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The Appearance of Vulnerability(cEDH Elves Primer)

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Elves Infinite Combo Mono-Green Primer

Grimlock46


"Much can be gained from the appearance of vulnerability."

Ezuri, Renegade Leader


Extended Primer

Ezuri Discord


Ezuri, Renegade Leader Competitive Elf Tribal

This deck aims to be pretty much as competitive as Mono-Green Elves can get. It can seemingly come out of nowhere if your opponents aren't ready for it. There are a large number of infinite combos possible, and a significant amount of tutors to get you there. The main goal is to get to infinite mana as quickly as you can, then run over your opponents with infinitely-large elves. If you or your meta disapproves of infinite combos and/or tutors, this definitely isn't the deck for you. The deck can run slower and wider if you don't want to go infinite, but it wasn't built around that type of play, so it will be far less effective.

Why Ezuri?

In my opinion, Ezuri, Renegade Leader is one of the best commanders for this type of strategy. Yisan is almost certainly more consistent, but I enjoy Ezuri's flavor and speed. He is cheap to cast and his abilities are great mana dumps for either large or infinite amounts of mana. His first ability allows us to regenerate our elves, protecting our important combo pieces from a good number of mass and targeted removal spells. We can use his second ability to either chip away at our opponents or win through infinite trample damage. This is our primary wincon, and there are many ways to achieve infinite mana discussed below.

These elves help us make large amounts of mana, eventually leading to infinite mana with the correct combo pieces.

Priest of Titania : The MVP of this deck. Very cheap to get out and produces insane amounts of mana. Note the distinction "each Elf in play," meaning that elves your opponents control also count.

Elvish Archdruid : Both a lord and a huge mana producer, can sometimes be more useful than Priest depending on the circumstances, but only counts your elves.

Karametra's Acolyte : Not an elf, but devotion can often be easier to come by than number of elves. Can keep up with the likes of our other mana-producers, albeit at a higher initial investment.

Wirewood Channeler : A more expensive Priest, good for redundancy.

Marwyn, the Nurturer : Note that the mana ability only checks her power, not the number of counters she has. This means that she can 2-piece combo with Umbral Mantle and 2 floating green, gaining more power and producing more mana each time she is untapped. Also gets bigger from other pump effects like Ezuri's Overrun and more.

Viridian Joiner : Essentially a worse Marwyn, but still combos off easily.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds : Mainly used for her mana ability, very similar to Marwyn and Joiner. It's unlikely that we will trigger the draw effect very often, but still nice to have.

Devoted Druid : An interesting mana producer with inbuilt untapping as long as you have the toughness to do so. Along with Leyline of Abundance it can make infinite mana in conjunction with Ezuri's overrun, netting one mana each time, dying at the end of turn.

Llanowar Tribe : Essentially 3 Llanowar elves in 1. In conjunction with Leyline of Abundance , it can make infinite mana with the usual untap effects, excluding Staff of Domination .

Lower Power Mana Producers:

Llanowar Elves : The quintessential mana dork, nothing special.

Fyndhorn Elves : Snowy Llanowar Elves . I highly recommend the updated artwork...

Elvish Mystic : Llanowar Elves #3.

Boreal Druid : Worse Llanowar Elves .

Joraga Treespeaker : Essentially pay 3 to tap for 2, pretty solid deal. In theory you could use Leyline of Abundance and Umbral Mantle for an infinitely large Joraga, but by that point there are probably better combos.

Heritage Druid : Doesn't produce mana on its own, but can be great to get around summoning sickness. Largely eclipsed by Earthcraft .

Dryad Arbor : Not an elf, but produces mana. Tutorable as both a land and a creature. Sometimes a Green Sun's Zenith X=0 can get you where you need to be.

There are some useful elves and non-elves that help us to reach our goals, but don't directly produce mana.

Argothian Elder : While it doesn't directly produce mana, there are an several infinite combos with this card. A fantastic choice to tutor for, especially if you have something like Wirewood Lodge , Maze of Ith , or a land that produces lots of mana in play.

Arbor Elf : Despite not being as strong as Argothian Elder, it has the potential to be leagues above a standard mana dork. In combination with Elvish Guidance , you can untap a basic forest for much more than just 1 mana.

Elvish Reclaimer : Essentially Crop Rotation on a stick. Useful for getting the combo/high mana-producing lands that we need. Can be tutored for easily since it is a creature, which is nice if you don't have any land tutors.

Temur Sabertooth : Not an elf, but enables so many infinite combos and cool interactions. Make sure you have some sort of haste-enabler like Concordant Crossroads or Lightning Greaves to use cards you replay.

Seeker of Skybreak : Absolutely fantastic in conjunction with any of our mana elves. Can go infinite with Illusionist's Bracers , allowing you to untap Seeker itself and a mana producer.

Imperious Perfect : A lord and a fairly consistent way to produce tokens. These tokens help to fuel our elf-based mana-producers like Priest of Titania . A good mix of offense, defense, and combo potential.

Copperhorn Scout : A very interesting 1 mana elf. With this in play, you can essentially give your creatures vigilance and enable combat/second main shenanigans with newly-untapped mana producers.

Quirion Ranger : Allows for the untapping of a key elf for additional mana, can be useful to get out that last bit of mana you need.

Wirewood Symbiote : Unfortunately not an elf, but a potentially better version of Quirion Ranger nonetheless. Return a cheap elf with its ability and you can replay it that turn, rather than losing a land.

Elvish Visionary : Card draw. Paired with Temur Sabertooth , it can draw a significant amount of cards.

Beast Whisperer : Lots of card draw. Unfortunately only works on cast, so cheating in creatures won't draw, but still very good.

Fauna Shaman : Helps you tutor for any creature you need, basically Survival of the Fittest on a stick (but worse).

Gaea's Herald : Protects our essential creatures from being countered. Unfortunately symmetrical, could run Prowling Serpopard instead, but it isn't an elf.

Eternal Witness : Not an elf, but gets us a card we need back.

Reclamation Sage : Simply good removal. Could go for Viridian Corruptor if you prefer infect to enchantment removal.

Wood Elves : Gets us a Forest untapped, good ramp.

Regal Force : Tutorable card draw, can give us a huge amount of cards depending on how many creatures we have.

Craterhoof Behemoth : Not strictly necessary in this deck, but alternate wincons are always nice. Run over your enemies with an army of elves. Nothing better than a Finale of Devastation X=10+, into a Big Craterhoof.

These non-creatures combine with our creatures to make infinite mana under certain circumstances.

Umbral Mantle : The best untap effect possible, requiring you to make only 4 mana each cycle to go infinite. Not only is it the cheapest untapper, it also boosts the creature's power each time they are untapped, enabling quick combos with Marwyn, the Nurturer , Viridian Joiner , and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds .

Staff of Domination : Requires you to produce 5 mana each time instead of 4, but provides a huge amount of utility. You can gain infinite life, draw out your library, untap your creatures, and tap everyone else's.

Sword of the Paruns : Takes a lot to get going, making it not ideal. Still combos off the same as Umbral Mantle , just takes significantly more mana to get the chain started.

Maze of Ith : Allows us to make infinite mana with Argothian Elder during combat, untapping Maze and another land with its ability, then getting untapped by Maze to do it over again.

Wirewood Lodge : Goes infinite with Argothian Elder and any other land producing 2 or more mana. We can untap Argothian Elder for 1 mana, tap another land for 2+, then do it all again infinitely. There are several lands in this deck that produce more than 2 ( Gaea's Cradle , Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx , Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun , and Elvish Guidance ). A forest + Wild Growth or Utopia Sprawl would also do the trick, but I've found these cards to be somewhat underwhelming otherwise.

Elvish Guidance : Enables a simple Forest to tap for significant amounts of mana. Can combo off with either Argothian Elder + Wirewood Lodge , netting mana each time, or with Arbor Elf and some sort of untap effect like Umbral Mantle . Using Earthcraft can negate the need for Arbor Elf by using any creature to untap the Forest, then untapping that creature for less than the land produced.

Leyline of Abundance : Always a great thing to see in your opening hand. Opens up a number of infinite combos by making creatures that would typically produce 3 mana produce 4, giving us net mana with untap effects.

These are the simple combos that are fairly easy to achieve and don't require too many moving pieces to function.

Umbral Mantle

Sword of the Paruns

Staff of Domination

Argothian Elder

Elvish Guidance

These combos are not as simple, but can still be pulled off given the right conditions.

Leyline of Abundance

Temur Sabertooth + HASTE ( Concordant Crossroads , Lightning Greaves , Thousand-Year Elixir )

Temur Sabertooth Without Haste

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Casual

86% Competitive

Revision 6 See all

(2 years ago)

Top Ranked
Date added 4 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

38 - 0 Rares

24 - 0 Uncommons

14 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.47
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Emblem Vivien Reid
Folders to try, greenedh, Excellent Primer, Inspo, Elves Commander Decks, edh, Cool Decks, Decks of interest, Elf Green Deck, Combo Deck
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