Commander blueprint · The Hobbit

How to build Thranduil, the Elvenking

Thranduil, the Elvenking has every activated ability of every Elf card in your graveyard, so each Elf in this build gets cast once and then used again on a 5/6. This is the Elf deck that keeps feeding that graveyard, with the infinite loop most Thranduil lists chase held back for the top rung.

Art by Magali Villeneuve

Thranduil's power is a mana number

Three Elves in the list tap for mana that scales with power. Marwyn, the Nurturer adds equal to Marwyn's power. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds pays and taps for mana in any colours equal to the greatest power among your creatures. Woodland Weavemaster adds mana equal to its own power, for Elf spells and Elf abilities only. On the battlefield those are small numbers. In the graveyard the number is Thranduil's, because the official ruling is that an ability naming the card it is printed on names Thranduil instead. Marwyn in the graveyard reads as green equal to Thranduil's power, and Thranduil starts at 5.

So everything that grows him also ramps. Elvish Archdruid, Imperious Perfect and Thranduil, Sindarin Liege each give other Elves +1/+1, and the commander is another Elf to all three. With the Archdruid and the Perfect out he is a 7/8, and with Marwyn in the graveyard he taps for seven green. Immaculate Magistrate in the graveyard spends the tap on counters instead, one for each Elf you control, and those stay. Tyvar the Bellicose grows him without spending the tap at all: while it is out, a creature whose mana ability resolves gets that many +1/+1 counters, once a turn, so the 7/8 that tapped for seven is a 14/15 on your next turn.

Chameleon Colossus is a Shapeshifter, and changeling makes it an Elf card in the graveyard as well. Its ability gives +X/+X where X is its power, which on Thranduil means doubling him. Four mana into the 7/8 makes a 14/15 that taps for fourteen.

One tap a turn, so the tap abilities compete with each other

Most of what an Elf graveyard offers has the tap symbol in its cost: Priest of Titania's mana, Marwyn's, Lathril's ten-life drain, Shadowheart's draw and the -X/-X from Lys Alana Scarblade. Thranduil has all of them, but he is one creature and he untaps once, so on most turns you pick one. Four cards in the list exist to change that. Quirion Ranger in the graveyard lets him return a Forest to your hand to untap himself, once a turn. Wirewood Symbiote does the same from the battlefield by returning an Elf, and if that Elf is legendary you recast it for another loot. Dionus, Elvish Archdruid gives every Elf you control an untap the first time it taps on your turn, the commander included. Seedborn Muse untaps him on every other player's turn, which in a four-player game is four taps a round instead of one.

Seedborn Muse is the core list's one Game Changer, and Lathril, Blade of the Elves is the reason. Lathril's ability taps the commander and ten other untapped Elves to take 10 life from each opponent. With the Muse out the whole board untaps on each opponent's turn as well, so ten Elves and Lathril in the graveyard is 10 life from every opponent on every player's turn, and 40 from each of them across one round.

The abilities without the tap symbol can be used again and again, and that is where the mana from the one tap goes. Ezuri, Renegade Leader in the graveyard gives your Elves +3/+3 and trample for five mana, as often as you can pay. Tyvar, the Pummeler gives every creature you control +X/+X for five, where X is the greatest power among them, and the greatest power is Thranduil's. The Elvish Warmaster pump of +2/+2 and deathtouch costs seven. So a 7/8 Thranduil with Marwyn in the graveyard taps for one Ezuri activation with two green left over, and the same Thranduil after four mana into Chameleon Colossus taps for fourteen: the Pummeler's pump at +14/+14, with nine green still floating.

Nineteen legendary Elves, and the discard is what they are for

Thranduil's second ability draws two and discards one whenever another legendary Elf you control enters. In most decks a loot is selection. Here the discard is the main way an ability reaches the graveyard, so the question each time is which Elf you want on the commander this turn, and the answer is often a card you would also have liked to cast.

That makes the legendary count worth building to. There are 19 other legendary Elves in the 99 and all of them cost four mana or less, from Lluwen, Imperfect Naturalist and Miara, Thorn of the Glade at two up to Lathril and Dionus at four. A legends-heavy Thranduil list is sometimes written off because the legends' own activated abilities do little for a board of ordinary Elves. That reads them as abilities to borrow. In this list most of them are bodies to cast for the loot, and the ordinary Elves are the ones whose abilities you want in the graveyard.

The rest of the discard comes from outlets that pay you for it. Iron-Shield Elf discards a card to turn indestructible. Lys Alana Scarblade discards an Elf card to shrink a creature. Fauna Shaman discards a creature card to find another, Formidable Speaker discards any card to find a creature, and Tortured Existence swaps a creature card in your hand for one in your graveyard for . Skullclamp kills the small ones on purpose: on a board with no lord, a clamped Priest of Titania dies, draws you two, and leaves its ability to Thranduil.

A board wipe against this deck refills the graveyard

A sweeper usually ends an Elf deck, because a board of small creatures is the whole plan. This one still loses the board, but every Elf the sweeper kills goes to the zone Thranduil reads. Recast him for seven and he comes back with the abilities of everything that died: Priest of Titania's mana, Ezuri's pump, Lathril's drain.

Better, he can live through it. Iron-Shield Elf in the graveyard gives Thranduil indestructible for a discarded card, and Underrealm Lich gives it for 4 life, so a destroy effect leaves the commander standing over a graveyard the wipe just stocked. Both tap him, so use the tap ability you wanted first. Heroic Intervention and Swan Song stop the wipe outright when you would rather keep the board.

The deck's own sweeper, Eyeblight Massacre, gives non-Elf creatures -2/-2. It clears tokens and small blockers and leaves every Elf in this list where it was, the commander included.

Green comes from the Elves, so the lands carry blue and black

Thranduil costs , one pip of each colour, but nearly everything else in the deck is green. The cheapest green comes from one-mana Elves (Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic and Fyndhorn Elves), and Elves of Deep Shadow, Urborg Elf and Paradise Druid are the mana Elves that make the other two colours. The list has 38 green sources, 24 black and 25 blue, which puts one black pip in hand by turn two 90.1% of the time on the play.

Thirty-four lands is short of the usual range, and the curve is why it holds: ten cards cost one mana, the average mana value is 2.69, and 17 cards are ramp. Two cards in the list ask you to name a creature type, and the answer is Elf both times. Secluded Courtyard's coloured mana also pays for abilities of Elf creature sources, which covers every ability Thranduil has borrowed, and Distant Melody draws a card for each Elf you control.

The core list

Thranduil and the 99 behind him. Hovering over a name shows the card, and the buttons below take the list to the deck builder or out as text.

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The infinite loop needs Devoted Druid, and the core list leaves it out

Devoted Druid's second ability puts a -1/-1 counter on itself to untap itself. In the graveyard that becomes a -1/-1 counter on Thranduil to untap Thranduil. Add Immaculate Magistrate to the same graveyard and the commander taps to put a +1/+1 counter on himself for each Elf you control, then untaps for one -1/-1 counter. With one other Elf on the battlefield every pass gains a counter. Repeat it as often as you like, switch to Marwyn's ability, and the counters become as much green mana as you want.

That is the loop most published Thranduil lists are built around, and it is why this core list runs Immaculate Magistrate and Marwyn but not the Druid. Both of those are strong Thranduil cards with no loop in sight. The Druid in that graveyard is there for one thing. A combo whose pieces are the commander plus two graveyard cards, which a single Buried Alive collects, wins early, and an early infinite makes a bracket 4 deck whatever the rest of the list looks like. The top rung below adds it.

Both halves of the loop tap Thranduil, so without haste it waits a full round after he is cast, and that round is when the table answers him. Swiftfoot Boots is what closes that window, since it gives him haste and hexproof together. The pieces themselves sit in the graveyard, out of reach of creature removal, and the answer to them is graveyard exile. An opponent who exiles the Druid in response to an untap stops the loop where it is.

Both ladders keep the graveyard plan, and only the top one loops

The core list above is the bracket 3 deck. The two blocks below move it down and up, each one recomputed as the deck it becomes, and the graveyard engine survives both moves. What changes is how many times a turn Thranduil gets to use it, and whether it loops.

Down to bracket 2 takes the price from $262.99 to $120.61 over fourteen swaps, and cutting Seedborn Muse, the only Game Changer, leaves the rung with no floor at all. The cost is the extra taps: Dionus, Elvish Archdruid goes with the Muse, and Tyvar the Bellicose takes its counters with it. Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Symbiote stay, so a good turn still has two. The loot count does not move. Four cheaper legends come in for the four that left, and one of them, Trystan, Callous Cultivator, mills three as it enters. Elvish Piper joins the graveyard pool, where it lets Thranduil put a creature from your hand onto the battlefield for . The shock lands and Castle Garenbrig become three gain lands and Exotic Orchard.

Up to bracket 4 costs $913.60 and puts the loop in. Devoted Druid joins Immaculate Magistrate and Marwyn, Buried Alive bins all three with one card, and Entomb, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Worldly Tutor find whichever piece is missing. Survival of the Fittest takes over from Tortured Existence as the discard engine, Fierce Guardianship protects Thranduil on the turn he goes off, and Walking Ballista turns unlimited mana into damage without an attack. Six Game Changers put the floor at 4, and Survival of the Fittest is $436.50 of the price by itself.

The bracket 2 list wins with Ezuri or Lathril out of the graveyard and gives the table a turn to see either coming. The core list is that deck with Seedborn Muse turning Lathril into a one-round kill. The bracket 4 list can win on the turn Buried Alive resolves, and the table should hear that before anyone shuffles.

FAQ

How does the Thranduil, the Elvenking Devoted Druid combo work?

With Devoted Druid and Immaculate Magistrate both in your graveyard, Thranduil has both abilities. He taps to put a +1/+1 counter on himself for each Elf you control, then puts a -1/-1 counter on himself to untap. With at least one other Elf on the battlefield, each pass nets a counter, so he grows without limit. Marwyn, the Nurturer in the graveyard then turns that power into as much green mana as you want. This build keeps Devoted Druid in its bracket 4 rung only.

What bracket is this Thranduil, the Elvenking deck?

Seedborn Muse is the one Game Changer in the core list, and one is enough to put it at bracket 3. The budget rung cuts it and has no floor at all. The bracket 4 rung runs six Game Changers and adds the Devoted Druid loop.

Does Thranduil, the Elvenking use abilities that name the Elf they are printed on?

Yes. The official ruling is that an activated ability naming the card it is printed on is treated as naming Thranduil instead. So Marwyn, the Nurturer adds green equal to Thranduil's power, and Devoted Druid puts its -1/-1 counter on Thranduil to untap him.

Can Thranduil, the Elvenking use more than one Elf ability in a turn?

As many as you can pay for, but every ability with the tap symbol in its cost needs him untapped, so those compete for one tap unless something untaps him. The untap effects in this list are Quirion Ranger, Wirewood Symbiote, Seedborn Muse and Dionus, Elvish Archdruid. Abilities without a tap in the cost, like the Elf pump from Ezuri, Renegade Leader, can be activated again and again in the same turn.

Can you play Thranduil, Sindarin Liege in a Thranduil, the Elvenking deck?

Yes. The legend rule only compares names, and the two cards have different ones, so both can be on the battlefield together. This list runs Thranduil, Sindarin Liege as a lord. It gives other Elves +1/+1, the commander included, and with Marwyn, the Nurturer in the graveyard that extra point of power is an extra green mana.

Do changelings count as Elves for Thranduil, the Elvenking?

Yes. Changeling works in every zone, so a changeling card in your graveyard is an Elf card and Thranduil has its activated abilities. The one in this list is Chameleon Colossus, whose pump gives a creature +X/+X equal to its own power and so doubles Thranduil.

How much does a Thranduil, the Elvenking deck cost?

Counting every card at its lowest price in paper, the budget rung is $120.61, the core list $262.99 and the bracket 4 rung $913.60. All three lists are fully priced, so none of those totals is a minimum.