Literal Elfball

Commander Legends is bringing with it a ton of new and exciting leaders for our favourite casual format, as well as a ton of new toys to fit into our 100 card decks. Now what you might not know about me is that one of may favourite (and often budget friendly) decks in the format if a little number know as Elfball.

Traditionally, the term Elfball was used to describe a mana ramp deck that aims to get to 21 mana in order to cast a lethal fireball in 1v1 formats, but it has since been co-opted to mean any mana ramping deck based around the elves tribe. These decks as simple enough to learn, be take a while to master, and you can have a ton of fun experimenting with different win conditions within your playgroup. The only issue I have with the deck is that I have never found a suitable commander that I feel fits the theme of the deck. That is, until now.

With the coming of Commander Legends, we get the printing of a card that is, quite literally, an Ellball. Abomination of Llanowar is a three mana */* with Vigilance and Menace, where * is the number of elves in our graveyard and on our battlefield. This means you can have a huge commander that can easily be the largest threat on the board. Sure, it might be the most exciting card from the set. But I love this bit of card design, and in honour of it I thought I would show you the kind of deck that is worth of this might horror.


The first part of the deck’s strategy it the mana ramp, made mainly of numerous mana generating elves. Arbor Elf, Boreal Druid, Deathrite Shaman, Elves of Deep Shadow, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Heritage Druid, Joraga Treespeaker, Llanowar Elves, Devoted Druid, Incubation Druid, Paradise Druid, Priest of Titania, Marwyn, the Nurturer, Elvish Archdruid and Wirewood Channeler all provide differing amounts of mana at different stages of the game, allowing the deck to play out anything you might need to cast.

What can we do with all that mana? Well it turns out quite a lot. How about dropping down a Multi-kickered Joraga Warcaller to pump up all our other elves, or how about giving them the benefits of multiple Ezuri, Renegade Leader activations. How about dumbing all that mana into a super-sized Hurricane or Genesis Wave or getting any creature we want from our deck with Chord of Calling. All these are great ways to bring an end to a game in a single turn.

The other way we can win is the classic beat down strategy of playing a bunch of “lords” out onto the field and swinging in for lethal. As well as the above mentioned Joraga Warcaller and Elvish Archdruid, we also have access to Elvish Clancaller, Elvish Champion, Imperious Perfect, Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen and honorary elves Metallic Mimic and Adaptive Automaton. Speaking of artifacts, we also run more pump spells in the form of Door of Destinies, Coat of Arms and Obelisk of Urd to boost up our hitting power, as well as Relic of Progenitus to handle graveyard decks, Skullclamp for card draw, Sol Ring for explosive starts and Stoneforge Masterwork for some tribal synergy.

We also want to make sure we have a steady stream of creatures to fuel our battle plan, as well as other tribal synergies. For the creature generating part of the plan, we have access to Dwynen’s Elite, Prowess of the Fair, Lys Alana Huntmaster, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and the above mentioned Imperious Perfect to give us a bunch of 1/1 tokens, as well as Fauna Shaman, Elvish Harbinger, Fierce Empath and Sylvan Messenger to dig up creatures from our deck when we need them. As for tribal synergies, we have Wirewood Symbiote to get the ETB benefits of our creatures multiple times, Elvish Vanguard to act as a walking mountain of hitting power, Wellwisher to gain a ton of life and Shaman of the Pack for an additional win condition.

Card advantage is always a vital part of any winning strategy, and this deck is no different. Elvish Visionary and Oakhame Adversary give us some, but as a (mostly) green creature-based deck we have much better options available to us. Beast Whisperer, Primordial Sage and Soul of the Harvest all allow us to essentially cycle through our deck as we cast creatures, while Regal Force gives us a once off influx of cards when it enters the battlefield.

Next up, lets talk removal. With both access to green and black spells, we have a decent amount of choice. Beast Within, Eyeblight’s Ending and Eyeblight Massacre are all decent (and budget friendly) options, and since we are likely to have a huge number of elves in play it would be rude not to run Lys Alana Scarblade. Meanwhile, Reclamation Sage, Viridian Corrupter and Golgari Charm help handle artefacts and enchantments.

Finishing of the deck, lets look at the other fun cards we can field. Gaea’s Herald makes our blue opponents less of an issue when it comes to our creature spells, while Tajuru Preserver stop us having to sacrifice our board to Grave Pact effects. Rhys the Exiled is another way of buffing our life total, and Poison-Tip Archer is a great way to pick away at our opponents in an attrition match up. Golgari Findbrokercan gets us a silver bullet from our graveyard, while Vampiric Tutor and Diabolic Tutor can do the same with our deck. Lastly, we add in a decent amount of duel and basics (which you can decide on depending on your budget) as well as any utility lands you wish to run.

Commander (1)
Abomination of Llanowar                        

Creatures (49)
Arbor Elf                        
Boreal Druid                  
Deathrite Shaman                      
Elves of Deep Shadow               
Elvish Mystic                 
Fyndhorn Elves                            
Heritage Druid                             
Joraga Treespeaker                    
Joraga Warcaller                         
Llanowar Elves                            
Wirewood Symbiote   
Devoted Druid                             
Dwynen’s Elite                             
Elvish Clancaller                          
Elvish Vanguard                           
Elvish Visionary                           
Fauna Shaman                             
Gaea’s Herald               
Incubation Druid                         
Metallic Mimic                            
Paradise Druid                             
Priest of Titania                           
Tajuru Preserver                         
Wellwisher                    
Adaptive Automaton                 
Elvish Archdruid                           
Elvish Champion                          
Elvish Harbinger                          
Ezuri, Renegade Leader                           
Fierce Empath                             
Imperious Perfect                       
Lys Alana Scarblade                    
Marwyn, the Nurturer               
Reclamation Sage                       
Rhys the Exiled                            
Shaman of the Pack                   
Viridian Corrupter                       
Beast Whisperer                          
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen                           
Golgari Findbroker                      
Lys Alana Huntmaster                
Oakhame Adversary                   
Poison-Tip Archer                       
Sylvan Messenger                       
Wirewood Channeler                 
Nath of the Gilt-Leaf                  
Primordial Sage                          
Soul of the Harvest                     
Regal Force                   

Spells (9)
Hurricane                       
Vampiric Tutor                            
Golgari Charm                             
Beast Within                 
Chord of Calling                          
Eyeblight’s Ending                      
Genesis Wave               
Diabolic Tutor               
Eyeblight Massacre                    

Artifacts (7)
Relic of Progenitus                      
Skullclamp                     
Sol Ring                          
Stoneforge Masterwork                           
Door of Destinies                        
Coat of Arms                 
Obelisk of Urd              

Enchantments (1)
Prowess of the Fair                    
Lands (33)
Evolving Wilds                             
14 Forest                           
Foul Orchard                 
Gilt-Leaf Palace                           
Golgari Guildgate                        
Golgari Rot Farm                         
Hissing Quagmire                        
Jungle Hollow               
Overgrown Tomb                       
Swamp                           
Temple of Malady                      
Terramorphic Expanse                             
Thriving Grove                             
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth                   
Vivid Grove                   
Vivid Marsh    
Woodland Cemetery


And that is my version of Elfball, lead by a literal ball of elves. With all amazing new card from Commander Legends finally revealed, be sure to expect many new and exciting brews for EDH in the coming weeks. But what do you think about today’s deck? Is this what you want to play, or have you a different brew you want to try out? Please let me know in the comments below, and while you’re there you could like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics.

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