Galadriel's Elven Foresight

[yeti1069]

...and here's the last of the LotR precons. I was least excited about it, as I really don't care for the voting mechanic, but I gave it a shot...and liked it even less than I thought I would. Erestor of the Council is a terrible card when most of the votes are so innocuous that everyone is willing to pick your choices in order to get some free treasure, while you get nothing. In the one game I played him, Erestor ramped everyone else turns ahead of me. I started attacking with him, hoping he'd get blocked to death, but no one wanted him gone besides me. The secret voting at least presented a chance for him to give me a benefit, but even there, the scry didn't amount to enough to offset the advantage I was giving everyone else.

The Simic Galadriel from the main set I found far more interesting, and so swapped that in as the commander.

So far, the deck feels kind of slow to get going, then tends to dump a TON of lands into play...but not have much to do with them. Scrying without card draw attached often means I'm debating between ramp or leaving something of value on top to draw into later. Games have ended in my favor with Overwhelming Stampede exclusively--there have been different game states, but that has been the finisher each time, which feels a little off-theme of dumping lands.

I feel like I'd like a little more of a control shell here, but not sure what cuts I'd make to get there. I also feel like I need better payoffs for scrying and amassing a ton of lands, as well as some more actual card draw. Would appreciate some suggestions here, as this is the least developed of the 4 decks.

Galadriel's Elven Foresight

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Galadriel of Lothlórien

Creatures

1 Arbor Elf

1 Elvish Mystic

1 Llanowar Elves

1 Wirewood Symbiote

1 Arwen Undómiel

1 Elvish Visionary

1 Elvish Warmaster

1 Paradise Druid

1 Priest of Titania

1 Realmwalker

1 Arwen, Weaver of Hope

1 Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

1 Elvish Archdruid

1 Elvish Mariner

1 Ezuri, Renegade Leader

1 Farhaven Elf

1 Legolas Greenleaf

1 Marwyn, the Nurturer

1 Reclamation Sage

1 Tireless Provisioner

1 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

1 Wood Elves

1 Galadriel, Elven-Queen

1 Rashmi, Eternities Crafter

1 Elrond of the White Council

1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid

1 Realm Seekers

Sorceries

1 Birthday Escape

1 Elven Farsight

1 Preordain

1 Scour All Possibilities

1 Genesis Wave

1 Arwen's Gift

1 Plea for Power

1 Horses of the Bruinen

1 Overwhelming Stampede

1 Raise the Palisade

1 Seeds of Renewal

Instants

1 Condescend

1 Opt

1 Rapid Hybridization

1 Swan Song

1 Growth Spiral

1 Heroic Intervention

1 Hithlain Knots

1 Reality Shift

1 Soothing of Sméagol

1 Beast Within

1 Windswift Slice

1 Galadhrim Ambush

1 Mystic Confluence

Artifacts

1 Sol Ring

1 Lightning Greaves

1 Mirror of Galadriel

1 Lothlórien Blade

Enchantments

1 Lignify

1 Sylvan Anthem

1 Sylvan Library

1 Retreat to Coralhelm

1 Asceticism

1 Song of Eärendil

Lands

1 Castle Vantress

1 Command Tower

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Flooded Grove

14 Forest

1 Hinterland Harbor

8 Island

1 Lonely Sandbar

1 Mystic Sanctuary

1 Rejuvenating Springs

1 Rivendell

1 Temple of Mystery

1 The Grey Havens

1 Tranquil Thicket

1 Vineglimmer Snarl

1 Wirewood Lodge

1 Yavimaya Coast

1 Zhalfirin Void

Approximate Total Cost:

[Phoenixlance]

Maybe you could remove the Elf synergies and focus on something similar to Simic Flash? A lot of blue's card draw allows you to scry as part of their effects (ex: Glimmer of Genius) so you would be able to hold up your ample mana for interaction, and if nothing forces your hand you can just go to town. There are threats like Prognostic Sphinx that synergize with the Galadriel too, plus if you lean into more of the flash creatures you could potentially even find use for something like Sylvan Anthem .

EDIT: Just remembered another card: Lifecrafter's Bestiary allows you to trigger Galadriel every turn while giving you to convert your extra lands into additional draw power

[yeti1069]

Maybe you could remove the Elf synergies and focus on something similar to Simic Flash? A lot of blue's card draw allows you to scry as part of their effects (ex: Glimmer of Genius) so you would be able to hold up your ample mana for interaction, and if nothing forces your hand you can just go to town. There are threats like Prognostic Sphinx that synergize with the Galadriel too, plus if you lean into more of the flash creatures you could potentially even find use for something like Sylvan Anthem .

EDIT: Just remembered another card: Lifecrafter's Bestiary allows you to trigger Galadriel every turn while giving you to convert your extra lands into additional draw power

Sylvan Anthem has been working very well with the elves. I will say that I had wanted to aim for a control deck that had a lot of incidental scrying, but I haven't committed to upgrading that much, and have kept the core of the elf deck. That said, I've found the elf pieces valuable for ongoing triggers and for finishing the game.

[darrenhabib]

I have a 65 land combo Galadriel of Lothlórien deck that's actually really busted. It uses the scry when creatures ETB (Sylvan Anthem, Elrond, Lord of Rivendell, Season of Growth, Retreat to Coralhelm) with landfall triggers that make creatures, things like Scute Swarm and Field of the Dead.
You basically go indefinitely, I guess on average I put about 25 lands into play before I finally miss, and that's 25 or more token creatures, which presents lethal.
It's super consistent as I have literally all the search cards to assemble combo within the Simic colors.

[yeti1069]

I have a 65 land combo Galadriel of Lothlórien deck that's actually really busted. It uses the scry when creatures ETB (Sylvan Anthem, Elrond, Lord of Rivendell, Season of Growth, Retreat to Coralhelm) with landfall triggers that make creatures, things like Scute Swarm and Field of the Dead.
You basically go indefinitely, I guess on average I put about 25 lands into play before I finally miss, and that's 25 or more token creatures, which presents lethal.
It's super consistent as I have literally all the search cards to assemble combo within the Simic colors.

That sounds whacky!

I've had a few turns where I was able to drop 4-6 lands off of things like Coralhelm and the few lands that ETB scry.

I recently included Amulet of Vigor and that has been very good.

[yeti1069]

I just had a game where I had 19 lands out on turn 6 or 7!

[yeti1069]

Windswift Slice is hilarious with any of the creature ETB = scry cards. I just had Realm Seekers at 25/25 fight an 8/8 at last EOT to make 17 tokens, scry 1, 17 times, putting 5 (an admittedly paltry number) of lands on the field, but also scryed down to Elvish Warmaster. On my turn, I had 15 mana available after casting the Warmaster, so I could swing out, buff everything to +4/+4 and death touch, while still holding up a Swan Song. This was...turn 6 or 7, I think.

[yeti1069]

Having another game where the scry=ramp plan is on steroids! At 13 lands on turn 5!

Then someone cast Over the Top, and although I ended up drawing half my deck from the various triggers, it just gave another player their combo win. Definitely need more counter spells in here.

[yeti1069]

So, I should probably include Scute Swarm in here, since it has the potential to put every land in the deck onto the field with Galadriel + any creature ETB=scry card, while making an insane number of Scutes.

• Elrond, Lord of Rivendell
• Season of Growth
• Sylvan Anthem
• Retreat to Coralhelm

I'm crashing MTG Arena right now with Elrond, Galadriel, and Scute. I didn't realize til I had around 290 Scutes that I should probably stop.

[yeti1069]

I really need some more card draw in the deck, and in particular feel like I need card draw on non-creature permanents--something I can put on the field, and then sink mana into when needed--I feel like too often, I'm scrying and putting valuable (but not worth waiting a turn cycle for) cards on bottom to keep hitting lands, then running out of stuff to spend mana on. Lost Isle Calling could maybe come back in--I'm scrying more now that I had originally.

I also probably need more counter spells. Just played a game where I built a huge board with Elrond and Avenger of Zendikar, who made 10 plants, then scryed 6 lands into play, to have 10 6/7s...only to have the board wiped before my turn. Built up a bit again, then cast Seasons Growth to return Avenger, Elrond, and some other stuff to hand, and made 19 4/5 plants! Board wipe. Got Uro, cast and escaped him, drew some cards, played out some small creatures and held onto a Finale of Devastation for the next turn (with 22 lands)...board wipe.

[yeti1069]

Well, the deck can be clunky, and sometimes it can be ridiculous.

Just had a game with Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Galadriel, Elvish Mariner, Retreat to Coralhelm, and Season of Growth in play. Dropped Avenger of Zendikar with 12 lands out already, and proceeded to scry through my entire deck, dropping 14 more lands into play, drawing a bunch of cards, and gaining as much life, while also tapping down everyone's creatures so I could attack freely with my goaded team. In all that, I'd only managed to draw a single untapped blue land for my land drop, which was key in order to keep up mana for Swan Song. That ended up being bigger than I'd hoped, as it averted an Insurrection.

It was definitely annoying for everyone to have to sit through my stack of 24 scry triggers:
1. Scry
2. Reveal - Not a land, go to 1, otherwise continue
3. Land drop
4. Trigger Tatyova - draw a card and gain a life after next missed land drop
5. Trigger Retreat - add 1 to scry stack). Return to 1

Every land increases the stack, and a few of the lands also have a scry trigger, increasing it further. All told, I think I ended up with over 40 scry triggers.

The life gain ended up being very valuable as well, since one player was running Davros, Dalek Creator, got out The Master, Multiplied and some other shenanigans, which ultimately resulted in 9 creatures (due to everything having myriad there were three 4/3s, three 3/3s, one 2/2, a 3/4, and something else) going at everyone, AND, everything had Afflict 9 (really afflict 3 three times). I was able to survive the set that came my way.

The Avenger plants finished the table off.