I love the deck. I have all the cards in the current deck list, and put the deck together and play tested it against my friends, they hated it, mostly because the deck ran perfect and on turn 7, I was attacking with twenty-five elves with 64+ power and toughness with Akroma's Memorial on the battlefield. Also in that one tun, I had added at least 100 to 150 mana to my mana pool and played at least 20 cards that turn.

This deck is amazing, thank you for posting on here. Also, as far as the deck goes, I'd say it is perfect as is.

Actually, to make it a bit more clear, my friends loved the deck, but hated that it was being used against them.

MasterJMind I really appreciate the high praise and I understand the love hate relationship. was in a 3 person game just last night and Genesis Wave'd for 17 on turn 5 and won on turn six. My brother, who was one of the three, especially did not appreciate it when I turned his commander into a land... I still claim it's a work in progress, but so far it's not doing too bad either. There are somewhat expensive cards like Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx that I would like to get. Also, really expensive cards like Gaea's Cradle would make this deck better, but it's just a matter of budget.

P4nd3m1c: Rofellos is banned--ask your friends if they'd let you play with him before you spend the money, because strangers would probably ask you to take him out.

abby315 I thought he was only banned as a commander, but acceptable in the 99...? As a commander he's really O.P. but there are plenty of other rough cards in EDH that are still legal. Gaea's Cradle is at least as O.P. as Rofellos in the 99 I think. Also a friend that I have has Tinker in an artifact deck, but we agreed that it was only banned because of the 0 cost artifact turning into Blightsteel Colossus and winning on turn 4 thing. In some groups Sol Ring gets banned in respect of being more casual and less competitive. Like how we collectively banned the use of Iona, Shield of Emeria against mono colored decks because no one wants to just stop playing mid game. So, I understand it's on the banned list, but I'm not so sure that I'll receive that kind of backlash. MTG is a lot about politics, but I appreciate your looking out for my wallet _

Nah, he's banned in the 99 too--they got rid of the separate ban lists for commander/99 so if it's banned at all, it's banned in both. He's not banned in duel commander though.

But yeah, we had that ban on Iona too until we all agreed to be a little more cutthroat (because our games were taking 8 years) so I understand. Up to you guys, just didn't want you going to an LGS to play and catching flak.

abby315 Yeah, I get plenty of flak just from the Elvish Racism from one of my brother's friends in particular. But that same friend also runs countering pillow forts, and Winter Orb and Shimmer. He's the friend that you have to talk to about being less ruthless and petulant, for both attitude and card choice alike. I like to think that I'm not trying to ruin the day of people I play with, and when I do really well I actually feel very contrite. Elves work well, and we both have solid infinite mana-combo in our decks too, so I would understand people getting up in arms about it, but it still seems more fair than blue control. What kind of backlash and politicking do you have to put up with with Aluring Elves in your play group?

P4nd3m1c For me it's just a pain in the ass once I have 2+ creatures on the field. Almost immediately the table starts going "Oh no, she's getting up to stuff over there, someone's gotta shut her down" because they know how fast elves can win. It's tough being the sort of scarecrow that people can point at to get the focus on me while they set up their own winning board state--a lot of EDH is about pretending that you're not trying to win, oddly enough.

Most of us with infinite combos in the deck catch that kind of BS, including my friend a Marath, Will of the Wild player. To me, infinite combos can be almost merciful compared to stax-like decks or pillowfort decks that win SUUUUPER SLOWLY. I never feel bad losing to an infinite combo because it's just like "well, okay. Nicely done. New game." It feels much better than being slowly locked out of a game because someone has Avacyn and a bunch of removal, or whatever.

But elves, aggro, and combos get a lot of hate anyway. And Ezuri packs it all :P

abby315 Good to know that I'm not alone out there... :)

Love the deck and the name. +1!

I'll look for some suggestions. For now I see some cards you can do without:

• Elvish Mystic,Fyndhorn Elves,Llanowar Elves are just not good enough in Commander. They are fragile and need to stay alive for a full round to do a trick that is close to useless in the endgame.
• Rites of Flourishing will make everybody happy, but there are better cards for draw or playing more lands.

In:

• Try and profit from all the elves. Champion of Lambholt
• Lys Alana Huntmaster make some more
• Eladamri, Lord of Leaves if your budget allows it
• Whirlwind wipe the flyers
• Coat of Arms chaos on the board, but great fun and strong.
• Bloodspore Thrinax Take one for the team.
• Perilous Forays token->forest

Tyr_W: Thanks for the +1, yeah, the name is from the flavor text of Skyshroud Poacher. Very funny stuff.

On the card recommendations, and you may disagree, the mana dorks or cost /produce are pretty useful for ramping up to high cost doublers like Mana Reflection and Zendikar Resurgent much more quickly. Really, just any of the high costing cards. But I could only see replacing them with forests and that seems like a step backwards to me...

I think you'll be happy to see that I replaced Rites of Flourishing with Oracle of Mul Daya.

So, Champion of Lambholt may easily become useless after a few pumps with Ezuri, Renegade Leader as the elves would no longer be a power less than her own. Champion at least has enter the battlefield with her boost, Lys Alana Huntmaster requires playing from the hand and most games I happen to do very little of that (overall). Eladamri, Lord of Leaves is on my wishlist already. Whirlwind is a little situational but I might side board it against my brother's dragon deck. Coat of Arms is in my side board because I play against enough tribalism to make me question its regular uses and a permanent spot on the list. Of all devour creatures to boost Bloodspore Thrinax doesn't look bad for boosting the little elves that come after it, but I think keeping a greater presence of elves on the board would be more helpful for synergy. I'd probably consider it more if Doubling Season was still in the mainboard of the deck. And correct me if you disagree, but isn't Skullclamp a bit better than Perilous Forays?

Thanks for the elaborate reply. When you read Champion of Lambholt, you'll see that it just checks if creatures of the opponent are smaller, so he still works if you have 20 15/15 elves and just a 10/10 Champion.

Perilous Forays is not comparable to Skullclamp. The Forays let you -providing you have enough fodder- double your lands each turn and thereby emptying your deck of these cards. They do add up, as you can Skullclamp a creature with defense >1 and then sac it to the forays to search for a land and draw 2 cards.

On the mana-elves: if you're happy with them, just keep on playing them. But if you draw a mana-elf in mid or endgame when you could have drawn something useful, it is a waste. Why not test it out and see how much you miss them? ;)

add Jungle Basin and Myriad Landscape

Tyr_W just popping in to say, as someone who plays an Ezuri elf list, mana dorks rarely feel useless later in the game because they are one drop elves. Since this deck wants to hit a critical mass of elves and use a lot of mana, they are actually fairly good drops at all stages of the game unless you're seriously behind.

That being said I play a Gilt-Leaf Archdruid in my list just because she turns the late game dorks into cantrips and a possible win con :)

Okay, so I only know this from a friend who has been an UBER competitive Elf player, but you need Earthcraft. Probably for Vernal Bloom.

Other things I see that can speed you up:

Sylvan Messenger for Slate of Ancestry as its obviously a lot more cards most of the time.

Primal Command for Beast Within (presuming it was there for the permanent hate, see also Desert Twister or Scour from Existence )

Mind's Eye for Collective Unconscious, Soul of the Harvest, Regal Force, Primordial Sage (basically take your pick, but make sure you've got Reliquary Tower too)

Beastmaster Ascension for Helix Pinnacle or Epic Struggle cause attacking is for lesser, more savage elvish communities.

Also while I can't find cuts for Primal Surge or The Great Aurora I feel they both would be game breakers for you that won't make your opponents feel depressed as much as impressed. Largely because both cards can be used in the rare occasion somebody pulls enough board wipes out to set you back that you need to rebuild, and you either need to get it all back right then, or else need to set them back too. ( I also would point out Sakiko, Mother of Summer, but again, no idea where to cut)

I finally pushed myself to put in Boreal Druid after much frowning upon not producing , but it was the only sure add in my mind after taking out Swiftfoot Boots. Apparently spot removal in my deck isn't going to save anything in the long run. I've seen Vigor or Seedborn Muse get saved once or twice, but I've been leaning into other sweeping removal recovery/prevention instead. Natural Affinity looks like a really fun meta board wipe prevention. Puts a smile on my face too :)

I'm surprised i haven't seen this suggested, but I feel like she should be an auto include in any Elf Deck. Nissa Revane

Katarkind, Nissa Revane isn't bad, but if you can show me what she should replace in the deck I'll consider her more seriously. Wellwisher perhaps...?

perhaps Nissa Revane can replace Mana Reflection i dont believe you need many mana doublers especially a 6 drop, although it would be useful in cases of genesis wave im not sure how often it makes a big difference let me know if im wrong, i will be test playing this deck to see how useful it is when it comes up

So, did you miss my suggestions from before you archived everything? I really do think you'd see a huge shift in the speed of the deck with Earthcraft.

Oh, sorry about the archiving, but, yeah, Earthcraft is great, but it's out of my budget at the moment...

Skyshroud Ranger and Boreal Druid for Devoted Druid and Quirion Ranger

It was a straight upgrade on both accounts.

Also, my maybe and side boards are reflecting a new shipment I just got, so expect to see further changes in the near future.

That is all.

Big update (not the last). All the advice on these and other cards is always appreciative.

Removed Soul of New Phyrexia for Slate of Ancestry. The board wipe prevention is too slow and costly and I had been lacking the extra draw most games. Also the Slate is in most deck builds of this type so there must be something to it.

Removed Skullclamp for Hunter's Insight. The card draw of Hunter's Insight is much less destructive to my creature base for cards like Slate of Ancestry or Shamanic Revelation. It may upset Primal Surge but it's usefulness forgives it. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Removed Praetor's Counsel for Primal Surge. Instead of board wipe recovery (which doesn't happen as often as I had anticipated in my play group, but the meta of the game is sure to adapt) I'm leaning on further Genesis Wave type library dump. The more the merrier. Bow of Nylea and Primal Command are two cards that shuffle parts of the graveyard back in, which is not very cohesive to the strategy of Praetor's Counsel.

Removed Sylvan Messenger for Coat of Arms. This isn't even remotely a straight trade within the deck strategy, but I'm subbing it in temporarily simply to test it's effectiveness after plenty of suggestions to put it back in. of all the non creature boosts, ie. Gaea's Anthem and Obelisk of Urd, coat of arms is the best for my deck, but I hesitate at the boost my opponents get. I'm proper tribal, so I should get more of an advantage to someone who only emphasizes in it. Finger's crossed I guess...