"Stompy" has long been a fringe archetype in Legacy. The general idea is to utilize "Sol Lands" (Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors) and other fast accelerants like Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, or Elvish/Simian Spirit Guide to ramp out disruptive permanents like Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Blood Moon, Thorn of Amethyst, and so forth. These are then followed up by creatures, generally commanding higher mana costs than usual for Legacy - things like Sea Drake, Rakdos Pit Dragon, Thragtusk, and Preeminent Captain over the years in various builds - that further take advantage of the ramp to set up a commanding lead. Wasteland often rounds out the build as an additional disruptive piece. Ultimately though, these decks have always run into some stumbling blocks that have kept them from breaking through to the top tiers; they were largely held at the mercy of the draw to get an appropriate mix of Sol Lands, disruptive artifacts, colored mana sources, and threats. And a well-placed Force of Will or Daze on a turn one Trinsiphere with multiple cards invested into its casting could send the whole house of cards crumbling down.
Oath of the Gatewatch, however, offered a new wrinkle to Stompy decks. Powerful colorless Eldrazi like Thought-Knot Seer, Reality Smasher, Eldrazi Mimic, Matter Reshaper, and Endbringer enabled Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple to act as additional Sol Lands. While these lands cannot speed out a Chalice of the Void, they give the deck a huge amount of redundancy in its mana for casting its threats, while still allowing hands with just Sol Lands to land these bombs. Combined with the overall very high power level, particularly of Seer and Smasher, the Stompy archetype finally finds a consistent base.
The other factor that pushes Eldrazi Stompy over the top is pure popularity. "Eldrazi Winter" took over Modern with a very similar deck, and after the banning of Eye of Ugin in that format, many of those players ported over to Legacy, as it required only minor changes - notably, an improvement of the mana base to include Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, and Wasteland. With City of Traitors being the only commonly-seen card on the Reserved List in the deck (apart from the infrequently-seen Mox Diamond), the overall price of the deck comes in surprisingly low for a tier-one Legacy build.
Eldrazi Stompy offers powerful disruption, explosive starts - including a potential turn-two kill off of turn one Eye of Ugin plus multiple Eldrazi Mimics into turn two Reality Smasher - and a reasonable late-game with high-power topdecks and card-flow cards like Eye of Ugin, Endbringer, and Sea-Gate Wreckage.
Core Card Choices
Creatures
4x Thought-Knot Seer - Efficient body, too big to dispatch with a single Lightning Bolt or Abrupt Decay, and adds powerful disruption. Never leave home with less than the full set.
4x Reality Smasher - One of the most efficient beaters ever printed. Frequently takes only three lands to cast, hits immediately, ignores chump blocks, and makes the opponent pay to Swords to Plowshares it. Also should be a full set in every build.
4x Eldrazi Mimic - This unassuming beater is a key component of the deck. While an Alpha Myr isn't exactly making waves, the fact that it has the potential to swing in for 4-5 damage most turns (and eight or more on occasion) means that it's truly a card to be reckoned with.
3-4x Endless One - Endless One is an interesting niche-filler in the Eldrazi deck. It's the only Battle for Zendikar Eldrazi that's commonly seen, and it's the most vanilla of the Eldrazi in the deck. However, the ability to fill any slot on the curve makes Endless One a great role-player. It's one of the deck's most powerful late-game topdecks, and it's the only creature that can reliably overpower a Tarmogoyf once artifacts, enchantments, and/or planeswalkers start hitting the graveyard. Just be forewarned that it has a unique vulnerability to Abrupt Decay, which can topple it regardless of size.
0-4x Matter Reshaper - Matter Reshaper generally rounds out the core of Eldrazi. It's certainly the weakest of the C-requiring Eldrazi, though it does fall low on the curve and offer a solid body with built-in card advantage. It tends to shine in grindy, ground-based matchups like Shardless BUG, while it is at its weakest against Miracles, which will almost exclusively remove it without causing it to die. It's usually the first card trimmed when making additional space for flex slots. One major thing to keep in mind is that putting the card into play is a "may", so you're never forced to do something you wouldn't want, like drop an Endless One or Chalice of the Void on zero or a second Eye of Ugin.
0-2x Endbringer - Topping off the curve is this beatstick. It's extremely versatile - against matchups like Grixis Delver and Infect, it can repeatedly pick off one-toughness creatures. Against matchups like RUG Delver, Lands, and Show and Tell, it can stall big beaters indefinitely. Against matchups like Miracles, it can draw cards every turn, letting you bury them in card advantage. However, its overall high cost, requiring three Sol Lands or two Sol Lands and two regular lands, means it's the hardest Eldrazi to cast, so you don't want to overload it.
Spells
4x Chalice of the Void - Extremely powerful disruption. Resolving a turn one Chalice locks many decks out of the game. Storm, Delver, and Elves are hurt the hardest, but it also puts pressure on Miracles, turning off their Swords to Plowshares and limiting the use of Sensei's Divining Top. Also a core 4-of card.
0-3x Dismember - Having access to spot removal is crucial in many matchups in today's Legacy. For the generally-colorless Eldrazi deck, there are few options. Dismember is one of the strongest, dealing with threats as large as most Tarmogoyfs, Gurmag Anglers, and opposing Reality Smasher/Endbringers, and for only a single mana (and without even conflicting with Chalice on 1). When facing down larger threats like Griselbrand or bigger Goyfs, this can allow most Eldrazi to still beat those creatures in combat. Just be wary, between the Phyrexian mana here and the lifeloss on Ancient Tomb, it's easy to stray into the danger zone, especially against aggressive decks packing Burn.
0-2x Warping Wail - Wail is another removal spell available to colorless decks. While it is limited in what it can target, it still does a great job removing unflipped Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, Deathrite Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic any Infect creature, most Elves. Just about the only frequently-seen creatures it can't deal with are Tarmogoyf, Gurmag Angler, Nettle Sentinel, Insectile Aberration, and Thalia, Heretic Cathar, plus a few infrequent visitors like Knight of the Reliquary and Bloodbraid Elf. Perhaps more important than its removal mode, however, is the fact that it has an Envelop mode. Sorceries form the backbone of most combo decks - Infernal Tutor, Dark Petition, and Past in Flames in Storm, Burning Wish and Show and Tell in Sneak Show, Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith, and Glimpse of Nature in Elves, Reanimate and Exhume in Reanimator, and so on. Even against control decks like Miracles and Shardless BUG, it hits cards like Terminus, Entreat the Angels, Toxic Deluge, and Ancestral Vision. The fact that it can hit relevant targets even against creature-light and creature-less decks makes Warping Wail an extremely versatile spell.
0-4x Thorn of Amethyst - Eldrazi Stompy lists looking for additional disruption frequently turn to Thorn. Unlike Trinisphere, Thorn doesn't impede playing cheaper Eldrazi with Eye of Ugin. In fact, it doesn't affect the Eldrazi at all, while still providing a serious speed-bump to Storm, Show and Tell, and other combo decks. And with a relatively low count of non-Sol Land mana accelerators, it's hitting on turn one a lot more often than Trinisphere is. Some lists, however, relegate this to the sideboard.
0-2x Umezawa's Jitte - Jitte is an extremely powerful source of both removal and lifegain, and fits nicely into the Eldrazi shell. It works especially well on Reality Smasher, whose trample allows it to ignore standard Jitte-blanking tactics like Wirewood Symbiote and True-Name Nemesis.
Mana
4x Ancient Tomb - The most powerful multi-mana land in Legacy. It can land a turn-one Chalice into a turn-two Seer and a turn-three Smasher, a start that few decks can compete with.
3-4x City of Traitors - Also a very powerful multi-mana land. It can still lead to turn-one Chalice into turn-two Seer, but then sacrifices itself, making further followup difficult. It can also be awkward if multiples are drawn, which is why some decks opt for just three. On the plus side, it doesn't cost life, unlike Tomb, making it a better Sol Land in Aggro-heavy metas. It's also the single most-expensive piece of the deck, so budget-minded players might consider Crystal Vein as a dollar-bin alternative. It's certainly not as strong, but it can fill much of the same function.
4x Eldrazi Temple - The first of the Eldrazi Sol Lands. It's painless, great in multiples, and still produces some mana for non-Eldrazi spells, making it the perfect land for the deck.
3-4x Eye of Ugin - The other Eldrazi Sol Land. This one comes with more strings attached than Eldrazi Temple. It can't produce mana for non-Eldrazi spells (without help) and is fairly bad in multiples. On the plus side, it can often "produce" four or even six mana on a turn when you can cast multiple Eldrazi, and it enables the possibility of an early win through multiple Mimics. And, in the late-game, it can search up threats, making it valuable throughout the course of the game. It's frequently the target of land destruction, and does its best work in the first two turns, so four copies is absolutely defensible.
4x Cavern of Souls - It doesn't produce two mana, but it does offer invaluable benefits. The ability to make any Eldrazi spell uncounterable helps the deck play through permission-heavy matchups like Miracles and Delver. It also helps with casting Eldrazi with colored mana costs, if the deck splashes into any of those.
0-4x Wasteland - Wasteland adds to the lockdown strategy that Chalice and Sphere effects push. It's extremely powerful disruption, and can timewalk Combo decks for crucial turns, remove key lands like Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, or keep decks off of the mana they need to stabilize. Most lists should run 2-4 Wastelands, though some trim it in order to run colored sources for lists that splash.
0-2x Karakas - Karakas screws up Sneak Show, throws a gum into the works of Death and Taxes, bounces Dark Depths Marit Lage tokens, screws up Reanimator, and generally does a good job of adding to the disruptive nature of the deck. Even if the deck does not run any white-costing cards, it's worth considering a few Karakas for their disruptive potential, especially against decks that are otherwise bad matchups.
2-4x Other Ramp - Simian Spirit Guide is the most common here, though Elvish Spirit Guide functions identically. Lotus Petal and Mox Diamond are both occasionally seen, generally in lists that run a colored splash. The Guides are generally stronger than the mana rocks, as they can surprise-cancel a Daze, aren't affected by your own Chalice on 0, Thorn of Amethyst, or Trinisphere, and in an emergency, can be played off of a Cavern of Souls naming Ape/Elf to add another body to the board.
0-2x Wastes - Wastes is worse than any other colorless source, except that it crucially has the word "basic" on its type line. Sometimes, you need to be able to keep a land producing colorless against Blood Moon, or drop a land that is guaranteed to live through Wasteland. Even just having one in the deck means the odd Path to Exile or Ghost Quarter won't leave you high and dry. Many decks forego basic lands altogether, though many lists run 1-2.
Flex Choices and Splashes
Flex Colorless Phyrexian Revoker - For decks already running Thorn of Amethyst and looking for additional disruption pieces, Phyrexian Revoker is the next best choice. Revoker adds a body to the board, and has great options to shut down against most decks in the format. Against Miracles, name Sensei's Divining Top or occasionally Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Against BUG Delver, Grixis Delver, 4c Delver, and Shardless BUG, it turns Deathrite Shaman into a Squire. Name Lion's Eye Diamond against Storm decks, Sneak Attack or Griselbrand against Sneak Show, and Wirewood Symbiote, Heritage Druid, or Deathrite Shaman agianst Elves. Against Death and Taxes, it can shut down Aether Vial, Umezawa's Jitte, or Stoneforge Mystic. Trinisphere - Trinisphere is another commonly-seen piece of disruption. In the past, Trinisphere was considered game-ending against many decks, but the current metagame has moved to where that is no longer the case. Decks like Miracles, Shardless BUG, Grixis Delver, Death and Taxes, Lands, and Sneak Show can frequently play around it. However, if your metagame is rife with decks like RUG Delver, Storm, and to a lesser extent, Elves, Trinisphere may be a strong consideration. Bear in mind that Trinisphere interacts poorly with Eye of Ugin - when casting spells like Eldrazi Mimic, Matter Reshaper, and Thought-Knot Seer, Trinisphere will force you to pay a minimum of 3, regardless of Eye's reduction. Ratchet Bomb - Ratchet Bomb is the most-frequently-seen piece of mass removal in Eldrazi. It provides a very flexible effect, capable of offing an entire field of Elves, multiple Glistener Elf or Noble Hierarch against Infect, all of a Storm player's Empty the Warrens tokens, or all of a Grixis Delver player's Young Pyromancer tokens. It can even clear Blood Moon (eventually). All is Dust - Some builds choose to run this over Ratchet Bomb. While it is a lot more expensive, it does benefit fully from Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple, meaning it can generally be dropped on four lands. It immediately clears all colored permanents, which is often a one-sided board wipe, and can deal with a slew of planeswalkers, enchantments, and creatures. Spatial Contortion - Some builds want a few more spot removal spells that can hit things that Warping Wail cannot, without having to lose the life required to cast Dismember. Spatial Contortion is the best option here - and in a pinch, it serves as a Giant Growth effect on one of the larger Eldrazi for some added reach. Phyrexian Metamorph - For a deck that can regularly drop 5-6 mana creatures, being able to copy them for only 3 mana can be a powerful boon. However, the added lifeloss stacks with Ancient Tomb and Dismember, which can be perilous against aggro decks, and it cannot benefit from the Eldrazi lands. Oblivion Sower - In order to handle the popularity of Eldrazi, some builds are designed to take advantage of the mirror-match. Oblivion Sower is one such tech card. With a 5/8 body, the Sower is larger than most of Eldrazi's typical creatures, and it preys on the high land count of the deck to grant the caster some additional ramp, which lets them grind out the long game with Eye of Ugin more quickly and reliably. It's also larger than Tarmogoyf can ever realistically hit, and it can muck up Miracles spinning the Top. Grim Monolith - Some variants choose to use this instead of alternative ramp methods. It can turn a turn-one Sol Land into three mana for Trinisphere or Matter Reshaper, or leave the deck with 5-7 mana available on turn two. Later in the game, it provides a way to convert Blood Mooned mana into C so you can continue to cast spells. It also helps the deck reach the Eye of Ugin threshold more reliably, and can allow a singleton Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to be a viable late-game play.
White Splash Eldrazi Displacer - The number one splash Eldrazi Stompy makes is White, and Displacer is the main reason why. Displacer throws a major wrench into Sneak Show, removes Tarmogoyfs from the line of combat, can flicker Thought-Knot Seer in response to a Miracle trigger to nab the revealed card from hand, allows other Eldrazi to dodge spot removal, and generally just dominates matchups when it sticks around. Flickering Thought-Knot (potentially multiple times) in the draw step also allows the caster to play the Vendilion Clique game, denying the opponent the ability to draw into outs. Unfortunately, with 3 converted mana cost, 3 toughness, and no way to protect itself, literally every commonly-seen removal spell takes it off the board, which is the major reason why it isn't mandatory. Karakas - Another big consideration for splashing white is the fact that Karakas is a solid card, even when you can't make use of the white mana.
Eldrazi and Taxes - Some lists have taken the white splash a step further, including more Death and Taxes-type cards. The three most common inclusions with any success have been Stoneforge Mystic, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Containment Priest. Stoneforge performs her usual functions of fetching Umezawa's Jitte or fetching and cheating in a Batterskull. Thalia functions as a Thorn of Amethyst on a stick. Containment Priest combos with Eldrazi Displacer to permanently exile creatures repeatedly, while also hampering Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Reanimation spells, Natural Order, and Green Sun's Zenith. The drawback of these lists is that they have to trim the lesser Eldrazi like Endless One, Matter Reshaper, Endbringer, and sometimes even Eldrazi Mimic to make room for these additions.
Blue Eldrazi Skyspawner - The most-included Blue card for Eldrazi builds is Skyspawner. It provides a crucial flying creature, which helps mitigate its weakness to Moat, while clogging the ground with a Scion token. It's often seen paired with Eldrazi Displacer, who can repeatedly trigger the enter the battlefield ability. Drowner of Hope - Often, Drowner accompanies the above plan as well. It's an even better target for the Displacer, producing two bodies each time, and the bodies it creates can be used to tap down creatures, which lets this build break ground stalls and completely shut down decks like Show and Tell. Dimensional Infiltrator - Not commonly seen, but a potential inclusion for the blue-splash list. It does a great job of messing with Miracles, and can do things like exile Top from on top of their library, or exile a Terminus in response to trying to draw it off of the top.
Green World Breaker - World Breaker is the biggest draw to go green. It's a huge creature with the capability to self-recur, and has an uncounterable trigger that can permanently remove problematic permanents. For lists that splash red as well as green, World Breaker is the best bet for triggering the second mode of Kozilek's Return, for a more controlling gameplan.
Red Eldrazi Obligator - The only thing better than tapping down or displacing an opposing fatty like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Griselbrand, or Tarmogoyf, is making it swing for your team. For lists that splash Red, Obligator can represent a lot of damage out of nowhere. Do be warned, however, that Eldrazi Temple mana cannot be used to pay for the cast trigger, as it is neither casting an Eldrazi spell nor activating the ability of an Eldrazi. This means a board of Cavern of Souls, Eye of Ugin, and Eldrazi Temple cannot cast and trigger Obligator. Vile Aggregate - For decks running both Blue and Red, the Aggregate provides another powerful trampling body that grows from the abundance of Scion tokens the blue Eldrazi can generate.
Black Bearer of Silence - Black Eldrazi gains an abundance of removal options. In addition to being able to utilize black mana to avoid paying life for Dismember, there are several Eldrazi with removal abilities. Bearer of Silence is chief among these, providing an edict effect attached to a flying body. Like Obligator, be warned that Bearer does not interact well with Eldrazi Temple or Eye of Ugin. Wasteland Strangler - The other main option for Eldrazi-based removal is Wasteland Strangler. Unfortunately, it relies on cards in exile to do its work. Fortunately, opposing Force of Will frequently leads to cards ending up in Exile. Thought-Knot Seer can place them there as well, and cards like Ancestral Vision, Chrome Mox, Deathrite Shaman, Gurmag Angler, and Simian Spirit Guide put cards in Exile for the Strangler to process. This can be especially devastating against Vision and Mox, as it prevents them from functioning in the process. Distended Mindbender - This is a new card that has yet to make a splash, but it has a lot of potential. Curving Matter Reshaper into Mindbender provides a huge swing, ripping apart the opponent's hand while restocking your own, and leaving a 5/5 body behind. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - One of the biggest draws to black is Urborg. It enables Eye of Ugin to tap for mana, which lets it almost function as a Sol Land. It can also allow Ancient Tomb to be tapped without the self-damage, which extends its viability into the mid-game. The ability to get multiple black mana usable for any spell also allows for the usage of heavier black in non-Eldrazi sideboard cards, such as Leyline of the Void, Engineered Plague, Dead of Night, and Toxic Deluge. Of note, due to the inclusion of additional Legendary lands and the Urborg-Eye interaction making the full set of four Eyes recommended, this is one build that should strongly consider Mox Diamond as its ramp piece of choice.
Miracles - Favored. Cavern of Souls shuts Counterbalance off completely for our threats, but a generally-high curve means that it isn't super-effective to begin with. Chalice of the Void on one stops them from utilizing Sensei's Divining Top (making Terminus difficult) as well as shutting off Swords to Plowshares. Be careful not to overextend into a Terminus, but if they seem to be faltering, hit them with everything you've got, especially if you've got Warping Wail up to counter Terminus. Moat is their ace in the hole, but we can frequently kill them before they can resolve it, especially as it is rarely more than a one-of. If you can't, you're stuck depending on Endbringer pings to close things out - All is Dust or Ratchet Bomb can be outs here but are slow. Beware of Blood Moon from the board. Matter Reshaper should be the first card sideboarded out, as all of their removal gets rid of it without killing it.
Grixis Delver - Even. Young Pyromancer can flood the board, making it difficult to get through with anything besides Reality Smasher. Turn one discard plus a full set of Force of Will and generally Dazes means it can be very difficult to resolve Chalice of the Void on the draw, but if you can manage it, it hurts them greatly. Gurmag Angler is the same size as most of your top-end Eldrazi, meaning he can trade with the most-threatening. Blood Moon is a possibility from the sideboard as well. Other variants of Delver have varying matchups. RUG Delver is favorable, as Stifle is largely wasted, Nimble Mongoose gets outclassed, and Chalice of the Void hits more things. BUG Delver is unfavorable, as they run cards like Hymn to Tourach is a real beating, and they often run a combination of Tarmogoyfs and Gurmag Anglers that can outclass Eldrazi's fatties. 4-color Delver is slightly favorable, as it trades the consistency of Grixis Delver for Abrupt Decays, which are often wasted. UR Delver depends on how many copies of Price of Progress they run. If they're packing the full contingent, plus Snapcaster Mage to flash it back, they can take advantage of the all-nonbasic base of Eldrazi (plus Ancient Tomb) to make quick work of your life total. For builds that skimp on Price of Progress, they play much like Grixis Delver, but without the Anglers to trade with Smasher, which makes it favorable.
Shardless BUG - Unfavorable. Chalice of the Void affects relatively few cards as they have a varied curve. Toxic Deluge is frequently present in the maindeck with additional copies in the sideboard, and it can clear away a swarm of Eldrazi. Baleful Strix can trade with huge Eldrazi while drawing a card in the process. Tarmogoyf easily swells to 5/6, putting him out of range of most Eldrazi and Dismember. Hymn to Tourach and Liliana of the Veil can strip our hand, which we already empty overly quickly at times, and Wasteland screws up Sol Lands badly. Overall, they just have all the right pieces to interact with us properly, and while we can get lucky, it's very difficult to eke out a victory.
Storm (ANT/Grinding Station) - Favored. A deck packing maindeck Chalices and Sphere effects already gives Storm fits. Add in a fast clock, Thought-Knot Seer adding discard-disruption, sometimes Phyrexian Revoker, Warping Wail, and more Sphere effects in the board and Storm has a really bad time here. Their best bet is turn one discard on Chalice and then hoping to go off before they get overrun.
Sneak Show - Build Dependent. Lists running maindeck Karakas, Phyrexian Revoker, and/or Eldrazi Displacer do very well here. Lists that pack none of these tend to struggle. Chalice shuts down their cantrips, but little else. Trinisphere does nothing to stop their key cards, and other Sphere effects only delay things slightly, as they can run their own Sol Lands and Lotus Petals. For games two and three, Revokers, Karakases, and other direct hate help significantly, while boards focused on Spheres and removal will be in for a bad time. The Eldrazi and Taxes list is particularly favored here, as Sneak Show has few outs to Containment Priest in addition to Displacer being a beating.
Lands - Unfavorable. They don't particularly care about Chalice or Spheres. Thought-Knot Seer frequently whiffs. Looping Wastelands pick our nonbasic-heavy manabase apart, while Maze of Ith and Glacial Chasm keep the big beaters at bay. Karakas and Eldrazi Displacer help a little with not dying to Marit Lage, but they can still grind out a slow victory with Punishing Fires and resource denial.
Infect - Even. Game one favors them slightly, while sideboard games with additional removal tend to favor us. Umezawa's Jitte is more or less an "I Win" if you can get it active. Chalice of the Void turns off a big chunk of their deck, but don't get complacent, as they can still win with a Blighted Agent into Invigorate and Berserk. Sphere effects slow them down, but ultimately removal is king here. If you can Wasteland the first Inkmoth and Warping Wail or Dismember the first Glistener Elf or Blighted Agent, it's pretty easy to get to Endbringer, which can shut the whole thing down for them.
Elves - Even. Chalice of the Void shuts them down hard, but only until they can find a Green Sun's Zenith for Reclamation Sage. Thought-Knot Seer can hopefully rip their outs from their hand, but it's difficult to catch them all and it quickly becomes a topdeck war or race. Games two and three they bring in even more ways to nuke the Chalice, and it becomes very dependent on being able to get them clocked out as quickly as possible. Ratchet Bomb and other forms of cheap mass removal are extremely helpful here, and cards like Phyrexian Revoker can slow them down a lot as well. Warping Wail can be clutch here to hit any of their key sorceries. Thorn of Amethyst is less great, as they run mostly creatures.
Black Eldrazi sounds ok to run in Legacy as well. A card comes to mind but is a tad slow Parallax Nexus. Destroy their hand and process the exiled cards. Same could be done by abusing Oblivion Sower with Parallax Tide albeit too slow.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
How often did you find yourself with two cards to put back into the graveyards with Blight Herder? I'm a huge fan of the card in Modern with Relic of Progenitus and other such, but with only Sower to exile opposing cards, it seems questionable.
How did Grim Monolith work out for you?
I feel like two Eye of Ugin is a mistake. Should be 3+, for sure.
Also, what does "Close to 4-0" mean? 3-1? 2-2 but the losses were really close?
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Herder I was able to process all but once. You have more ways to exile than first meet the eye. You don't need or want Relic at all (costs 1 mana, chalice). Thought-Knot Seer always exiles. Sower gives you food. Warping Wail exiles pretty much all the important creatures played in legacy. Ulamog technically exiles but thats not gonna happen. Also don't forget how many decks play Forec of Will. You cast Chalice or Trini early, they force. you follow with seer and bam you have two cards in exile already. People also utilize DRS, so that gives you food too.
Grim Monolith is new. There are times where hitting five mana is hard and monolith helps get you there. You don't need the 3 mana from it, just any amount. The fact you can pump mountains into it to create colorless mana is a big deal under Blood Moon.
I was originally running 3 eyes. It felt clunky a few times. The fact you get to search isn't that important. yes its good but I'd rather have the third sea gate over the third eye cause sea gate actually makes mana.
I've tested this deck quite a bit online and while there are certain times that paying 2 mana for TKS and other Eldrazi seems very broken, at the end of the day you are still essentially fighting "Fair" with creature bodies on the ground. One of things that makes MUD a potent deck is its ability to just hit the "I win" button either with an unbeatable answer (forgemaster into Platinum Emperion, or Sundering Titan) or its ability to generate insane mana with Metalworker early on into some bomb. Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temples make the Eldrazi hyper-efficient but none of them are really unbeatable answers except for maybe Ulamog, and this deck is more about the midrange Eldrazi. Midrange Eldrazi are much better in Modern where the power level is more even, but in Legacy it still doesn't feel like it is enough compared to Forgemaster or Ugin shenanigans.
I've tested this deck quite a bit online and while there are certain times that paying 2 mana for TKS and other Eldrazi seems very broken, at the end of the day you are still essentially fighting "Fair" with creature bodies on the ground. One of things that makes MUD a potent deck is its ability to just hit the "I win" button either with an unbeatable answer (forgemaster into Platinum Emperion, or Sundering Titan) or its ability to generate insane mana with Metalworker early on into some bomb. Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temples make the Eldrazi hyper-efficient but none of them are really unbeatable answers except for maybe Ulamog, and this deck is more about the midrange Eldrazi. Midrange Eldrazi are much better in Modern where the power level is more even, but in Legacy it still doesn't feel like it is enough compared to Forgemaster or Ugin shenanigans.
You're correct, that's the flaw with the approach outlined in the OP. There is an alternative however...
Playing a manabase similar to the below allows the deck to support both explosiveness and a long game with game ending threats...
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Cloudpost
2x Vesuva
3x Glimmerpost
3x City of Traitors
3x Eye of Ugin
3x Crystal Vein
Vesuva can always copy an Eldrazi Temple if a Cloudpost isn't in play, or can even copy an Ancient Tomb if you're really desperate for mana. Thus, effectively, every single land above with the exception of Glimmerpost (this is why I cut it to 3) is capable of tapping for two mana by itself. This effectively lets the deck cut chaff like Mind Stones and Grim Monoliths and go very threat dense.
With a manabase as above, I would play no more than 10 Non Eldarazi cards at most.
I don't know if you guys follow modern at all, but LSV and channel fireball essentially helped to break the format at the PT. The deck they built can potentially generate a turn 2 kill and is very impressive.
The deck has been described as a legacy deck being played in modern. Just curious to hear your thoughts. I don't play legacy, but have been debating getting into it online.
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Modern
No idea because my favorite decks keep getting banned or having the rules changed against them
I think thorn of amethyst is better in this deck vs trinisphere only because its an easier turn 1 play (or even turn 2 play if eye + mimics +endless ones was ur first play), works alright in multiples (by stacking), and isnt nonbo with eye of ugin
I also think phyrexian revoker has a place in this list to help with the prison aspect with the deck.
To me i think the core should be
4x chalice
3-4x thorn of amethyst
4x thought knot seer
4x phyrexian revoker
This along with a mix of the following might be correct:
4x endless ones
2-3x endbringer
4x eldrazi mimic
4x reality smasher
2-4x warping wail
Thoughts?
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Modern: C Serum Eldrazi Legacy: CEldrazi C Mud W Soldier Stompy R Bread (big red stompy) WU Spirit Blade WUG Meat Hooks WUBGR Blue Dredge
LSV's modern version might indeed help inform how to build a solid Legacy version. I especially like Simian Spirit Guide or Mox Diamond to get to Chalice or Amethyst early. Do we think Eldrazi Mimic can still go in a Trinisphere build?
Seems to have a lot of favorable match ups, need to test more. Endbringer is interesting because he can wreck decks like D&T with his first ability, and his second ability can halt Sneak and Show and/or reanimator in its tracks.
we might need a dedicated sideboard for it.
So far I think we lose to lands and imperial painters.
that or we just accept them as an auto-lose
Maybe side out chalice for 4x pithing needle? sounds bad though..
To be fair Eternal Garden is only 4% of the top 8 meta of major tournaments, Painter only 1%(last two months).
For Eternal Garden if you play Endbinger he can stop their Marit Leige Token, you can also Surgical Extraction key problem cards(wasteland can facilitate that).
Is Crucible of Worlds + Wasteland or Leyline of Sanctity post-board too slow? I'm a noobzorz with legacy and this is my first foray into the format past rb goblins. Been lurkin'. Lands is the deck I really wanted to build, so I'd also be concerned with beating it with this deck.
Both Sea Gate Wreckage and Conduit of Ruin + Ulamog proved to be a god send vs. Miracles. I think it's a mistake not to play them. Conduit has been so solid that I'm considering cutting a Revoker to play the 4th Conduit.
Sea Gate Wreckage is a far better way to combat counterspells than Cavern of Souls imo. The main cards that you don't want getting countered, Chalices and to a lesser extent Warping Wails and Revokers aren't protected by Cavern. In fact, Cavern makes it such that those key cards almost always end up being the ones that get countered. Wreckage on the other hand blows the game wide open and outright wins games all by itself if your opponents manages to stabilize while taking you to top deck mode.
Eye of Ugin is too explosive when paired with Mimics and Endless Ones not to play as a 4 of IMO. The occasional hands you have to mulligans are more than made up for by the hands that have you dropping down anywhere from 2-5 2/2s and 2/1s on your very first turn. Likewise, the acceleration that City of Traitors and Crystal Vein provides are well worth having to sac them in order to let you empty out your hand a full turn or two earlier.
Urborg effectively lets Ugin generate 3 mana, while also letting you use Ancient Tombs to make mana without costing you life.
I would mostly just have a green splash for world breaker tbh if I were to splash a color
Also, if we were to cut a lower costed CMC card it would have to be matter reshaper as it doesn't do too much for the deck. I would keep eldrazi mimic and endless ones cut they're bonkers on turn 1 followed by a t2 seer.
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Modern: C Serum Eldrazi Legacy: CEldrazi C Mud W Soldier Stompy R Bread (big red stompy) WU Spirit Blade WUG Meat Hooks WUBGR Blue Dredge
playing since Alpha - all the same, never got into Legacy.
i pulled together all the Modern Eldrazi cards before the ProTour and now it's seeming like there may be some corrective action from Wizards - and I really like the deck, so wondered if it was port-able to legacy.
turns out you fine fellows have already started that route.
also will the deck be wanting mox diamond to pitch away extraneous City of Traitors? it seems like OK reasoning, but not being familiar with the format i'm not sure how relevant that kind of deckbuilding logic is.
the modern version of the deck uses Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus for a quicker clock - any viability here?
it seems (rather thankfully) that legacy in all its variety can probably support a deck like this with about 90% of the cards, the biggest difference and potential investment being lands.
playing since Alpha - all the same, never got into Legacy.
i pulled together all the Modern Eldrazi cards before the ProTour and now it's seeming like there may be some corrective action from Wizards - and I really like the deck, so wondered if it was port-able to legacy.
turns out you fine fellows have already started that route.
also will the deck be wanting mox diamond to pitch away extraneous City of Traitors? it seems like OK reasoning, but not being familiar with the format i'm not sure how relevant that kind of deckbuilding logic is.
the modern version of the deck uses Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus for a quicker clock - any viability here?
it seems (rather thankfully) that legacy in all its variety can probably support a deck like this with about 90% of the cards, the biggest difference and potential investment being lands.
advice?
Hello and welcome to to the deck
Right now many people are actually using elvish/simian spirit guides instead of mox diamond for a couple of reasons. some lists are running jitte so its just another body to attach it too. Also it requires less opening hand land investment for it to be a viable play (same turn 1 outcome, except now you can keep a hand with 2 lands + spirit guide, instead of a hand of 3 lands + mox diamond, effectively increasing the amount of playable hands you can have). Simian spirit guide can also be cast through blood moon and act as a grey ogre. Either way you decide to go, generally 4x mox/spirit guide is required to increase the consistency of T1 chalice on 1, (since the eldrazi sol lands can't land it on their own). this allows you to play temple + chalice T1, into t2 seer more consistently
Instead of blinkmoth nexus/ mutavault, people are playing with mishra's factory and has proven to be a very effective threat. usually played as a 2-4x. also another target for jitte if you plan to use it (i highly recommend jitte as a 1-2x due to life gain + helps with "fair" matchups that this deck doesn't metagame)
City of traitors is played as a 2-3x to prevent awkward opening hands. Same thing goes with eye of ugin
Wasteland is played as a 0-4x of right now, really depends what your playstyle is like. I for one am not playing them at all because I've found that in such a mana hungry deck, I never really wanted to stop my mana progression until late game (where it really doesn't matter as much, I'd rather have a 2/1 manland bashing in for all of those turns i held off of waste-landing)
Hi, I'm new but I'm reading and following this thread since a few weeks with a lot of care.
For legacy I think Urborg is really cool to protect all the no basic lands, and then we can replace Wasteland for Ghost Quarter. In addition Urborg let us take mana from the Eye and splash Extirpate or use for Dismember without take lives (something really usefull when u face decks more agressive).
Play legacy with all no basic lands is the worst idea someone can have for many reasons, so this deck need to fix that someway. Wastelands and Price of progress just break the match, and there are too many burns and Waste'decks.
Something really usefull for consider some copies are:
Urza's incubator
Palladium Myr
Quicksilver Amulet (!!!)
Not of this World (+All is dust is a nice defense/disruption option)
Eldrazi Conscription (+Mimic/+Palladium works really cool)
Artisan of Kozilek / Void winnower / It that betrays (1 copy for tutor with the Eye make it really flexible)
Some cards are not Eldrazi, but with the Cloudpost + Vesuva + Glimmerpost base works really cool.
So much ideas but nothing clear again for versatility, stability and competitive.
currently ive seen a W build that topped in a 28 man event, and 2 colorless builds that top'd in other ones. White seems good with displacer and sideboard containment priest to flicker+exile creatures in certain match ups (show/tell, marit). Neither use the posts lands and the only non eldrazi creature used MB is revoker (if used at all).
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Modern: C Serum Eldrazi Legacy: CEldrazi C Mud W Soldier Stompy R Bread (big red stompy) WU Spirit Blade WUG Meat Hooks WUBGR Blue Dredge
Hello and welcome to to the deck
Right now many people are actually using elvish/simian spirit guides instead of mox diamond for a couple of reasons. some lists are running jitte so its just another body to attach it too. Also it requires less opening hand land investment for it to be a viable play (same turn 1 outcome, except now you can keep a hand with 2 lands + spirit guide, instead of a hand of 3 lands + mox diamond, effectively increasing the amount of playable hands you can have). Simian spirit guide can also be cast through blood moon and act as a grey ogre. Either way you decide to go, generally 4x mox/spirit guide is required to increase the consistency of T1 chalice on 1, (since the eldrazi sol lands can't land it on their own). this allows you to play temple + chalice T1, into t2 seer more consistently
Depends which version you are running. The white or white/green version is more resilient to a blood moon due to MB basics and talismans with sideboard disenchant and o-ring. Funny enough splashing another color increases you ability to grind through those match ups. the GW version also has world breaker mainboard as well and krosan grip in the side.
I'm not too sure about the colorless version however.
You can MB elvish spirit guide and sideboard in a late world breaker or krosan grip. or you can play simian spirit guide and just cast + attack and side in another jitte or SoFaI, and still opens you up to a cute ancient grudge. Blood moon is still a problem for this deck.
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Modern: C Serum Eldrazi Legacy: CEldrazi C Mud W Soldier Stompy R Bread (big red stompy) WU Spirit Blade WUG Meat Hooks WUBGR Blue Dredge
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StaffIntroduction/History
"Stompy" has long been a fringe archetype in Legacy. The general idea is to utilize "Sol Lands" (Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors) and other fast accelerants like Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, or Elvish/Simian Spirit Guide to ramp out disruptive permanents like Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, Blood Moon, Thorn of Amethyst, and so forth. These are then followed up by creatures, generally commanding higher mana costs than usual for Legacy - things like Sea Drake, Rakdos Pit Dragon, Thragtusk, and Preeminent Captain over the years in various builds - that further take advantage of the ramp to set up a commanding lead. Wasteland often rounds out the build as an additional disruptive piece. Ultimately though, these decks have always run into some stumbling blocks that have kept them from breaking through to the top tiers; they were largely held at the mercy of the draw to get an appropriate mix of Sol Lands, disruptive artifacts, colored mana sources, and threats. And a well-placed Force of Will or Daze on a turn one Trinsiphere with multiple cards invested into its casting could send the whole house of cards crumbling down.
Oath of the Gatewatch, however, offered a new wrinkle to Stompy decks. Powerful colorless Eldrazi like Thought-Knot Seer, Reality Smasher, Eldrazi Mimic, Matter Reshaper, and Endbringer enabled Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple to act as additional Sol Lands. While these lands cannot speed out a Chalice of the Void, they give the deck a huge amount of redundancy in its mana for casting its threats, while still allowing hands with just Sol Lands to land these bombs. Combined with the overall very high power level, particularly of Seer and Smasher, the Stompy archetype finally finds a consistent base.
The other factor that pushes Eldrazi Stompy over the top is pure popularity. "Eldrazi Winter" took over Modern with a very similar deck, and after the banning of Eye of Ugin in that format, many of those players ported over to Legacy, as it required only minor changes - notably, an improvement of the mana base to include Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, and Wasteland. With City of Traitors being the only commonly-seen card on the Reserved List in the deck (apart from the infrequently-seen Mox Diamond), the overall price of the deck comes in surprisingly low for a tier-one Legacy build.
Eldrazi Stompy offers powerful disruption, explosive starts - including a potential turn-two kill off of turn one Eye of Ugin plus multiple Eldrazi Mimics into turn two Reality Smasher - and a reasonable late-game with high-power topdecks and card-flow cards like Eye of Ugin, Endbringer, and Sea-Gate Wreckage.
Core Card Choices
Creatures
4x Thought-Knot Seer - Efficient body, too big to dispatch with a single Lightning Bolt or Abrupt Decay, and adds powerful disruption. Never leave home with less than the full set.
4x Reality Smasher - One of the most efficient beaters ever printed. Frequently takes only three lands to cast, hits immediately, ignores chump blocks, and makes the opponent pay to Swords to Plowshares it. Also should be a full set in every build.
4x Eldrazi Mimic - This unassuming beater is a key component of the deck. While an Alpha Myr isn't exactly making waves, the fact that it has the potential to swing in for 4-5 damage most turns (and eight or more on occasion) means that it's truly a card to be reckoned with.
3-4x Endless One - Endless One is an interesting niche-filler in the Eldrazi deck. It's the only Battle for Zendikar Eldrazi that's commonly seen, and it's the most vanilla of the Eldrazi in the deck. However, the ability to fill any slot on the curve makes Endless One a great role-player. It's one of the deck's most powerful late-game topdecks, and it's the only creature that can reliably overpower a Tarmogoyf once artifacts, enchantments, and/or planeswalkers start hitting the graveyard. Just be forewarned that it has a unique vulnerability to Abrupt Decay, which can topple it regardless of size.
0-4x Matter Reshaper - Matter Reshaper generally rounds out the core of Eldrazi. It's certainly the weakest of the C-requiring Eldrazi, though it does fall low on the curve and offer a solid body with built-in card advantage. It tends to shine in grindy, ground-based matchups like Shardless BUG, while it is at its weakest against Miracles, which will almost exclusively remove it without causing it to die. It's usually the first card trimmed when making additional space for flex slots. One major thing to keep in mind is that putting the card into play is a "may", so you're never forced to do something you wouldn't want, like drop an Endless One or Chalice of the Void on zero or a second Eye of Ugin.
0-2x Endbringer - Topping off the curve is this beatstick. It's extremely versatile - against matchups like Grixis Delver and Infect, it can repeatedly pick off one-toughness creatures. Against matchups like RUG Delver, Lands, and Show and Tell, it can stall big beaters indefinitely. Against matchups like Miracles, it can draw cards every turn, letting you bury them in card advantage. However, its overall high cost, requiring three Sol Lands or two Sol Lands and two regular lands, means it's the hardest Eldrazi to cast, so you don't want to overload it.
Spells
4x Chalice of the Void - Extremely powerful disruption. Resolving a turn one Chalice locks many decks out of the game. Storm, Delver, and Elves are hurt the hardest, but it also puts pressure on Miracles, turning off their Swords to Plowshares and limiting the use of Sensei's Divining Top. Also a core 4-of card.
0-3x Dismember - Having access to spot removal is crucial in many matchups in today's Legacy. For the generally-colorless Eldrazi deck, there are few options. Dismember is one of the strongest, dealing with threats as large as most Tarmogoyfs, Gurmag Anglers, and opposing Reality Smasher/Endbringers, and for only a single mana (and without even conflicting with Chalice on 1). When facing down larger threats like Griselbrand or bigger Goyfs, this can allow most Eldrazi to still beat those creatures in combat. Just be wary, between the Phyrexian mana here and the lifeloss on Ancient Tomb, it's easy to stray into the danger zone, especially against aggressive decks packing Burn.
0-2x Warping Wail - Wail is another removal spell available to colorless decks. While it is limited in what it can target, it still does a great job removing unflipped Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer, Deathrite Shaman, Stoneforge Mystic any Infect creature, most Elves. Just about the only frequently-seen creatures it can't deal with are Tarmogoyf, Gurmag Angler, Nettle Sentinel, Insectile Aberration, and Thalia, Heretic Cathar, plus a few infrequent visitors like Knight of the Reliquary and Bloodbraid Elf. Perhaps more important than its removal mode, however, is the fact that it has an Envelop mode. Sorceries form the backbone of most combo decks - Infernal Tutor, Dark Petition, and Past in Flames in Storm, Burning Wish and Show and Tell in Sneak Show, Natural Order, Green Sun's Zenith, and Glimpse of Nature in Elves, Reanimate and Exhume in Reanimator, and so on. Even against control decks like Miracles and Shardless BUG, it hits cards like Terminus, Entreat the Angels, Toxic Deluge, and Ancestral Vision. The fact that it can hit relevant targets even against creature-light and creature-less decks makes Warping Wail an extremely versatile spell.
0-4x Thorn of Amethyst - Eldrazi Stompy lists looking for additional disruption frequently turn to Thorn. Unlike Trinisphere, Thorn doesn't impede playing cheaper Eldrazi with Eye of Ugin. In fact, it doesn't affect the Eldrazi at all, while still providing a serious speed-bump to Storm, Show and Tell, and other combo decks. And with a relatively low count of non-Sol Land mana accelerators, it's hitting on turn one a lot more often than Trinisphere is. Some lists, however, relegate this to the sideboard.
0-2x Umezawa's Jitte - Jitte is an extremely powerful source of both removal and lifegain, and fits nicely into the Eldrazi shell. It works especially well on Reality Smasher, whose trample allows it to ignore standard Jitte-blanking tactics like Wirewood Symbiote and True-Name Nemesis.
Mana
4x Ancient Tomb - The most powerful multi-mana land in Legacy. It can land a turn-one Chalice into a turn-two Seer and a turn-three Smasher, a start that few decks can compete with.
3-4x City of Traitors - Also a very powerful multi-mana land. It can still lead to turn-one Chalice into turn-two Seer, but then sacrifices itself, making further followup difficult. It can also be awkward if multiples are drawn, which is why some decks opt for just three. On the plus side, it doesn't cost life, unlike Tomb, making it a better Sol Land in Aggro-heavy metas. It's also the single most-expensive piece of the deck, so budget-minded players might consider Crystal Vein as a dollar-bin alternative. It's certainly not as strong, but it can fill much of the same function.
4x Eldrazi Temple - The first of the Eldrazi Sol Lands. It's painless, great in multiples, and still produces some mana for non-Eldrazi spells, making it the perfect land for the deck.
3-4x Eye of Ugin - The other Eldrazi Sol Land. This one comes with more strings attached than Eldrazi Temple. It can't produce mana for non-Eldrazi spells (without help) and is fairly bad in multiples. On the plus side, it can often "produce" four or even six mana on a turn when you can cast multiple Eldrazi, and it enables the possibility of an early win through multiple Mimics. And, in the late-game, it can search up threats, making it valuable throughout the course of the game. It's frequently the target of land destruction, and does its best work in the first two turns, so four copies is absolutely defensible.
4x Cavern of Souls - It doesn't produce two mana, but it does offer invaluable benefits. The ability to make any Eldrazi spell uncounterable helps the deck play through permission-heavy matchups like Miracles and Delver. It also helps with casting Eldrazi with colored mana costs, if the deck splashes into any of those.
0-4x Wasteland - Wasteland adds to the lockdown strategy that Chalice and Sphere effects push. It's extremely powerful disruption, and can timewalk Combo decks for crucial turns, remove key lands like Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, or The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, or keep decks off of the mana they need to stabilize. Most lists should run 2-4 Wastelands, though some trim it in order to run colored sources for lists that splash.
0-2x Karakas - Karakas screws up Sneak Show, throws a gum into the works of Death and Taxes, bounces Dark Depths Marit Lage tokens, screws up Reanimator, and generally does a good job of adding to the disruptive nature of the deck. Even if the deck does not run any white-costing cards, it's worth considering a few Karakas for their disruptive potential, especially against decks that are otherwise bad matchups.
2-4x Other Ramp - Simian Spirit Guide is the most common here, though Elvish Spirit Guide functions identically. Lotus Petal and Mox Diamond are both occasionally seen, generally in lists that run a colored splash. The Guides are generally stronger than the mana rocks, as they can surprise-cancel a Daze, aren't affected by your own Chalice on 0, Thorn of Amethyst, or Trinisphere, and in an emergency, can be played off of a Cavern of Souls naming Ape/Elf to add another body to the board.
0-2x Wastes - Wastes is worse than any other colorless source, except that it crucially has the word "basic" on its type line. Sometimes, you need to be able to keep a land producing colorless against Blood Moon, or drop a land that is guaranteed to live through Wasteland. Even just having one in the deck means the odd Path to Exile or Ghost Quarter won't leave you high and dry. Many decks forego basic lands altogether, though many lists run 1-2.
Flex Choices and Splashes
Flex Colorless
Phyrexian Revoker - For decks already running Thorn of Amethyst and looking for additional disruption pieces, Phyrexian Revoker is the next best choice. Revoker adds a body to the board, and has great options to shut down against most decks in the format. Against Miracles, name Sensei's Divining Top or occasionally Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Against BUG Delver, Grixis Delver, 4c Delver, and Shardless BUG, it turns Deathrite Shaman into a Squire. Name Lion's Eye Diamond against Storm decks, Sneak Attack or Griselbrand against Sneak Show, and Wirewood Symbiote, Heritage Druid, or Deathrite Shaman agianst Elves. Against Death and Taxes, it can shut down Aether Vial, Umezawa's Jitte, or Stoneforge Mystic.
Trinisphere - Trinisphere is another commonly-seen piece of disruption. In the past, Trinisphere was considered game-ending against many decks, but the current metagame has moved to where that is no longer the case. Decks like Miracles, Shardless BUG, Grixis Delver, Death and Taxes, Lands, and Sneak Show can frequently play around it. However, if your metagame is rife with decks like RUG Delver, Storm, and to a lesser extent, Elves, Trinisphere may be a strong consideration. Bear in mind that Trinisphere interacts poorly with Eye of Ugin - when casting spells like Eldrazi Mimic, Matter Reshaper, and Thought-Knot Seer, Trinisphere will force you to pay a minimum of 3, regardless of Eye's reduction.
Ratchet Bomb - Ratchet Bomb is the most-frequently-seen piece of mass removal in Eldrazi. It provides a very flexible effect, capable of offing an entire field of Elves, multiple Glistener Elf or Noble Hierarch against Infect, all of a Storm player's Empty the Warrens tokens, or all of a Grixis Delver player's Young Pyromancer tokens. It can even clear Blood Moon (eventually).
All is Dust - Some builds choose to run this over Ratchet Bomb. While it is a lot more expensive, it does benefit fully from Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple, meaning it can generally be dropped on four lands. It immediately clears all colored permanents, which is often a one-sided board wipe, and can deal with a slew of planeswalkers, enchantments, and creatures.
Spatial Contortion - Some builds want a few more spot removal spells that can hit things that Warping Wail cannot, without having to lose the life required to cast Dismember. Spatial Contortion is the best option here - and in a pinch, it serves as a Giant Growth effect on one of the larger Eldrazi for some added reach.
Phyrexian Metamorph - For a deck that can regularly drop 5-6 mana creatures, being able to copy them for only 3 mana can be a powerful boon. However, the added lifeloss stacks with Ancient Tomb and Dismember, which can be perilous against aggro decks, and it cannot benefit from the Eldrazi lands.
Oblivion Sower - In order to handle the popularity of Eldrazi, some builds are designed to take advantage of the mirror-match. Oblivion Sower is one such tech card. With a 5/8 body, the Sower is larger than most of Eldrazi's typical creatures, and it preys on the high land count of the deck to grant the caster some additional ramp, which lets them grind out the long game with Eye of Ugin more quickly and reliably. It's also larger than Tarmogoyf can ever realistically hit, and it can muck up Miracles spinning the Top.
Grim Monolith - Some variants choose to use this instead of alternative ramp methods. It can turn a turn-one Sol Land into three mana for Trinisphere or Matter Reshaper, or leave the deck with 5-7 mana available on turn two. Later in the game, it provides a way to convert Blood Mooned mana into C so you can continue to cast spells. It also helps the deck reach the Eye of Ugin threshold more reliably, and can allow a singleton Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to be a viable late-game play.
White Splash
Eldrazi Displacer - The number one splash Eldrazi Stompy makes is White, and Displacer is the main reason why. Displacer throws a major wrench into Sneak Show, removes Tarmogoyfs from the line of combat, can flicker Thought-Knot Seer in response to a Miracle trigger to nab the revealed card from hand, allows other Eldrazi to dodge spot removal, and generally just dominates matchups when it sticks around. Flickering Thought-Knot (potentially multiple times) in the draw step also allows the caster to play the Vendilion Clique game, denying the opponent the ability to draw into outs. Unfortunately, with 3 converted mana cost, 3 toughness, and no way to protect itself, literally every commonly-seen removal spell takes it off the board, which is the major reason why it isn't mandatory.
Karakas - Another big consideration for splashing white is the fact that Karakas is a solid card, even when you can't make use of the white mana.
Eldrazi and Taxes - Some lists have taken the white splash a step further, including more Death and Taxes-type cards. The three most common inclusions with any success have been Stoneforge Mystic, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, and Containment Priest. Stoneforge performs her usual functions of fetching Umezawa's Jitte or fetching and cheating in a Batterskull. Thalia functions as a Thorn of Amethyst on a stick. Containment Priest combos with Eldrazi Displacer to permanently exile creatures repeatedly, while also hampering Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Reanimation spells, Natural Order, and Green Sun's Zenith. The drawback of these lists is that they have to trim the lesser Eldrazi like Endless One, Matter Reshaper, Endbringer, and sometimes even Eldrazi Mimic to make room for these additions.
Blue
Eldrazi Skyspawner - The most-included Blue card for Eldrazi builds is Skyspawner. It provides a crucial flying creature, which helps mitigate its weakness to Moat, while clogging the ground with a Scion token. It's often seen paired with Eldrazi Displacer, who can repeatedly trigger the enter the battlefield ability.
Drowner of Hope - Often, Drowner accompanies the above plan as well. It's an even better target for the Displacer, producing two bodies each time, and the bodies it creates can be used to tap down creatures, which lets this build break ground stalls and completely shut down decks like Show and Tell.
Dimensional Infiltrator - Not commonly seen, but a potential inclusion for the blue-splash list. It does a great job of messing with Miracles, and can do things like exile Top from on top of their library, or exile a Terminus in response to trying to draw it off of the top.
Green
World Breaker - World Breaker is the biggest draw to go green. It's a huge creature with the capability to self-recur, and has an uncounterable trigger that can permanently remove problematic permanents. For lists that splash red as well as green, World Breaker is the best bet for triggering the second mode of Kozilek's Return, for a more controlling gameplan.
Red
Eldrazi Obligator - The only thing better than tapping down or displacing an opposing fatty like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Griselbrand, or Tarmogoyf, is making it swing for your team. For lists that splash Red, Obligator can represent a lot of damage out of nowhere. Do be warned, however, that Eldrazi Temple mana cannot be used to pay for the cast trigger, as it is neither casting an Eldrazi spell nor activating the ability of an Eldrazi. This means a board of Cavern of Souls, Eye of Ugin, and Eldrazi Temple cannot cast and trigger Obligator.
Vile Aggregate - For decks running both Blue and Red, the Aggregate provides another powerful trampling body that grows from the abundance of Scion tokens the blue Eldrazi can generate.
Black
Bearer of Silence - Black Eldrazi gains an abundance of removal options. In addition to being able to utilize black mana to avoid paying life for Dismember, there are several Eldrazi with removal abilities. Bearer of Silence is chief among these, providing an edict effect attached to a flying body. Like Obligator, be warned that Bearer does not interact well with Eldrazi Temple or Eye of Ugin.
Wasteland Strangler - The other main option for Eldrazi-based removal is Wasteland Strangler. Unfortunately, it relies on cards in exile to do its work. Fortunately, opposing Force of Will frequently leads to cards ending up in Exile. Thought-Knot Seer can place them there as well, and cards like Ancestral Vision, Chrome Mox, Deathrite Shaman, Gurmag Angler, and Simian Spirit Guide put cards in Exile for the Strangler to process. This can be especially devastating against Vision and Mox, as it prevents them from functioning in the process.
Distended Mindbender - This is a new card that has yet to make a splash, but it has a lot of potential. Curving Matter Reshaper into Mindbender provides a huge swing, ripping apart the opponent's hand while restocking your own, and leaving a 5/5 body behind.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - One of the biggest draws to black is Urborg. It enables Eye of Ugin to tap for mana, which lets it almost function as a Sol Land. It can also allow Ancient Tomb to be tapped without the self-damage, which extends its viability into the mid-game. The ability to get multiple black mana usable for any spell also allows for the usage of heavier black in non-Eldrazi sideboard cards, such as Leyline of the Void, Engineered Plague, Dead of Night, and Toxic Deluge. Of note, due to the inclusion of additional Legendary lands and the Urborg-Eye interaction making the full set of four Eyes recommended, this is one build that should strongly consider Mox Diamond as its ramp piece of choice.
Common Sideboard Choices
Leyline of the Void - With Relic of Progenitus not working well alongside Chalice, Leyline is the graveyard hate of choice for Eldrazi. Particularly for lists packing Urborg, this can be relatively easily hardcast, and it can't be removed with Abrupt Decay, making it a powerful piece of disruption against graveyard-dependent decks. Other graveyard hate options include Faerie Macabre, Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, and Grafdigger's Cage.
Thorn of Amethyst - Lists that do not pack them main almost always run them in the side. Lists that pack a few main will generally run the remainder in the side, and sometimes throw in a few Sphere of Resistance and/or Trinisphere as well. Lodestone Golem is sometimes utilized for additional Orb effects as well.
Ratchet Bomb, Endbringer, Warping Wail, All is Dust, Dismember, Spatial Contortion - A few additional removal spells are common in the sideboard.
Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker - Needle effects are common as well. Pithing Needle is stronger against Lands and Death and Taxes, where it can name cards like Thespians' Stage, Rishadan Port, and Maze of Ith, which are both matchups where Chalice of the Void likely comes out, so its 1 CMC doesn't matter as much. Revoker is the stronger card against Storm decks, and both are fine against Show and Tell.
Matchups
Miracles - Favored. Cavern of Souls shuts Counterbalance off completely for our threats, but a generally-high curve means that it isn't super-effective to begin with. Chalice of the Void on one stops them from utilizing Sensei's Divining Top (making Terminus difficult) as well as shutting off Swords to Plowshares. Be careful not to overextend into a Terminus, but if they seem to be faltering, hit them with everything you've got, especially if you've got Warping Wail up to counter Terminus. Moat is their ace in the hole, but we can frequently kill them before they can resolve it, especially as it is rarely more than a one-of. If you can't, you're stuck depending on Endbringer pings to close things out - All is Dust or Ratchet Bomb can be outs here but are slow. Beware of Blood Moon from the board. Matter Reshaper should be the first card sideboarded out, as all of their removal gets rid of it without killing it.
Grixis Delver - Even. Young Pyromancer can flood the board, making it difficult to get through with anything besides Reality Smasher. Turn one discard plus a full set of Force of Will and generally Dazes means it can be very difficult to resolve Chalice of the Void on the draw, but if you can manage it, it hurts them greatly. Gurmag Angler is the same size as most of your top-end Eldrazi, meaning he can trade with the most-threatening. Blood Moon is a possibility from the sideboard as well. Other variants of Delver have varying matchups. RUG Delver is favorable, as Stifle is largely wasted, Nimble Mongoose gets outclassed, and Chalice of the Void hits more things. BUG Delver is unfavorable, as they run cards like Hymn to Tourach is a real beating, and they often run a combination of Tarmogoyfs and Gurmag Anglers that can outclass Eldrazi's fatties. 4-color Delver is slightly favorable, as it trades the consistency of Grixis Delver for Abrupt Decays, which are often wasted. UR Delver depends on how many copies of Price of Progress they run. If they're packing the full contingent, plus Snapcaster Mage to flash it back, they can take advantage of the all-nonbasic base of Eldrazi (plus Ancient Tomb) to make quick work of your life total. For builds that skimp on Price of Progress, they play much like Grixis Delver, but without the Anglers to trade with Smasher, which makes it favorable.
Shardless BUG - Unfavorable. Chalice of the Void affects relatively few cards as they have a varied curve. Toxic Deluge is frequently present in the maindeck with additional copies in the sideboard, and it can clear away a swarm of Eldrazi. Baleful Strix can trade with huge Eldrazi while drawing a card in the process. Tarmogoyf easily swells to 5/6, putting him out of range of most Eldrazi and Dismember. Hymn to Tourach and Liliana of the Veil can strip our hand, which we already empty overly quickly at times, and Wasteland screws up Sol Lands badly. Overall, they just have all the right pieces to interact with us properly, and while we can get lucky, it's very difficult to eke out a victory.
Storm (ANT/Grinding Station) - Favored. A deck packing maindeck Chalices and Sphere effects already gives Storm fits. Add in a fast clock, Thought-Knot Seer adding discard-disruption, sometimes Phyrexian Revoker, Warping Wail, and more Sphere effects in the board and Storm has a really bad time here. Their best bet is turn one discard on Chalice and then hoping to go off before they get overrun.
Sneak Show - Build Dependent. Lists running maindeck Karakas, Phyrexian Revoker, and/or Eldrazi Displacer do very well here. Lists that pack none of these tend to struggle. Chalice shuts down their cantrips, but little else. Trinisphere does nothing to stop their key cards, and other Sphere effects only delay things slightly, as they can run their own Sol Lands and Lotus Petals. For games two and three, Revokers, Karakases, and other direct hate help significantly, while boards focused on Spheres and removal will be in for a bad time. The Eldrazi and Taxes list is particularly favored here, as Sneak Show has few outs to Containment Priest in addition to Displacer being a beating.
Lands - Unfavorable. They don't particularly care about Chalice or Spheres. Thought-Knot Seer frequently whiffs. Looping Wastelands pick our nonbasic-heavy manabase apart, while Maze of Ith and Glacial Chasm keep the big beaters at bay. Karakas and Eldrazi Displacer help a little with not dying to Marit Lage, but they can still grind out a slow victory with Punishing Fires and resource denial.
Infect - Even. Game one favors them slightly, while sideboard games with additional removal tend to favor us. Umezawa's Jitte is more or less an "I Win" if you can get it active. Chalice of the Void turns off a big chunk of their deck, but don't get complacent, as they can still win with a Blighted Agent into Invigorate and Berserk. Sphere effects slow them down, but ultimately removal is king here. If you can Wasteland the first Inkmoth and Warping Wail or Dismember the first Glistener Elf or Blighted Agent, it's pretty easy to get to Endbringer, which can shut the whole thing down for them.
Elves - Even. Chalice of the Void shuts them down hard, but only until they can find a Green Sun's Zenith for Reclamation Sage. Thought-Knot Seer can hopefully rip their outs from their hand, but it's difficult to catch them all and it quickly becomes a topdeck war or race. Games two and three they bring in even more ways to nuke the Chalice, and it becomes very dependent on being able to get them clocked out as quickly as possible. Ratchet Bomb and other forms of cheap mass removal are extremely helpful here, and cards like Phyrexian Revoker can slow them down a lot as well. Warping Wail can be clutch here to hit any of their key sorceries. Thorn of Amethyst is less great, as they run mostly creatures.
Decklists
4 Eldrazi Mimic
2 Endbringer
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 City of Traitors
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
2 Karakas
4 Wasteland
3 Dismember
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Dismember
2 Endbringer
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
3 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Warping Wail
4 Eldrazi Mimic
2 Endbringer
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
4 City of Traitors
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
2 Karakas
4 Wasteland
2 Dismember
4 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Warping Wail
3 Ashen Rider
1 Dismember
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Pithing Needle
3 Warping Wail
2 Winter Orb
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Cavern of Souls
3 City of Traitors
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
2 Karakas
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Wasteland
3 Dismember
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Warping Wail
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Endbringer
3 Pithing Needle
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Sphere of Resistance
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Warping Wail
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Horizon Canopy
2 Karakas
4 Plains
4 Wasteland
1 Containment Priest
4 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Reality Smasher
3 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Thought-Knot Seer
1 Batterskull
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Council's Judgment
2 Endbringer
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Swords to Plowshares
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Ancient Tomb
3 Cavern of Souls
2 City of Traitors
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
1 Karakas
3 Tundra
1 Wastes
2 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
4 Endless One
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Warping Wail
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Endbringer
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Pithing Needle
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Rest in Peace
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
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http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/tying-the-knot-with-thought-knot-seer/
Black Eldrazi sounds ok to run in Legacy as well. A card comes to mind but is a tad slow Parallax Nexus. Destroy their hand and process the exiled cards. Same could be done by abusing Oblivion Sower with Parallax Tide albeit too slow.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
4 Reality Smasher
4 Blight Herder
4 Oblivion Sower
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Grim Monolith
4 Warping Wail
4 Trinisphere
4 City of Traitors
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Wasteland
2 Eye of Ugin
3 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Null Rod
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Void Winnower
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
Warping Wail is a very good card. I also find myself tutoring for Blight Herder often with Eye of Ugin. Herder is so good.
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StaffHow often did you find yourself with two cards to put back into the graveyards with Blight Herder? I'm a huge fan of the card in Modern with Relic of Progenitus and other such, but with only Sower to exile opposing cards, it seems questionable.
How did Grim Monolith work out for you?
I feel like two Eye of Ugin is a mistake. Should be 3+, for sure.
Also, what does "Close to 4-0" mean? 3-1? 2-2 but the losses were really close?
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
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Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
Grim Monolith is new. There are times where hitting five mana is hard and monolith helps get you there. You don't need the 3 mana from it, just any amount. The fact you can pump mountains into it to create colorless mana is a big deal under Blood Moon.
I was originally running 3 eyes. It felt clunky a few times. The fact you get to search isn't that important. yes its good but I'd rather have the third sea gate over the third eye cause sea gate actually makes mana.
You're correct, that's the flaw with the approach outlined in the OP. There is an alternative however...
Playing a manabase similar to the below allows the deck to support both explosiveness and a long game with game ending threats...
4x Eldrazi Temple
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Cloudpost
2x Vesuva
3x Glimmerpost
3x City of Traitors
3x Eye of Ugin
3x Crystal Vein
Vesuva can always copy an Eldrazi Temple if a Cloudpost isn't in play, or can even copy an Ancient Tomb if you're really desperate for mana. Thus, effectively, every single land above with the exception of Glimmerpost (this is why I cut it to 3) is capable of tapping for two mana by itself. This effectively lets the deck cut chaff like Mind Stones and Grim Monoliths and go very threat dense.
With a manabase as above, I would play no more than 10 Non Eldarazi cards at most.
Here's the build I'm playing around with...
Here's my most current list as of 2/6/16
I've been extremely pleased with it's performance.
Here is the link: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/teamcfb-deck-tech-modern-eldrazi/
The deck has been described as a legacy deck being played in modern. Just curious to hear your thoughts. I don't play legacy, but have been debating getting into it online.
I also think phyrexian revoker has a place in this list to help with the prison aspect with the deck.
To me i think the core should be
4x chalice
3-4x thorn of amethyst
4x thought knot seer
4x phyrexian revoker
This along with a mix of the following might be correct:
4x endless ones
2-3x endbringer
4x eldrazi mimic
4x reality smasher
2-4x warping wail
Thoughts?
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Eye of Ugin
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Wastes
3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
Creatures:
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Endbringer
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Thorn of Amethyst
4 Spatial Contortion
2 Dismember
4 Warping Wail
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Trinisphere
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Relic of Progenitus
Seems to have a lot of favorable match ups, need to test more. Endbringer is interesting because he can wreck decks like D&T with his first ability, and his second ability can halt Sneak and Show and/or reanimator in its tracks.
So far I think we lose to lands and imperial painters.
that or we just accept them as an auto-lose
Maybe side out chalice for 4x pithing needle? sounds bad though..
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
To be fair Eternal Garden is only 4% of the top 8 meta of major tournaments, Painter only 1%(last two months).
For Eternal Garden if you play Endbinger he can stop their Marit Leige Token, you can also Surgical Extraction key problem cards(wasteland can facilitate that).
Is Crucible of Worlds + Wasteland or Leyline of Sanctity post-board too slow? I'm a noobzorz with legacy and this is my first foray into the format past rb goblins. Been lurkin'. Lands is the deck I really wanted to build, so I'd also be concerned with beating it with this deck.
On a scale of one to useless, how helpful would gas cards like Lotus Petal/Elvish Spirit Guide (or Simian Spirit Guide even) and Ancient Stirrings be? One or the other, but digs/CA could be helpful?
What about Show and Tell with Lotus Petal MB and way more high cmc eldrazi than necessary?
Is Everflowing Chalice and Lotus Bloom useless?
I've been very pleased with the deck's performance, the curve is about as perfect as it could be.
I'm planning to take the same list with a sideboard identical to the list above to a Modern Tournament this weekend with the tweaks...
Both Sea Gate Wreckage and Conduit of Ruin + Ulamog proved to be a god send vs. Miracles. I think it's a mistake not to play them. Conduit has been so solid that I'm considering cutting a Revoker to play the 4th Conduit.
Sea Gate Wreckage is a far better way to combat counterspells than Cavern of Souls imo. The main cards that you don't want getting countered, Chalices and to a lesser extent Warping Wails and Revokers aren't protected by Cavern. In fact, Cavern makes it such that those key cards almost always end up being the ones that get countered. Wreckage on the other hand blows the game wide open and outright wins games all by itself if your opponents manages to stabilize while taking you to top deck mode.
Eye of Ugin is too explosive when paired with Mimics and Endless Ones not to play as a 4 of IMO. The occasional hands you have to mulligans are more than made up for by the hands that have you dropping down anywhere from 2-5 2/2s and 2/1s on your very first turn. Likewise, the acceleration that City of Traitors and Crystal Vein provides are well worth having to sac them in order to let you empty out your hand a full turn or two earlier.
Urborg effectively lets Ugin generate 3 mana, while also letting you use Ancient Tombs to make mana without costing you life.
Thoughts?
4 glimmerpost
4 eldrazi temple
4 ancient tomb
3 city of traitors
3 eye of ugin
3 wasteland
Is that too slow? I don't actually know :<
Are there any thoughts on a needless green splash with Elvish Spirit Guide and Ancient Stirrings?
I would mostly just have a green splash for world breaker tbh if I were to splash a color
Also, if we were to cut a lower costed CMC card it would have to be matter reshaper as it doesn't do too much for the deck. I would keep eldrazi mimic and endless ones cut they're bonkers on turn 1 followed by a t2 seer.
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
playing since Alpha - all the same, never got into Legacy.
i pulled together all the Modern Eldrazi cards before the ProTour and now it's seeming like there may be some corrective action from Wizards - and I really like the deck, so wondered if it was port-able to legacy.
turns out you fine fellows have already started that route.
couple of questions from a legacy noob:
manabase:
i'm looking into 4xancient tomb and potentially 3-of city of traitors, but how necessary is wasteland over something like ghost quarter?
also will the deck be wanting mox diamond to pitch away extraneous City of Traitors? it seems like OK reasoning, but not being familiar with the format i'm not sure how relevant that kind of deckbuilding logic is.
the modern version of the deck uses Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus for a quicker clock - any viability here?
it seems (rather thankfully) that legacy in all its variety can probably support a deck like this with about 90% of the cards, the biggest difference and potential investment being lands.
advice?
Hello and welcome to to the deck
Right now many people are actually using elvish/simian spirit guides instead of mox diamond for a couple of reasons. some lists are running jitte so its just another body to attach it too. Also it requires less opening hand land investment for it to be a viable play (same turn 1 outcome, except now you can keep a hand with 2 lands + spirit guide, instead of a hand of 3 lands + mox diamond, effectively increasing the amount of playable hands you can have). Simian spirit guide can also be cast through blood moon and act as a grey ogre. Either way you decide to go, generally 4x mox/spirit guide is required to increase the consistency of T1 chalice on 1, (since the eldrazi sol lands can't land it on their own). this allows you to play temple + chalice T1, into t2 seer more consistently
Instead of blinkmoth nexus/ mutavault, people are playing with mishra's factory and has proven to be a very effective threat. usually played as a 2-4x. also another target for jitte if you plan to use it (i highly recommend jitte as a 1-2x due to life gain + helps with "fair" matchups that this deck doesn't metagame)
City of traitors is played as a 2-3x to prevent awkward opening hands. Same thing goes with eye of ugin
Wasteland is played as a 0-4x of right now, really depends what your playstyle is like. I for one am not playing them at all because I've found that in such a mana hungry deck, I never really wanted to stop my mana progression until late game (where it really doesn't matter as much, I'd rather have a 2/1 manland bashing in for all of those turns i held off of waste-landing)
I hope this answered some of your questions
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
currently ive seen a W build that topped in a 28 man event, and 2 colorless builds that top'd in other ones. White seems good with displacer and sideboard containment priest to flicker+exile creatures in certain match ups (show/tell, marit). Neither use the posts lands and the only non eldrazi creature used MB is revoker (if used at all).
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
Additional copies of Mox Diamond are also significantly weaker, especially if your one of those builds playing with Trinisphere.
Any idea on how to combat Blood Moon or Ensnaring Bridge?
EDIT: I managed to screw up the quote.
and the last list on this page is a good colorless version
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
Depends which version you are running. The white or white/green version is more resilient to a blood moon due to MB basics and talismans with sideboard disenchant and o-ring. Funny enough splashing another color increases you ability to grind through those match ups. the GW version also has world breaker mainboard as well and krosan grip in the side.
I'm not too sure about the colorless version however.
You can MB elvish spirit guide and sideboard in a late world breaker or krosan grip. or you can play simian spirit guide and just cast + attack and side in another jitte or SoFaI, and still opens you up to a cute ancient grudge. Blood moon is still a problem for this deck.
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge