Standard Combo Elves!

Hello everybody! One of the things I love to do whenever I read an article online, even if it's not a magic article, is to spend a few minutes and read the comments. While many may fear that we are becoming slowly dumber and dumber with each wave of new kids entering our schools, there are some people out there who have great ideas (am I one of them? hopefully...). Today, I was reading an article by Craig Wescoe on the only subject I really care about right now: Post Rotation Standard. He based his article by pointing out various interesting cards and discusses their potential viability going forwards.

One of the cards that he discussed that I have also talked about previously is Mentor of the Meek. He was talking about how good it will be in a Puresteel Paladin deck (beat you there Wescoe!), but in the comments someone offered a great pearl of wisdom: "Have you thought about some sort of G/W combo elves with mentor? archdruid is the only elf lord that pumps and so keeps your elves small enough to draw off of. Fresh meat and ezuri allow for wrath protection." To which someone responded: "Zero elves in INN :(" Talk about taking a great idea and not even running with it! I actually was really intruiged by that comment, so I'm going to see what kind of a deck can be built with the card draw power of Mentor of the Meek + Elvish Archdruid:

4x Elvish Archdruid
4x Mentor of the Meek
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Copperhorn Scout
3x Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4x Gladecover Scout
2x Ezuri's Archers
3x Mikeaus, the Lunarch
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Birds of Paradise

4x Green Sun's Zenith

4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Gavony Township
12x Forest

Obviously this combo isn't as good in Standard as is the Modern (Cloudstone Curio) and Legacy (Glimpse of Nature) versions, but it is powerful nonetheless. In case you don't know how this combo works, basically, you use all of your lands and mana proucing creatures not named Elvish Archdruid to make guys and draw cards off of Mentor of the Meek until you have a huge board position. Then, using Elvish Archdruid you can produce a ton of mana which lets you play out a ton of creatures and draw an insane amount of cards. Eventually you run out of mana and you can swing in for a deadly attack next turn. Ezuri is a great win condition with an instant speed Overrun while also offering protection. Also, with Copperhorn Scout, you can untap all your elves, including Elvish Ardruid, then retap the druid to use the overrun ability multiple times in one swing!

Will this deck be tier 1? I don't know... Will it be a blast to play? Absolutely! Before I go, I want to put down one more decklist as an update to the Puresteel Paladin deck from a few weeks ago. This version adds blue, and is probably the most reminiscent of Caw-Blade out there:

4x Puresteel Paladin
4x Mentor of the Meek
4x Invisible Stalker
2x Trinket Mage
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Leonin Relic-Warder
3x Mirran Crusader
4x Memnite

4x Mana Leak
3x Dismember
2x Stoic Rebuttal
2x Dispatch

3x Sword of War and Peace
3x Sword of Feast and Famine

2x Mox Opal
3x Moorland Haunt
4x Seachrome Coast
4x Glacial Fortress
5x Plains
2x Island

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack