Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is a permanent-based disruptive aggro deck that seeks to shut down opposing plays with lock pieces while casting cheap, robust threats. It has its roots in Legacy's Dragon Stompy, and is the only stompy deck to have ever reached Tier 1 status in Modern.
Post-Eye of Ugin ban, most Eldrazi players gravitated to Bant colors, relying on Noble Hierarch and Ancient Stirrings to support Eldrazi Temple as additional fast-mana generators. Some also went the UrzaTron route for their fast mana, and most recently, an aggressive RG build has been adpoted in Bant's vein. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy instead relies on Serum Powder and Gemstone Caverns to find Eldrazi Temple before the game even begins and play a game resembling those from the glory days. These enablers would be unplayable if not for a more recently-printed Eldrazi that ties all the pieces together: Eternal Scourge.
Why play Colorless Eldrazi Stompy?
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is one of few viable stompy decks in Modern. Unlike Legacy's stompy decks, it tends to match up favorably against Modern's interactive strategies, chiefly thanks to the interaction between Eternal Scourge and Relic of Progenitus, and the absence of Force of Will. Chalice of the Void gives the deck game against the format's faster linear decks, and the aforementioned fast mana package gives the strategy the consistency needed to succeed in Modern. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is also capable of busted openers on par with those from Eldrazi Winter, giving the deck an explosive element and the ability to God-draw.
The result: a jack-of-all-trades with a free-win dimension that gives up some of the other Eldrazi decks' explosiveness for points across the board. I believe patience and practice on the part of the pilot can yield an overwhelmingly favorable win rate against the metagame at large, something my admittedly slim competitive record with the deck supports.
Good matchups: Spell-based control, U or B midrange, goodstuff aggro, combo decks heavy on one- or zero-drops, graveyard-reliant decks Medium matchups: Humans, Affinity, Eldrazi Tron, goodstuff Company decks, prison decks Bad matchups: Spirits, Bant/GR Eldrazi, Breach decks
Gameplan
This deck aggressively mulligans into highly competent hands and plays Magic on a different level than opponents can muster. It keeps openers with Eldrazi Temple, ones that slam turn one Chalice of the Void, or ones otherwise full of matchup-relevant hate (removal, sideboard lock pieces, etc.). With a lock piece in play (or without one), the deck simply plays its threats out on curve and takes opponents to zero. With its creatures deployed, Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is free to use its lands to disrupt an opponent's mana, animate and attack with Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus, block or wall aggression from an opponent, or draw more cards with Sea Gate Wreckage.
The largest hurdle to overcome when learning this deck is how to mulligan. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy greatly rewards pilots for being discerning and ruthless when it comes to mulligans, and will flunk those too soft (or hard) on their openers.
Card choices
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is made up of a straightforward combination of creatures, utility, disruption, and lands.
Creatures
We play the most efficient Eldrazi ever printed, many of which hail from Oath of the Gatewatch. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy favors a lean, aggressive creature suite compared with pricey utility threats like Eldrazi Displacer and Drowner of Hope from Bant Eldrazi or over-the-top behemoths like Endbringer and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger from Eldrazi Tron.
Eldrazi Mimic: Mimic fulfills a crucial role in this deck by pressuring linear strategies. It's functionally Delver of Secrets in those matchups, coming down on turn one or two and hitting for three, four, five in the next few turns. Sometimes, the best counter to Ad Nauseam is simply not letting your opponent live long enough to cast it. We can also cheese even interactive decks if they lack an answer, à la Dark Confidant. And Chalice protects Mimic from Bolt and Push.
Eternal Scourge: Scourge allows us to play our consistency tools and is our best threat against spell-based midrange and attrition decks. Read about Scourge in detail here.
Thought-Knot Seer: Jund players have been chasing Thoughtseize with Tarmogoyf since Modern was born, and Thought-Knot Seer rolls both cards into one. It frequently comes down on turn three, and exiling the card helps keep early-game Goyfs at 3/4, as well as permanently getting rid of Lingering Souls and offering a host of other benefits. Seer also gives us game against the kind of deck that traditionally hoses stompy decks, like Ad Nauseam.
Reality Smasher: Given its bulk, speed, and evasion, Smasher‘s ability is plain gratuitous. Creatures this fast and large need organic checks so interactive decks can keep them under control – for Smasher to play fair, Terminate, Path, and even Vapor Snag must answer him without forcing casters to Raven’s Crime themselves. Smasher runs interactive decks out of either cards or life points very efficiently, and one often begets the other.
Other
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy's noncreature spells fall under the utility and disruption categories.
Serum Powder: Helps us find Eldrazi Temple faster and more efficiently than any deck in the format, all while exiling Eternal Scourge. Powdering away a hand with Scourge plays like taking a mulligan to eight or more. Read about Serum Powder in depth here, here, and here, and about mulligans specifically here.
Smuggler's Copter: Filters through "dead draws" like extra Chalices of Powders, blocks fliers, clocks evasively, and kind of gives the zone-hopping Eternal Scourge haste. More on Copter's many possible roles in the deck here and here.
Chalice of the Void: Single-handedly beats plenty of decks in Modern, and turns off efficient disruption like Thoughtseize, Path to Exile, and Fatal Push against others. Everyone has something to do at one mana, and that something is generally pretty strong. Turn-one Chalice says no to all of it.
Dismember: A one-mana removal spell that can be cast under Chalice, Dismember kills nearly every creature in Modern, including Push-resistent monsters like Gurmag Angler.
Lands
Being in colorless offers us a wide selection of utility lands. Besides Ghost Quarter and Sea Gate Wreckage, manlands are our best options here.
Gemstone Caverns: Combines with Serum Powder to smooth out the deck's openers. Pitching Eternal Scourge reads like taking the play and drawing an extra card. More on that interaction here.
Ghost Quarter: Taps for <> and disrupts almost every deck in the format. Allows us to race Tron and keep the mirror off his Temples. Modern has no shortage of utility lands, and the Eldrazi archetype lends itself to a variety of color combinations. But stompy decks should pack four Quarters before filling the manabase out with anything else.
Scavenger Grounds: A relative newcomer to the deck, Grounds has already proven its worth. It has applications all over, as many decks use the graveyard heavily in Modern, including Storm, Traverse Shadow, and Goryo's Vengeance. Grounds also helps against anyone who deals with Scourge pre-board by exiling all our copies again.
Sea Gate Wreckage: We often mulligan low, start most games with fast mana, and play mana rocks, making the hellbent Library of Alexandria ultra-reliable in the late-game.
Mutavault: The next-best manland, Mutavault brings twice the pressure of a Blinkmoth on an empty board, and trades with attackers like Goblin Guide if needed. It’s even a Blinkmoth itself, allowing other manlands to give it a pump on offense or defense.
Flex spots
These cards fill the four gaps left by the Colorless Eldrazi Stompy core.
Creatures Matter Reshaper: Ideal in highly interactive metagames, Reshaper trades and nets a card against removal spells or creatures x/3 and weaker. Notably weak in linear combo matchups. Since the Jace and Bloodbraid unban, I have run 4 of these over any kind of Endless One split.
Endless One: A solid option for lists looking to pack a couple late-game cards into their decks without compromising their early games. Trumps Reshaper against linear combo decks. Notably weak to Fatal Push.
Disruption Relic of Progenitus: Mainboard copies can work in metagames heavy on graveyard-based decks or midrange strategies. Modern is wide-open enough that Chalice is generally better. Should not be run mainboard alongside Chalice, even in small numbers, as doing so puts too much strain on our openers; just play another Grounds as the 23rd land in that case. My general advice to players searching for "budget" builds without Chalice of the Void is to run Relic instead, replacing Guide with more threats (I only mention this because the issue has been inappropriately raised here countless times; please keep budget discussion out of this thread and in its dedicated forum).
Ratchet Bomb: A mainboard answer to problematic permanents like Ensnaring Bridge or Worship, as well as planeswalkers or just a horde of tokens.
Spatial Contortion: A colorless Bolt. Powerful in go-wide creature-centric metas.
Lands
Sea Gate Wreckage #2: Here's what I had in this spot for years, and am just reconsidering in early 2018. Thanks to Scavenger Grounds, we now have more to do with our mana than before and can't benefit as much from another Sea Gate. The second Gate is nice because it allows us to retain one in the deck after exiling one to Powder.
Scavenger Grounds #3: My current pick for the final land. Insulates us against graveyard decks G1 and helps a lot vs midrange before we get our Relics, especially vs Tarmogoyf.
Wastes #3: An easy pick in a field full of Fields.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Turns our Dismembers into freerolls, which can be very important in grindier matchups as well as in aggressive ones.
The following four lands are technically "options," but I would not personally recommend any of them.
Cavern of Souls: This card is brought up more than any other, but I think it's a crutch in this deck suggested by players who have not spent time figuring out how to pace their threats against Ux control decks. These matchups are close to unloseable once that happens, and Cavern is not necessary.
Tectonic Edge: Hate to shore up the mirror, but it doesn't do too much there. Sometimes passable against Valakut decks.
Sideboarding
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy struggles against go-wide aggro decks and certain strains of linear combo. Since we can't do much in these "colors" against cards like Through the Breach, much of the sideboard is dedicated to fighting the former.
Disruption
The deck features two types of disruption, which also holds true for the sideboard.
Relic of Progenitus: An archetype staple and necessity for keeping BGx, CoCo, and other graveyard-reliant decks in check. Also excellent against blue decks, since it disrupts Snapcaster Mage and shoves countered/board wiped Scourges into exile to be cast again. Always 4.
Ratchet Bomb: Colorless's answer to enchantments, artifacts, and 'walkers, as well as an efficient token wipe. Our Engineered Explosives. Staple at 3-4.
Sorcerous Spyglass: Replaces Needle as needed. My omission of Spyglass for the Classic win wasn't an oversight, as many onlookers assumed---I was actually one of the card's big proponents pre-printing. But testing has revealed its limitations. It’s often a “three drop” in this deck (we tend to start with Eldrazi Temple), which makes it incredibly clunky. And since we like saving our Needles anyway, the info only marginally improved the card. Clashing with Chalice never comes up with Needle, either; we Chalice for 0 against Affinity and side the artifact out in most other Needle matchups. Spyglass is better against Tron if the game goes long, and against Ux control decks. Needle is better everywhere else.
Grafdigger's Cage: Low-maintenance hate for graveyard decks and Company. 0-1.
Witchbane Orb: A clunky solution to Valakut decks. 0-1.
Spatial Contortion: After Dismember, Contortion is the gold standard for colorless spot removal. Kills a lot of thangs and can grow Thought-Knot or Smasher for an extra three points of damage, making it similar to Lightning Bolt in this deck. 2-4.
Gut Shot: An easy kill spell for x/1 creatures. Excellent against Affinity, tokens, Jund (for hitting Confidant and Liliana after she goes -2), and others. 0-2.
All is Dust: Can be run as a one-of in value CoCo metagames, but is extremely expensive. 0-1.
Utility
Surgical Extraction: Randomly disrupts a lot of different decks, but serves a special purpose for us by exiling all of our Scourges in one fell swoop after opponents deal with one somehow. This role makes Surgical a staple against any kind of attrition deck. 1-2.
Ghostfire Blade: A board-breaker in creature matchups and general clock improver. Especially potent with Smasher, Blinkmoth, and Scourge. Better than O-Naginata because it buffs lands and doesn't blow out our tempo if opponents remove our threat in response. 0-1.
Since my Classic win, this deck is firmly on the map and has begun racking up 5-0s. To keep this list informative, I'll now restrict it to a) my own listed finishes (marked with 🐒) and b) higher-profile finishes by others.
🐒 2/18/17 - 5th at TJ Collectibles Titanium Series, Jordan Boisvert
the card itself really isn't worth the card board its printed on...does it serve a purpose? Sure its a blue 1 drop that might not be a 1/1. I would not put it in a list and expect to win a PTQ or GP though.
I decided after a bit of play testing and watching Pro Tour matches that the Mutavaults could probably be better off as 2x Cavern of Souls and a 3rd Wastes to fight counter magic and Blood Moon. For those that don't see counter magic often, you could up the number of Wastes or Mutavaults. Or maybe even Inkmoth Nexus.
I wasn't sure what the Oblivion Sowers were for in this variant other than a beefy threat for midrange decks and slower midrange mirrors against which we're already favored, so I decided to give 2 Batterskull and +1 Warping Wail a try. And -1 Relic of Progenitus, as 4 seemed like quite a lot in an aggro infested meta, for +1 Pithing Needle for decks like Lantern Control and Tron.
Saturday I went 4-1, last night I went 3-2, and today I went 5-0 in the leagues with this list. This deck is broken. I'm going to enjoy it while I can, but its seriously broken.
Opponents in the 5-0 run: Scapeshift, UR Moon (blue moon maybe? The game didn't last long enough), Grixis Control with Shape Anew for Blightsteel Colossus (this MU actually feels not abysmal for them), some Planesteel Paladin/Monastery Mentor brew that seemed kinds strong with a bunch of 0 cost artifacts (chalice on 0 for this one), and... well... honestly I can't remember right now.
Spacial Contortion has been really good to me. With chalice on 1 it is basically lightning bolt. Its not as efficient as Dismember here, but there has been more than 1 occasion where using it on a Reality Smasher, Thought-Knot Seer, or Endless One has won me the game a turn early... Though I'm not sure if it would have mattered.
This deck feels like "god mode" in some video game. The opponent basically has to draw every answer at exactly the right time to win. I'm not the best MTG player, so a 12-3 overall record with a deck with me is saying something. As a player of Eldrazi decks since the first ones started a couple months ago I can say with absolute certainty: Enjoy this well you can... it won't last long.
Holy crap! Why didn't we think of this? Also, I didn't get a chance to watch any of the coverage... Can anyone enlighten me to the reasoning for this deck's success? Was it just a super unprepared meta or is this deck really broken? Seems to me like it's VERY similar to Affinity.
Cavern of Souls is definitely the best card if you want to splash a colour, but I think that the mono-colourless list actually holds some promise. Manlands are pretty busted so they should not be underestimated and might be worth committing to 0 colours. I've ordered the PT decklist and will be trying it out and then probably altering the mana base and sideboard here and there. The only counterspells I'm really worried about are Merfolk at my local meta so I'd rather still have one of the fastest and most consistent versions.
The Oblivion Sowers are out unless the mirror match becomes popular. If I wanted topend I'd rather have that 7 mana Eldrazi with Annhilator 2 from BfZ.
So I've played 4 leagues since the Pro Tour. I've gone a combined 15-5 with the list posted above. 3-2. 4-1. 5-0 and 3-2. Only losses have come from affinity x2, lantern control x2, and Scapeshift.ThroughTheBreach.Emrakul.dek.
Lantern can be improved in one of two ways: Adding Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as a pair to the sideboard or Scour from Existence - the latter probably being strictly worse in every way especially in the matchup where they control your draws. Lantern goes long and mana and an Eye of Ugin is seldom an issue when they are milling you out (P.S. I nearly always make lantern players play through. Same thing with UW Tron Mindslaver lock). So being able to end step tutor for an Ulamog to destroy a pair of bridges (which they won't be able to get back with Academy Ruins) seems like a good play. The reason for 2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger would be that 1 of them is bound to get milled and if it isn't having insurance against Ensnaring Bridge #3 and #4 is a good idea. I think I'll test them in Oblivion Sower's place in the board for now, although Sowers fat-a** has come in handy against many a goyf and scooze.
The latern MU isn't unwinnable, but you can only mulligan so many times to try for chalice on turn 1... and they run Thoughtseize
What does anyone think about dropping to 3 Eye of Ugin? They are REALLY terrible in pairs.
I think it's definitely worth a shot. After a test match today where games 1 and 2 I drew 3 within the first 5 turns.
I've tried it and noticed that we get the early explosiveness a bit less. Makes it harder to drop 2 mimics turn 1-kind of thing but that is a christmas miracle hand anyways.
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Modern: C Serum Eldrazi Legacy: CEldrazi C Mud W Soldier Stompy R Bread (big red stompy) WU Spirit Blade WUG Meat Hooks WUBGR Blue Dredge
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Mulligan aggressively is the name of the game with this one. D&T is tough, and possibly unfavorable to us, but I havne't really played it with this eldrazi variant. Abzan Company is tough, but just don't let them get you tilted. They are going to keep playing Fulminator Mages and casting CoCo into annoyance, but most games that I've had against them I get super annoyed and want to concede, but I don't and then eventually they have a hard time with a topdecked 9/9 Endless one or Reality Smasher.
Grixis Control is child's play if you find your cavern of souls, and we can typically out top deck them. Without it we have to rush cards onto the board before they can begin countering. And they do run out of counter spells.
The colorless mirror is really just dependent upon draws. Whoever gets the lightning fast draw wins.
The UR version mops the floor with the colorless version. The UR version may also be better against Abzan CoCo because of its ability to tap down blockers (which is really insane). The UR version may be better than this version, honestly, but I haven't tested it. I've been playing something similar to this one for a few weeks and like it. Getting used to how it mulligans can be awkward, though.
I was on BW Eldrazi Midrange before the pro tour but I'm all in on this deck atm. Honestly, this deck just gets mad style points for being totally colorless in the literal first PT where that was even possible to do with wastes. And Chalice??? Good god, it's brutal at my burn heavy meta. I'm the scourge of the LGS atm.
Noticing some people online going for Endbringer over Matter Reshaper. Not sure how that looks in practice. I love Endbringer for EDH, but Reshaper seems like the better call in this deck.
Playtested this deck a bunch this evening and got beaten pretty soundly every game.
There seems to be an issue with opening hands.
If I kept medium quality hands I'd lose from being too slow. If i mulliganed aggressively for eye/temple I ended up getting dodgy 5s and even 4s with like urborg-dismember-ratchet bomb-reality smasher and just wondering how anyone won any games with this lol.
It's possible to draw well, but honestly the deck has issues. Consistency doesn't seem to be its strong point.
Anyone else finding this?
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Playtested this deck a bunch this evening and got beaten pretty soundly every game.
There seems to be an issue with opening hands.
If I kept medium quality hands I'd lose from being too slow. If i mulliganed aggressively for eye/temple I ended up getting dodgy 5s and even 4s with like urborg-dismember-ratchet bomb-reality smasher and just wondering how anyone won any games with this lol.
It's possible to draw well, but honestly the deck has issues. Consistency doesn't seem to be its strong point.
Playtested this deck a bunch this evening and got beaten pretty soundly every game.
There seems to be an issue with opening hands.
If I kept medium quality hands I'd lose from being too slow. If i mulliganed aggressively for eye/temple I ended up getting dodgy 5s and even 4s with like urborg-dismember-ratchet bomb-reality smasher and just wondering how anyone won any games with this lol.
It's possible to draw well, but honestly the deck has issues. Consistency doesn't seem to be its strong point.
Anyone else finding this?
I'm confused. You playtested the CFB list and got beaten every game? I don't see how that's possible. I've tested close to 50 games with and against this deck in the past week, and although it's not quite as insane as most people allege, it's still very, very strong. It's also quite consistent in both opening hands and later turns: the PT results speak pretty directly to this. The list could get improved here and there in an evolved metagame, but if you are getting beaten every game with it, something is wrong and it's not with the list.
Playtested this deck a bunch this evening and got beaten pretty soundly every game.
There seems to be an issue with opening hands.
If I kept medium quality hands I'd lose from being too slow. If i mulliganed aggressively for eye/temple I ended up getting dodgy 5s and even 4s with like urborg-dismember-ratchet bomb-reality smasher and just wondering how anyone won any games with this lol.
It's possible to draw well, but honestly the deck has issues. Consistency doesn't seem to be its strong point.
Anyone else finding this?
I'm confused. You playtested the CFB list and got beaten every game? I don't see how that's possible. I've tested close to 50 games with and against this deck in the past week, and although it's not quite as insane as most people allege, it's still very, very strong. It's also quite consistent in both opening hands and later turns: the PT results speak pretty directly to this. The list could get improved here and there in an evolved metagame, but if you are getting beaten every game with it, something is wrong and it's not with the list.
Out of (roughly, wasn't counting) 12 games, I eaked out a single win, due to a fortunate turn 1 chalice.
Every other game was an opening hand disaster, either because I felt I needed to keep what looked like a fairly quick hand but never drew into eye/temple, or had to mulligan do-nothing hands to try to hit an eye/temple and nothing materialised (think LSV in the last game of the semi finals).
It's true 12 games is a small sample size, and i'll continue to test rigorously, but comparing this deck to something like infect or bogles, it *feels* less consistent.
And actually, you can probably multiply the number of opening hands by x2 because we were in a casual testing pod and we tried a bunch of sample opening gambits for games as well as full games.
Really, no joke. Lost basically every game. Shuffled like a boss before every hand. Felt baaaaaaaaad
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Honestly the deck has some pretty glaring issues. I was genuinely surprised because all the negative hype would have you believe otherwise, but the complainers are operating in magical christmasland.
Let's not forget either that when a deck faces a bunch of mirror matches in a tournament, it inflates how good it looks because one of them is guaranteed to win on camera, so no matter how poorly they both draw, one player will always win with the deck making it look better than it actually is.
The deck's good. I can see the potential. But really it's WAY worse than people are making it out to be. It just feels like a normal stompy deck with the occasional busted draw. Similar to the nykthos stompy deck in that sense.
People need to chill out about this deck haha. It's fun and I'll continue to play it but it's not the broken thing that's supposedly caused all the hysteria.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
The over reacting over this deck is so loud its actually worrying that Wizards will just ban something out of pure community crying. After 60+ games I also give my opinion that the deck has some terrible, terrible draws (and clearly some very good ones too).
Honestly the deck has some pretty glaring issues. I was genuinely surprised because all the negative hype would have you believe otherwise, but the complainers are operating in magical christmasland.
Let's not forget either that when a deck faces a bunch of mirror matches in a tournament, it inflates how good it looks because one of them is guaranteed to win on camera, so no matter how poorly they both draw, one player will always win with the deck making it look better than it actually is.
The deck's good. I can see the potential. But really it's WAY worse than people are making it out to be. It just feels like a normal stompy deck with the occasional busted draw. Similar to the nykthos stompy deck in that sense.
People need to chill out about this deck haha. It's fun and I'll continue to play it but it's not the broken thing that's supposedly caused all the hysteria.
I've been around these forums for a long time, and although this might not be your intent, these posts read very, very strongly as veiled (or not-so-veiled) ban defenses of this deck. It's like you came to this thread to argue it's not very good as a way of showing the community and taking a stand that it isn't bannable. These sorts of posts are prohibited in this thread. If you genuinely want to improve the deck, please do so. But this just sounds like you are finding weaknesses as a way to point out that the deck isn't bannable. Again, this is not allowed and you need to take that to the Eldrazi Controversy Thread or the Banlist Discussion. Don't take it here.
Further banlist references or allusions in this thread will be warned/infracted accordingly. As a good reference point, if your post includes references to other players complaining/whining about the deck, or you mention bans either directly/indirectly, or you aren't actually suggesting any improvements to fix issues, you are going to get warned/infracted.
I've been around these forums for a long time, and although this might not be your intent, these posts read very, very strongly as veiled (or not-so-veiled) ban defenses of this deck.
truly wasn't the intent. was just really surprised by the consistency issues i've encountered, and cited the mad hysteria about the deck as giving a different impression. that's all.
in the vein of improving this issue (i'm taking the deck to FNM tonight), i'm wondering if we need to ship some number of Spellskite/ratchet bomb to the sideboard. i'm going to look for 2 or 3 more synergistic cards for the maindeck that don't result in poor openers. even maybe a couple of mind stone could be feasibly better than spellskite against a good chunk of the metagame.
open to suggestions. heading out in about 45 mins so will let y'all know how it goes.
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
Went undefeated at FNM.
Beat (in order):
Jund 2-0:
Games were grindy and my threats died. Had no real chance of winning except both games I topdecked my 1x Seagate Wreckage and proceeded to draw two cards a turn, quickly grinding my way to a threat-dense win both times. Why is nobody running this card?
CoCo allies, 2-1:
Got smashed game 1. Very synergistic. He was running the blue mill ally and it took me apart with multiple triggers. He also pathed my threats.
Games 2 and 3 were grindy midrange fests but i had brought in my "top end" package and eventually cast All is Dust for the win.
Round 3. Burn, 2-0
The deck felt really powerful here. I don't think there's a consistent way for the burn deck to win. This is why the Eldrazi deck was built this way, it's an aggro killer.
Round 4: affinity 2-1:
All three games were intense and full of crazy resource management and trades. Really tough but i eventually won through with a well-timed Dismember in response to an arcbound ravager activation. My big break was topdecking pithing needle and naming cranial plating. Chalice was great.
And that was that. The deck felt like a run of the mill stompy deck apart from when I played burn. At that moment, it all made sense and chalice basically won the game. That's the reason you play this deck: to crush the 1-mana-heavy aggro decks.
Cards of note:
1x Seagate Wreckage maindeck. (won two games off the back of this. Absolutely unreal. EoT draw, untap draw, play two threats. One eats removal who cares; EoT draw, untap draw etc.). Singlehandedly turned around a losing prospect against jund.
Seriously everyone needs one.
2x damping matrix. Sideboard
Seemed like a shot in the dark but came up trumps from the side. Really good against a wide variety of things.
1x Ulamog, 1x sower, 1x conduit, 1x All is Dust in the side. This was my "going big" package and I'd advocate going this way (remember I've got a single sower in the main). Ulamog needs to be in the side for sure. You gain too much value it's a mistake to not have the option to go big in grindy games. You only need to look at protour footage to see a singleton ulamog would have been insane a lot of the time.
Also I dropped down to 1 spellskite main and stuck in a single maindeck oblivion sower. Made the difference a few times as the deck often runs out of steam and needs a big fatty to drop sometimes. Having the one maindeck is a nice safety valve but the curve needs to be quite low so I'd advocate sticking with one. Spellskite seems kinda weak maindeck if you've got more than one.
Ratchet bomb stayed in my hand almost every time I drew it, but in a couple of games it made the difference between a win and a loss. I'm 50/50 on the card but for the moment it can stay as a 2-of.
Pithing needle sideboard is essential. Go up to three if you have to. Needle and chalice against affinity gives you a solid matchup. Name cranial plating followed by arcbound ravager.
It's going to suffer against decks packing stuff like remand and strong removal. It seemed on the face of it like we are really soft to the uninteractive combo (ad nauseam) side of things, and the late-game side of things. Wrath spells are a kicking for us, because we are mostly forced to go wide a bit like a big affinity deck.
Revising of my opinion of the deck; feels fine. Games are close and actually really intensive in terms of choices. Really great against burn which i guess it's designed for. Gets crushed by abzan CoCo decks. Played a bunch of friendlies with another player between rounds and there's nothing we can do to outgrind them barring a really spectacular opening hand.
Path your smasher, casually put loxodon smiter into play off the discard trigger *bleurgh*
As soon as the Oath of the Gatewatch Eldrazi were spoiled, I got to work trying to include them in a shell with Chalice of the Void. I landed on a build that featured Liliana of the Veil as additional permanent disruption and capitalized on the synergy between Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Eye of Ugin. The ensuing Modern Pro Tour prominently featured Team Face to Face and Team ChannelFireball's joint collaboration at the top tables, an evolution of the theme which included Simian Spirit Guide and laid the blueprint for Colorless Eldrazi Stompy today.
Post-Eye of Ugin ban, most Eldrazi players gravitated to Bant colors, relying on Noble Hierarch and Ancient Stirrings to support Eldrazi Temple as additional fast-mana generators. Some also went the UrzaTron route for their fast mana, and most recently, an aggressive RG build has been adpoted in Bant's vein. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy instead relies on Serum Powder and Gemstone Caverns to find Eldrazi Temple before the game even begins and play a game resembling those from the glory days. These enablers would be unplayable if not for a more recently-printed Eldrazi that ties all the pieces together: Eternal Scourge.
An example build:
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Eternal Scourge
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Artifacts (9)
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Serum Powder
1 Smuggler's Copter
4 Dismember
Lands (23)
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Mutavault
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Scavenger Grounds
2 Wastes
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Spatial Contortion
4 Ratchet Bomb
1 Pithing Needle
2 Gut Shot
1 Surgical Extraction
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is one of few viable stompy decks in Modern. Unlike Legacy's stompy decks, it tends to match up favorably against Modern's interactive strategies, chiefly thanks to the interaction between Eternal Scourge and Relic of Progenitus, and the absence of Force of Will. Chalice of the Void gives the deck game against the format's faster linear decks, and the aforementioned fast mana package gives the strategy the consistency needed to succeed in Modern. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is also capable of busted openers on par with those from Eldrazi Winter, giving the deck an explosive element and the ability to God-draw.
The result: a jack-of-all-trades with a free-win dimension that gives up some of the other Eldrazi decks' explosiveness for points across the board. I believe patience and practice on the part of the pilot can yield an overwhelmingly favorable win rate against the metagame at large, something my admittedly slim competitive record with the deck supports.
Good matchups: Spell-based control, U or B midrange, goodstuff aggro, combo decks heavy on one- or zero-drops, graveyard-reliant decks
Medium matchups: Humans, Affinity, Eldrazi Tron, goodstuff Company decks, prison decks
Bad matchups: Spirits, Bant/GR Eldrazi, Breach decks
Gameplan
This deck aggressively mulligans into highly competent hands and plays Magic on a different level than opponents can muster. It keeps openers with Eldrazi Temple, ones that slam turn one Chalice of the Void, or ones otherwise full of matchup-relevant hate (removal, sideboard lock pieces, etc.). With a lock piece in play (or without one), the deck simply plays its threats out on curve and takes opponents to zero. With its creatures deployed, Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is free to use its lands to disrupt an opponent's mana, animate and attack with Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus, block or wall aggression from an opponent, or draw more cards with Sea Gate Wreckage.
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy Mini-Primer: Play Tips
The largest hurdle to overcome when learning this deck is how to mulligan. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy greatly rewards pilots for being discerning and ruthless when it comes to mulligans, and will flunk those too soft (or hard) on their openers.
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy Mini-Primer: Mulligans
Deckbuilding guidelines
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy boasts a crowded 55-card core, allowing for 5 flex spots (of which 1 should be a land).
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Eternal Scourge
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Serum Powder
1 Smuggler's Copter
Instants (4)
4 Dismember
Lands (22)
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Gemstone Caverns
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Mutavault
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
2 Scavenger Grounds
2 Wastes
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy is made up of a straightforward combination of creatures, utility, disruption, and lands.
Creatures
We play the most efficient Eldrazi ever printed, many of which hail from Oath of the Gatewatch. Colorless Eldrazi Stompy favors a lean, aggressive creature suite compared with pricey utility threats like Eldrazi Displacer and Drowner of Hope from Bant Eldrazi or over-the-top behemoths like Endbringer and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger from Eldrazi Tron.
Eternal Scourge: Scourge allows us to play our consistency tools and is our best threat against spell-based midrange and attrition decks. Read about Scourge in detail here.
Thought-Knot Seer: Jund players have been chasing Thoughtseize with Tarmogoyf since Modern was born, and Thought-Knot Seer rolls both cards into one. It frequently comes down on turn three, and exiling the card helps keep early-game Goyfs at 3/4, as well as permanently getting rid of Lingering Souls and offering a host of other benefits. Seer also gives us game against the kind of deck that traditionally hoses stompy decks, like Ad Nauseam.
Reality Smasher: Given its bulk, speed, and evasion, Smasher‘s ability is plain gratuitous. Creatures this fast and large need organic checks so interactive decks can keep them under control – for Smasher to play fair, Terminate, Path, and even Vapor Snag must answer him without forcing casters to Raven’s Crime themselves. Smasher runs interactive decks out of either cards or life points very efficiently, and one often begets the other.
Simian Spirit Guide: Enables first turn Chalice of the Void, second turn Reality Smasher, and other highly fair plays.
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy's noncreature spells fall under the utility and disruption categories.
Smuggler's Copter: Filters through "dead draws" like extra Chalices of Powders, blocks fliers, clocks evasively, and kind of gives the zone-hopping Eternal Scourge haste. More on Copter's many possible roles in the deck here and here.
Dismember: A one-mana removal spell that can be cast under Chalice, Dismember kills nearly every creature in Modern, including Push-resistent monsters like Gurmag Angler.
Being in colorless offers us a wide selection of utility lands. Besides Ghost Quarter and Sea Gate Wreckage, manlands are our best options here.
Gemstone Caverns: Combines with Serum Powder to smooth out the deck's openers. Pitching Eternal Scourge reads like taking the play and drawing an extra card. More on that interaction here.
Scavenger Grounds: A relative newcomer to the deck, Grounds has already proven its worth. It has applications all over, as many decks use the graveyard heavily in Modern, including Storm, Traverse Shadow, and Goryo's Vengeance. Grounds also helps against anyone who deals with Scourge pre-board by exiling all our copies again.
Sea Gate Wreckage: We often mulligan low, start most games with fast mana, and play mana rocks, making the hellbent Library of Alexandria ultra-reliable in the late-game.
Wastes: Necessary as a two- or three-of to hedge against Path to Exile, Field of Ruin, and Ghost Quarter. Can also be searched off our own Quarter to get around Blood Moon in a pinch.
Mutavault: The next-best manland, Mutavault brings twice the pressure of a Blinkmoth on an empty board, and trades with attackers like Goblin Guide if needed. It’s even a Blinkmoth itself, allowing other manlands to give it a pump on offense or defense.
These cards fill the four gaps left by the Colorless Eldrazi Stompy core.
Matter Reshaper: Ideal in highly interactive metagames, Reshaper trades and nets a card against removal spells or creatures x/3 and weaker. Notably weak in linear combo matchups. Since the Jace and Bloodbraid unban, I have run 4 of these over any kind of Endless One split.
Endless One: A solid option for lists looking to pack a couple late-game cards into their decks without compromising their early games. Trumps Reshaper against linear combo decks. Notably weak to Fatal Push.
Disruption
Relic of Progenitus: Mainboard copies can work in metagames heavy on graveyard-based decks or midrange strategies. Modern is wide-open enough that Chalice is generally better. Should not be run mainboard alongside Chalice, even in small numbers, as doing so puts too much strain on our openers; just play another Grounds as the 23rd land in that case. My general advice to players searching for "budget" builds without Chalice of the Void is to run Relic instead, replacing Guide with more threats (I only mention this because the issue has been inappropriately raised here countless times; please keep budget discussion out of this thread and in its dedicated forum).
Ratchet Bomb: A mainboard answer to problematic permanents like Ensnaring Bridge or Worship, as well as planeswalkers or just a horde of tokens.
Spatial Contortion: A colorless Bolt. Powerful in go-wide creature-centric metas.
Lands
Sea Gate Wreckage #2: Here's what I had in this spot for years, and am just reconsidering in early 2018. Thanks to Scavenger Grounds, we now have more to do with our mana than before and can't benefit as much from another Sea Gate. The second Gate is nice because it allows us to retain one in the deck after exiling one to Powder.
Scavenger Grounds #3: My current pick for the final land. Insulates us against graveyard decks G1 and helps a lot vs midrange before we get our Relics, especially vs Tarmogoyf.
Wastes #3: An easy pick in a field full of Fields.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: Turns our Dismembers into freerolls, which can be very important in grindier matchups as well as in aggressive ones.
The following four lands are technically "options," but I would not personally recommend any of them.
Cavern of Souls: This card is brought up more than any other, but I think it's a crutch in this deck suggested by players who have not spent time figuring out how to pace their threats against Ux control decks. These matchups are close to unloseable once that happens, and Cavern is not necessary.
Tectonic Edge: Hate to shore up the mirror, but it doesn't do too much there. Sometimes passable against Valakut decks.
Tomb of the Spirit Dragon: A card-costless way to gain life each turn.
Grasping Dunes: Can work in Affinity or Spirits-heavy metagames, but a bit narrow. Also kills Dark Confidant. Likely better than contemporaries Desert and Quicksand.
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy struggles against go-wide aggro decks and certain strains of linear combo. Since we can't do much in these "colors" against cards like Through the Breach, much of the sideboard is dedicated to fighting the former.
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy Mini-Primer: Sideboarding
Disruption
The deck features two types of disruption, which also holds true for the sideboard.
Ratchet Bomb: Colorless's answer to enchantments, artifacts, and 'walkers, as well as an efficient token wipe. Our Engineered Explosives. Staple at 3-4.
Pithing Needle: Turns off planeswalkers as well as random utility lands and artifacts (i.e. Inkmoth Nexus, Oblivion Stone). Hyper-efficient and underrated. 1-2.
Sorcerous Spyglass: Replaces Needle as needed. My omission of Spyglass for the Classic win wasn't an oversight, as many onlookers assumed---I was actually one of the card's big proponents pre-printing. But testing has revealed its limitations. It’s often a “three drop” in this deck (we tend to start with Eldrazi Temple), which makes it incredibly clunky. And since we like saving our Needles anyway, the info only marginally improved the card. Clashing with Chalice never comes up with Needle, either; we Chalice for 0 against Affinity and side the artifact out in most other Needle matchups. Spyglass is better against Tron if the game goes long, and against Ux control decks. Needle is better everywhere else.
Grafdigger's Cage: Low-maintenance hate for graveyard decks and Company. 0-1.
Witchbane Orb: A clunky solution to Valakut decks. 0-1.
Damping Matrix: Expensive Stony Silence. Makes Powder worse and turns off Relic. 0-1.
Gut Shot: An easy kill spell for x/1 creatures. Excellent against Affinity, tokens, Jund (for hitting Confidant and Liliana after she goes -2), and others. 0-2.
All is Dust: Can be run as a one-of in value CoCo metagames, but is extremely expensive. 0-1.
Crucible of Worlds: Nice for Ghost Quarter mirrors, especially Eldrazi Tron. 0-1.
🐒 Colorless Eldrazi Stompy Mini-Primer: Sideboarding - Comprehensive run-down on sideboarding with the deck.
🐒 Colorless Eldrazi Stompy Mini-Primer: Play Tips - Collection of valuable tips & tricks for potential pilots.
Early days
🐒 Turn Four Ulamog: Reshaping Modern with Colorless Eldrazi Stompy - My first-ever build of the deck, created during spoiler season for Oath of the Gatewatch.
🐒 Thirst for Knowledge: Scrutinizing Serum Powder in TarmoDrazi - Article meditating on Serum Powder's functionality in Eldrazi decks after the Eye of Ugin ban.
Post-Eternal Scourge
🐒 Eternal Devotion: Rebuilding Colorless Eldrazi Stompy - Article which unveils the modern build with Eternal Scourge (featuring Relic over Chalice as a nod to Dredge).
Modern Scourge Powder Eldrazi - Deck feature from Pascal Maynard.
🐒 Crunch Time: Three Months Later with Colorless Eldrazi Stompy - Article featuring an archetype check-in after three months of testing with Eternal Scourge and a redraft of the core.
🐒 Brewing With Smuggler's Copter - Article introducing Smuggler's Copter to the deck and explaining its roles.
🐒 Seeing the Light: Top 4 at Regionals with Colorless Eldrazi Stompy - 11-round tournament report.
🐒 Weird Science: Dissecting Modern's Eldrazi Decks - A piece comparing Eldrazi Tron, Bant Eldrazi, and Eldrazi Stompy.
Daily Digest: Wanna Be a Victim, Ready for Abduction - Blurb by Ross Merriam on the deck.
🐒 Contorting the Competition: SCG Invitational Report - 8-round tournament report from the 2017 SCG Season 1 Invitational.
🐒 Gutting Worcester with Colorless Eldrazi Stompy - 12-round tournament report from the 2018 SCG Worcester Classic.
Surprises After the Modern Unbannings - Blurb by Collins Mullen on the deck.
🐒 Adding Zhalfirin Void to Colorless Eldrazi Stompy - First impressions of Zhalfirin Void and a breakdown of the importance of each utility land.
🐒 2/18/17 - 5th at TJ Collectibles Titanium Series, Jordan Boisvert
🐒 2/4/17 - 4th at SCG Regionals, Jordan Boisvert
🐒 6/30/17 - undefeated in Modern at SCG Roanoke Invitational, Jordan Boisvert
🐒 3/4/18 - 1st in SCG Worcester Classic, Jordan Boisvert
3/10/18 - 11th in SCG Dallas Open, Jonathan Job
More to come 🤗😬🤓
As Colorless Eldrazi Stompy evolves, I'll spoiler-tag defunct sections of the primer here (if worth saving).
Counter-Cat
Colorless Eldrazi Stompy
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Spellskite
4 Thought-Knot Seer
Artifact (6)
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Dismember
Land (24)
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Wastes
2 Batterskull
3 Gut Shot
3 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
2 Warping Wail
I saw many lists at the pro tour which looked more like this:
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Reality Smasher
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Spellskite
4 Thought-Knot Seer
Instants (4)
4 Dismember
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Ratchet Bomb
Lands (24)
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Mutavault
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Wastes
3 Gut Shot
3 Oblivion Sower
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spellskite
1 Warping Wail
I decided after a bit of play testing and watching Pro Tour matches that the Mutavaults could probably be better off as 2x Cavern of Souls and a 3rd Wastes to fight counter magic and Blood Moon. For those that don't see counter magic often, you could up the number of Wastes or Mutavaults. Or maybe even Inkmoth Nexus.
I wasn't sure what the Oblivion Sowers were for in this variant other than a beefy threat for midrange decks and slower midrange mirrors against which we're already favored, so I decided to give 2 Batterskull and +1 Warping Wail a try. And -1 Relic of Progenitus, as 4 seemed like quite a lot in an aggro infested meta, for +1 Pithing Needle for decks like Lantern Control and Tron.
C Kozilek C
GB Gitrog GB
G Titania G
WU Brago WU
GB MerenGB
Duel Commander Decks
UR Keranos UR
BRG Jund BRG
GR Tron GR GW Tron GW
C Eldrazi Tron (SB) C
BG Lantern Control BG
UW Control (SB) UW
4 Chalice of the Void
Instants
4 Dismember
2 Spatial Contortion
Creatures
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Endless One
4 Eye of Ugin
4 Reality Smasher
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Eldrazi Obligator
2 Matter Reshaper
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Wastes
4 Eldrazi Temple
3 Corrupted Crossroads
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Gut Shot
2 Oblivion Sower
2 Pithing Needle
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spellskite
1 Warping Wail
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
4 Endless One
4 Eldrazi Mimic
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Matter Reshaper
Lands:
3 Mutavault
4 Eldrazi Temple
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Ghost Quarter
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Eye of Ugin
2 Wastes
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Ratchet Bomb
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Spellskite
Utilities:
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Dismember
1 Spatial Contortion
4 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Oblivion Sower
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Warping Wail
4 Relic of Progenitus
1 Spatial Contortion
Opponents in the 5-0 run: Scapeshift, UR Moon (blue moon maybe? The game didn't last long enough), Grixis Control with Shape Anew for Blightsteel Colossus (this MU actually feels not abysmal for them), some Planesteel Paladin/Monastery Mentor brew that seemed kinds strong with a bunch of 0 cost artifacts (chalice on 0 for this one), and... well... honestly I can't remember right now.
Spacial Contortion has been really good to me. With chalice on 1 it is basically lightning bolt. Its not as efficient as Dismember here, but there has been more than 1 occasion where using it on a Reality Smasher, Thought-Knot Seer, or Endless One has won me the game a turn early... Though I'm not sure if it would have mattered.
This deck feels like "god mode" in some video game. The opponent basically has to draw every answer at exactly the right time to win. I'm not the best MTG player, so a 12-3 overall record with a deck with me is saying something. As a player of Eldrazi decks since the first ones started a couple months ago I can say with absolute certainty: Enjoy this well you can... it won't last long.
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
The Oblivion Sowers are out unless the mirror match becomes popular. If I wanted topend I'd rather have that 7 mana Eldrazi with Annhilator 2 from BfZ.
Modern: Eldrazi CB,
Lantern can be improved in one of two ways: Adding Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as a pair to the sideboard or Scour from Existence - the latter probably being strictly worse in every way especially in the matchup where they control your draws. Lantern goes long and mana and an Eye of Ugin is seldom an issue when they are milling you out (P.S. I nearly always make lantern players play through. Same thing with UW Tron Mindslaver lock). So being able to end step tutor for an Ulamog to destroy a pair of bridges (which they won't be able to get back with Academy Ruins) seems like a good play. The reason for 2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger would be that 1 of them is bound to get milled and if it isn't having insurance against Ensnaring Bridge #3 and #4 is a good idea. I think I'll test them in Oblivion Sower's place in the board for now, although Sowers fat-a** has come in handy against many a goyf and scooze.
The latern MU isn't unwinnable, but you can only mulligan so many times to try for chalice on turn 1... and they run Thoughtseize
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
I think it's definitely worth a shot. After a test match today where games 1 and 2 I drew 3 within the first 5 turns.
C Kozilek C
GB Gitrog GB
G Titania G
WU Brago WU
GB MerenGB
Duel Commander Decks
UR Keranos UR
BRG Jund BRG
GR Tron GR GW Tron GW
C Eldrazi Tron (SB) C
BG Lantern Control BG
UW Control (SB) UW
I've tried it and noticed that we get the early explosiveness a bit less. Makes it harder to drop 2 mimics turn 1-kind of thing but that is a christmas miracle hand anyways.
C Serum Eldrazi
Legacy:
C Eldrazi
C Mud
W Soldier Stompy
R Bread (big red stompy)
WU Spirit Blade
WUG Meat Hooks
WUBGR Blue Dredge
If anyone sees banlist discussion after this post, report it and DO NOT RESPOND. Responding often earns you a warning/infraction as well. Staff will handle it.
Carry on with the development and strategy!
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/quality-over-quantity/
GXTronGX
RWxBurnRWx
Grixis Control is child's play if you find your cavern of souls, and we can typically out top deck them. Without it we have to rush cards onto the board before they can begin countering. And they do run out of counter spells.
The colorless mirror is really just dependent upon draws. Whoever gets the lightning fast draw wins.
The UR version mops the floor with the colorless version. The UR version may also be better against Abzan CoCo because of its ability to tap down blockers (which is really insane). The UR version may be better than this version, honestly, but I haven't tested it. I've been playing something similar to this one for a few weeks and like it. Getting used to how it mulligans can be awkward, though.
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Modern: Bogles // 8-Whack/Goblins // UW Titan // Hollow One // Affinity // Dredge
EDH: Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Atraxa, Praetor's Voice // Meren of Clan Nel Toth
~Modern~
BGURWhiteless Death's ShadowRUGB
GWRUSaheeli BlinkURWG
RGBUGood Ole' DredgeUBGR
~Commander~
URWNarset, Enlightened Time-TravelerWRU
UBRWBreya, Etherium ArchitectWRBU
A Prolific Loser To Blood Moon
Want to be a better Magic player? Read the rulings forum and check out the comprehensive rules!
There seems to be an issue with opening hands.
If I kept medium quality hands I'd lose from being too slow. If i mulliganed aggressively for eye/temple I ended up getting dodgy 5s and even 4s with like urborg-dismember-ratchet bomb-reality smasher and just wondering how anyone won any games with this lol.
It's possible to draw well, but honestly the deck has issues. Consistency doesn't seem to be its strong point.
Anyone else finding this?
Please hope it keeps happening. Deck is so fun
I'm confused. You playtested the CFB list and got beaten every game? I don't see how that's possible. I've tested close to 50 games with and against this deck in the past week, and although it's not quite as insane as most people allege, it's still very, very strong. It's also quite consistent in both opening hands and later turns: the PT results speak pretty directly to this. The list could get improved here and there in an evolved metagame, but if you are getting beaten every game with it, something is wrong and it's not with the list.
Out of (roughly, wasn't counting) 12 games, I eaked out a single win, due to a fortunate turn 1 chalice.
Every other game was an opening hand disaster, either because I felt I needed to keep what looked like a fairly quick hand but never drew into eye/temple, or had to mulligan do-nothing hands to try to hit an eye/temple and nothing materialised (think LSV in the last game of the semi finals).
It's true 12 games is a small sample size, and i'll continue to test rigorously, but comparing this deck to something like infect or bogles, it *feels* less consistent.
And actually, you can probably multiply the number of opening hands by x2 because we were in a casual testing pod and we tried a bunch of sample opening gambits for games as well as full games.
Really, no joke. Lost basically every game. Shuffled like a boss before every hand. Felt baaaaaaaaad
Honestly the deck has some pretty glaring issues. I was genuinely surprised because all the negative hype would have you believe otherwise, but the complainers are operating in magical christmasland.
Let's not forget either that when a deck faces a bunch of mirror matches in a tournament, it inflates how good it looks because one of them is guaranteed to win on camera, so no matter how poorly they both draw, one player will always win with the deck making it look better than it actually is.
The deck's good. I can see the potential. But really it's WAY worse than people are making it out to be. It just feels like a normal stompy deck with the occasional busted draw. Similar to the nykthos stompy deck in that sense.
People need to chill out about this deck haha. It's fun and I'll continue to play it but it's not the broken thing that's supposedly caused all the hysteria.
I've been around these forums for a long time, and although this might not be your intent, these posts read very, very strongly as veiled (or not-so-veiled) ban defenses of this deck. It's like you came to this thread to argue it's not very good as a way of showing the community and taking a stand that it isn't bannable. These sorts of posts are prohibited in this thread. If you genuinely want to improve the deck, please do so. But this just sounds like you are finding weaknesses as a way to point out that the deck isn't bannable. Again, this is not allowed and you need to take that to the Eldrazi Controversy Thread or the Banlist Discussion. Don't take it here.
Further banlist references or allusions in this thread will be warned/infracted accordingly. As a good reference point, if your post includes references to other players complaining/whining about the deck, or you mention bans either directly/indirectly, or you aren't actually suggesting any improvements to fix issues, you are going to get warned/infracted.
truly wasn't the intent. was just really surprised by the consistency issues i've encountered, and cited the mad hysteria about the deck as giving a different impression. that's all.
in the vein of improving this issue (i'm taking the deck to FNM tonight), i'm wondering if we need to ship some number of Spellskite/ratchet bomb to the sideboard. i'm going to look for 2 or 3 more synergistic cards for the maindeck that don't result in poor openers. even maybe a couple of mind stone could be feasibly better than spellskite against a good chunk of the metagame.
open to suggestions. heading out in about 45 mins so will let y'all know how it goes.
Beat (in order):
Jund 2-0:
Games were grindy and my threats died. Had no real chance of winning except both games I topdecked my 1x Seagate Wreckage and proceeded to draw two cards a turn, quickly grinding my way to a threat-dense win both times. Why is nobody running this card?
CoCo allies, 2-1:
Got smashed game 1. Very synergistic. He was running the blue mill ally and it took me apart with multiple triggers. He also pathed my threats.
Games 2 and 3 were grindy midrange fests but i had brought in my "top end" package and eventually cast All is Dust for the win.
Round 3. Burn, 2-0
The deck felt really powerful here. I don't think there's a consistent way for the burn deck to win. This is why the Eldrazi deck was built this way, it's an aggro killer.
Round 4: affinity 2-1:
All three games were intense and full of crazy resource management and trades. Really tough but i eventually won through with a well-timed Dismember in response to an arcbound ravager activation. My big break was topdecking pithing needle and naming cranial plating. Chalice was great.
And that was that. The deck felt like a run of the mill stompy deck apart from when I played burn. At that moment, it all made sense and chalice basically won the game. That's the reason you play this deck: to crush the 1-mana-heavy aggro decks.
The list:
4 endless one
4 matter reshaper
4 thought-knot seer
4 reality smasher
1 oblivion sower
4 Dismember
2 ratchet bomb
1 spellskite
4 chalice of the Void
Lands:
4 eye of ugin
4 eldrazi temple
2 urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
4 blinkmoth nexus
4 ghost quarter
2 tectonic edge
3 wastes
1 Seagate Wreckage
3 gut shot
3 pithing needle
2 damping matrix
3 relic of progenitus
1 ulamog, the ceaseless hunger
1 oblivion sower
1 conduit of ruin
1 all is dust
Cards of note:
1x Seagate Wreckage maindeck. (won two games off the back of this. Absolutely unreal. EoT draw, untap draw, play two threats. One eats removal who cares; EoT draw, untap draw etc.). Singlehandedly turned around a losing prospect against jund.
Seriously everyone needs one.
2x damping matrix. Sideboard
Seemed like a shot in the dark but came up trumps from the side. Really good against a wide variety of things.
1x Ulamog, 1x sower, 1x conduit, 1x All is Dust in the side. This was my "going big" package and I'd advocate going this way (remember I've got a single sower in the main). Ulamog needs to be in the side for sure. You gain too much value it's a mistake to not have the option to go big in grindy games. You only need to look at protour footage to see a singleton ulamog would have been insane a lot of the time.
Also I dropped down to 1 spellskite main and stuck in a single maindeck oblivion sower. Made the difference a few times as the deck often runs out of steam and needs a big fatty to drop sometimes. Having the one maindeck is a nice safety valve but the curve needs to be quite low so I'd advocate sticking with one. Spellskite seems kinda weak maindeck if you've got more than one.
Ratchet bomb stayed in my hand almost every time I drew it, but in a couple of games it made the difference between a win and a loss. I'm 50/50 on the card but for the moment it can stay as a 2-of.
Pithing needle sideboard is essential. Go up to three if you have to. Needle and chalice against affinity gives you a solid matchup. Name cranial plating followed by arcbound ravager.
It's going to suffer against decks packing stuff like remand and strong removal. It seemed on the face of it like we are really soft to the uninteractive combo (ad nauseam) side of things, and the late-game side of things. Wrath spells are a kicking for us, because we are mostly forced to go wide a bit like a big affinity deck.
Revising of my opinion of the deck; feels fine. Games are close and actually really intensive in terms of choices. Really great against burn which i guess it's designed for. Gets crushed by abzan CoCo decks. Played a bunch of friendlies with another player between rounds and there's nothing we can do to outgrind them barring a really spectacular opening hand.
Path your smasher, casually put loxodon smiter into play off the discard trigger *bleurgh*
That's the tech against us. For real.