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Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Elves GW (Selesnya) Primer

shadowmage

Land (30)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bountiful Promenade
• 1x Brushland
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 8x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Plains
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Savannah
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Wooded Bastion
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Recursion (6)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x False Mourning
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Reclaim
• 1x Road of Return
• 1x Salvage

Haste enabler (3)

• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Inf mana B (2)

• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Umbral Mantle

Inf untap combo (2)

• 1x Illusionist's Bracers
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak

Utility (2)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Temur Sabertooth

Ramp (12)

• 1x Avacyn's Pilgrim
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Sol Ring

Removal (8)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Untapper (6)

• 1x Burst of Strength
• 1x Emerald Charm
• 1x Mobilize
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Stony Strength
• 1x Vitalize

Heliod combo (2)

• 1x Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 1x Walking Ballista

Inf mana A (2)

• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Vizier of Remedies

Stax (2)

• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Containment Priest

Commander (1)

Tutor (10)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Draw (5)

• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Sylvan Library

Protection (5)

• 1x Angel's Grace
• 1x Blossoming Defense
• 1x Ranger-Captain of Eos
• 1x Silence
• 1x Veil of Summer

Untap combo (2)

• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote

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Maybeboard

Other (5)

• 1x Altar of Bone
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Destiny Spinner
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Hall of Gemstone

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Do you like to draw cards?

Selvala, Explorer returned Combo cEDH Primer

Who Needs the Stack anyway?

The first thing that you must learn about Selvala is, she doesn't use the stack. Ever. Her ability is a mana ability, meaning it doesn't use the stack and it also cannot be responded to! Once you tap to parley, everyone immediately must do so. You first receive the mana as well, which can be used to play the card that you draw. Since the mana and draw are all tied to the same mana ability, you cannot do anything in between these things happening. From the gatherer :

• Selvala’s parley ability is a mana ability. It doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to. (2014-05-29)

How Does Selvala win?

There are several ways to win with this deck, almost all of which involve first generating infinite mana. In this deck, we have a few different ways to achieve infinite mana. Here are the three main ways to win in order of strength and viability :

1. drawing opponents to death
2. infinite Walking Ballista or heliod walking ballista
3. Aetherflux Reservoir activations
4. infinitely large hasty elves

Our main tool to get there is going to be Umbral Mantle which happens to be one of the best cards in the deck. We love this card so much that we have multiple different ways to tutor it up!

Drawing people out to death -

Drawing people out to death

We can win with Selvala by making our opponents draw a card when their library is empty. With Selvala and Umbral Mantle in play, and infinite green mana, we can now transfer the umbral mantle to selvala and proceed to draw everyone out. First, the rules ...

Here is the ruling from gatherer regarding counting cards in a player's library :

• 401. Library

• [...]

• 401.3. Any player may count the number of cards remaining in any player’s library at any time.

Here's how to win by drawing players out:

1. generate infinite mana using one of our methods outlined in the section below
2. equip umbral mantle to selvala. this is the last chance an opponent has to disrupt us.
3. tap selvala , parley. add mana ( inconsequential now because we have infinite ) , gain life and then everyone draws a card.
4. pay 3 and untap selvala with umbral mantles ability, however HOLD PRIORITY. do not let the +2/+2 umbral mantle resolve. Let that sit on the stack as we never need to resolve that. This is important because the untapping of selvala is PART OF THE COST of umbral mantle, not part of the resolved ability. Because of this, we can now tap selvala again to parley without using the stack, and add another untap afterwards. We can do this uninterrupted while holding priority.

From here, we can choose one of two different ways to finish this combo..

1. As long as you have at least one card more than all opponents you will make them draw out and die to state based effects. When the game checks state based actions your opponents who have drawn a card without one in their library will die. Again, this is powerful because it cannot be stopped and cannot be responded to.

2. Alternatively, if you don't have more cards in your library than each opponent, instead draw your entire library and while still maintaining priority cast Angel's Grace. Since Angel's Grace has split second your opponents can not respond to it and when it resolves you will be able to win. Now without the ability to die from drawing out yourself, you can proceed to continue to use Selvala until your opponents draw to death.

-

Here's the ruling on dying to state based actions from drawing :

• 704.5. The state-based actions are as follows:

• [...]

• 704.5b If a player attempted to draw a card from an empty library since the last time state-based actions were checked, he or she loses the game.

• 704.3. Whenever a player would get priority (see rule 115, “Timing and Priority”), the game checks for any of the listed conditions for state-based actions, then performs all applicable state-based actions simultaneously as a single event. If any state-based actions are performed as a result of a check, the check is repeated; otherwise all triggered abilities that are waiting to be put on the stack are put on the stack, then the check is repeated. Once no more state-based actions have been performed as the result of a check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, the appropriate player gets priority. This process also occurs during the cleanup step (see rule 514), except that if no state-based actions are performed as the result of the step’s first check and no triggered abilities are waiting to be put on the stack, then no player gets priority and the step ends.

Alternative Wins

If you cannot win with Selvala's main drawing combo, there are two alternative ways to win!

Heliod and Walking Ballista Win

Heliod and Walking Ballista Win

Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista

1. Have Heliod, Sun-Crowned in play
2. cast Walking Ballista for at minimum x=2 (4 mana total) to put two counters on it
3. use heliods ability targeting the ballista to give it lifelink until end of turn
4. whenever you remove a counter and ping a player, heliod will add another +1 counter back to ballista
5. repeat for infinite damage and life to each opponent

Look out for things like Cursed Totem that will stop the combo

Aetherflux Reservoir Win

Aetherflux Reservoir Win

Since we gain so much life with Selvala ability, it’s quite easy to shoot people with the reservoir. We often have turns of playing multiple spells in a row as well, allowing us to win even without Selvala at all.

Infinitely Large Hasty Elves

Infinitely Large Hasty Elves

This is a real last resort as we don't have many ways to get through blockers even with infinitely large creatures, so you may need to use other cards to clear away blockers or systematically kill opponents when you can. While not necessary depending on the board state, having a Concordant Crossroads in play will enable your whole board to attack with haste if you are trying to play this out in one turn.

1. generate infinite mana using one of the methods mentioned below
2. cast umbral mantle, and equip it to each mana producing creature you control, tapping them for mana (just to get them tapped) and then untapping them to get +2/+2 until they are infinitely large.
3. you can use staff of domination to tap non-mana producing creatures to be able to perform the same power+toughness altering combo. If you have the staff you can also proceed to tap any opponents creatures that are targetable
4. attack your opponents and win
5. Alternatively, with infinite mana and Mirror Entity in play, we can just pay into the mirror entitys ability to make all our creatures infinitely large.
6. If you have Finale of Devastation you can dump the infinite mana into that and make an arbitrarily large board as well.

Generating Infinite Mana

Best Ways

Best ways:

• Marwyn, the Nurturer + Umbral Mantle - this is our go to combo.

• Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies - this will make infinite green mana

Backup Ways

Backup ways:

• Priest of Titania + Umbral Mantle + at least 3 other elves. Luckily, Selvala herself is an elf, so with her and priest we then only need two more elves out for this to happen.

Seeker of Skybreak combo

Illusionist's Bracers + Seeker of Skybreak combo

1. Have Seeker of Skybreak in play equipped with Illusionist's Bracers and either a mana dork or Selvala.

2. Use the seekers ability. It will double, allowing you to untap itself and the target creature

3. Repeat step 2 , on a mana dork you will generate infinite mana and on Selvala you will get infinite untaps, great for setting up the Angel's Grace win!

Mirror Entity Combos

Luck Mode - Untap till you run out of mana

Mirror Entity + Wirewood Symbiote + Selvala, Explorer Returned

1. tap selvala to generate at least 2 mana, float the rest (2 mana left)
2. use one of the generated mana to pay for the mirror entity ability making the symbiote an elf (1 mana left)
3. return the symbiote to your hand with its own ability to untap selvala
4. recast the symbiote (0 mana left)
5. repeat steps 1-4, generating mana and drawing cards until you run out of mana or draw into more combo cards to win
6. If you have Aetherflux Reservoir in play this is also a good way to generate spell casts to go off.

Mana Mode - Infinite Mana. This requires a mana dork that can tap for 3+ mana.

1. Use the mirror entity to make wirewood symbiote an elf
2. tap your elf for 3+ mana. (3 mana left)
3. return wirewood symbiote to your hand now that its an elf to untap your mana elf. Recast the symbiote (2 mana left)
4. use the mirror entity again to transform the symbiote into an elf again ( net 1 mana )
5. repeat steps 1-4 for infinite mana
6. If you want you can use the mirror entity to win by now making all your creatures infinitely large and attacking

Card Choices and Descriptions

Lands

Lands

We're running every fetchland that can get white or green to help thin the deck and get the right colors, a couple duals and the rest are basics because Back to Basics and Blood Moon could ruin you otherwise.

Homeward Path : Probably the best land in the deck. People are going to steal Selvala and we need to get her back in action.

Gaea's Cradle : when you need a even more mana and have a bunch of creatures in play this will for sure ramp you hard. This card can single-handedly stop a tabernacle from ruining your day as well

Protection

Protection

Since we don't have access to actual counterspells, we must use the best tools at our disposal to rectify this. These protection spells can help "counter" removal and other things that could hinder our gameplan.

Angel's Grace - stop an opponents Thassa's Oracle from winning the game, protect yourself during a combo to enable the ability to draw opponents out to death.

Destiny Spinner - for the low cost of two mana it prevents our creatures and enchantments from getting countered. Its a creature also so we can easily tutor it up.

Ranger-Captain of Eos lets us turn off opponents during our combo turns. Just sac him before you combo off. As a bonus his ETB allows us to tutor up a Walking Ballista or a Wirewood Symbiote

Veil of Summer draws a card, stops opponents from countering our spells and gives us protection from blue and black!! sign me up

Blossoming Defense - one mana, hexproof and +2/+2 to any creature. Can be used to dodge Toxic Deluge or any targeted removal spell.

Silence is a multifaceted card that can either turn off an opponents turn, essentially time walking them, or it can be played at the beginning of your turn, allowing you to combo off uninterrupted.

Grand Abolisher serves a similar role, allowing you to take actions during your turn uninterrupted. This is extremely strong against

Haste Enabler

These cards allow a certain "explosiveness" to the deck especially when we are able to drop multiple cards a turn, such as playing a combo ramp creature and an umbral mantle, then granting it haste and winning on the spot. Protecting your creatures with the equipments is also quite strong and saves mana from using instants to protect them.

Lightning Greaves : easily tutorable with one of our 4 equipment tutors, and with its zero equip ability it can move around the board to allow freshly played creatures to tap for their abilities, and can protect selvala if you arent comboing off and shes in play.

Concordant Crossroads : I cannot stress enough to NOT play this card unless you are going to combo off. It could potentially lose you the game, or it could just cause a lot of chaos. Either way something interesting will happen! On our combo turn, this card is INSANE and just allows you to keep playing cards and use them immediately.

Thousand-Year Elixir : essentially a concordant crossroads but just for you, you just cant use it to grant creatures attacking-haste. The untap ability on it also pairs quite nicely with selvala herself!

Utility

Utility

When we need to think outside the box!

Noxious Revival : get any card back on top of your library for only 2 life. as an additional bonus we can use it to mess up opponents top decks by placing a land on top or in response to a lab-man type win effect to prevent them from winning.

road to return : get back any permanent card from the graveyard or return selvala to hand to play for 3 mana after it gets countered a bunch of times.

Eternal Witness : regrowth with a 2/2 body stapled to it, for blocking purposes or attacking when we go infinite. Can be put directly into play with Chord of Calling

Walking Ballista : sure, we can just win the game with this and infinite mana, however this versatile card has more uses. Since its a creature it can get around many different stax effects and allow us to shoot them down, such as an opposing Gaddock Teeg , Aven Mindcensor or Lavinia, Azorius Renegade that is preventing us from comboing off. One card combo with Heliod, Sun-Crowned.

Ramp

Ramp

One drop mana accelerator creatures are basically just the best ramp spells in this deck.

Carpet of Flowers : allows us to generate a great deal of mana when playing against blue based decks especially all the mono blue decks running around now

Birds of Paradise : it makes green or white, and can block flyers. Aside from that its not very good in this deck since it doesnt count as an elf but we need every one drop creature to accelerate. The bird can also randomly kill someone via flying when we go infinite.

Avacyn's Pilgrim : not as good as the bird, but its just another one drop accelerator and helps get into white mana from a green mana only hand.

Llanowar Elves , Fyndhorn Elves , Elvish Mystic : our bread and butter accelerators, they are all one drop elves and make mana. enough said.

Priest of Titania taps for a green for each elf in play, and since selvala herself is an elf will generally always tap for 2 mana at least. Can be used in a pinch to go off with Umbral Mantle with enough elves in play.

Mox Diamond , Chrome Mox : these let us have broken first turns dropping 2+ mana spells , or potentially playing selvala on turn one ( which can backfire, be very careful )

Mana Crypt , Mana Vault , Sol Ring : not the best ramp since they don't make colors, however they accelerate us into higher cost cards earlier and can also help pay commander tax if selvala gets killed, and thus must be played.

Talisman of Unity : amazing mana rock that can help convert our colorless rocks into colors, or we can drop these after going off to get the one more white mana we need to cast Angel's Grace

Draw

Draw

We only have three draw spells because Selvala usually acts as our main draw engine, however these are three of the best draw spells in the whole game!

Sensei's Divining Top lets us peek at whats coming up next, and potentially draw into the right card that we need.

Staff of Domination is an insane advantage engine that can be used to grind out opponents over time with card advantage, or by tapping their blockers. We can use it with infinite mana to draw our whole library and gain infinite life!

Sylvan Library is an incredible source of draw and one of the best cards in the deck. In this deck it basically just says "draw 2 extra cards every turn". Since Selvala and Staff can both gain us an incredible amount of life and we can combo out from nowhere we don't really care about losing 8 life per turn. If you can get this down on turn one, you are in for a very fast game.

Skullclamp : since we run a large amount of 1 toughness creatures the clamp can get us those few extra cards we need and later game when there is plenty of resources we can just wipe out all our mana dorks in exchange for new cards.

Untapper

Untapper

These cards allow us to "go off" early with selvala. Essentially, if we can tap selvala twice, we are going to get at least 2-4 mana at minimum, the max being 8 mana in a 4 player game, minus the cost of the untapper card. Between the two extra cards and the extra mana many times this is all we need to gain an advantage and combo off. The cheaper these effects the better so I've only included the instant and the cheapest ones at that. We can use them

Mobilize : untap all our creatures for one green mana. whats not to love? easy to cast off a selvala activation.

Vitalize : untap all our creatures at instant speed for one mana. Yea this card is nuts. Get repeat mana from your whole board and ramp up!

Seedborn Muse : can get us out from under a stax lock and also lets us keep mana open during opponents turns for answers and extra selvala activations.

Seeker of Skybreak : a repeatable untap effect on an elf. a bit slower than others but it sticks around and can be abused also by things like Wirewood Symbiote

Removal

Removal

Reclamation Sage follows a similar role, and with its ETB ability it can also go off just by coming into play. As an aside it is also adding to our elf count for both priest and archdruid.

Nature's Claim is our standard fare super cheap catch all for sniping early mana rocks or nasty stax pieces and is especially useful on an opponents end of turn step since its so cheap. The lifegain they get does not matter.

Caustic Caterpillar - go to enchantment/artifact removal when rec sage is stopped by Torpor Orb type effects. easily tutored up.

Force of Vigor a free removal spell that can snipe two problem cards such as two stax pieces that are preventing us from comboing off like Cursed Totem or Rule of Law.

Beast Within and the new color shifted Generous Gift are great all around instant speed removal for any permanent. Since we often generate a ton of mana the cost isnt that big of a deal for the fact that we can remove any problem card on the board.

Path to Exile , Swords to Plowshares are our requisite creature removal spells, which are pretty self explanatory. Get rid of your opponents general or their creature which is preventing you from comboing out.

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This deck is always under construction! Stay tuned for more updates and additions to the primer.

Top Ranked	Achieved #4 position overall 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Combo 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Competitive 5 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Elves 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies Illusionist's Bracers + Seeker of Skybreak Priest of Titania + Umbral Mantle Mirror Entity + Wirewood Symbiote Marwyn, the Nurturer + Umbral Mantle Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 37 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.76
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elephant 3/3 G
Folders	Cool decks, Competitive EDH, Currently Brewing, Saved decks, Tacos, Other People's Stuff, cEDH_Resources, Other Peoples Decks, Cedh, Inspiration