card games/mtg

Eldrazi Family Reunion

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Utilizing the immense strength of the Eldrazi with practical means of getting them on the battlefield.

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[d title=”Eldrazi Family Reunion v2.0.2 (Tooth and Nail Variant)” style=”embedded”]
Creatures
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Hand of Emrakul
1 It That Betrays
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
3 Kozilek’s Predator
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
1 Spawnsire of Ulamog
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Ulamog’s Crusher

Instants
2 Not of This World

Sorceries
2 All is Dust
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Skittering Invasion
2 Sylvan Scrying
4 Tooth and Nail

Artifacts
1 Elixir of Immortality
4 Expedition Map
4 Quicksilver Amulet

Lands
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
6 Forest
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower

Sideboard
2 Dwell on the Past
2 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Karn Liberated
2 Momentous Fall
2 Nature’s Claim
2 Not of This World
2 Walking Atlas

Maybeboard
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
3 Burgeoning
2 Chromatic Sphere
2 Chromatic Star
4 Emrakul’s Hatcher
2 Khalni Gem
2 Wurmcoil Engine

[/d]
So there it is, my Tooth and Nail take on the Eldrazi creatures. I’ve been playtesting this a lot lately and against several types of decks. (Forge is a pretty awesome way to play Magic on your computer. Tons of features, easy to build decks, tons of preloaded decks, and a fairly competent Computer AI. I don’t always agree with their decisions and there are a few cards which the AI can’t seem to properly play with and/or against, but it works well enough…and it’s free!)  I’m sure one could find more efficient creatures to use, but I wanted to keep this as Eldrazi-themed as possible.

Addendum:  Periodically I bring up the issue of being able to reclaim cards from the graveyard as needed, mostly in conjunction with [c]Elixir of Immortality[/c], when I was apparently forgetting all about the triggered abilities of the 3 Legendary Eldrazi ([c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c], [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c], [c]Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre[/c]) which allow me to shuffle my graveyard into my library if they should enter the graveyard.  It’s a good setup, but not quite ideal without a way to sacrifice a creature.  However, the ability activiates even if these cards are discarded, so even though my control of the event is ultimately hindered, all 3 act as virtual insurance against running out of cards or having too much of what I need stuck in the graveyard.

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Strategy and Tactics:

The idea with any [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] deck is to put a few immensely powerful creatures in your deck and bring them out in one crushing blow with [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]’s Entwine ability.  It’s a hefty spell – 7 colorless and 2 green – but it’s worth it.  It lets you fetch any 2 creatures from your library, put them in your hand, and then place any 2 creatures from your hand onto the battlefield.  Traditional choices include [c]Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/c] to counteract summoning sickness on the turn where [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] is played and a game-ender like [c]Darksteel Colossus[/c] for the former to copy.

A full 9 mana may not seem like the most optimal way to do this, but with the right creatures, it can easily win the game.  Plus, the deck can focus more on generating this mana and operate relatively lightly on creatures in general, and color-fixing becomes a non-issue since the spell can put creatures into play regardless of their casting cost.  One can literally select any creatures without worrying about supplying the correct color(s) of mana beyond the 2 green needed for [c]Tooth and Nail[/c].

Eldrazis are some of the most perfect creatures to use in this manner.  They’re huge and expensive, and as a bonus, they can also be cast directly with all that colorless mana generated for [c]Tooth and Nail[/c].  Wizards of the Coast intended for the Rise of the Eldrazi expansion to be a standalone set centered on the long game, but we can subvert that somewhat and get these monsters out in new ways.

Most of the creatures in this deck are massive and designed to inflict crippling blows on the opponent.  Along with the Annihilator ability, they also make quick work of the opponents defenses and eventually their resources in general.  The objective here is to get a few of these Eldrazi out onto the battlefield – through a variety of ways – and simply attack and overwhelm through sheer strength.  The trick is getting there, which is where most of my questions, concerns, and indeed weaknesses fall.  It may not be as slow as amassing 15 [c]Plains[/c] to get [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c] onto the field, but it does take some time to get all of this moving and getting all the right cards into place.

In general, our short term goal is to build up mana by getting as many of the Urza lands in play as possible.  Tools like [c]Sylvan Scrying[/c], [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c], and especially [c]Expedition Map[/c] will help us get the right stuff from our library.  Beyond that, we need to mount a short-term defense in case it takes a turn or two too many to get what we need or if the opponent prepares an especially expedient opening.  Those 20 life points will have to bear the brunt of this at times, but the idea is that [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c], [c]Skittering Invasion[/c], and the resulting [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] can provide enough of a buffer.  This element of the deck could still use some fine tuning, though I have been attempting to keep as many Eldrazi cards and cards from Rise of the Eldrazi or the entire Zendikar set in general.

Once we have even a few lands in place, cards like [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c] can help us bring out creatures quickly as well.  The deck relies primarily on mana ramp and brute strength, so it is vulnerable to control and combo decks.  Weenie decks can storm this deck if played well, but hopefully there are enough odds and ends ([c]Elixir of Immortality[/c], [c]All is Dust[/c]) that we can hold off all but the most vicious and concentrated of efforts.

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Strengths:

Obviously the biggest plus here is being able to play these giant creatures earlier than normal.  This is mostly accomplished through the use of Urza’s lands and the [c]Eldrazi Temple[/c]s.  Best case scenario, cards like [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c], [c]Ulamog’s Crusher[/c], and [c]Artisan of Kozilek[/c] can drop on Turn 4.  And that’s not even taking [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c] into account.  You can drop this as early as Turn 3 and activate it on Turn 4 and put any creature into play, albeit their “when this card is cast…” abilities won’t activate (such as the extra turn that [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c] provides).  Naturally, the true coup de grace is to cast [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] with its Entwine, but that sort of mana is difficult to come across as early as Turn 4.

It isn’t that hard to naturally draw and play the appropriate lands to put [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] into play, but [c]Sylvan Scrying[/c] and [c]Expedition Map[/c] make getting the right combination of Urza lands and [c]Forest[/c]s that much easier.  [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c] can also assist in both land and colorless creature fetching, and it’s important to remember that [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] can be used without Entwine in order to mount an early defense or rifle through your library for the right cards.

I haven’t quite decided just how useful [c]Elixir of Immortality[/c] is yet, but it is a great defense against forced discards and unexpected creature removal.  Part of me wants to add another copy or even relegate it to the sideboard.  It does provide a continual defense against removal (since it’s shuffled back into your library along with your graveyard when used) and can provide a boost in life while you set up for bringing out the big guns.  [c]Not of This World[/c] is especially useful against control and removal decks and can nearly always be cast for free when it’s needed most.  Having an extra pair on the sideboard is a must.

If you look at just the cards available in the Rise of the Eldrazi expansion (which was meant to more or less stand alone), several of them revolve around creating 0/1 colorless [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] which can be sacrificed for 1 colorless mana.  I want to integrate this concept further into the deck, but I’m uncertain as to whether or not it’s more viable/efficient than the cards already in play.  [c]Skittering Invasion[/c] and [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c] can put these tokens out there, though at a price that may be better spent elsewhere.  [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] is the real gem; not only does it produce a couple of tokens, but it can also be put into play with a minimal combination of synergistic lands and we don’t need to worry about color since we’ve already got [c]Forest[/c]s on board for [c]Tooth and Nail[/c].  Still, in desperate times, these little spawns can function as effective blockers to buy yourself another turn if you’re getting particularly unlucky and/or your opponent is quickly flooding the field with small creatures.  Their defensive value is temporary, but they can buy you a turn or two to get the deck going.

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Weaknesses:

Early game defense is the main issue here, tying in to what I just wrote in the previous paragraph.  Opponents who get off to a strong start can take a severe chunk of life out of you while you take time to get the right lands, creatures, and spells into place.  There really isn’t much here to mount an early defense.  [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] is the candidate for the job; 3/3 isn’t bad, plus the 2 [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] that can either block another couple of attackers or add mana on the next turn, but sometimes these can be difficult to get out (lack of a [c]Forest[/c] is the most common setback) but then again I don’t want to water down the deck with weenie creatures.  There are a few interesting combinations that can be exploited from time to time, but one of the most useful, especially if your land situation is dire, is that 2 [c]Kozilek Predator[/c]s can produce 4 [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c], which in turn can be immediately sacrificed to pull out a [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c].  Little tricks like this make me wonder if I should lean heavier on spawns and the [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c] as another early defense tactic.

Most of the time, colorless mana flows easily, and any mana problems that do arise are usually a lack of [c]Forest[/c]s.  The good news is that all that colorless mana can probably add up to something significant on its own without the need for any green.  [c]All is Dust[/c] can come in handy both early in the game or as a means of clearing out obstacles so that your Eldrazi can get to the player quicker (however, this point is somewhat moot due to most of the Eldrazi’s Annihilator ability; I find it more useful as an early defensive move).  Unfortunately, there’s an issue I haven’t found a way around yet, and that’s the fact that [c]All is Dust[/c] also wipes out my [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]s.  Still, if the opponent has a sizable number of creatures ready to command, it’s more than worth it, I just wish I could get more mileage out of [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]s lost in this way.

The Eldrazi are most vulnerable against fancy combo decks, for which I have virtually no defense other than [c]Not of This World[/c], which really only comes in handy after I get creatures on the field.  I do have a few cards that can switch things up in the sideboard, though they don’t necessarily have that synergistic effect that I’d prefer.  (I go into the sideboard and “maybeboard” in more detail below.)

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Questions:

I wish I had a greater amount of “card knowledge” rattling around in my brain, then maybe I could answer my own questions.  My biggest concern is the overall redundancy of the deck.  Even though it’s based on [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] and casting it with Entwine, there are several other measures for getting big creatures on the field quicker than normal:

• [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c]
  • Essentially reduces the casting cost of any and all creatures to 4 colorless.
• [c]Urza’s Mine[/c], [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c], and [c]Urza’s Tower[/c]
  • Simple mana ramp for “legitimately” casting big creatures – 12 total lands that can create a whopping 28 colorless mana when used together.
  • Even with 1 [c]Urza’s Mine[/c], 1 [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c], and all 4 [c]Urza’s Tower[/c]s on the field, these 6 lands will create 16 mana.
• [c]Eldrazi Temple[/c]
  • More mana ramp for actual casting – 4 lands produce 8 colorless in the service of Eldrazi
• [c]Eye of Ugin[/c]
  • Bumps 2 colorless off of Eldrazi spells.
  • However, since only one can be in play at a time, I’m not sure how useful it is.  There is the possibility of using 4 copies to ensure more regular play, but part of me thinks this might be a bigger waste of 3 slots than the potential gains…which leads me to wondering if this card needs to be in the deck at all.  Of all the redundancies, this is the one I’m least sure about.
• [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c]
  • I mentioned this earlier, and I don’t know if I’ve included enough sources of [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] to truly make this effective.  To begin with, only 6 cards can create them – the 3 [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]s, 2 [c]Skittering Invasion[/c], and 1 [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c].
    • The latter almost doesn’t even count – once it’s on the battlefield, those spawn won’t be needed for mana, however, if the opponent has a lot of weenies in play, using the ability multiple times can be useful for defensive purposes (creating blockers to withstand the opponent’s attack while you get the correct cards into play).
    • [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] makes the most sense and ends up being the most economical – cheap-ish 3/3 creature plus 2 0/1 spawns for 4 total mana – lots of uses that can get the ball rolling a turn early.
    • [c]Skittering Invasion[/c] doesn’t make much sense from a mana perspective, though it could be useful for creating extra spawns for use as mana on the next turn if the spawns aren’t needed as blockers.  The real kicker here is being able to essentially cast [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c] for 7 colorless instead of 9, with a spawn left over.  ([c]Skittering Invasion[/c] costs 7, creates 5 spawns, and [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c] can be cast by sacrificing 4 spawn rather than paying its casting cost.)  However, this is simply a circumstance to take advantage of, and not necessarily a strategy to plan for.  Still, it strikes me as yet another layer of redundancy, especially if nothing else is going right.
  • An effective [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] strategy seems like it ought to use [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c] as well, plus it would add even more Eldrazi flavor to the deck.  I just couldn’t find a smart way to work this in.  It essentially does the same thing as [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c], yet provides 1 additional spawn for 1 extra mana.  The real problem here (besides deck space) is that darn red mana.  Where is it going to come from?  It’s not worth diluting the available [c]Forest[/c]s with [c]Mountain[/c]s.  The other lands do a great job of producing mana, so I’m reluctant to toss them.  The only other choice seems to be mana color conversion.
    • [c]Khalni’s Gem[/c] sounds like a good way to convert mana, especially on a regular basis, but returning 2 lands to your hand is a steep price, especially when you only really need a single red at a time and when the lands in this deck have such a synergistic effect.  We need to get this deck going faster, and I don’t know if setting back land play 2 turns is really worth the benefit of [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c].
    • [c]Chromatic Sphere[/c] and/or [c]Chromatic Star[/c] don’t possess the weaknesses of the former, but they’re single use cards (though both allow you to draw a card as well, which is always good).  At the very least, the deck would need either 4 copies of one of those or 2 copies of each to be of much use, and I’m not sure where this space is supposed to come from.  The added benefit is that these could also produce small amounts of green mana as needed, however, if we load the deck with even 3 [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c], it means we must use at least 3 [c]Chromatic Sphere[/c]/[c]Chromatic Star[/c]s to get them into play since we have no other source of red mana.  ([c]Elixir of Immortality[/c] could get these cards back in our library, but we don’t want to count on that happening with only a single copy in the deck; yet again, adding more copies means something else has to go!)  We use a lot of deck space (at least 7 cards) for this play, and it isn’t necessarily a strong one.  Moreover, both of these strategies make any loses resulting from [c]All is Dust[/c] that much more painful.
    • The above points could be disregarded if we rely solely on [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] and [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c] to “cast” [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c] since color is unimportant, but I question how viable this strategy is since we can use those same tools to get bigger and better creatures out there.  What we need [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c] for is early game defense, so we need to be able to pull them out with as few resources as possible.
    • A final possibility that just struck me (and probably the cleanest) is using one of the dual lands or other unusual lands in place of the 6 [c]Forest[/c]s:
      • [c]Ancient Ziggurat[/c]:  Not bad, though it’s a little more functionality than we need and it does come with a price (only creature spells) that could slow down other aspects of the deck.
      • [c]Cavern of Souls[/c]:  Potentially useful, especially for making sure that those early defenders can’t be countered.  It’ll also contribute to the overall mana, but it won’t help us with spells.
      • [c]City of Brass[/c]:  Another worthwhile consideration, though the 1 life could be a heavy price, and it could potentially turn into a useless and unusable land.
      • [c]Copperline Gorge[/c]:  Probably one of the best options; no muss, no fuss, other than it entering tapped.
      • [c]Darigaaz’s Caldera[/c]:  Another consideration.  It can slow down the mana ramp, and we don’t really need the black, but not too painful overall.
      • [c]Fire-Lit Thicket[/c]:  Both produces and converts mana – is it the best fit for the job?  Possibly useful to replace 2 of the [c]Forest[/c]s with…?
      • [c]Frontier Bivouac[/c]:  Don’t need the blue but it’s looking good otherwise…
      • [c]Gemstone Mine[/c]:  This could be a great card to keep a single copy of in the library and fetch for.  However its long-term usefulness isn’t wonderful, and this is a deck where we need to sustain as much of that mana as we can.
      • [c]Glimmervoid[/c]:  Now I really like this one, but I don’t think we’re heavy enough on artifacts to seriously consider it.  A [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c] or 3 will probably reside on the battlefield, but I’d hate for those colored spells to hinge on it.  I also wouldn’t want to have to hang on to something like [c]Expedition Map[/c] longer than I needed to just to keep this in play.
      • [c]Grove of the Burnwillows[/c]:  A serious contender.  The occasional single life point gained by the opponent shouldn’t be all that important considering the future damage dealt by the Eldrazi.  Plus, it only does this when we need red or green; the rest of the time we can safely pull colorless from it.
      • [c]Gruul Guildgate[/c]:  One of the strongest contenders yet.  Comes into play tapped but otherwise we’re in good shape.
      • [c]Gruul Turf[/c]:  Lots of good uses here, including increased mana ramp since we can squeeze 2 mana out of it.  But the short-term cost is pretty high – it enters tapped and we have to return a land?  This would put us a turn behind on lands, a difference that wouldn’t truly be made up for until 2 turns later.
      • [c]Karplusan Forest[/c]:  Typical painland.  Essentially the inverse of [c]Grove of the Burnwillows[/c].  But considering how precious our life points are as we may need to take a beating early on, I’d have to reject this wholeheartedly.
      • [c]Kazandu Refuge[/c]:  Another great option, plus it gives us a bump up in life.
      • [c]Raging Ravine[/c]:  I like this because it’s from Worldwake, and it can also be used for early defense if needed.  Comes into play tapped, but damn near all of these things do.
      • [c]Rootbound Crag[/c]:  I like this one too, except one needs a [c]Mountain[/c] or [c]Forest[/c] on the battlefield for it to enter untapped, and the idea here is to replace our basic lands completely and avoid having to color-fix altogether.
      • [c]Taiga[/c]:  The obvious choice to fill 4 of those 6 slots, one of the original dual lands.  When/if I pump out another version of this deck with [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c], 4 [c]Taiga[/c] are going in without question!

So is all this redundancy worth it?  Are there better cards to accomplish the same goals?  And the biggest question – which cards can we remove to keep it at an even 60?  More specifically and concisely:

• Do we have too much mana flowing?  I have had a few games where I’ve built up enormous amounts of mana and had nothing to do with it.  Though this could be bad luck since we do have [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c] as a way of getting a hold of some of those colorless cards, as well as [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] itself (even without Entwine, it can effectively fetch those needed creatures, especially for plays with [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c]).
• As much as I want to keep them in for flavor, should [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] be a consideration at all?  Does [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] as a possible early defense/punching bag make sense to use while I’m working on getting my Eldrazi out there?
• The BIG BIG Question:  Do I even need to center this on [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] anymore?  It’s plenty easy to cast the Eldrazi either legitimately or through [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c].  [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] works great as a fetch card and lowers the number of creatures needed in the deck, but can it be done for cheaper?  Eliminating [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] could also lower my reliance on green mana, leaving me more room to go colorless or incorporate more simple mana conversion for the occasional spell.

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Sideboard Thoughts:

I haven’t put a whole lot of time and energy into testing out combinations with the sideboard yet.  I feel that the cards I’ve selected work well enough with the main deck, my usual difficulty is figuring out which cards to replace!

• [c]Dwell on the Past[/c]: Not sure if 2 of these is enough to do the trick or not, but it is a great way to reclaim cards from the graveyard if the opponent is constantly forcing discards, causing you to mill, or using a plethora of counterspells and/or creature removal.
• [c]Eldrazi Conscription[/c]:  I really wanted to find a way to work this in the main deck, but I just couldn’t.  I’m not even sure if it belongs in the sideboard, but it’s there because of that good ol’ Eldrazi flavor.  A powerful card no doubt – it could be great for bumping up even those little [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] into mammoth attackers.  But is it worth it with so many big creatures at our disposal already?  This card really got my gears turning when I was up against a computer deck that absolutely suffocated my Eldrazi with -1/-1 counters.
• [c]Grafdigger’s Cage[/c]:  I’m not sold on this card at all.  It seems like a decent defense against certain types of decks, but it seems so finely tailored that I’m not sure it needs a permanent spot here.  It could keep nasty spells from coming back to haunt to me, but the idea is that I’ve got enough resources already and a way to retrieve them.
• [c]Karn Liberated[/c]:  This was held over from a previous “Tooth and Nail Eldrazi” -style deck that I got inspiration from.  The creator had 3 of these in his main deck, which seemed like a total waste of space since only one can be in play at a time. After I’d played through a few rounds, I realized his usefulness was limited in conjunction with the Eldrazi.  Planeswalkers are generally interesting cards to have around, almost all of them having some very powerful effects, but I didn’t find any of them especially conducive with pumping out Eldrazi.  However, [c]Karn Liberated[/c] does act as a great damage sponge, and his abilities which cause an opponent (or yourself, if you wish) to exile cards can be awesome at disturbing control and combo decks.  His “uber ability” of putting all those exiled permanents onto the battlefield under your control are an absolute game-breaker, though this is probably a strategy best exploited on its own rather than hanging around in the background of our current strategy.  I’ve kept him around because he can be useful in some situations, especially when I need to bide my time against powerful cards.
• [c]Momentous Fall[/c]:  Here’s a card I stumbled across while trying to find life gain outside of white.  It’s got excellent uses with the Eldrazi – I can sacrifice one of the larger Legendary Eldrazi, gain a ton of life, draw a ton of cards, and then, due to the triggered ability of the 3 Legendary Eldrazi, I’ll have my entire graveyard back into my library.  I’m actually wondering if this has a place in the main deck due to it’s triple-fold usefulness.  The only thing holding me back is that in order to be able to sacrifice such a large creature, it needs to already be on the battlefield, and by then it might be either too late (opponent has already worn me down too much) or wholly unnecessary (with such huge stats and abilities like Annihilator, the life gain, card draw, and graveyard reclamation may not be as important as simply keeping the creature on the field).  Still, this can be quite useful against black decks or decks that otherwise target the player directly with lots of damage.
• [c]Nature’s Claim[/c]:  Another card I’m on the fence about; it’s a cheap way to get rid of nasty enchantments, particularly those placed on the Eldrazi, though it grants the controller a bit of life.  My rationale is that getting rid of an enchantment that frees up the Eldrazi (something like [c]Pacifism[/c]) with such a low cost is worth it.  It eliminates pesky artifacts too!
• [c]Not of This World[/c]:  Two of these are already in the main deck, which ought to be enough to stave off any crippling removals, enchantments, or abilities.  For instances where the opponent is heavy-handed with such tactics, I upped the limit to 4.  Against the right types of decks, this card is truly invaluable for protecting Eldrazis once they’re in play, especially since it’s free more often than not!
• [c]Walking Atlas[/c]:  I really like this guy, and even better, he’s from Zendikar!  In this deck, getting land out there is of tantamount initial importance.  We’ve got the right stuff to put the right kind of lands in our hand, but so far there’s no way to circumvent the “1 land per turn” rule…until now.  I would actually like to find a place for this in the main deck, but most of the time I can get the mana out of the main deck quick enough.  So instead, I’ve got this in the sideboard just in case I’m up against a lightning fast opponent.  Two copies might seem light, but [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c] can help me move at least one of them to the battlefield quickly, and even one of them in play early on could make a tremendous amount of difference.

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Maybeboard

“Maybeboards” aren’t an officially sanctioned Magic term or designation, but they’re useful for discussing how to build a better deck.  These are cards that I’m convinced could help, but I either can’t find a proper place for them in the main deck, or I’m not fully sold on what they should supplant on the sideboard.

• [c]Boseiju, Who Shelters All[/c]:  This guy is included in several Tooth and Nail variants, but I’ve never understood why.  Life points should be conserved when using this deck, and each and every land needs to be building up to that [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]-Entwine coup de grace.  So what’s the point?  All I can figure is that it’s been included to stop [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] from being countered.  My question though, is why is this so important?  Pretty much every Tooth and Nail deck has 4 copies of the spell, and the mana produced is generally sustainable…can’t we just try again next turn?  I’d hope that we wouldn’t be in dire enough straights that we couldn’t afford one more turn to pull it off…  Oh well, I may not understand, but I’ll continue to keep this card in mind just in case something happens to click with me one day…
• [c]Burgeoning[/c]:  Honestly, the “3” is just a guess.  I know that it would be pretty useless to have more than one of these in play at a time, but on the other hand, if I needed it, I’d like to be sure it ended up in my hand as early in the game as possible.  As for its usefulness, the card says it all.  I can build up land twice as fast as my opponent, and I’m almost sure to have extra lands floating around in my hand.  This card is amazing when it comes to building up fast mana, so much so that it would probably have to replace either [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c] or [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] itself.  With so many lands in play, paying those high Eldrazi casting costs wouldn’t be nearly as big of a deal.
• [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c]:  Again, “4” is just a best guess.  Three would probably be enough if I kept [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] around (which I don’t see why I wouldn’t).  As for where this card fits in, I’ve been over that pretty extensively earlier.  The single biggest, nagging question about this fellow is what do I take out to put him in?!?
• [c]Khalni Gem[/c], [c]Chromatic Sphere[/c], and [c]Chromatic Star[/c]:  Again, somewhat arbitrary estimations of how many would be needed.  I’m probably starting to get a little repetitive here, but in short I had these on the “maybeboard” to account for possible color-fixing/conversion, but since I’ve been thinking in terms of non-basic lands, I’m not nearly as attached to these as I once was.  In fact, they’ll probably hit the road for the next version of this deck.
• [c]Wurmcoil Engine[/c]:  Here’s another card that was included in other versions of similar decks.  I played with it for a while and I really liked it, I just couldn’t get it to fit in with the Eldrazi.  It’s a wonderfully versatile card that you can really get a lot of mileage out of, I just don’t know if it has a place here or not.  The casting cost is low enough to cold cast, though not quite so early as to be as effective as we want.  What I love about it is…well…everything; what’s not to love?  Deathtouch makes quick work of enemy defenses, Lifelink buys you more time to withstand an initial assault, and instead of properly dying, it splits from a 6/6 with Deathtouch and Lifelink into 2 separate 3/3 creatures, one with Deathtouch, the other with Lifelink!  That’ a great package for 6 mana.  I at least think these might be worth a spot on the sideboard, except so far I haven’t run into any situations where I think that this would’ve made the ultimate difference.

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Sample Play

As the deck stands now, here’s a quick example of how it works and how things fall into place.  Obviously the opponent can do all sorts of things to throw you off, I just want to illustrate how the ball gets rolling.  Remember, mulliganing down to 5 or possibly 4 cards isn’t a bad thing if you can end up with a couple of lands in your hand.

Click on each turn to see what happens.

[expand title=”First Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand:

• [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Tower[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]
• [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]

Play [c]Forest[/c].

Cast [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c] – looking at top 5 cards:

• [c]Urza’s Mine[/c]
• [c]Eldrazi Temple[/c]
• [c]Ancient Stirrings[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]
• [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]

Choose [c]Urza’s Mine[/c] to put in hand.

End of turn. [/expand]

[expand title=”Second Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand + * Draw:

• [c]Urza’s Tower[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]
• [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Mine[/c]
• * [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c]

Play [c]Urza’s Tower[/c].

End of turn. [/expand]

[expand title=”Third Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand + * Draw:

• [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]
• [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Mine[/c]
• [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c]
• * [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]

Play [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c].

End of turn. [/expand]

[expand title=”Fourth Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand + * Draw:

• [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Mine[/c]
• [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]
• * [c]All is Dust[/c]

Play [c]Urza’s Mine[/c].

Tap all lands for a total of 7 colorless and 1 green.

Cast [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c]; creature enters battlefield as well as 2 [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c].

End turn. [/expand]

[expand title=”Fifth Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand + * Draw:

• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]
• [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c]
• [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c]
• [c]All is Dust[/c]
• * [c]Forest[/c]

Play [c]Urza’s Power Plant[/c].

Tap all lands for 9 colorless and 1 green.

Cast [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c]; draw 4 cards:

• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c]
• [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]
• [c]Eye of Ugin[/c]

Discard (8 cards in hand) [c]Forest[/c].

We’re free to attack with [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] during this turn if warranted.

End of turn. [/expand]

[expand title=”Sixth Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand + * Draw:

• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]
• [c]All is Dust[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c]
• [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]
• [c]Eye of Ugin[/c]
• * [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]

Play [c]Forest[/c].

Tap all lands for 9 colorless mana and 2 green.

Cast [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] with Entwine; search through library to find [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c] and [c]It That Betrays[/c]; put both of these on the battlefield.

Two colorless mana are still floating; sacrifice both [c]Eldrazi Spawn[/c] for 2 more colorless.

Cast [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c].

Note that the triggered ability of [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c] “take an extra turn” won’t apply since the card wasn’t technically cast.  However, [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] and [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c] are ready for attack.  Also note that [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c] has Annihilator 4, and [c]It That Betrays[/c] has the triggered ability of “whenever opponent sacrifices a non-token permanent, put that card on the battlefield under your control.”  [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] is rather unimportant at this point.  [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c] can safely attack with the other 2 creatures available to block, plus, if he does attack, the Annihilator 4 will leave you with either creatures or extra land depending on what the opponent has going on.

End of turn. [/expand]

[expand title=”Seventh Turn” trigpos=”above” tag=”h6″]

Hand + * Draw:

• [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c]
• [c]All is Dust[/c]
• [c]Forest[/c]
• [c]Eye of Ugin[/c]
• [c]Tooth and Nail[/c]
• * [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c]

Play [c]Eye of Ugin[/c].

At this point you can do pretty much anything you want.  Use the [c]Quicksilver Amulet[/c], cast another [c]Tooth and Nail[/c], or even cold-cast [c]Spawnsire of Ulamog[/c] or [c]Hand of Emrakul[/c].  Even if you’ve lost [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c] at this point, you’ve still got some big guys with hefty Annihilator abilities left on the field: [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c], [c]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/c], and [c]It That Betrays[/c].  With all 3 attacking, that’s 12 permanents sacrificed by the opponent, all of which land on your side of the battlefield as long as they aren’t tokens.  And if the opponent had anything left at this point, [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c] can’t be touched by colored spells, plus he flies.

In order to stay as safe as possible, it’s probably best to go ahead and use your mana wisely before declaring attackers in case your opponent really does have something special up his or her sleeve.  There are several possibilities, but the best bang for your buck would be that second [c]Tooth and Nail[/c], again with Entwine, to bring out your next 2 biggest creatures, which at this point would be [c]Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre[/c] and [c]Artisan of Kozilek[/c].  This is purely precautionary; the best thing to do now is let Annihilator do its thing and rip through whatever your opponent has built up, and then attack with all 3 currently available creatures for a whopping 38 points of damage.

And that’s it!  Overall that was a pretty smooth game.  I randomized the cards and “drew” them in the order they came, so this is not necessarily an ideal setup.  You’ll see that in this case [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] did its job perfectly, though we do have to wait an extra turn for the summoning sickness to wear off.  So many of the deck’s failsafes remained un-activated, which is why I tend to wonder if there’s too much going on and if perhaps some of these redundancies could be balanced with cards that give us a quicker opening.

Finally I wanted to point out just how well the lands fell into place.  With this deck, the earliest we can get out a [c]Tooth and Nail[/c] with Entwine is Turn 5: we need 2 turns for 2 [c]Forest[/c]s, and then 3 more to put each of the Urza lands in play.  That means that Turn 6 is the quickest we can attack with these creatures.  (The original Tooth and Nail deck and other variants often account for this by giving one or both of the newly summoned creatures Haste, but that’s not really something I’ve worried about with the Eldrazi, at least not yet.)  We came pretty darn close to this ideal with a Turn 7 win.  Even if the opponent threw some kinks our way it wouldn’t have been enough to shut us down and I think we could’ve safely counted on a Turn 8 or, at the very worst, a Turn 9 win.

Worst case scenario (apart from rampant land destruction) would’ve been countering [c]Tooth and Nail[/c], but by Turn 7 we had a few other options, including a second [c]Tooth and Nail[/c].  The Annihilator ability wouldn’t have obliterated their defenses yet, but had the spell been countered the first time around, it would’ve sent [c]Emrakul, the Aeons Torn[/c] to the graveyard, which would let us shuffle the graveyard back into our library, which would give us access to it and any other potentially discarded cards during any subsequent castings.  See?  The whole thing works out beautifully, it’s just a matter of holding out a few turns while the gears get going. [/expand]

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Summation

I think that’s about all I have to say on this current version of the deck.  The Eldrazi Family Reunion really started off as a copy of a copy (probably of a copy) of another deck, but I’m satisfied that I’ve tinkered with it enough to render it unrecognizable.  My goal was to focus on the Eldrazi themselves as much as possible, but it’s not always easy to decide where to draw that line between concept and function.

I can see myself making some revisions in the near future, particularly those which attempt to integrate [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c].  I still wonder if the addition might be superfluous since it isn’t exactly cheap, but gathering mana has never been a huge problem.  This deck packs the power, the ramp, the fetch, and the reclamation to get it done, it just needs a boost of speed.  Clearly I wonder what needs to be there and what qualifies as extraneous; I can’t tell what could be removed to give the deck more speed.  On the flip side, all of these redundancies and failsafes will certainly keep the opponent on their toes.  I think I talked myself through a land solution for [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c] (replacing the 6 [c]Forest[/c]s with 4 [c]Taiga[/c]s and 2 of something in the vein of dual lands that enter the battlefield tapped), but now I have to decide what else I can shuffle around to make room for the new creatures themselves.  And yet again I second guess myself; I’ve got so much creature-fetch already; am I simply trying to force something that doesn’t fit…?

Off the top of my head, I’m considering bumping out [c]Eye of Ugin[/c], keeping only 2 copies of [c]Kozilek’s Predator[/c], and throwing in 2 copies of [c]Emrakul’s Hatcher[/c].  This is only a net gain of a single creature, so it won’t throw off those proportions, and even though that’s one less land in the deck, there’s more than enough land-fetch to make up for it.

If you’ve made it this far, why not take my deck for a spin?  Go download Forge (http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge – this will take you to a wiki-style page which will include a link to the latest version), take a few minutes to load up my deck (or you can download it below) and take it for a test drive.  Let me know it performs against a variety of decks, assess its strengths, its weaknesses, and be sure to take a look at my Questions section above – you might have some brilliant insight into these issues!

Download the Eldrazi Family Reunion deck – v2.0.2
No idea what to do with it?  Unzip/extract the file, and you should then have a file with a .DCK extension.  Put this in Forge’s constructed directory, or use the program’s Deck Editor to open it directly from the location of your choice.

Or view an HTML version of the deck in your browser!

Have any thoughts or opinions on the deck?  Any clever Eldrazi decks up your sleeve?  Anything else here spark your interest?  Let us know in the comments below!

Written by The Cubist