MTG: By Bow and Blade – Top 5 Elf Commanders
Be careful where you tread in the woods; in Llanowar, one bone is broken for every twig snapped underfoot.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, aka, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Elves are one of the most popular creature types in Magic, and they can get out of control fairly quickly. With to ability to produce tons of mana, boost each other’s stats, and create an army of tokens, they can overwhelm their opponent in whatever way they see fit. When Elves hit the battlefield, the enemy should tremble.
Lathril, Blade of the Elves
The undisputed queen of the Elves (sorry Galadriel), Lathril is a nasty Commander with a ton of options for the 99. As a 2/3 with menace, she’ll be getting damage through fairly regularly, and she makes more Elves whenever she connects. Once you’re up to 10, you can drain your opponents for 10 life and gain a little yourself. If you have a way to untap her and repeat the process, you could drain all your opponents without lifting a finger.
Marwyn, the Nurturer
Elves love two things: big mana, and lots of creatures. Marwyn capitalizes on both of those, with a pinch of giant creature for flavor. She gets bigger whenever an Elf comes into play, and then can add Green mana equal to her power. If you have a big hit like Craterhoof Behemoth or Finale of Devastation in your hand, Marwyn will turn it all the way past 11.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Before he was a Phyrexian puppet, Ezuri was a general who led the Mirrodin Elves against Vorinclex and the other Praetors. His unfortunate fall gave us one of the most iconic Simic Commanders, but his past self is still one of the top Typal Elf Commanders. He can regenerate your Elves, and also give them an Overrun effect. If you want to play a monogreen Elf stomp deck, Ezuri might be the general for you.
Abomination of Llanowar
Not all Elves are beautiful; sometimes, they’re horrifying undead monsters. Abomination of Llanowar loves other Elves, and it doesn’t care WHERE those Elves are. Dead or alive, they make the Abomination stronger. This is a Commander that gets around Elfball’s biggest weakness: creature destruction. All they’re doing is feeding the beast.
Tyvar the Bellicose
Robbed of his spark, Tyvar is still a consummate Commander. He gives all your attacks Elves deathtouch, and boosts the power of your mana creatures. While he isn’t the Planeswalker he used to be, he’s still a powerful creature to lead your army.
What do you think of these Commanders?
