The elf on the shelf by Hartner

Format: Commander

Commander: Thranduil, the Elvenking

Bracket: 4

Deck overview

This is a Sultai Elf tribal combo deck helmed by Thranduil, the Elvenking, whose first ability grants him every activated ability of all Elf cards in the graveyard. The deck leans heavily into a mill-and-reanimate package - Buried Alive, Jarad's Orders, Cemetery Tampering, Colossal Grave-Reaver, Trystan, Callous Cultivator, and Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler - to turn Thranduil into a super-Elf with access to mana-dork taps, untappers, drains, and overruns from the yard. The primary win condition is infinite mana via untap loops (Seeker of Skybreak, Dionus, Elvish Archdruid, Formidable Speaker plus a big mana dork like Priest of Titania, Elvish Archdruid, Marwyn, the Nurturer, or Selvala, Heart of the Wilds) into Staff of Domination to draw the deck and lock the table. Secondary lines include Prime Speaker Vannifar chains, Ezuri, Renegade Leader overrun combat, and Lathril, Blade of the Elves drain. The commander's second ability - drawing two and discarding one whenever another legendary Elf enters - provides substantial card flow across the deck's many legendary Elves.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abrupt Decay
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arboreal Alliance
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Assassin's Trophy
  • 1 Ayara, First of Locthwain
  • 1 Black Market Connections
  • 1 Bloodstained Mire
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Breeding Pool
  • 1 Bridgeworks Battle // Tanglespan Bridgeworks
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Cauldron of Essence
  • 1 Cemetery Tampering
  • 1 Collective Resistance
  • 1 Colossal Grave-Reaver
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Dawnhand Dissident
  • 1 Dimir Aqueduct
  • 1 Dionus, Elvish Archdruid
  • 1 Disciple of Freyalise // Garden of Freyalise
  • 1 Eladamri, Korvecdal
  • 1 Elrond, Moon-Reader
  • 1 Elven Passage
  • 1 Elvish Archdruid
  • 1 Elvish Mystic
  • 1 Evolution Sage
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
  • 1 Fabled Passage
  • 1 Farseek
  • 1 Flare of Malice
  • 1 Foreboding Landscape
  • 3 Forest
  • 1 Formidable Speaker
  • 1 Fyndhorn Elves
  • 1 Golgari Rot Farm
  • 1 Grim Backwoods
  • 1 Gyre Sage
  • 1 High Perfect Morcant
  • 1 Imperious Perfect
  • 1 In Garruk's Wake
  • 2 Island
  • 1 Jarad's Orders
  • 1 Lathril, Blade of the Elves
  • 1 Maralen, Fae Ascendant
  • 1 Marsh Flats
  • 1 Marwyn, the Nurturer
  • 1 Misty Rainforest
  • 1 Morcant's Loyalist
  • 1 Nature's Lore
  • 1 Overgrown Tomb
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Persist
  • 1 Polluted Delta
  • 1 Priest of Titania
  • 1 Prime Speaker Vannifar
  • 1 Putrefy
  • 1 Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
  • 1 Realmwalker
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Revitalizing Repast // Old-Growth Grove
  • 1 Ringsight
  • 1 Rise of the Witch-king
  • 1 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
  • 1 Secluded Courtyard
  • 1 Seeker of Skybreak
  • 1 Selfless Safewright
  • 1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
  • 1 Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Staff of Domination
  • 1 Sunken Hollow
  • 2 Swamp
  • 1 Thranduil, Sindarin Liege // Silvan Rally
  • 1 Thranduil, the Elvenking
  • 1 Three Tree City
  • 1 Tortured Existence
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Trystan's Command
  • 1 Trystan, Callous Cultivator // Trystan, Penitent Culler
  • 1 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler
  • 1 Unclaimed Territory
  • 1 Underground Mortuary
  • 1 Underrealm Lich
  • 1 Veil of Summer
  • 1 Verdant Catacombs
  • 1 Vicious Rivalry
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Windswept Heath
  • 1 Wood Elves
  • 1 Wooded Foothills
  • 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth