Until the entire Dominaria set is revealed I'm using the comments instead of making another update to post how my playtesting is going with Dominaria. I'm not going to offically update Radiant Elves until all the cards I choose to play are in the TappedOut database with art and able to be added to decks.

Round One Dominaria Playtesting: Selesyna Ramp and Counters

Marwyn, the Nurturer looks to be the new Elvish Archdruid of Standard. She's finally since Shaman of the Pack a build around card specifically for the Elven tribe. I've been waiting for a card like her since Magic Origins. She's a unique lord, not a lord in the normal sense that she powers up other Elves or gives them abilities. She's different because she alone benefits from Elves to make her huge and give her major ramp.

In my playtesting I've been searching for ways to break her ramp capability. Being able to use her ramp to play a lot of Elves and Verdurous Gearhulk is fun, but I need a bit more oomph. Obviously good mana sinks are nuts if I can make six to eight plus green mana a turn. Rhonas the Indomitable and Walking Ballista have real potential with her ramp especially Rhonas because he can give her and other Elves trample. Marwyn can get really big with counters giving her trample while also adding to her power is great. Rhonas can act like a pseudo Ezuri, Renegade Leader for other Elves with Marwyn's mana.

These creatures are possibilities, but the card in my playtesting that's best with Marwyn is Approach of the Second Sun. Approach is really one of the most broken cards in Standard because it can be an instant win when casting a second copy of it. It's seen only in Control decks, most notable Azorius Control which it's the win condition. Elves with the reprinting of Llanowar Elves are now poised to have a unique position in Standard as being the tribe of ramp. Dinos can also ramp, but that tribe is about power not ramp. So far decks are not ramping into Approach instead they're controlling the game until they can cast the seven mana sorcery. With the amount of ramp that Elves can now make this changes how to approach playing Approach.

Llanowar Elves adds a one drop to the two and three drop mana Elves. This addition can completely change the tribe making it much stronger. Dominaria has already added these two very good mana Elves in Llanowar and Marwyn, the Nurturer to the already full pool of mana Elves. This tells me that Wizards intent for Elves as a tribe is ramp and I'm happy that they're finally chosen a coherent single strategy to pair with the tribe instead of pairing many different strategies that have no or very little synergy with each other. The fact that Marwyn cares about counters means she has interaction with Rishkar, Peema Renegade and Metallic Mimic this is a subtle, but fantastic hint that Wizards is beginning to care about the Elf tribe.

Servant of the Conduit is pretty much a staple two drop mana Elf in Standard for energy decks I've been playing him since Kaladesh. He's unique because he's the only mana Elf that can make other than green, another color of mana in this case white. Druid of the Cowl has not seen much play, but it's another two drop mana Elf who could make his way into this deck. Relying on Marwyn's ramp to cast Approach is a tricky plan because if Marwyn is killed than I need a back-up plan to make mana. This is where the other mana Elves come in. They can help me to cast Approach without Marwyn and they pair nicely with Rishkar, Peema Renegade.

Marwyn has fantastic interaction with the Kaladesh theme of Elves, +1/+1 counters. She continues this theme by also using counters, but unlike any other Elves she can continue to get counters turn after turn as long as I keep playing Elves. Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Metallic Mimic and Kujar Seedsculptor can all put a counter on Marwyn and Mimic can power Rishkar's mana ability by putting a counter on other Elves who ETB. These three have great synergy together. Marwyn gets a counter when an Elf ETB not when one is cast, this is relevant because Mimic can put a counter on her. Mimic ETB as the creature type I choose, in this case Elf, Marwyn will see it as an Elf when it ETB. Seedsculptor has seen zero play and that's understandable because she's pretty lackluster; however she can put two counters on Marwyn, that's good for a two drop Elf.

Steel Leaf Champion is another incredible Elf from Dominaria. He brings a very aggressive stance to the tribe. Turn one Llanowar Elves can help me to cast a turn two Steel Leaf. This interaction is crazy powerful and I suspect it will be the line I include in all my playtesting with Elves moving forward. The three drop spot on the mana curve is crowded now with Elves: Steel Leaf, Rishkar and Marwyn. Llanowar lets me play all these Elves together in the same deck because any one of them is a good turn two play.

Steel Leaf is an aggressive Elf and that's really not the direction I'm going with this version, but it adds another dimension to the deck that my opponent has to contend with. Steel Leaf benefits a lot from the counters strategy because it starts out with five power putting any number of counters on it makes it just plain huge.

Armorcraft Judge makes Approach of the Second Sun a more consistent win condition. After casting the first Approach the card is then placed in my library seven cards from the top. To realistically be able to win the game with Approach I need a way to draw into my library seven cards deep. Of course I could have a second copy of Approach in my hand after casting the first one. I could then cast the second copy on my next turn and win the game, but this is best case scenario. What if I don't have another Approach in hand? I need a way to draw into the one in my library. Judge can do this, he cares about counters just like Marwyn, Rishkar, Mimic, Seedsculptor and Verdurous Gearhulk.

This is only the first round of playtesting. Second round is Gruul or Naya with Grand Warlord Radha. Stay tuned for more Elf goodness :)

Happy to hear this build got crazy nice help in Dominaria. And we're not even done with spoilers. Hope the likes keep going up. XD

I wondering how much Llanowar is going to alter this build and even the meta at large. Really happy coming from a green player.

Honestly, if this is a slow deck, I'd prefer Narnarm Renegade over Llanowar Elves because the deathtouch will keep your opponent's creatures at bay.

Regardless, have you tried either Ridgescale Tusker or Tendershoot Dryad? Even though this is an elves deck, I think Tendershoot Dryad is a great addition to any deck, flooding the board with creatures and triggering Ascend.

Hexaflexagon, thanks for the upvote.

When Dominaria hits Standard this deck will change a lot. I won't just add 4x Llanowar Elves and call it done :) The three drop spot for Elves is going to be loaded with Steel Leaf Champion, Marwyn, the Nurturer and Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Llanowar Elves lets me potentially play any of these three drop Elves turn two which is far and away better than anything that Narnam Renegade can do.

I consider Narnam and Ajani's Comrade the flex spots right now, they're most likely going to be cut for new cards. You're right Deathtouch is nice to have and it's possible that I will play both Llanowar and Narnam depending on how the meta turns out, but 4x Llanowar is a for sure addition. More one drops are good with Marwyn. Narnam may even be a sideboard card for some matchups.

Ridgescale Tusker is the same CMC as Verdurous Gearhulk and Gearhulk is a much better card. Tusker is a fine budget replacement for Gearhulk. Tendershoot Dryad is also the same CMC as Gearhulk and it's very slow compared to Gearhulk. It can be good if it sticks around a few turns and I'm also trying to achieve ascend with Radiant Destiny which is a reason to play Tendershoot. The problem is it's not better than Gearhulk. Gearhulk gives me potentially game winning counters value the turn I play it.

I can only afford to play copies of one five drop because I'm focusing on tribal Elves in this deck and both Tusker and Tendershoot are not better cards than Gearhulk. The main strategy here is +1/+1 counters and Gearhulk is one of the best enablers for counters.

I see a fun Abzan tribal Fungus, Saproling and Radiant Destiny deck start to take shape with new cards in Dominaria. Tendershoot could be the high end card for a deck like this.

There's an Elf in the new Dominaria trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex4ClzZ3oBM. I think this is Marwyn, the Nurturer. She's holding a baby Elf in her arms. I like the new art direction for Elves in the set, a face tattoo with glowing eyes and something organic growing out of their armor. The Llanowar Forest looks great, really like the mystical feeling of it shrouded in mist.

Here's a mockup of what her card could look like including the new legendary frame art that legendaries are getting in the set. I've cropped it to use an alter:

*A=13114*

multimedia I do see your point. I was also looking at making Saproling Tribal when Dominira comes out. Marwyn is a great card for Elves Tribal, and something like this is better turn 2 than turn 3.

Incredible new Llanowar Elves card art. The art was the first Elf image we saw of Dominaria; finally official that it's Llanowar.

Steel Leaf Champion's Store Championship promo has also been revealed. Dude is riding a huge monstrous beast and it's a rare not an uncommon in the set. Very nostalgic, a throwback to Steel Leaf Paladin :)

Three exciting new card arts revealed today of the Elves in Dominaria from the Access Magic Dominaria: The World video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJEg-CveDjE.

Here's Grand Warlord Radha. She's grown up, one big and strong woman now contrast to her past art Radha, Heir to Keld where she's lean, but strong. Interesting that her fists are bloody instead of her blade. Not really a fan of this art showing her hair without beaded dreads. This is the first artwork of the Elves of Keld.

I really like the art direction of the Llanowar Elves armor in the set. We've seen art work of Elves who have glowing eyes or other parts of their bodies signifying magical powers. Here's the first glimpse of why the Elves have these magical powers. They can control beasts and other creatures of the Forest. This is great, it's exactly what I wanted in Kaladesh with energy and Elves which didn't happen. In lore the Elves of Peema Forest on Kaladesh were attuned to the aether and wild animals of the Forest.

Not only do the Elves use their magical powers to control beasts, but they also ride them. Steel Leaf Champion is not the only Elf riding a beast on Dominaria. This Elf's powers are not green, but instead are orange which is different than all the other Llanowar Elf artwork.

We've already seen the art for new Radha, but now her card is has been officially revealed. The card art of Grand Warlord Radha is beautiful, but it doesn't say green to me. I think it looks much more white than green. In fact it looks Boros not Gruul . Radha seems like a very good potentially overpowered Elf, a great reason to play red with Elves.

Song of Freyalise's card art is yet another amazing looking Saga. Where's her eye patch? That's an iconic feature of her character. I'm liking all the Saga's art, they're all designed so well. I'm still not sure about playing Song with Elves. Elves already have a lot of mana dorks; Song's mana effect is pretty redundant when my creatures can already tap to make mana.

The third chapter is what will be good with Elves, but this takes three turns and I'm not sure this is worth it yet. More Elves will be spoiled in Dominaria because we've seen two new card art images and these cards haven't been revealed yet. If enough playable Elves who can't make mana are in the Dominaria set then Song could have a much better chance of being played with Elves.

Adventurous Impulse is the new green one mana common draw spell. It's like Oath of Nissa which is a rare except it can't find in the top three a Planeswalker. Oath was an amazing card for green in Standard some called it the green Ponder. Impulse will also be amazing in Standard, it's effect maybe comparable to Attune with Aether. I really like this card because it can find a land or a creature, this seems good with Elves.

Turn one Llanowar Elves or Impulse gives the tribe two good options for turn one. Being able to possibly find a Steel Leaf Champion or Marwyn, the Nurturer turn one is good. Because it can find a land this makes the card playable helping with mana fixing; finding the right land for the color I need.

Currently I'm playing two colors because there hasn't been a green Elf lord revealed yet in Dominaria, Marwyn, the Nurturer doesn't completely count, which means I'm playing Radiant Destiny as my lord. Having a third green land which comes into play untapped for Champion is going to be important, Impulse can help with this.

Instead of Approach for the Selesnya version, what about Shalai, Voice of Plenty? She can protect all of your Elves and she is fairly resistant to removal as well. Protect Marwyn, use Marwyn's mana to generate counters with Shalai's ability, and so on and so forth.

Cards to keep in mind here are definitely Radiant Destiny, Huatli, Radiant Champion, and Appeal / Authority. I'm not entirely sold on RG yet because there isn't a super huge payoff to dump the mana in to that both Marwyn and Radha generate. Hopefully we get a few more filler Elves, otherwise I think that in Core 2019 we'll get a few missing pieces as well.

Hey Variux, thanks for your thoughts. Shalai is definitely interesting, hexproof is very good. I'll give her a playtest with Seleyna.

My thought process for this first version as been what card has the best synergy with the four best Elves spoiled so far: Llanowar Elves, Steel Leaf Champion, Marwyn, the Nurturer and Grand Warlord Radha? My answer is Rhonas the Indomitable.

Rhonas is nuts with Champion, is a mana sink for both Marywn and Radha and it can give Marywn trample. Marywn can get very big; sometimes I don't want to use her for mana instead I want to attack with her. Rhonas can make Marywn a very good attacker. Rhonas as a mana sink with just Marywn is fine, but adding Radha to the mix adds a whole lot of additional power.

With Llanowar's help Rhonas can be cast turn two. This really can put my opponent on the back foot because I could drop a Champion any time after. Champion is an aggressive card, Rhonas is an aggressive card and Radha is also an aggressive card. The new theme here is to be aggressive.

I have high hopes on Adventurous Impulse, playing it as a 4 of. It's the kind of glue card that any deck playing creatures can really benefit from. Add to fact that it gives another turn one play other than Llanowar. Because of Impulse what ever pay off card I use with Elves needs to be a creature of a land.

Impulse can't find Radiant Destiny, it's one of the main reasons I've cut the card and white. Too many three drops is another reason for cutting Destiny, there's just not room for it. I've already max out on three drops; I'm really playing too many, but the majority of the best Elves now are three drops. I feel Champion, Marwyn, Rishkar and Rhonas are all better cards than Destiny.

This week I think is the last week of Dominaria spoilers with the whole set being revealed on Friday. There's more Elves in the set because there's two Elf card artworks that have been shown that don't have cards yet. I don't think either are Llanowar Scout which doesn't have card artwork yet. I'm hoping for a new two drop Elf and not another three drop :)

Have you thought of using any of the green removal that's out there? I feel like you may need a piece or two occasionally

Hey w33m4n, thanks for the upvote.

Most green removal such as Naturalize, Plummet, etc. will go in the sideboard. Honestly Blossoming Defense is the best pseudo removal for green with creatures who are attacking.

Red helps a lot with removal Harnessed Lightning currently main deck. Abrade, Struggle / Survive, maybe even Glorybringer are more options for sideboard removal. I'm currently not worrying about a sideboard because it's way too early, Dominaria hasn't even been released :)

Green fight removal such as Pounce, Prey Upon or Ancient Animus are cards I would like to avoid, even though they're good with Steel Leaf Champion and Rhonas the Indomitable. If I was playing mono green then these cards would be options. Territorial Allosaurus is the exception for fight removal, expect me to play a few copies of this Dino in the sideboard for midrange matchups. I like very much that Adventurous Impulse can find Allosarus, thus find creature removal.

Man I love elves! I've been play testing the Gruul deck here and man, can Marwyn get big quick. I obviously ran into problems playing against Fumigate and other board wipes. I then side boarded Heroic Intervention and that helped until my opponent put in Settle the Wreckage. I was dying for a Collected Company LOL! Great deck anyway, I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Thanks DeimosDragon for your interest.

Board wipes are Elves worst nightmare. It's one reason that Golgari or Simic are such appealing colors for the tribe because of Duress or Negate out of the sideboard. Also a positive of playing Rhonas the Indomitable(indestructible) and Grand Warlord Radha(haste) with Elves.

I'm not a fan of Heroic Intervention, but like you say it's going to be a card that's needed in the sideboard if I'm staying with Gruul. Not sure yet what to do about Settle the Wreckage... Believe it not Uncage the Menagerie has some potential due to the all the powerful three drops now. I've been playtesting it, for five mana I can tutor for three different three drop creatures this includes Rhonas and Steel Leaf Champion. Champion and Rhonas is a fine follow after a board wipe.

Now that Dominaria has been fully spoiled, are you planning on making any more changes?

Hi there. I've been following ur post n lists for years and I too run elves Alot and haven gone thru many iterations.

A current standard list I have been running (without Dom cards) have been doing good in fnms (but not pptqs) But with d new dom cards, this is what I have now and it's Alot better

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/dominaria-elf-ball/

Song of Freyalise has been amazing in testing. It works like an Ezuri Renegade leader. And many have understimated sagas "3turns to ulti? Meh!"

But picture thisT1 land llanowar elfT2 land saga llanowar elfT3 land cultivator (fabricate 2 servos)T4 swing for 18dmg with trample, indestructible and vigilance.Throw in a blossoming and it's 28dmgOr sac a Hashep Oasis for 33dmg.

Mana sinks have been missing in elves and I worked hard to get Rhonas to work, but finally gravitated to Monogreen. It still is a pain to have so much mana n do nothing with it, hence Armorcraft judge works well to roll off.

There is a "tutor" for sagas in standard and it's Benefaction of Rhonas. It helps me look thru my top 5 revealed, n pick up a creature AND a saga/growing rites. It also helps to put a much needed gaea's blessing into the graveyard post boardwipe to refuel my library.

My deck definitely isn't perfect, so I hope perhaps u can take Alook and we can help create a more tuned elf deck in standard with more ideas :)

Just wanna say, sagas r still insane lol.

Epidilius, thanks for your interest. Yes I just added Elfhame Druid and Territorial Allosaurus cutting Metallic Mimic and Harnessed Lightning. What I have here is not a final version, it may completely change as I playtest more of the set.

I've cut Mimic again, haha. Mimic without Rishkar to make it a mana Elf is just not good enough. I find I want my two drop Elves to be able to make green mana to help protect a turn three Marywn or Champion or Radha with Blossoming Defense. Even if I don't have Defense in hand, my opponent doesn't know this. Just making it appear like I do is better than not.

Having more ways to get a turn three Radha with help from a mana Elf is good. Radha and Champion are however big reasons I was playing Mimic in the first place; giving them 5 toughness with one counter. We'll see if more ways to get Radha into play turn three is better than this.

My two drop mana Elf choices are Druid of the Cowl or Elfhame Druid and due to Elfhame's extra ability to make two mana for a kicked spell it's better. Plus Elfhame has some of the best art in the entire set :) I like the interaction between Elfhame and Allosaurus. Allosaurus becomes my main source of creature removal outside the sideboard. It's removal that Adventurous Impulse can find.

Hey LarryLiu thanks for following along here for so long :) Glad your playtesting with Song of Freyalise and Elves is going so well.

Here's my thoughts on Song for this deck... So far my main problem with it is it's first and second chapter abilities are redundant with Elves. I already have a lot of two drop Elves who can make mana and they're actual Elves which helps to pump making Marywn better. Song's not an Elf and it's first two abilities don't make Marywn better because I can already tap her for mana without Song.

Here I'm definitely trying to use Marywn as the cornerstone of Elf tribal; that's the reason I've limited the nonElf cards to very few. Including playing Adventurous Impulse, it can possibly find Marywn turn one.

The third chapter ability of Song does have excellent interaction with Cultivator of Blades you may be on to something here because what Blades needs is trample, well done. Without Song however Blades is very lackluster for a five drop Elf. That's a pretty spicy aggressive line you described with Blades, a lot of damage. How consistent is this line?

What happens when you draw Song turn six? This is a drawback of Sagas, in Song's case it's great in the early game, but in the late game it's terrible. You can't expect to have Song turn two every game even playing it as a 4 of. After Hour of Devastation I played around with an Elf Simic version of God-Pharaoh's Gift reanimating Blades thus giving him haste and 6 power. This is currently the only Elf shell I've playtested with Blades. Rhonas's Monument also has nice interaction with Blades.

I'm fan of Armorcraft Judge. I played him in the last Bant version of this deck with Hadana's Climb  ^Flip and Verdurous Gearhulk. He's good with Mimic, Rishkar and Song's third ability can be a possible counters engine. I would be playing Judge if I was mono green, but for now in the future he might make the sideboard. I've also cut Mimic in favor of more mana Elves. Mimic is needed if playing Judge.

The interaction between Benefaction of Rhonas and Gaea's Blessing is pretty brilliant, nice work! I'm going to think about other ways this can be used.

Looks awesome. Have you considered Narnam Renegade?

Hey mrmango, thanks for the upvote, good suggestion. Narnam Renegade is fine, but there isn't room for him right now. The two drop mana Elves overshadow him. They help to ramp into Radha, Marwyn or Champion with Defense protection this is more important than another one drop Elf.

He could have a place in the sideboard, but there too I think there's better options.

I'm not sure what you could cut at this point since the list seems pretty solid, but did you consider splashing Black for Winding Constrictor? Possibly a little too greedy but could possibly work as a back up with some of the +1/+1 counters synergies, but then you'd almost certainly want Metallic Mimic in there.

Merrena thanks for the upvote and suggestions.

Splashing black for Constrictor is not really an option. It's a two drop who's best played turn two this requires a heavy amount of black in the manabase, a Golgari manabase.

Steel Leaf Champion's restrictive triple green mana cost is realistically only going to work with mono-green, but thanks to Aether Hub and Servant of the Conduit I feel I can also play another color in this case red, but white or black are other options. Three color manabases such as Sultai, Jund or Naya are not going to function well enough for Champion.

Golgari is a very promising two color combo for Elves not just because of Constrictor, but because of Blooming Marsh and Woodland Cemetery in combination with Hub and Forests makes a very appealing two color manabase. Much better than the Gruul manabase here.

As the new Standard meta game develops, I can start to get a sense of the decks and cards that are going to be a problem for Elves. Red might not be the best second color. Black maybe the second color that I end up in not because of Constrictor, but because of three supporting cards: Duress, Cast Down and Ravenous Chupacabra. These three cards are some of the best ways to deal with problematic cards that Elves don't want to see.

I have high hopes for Grand Warlord Radha and Abrade, these cards are the reasons I'm playing red, Gruul. I'm trying to stick to tribal and black doesn't give Elves a new tribal tool where as red does in Radha since she's an Elf.