Lathril's Merry Men

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Elves Tap/Untap

Deck_Building_Dude

Creature (31)

• 1x Allosaurus Shepherd
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Circle of Dreams Druid
• 1x Copperhorn Scout
• 1x Dwynen's Elite
• 1x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Champion
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Warmaster
• 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1x Fanatic of Rhonas
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
• 1x Gnarlroot Trapper
• 1x Harald, King of Skemfar
• 1x Imperious Perfect
• 1x Joraga Warcaller
• 1x Leaf-Crowned Visionary
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lys Alana Huntmaster
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Poison-Tip Archer
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Realmwalker
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Shaman of the Pack
• 1x Tyvar the Bellicose
• 1x Wolverine Riders

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
• 1x Nissa of Shadowed Boughs
• 1x Tyvar Kell

Land (32)

• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Castle Garenbrig *f-pp*
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkbore Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Deathcap Glade
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 5x Forest
• 1x Gilt-Leaf Palace
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Secluded Courtyard
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Wood
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Unclaimed Territory
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Door of Destinies
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Resilience
• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh
• 1x Urza's Incubator
• 1x Vanquisher's Banner

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Benefactor's Draught
• 1x Elven Ambush
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Revitalizing Repast  ^Flip
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vitalize
• 1x Wrap in Vigor

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Crown of Skemfar
• 1x Elderfang Venom
• 1x Elven Chorus
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Prowess of the Fair
• 1x Rancor

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Elvish Promenade
• 1x Flare of Cultivation
• 1x Mobilize
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Treasured Find
• 1x Unearth

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Sideboard

Land (2)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Pact of the Serpent

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Nature's Will
• 1x Tribute to the World Tree

Creature (1)

• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth

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Maybeboard

Land (2)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Grim Tutor

Instant (1)

• 1x Krosan Grip

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"Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack."

-Sun Tzu

NOTICE

This deck is being reworked. I want to thank the input given by members of Magic the Gathering EDH-Commander on Facebook

OKAY, LET'S DO THIS!

The strategy with this deck is simple: get Lathril, Blade of the Elves out and use her abilities to their greatest strengths. We have several ways to do it.

Firstly, we need to lay out Lathril's two main abilities. Firstly, whenever she deal combat damage to an opponent, we can make that many 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens. Secondly, we can tap ten untapped elves we control to drain 10 life from each opponent while we gain 10 life.

The first step should be to make and bolster an army, and we've got many ways to do that. Dwynen's Elite creates a 1/1 Elf Warrior creature token as it enters the battlefield as long as we control another elf.Elvish Harbinger acts as an elf tutor, allowing us to search our library for any elf card that is then revealed and placed on top of our library. Elvish Warmaster allows us to create a single 1/1 Elf Warrior creature token once each turn as long as we cast an elf. Harald, King of Skemfar also acts as a psuedo-tutor, allowing us to choose an Elf, Warrior, or Tyvar card from the top five cards of our library to add to our hand. Imperious Perfect allows us to tap her and pay {G}make a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token. Lys Alana Huntmaster creates a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token every time we cast an elf, while Wolverine Riders creates a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token at the beginning of each upkeep. That's a total of 4 green elves per turn rotation.

Our creatures aren't the only ones doing the heavy lifting. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury allows us to create a 1/1 green Elf Druid creature token that can tap for a green. The best part about this ability is that is adds loyalty to Freyalise, allowing us to use her other abilities as needed. Until they're needed, we will be using her elf-generating ability. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs lets us cast a creature card from our hand or graveyard at the cost of 5 loyalty, while Tyvar Kell will let us make a 1/1 green Elf Warrior token at no loyalty cost.

We have a good amount of spells and enchantments allowing us to add to our army. Elven Ambush essentially allows us to double the amount of elves we control by creating a number of 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature tokens equal to the number of elves we control. Elvish Promenade has the same effect, but only at sorcery speed. Prowess of the Fair lets us create a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token every time a nontoken elf goes to the graveyard, allowing us to replace any unfortunate casualties. All of these effects are bolstered by Parallel Lives, which allows us to double the amount of tokens we make from these spells and creatures. Three elves have just died? Instead of making three from Prowess alone, we make six thanks to Parallel Lives. We just made an Elf Druid token with Freyalise? Make that two thanks to Parallel Lives.

To bolster our army, we have many lords to employ. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen gives our elves +1/+1. This effect is shared with Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Champion, Imperious Perfect, Joraga Warcaller, and Leaf-Crowned Visionary. Tyvar the Bellicose also allows us to put a +1/+1 counter on our mana dorks, making them stronger and more capable for combat. It is important to note, however, that many of these lords also buff any elves our opponents may have, such as Elvish Champion.

Some creatures can buff our creatures for some mana. Ezuri, Renegade Leader gives our elves +3/+3 and Trample until end of turn and can regenerate creatures, while Elvish Warmaster can give our elves +2/+2 and deathtouch until end of turn. Gnarlroot Trapper can give a target elf deathtouch until end of turn by simply being tapped. Finally, Allosaurus Shepherd can act as a psuedo-lord, turning our elves into 5/5 Dinosaur Elves until end of turn. Combine this with our other lords and mana-reliant buffs, and we have a very powerful army to attack our enemies with.

Our Planeswalkers can also bolster our creatures. Nissa can buff any creature cast using her ultimate ability, while Tyvar gives target elf a +1/+1 counter (which can be used to great effect with Joraga Warcaller) and, until end of turn, deathtouch.

We do have several artifacts to bolster our army, most notably Door of Destinies and Vanquisher's Banner, the latter also providing us card draw.

---For spells, Revitalizing Repast   gives a creature we control +1/+1 and indestructible. This can be good for part two of our strategy.---

Finally, we have we have a couple enchantments that can bolster our army. These are Concordant Crossroads, which gives our creatures (and sadly our opponents creatures) haste; and Elderfang Venom, which gives our attacking elves deathtouch.

LEEROY JENKINS

Part 2 of the plan involves throwing Lathril, Blade of the Elves at our problems. While our lords can buff Lathril, we need her to be stronger. That's where our targeted and activated buffs come in.

There are two reasons we want Lathril strong. The first is to make more elves. Yes, we have a ton of ways to make more elves, but Lathril's ability to make a number of elf tokens equal to the damage she deals to our enemies cannot be ignored. Secondly, we want to utilize her tap ability. Should we play our cards right, Lathril will become an incredible threat very quickly.

Revitalizing Repast makes Lathril literally indestructible and gives her +1/+1. Our lords, enchantments, and artifacts can further buff Lathril. Of course, we won't be able to get everything onto the battlefield, which is why we have redundancies. In theory, Lathril can gain Trample, Deathtouch, Fear, Haste, Shroud, Hexproof, and Indestructible. In practice, we may only get a couple of these on Lathril. That's perfectly okay - we just need to make the most of this. Also in theory, we can kill at least one opponent in a single turn utilizing Lathril's abilities.

To buff Lathril, we have access to all of the buffs mentioned above, plus a few targeted buffs, including Crown of Skemfar, Rancor, and Lightning Greaves. These three cards alone gives Lathril Haste, Shroud, Trample, and +1/+1 for each elf we control. That's not a bad series of buffs that are easily attainable in this deck.

Secondly, we want to be able to tap, untap, and tap Lathril and her Merry Men. Benefactor's Draught, Vitalize, and Mobilize allows us to untap Lathril up to three times. To gather some of these spells, we have a couple tutors. These tutors include Vampiric Tutor and Diabolic Intent. The best way to approach this strategy would be to use Diabolic Intent first, as you do not have to reveal the card you tutored for, and then Vampiric Tutor at the final opponent's endstep, allowing you to draw the chosen spell at the beginning of your turn. Under this strategy, we tap 10 elves and Lathril, cast one of the untap spells, tap 10 more elves and lathril, cast the last untap spell, and tap 10 elves and Lathril one more time. This deals a whopping 30 damage to each opponent. If Throne of the God-Pharaoh is on the field, it deals 10 more damage to each opponent at the beginning of our next end step. That makes 40. Of course another tutor, such as Demonic Tutor or Grim Tutor, will make the process of gathering your pieces easier, but given Demonic Tutor and Grim Tutor's price, as well as the price of Diabolic Intent and Vampiric Tutor, it can get quite pricey. As a result, I have it in the maybeboard. Add it if you want, but I wouldn't break the bank for them. It is completely feasible to make this combo work without them.

I also threw in Copperhorn Scout due to her untap ability. Whenever Copperhorn Scout attacks, we untap every other creature we control. Those ten elves we've tapped and untapped three times? Attack with only Copperhorn Scout, and they all untap again. With the Copperhorn strategy, we do as we did above - tap Lathril plus 10, untap with a spell, tap again, untap with a spell, tap again - and then we move to combat. Attack with Copperhorn Scout and untap all 10 of those creatures. During the second main phase, tap them all again for the win. Copperhorn Scout can also work if you can only find one of your untap spells. Tap, untap, tap again, attack with Copperhorn, tap again in the second main phase, then let Throne of the God-Pharaoh do its job. Copperhorn Scout can really pull its weight in this deck.

I'D TAP THAT

Lathril isn't the only elf tap strategy we have. Gilt-Leaf Archdruid can act as a way to slow down gameplay while we grab our pieces. It could also be a game-winning piece if used in combination with some other card abilities.

The Archdruid has two abilites. The first lets us draw a card every time we cast a druid spell. This acts as some minor card draw. The second ability lets us tap seven untapped druids we control. By doing this, we steal every land target opponent controls. This can grind an opponent's strategy down to a halt. By combining Freyalise's +2 ability and Parallel Lives, we can make a ton of druids quickly. If you choose to run Doubling Season in place of Parallel Lives, you also get bonus loyalty counters on Freyalise. Either way, Freyalise becomes a very powerful tool for this strategy. We also have many druids in this deck. These include Beast Whisperer, Circle of Dreams Druid, Elves of Deep Shadow, Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Harbinger, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Gilt-Leaf Archdruid herself, Gnarlroot Trapper, Leaf-Crowned Visionary, Llanowar Elves, Fanatic of Rhonas, Marwyn, the Nurturer, Priest of Titania, and Realmwalker. With 15 of our creatures being Druids, and with Freyalise's ability to make Elf Druid tokens, Gilt-Leaf Archdruid should have no issue stealing our opponents' lands. With Throne of the God Pharaoh in play, our opponents are also pinged for at least 7 life each turn. This can work really well with Copperhorn Scout as well. Tap 7 druids, steal an opponent's lands. Attack with Copperhorn Scout, which untaps our druids. In the second main phase, tap them again to steal another opponent's lands, or just to keep around.

The land advantage from this strategy is not only incredibly valuable, but we can also use Nissa of Shadowed Boughs' ability to bring out monstrous creatures for free, such as Allosaurus Shepherd or, if you decide to run it, Craterhoof Behemoth. This combo can completely shut down strategies and could prove useful for enacting our Lathril-centric strategies.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 1 Mythic Rares 47 - 4 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.69
Tokens	Elf Druid 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Emblem Tyvar Kell, Fanatic of Rhonas 4/4 B