Introduction
Hello! My name is Quiet, or ColorlessGoodStuff on Arena and MTGO. An appropriate name, as I have been playing Colorless in commander for over 5 years now. It all began when I first laid eyes on Kozilek, Butcher of Truth's first primer, which you can find here: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/477463-kozilek-butcher-with-juice
I played this deck back before we had Wastes, and back then, thanks to the Color Identity rules, Colorless players weren't even allowed to play any basic lands. I played the deck off and on for years, dropping it for a while until 2016 brought us Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch.
Ever since, every single set seems to have had a huge present to give to this deck. Shadows block gave us Emrakul, the Promised End and a few gifts to budget plaeyrs like Magnifying Glass and Tamiyo's Journal, Kaladesh block gave us unprecedented upgrades like Paradox Engine, Inventors' Fair and Planar Bridge. Then, after many years, we got enough options to the point where there wasn't exactly a well defined list to run. Options like The Immortal Sun, Treasure Map
, Oracle's Vault, Thran Temporal Gateway and Key to the City. Alongside irrefutable staples like Scavenger Grounds, and now Ugin, the Ineffable
The Deck
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is a powerhouse, and it would be perfectly reasonable to align with Juwdah (the original Primer's author) and run him in the command zone. However, on several fronts, I'm confident that Kozilek, the Great Distortion is the better pick. First of all, there's that universally hated Annihilator mechanic. I'm perfectly okay leaving both instances of this awful mechanic inside the deck. Trading that for Menace seems pretty bad, but Kozilek's other ability is truly awesome. Countering spells in this manner is an extremely important ability to have access to in a deck that struggles to interact with its opponents. Back when all we had was Butcher, I even ran Null Brooch, which is obviously pretty terrible.
The primary strategy is much the same as Juwdah's. Your opening hand has to have enough mana to reasonably put out 2 mana every turn, including turn 1. Casting Kozilek to refill your hand on turn 4 or 5 is vital, the 12/12 body threatens a Commander damage death in 2 turns, forcing removal and answers from your opponents. While this threat looms, you can assemble a machine to launch you into the late game. Skullclamp has obvious synergy with Trading Post and Myr Turbine, while Myr Turbine is probably the 'worst' card in this deck, it protects you from Edict effects, and gets way out of hand with Clock of Omens or Unwinding Clock
Planar Bridge on the other hand is likely the best card in the deck. With the mana to activate, you can assemble a machine completely independent from your commander. If you have the rocks to cast and activate the bridge, you're likely going to go get Unwinding Clock so that you can activate the bridge once or even twice on every opponent's turn.
Mimic Vat got a bit better with the release of Meteor Golem. Duplicant used to be our best card to have exiled under the vat, but now there's one that's arguably better.
Karn, the Great Creator appears to be a contentious include based on decks i've been looking at since War of the Spark came out. I think the card is well worth the slot, giving this deck a one sided Stony Silence is good enough on its own, his +1 likely wont ever actually animate anything, but it can expose opposing artifacts to removal that wouldn't otherwise hit. His -2 is an issue too, assuming you're in a real event, you won't be able to get cards from outside the game, because there is no sideboard in EDH. However, through the synergies of the machine we intent to construct, we could turn this into an engine to bring artifacts back from our graveyard. Relic of Progenitus can target yourself to exile a card of your choice, then you can scoop it out with Karn.
The Mana
My list is extremely greedy. I have to make sure that I'm not afraid to mulligan bad hands, taking the free seven, then the 6 and the 5 isn't entirely unreasonable. I have to keep plenty of mana, and I have to ship hands that contain a smattering of bad lands. If you choose, you could cut lands with the potential to muck up your opener. While Eye of Ugin is obviously still a staple, cards like Temple of the False God and Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper are pretty greedy includes, which make the inclusion of Chromatic Lantern and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth very necessary. These two cards even allow lands like Maze of Ith to tap for mana.
Overall, there are only 31 reliable lands, the other 4 don't tap for mana. Eye of ugin can't cast mana rocks, Maze of Ith doesn't even really count as a land, Untaidake boosts toward your commander and casts planeswalkers but not much else, Temple of the False God is a contentious include in any Commander deck, because there's a good chance that it's just bad.
Budget Options
The price of Mana Crypt is way out of hand, and a lot of the other pieces of this deck cost way too much to justify for most people. I would say the baseline for this deck, is that you must have the 5 playable Eldrazi. Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Emrakul, the Promised End, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. The pricy nature of the deck unfortunately doesn't end there. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is incredibly powerful. A wipe that stone cold ignores our board is too much to pass up, so it's a fully necessary investment.
Cards like Mana Crypt and Grim Monolith can be replaced by a vast assortment of cheaper drop mana rocks that will just be a little slower. Felwar Stone, Sisay's Ring, Ur-Golem's Eye, Fractured Powerstone and the like. It's important to keep in mind that Commander's Sphere and Command Tower for that matter, do not tap for mana in this deck. They ask for colors not types, and obviously we aren't running any colors.
Conclusion
There's a reason I chose ColorlessGoodStuff as my MTGO and arena name, this is one of my favorite decks to play, and its pieces even slot very well into one of my other favorite decks, a Kruphix, God of Horizons list. I'm proud to have one of the most popular lists on the site, and in general. I like to think of myself as an expert on Colorless commander, if nothing else. Thanks for reading, and do feel free to share the deck around!
