Angry Elves
Cradle-fueled Elves with a Survival toolbox and a hasty Masticore.
Survival Tribal Aggro
Overview
"Angry Elves is the red-green Survival of the Fittest build of Elves: Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, and Fyndhorn Elves ramp into Priest of Titania, whose mana scales with every Elf and is multiplied by Gaea's Cradle. That mana powers an explosive Deranged Hermit turn or fuels a Survival of the Fittest toolbox that recurs Squee, Goblin Nabob to tutor at will. Anger gives the whole team haste from the graveyard, and the Goblin Sharpshooter plus Goblin Bombardment package turns the wide board into repeatable removal."
Game Plan
The deck wants a turn-one mana dork into a turn-two Priest of Titania with a second Elf already down, then Gaea's Cradle to convert the board into a flood of green mana. From there it either jams Deranged Hermit for a Hermit plus four Squirrel tokens and threatens lethal, or it sets up Survival of the Fittest. Survival is the engine: pitch Squee, Goblin Nabob to fetch whatever the board state demands, then recur Squee from the graveyard next upkeep so the tutoring never costs a real card. Anger sits in the graveyard granting the team haste, so every dork off the top and every fetched threat can attack immediately.
Against removal-heavy decks the plan grinds rather than races. Survival fetches Masticore as a recurring sweeper-and-beater (Squee feeds its upkeep discard for free), Nantuko Vigilante as a repeatable artifact/enchantment answer, and Caller of the Claw to rebuild after a wipe. Wirewood Symbiote and Quirion Ranger untap Priest of Titania for extra mana bursts and bounce a threatened Elf to dodge spot removal. Goblin Sharpshooter plus Goblin Bombardment is a free-to-activate removal engine that also serves as the reach to close stalled boards. Rishadan Port and Orcish Settlers tax greedy or nonbasic-heavy mana bases while the Elves apply pressure.
Key Cards
Core engine & flex
The deck's tutor and toolbox. Discard Squee, Goblin Nabob to fetch any creature, then recur Squee next upkeep so each search is effectively free. Turns a pile of vanilla Elves into a singleton-heavy answer-for-everything machine.
Taps for green equal to the number of Elves in play. With three or four other dorks down she produces the explosive mana that powers out Deranged Hermit or chains Survival activations; killing her is the opponent's clearest line, so she is also the deck's most-protected piece.
SignatureAdds green equal to the creature count, stacking on top of Priest of Titania for absurd single-turn mana. Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote untap dorks for even more, enabling double-spell turns the opponent can't keep pace with.
The payoff for all that mana: enters with four 1/1 Squirrel tokens and pumps every Squirrel +1/+1. With Anger online the squad swings the turn it lands; even into removal it leaves a wide board that Goblin Bombardment can convert to reach.
Untaps whenever a creature dies, so paired with Goblin Bombardment it becomes a repeatable removal engine that sweeps small creatures and pings planeswalker-less defenses. Survival fetches it as the answer to opposing aggro and token strategies.
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Sample Decklists
Numsgil7
Mainboard (60)
$8773Creature (32)
$448Enchantment (6)
$1551Land (22)
$6773Sideboard (15)
$101Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Details
Eugenio Nobile
Mainboard (61)61-card deck
$8608Creature (34)
$503Sorcery (3)
$69.33Enchantment (4)
$1542Land (20)
$6494Sideboard (15)
$79.97Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Details
Tinkmaster
Mainboard (60)
$8530Creature (35)
$443Enchantment (6)
$1599Land (19)
$6487Sideboard (15)
$101Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Details