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Maybeboard

Planeswalker (1)

Sorcery (1)


To see Fun Combos, Look in Updates titled "FCU"

Combo Elves Galore! Tired of the typical meta? This deck focuses on fun combo interactions. From summoning 50+ bears and milling half your deck, to tapping all of your opponents creatures while sending out a hoard of your own. And if the strategies are too complicated, you can always tutor Taunting Elf with Finale of Devastation and simply wreck face.

And why the name? Well, because some of these combos last so long, your friends will be wondering when you're actually going to end your turn.

The Fluff:

I love Elves - it's how a friend introduced me to Magic the Gathering and his deck eventually found it's way to me soon after. Since then, I've created a number of different decks but my favorite and constantly updated deck has always been my Elf Deck. I've done it all from infinite combos to support elves and have realized that, for me, it's not so much about winning as soon as possible, but winning by doing fun things. I love Elves because you can do so many weird interactions with them and as the years have gone by and with the introduction to Commander - I'm able to focus my deck on being almost entirely made up of creature cards that interact with each other.

Basic strategy is as follows: Mana Ramp -> Draw -> Combos -> Win Condition

Self-Imposed Rules for this Deck:

  1. Operate as if cards are part of a "Homeworld" theme (aka, no Umbral Mantle or Skyshroud Poacher ) - this is the Perfect Elf society where all Elves have learned to live in Harmony (well... the Green ones anyway...).
  2. No easy infinity combos (aka, no Staff of Domination - it's just not fun)
  3. Primarily Creature based

But why does this deck work? Well, for many reasons, but let's put it this way:

Say you have every elf from this deck on the field, what do you have?

  • Infinite Life
  • Infinite Mana
  • Infinite Power/Toughness
  • Infinite Regen
  • Draw Entire Deck
  • Artifact/Enchantment Board Wipe
  • Landwalk
  • Shroud
  • Overrun
  • Tap all Artifacts/Creatures/Lands
  • Untap all Artifacts/Creatures/Lands
  • Control all Lands
  • As you can see, the potential for some infinity combos still exist, but they require more setup than your average Elf EDH build:

    See what kind of fun you can have! Especially if you manage to hit a fat Genesis Wave!

    And hey, if Commander isn't your thing, this deck is so efficient, you can just use it as a standard Legacy deck and slip Ezuri, Renegade Leader back into the deck.

    A Note on Rofellos:

    Some may wonder why Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary is in this deck since he's banned in EDH. In my opinion, it makes sense why he's not a Commander, but he's far from broken in the 99 - I hope that changes in the future so he's just banned from being a commander. However, in every playgroup I've been in, they are comfortable with him being in this deck. And if folks ever aren't, I'm happy with trading him out for Primal Surge.

    The Breakdown:

    Suggestions

    Updates Add

    Some hard cuts and decisions. Added these cuts to the Maybe board incase I decide to add them at a later point.

    • First, let's start off with a card I don't really care about - Jaspera Sentinel: Almost never used her. Her Reach ability really didn't do much, and while she could tap some standing creatures for an extra one mana, it became heavily more difficult to make that decision as ramp increased and I'd have to use blockers mid-to-late game. A mana ramper should be more useful as time goes on, not less so.

    Now to the more sentimental cuts:

    • Regrowth is one of those cards I found in a huge mound of cards one day with a buddy for trades. And every time I saw a new art of it, I would get it, with some of the most recent art being my favorite. For now, I've decided to continue my focus to make this a creature-heavy deck and up the cost of 1 mana to get Eternal Witness. Elf flavor, benefits other creatures, and potential to use again.

    • I remember when Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury came out - it was the first time I heard about Commander as a format - I was more pumped about the fact that I knew who Freyalise was through all of the Green cards I had skimmed through over the years and was excited they gave her her own card - the fact that she produced Llanowar elves made me even more excited. She was an instant addition to this deck back in the day. However, by the time I play her, I usually have enough ramp to make her abilities moot outside of her occasional artifact destruction. One of the best tactics of this deck, is finding a way to get a lot of creatures in hand or on the battlefield at once. Enter Garruk, Caller of Beasts who was always a friend's card who used to have a deck with him - his +1 to add potential for 5 creatures into my hand helps cycle my deck more efficiently and his -7 ability is like having a optimized version of Wild Pair. Farewell, Freyalise. Perhaps I will keep you for when I need to playdown this deck...

    • And finally Joraga Warcaller - this card came out around the time I was introduced to Magic with my buddy teaching me how to play with his Elf Deck (before I traded it from him and made it become the current iteration) - the fact that I had a new card already to look forward to made me hunt for more cards and helped me peak my interest of this fascinating game. Since then, it's saw a plethora of uses and has helped out on multiple moments. As the years have gone by, however, there were more situations where I would kick him early because I needed to, or he wouldn't have much presence on the board either because I had better cards to play and win-conditions (not very effective as a card with Genesis Wave since I couldn't kick him then) or him being taken out would immediately weaken the field when he WAS useful. I had considered Galadhrim Brigade because he fills a niche that Warcaller did not - he clones himself. This time, if someone wants to target him, they only reduce my +1/+1 effects by 1 instead of a bajillion. PLus, having more creatures suddenly out and about means I can benefit from Mass Mana Enablers like Elvish Archdruid and the like. Still, I will miss Warcaller. Perhaps I will make another Elf-Deck but one that focuses on counters. We'll see.

    But yeah, that's it for right now. More excitement on the way!

    Comments

    Date added 4 years
    Last updated 7 months
    Legality

    This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

    Rarity (main - side)

    7 - 1 Mythic Rares

    43 - 8 Rares

    16 - 2 Uncommons

    10 - 0 Commons

    Cards 100
    Avg. CMC 3.17
    Tokens Bear 2/2 G, Copy Clone, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Emblem Garruk, Caller of Beasts
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