Commander Collection: Outlaw Run

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari) Bracket 4 Combo Discard Elves

Jurrane

Creature (34)

• 1x Allosaurus Shepherd
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Argothian Elder
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Boreal Druid
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Cunning Lethemancer
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Eladamri, Korvecdal
• 1x Eladamri, Lord of Leaves
• 1x Elderfang Disciple
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Champion
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Warmaster
• 1x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Imperious Perfect
• 1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
• 1x Joraga Warcaller
• 1x Lathril, Blade of the Elves
• 1x Leaf-Crowned Visionary
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lys Alana Huntmaster
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Roaming Throne P
• 1x Sadistic Hypnotist
• 1x Skemfar Shadowsage
• 1x Swarm Guildmage
• 1x Tyvar, the Pummeler
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (34)

• 1x Ancient Tomb PGC
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures P
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 6x Forest
• 1x Gaea's CradleGC
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Three Tree City
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Undergrowth Stadium
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Cave
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x War Room
• 1x Wirewood Lodge
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow P
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Geth's Grimoire
• 1x Mana Vault PGC
• 1x Skullclamp P
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of the Paruns
• 1x Umbral Mantle

Commander (1)

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Arterial Flow
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Gruesome Fate
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Mind Rake
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Vicious Rumors

Instant (9)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Crop RotationGC
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Cover of Darkness
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Waste Not

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{B}{G} Introduction: The Dark Heart of the Wood {B}{G}

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Welcome to my primer for "Outlaw Run", a Golgari Elves tribal deck for EDH, with Nath of the Gilt-Leaf as its Commander.

Elves are one of the strongest tribes in MtG. In this deck, we take the raw power of the elves tribe, fuse it with a sprinkling of discard and disruption to get the most out of Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, and include a set of infinite combos. Combined, it means we have a deck that can compete at most tables and sometimes win out of nowhere against a range of different opponents.

I initially made this deck for a EDH random commander challenge and it's become one of my strongest decks due to the many combos that Elf tribal has. Golgari is one of my favourite colour combinations and I've always been a fan of discard strategies. I’ve played it a few times and refined it over the years, and it’s now at a stage I’m pretty happy with.

These are my thoughts about some of the main elements of the deck. It’s not intended to be a comprehensive primer but just a bit more context about some of the card choices I’ve made. It feels fairly tightly built at the moment and although it could be powered up further with some very expensive cards (Gaea's CradleGC, Chains of Mephistopheles etc), it seems about right for the budget I have. I’ve included a section at the end with mid-price replacements or slightly more expensive cards I’d like to trade for if possible.

Commander Choice

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Let's face it, if you're going to run GB Elves in EDH, you're probably going to have Lathril, Blade of the Elves as your Commander. So why Nath of the Gilt-Leaf here?

The answer's pretty straightforward: I drew Nath of the Gilt-Leaf in a random Commander challenge and liked the concept so much that I decided to keep the deck. I've always enjoyed discard decks and, while I took apart a pure discard build that I tried for EDH in both Grixis and mono-black colours, I liked the idea of a strong list that competed on the higher-powered side of casual and used discard as part of its strategy.

Although Nath of the Gilt-Leaf can be developed as a cEDH build, I've tried to stay on the higher powered side of casual play. While this list includes some fast mana sources like Ancient TombGC and Mana VaultGC, it doesn't run some of the other cEDH staples (yet) but I've now included Sadistic Hypnotist as a way of locking opponents of playing any cards altogether. I'm also using discard spells as a way to gain incremental value using Nath and flood the board with lots of Elves.

Win Conditions

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NB. This section is being reworked as I'm currently upgrading the deck to power it up.

When playing this deck, we're generally looking to win through one (or more) of the following attack lines. One of the good things about it is that it has a variety of win conditions and can adapt its strategy depending on the opposition it's facing.

1. Attack Line 1 - Creature Swarms:
Generate as many Elf Warrior tokens as possible using Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Imperious Perfect, Lys Alana Huntmaster etc, power them up with Lord effects and/or Overrun, Overwhelming Stampede, Craterhoof Behemoth. Swarm Guildmage gives them all menace, and Eladamri, Lord of Leaves or Elvish Champion gives them all forestwalk, which can be lethal if Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is in play. Ezuri, Renegade Leader synergises with Attack Line 3 below. Elvish Warmaster also works well if you have a lot of mana. Or if your opponents' life totals are low enough, you can drain them with Skemfar Shadowsage's ETB ability (or Gruesome Fate) with a decent amount of Elves on the battlefield.

3. Attack Line 2 - Infinite Combos:
This deck has a series of infinite combos that lead to unlimited mana or combat damage. Exsanguinate and Ezuri, Renegade Leader are the main outlets for these. Full list of combos below. Tutor effects are there to help find them.

Infinite Combos

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Infinite Mana Combos:
- Elvish Archdruid + Umbral Mantle or Sword of the Paruns = infinite green mana
- Priest of Titania + Umbral Mantle or Sword of the Paruns = infinite green mana
- Marwyn, the Nurturer + Umbral Mantle or Sword of the Paruns = infinite green mana

Infinite Mana Sinks:
- Exsanguinate (infinite damage/lifegain)
- Ezuri, Renegade Leader (infinite combat damage with trample)
- Elvish Warmaster (infinite combat damage with deathtouch)
- Joraga Warcaller (Elves have infinite power)

Tutors for Combo Pieces
- Grim Tutor
- Demonic TutorGC
- Vampiric TutorGC
- Urza's Cave (finds Wirewood Lodge for infinite mana combos)

How to Play the Deck

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We’re going to play lots of Elves. Yes, really.

Seriously, we’re an aggro-combo deck so we’re going to come out of the blocks fast and starting chipping away at our opponents’ life totals so they’re on the back foot. Get Nath of the Gilt-Leaf on the board as soon as you can (turn 4 is fairly likely with a mana dork; maybe even turn 3 if you’re lucky). It’s usually worth saving our discard spells until Nath’s around, as we can make plenty more Elves that way.

That said, we need to be careful about board wipes as, although we’re in Golgari colours, we don’t run many ways to bring back our creatures (apart from Volrath's Stronghold if we're lucky enough to draw into it) so once they’re gone, they’re probably gone for good. Don’t overcommit and try to keep some threats in reserve if you suspect mass creature removal shenanigans. Try to identify which game plan you’re going to be on: are we going for fast creature aggro, the lifegain approach, and/or one of our combo strategies?

Try to keep your tutors until you need them for the final combo piece, or for one of your finishers like Gruesome Fate, Skemfar Shadowsage, Craterhoof Behemoth etc. Although it’s not listed in the combos section above, if you have Marwyn, the Nurturer on the table with infinite mana, you can sacrifice her to Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord to kill the whole table at once.

Overall, I’ve found the deck to be an absolute blast to play and have been pretty happy with how it’s been performing so far.

Power Level

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I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

For a while, this was one of the strongest decks in my collection although several others have recently caught up a bit. Using the scale above, it's somewhere between Tier 1 and Tier 2. It fulfills pretty much every condition of my Tier 1 decks (fast mana, infinite combos, tutors for the combos) although the banning of Jeweled Lotus hurt it a lot in the free spells category. For now, I'd probably classify it as a Tier 2 list but adding more fast mana sources (ie. multiple Moxes) might push it up to the top level of power. Or I could try turning it into the more traditional cEDH Stax build that locks opponents' hands (and the board) but, right now, that's not a direction I want to go in.

Budget

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In optimising the deck for the higher powered side of casual, I've invested in some of the more expensive Elves staples. As a result, it's become an expensive deck in terms of value and currently sits at $800+ on Card Kingdom. Much of that is due to a series of costly staples: Ancient TombGC, Allosaurus Shepherd, Craterhoof Behemoth, Eladamri, Lord of Leaves and Volrath's Stronghold (albeit foreign language versions of those last two cards). I've also included a handful of proxies of cards I already own but are too expensive to buy in multiple copies, to save swapping them between different decks.

Future Improvements

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I’m not looking to upgrade this deck much at the moment as the list feels pretty tightly built and I'm having trouble cutting cards for potential replacements. Elves are a regularly supported tribe so it's inevitable that relevant new cards will be released in future sets but otherwise, this build is in its final form for now. I keep toying with the idea of getting a Survival of the FittestGC and, if I did, this would be the natural home for it. But that's a lot of money to spend (or trade) for a card, even if its the gold-bordered World Championship version. For now, it can wait.

Thanks for checking out this primer! :)

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All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Talrand, Sky Summoner {U}
Blue Streak: Mono-Blue Spellslinger

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Goodstuff

{B} Syr Konrad, the Grim {B}
Black Hole: Mono-Black Sacrifice/Aristocrats

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Stax

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Hallar, the Firefletcher {R}{G}
Trailblazer: Gruul Kicker

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Momir Vig, Simic Visionary {U}{G}
Wicked Twister: Simic +1/+1 Counters

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

Date added	4 years
Last updated	20 hours
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.59
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Decks with what I've got