BG Commander Elves

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Druid Elves Shaman

Noxid05

Other (32)

• 1x Birchlore Rangers
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Canopy Tactician
• 1x Circle of Dreams Druid
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Devoted Druid
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Guidance
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gnarlroot Trapper
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Heritage Druid
• 1x Incubation Druid *f-pre*
• 1x Leyline of Abundance
• 1x Llanowar Dead
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Llanowar Scout
• 1x Llanowar Tribe
• 1x Llanowar Visionary
• 1x Lys Alana Huntmaster
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer *f-pre*
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Paradise Druid
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Elves
• 1x Wirewood Channeler
• 1x Wirewood Elf

Lifegain (2)

• 1x Rhys the Exiled
• 1x Wellwisher

Lands (25)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 9x Forest
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Three Tree City
• 1x Unclaimed Territory
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Removal (7)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Deathsprout
• 1x Glissa Sunseeker
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Lys Alana Scarblade
• 1x Nullmage Shepherd
• 1x Reclamation Sage

Tutors (6)

• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Creature Untappers (3)

• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Tyvar Kell
• 1x Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Mana Dorks & Ramp (2)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Beastcaller Savant

Commander (1)

Card Draw & Card Advantage (13)

• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Eladamri, Korvecdal
• 1x Elven Chorus
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 1x Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Leaf-Crowned Visionary
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Primordial Sage
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Vanquisher's Banner
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Win Cons (5)

• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Shaman of the Pack
• 1x Skemfar Shadowsage
• 1x Timberwatch Elf
• 1x Tyvar the Bellicose

Graveyard Recovery (2)

• 1x Elvish Soultiller
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding

Counter Protection (1)

• 1x Gaea's Herald

Token Generator (1)

• 1x Elvish Warmaster

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Maybeboard

Other (10)

• 1x Belbe, Corrupted Observer
• 1x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
• 1x Elfhame Druid
• 1x Imperious Perfect
• 1x Leaf Gilder
• 1x Miara, Thorn of the Glade *f-etch*
• 1x Numa, Joraga Chieftain *f-etch*
• 1x Pact of the Serpent
• 1x Riftsweeper
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade

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Do you love not drawing lands? Do you love being super susceptible to board wipes? If so this is the deck for you! Just hope your 1 land and 2 mana producing elves in your opening hand stay on the field, otherwise this might not be your game. But this elfball deck is a game of wait, how much mana do I still have?

Currently working on creating a primer for this deck, check back for frequent updates!

History

While I only added this deck to tapped out recently, this deck was initially constructed a few years ago loosely based on my black green modern elves decks at the time. I created this as my playgroup moved on from modern and 60 card decks to commander for the most part, but I still wanted that same gameplay from an elf deck.

When I had constructed the deck the main golgari elves used as commanders were Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Savra, Queen of the Golgari, and Rhys the Exiled. So it had started out as a Rhys the Exiled as the others didn't feel like they would play like modern elves, and Rhys gave a way to stabilize if we received early game life pressure.

Then with commander legends I had switched the out Rhys for the partner pairs of Miara, Thorn of the Glade & Numa, Joraga Chieftain. This was mainly for Miara, allowing me to try to get draws when needed from the command zone. The other advantage the partners had is it could smooth out the early game when a draw engine was on the field and I needed to dig a little further to find more draw engines or mana dorks as there was two elves in the command zone.

The partners however didn't last long, as with the release of Kaldheim came with it the Elves precon commander deck. So as an elves player I decided to go pick on up. I played it for a few rounds before combining the elves precon and this elves deck, and Lathril was put on the helm. Lathril gives us the ability to start working towards a win by adding additional bodies, or chipping away at opponents life and adding to our own with the activated ability.

Breakdown

The goal is to get a critical amount of elves out and a win con before/in between getting board wiped. It was designed to try and emulate the feeling of a modern golgari elves.

This deck is an all in strategy and is very susceptible to being blown out. It plays a lot like an artifact cheerios list, but I have found it more enjoyable for repeated play, as it has more interaction, and it's not a given that you are going to win once you start going off. And as weird as it sounds, the risk of getting blown up adds to the fun, because you it makes you aware that you gotta go fast before you get sent to the stone age.

While the commander of this deck is an elf, the gameplan does not revolve around our commander too much, but it does come in handy often. The commander is usually cast under one of 3 scenarios. The first, and often the most applicable, is when we need another draw off of cards like Beast Whisperer. The second scenario is when our life total is starting to get precarious, we can cast our commander and use the activated ability to stabilize a bit. Just be sure that you cast it when you start to think you may need the life so that it's not too late by the time you cast it. The final time is when we have lots of mana and want to start creating some extra bodies to get ready for a win condition to come into play.

Early game it is important to get mana dorks and draw engines on the field to be try and build an early advantage. Next, getting large mana producers like Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid in order to be dumping out elves at alarming rates. Heritage Druid and Birchlore Rangers help fuel turns of casting creatures by allowing us to use our elves with summoning sickness, and our elves that don't generate mana. Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler also fuels big turns by letting mana dorks with summoning sickness generate mana.

The recovery from board wipes can go well, the key is to use tutors to find draw engines when recovering if none of yours survived the board wipe. If you are getting low on life it can be worth tutoring up Wellwisher to stabilize if you aren't close enough to winning yet, and don't have enough elves to use your commanders activated ability. When you have enough mass of elves in play, use Craterhoof Behemoth or Skemfar Shadowsage to close out games.

Card Choices

Draw Package

The four most on theme card draw/card advantage engines are Beast Whisperer, Eladamri, Korvecdal, Leaf-Crowned Visionary, and Gilt-Leaf Archdruid. However, these four cards, along with the two non elf cards Primordial Sage and Soul of the Harvest, are the most susceptible to board wipes. This is why it is often beneficial to try and get out an artifact or enchantment draw engine out like Guardian Project

Lifecrafter's Bestiary & Leaf-Crowned Visionary have the unfortunate drawback of taxing us to draw cards. While these cards definitely make an opening hand keepable in order to start a drawing cards early game it's important to find another draw engine. The other options for card draw allow us to use our mana to the fullest.

Mulligans

This deck eschews the conventional thinking of 3 lands in an opening hand. This is all about 1 land and a dream. And by that I mean, a one lander is keepable with 1 cmc dork, a 1 or 2 cmc dork, and a dream that they stick on the stick field. They are elves not birds, so hopefully they avoid getting bolted.

Keepable

This hand is a solid keep. We have 2 mana dorks, and two lands which is usually more than enough to get started. Then there is a T3 guardian project, and we can cast Lys Alana Huntmaster, and our commandeer on the following turns after guardian project. Shaman of the pack is not ideal for an opener, but while not ideal can be used early with a draw engine to dig a little further. If this was a 6 card keep, Shaman of the Pack would be the card cut.

Slow start

This is a hand that I would be okay to keep if I wasn't too worried seriously needing to outpace other people in your pod. If you are going against a control or stax deck this would a very risky hand to keep, as you want to pull ahead of those decks early. If one of these lands was replaced with a 1 mana elf it would be a lot better of a hand as the then we could cast Eladamri, Korvecdal on turn 2 rather than 3 to get the value engine started.

Date added	2 months
Last updated	1 week
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 20 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.92
Tokens	Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Emblem Tyvar Kell, Morph 2/2 C, Spirit 1/1 C