commander · Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Guided by Nature (C14).
A mono-green Elf tribal deck from Commander 2014, led by Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury, create mana Elves with her plus ability, build an army of Elves, draw cards from her minus ability, and close with Ezuri's Overrun or Craterhoof Behemoth.
The Commander
Guided by Nature is Commander 2014's mono-green Elf deck, and Freyalise is one of the strongest planeswalker commanders in the format. Her +2 makes a 1/1 Elf Druid with "tap: add one green mana." Her -2 destroys any artifact or enchantment. Her ultimate draws a card for each green creature you control. In a deck that routinely builds to twenty Elves, that ultimate refills your hand with twenty cards in one go.
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury makes mana and bodies at the same time with every plus. Three turns of +2 is three free Elvish Mystics before she does anything else. The -2 covers the enchantments and artifacts mono-green usually can't touch. The ultimate is your insurance policy, a big hand refill when the game drags. Ezuri, Renegade Leader supplies the Overrun that turns twenty Elves into a lethal alpha strike.
Key Cards
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Regenerate a target Elf for one green mana. Pay two green and one colorless and your Elves get +3/+3 and trample until end of turn. It's an Overrun for three mana that you can fire off several times in one turn. With twenty Elves out, paying three mana three times is nothing when Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid taps for five or more. Three activations turn twenty 1/1 Elves into twenty 10/10 tramplers. One attack ends the game.
Priest of Titania
Tap: add one green mana for each Elf on the battlefield. With twelve Elves out, Priest of Titania taps for twelve green. That covers three Ezuri Overruns in a turn, or dumps the rest of your hand in one cycle. It's the mana engine that turns Elf count into a pile of mana, and the pile grows every time another Elf hits, which pays for the next Elf.
Elvish Archdruid
Other Elves you control get +1/+1. Tap: add one green mana for each Elf you control. It's a second Priest of Titania that also lords your Elves. With both out, a board of ten Elves makes twenty mana. Stack Archdruid's lord bonus with an Ezuri Overrun and those Elves swing as 14/14 tramplers per activation. After the mana Elves, Archdruid is the most important creature in the deck.
Primordial Sage
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may draw a card. When Priest of Titania is fueling three or four creatures a turn, Primordial Sage draws you three or four cards a turn. That's mono-green's usual card-draw problem solved, and it keeps the Elf chain going: draw more Elves, cast more Elves, draw more Elves. The Sage keeps your hand full through the big combo turns that end games.
Craterhoof Behemoth
When Craterhoof enters, all your creatures get +X/+X and trample until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control. It's the backup to Ezuri's Overrun and green's most efficient board-based one-shot kill. Land it with twenty Elves out and each one gets +20/+20, so twenty 1/1s become twenty 21/21 tramplers swinging for four hundred twenty. One creature, one attack, game over.
How to Play
Ramp with Freyalise's +2 for the first few turns and drop cheap Elves as early as you can. You want Priest of Titania and Elvish Archdruid down before turn five to power the big turns. Once both mana Elves are out alongside eight to ten others, you're making fifteen or more mana a turn. The kill is simple: tap Priest of Titania for mana, activate Ezuri's Overrun two or three times, and swing with the trampling army. Freyalise's ultimate refuels you if the game runs long. Craterhoof Behemoth is the other one-shot, found off Natural Order or just cast once you hit eight mana.
