Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Legendary Creature — Elf Warrior

: Regenerate another target Elf.

: Elf creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.

Discussion (49)

StoryArcher on Modern Elves and Bonfire of …

1 month ago

I've always been a big Elves fan, and while there are any number of generally accepted iterations there really is nothing new under the sun. As such, I try to experiment a bit and I've come up something a little different that has been working really, really well.

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Damned Elves!

Modern StoryArcher

77 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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The first and most significant difference is the inclusion of Bonfire of the Damned. The arrival of Realmwalker makes it a little easier to manage while maintaining the surprise factor. With all the mana that Elf decks tend to generate there is little difficulty hard-casting it and swarming an empty board with weenies is every bit as effective as if they were pumped up by Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Moreover, it's nice to actually have some interaction options with an elf deck for a change. If you manage to draw it and pay its miracle cost, it's basically a finisher but that's just lagniappe.

The next significant change is the addition of Elvish Harbinger, which deserves serious reconsideration gievn the advent of Realmwalker. Seriously, this card let's you set up draws (or actual plays with the 'walker or CoCo), it gives you an additional source of any colored mana for those shamans and bonfires and will let you tutor up a toolbox of sideboard cards when needed, all while giving you another elf body you can hit with CoCo. I've found it to be superior to Chord of Calling despite not (usually) functioning at instant speed.

Between 3x Elvish Harbinger, 3x Realmwalker and 4x Collected Company, I've found that this deck stalls less than other Elf decks I've played in the past. I also run six fetch lands, not just to help thin the deck but also to give you some extra shuffles when you've got the Realmwalker out.

There are a few other little tricks in the deck, and I'm considering a couple of other elves but at the moment this is what I'm running with an I'm having a lot of fun. I wanted to post it here for those who might be curious and offer it up for critique by more experienced players.

[email protected]_only on Eilistraee

1 month ago

so, rather than flood the area with bricks of text, I've broken my thoughts on this down into 3 issues:

Color Issues

Svylunn is a monochromatic deity in a tribe that branches into all 5 colors; while all merfolk are at least a little bit blue, lorwyn and morningtide had white merfolk, eventide & Shadowmoor had black merfolk, and now ixilan has green merfolk (then there are the 4 izzet merfolk that nobody really uses for tribal). Yet the sole merfolk god only exists in mono-blue. As such, there is a restriction for what you can or cannot build a deck with her as a commander.

Likewise, elves were white in shadowmoor / eventide, but black in lorwyn / morningtide. but for Alara they were red, and for simic they were blue. And as a regularly reoccuring tribe, they had even more support than merfolk, what with vedalken, humans, and faeries edging in on their turf.

Heck, if you limit the colors and focus in on what elves do, the closest elf god comparison actually already exists - Ezuri, Renegade Leader - protection for other elves (better than ward 1, I'd argue), and a mass-pump built in. He doesn't do card draw, but before green stole a bit of everone elses stuff on the color pie, that was blue's schtick.

Power Issues

It feels a waaaay to good to work. Even if you remove the cast from exile, Gisa and Geralf only lets you cast a single zombie from the graveyard each turn, for a single mana fewer.

While I like the concept of needing elves to make her indestructible, it would make more sense to make her closer to a Thero's gods; requiring elves to be a creature and maintain indestructibility at all times. Instead, have a passive ward 1 for elves, but only let you cast from graveyard while she is a creature. Just spitballing here for what might work better.

Lore Issues

So, lore wise (assuming drawing from forgotten realms, as the name implies), she really only accepts drow that have rejected their subterranean heritage and reverance of Lloth. as such, she would make more sense to have something akin to:

Whenever a black elf comes into play under your control, target opponent gains control of it. it gains "when this creature leaves play, its owner puts a green copy of it into play under their control".

or, if you want to feature her aspect as a deity of retemption:

Your deck may contain elves of any color. Any non-green, non-white elves are green. You may spend white mana to cast elves as if it were mana of any color.

While she was banished to the underdark, she went willingly to try and redeem her mother's followers. This is not he act of a selfish being - quite the opposite. As such, while I have no issue with the , the in her mana cost really doesn't belong.

Just my 2 Cents

Scytec on Lathril

2 months ago

Ok, to be honest there are only four cards I would remove without being too concerned here: Grizzled Outrider, Sarulf's Packmate, Snarespinner, and Pride of the Perfect. They aren't all bad, they just aren't as good as your other options essentially. When I broke it down, you have a pretty fair amount of each archetype I look for. Not including the four I mentioned above, you have 16 "Ramp" spells, 12 "Interaction" spells, 10 "Draw" spells, and 19 "Raw Value" spells. Not all of these are as efficient as you may want, but each are what I would consider acceptable for sure. One thing I would recommend is looking for additional means of recurring draw, or large draw spells. More cards like Beast Whisperer and Pact of the Serpent. I would also be wary of cards that draw for a death trigger like Twinblade Assassins and Miara, Thorn of the Glade. They are good recurring draw spells, but you really only run one sacrifice outlet with Pyre of Heroes, so you will be relying on your opponents to kill your things for you which isn't ideal. They are still solid options unless you find another card similar to Beast Whisperer which triggers on casting a creature spell. Any time you have a consistent means to keep your hand full is a great time given how many spells you want to be casting each turn and how much mana you will have access to at any given time. I would honestly look at increasing your draw capabilities so you dont empty your hand and just have to sit there playing whatever you draw each turn. Effects like Mind's Eye are good, but slightly worse for you because it isnt also on an elf, so you wont get full value like you will with something like Beast Whisperer. I wrote all the cards down on a sheet of paper to do this, I will throw it in my carrying case so I can give it to you either friday or if i see you before, then. From my earlier recommendations, based on where your deck is currently, I would drop Elves of Deep Shadow and Harvest Season. Both are good cards, but you have plenty of ramp, and most of it is also on an elf which makes it better for you in this list. Tutors (anything that allows you to search your library for a specific card) inherently make a deck more powerful, because you can fetch whatever you need at any given time, so the more of those you include, especially the ones already on elven bodies the more consistently you will hit the cards you really want to see every game. Prime examples would be Elvish Archdruid, Ezuri, Renegade Leader when you get him, and Ruthless Winnower would be the ones that pop up in my mind as amazing cards pretty much every game. Realmwalker would be a really good spell that would fall under the "draw" category because it essentially lets you use the top card of your library as if it were in your hand whenever that card is an elf. I still like Copperhorn Scout and Seedborn Muse here, especially if you do decide to pick up Yeva, Nature's Herald. You dont run many instants, but scout would let you tap down your elves for Lathril's ability your first main phase, you can go to combat swing scout, then untap all your elves and just do it again. Assuming you just do that twice, you drain each opponent for 20 life and gain 20 life yourself. With Seedborn Muse, you can do it at the end of each of your opponents turns, in one rotation of the board, you can drain 30 life and gain 30 life. With Yeva, Nature's Herald you would be able to utilize your land on each opponents turn to cast any green creature spells currently in your hand in addition to tapping them all with Lathril and dealing damage. The synergies that are possible in this deck are somewhat terrifying if I am being honest. Haha. There may come a time when you have to decide if you want to dedicate to combat or tapping with Lathril to really focus the deck down and get it to that next level, but honestly you could make this deck very scary without having to do that. Elves are so good that you can make this at least a 7 on my power scale with a little work (and unfortunately money, elves are a really powerful tribe, and they are popular enough that the good cards for them reflect that in their price). For reference, that is as strong as my Meren of Clan Nel Toth deck and I have spent literal years tuning that one, it is my strongest deck with the exception of my competitive list i built. Haha. Elves are good man.

wallisface on Modern Competitive ELF Deck

3 months ago

Yeah i’d say playing the full playset of Collected Company could be a good move. Though I do see a lot of elf decks running Chord of Calling because being able to fetch specific elves is often very useful for quick wins.

To address your specific card questions:

• Garruk Wildspeaker is still slow and assuming you’ll be able to ult him without issues isn’t a foolproof plan. Ezuri, Renegade Leader is just a much more reliable and powerful card, so we’re better-off searching that up, than messing around with with Garruk.

• Lys Alana Huntmaster does make a lot of tokens, but doesn’t interact well at all with the Collected Company you’re running. Aside from that, the card being 4cmc makes it awkward to get out early - and in general Elvish Warmaster is just a much stronger card in that it comes out early, still makes tokens, and provides a wincon.

• Imperious Perfect doesn’t offer much because it’s “just” a lord. Other elf lords provide other things, namely mana or forestwalk (Elvish Champion, Elvish Archdruid), or some form of card advantage (Elvish Clancaller), but this thing just provides really slow token production. Elves are hyper aggressive so if they’re tapping they want it to be for an attack, or a meaningful advantage.

Lotus_elise on Meren The elf hoarder *Hybrid*

3 months ago

Thanks Scytec.

Craterhoof Behemoth Is one I could definitely put in but who would you take out? As for Overrun, not sure I could find a place for it and I have Ezuri, Renegade Leader which does the same job Thanks for the input

laurensvannijvel on Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

4 months ago

Decent budget version of the deck. I would suggest adding more good Elves to it though. For that reason I recommend Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen , Yeva, Nature's Herald (especially nice with an untapper like Seedborn Muse or Mobilize ) and basic things mana dorks like Llanowar Elves , Elvish Mystic etc. To make room for them I'd take out some of the higher CMC common and uncommon elves that don't have a huge impact, such as Lys Alana Bowmaster and Eyeblight Cullers, maybe Revenant too.

Consider Ezuri, Renegade Leader as well. Elves don't like board wipes!

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 5: Mono-Green …

5 months ago

Ah, my favorite color. Not coincidentally, my wife hates it. I love ramp, I love the utility, the pervasive value, and I even like the shortcomings because I feel they're sporting. At the time of writing this I have three mono-Green decks. My oldest deck is a Green deck. I have been watching Green so closely as each set comes out that I didn't even need to research the legends available in order to write this.

But enough squeeing about my preferences (for now). Let's talk turkey. Picking a best color is highly subjective: while I'd like to say that all five colors are equal in strength, it can't be said honestly. Black has the tutors and thematic viciousness to fight for the top. Blue's strength in control and draw make its long-debated position as most competitive highly secure. White and Red are solidly trailing the others. Where does this leave Green?

Green has a unique capacity to destroy (or fight) anything, but not all the thing: Beast Within and Acidic Slime are great, but unless you're an enchantment, artifact, or bird, then you don't need to concern yourself with Green boardwipes. The utterly absurd advantage that comes of Green's affinity for ramp is often shattering. However, all arguments for Green's strength are undercut by an unfortunate fact: if you can't smash face in the combat phase, you can't usually win. Helix Pinnacle. Epic Struggle. Against these two cards and the odd sorcery referencing some sort of windy calamity, the other colors have actual themes: Black has vampirism, Blue has milling, and Red has burn. Even White has a small but potent spread of alternate wins, generally tied to life totals.

However: a jack of all trades is a master of none, but ofttimes better than a master of one. Let's consider whether Green is a specialist or a generalist: Blue has control and draw, but Green has a fine well of draw effects to pull from, a true wealth of hexproof and... and whatever keyword they'll eventually assign to "can't be countered." The sheer scope of creatures with game-changing effects that Green can tutor, while comprehensive, isn't quite the same as tutoring anything (shut up, Black). That said, a well-placed Tooth and Nail can win the game just as readily. Green can't burn players but can fight any creature and Terastodon any party of super-friends. No, Green isn't a powerhouse on the stack or outside the combat phase, but the raw versatility of Green isn't something the other colors can readily match.

Personally, I can't comfortably argue that Green is the most competitive mono-color in commander. However, I will argue that it's the most generally capable, and like all the colors a powerhouse in the right hands. Whether my hands are the right ones isn't the question: Green is the color I'm most comfortable with, the color I feel most capable with, and my answer to the most important question in any game: "What are you happiest playing?"

Today, we discuss three most prevalent trends in Green. Chonks: the biggest beasts on the battlefield. Ramp: mana for days. Land: all the land (bear with me, I know those last two are rather close). As always, please bear in mind that our focus here is not necessarily competitive but rather on thematic, archetypical commanders.

Chonks

There are a lot of ways to make creatures threatening. Artifacts like Coat of Arms or Argentum Armor, auras like Green's own Blanchwood Armor, and everything in between. Green has another approach as well, tending toward, rather than making creatures threatening, instead making threatening creatures. Just look at the Primordial Hydra (or pretty much any hydra). Other colors have their own fatties, to be sure, but until the Eldrazi came Green's only real rival for the Bigger-is-Better Belt was Blue's theme of large, typically overpriced fish (Colossi also bear mentioning). Colored kaiju tend to come with additional costs beyond mana once they reach a certain size, examples being Death's Shadow or Jokulmorder. The only cost Green generally asks is mana, and frequently at a discount. Hehehehe...

Sometimes you just need a hulk, and at a trampling 12/12 Ghatla is the hulkest legend there is, provided you don’t go poking around the Blind Eternities for plane-eating spaghetti monsters. Like a certain strange woman lying in a pond, you might never have to pay full price for this general. That is a great, beautiful, thundering apex predator of a wonderful thing.

I love Selvala, but do her grievous wrong: I rarely remember the card draw because of all that sweet, sweet mana. In justice, this magnificent beast would be cozy in the ramp section, but filling your hand by dropping one chungus after another, then getting what’s likely a full refund on the mana? That’s what I call incentive! I'd consider her for a commander any day, except... well, we're coming to that.

The original mama-bear brings a fine pair of goodies to the table: a discount for your hefties and overrun-lite on the charge for such big boys, ensuring they heft even more heftily. Arm & Hammer owe her an endorsement deal. Hefty!

Ramp

Anyone with a pile of rocks can manage fast mana. Black and Red both have decent options. Green, though, has been the ramp champ for time immemorial. Since mana burn is a thankfully dusty memory, you can flood that pool to your heart's content without the risk of accidentally frying yourself. Whether your taste runs toward slamming lands down with Cultivate effects, boosting the output of those lands with Mana Reflection, or tapping dorks like Priest of Titania, glorious excesses of mana can be yours!

Readers may recall I mentioned an Ashling deck with 99 mountains in the red article. Sometime after seeing it, I noticed a copy of Sasaya in my collection. 64 lands and a handful of mana dumps later, I had a deck that either died quietly or detonated into splendid, jaw-achingly excessive victory (seriously, it’s always one or the other). Wakeroot Elemental, Helix Pinnacle, and Sprouting Vines are just a few of the fabulously facetious options available to this, my favorite kamigawan commander. Nothing will be the same after your first opponent gets smacked in the face with Killer Bees for absurdly lethal damage. I have this deck built, and adore it. However, my favorite, to which we are by degrees coming, is not Sasaya.

I miss Rofellos, but since he’s banned we might as well talk elves somewhere in here. Boy howdy are there a lot of good elves: the tribal synergy in ramp alone is good enough that they get played where other decks would play rocks, and there’s more than that up their pointy-eared sleeves. Rewarding oneself for playing elf-ball with the mana to make said ball bigger is just good sense. However, slapping something like Strata Scythe on her will get some fine results too. Enjoy that general damage, or the effects of Umbral Mantle. And, if general damage isn't your thing but elfball is, pour all that mana into Ezuri, Renegade Leader.

It's the simple things in life you treasure, and Azusa is nothing if not simple. There many ways to ramp, but doing so in the true green style means dropping lands faster than your opponents. Fill your hand, empty your hand, repeat. The raw advantage that Azusa represents is incredibly intimidating. Just be sure to bring a Horn of Greed so you don't run out of steam.

Land

I acknowledge that this is somewhat under the "Ramp" umbrella. Again, bear with me. If you check the phrase "Search your Library" on Gatherer, Green has more cards than any two other colors combined, the catch being that most of those cards tutor basic land. If you consider a color's tutor strengths as thematic commentary (shut UP, Black), this suggests that Green has a lot to say on the matter of land. Whether tutoring, untapping, or animating and wrecking face a la mana base, no other color is as tied to the land as is Green. Just think on the implications of, say, Life and Limb and the aforementioned Coat of Arms (or any boardwipe, especially if Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is out).

What's the opposite of a conniption? Whatever that is, I had one when they printed this glorious godsend to all green combo players. The sequoia-sized middle finger Ashaya sends to Cyclonic Rift is only the beginning. Consider that Kamahl, Heart of Krosa becomes Keywords-on-a-Stick with our girl out. Consider that anything which untaps lands now untaps your mana dorks too. Consider that Argothian Elder UNTAPS ITSELF. The only reason Ashaya isn't heading one of my Green decks is because, degenerate as she is, she doesn't have Partner, turn into a broke-ass enchantment, or... we're coming to that. Nearly there.

"Screw your boardwipes" about sums it up. Both Khamals can animate lands and buff them, but this one's wording is much, much meaner if you've got to teach some trigger-happy nuker a lesson.

One of my favorite Green cards is Constant Mists. There are enough other sacrifice effects in Green, as well as lands that drop themselves, that Titania can become a real menace in short order. Bring Glacial Chasm, a few effects like the Oracle of Mul Daya, and the all-important Crucible of Worlds. Trust me. It works. There's a guy in the local playgroup who does this with a most politely evil smile.

And, for my personal favorite:

Ok, is anyone who's made it this far actually surprised? Omnath is all that is Green, and I've been gleefully running this stompy monstrosity for over a decade. Who needs Voltron when you can simply turn on a glorious green engine of mana, throw out some trample (I prefer Nylea, God of the Hunt), and turn an opponent into so much paste? Don't feel like attacking? Save it for next turn! The banking mechanic alone would be enough: an early Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is the best you can hope for if you're silly enough to let Omnath sit on unspent mana for even a turn. That he gets bigger with each mana in the pool is just a treat. A vicious, opponent-killing, delicious treat.

And in case you're wondering, the third green deck is Kamahl, Heart of Krosa and Kodama of the East Tree. No instants. No sorceries. Just draw and ramp.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Azorius!

Prior Articles:

Mono-White

Mono-Blue

Mono-Black

Mono-Red

Guerric on What to Do with Yavimaya, …

5 months ago

seshiro_of_the_orochi I do have those in my Ezuri deck, so if nothing else I have a great new evasion piece. And plakjekaas I can untap Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun with it and Arbor Elf , which are also in my Ezuri, Renegade Leader deck (Found here, haven't written a primer for it yet Little Green Men Unite!). Not quite Cabal Coffers , but pretty good still.