Golgari "Elven Empire" Budget Upgrade Guide | The Command Zone 377 | Magic: The Gathering
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- čas přidán 30. 07. 2024
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Show Notes:
What does it take to make an empire stand the test of time? This episode we give you our 10-card budget upgrade recommendations to make the “Elven Empire” Kaldheim precon into a deck that can duke it out with “real” commander decks with only $25 worth of changes.
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Elven Empire deck list:
magic.wizards.com/en/articles...
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What we talked about during THE END STEP:
Wanda Vision (Disney+)
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![Lathril, Blade of the Elves | EDH Three Ways [Commander Strategies for Every Player] Kaldheim Precon](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QoxCeaD8OgI/mqdefault.jpg)
Cards to Add 38:04:
Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Elvish Champion
Wirewood Symbiote
Skemfar Avenger
Birchlore Rangers
Elvish Dreadlord
Golgari Charm
Elvish Harbinger
Mind Slash or Vampiric Rites
Perilous Forays
Cards to Cut 54:19:
Elvish Rejuvenator
Eyeblight Cullers
Cultivator of Blades
Jaspera Sentinel
Masked Admirers
Tergrid’s Shadow
Harvest Season
Timberwatch Elf
Voice of Many
Twinblade Assassins
Thanks for listing that for us. You the real mvp
thank you bro saved me an hour
Thank you hahaha
I think people focus way too hard on Harvest Season’s “get 10 lands” potential. Tap 3 mana dorks and get three lands.
I agree. You should compare it to cultivate not how it pairs with one card in your deck (Lathril in this case). This is an ELF deck. So many Mana dorks. All you need is 2 and it's better than a cultivate since cultivate puts one into your hand. That is such an easy threshold. They are way underselling this card here. Everything else is fine though
Hard agree. Don't get me wrong it has a bad floor (Does nothing) but even just casting it with two tapped creatures (green loves dorks) it's a great ramp spell.
Which I mean is already a damn good rate
I've gotten 13 in a turn off it. I still have it in the deck because as long as long as you survive one more turn, the extra lands might be enough to dump your hand and win
gonna be building this precon into jund elves while running tyvar kell so I MAY run harvest season but it feels win more
These decks straight out of the box are a real improvement over the past ones, which is good and somehow strange.
And cheaper right?
@@Matisyahuwu yeah
not that strange. These precons are focused on a single gameplan. The expensive ones come with 3 potential commanders and therefore at least two gameplans, so they lack focus but give you more ways to personalize the deck.
Price policy is whacky though...
I agree
This one specifically actually runs really well in comparison with even some of the precons. I played it against the other kaldheim precon and some strixhaven ones and it was just unfair lol
You guys should do an episode on cards you don't agree with each other on, or theories within magic.
Or a story episode, would love that
Totally
Such a great little brother deck. Anyone with a kid brother/sister trying to get into magic, this is powerful, easy to understand, and jumps through a lot of hoops necessary for a beginner to get a grasp on things. I just wish my little bro liked magic lol. Cheers.
Rip, my brother has a magic gambling addiction, and he finally has started to play the game after I made him a really good scarab good deck
Catch him and force it xD
Absolutely. My twins are 5 and love playing this deck
I taught my young neighbor MTG though I hadn’t played since Ice Age now he’s old enough to beat all my Pre-Ice age jewels and I’m building this deck back up just to stay in the game 😎
JLK tries so valiantly to look left, but any time Jimmy says something, his eyes pop back over. Great television.
Aaand now I can't unsee it.
Are they sitting like across the room?
@@FutureOverYou yee
Why didn't they swap the portraits 🤣
I will say, I do actually like Timberwatch Elf in this deck. I think it works very well with the commander and may be worth keeping in.
Agreed. Timberwatch was the only "take out" card I disagreed with. I've been playing with the deck and the power buff is so ridiculous that it's worth the fact it's telegraphed. Being a tap ability synergizes with the other untappers they suggested. I would take out the Soul Jar instead. Too slow and janky for reanimation
Agree, early in the game maybe turn 4 this works very well with Lathril since she has menace and usually 1 of your 3 opponents has only 1 creature in play this can atleast create you 4 tokens. But we play casual so may not be the same to your play group
also agree. even tho its telegraphed, it becomes such a target which will take some aggro off of your other key elves. plus its an elf body in place of an instant combat trick for cards that care about the number of elves you control. not to mention its synergy with cards like marwyn, the nurturer
It can also be used politically as well, and if an opponent attacked another opponent you could buff a creature to do more damage.
@@SessionSakic didn’t even consider its political possibilities. Could make an evasive creature an opponent swings with lethal
The easiest part of tweaking a deck: putting cards in.
The hardest part: taking cards out
Saying taking cards out being “hardest” feels like an understatement lol.... Sometimes I really want to put some card in but..... For the life of me, I can’t find a card I want or am willing to take out... Oof.
Every deck I make thats over 60 cards.
@@williambrown5934 how about putting and keeping cards just cuz it looks cool. Like I used to run devouring strossus (might be misspelled) a 9/9 with flying trample and sacrifice. Its a giant black creature with wings, red eyes and a gas mask. Being chained and dragged around by a bunch of elves it looks like. Pretty wicked looking.
I guess im randomly asking but does anyone know a way to get back into an Instagram account??
I was dumb forgot the login password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me.
@Thiago Kareem Instablaster =)
Jimmy: "we can both be número uno."
My brain: ONLY ONE MAY STAND!
Joraga Warcaller + Immaculate Magistrate would be a great addition.
I honestly think Harvest Season is fine so long as I get 2 or more off it and this deck does that all the time with a couple Llanowar Elves for instance. I think people focus too hard on getting that 4+ god search and think it’s bad if it doesn’t do that (like, Cultivate is a good card guys lol).
yes
Especially when you added Birchlore Rangers before!
I think they whould be called "Set Commander Precons, because they are paired to mechanics and flavour of sets they are based on.
I totally agree! "Mini" precon just never sounds right when they say it and always implies you're getting less than a full Commander deck.
I guess the argument against "Set deck" is that C20's precons were based around Ikoria but I call bullshit on that because C20 is still referred to as C20 and not "Ikoria Commander". The yearly releases will still always be referred to by the year they release regardless if they're tied to a set or not.
I would agree if the apparent plan for the full CMDR sets from now on wasn't also tied to the sets
@@invertedname3099 that is true
josh's reactions to the cards getting cut are so classic. you can just see how disgusted he is that these cards were included in the first place.
Actually, they kept the "alternate commanders", just not in new cards. This particular deck lets you use Rhys, Harald, Miara + Numa or Abomination of Llanowar (LOL) as commanders.
Yes they could work, but I dont think the synergy would be there if you just swapped one with the other. Lathril is make a bunch of elves and overrun or use her ability to drain. What would the other ones be? Harald could work as voltron but wheres the auras and equip? Abomination youd probably want a lot more graveyard. And Rhys would just.... regenerate elves??
@@TheBigDirty716 Numa + Miara works with all elves, not just token elves. Numa lets you make elves bigger, Miara is honestly one of the best elf partner commanders because she gives elves the ability to draw at a very small costs when ANY elf dies.
Also, don't underestimate the ability to regenerate and keep elves around. You want to protect yourself from board wipes as much as possible.
@@TheBigDirty716 I don't think the synergy is there all the time with the decks that have multiple "commanders" there is usually one you want that is the for sure, and then a few cards to get you started with the others.
The new animation for "Stats" was spicy. Props to whoever made that.
“Cultivate is kind of the most played card in the format.”
Sol Ring: I beg to differ
Storm crow: hi guiz
Some people don't like to play with "Sol Ring".
Sil ring should be banned
@@joeferreti9442 Sure, but that doesn’t change that it’s the most played
@@rodgerlang884 If a number of people don't play it but almost all play Cultivate, then Sol Ring is not the most played.
I appreciate how much time they take every episode to talk about their team. It would be easy to just prerecord something and play it every time, but they make a special effort to make sure everyone is recognized.
Just got this deck and played it three times in 3 player games last night. Super fun deck! Really smartly designed and fun to play for being so cheap.
37:50 when they finally get around to talking about upgrades.
The real MVP
G.O.A.T.
This video actually made me realize how hood Harvest Season is. I actually put it in my Jund elves deck. Even if you only get 2 lands it is a better cultivate. With a much higher ceiling!
I've been working on this deck all day today, great timing on this video.
We dont have a lot of ways to tup creatures
But?
Does not this deck play quite a bit of manadorks?
One card I brought in to replace the Soul Jar was Icon of Ancestry. It fits well with the buff-elfs idea and is a repeatable tutor.
This is so off topic, but I listened to that song for the first time today in maybe years on a whim. And when I just finished listening to it on repeat like 3 times, I went on CZcams and clicked this video lool, funny how things work out.
They are listening
Great ideas!
One thing I'd add about taking harvest season out, I get the point about not being able to tap consistently, but on the other hand we are adding a few things that allow you to tap your creatures for mana, giving more ways to tap creatures (outside of attacking) than the deck would've had before. That could lead to some insane mana levels. that in addition to the commander's effect it may be worth keeping it in. A fair argument could be made either way tbh but just some food for thought there
Perfect timing, upgrading this deck right at this moment
Same
Ditto.
Same here! Lol
I upgraded mine a couple days ago anf im interested to see what they did differently!
Same
Some cards I added to this Deck were Sandworm Convergence and Wellwisher, among other stuff. And I happen to have cut the same cards like you guys, without even watching this Video before
Ok that might be my favorite intro. You guys sung your heart out and I like that song.
Having played with this deck I’ve kinda noticed a few more win conditions, for example there’s an elf that makes every opponent lose X life where X is the number of elves you control. So hit with a buff Lathril and play that guy in your second main faze to do real damage
Thanks for the suggestions! I totally forgot about those enchantment sac outlets!
the one that gets lands is awesome
Wow I didn't know about perilous forays when I bought upgrades for this deck. Personally, I feel like the best card to add is vorrac battlehorns it is so good in here and has helped me win a few games although my friends watch out for it now.
For pact of the serpent, there is another use for it too. You can use it as a win con. Since it says target player and it's a generic tribal draw you can get an opponent to low life then drain them with it or auto kill decks like ragnar, ovar, or krenko, or any other go massive token decks.
Actually love this deck though using it in a different way making a Najeela, Blade Blossom Elf Warrior deck!
Can we all just take time to appreciate how good those vocals sounded in the beginning 😂
When i run Elvish Champion i always include Song of the Dryads as both removal and a way to give them a forest when they don't have them normally
Lathril already worked surprisingly well out of the box. I mean, not including Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves right off the bat was an odd choice, as they're staples of Elfball strategies
Would have recommended Masked Vandal from the KHM set too, it counts as an elf and is interaction to get rid of annoying enchantments or artifacts.
Those midroll ads were hilarious.
I never mind their ads! I love them and they're so funny. With the VPN ad I did think I accidentally switched over to an episode of Game Knights. 😂
I’m pretty sure WotC said that they put more new cards this time around because the Foretell deck needed more new cards because it didn’t have a deep pool of cards to pull from.
I feel like Harvest Season should work well if you have a good amount of mana dorks in deck you should be able to consistently get two lands out of it and for three mana that is already a good deal.
Evolutionary leap is also a pretty good and cheap sac outlet, which would fit nicely here.
The Pemmin's Aura Arixmethes bit was worth a thumbs up
Can't wait for the Azorius one. Bought it specifically for Cosmic Intervention, and would love to upgrade it outside of that
Agreed. I’ve been looking to build a blink deck for a while.
I built mine into a control/ Combo deck and I always become the Threat haha.
Yayyyy another episode, this deck is so good
I like Timberwatch Elf... The key is "Target Creature". It doesnt have to target your own creature...
yes
Just got my Lathril deck checked for mid on Spelltable. Its a really fun deck to play with several win cons like wound reflection, throne of the god pharaoh and Ezuri. One of the best budget commander decks so far
So the thing is i had a monogreen elves deck for a few years now (got the freyalise precon), and ever since commander legends i saw all the support in black and green so i decided to switch when kaldheim came out. Today I see the prices of cards like Joraga warcaller and elvish champion and im glad i got the precon years ago because the spikes recently are frustrating
Nailed the intro!!! Best one yet, good job
Looking forward to the Ranar Upgrade Guide, that's the one I'm upgrading now
Getting this deck this week when I get paid as a little treat for myself lol. I love golgari elves and I have a few cards laying around that can upgrade the deck
Enjoy it's a great deck
@@jeremytorres547 thanks guy!!! I got an elvish war master from a pack I’ll throw in there too. These precons are way better than 2018
@@jamesgratz4771 yes, I won my first game right out of the box for the first time and thankfully I had almost all my lorwyn stuff so didn't have to buy the elvish harbinger
@@jeremytorres547 I was reading the deck list and I’m like yeah for 20 bucks or whatever it is that’s a pretty decent deal. I really liked the rogue one and upgraded it with sakashima and blighted agent. I want to add the swords but they are pricey 😂
Great song and singing of it. Thanks again boyz
A good card for this deck (and any deck where you expect to have a lot of tapped creatures) is Throne of the God-Pharaoh. Also, I'm really surprised nobody suggested seedborn muse! It's such an incredible include in here, if you have the 10 elves you can drain everyone every turn.
Thanks for the great idea, had one in a deck and now its in my deck list for Lathril!
Harvest season in a mana dork heavy elf deck maybe? I love it! Also I would probably want to add an equipment to easily boost the commander and possibly give it trample and or vigilance.
yes
In addition to the mana dork synergies, sometimes you can bluff a pump spell with an aggressive attack and come away with a super greedy Harvest Season. Easier to do with Ezuri on board for sure, but that bluff has rewarded me with some serious ramp.
Has anyone noticed that this episode is not even a day old yet and the prices on all of these cards are no longer under the $25 budget? I get that others have the same idea and this was probably shot a few days ago. At the time of writing this comment Ezuri is $10+, Elvish Champion is $15+, Elvish Harbinger $10+. Perilous Forays $2+. All the others are under a dollar but this one spiked really quickly! Love the content just curious if anyone went to upgrade and noticed it was more expensive.
Just buy the cards at your LGS cardkingdom is not great. They will jack up prices from these JAs
The thing about harvest season is that a large number of your creatures are mana dorks, so they can tap themselves. I think it's usually a bad card, but in elf tribal, it's pretty good.
One of our playgroup played this right out the box against our regular decks. Won every time.
Wow perilous forays is way to good with maja, bretagard protector
And with one more token maker, you net positive on creatures and lands
so at 52:22, the Timberwatch elf, I actually think it would be better to keep in the deck because you can tap it at instance speed so if another player swings with a huge creature with trample, as long as you have a halfway decent board state you could block that creature. and the reverse is true too. because it doesn't list elves specifically you can equip it to anything with trample, again as long as you have a decent board state, and swing with it
The first game I played with this deck I got 13 lands off harvest season, and I choose to believe that is how this card will always work and I'll never have it be dead in my hand
yes I need to get it for my elf deck
Too bad none of the recommended upgrades are budget anymore.
yeah like wtf ezuri is over 10 bucks now
This video is actually increasing the price of those cards.
Command quarter actually did a budget upgrade about this deck on their channel
Ezuri was always a good card. 7 to 10 buck range. Even got a reprint. But people forgot about it. Until now. Priestess of titania was like that too.
I added Priest of Titania and some more elvis that make Mana along with a staff of Domination and a diabolic tutor and demonic tutor
Honestly pretty nice harmonizing on the song, y'all!
I kept 3 of their 10 out. I haven't played it a lot, but I was able to get 12 lands from a single Season of Growth.
I used the Commander tap ability because my opponents had too many blockers to push through. I then used some mana tap elves to actual cast it. I had enough health that I wasn't worried about dying to slap-back though, and I can see Jimmy's point.
I'm going to keep playing it and see what happens.
Would love to see you guys do a video where you try to guess the order of the top 10 or 15 creature types from most popular to least popular and see how many you get right
I like harvest season, mostly because it's a good rate if you get two basics from it. I run it in my slimefoot the stowaway deck and I'm pretty happy with it
I dislike them being called mini precons. that would lean more into them being smaller than 100 cards or smaller cards. Set precons seems like a good name. Also, the prices did not hold as to be expected. bought a playset of Lathril for $2 ( I did get non-foil from collectors boosters) and a Playset of Pact of the Serpent for $3. I wish I went more in on Cosmic Intervention because that one recently shot up too.
Timberwatch Elf on Lathril
Swing for Elves + 2 damage
Cast Elven Ambush, get 2*Elves + 2 additional elves
Bam, 4 mana elf quadrupler
I feel like in your upgrades you could have added one area that was basically mana dorks like elves of deep shadow, finhorn elves, lianowar elves, arbor elf, these elves are gonna get you going in the early game get your commander out maybe a turn early and set you up to have more bodies on the battlefield all of these guys are like 1$ or less each and are the basic foundations of most elf decks especially in black and green
Copperhorn scout seems fantastic if you can hit critical mass or even as a dork only mana doubler
I have the card it works wonders with lathrill trust me
Unfortunately I got to this deck late and a lot of the cards in this video have become much more expensive :') But I made my own additions and this deck has been super fun to play! It's not an elf so I was hesitant to add it in, but I happened to have a Nylea, Keen-eyed lying around and it has been awesome in this. Not only does it discount all my elves but if I have extra mana I can dig for more! Combos really nicely with the scry from Path of Ancestry :D
Just like the emmara, soul of the accord deck I think throne of the god-pharaoh is probably worth it with all the mana dorks. good way to chip away at people so your commanders ability or the alpha strike can finish them off
yeah because you can use your commanders ability then they lose another ten
I use Harvest Season in my Kumena deck that taps a lot of merfolk, and with a bunch of mana dorks it also becomes a slam dunk. Honestly with two tapped creatures it's slightly better than cultivate.
I never once thought about using the commander to tap 11 elves and get 11 lands with Harvest Season.
I thought the deck was filled with mana dorks that tap themselves and pay for the Harvest Season themselves and snag two or three lands for next to free.
This would be fun to see a remake of. Lots of nice new cards have comes out.
First off: Harvest season regularly nets me 2-3 lands into play. for 3 mana I consider that well worth it, especially since sometimes it is 5+ lands, not always, but if you can find one turn mid game when one opponent is open to attacks from some 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens it can do wonders. Also: Taking out timberwatch elf because it makes something too much of a target seems off, like don't play good cards because it will make you the enemy? Even when powerful it isn't the sort of remove-on sight threat you can see in commander games.
Can we get an updated tappedout list in the description for these in the future? or at the very least a splash screen of the cards to put in and the cards to take out, you did one for the take outs but i didn't see it for the put ins, I like listening to your thoughts on the list but find it difficult when i actually want to make the changes down the line and can't find an easy list.
Tyvar kell and Nissa Revane would be quite nice as well as both if the elves that tap for mana equal to the number of yiz elves
I'm actually a bit suprised they kept the serpents soul jar in. The effect on it's cool but if anything happens to the jar you lose all the elves exiled by it.
This is actualy the first mtg deck that i play(i just started recently) and yeah kinda dont know what card to take out and what to add. So ty for the argument but there some card that i want to keep
Elvish guidance is 25 cents and turns a land in to a gaias cradle. I modified my deck with this card i ended up with i giant mana battery!
Try adding in a Quest for Renewal or Seedborn Muse so you can clear the table by the time it reached back to your turn
that would be good
I bought this and switched commander for Abomination of Llanowar. Most of the cards you said to pull i did right away. I am wanting to do a deadbridge chant to get cards like elvish ambush back in my hand!
100% agree with the wrath/targeted removal point. Went to the lgs and had 4 board wipes cast in the first game I played this deck, mostly to keep this(slightly upgraded) under control. The problem was no one else had a way to win so it wound up being a 2 hour game of passing turns. Terrible.
Hey, thx for ur elven empire guide.
wich card u would change for SKEMFAR AVANGER?
I agree to a point with the analysis of Voice of Many however two important points - First Voice of Many is an elf creature, a 3/3 which synergises with the deck. 4 mana is not unreasonable to draw 2-3 cards AND get a 3/3 elf. Second, because Voice of Many is a creature, it can be returned from the graveyard or returned to hand to be reused (for example with Wirewood Symbiote). It has the potential to be used 2-3 times in a game especially in Green-Black which specialise in returning cards from the graveyard.
A saw a pretty nice synergy between creating all those tokens and the new card Bloodline Pretender - so I will definitely take a try and put that in. What do you think?
What are the chances? The video I was watching JUST BEFORE this one was your "Breya, Etherium Shaper Deck Tech" from FOUR YEARS AGO(!!!), which just so happened to be the video where you guys sing "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier". So Random; so funny:D
I feel like wizards is starting to move the physical product more towards commander players since its so popular and probably where most of thier physical revenue is comming from since theyre focusing so much on arena for standard and making the historic format
I loved the 'Hunt' Advertisement!
Omg, I thought I loved you guys before, after that intro I think I'm in love with both of you ♥️
I got two Zendikar commander decks last month lands wrath & sneak attack witch I thought they where pretty good & came with some awesome commander choices just ordered the Elven empire deck and the phantom Premonition can't wait to try them out they seem pretty good also after I play them a couple times I'll do some upgrading love the show Ive been binge watching game knights
Have not been able to play magic in over a year do to das plague and moving.. But I'm really excited to both get this deck and tweak it.
I come from the future and Jake made a great play using pact of the serpent in GM#55 using it to make ladee danger to draw cards and force opponents to attack her.
All these prices crashed
already. Pact of the Serpent is like 60cent now lol
I found that any of the swords are really nice in this deck (if your not worried about the budget) I have been running the sword of war and peace and the sword of feast and famine is awesome in the deck (tho I think it's pretty good in any deck tbh)
Great video as always, but where are you finding cheap Elvish Champions? Even before Ezuri's price bump over the last 24 hours, the champ was always sitting at 10
Just looking at lists for this
You are wrong about harvest season. Elves almost all tap for mana or make expendable tokens to attack with. 3 mana get 4-5 basics is not a bad thing. Even dropping it turn 3-4 after you have two mana dorks is perfectly playable
It's freaking me out with you guys floating there in your own separate boxes *shudder*
Lol Wirewood Pride is the instant speed Timberwatch effect 😃