets.
[[Pillar of Zeiros]] slows down Deathspeaker and provides much needed life gain against more aggressive decks
[[Mirror Realm]] because Vesuva is just too good.
[[Free City]] is probably my favorite site in this deck, gaining tons of tempo against aggro decks. Free City is great as a starting site against Deathspeaker to avoid being abused by Vile Imps summoned to your face, and in general against Voidwalk Battlemage as it takes care of both [[Spectral Stalker]] and [[Phase Assassin]]. Otherwise, you want to playt in front of your starting site it to block the opponent's advance.
[[Gnome Hollows]] serves a similar function as Free City, but it is most effective at blocking a Battlemage's Grappling Hook ~ the Battlemage will not be able to enter the location ;). Works fine against any other big minion, and let's pass through all of our minions but [[Death Dealer]] and [[Ruler of Thul]].
In the sideboard we also have [[Dome of Osiros]] and [[Sinkhole]] against more aggressive decks and when we need land destruction.

DEVELOPING THE MID-GAME BEFORE COMBOING OFF

Early game

The early game setup is crucial - you want to develop your mana and board presence while drawing cards. Mana rocks and cantripping minions ([[Land Surveyor]], [[Apprentice Wizard]]), land development in the form of [[Frontier Settlers]] as well as some board defense in terms of [[Root Spider]] is what you are playing at this stage, with the intent of hitting your mid-game developmental cards. Site-wise, at this stage you do not need any thresholds from sites, which allows you to play board control sites ([[Free City]], [[Gnome Hollows]], [[Dome of Osiros]]) in the second central slot (else, develop sideways and try to not connect with the opponent for as long as you can).

Mid game

On T4/T5, provided you landed a core in the first three turns, it is time to scale up the card drawing operations. [[Grand Master Wizard]] and [[Pact with the Devil]] is what you are looking for at this stage. You will also likely have to deal with some threats developing on the board: [[Earthquake]] and [[Atlantean Fate]] do that.

Closing the game

You need your opponent on 17 (make sure you manage to deal 1 damage with a small minion, the 2 remaining damage can be easily achieved by moving [[Root Spider]] around and surfacing on an empty site) one site in your hand, a [[Craterize]], and Orb in play. Pulverize your opponent's dreams with 17 damage in the face plus double land destruction and minion obliteration. Next turn, depending on positioning, your choice of [[Common sense]] into [[Heat Ray]] or [[Ruler of Thul]] for a Flat Earth Edge Swing (TM).

NOTABLE EXCLUSIONS

The deck seems vulnerable to [[Avatar of Earth]] so the notable change is that we forsake the very funny yet statistically unreliable Plague of Frogs on Standing Stones + Occult ritual Combo, freeing up 2 spells and 2 atlases, and lowering the ridiculous water threshold that Plague of Frogs commands.

In their place, we have more AoE control spells in [[Poison nova]] and [[Earthquake]] (which also buries opponent artefacts), plus a [[Heat Ray]] we can tutor with [[Common Sense]] as an alternative finisher after we [[Craterize]] the very soul of our opponent.

A previous version was playing [[Abundance]] and [[Immortal Throne]], which are cute cards but we need more crowd control to be able not to die to aggro decks.

Enjoy! :)

Elementalist Grapple

@Morgoth