I promised myself that I wouldn't talk about Llanowar Elves until Magic Foundations was fully revealed, but I just can't wait.

A Llanowar Elves reprint is like Green Mage Christmas, y'all.

I am writing this the weekend of the World Championships, and I'm still trying to digest the sheer scope of the announcements that have been made recently. There's a legitimate argument that Friday, October 25, 2024 was the day of the most impactful announcements in Magic history. I'll probably write about this at some point, but for now, put me in the camp of those that are excited about Universes Beyond cards entering the game through Standard, but not excited about 6 Standard sets a year.

At the moment, Standard is probably the best format in Magic, and excitement for the format is high. This is both a great and horrible situation to drop a reprint as powerful as Llanowar Elves into because the Elves have the potential to change everything. It has the potential to change the way we look at aggro, moving from a format focused on the powerful 1-drops to a format focused on slapping an absurd 3-drop onto the board on turn two and running away with the game. It can change the way we look at ramp decks, as the 1-3-5 paradigm of curving Llanowar Elves into a 3-drop mana accelerant into a powerful 5 drop could be fast enough to outpace the ramp/mid-range decks.

Standard is currently structured around going after early creatures, thanks to the Red aggressive decks. So, I fully expect for Llanowar Elves to die en masse. But, if they don't have that removal immediately, Llanowar Elves has the power to push they game out of reach quickly, especially if you are on the play. With that in mind, I wanted to look at the ten cards that I'm most excited to accelerate out on turn two with Llanowar Elves after Foundations releases.

I'm only looking at the cards that currently exist in Standard (and one surefire hit already spoiled).

Number Ten

Green and Blue already pair well in the artifact cookies decks, and sliding this onto the board on turn two allows your turn three play to start creating tokens a turn earlier. This would also let us use something like Thran Spider for the 1-3-5 jump and put something like The Mightstone and Weakstone onto the battlefield early.

Number Nine

This is one of the best Green 3-drops in Standard and is already seeing play in some of the Golgari decks. Sure, something like Polukranos Reborn might be bigger, but this is easier to cast and leaves a Map token if they kill it.

Number Eight

I think we've only begun to scratch the surface of how good this card can be, and it had a good showing at the World Championships. Dropping this on turn two may be the future of Gruul aggressive decks.

Number Seven

The color requirements for this one may be too much, but the versatility offered may be enough that you push your deck include it anyway. On turn two you would primarily use this as a tutor (though, don't discount the +1/+1 counter and bite ability), but being able to fetch any land opens the door for this to be busted, especially as we're seeing more and more specialty lands in Standard.

Number Six

Moving everything about this card up a turn feels extremely powerful. Having this on turn two pressures your opponent to have the removal (and the untapped lands to cast it) to stop it immediately, halting any early game board states from your opponent.

Number Five

Glissa showed her power at Worlds as one of the core creatures of the different Golgari decks. Since the printing of the Overlords in Duskmourn: House of Horror her utility has risen and she's just a solid, versatile card.

Number Four

Plotting this on turn two can set up for an explosive turn three, as it will ramp, and possibly even cantrip off your 5-drop, while adding itself as a threat to the board. This has seen some play in Pioneer Mono-Green decks and could fill a similar spot in Standard. Plotting this on turn two and dropping it and the next card on the list on turn three could be huge.

Number Three

This is already seeing a ton of play, and will only get better. If fits at both the 3 slot and the 5 slot on the 1-3-5 ramp setup and is just an all-around great card. You won't slot 4 Llanowar Elves into Domain by any means (or any other deck running sweepers) but we could look at a new, creature-heavy ramp deck for this combo. Maybe something that tops out at Bonny Pall, Clearcutter or Vaultborn Tyrant?

Number Two

I hoped this would be reprinted and I'm so glad they let this slip back into Standard. For elves to be playable, you need multiple lords, and this pairs very well with Leaf-Crown Elder to allow for explosive turns. This was also sorely needed for Pioneer elves and might be enough to make the archetype viable.

Number One

Everything about Tyvar works well with Llanowar Elves. Untapping the elf to double up on the mana ability, giving later elves (like the Archdruid or even something like Fauna Shaman) haste for their tap abilities, and being able to return your elves to the battlefield (especially something like Leaf-Crowned Elder).

You can find more of my Magic musings on Twitter/X @travishall456