Greetings! I decided to make my first deck since forever ago and chose Marwyn. She seemed like a fairly interesting mono green Elf general, even more so than Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. She has huge potential to be up there in the competitive standings but is also a nice casual general as well. She's also fairly cheap to cast and can get the ball rolling as early as turn two. She's already netting you mana early, and if you play cheap elves after her cast, she explodes into a giant. You can win outright by just turning her right, or generate stupid amounts of mana to go wide.
But Why This General?
Let's take a look at our other mono green elves that we can pick and choose from.
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen: Over other mono green elfs that I have available, I feel like she would be the least likely used in any situation. She has a niche, which is aggro, but all she really is is a lord with a life gain mechanism that I believe Wellwisher does better. Hey, she's pretty nice in the 99, however. Oh yeah, AND she has reach.
Eladamri, Lord of Leaves: One of the better elves to run as your general. An Elvish Champion without the anthem effect that gives all your other elves shroud. Protection is quite valuable, so I hear. Slap him with a Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots and now your opponent has to go through an extra hoop just to get him off the field. But why am I choosing Marwyn over him? I like hexproof over shroud in this case. I don't even run him in my 99 solely for that reason. Sure he's great as a finisher to keep your things safe, but I'd just run Asceticism in his place. Now if you want to run strictly anthems, sure he's great.
Ezuri, Renegade Leader: It's a tossup, really. Ezuri is just amazing. Really, all it boils down to is how you want to shape your early game. With Marwyn, you have a mana dork that gets bigger. She'll always be useful. With Ezuri, though, the spot regen and making your dudes bigger doesn't help that much with the early game when it comes to ramping early and hard. Also, can't forget playstyle. Ezuri is more aggro while Marwyn can do both AND voltron if you really wanted to go that route. Because I like the playstyle of Marwyn more as a general, I took her over Ezuri.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade: The only other card I feel that's worth mentioning. I have him higher than Dwynen, but lower and vastly so, over the other two. He's great in turning two other creatures into mana dorks with a small boost to their P/T (which can target himself as well!). Panharmonicon turns that into 4 creatures. Hardened Scales turns that into more counters. See where I'm going with this? It's very niche, but Phyrexian Ezuri is a better general for that sort of stuff and we are definitely not playing blue here.
What about the others? Glissa Sunseeker is a one trick pony; Kaysa is just a high costed anthem that hits all your green creatures; Nissa, Vastwood Seer can help you ramp, but I feel she's slower; Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is a great general, but we are running tiny elves vs the big creatures that Selvala likes; and finally, Yeva, Nature's Herald is more of a combo enabler.
Honorable Mention: Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury: I'll make a little section for our beloved elfwalker and certainly better then Nissa. She's pretty nice as a general. Her +2 and -2 are both amazing abilites, providing your with more mana dorks or spot removal. If you can ult her, that nets you a ton of cards. She's a bit slower, however, but a decent alternative.
The Deck!
I gave you reasons why you want to play this general, now let's look at the meaty bits.
Now we will delve into the the cards itself and how they all work together as a unit. Every card is your friend and your ally. Marywn herself will feed her mana into creating a bigger boardstate with your tribe, or she will ultimately kill your opponents with a single blow, one by one.
Your Mana Generators:
We have quite a few mana generators that we can utilize as early as turn 1. A turn 2 Marwyn will accelerate the pace of the game quite a bit. Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic are our basic mana dorks. Getting either one of these turn 1 could net us 8 mana by turn 3 under the right circumstances. That's pretty big. Our other 1 mana elf is Heritage Druid. Great early game or with Paradox Engine if you have other elves that are not contributing much to your game. For our 2 CMC elf, we have Priest of Titania, which gets better the more elves we have out on the battlefield. Makes it better than our 1 CMC dorks. Next out 3 CMC elves. First, we have Wood Elves which pairs well with Wirewood Symbiote, allowing us to untap one of our mana generators, such as Marwyn and allowing us to play Sylvan Ranger again for two lands. Pretty neat combo we got going there. Yeva, Nature's Herald allows us to get past the "once per turn" on Wirewood Symbiote, netting a land per turn and boosting our general in the process. Talk about value! Second is Elvish Archdruid, the anthem'd Priest of Titania that sadly doesn't give itself the boost, but still boosts our general which is always nice. Lastly is Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Very niche as it can target itself, and any other creature. It has some hidden value, however. Bounce it with Wirewood Symbiote, and you can get 2 +1/+1 counters on Marwyn per cast, while hopefully untapping her in the process, or turn your tokens into mana dorks. On paper he looks laughable, but in game, he's pretty strong. For our elf mana generator, we have Wirewood Channeler. It's a more expensive Archdruid and Titania, but it can tap for any color. 99% of the time it's going to be green, unless Mirage Mirror copies something that uses other colors of mana.
This deck also includes other ways to get mana. Harvest Season thins the deck, putting a good chunk of our landbase into play. Best used during your precombat main phase if Paradox Engine is present or post combat after you finished kicking your opponents around. Elvish Guidance is our enchantment based Priest of Titania that has the benefit of not being affected by summoning sickness AND works for not just your elves, but all elves. Archdruid is the only card like this that only works with elves we control. Elvish Guidance also pairs insanely well with Gaea's Cradle, if you can have cash to grab one. Song of Freyalise is our 2-turn dork enabler that hits it's full potential on turn three, giving us all the mana we can amass for a game ending finish. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury, our beloved elf walker that's not Nissa, poops out a dork a turn if we really need it. She's just mainly used for her removal and her ult, provided we can get it off. And, our lone mana rock. Sol Ring, the staple to any edh deck. Going to be a better play then a mana dork, especially when you can Forest-> Ring turn 1 and Marwyn and a dork turn 2 giving you 6 mana on turn 3, or more depending on what you have available in your hand. That's it for our non land mana.
Your Essentials:
Now that we have our mana figured out, what are we going to do with it? Why spend it of course! Combo pieces will be later in this section, so this part will focus on what to use all of our mana on. For a green, Elvish Herder gives our creatures trample. Whether we want to knock someone out with out general or go wide, he fits the bill. Ezuri, Renegade Leader does the same, but for 2GGG. Oh yeah, he pumps all our elves up too. Imperious Perfect nets an elf token, but if we have Paradox Engine or untappers, we can grab more elf tokens, giving our boardstate and our general a threatening presence. Temur Sabertooth is underrated. In this deck, it can be the most broken card your opponents will have to deal with. It enables so many different combo options, I probably wouldn't be able to list them all. Not only that, if can also form as an extra layer of protection. It's an all star here. Joraga Warcaller is a fantastic mana dump. Boosts your board, boosts your general getting you more mana to use, and can end games on the fly.
Green Sun's Zenith and Genesis Wave will be your huge mana dumps, more so the latter. Zenith will act as a combo enabler or game ender, depending on the state of the game. Genesis Wave will just accelerate the game to a win. Harmonize is your one time draw spell, our only cast draw spell. Elvish Promenade could potentially end games on it's own, another great use for your mana. Creeping Renaissance will reinstate your board after a board wipe. It's even got flashback! Looking into artifacts, Lifecrafter's Bestiary is a solid mana dump, netting you a few more cards in your hand. All those are nothing to our ultimate piece. Staff of Domination will end games. It does everything you want it to, aside from dealing damage. You draw into your answers, you make infinite mana, you tap your opponents board, you gain all the life you want. It won't matter. The ball is in your court, and unless someone can get rid of it, the ball will never leave. Draw into a Craterhoof Behemoth, slap it on the board, and win the game. Just be smart about it, though. 5 counters on Marwyn will give you infinite mana. One card I forgot to mention, Asceticism. The regenerate creature will be helpful against non Wrath of God/Damnation cards. Keep that in mind. Regenerate is a very underused ability in my opinion.
Working on the rest of this guide at a future time.
Change Log:
6/4/2018 - Created Thread
6/9/2018 - Updated decklist to reflect the guide as to not confuse users. Swap out will pair with live version of my decklist which will be added in at a later time. Started working on card uses sections for what they do. To Do: Finish "These Cards" section up, add strategy and experience section.
6/28/2018 - Added "Mana Utilization" section w/ combo pieces.
Very different from what I would have done. I was thinking of going with cards that boost power but are not necessarily Elf-related (just to do something different).
You went the more traditional route so I'm not sure you would need much help since Elf EDH Tribal is a "tried, tested and true" deck.
If ever do you feel like adding a couple of alternative cards, I would suggest:
EDIT: I totally forgot to suggest Heroic Intervention, Creeping Renaissance and Grave Sifter They can save you from a board wipe, which is quite often an Elf deck's doom. Maybe not all three, but any two of them and you can endure those Damnations, Wrath of Gods etc.
Thanks for the suggestions. I can't believe I forgot about Stoneforge Masterwork. Definitely going to have to pick one of those up. As far as protections, you're not wrong on that one. Heroic Intervention and Creeping Renaissance are most likely going to be my two choices.
Played this deck at my LGS against a Phelddagrif, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, and Queen Marchesa deck. It was a fairly quick game, and even so, I knew right away what my dead draws were. Scavenging Ooze is the deadest of dead draws here. This deck is way to fast for it. I should be finishing the rest of the guide tomorrow with an altered decklist. Still going to go through some heavy playtesting. It's performing well with what I have and I believe it can exceed my expectations for the finished product.
So the only cut here that might not make sense is Skullclamp. Realistically I'm only going to be able to use it if I'm chumping. I have A lot of anthems and buffs that it would seem useless for me. Again, I'm still in playtesting so that might change. Hell, I might not even need a Sol Ring.
Also thinking about maybe throwing in a Tectonic Edge or a Strip Mine or both just to get rid of those pesky mazes, considering there is 3? now.
The better interaction when playing lands directly from your deck vs from your hand is huge, especially when you combo with Wirewood Symbiote. This was actually not a flaw I found playtesting, but when writing the guide up! You sit there and think, "Hrm, this card would be better then this one. Why didn't I realize that before?"
Also throwing into the debate of running Helm of the Host or if it's just going to be too slow for what the deck is trying to achieve. It's 9 mana vs Blackblade Reforged which is 5. On a competitive scale, BBR is probably going to be better always.
Just posting an update that I'm not dead (yet). Been busy with personal stuff. Managed to get a few games in here and there and will post stories tomorrow as well as more editing. Yay adulting!
EDIT: Updated the thread some more. Getting close to almost finishing.
So one thing I noticed running this deck is blue decks are a road block. Had my Paradox Engine get countered, so that was a bummer. There's not really much to deal with it, expect playing at a more methodical pace and seizing the opportunity to drop your hand, unless you can get ahead fast, which 90% of the time will happen. Also going to make another land swap. Forest -> Hall of the Bandit Lord. Also might put in a Boseiju, Who Shelters All to give things like Genesis Wave and Green Sun's Zenith protection.
Introduction
Greetings! I decided to make my first deck since forever ago and chose Marwyn. She seemed like a fairly interesting mono green Elf general, even more so than Ezuri, Renegade Leader or Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. She has huge potential to be up there in the competitive standings but is also a nice casual general as well. She's also fairly cheap to cast and can get the ball rolling as early as turn two. She's already netting you mana early, and if you play cheap elves after her cast, she explodes into a giant. You can win outright by just turning her right, or generate stupid amounts of mana to go wide.
But Why This General?
Let's take a look at our other mono green elves that we can pick and choose from.
The Deck!
I gave you reasons why you want to play this general, now let's look at the meaty bits.
1 Marwyn, the Nurturer
Creatures
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Elvish Herder
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Heritage Druid
1 Joraga Warcaller
2 Wellwisher
2 Seeker of Skybreak
2 Thornweald Archer
2 Wirewood Herald
2 Priest of Titania
2 Wirewood Hivemaster\
3 Wood Elves
3 Eternal Witness
3 Fierce Empath
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
3 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
3 Elvish Champion
3 Imperious Perfect
3 Elvish Archdruid
3 Timberwatch Elf
3 Reclamation Sage
4 Ivy Lane Denizen
4 Temur Sabertooth
4 Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
4 Yeva, Nature's Herald
4 Immaculate Magistrate
4 Heedless One
4 Wirewood Channeler
4 Lys Alana Huntmaster
5 Cultivator of Blades
7 Regal Force
8 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Revive
2 Gaea's Blessing
3 Genesis Wave
3 Harvest Season
4 Harmonize
4 Elvish Promenade
5 Creeping Renaissance
6 Rain of Thorns
Instant
2 Heroic Intervention
3 Krosan Grip
Enchantment
1 Rancor
2 Song of Freyalise
3 Elvish Guidance
3 Beastmaster Ascension
5 Asceticism
Artifact
1 Sol Ring
1 Stoneforge Masterwork
2 Blackblade Reforged
2 Mirror of the Forebears
3 Thousand-Year Elixir
3 Staff of Domination
3 Rhonas's Monument
3 Mirage Mirror
3 Lifecrafter's Bestiary
4 Panharmonicon
4 Sword of the Paruns
5 Coat of Arms
5 Vanquisher's Banner
5 Paradox Engine
7 Akroma's Memorial
5 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Land
30 Forest
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Opal Palace
Cards to swap out
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Brawn
1 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Kamahl's Druidic Vow
1 Seal of Primordium
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Mind Stone
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Nissa, Vital Force
Cards to be added
1 Primal Surge
1 Asceticism
1 Priest of Titania
1 Growing Rites of Itlimoc
1 Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
1 Eternal Witness
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Vigor
1 Krosan Grip
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Natural Order
1 Kindred Summons
1 Sol Ring
1 Paradox Engine
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Coat of Arms
1 Caged Sun
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Staff of Domination
United We Stand, Divided We Fall: The Cards
Now we will delve into the the cards itself and how they all work together as a unit. Every card is your friend and your ally. Marywn herself will feed her mana into creating a bigger boardstate with your tribe, or she will ultimately kill your opponents with a single blow, one by one.
Your Mana Generators:
We have quite a few mana generators that we can utilize as early as turn 1. A turn 2 Marwyn will accelerate the pace of the game quite a bit. Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic are our basic mana dorks. Getting either one of these turn 1 could net us 8 mana by turn 3 under the right circumstances. That's pretty big. Our other 1 mana elf is Heritage Druid. Great early game or with Paradox Engine if you have other elves that are not contributing much to your game. For our 2 CMC elf, we have Priest of Titania, which gets better the more elves we have out on the battlefield. Makes it better than our 1 CMC dorks. Next out 3 CMC elves. First, we have Wood Elves which pairs well with Wirewood Symbiote, allowing us to untap one of our mana generators, such as Marwyn and allowing us to play Sylvan Ranger again for two lands. Pretty neat combo we got going there. Yeva, Nature's Herald allows us to get past the "once per turn" on Wirewood Symbiote, netting a land per turn and boosting our general in the process. Talk about value! Second is Elvish Archdruid, the anthem'd Priest of Titania that sadly doesn't give itself the boost, but still boosts our general which is always nice. Lastly is Rishkar, Peema Renegade. Very niche as it can target itself, and any other creature. It has some hidden value, however. Bounce it with Wirewood Symbiote, and you can get 2 +1/+1 counters on Marwyn per cast, while hopefully untapping her in the process, or turn your tokens into mana dorks. On paper he looks laughable, but in game, he's pretty strong. For our elf mana generator, we have Wirewood Channeler. It's a more expensive Archdruid and Titania, but it can tap for any color. 99% of the time it's going to be green, unless Mirage Mirror copies something that uses other colors of mana.
This deck also includes other ways to get mana. Harvest Season thins the deck, putting a good chunk of our landbase into play. Best used during your precombat main phase if Paradox Engine is present or post combat after you finished kicking your opponents around. Elvish Guidance is our enchantment based Priest of Titania that has the benefit of not being affected by summoning sickness AND works for not just your elves, but all elves. Archdruid is the only card like this that only works with elves we control. Elvish Guidance also pairs insanely well with Gaea's Cradle, if you can have cash to grab one. Song of Freyalise is our 2-turn dork enabler that hits it's full potential on turn three, giving us all the mana we can amass for a game ending finish. Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury, our beloved elf walker that's not Nissa, poops out a dork a turn if we really need it. She's just mainly used for her removal and her ult, provided we can get it off. And, our lone mana rock. Sol Ring, the staple to any edh deck. Going to be a better play then a mana dork, especially when you can Forest-> Ring turn 1 and Marwyn and a dork turn 2 giving you 6 mana on turn 3, or more depending on what you have available in your hand. That's it for our non land mana.
Your Essentials:
Now that we have our mana figured out, what are we going to do with it? Why spend it of course! Combo pieces will be later in this section, so this part will focus on what to use all of our mana on. For a green, Elvish Herder gives our creatures trample. Whether we want to knock someone out with out general or go wide, he fits the bill. Ezuri, Renegade Leader does the same, but for 2GGG. Oh yeah, he pumps all our elves up too. Imperious Perfect nets an elf token, but if we have Paradox Engine or untappers, we can grab more elf tokens, giving our boardstate and our general a threatening presence. Temur Sabertooth is underrated. In this deck, it can be the most broken card your opponents will have to deal with. It enables so many different combo options, I probably wouldn't be able to list them all. Not only that, if can also form as an extra layer of protection. It's an all star here. Joraga Warcaller is a fantastic mana dump. Boosts your board, boosts your general getting you more mana to use, and can end games on the fly.
Green Sun's Zenith and Genesis Wave will be your huge mana dumps, more so the latter. Zenith will act as a combo enabler or game ender, depending on the state of the game. Genesis Wave will just accelerate the game to a win. Harmonize is your one time draw spell, our only cast draw spell. Elvish Promenade could potentially end games on it's own, another great use for your mana. Creeping Renaissance will reinstate your board after a board wipe. It's even got flashback! Looking into artifacts, Lifecrafter's Bestiary is a solid mana dump, netting you a few more cards in your hand. All those are nothing to our ultimate piece. Staff of Domination will end games. It does everything you want it to, aside from dealing damage. You draw into your answers, you make infinite mana, you tap your opponents board, you gain all the life you want. It won't matter. The ball is in your court, and unless someone can get rid of it, the ball will never leave. Draw into a Craterhoof Behemoth, slap it on the board, and win the game. Just be smart about it, though. 5 counters on Marwyn will give you infinite mana. One card I forgot to mention, Asceticism. The regenerate creature will be helpful against non Wrath of God/Damnation cards. Keep that in mind. Regenerate is a very underused ability in my opinion.
Combo pieces:
Wirewood Symbiote is great for our mana generators, Marwyn very much included. Temur Sabertooth let's us bypass the once per turn. Better to bounce elves that have ETB triggers for maximum effect, or even tap abilities if you have Thousand-Year Elixir active. Quirion Ranger is like Symbiote, but only affects forests. Great in a pinch, or even if you have no land drops for the turn getting you 1 extra mana. Wellwisher, Seeker of the Skybreak, Timberwatch Elf, and Immaculate Magistrate as well as any other tap effects go great with Paradox Engine and/or Staff of Domination. Again, with some more board setup, 1000-Year and Symbiote also make them combo. Wirewood Hivemaster's best friend is Ivy Lane Denizen. This is a really neat interaction. From 1 elf, you get 3 counters on Marwyn, or 2 counters for whatever creature you want. Turn your tokens into mana dorks with Rishkar, Peema Renegade! Pump up Joraga Warcaller! Wood Elves, Fierce Empath, and Reclamation Sage are great Symbiote targets. Temur Sabertooth as well! Eternal Witness, Regal Force, and Craterhoof Behemoth are also very Sabertooth abusable. Yeva, Nature's Herald allows us to bypass Symbiote's once per turn clause as well. Also great for flashing things in early to ignore summoning sickness, a very real weakness that green decks have.
Working on the rest of this guide at a future time.
Change Log:
6/4/2018 - Created Thread
6/9/2018 - Updated decklist to reflect the guide as to not confuse users. Swap out will pair with live version of my decklist which will be added in at a later time. Started working on card uses sections for what they do. To Do: Finish "These Cards" section up, add strategy and experience section.
6/28/2018 - Added "Mana Utilization" section w/ combo pieces.
Lymphoma Cancer Survivor!
You went the more traditional route so I'm not sure you would need much help since Elf EDH Tribal is a "tried, tested and true" deck.
If ever do you feel like adding a couple of alternative cards, I would suggest:
Stoneforge Masterwork
Pennon Blade
Wolfir Silverheart
Verdurous Gearhulk
Blackblade Reforged
EDIT: I totally forgot to suggest Heroic Intervention, Creeping Renaissance and Grave Sifter They can save you from a board wipe, which is quite often an Elf deck's doom. Maybe not all three, but any two of them and you can endure those Damnations, Wrath of Gods etc.
Everything combos with Tombstone Stairwell.
Played this deck at my LGS against a Phelddagrif, Ezuri, Claw of Progress, and Queen Marchesa deck. It was a fairly quick game, and even so, I knew right away what my dead draws were. Scavenging Ooze is the deadest of dead draws here. This deck is way to fast for it. I should be finishing the rest of the guide tomorrow with an altered decklist. Still going to go through some heavy playtesting. It's performing well with what I have and I believe it can exceed my expectations for the finished product.
So my final deck change list would be as follows.
Scavenging Ooze -> Eternal Witness
Brawn -> Fierce Empath
Steel Leaf Champion -> Quirion Ranger
Kamahl's Druidic Vow -> Green Sun's Zenith
Seal of Primordium -> Krosan Grip
Fists of Ironwood -> Creeping Renaissance
Mind Stone -> Staff of Domination
Sword of the Animist -> Stoneforge Masterwork
Nissa, Vital Force -> Asceticism
Gilded Lotus -> Paradox Engine
Throne of the God-Pharaoh -> Thousand-Year Elixir
Gaea's Anthem -> Akroma's Memorial
Llanowar Scout -> Priest of Titania
Nissa Revane -> Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
3 Forest -> Cavern of Souls, Wirewood Lodge, Reliquary Tower
Nature's Claim -> Heroic Intervention
Skullclamp -> Sol Ring
Door of Destinies -> Coat of Arms
So the only cut here that might not make sense is Skullclamp. Realistically I'm only going to be able to use it if I'm chumping. I have A lot of anthems and buffs that it would seem useless for me. Again, I'm still in playtesting so that might change. Hell, I might not even need a Sol Ring.
Also thinking about maybe throwing in a Tectonic Edge or a Strip Mine or both just to get rid of those pesky mazes, considering there is 3? now.
Lymphoma Cancer Survivor!
The better interaction when playing lands directly from your deck vs from your hand is huge, especially when you combo with Wirewood Symbiote. This was actually not a flaw I found playtesting, but when writing the guide up! You sit there and think, "Hrm, this card would be better then this one. Why didn't I realize that before?"
Also throwing into the debate of running Helm of the Host or if it's just going to be too slow for what the deck is trying to achieve. It's 9 mana vs Blackblade Reforged which is 5. On a competitive scale, BBR is probably going to be better always.
Lymphoma Cancer Survivor!
EDIT: Updated the thread some more. Getting close to almost finishing.
So one thing I noticed running this deck is blue decks are a road block. Had my Paradox Engine get countered, so that was a bummer. There's not really much to deal with it, expect playing at a more methodical pace and seizing the opportunity to drop your hand, unless you can get ahead fast, which 90% of the time will happen. Also going to make another land swap. Forest -> Hall of the Bandit Lord. Also might put in a Boseiju, Who Shelters All to give things like Genesis Wave and Green Sun's Zenith protection.
Lymphoma Cancer Survivor!