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Ezuri's Fury (Budget)

Commander / EDH Aggro Budget Elves Infinite Combo Mono-Green Ramp

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Creature (42)

Enchantment (9)

Instant (5)

Sorcery (3)

Land (33)

Commander (1)

Commander: Ezuri, Renegade Leader

Artifact (5)

Planeswalker (2)


Ezuri's Fury is a mono-green aggro, ramp and infinite mana combo deck. It's all about Elves, lots of Elves with Ezuri, Renegade Leader leading the tribe as the Commander general.

This deck is budget it's meant to be played casually not ultra competitively, but it can still hold it's own and win. It uses the Green Commander 2014 $40 premade "Guided by Nature" as a base with a $60 upgrade to make it more Elf tribal themed. Learn more about the creation of this deck in the Deck Creation section below.

I welcome you to follow along with me on my Elvish journey in Commander.



The primary goals here are to make Ezuri's Fury a budget option with a total price of $100-$120 with a breakdown of $40 for a premade Commander deck as a base and $60 for upgrades to it. While also keeping the deck fun to play, but making it much more competitive than the original premade deck.

This section is all about the processes I used to create Ezuri's Fury. First is an explanation of the card evaluation process, a breakdown of the good and bad cards in the premade "Guided by Nature" Commander deck. Next is the upgrading process, choosing a Commander, an overall theme and strategy for the deck. Last is the $60 upgrading plan, filling in all the empty spots with cards which were cut in the card evaluation process that support the Commander, overall theme and strategy.

"Guided by Nature" ("Guided") is the Commander 2014 (C14) Green premade by Wizards Commander deck. It features Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury as the Commander and is full of great Elves. "Guided" is going to serve as my starting point for creating Ezuri's Fury. For $40 I can buy it off of Amazon. The original deck is a fine starter deck for me or anyone else to get into Commander. As it's constructed it can be fun and also win, but it can use a lot of streamlining, improvements and a much more focused Elf theme.

The biggest problem with buying premade decks by Wizards is for the most part only half, sometimes even less, of the deck is actually good. The other half is jammed pack with just bad cards, some are fine even good to great in other decks, others make no sense, don't belong and are clearly filler to make the quota. These premade decks are most of the time traps, they look really good on the outside, but inside they are lacking for their cost. "Guided" is surprisingly different since all the cards that are in it that are in my opinion the playable good cards are worth more than $40 which is the price of the entire 100 card deck. "Guided" still has a bunch of bad cards and some that don't belong, but the positives out way the negatives. In fact the adjusted worth of the entire 100 card "Guided" deck is $66, a $26 profit if I'm buying it for $40. It's these reasons that "Guided" is a fine investment.


C14 "Guided by Nature" 100 Card Deck

"Guided" is about Elves, Elementals and Beasts. It's Planeswalker Commander Freyalise is also an Elf character in lore; she creates Elf tokens and her other abilities are perfect for the tribe. "Guided" has Elves, 24 to be exact and 14 other non-Elf creatures. To base a Commander deck on Elves, 24 of them is not enough. I want some where between 35-45 Elves to give the real sense that I'm playing Elf tribal in Commander. Instead of continuing the Elf theme throughout all of "Guided" Wizards decided to add two addition themes. Titania, Protector of Argoth with a very small lands matter with Elementals and a Beasts theme centered on Rampaging Baloths . Both these additional themes don't have enough support cards to make them worth using along with Elves therefore they're the first of many cuts I will make.


The Card Evaluation Process


I'm starting the card evaluation process by examining the entire "Guided" deck and using my card sense I'm leaving in the good cards and cutting out the bad ones. After this I begin by breaking down the "Guided" deck into three lists. First list are all the cards I'm keeping from the original "Guided" deck. Second list are the cards I'm cutting and third are the possibles, cards which I'm cutting, but are really fine to use I would just prefer to use better options.

I'm being brutal with the amount of cards I'm cutting from the original "Guided" deck which is 43 and keeping 57. This 57 number includes 25x Forest as well as 18 Elves. Excluding Forests a total of 32 cards are being used in Ezuri's Fury. This total amount is low, but these cards are again worth more than the $40 price for the entire 100 card "Guided" deck. In fact, they are worth approximately $53.

32 cards are being kept from "Guided". 18 of these keepers are Elves as well as other good creatures like Soul of the Harvest , Thunderfoot Baloth and good spells like Beastmaster Ascension and Skullclamp .


32 Cards I'm Keeping


I'm cutting a huge amount of cards from "Guided" this is mostly because most of them don't fit with the Elf tribal theme at all. Elementals and Lands with Titania, Protector of Argoth and Beasts with Rampaging Baloths are the two other themes besides Elves in "Guided". I'm cutting them both out this will help to streamline the deck a lot. The majority of the fat which is making the Avg. CMC so high is from these cards. Most all the artifacts are being cut because they are not needed. Some cards are just plain bad, Assault Suit . Five Elves are being cut because in my opinion there are many other Elves for the same cost or less who are much better.


43 Carding I'm Cutting


Possibles are cards which I'm cutting from "Guided" which are fine to use, but I would rather use better options. Cards like Masked Admirers cost a little too much for what they do, I can do better than four mana to draw one card.


13 Possible Cards to Keep


The Upgrade Process

Now that I have stripped all the bad cards and left the good ones from the "Guided" deck I need to fill these empty spots with cards which I'm calling upgrades. To begin to make upgrades to "Guided" I first need to determine who I want my Commander to be. Freyalise is the Commander of "Guided", but it also has another very strong potential Commander in Ezuri, Renegade Leader . Since I really want to focus on Elf tribal I think Ezuri is the better option of the two while still using Freyalise as a terrific support card for Elves.

Elves calling card is to make mana, a lot of it this just happens to be excellent using Ezuri. I want to make tons of mana even infinite mana when using him as my Commander. Ezuri's Overrun second ability becomes the primary win condition of Ezuri's Fury. Using all the mana even infinite mana combos Elves can make pumping it all into huge trampling attacks with Ezuri and a team of Elves.

The idea that I want make mana with Elves requires big changes to the "Guided" deck. "Guided" gives me two of the most important mana Elves, Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid as well as two other one drop mana Elves, Elvish Mystic and Llanowar Elves . Four is a great start, but I need more Elves who can make mana. A defining characteristic of the Elf tribe are one drop mana Elves. There are atleast eight of them in Magic I want to use all of them, except Boreal Druid because he can't make green mana. I wish I could fit Heritage Druid into this deck, but due to the price restrictions there's no room for her.

The backbone of this deck is made up of Elves who can make mass amounts of mana based on the amount of Elves in play such as Priest of Titania . These Elves are the most important Elves to have if my strategy is to make a lot of mana. "Guided" has two of them, but there are more which can be added. There are a lot of two drop mana Elves in Magic, but they are less needed because one drop Elves which do the same thing, make mana, are cheaper. This lower casting cost does make a huge difference in game play. I'm choosing to use just two 2 drop mana Elves in Ezuri's Fury instead devoting the cards at this place on the mana curve to supporting Elves.

Before I go further into the upgrading process here's the mana curve which is identified as Avg. CMC which stands for "Average Converted Mana Cost". The Avg. CMC of "Guided" is 3.8. This is too high for a tribal Elf deck. I want to drop this below 3 even into 2.5 or less territory. The new strategy of creating mass amounts of mana with Elves requires me to get Elves into play meaning I need to speed up the overall game play of "Guided". Using a lower Avg. CMC than 3.8 helps a lot with this speed.

Now that I have decided to use Ezuri as my Commander and have chosen to make a lot of mana with Elves as my main strategy as well as wanting to drop the Avg. CMC a lot I need to plan out how I can best accomplish filling the deck with the required 46 cards which I'm cutting from "Guided" to support Ezuri and these strategies the most.


The $60 Upgrading Plan

Below are the nine steps I went through to upgrade "Guided" choosing to use Ezuri, Renegade Leader as Commander instead of Freyalise and going with a pure Elf tribal theme with making mass amounts of mana as the main strategy.


The Nine Step Plan

  1. Add more mana Elves.
  2. Add more mass mana producing Elves.
  3. Add Untappers, Elves, other creatures and artifacts which can untap other creatures.
  4. Add creature tutors, creatures and other spells which can tutor for creatures.
  5. Add more card advantage, draw and mass drawing effects.
  6. Add infinite mana combo artifacts.
  7. Add recursion, cards which can get back other cards from the graveyard to fight board wipes and reuse timely spells.
  8. Add better supporting creatures and spells, creatures who are good by themselves as well as with Elves.
  9. Adjust the manabase, cut four total lands and all of them which come into play tapped.


Before I go over each step in detail here is a complete list of all the upgrades I'm making to "Guided". A total of 45 cards are being added with the most expensive being Fauna Shaman at $12, Worldly Tutor at $6 and Green Sun's Zenith at $5.


45 Card Upgrades


STEP 1: Add More Mana Elves

I'm devoting the 1 drop spot on the mana curve too mana Elves. I'm also adding one 2 drop mana Elf as well as two 3 drop Elves.


Seven Mana Elf Additions


Step 2: Add More Mass Mana Producing Elves

These Elves are the most important creatures in the deck. They are the Elves which allow me to make infinite mana in combination with one or more of the artifact combo pieces. Having a greater number of them gives me a better chance of having one in my opening hand or drawing into one faster. I'm adding two 4 drop and one 3 drop Elves.


Three Mass Mana Producing Elf Additions


Karametra's Acolyte is not an Elf or cares about Elves at all, but she does care about green devotion which is the amount of green mana symbols at the tops of each card in play on my side. She has the potential of making just as much mana as Priest of Titania .


Step 3: Add Untappers

Untappers are Elves as well as other creatures and artifacts which can untap other creatures. This effect is great with the mass producing mana Elves. Being able to use them and then untap them and use them again multiple times in a turn is very beneficial to the overall strategy of making mana.


Four Untapper Additions


The best untappers in this deck are Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote both are 1 drop creatures who can be used to untap a creature the turn they are played. Both also have excellent synergy with eachother. Symbiote can bounce Ranger back to my hand which means I can play her again and use her untapping ability again. This interaction can be done every turn letting me untap up to three creatures with just these two cards. Symbiote bounces Elves back to my hand which lets me play them again. Any Elf who has an enters the battlefield trigger such as Reclamation Sage I get to use these triggers again when I play them.

Step 4: Add Creature Tutors

The tutors, in this deck are creature tutors and they are very important to have access to in Commander because they allow me to find certain creatures at certain points in a game. All colors in Magic have tutors of some sort, but Green has the most which can find creatures being able to take advantage of this because I'm using green can benefit this deck a lot. The problem with these tutors are all of them are expensive because well they are all powerful cards. The tutors take up a majority of the $60 upgrade cost, but they are the cards which make this deck much more competitive than the original "Guided" deck.


Six Creature Tutor Additions


There are a lot of other tutor spells I could use, but frankly they are too expensive to use in this budget deck. These are the most cost effective options because the majority of them, Fauna Shaman for example can be continually used turn after turn. I can even use her more than once a turn if I can untap her.


Step 5: Add More Draw

A true source of card advantage in this deck are it's draw spells. The mass drawing card spells to be exact. Green has access to cards that let me draw a huge amount of cards equal to the amount of creatures I have in play. You can see how these draw spells would be great with Elves and they are. The original "Guided" deck has only one draw spell, Collective Unconscious as well as Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury 's Planeswalker ultimate. This is not enough draw in the deck and having to rely on ultimating a Planeswalker to draw cards is not the best plan. It should be a nice backup plan instead.


Three Draw Spell Additions


Regal Force is one of the most important non-Elf cards and by far the best draw in the deck because he is a creature. All tutors, but Skyshroud Poacher and Elvish Harbinger can tutor for him, he's especially great to get with Fierce Empath . He counts toward his own triggered ability of drawing cards. He can also be bounced back to my hand by other creatures to be used again.


Step 6: Add Infinite Mana Combo Artifacts

The strategy of this deck is to make mana to be used with Ezuri. There's no better way to make a lot of mana than to make infinite mana. These artifacts together with any of the mass mana producers such as Priest of Titania can create infinite mana for a turn. The way this works is by simply equipping and untaping these creatures infinite times. Doing this each time more and more mana is placed into my mana pool. These artifacts are the cards that let me while rare "oops I win" on turn 3 or 4. If I can assemble them without disruption I have free reign to destroy everyone at the table.


Two Infinite Mana Combo Artifact Additions


There's a third artifact which can make infinite mana with Elves, Staff of Domination . It's the best of the three, but it's not a budget option it's price is way too high to use in this budget deck.


Step 7: Add Recursion

Recursion are cards which can get back other cards from the graveyard. Using these types of cards to support Elves is important because the number one fear of this deck are board wipes. Elves are going to die in the course of game having a way to get one of them or all of them at once as well as other cards at times in a game is very helpful. "Guided" has Grave Sifter , but in my opinion he is not very good recursion because he helps all players not just me which is the reason I have cut him.


Three Recursion Additions


Just like Regal Force , Etneral Witness is another very important non-Elf card in this deck. Witness is a creature which means she can be tutored for as well as bounced back to my hand to be used again. Creeping Renaissance is one of the most powerful mass recursion spell for green tribal decks because it can put all Elves or creatures back into my hand. It also has flashback letting me use it again at a later time in the game.


Step 8: Add Supporting Creatures and Spells

This deck can't just be all mana Elves, untappers and draw it needs other creatures and spells, including more Elves, who can support Elves as well as the making mana strategy.


Nine Supporting Creature and Spell Additions

    Creature

  • Caller of the Claw
    Board wipe as well as other removal insurance. Since he is a creature he can be tutored for.
  • Gaea's Herald
    Being able to cast any creature including Ezuri without fear of a counterspell is nice.
  • Temur Sabertooth
    He can bounce any creature back to my hand for two mana while giving himself industructible. This ablitily can be used as many times in a turn with as many creatures as I like. This is excellent with any creatures who have enters the battlefield abilities such as Regal Force .
  • Wirewood Herald
    More board wipe insurance, letting me tutor for any Elf when he dies.
  • Sylvan Messenger
    The majority of the creatures in this deck are Elves which makes Messenger a fine creature because she has the ability to put up to four Elves into my hand from the top of my library.

    • Instant

  • Beast Within
    Unconditional removal that can also kill lands. The best removal spell that green can offer.
  • Wrap in Vigor
    Even more board wipe insurance which can potentially save my entire board of Elves for three mana.

    • Sorcery

  • Hurricane
    The green Fireball . A secondary win condition that can also deal with flying creatures. This in combination with the life gaining Elves Wellwisher and Essence Warden can potentially kill all my opponents while not killing me with one card by pumping a huge amount of mana into it.
  • Lead the Stampede
    Being able to look at the top five cards of my library and put any creatures I find into my hand is great especially when this deck is using 40+ creatures. Lead and Messenger are kind of needed as a way to find Elves because this deck can't use due to price restrictions a large amount of creature tutors.


Step 9: Change the Manabase

"Guided" has 37 lands, eight of which come into play tapped. In my opinion this is too much land for a tribal Elf deck. Adding lots of mana Elves especially 1 drops also allows me to cut some lands. I'm cutting 4 lands and all the come into play tapped lands for Forest s. As a way to speed up this deck I'm not using any lands that come into play tapped. An exception to this might be the cycling lands such as Tranquil Thicket , but I will need to playtest with them more to make sure they are better in place of Forests.


Eight Land Additions


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Revision 69 See all

(4 years ago)

+1 Revive main
Date added 8 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

2 - 0 Mythic Rares

20 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

26 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.49
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Elf Druid 1/1 G, Elf Warrior 1/1 G, Morph 2/2 C
Folders EDH, Rethink some changes, Mono Color Deck Thoughts, Frey Ideas, Ezuri deck, EDH, BOUGHT 1st round, EDH Likes, Budget goodies, Decks in my Top Tiers
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