There are just so many potential commanders to choose from. How on Earth are you meant to pick one and stick with it? Well, that’s actually kind of the point of these articles, as you’ll likely know if this isn’t your first time here.
We’re going to do a deep dive on a fun commander that is well suited to newer players thanks to their power and price. Today we’re diving into one of the most popular tribes in MTG, Elves. That means it’s also time to talk about
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
Whenever Lathril deals combat damage to a player, create that many 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature tokens.
{T}, Tap ten untapped Elves you control: Each opponent loses 10 life and you gain 10 life.
.
Meet your commander
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)
Whenever Lathril deals combat damage to a player, create that many 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature tokens.
{T}, Tap ten untapped Elves you control: Each opponent loses 10 life and you gain 10 life.
is a four-mana black and green 2/3 with menace. They have two abilities outside of that, the first one is “Whenever Lathril, Blade of the Elves deals combat damage to a player, create that many 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature tokens.” That’s pretty cool, right?
The second one plays into that nicely, as it allows you to tap Lathril and ten other untapped Elves you control to have every opponent lose ten life, and have you gain ten life. Both of these are very potent abilities, and it doesn’t take a huge amount of work for us to understand how to get the best out of dear Lathril here.
The main things we need to do are make sure we can create a lot of Elves with ease, buff up Lathril to create tokens along those lines, and try to untap our stuff to get multiple uses out of Lathril. So, that’s what we’re going to try and do.
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The best Elf generators
Now then, a lot of the Elves we’re aiming to generate here are going to be tokens. That means that having
Doubling Season
Doubling Season
If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
or
Parallel Lives
Parallel Lives
If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead.
, or both, is going to be great. They’re both really expensive though, so it might be simpler to look towards the one-off effect of
Second Harvest
Second Harvest
For each token you control, create a token that's a copy of that permanent.
instead. But hey, if you’ve got money, feel free to go for it.
There are two good planeswalkers for this deck too. Well, more than two, but the two we want to talk about are
Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury
Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury
+2: Create a 1/1 green Elf Druid creature token with "{T}: Add {G}."
−2: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
−6: Draw a card for each green creature you control.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury can be your commander.
, and
Tyvar Kell
Tyvar Kell
Elves you control have "{T}: Add {B}."
+1: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to one target Elf. Untap it. It gains deathtouch until end of turn.
0: Create a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token.
−6: You get an emblem with "Whenever you cast an Elf spell, it gains haste until end of turn and you draw two cards."
, both of whom can spit out tokens among other things. The other things are good, we’re just all about tokens at the moment. We really like both Wolverine Riders and Lys Alana Huntmaster here too, as both spit out tokens regularly.
Once you’ve got all of those tokens, you can make even more with both
Elvish Promenade
Elvish Promenade
Create a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token for each Elf you control.
and
Elven Ambush
Elven Ambush
Create a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token for each Elf you control.
, both of which essentially doubles the number of Elves you have out at the time. Then you can finish it off by casting
Kindred Summons
Kindred Summons
Choose a creature type. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal X creature cards of the chosen type, where X is the number of creatures you control of that type. Put those cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle the rest of the revealed cards into your library.
, which allows you to double the number again, but this time with real cards, not just tokens. Whew. So, that’s the token side of things, onto the support side.
Read More: Every Other Tribe Is Rubbish, It’s Time For Frog Tribal
The best support cards
So, first up let’s just list some Elf lords. All of these are good, just get them all.
Marwyn, the Nurturer
Marwyn, the Nurturer
Whenever another Elf you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on Marwyn.
{T}: Add an amount of {G} equal to Marwyn's power.
, Dwynen, Gilt-Lead Daen,
Elvish Archdruid
Elvish Archdruid
Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1.
{T}: Add {G} for each Elf you control.
,
Elvish Champion
Elvish Champion
Other Elf creatures get +1/+1 and have forestwalk. (They can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a Forest.)
,
Elvish Clancaller
Elvish Clancaller
Other Elves you control get +1/+1.
{4}{G}{G}, {T}: Search your library for a card named Elvish Clancaller, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
,
Imperious Perfect
Imperious Perfect
Other Elves you control get +1/+1.
{G}, {T}: Create a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token.
,
Canopy Tactician
Canopy Tactician
Other Elves you control get +1/+1.
{T}: Add {G}{G}{G}.
, and
Joraga Warcaller
Joraga Warcaller
Multikicker {1}{G} (You may pay an additional {1}{G} any number of times as you cast this spell.)
This creature enters with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked.
Other Elf creatures you control get +1/+1 for each +1/+1 counter on this creature.
. There are probably others too, it’s a very silly tribe. All of these mean more Elves and stronger ones too, so they’re great choices.
The other thing we need now is ways to untap our permanents, but specifically Lathril. For untapping everything, we very much like
Curse of Bounty
Curse of Bounty
Enchant player
Whenever enchanted player is attacked, untap all nonland permanents you control. Each opponent attacking that player untaps all nonland permanents they control.
, because we also get to attack people, and
Seedborn Muse
Seedborn Muse
Untap all permanents you control during each other player's untap step.
, because of course.
In terms of specifics,
Saryth, the Viper’s Fang
Saryth, the Viper’s Fang
Other tapped creatures you control have deathtouch.
Other untapped creatures you control have hexproof.
{1}, {T}: Untap another target creature or land you control.
is an excellent new card that gives everything hexproof or deathtouch, and you can untap a creature or land you control using them. The other easy choice is
Wirewood Symbiote
Wirewood Symbiote
Return an Elf you control to its owner's hand: Untap target creature. Activate only once each turn.
, which is an Elf classic card that’ll let you do this multiple times. So, yeah, this deck seems really silly. Get on it.