Rhys, My Horde of Elves, Rhys!

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Casual Elves Lifegain Multiplayer Tribal

DarksteelElephant

Instant (2)

• 1x Eyeblight's Ending
• 1x Worldly Tutor SL

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Elvish Promenade SL
• 1x Hunting Triad
• 1x Shamanic Revelation
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Phyrexian Arena SL
• 1x Prowess of the Fair

Artifact (5)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Slate of Ancestry
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury

Creature (53)

• 1x Arbor Elf SL
• 1x Argothian Elder
• 1x Bramblewood Paragon
• 1x Chameleon Colossus SL
• 1x Deathrite Shaman MP
• 1x Drove of Elves
• 1x Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Champion
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Soultiller
• 1x Elvish Vanguard SL
• 1x Essence Warden
• 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gaea's Herald
• 1x Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
• 1x Heedless One SL
• 1x Heritage Druid
• 1x Immaculate Magistrate
• 1x Imperious Perfect
• 1x Jagged-Scar Archers
• 1x Joraga Treespeaker
• 1x Joraga Warcaller
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Llanowar Mentor
• 1x Lys Alana Huntmaster
• 1x Lys Alana Scarblade
• 1x Masked Admirers
• 1x Nath of the Gilt-Leaf
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Primordial Sage
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Regal Force
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Shaman of the Pack
• 1x Skyshroud Poacher
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Sylvan Messenger
• 1x Terastodon
• 1x Thornweald Archer
• 1x Timberwatch Elf
• 1x Wellwisher
• 1x Wirewood Channeler
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Woodland Bellower
• 1x Yeva, Nature's Herald

Land (29)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 10x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Grim Backwoods
• 1x High Market
• 1x Hissing Quagmire
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Overgrown Tomb SL
• 1x Strip Mine
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Malady
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold SL
• 1x Winding Canyons
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Commander (1)

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Elves. For a race that is supposed to live for centuries and breed slowly, there seems to be a lot of them, something this deck takes advantage of. With an incredibly low curve, this deck's ideal opening turns consist of getting a few mana dorks out, then some lords and utility guys, with the goal to try to get a draw engine online as soon as possible. After that, the deck quickly builds up a massive boardstate, and can win either by chipping away at life totals over time or with one massive alpha strike.

The commander use you pick for an elf deck is mostly just personal taste, as most elf commanders work basically the same, with only subthemes and secondary colors changing. This deck would work fine mono-green, but splashing a second color usually has few drawbacks. The choice of Rhys the Exiled as the commander was somewhat accidental. For a time, I ran Nath as the commander with the usual package of discard as a subtheme. However, the fatal flaw of Nath is the troubling word "random", which meant he almost never survived more than a single turn, so I began to remove the discard spells, first the ones that needed him to be good, then his enablers, and then finally nothing was left except for Sadistic Hypnotist, but trying to cast that card usually resulted in a ton of hate, so I eventually just took out the Hypnotist and put Nath in the 99, which left Rhys as basically the only option, as all the other B/G elf legends are really just graveyard/sacrifice commanders that happen to be elves. Rhys is a fine commander, not really amazing but can be surprisingly useful, and at 2 generic mana and a Green, he is very easy to cast on curve even if you get color screwed.

The main weaknesses of the deck is getting wrathed, being mana screwed in the first three turns of the game, or stalling out if you don't get an engine online. Wraths are especially painful as your mana sources are mostly creatures, and often it happens after you tutor out several key elves, so I recommend running at least one way to repeatedly recur creatures.

Most important categories of cards:

1. Imperious Prefect and lords: Despite this deck being tribal, lords are actually not as important as you may think. You only really need them mid-game if you need to block and late-game when you want to actually win. In fact, if you draw skullclamp you may want to not play any of your lords until you draw another card advantage engine! The Perfect is probably the best of the lords in EDH, as simply making elves is very powerful, as they enable your other cards.

2. Slate of Ancestry and card advantage: This deck is a bit of a paradox, as it is full of cheap cards yet its main goal seems to be making mana. This is where the draw engines come into play. By turn six this deck can start running out of gas if it has an explosive enough start, and that is why most of the non-elf tribal cards help draw. You want a mix of repeatable draw for when you are growing your board slow and steady, and single use cards that draw you a bunch of cards immediately after a quick start. And Slate of Ancestry for both.

3. Wellwisher and utility dorks: These cards form the backbone of the deck, allowing you to deal with threats, spend extra mana or just stay alive while you dig for bombs and lords. Wellwisher generates an absurd amount of life, and unlike Rhys doesn't even have to attack. Other notable dorks include Quirion Ranger to enable the other dorks, Timberwatch Elf which helps you win every combat and is just dirty if you are also running infect, Deathrite Shaman to hose graveyards and generate small but efficient value, and the very underrated Llanowar Mentor for the best elf tokens in the game... old art Llanowar Elves!

4. Skyshroud Poacher and tutors: This deck will need different elves for each situation, and some elves in every situation. These cards are for when you don't have either. Skyshroud Poacher in particular is one of the strongest cards in the entire deck, as it essentially gives you perfect turns once it gets going.

5. Priest of Titania and Mana super-dorks: Priest of Titania is a card that can bring you from 4 mana to 10 mana on the turn after you play her. Late game, she can easily tap for 10-20 mana, and single-handily makes me glad mana-burn is no longer a part of the game. You want either her, Elvish Archdruid or Wirewood Channeler on the field as soon as possible, and preferably all three. Joraga Treespeaker and Heritage Druid also fit into this catagory, but are slower and tie down your other elves.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	7 years
Exclude colors	WUR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Elephant 3-3 G, Elf Druid 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Llanowar Elves 1/1 G
Folders	Favorites