Known for their massive costs, incredible power, and awesome names, Eldrazi are standouts in Magic's creature type roster. A relative newcomer, only entering the game's circulation in the titular Rise of the Eldrazi in 2010, they represent cosmic horror and monsters beyond understanding.

Eldrazi are not evil. They do not hate you. They simply "are." And what they "are" is fundamentally incompatible with your continued existence.

The Eldrazi are overwhelmingly colorless, having transcended past the bounds of mana. They distend from the place between planes, annihilating everything and leaving behind barren wastes in their wake. Countless planes have fallen before them, and it took the concerted efforts of numerous planeswalkers working together just to stall them.

Unlimited Power

Eldrazi, in being eldritch entities from the Blind Eternities, have the power and toughness to back it up. Regularly exceeding even 10/10, Eldrazi possess some of the highest base stats in all of Magic's creature types.

Not every Eldrazi possesses such power, such as the various Drones, Spawns, Processors, and Scions that act as the creature type's fodder. But by and large, the main draw of playing Eldrazi is the various heavy-hitters they have access to.

Particularly when one is your commander, being able to swing at an opponent three or sometimes only two times can deal enough commander damage to take them out of the game.

Annihilator

While not unique to Eldrazi, annihilator is their signature ability. Whenever a creature with annihilator N attacks an opponent, that opponent must sacrifice N permanents.

It triggers on the creature's attack, meaning before blockers are declared, and it resolves even if the creature is destroyed without dealing damage. And it doesn't specify nonland permanents; everything is fair game!

Annihilator has been softly stepped away from, with Eldrazi returning in later sets opting for other keywords and mechanics. But it's still a legal keyword that is incredibly powerful to wield and occasionally makes an appearance in other sets.

Colorless

Eldrazi are a colorless creature type, often relying upon colorless mana. Colorless mana () is distinct from generic mana. While it's somewhat confusing to wrap your head around, colorless mana is effectively a "sixth color" for the purposes of casting costs.

Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion requires of any color and specifically two colorless mana produced by a source such as WastesWastes or Sol RingSol Ring.

Not every Eldrazi requires colorless mana specifically, with some even relying on colored mana while being devoid (being a colorless card even with a colored mana cost) and cut off from that color. But the end result is that Eldrazi often are immune to color-hating effects such as protections or destruction.

This doesn't render them fully immune to targeted effects, but it's a layer of protection that the five primary colors don't have.

They Are Expensive

Eldrazi tend to be quite expensive, as befitting their stats. They might exceed as an unmodified cost, potentially even requiring colorless mana to boot. Not every Eldrazi is like this, but the most game-impacting Eldrazi titans (Ulamog, Emrakul, and Kozilek) certainly are.

Luckily, you can mitigate this via Eldrazi's built-in mana-production strategies. The creature type relies heavily on its expensive titans and so provides a number of Drones to be sacrificed for mana or even just explicit cost reduction methods. The Hand of EmrakulHand of Emrakul is one such example, which can reduce its cost from a whopping to the sacrifice of four tokens.

Many Are Colorless

Just as Eldrazi being a colorless creature type is one of their strengths, it can also a great weakness. When your commander has a colorless identity, like many Eldrazi commanders, you have no access to colored spells. This, in turn, means you can't access staples of the format normally available to just about every other deck out there aside from colorless artifacts.

And even then, artifact decks tend to be based in a color, like or !

While Eldrazi are strong, that strength can't synergize with all of the other strategies Magic offers by the simple fact that some Eldrazi can't access them. Which, from a lore perspective, is a fantastic wrinkle! But mechanically, it provides quite the challenge.

This means colorless Eldrazi often rely on artifacts for their support, along with what colorless Eldrazi spells they can use to support themselves.

But there are also Eldrazi commanders which, while their commander is a colorless card, still involve mana symbols and are therefore allowed to field colors because of their Commander color identity.

It's important to note that cards with devoid may be colorless in the eyes of the game's mechanics, but when it comes to Commander's color identity rules, those cards have the color identity of any color pips present on the card.

For example, Abstruse AppropriationAbstruse Appropriation.

This is mechanically a colorless card because of devoid, but for a Commander deck, you can only play Abstruse Appropriation if your color identity includes black and white.

Ulalek, Fused AtrocityUlalek, Fused Atrocity

Ulalek, Fused AtrocityUlalek, Fused Atrocity is the 19th most played commander at the time of this guide's writing. And for good reason!

While cheap for an Eldrazi centerpiece, Ulalek has two features that set it apart. First, it's a five-color commander, which gives amazing flexibility in what cards you can bring. Despite being a colorless commander in a primarily colorless deck archetype, Ulalek decks can supplement whatever their strategy is with card draw , mana ramp , and more.

Second, Ulalek allows you to copy all spells and activated or triggered abilities you control, for just two colorless mana, whenever you cast an Eldrazi spell. This means you'll be running quite low on available mana if you're casting one of your heavy hitters.

But the ability triggers on any Eldrazi spell, including a low-cost Processor or any changeling.

Zhulodok, Void GorgerZhulodok, Void Gorger

Zhulodok, Void GorgerZhulodok, Void Gorger grants cascade. Then it grants cascade again. The fact this only applies to spells you cast with mana value seven or greater doesn't matter much when you're running an Eldrazi deck. But on top of that, cascade benefits most from high-costed cards!

Cascade allows you to exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less than the card triggering cascade. You can then cast it without paying its mana cost, returning the other cards to the bottom of your library randomly. Then, Zhulodok does it again.

Azlask, the Swelling ScourgeAzlask, the Swelling Scourge

Another five-color colorless commander, Azlask, the Swelling ScourgeAzlask, the Swelling Scourge focuses on the long game. A cheap and unassuming Eldrazi, its value arises from the fact that your experience counters don't fade when it dies. So even if you can't protect Azlask, you're still developing for further in the game.

Being able to dip into other colors allows you to engage in mechanics such as proliferate, inflating how many experience counters you have. If you enhance your token generations, that's more Scions and Spawns which all have annihilator 1 upon attack.

And this all acts as a fantastic pressure while you develop your board to summon more powerful Eldrazi. Or simply swarm them with chaff!

Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion

Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion has an on-cast ability to draw up to seven cards, which is a great value for when you're running low on fuel. Menace on a 12/12 is great, even if it lacks keywords such as trample or annihilator to secure damage dealt.

The real value of Kozilek comes from its ability to counter just about anything. The trick is to match the cards in your hand to the mana value of what your opponents are going to cast, which requires having a good spread in your deck as well as having a full hand. Luckily, that's what the on-cast ability is for!

Kozilek can be downright oppressive, completely shutting down your opponents' plays while swinging with a hard-to-block 12/12. And even the threat of being able to counter can weigh on its own, as if you had a free at all times.

Animar, Soul of ElementsAnimar, Soul of Elements

Animar, Soul of ElementsAnimar, Soul of Elements isn't an Eldrazi, and is a good example of how out-of-type synergies can make a creature type pop. Not only does Animar have protection from and , two colors that love cheaply exiling and destroying creatures, but it also grows in power over time.

Every time you cast a creature spell, Animar gets a +1/+1 counter. This is good, consistent scaling that isn't limited by anything other than your ability to cast creatures.

And then it reduces the cost to cast creatures by for each +1/+1 counter on it.

Not only does this mean you can more effectively spam out cheap creatures to continue growing it, but yes, your giant Eldrazi titans can be made affordable! Notably, this doesn't reduce colorless mana costs, but can absolutely reduce Eldrazi with only generic mana in their cost down to .

Ulamog, the Ceaseless HungerUlamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Ulamog, the Ceaseless HungerUlamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is another example of a large Eldrazi that costs a lot and packs a serious punch. An indestructible 10/10 on its own is scary enough, but that can still be exiled. Which is why Ulamog exiles two target permanents upon being cast, just to ensure you always get some value from it.

Even without annihilator, Eldrazi still hate lands!

When Ulamaog attacks, it exiles the top twenty cards of the opponent's library. This is a fifth of the opponent's deck, though likely won't be able to effectively mill them out completely due to being unable to access . It will absolutely scare them, and if they have any degree of deck sculpting, that will trash it.

And it's exile, meaning you can target graveyard reclamation decks without fear!

Ultima, Origin of OblivionUltima, Origin of Oblivion

Ultima, Origin of OblivionUltima, Origin of Oblivion is an alternate method of improving your colorless mana economy. A flying 4/4, Ultima has a deal of flexibility in strengthening your economy and destabilizing your opponents'.

Whenever Ultima attacks, you may put a blight counter on a target land, which effectively converts it into WastesWastes. And whenever you tap a land for colorless mana, gain an extra .

This speeds up your ability to summon Eldrazi, particularly if you pack some WastesWastes or colorless mana generating lands into your deck to begin with. As soon as you get out your commander, you just doubled your mana production. And in such cases, you can mitigate an opponent's ability to produce mana or shut down one of their nonbasic lands.

It That BetraysIt That Betrays

With all of the annihilation going on with early Eldrazi cards, It That BetraysIt That Betrays takes an already strong keyword and compounds it even further. Not only is it an 11/11 with annihilator 2, it also steals the cards your opponents sacrifice.

It has synergy with the rest of the early Eldrazi, can proc its own ability, and even functions as a general deterrent against certain playstyles in colors like .

Hideous TaskmasterHideous Taskmaster

Hideous TaskmasterHideous Taskmaster is devoid and therefore colorless, though still requires to cast. This isn't an issue when considering that upon casting it, you gain control of a number of creatures equal to your number of opponents for the turn. Not only do they get trample and haste, but they also get annihilator!

While its toughness means it won't live long, it doesn't need to. The value of Hideous Taskmaster is to disrupt the board state, force an opponent or opponents to sacrifice some permanents, and perhaps deal some damage along the way.

Oblivion SowerOblivion Sower

Being able to cheat out lands is great, and Oblivion SowerOblivion Sower lets you do that while simultaneously denying those lands from your opponent. Eldrazi are mana-hungry, so any amount of economic boost will help you immensely. The fact it skims them off an opponent's deck upon being cast just adds to an already sorely-needed mechanic.

And despite being , that's cheap for Eldrazi! Particularly as a 5/8, which gives you a solid attacker and a fantastic defender for (relatively) cheap.

Urza's IncubatorUrza's Incubator

Urza's IncubatorUrza's Incubator is a staple of just about every typal deck, given the fact it fits literally any creature type you could need it for. As a result, this "anchor staple" isn't really worth mentioning in most guides.

The Eldrazi, however, have one mana-burning weakness. Therefore, each and every method of combatting that is necessary, and you will feel the value of Urza's Incubator stronger with Eldrazi than just about any other creature type.

Mystic ForgeMystic Forge

Mystic ForgeMystic Forge grants the ability to look at and play the top card of your library if it's colorless. In an Eldrazi deck, of course, that will be the majority of your cards, including all devoid cards.

However, it also allows you to exile the top card of your deck, which gives you a fair bit more flexibility in what you'll have access to. If you're in a position to play one of your heavy hitters, you can exile a cheap Eldrazi without fear of reprisal. You might not come across the card you want, but at the very least you can thin your deck once you're in the position to capitalize on it for a single life per turn.

Darksteel MonolithDarksteel Monolith

Darksteel MonolithDarksteel Monolith is an expensive, indestructible artifact that allows you to pay instead of a colorless spell's normal cost once per turn. That's potentially a value of up to , which more than makes up for the initial cost of .

The fact it's an indestructible artifact means it's not going anywhere anytime soon, unless your opponents decide to exile it.

It requires a minor amount of protecting, but in a Kozilek, the Great DistortionKozilek, the Great Distortion it will put in incredible value.

From BeyondFrom Beyond

From BeyondFrom Beyond grants Eldrazi Scion production, 1/1 tokens that can be sacrificed to add . This is only once per turn but makes summoning your powerful Eldrazi easier.

And even if you're not in a position to cast anything major, that's a free blocker every turn.

It also has a lovely secondary effect to sacrifice itself and tutor for an Eldrazi, searching your library and finding a specific card to add to your hand. This might be after multiple turns of creating Scions when you know you can cast the Eldrazi or in response to From Beyond being removed. It's not a bad thing to have access to, particularly if your deck is built around a handful of anchor Eldrazi.

Eldrazi ConscriptionEldrazi Conscription

Eldrazi ConscriptionEldrazi Conscription takes a non-Eldrazi creature and turns it into an honorary Eldrazi. Alternatively, it takes an existing Eldrazi and superpowers it.

While annihilator 2 is impressive, the real value here is +10 power and trample. Applying this to your commander means you're able to deal enough commander damage in two hits to take an opponent out - perhaps even a single hit, depending on your commander. This is dependent on blockers, but something like Ulamog, the DefilerUlamog, the Defiler with only three +1/+1 counters on it has annihilator 5 and is a 20/20 with trample.

That means the opponent requires at least six blockers and to have taken no commander damage from Ulamog previously to survive.

Echoes of EternityEchoes of Eternity

Echoes of EternityEchoes of Eternity is an Eldrazi enchantment used in a variety of combos, such as supporting the triggers from Glaring FleshrakerGlaring Fleshraker. As a kindred enchantment it counts as an Eldrazi spell and is entirely devoted towards supporting Eldrazi of varying power levels. Artifacts as well!

It also allows annihilator triggers to proc multiple times. Which is horrifying, considering how impactful that can be.

Ugin's BindingUgin's Binding

Ugin's BindingUgin's Binding is, nearly, Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift. While you can't overload it, it can be exiled from your graveyard when casting a colorless spell of cost or greater to effectively accomplish the same thing. And it doesn't have an additional cost!

In an Eldrazi deck, this effectively allows you to sneak a Game Changer into your deck given how many high-cost colorless spells you'll have access to. And devoid means it's immune to -hate, like Red Elemental BlastRed Elemental Blast!

Rise of the EldraziRise of the Eldrazi

While more expensive than some high-costed Eldrazi, Rise of the EldraziRise of the Eldrazi is your showstopper. And it can't be countered, which is a much-needed form of protection for such an expensive card.

Rise gives you a taste of each Eldrazi lineage's specialty. You can destroy a permanent. A target player, which will likely be you but not necessarily, draws four cards. And you get to take an extra turn. You have to exile Rise of the Eldrazi after playing it, but just that one burst can change the tide of games.

It will take a lot of mana to play, but drawing four cards and being able to swing your Eldrazi effectively for free before resetting on another turn cannot be overstated. At its least valuable, it hampers a single opponent and gives you some card draw. At its most, it allows you to set up and pay off something in two linked turns.

Kozilek's CommandKozilek's Command

Kozilek's CommandKozilek's Command grants flexibility, giving you two choices of a range. It can provide Eldrazi Spawn that can be sacrificed for colorless mana, scrying followed by card draw, exiling a target creature, or exiling a number of cards from a graveyard.

This is an X-costed card, meaning that not only is it mechanically flexible, it's also economically feasible. It's only as expensive as you need it to be, meaning you can use it to squeeze a small amount of value from an otherwise wasted pool of mana or swing big for sweeping change.

It's effective either way, and yet another noncreature Eldrazi spell.

Ugin, Eye of the StormsUgin, Eye of the Storms

Ugin, Eye of the StormsUgin, Eye of the Storms's biggest contribution is its ability to exile colored spells every time you cast a colorless spell. Gaining life and drawing a card is useful, particularly for gaining two loyalty counters. Three colorless mana is great economic value for future Eldrazi casting.

But Ugin's flashiest ability is to search for any number of colorless nonland cards, exile them, then cast them for free. That is all of your Eldrazi, support pieces such as artifacts and enchantments, and even instants or sorceries.

The ultimate only costs eleven loyalty counters when Ugin begins at seven and gains two each increment, which means on Ugin's third turn you can do this. That would mean losing Ugin, and with one board wipe you're done, but it can catch a table unprepared.

Ugin, the Spirit DragonUgin, the Spirit Dragon

Ugin, the Spirit DragonUgin, the Spirit Dragon is somewhat less impressive than the prior iteration, though still quite useful. A constant ping of three damage to gain loyalty can put pressure on opponents or remove utility creatures. Blanket exile of colored permanents dependent on mana cost is a quite powerful ability, given Ugin begins at seven loyalty.

And given it's an Eldrazi deck, Ugin's ability to play up to seven permanents from your hand onto the battlefield for free can win you a game. It's less dramatic than the previous iteration, but it requires one fewer loyalty counter and allows you to draw cards beforehand.

Ugin's ability to cheat out Eldrazi is useful in all its forms.

Reliquary TowerReliquary Tower

Reliquary TowerReliquary Tower is an example of a land that generates colorless mana with an additional effect. Most Eldrazi decks take a range of them, where being able to produce colorless mana is the priority of their inclusion.

Having no maximum hand size is useful, particularly given many other ways of achieving it that are tied to specific colors. But the ability to generate colorless mana is more relevant to the archetype it's being included in.

Tomb of the Spirit DragonTomb of the Spirit Dragon

Tomb of the Spirit DragonTomb of the Spirit Dragon, meanwhile, has a more impactful activated ability. Still granting colorless mana, it can also spend to gain a life for each colorless creature you control.

Eldrazi utility creatures usually aren't quite numerous, though the Eldrazi have many methods of creating Spawn and Scion tokens. With any amount of setup, the Tomb can allow you to sustain yourself quite easily without needing to spend your Spawn blocking.

Then you can sacrifice them to cast your larger Eldrazi, at which point you won't need to worry about sustaining yourself.

Eye of UginEye of Ugin

Eye of UginEye of Ugin is tailored to make Eldrazi players' lives easier. It provides no direct mana production, but passive decreases all colorless Eldrazi spells by . Which given how many of them have no color or are devoid, means most of them.

Then you can spend to tutor for a colorless creature card, such as an Eldrazi, and put it in your hand. Given the cost, you likely won't be able to cast it that turn, but if you have the ability to produce then that means you'll be able to cast at least an -value Eldrazi the following turn.

Eldrazi are a solidly late-game creature type, oriented around building up their economy and sustaining themselves until they can unleash one or two creatures that they'll rely on to win the game. This means creating Drone and Scion tokens to sacrifice later. Setting up artifacts and enchantments to make colorless creature spells cheaper. Keeping up a wall of blockers to protect your mana production.

Some Eldrazi decks engage in early-game pressure. The numerous middling Eldrazi can have a decent pressure to them, particularly if focused on using their abilities to target pain points in an opponent's defenses. They have access to numerous targeted exile effects and/or the ability to scale themselves over time.

But ultimately, the majority of an Eldrazi deck's playstyle will revolve around "not dying until I can play Emrakul" or whichever titan is their linchpin.

There are multiple combos that an Eldrazi deck can field unrelated to simply achieving near-infinite colorless mana to cast any creature they want. Though that is something they can do with cards like Basalt MonolithBasalt Monolith and Forsaken MonumentForsaken Monument.

In an Ulalek, Fused AtrocityUlalek, Fused Atrocity deck, you can play both Glaring FleshrakerGlaring Fleshraker and Echoes of EternityEchoes of Eternity to deal near-infinite damage. Once you cast any colorless Eldrazi spell, this triggers Ulalek's ability and Fleshraker's first ability, both of which are doubled by Echoes. Once you pay two colorless mana, this copies everything. You then resolve Fleshraker's trigger to create an Eldrazi Spawn, which then triggers its second ability to deal a damage every time a colorless creature enters the battlefield under your control. You can then sacrifice it to gain a colorless mana.

Due to the fact that everything is doubled, you can do this again. Because of the copying, you're able to sacrifice enough Spawns to keep up with the mana cost of Ulalek's copying trigger. Echoes doubles everything. Ulalek copies everything. Fleshraker both gives Spawn to sacrifice for mana as well as damage triggers.

This combo requires all three of the cards to be set up on the battlefield before playing an independent colorless Eldrazi, but it's a well-earned combo that is much cheaper than trying to cheat out a titan.