Miara, Thorn of the Glade // Numa, Joraga Chieftain - The Age of the Dark Elves
Approximate Total Cost:
Any strategy that looks to go wide with creatures is always susceptible to the inevitable board wipe, completely blowing you out.
With Miara, Thorn of the Glade you have a way to claw back that resource disadvantage by spending mana and life to draw cards for each of those creatures. This is a pretty incredible boon.
This deck is all about making sure you have the mana to..well do everything. Between casting your spells, wanting to leave mana up for Miara draw ability and also to possible sink mana into Numa, Joraga Chieftain ability to distribute +1/+1 counters, you'll want an extraordinary amount of mana. Well luckily Elves are all about making mana.
There are some Elves that tap for mana equal to the power of that creature with Gyre Sage, Marwyn, the Nurturer, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Viridian Joiner.
With Numa ability to put +1/+1 counters on your Elves you can look to invest them onto these creatures so that you can tap them for more mana each turn.
You have to spend basically for each +1/+1 counter you want. Because you can tap these creatures for more mana that turn the investment is worth it as you can then think of it as more like spending for each counter.
There are Elves that give stats bonuses and these can be used to leverage for more mana with the above mentioned creatures as well as just overrunning opponents with beat-downs.
Immaculate Magistrate and Timberwatch Elf give +X/+X for each Elf you have, so you can tap your mana equal to power for ridiculous amounts once you flood the board.
Allosaurus Shepherd and Ezuri, Renegade Leader can pump mana into making your Elves huge as well. Easy finishers for turning creatures sideways.
Joraga Warcaller is perfect with Numa as you can target it for the +1/+1 counters to give all your Elves the big stats bonuses.
Some tap for mana equal to the number Elves in play, so these will also allow you to get large amounts of mana once you go wide with Elvish Archdruid, Priest of Titania, Wirewood Channeler.
There are ways of untapping these creatures with Quirion Ranger, Wirewood Symbiote, Wirewood Lodge, Tyvar Kell.
There are some ways to generate Elf tokens with Lys Alana Huntmaster, Prowess of the Fair, Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury, Tyvar Kell.
As they are Elves you can get the draw off them with Miara for card advantages if they die.
Even though a lot of the Elves tap for mana, Rishkar, Peema Renegade means that you can look for non mana producing creatures to also tap for mana.
This is where Numa is perfect for distributing +1/+1 among all your non mana producing creatures.
Evolution Sage allows you to proliferate your counters, so distributing +1/+1 among your creatures can be great here.
Birchlore Rangers and Heritage Druid is another way to get mana off Elves that might not tap for mana or a way to get around summoning sickness in way.
With so much mana at your disposal you need to draw cards to make sure you build up your board.
Beast Whisperer, Glimpse of Nature, Guardian Project, Regal Force, The Great Henge, Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury, Shamanic Revelation, Tyvar Kell, Pact of the Serpent all draw you a card for each creature you cast or for each creature on the battlefield.
With Miara draw ability you are fine with your Elves dying at various stages and in fact you can use Vampiric Rites or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician to do this on purpose to dig deeper for more cards.
Skemfar Avenger is a backup to dies triggers and doesn't cost investing mana.
Because you get draw when your Elves die part of the plan is to actually draw into some big reanimation spells in Living Death and Patriarch's Bidding and purposefully kill your own creatures.
Serpent's Soul-Jar is another way to recycle your Elves and look to get lost of value.
Agadeem's Awakening can be used to a lesser extend like this.
Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar are perfect for sacrificing your Elves and getting the mana to pay for the for Miara.
Attrition is a way to get rid of troublesome non black creatures.
Grim Backwoods and Phyrexian Tower are lands that you can sacrifice creatures to get advantages when you might want the draw as well.
You do lose life if you spend the mana on Miara draw so there are some life gain cards with Wellwisher to make sure you stay safe.
There are some Elves that you sacrifice to get removal of various kinds and this is great with Miara to get the draw.
Elvish Lyrist, Elvish Scrapper, Viridian Zealot.
Lys Alana Scarblade is a nifty creature killer.
You can bounce Elves back to hand with Wirewood Symbiote and this works great with ETB triggers.
Elvish Visionary and Multani's Acolyte will draw you a card each time you cast them.
Reclamation Sage for the artifact or enchantment removal.
Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx are major source of mana potentially and you can use Elvish Reclaimer to get these.
Deserted Temple can untap these and even Wirewood Lodge when you get the big mana producing Elves going.
Zacama
