It's important to remember that the Scions are 1/1, and not 0/1 like before, so having a bunch is not only going to help you ramp, but they can, potentially, also slow down more aggressive strategies as you try and durdle and work towards that higher curve. If you're going to try and go Eldrazi big, you'll want to draft as many scion producers as aggressively as possible, and as was already doubted before, there may or may not be enough going around in the packs, especially as awaken opens up mana sinks for everyone, so lots of strategies can utilize the scions even in the late games, outside of going Eldrazi big. So, the really big ones (ie. >6cmc) are probably niche at best, but most likely often traps. Not that they couldn't work, just that you'll have to be really diligent and aware about how you draft your deck. It will reward those who can pull it off immensely, though (obviously) and will be a big test of skill (or lack thereof).
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"Until you have lived as a statue, do not talk to me of pigeons."
—Karn, silver golem
My initial impression is that there are not enough incidental Eldrazi Scions around to justify playing a 9+ mana spell in an average deck, or to draft a card like that very high. However, that may change once I play and see games.
This. There seems to be a lower density of Scion producers than there were Eldrazi Spawn producers in ROE. Also, the spawn producers were more ramp-focused. The way the Scion producers are costed, you often need the Scion power on the board to justify investing that much mana. Sacrificing a 1/1 for ramp may not always be the right move, while sacrificing 0/1s usually was unless you had an overrun effect or the Spawn pump spell. If I can reliably produce 3 Scions per game, it's not clear that I wouldn't be better off using them to gangblock a 3/3 (+1 card) or using an Overrun effect to beat face.
Compare 3G for 3/3 Kozilek's Predator with 3G for Lose-ilek's Predator (aka Eyeless Watcher). Watcher is reasonable for 4 mana, basically a Hordeling Outburst with easier mana cost and an upside. But if you sacrifice those Scions for mana as readily as you would have sacrificed those Eldrazi spawn, then you're putting yourself down a card, leaving behind a 4cc 1/1.
Some decks can fairly easily accumulate ~3 Scion tokens reliable on curve, that will give you a way to cast a 8 mana Eldrazi in time.
10 is still a lot, so its not your Plan A at all.
As it is, theres simply no real direct all-in ramp deck. The mana cards themself are fine, but rarely produce more than 1 mana.
A single big eldrazi in a deck that has sources of scions will be totally fine ; but multiples will just make a super durdly deck.
The bigger problem is not whether they can generate 3 Scions, but whether it's worth sacrificing 3 1/1s for a creature that doesn't have Annihilator.
We know it was worth sacrificing 0/1s, especially when they were cheap to produce, the format was quite slow, and attacking first with Annihilate 2+ usually meant you won the game. You'll notice that the creatures that produce Scions are weaker than the analogous creatures that produced Spawns (to make up for the fact that Scions have power). If your goal is to use your Scions mainly for mana, the creature that's left isn't quite worth a card. You're effectively using it as a ritual, which is card disadvantage. Eyeless Watcher is a great example of this. You'd be paying 3G to get a 1/1 and 2 mana for a single turn. Unless your big Eldrazi makes up the card disadvantage, maybe it's not worth the deal. IMO you win more games using it as 3G for 3 1/1s and running one of the many anthem/overrun effects.
I feel like the 8+ mana ones going to be really good as control finishers or if you build a dedicated ramp deck, or if you face off against a dedicated control deck. Otherwise not as much.
On the other hand, I love dedicated control strategies. I will be very excited to see if it is possible to pull off 5 color control leveraging that blue converge card draw spell everyone else probably won't want, removal from all 5 colors and eldrazi finishers.
I just got back from a midnight prerelease and I played a 19 land deck that included 2 Eldrazi Devastators, a Breaker of Armies, a Bane of Bala Ged, and an Endless One. I was undefeated. For Sealed, at least, I don't think there's a better strategy than just slamming 8 drops because they're so difficult to deal with. There were games my opponent would be playing small beaters like Dominator Drone but that doesn't really do anything when I can just chump with an incubator, then use the scions to power out 8/9s in a couple turns.
I think it is correct to just play any eldrazi with a number greater than 6 on it, either power or toughness, in Sealed, and that's how I plan on playing the next events as well.
I also just got back from a pre-release. All the decks that went undefeated, were all control shells with 3+ eldrazi in them. If you can durdel long enough to throw out a breaker of armies, you pretty much win. There are so few cards that deal with them, and the ones that do efficiently are uncommon or rare, or have bad downside. 3 of the decks were actually 4 colors, and ran like 10+ removal/freeze/bounce cards. You really couldn't do anything against them.
I just got back from prerelease, and went 4-0 with a RW aggro deck with Deathless Behemoth at the top of my curve, so ramp decks definitely aren't the only way to go in this format.
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465 card Unpowered cube thread. Draft it here and I'll be happy to return the favor.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.
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—Karn, silver golem
This. There seems to be a lower density of Scion producers than there were Eldrazi Spawn producers in ROE. Also, the spawn producers were more ramp-focused. The way the Scion producers are costed, you often need the Scion power on the board to justify investing that much mana. Sacrificing a 1/1 for ramp may not always be the right move, while sacrificing 0/1s usually was unless you had an overrun effect or the Spawn pump spell. If I can reliably produce 3 Scions per game, it's not clear that I wouldn't be better off using them to gangblock a 3/3 (+1 card) or using an Overrun effect to beat face.
Compare 3G for 3/3 Kozilek's Predator with 3G for Lose-ilek's Predator (aka Eyeless Watcher). Watcher is reasonable for 4 mana, basically a Hordeling Outburst with easier mana cost and an upside. But if you sacrifice those Scions for mana as readily as you would have sacrificed those Eldrazi spawn, then you're putting yourself down a card, leaving behind a 4cc 1/1.
10 is still a lot, so its not your Plan A at all.
As it is, theres simply no real direct all-in ramp deck. The mana cards themself are fine, but rarely produce more than 1 mana.
A single big eldrazi in a deck that has sources of scions will be totally fine ; but multiples will just make a super durdly deck.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
We know it was worth sacrificing 0/1s, especially when they were cheap to produce, the format was quite slow, and attacking first with Annihilate 2+ usually meant you won the game. You'll notice that the creatures that produce Scions are weaker than the analogous creatures that produced Spawns (to make up for the fact that Scions have power). If your goal is to use your Scions mainly for mana, the creature that's left isn't quite worth a card. You're effectively using it as a ritual, which is card disadvantage. Eyeless Watcher is a great example of this. You'd be paying 3G to get a 1/1 and 2 mana for a single turn. Unless your big Eldrazi makes up the card disadvantage, maybe it's not worth the deal. IMO you win more games using it as 3G for 3 1/1s and running one of the many anthem/overrun effects.
On the other hand, I love dedicated control strategies. I will be very excited to see if it is possible to pull off 5 color control leveraging that blue converge card draw spell everyone else probably won't want, removal from all 5 colors and eldrazi finishers.
I think it is correct to just play any eldrazi with a number greater than 6 on it, either power or toughness, in Sealed, and that's how I plan on playing the next events as well.
450 card Peasant cube thread. Draft it here.