Brewing Elves for Foundations Standard

Posted on October 30, 2024

When I was first getting introduced to Magic by my cousin, he handed my sibling and I a deck apiece and showed us how to play. In it were tons of cards you'd think of as bulk. Stuff like Scathe Zombies, Bog Rats, Skyshroud Troll, and Diabolic Machine quickly come to mind. Hardly the stuff most would consider memorable, but they captivated me as a kid. All of these played quickly on the back of one little card: Llanowar Elves.

It took me a long time to really grok how lands and mana worked coming off of Pokemon at the time, but it took all of a day to realize how a mana dork lets you play stuff faster. This - along with several other potent elves of the time - quickly made me fall in love with the creature type. Then, when I discovered Friday Night Magic in the early 2000's, I learned Elves was a viable archetype thanks to the Onslaught block and I was hooked. Elves instantly became one of my favorite decks to play whenever I could.

Since then I've played it in all kinds of formats. I'm probably best known for playing Pauper Elves, with multiple high tournament finishes and thousands of matches under my belt. I've even played a bit of Modern and Legacy Elves as well. Heck, there's a decent chance you may have crashed into me on the MTG Arena ladder jamming the archetype in Historic or Explorer/Pioneer.

All of this is to say: I love Elves. So imagine how excited I got when Wizards of the Coast revealed we were getting Llanowar Elves back once more in Standard with Foundations.

Could they be bringing Elves back as a viable archetype? Llanowar Elves isn't a true indicator on its own. After all, we saw it back in Dominaria and while it was certainly a player in its own right, it didn't bring with it a lot of its elvish brethren with it. This time, however, it seems things could be a bit different.

The biggest reason for this is the inevitable return to Lorwyn. This set was originally slated to hit in late 2025, but we just learned this past week it was pushed back a bit until early 2026. Still, it's coming, and it fits well within the legality window of Foundations which is in Standard until at least 2029! The original Lorwyn block featured a heavy typal theme and elves were a big part of that, so it stands to reason that with only one set accompanying the plane this time around, they'd want to support it in other ways.

Well, this week the previews started pouring in - several hundred right out of the gate, in fact! And wouldn't you know it, there's an absolute plethora of support for the elvish creatures in this set!

Right from the jump, they showcased some of the cards you could open up from various aspects of Foundations and one such card they showed was Elvish Archdruid. This one was huge. My initial thought was excitement for Pioneer, where it essentially provides a strict upgrade to Circle of Dreams Druid in several ways. Then it made me realize something else: this is a card that suggests we're getting actual support for Elves as an archetype. After all, they don't usually throw in lords just because (Dominaria United was a bit of an exception...sort of. More on that later).

The additional Jumpstart packs in the #MTGFoundations Beginner Box let players mix and match to get a feel for Magic's color pie and how they combine. pic.twitter.com/OVOArl7efP
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) October 25, 2024

Oh yeah, and savvy readers who caught the preview panel might have also noticed these Jumpstart packs they showed. These are different from Foundations: Jumpstart which is not legal in Standard, but rather is included in the Beginner Box product that includes only Standard-legal cards. The card on the Elves pack?

That's Dwynen's Elite, a key card in several Elves decks across multiple formats!

During yesterday's Weekly MTG stream, Carmen Klomparens and Blake Rasmussen showed off the contents of the Starter Collection product. Once they finished, the full list hit Daily MTG and it was in fact confirmed that Dwynen's Elite was there! It wasn't alone, though. The set also revealed these would be coming to Standard once more as well:

That's right: Imperious Perfect is back once again, providing not one but two elf lords for this archetype! The card has been a staple reprint in Commander-focused sets and Masters releases, but to see it in Standard again - as well as entering Pioneer - is something different altogether! It's pricey but if it sticks around, it builds an army all its own.

I haven't even touched on the other two either. Reclamation Sage is a huge role player in all kinds of Green decks, not just in Elves. However, it's a slam dunk for that particular archetype - especially in the sideboard where you can pull it out to deal with matchups that utilize more artifacts and enchantments. Wildborn Preserver is the lesser of the bunch, but it provides a good mana sink for your Elvish Archdruid's excess mana, turning it into a veritable beater.

But wait, there's more!

All of these are pretty sweet role players as elves too! Wilt-Leaf Liege is the obvious one, but at four mana it's hardly worth running in the main deck as a lord. In post-board situations, however, it may be worth running copies of! There's many powerful discard cards floating around right now, making it a really powerful gotcha for when your opponent plays Hopeless Nightmare or activates Liliana of the Veil. Springbloom Druid is probably a pricey ramp option, but it's still going to be solid for Standard ramp strategies. Oh, and if you want a top-end card, the all-new Elvish Regrower gets you back two permanents at once.

This is only what we know so far too! We're only part way through preview season as of the writing of this article. It wouldn't surprise me to see something like Elvish Visionary, for example, as it was a staple of core sets for years and synergizes well. Even utilizing only what we have right now, though, it's clear there's something to this, and a very real shell can be here. As such, I got right to trying to see what I could do. It's rare that I put on my brewer's cap, but when it comes to Elves, you'd better believe I'm going to try.

Right off the bat, two things came to mind. The first was that Leaf-Crowned Visionary was still in Standard from Dominaria United. Remember how I said we'd get back to it, well here you go! Like two of the other powerful lords - Vodalian Hexcatcher and Rundvelt Hordemaster - this seemed more geared at older formats, not Standard. However, it turns out it has some play to offer after all, making for a really strong lord in any Elves deck. The second thing was that while there was no Nykthos to utilize, Three Tree City was just printed in Bloomburrow and does a pretty solid imitation.

From here, I looked a little deeper into what other elves were in Standard. These ones stood out to me rather quickly:

Fauna Shaman is an interesting one. With no option for something like Collected Company, Lead the Stampede, or Chord of Calling, Fauna Shaman provides an option to find specific cards to fuel your strategy. Yavimaya Iconoclast is just a beater, but it's a powerful one - especially when it's getting pumped by various elf lords. Lastly, the most recent option is Tyvar, the Pummeler. This Duskmourn: House of Horror mythic provides an Ezuri-like effect, giving all of your elves monstrous amounts of power, but lacks Ezuri's trample granting punch.

I also gave some consideration to multicolored cards too. Glissa Sunslayer is one of the best things you can be doing in Golgari colors, as is evidenced by the current Golgari Midrange builds. It also gives you some options of removal and good sideboard choices. However, it feels too weak to be the only reason to play Black, so I looked elsewhere. I ended up landing on Werefox Bodyguard with White. This is a card you can play in multiple copies and provides solid removal in each instance. With a few duals and Cavern of Souls, casting it is a breeze, and you also get the various options White provides you as well.

As such, I've landed here for an early build of Standard Elves:

Elves Are Back! | FDN Standard | Paige Smith

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Make no mistake: this is hardly where I'd land in the long term. Being a deck that's made up exclusively out of creatures and lands is a recipe for a bad time. One board wipe spells game over, and we're not only living in a world of Temporary Lockdown, Sunfall, and Split Up, but both Day of Judgment and Fumigate are also entering the picture with this set. This is merely a basis that I was able to put together within one night and can be iterated on with time.

For example, running a few copies of Invasion of Gobakhan // Lightshield Array allows you to rip out cards from your opponent's hand. Then you can flip it over and have a protection spell to prevent some of those critical board wipes. This was a staple of aggressive White decks over the last year and could be utilized reasonably here as well. Also, if you want to lower the curve on your lords, perhaps drop Imperious Perfect - the worst of the three in this list - in favor of the all-new Anthem of Champions. This provides you with an anthem effect that sticks around after a board wipe, enabling you to build back and start hitting hard and fast once more.

The key thing, though, is this is simply what I could come up with mostly on my own in a single night. There's dozens of cards I haven't even considered yet given we're looking at several years' worth of Standard releases. What's more, there's a whole 700 cards coming in Foundations, and we haven't even seen all of them yet! We'll have a clearer picture on where this can go probably by the end of the week.

As is, I don't think this is what I'd call an ideal deck for serious competitive play. You'll almost certainly just get run over by Gruul Aggro and the board wipes will take you out before you even get a solid footing. However, when it comes to smaller events like Friday Night Magic or Standard Showdown, this is an awesome deck to take to your local shop and jam. Run some people over and have a good time with it!

I'm very excited to see how the deck evolves in the coming weeks. You'd better believe I'll be right on the front lines taking it to all my local events and probably the Arena ladder and MTGO leagues as well. Make sure you tag me on Twitter (@TheMaverickGal) or Bluesky (@themaverickgirl.bsky.social?) with your lists! I'd love to see how you build your list! After all, it's not every day that we get to play a proper Elves deck in Standard, and I'm going to savor every moment of it.

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

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