Guide
The deck has quite a few lines. However,the typical start you should be looking for is a way to play your commander on turn two and start growing her. You can play the commander turn one if you put a little more money into the deck and get a mana crypt.
How to play your commander turn 2
1) Have 2-3 lands in hand
2) have any of the following in your hand: llanowar elves, elvish mystic, boreal druid, green sun's zenith, utopia sprawls, wild growth, exploration, fyndhorn elves or ancient tomb
side notes
Using green sun's zenith you tutor for drayad arbor; meaning you cannot have dryad arbor in your opener.
Using exploration, wild growth, utopia sprawls or green sun's zenith is the most effective way to ramp to your commander because it allows you to save your elves to grow your commander.
Each elf you play grows your commander; couple that with hardened scales and it can get out of control very quickly. There is of course the infinite mana package: Staff of domination, umbral mantle, and sword of the paruns can push our mana way over the top.
Exploration is in a flex slot. Burgeoning is also very powerful and fits this slot but you're only going to have 2 opponents in this format; additionally if you're not on the play this card scales very poorly as the game progresses as it is dependent on your opponent playing lands; exploration only cares about the lands in your hand.
Infinate mana
Each equipment; the number in the "( )" is the amount of mana needed.
Staff of domination (7) - 3 to cast + 3 to untap a creature+ a creature that produces 5 mana or more + 1 to untap staff.
umbral mantle (3) - 3 to cast + creature that produces 4 or more mana
sword of the paruns (7) - 4 to cast + 3 to activate the ability + creature that produces 4 or more mana
Cloudstone curio + haste enabler (thousand year elixir/concordant crossroads) + any elf that produces enough to pay for itself and 1 other creature + Marwyn the nurturer. This will put an ever expanding amount of counters on Marwyn granting infinate mana.
creatures with the potential to generate infinite mana
Marwyn, the Nurturer - produces mana equal to her power
Priest of Titania - produces mana for EACH elf on the battlefeild
Elvish archdruid - produces mana for each elf YOU control
Selvala, Heart of the wilds - produces mana equal to the greatest power among creatures you control
Outlets/mana sinks
So with all that mana what is there to do with it?
Genesis Wave - put deck on table and watch everyone be sad
Duskwatch recruiter - draw every creature and craterhoof everyone
Staff of domination - anything you want
Ezuri, renegade leader - pumps the elves on team for the kill
Rhonas, the indomitable- pumps target creature
Tutors and tech cards
Non-bias removal
Beast within
Song of the drayads - it should be noted that this makes your opponents land into q forest and a few of the elf lords give forest walk effectively giving your creatures unblockable
Artifact/enchantment removal
Korsian grip - with the exception of morph this gets around control; it's very good at getting rid of things like the chain veil
Natures claim - it is the cheapest artifact/enchantment removal and the 4 life your opponents gain will be irrelevant.
Reclamation sage - an elf with a 2/1 body that can destroy artifacts or enchantments
Vivendi Reid - let's you search the top few cards for lands or creatures, deals with enchantments and artifacts and the ultimate makes your board bigger and indestructible
Freylise, llanowar's fury - gets rid of pesky artifacts and enchantments and makes elves!
Tutors
Worldly tutor - instant to the top of the deck
Chords of calling - convokes and puts onto the battlefield
Green sun's zenith - finds whatever we need at all points in the game;gets shuffled in
Fierce empath - finds our big fatties like crafterhoof for the kill or regal force to load our hand back up
Protection
Asceticism - hexproof/regenerate
Ezuri, renegade leader - regenerate other elves
Sylvan safe keeper - gives shroud to target creature at the expense of a land
Wirewood symbiote - can return an elf to our hand once a turn and it untaps something.
Untapper package
Paradox engine - basically allows us to use our commander as a storm enabler
Thousand year elixir - gives our abilities haste and 1 untap
Seeker of sky break - creature gives us one untap
Wirewood symbiote - 1 untap at the cost of returning an elf to our hand; this can blank some instant speed removal that targets our elves
Quirion ranger - one untap at the cost of returning a forest. Works really well in combination with burgeoning
Umbral mantle
Sword of the paruns
Staff of domination
Counters/buffs
Hardened scales - effectively doubles the speed at which your commander can get counters
All the elf lords - pumps team
Timber watch elf - pumps target for EVERY elf on the battlefield
craterhoof - typically the finisher pumps each creature by the power of the strongest creature
Immaculate magistrate - adds counters to a creature for each elf you control
land tech
Scavenger grounds - exiles all graveyards; other than primal command and eternal witness the deck doesn't interact with your graveyard but this gives outs to decks that are heavily graveyard dependent.
Ghost quarter - gets rid of the pesky none basically like glacial chasm that just shuts down the beats plan.
Cavern of souls - ensures our elves hit the board.
Nyxthos - produces tons of mana
Wirewood lodge - untaps high value elves
Sideboard
So, this may seem a little odd but yes I've put together a sideboard. EDH has a very fickle meta game; and depending on the store you play at you may need to make some adjustments to the deck. Additionally, the ban list is rather restrictive for 2h giant edh; so, cards like sensei's diving top, survival of the fittest and natural order cannot appear but if they could they should.It's all about personal preferance and adjusting to rules set by your lgs. Also, I've added some expensive cards like Gaea's cradle and mana crypt because they are powerful but may be out of most people's price range.
cuts
Overwhelming stampede
Triumph of the hordes
For the most part the list is very tight but you maybe wondering where certain cards are. Team buffs like triumph of the hordes and overwhelming stampede were cut because they have a low floor and a high ceiling. They depend on you having a developed board and large creatures; it's already possible to win the game from this position. These are win more cards.
Eldamari, lord of leaves
He offers great protection at the expense of interfering with a central part of the overall strategy. I've opted for sylvan safe keeper; though it's not an elf and it doesn't give forest walk it fills the same role; it protects our creatures but it doesn't prevent us from not being able to do infinate mana stuff.
