I. Introduction
It's good to be back! Some of you may have noticed, some of you probably didn't care, but I took last week off. That's because I knew that I wouldn't have the time to devote to the column I usually do as a result of my attending Comic Con! Comic Con is awesome and I definitely recommend that people in Southern California, and everywhere else for that matter, try to get out and see it at least once. There's nothing like coming upon a full garrison of storm troopers marching in unison down the convention center floor to make my inner fan boy giggle with joy.
On a side note, the one thing that I took away from the convention was a ton of anticipation for a movie called Sucker Punch. I had never heard of this upcoming movie before the convention, but after I saw the trailer I can't wait to see it, even if it doesn't come out till next year. Here's the publicly available trailer, but the one they showed at Comic Con was almost 5 minutes and about 10 times as awesome. I guess if you hate Zack Snyder movies, you may want to give it a pass. But samurai, mechs, zombies, Gatling guns and dragons, all in the same movie? Sign me up!
II. The Eldrazi Issue
So a little while back, someone asked that I come up with an Anti-Eldrazi deck. As most people playing EDH and Commander know, the Eldrazi, especially the legendary ones, have become potent threats in the games.
Coming to wreck you!
Personally, I think they're cute and cuddly, but I understand the concern. They are large, hard to deal with, and can have drastic effects on games. And since they are colorless, they can go into just about any deck. What really pushes them over the top for most people is the Annihilator mechanic. Each of these guys has a drastic effect on your board presence when they start attacking. Even the smaller Eldrazi pack a punch. Obviously, since the Eldrazi are pretty powerful, there are a lot of people that want to figure out how to fight them. Today we are going to look at a deck that specifically has in mind Eldrazi. But before we get to the deck we have something else to cover.
III. Ways to Deal with Eldrazi
The biggest problem with the Eldrazi is that they require different answers for each of them. Although just about anything can get rid of Kozilek, Emrakul can't be the target of colored spells and Ulamog is indestructible. However, there are two cards that can get rid of all three if they are in play:
Unless someone is using the Eldrazi as their generals, if they are in play and you cast one of these two spells, you can assume that you won't be seeing them for a while. So that means we definitely need white in our deck, as these two cards are pretty much auto-includes.
Ulamog is indestructible. Typically the easiest way to deal with him is by removing him from the game. We can also use sacrifice effects.
This means we will definitely be using black as well. Keep in mind that the sacrifice effects don't work very well if your opponent has additional creatures, but hopefully you will be packing enough removal. Now, Emrakul has protection from colored spells. Fortunately his protection ability doesn't grant him protection from effects. Here are just a few to consider:
Each of these guys gets rid of Emrakul. A few of them deal with Ulamog as well. The concern with the enchantments like (Obivion Ring) is that if they are dealt with, your opponent gets their Eldrazi back. But it's still nice to be able to deal with various threats. The Adjudicate uses blue, so it looks like we have our third color. Since we are playing blue we can also choose to steal our opponents Eldrazi.
Or, we can just legend rule the guys away by packing
Clone effects.
Another option is to pack your own Eldrazi and just legend rule them away like that. But since I was asked to create an "anti-Eldrazi" deck I won't go that route. Now, you can counter two of the three Eldrazi, but there is a card that can essentially "counter" all of them, and should go in most blue decks just for the utility.
What happens if, heaven forbid, some Eldrazi manages to get through and attack you? There are a couple of permanent based answers. One way is by making sure that you don't get attacked.
Another way is by making it so that it won't hurt as much.
Finally, you can also cut out the middleman, and just remove the Eldrazi from your opponent's deck.
This list is by no means exhaustive. There are a ton of other methods of dealing with Eldrazi, including
Myojin of Cleansing Fire,
Nekrataal,
Reiver Demon,
Vampire Nighthawk,
Tawnos's Coffin,
Admonition Angel,
Archon of Justice,
Mangara of Corondor,
Mistmeadow Witch,
Dance of Many,
Icy Prison,
Oubliette, and
Icy Manipulator.
What if you aren't playing these colors? Green has
Tajuru Preserver and that's about it. Red has
Threaten effects and you can sac stuff to
Goblin Bombardment, but that doesn't really work for Emrakul. Red also has cards like
Obliterate and
Jokulhaups to keep people from getting to the mana to cast a large Eldrazi, but people will hate you for those cards. As you can see, both of these colors need artifact back up. However, the point of this little exercise is to show that there are numerous ways to deal with Eldrazi. All you have to do is be prepared. Sometimes you won't have an answer in hand and you get wrecked even if you have multiple ways of dealing with Eldrazi in your deck, but just by knowing about these cards and having some in your deck, you are better off than you were before.
IV. The Deck: Now that's old school
So there are multiple powerful commanders in these colors. However, I think that the trick is to appear non-threatening. I really wanted to use
Sharuum the Hegemon, but people expect you to play combo and sometimes start to gun for you. You could go with
Zur the Enchanter but that also puts a target on your head. I wanted to go with a less conventional and outright powerful general. As such, I went with
Dakkon Blackblade.
I could also have used
Halfdane in this deck, as no one plays with that guy. Well, there's a reason no one plays with
Halfdane: He's poop. Besides, Dakkon is just killer. When I first started playing Dakkon was mythical. He was as powerful as the amount of lands you had! That was craziness! Combined with the art by Richard Kane-Ferguson, he was every kid's Magic dream. Then, he was reprinted in Chronicles, and he didn't seem nearly as cool anymore. Maybe it was the white border. Sad times.
Anyway, here's the deck:
I finally figured out that I can screw around with the decklists in the editor, and have added sub-headings to let you know how many artifacts, etc. are in the deck. Let's take a closer look at the cards:
| Mass Removal |
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Oblivion Stone, Evacuation, Austere Command, Damnation, Final Judgment, Hallowed Burial, Planar Cleansing, Kederekt Leviathan: Most of these have already been talked about. Austere Command gives you choices, which is really nice, and Oblivion Stone is essentially your instant speed sweeper. I included Evacuation because sometimes you need to deal with creatures at instant speed, and it deals with Eldrazi that are cheated out early for a while. Also, if timed right and people have full hands, they may have to discard some cards. The leviathan essentially fulfills the same purpose. For really annoying shenanigans, you can Animate Dead the Kederekt Leviathan to constantly reset the board. |
| Spot Removal |
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Archon of Justice, Angel of Despair, Duplicant, Ethersworn Adjudicator, Shriekmaw, Stonecloaker, Visara the Dreadful, Journey to Nowhere, Oblivion Ring, Path to Exile, Return to Dust, Swords to Plowshares, Consuming Vapors: That's a lot of spot removal. There are a couple sac outlets to use Archon of Justice with, specifically Miren, the Moaning Well and Phyrexian Tower. Stonecloaker can remove an Eldrazi from the game during the split second it ends up in the graveyard before it gets shuffled back onto the deck. |
| Card Draw |
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Mulldrifter, Sphinx of Magosi, Phyrexian Arena, Rhystic Study, Graveborn Muse, Mind Spring, Promise of Power, Recurring Insight, Sword of Fire and Ice: So my first draft of this deck didn't have enough card draw. I definitely corrected that problem. This deck can draw a lot of cards. I have had hands of over 20 cards, which can be a little overwhelming at times. Obviously you want to get to your answer cards, and with the draw in this deck that shouldn't be a problem. |
| Tutors |
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Enlightened Tutor, Lim-Dul's Vault, Mystical Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Grim Tutor, Fabricate, Zur the Enchanter: Sometimes, though, you don't have the answer in hand. Each of these will help you get something you need. The Vault is nice, because you can also set up your draw. Fabricate typically searches for Journeyer's Kite early, and Loxodon Warhammer late. Zur is obviously pretty good. If people figure out that you basically use him to search up answers, and not to go on the offensive, they will often leave him alone to focus on bigger threats. |
| Theft |
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Gilded Drake, Memnarch, Dominating Licid, Bribery: Each of the Eldrazi can be stolen using each of these effects. And if you don't run into Eldrazi, there are usually other good targets available. This is my first deck using the Licid, and I've been very impressed with him, particularly for the ability to attach and unattach him at instant speed. |
| Mana Help |
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Solemn Simulacrum, Weathered Wayfarer, Coalition Relic, Darksteel Ingot, Journeyer's Kite, Land Tax: So basically you want to try and lay a land every turn. Because we are playing with Dakkon, I didn't go overboard with the artifact mana. The Wayfarer and Land Tax help you out in the early game, and the Kite helps you out late game. If there were a way to lay two lands a turn, that would be great. Actually, there is a conditional way: Terrain Generator. That definitely belongs in the deck. Obviously Armageddon effects can wreck Dakkon, but these cards can help you recover. |
So as you can probably tell, this is a very, very defensive deck. You play a lot of answers and a lot of card draw. Your beaters are large and generally serve at least two purposes. Your hand is almost always going to be full, so
Reliquary Tower is going to be your friend, which is the reason for
Tolaria West being in the deck as well.
On the defensive side,
No Mercy is the all star of the deck. People just don't pack enough enchantment removal, and therefore it can stay in play for 5 turns or more.
Dread serves the same function, but people are much more prepared to deal with creatures.
Godhead of Awe is still pretty experimental. I had one game where it sat in my hand the whole time, but I did have another where it nullified some big dudes and beat down a couple of times before it was dealt with.
I've never cast Dakkon before the 10th turn, and typically he comes out around turn 15. Before that, you are usually holding answers or drawing cards, and your mana is used every turn. However, by the 10th turn he's pretty big and people get scared of him, while you still have mana to play an answer.
Loxodon Warhammer,
Sword of Fire and Ice, and
Shizo, Death's Storehouse are all there to make sure that Dakkon's damage gets through. Essentially, Dakkon is your game ender, as most games go at least 16 turns with this deck.
So, how did the deck do?
V. The Game: Fight!
I played six games with this deck, and this was the only game where any Eldrazi showed up. It's funny, when you don't want to see them, they show up, but when you're looking for them you can't find them. Here are my opponents:
Teneb is typically a recursion based Rock deck, which can also be good stuff. Nicol is typically Grixis control. Silvos is probably beatdown, but I have no idea since this is the first time I've faced him. Teneb wins the roll. Here's my opening hand:
Round 1
T: Swamp.
S: Forest.
Round 2
S: Forest.
Round 3
Me:
Land Tax triggers. I don’t like throwing lands into the graveyard without reason, so I only search up a Swamp. I know that I've seen people just search up 3 basics, and have them end up in the graveyard at the end of the turn, but because I'm playing Dakkon I don't want to do that. Draw
Bribery. Not sure who I would play it on yet, but my guess would be N at this point, just due to his colors. Play Swamp,
Sword of Fire and Ice.
S: Forest.
Round 4
T: Forest.
N: Nothing.
S: Nothing. Discards
Skittering Invasion at the end of his turn to get to 7 cards. I think I know who is playing Eldrazi now.
Round 5
T: Plains, then Teneb. N casts
Impulse at the end of the turn.
Round 6
T: Forest, then
Echoing Decay on S’s Eldrazi Spawn, killing them.
Great against tokens.
Kinda harsh on a land screwed opponent, but whatever. Attacks S with Teneb (34). Nothing in the graveyards for Teneb to dig up at this point.
S: Nothing. T cycles
Swat at the end of his turn. S has to discard
Awakener Druid to get to 7 cards in hand. Seems silly, as he could have cast it, but maybe he has an instant he wants to use.
Round 7
No school like the old school!
S:
Hunted Troll, giving me the faeries. Nice. I guess there’s no bad feelings for stealing his Eldrazi.
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
T: Teneb again.
N: Nothing. Actually, he loses connection. We wait a while, but after 5 minutes it appears he isn’t coming back. We boot him.
Round 11
Efficient, tramples, gains life and draws a card. What's not to like?
S: Silvos.
Round 12
Round 13
Me:
Land Tax triggers, and I don’t pull anything. I discard
Rupture Spire to Masticore, and use it to hit the Finks, which persist (40). I draw
Thopter Foundry. Equip the Masticore with Warhammer, and attack with the Masticore. T blocks with Finks, but drops to (33), and I go up to (47). I then cast
Hallowed Burial, getting rid of T’s Commander.
Round 14
Format staple, and worth the price.
Me:
Land Tax triggers, and I pull a Plains and a Swamp. Draw
Gilded Drake. Play Swamp, then
Dread, equipping it with Warhammer.
Round 15
T:
Artisan of Kozilek, which he must have had in his hand, returning
Duplicant to play, which gets rid of
Dread. Sad times. Attacks me with Witness and Stomphowler (41).
Round 16
Round 17
Great if you can protect it.
Me: Draw
Tolaria West. I forget to attach the Warhammer to my Artisan/Doppelganger and attack. T sacs a couple more lands and drops to (21). Play Plains, then Dakkon, who is a 13/13 at this point.
Round 18
Me: Draw
Visara the Dreadful. Play Island, equip Dakkon with Warhammer and attack, dropping T to (4).
Round 19
Me: I attack with Dakkon, dropping T to (-13). He’s still alive due to
Platinum Angel, but I use
Path to Exile to remove it from the game, and win it in the process.
VI. Conclusion
So this deck is pretty much the complete opposite of how I like to play: Slow and defensive, reacting to your opponent. I like being the aggressor. As such, I may not have been the best pilot for the deck. It still did well, winning half the games I played, but it probably could have done better with a more defensive pilot.
One of the issues with the deck is that it doesn't really have any "game enders." I could have hands of almost 30 cards, and couldn't put people away quickly. My original version had the
Thopter Foundry/
Sword of the Meek combo, but it was slow, mana intensive, and the pieces didn't really fit the deck very well by themselves. In addition, when I had those large hands, I wanted to play multiple cards at the same time, but didn't have the mana to do so. I guess you could include
Cabal Coffers and
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to increase your possible mana production, but a lot of the time I really wanted blue, not black mana. Just something to deal with I guess.
So if anyone does try out something like this and run into the legendary Eldrazi, let us know how it did. I think you should be ok, but it's always possible to just not have the right card in hand. That's the luck of the game. But hopefully I have given you some ideas on ways to combat Eldrazi if you have been having problems with them. Remember, there are always answers out there, make sure and pack some. And if you have any other ideas, mention them in the comments.
Hope you enjoyed the article. Until next time!
Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO
mrmorale32 at yahoo dot com
8 Comments
If we're talking about ways to deal with eldrazi in green, ignoring the various critters with deathtouch which'll do for all the legends except ulamog, I've found Lignify to be a pretty sweet answer.
It amuses me to think that if the Eldrazi were to invade Lorwyn that the treefolk would just turn them all into trees! Sure beats the crazy elaborate three planeswalker, hedron, colourless-fire trap Sorin came up with!
Somehow Ive been getting more and more into Commnader the past couple weeks and I have to agree with you, I can't stand playing control/ So far Ive figured out my 'method' to improving my commander collection. I started anew with a R/G Stonebrow deck, and now have built a Jund Karrthus deck. I love just beating face. Especially turn 6 14/14 Kilnmouth Dragon.
Cool. I have been waiting for this. Wrath of God is just as effective as Damnation so I am assuming you omitted it for art and space reasons. FYI there is a really good reason for taxing for 3 basics. You thin your deck enormously. Sure you might have to dump some cards but it can pay huge dividends later as you draw into gas and the only lands you see are the special ones you might have included for various reasons (Volrath's Stronghold, Academy Ruins, etc). Of course in this deck with only a few basics I can see why you wouldn't want to waste them. Dakkon Blackblade is definitely not the general I expected. Looks like the myriad tactics worked to protect you from the vile planar invaders.
Green definitely needs some help, thanks for sharing.
I like aggressive strategies mainly because the games are faster. Either you take people out quickly, or they hang up on you and take you put. This deck is definitely not like that. Its the only deck where I was almost decked in a commander game.
I don't know why I chose damnation over wrath. You make a good point about land tax though. Definitely something to consider, but it would feel strange to get rid of lands in a deck based around Dakkon.
The choice of dakkon was to stay under the radar. He is clearly not as powerful as zur, sharuum, or the triplets. But he does get cool points and can lay the smack down late game so that's why I went with him.
Why didnt S sacrifice the targeted spawn token to counter the Echoing Decay.
I killed the tokens so he couldn't rush out a regenerating legend that could survive some of my board wipes.
Good deck. As much as I hate to suggest my most hated card in commander, you should add (Roil Elemental) to that deck.
I was, obviously, the Teneb player. My deck is a fairly explosive deck. It just keeps blowing things up until people run out of gas, then kick their heads in with reanimated dudes.
For the record, the most times I have cast Teneb is 7.
So 18 cmc for the 7th Teneb? ouch.
Roil Elemental is a good suggestion. It is nice because you can steal all the Eldrazi with it. Casting your commander 7 times is a ton.