Llanowar Elves
Set Price Alerts

Combos Browse all Suggest

Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander 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
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Oldschool 93/94 Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Llanowar Elves

Creature — Elf Druid

: Add .

rckclimber777 on Build a Deck with me …

3 days ago

Welcome back to another episode of Build a Deck with Me. In the first two episodes I focused on a couple decks that want to go infinite and combo out. I realize that playing infinite combos is not everyone’s idea of a good time, but one of the things I enjoy is finding cool interactions/ways to break cards. So today instead of finding ways to break cards, I’m simply going to start with a card that is already broken and build a deck around it. That card is Voja, Jaws of the Conclave. Ok, so maybe it isn’t broken, but you have to admit, you see this good boy on the field and you need to find a response quickly.

Research

In the last episode, I had some comments that suggested I talk about some of the general research that goes into deck-building. One thing to keep in mind is that when you’re building a deck there are general archetypes that exist and are fairly well known. These can often serve as models when thinking about what cards to use, although relying too heavily on them long term can diminish creativity. If you’re just starting out though, by all means run over to EDHRec and find what cards usually go into a counters deck or a tribal deck (spoiler alert that is what we’re building here). One of the things that I do that helps my deckbuilding is watching youtube channels that play commander. This includes: The Command Zone, Tolarian Community College, Commander at Home, and Elder Dragon Hijinks. There are many others out there, but these are the ones that I’ve watched more than a couple episodes of. As I’m watching an episode, I find myself thinking, “Wow I want to build something like that” or “I really liked the interactions with that”. For instance, there was a Commander at Home game where I got to see the interaction between Dihada, Binder of Wills and Odric, Lunarch Marshal and now they’re sitting on my desk, waiting to be built. Today’s episode is the result of one such instance. I watched The Command Zone episode that covered Murders at Karlov Manor. In that game, the Voja deck was a beast. It was fast, it made huge creatures, it drew tons of cards, and it just couldn’t be stopped, oh and the commander was a big puppy dog (wolf, puppy same thing).

To start building, I went into Gatherer and just began looking for a few things like Wolves, Elves, and Changelings. I started to realize that there are very few changelings and the wolves out there really aren’t that great outside of a few like Hollowhenge Overlord. So I turned back to the Command Zone for some help. They post their decklists on the videos and I began scrolling through it and much to my surprise, the list was similar to the ones that I had found, but wasn’t sure about like Ferocious Pup and Universal Automaton. These aren’t good cards unless you have something that really wants creatures on the field. And that’s when things started to click. The support for Voja didn’t necessarily need to be super strong in their own right, it just needed to enable him to do more.

Changelings

First of all, Voja is an interesting card because it wants both Elves and Wolves on the field. Most tribal decks want just one tribe so it almost feels like you have to make a choice between one or the other here. Well I don’t like choosing between two good options. It’s like deciding between chicken nuggets or a chicken sandwich at Chick-Fil-A. I say both! (I also might need to reconsider some life choices, but oh well)

Changelings are great because they have all creature types which means any tribal deck can use them. Some are extremely powerful, while others just have an interesting creature type. In this deck, however, we want to focus on low cost creatures. If they do something cool, bonus!

Realmwalker is awesome because it is every creature type but it can also cast creatures from the top of your library which instantly gives you card advantage, we will likely choose elf as our creature type when it comes in because they generally are going to be our lower cost creatures, our mana dorks, and likely the more prominent tribal type in our deck.

Remember any changeling on the field will trigger both aspects of Voja’s triggered ability so a Universal Automaton becomes a 1 drop enabler for both adding counters and drawing cards. Irregular Cohort provides two 2/2 bodies both of whom are changelings and give us more counters and cards.

Of course there are two cards here that are just amazing. Maskwood Nexus which makes all your creatures all creature types, and Shields of Velis Vel which does the same thing in instant form. Both are game changers with voja.

Elves

When it comes to elves, we generally want to have mana dorks. This is going to ramp us out quickly, but also allow us to have bodies out there to add counters to. A couple standouts besides the normal ones like Llanowar Elves are:

Gyre Sage who is going to get huge thanks to Voja.

Beast Whisperer will draw you lots of cards because we are going to be a creature heavy deck.

Yeva, Nature's Herald is also helpful in being able to get your cards out on your opponent’s turns.

All the versions of Tolsimir are great because they often come with a wolf token in tow.

Finally there is Shalai and Hallar… When you’re adding counters to every creature on your board equal to the number of elves you control, this card can take out an opponent.

Wolves

There are a few wolves out there, but its surprisingly fewer than you would think. Hollowhenge Overlord is really good, and so is Ferocious Pup. You play it and suddenly you have two wolves which means two more cards when Voja attacks. Another great wolf is Roaming Throne. I know what you’re thinking, “it’s a golem.” In this deck, it’s a wolf… trust me. Roaming throne will double all of Voja’s triggered abilities and now you’re thinking “Voja only has one triggered ability.“ Actually, Ward is a triggered ability. Which means now in order to target him, your opponents need to spend 6 mana!! So you swing with Voja, let’s be conservative and say that you have just llanowar elves, Voja, and roaming throne, you add 2 +1/+1 counters to everything and you draw 4 cards. Speaking of doubling that trigger: Annie Joins Up. A super underrated card so far and triggers on Voja, Shalai, and Tolsimir.

Other fun stuff

There are a couple other things that help support Voja as well. Counter multipliers and additional combat steps are all good things for this deck. You don’t want to put too many of those in though because when push comes to shove you’re likely going to just want a creature to play instead of another counter multiplier. I have Kami of Whispered Hopes in the deck, because it adds counters, but it also produces a crazy amount of mana which I can use to empty my hand of creature cards. Hardened Scales is fine and even Branching Evolution feels worthwhile, but I chose not to add any others.

For additional combats I added only two cards, one was Relentless Assault and the other is Great Train Heist. The latter is great because it has more versatility, is an instant, and costs the same as relentless assault for its first ability. Both of these cards can win the game pretty easily.

There are also wolf producers like Howling Moon which I’ve played in Arena with great results. (also pairs well with Tocasia's Welcome). Sword of Body and Mind produces wolves, gives protection, and mills your opponent. Arlinn, the Pack's Hope  Flip is another powerful card since it produces wolves, but can also give you flash on your creatures.

Finally, there is a card that I’m proud to say I noticed before it became super popular. Silver Shroud Costume. I remember playing it in the dogmeat deck and thought, this is good, I’m going to put a copy into voja. At that time it was $5. It has since surged to $20 and there is a reason. It can flash out and attach to Voja, who is now hexproof, (in case ward 3 wasn’t enough) and unblockable gg.

Card Draw, ramp, interaction

Don’t forget your interaction. Just because Voja has ward 3 and is hard to spot remove, doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to be protected. Flawless Maneuver, Heroic Intervention, Teferi's Protection etc. will help keep him and the rest of your creatures safe.

As far as ramp goes, Voja wants creatures which means a lot of ramp is going to be in the form of mana dorks not mana rocks or traditional green ramp spells. I still added a few green ramp spells, but its definitely fewer than some of my other green decks.

Card draw is also a little different here. We’ve got Beast Whisperer and Tocasia's Welcome already and they work really well with the deck since the Beast whisperer is also an elf and tocasia’s welcome triggers with all of our mana dorks which we can flash out on other turns as well. Voja of course is the main card draw engine (seriously a commander who draws cards is just waiting to be abused). Other good cards here are Inspiring Call and Rishkar's Expertise.

About Card Draw

One quick note on card draw that has recently changed the way I think about it. I used to separate card draw into two different categories. Card draw engines which are ongoing effects that will give me cards as long as they remain on the field. The other is simply cards that draw more cards. Previously, I assumed that the former were excellent cards and the latter were well… not great. But as I was listening to The Command Zone they started talking about cards and the amount of triggers you can expect to get in a single game. This changed the way I thought about it. A card like Rhystic Study is great because you are likely going to get some cards from it, but your opponents can pay the 1 or they can remove it. The idea is to think about your card draw engines in terms of the average cards you get from it. This helped me starting think about the usefulness in a card like Inspiring Call which is likely to give me 4-5 cards when I play it, at least. Rishkar's Expertise similarly will net me upwards of 7-10 cards and play a spell from my hand. Meanwhile, rhystic study, which is a great card, will likely get me 5-6 cards before being dealt with, sometimes only a couple. It helped me shift my thinking and made me consider other cards that I had previously dismissed.

Lands

Not a lot of utility lands are needed in this deck, I did like Rogue's Passage, because a lot of times Voja is swinging for lethal commander damage. Making him unblockable is great.

Here is the final form: Voja, the good boy

And by final form, I mean the form I’m currently playing, but likely will change because decks are always being updated and changed. As always, hope you enjoyed the article and if you have any commanders or interactions that you want to see built, let me know in the comments.

Renegadespider on Help improve my deck pls

1 week ago

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/genesis-surge-1/?cb=1714747746

So I'm trying to make the ulimate Genesis Deck that focuses on cheating out Creatures and producing lots of mana to activate Spawnsire, Avacyn, Angel of Hope is for boardwipe protection Archetype of Endurance is for targeting Exile protection, Nylea's Disciple is for life gain from using The One Ring for draw and all the Genesis Cards to cheat my Board state out, except Gelatinous Genesis which for an alt win con. I've managed to get everything out by turn 4 before...but it just doesn't feel fast enough, I brick way too often, by either drawing way too much mana or not drawing enough mana, any advice?

Elhoggerino on Blood Blatter Beast of Bhaal

2 weeks ago

I also don't really understand Fog or Spore Frog but I know you like politics so maybe they'll be fun in order to get favours from people. Loads of card draw which is nice but again I can see you running out of creatures to sac for Village Rites and Deadly Dispute type cards. You generally need to draw cards while behind and while behind you might be suffering from graveyard hate agaist your skeletons or other effects - just something to consider. Also Damnation might be something to consider switching for a different boardwioe if you are gonna put some regenerate creatures in (Toxic Deluge turns off regenerate aswell - but it's such a good card it's probably worth it)

In terms of cuts to make to make space for more dummies, Shadow in the Warp doesn't really fit much in the deck - you have so many cheap creatures that you'll probably be casting more than one a turn and it will rarely help that much - and the 2 damage is pretty insignificant compared to your other effects. I would favour Llanowar Elves type cards over Fertile Ground as again, creatures are what you want and they give you the oppurtunity to sac them if you need.

Some good cards to consider:

Victimize - brings back your Sakura-Tribe Elder type cards and is a sac outlet at the same time

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger - just great value aswell as triggering Bhaal. A good reanimator target aswell.

Recurring Nightmares - Reanimator + sac outlet + it doesn't die? This card's great.

Dread Wanderer? Not the best but helps you out in a pinch if you have a Village Rites and nothing else

Nether Traitor - I don't know why this isn't in there already

BarfQuackers on What happens if I trigger …

3 months ago

Tyvar the Bellicose and V.A.T.S.

First of all, I'm assuming I can activate stuff like Fyndhorn Elves because split second doesn't stop mana abilities or triggered abilities.

Say I have Tyvar the Bellicose, Llanowar Elves, and Elvish Mystic on the battlefield. In response to V.A.T.S. targeting both mana dorks, I tap one of them to become a 2/2 thanks to Tyvar, what happens? Does the spell Fizzle? Does only the the 1/1 die? Can they choose between either one? What happens if they cast V.A.T.S. targeting both as 1/1s and in response I tap them and they both become 2/2s?

I tried looking this up online the only answers I could find were "doesn't matter because you can't do anything in response to split second" and "idk".

plakjekaas on Why Do Some People Wish …

3 months ago

The counter-argument to that is: as a possible mono-green creature, it has no business being in a deck helmed by a commander like Amalia Benavides Aguirre, just like a Llanowar Elves wouldn't. It's a shame that doesn't fit the intention of the mechanic for this one specific format with a quirk about color legality, but it's what is printed on the card, and by every interpretation of the rules as written, that's how it works.

I don't think specifically opening up hybrid mana allowing to work like Maro would want it to, will impact the game too heavily, but it opens the door to other rule changes because "Players feel it should work that way". I'd love to play Bedlam Reveler in a pauper deck, because it would fit so well. Now I know it never was printed at common, but let's flat out deny what color of set icon is printed on the card because I feel it should work that way and it would fit my deck, right?

No. Not right. Printed as common is a hard rule for pauper, just like color identity is for commander. If you don't want to play according to those rules, you don't want to play pauper/commander.

lhetrick13 on Ty-Ramp-A-Saurus Wrex

4 months ago

Grends27 - Thanks for your thoughts on my deck so I wanted to repay the favor! Disclaimer, looking at your decklist, I am assuming more of a budget build so I will take that into account.

So first off, I like the high creature count of the deck. Similar to my deck, I think I counted 8 creatures that are not dinos that will not hit with Gishath. Most of the non-dino creatures in my deck are there for utility/ramp purposes and seems like yours are filling similar roles. Personally, I am a little underwhelmed by Ilysian Caryatid, Llanowar Elves, and Ixalli's Lorekeeper and try to avoid anything with toughless less than 3 due to Marauding Raptor. I would encourage you to try out Kinjalli's Caller, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, and Intrepid Paleontologist as they provide a similar role but usually have something more than just adding mana/acceleration to the deck. You really need to consider Forerunner of the Empire. The tutor effect is great by itself but the ability to trigger your Enrage dinos is very powerful. Plus with the abundancy of 1/1 tokens in EDH, this is a board wipe for any creatures weaker than say 2 toughness. He is another great utility creature for dinosaur decks!

I like the dinos you included. I know I said I would suggest budget but Trapjaw Tyrant and Silverclad Ferocidons do work. Especially when you have the ability to trigger their Enrage ability multiple times per turn!

Your land count is very similar to mine, I did not count up all the ways you have to ramp up but see a lot of ways to do that via creatures, artifacts, sorceries, instants, etc. I was going to try adding Poetic Ingenuity into my deck as a way to add some additional treasure tokens in the early turns via swinging with smaller dinos to generate mana to cast Gishath. Can not suggest it 100% without trying it but I love the idea of it!

On the enchantment/artifact side, the only thing I would really suggest is adding Strionic Resonator. Similar to me, you are running enough triggered effects that this card will win you games. A good drop for it would be Descendants' Path. I ran that for a while and was just not impressed with the results. Maybe Aggravated Assault if you would like to swing multiple times...combos well with the Poetic Ingenuity!

FOr the Instants/Sorceries, my only suggestion is that with how common boardwipes and interactions are in EDH, I would suggest more single/mass protection. Flawless Maneuver is not to expensive and can be cast for free if Gishath is out. Clever Concealment is nice for those pesky mass exile spells as you can just phase out your creatures and if your deck is firing on all cylinders and you have a board presence, you can usually cast it for free as well!

Otherwise, looks pretty solid! You can tell you have a plan...cast Gishath quick...swing hard...raid dinos...repeat.

PuritanPuree on Next Stop: The Exploration Station

6 months ago

I love this combo too ever since Amalia was spoiled, and I've also been tinkering with it. I like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose as an alternate win-con just in case of shenanigans from your opponent since, while going off with the combo, Vito will deal 54 damage himself, and he's even CC-able. I also think there's merit to 1 mana manadorks in the deck so that you can cast CC on turn 3. In particular, Gilded Goose seems interesting since its food can be used for the life gain to start the combo in a pinch, and being able to tap for all 3 colors is always nice, but Llanowar Elves probably works just fine. Prosperous Innkeeper also seems like an interesting enabler/ramp combo piece.

Cheers from a fellow Amalia combo enjoyer!

wallisface on Selesyna Midrange

7 months ago

As far as cards I would ditch:

  • Garruk Wildspeaker feels too slow/midrange orientated and not useful for what you’re trying to do here. Same goes for Elder Gargaroth.

  • Blossoming Defense feels kindof meh here to me. None of your creatures are crucial to keep alive - i’d rather these slots be used for more creatures.

  • I don’t think you need/want Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx at all… if your deck is benefitting from it then your mana curve is too high.

I think you should be running Tail Swipe instead of Prey Upon. And i think you can run the full playset if there’s room.

As far as creatures to add/consider, i have a bunch of suggestions that aren’t beasts, but would help you a lot. At the moment your only reason to running mono-beasts is Descendants' Path, which imo isn’t a strong enough card to warrant restricting your creature options soo heavily.

Anyway, creatures that cpuld be good here: Pelt Collector, Experiment One, and Strangleroot Geist. There is also the option of going down to 18 lands, running playsets of Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic (you ditch Arboreal Grazer in this situation), and playing 3x Khalni Hydra as a terrifying finisher (they make your Aspect of Hydra back-breaking).

Load more