Elven Council precon upgrade guide

Galadriel only votes on a turn when another Elf has already arrived, and Elven Council has four cards that make an Elf token at all. Nine swaps for $22.86 give her a source of Elves that doesn't wait on the next draw.

The trigger is checked as the beginning of combat starts. If no other Elf entered under your control by then, nobody votes, and an Elf that arrives during the beginning of combat step is too late. Whatever else this deck does, it has to put an Elf down in your first main phase on the turns you want the card.

The box leaves that to the draw. Nineteen of the other 99 cards are Elf creatures, which puts at least one of them in your first ten cards (turn four on the play) 89.4% of the time. Four cards make Elf tokens at all: Elvish Warmaster, Sylvan Offering, Windswift Slice and Galadhrim Ambush. Warmaster only makes one after another Elf has arrived. Windswift Slice pays only when the damage is more than lethal. Galadhrim Ambush counts attacking creatures, so it makes nothing before combat and arrives too late to wake her on your own turn. Sylvan Offering is the only one that works on demand, and it gives an opponent the same tokens.

The swaps go after that. Imperious Perfect and Lys Alana Huntmaster make Elves on their own, Elvish Promenade makes a handful at once, and the mana changes make the green they ask for easier to find. With the four new Elf creatures, 23 of the 99 are Elf creatures and the first-ten-cards figure rises to 93.9%.

What are the best Elven Council upgrades?

The first four decide how often Galadriel votes, and the rest fix the answers and the mana. Prices are the cheapest paper printing in October 2026.

1. Imperious Perfect ($0.48). Other Elves get +1/+1, and {G}, {T} makes a 1/1 Elf Warrior. Use it in your first main phase from the turn after it arrives and Galadriel has her Elf every turn it survives.
2. Lys Alana Huntmaster ($0.89). Casting an Elf spell makes a token first, so each Elf you cast puts two Elves down.
3. Elvish Promenade ($8.36). One 1/1 Elf Warrior for each Elf you control, in one sorcery.
4. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen ($0.35). The third Elf lord in the deck, and the one with reach.
5. Pongify ($2.22). Kills any creature for {U} at instant speed. Its owner gets a 3/3 Ape, so it answers a single threat and not a board.
6. Llanowar Elves ($0.22). A turn-one Elf that taps for {G}.
7. Breeding Pool ($8.60). A Forest Island that comes in untapped for 2 life.
8. Botanical Sanctum ($1.42). Untapped while you control two or fewer other lands.
9. Yavimaya Coast ($0.32). Taps for {C} for free, or for {G} or {U} at 1 damage.

The nine cards that make room are named under the cuts, and the whole hundred is at the bottom.

An Elf before combat, on purpose

Imperious Perfect can't tap the turn it arrives, so its first token comes on the turn after. From then on the play is {G} in your first main phase, before you move to combat. Making the token in the beginning of combat step does nothing for her, and neither does making it on an opponent's turn.

Lys Alana Huntmaster is the cheaper insurance. Her trigger resolves before the Elf spell that caused it, so each Elf you cast brings a token in ahead of it, and the token stays even if that spell is countered. Elvish Promenade is itself an Elf spell, so she adds a token on top of its tokens. The Promenade scales with the board: with four Elves out it makes four more, and all of them arrive together.

Elvish Archdruid is already in the box. Add Imperious Perfect and Dwynen and three cards each give other Elves +1/+1, so a fresh Elf Warrior token is a 4/4. Dwynen also gains you 1 life for each attacking Elf when it attacks.

Llanowar Elves replaces a sorcery and arrives as a body. Elves with mana value three or less go from 14 to 16, so more of the deck can start the chain early.

Three tapped lands and six spells go

Lonely Sandbar and Tranquil Thicket each make one colour and enter tapped, and Woodland Stream is a tapped dual. Sandbar and Thicket can cycle for a card late, which is the one thing I'm giving up. Breeding Pool, Botanical Sanctum and Yavimaya Coast replace them, and always-tapped lands fall from four to one. Thornwood Falls stays as that one. Breeding Pool is also a Forest, so Arbor Elf can untap it and Wood Elves can fetch it, and it still enters untapped for 2 life. It also counts as the Forest or Island that Hinterland Harbor and Vineglimmer Snarl look for.

Wose Pathfinder is the only mana creature in the box that isn't an Elf, so it makes mana and wakes nobody. Rampant Growth is the weakest ramp spell in the box: one tapped land and no body. Cultivate finds two lands for a mana more, and Farhaven Elf and Wood Elves fetch a land and arrive as Elves that wake Galadriel.

Colossal Whale costs {5}{U}{U} in a deck with 11 Islands, and its exile happens only when it attacks, so it does nothing the turn it arrives. Learn from the Past is four mana to draw one card, and the shuffle only matters when an opponent is leaning on their graveyard. Opt and Preordain draw for one mana. Whispersilk Cloak makes one creature unblockable with shroud, and Lightning Greaves already covers Galadriel for no equip cost.

Sail into the West lets every player discard their hand and draw seven if embark wins or the vote ties, and each opponent gets that choice too. Two votes against two is a tie, so in a four-player game I'd be handing the table a refill I can't veto.

Both sides of the vote pay you

Votes go around the table in turn order, you first, and everyone sees what has been cast. Nobody can abstain. Dominion needs more votes than guidance, and a tie counts as guidance. The two results are the Ring tempting you with a +1/+1 counter on your Ring-bearer, or a card. The opponents can push the result either way, but not toward nothing.

The box is already set up to cash the vote twice. Erestor of the Council triggers whenever players finish voting, whatever the vote was about. It draws you a card each time, gives a Treasure to every opponent who voted the way you did and scries you once for every opponent who voted the other way. Model of Unity lets you and each opponent who voted with you scry 2. Five other cards call a vote: Trap the Trespassers, Círdan the Shipwright, Elrond of the White Council, Plea for Power and Travel Through Caradhras. Sail into the West was a sixth, and it leaves for the reason below.

Four expensive cards and one equipment that stay

Travel Through Caradhras looks like a six-mana sorcery to cut. Each player votes, and every Redhorn Pass vote fetches a basic land for you while every Mines of Moria vote returns a card from your graveyard to your hand. Opponents' votes pay you too, so in a four-player game it's four pieces of value for one spell, and the card exiles itself afterwards.

Seeds of Renewal has undaunted, which makes it {1} cheaper per opponent. In a four-player game that is four mana for two cards back from the graveyard. Its mana value stays at 7 whatever you pay, and Travel Through Caradhras is a 6. That matters because Radagast and Gandalf both trigger on casting a spell with mana value 5 or greater, and 15 cards in the deck qualify. Radagast makes a 3/3 Beast or a 2/2 flying Bird each time, and Gandalf draws you a card or copies the spell, depending on what the opponents reveal.

Mirkwood Elk isn't an Elf, but it returns an Elf card to your hand whenever it enters or attacks, and replaying that card wakes Galadriel. Hornet Queen isn't an Elf either, and none of its four Insect tokens will wake her. It stays as the deck's defence in the air, with five flying deathtouch bodies. Lothlórien Blade is a single-creature equipment in a go-wide deck, and it stays because it is the box's repeatable one-way damage: the equipped creature deals damage equal to its power to a creature each time it attacks, and Equip Elf costs {2}.

Name Elf, and four of your own creatures go home

Raise the Palisade is the one card in the deck that makes you choose a creature type. Naming Elf returns every creature that isn't an Elf to its owner's hand. After the swaps that sends home Gandalf, Radagast, Mirkwood Elk and Hornet Queen from your side, and a token goes home by ceasing to exist, so Hornet Queen's Insects would be gone, and so would any Beast or Bird Radagast made. Noble would leave six of your 28 creatures standing. Elf leaves 24, and it also leaves any Elf an opponent controls, including the ones Sylvan Offering gives them.

What changed

Average mana value falls from 3.30 to 3.21, and cards at five mana or more go from 16 to 15. Ramp goes from 13 to 12 and draw from 15 to 14. Creatures rise from 26 to 28, with Elves going from 20 to 24 counting Galadriel.

The mana is the quieter change. Green sources rise from 32 to 33, and the odds of two of them by turn three go from 85.5% to 86.9%, even though Dwynen and Lys Alana Huntmaster add two more cards that want {G}{G}. Blue stays at 26 sources. Three cards want {U}{U} by turn five, Devastation Tide, Lórien Revealed and Mystic Confluence, and the 84.4% chance of having them didn't move. I left it, because three cards don't justify more blue sources.

Four good cards didn't make it. Cyclonic Rift ($29.75) is a Game Changer. Ezuri, Renegade Leader ($14.31) makes Elves +3/+3 with trample for {2}{G}{G}{G}, and Overwhelming Stampede and Elvish Warmaster already cover that job here. Priest of Titania ($1.54) and Marwyn, the Nurturer ($5.67) are the next Elves to buy, but ramp already sits at the top of its range.

The nine adds come to $22.86. Breeding Pool is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its $8.60 may fall. None of the nine is a Game Changer, and the deck keeps its Bracket 1 floor.

The upgraded decklist

The full 100 is below with the nine swaps made. Hover any name to see the card, its price and where to buy it.

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“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

FAQ

How do I make Galadriel vote on every turn?

Get another Elf onto the battlefield before combat starts. Imperious Perfect's {G} token is the repeatable way, from the turn after it arrives, and with Lys Alana Huntmaster out every Elf spell you cast brings a token ahead of it. An Elf that enters during the beginning of combat step is too late.

Does Hornet Queen help Galadriel?

No. Its four tokens are Insects, so they aren't Elves and don't wake her. Casting it does trigger Radagast and Gandalf, because its mana value is 7.

What if the table votes against me?

No result costs you anything. Guidance and a tie both draw you a card, and dominion tempts you with the Ring and puts a +1/+1 counter on your Ring-bearer. Opponents pick which reward you get, not whether you get one.

How much do the Elven Council upgrades cost?

The nine swaps cost $22.86 at the cheapest paper printings in October 2026. Breeding Pool is $8.60 of that and Elvish Promenade $8.36. Breeding Pool is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its price may fall.

Should I add Cyclonic Rift to Elven Council?

It's the best blue card I left out, at $29.75, but it's a Game Changer. The box has none, and one is enough to put the deck at Bracket 3. Pongify is the one-mana answer I chose instead.

Which creature type should Raise the Palisade name?

Elf. After the swaps 24 of the deck's 28 creatures are Elves, so naming Elf sends home only your Gandalf, Radagast, Mirkwood Elk and Hornet Queen along with every opponent creature that isn't an Elf.