Honestly, I prefer this to the stale llanowar elves... This can provide a wider range of mana if used with dual lands (Forest Plains, etc) and is a well needed update on the art/FT
SyntheticDreamer
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
It's not Llanowar Elves, but it can be much. much more versatile, especially if the shocklands get reprinted in RTR. That forest you're untapping might do more than just make .
Totema
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Manabarbs will demonstrate that he isn't quite strictly better than his Dominarian cousin that got gypped this year.
Eternal_Blue
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
More versatile than Llanowar Elves, and versatility is always appreciated.
majinara
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The advantage of the llanowar elves towards this is, that you can use dual lands to put the llanowar elves into play, and they still produce mana. These arbor elves only do their job if you start out with forests. So in general I'd stick with llanowar elves. They might be better in team games though, if your teammate is playing forests, so that you can generate mana for your teammate. 3/5
Feralsymphony
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Better than Llanowar Elves if the shocklands are reprinted.
lorendorky
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I think this makes a lot more sense than Llanowar flavor-wise.
LordOfTheFlies87
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Stay on the core set, please.
Dabok
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Go ahead and judge me, but I personally think that this is a solid reason to buy the green intro pack Wild Rush.
how the *** is this less than 4/5? always has been a solid card
steinburger1109
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Slapping an Abundant Growth on a forest can get you any color mana with this fella...
LeaPlath
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
If you have a forest out, it is basically a llanowar elf. However, I think it is actually better.
You can tap it to untap a forest. On your turn, this is basically a llanowar elf, but if you tap it during your M2, you have a land freed up. This means that if they play some removal or something on your arbor elf (such as one of the mass damage spells that can easily clear 1/1s) you still have a land untapped for something like Fog.
It makes you more vunerable to land removal, but less to creature. And land removal is less common.
4/5 here. I would only rate it a 5/5 if it had vigilance.
Trep.the.Treehugger
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
In combo with Utopia Sprawl, in casual or modern, this guy gets pretty disgusting, pretty fast. Let's have an exemple from an Elf ramp deck I made :
Turn 1 : Forest, Arbor Elf Turn 2 : Forest, Utopia Sprawl on tapped Forest, Tap Arbor Elf to untap enchanted Forest, Elven Archdruid Turn 3 : Forest, Tap 3 Forests for 4 mana, Archdruid for 2, Arbor Elf for 2 more, and cast Primordial Hydra as a 6\6 Turn 4 : Attack with a 12\12 trample. Boom. Turn 5 : Win if your opponent didn't have a removal for the Hydra. He'd better not play only Red and Green...
Not counting the fact that you can enchant a forest with more than one Utopia Sprawl, ever increasing the mana you get from that Elf card. Imagine if in my exemple, instead of the Archdruid, you played two Sprawls and another Elf, no matter how unlikely you're going to have them in hand. That's a whopping 12 mana usable on turn 3!
I get a feeling my friends are going to hate that Hydra pretty soon...
JackTheStripper
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
How is this not AT LEAST 4.0? And 4.0 would still be a bit low. I can go infinite with this on turn two in modern U/R/G ramps. Turn one: Stomping ground, arbor elf. Turn two: Forest, utopia sprawl on stomping ground, selecting blue. tap the stomping ground for UR, then untap it and tap it for UR. Play Freed From the Real on Arbor Elf, leaving U floating. Then, untap him and tap Stomping Ground a billion times. Then play Banefire. Turn three: What turn three?
Eliteninjasauce
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Maybe its just wishful thinking but wouldn't this just be a great foreshadowing for the reprinting of the shocklands? I mean hummmm why else would we get this guy over Llanowar Elves...I don't know maybe for those precious little duel lands that say "This counts as a Forest as well as a Mountain".
But really I'm just like a child before Christmas hopping that Santa brings what I asked for. I'm just using Arbor Elf as an excuse to express my desires
swords_to_exile
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Better than Llanowar Elves? Maybe. Different, yes. But not outright better. Pros Can be used to generate more than one mana if your forest taps for more than just one. Can be used to generate more than one color of mana with dual lands and things like Abundant Growth
Cons Can only untap forests (not useful with Cavern of Souls, Gaea's Cradle, etc.) Meaning that if you start with T1 Cavern and have no T2 forest, you haven't ramped at all. Hurt by land destruction, not something Elves are normally vulnerable to.
All in all, I think in standard this may be more useful than Llanowar, but in Legacy I'll stick with Llanowar and Fyndhorn Elves
Plaid_Mage
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Noticing so many subtle nods to Ravnica in M13. This guy pairs nicely with the shock lands, I hope they get reprinted. This isn't the only one I've noticed, either.
Lotsofpoopy
★☆☆☆☆ (1.6/5.0)(10 votes)
Geniuses like myself see that this card can do much, much more than untap forests.
dlgn
★★☆☆☆ (2.6/5.0)(4 votes)
@lotsofpoopy Are there hidden abilities in invisible ink?
C1mpl0c1ty
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@Feralsymphony
Guess what? They were. We can get multiple colors out of this guy with cards like Temple Garden and the other shock lands, along with many other lands using the forest card type.
Personally, I think that qualifies this as better than Llanowar Elves, aside from the fact that it doesn't get around land-destruction. But given what's in Standard right now, that won't be a problem.
Xycolian
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Here's a list of the best mana producing land enchantments I could find for all you mana rampers out there.
Under most circumstances, this is functionally the same as a Llanowar. There are some unusual situations where Llanowar is better, and some where this is better. But I think that the situations where this is better are both more significant and easier to build for, which makes this even better than Llanowar (which was already pretty good).
Stealth.
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The fact that his ability is not a mana ability and can therefore be responded to will probably make you randomly lose at least one game. For instance, try to untap a Dryad Arbor and they can just Lightning Bolt the Dryad Arbor in response, leaving you with 0 mana. This makes it a lot worse than good old Llanowar Elves, but manadorks are still manadorks and therefore very good to cast 3 mana things on turn 2.
mewtwo15026
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Better than Llanowar Elves in Two-Headed Giant or any other team-based format. This is the only way I know of to ramp for your teammates.
Diachronos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I run him in a Standard deck alongside Verdant Haven.
Assuming I can somehow get all 3 of my Havens out and onto the same land, that's 8 mana being generated by only one land. I tap one land and one creature to bring Borborygmos Enraged into play.
xenofish
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
turn one, drop forest, play arbor elf. turn two: i) drop another forest, tap to play utopia sprawl, on the untapped forest, choose blue. manna pool:/ ii) tap the forest for GU, tap arbor elf to untap that forest and tap it again for GU. mana pool:GGUU iii) play freed from the real enchanting arbor elf for GGU. mana pool:U iv) activate freed from the real for U, untaping arbor elf, tap it to untap the forest, tap it for GU mana pool: GU v) repeat step 4 as much as you want: mana pool: infinite G one U go crazy.
Turn 1: Put Forest and tap it for mana (1) -> Put Arbor Elf (0) Forest, Arbor Elf
Turn 2: Put another Forest and tap it for mana (1) -> Put Wild Growth on untapped Forest (0) -> Tap for mana enchanted Forest (2) -> Put two Arbor Elves (0) -> Use previously putted Arbor Elf to untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (2) -> Put two Wild Growths on enchanted land (0) Forest x2, Wild Growth x3, Arbor Elf x3
Turn 3: Tap normal Forest for mana (1) -> Tap enchanted Forest for mana (5) -> Untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (9) -> Untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (13) -> Untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (17) -> Use Gelatinous Genesis for 17 mana (X = 8) to put eight 8/8 tokens (0) Forest x2, Wild Growth x3, Arbor Elf x3, Token 8/8 x8
Now try to do it with your Llanowar Elves ;) Of course, this case requires Irish luck and I made it totally for fun, but in games I played, Arbor Elf combined with Wild Growth helped me a lot and Llanowar Elves couldn't do the same. For the overall 4/5.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
One major downside to this card, playing with him you run into situations where you cast him and unable to use his ability at all, because there is no forests handy.
awesome untaps shock lands and enchanted ones much better ther llanowar
thisisthedave1
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
arbor elf, argothian elder, llanowar druid, voyaging satyr, magus of the vineyard, eldamris vineyard with wild growth, overgrowth, and vernal bloom makes for some serious mana ramp, turn 3 and skys the limit, I uusuallly run unyaro bees
Kamille_Bidan
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I'm really glad this guy wasn't reprinted in M14 otherwise Mono Green devotion would be retarded in standard right now
Comments (38)
You can tap it to untap a forest. On your turn, this is basically a llanowar elf, but if you tap it during your M2, you have a land freed up. This means that if they play some removal or something on your arbor elf (such as one of the mass damage spells that can easily clear 1/1s) you still have a land untapped for something like Fog.
It makes you more vunerable to land removal, but less to creature. And land removal is less common.
4/5 here. I would only rate it a 5/5 if it had vigilance.
Turn 1 : Forest, Arbor Elf
Turn 2 : Forest, Utopia Sprawl on tapped Forest, Tap Arbor Elf to untap enchanted Forest, Elven Archdruid
Turn 3 : Forest, Tap 3 Forests for 4 mana, Archdruid for 2, Arbor Elf for 2 more, and cast Primordial Hydra as a 6\6
Turn 4 : Attack with a 12\12 trample. Boom.
Turn 5 : Win if your opponent didn't have a removal for the Hydra. He'd better not play only Red and Green...
Not counting the fact that you can enchant a forest with more than one Utopia Sprawl, ever increasing the mana you get from that Elf card. Imagine if in my exemple, instead of the Archdruid, you played two Sprawls and another Elf, no matter how unlikely you're going to have them in hand. That's a whopping 12 mana usable on turn 3!
I get a feeling my friends are going to hate that Hydra pretty soon...
I can go infinite with this on turn two in modern U/R/G ramps.
Turn one: Stomping ground, arbor elf.
Turn two: Forest, utopia sprawl on stomping ground, selecting blue. tap the stomping ground for UR, then untap it and tap it for UR. Play Freed From the Real on Arbor Elf, leaving U floating. Then, untap him and tap Stomping Ground a billion times. Then play Banefire.
Turn three: What turn three?
But really I'm just like a child before Christmas hopping that Santa brings what I asked for. I'm just using Arbor Elf as an excuse to express my desires
Pros
Can be used to generate more than one mana if your forest taps for more than just one.
Can be used to generate more than one color of mana with dual lands and things like Abundant Growth
Cons
Can only untap forests (not useful with Cavern of Souls, Gaea's Cradle, etc.) Meaning that if you start with T1 Cavern and have no T2 forest, you haven't ramped at all.
Hurt by land destruction, not something Elves are normally vulnerable to.
All in all, I think in standard this may be more useful than Llanowar, but in Legacy I'll stick with Llanowar and Fyndhorn Elves
Guess what? They were. We can get multiple colors out of this guy with cards like Temple Garden and the other shock lands, along with many other lands using the forest card type.
Personally, I think that qualifies this as better than Llanowar Elves, aside from the fact that it doesn't get around land-destruction. But given what's in Standard right now, that won't be a problem.
Utopia Sprawl
Wild Growth
Overgrowth
Fertile Ground
Elvish Guidance (Was debating whether or not I should mention this, but you know... Arbor Elf.
Assuming I can somehow get all 3 of my Havens out and onto the same land, that's 8 mana being generated by only one land.
I tap one land and one creature to bring Borborygmos Enraged into play.
turn two:
i) drop another forest, tap to play utopia sprawl, on the untapped forest, choose blue.
manna pool:/
ii) tap the forest for GU, tap arbor elf to untap that forest and tap it again for GU.
mana pool:GGUU
iii) play freed from the real enchanting arbor elf for GGU.
mana pool:U
iv) activate freed from the real for U, untaping arbor elf, tap it to untap the forest, tap it for GU
mana pool: GU
v) repeat step 4 as much as you want:
mana pool: infinite G one U
go crazy.
Turn 1: Put Forest and tap it for mana (1) -> Put Arbor Elf (0)
Forest, Arbor Elf
Turn 2: Put another Forest and tap it for mana (1) -> Put Wild Growth on untapped Forest (0) -> Tap for mana enchanted Forest (2) -> Put two Arbor Elves (0) -> Use previously putted Arbor Elf to untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (2) -> Put two Wild Growths on enchanted land (0)
Forest x2, Wild Growth x3, Arbor Elf x3
Turn 3: Tap normal Forest for mana (1) -> Tap enchanted Forest for mana (5) -> Untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (9) -> Untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (13) -> Untap enchanted Forest and tap it for mana (17) -> Use Gelatinous Genesis for 17 mana (X = 8) to put eight 8/8 tokens (0)
Forest x2, Wild Growth x3, Arbor Elf x3, Token 8/8 x8
Now try to do it with your Llanowar Elves ;) Of course, this case requires Irish luck and I made it totally for fun, but in games I played, Arbor Elf combined with Wild Growth helped me a lot and Llanowar Elves couldn't do the same. For the overall 4/5.
One major upside is playing him in a deck with wild growth and overgrowth. Have hardcasted terastodon on t3.
otherwise Mono Green devotion would be retarded in standard right now