Darkheart of the Deep Woods: Standard Maralen Landfall

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

In Lorwyn Eclipsed, Maralen, Fae Ascendant is a card with great charm that is hard to make work in Standard. Her requirements are very clear: the player needs to put many creatures of the matching types (Elf / Faerie) onto the battlefield quickly and in a short window, so as to trigger her ability endlessly. But if you rely only on casting creatures to trigger it, you quickly hit the bottleneck of cards in hand or mana, and the effect is quite limited.
This time, The Hobbit introduces landfall effects that make Elf tokens, making an instant swarm possible. Led by the Elf king of Mirkwood, Thranduil, Sindarin Liege, how far can Maralen go?

Deck Breakdown

Without further ado, let’s see what the list looks like.

Decklist

• Strategic Core: Maralen, Fae Ascendant; Thranduil, Sindarin Liege; Down in the Valley

Maralen, Fae Ascendant: The theme card. It uses the Elf tokens made by landfall to trigger her ability frequently, exiling large amounts of the opponent’s library, and in certain matchups it can mill the opponent out directly. The body is a 4/5 flier, so when the ground is stalled she can also punch the opponent out.

Thranduil, Sindarin Liege: The Elf king of Mirkwood, who passively gives all your Elves +1/+1 and makes an Elf token on landfall. When you are short on lands in hand, you can first cast the Adventure to filter out lands, making him a stable tactical hub.

Down in the Valley: Another key card that makes Elves off landfall. The three-mana Saga fetches a basic land into hand when it enters, ensuring a smooth four-mana curve; chapter II activates landfall Elf-making, and chapters III and IV give your whole Elf team vigilance and a small pump, an excellent on-theme lubricant.

• Knockout Plan: Earthbender Ascension, Thranduil’s Company, Trystan’s Command

Earthbender Ascension: A super strong landfall enchantment. It accelerates and earthbends a land when it enters, and once it collects four counters it starts putting a +1/+1 counter and trample on a target creature, providing the punch-through that is most crucial for winning.

Thranduil’s Company: An extremely efficient card for growing bodies. On landfall it gives a target creature two +1/+1 counters and vigilance, and if you control other Elves it can also let you play one more land to speed up triggering landfall. But it has no staying power itself and drawing multiples does no good, so only two are included.

Trystan’s Command: A kindred spell of the Elf type. Although the cost is somewhat clunky, it is no problem at all in a landfall deck with plenty of mana; you can use Dawn-Blessed Pennant to recur it repeatedly to create card advantage, and when the board is full it can give the whole team +3/+3 in one shot to knock the opponent out.

• Logistics Supplies: Llanowar Elves, Aftermath Analyst, Dawn-Blessed Pennant, Mind Into Matter

Llanowar Elves: The classic one-mana accelerant, an old card with great effect. Early on it helps jump to three mana on turn two, and in the mid to late game it can help trigger a tribal enter effect once.

Aftermath Analyst: A two-mana curve-filler creature that in the mid to late game can be sacrificed for a Splendid Reclamation, pulling a large number of lands back from the graveyard at once for an explosive landfall.

Dawn-Blessed Pennant: A key stabilizing card. It gains life as Elves frequently enter, holding off the opponent’s early pressure; in the mid to late game it is sacrificed to recover an Elf card, and paired with Trystan’s Command it can earn resources repeatedly.

Mind Into Matter: An X-cost sorcery version of Growth Spiral; early it provides acceleration, and in the mid to late game when mana is plentiful it draws a big pile to refill resources and then drops a powerful permanent onto the battlefield. If you don’t mind losing card advantage, casting it with X=0 on turn two to accelerate into a land and jump to four mana is also a way to seize tempo.

• Access Tunnel: Fabled Passage, Elven Passage

The indispensable land-fetching lands for a landfall deck. Besides the existing Fabled Passage, this set adds an Elf-specific Elven Passage, letting you fix colors smoothly and happily trigger landfall.

Gameplay Demo

Although it has the flaw of an empty early defense, not relying on creatures for acceleration also means the opponent has a hard time disrupting your tempo. On top of that, this deck’s snowball actually rolls surprisingly fast: it can go wide, it can pump brutally, and when conditions allow it can even mill the opponent out directly, and its rebuild ability is quite good too. As long as you don’t frequently run into extreme aggro, you can have just as much fun even at Mythic rank on MTGA.

Conclusion

For an Elf tribal theme, this deck’s makeup is very unconventional, and even I, the deck’s author, couldn’t help wondering, “I only meant to casually throw together an Elf tribal deck for fun, so why did it turn out like this?”
Perhaps this is what they call “Unexpected Results” when building a deck. I wonder if you, dear readers, are satisfied with this peculiar Elf deck?