The Best Elf Cards for Commander (That Won't Empty Your Wallet)

Elves have been in Magic since the beginning. Hundreds of them exist at this point, spread across almost every set, and a weirdly high number of them are genuinely good. If you're playing green in commander, you're probably already running a few elves even if your deck has nothing to do with the tribe.

This is a list of the ones worth knowing about. Everything here is under $2.

Start with the one-drops

Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Arbor Elf. They all do the same thing.

, tap for green. Run all of them if your deck wants to go fast, and most green decks do. Coming down turn one and ramping you into a three-drop on turn two never stops being relevant.

Arbor Elf is sneakily better than the others if you're running Wild Growth or Utopia Sprawl. Untapping an enchanted forest produces two or three mana off a single tap.

Where things get out of hand

Priest of Titania taps for one green per elf on the entire battlefield. Not just yours. In a four-player game where somebody else is also on green, this card regularly taps for five or six mana by turn four. Under a dollar.

Elvish Archdruid is similar but only counts your elves and gives them all +1/+1. The anthem matters more than people think. Fifteen 2/2 elves is a very different board state than fifteen 1/1 elves.

Rishkar, Peema Renegade is sixteen cents and I don't understand why. Enters, puts +1/+1 counters on two creatures, then every creature you control with a counter taps for

. In any +1/+1 counter deck this card is absurd.

Killing things and getting things back

Reclamation Sage destroys an artifact or enchantment for

on a 2/1 body. It's an elf. Twenty-six cents. You already know this card.

Glissa Sunslayer is forty-four cents and does too much. On combat damage you pick one: draw a card, destroy an enchantment, or remove counters from something. First strike plus deathtouch means she's connecting with whatever you point her at.

Evolution Witness replaced Eternal Witness in most of my decks. Same stats, same graveyard recursion, but it's an elf instead of a human spirit. Twenty-two cents.

Drawing cards off elves

Coiling Oracle does a weird thing where you reveal the top card of your library and either put a land onto the battlefield or draw the card. Seventeen cents for something that's ramp a third of the time and a cantrip the rest. Hard to complain.

Rumor Gatherer triggers on every creature entering under your control. Elf decks that flood the board with tokens get to scry and draw multiple times a turn off this. Fifty cents.

Stuff that quietly wins games

Devoted Druid taps for

and untaps by putting a -1/-1 counter on itself. Two green mana from a two-drop is already above rate. It also goes infinite with Vizier of Remedies or Luxior, Giada's Gift, if that's your thing. Thirty-one cents.

Nadier's Nightblade sits on the board doing nothing until someone casts a wrath. Then every token you lose drains each opponent for 1. In a deck that makes fifteen elf tokens, a board wipe suddenly costs your opponents fifteen life each. Twenty-three cents for a card that punishes people for answering your board.

Springbloom Druid is basically Harrow on a body. Sacrifice a land, get two basics untapped. Fixes your colors, triggers landfall twice, and it's an elf. Twenty-three cents.

You don't actually need expensive finishers

The mana dorks are the win condition. A board that produces 30+ mana dumps it all into an Ezuri, Renegade Leader activation or a massive Genesis Wave. Craterhoof Behemoth is nice if you have one, but it's not necessary. Fifteen elves with an Elvish Archdruid anthem is already lethal.

The whole tribe costs less than a meal to put together. Craterhoof Behemoth and Gaea's Cradle get all the attention, but elves were winning games for twenty years before those were chase cards.

Browse elf cards and start building on GrimDeck.