Arbor Elf
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Arbor Elf

Creature — Elf Druid

: Untap target Forest.

SaberTech on Mad World Rising

3 weeks ago

Thanks for the questions greyninja!

Grazilaxx is a remnant from an older, pre-banning of Dockside cEDH build for the deck. At that time in cEDH people were running Animar as more of a midrange deck because it wasn't fast enough for a turbo build to work well in the meta. I've kept it now that I run the deck as more of a Bracket 4 build and have to face off against more board wipes in the casual meta. It's mostly in the deck as another way of drawing cards to help recover but if an opponent would rather have me bounce back my creatures so that I can put more counters on Animar and get more ETB effects instead of drawing a card, then who am I to argue?

I've generally been pretty happy with Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide. Like you pointed out, they help to increase the chances of a turn 2 Animar. There have also been times where I was digging through my deck with the help of something like Glimpse of Nature but have completely tapped out to do it. In those cases, having cards like the Guides, Lotus Petal, and Chrome Mox help to give free coloured mana that I might need to help close out the game. In cEDH the guides are a little more useful because they can pay for cards like Red Elemental Blast and Veil of Summer on their own but even in this build they can help to pay for a Wild Cantor or a Talisman so that I have blue mana up for counters to protect Walking Ballista. At 3 mana, the Guides can also be Neoformed into Ancestral Statue.

The 27 lands may not seem like a lot but some of the cEDH builds have even less. Animar doesn't really need many lands to go off considering the various cheap mana dorks and other ramp the deck provides. It is a bit tricky to go that low in lands and can require some aggressive mulligans to get a decent starting hand. While playing though, I've sometimes found that even just 27 lands can result in some mana flooding when I would really rather be drawing spells. The land count is something that you just have to experiment with for your own build to see where that sweet spot is for your own play style.

As for Utopia Sprawl, there are times where it has been a dead draw but it's not that often. Between the Dual Lands, Shock Lands, and Fetch lands in the deck it's not normally that difficult to get access to a land that counts as a forest on turn 1. Using Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth as ramp synergizes well with Arbor Elf and can also net extra mana with the help of cards like Snap, Deceiver Exarch, and Peregrine Drake.

Snap157 on Budget Meren

3 weeks ago

Meren as a commander really pushes you to build with a high density of creatures-which are currently only a third of your deck. In this case I would cut most of your non-creature ramp for cheap mana dorks (Somberwald Sage, Arbor Elf, Fyndhorn Elves, maybe even Viridian Emissary, Solemn Simulacrum or Springbloom Druid).

I would also do the same with your other critical deck areas such as removal, draw, boardwipes, sac outlets. I would cut Alesha's Legacy, Overwhelming Remorse, and Putrefy in favor of Merciless Executioner, Insidious Fungus, Grist, the Hunger Tide, Foundation Breaker, and Acidic Slime. Also with more creatures gives us better tutor options: Fauna Shaman is worth the money here, and Jarad's Orders is super efficient. Mausoleum Secrets is kinda cool but it only grabs black creatures which I don't like- up to you if you want to keep it.

Drawing cards is overrated in this deck- your hand IS your graveyard. I would lose the Village Rites, Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Bastion of Remembrance and Disciple of Bolas to bring in cards like Golgari Thug, Stitcher's Supplier, Skull Prophet, or Satyr Wayfinder. Nyx Weaver and Golgari Grave-Troll are an absolute must.

Not sure terastadon belongs here, as much as I love it. It's nice as a reanimation target but meren will have trouble bringing it back and the deck isn't ramp heavy enough to reliably have the mana to cast it. Instead, maybe a Skullwinder or Junji, the Midnight Sky to give you some added recursion.

You may want to also add in about 5 cheap nonbasics. Temple of Malady, Woodland Cemetery, Dakmor Salvage, Tainted Wood, Twilight Mire, Viridescent Bog, Necroblossom Snarl are all very solid choices. Lands entering tapped won't be a super large issue if you stick to 5 or so but you will definitely notice the mana smoothing and appreciate it.

Hope this helps!

Kjacobson6800 on Mo' Counters, Mo' Mana, Mo' Monsters! *Help

4 weeks ago

Looks like a fun budget build, I like what Belfore has to say. That being said, Greens original lifeblood is mana production. I would focus on that a bit more. Cards like Llanowar Elves Elvish Mystic Arbor Elf Wood Elves etc. Assuming you can make Rishkar huge with counters, Rogue's Passage may come in handy for lethal swings with Commander damage. I also really like Growing Rites of Itlimoc  Flip these days. More proliferate and doubling could really make this thing go off. Maybe take a look at what cards you're willing to squeeze in /spend money on that can double your counters. Chord of Calling is affordable and may be a nice addition. Id definitely grab a Genesis Hydra.... Seems like it would fit the flavor.

Balaam__ on Godsiren

1 month ago

@kamarupa you might very well be right, but this was a fairly old project so I’ll have to take a good close look at it to see what exactly my thought process may have been (also, some of the cards suggested didn’t exist at this point, ha).

My initial thoughts are mixed. I like the recursive ability built into Hall of Heliod's Generosity, but its main function of tapping for is pretty useless.

Interaction is obviously good, but this will never be competitive in any sense of the word so I’m guessing I was leaning heavily into speed to try and stay ahead of anything onerous. So the mana dorks—they’re there for ramp yes but also so I wouldn’t have to sack Behemoth's Herald to its own tutor function (Godsire isn’t Legendary, so theoretically if you could get two out then all the better). So throwing an Arbor Elf away at that stage is better value than losing the Herald and missing out on two Godsires…es. Of course, that’s probably unlikely since it would require two copies of Figure of Destiny in play simultaneously, so maybe your idea is for the best after all.

kamarupa on Population Bomb

2 months ago

I don't count mana dorks as lands. They are mana accelerators - they help allow you to have more mana FASTER, but aren't a 1:1 substitute. Dorks cost mana to cast, meaning you need [the right color] land to cast it (sans something like Black Lotus or Chrome Mox, etc). They also are easily removed and come with summoning sickness. More importantly, they only function as a "ramp" if you are able to make land drops every turn. You don't have to take my word for it - you can learn the lesson the hard way on your own. I certainly did. When I first started playing over 10 years ago, I was determined to ignore all rules of thumb and advice and run 16 lands with 8 ramps spells in my decks. And when it worked, it was great - 1xArbor Elf + 1xUtopia Sprawl + 1xForest and I was tapping for 4 mana on turn 3. But often, it stopped there because I wasn't making any more land drops. I could have been tapping for 6 mana if I'd have had lands to play on my first 3 turns, but instead I was gambling with my opening hand and putting all my proverbial mana eggs in one basket - and you can bet your bottom dollar my opponents took advantage of that weakness with removal spells all too frequently, leaving me 2 mana at the start of turn 4. And those were the good opening hands. On bad starts, I was drawing down to 5 or 6 just to get a land. Which is an even bigger gamble! Over time, my mana base kept creeping up. I tried playing decks of nothing but 1MV spells and 16 lands. I tried playing 1-3MV Elves with 17 lands. I tried playing 1-2MV Humans with 18 lands, then 19, then 20. Eventually, I started to learn - I need 22 lands minimum. 24 if I want to ever cast anything with a higher MV than 3. In a very rampy, low MV Elf deck, I think one could probably get away with 20 lands, but it would be not only leaving the deck exposed to creature removal, but also greatly limiting the viable spells to low MV. And I'll add, as little as I like it, it's good to have spells that cost more than 2. Not loads of them, but 4-8 3MV spells and 2-4 4+MV spells are often what pushes a deck over the top to get the win.

Maybe it helps to think of it this way - Ramp, no mattter the type, allows you to play more mana sources on a single turn. It only helps you if you can play a land every turn. Otherwise, it's just a riskier way to have the same amount of mana you'd have if just added more lands. The only possible advantage you get from playing a dork nstead of (vs in addition to, which is definitely an advantage) a land is that a dork can chump block. Which you probably won't get any mileage out of because tapped creatures can't block and if by chance you don't use your dork for mana and you do block, now you're out a mana source that you probably needed.

So again, if you want lots of mana sooner than you'd have playing 1 mana per turn, then include a ramp. If you want to mana-fix for multiple colors, use dual lands. If you want to consistently be able to cast spells up to 4MV, then you need 22-24 lands.

Also, having more spells won't make your deck work better. What makes a deck work best is having a stable mana base, consistently playing value-packed spells, disrupting opponent's strategies, and maintaining advantages (boardstate, card draw, lifegain, etc.) If a deck isn't managing to achieve an advantage, it's not for lack of cards, it's for lack of good cards/synergy.

Andramalech on Mono green superramp

2 months ago

eww... alright, lemme help.

Sliverguy420 on Don't

2 months ago

i'd recommend cutting birds and kinnan for Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl, then cutting Yavimaya Coast and adding Misty Rainforest and Breeding Poolfoil. 7 mana cards are a bit expensive for modern, but Elder Gargaroth is pretty nice. i'd cut the Gods Willing since you have no lands that produce white. Ram Through is probably your best removal option in green if you stick to tramplers.

capwner on Dig Hard with a Vengeance

4 months ago

Truly a deeply emotional and moving tale, balaam. Couple of ideas Seasoned Pyromancer and Dragon's Rage Channeler seem like they'd be right at home here to fill your yard and provide a bit of early board presence, also Utopia Sprawl+Arbor Elf may be a slightly more efficient ramp package for powering out that 6 drop. Fanatic of Rhonas is another mana dork I really like which could fit pretty well here, since he comes back out of the yard as a 4/4 which taps for 4, seems great for hardcasting Ghalta.

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