"Ezuri's Infantry" is a budget build of combo Elves. This deck is still under construction, and I welcome any feedback.
The deck uses the typical Elves ramp package with Heritage Druid and several mana dorks to accelerate out a wide army of creatures. Having a Leaf-Crowned Visionary in play allows you to churn through a good portion of your deck in a single turn to get ahead on board. Then Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Elvish Warmaster administers a hearty dose of Super Soldier serum and sends in the team for the kill. Fauna Shaman is the recruiter, tutoring for finishers where appropriate.
Card Choices
Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves: These guys are crucial to early-game mana acceleration before Heritage Druid comes online. They also provide 6 bodies for Heritage to start functioning consistently by turn 2.
Heritage Druid, Birchlore Rangers: These cards require the most support out of all the cards in the deck, but having a Nettle Sentinel and/or Beast Whisperer in play alongside them allows you to dump a good portion of your deck onto the battlefield. Heritage Druid is obviously the stronger of the two, but Birchlore Rangers can produce black mana for sideboard cards or Shaman of the Pack.
Nettle Sentinel: An overstatted 1-drop pseudo-vigilance creature that works especially well with Heritage Druid. I love this card because it is equally strong on both the low-to-the-ground aggro plan and in dump-your-hand combo lines.
Elvish Visionary: Simply a good value card that gives you a body and replaces itself.
Wirewood Symbiote: I could write a lot about this card; it can serve many different purposes at different stages of the game. It can untap any of the 1-drop mana dorks for additional ramp, bounce Elvish Visionary to replay it for value, bounce an elf to protect it in combat or from a Lightning Bolt, provide a card to discard to Fauna Shaman, and so on.
Quirion Ranger: Performs a similar function as Wirewood Symbiote, but doesn't have quite as much versatility in this build. I still have two copies for consistent access to the "untap a creature" effect.
Elvish Archdruid: I only have two copies of this card as it is a bit slow and requires an established board presence to work, but once it is online it enables some ridiculous lines. In an ideal world, this produces a ton of mana with the help of Quirion Ranger and/or Wirewood Symbiote, which you can then funnel into multiple activations of Elvish Warmaster or Ezuri, Renegade Leader. This guarantees a win in most cases.
Leaf-Crowned Visionary: Similar to Elvish Archdruid in the sense that it can be extremely potent while in play but requires a few other pieces to really go off. At worst it is a 2-mana lord, and at best it is Glimpse of Nature on a body that can quickly churn through a large portion of your deck.
Elvish Warmaster: This is a card that I really feel ties the deck together in some respects. It helps develop the board by spawning bodies turn after turn. It is also great for combo lines as it fuels Heritage Druid and has a built-in payoff for big mana production. Consider this dream scenario:
Hand: 2x Forest, 1x Elvish Mystic, 1x Heritage Druid, 1x Quirion Ranger, 1x Elvish Warmaster, 1x Elvish Archdruid
Turn 1: Forest, Elvish Mystic
Turn 2: Forest, Elvish Warmaster, tap Elvish Mystic for Heritage Druid
Heritage Druid triggers Elvish Warmaster and spawns a body. There are now 3 untapped elves in play to start doing things with Heritage Druid.
Tap 3 elves for GGG and play Quirion Ranger. Untap Elvish Mystic with Quirion Ranger and tap it again for G. Play Elvish Archdruid.
Turn 3: Replay the second Forest and tap both for GG. Tap Elvish Archdruid for 6 mana. Untap Elvish Archdruid with Quirion Ranger and retap it for another 6 mana (now 14 total). Activate Elvish Warmaster twice and swing for 31 damage.
While this is unlikely to actually happen, it is possible and shows the multiple roles Elvish Warmaster plays in the deck.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Shaman of the Pack: Additional combo payoffs that help the deck use its big board and big mana to secure a victory. Notably, Ezuri, Renegade Leader can sit out for a turn and allow your army to safely wall a big attack before you go for the kill.
Fauna Shaman: I'm still a bit conflicted about this card. It's a bit slow and awkward as a tutor (especially when used to grab another slow card like Elvish Archdruid), but provides consistency and can fetch a Faerie Macabre at instant speed versus a combo deck. It allows me to tighten my sideboard since it is a virtual 4 additional copies of every other creature in the 75.
