Weekly Sale Commander: Darkest Night!

Posted on July 14, 2025

Hi folks! Welcome to the Weekly Sale Column! This column will be aimed at showing you some cards on sale that could give you some new ideas for your lists. They will *usually* be Commander lists in Bracket 3 as well so you'll be able to play these in any Bracket 3 (or higher) pods. If you want to play in lower pods, just swap out the Game Changers for other choices and/or add more along with some other competitive combos if you want to compete with Bracket 4 and 5 pods! Remember that the weekly sale ends on Sunday night at 11:59 PM EST, so you have until then to get your cards ordered!

Today we bring you a Commander list based on this week's Darkest Night sale! This week's list features the quintessential Elves leader, Lathril, Blade of the Elves. Fun fact, did you know Lathril is the #8 most popular Commander on EDHREC (at the time of writing)? I don't normally like to make lists based on the super popular commanders, but I actually didn't have an Elves list and I used to enjoy Elves in Legacy, at least back before Orcish Bowmasters killed decks with X/1's, so here we go!

Lathril, Blade of the Elves... or not?

Elves have many different commander options, three of which are in this list! I went with Lathril just to try out a classic Commander Elves list, but you could also go with Abomination of Llanowar and Harald, King of Skemfar. All three are Golgari Elves with Elves Matters abilities, so the slot is interchangeable and up to personal preference!

Lathril is a 4-drop 2/3 with Menace, which is a relevant keyword for it's next trigger. When Lathril connects with a player, you create 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens equal to the damage dealt. Lathril's final activated ability also ties into the triggered ability, which has you tap Lathril and ten other Elves you control to hit each player for 10 and gain you 10.

Abomination of Llanowar is this terrifying-looking amalgamation of Elves, whose as big and as strong as the number of Elves you control (including itself) plus the number of Elves in your yard. Basically, it gets stronger with all the living and dead Elves that currently exist. Truly an Abomination!

Harald, one of many kings in the world of Magic, helps us find other Elves. When he enters, you get to find an Elf, Warrior, or Tyvar (we play one Tyvar!) card from them and put it in your hand. Like all good kings, he comes with a loyal court, and these Elves are no different.

I definitely like Lathril here, but feel free to choose something different! Let's get into some selections from the weekly sale; there are some spicy options that I really like:

Who knew there were so many Elves?!?

Magic has printed some of the most efficient mana dorks as elves. Specifically in green, we get Arbor Elf, Elvish Mystic, and Fyndhorn Elves, all in this sale (yes, we also play Llanowar Elves, no stress needed). Among other ramp options include Llanowar Loamspeaker, Llanowar Visionary, and Wood Elves. These help us get to mana needed to cast a few of our bigger spells, like Harvester of Souls and Ghalta, Primal Hunger.

We also have cards like Heirloom Blade, Herald's Horn, Parallel Lives, and Realmwalker, all which are options that encourage us to fill our board by giving us more Elves! Heirloom Blade pairs nicely with Lathril, since the combat damage that Lathril does determines how many tokens we get, and since Realmwalker is a Changeling, it's also an Elf! Herald's Horn helps make our Elves cheaper while also potentially drawing us an Elf each turn, so that's an auto-include here. Parallel Lives can sometimes put a target on your head, but it works really well with Lathril because doubling your Elves means 10-ing everyone at the table faster! Growing Rites of Itlimoc doubles as both an early game method to find us another creature, whether it be something cheap to help trigger the second ability or something expensive that the backside, Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun (the poor man's Gaea's Cradle) can cast. This sale also includes some great tutors for our colors, namely Demonic Tutor, Chord of Calling, and Dark Petition, all great options of tutors that can find whatever we need in any given situation.

Finally, this sale also includes some nice removal that is almost needed in a deck that revolves around creatures. Krosan Grip is an (almost) uncounterable answer for a single Artifact or Enchantment. Kenrith's Transformation replaces itself while also dealing with pesky creatures; I especially enjoy seeing this on my all of my playgroup's Eldrazi Titans (looking at you, Ulamog!). Hero's Downfall helps get rid of a nuisance creature or planeswalker that you're unable to deal with, and Scavenging Ooze helps you deal with your opponent's graveyard with all your extra mana you'll have from your other Elves, assuming you haven't drawn Bojuka Bog yet.

Round us out, Tyvar!

To finish out, we'll add some of the Elves all-stars, like Elvish Archdruid, Marwyn, the Nurturer, and Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen. We'll also add Shaman of the Pack, one of the original cards that made Golgari Elves a thing, since it can flat out end one of your opponents with the right board state. Tyvar Kell is a planeswalker that lets our Elves cast our Black spells and can pack the board with more tokens. If your opponents are brave enough to let you get the Emblem, you're probably going to cast half your deck before you run out of steam, since all the Elves you cast draw extra cards and can tap for mana (albeit Black mana for non-mana dorks).

We also added Ezuri, Renegade Leader and Craterhoof Behemoth, because we need ways to win that aren't just our Commander! Ezuri is a good mana sink for all that extra mana we'll have and if you've ever been at the receiving end of a Craterhoof, then you know that Elves is the perfect shell for it.

To round out this deck in Bracket 3, we've added ways to find those alternate win conditions with Worldly Tutor and Natural Order. Those, along with Demonic Tutor from the sale, give us fantastic and consistent ways to accomplish our goals (and by goals, I mean going wide and letting Lathril go Brrr). As always, if you don't want to jump into Bracket 3, there are so many other options you can include in those slots; I'm just partial to some good old-fashioned consistency.

Here's the list below, Lathril demands your glory!