//BLOG: Tribal Draft
Santa's Little Helpers - Tribal Draft 4: Elves
Posted Wed - November 14, 2007 by Mark Rivera
Categories » Magic: the Gathering
2 Leaf Gilder
2 Woodland Changeling
2 Elvish Branchbender
2 Gilt-Leaf Seer
3 Lys Alana Huntmaster
1 Moonglove Winnower
1 Nath's Elite
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Elvish Promenade
1 Incremental Growth
1 Fistful of Force
1 Lace with Moonglove
1 Weed Strangle
1 Final Revels
1 Prowess of the Fair
7 Swamp
10 Forest
The two Overruns (Garruk and Final Revels) always won games when I drew them. You can see that every creature I played (and one enchantment) is an Elf. I started the draft with Garruk and some Treefolk, but the Elves I got pulled me away from any other tribes. My first opponent had Eyeblight's Ending stuck in his hand and he sideboarded it out although Elvish Branchbender and Garruk do create Treefolk and Beasts.
What exactly do Elves do? Let's ask some of their representatives.
Elves in Silver
Again, many key cards for the tribe are uncommon. Elves are difficult to draft when more than one player is taking them, which happened in Bangkok and led to three drafters taking quick losses in the top eight. So I have to go with the same advice I gave for Giants: draft reactively and jump into the tribe when you see that it's open. Picking up one or more of the top cards I highlight here would be a good start. I won't elaborate on the good rare cards for the deck, but here's a short list: Wren's Run Packmaster, Garruk Wildspeaker, Profane Command, Immaculate Magistrate, Nath of the Gilt-Leaf, Vigor, Dread, Masked Admirers, Cloudthresher, Epic Proportions, Liliana Vess.Final Revels
Elves can produce token creatures faster than any other deck. Final Revels makes all those little creatures lethal in one attack. And if you do fall behind in creatures (e.g. Summon the School with eight lands or Reejerey), Final Revels can even the score so you can race ahead again. It usually simulates Damnation if you attack with a lot of small creatures into slightly bigger creatures. The two sides of this card can both be very good for Elves. I would draft this over most uncommon or common cards, with the arguable exceptions being Imperious Perfect and Shriekmaw.
Imperious Perfect
The perfect one produces more Elf Warriors so you can multiply all your tribal effects. Since Elves have more cards than any other tribe that actually count the permanents you control of their kind, this card's ability really swings the board in your favor, not to mention the standard power/toughness boost. If you could somehow play twenty of these in a draft deck, you'd beat everything. If you have any number of these in your deck, you'd be happy to draw them all.
Shriekmaw
This installment of the series is the first time I'm discussing black cards in Lorwyn. So just because I haven't mentioned this card earlier doesn't mean it isn't one of the best cards in the whole set. One thing Elf decks lack is evasion. Fear is one way to sneak through, and even against black players you might have some other removal to clear the way. Shriekmaw is very, very good. You might have to evoke it sometimes, and even then it is superb.
Elvish Promenade
A central card to the make-many-tokens strategy, the Elvish Promenade is capable of doubling your threats, or quadrupling them when you cast a second one. And it's also tribal so you can search for it with Elvish Harbinger and trigger Lys Alana Huntmaster for two more tokens.
Wren's Run Vanquisher
There are many times you won't mind paying five mana for a card like this. When it hits play on turn two, your opponent has a short clock to find an answer. The fact that most possible answers will cost considerably more than two mana makes this one of the most efficient threats in this draft format.
Ghostly Changeling
Changelings make drafting a mono-tribal deck much easier. The Ghostly Changeling is one of the best non-rare shapeshifters you can get, and it doesn't commit you to any tribe when you take it early, so it's a very good card to take in the first pack.
Lys Alana Scarblade
Here is one example of a card that pulls you toward the all-Elf draft deck. In a half-Elf deck, this will run out of ammunition or have a minimal -X/-X effect unless you draw only the Elf half of your deck. When all of your deck contributes to this creature's ability, it can totally dominate combat.
Jagged-Scar Archers
Elves might be able to block forever on the ground, but defending the skies can be the problem. The Archers are a great solution to pesky fliers, and they can attack for a lot when your army gets big. Pick it high when you're already committed to Elves.
Prowess of the Fair
A very tribe-centered card such as this will probably go around later than ninth pick. When you do get it and all your creatures are Elves, it can be very effective. Two copies in play trigger for two tokens everytime a non-Token dies, so it isn't bad to draft two or three. You don't have to prioritize drafting it, just recognize when you can make it work.
Hunter of Eyeblights
Besides killing creatures that have won clashes or the rare combo with Immaculate Magistrate, the ability to assassinate just one annoying utility creature on your opponent's side, or any creature that you can't handle otherwise, makes the Hunter of Eyeblights worth its cost. On occasion it will die after helping your opponent but before helping you, and you just have to take that risk when you play it.
Elvish Harbinger
One way to draft Elves is to splash anything you want using Fertile Grounds, Vivid Lands, and the Elvish Harbinger. The splash cards will usually be non-tribal things like Lash Out, Oblivion Ring, etc. In your own tribe you can find many key cards with the Harbinger, and it curves right into the top of your curve, Nath's Elite.
Changeling Titan
Elves have no shortage of token creatures to feed to the champion ability if you don't care about putting a creature in cold storage. The Titan is just bigger than just about anything else in Lorwyn, and when your Giant dwarfs other Giants, you can do a lot of damage.
Incremental Growth
What's good for Kithkin is good for Elves. The Kithkin get the nod in the flavor text, but Elves should never leave this behind. If you don't have three targets, you're probably not winning anyway. And just because Briarhorn doesn't get its own paragraph doesn't mean it isn't good. If you read the Kithkin article, you already know that.
Lammastide Weave
Definitely not a high pick, but it deserves a mention because it shouldn't be the 15th card left. You can get rid of card you don't want by peeking with Gilt-Leaf Seer. Or you can flush your opponent's harbinger target or the result of a clash. With a little life gain, those effects are worth a cantrip.
Elves are the New Black
Nameless Inversion is the best common card in Lorwyn if you ignore tribal alignment. Elves can play black and have a wide choice of kill spells, from Weed Strangle to Peppersmoke. Fistful of Force and Fertile Ground don't care about what tribe you play. You can decide if you want to play efficient non-Elf creatures like Cloudcrown Oak and Kithkin Daggerdare. No green deck I've drafted would ever cut Woodland Changeling from the 40 played cards. Here are the common cards that give you the feel of the tribe:
Eyeblight's Ending
A tribal instant and a very good one, you'll draft it even when you're not in the tribe and you'll be very happy when you have it with Elves. Another small benefit of taking this when you have a dedicated Elf deck is knowing that your opponents will have many targets for it because most of the Elves are yours.
Lys Alana Huntmaster
Free Elves, get free Elves. Whenever you buy an Elf, get a token free! What a deal! You can raise an army in a few turns with one or two of these in play. The Huntmaster is yet another reason to get as many Elves as you can.
Elvish Branchbender
How about a Treefolk? How about a really big Treefolk? Is 7/7 big enough for you? Using your Forests as big sticks to beat up your opponent is one way of winning the game with Elves. Other green decks will play this and hope to have enough Changelings to make it good. With a lot of Elves it's always good.
Nath's Elite
Game-ending combo: Nath's Elite and Lace with Moonglove. You can end games just by having enough power on the board and this guy taunting your opponent's blockers. Lure effects always have the risk of running into a fog or any instant removal from your opponent, but this one comes with a fair-sized body so you can always play it and hope to get a good attack out of it.
Leaf Gilder
Green is always good at accelerating your mana. Elves have many plays availabe at four or five mana and can greatly benefit from playing two spells in a turn early in the game. Prioritize these; you can't do much better for two mana. Woodland Changeling and Kithkin Daggerdare are good; Skeletal Changeling is fine; Warren-Scourge Elf and Scarred Vinebreeder are okay if you have nothing else; Fertile Ground stands in pretty well; but Leaf Gilder is the best option most of the time.
Moonglove Winnower
Deathtouch is a great ability to have especially when most of your creatures are very small. You can make it very difficult to handle when you combine it with a combat trick or a boost from Runed Stalactite or Imperious Perfect.
Gilt-Leaf Ambush
Don't expect to win the clash too often (less than 40% of the time unless the odds are somehow stacked). It's obviously good if you win and you block two creatures. Just making two tokens is fine when you can trigger or boost many abilities.
We've covered half of the tribes. In the next episode we'll recap the first four tribes. Please ask questions and leave comments in the forums.
