Pointed Discussion

Highest rated in the game.

I hope this card stays as much of a classic as Llanowar Elves. That is, I hope it doesnt leave.

Preist of Titania on crack.

I kinda feel like this guy should be legendary. I mean, come one, running four of these just isn't fair, espcaially if you have 2 or more Green Sun's Zeniths.

Best Insurance policy an elf deck can buy.

The only question is who he and Ezuri will hang out with once Joraga Warcaller leaves standard.

^^ I got one in a booster! SO HAPPY!
Together with Llanowar elves this is the backbone of an elf deck. It does to elves what Honor of the Pure does to White Weenie, AND gives you mana.

Only if there were more elves in M12.... damn you, spiders for taking our spot!

perfect staple for any elf tribal.

Who didn't rate this a 5? This is up there with Nocturnus, Piledriver, and Undead Warchief in terms of tribal synergy!

Really glad to see this guy returning for M12. His potentially huge mana ramp is perfect Genesis Wave:
http://birdsofparadise-mtg.blogspot.com/2011/07/elf-wave.html

Tribes are for people who don't like to think much about deck construction before playing a deck that can do well.

Slivers and (tribal) elves probably did a good job of doing away with a lot of players who played and enjoyed Magic prior to Tempest.

It's one thing to play with 3 or 4 Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elves, Sylvan Ranger, or Elvish Visionary in order to get fast mana; ensure sufficient mana (especially in multi-colored decks); or play a cheap, crap combat creature that keeps your hand up and keeps your deck rolling.

It's another thing to play with a bunch of all of those, a bunch of these, and a bunch of Elvish Champions. That doesn't take much thought - and all of a sudden you're producing oodles of quick mana with a small-but-growing army of medium-to-big creatures in only a few turns.

Magic became cool not because players could win by matching types and rarities, but because it was a fun game that rewarded intelligence, knowledge, memory, and creativity. It was because you could play as a mage doing cool stuff. It wasn't because you could throw tribes together and let them overcome your opponent for you.

...

But whatever. I guess I'm not single-handedly keeping WotC afloat.

@humor_love ALL tribes are weak to board wipes. The beauty of magic is that everything has a weaknesses and stregnth. I would classify tribes as aggro decks. Left unchecked the aggro builds up and overwhelms you. I think this style of play is fine, and theres numerous differnt ways to construct an elf tribal.

@TheWrathofShane Last I checked, the only deck that isn't weak to Day of Judgment was the Indestructibility kind of deck.

I seriously disagree that elves are weak to board wipes. I'd argue that, short of zombies, they have some of the best recovery. Wrap in Vigor prettymuch makes Day of Judgement cry in a corner, leaving only hard-core WoG-type wipes viable. On top of this, by the time they clear your field of elves, sure, it's a set-back, but a quick Repopulate and a few Regrows make that temporary advantage short-lasting at best, since all you really did was start they cycle over again, but with more lands out to make it way easier.

I gotta agree with humor_love, cards are way too spelled-out and make for very a repetitive, auto-pilot style of play

It's curious how long it's taken elves - traditionally enormously powerful in most fantasy media, if burdened by diminished numbers - to see some version of potency in Magic...and to do so as a mob. Weird stuff, but I like it.

This is the king of manaramp in elves.

You want to play him as early as POSSIBLE. Every turn following that, for your 1-drop elves, you get whatever mana you put in straight back, because the you spent to play it gets plugged straight into the Archdruid.

I'm working on a deck that focuses on using its elves to ramp out to Wurmcoil Engines, Steel Hellkites, and Primordial Hydras. This has literally happened:

T1: Forest, Llanowar Elves
T2: Forest, Elvish Archdruid
T3: Forest, Copperhorn Scout, Copperhorn Scout, Llanowar Elves (tapping all three forests). Then tap the Archdruid and the first Llanowar Elf to play Steel Hellkite. On turn 3.

Not as useful in Standard as it was 1 or 2 years ago back with Zendikar/ Shards. Great card still, too bad there is only like a handful of elves in Standard right now with Zendikar out.

This is great, but I prefer Priest of Titania, seeing as it's 1 mana cheaper to cast, it means Concordant Crossroads can come out along side it to make for turn 2-3 hilarity.

Wizards forgot to combine the mana costs when they combined Priest of Titania with Elvish Champion. I guess they didn't learn their lesson the first time around.

This guy is Imperious Perfect's boyfriend. He bought her an Umbral Mantle and then they went to have lots of 3/3 elf babies.