Table of Contents
Intro
Elf tribal is well established and recognized among tribal strategies in EDH, having stood the test of time. Originating since the very beginning of Magic in Alpha (Llanowar Elves), Elves have always enjoyed a reputation for pumping out mana and flooding the board at blistering speed. In our guide below we will discuss all things Elfball for EDH, and explain choices in deck building. This guide is based on a Bant list, which has evolved from mono green over time. Still, about 80% of this list is green.
Originally, Elfball EDH decks were primarily built in mono green as Ezuri, Renegade Leader / Marwyn, the Nurturer and Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury were the go to commanders. To a large extent, they still are. Mono green offers all tools to build your board so quickly you will be able to threaten wins by turn 5/6.
Years ago, I started with mono green Ezuri, Renegade Leader as well, and the deck quickly became a threat at the table. However, as time went by and opponents at my EDH table learned how to deal with Elfball (and due to power creep in EDH in general) I felt being in mono green came with certain weaknesses:
- A go wide deck in mono green is extremely vulnerable to board wipes. Of course there are some ways to deal with this (please see our article here) but overextending (like Elves normally do) can be punished severely and easily.
- Lack of instant speed interaction. If the opponent across combos off with Korvold, Fae-Cursed King you will usually not be able to interact meaningfully in mono green.
- Not being able to play hate pieces to pressure opponents and not having access to tailored board wipes that do not harm you.
Bant Elfball
In order to evolve the deck and grow with our table’s power level, I felt more colors were needed. There are many options – I chose Bant; blue for interaction and card advantage and white for removal and hate options. When Chulane, Teller of Tales was spoiled, everyone immediately recognized this guy is completely bonkers. He shores up several weaknesses that mono green suffers from. He offers a strong set of colors and grants insane card advantage and land drops, fueling the machine. The bounce ability is just icing on the cake. All these abilities mitigate a lot of the damage done by boardwipes and just reward you for carrying out your main plan: playing small creatures. Note that infinite mana and infinite combos are banned in our group. So for this reason you will not see the usual suspects in this guide (Temur Sabertooth / Umbral Mantle etc.) This deck wins through raw combat damage, “no cheats” and nothing else.
You can find my deck on Moxfield here.
The deck is a far cry from any budget range as I’ve been upgrading / foiling it over the last six years. However, replacing the foils for regular versions, skipping heavy wallet hitters like Gaea’s Cradle, Eladamri, Lord Of Leaves and the duals should allow you to come a lot closer to a more acceptable budget range. Or just start with proxying, which is fine too. If you wish to try your hand at an Elfball EDH deck for the first time, I suggest trying the mono green shell first -jamming some basic forests, and seeing how you like the playstyle. Below we will discuss the most notable Elves for each category.
Card advantage
A Guardian Project effect on an Elf for a reasonable 4 mana and good body. We need every effect we can find like this.
This Elf lord from Dominaria United is a recent pick up. This lord was windmill – slammed right in. An anthem on a two mana Elf with Lifecrafter’s Bestiary pay off – just shut up and take my money alright!
This legendary Elf can let you draw tons of cards if you can get through. Forestwalk is an old mechanic but still very relevant for us Elves players, especially when he is on board. The political aspect of him should also not be underestimated.
So far the only shapeshifter in the deck, feels better and better everytime it shows up, it grants considerable advantage in the three-drop slot. It does need a critical mass of Elves to be good (upwards of 30).
I like card advantage that is repeatable. For this reason, Elvish Visionary is not here. Wizards is printing more Elves in white these days, which is interesting. Two that caught our attention are Bennie Bracks, Zoologist and Rumor Gatherer. Not good enough to make it on the list (yet) but we will definitely keep an eye on them.
Card advantage is critical in EDH and especially in decks that like to play your entire hand in one go. For this reason we also run powerhouses like Guardian Project, Sylvan Library, Rhystic Study and Kindred Discovery. If Chulane, Teller of Tales gets wrecked, these are our backups.
Ramp
No surprises here; this is what Elves do. The ramp package includes:
| Ramp package | USD | EUR |
|---|---|---|
| Arbor Elf | $0.13 | €0.47 |
| Bloom Tender | $11.79 | €9.61 |
| Boreal Druid | $3.02 | €1.34 |
| Circle of Dreams Druid | $5.07 | €5.76 |
| Elvish Archdruid | $0.43 | €0.93 |
| Elvish Harbinger | $4.08 | €1.91 |
| Elvish Mystic | $0.21 | €0.47 |
| Fyndhorn Elves | $0.56 | €0.54 |
| Heritage Druid | $1.89 | €2.68 |
| Incubation Druid | $0.69 | €0.69 |
| Joraga Treespeaker | $1.37 | €1.84 |
| Llanowar Elves | $0.26 | €0.30 |
| Marwyn, The Nurturer | $1.85 | €0.99 |
| Paradise Druid | $0.12 | €0.17 |
| Priest of Titania | $3.84 | € |
| Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary | $28.40 | €15.34 |
| Wirewood Channeler | $1.01 | €0.62 |
We run all the good one- and two drop dorks to maintain speed. Assuming that these and iconic Elfball EDH cards like Elvish Archdruid and Priest of Titania are well known at this point, let us highlight a few that are perhaps a little less known.
This Elf is just as good as Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid, just a bit more mana.
Do not underestimate this one little drop Elf. Being able to tap for three green right away is incredible. Paired with Elf tokens, its value is staggering.
Indeed, Gaea’s Cradle, on an Elf. Not even sure we needed this, but we are running this all day. Triple green can be restrictive in some three-color decks but not in this one.
Don’t forget about this little Elf. She is very versatile, ramps like a madwoman and scales.
What the hell is Rofellos doing here you ask? Isn’t he banned and stuff? Correct! However, as I’m an avid Elf fan, my playgroup allowed the inclusion of him in the 99 as a pet card. I only run about 10 forests so he is fine (until I run into Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth, but that (dream) has not happened yet…).
Go wide
Going wide means providing anthems (lords) and generating tokens. There are five lords that grant anthems. We like lords that also grant other abilities (so Elvish Clancaller is out for this reason)
| Lords | USD | EUR |
|---|---|---|
| Imperious Perfect | $0.13 | €0.19 |
| Elvish Archdruid | $0.43 | €0.93 |
| Elvish Champion | $9.36 | €6.45 |
| Leaf-Crowned Visionary | $3.30 | €4.93 |
As stated earlier, lords that provide an additional benefit are key. I love Forestwalk as it’s a flavor win but also for its underestimated power. Pumping out mana and elf tokens are also nice complementary abilities. Leaf-Crowned Visionary we discussed under card advantage already and is a house of a lord as well. Finally, the scalability of Joraga Warcaller is nice to have in any stage of the game.
There are more Elf Lords of course. A fairly recent addition is Canopy Tactician from Kaldheim. However, we do need to prioritize low mana value Elves. A four mana Elf should really make an impact as we want to maintain and guarantee speed. This lord offers too little and feels too clunky.
Our token generator suite:
This Elf is a recent addition from Kaldheim and feels great to have even if he is restricted to generating a token once a turn. He can also do a little pump granting deathtouch – never needed it yet, but who knows.
Granted, Wirewood Hivemaster is the only one not generating Elf tokens. However, this little Elf joins the party early and produces an insane amount of bugs that are appreciated equally by the Wincons and Gaea’s Cradle and Growing Rites of Itlimoc / Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun alike.
The only Elf that generates Elf tokens unrestricted. Gets out of hand really quickly and is usually left alone by opponents (“its just a common”).
The instant speed on this makes it a considerable upgrade from Elvish Promenade. Adding five Elves to the board in an opponent’s end step can be devastating.
A lord that pumps out Elf tokens, versatile and comes down quickly.
As we are running 35 Elves, these token generators really pull their weight and flood the board quickly.
Protection
Your green spells become incounterable on an Elf that cannot be countered. A brutal way to annoy blue players. Play this guy the turn you chop your opponents to bits with a Wincon. Make blue player mad. Elves happy.
A word on Eladamri. He had been errata’d. He is an Elf (lord is an obsolete creature type) and grants all OTHER Elves shroud and forestwalk. He does not buff himself. Slam him down when you need the forestwalk or the protection for the team. Please do note that shroud will make your other Elves untargetable – also for your own abilities, meaning no untap shenanigans. Important to keep in mind.
A notorious card that has recently been reprinted. A well-timed Teferi’s Protection can swing games just by itself. If you run white, just get it ok – you will never look back.
This guy is a beast of a hatebear and denies most board wipes (not all, looking at you Toxic Deluge). We already talked about him in our article to deal with board wipes (here) so no further comments needed.
Tutors
These Elves provide great tutor effects. Of course there are more elves with this type of functionality (Fierce Empath) / Wirewood Herald) / Elvish Reclaimer) but for now these will do. Having Eladamri’s Call is nicely on theme here too. Crop Rotation fetches Gaea’s Cradle and is the only land tutor we run.
Utility
Although merfolk are depicted on the art, any Elves list loves this enchantment to bits. Untapping each Elf on each ETB enables giant explosive turns, especially when coupled with extra card draw on cast.
We are in a creature heavy deck that relies heavily on speed and activated abilities. Concordant Crossroads supports both for just one mana.
Untapping Priest of Titania and friends provides so much value that these untappers are a necessity for Elfball EDH decks. Still need to find a place for Wirewood Symbiote!
Lands
- Gaea’s Cradle. Needs no further introduction. Far cry from budget but always offers a giant power spike when played. Budget option Growing Rites of Itlimoc / Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun is equally good and also present in the list.
- Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx taps for the amount of devotion, usually a disgusting amount.
- Wirewood Lodge. As stated earlier, untapping Elves is the name of the game.
- Yavimaya Hollow. Sometimes, all we need is just a bit of regeneration.
- Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth. The legendary forest that makes all lands forests.
- Boseiju, Who Endures and Otawara, Soaring City. Uncounterable removal on lands, these are insanely useful.
Interaction and removal suite
As you will note there are six counter spells in the list. For Elfball EDH decks this is quite high and I totally recognize why players may chose fewer. My reasoning is that these serve a dual purpose – they are needed to protect my board and counter game winning moves from opponents.
Also, this deck will be threatening lethal rather quickly and consistently. My thinking is that “player removal is the best removal”. Therefore protecting my main plan is valued higher than removing opponents pieces, unless absolutely necessary.
A nice flavor win is Frilled Mystic. Of course, four mana for a counterspell is far from competitive. However, aside from tribal benefits, bouncing this Elf to hand with Chulane, Teller of Tales forms a nice synergy.
The other pieces of removal are either highly efficient (Back to Nature) or highly impactful and tailored to our needs (Farewell) . A spicy piece of removal is Spell Queller which can also be used defensively to eat wraths of four mana and less.
Hate pieces
Of course we could replace these slots with even more Elves. However, we do need to keep the board in check to a certain degree. Deploying one of these pieces usually means the opponents need to spend resources to deal with this or face considerable restrictions. If the hate piece is dealt with, this is also fine, as this leaves less of opponent’s resources to interact with our main plan. These pieces hate on non-creature spells in a symmetrical way; however, we are seldom bothered by these with upwards of 40 creatures. These can stop enchantress- and artifacts decks right in their tracks.
Wincons
The original Elfball king. Cannot be missing here. Pump them Elves and go to town.
Needs no further introduction. The go to haymaker for creature decks and the reason Natural Order is in the deck.
An Elf that provides a team wide buff on attack, effectively doubling all power on the board when she attacks – sign me up.
Oh we need at least 12 mana for this baddie.. Hmm let me see, how do we get there…? Aside from finding Craterhoof Behemoth, finding powerhouses like Elvish Archdruid is also perfectly fine.
His inherent overrun and ability to animate lands has won me enough games to guarantee a place for him. A boon to go wide decks. The other Kamahl (Kamahl, Fist of Krosa) is also on my consideration list.
Notable Exclusions
- Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury – too clunky at 5 mana and does not grant immediate draw. Pass.
- Elvish Guidance. Still on the fence on this one – the effect is a no brainer but this deck likes creatures way more than enchantments. In addition, we already run 4 identical effects on creatures and 2 on lands.
- One shot card draw such as Shamanic Relevation / Glimpse of Nature). They are fine but usually don’t come through when we need it most – after board wipes when we don’t have a board
- Triumph of the Hordes – never needed it.
- Free (counter)spells. Especially the ones in blue and white (Fierce Guardianship and Flawless Maneuver. These are fine; however never felt a necessity to run these. There are plenty games where the commander, Chulane, is not needed at all.
- Aluren – feels too much combo and causes long boring turns where we play solitary. Having Intruder Alarm in the deck is enough.
Takeaways
From having played Elfball in EDH games over the years, here are my main takeaways:
- a well-tuned Elfball EDH deck is usually the first and highest threat on everyone’s radar.
- Do try to keep up the appearance “that you only have a handful mana dorks”.
- By turn six or seven, you can likely threaten lethal against at least one opponent. Do it. Take out the player with boardwipes and control / stax first (unless there are very good reasons to choose another opponent)
- Elfball is not about politicking or long games. We are here to trample opponents down into the dirt and to do it quickly. If an opportunity appears, seize it.
- Board wipes wreck us. We do not run recursion, flood the board with Elves and are therefore vulnerable. Keep an eye out for counterspells or pieces to stop / mitigate wipes. Until then, do NOT overextend.
- If a legendary Bant Elf that cares about Elves is ever spoiled, Chulane will get the axe!
That wraps it up folks! If you have any comments or questions feel free to shoot us a message. We will update the guide when new notable Elves are released.
