I'm rather surprised to see that noone talked about the Leonx Rider unit here. While indeed Elves don't really draw before getting the Pegasus Rider, they can make the opponent discard cards, which is the same in terms of card advantage for PvP (but I agree that it doesn't help take cities or get more gold).

I won lots of game with Elves by playing the Forest Guardian, then (depending on what the opponent played):

- using the Darnati to destroy a strong unit if he played one

- using the Leonx to make him discard a card from his hand if he didn't

Either way, strong units end up destroyed or discarded. And of course a discarded unit does not get to use its "when played" ability. Also, Leonx Riders are especially effective against humans (who need every card) or Orcs (to make them discard the Spirit Speaker)

In my experience, the only problem with Elves is the early game, where they seem really underpowered. I am under the impression that when the Elves take a city during the early game, it is almost certain that you can take it back from them if you attack it during the next round. My explanation for this would be that spending gold to buy Storm Sorceresses and then destroying them for influence results in a deck that has a comparatively lower ratio of units when compared to other factions (and mostly 1 gold units), making it weaker on average.