Eldritch Evolution is one of the most exciting cards to come out of Eldritch Moon for eternal formats. The comparison to Tinker may have been a little overzealous, but the card is certainly powerful, and has spawned multiple archetypes trying to utilize its ability to tutor for everything from Orzhov Pontiff to Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to Griselbrand. This week, Shaun McLaren has another exciting take on this new combo enabler:

Elf Evolution Combo ? Modern | Shaun McLaren

• Creatures (29)
• 4 Allosaurus Rider
• 4 Dwynen's Elite
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Elvish Visionary
• 4 Heritage Druid
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 1 Arbor Elf
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1 Griselbrand
• 1 Primeval Titan

• Spells (12)
• 4 Beck // Call
• 4 Eldritch Evolution
• 4 Summoner's Pact

• Lands (19)
• 3 Forest
• 4 Horizon Canopy
• 3 Misty Rainforest
• 3 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Dryad Arbor
• 1 Forbidden Orchard
• 1 Pendelhaven

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Dismember
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Essence Warden
• 1 Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1 Loaming Shaman
• 1 Obstinate Baloth
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1 Kataki, War's Wage
• 1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1 Temple Garden

Buy This Deck

One of the first things people identified as a "wombo combo" with Eldritch Evolution in Modern was Allosaurus Rider. This card lets you cheat right up the chain to Griselbrand, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Iona, Shield of Emeria. The problem is that decks that tried to utilize the combination were frequently vulnerable to even moderate amounts of disruption since they needed such a high density of very specific cards.

Shaun’s solution to this is to play the combo in a deck that can already just cast most of the tutor targets. Elves is a deck that is capable of generating truly absurd quantities of mana early on in the game. This is particularly true for versions like Shaun’s, which utilize the combination of Beck // Call and Forbidden Orchard to function as a pseudo Glimpse of Nature. This draw engine is a combo unto itself, but also helps you find Eldritch Evolution, Allosaurus Rider, and extra Green cards to exile. Needless to say, if you’re able to tutor up a Griselbrand or Craterhoof Behemoth, the game is all but over.

The interesting thing happens when you are unable to find all of the pieces. What does Eldritch Evolution do for you then? It turns out that in this deck, you can use it to turn Llanowar Elves into the likes of Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Elvish Archdruid. Additionally, you can increase the consistency of the Eldritch Evolution combo by ditching engine cards like Collected Company in favor of Summoner's Pact, which makes you more capable of finding combo pieces like Allosaurus Rider or payoff cards like Craterhoof Behemoth or Primeval Titan.

All told, this is an exciting hybrid of multiple combo engines, fusing together multiple takes on the Elves archetype in Modern. The combination of Beck // Call and Summoner's Pact is reasonably typical, but the ability to utilize Eldritch Evolution to end games out of nowhere by finding Griselbrand or Craterhoof Behemoth is not to be underestimated. As long as you can dodge errant Pyroclasms and Engineered Explosives, this seems like a fantastic place to be in the current Modern format.