Roots of Wisdom

Sorcery

Mill three cards, then return a land card or Elf card from your graveyard to your hand. If you can't draw a card. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Pre-release	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Standard	Legal
Standard Brawl	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (3)

Guerric on Lathril's Relentless Elves

2 years ago

As for things to cut, here is my list-

Cards to definitely cut- 1) Abomination of Llanowar he's just a big, dumb of elf with a target on his back for removal. There are better options. At least Drove of Elves has hexproof, but I wouldn't even play that. The only one I'd play is Jagged-Scar Archers, and that's because of its utility against flyers.

2) Elvish Rejuvenator He gets a land, but doesn't actually ramp you. And that is if you get a land- you might whiff. You have better options. If you really want this effect Sylvan Ranger costs one less mana and is guaranteed to not whiff.

3) Eyeblight Cullers 5cmc is just too much for something that only gives you three tokens on its death, and you have no mill synergy.

4) Golgari Findbroker This card was made for draft. It just costs too much for what it does. Its not just the four cmc, 2 {G} and 2 {B} is a high opportunity casting cost.

5) Harald, King of Skemfar He's basically a 3/2 with menace that replaces himself. The clause on Tyvar might seem good if you add him (which is good idea, btw- he'll be worth it even if he doesn't stick around too long), but even then you have to remember that he won't find Tyvar the majority of the time. Again, its nice he replaces himself and gives you some selection, but there are better options.

6) Jaspera Sentinel Dorks are great, but you have to tap two creatures for one mana, which is a bad rate in elves. There are better dorks suggested above.

7) Masked Admirers This is one of those cards that Wizards stuffs into every precon conceivable, even though its bad in most of them. We don't need it here.

8) Thornbow Archer He's only draining one life for each time he attacks. That isn't enough to justify his slot.

9) Voice of Many You get maybe three cards for four mana at most? He's not the worst and he does draw cards, but I've never liked him.

10) Voice of the Woods This might sound like a good use of your elves, but its better to pump your elves than to use them to summon elementals. Plus he costs five to cast.

11) Tergrid's Shadow We have a joke about this card in our playgroup, but in general it isn't what we want. Letting your opponents pick what they sacrifice means you'll rarely hit the thing you need to get rid of. You might as well just play Doom Blade or any other premium removal card in these colors. There are a lot!

12) Poison the Cup They just put this in the precon because foretell was a Kaldheim theme, but there are so many cheap (both in real world and mana cost) black removal cards that this one shouldn't make the cut.

13) Roots of Wisdom You're better off just playing Harmonize or getting one of the consistent draw pieces I suggested. This card won't do a lot for the slot in your deck.

14) Return Upon the Tide This just costs too much mana, and you have other better recursion pieces out there.

Cards to think about removing

1) Serpent's Soul-Jar This card could be good, but could also be a trap. Your graveyard is a resource, and exiling everything from it prevents mass recursion. Also, your opponents can target this with removal and you'll never get your stuff back. I'd probably just play Haunting Voyage, Patriarch's Bidding, and Living Death to get your goodies back for more fun!

2) Twinblade Assassins He does draw cards, and is probably at least as good as Phyrexian Arena while he lives. So you might keep him, but he costs 5cmc, so if you have enough card draw you might want to cut him.

3) Numa, Joraga Chieftain He can pump your stuff. But Kindred Summons, Genesis Wave, or the above mentioned Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate are much better ones!

4) Nullmage Shepherd This can allow us to remove problematic stuff. But tapping four elves is a bigger cost than we often want to pay. Something to think on.

5) Sylvan Messenger Again, this card does get us some draw, much like Lead the Stampede which I used to play does. I've just never found it good enough to include though. Nonetheless, you want at least ten pieces of draw, and this does count as that!

6) Eyeblight Massacre This will kill a lot of stuff, but will often leave what you most need to kill alive. Ezuri's Predation is a recently reprinted board wipe that is now more affordable and will wreck your opponents while leaving your stuff intact. In Garruk's Wake and Plague Wind cost a 25 cents each and will hose everyone but you, and because you are playing elves you can afford their cmc!

7) Ruthless Winnower Having played against this card I can attest that it is annoying, but your opponents will often kill it before it can have too much impact. If it were a lower cmc it would be a guaranteed in, at least it will take the heat off of more important cards. It is high at 5cmc though. Keeping it might be the right choice, but I'd at least consider it.

HeavyPlay on

3 years ago

Honigkuchenx Those are some excellent points, thank you for the response!

• Tyvar Kell - I've actually found him to be immensely helpful especially with mana generation for Elvish Warmaster 's ability. Especially when combined with Harald Unites the Elves ' 3rd tier it's usually a game-winner.

• I was running Llanowar Visionary prior to my latest edit but felt like Woodland Mystic was an acceptable sub, though I could see the case being made for that +1 cost to draw a card. I might try them swapped with this list.

• Skemfar Shadowsage is such a great card, I just found him to be a little spendy and haven't had trouble getting at least 1 of my 2 by late game where he makes the biggest splash. I also don't know what I'd cut for a 3rd or 4th copy but I'm open to ideas!

• Faceless Haven has been an interesting card to run. I'm not 100% sold on it, but it has helped a little with board wipes and sometimes players forget about it when attacking so that can be fun. Overall mana-wise I haven't run into too many problems though I agree 18 is a bit low. Generation from Jaspera Sentinel and Woodland Mystic + land search from Binding the Old Gods and Adventurous Impulse tend to smooth things out a lot. Although a case could be made for swapping Adventurous for Roots of Wisdom too.

Hope that helps explain my thought process a bit more!

multimedia on Kaldheim Elves

3 years ago

Hey, nice start. I'm also excited for Elves again in Standard and Kaldheim has revived my 6 year old Standard Elf deck :)

You're limiting the effectiveness of 4x Realmwalker main deck when playing 21 noncreature spells and adding 19 lands more than half your deck aren't Elves. Vastwood Fortification  ^Flip taking the place of some lands is an interesting choice. Is Fortification really good enough though to warrant taking up 4x deck spots? I think you can do better with these spots if you don't want to play more lands.

Consider Sculptor of Winter and Snow-covered basic lands as well as Woodland Chasm? A turn two Sculptor and having one Snow land means a turn three four drop such as Tactician or Tyvar. Sculptor and Snow-covered lands opens up a lot of possibilities for all the excellent four drop options. Without Sculptor this same play requires turn one Sentinel + another Elf turn two which is also possible, but less consistent. With only 9x possible turn one green sources turn one Sentinel is much less consistent.

Another option to consider is Roots of Wisdom? Milling a land then lets you put that land into your hand or any Elf. Best of all if you don't put a card into your hand you draw a card. Roots can also be fuel for reanimation for Unites and Awakening.

Skemfar Avenger does something that Elves want which is getting value from them dying to help to recover. This effect also lets you more freely attack with nontoken Elves since if they die in combat then you draw and if they don't die then you're doing damage. This effect is also removal/board wipe insurance since if opponent wipes the board then as a result you could draw a lot of cards. Avenger in multiples on the battlefield is even better and really forces your opponent to make difficult choices if they want to destroy or even block a nontoken Elf.

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Elves have a big problem now with so many playable four drop options. If choosing not to play Skemfar Shadowsage main then consider it in the sideboard? It can be a win condition especially with tokens from Ambush or a huge help in other aggro matchups by gaining life as well as having 5 toughness to block. In my opinion Warmaster and Tyvar being repeatable sources of Elf tokens is a good enough reason to main deck Shadowsage.

Oakhame Adversary is a good Elf, but only when you know that your opponent will have a green permanent to make him cost two mana instead of four. For this reason it's better in the sideboard not main deck.

8x main deck removal spells is a lot and I don't think you need as many since taking up valuable main deck spots for more Elves and both as 4 ofs is hindering Realmwalker. The sideboard a good place to add more removal for matchups where you might need it. Act is much better than Thirst therefore consider cutting Thirst?

Good luck with your deck.