Savaen Elves MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Elf
Released	1994-08-01
Set symbol
Set name	The Dark
Set code	DRK
Power	1
Toughness	1
Number	84
Frame	1993
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Ron Spencer

Key Takeaways

Grants card advantage and enables strategic plays by drawing extra cards and synergizing with other elves or forests.
Essential for green-based decks, Savaen Elves accelerate resources, allowing earlier casting of impactful spells.
Despite its benefits, it presents challenges like specific mana costs and potential dilution of hand resources.

Text of card

o Go G, oc T: Target enchant land is destroyed.

"Purity of magic can only come from purity of the land. How can a meal nourish if the ingredients are spoiled?" —Sidaine of Savaen

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Savaen Elves card excels in providing players with card advantage by offering the potential to draw additional cards through its synergistic abilities with other elves or forest-related spells. This aspect ensures that you have a well-supplied hand throughout the game, enabling more strategic plays and responses to your opponent’s moves.

Resource Acceleration: This MTG card facilitates resource acceleration by generating an abundance of mana when paired with abilities that untap lands or other elves. It’s an invaluable asset for casting powerful spells ahead of schedule, establishing a dominant position on the battlefield.

Instant Speed: Being able to act at instant speed, the Savaen Elves can offer surprise blocks or sneak in effects during your opponent’s turn. This flexibility allows for reactive gameplay, keeping opponents guessing and providing you with the upper hand during critical phases of the game.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Savaen Elves come with the condition that you must discard a card to activate certain abilities. This demand might force players to deplete valuable hand resources, potentially setting back their game strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: Requiring a precise blend of mana to cast, Savaen Elves can present a challenge in multicolored decks that may struggle to produce the exact mana types quickly, potentially slowing down the deck’s pace.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Deploying Savaen Elves requires a considerable mana investment. When you match its cost against other creatures in the same mana range, the Elves might fall short in terms of impact and versatility, leading some players to opt for alternatives with more robust effects or lower casting requirements.

Reasons to Include Savaen Elves in Your Collection

Versatility: Savaen Elves serve as both mana generators and essential units for elf-centric decks. Their ability to tap for green mana makes them a flexible addition to any green-based deck, enhancing its ability to cast spells ahead of the curve.

Combo Potential: As a core element of elf synergies, these elves can lead to explosive plays when combined with other elf tribal cards that benefit from having multiple elves in play, potentially unlocking powerful chains of abilities.

Meta-Relevance: Given their place in the ecosystem of current strategies, where speed and efficient creature plays can dominate, Savaen Elves help establish an early board presence. This makes them particularly relevant in formats where elves are a prominent archetype.

How to Beat

Savaen Elves may come across as a straightforward card, but there’s more to it than meets the eye for adept MTG players. With its potential to bolster your board with a durable elf creature, it can be seen as a strong play early in the game. However, if you’re strategizing to counter this elvish force, it’s essential to keep a few tactics up your sleeve. Targeted removal spells are your primary weapon to address this threat as they can nip the problem in the bud before the elven ranks swell.

Board wipes also shine when it comes to dealing with a group of elves amassed by Savaen Elves. Although you might sacrifice some tempo, clearing the field with a well-timed sweeper ensures that your opponent’s elf-related synergies come to a halt. Furthermore, don’t underestimate the power of spells that reduce the effectiveness of creature abilities, which can serve as a thorn in the side for many a creature-centric strategy.

To sum up, overcoming the Savaen Elves card requires a mixture of readiness to engage directly with threats, discerning use of global control spells, and strategic inhibiting of abilities to dismantle synergistic plays. A well-constructed deck and proactive game plan will often lead you to victory against the elven kin.

Cards like Savaen Elves

Savaen Elves is an intriguing addition to the family of mana-generating creatures in Magic: The Gathering. It brings to mind Llanowar Elves, the venerable one-drop that for decades has been the quintessential tool for ramping up mana in the early game. Similarly, Savaen Elves allows players to accelerate their mana production. Still, Llanowar Elves provides immediate value without any conditional requirements, which can be crucial for a swift tempo.

Elvish Mystic also stands out as a comparison for its straightforward mana ability. Unlike Savaen Elves, Elvish Mystic doesn’t require any further action besides tapping, ensuring a consistent performance for decks that rely on an unswerving mana base. Fyndhorn Elves, another classic, mirrors this dependability although it’s worth noting each card’s slight advantage in varied formats and metagames.

Assessing these similarities and differences, Savaen Elves finds its place among these staples of green mana-dorks. While it might involve additional steps to harness its full potential, the card could offer innovative interactions and strategic layers that traditional mana-generating elves do not.

Cards similar to Savaen Elves by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Savaen Elves MTG card by a specific set like The Dark, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Savaen Elves and other MTG cards: