Cold War Kruphix- Eldrazi Tribal *Primer*

Commander / EDH Eldrazi GU (Simic) Primer Ramp Stompy

Wolffang988

Creature (29)

• 1x Artisan of Kozilek
• 1x Bane of Bala Ged
• 1x Blightsteel Colossus
• 1x Champion of Rhonas
• 1x Conduit of Ruin
• 1x Decimator of the Provinces
• 1x Desolation Twin
• 1x Drowner of Hope
• 1x Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1x Endbringer
• 1x Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
• 1x Hydroid Krasis
• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
• 1x Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1x Pathrazer of Ulamog
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Stonecoil Serpent
• 1x Thryx, the Sudden Storm
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
• 1x World Breaker

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

Land (36)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dark Depths
• 1x Eldrazi Temple
• 1x Eye of Ugin
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Nephalia Academy
• 1x Sanctum of Ugin
• 1x Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 9x Snow-Covered Forest
• 9x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Thespian's Stage
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Urza's Mine
• 1x Urza's Power Plant
• 1x Urza's Tower
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Artifact (10)

• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dowsing Dagger  ^Flip
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Planar Bridge
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Commander (1)

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Awakening Zone
• 1x Bear Umbra
• 1x Eldrazi Conscription
• 1x From Beyond
• 1x Frontier Siege
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Marit Lage's Slumber
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Instant (6)

• 1x Cancel
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dissipate
• 1x Negate
• 1x Plasm Capture
• 1x Pongify

Sorcery (5)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Hour of Promise
• 1x Reap and Sow
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Tempt with Discovery

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Updates

11/13/2020 - The “Frozen Terrain” update Show

1. Changed all Islands and Forests to Snow-Covered Islands and Snow-Covered Forests

2. Removed Arch of Orazca, Mystifying Maze, Ruins of Oran-Rief and Tomb of the Spirit Dragon to add Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine, Urza's Tower and Thespian's Stage

3. Removed Archetype of Endurance, Nylea, Keen-Eyed, Spark Double and Steelbane Hydra to add Cyclonic Rift, Dark Depths, Pongify and Marit Lage's Slumber

4. Exchanged Mana Leak for Dissipate

5. Exchanged 1 forest for Tolaria West

6. Officially updated to a primer!

Lands and Battlegrounds

This deck runs snow-covered lands for all the basic lands, along with a number of helpful lands to help us cast our Eldrazi spells and stack up mana for Kruphix, God of Horizons. The snow-covered lands give us access to Marit Lage's Slumber and makes it fairly easy to bring in Marit Lage as an additional large attacker. Dark Depths is another method of summoning Marit Lage to the field, and when combined with Thespian's Stage can lead to an extremely quick 20/20 creature early in the game. Alchemist's Refuge provides us with an activated source of flash in the event of Leyline of Anticipation or Vivien, Champion of the Wilds being hit with removal, and Eye of Ugin is the shining centerpiece of the deck, functioning as the direct highway for getting Eldrazi and colorless creatures out of the deck and into hand while also reducing the cost of all your Eldrazi creatures. Other helpful additions are Eldrazi Temple, Temple of the False Gods and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods giving us extra colorless mana, and Minamo, School at Water's Edge which can allow us to untap Eldrazi titans after attacking, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds for tons of mana, or Eye of Ugin for another colorless creature fetch!

Maintain the Threat of War

The focus of this deck is generating large amounts of mana to cast Eldrazi Titans and other large creatures, often with flash. Having Eye of Ugin on the field combined with tons of mana stored with Kruphix, God of Horizons can lead to situations where your opponents are forced to avoid making plays against you in multiplayer games due to the threat of a fearsome retaliation, or giving you the overwhelming advantage of being able to fetch and cast high value creatures from your deck at will. Eye of Ugin + Leyline of Anticipation can be a terrifying combo to deal with, reducing the cost of your colorless creatures and letting you cast them at instant speed.

Financing the War (Mana generation) Show

Once you have Kruphix, God of Horizons on field you’ll want to start storing up mana to cast your larger spells down the road. It’s important to try and keep Kruphix from becoming a creature through devotion for as long as possible to ensure he has the maximum protection from removal, in order to keep your mana pool from being disrupted. Permanents like Nyxbloom Ancient, Zendikar Resurgent and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger will increase the amount of mana your lands generate (though it should be noted that playing Vorinclex on the field will instantly make you a target, so choose your timing wisely) and cards like Bear Umbra, Wilderness Reclamation and Seedborn Muse give you ways to untap your lands and/or other permanents. With Wilderness Reclamation or Seedborn Muse on field it is a great strategy to tap any extra lands to float the mana before the end of your turn, so that Kruphix can store the floating mana as colorless and your lands will be untapped and ready to be used for counter spells, flash responses or additional mana floating. Selvala, Heart of the Wilds is another great card to have on field to tap for mana, as once you have one of the larger Eldrazi in play she can easily tap to provide 10-13 mana. The more mana you’re able to keep floating with Kruphix in play, the more options you’ll have available to you.

The Great Arms Race (Primary Combos) Show

The wincons for the deck are pretty straightforward, the goal is to eliminate opponents with Eldrazi titans, clear their board with Annihilator, and/or slap them with lethal damage. As such, most combos are centered around bringing Eldrazi to the battle or fielding other large creatures that can turn the tide in your favor. I previously mentioned the combination of Eye of Ugin + Leyline of Anticipation , a very powerful setup to have on field that will allow you to retrieve and cast Eldrazi and other colorless creatures at instant speed with the floating colorless mana in your pool sustained by Kruphix. This advantage can be used to respond to threats instantly by retrieving and casting a powerful Eldrazi with removal such as Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or World Breaker, or you could fetch and cast Blightsteel Colossus at the end of an opponent’s turn, putting him on the field and ready to swing for a lethal amount of infect on your turn! Eye of Ugin + Leyline of Anticipation + Seedborn Muse is the supreme version of the combo and can get absolutely ridiculous, enabling you to untap all your permanents, fetch colorless creatures and cast them with flash on EVERYONE’s turns! Champion of Rhonas can be used to cheat out a huge creature very early in the game, potentially landing the lethal Blightsteel Colossus on the battlefield as early as turn 3-4 with an absolute optimal hand (Ex: Turn 1 Forest and Sol Ring, Turn 2 play a land then play Champion of Rhonas with the total 4 mana, swing Champion of Rhonas turn 3 and exert to put a creature in your hand onto the battlefield.) An opening hand like that may only occur rarely, but Champion of Rhonas is a decent creature to have on field at any stage of the game as it can cheat a large creature into play and allow you to utilize your mana for other plays.

The deck also has a bit of an oppressive edge in the form the two praetors, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. Vorinclex adds an additional mana from tapping your lands while also keeping your opponent’s lands tapped for one turn after they are tapped, and Jin-Gitaxias gives you great card advantage and simultaneously reduces your opponents hand size by seven, potentially leaving them without a hand to work with. Having either of these creatures on field provides great benefit for you while negatively affecting your opponents, and will instantly become a target for removing in most cases and possibly draw you the ire of the table. Caution should be taken before casting either, as you’ll want to be able to defend yourself in the event of retaliatory attacks.

Keeping The War in Your Favor (Counters and Removal)

This section covers counter spells and removal featured in the deck, and their optimal usage. The deck carries four different counters, Dissipate, Negate and Cancel functioning as your standard “No” cards and Plasm Capture as a utility counter. Countering a high cost boardwipe or other spell with Plasm Capture can net you a nice little bit of mana to add to your floating pool, which is always a plus. In most cases you will want to save your counterspells for opponent’s removal spells that target valuable mana generating pieces on your side of the board or spells targeting key pieces such as your Eye of Ugin or Kruphix, God of Horizons. It’s often not a priority to counter spells targeting the Eldrazi titans, as the original Rise of the Eldrazi titans (Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth) will shuffle back into the library along with the rest of your graveyard if they are destroyed or otherwise enter the graveyard, where you can easily retrieve them with Eye of Ugin. Protecting your key lands and mana sources should always be given top priority, as it is fairly easy to recover your boardstate or fetch new creatures as long as the engine isn’t crippled. As for removal, both Ulamog’s feature target permanent/s removal, with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre letting you destroy one target permanent on cast and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger allowing you to exile two target permanents and this removal is very difficult to prevent as it triggers on cast. You also have access to Reclamation Sage and World Breaker to get artifacts and enchantments, and Pongify to destroy target creature (“Reject humanity, become monke”). Big boardwipes are included in Cyclonic Rift, All Is Dust and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, with all of them leaving your Eldrazi and Blightsteel Colossus untouched and ready to swing. All Is Dust and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon should be used with care, as a way to close out the game after building a large boardstate since they will also exile/sacrifice your colored permanents. With proper timing they can be an effective game ender, as they will not affect your colorless creatures and will likely leave your opponents completely open to attack or easy to reach. As a side addition, the deck also includes Oko, Thief of Crowns because turning your opponent’s large creatures or key artifacts into a 3/3 elk with no abilities is also very effective removal.

Fueling the Machine (Ramp and Utility)

Acquire Resources (Ramp) Show

Outside of the mana generating creatures and key lands discussed in “Financing the War”, this deck features several ramp spells chosen with the intent to give the greatest range of options to retrieve Eye of Ugin, Dark Depths or any of the other great lands. Hour of Promise, Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map and Reap and Sow all allow you to retrieve any land and put it into your hand or on the battlefield, and Tempt with Discovery is an excellent option that can gets you one guaranteed land, and another land for each opponent that chooses to fetch a land as well! Tempt with Discovery may ramp your opponents by one land if they decide to, but it was chosen for this deck because in most cases the lands you fetch will be far more beneficial or impactful than what your opponents can fetch. Tolaria West is also included, as its transmute ability can similarly be used to fetch any key land you are missing, or be played to serve as a blue land if you already have the pieces you need. Permanents like From Beyond and Awakening Zone will generate one eldrazi spawn or scion on each of your upkeeps to serve as an extra blocker or to be sacrificed for mana, and Frontier Siege is an excellent source of passive mana as choosing Khans(which is the only option you should ever choose) will generate 2 green mana on each of your mainphases for 4 extra mana per turn!

Utilize Technological Advances (Utility) Show

There’s a couple cards in the deck to serve as alternate key pieces or to sway the battle in your favor in things aren’t progressing as quickly as you’d like. Helm of the Host can be equipped to an Eldrazi with Annihilator to form an exceedingly difficult force to defend against, or equip it to Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to start exiling someone’s deck, 20-40 cards at a time! Void Winnower can be played to lock players from playing any spells with even converted mana costs or blocking with creatures that have an even converted mana cost. Prowling Serpopard and Thryx, the Sudden Storm allow your creatures or larger spells to be cast without being countered, while Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma and Conduit of Ruin both reduce the cost of your creature spells. Leyline of Anticipation, Alchemist's Refuge and Vivien, Champion of the Wilds all give you a form of flash. Planar Bridge is included as a secondary option in case Eye of Ugin is destroyed or you need to retrieve other permanents from the deck, albeit at the cost of not getting the Eldrazi cast triggers. There is also the inclusion of Asceticism to provide protection for your valuable creatures as well as regeneration to combat board wipes.

If you liked this tribal primer be sure to check out my other tribal deck, Immortal Arahbo- Cat Tribal *Primer*! It’s all about synergy with cats and weaponizing your life total, and is always a fun deck to run! You could also take a look at my most popular deck, Korvold, the Draconic Railgun *Primer* for high damage tactics!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Eye of Ugin + Leyline of Anticipation Eye of Ugin + Leyline of Anticipation + Seedborn Muse
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	5.38
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Eldrazi 10/10 C, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elk 3/3 G, Food, Marit Lage, Plant 0/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Commander, The Five, Simic