Hello! So I'm attempting to write my first primer. I've been on some variant of Eldrazi for about 10 months now, I started with GR Eldrazi back in January and recently made the switch over to a more mono red stax take on Serum Powder Eldrazi. I would love any and all feed back! Please let me know what you think.
So this game has a very simple game plan.
Step 1: Use fast mana to rush out chalice or Blood Moon
Step 2: Apply pressure with hard to deal with creatures
Step 3: ??????
Step 4: Profit
So while this does seem like a very similar list to the normal list, I consider it more of a combination of that and . Personally I think running 4 of
Blood Moon
in the main improves most of the deck's game one matchups significantly. So far the deck's record at my FNM is 20-2-6 (I split for first a lot to play commander, if you guys want to see that deck list let me know).
For the local meta that this deck was built in, it consists of a hand full of Tron players (mostly Mono Green or Eldrazitron), three Jund players, two Burn players, one zoo player, one Whirza player, three people on either UW or Esper Control featuring Jace and Stoneforge packages, one storm player, one Amulet Titan player, one Dredge player (RIP Faithless), one Grixis Deathshadow, and one Hardened Scales player.There are also a hand full of other rouge decks running around, such as Bears and Goblins, I will say tribal Bears are better than you think.
Sideboard Cheatsheet:
Tron: -2
Dismember
, -1
Anger of the Gods
, +1
Magus of the Moon
, +2
Abrade
Jund: -4
Serum Powder
, +2
Hazoret the Fervent
, +1
Magus of the Moon
, +1
Dismember
Burn/Zoo: -4
Blood Moon
, -1
Dismember
, +1
Anger of the Gods
, +2
Abrade
, +2
Eidolon of the Great Revel
Whirza: -4
Blood Moon
, -4
Eldrazi Obligator
, -3
Eternal Scourge
, +4
Leyline of the Void
, +2
Abrade
, +1
Anger of the Gods
, +2
Eidolon of the Great Revel
, +2
Dismember
Esper Control: -4
Blood Moon
,-4
Serum Powder
, +2
Abrade
, +2
Hazoret the Fervent
, +2
Eidolon of the Great Revel
, +1
Anger of the Gods
, +1
Chandra, Awakened Inferno
Storm:-4
Blood Moon
, -4
Eldrazi Obligator
, +2
Abrade
, +2
Eidolon of the Great Revel
, +4
Leyline of the Void
Amulet Titan: +2
Abrade
, +1
Magus of the Moon
, +2
Dismember
, +1
Anger of the Gods
-4
Eternal Scourge
, -2
Serum Powder
Hardened Scales: Coming Soon
Okay so match ups:
Tron:
So I'll be brief on the mono green match up. This deck completely stomps it if you mulligan correctly. Our main goal is to get out
Blood Moon
as soon as possible, as a back up, if you have an opening
Chalice of the Void
on one followed up by a lot of pressure you're in a good spot as well. A someone hidden all star in the deck for people unfamiliar with eldrazi is
Eldrazi Obligator
if the tron player is unfamiliar with the match up they will play a large creature such as a
Wurmcoil Engine
or
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
which you can steal it and close out the game in a single turn. I'm putting a sideboard cheatsheet at the top so scroll back up and you can see how to board for this match up.
Jund:
This is our main
Blood Moon
or bust match up. Our top decks are also slightly better because we aren't running
Lightning Bolt
or hand destruction, on a related note I don't think bolt is a bad card, I just think it's really bad versus
Tarmogoyf
. If you can manage chalice on 1 plus chalice on 2 you can typically win the matchup but for the record chalice isn't always the best top deck against them. I'm putting a sideboard cheatsheet at the top so scroll back up and you can see how to board for this match up.
Burn/Zoo:
I grouped these two together because I basically treat them as the same deck when I'm playing against them. I'd say the only real difference is Zoo can get the turn 2 God hand of 4
Burning-Tree Emissary
and a
Reckless Bushwhacker
then swing for 14 turn two we can't really do much about that, there is a chance we can grind out way back but it's not likely. Thankfully I haven't actually had that happen to me yet. Other than that our game plan is just to trade up using our eldrazi until we can get chalice on 1 and 2 which locks them out of the game. We don't have any life gain so dismember feels super bad. If you have a hard time against this matchup I'd swap
Eidolon of the Great Revel
for
Dragon's Claw
.
Whirza: Generally if we can shut off the combo we win. All you really need is chalice, it really doesn't even matter what you put it on, 0, 1, and 2 hurt them a lot. This is definitely a deck I would suggest over boarding against, we need as much interaction as possible because they can go infinite.
Esper Control: The normal Eldrazi package of
Matter Reshaper
,
Thought-Knot Seer
, and
Reality Smasher
is very well positioned against this deck. Typically our threats are larger than theirs and thanks to the recent unban they are on
Stoneforge Mystic
which we can shut off with our
Thought-Knot Seer
. If you've looked at the sidebooard cheatsheet I know it seems bad to board out
Blood Moon
against them but I'll typically make a judgement call game one based on how many basics I see, if they are super aggressive with their mana base I'll typically leave them in.
Storm: So we don't really interact with storm but chalice gives us a fighting chance. Typically I'll mulligan until I see one. If I can get it out turn 0 I'll sneak it out on one, if not I'll try to hold it until they don't have a cost reduction creature and drop it on 2 which shuts off their creature, their rituals, as well as one of their win-cons. I'm putting a sideboard cheatsheet at the top so scroll back up and you can see how to board for this match up.
Amulet Titan: There isn't a lot to say about this matchup other than
Blood Moon
or bust. Chalice on 1 will slow them down a bit if you can get it before they have amulet of vigor but keep in mind they typically mull until they see one. Also it's worth noting that chalice on 0 is also really good vs
Summoner's Pact
. I'm putting a sideboard cheatsheet at the top so scroll back up and you can see how to board for this match up.
Hardened Scales: I don't have enough games in against this deck to really give a decisive answer on how to play the match up but from my experience playing against it with other decks, chalice on 0 and chalice on 1 should seal their fate.
Card Choice:
The Normal Serum Powder Eldrazi package:
Matter Reshaper
: We're hoping to ramp him out on the first 2 turns of the game to generate a decent blocker who will generate us advantage in aggressive match ups such as zoo and burn as well as provide an annoying threat against control decks.
Eternal Scourge
: This is in the list because of
Serum Powder
, The goal is to generate advantage by using the alternative mulligan rule to generate card advantage while we mulligan very aggressively for silver bullets.
Thought-Knot Seer
: This card doesn't really need an explanation, we can typically get him out turn 3, turn 2 if we're lucky. Really just here to be a 4/4 that comes with a
Thoughtseize
effect that exiles.
Reality Smasher
: Definitely the all-star of the deck. He's a 5/5 trample, haste and built in evasion from removal while also being immune to removal such as
Fatal Push
and forcing
Lightning Bolt
to be a 3 for 1 trade.
Interaction and disruption:
Chalice of the Void
: If we can maintain 1 to 2 chalice of the voids, we shut off the following decks; Burn, Zoo, Whirza, All variations of Death Shadow, and Amulet Titan. Which according to MTG Goldfish is about 50~60% of the meta
Blood Moon
: This is mostly here because if we can get it out early against jund it drastically improves out match up because of how greedy the modern jund mana base has become. This is also relevant against Tron, Amulet Titan, Scapeshift. This is about 45% of the meta. I also want to take a moment here to address the topic of
Eldrazi Temple
and
Blood Moon
being in the same deck. Typically it is not a difficult decision in the moment. Against matchups like Jund, it's fairly clear that we get the
Blood Moon
to stick as soon as possible. After all, losing an eldrazi temple typically only slows us down a turn and playing a
Blood Moon
will buy us more time than that. The only downside of running
Blood Moon
mainboard is there are some matchups where it just isn't relevant like Whirza but that's just a problem with the card, not running it in conjunction with
Eldrazi Temple
.
Dismember
: This is here because running
Lightning Bolt
when my opening play is typically turn one or turn two
Chalice of the Void
feels really REALLY bad. Also it gives me a better shot at dealing with creatures such as
Tarmogoyf
because he's typically a 4/5 at his strongest. I'm not completely set on this removal because I do have trouble dealing with cards such as
Primeval Titan
so if I don't have
Eldrazi Obligator
it can lead to some hard decisions.
Anger of the Gods
: So this made it into the deck main board because I realized my zoo match up is becoming weaker as my opponent's are learning how to play against this. I can imagine the Humans match up will probably have similar issues. I consider this my wild card spot so feel free to throw both copies into the board and swap it out for something else.
Splash of Red:
Eldrazi Obligator
: So I personally think this card is just an auto win in so many match ups, I love it against Tron, UW Stoneblade, anything running
Primeval Titan
,it's absolutely insane in the Death Shadow matchup, and it's okay against Jund because
Tarmogoyf
.
Simian Spirit Guide
: Mostly used for ramp but can also become a 2/2 beater late game. I love it because it increases our odds of playing a
Reality Smasher
turn 2 which is probably the greatest feeling in the world.
Manabase:
Serum Powder
: So with the "new" London Mulligan rule this card is absolute gas. It almost guarantees us an
Eldrazi Temple
game one as well as allows us to dig for our silver bullets games two and three.
Gemstone Mine
: Allows us to exile
Eternal Scourge
so we can start generating advantage turn 0.
Ghost Quarter
: Gives us an extra colorless source as well as deals with problematic lands if we don't have a
Blood Moon
in play
Ramunap Ruins
: it acts as a dual land for us and can give us a bit of extra reach late game
Elrazi Temple: we're running 24 Eldrazi
Grove of the Burnwillows
: Currently testing them out since they act as a dual land for us. I'm thinking about swapping this out for Prismatic Vistas but I don't have a playset of them yet.
Mountain
/
Wastes
: So I went with the 2/4 split because our only other out to our
Blood Moon
is
Serum Powder
which we lose tempo on if we have to cast it.
Still working on writing up the rest of the match ups, check back in a couple days for updates!
