Izoni Elves

Commander / EDH Aristocrats BG (Golgari) Elves Reanimator

dizzierabit

Creature (41)

• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Drove of Elves
• 1x Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Champion
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Soultiller
• 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gnarlroot Trapper
• 1x Heritage Druid
• 1x Imperious Perfect
• 1x Jagged-Scar Archers
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Joraga Warcaller
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lys Alana Huntmaster
• 1x Lys Alana Scarblade
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Ochran Assassin
• 1x Poison-Tip Archer
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Quirion Elves
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Rhys the Exiled
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Shaman of the Pack
• 1x Sylvan Ranger
• 1x Timberwatch Elf
• 1x Underrealm Lich
• 1x Viridian Zealot
• 1x Wellwisher
• 1x Wirewood Channeler
• 1x Wirewood Herald
• 1x Wirewood Hivemaster
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Yeva, Nature's Herald

Land (32)

• 1x Bayou
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 11x Forest
• 1x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x High Market
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 13x Swamp
• 1x Wirewood Lodge

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Grave Pact
• 1x Journey to Eternity  ^Flip
• 1x Lurking Predators
• 1x Oversold Cemetery
• 1x Perilous Forays
• 1x Prowess of the Fair
• 1x Shapers' Sanctuary
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Boundless Realms
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Victimize

Commander (1)

Artifact (8)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir
• 1x Vanquisher's Banner

Instant (4)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Thrilling Encore

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Sideboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Seedtime

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Maybeboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Songs of the Damned

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Gaze of Granite

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Doubling Season

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Like little creatures? Like artisocrat-style play? Like Grave Pact? This is the deck for you.

description under construction

Gameplan

Gameplan:

Its an aristocrats deck at its heart. Luckily elves provide us with tons of ways to generate value out of cheap bodies, and green and black are great colors to abuse sac effects to control the board and win.

Most of my wins have come from overrunning players, or forestwalking them. That said, Grave Pact allows us a way to reliably control the board while Poison-Tip Archer and Shaman of the Pack provide a little more of that aristocrat feel and win conditions.

Had a wonderful game where I killed 2 players with Ezuri, Renegade Leader and then sacced all my creatures via Altar of Dementia to mill the last player out.

Full table kills are absolutely viable with this deck as early as turn 5. Like most of my decks (and elf decks in general) it capitalizes on burst value-generation rather than longer, more consistent value generation to win in a matter of a turn or 2.

Deckbuilding Decisions

Deckbuilding Decisions

41 creatures may seem like a lot in a deck whose general creates creatures on ETB. That said elves require a critical mass to work, similar to aristocrat decks in general. We don't want our most effective cards in Grave Pact, Vanquisher's Banner and a variety of others to be dead draws.

Elves seemed a natural choice to me for a variety of reasons: 1. They're a strong tribe on their own (duh) 2. Black splash for elves provides very few cards but the cards they do provide are very strong Lys Alana Scarblade provides great creature removal while filling our yard. Win win. Prowess of the Fair discourages folks from boardwiping. Izoni, Thousand-Eyed is an elf herself. Obviously a value deck would probably be more valuable over the long game. But this deck is fast and is able to generate massive value early and recover incredibly fast thanks to our general. 3. I don't have another tribal deck right now, and while I'd love to do Sultai elves Leovold, Emissary of Trest is banned, rightly so.

Lack of traditional ramp:

Deck slots are few and far between in the deck, and while some early ramp like Rampant Growth or Kodama's Reach is great in theory, I'd normally prefer to play 1-2 creatures for the mana I'd spend on those spells.

Elves produce mana.

My only concern has been generating black mana at a high level because the black cards we do have have high colored-mana costs. Enter Perilous Forays and Boundless Realms. Decktesting is still continuing, my meta does run a good amount of targeted land destruction but I haven't had a problem sticking 5-6 black mana sources.

Notable Cards

Altar of Dementia : The best free sac outlet in the deck. Best use is to smack someone for high damage then sac your elves to mill another player. Izoni helps you generate value out of your graveyard so don't be afraid to make use of this to mill yourself/others. Self-mill is always an option, particularly in those situations when you don't have much going on. Because Izoni provides both bodies and potential card draw Altar is a great way to get some extended value off cards.

Boundless Realms : The only real 'ramp' card in the deck, aside from Perilous Forays. Often I find myself casting it when I have 3-4 lands because I know my elves aren't long for this world. Since the deck wants to generate burst value going from 5 to 10 lands in once cycle is very beneficial. Also, very importantly, one of the few ways to fetch Swamps in the deck.

Perilous Forays : As Justin Parnell said, Sands to make me Lands. Mana-light sac outlets are always valuable in a deck and this is no exception. Turning your elf or insect tokens into extra lands its high-value on its own, with the inclusion of Grave Pact its a great way to sweep the board and ramp at the same time. Instant-speed sac outlets are op.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader : Wincon and general nuisance.

Thrilling Encore: Why is this card not more expensive? Its absurd, so good. Its an instant, I can't even. It's in all my decks.

Shapers' Sanctuary: cheapest draw effect in the deck, sleeper good card. Generating that little bit of value off of someone's removal is really helpful for us. Its discouraged folks from targeting my creatures more than once. Asceticism may take its place, pending testing and me finding one.

Cloudstone Curio : Pair with Thousand-Year Elixir for infinite combos with Heritage Druid , Wirewood Channeler for mana, which along with any draw effect allows for draw as much as needed, along with Lys Alana Huntmaster or Wirewood Hivemaster for tokens to sac to kill via Poison-Tip Archer or an arbitrarily large number of elves to drain folks with Shaman of the Pack

Infinite Combos

Infinte Combos:

Generally my playgroup is not fond of combos. However the pieces involved in infinite combos in this deck (like most elf decks) are fairly to very integral to the deck performing at a high level. Luckily all of our combos are may abilities which means we can use them to the extent we please throughout the game. We can draw an arbitrary number of cards, produce an arbitrary amount of mana or tokens (both insects and elves) to futher any particular avenue we need in the moment. With Yeva, Nature's Herald we can do them at instant speed as well.

Additionally, the combos are very dependent on two artifacts being in play at the same time: Cloudstone Curio and Thousand-Year Elixir. without these enablers we can abuse the ETB's of elves in other ways each turn and can still generate lots of value, but its finite.

So yes, we can go infinite and I've not found its difficult to make it happen when I need it to. But I find it balanced on the whole, as all of them require two artifacts in a deck that can't really recur them. Adding some artifact protection or recursion to search and then protect these cards would strengthen the power and consistency of the deck, if that's what you have interest in.

Notable Exclusions

Notable Exclusions:

Nettle Sentinel: is the first suggestion i hear often. but it's just not very impactful as a one-off. when you have three and Heritage Druid you're in the money, but as a one-off it's not great.

Doubling Season: meh, yes this deck generates lots of tokens, but there aren't a lot of great ways to generate oppressive value off of them in an explosive manner. Obviously I can sac them for any number of benefits, but most require mana or large bodies (like Altar of Dementia. Right now its on the maybe pile, in large part because it (fairly) paints a target on me the minute I play it.

Phyrexian Arena: looking for a place for this, also thinking of Necropotence in this slot

Fecundity: with Grave Pact effects i'd rather not mitigate the value i generate off of saccing my creatures with opponent card draw

Ashnod's Altar: got booted for Perilous Forays. colorless mana isn't great in this deck, as most of my board is very cheap and costs colored mana. can't rely on cards like Gemstone Array to turn colorless into colored mana, so its out. It is a free sac outlet, which is very good, particularly with the dictate effects. on the maybe board pending some playtesting

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 1 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.10
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Insect 1/1 BG, Insect 1/1 G