Lathril Elves. Grow the team. Count to ten.
Fill the battlefield with Elves. Build your mana, grow the team, and put Lathril to work.
At the table
Pod notes →- Keep
- Look for two or three lands, a green source, an early mana Elf, and a card that draws cards or makes tokens. Make sure you can find black mana for Lathril too. Send back hands with too few lands or only expensive finishers.
- Develop
- Play a green source and a mana Elf. Add a mana engine like Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid. Cast Beast Whisperer before your later creatures when you can, so those spells draw cards.
- Finish
- With an untapped Lathril and ten other untapped Elves, use her ability to make every opponent lose 10 life. Or use Coat of Arms or End-Raze Forerunners for a big attack. Shaman of the Pack and Skemfar Shadowsage can finish players who are already low on life.
- Watch out
- Lathril taps for the tap-symbol part of her ability. You still need ten other untapped Elves. Do not count her twice.
Fill the battlefield with Elves. When Lathril hits a player, she makes a 1/1 Elf Warrior token for each point of combat damage she deals. Your big move needs Lathril plus ten other untapped Elves. Tap all eleven: each opponent loses 10 life, and you gain 10 life total. You can also win with a big team attack!
The plan
Grow the team. Count to ten. Fill the battlefield with Elves. When Lathril hits a player, she makes a 1/1 Elf Warrior token for each point of combat damage she deals. Your big move needs Lathril plus ten other untapped Elves. Tap all eleven: each opponent loses 10 life, and you gain 10 life total. You can also win with a big team attack!
Opening hands
Turn by turn
Play a green source and a mana Elf. Add a mana engine like Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid. Cast Beast Whisperer before your later creatures when you can, so those spells draw cards.
Cast Lathril and look for a safe attack on a later turn. Her menace means one creature cannot block her alone. Elvish Promenade and Elven Ambush make a token for every Elf you control. Keep growing the team.
With an untapped Lathril and ten other untapped Elves, use her ability to make every opponent lose 10 life. Or use Coat of Arms or End-Raze Forerunners for a big attack. Shaman of the Pack and Skemfar Shadowsage can finish players who are already low on life.
Team-ups to remember
Lathril + ten other Elves
Tap Lathril and ten other untapped Elves. Each opponent loses 10, and you gain 10 total. New Elf tokens can help pay the ten-Elf part right away. Lathril herself needs to be ready to use her tap ability.
Elvish Promenade or Elven Ambush
Count your Elves, then make that many 1/1 Elf Warrior tokens. Ambush is an instant: you can grow your team at the end of the turn before yours.
Beast Whisperer + creature spells
Whisperer draws a card whenever you cast a creature spell. Play it before the rest of your creatures when you have enough mana.
Skullclamp + small tokens
Equip an unboosted 1/1 token for {1}. Skullclamp gives it +1/-1, so it dies and you draw two cards. Check its toughness first: Elf bonuses can keep it alive.
Coat of Arms + a wide board
Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature sharing at least one type with it. Ten Elves give each other +9/+9. Opposing creatures get bonuses too, so count both sides before casting it.
End-Raze Forerunners
Its entry ability gives your other creatures +2/+2, vigilance and trample for the turn. Lathril can attack without tapping that turn, then use her drain ability if she survives and ten other Elves are still untapped.
Watch out for
Eleven bodies, not ten. Lathril taps for the tap-symbol part of her ability. You still need ten other untapped Elves. Do not count her twice.
Mana or drain?. A tapped Elf cannot help pay Lathril’s cost. Pick the ten Elves you will use before tapping your mana creatures. Keep your best mana engines free when you can.
Keep a rebuild ready. A board wipe can erase your Elf count. Save Heroic Intervention against destruction, or Wrap in Vigor when regeneration works. Neither saves creatures from exile or zero toughness.
Read both sides of the table. Coat of Arms helps opponents too. Patriarch’s Bidding returns creatures for every player, and every chosen type counts. Check their battlefields and graveyards before using either card.
After a board wipe
After a wipe, restart with mana Elves and token makers. Return Upon the Tide brings back a creature and adds two Elf tokens if it is an Elf. Patriarch’s Bidding can bring your Elves back together, but it also helps the other players.
Deep Dive
The important details behind counting Elves, tapping creatures and rebuilding.
Comprehensive Rules effective September 25, 2026.
Lathril needs eleven untapped creatures
The activation cost has two separate parts: tap Lathril, and tap ten untapped Elves you control. One creature cannot pay both. Lathril must be able to activate an ability with the tap symbol; the other ten Elves can be newly created because their part of the cost is written out rather than using their own tap symbols.
CR 302.6
Drain when you have priority
Lathril’s activated ability has no sorcery-speed restriction. You can activate it on another player’s turn or in response to a wipe if you can pay the costs. Activating near the end of the turn before yours lets those creatures untap on your turn. Opponents still get to respond to the ability.
CR 117.1b
Vigilance changes the attack plan
Attacking normally taps Lathril, which prevents using her tap ability afterward without untapping her. End-Raze Forerunners can give her vigilance for the turn. Attacking then does not tap her; if she survives and you have ten other untapped Elves, she can drain after combat.
CR 702.20b
Skullclamp checks actual toughness
Skullclamp gives +1/-1. A plain 1/1 becomes 2/0 and goes to the graveyard as a state-based action, triggering the two-card draw. A lord or Coat of Arms may raise its toughness enough to survive. Indestructible and regeneration cannot save a creature with zero toughness.
CR 704.5f
Count the right Elves for mana
Priest of Titania counts all Elves on the battlefield, including opponents’ Elves. Elvish Archdruid counts only Elves you control. Neither count is limited to untapped Elves.
Token engines trigger differently
Lys Alana Huntmaster triggers when you cast an Elf spell. Elvish Warmaster triggers when one or more other Elves enter under your control, but only once each turn. Wolverine Riders makes a token at the beginning of every upkeep, including opponents’ upkeeps.
Regeneration is a shield against destruction
Wrap in Vigor sets up a regeneration shield for each creature you control. When a shield replaces destruction, remove all damage from that creature, tap it and remove it from combat if needed. Exile, sacrifice, zero toughness and effects saying a creature cannot be regenerated get around this protection.
CR 701.19a · CR 701.19c · CR 701.21a · CR 704.5f
Read the verified Comprehensive Rules snapshot.
Inside the deck
100 cards · 37 lands · 0 Game Changers. Average mana value 3.29, excluding lands and the commander.
Mana curve
| Card type | Count |
|---|---|
| Commander | 1 |
| Creatures | 38 |
| Artifacts | 4 |
| Enchantments | 5 |
| Instants | 8 |
| Sorceries | 7 |
| Lands | 37 |