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Somehow, the Eldrazi Returned

Welcome back to the EDHREC and Commanders Herald review of Modern Horizons 3! As I’m sure you’ve seen by now, Modern Horizons 3 is no ordinary set. It’s filled to the brim with powerful cards, iconic planeswalkers and most importantly everyone’s favorite beasts from the blind eternities... The Eldrazi! 

I’m Joshua (Also known as Princeofbieltan on the internet) and I am a self-confessed Eldrazi enjoyer. I’ve been studying these cosmic calamities since I attended my first-ever standard FNM during the set: Battle for Zendikar. The set pitched the allies of Zendikar against the monstrous Eldrazi as they sought to desecrate reality itself. These cosmic horrors have always had my heart. Now Wizards of the Coast has decided to bring us some new Eldrazi for the first time in years and I can’t wait to show you which of these cards you want to jam in your decks, or spend a removal spell on!

Now, before I kick off this review if you haven’t checked out our other articles in this series, be sure to navigate through the links at the top of this article and read up on them. There are a ton of powerful cards coming your way so it’s important to stay one step ahead of your opponents. With that out of the way, let's begin with the mythics.

Mythics

Emrakul, the World Anew

Emrakul is the only Eldrazi Titan that has one of its previous iterations banned in Commander! Will this new rendition of Emrakul also get the ban hammer? Emrakul, the World Anew is a third attempt at everyone’s favorite flying eldritch being. Coming in at 12 mana value, this version of Emrakul is actually the cheapest printing so far, with Emrakul, the Promised End costing 13 mana and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn at a whopping 15 mana value!

First, a note on keeping this Eldrazi Titan safe. Seeing as this new Emrakul is a little cheaper, what differences can we expect here. Well, Emrakul usually comes with some method of built in protection. Previously, the Promised End had protection from Instants whereas this new Emrakul has protection from all spells and permanents during the turn they were cast. This means that Emrakul is going to be a hard creature to deal with outside of board wipes and edict effects.

It looks like there's a reason for the resilience, so let’s see what this card brings to the table. When you cast this spell, gain control of all creatures target player controls. This is going to leave someone's shields totally down and ready to feel the wrath of the Eldrazi.

The downside here with this version of Emrakul is that should Emrakul leave the battlefield, you sacrifice all creatures you control. Now sure, some of these are going to belong to your opponent but a lot of them are also going to belong to you. It’s going to be a game of timing, playing this card to make sure you don’t get blown out.

What I really like about this card though, is that there’s no caveat along with the gain control of all creatures target player controls. You’re not required to give these creatures back, ever. So it’s likely they’ll go down with Emrakul herself. What I really REALLY like about this card though, is that this is a cast trigger, and even if Emrakul gets countered then you still get someone’s creatures! If that wasn’t enough, there’s now no clause of Emrakul leaving the battlefield so you’ll never be forced to sacrifice your new army. What a mad card. I love it and this is surely going to create some moments to remember. By the way, it has madness too!

Kozilek, the Broken Reality

The second of our mythic rares is Kozilek, the Broken Reality. Kozilek is a titan known for the distortion of reality itself. Kozilek has two existing iterations, one of which is one of the most popular colorless commanders of all time! (Kozilek, the Great Distortion)

How does the newest rendition of Kozilek compare then? Kozilek, Butcher of Truth came with card draw and annihilator, embodying raw power and resources. Kozilek, the Great Distortion kept the card draw but dropped annihilator in favor of the ability to counter our opponents' spells. Kozilek, the Broken Reality brings card draw once more, though in a unique way.

Much like the Butcher of Truth, we’re going to end up drawing a maximum of four cards, a lovely flavor nod. Instead of annihilator or the ability to counter spells this time we’re provided with a way to enhance our board presence. We can manifest cards from our own hand or an opponent’s hand, or two opponents if need be. Should we choose our own hand we’ll be rewarded with two creatures with ten total power and eight total toughness, and that’s alongside the very respectable nine power and nine toughness from Kozilek itself.

This is a creative way of drawing cards, while staying true to the previous card designs. Kozilek, like many Eldrazi titans, triggers on cast so even if you get hit with a counterspell you’re still at least going to get some value out of him. Kozilek’s ability is modular, you can take cards out of your opponent’s hands and even if they get to sneak some creatures into play it’s worth remembering that you’ve got the card advantage and due to the Kozilek’s anthem ability it’s very likely you’ll have the bigger board presence too.

While Kozilek is an Eldrazi titan, and deserves all the respect associated with that... I can’t help but notice that this card simply isn’t a bad top end for other decks that care about face-down cards, or artifact decks that want to go wide. There aren’t many colorless Eldrazi you want to play outside of the creature type but here, I can see a use case for a colorless Tempered Steel that draws cards!

Ulamog, the Defiler

Somehow, Ulamog returned. Ulamog is the ceaseless hunger, the infinite gyre and the cause of many Magic: The Gathering players to say ‘wait, how many cards?’

Ten mana will see us exiling half of one of our opponent’s libraries and will have Ulamog enter with +1/+1 counters equal to the greatest mana value among cards in exile. That’s not all though, Ulamog is going to have annihilator X where X is the number of +1/+1 counters on it too.

This may be the most aggressive of the new Eldrazi, as it evokes nothing but raw power and hunger. You might notice that Ulamog doesn’t come with any form of evasion, because when you’re forcing your opponents to sacrifice that many permanents then you’re going to have to ask yourself... Are my opponents going to ever have any creatures left to block with?

If Eldrazi have ever gotten a bad wrap, it’s usually because of this particular titan and I can honestly say that Ulamog lives up to the hype. This is a card that you can’t really play without putting a target on your back, but if you weren’t comfortable with that then you wouldn’t be playing Eldrazi anyway!

If that wasn’t enough then Ulamog typically comes with Indestructible. Here we’ve traded it out for Ward - Sacrifice two permanents. I feel like this is a fair and balanced trade as this card it just such raw power that you want to be able to kill it outside of colours that can’t exile it. Even if it stings a little, it’s best to remove this card before it stings a lot.

Rares

Devourer of Destiny

This Eldrazi comes with a pre-game action attached to it. It allows you to fix your first draw of the game at the cost of exiling three cards. Now unless those cards begin with the words Emrakul, Kozilek or Ulamog you’re probably going to be able to do that without shedding too many tears. Making sure you hit your land drops consistently and making sure you can hit your early game ramp spells is crucial when you’re playing a bulk of creatures that cost over seven mana.

Card selection isn’t too common in colorless either, so never write off what could be that little extra advantage at the start of the game that will help you keep up with the other decks at the table. Devourer of Destiny also lets us exile a permanent on cast, so long as it’s got one or more colors. We can’t hit lands here but you’d better believe we can hit a lot else, and once we’ve dealt with a problematic permanent then a 6/6 statline isn’t the worst thing to be left with.

Echoes of Eternity

Echoes of Eternity joins the increasing ranks of ‘If you would do X do it again cards'. Now I know cards like this often get a lot of hate, but this one being colorless specific feels a lot fairer than usual. You’ve got to remember that giving up access to the colors of magic is a massive downside. You’re never going to be able to ramp, draw or remove threats as efficiently as the other colors.

If you’re leaning into Eldrazi then you’re also going to be ramping out massive threats that are often going to get removed due to the amount of text on them. This card leaves behind a copy of your Eldrazi after one of them has been inevitably killed, offering you the resilience you need. This is especially useful considering you’re not in the colors to reanimate your creatures with ease.

Remember it’s easy to rally against these kinds of cards, but as commander players it’s up to you how you use them. While Roaming Throne goes in every deck, Echoes of Eternity certainly finds its best home in Eldrazi. The only problem is... So does the Roaming Throne!

Eldrazi Confluence

If you’ll end up noticing a pattern in this article, it’s that you’ll notice that I’m very pleased when I see instant speed options in colorless. This comes from running Eldrazi in EDH for a long time. If you take nothing else from this article, then take the advice that you want to be valuing these cards highly. The first ability allows you to cast Spatial Contortion up to three times, which can potentially either deal with problem utility creatures with low toughness or buff the power of one of your unblocked attacking Eldrazi. The middle ability is potentially the weakest, as Eldrazi aren’t typically ones for enter the battlefield effects. It’s not bad to reset, say, counters on The One Ring. This card also lets you ramp and put up to three creatures onto the board as chump blockers with its last ability. I feel like this is one that will prove itself time and time again and I really like how this comes in at four mana. It’s a lot of card for the price.

Eldritch Immunity

Now, I know we all love Teferi's Protection. I mean, he’s such a caring guy it’s hard not to... But Eldrazi need protection too you know! Eldritch Immunity is going to save one of your Eldrazi from a removal spell for one mana, what more can you ask for?

Well, I suppose you could ask to protect all of your Eldrazi for five mana? This is going to be a signature spell in many colorless decks, though it’s not a bad card to include elsewhere too! If your deck runs enough lands like Rogue's Passagethat you can use to consistently produce generic mana, then you might want to consider this card if you need to run all the protection you can get.

Kozilek’s Command

I never thought we’d see a colorless entry to the Command cycle but here we are with Kozilek’s. Here we get to ramp, draw, exile a creature or exile some cards from a graveyard... What? This rules! This shores up all the weaknesses I just discussed under Echoes of Eternity. This is a card that makes me sad that I’m in a singleton format because I’d love to see a bunch of these.

The instant speed exile effects are particularly nice, and if you’ve got the manabase to support it then I’d even consider it in some monocolor decks. Some decks can’t ramp, scry or exile threats like this one, so let’s keep it on the radar. After all, include enough utility lands and this card could pay for itself.

Selective Obliteration

Selective Obliteration is a card that’s going to shine the greedier your opponents are, this card is going to lay waste to the many multicolored decks you’ll find in commander but I think that this card actually has a little bit of secret tech. Let’s talk about it. This is your reward for making it this far through the article. 

Selective Obliteration might be one of the best Green mass removal spells we’ve seen in a while. Green is not known for removing a board of creatures that efficiently, but this card just pulls it off. Not only that, it exiles the creatures too and that is something Green can’t really do that much off. This card also leaves your board intact if you’re mono green so honestly, grab this for your Green decks and thank me later.

Uncommons & Commons

It That Heralds the End

Oh look, it’s an Eldrazi mana dork! It’s even priced at two mana value so it’s going to come down at an appropriate time too! In the late game, this little guy is even going to buff the rest of your creatures? All that on a two mana 2/2. 

I have nothing but praise for this little Eldrazi Drone, he might not be a titan but he’s doing his best. I’d include him in all your Eldrazi decks, just honestly because I’d feel bad not including him. He’s so cute!

Glaring Fleshraker

Now this card really made me double take, this is a super unusual Eldrazi right here. It puts an Eldrazi Spawn token into play whenever we cast a colorless spell? And whenever a colorless creature enters the battlefield it deals 1 damage to each opponent.

I’ve got a feeling this card could actually find a home in plenty of artifact combo decks, just casting a ton of zero drop artifacts and making a ton of creatures and pinging our opponents to death? Not what you expect from an Eldrazi right? This card might win the sleeper hit uncommon award of this article and I’ve got a feeling that we’ll be seeing this card over on Commander Spellbook before long.

Null Elemental Blast

This is such a needed card within the archetype. There aren’t many colorless instants, never mind instant speed modal spells. Apart from Kozilek’s Command of course. Null Elemental Blast, or NEB if you’re in a hurry, is going to surprise people, that’s for sure. One mana to answer the majority of problem commanders in the format is tasty.

When you’re casting Eldrazi after Eldrazi, as I often am, one thing you tend to notice is that you don’t typically have a lot of mana left for interaction. Or cards to cast at instant speed, to be honest. But this card is able to be held up with any one of our lands, or even a cheeky Eldrazi Spawn or Scion. I’m a huge fan of this card as like many of the cards in MH3, it’s been included to shore up a weakness.

ALL IS DUST

Modern Horizons 3 has really given all of us colorless devotees an absolute treat, these cards are going to fundamentally change the way that colorless decks can interact with the game. You’re going to feel the impact of these game pieces in your games of commander and that honestly should be all we need from a new set to sing its praises. Here we’re not getting a bunch of overpowered nonsense, we’re getting surgically applied support for design archetypes that need it. Bravo. 

As always, I’ve been Joshua also known as Princeofbieltan and if you’d like to chat about Eldrazi with me, you can do so here and here. Just remember, there’s nothing wrong with the Eldrazi, so long as you’ve already lived a fulfilling life with no regrets!

Joshua Clough

Joshua is a Medical Researcher from the UK. He's played Magic since Dragons of Tarkir and loves all things Commander, the more colours the better! When not playing Commander, he can be found insisting Jund is still a viable deck in Modern and painting tiny plastic miniatures on Twitter @PrinceofBielTan