Elfballin’ with Kethis

Did you know there are Elves in colors other than green? I know! Crazy, right? Anyways, after conceding my fifth match to Oko of the day yesterday, I opened up my “Decks” tab to build something different. Something fresh, something new, something janky, something… tribal. After crying at the lack of decent Standard-legal goblins, I noticed our beautiful feather-wielding boy: Kethis, the Hidden Hand: Legendary Creature - Elf Advisor! I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and the card that bred the most degenerate and boring to watch combo deck of the last standard rotation would be the way out! So here goes:

THIS IS NOT A GOOD DECK. IT IS HIGHLY DYSFUNCTIONAL, SCHIZOPHRENIC, CONFUSED. But all of our creatures are ELVES (Pay no mind to that Trostani Discordant, it should be a Storrev, Devkarin Lich but I’m out of rare wildcards) :)

The Ramp:

The Board-Presence Elves:

These are the elves you want to build your board with. They either make more creatures, grow on their own, or make your other creatures bigger. Shout out to both Emmara, Soul of the Accord and Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves for being legendary. 

The Utility/Value Elves:

These elves are here because they are a) elves and b) not COMPLETELY useless. Elvish Reclaimer can help us fix the mana issues of this monstruos deck we built and has nice synergy with Evolution Sage, if you got any counters going. Glowspore Shaman and District Guide are also here to help smooth out the land draws in the deck. Beast Whisperer is a no-brainer, and Brightwood Tracker can help in a pinch, even if just to shuffle your deck with a Bolas’s Citadel on the board. Oakhame Adversary, Underrealm Lich, and Izoni, Thousand-Eyed are all pure value and once I have a rare wildcard Storrev, Devkarin Lich will join them.

The Legendary Package:

Apart from the legendary creatures already listed, this deck does count with some legendaries to make use of Kethis’ text (though he works fine in this deck as a vanilla 3/4 elf). These are some legendary cards that do a little more than just look fancy with their different border in this deck. Vivien’s Arkbow, along with the Vivien herself, Bolas’s Citadel, and The Great Henge are all here to keep us from stalling out, while Oath of Kaya is the only piece of direct damage in the deck. Ajani, the Greathearted is here to buff our elves and give you moral support when your legendary artifacts get turned into elks. And that makes up the legendary package.Ambitious? Yes. Foolish? Absolutely! Fun? Enough to give it a shot.

The Rest:

Tome of Legends is here because our commander is a big boy and he’s gonna swing that feather right at the opponent's face! Icon of Ancestry and Ethereal Absolution are here to make our elves into bigger, better elves. 

The Manabase:

Is an absolute mess. The spells and lands are mostly green but I still run all three castles for some reason. Trying to keep it cool on the tap lands here but most of the rest is obvious. I couldn’t be bothered to improve it right now, but feel free to send suggestions!