Elves have been the basis of some very powerful decks throughout Magic's history. They can produce enormous amounts of mana and creatures very quickly, enabling a wide variety of win conditions. With the release of Magic 2013, we once again have access to Elvish Visionary as well as both Llanowar Elves and Arbor Elf, creating important redundancy in the 1-drop slot. In addition, Avacyn Restored has given us Craterhoof Behemoth, a win condition perfectly suited for an Elf deck. Here's the list I've been working with:

"Elves"

• Creatures (31)
• 2 Viridian Corrupter
• 4 Arbor Elf
• 4 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 4 Elvish Archdruid
• 4 Elvish Visionary
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Viridian Emissary
• 2 Yeva, Nature's Herald
• 3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader

• Spells (6)
• 4 Dismember
• 2 Green Sun's Zenith

• Lands (23)
• 23 Forest

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Ezuri's Archers
• 2 Viridian Corrupter
• 3 Beast Within
• 2 Crushing Vines
• 1 Elderscale Wurm
• 3 Ground Seal

Buy This Deck

The Elves

Elvish Visionary puts another body on the field and gives you a card to replace it, ideally another Elf. Although a 1/1 may not seem like much, the extra creature is very important with things like Elvish Archdruid and Craterhoof Behemoth.

Viridian Emissary helps keep you alive while also giving you some extra mana. While it's on the battlefield, it will often give you one more mana thanks to Elvish Archdruid, and when it dies, it will go find a land to replace the mana you've lost. With 2 power, it's often large enough to trade with an opposing creature, and it can even discourage some attacks.

Viridian Corrupter's infect doesn't work all that well with the rest of the deck, but it is an Elf, and it seems that almost every deck is playing some artifacts that you want to get rid of. Worst-case scenario, it can be used to kill or permanently shrink an opposing creature. It's worth nothing that if you have eight creatures out when you cast Craterhoof Behemoth, your opponent will be forced to block this or die, allowing your other creatures to push in a bit more damage.

Elvish Archdruid is the key piece that makes the deck work. It gives you an incredibly large amount of mana very easily, allowing you to cast a Craterhoof Behemoth as early as turn four. It also pumps up your other Elves, ensuring that your opponent won't be able to attack so carelessly.

Ezuri, Renegade Leader performs two key functions in this deck. He serves as an alternate win condition, giving an Overrun to your team and often allowing you to kill your opponent in two turns. He also protects your Elves from removal, especially mass removal like Day of Judgment and Bonfire of the Damned. Although he can't regenerate himself, an untapped Elvish Archdruid will give you enough mana to regenerate every other creature you control.

The Rest

Green Sun's Zenith serves as an extra two copies of Craterhoof Behemoth. Of course, if you already have one, you can grab an Elvish Archdruid or anything else you might need. This card's power and versatility have caused it to see extensive play in almost every format, and I would recommend trying to pick up all four copies if you can.

Dismember may cost 4 life, but when you're killing off a Restoration Angel or another large threat, you'll usually be saving yourself far more than that. It may seem strange to be paying life in an effort to stay alive, but it usually works.

The Sideboard

Extra Viridian Corrupters help against decks playing Sword of Feast and Famine, which can otherwise be very dangerous to this deck. Crushing Vines can come in as well, making sure that any Swords or Restoration Angels won't last very long.

Beast Within allows you to deal with threats you would otherwise be unable to, such as planeswalkers and Titans. A 3/3 may still be a minor problem if you don't have Yeva, but with the decks you'll usually be bringing these in against, it will often be the only pressure the opponent has.

Ground Seal smashes entire strategies and replaces itself to ensure that your own game plan isn't set back too much. Reanimator decks have once again seen a small surge in popularity, but having these in your sideboard gives you a much better chance of defeating them.

Elderscale Wurm is a little bit faster to bring out than Craterhoof Behemoth, and against some decks, such as R/G aggro, it will have almost the same effect. Current R/G aggro decks have no way to deal with an Elderscale Wurm outside of a miracled Bonfire of the Damned with 8 mana. If you can land one of these, you don't have to worry about dying before you can find a Craterhoof Behemoth and assemble enough creatures to make it lethal.

Playtesting

Naya Pod – Game 1

I drew a Forest, played it, and ended my turn. My opponent played a second Copperline Gorge and attacked for 1 with the Pilgrim. He cast Elvish Visionary and passed the turn.

I drew Viridian Emissary and cast Ezuri, Renegade Leader after playing my land. I passed the turn. My opponent played a Plains, cast Blade Splicer, and passed the turn.

I drew Arbor Elf, played a Forest, and passed the turn. My opponent attacked with his Golem token. I cast Yeva, Nature's Herald and blocked. The Golem died, and my opponent played a Forest before passing the turn.

I drew a Forest, played it, and ended my turn. My opponent cast Restoration Angel during my end step, flickering Blade Splicer and making another Golem token. On his turn, he played Gavony Township and attacked with Restoration Angel and the Golem. I blocked the token with Yeva, and he activated Gavony Township to make it a 4/4. I used Ezuri to regenerate Yeva and took 4 from the Angel. My opponent ended his turn, and I cast Elvish Archdruid and Arbor Elf during his end step.

On my turn, I drew another Arbor Elf, cast it, and tapped the Archdruid to cast Craterhoof Behemoth. All my creatures got +6/+6 and trample, and I attacked for 36, killing my opponent.

Sideboarding:

−2 Dismember

−1 Viridian Emissary

+1 Elderscale Wurm

+2 Viridian Corrupter

Naya Pod – Game 2

My opponent cast a miracled Bonfire of the Damned for 1, then played a Mountain and passed the turn. I drew Craterhoof Behemoth and cast Elvish Visionary, drawing a Viridian Corrupter. I passed the turn.

My opponent played Gavony Township and cast Birthing Pod, paying 2 life, then paid another 2 to tap it, sacrificing the Birds of Paradise and finding an Elvish Visionary of his own. He ended his turn. I drew Llanowar Elves, played my land, and cast Viridian Corrupter, destroying Birthing Pod. I passed the turn.

My opponent cast his Restoration Angel, flickering Elvish Visionary to draw a card. On his turn, he swung for 3 with the Angel, then played a Copperline Gorge and passed the turn. I cast Yeva, Nature's Herald during his end step. I drew a Viridian Corrupter and passed the turn. My opponent cast another Restoration Angel at the end of my turn, drawing another card by flickering the Visionary.

On his turn, he attacked for 6, then cast Bonfire of the Damned for 2, killing my Elvish Visionary and Viridian Corrupter. He ended his turn, and I cast Elvish Archdruid and Llanowar Elves during his end step. I drew Viridian Emissary on my turn and cast my second Llanowar Elves. I then tapped the first Llanowar Elves, Elvish Archdruid, and the rest of my lands to cast Craterhoof Behemoth, giving my creatures +5/+5 and trample until end of turn. I attacked for 25 with my three untapped creatures and won the game.

This deck is remarkably powerful and can kill surprising quickly for a deck whose win condition costs 8 mana. Many decks just don't have the proper cards to interact with your strategy and won't be able to do much to stop you from killing them with your pumped-up Elves. The standout here was Yeva, Nature's Herald. I thought she would be fairly good, but I think I seriously underestimated just how effective she would be. Being able to cast Elvish Archdruid at instant speed makes it very hard for your opponent to do anything about it, and the 4/4 body isn't easy to bring down. Going forward, I would definitely try to find room for a third copy, either over a Green Sun's Zenith if you need to keep the budget a bit tighter, or over one of the main-decked Viridian Corrupters if you have a bit of wiggle room.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.