by Johnny Cycles, October 18th, 2024
Looking for a powerful, synergistic, creature-based strategy that won’t break the bank? Like putting counters on creatures before 1-shotting your opponent? Love the pointy-eared aesthetic? Then this is the deck for you!
I need to work on getting clearer pictures, but here’s a glimpse of the power and synergies of this budget deck. I’ve just resolved one of our finishers, Fangs of Kalonia, a new card from Modern Horizons 3. Our $5 commander has two counters on her. The four other elves on the battlefield are all under $1. Elvish Clancaller, with two counters, is one of our Lord effects, granting each other Elf +1/+1.
Gala Greeters, one of our most flexible Elves, has 6 counters. Woodland Champion synergizes beautifully with Gala Greeters‘ ability to make Treasure tokens. It has six counters on it. Quirion Ranger is a 1 drop that can produce a ton of mana in conjunction with any number of our other creatures, not least of which is our commander. It has two counters on it.
I’m attacking for 21 here.
This is turn 6.
And all on a budget.
Interested?
Here’s the deck:
Decklist – Budget Mono Green Elves with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
| Selvala, Heart of the Wilds |
Creatures (42)
| Elvish Mystic | |
| Fyndhorn Elves | |
| Jaspera Sentinel | |
| Llanowar Elves | |
| Pelt Collector | |
| Quirion Ranger | |
| Wirewood Symbiote | |
| Dwynen’s Elite | |
| Elvish Clancaller | |
| Elvish Vanguard | |
| Elvish Visionary | |
| Elvish Warmaster |
| Gala Greeters | |
| Llanowar Loamspeaker | |
| Pendelhaven Elder | |
| Pollenbright Druid | |
| Priest of Titania | |
| Thorn Lieutenant | |
| Wildborn Preserver | |
| Woodland Champion | |
| Deepwood Denizen | |
| Elvish Archdruid |
| Evolution Sage | |
| Evolution Witness | |
| Imperious Perfect | |
| Llanowar Visionary | |
| Lys Alana Bowmaster | |
| Numa, Joraga Chieftain | |
| Reclamation Sage | |
| Rishkar, Peema Renegade | |
| Sentinel of Lost Lore | |
| Serpent-Blade Assailant |
Artifacts (1)
| Lifecrafter’s Bestiary |
Enchantments (2)
| Evolutionary Leap | |
| Gaea’s Anthem |
Instants (9) with 2 mdfcs
| Vastwood Fortification (mdfc) | |
| Windstorm | |
| Collective Resistance | |
| Inscription of Abundance | |
| Hunter’s Ambush | |
| Inspiring Call | |
| Khalni Ambush (mdfc) | |
| Windswift Slice | |
| You Happen On a Glade |
Sorceries (11) with 1 mdfc
| Bond of Flourishing | |
| Fangs of Kalonia | |
| Nylea’s Intervention | |
| Revive | |
| Bridgeworks Battle (mdfc) | |
| Undercity Upheaval | |
| You Meet in a Tavern | |
| Overcome | |
| Overrun | |
| Primal Command | |
| Strength of the Pack |
Lands 34 with 3 mdfcs
| Field of Ruin | |
| Khalni Territory (mdfc) | |
| Llanowar Reborn | |
| Myriad Landscape | |
| Nesting Grounds |
| Path of Ancestry | |
| Tanglespan Bridgeworks (mdfc) | |
| Tranquil Thicket | |
| Vastwood Thicket (mdfc) | |
| Forest (25) |
Deck Tech
Primary Game Plan
Like most Elfball strategies, we’re looking to flood the board with cheap, synergistic elves, make a lot of mana, and then pump our team with one of our finishers and swing for lethal. Unlike my non-budget version, we don’t have access to Green’s best card draw, Lord effects, or Overrun-style finishers. But what we do have is a counters-matter theme that results in a different play pattern and that is just as much fun and, arguably, more rewarding since we are Elfballing on a budget.
I want make that pun again…I promise. Maybe.
I will, however, reiterate how much fun and exciting it’s been to build and play this deck. Being on a budget, we’ve had to take the original game plan of Elfball and add another angle of attack. Or, rather, we’ve added a new way of supporting the Overrun strategy a non-budget Elfball deck uses to win. In the process, we’re playing a whole host of new cards that synergize in powerful and fun ways, but which didn’t make the cut in the non-budget version.
I’ve built a number of budget decks for this site, but this is the first time I’ve seen so clearly how having no monetary limitation can hamper creativity. Without access to cards over $1, but having a massive card pool to select from (there are currently 392 mono Green Elves in Magic), we have been able to pursue different synergies that have resulted in a powerful, fun, and super cheap deck.
Why Selvala, Heart of the Wilds?
For this column, I don’t apply our budgetary restrictions to the commander, so any mono Green legendary Elf is on the table for us to choose from. We have a variety of options for who helms our 99 and I write in detail here why I’ve picked Selvala over the more obvious Ezuri, Renegade Leader. I’ll let you decide for yourself which to play. There are several possible commanders I do not discuss that are worth mentioning.
The first is Numa, Joraga Chieftain. There are two benefits to choosing this Elf Warrior. First is the partner mechanic. Having constant access to a second powerful card in the Commander slot is a huge advantage, and one a budget deck may sorely need to compete. We have several possible partners to go with Numa, though only one is an Elf.
There is also Kamahl, Heart of Krosa, which would give us a similar effect as Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Of the three pictured above, only Slurrk, All-Ingesting truly fits our synergies. We don’t have enough 6-mana spells in the deck to take advantage of Gilanra, though we could certainly build around this effect. And while we can get value out of Halana, particularly once we’ve grown our team, I’m not convinced her static ability is so powerful as to warrant breaking our Elf Tribal theme in the all important commander slot.
However, even without a partner, Numa, Joraga Chieftain gives our deck a ton of value and is one of our best cards in the mid- to late-game. With a decent boardstate of 3-4 creatures, we can sink our mana into growing our army of Elves into truly magnificent proportions each turn while refilling our hand for a second wave, should our opponent find a sweeper.
Imaryll, Elfhame Elite, a Game Night promo, is a must-answer commander that would give us a serious threat from the command zone on par with Ezuri, Renegade Leader. Given how easily we can flood the board, we should be able to reliably attack without fear of this Elf Warrior dying in combat, then assign all of its damage directly to our opponent. Getting to 21 is easier than getting to 40, right?
All that being said, I’m sticking with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for my budget deck, though I won’t fault anyone for going their own way and picking a different Elf commander.
The Deck
Like any good Elfball strategy, we’re looking to flood the board with cheap creatures, make a lot of mana, and Overrun our opponent. Supporting this strategy are the Lord effects that can grow our team of unimpressive 1/1s into lethal threats. As mentioned above, though, we have another means of achieving this same goal of increasing the power of our army of Elves: counters. Within this simple enough strategy, we have numerous other ways to take advantage of putting counters on creatures.
Mana Dorks
They tap for mana. Sometimes they do more. They are essential to our plan of ramping and then winning in one, Elf-on-steroids attack.
Elvish Archdruid – right off the bat we have a mana dork that does a whole lot more. In fact, mana dork doesn’t do Elvish Archdruid justice in any way, shape, or form. Still, worse case scenario, she taps for a single . Best case, she alone fuels multiple Overrun effects to win us the game. This Elf Druid used to be only in the dreams of budget players, but several reprintings have dropped this staple to as low as 92 cents.
Elvish Mystic – one of three Elves with different names that do the same thing. Great at ramping us into our commander on turn 2!
Fyndhorn Elves – the second of these Elves.
Gala Greeters – one of our many untraditional mana dorks, this card is amazing and, thanks to being a buy-a-box promo, under $1. We should be able to get a Treasure token every turn if we want it.
Jaspera Sentinel – another untraditional mana dork, this one can’t tap for mana without another creature out, but the reach and added toughness are totally worth it…. Right? Rriiigghhttt?
Llanowar Elves – the third Elf that taps for a single .
Llanowar Loamspeaker – at 2 mana, we get 3 toughness and a late-game use for all of our mana. I don’t really see a 3/3 Elemental creature with haste blowing people out, but there may be times when it lets us sneak through the last bit of damage.
Llanowar Visionary – for 3 mana, we get to draw a card to go along with a 2/2 mana dork. Not too shabby.
Priest of Titania – another powerful mana producer to let us empty our hand or cast multiple game-ending spells in a single turn.
Quirion Ranger – the obvious use for this card is to untap our Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid to make even more mana. However, we can also untap our biggest creature to sneak block an opponent’s best attacking threat.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade – technically another possible commander for us, we’re looking to abuse both the counters he puts on creatures and his transforming all of our creatures with counters into mana dorks.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds – she’ll tap for at least 1, but typically more. A whole lot more.
Wirewood Symbiote – a Quirion Ranger that lets us return an Elf to our hand to untap another creature. It has all the same applications as the Elf Ranger with the very large added bonus of bouncing our creatures that have enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effects. Need to draw more cards? Let’s return Elvish Visionary to our hand. Want to make even more tokens with Lys Alana Huntmaster? Lets bounce and recast a mana dork? Need to have a big attack to finish off another opponent? Let’s return End-Raze Forerunners to our hand. The possibilities this card gives us make it one of our best 1 drops.
Lord Effects
I’m stretching the traditional meaning of “lord” to include those creatures that effect our other creatures in a positive, if not always permanent, way. Remember, we’re on a budget here, so many of the traditional Elf lords are simply out of our price range.
Cultivator of Blades – I’m on the fence about whether to include this card in the Finishers section or here, but my first instinct was to put it here. There are a lot of hoops to get through for this to transform our attacking creatures from unimpressive to lethal, but this Elf Artificer does constitute one of our must-kill threats.
Elvish Archdruid – a Modern-staple in Elves, this card is surprisingly under $1. Thank goodness!
Elvish Clancaller – a 2-mana Lord effect should be expensive, right? Well, the second block of text and its lack of synergies in Commander have kept this Lord out of people’s 99. Not ours!
Gaea’s Anthem – a Lord effect on an enchantment. It’s good to diversify.
Imperious Perfect – both a Lord effect and a token producer! Wow! So much value for under $1.
Paragon of Eternal Wilds – one of the few non-Elf creatures we’re playing, I’m justifying this Human Druid’s inclusion with our budgetary restraints. Not only do we want more Lord effects, but granting trample to our biggest beater can be the difference in winning and losing.
Pendelhaven Elder – she’s a non-bo with most of our other Lord effects, but for 2 mana, it’s a low enough investment that the times she’ll be good make it worth including her. I’d cut her in favor of any number of other cards that are just over $1, though.
Temperamental Oozewagg – another non-Elf, this Ooze Brushwagg gives all of our creatures with counters trample, making this a game-ending draw more often than not.
Token Producers
Being on a budget, we don’t have access to Doubling Season, which can double up our token production, nor to cards like Elven Ambush, that can double the number of Elves we control for 4 mana. Yes, this card’s cheapest version is $1.34.
Thankfully, Elfball is not really a token strategy. Rather, it plays a bunch of cheap Elves that synergize with each other until an Overrun effect can finish off an opponent. Still, it never hurts to get some 2-for-1s when looking to raise an army. These are the cards that do that for us.
Cultivator of Blades – making two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens is not usually what we want to do with this Artificer, especially as many of our Lord effects won’t pump them. However, if we just want bodies on the battlefield to get the most out of End-Raze Forerunners, then we’ll pick this option.
Dwynen’s Elite – getting a 1/1 on ETB is pretty good for us. But what we really want to do is return this Elf Warrior to our hand repeatedly with Wirewood Symbiote!
Imperious Perfect – a Lord effect and a token generator! Now we’re talking!
Thorn Lieutenant – I don’t think this Elf Warrior earns a spot in a non-budget build, but for us he’s great! We mostly want him as a late-game mana sink, but there will be times when we get a 1/1 token out of him.
Lys Alana Huntmaster – this is by far our best token generator. We get a 1/1 for each Elf we cast, which means we can quickly flood the board with the right hand. And since most of our creatures cost less than 4 mana, there’s a really good chance we’ll have the right hand.
Varis, Silverymoon Ranger – from the best to the worst token producer, I’m including Varis only because he does, in fact, make tokens. He just does so at a glacial place.
Windswift Slice – I keep checking the price on this one, particularly after getting burned on inclusions I was confident were bulk rares under $1 only to find them sitting at $3-4. Mono Green is flush with fight effects, but this is the only one I know of that also produces Elf Warrior tokens! Given how easily and quickly we can put counters on our creatures, there will be plenty of times when we can cast this to snipe a threat and get double digit tokens out of the fight. That’s right. Double. Digit.
Finishers
Elfball derives its name from flooding the board with a ton of Elves, making a bunch of mana, and casting a Fireball-type spell to burn your opponent out. At this point, however, the archetype has moved away from and uses cards like Craterhoof Behemoth, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, and Overrun to kill your opponent with an army of Elves-on-steroids. Being on a budget, we don’t have access to the former two cards, but we still have a number of ways of accomplishing the same goal.
Elvish Warmaster – our best Ezuri, Renegade Leader impersonator, when I first built the deck, he was over a $1. Seven mana is a lot, but there will be turns when we can activate him twice… I’m pretty sure double deathtouch is even better than single deathtouch.
End-Raze Forerunners – a “fixed” Craterhoof Behemoth, this Boar won’t let us 1-shot our opponents as often as Stompy McStomples, but he’s still pretty good.
Fangs of Kalonia – I love this card. It takes more set up than most of our other finishers, but comes with the upside of leaving the counters on our creatures permanently. This means if we don’t swing for victory the turn we cast it, there’s a good chance we will on the next one.
You Meet in a Tavern – this is one of those budget cards that I’m stupidly excited about. Yes, four mana is a lot, but the flexibility is fantastic! Card advantage or a finisher. What more could you want for .15 cents?
Overcome – one of several Overrun pretenders. This one is strictly worse, but we need a critical mass of such effects to ensure we hit them when we need them.
Overrun – look at that art! It’s amazing! Most of the other versions don’t have quite the disparate group of animals.
Strength of the Pack – I’m on the fence about this one, but we are on a budget. The two +1/+1 counters are better than Overcome, but the lack of trample can mean we can’t punch through the damage necessary to win in a single turn.
Counters Matter
Now for the fun part! So far, we’ve been a pretty typical Elfball deck, albeit one with the added hindrance of a strict budget. It’s hurt me to see the kinds of cards I can’t include…and I’ll offer an upgraded version of the deck with a slightly larger budget (under $3 a card…oh boy!).
We have two kinds of cards in this section. First, we have ways to put counters on creatures. Second, we have cards that synergize with creatures with counters on them.
Ways to Put Counters on Creatures
Cultivator of Blades – it feels like this card has shown up in every section thus far. Oh well, I guess he’s that good! Putting the two +1/+1 counters on himself synergizes with both our go-wide and 1-shot-our-opponent strategy, as well as with our counters-matter strategy.
Elvish Vanguard – hey, look! It’s an Ajani’s Pridemate, but for Elves rather than lifegain! I love it!
Evolution Sage – what a great card! Every time I look at this unimposing Elf Druid, I think how great he’d be in whatever Green deck I’m working on. Proliferate is such a powerful mechanic and we get it simply for playing lands, which we want to do anyway. And it’s a 3/2. Not too shabby stats, there. In our deck, he gives us a much needed and repeatable way to grow our team.
Evolution Witness – the adapt mechanic ensures we can put counters on this creature for the low cost of and get our counters-matter synergies started. The rest I’ll discuss in the next section.
Fangs of Kalonia – I’ve mentioned this card a number of times already. I love that it’s budget friendly, but you know what I love more?
Look at that sweet, sweet flavor synergy! The Hydra from Kalonia doubles counters, while Fangs of Kalonia does the same and more! Wizards, sometimes you just get it right. Congrats!
Gala Greeters – another card that I can’t say enough about. The only way this Elf Druid would be better is if we could put the +1/+1 counter on target creature, rather than just itself.
Inscription of Abundance – another spell that does everything and more that we want. It’s not quite as good as it is in our Budget G/W Lifegain deck, but putting counters on a creature and killing an opponent’s is worth the five mana, while the lifegain is not irrelevant, even in a deck not dedicated to it.
Immaculate Magistrate – the art alone should tell you this is an old card. First, printed in Lorwyn in 2007, this Elf Shaman can take the lowliest of Elves and turn them into lethal threats. After doing so, she thoughtfully judges her work as satisfactory or not.
Ivy Lane Denizen – this is the exact kind of card that is so much fun to find and play in a budget build. The effect is no doubt very powerful, but it’s far from good enough to make the cut in a non-budget build. In our deck, though, we want additional ways to put counters on whichever creature we choose. This seller of armor does just that.
Llanowar Reborn – hey! We get to play a utility land on a budget! This tapped land allows us to put its counter on whichever creature we deem best…ideally, it’ll be Evolution Witness.
Numa, Joraga Chieftain – what more can I say about this card? Well, let’s try this. In the above picture of my winning boardstate, if we had Numa out, we could tap our commander to produce eight mana and use Numa to put four +1/+1 counters among our creatures. We could put all four on the Woodland Champion, which would let us tap our commander for 12 mana the following turn, giving us six +1/+1 counters to distribute. Numa, Joraga Chieftain is a game-ending mana sink.
Pelt Collector – I love this card. I really wanted it to work in Standard back when it was legal, and I’ve even tried it in Modern in a Mono Green Aggro deck. Alas, it’s not all that great in those formats. And, honestly, it’s not that great in Commander, either. But we’re on a budget, we can grow it pretty easily, and it doesn’t need much help to get trample. That’s a lot of boxes it checks.
Pollenbright Druid – it has two modes, both of which are of great interest to us. We can either start the counter party with this Elf Druid, or grow our entire team in the late game. And, with Wirewood Symbiote, we can do it every turn!
Rishkar, Peema Renegade – one of our cards that go in both sections here. He puts counters on creatures, which is what we care about in this section.
Serpent-Blade Assailant – the backup mechanic allows us to put a +1/+1 counter on a single creature, including itself, while also granting to that creature the original’s abilities for a turn. There are a lot of better Elves out there…if we’re willing to spend just $2 a card. But, with our budget, this Elf Warrior is a synergistic option that also trades up in combat.
Strength of the Pack – I’ve mentioned this card already, so I’ll just say this: we’re paying full value for this effect and it can be a dead card if we’ve just had our board wiped. Still, it’s worth the inclusion.
Temperamental Oozewagg – for , we can adapt this creature and put two +1/+1 counters on it. With all of our counters-matter synergies, including what this Ooze gives us, sometimes we really just want any amount of counters on at least one of our creatures.
Vastwood Fortification – never a dead card, since it doubles as a land, we’re including it for that reason, alongside it’s ability to trigger Evolution Witness or serve as a combat trick.
Wildborn Preserver – another card I really, really love. What a powerful, amazing card. And, it literally costs only a quarter. With only two printings. I can’t get over how powerful Throne of Eldraine as a set was. Look at this 2-drop. It has both flash and reach, making it strictly better than probably every 2-drop printed before Tarmogoyf (I’m not sifting through that list to find out, by the way, but correct me if I’m wrong!). And it turns every subsequent Elf into a mana sink that can turn this Elf Archer from a tiny fox riding poker of ankles into a massive, donkey-stomping, game-ending, must-answer threat. Well, unless our opponent has a bunch of chump blockers, but hey, that’s why we play ways to give our creatures trample.
Woodland Champion – we have a variety of ways of making tokens (as detailed above) to trigger this Elf Scout. His best friend is Gala Greeters.
Synergies with Counters on Creatures
Armorcraft Judge – besides riding a giant, multi-horned rhinoceros-looking creature, this Elf Artificer should also refill our hand.
Deepwood Denizen – six mana to draw a card is a lot, but we have no intention of paying full value for an extra card every turn. In the picture of my boardstate above, we’d only pay for this pleasure.
Evolution Sage – I’m including our proliferate cards in this section as well, because we can’t add counters with the proliferate mechanic unless we have counters on them already, making this and Pollenbright Druid cards that synergize with counters… I’m also reminding our readers how important having any number of counters on any number of creatures is for some of our other cards to be relevant.
Evolution Witness – a new card from Modern Horizons 3, this Elf Shaman Mutant is our best graveyard recursion engine. Much like Deepwood Denizen, we aren’t looking to pay full value for a single use. Rather, we want to use our many other ways of putting counters on creatures to trigger Evolution Witness as often as possible.
Fangs of Kalonia – this wonderful card doubles the number of counters on each creature (for its overload cost), meaning if we’ve put in the work to grow our team by other means, then Fangs of Kalonia puts an additional two +1/+1 counters on our creatures and then doubles all of the counters, not just the two it gives.
Inspiring Call –it’s no Heroic Intervention, but it’s not too far off for us in reality. We can use this to protect our creatures with counters from non-exile sweepers or as a combat trick to blow out an opponent, all while refilling our hand!
Nesting Grounds – first printed in a Commander Precon in 2020 as a rare, this card has since plummeted in value along with its downgrade to uncommon. This is one way we can get repeated value out of Evolution Witness. It’s also a small bit of protection from targeted removal, as we can respond to Swords to Plowshares by moving a counter (yes, it’s only one, unfortunately) from our soon-to-be-exiled creature to another creature. The value! Still, we’re on a budget.
Pollenbright Druid – see Evolution Sage above.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade – turns all of our creatures with counters on them into mana dorks. This can help alleviate mana screw or set us up for a big, big turn.
Temperamental Oozewagg – the art is so good, I’m including the picture twice! Trample is a big deal for Elves, who generally lack evasion.
Undercity Upheaval – a late addition to the deck after realizing Gyre Sage is over budget at almost $3 (!!!). I envision this card as having two purposes for us. First, it can help us grow our second round of creatures after a sweeper and get us back in the game. Or, it can function as a pseudo-finisher by growing our entire team enough to finish our opponent in one swing.
The Rest
With so many budget-friendly Elves to choose from, you can really go your own direction here and play whatever hidden gems you’ve found and love. For me, I’ve picked creatures that bring value to our deck in a way that shores up some of our problems or that addresses a glaring absence. The non-creature cards I’ve chosen do the same.
Card Advantage
Bond of Flourishing – I prefer this kind of card advantage over spells that let us take any number of creatures we find in the top X cards of our library because of its flexibility. Being able to take a land means we can keep some risky 2-land hands in the early game, while in the late it gives us a chance to take one of our card draw engines.
Elvish Visionary – puts a body on the battlefield for us to grow with our Lord effects and counters later, while drawing us into more action.
Evolutionary Leap – as long as we hold up at least one , we’ll never run out of creatures again with this card on the battlefield.
Inspiring Call – we should net at least a handful of cards off of this instant, not to mention protect our team.
Lifecrafter’s Bestiary – a high value artifact for less than $1! We should easily have the extra mana to start drawing cards off of each creature we cast the turn after we untap with this out.
Llanowar Visionary – for just more, we get an upgraded Elvish Visionary.
Primal Command – it’s kind of hard to believe any tutor effect is under $1, but here we are. Our deck is full of possible targets, from silver-bullet hate cards, to key synergistic pieces.
Regrowth – it’s been around since Alpha. It gives us a way to recur our best threat or Fangs of Kalonia.
You Happen On a Glade – for an additional , we get the flexibility of choosing between a Regrowth and getting two lands. Either way, we’re happy.
You Meet in a Tavern – almost half of our deck is made up of creatures. Hopefully we’ll hit at least two.
Removal of Various Kinds
In this section, I’m including the ways we have of interacting with our opponent’s game plan, whether that’s killing creatures, nuking the graveyard, or removing a problematic enchantment or artifact.
Bridgeworks Battle – one of the new double-faced lands from Modern Horizons 3, this one has remained under $1, unlike Disciple of Freyalise. Since I built this deck for a friend who doesn’t know how to play Magic, I’ll just state what is obvious to those who do know how: having the flexibility of being a land or a spell makes these modal double-faced cards super powerful. Here, we don’t have to lower our land count to include a kill spell.
Collective Resistance – another Modern Horizons 3 card, this one offers the kind of flexibility that makes escalate such a powerful mechanic in Commander. Most games will have no shortage of targets for the first two modes, while the last one can lead to some blowouts.
Inscription of Abundance – lots of flexibility here, as discussed above, but sometimes we’ll want to just use it as a kill spell for .
Khalni Ambush – Bridgeworks Battle is arguably the strictly better card on both sides, but at least this one is an instant.
Lys Alana Bowmaster – Elves don’t fly, as it turns out, which means we can build a massive army and still lose to an unanswered flier. Thankfully, many Elves do have reach, which makes sense given that arrows do fly and Elves love their bows. This Elf Archer gives us the ability to turn each subsequent Elf we cast into a Shock. Worst case scenario, we play a 3-mana 2/2 with reach that synergizes with much of what we’re doing. Best case, our opponent is locked out of playing fliers until they find an answer for this lowly and inexpensive common.
Nylea’s Intervention – see above for Elves and fliers… I’ll discuss the rest shortly.
Primal Command – for those noncreature permanents we have to make disappear.
Reclamation Sage – it’s an Elf that blows up an artifact or enchantment. Seems like an auto-include.
Sentinel of Lost Lore – having a way to hose your opponent’s graveyard is essential in any Commander deck. We could play Scavenging Ooze for this, as it synergizes with our counters theme. But it’s not an Elf. Also, I don’t really see playing this Elf Knight in any other deck besides a budget or an Adventure deck. Still, three mana for a 3/4 is above curve stats. Well, maybe at this point in 2024 it’s about what we expect.
Windstorm – another way to deal with fliers. I think a case can be made for this slot to be given to Hurricane, as I’ve won games against multiple opponents by casting the latter for X = 40 after gaining a bit of life. Beyond this dream scenario, we are an aggressive deck that should chip in some early damage against many strategies. This means we’ll frequently be able to use all of our mana to burn an opponent out without killing ourselves without the lifegain.
Yeva, Nature’s Herald – casting this (and each Elf after) at instant speed, means we can flash it down before blocks and kill an unsuspecting opponent’s attacking creature.
Combat Tricks
These can double as removal in the right spot, but they can also simply protect our team from removal.
Collective Resistance – the last mode lets us block without fear of death (for one creature, at least).
Hunter’s Ambush – lets us block (or attack) without fear of death (unless our opponent has a bunch of Green creatures).
Inspiring Call – ditto, except none of our creatures will die. Period.
Lands Matter
We aren’t playing the kind of ramp that puts lands on the battlefield for us, but we have a couple of ways of making sure we have lands in our hand.
Nylea’s Intervention – even with a budget mana base, finding X land cards is extremely powerful. Sometimes you just really need a Field of Ruin. Others, you really want some card draw and Tranquil Thicket is the right choice. For those of you not aware, we can’t get our modal double-faced cards with this spell, as they aren’t considered lands when they’re in our library.
You Happen On a Glade – getting two basics for three mana means we can keep some opening hands of two lands, Elvish Mystic, this card, and three other action cards.
Flex Spots
I’m going to use this space to offer you a few lists of cards that could make an appearance in a budget build, followed by those that are out of budget. I’ve divided this section into cards just over budget (under $3); cards under $5; and cards under $10. This is far from an exhaustive list. It’s largely made up of cards that are in my non-budget version or which I assumed were under $1 only to discover I was sorely mistaken.
Cards Under $1
Copperhorn Scout
Arbor Elf
Scavenging Ooze
Skyway Sniper
Fierce Empath
Viridian Corrupter
Whiptongue Hydra
Hurricane
Cultivate
Genesis Wave
Whirlwind
Deserted Temple
Green Sun’s Twilight
Cards Under $3
| Fauna Shaman | $2.34 |
| Incubation Druid | $1.90 |
| Beast Whisperer | $2.19 |
| Canopy Tactician | $2.00 |
| Decimator of the Provinces | $2.23 |
| Gyre Sage | $2.97 |
| Obscuring Haze | $2.86 |
| Karn’s Bastion | $1.99 |
| Kami of Whispered Hopes | $2 |
| Disciple of Freyalise | $1.23 |
| Hardened Scales | $1.75 |
| Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen | $1.16 |
| Branching Evolution | $2.13 |
| Elven Ambush | $1.33 |
Card under $5
| Leaf-Crowned Visionary | $4.41 |
| Nissa, Vastwood Seer | $3.31 |
| Magewright’s Stone | $4.44 |
| Vanquisher’s Banner | $4.85 |
| Tempt with Discovery | $3.14 |
| Marwyn, the Nurturer | $3.17 |
| Bala Ged Recovery | $4.53 |
| Turntimber Symbiosis | $3.48 |
Cards under $10
| Circle of Dreams Druid | $6.52 |
| Elvish Champion | $7.03 |
| Ezuri, Renegade Leader | $7.06 |
| Oracle of Mul Daya | $7.35 |
| Guardian Project | $7.75 |
| Chord of Calling | $5.14 |
| Elvish Reclaimer | $7.33 |
| Wirewood Lodge | $5.53 |
What If We Expand Our Budget?
Look, building on an arbitrary budget is interesting and hopefully useful for anyone looking to play a fun, synergistic, and powerful deck on the cheap. But let’s discuss a little bit more my rule of every card must be under $1. We currently treat all cards equally with this rule, ensuring that the deck, even with the commander, is under $100.
But we also play 25 basic Forests. Basic lands are so cheap as to be virtually free if you’re at a game shop. Otherwise, a site like starcitygames.com sells them for about a quarter. According to Scryfall, the above pictured Forest will set you back .07 cents. Let me get out my calculator…
Let’s say we’re paying full value here, which is a quarter. Those 25 Forests will set us back $6.25. If every card can be up to $1, this gives us an additional $19.75 to work with without going over the $100 for the deck.
What this means is we can theoretically choose 10 of the 13 cards under $3 listed above and make room for them in the deck.
I’m not doing that, but I think it’s worth noting that within our budget we do have some wiggle room for those who don’t feel the need to be as strict as I do. Or, to put it more realistically, those of you who have the $100 to spend but no more. You can get a pretty well upgraded version of the above deck within that budget.
Now, let’s discuss the above picture. I played this game before I realized Gyre Sage and Elven Ambush were out of our budget. Let’s break this picture down.
From left to right, our commander has nine +1/+1 counters on her. The aforementioned too expensive Gyre Sage is a 14/15 and can tap for 14 mana. Pollenbright Druid, a measly 4/4 here, is one of our best counter engines and one of the main reasons we got to this board state.
Evolution Sage, a 6/5 now, is another of our repeatable ways to put counters on creatures. And finally, we have Varis, Silverymoon Ranger as a 14/14. Varis doesn’t exactly synergize with any other part of the deck, short of being an Elf, but with a block of text, it’s one of our most pushed budget creatures. And, as a former Dungeons & Dragons player, I love the flavor of the card and the concept of venturing into a dungeon.
Finally, those two dice off to the right represent 5 1/1 green Elf Warrior tokens we made with Elven Ambush. They have 4 +1/+1 counters on them.
You can see how we got to this point if you look at our graveyard. We have two of our finishers there. First, Overcome, which our opponent countered. Second, Fangs of Kalonia, a Cyclonic Rift for putting counters on creatures.
We’re attacking for 74.
Hydras and Elves Go Together Like…
One place we can take an aggressive, though off-Tribal-theme approach is finding Green spells with X in their mana cost or abilities. We have the potential to make a ton of mana in any given turn. Currently, we’re looking to use that mana to cast 5-mana Overrun-type spells and win that way.
But, that doesn’t mean we can’t go in a different direction.
HYDRAS!!!
For those of you who’ve been following this site for awhile, my love of Hydras should come as no surprise. Neither should it shock you that my first Mono Green Elf deck included several of these many-headed beasts as my big finishers. You can read about my Hydra Tribal deck here, but here are a few examples of the Hydras I could see including in this build. Not all are in budget.
| Genesis Hydra | .45 cents |
| Hydra Broodmaster | .25 cents |
| Polukranos, World Eater | .99 cents |
| Mistcutter Hydra | $1.23 |
| Primordial Hydra | $7.99 |
| Goldvein Hydra | $10.45 |
Ideal Hand and Game Play
Keeping a 2-land hand with one or two mana dorks is acceptable. 33 of our 42 creatures (including Selvala, of course) are three or less mana. We want to make land drops over the course of the opening turns, but we will have some of our most explosive starts on the back of just two Forests. Besides a mana dork, we’d love to see one of our Lord effects alongside a kill spell and some card draw. We don’t really want one of our finishers in our opening hand, since it’s a dead card without a boardstate.
From there, we want to add to our army of Elves, pressure our opponent’s life total, and then swing in for the kill when we find a finisher. Depending what our opponent is up to, we will either be aggressive and flood the board as quickly as possible to go for the kill, or take a more conservative approach, commit some of our pieces to the board to chip away at our opponent, and hold some of our Elves back to rebuild after a sweeper.
I see taking the first approach against most aggressive creature strategies, as well as combo decks, while taking the latter approach against Control and Midrange, which is more likely to play sweepers.
Weaknesses
Besides our budgetary constraints, we are a low-to-the ground creature deck looking to win through combat. Sweepers are obvious problems for us, but so, too, will be decks that are able to manage our board while going bigger than us. Against some decks (Zombies, for instance), swinging out for 74 won’t be enough and we’ll die on the swing-back. These match-ups aren’t unwinnable, but if we have to be extra patient against a non-budget deck, then inevitability will often not be on our side and our opponent’s $10-$100 cards will win the day.
Conclusion
This is the fourth budget deck I’ve built (I have a Rakdos Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin deck I’ve yet to write about) and it’s by far the most fun. As mentioned above, this is due in large part to the different strategy we’ve employed because of our budget constraints.
Our non-budget Selvala deck is much more reliant on Lord effects coupled with more efficient and powerful finishers (Craterhoof Behemoth, Ezuri, Renegade Leader, etc.) to win games, while this version uses counters-matter synergies to grow an army big enough to close out games. Both strategies are fun and rewarding to pilot, but they are distinctly different in game play.
So if you’re looking for a budget-friendly synergistic creature strategy that can be used to introduce new players both to Magic and Commander, then give this Selvala, Heart of the Wilds Elfball deck a shot! And let me know in the comments what you think!
Thanks for reading and watching!
