However after it was banned in Block, Standard, Extended, and Legacy it has not seen much play. The two official formats it is still legal in are Vintage and Classic. It does see some Vintage play in Goblins, RG Beats, Fish, and DeezNoughts. The fact of the matter is that in Vintage it is a bit slow and there are few chances for your creatures to hit the graveyard if +1/-1 doesn't get them there.
Classic on the other hand is another matter. Most of the top Classic decks rely on creatures and Skullclamp can be very relevant. Skullclamp is a fine addition to most aggressive decks and is amazing in decks like Affinity or Goblins. However Skullclamp is not an amazing card, it is a broken card and I intend to break it.
One archtype that has shown up recently in Classic is BG ElfClamp. The deck runs plenty of mana elves along with Essence Warden as clamp targets. This is backed up with Tarmogoyf and discard for the win.
Under the Hammer's BG Elfclamp
Sideboard
| 2 | Caller of the Claw |
| 1 | Eternal Witness |
| 4 | Leyline of the Void |
| 1 | Putrefy |
| 4 | Tormod's Crypt |
| 3 | Krosan Grip |
Essence Warden was partly in the deck because of Flash. The previous Flash kill (Disciple of the Vault & X cost artifact creatures) could not kill an opponent with an Essence Warden out. This anti-flash tech has become outdated with the addition of Morningtide. The Reveliark kill couldn't care less about Essence Warden as Mogg Fanatic will just shoot it (a good reason not to run Bile Urchin over Fanatic.)
Morningtide however gave the deck a huge boost in the form of Bitterblossom. This two mana enchantment spits out 1/1s and seems almost custom-made for Skullclamp shenanigans. Bitterblossom works very well with Essence Warden, you break even on life with one Warden and can even gain life off two. Taking this into account I set about building a new Elfclamp deck.
Auto-Includes:
4 Skullclamp
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Bitterblossom
4 Essence Warden
4 Cabal Therapy
This is 21 slots leaving us with 39 spaces to fill. I'll start off with a bit more discard to improve your chances versus combo and control:
3 Thoughtseize
2 Hymn to Tourach
I'll only going with two Hymns for now as I don't think this deck wants 11 or 12 discard spells. Next up I need to decide on the other one drops. Birds of Paradise will be best for the mana base but don't work with Pendelhaven or Gilt-Leaf Palace. Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves are the exact same so if I run them it will be a split of the two to avoid getting 2 for 1'd on Cabal Therapy. Elves of the Deep Shadow are nice if I need black mana on turn two for a Cabal Therapy or other spell. For now I think I want 8 mana elves so I'll go with a 3/3/2 split of the elves.
3 Llanowar Elves
3 Fyndhorn Elves
2 Elves of the Deep Shadow
We're up to 34 cards leaving 26 spots, almost all of which will be land. Right now we have 16 creatures plus the Bitterblossoms, 11 discard spells, and the Clamps and Vamp Tutor. Eternal Witness can provide the deck with a backup card advantage plan to the Skullclamps and retrieve one that has been destroyed. Two Witnesses will round out the creature base. Aside from Tarmogoyf all the creatures in the deck are small Umezawa's Jitte has proven to be effective in this type of deck to create pressure, the lifegain is also welcome versus burn decks and your won Bitterblossoms.
2 Eternal Witness
2 Umezawa's Jitte
22 slots are left, time to figure out how many lands the deck wants.
1 drops - 24
2 drops - 12
3 drops - 2
This is a pretty low curve and features 8 mana elves. However if the deck is operating how you want it to it can be surprisingly mana hungry, not to mention the mana elves die. Running 22 lands would allow this deck to have two Pendelhavens along with a set of Mishra's Factories. The deck has 12 elves making Gilt-Leaf Palace a bit of a stretch. Oh Eternal Witness, why are you a Human Shaman? One option is to run only one Pendlehaven and to run a Nameless Inversion. Nameless Inversion is not a great card in Classic but it does two things, first it ups our Elf count, second it pumps our goyfs. While it can't kill opposing goyfs it kills almost every other creature in the format including Dark Confidant which can be a problem for these decks. Vampiric Tutor also allows us to find our singleton removal spell. It should also be mentioned that a well-timed Nameless Inversion can win the game by pumping Tarmogoyf up by +4/-2.
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Pendelhaven
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
2 Forest
1 Swamp
So the decklist (finally)
iceage ElfClamp
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Nameless Inversion
2 Eternal Witness
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Hymn to Tourach
2 Elves of the Deep Shadow
3 Thoughtseize
3 Llanowar Elves
3 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Skullclamp
4 Essence Warden
4 Bitterblossom
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Pendelhaven
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Windswept Heath
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Overgrown Tomb
There you have it, not sure exactly what the sideboard needs so I'll go with some staple GB sideboard cards for now:
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Krosan Grip
3 Extirpate
3 Seeds of Innocence
2 Spike Feeder (Kitchen Finks once we have Shadowmoor online)
I'll be testing this deck and will post again with results and changes.
