The Claw Machine

Commander / EDH Budget Counters Elves GU (Simic) Infinite Combo Tokens

Abzkaban

Creature (34)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Birchlore Rangers
• 1x Blighted Agent
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Copperhorn Scout
• 1x Cultivator of Blades
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Gyre Sage
• 1x Heritage Druid
• 1x Immaculate Magistrate
• 1x Joraga Warcaller
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lys Alana Huntmaster
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Elves
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Sage of Hours
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Timberwatch Elf
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Wolf-Skull Shaman
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Zameck Guildmage

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Land (34)

• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 7x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 4x Island
• 1x Khalni Garden
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Artifact (8)

• 1x Animation Module
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Naturalize
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Plasm Capture
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Simic Charm
• 1x Snakeform
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Awakening Zone
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Elvish Guidance
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Song of the Dryads

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Elvish Promenade
• 1x Finale of Devastation
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Mycoloth
• 1x Wellwisher

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Aluren
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Descendants' Path

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This deck is now archived

However I'm leaving it up as a monument to the theme and in case anyone wants to build something similar.

I have instead built elves in Marwyn here: The Lady of Lórien

My new Ezuri build is here: PROGRESSIVE Compleat Insurance Bundle

"Who's in charge here?"

The Claw!

Ah, yes. Ezuri, Claw of Progress is most certainly in charge here. He's at the helm of a budget elfball style deck where the goal is to Overrun our opponents or combo out. This deck plays like any other elf deck with the exception of a splash of for extra draw, utility, and permission spells.

The Little Green Men

The Little Green Men are our elves. Like any elfball strategy, the goal is to play lots of elves, mana ramp, and card draw until we come across one of our wincons. However we get an added bonus of having Ezuri as our commander, because almost every time we play an elf, we'll get an experience counter. We can then use those to ramp even harder or make choice creatures big.

The Claw is our master. The Claw decides who will go and who will stay.

We have a plethora of options to choose from when it comes to creature tutors in green. However since this is a budget list, you won't find any Worldly Tutor or Chord of Calling here. These and many others can make great upgrade options should you so choose. Here are the tutors we have to work with on a budget:

Elvish Harbinger One of the best elf tutors out there since she doubles as a color fixing mana dork. We'd like to be able to play her multiple times to stack experience counters and to fetch whatever elf is missing from our setup.

Wirewood Herald A great one-and-done tutor when he hits the grave. Perfect for chump-blocking, and even if our opponents refuse to swing at us to prevent us from tutoring (which is great anyway) then we can always destroy him with one of our removal spells.

Momir Vig, Simic Visionary Ol' Momir is the bread and butter of our tutor arsenal. With the amount of sheer draw power this deck has, we merely need to play a creature to get the next card we need. The best part? He's not restricted to elves!

While not technically tutors, it's worth noting that Genesis Wave and Nissa Revane can bring multiple creatures straight to the battlefield, triggering Ezuri many times over.

Strangers! From the outside!

The non-elves of the deck. While we want the deck to be comprised mostly of elves, some outsiders are necessary for our strategy to work.

Acidic Slime Removal in the form of a permanent that triggers Ezuri.

Blighted Agent This unblockable infect creature is one of our win cons.

Champion of Lambholt Also a win con. Pump her up with +1/+1 counters then swing with your elf army.

Fathom Mage Incredible draw in combination with our commander.

Prime Speaker Zegana Also great draw utility. By the time we play her, we should have at least one creature out with lots of counters on it.

Primordial Sage Draw engine

Sage of Hours This guy is our go-to combo win in the form of infinite turns! Provided we have at least five experience counters of course.

Soul of the Harvest Draw engine 2.0

Temur Sabertooth This allows us to replay our elves over and over provided we have the mana. Works wonders with one of our draw engines.

Vorel of the Hull Clade While I'm slightly disappointed that he doesn't double our experience counters, he's still useful when we want more counters on a creature than we have a right to get in one turn.

Notable Exclusions

At this point you may have noticed that the almighty Craterhoof Behemoth that is so popular in elfball decks is missing from the list. That is because this is a budget list, and we have other win cons at our disposal. However he is most certainly a planned upgrade in the future.

Wirewood Symbiote This is one I like. Triggers Ezuri and allows us to replay our elves. But only once. I'd like to make room for him but I'd have to find something to cut first. Until then Temur Sabertooth can do his job.

Win Cons

We mostly want to be able to buff up our little elves and swing with everything with a few circumstances in exception.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader Our commander's formal self. An Overrun on a stick. Pump him with all the mana we make and swing.

Overwhelming Stampede This gives all our creatures the added power of the one or two creatures we've been buffing up with Ezuri.

Joraga Warcaller We won't even need to kick him to get a win out of him. The counters from Ezuri would be enough, but then we also have Immaculate Magistrate for support.

Cultivator of Blades While mostly here for utility and ramping experience counters, swinging with this means everything swings big. We can also add a Timberwatch Elf if we need the extra oomph.

Champion of Lambholt No one can block our creatures. And in that light, Cyclonic Rift No one can block if they have nothing to block with.

Sage of Hours The only infinite combo in the deck. We get infinite turns. If no one stops us, we win by default.

Conclusion

There's a lot that can be improved in this deck, I'm sure, but it's a great starting point for someone on a budget. If there's anything over a couple bucks in the list, it means I already had the card at the time of this deck's conception. If you liked the deck, go ahead and give it a +1!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 4 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.65
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elf Druid 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Experience Token, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Human 2/2 G, Morph 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G, Servo 1/1 C, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	EDH Decks, Commander, EDH, Simic EDH