Planar Breach! [Horde Magic]

Archenemy* Eldrazi Horde Magic UBRG

BenW12

The Swarm (27)

• 1x Bane of Bala Ged
• 1x Benthic Infiltrator
• 1x Birthing Hulk
• 1x Blight Herder
• 1x Breaker of Armies
• 1x Broodwarden
• 1x Desolation Twin
• 1x Dominator Drone
• 1x Dread Drone
• 1x Eldrazi Devastator
• 1x Eldrazi Skyspawner
• 1x Emrakul's Hatcher
• 1x Flayer Drone
• 1x Hand of Emrakul
• 1x Kozilek's Sentinel
• 1x Mind Raker
• 1x Mist Intruder
• 1x Pathrazer of Ulamog
• 1x Rapacious One
• 1x Reality Smasher
• 1x Ruination Guide
• 1x Sire of Stagnation
• 1x Skitterskin
• 1x Sky Scourer
• 1x Tide Drifter
• 1x Ulamog's Crusher
• 1x Vile Aggregate

Sorceries (4)

• 1x Essence Feed
• 1x Skittering Invasion
• 1x Swarm Surge
• 1x World at War

Lands (5)

• 5x Wastes

Enchantments (2)

• 1x Awakening Zone
• 1x Raid Bombardment

Instants (2)

• 1x Consume the Meek
• 1x Kozilek's Return

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Maybeboard

Balance Deck (35)

• 1x Aligned Hedron Network
• 1x Anticipate
• 1x Bant Charm
• 1x Catalyst Elemental
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Cloudshift
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Divination
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Elvish Rejuvenator
• 1x Esper Charm
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Explosive Revelation
• 1x Fog Bank
• 1x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
• 1x Gladehart Cavalry
• 1x Gravedigger
• 1x Grixis Charm
• 1x Guardian Seraph
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
• 1x Jund Charm
• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Naya Charm
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
• 1x Raise the Alarm
• 1x Revitalize
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Volcanic Rush
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Breach Deck (10)

• 1x All is Dust
• 1x Decimator of the Provinces
• 1x Eldrazi Monument
• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1x Inverter of Truth
• 1x It That Betrays
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Spawnsire of Ulamog
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Void Winnower

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Horde is a cooperative format created by Peter Knudson where one or more players face off against a self-playing Horde deck. Planar Breach is a high-powered variant of Horde for 1-5 players where the survivors must face down massive Eldrazi and swarms of drones and scions. Inspired by the flavour of Battle for Zendikar, the first set where I got properly into Magic, Planar Breach is meant to evoke the feel of battling against an insurmountable alien foe.

There are two teams; the Swarm and the Survivors. The Swarm use the decklist and rules presented here, while the Survivors each bring a Commander deck of their choosing to the game. (Full rules for playing Horde can be found on Quietspeculation.com)

Quick Rules for Horde

• The Swarm wins if The Survivors' group life total is reduced to zero or below.
• The Survivors win if The Swarm has no cards in its library, no cards in its hand, and no creatures on the battlefield.

1. The Swarm has no player, it pilots itself.
2. Any choice The Swarm must make should be made as randomly as possible.
3. The Swarm has an infinite amount of mana at all times.
4. The Swarm's turn starts by revealing cards from the top of its library until a non-token card is revealed. All revealed tokens are then cast. The revealed non-token is cast. Then, if applicable, The Swarm casts any cards that can be cast from its graveyard as well as any cards it has in its hand.
5. All creatures controlled by The Swarm have Haste and "This creature must attack each turn if able."
6. The Swarm has no life total. Damage dealt to The Swarm causes that many cards from the top of The Swarm's library to be put into its graveyard.
7. The Survivors have three turns to set their defenses before The Swarm gets its first turn. Then turns alternate like normal.
8. Like in Two-Headed Giant, The Survivors are a team and all take their turn simultaneously. The Survivors attack and block as a team.
9. A team of 5 Survivors starts with 40 life. The Survivors get an extra 20 life for each missing player.

As well as using the regular rules for Horde, Planar Breach uses some rules adapted from Stefouch's variant of Horde in Zombie Horde: The Gathering of the Dead. These special rules are the Breach deck and the Balance Deck.

The Breach Deck

During setup, shuffle a Wastes card into the Swarm's library for each Survivor playing, then shuffle the Breach Deck and place it face-down next to it. When a Wastes is played, a Breach has occurred, and one of the mighty titans or their most powerful vestiges has torn its way into reality. The Swarm reveals and casts the top card of the Breach deck. Cards from the Breach deck are put into the same graveyard as cards from the Horde's library.

After a Breach has occurred, the Swarm reveals an additional nontoken card during its draw step for each Wastes in play. In Planar Breach, Wastes are treated as if they are Emblems, and cannot be interacted with in any way.

The Balance Deck

During setup, shuffle the Balance Deck and place it face down near the Survivors.

When one of the Swarm's foil creatures dies or is exiled, or if another foil permanent it controls is destroyed or exiled, balance is restored to the plane and the surge of mana brings powerful forces to aid the Survivors. Each player reveals a card from the top of the Balance deck and puts these cards in a pile. Each player then chooses a card from the pile; they may cast at any time it is legal, without paying its mana cost.

If a card from the Balance deck would be put into a graveyard or exile, instead put it face up into a separate pile next to the Balance deck.

Optional Rules

Godslayer

In Godslayer the Swarm cannot be defeated by milling. If it would be milled out it instead shuffles its graveyard into its library. Instead of shuffling the Wastes cards into the deck, during setup Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are all shuffled into the Swarm deck.

The Survivors can only win if, at the end of their end step, the cards Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are all in exile.

FAQ and Errata

It That Betrays

If a creature that is put onto the battlefield by It that Betrays has an ability that targets a permanent on the battlefield or a player, this ability is not used (the one exception is direct damage or life-loss abilities targeting players).

If a creature could use an ability more than once in it's turn, it instead only uses it once as soon as it is on the battlefield, and then again once each of the Swarm's upkeeps.

Spawnsire of Ulamog

When on the battlefield, Spawnsire of Ulamog will use it's ability to create 2 Eldrazi Spawn tokens once, as soon as it is on the battlefield, and then once during the Horde's upkeep. It will only use its second ability if, during the Swarm's upkeep there are 20 or more Eldrazi Spawn and/or Scion tokens on the battlefield, and will use it to cast all cards remaining in the Breach deck.

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

When cast, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre's ability will destroy a targetable, non-indestructible permanent the Survivors control with the highest converted mana cost.

Defending Players

Some of the keywords and ability of the Swarm's creatures refer to defending players and to players who are dealt combat damage. The defending team determine who this is by choosing the player who, at the end of the third turn, controls the most permanents (choose randomly if there is a tie). Once the first player to be affected has been chosen, then have each following effect resolve against a different player in order of priority, rotating this order for the duration of the game. For example, if the Swarm attacks a team of three with two creatures with Annihilator and one with Ingest, two of those players sacrifice permanents on the attack trigger and if combat damage has been dealt the third exiles the top card of their library.

This also applies to effects that have players putting cards from exile into their graveyard; the Swarm will pick its player in the order determined at the end of the third turn, regardless of the number of cards that player has in exile. If a player doesn't have enough cards, the effect does not resolve. Instead of putting chosen cards into their graveyard, that player puts the card(s) they have most recently had exiled into their graveyard.

Eldrazi Scion Tokens Some effects such as Eyeless Watcher create Eldrazi Scion tokens. These are separate entities to the ones in the main deck and so go into exile when they die rather than remaining in the graveyard.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Archenemy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 6 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	40
Avg. CMC	4.97
Tokens	Eldrazi 10/10 C, Eldrazi Scion 1/1 C, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C
Folders	Fun Deck Ideas, party games, Alternate Games!