Imagine, if you will, a troupe of elegant dancers, swaying to the movement of the leaves. Their motions graceful, their song beautiful.
Now imagine them pumped up with enough steroids to kill an elephant.
Welcome to Ezuri.
This deck is fast, mean, and explosive. Turn 5 wins are the norm, and turn 4 isn't unheard of. The goal is to ramp mana as hard and fast as you can and overwhelm the opponent with a bunch of weenies all pumped up through Ezuri's ability.
The Good:
Copperhorn Scout untaps your mana Elves when he attacks, allowing you to Overrun even more using Priest of Titania, Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, and Elvish Archdruid. Quirion Ranger, Wirewood Symbiote,
Seeker of Skybreak
, and
Wirewood Lodge
do the same, but on a smaller scale.
Speaking of Wirewood Symbiote, he's not only useful for untapping your mana dudes, he can also help you save an Elf from being killed by a burn or kill spell. Just bounce back your Rofellos or Archdruid in response to their kill card!
If you don't think you can win in one turn,
Joraga Warcaller
makes for an excellent sink for all the mana you can generate. Kicked a few times, he'll make your other Elves bigger than anything your opponent can handle.
Elvish Harbinger and Green Sun's Zenith both help you get that all-important mana generator so you can overwhelm your opponent that much earlier.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
can easily tap for 8+ mana once you get going. It's worth replacing a basic Forest even with Rofellos in the deck.
Mutavault is an Elf land. Ezuri likes Elves. Elves like recieving Ezuri's buffs. It's a wonderful friendship.
Beastmaster Ascension is great in the more grindy matches and/or when your mana producers get picked off. It's a solid, reliable pump that doesn't require lots of mana and is pretty easy to get to seven counters in an Elf deck.
The Bad:
Joraga Treespeaker is an amazing drop for the first or second turn, but after that she's not much more than a warm body. You're never going to want to level her up more than once, but at least you get the mana right back after you do (assuming she wasn't summoned the same turn you sink mana into her).
Viridian Joiner is great after a couple of Ezuri buffs, especially with a Staff or Mantle out, but without the extra mana already there, he's pretty much just an overcosted mana dork. Still, it's another way to go infinite with...
The Ugly:
Staff of Domination. Hoo boy. If you get one of your Elves to tap for 5 mana, you've just gone infinite. Tap the Elf for 5, spend 3 to untap it with the Staff, spend 1 to untap the Staff itself, and you've got free. Rinse and repeat. Summon Ezuri if he's not out, pump 857,430 times, and blast your opponent for a few million points of damage.
Umbral Mantle is in the same vein. Equip to a big mana Elf. Tap for 4+ mana. Spend three to untap it and buff. Tap for 4. Untap her. Another infinite mana card.
Glistener Elf isn't necessarily in the deck to win through Infect; it serves as a threat to make the opponent block all its damage rather than attempt to kill off something otherwise more important. Still, there are times when it can push through enough damage to win you the game, especially when combined with
Timberwatch Elf
.
There's nothing quite like dropping a Glimpse of Nature and flooding the board with 10 more Elves because of how cheap they are and how likely you are to draw another Elf off the one you just cast.
Similarly, casting a Genesis Wave for 12 or so and being able to drop all but three other cards from your deck is a thing of beauty. If you hit your Glimpse or Vitalize, that's okay, because you've probably also hit a bunch of nasty threats as well.
The Side:
Your sideboard is highly customizable and you have a wide variety of good choices. You should absolutely adjust it to suit your local metagame.
Having Eladamri, Lord of Leaves and Steely Resolve in the sideboard may seem counterproductive, since a lot of abilities require you to target your own Elves, but if the opponent is playing heavy removal, it's all but necessary. If you lose all your mana generators, you'll be in for a very long game, and getting two-for-one'd by an Electrolyze or Arc Lightning feels awful.
Considering how many Swords are running around in TL, Gleeful Sabotage, Reclamation Sage, and
Viridian Corrupter
can really help out. The first two also help to stop the occasional Voltron deck.
Jagged-Scar Archers
works almost like a reusable
Plummet
, helping to shut down Geist of Staint Traft's angels and hit the occasional Trygon Predator and the like.
Tajuru Preserver is great against Edict decks, like mono-black control via Toshiro Umezawa and Maralen of the Mornsong.
You don't see mono-blue control too often, but when the opponent has a fistful of counterspells,
Gaea's Herald
really shines.
Pithing Needle
is a solid choice if you're seeing Marath decks. Recurrable removal is hard for Elves to deal with, and this shuts it down. It'll also shut down nasty things like Isochron Scepter and
Merieke Ri Berit
.
That's the deck in all its explosive glory. Now go and get your Elfball on.
