I've used Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to build a thematic eldrazi deck. It's certainly nice to stray from the usual and have a deck handy that satisfies my inner Vorthos. The deck consists entirely of eldrazi creatures and spells, hedrons and Ugins, and then artifacts to support powering them out and using them in interesting ways. You will also need plenty of card draw, though using Kozilek 1.0 or 2.0 makes things run a lot smoother. Despite the flavorful restriction I've placed on myself, the deck is quite powerful and capable of casting "Newlamog" very early, and over-and-over again. At the moment the deck still includes roughly 4-6 nonland cards that are off-flavor, but that will change once OGW is released. I also plan to replace every off-flavor land card with Waste lands once the next set is released. Finally, I don't even include eldrazi creatures that have Annihilator 3 or greater for the sake of my friends having fun against it. You could certainly increase the power level of the deck and include those cards, but I find that the power isn't even needed to win games. My latest win was a 3-person FFA in which I cast Newlamog by turn 7 and sacrificed/recast him each subsequent turn until I milled out each opponent with Newlamog's attack trigger and Altar of Dementia (while exiling all their permanents in the process). The fun part is finding the flavorful cards that are on flavor despite not being printed in a Zendikar block, such as:
This deck is truly impressive! My only hesitation is that I would prefer to win without infinite combos... Yeah, it's a big hesitation. I'm fine with the janky interactions you've discovered, and win conditions that take a number of turns and cards to pull off, though. I would LOVE to hear your suggestions on tweaking the deck to take advantage of milling opponents or using Enduring Ideal and/or Form of the Dragon to close out a game. I've always wanted to build an Enduring Ideal deck and this looks like the deck list that can make it happen.
I left Conscription out initially since I didn't already own it and couldn't justify throwing $10 into a card that sets me up nicely for terrible 2-for-1 plays. I just didn't consider it very playable, but if I get close enough to 100% flavor out of this deck I'll reconsider tossing it back in. Crossing my fingers that Oath of the Gatewatch will have some super cool cards...
Yeah, the Hedrons where also cubic, but I think the creative team focused only in the hexagonal ones this time.
What are you talking about? The hedrons are octahedrons. I don't think I've seen a single picture from ZEN, WWK, ROE, or BFZ containing a hedron that wasn't 8-sided.
See: Eldrazi Monument. That's the only card I can think of. We brought up cubes because of how closely Doubling Cube matches the "hedrons" in the monument. Accidental flavor win
Strip Mine fits mechanically, but not so much flavorfully... if I come across another copy then I'll slip it in. Dust Bowl is a card I've been considering for awhile, seeing as the Eldrazi turn everything into a chalky dust upon consumption Let's throw that card in the mix!
I should mention that Mind Stone is in the deck right now, but wasn't even aware it came in the duel deck Happy accident. Ugin's Nexus seems great, but I don't see the hedrons, and it has so much (too much?) flavor of Tarkir that it makes me hesitant. Although, Ugin flavor is better than no flavor. As for Doubling Cube, it not only looks like a hedron, but it matches very closely to the art on Eldrazi Monument!
Altering some of the card art for the iffy cards or ones that don't fit in flavor-wise seems like a nice solution. Problem is I don't quite have enough of the creative talent for that. Does anyone have ideas for ways to get alters made efficiently, or easily, for beginners?
Lastly, found Coercive Portal to fit the "travelling from plane to plane" and "destruction" themes, it'll probably make the deck at some point. Also considering Khalni Gem. Deserted Temple has also been added.
Ghostfire Blade connects to Ugin, but it's just not playable in this deck. Duplicant is a neat colorless card that I decided wasn't flavorful enough, and it would be the only non-Eldrazi creature in the deck which kind of irks me.
Love the suggestions for Mind's Eye and Planar Portal; they work well in the deck, and have some flavor connection! Yes, Wasteland was omitted for budget reasons, but it certainly fits here. I'm especially excited by cards that are "accidentally" flavorful such as Temple of the False God and Crucible of Worlds. I'm still considering Door of Destinies... and would love more suggestions for obscure cards that are "accidentally" on flavor, since I'm having trouble figuring out how to search them all out.
As for Ugin and the hedrons, they do oppose the Eldrazi, but I'm playing them over non-related artifacts since they have some Eldrazi flavor. Aligned Hedron Network is a great emergency card so far, and puts Ulamog back in the command zone for repeated use. Not to mention I have ways to sacrifice the Hedron and return my Eldrazi to the field at instant speed.
Lastly, I'm open for cards that have an "adventure" theme, much like Zendikar.
So I put together an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger deck and I want it to be as flavorful as possible. I don't mind making it as powerful as can be, so I'm dropping many of the colorless deck staples. However, there are still a number of slots to fill, and I'm hoping you all have some suggestions for cards I may have overlooked. Also, I don't want to include any creature with Annihilator 3 or more, and I have decided to include Ugin-themed cards as well.
The rest of the deck is a collection of lands and mana rocks that are complete flavor fails. Are there any obvious choices I'm missing, or questionably flavorful cards I could add to this deck? I want it to scream "I'm gonna eat your world!" The connection can be in the name, the art, the mechanic, or the flavor text! Lastly, I want the cards to still be somewhat playable... so no Hedron Scrabbler, please
What happens when Aligned Hedron Network exiles awoken lands? Once the lands are in exile, do they return to the battlefield as normal when the Hedron Network leaves play? Do any funny rules happen with creatures that stop being creatures in exile that I may not be thinking of? Thanks!
It was labelled "Hatebear" but it's pretty strictly mono-W D&T. This list was actually posted by one of our own many pages ago, and his comments mentioned that he was sad he left out a Flickerwisp, and thought that Anafenza and Flagstones was pretty unnecessary. I've used that list as a jumping off point for my own paper build myself. It's been great
Depends on how many cards you have in your sideboard for the matchup. Usually the first to go out of my 60 is Mindcensor and Spellskite, leaving me with 4 open slots. I could scrounge up 4 cards from my sideboard for Merfolk, but there isn't much else I'd rather have over my fourth Thalia... so I don't take her out much. If you have great cards against them (typically going for bigger creatures is nice), then I can see the argument for taking out a Thalia or two.
Hey all, long-time DnT player here, though it's been awhile since I posted. I'm gearing up for Origins and hoping to get back out to some Modern tournaments in my area.
About Thorn of Amethyst: I tested it a lot back in the day and it just isn't good enough to make my 75. The fact that it isn't a creature is too large a hurdle to put up with. It's never good late game, and even in the early game it won't win on its own since you still need to land a creature (and keep it around) in order to start putting on pressure. It's called "Death and Taxes" for a reason--not "Taxes." This is a tempo deck that can't afford a non-creature.
About Vryn Wingmate: the effect is great, but Thalia will always be better since she is both a turn faster, and has first strike. The 2/1 body, even in the air, is rather fragile, and is the main reason DnT players don't value Aven Mindcensor as much as we used to (despite the fantastic tax it provides). I want to test with two copies, but don't see myself jumping to three or four. I ESPECIALLY, don't see cutting a Thalia for it instead.
Yes, Thalia eats removal a lot. But that's because she is so good your opponent often needs to deal with her. Don't settle for a worse Thalia that the opponent will still end up removing. I'm going to test a 4/2 split with Thalia/Wingmate, instead of my current Thalia/Familiar setup. Remember that Lingering Souls is still a card, and Wingmate won't be too happy dealing with an army of 1/1 flying tokens.
Finally, when we get Vryn Wingmate, Goblins and Elves get their goodies as well. I can't wait to block their Goblin Piledrivers all day with my Thalia's The meta will shift from Grixis/Twin/Tron to a much faster and aggressive format. The new G/B elf may shake things up a lot, and the 2/1 first striking body will be really great to have Game One in most every matchup.
I notice the poll is very divisive on the wish issue. Would anyone voting 'No' like to discuss why they voted that way?
For context, I voted to ban basically every tutor on this list, so that might give you some insight into my position here.
I don't think people should be playing wishes at all. I think regular tutors that let you find the right answer to the situation at will already undermine the desired variance of the format enough, but wishes annihilate the deckbuilding process entirely. Because of the nature of random draws from 99 card singleton, EDH puts a heavy opportunity cost on playing cards that are situationally useless. People aren't likely to play Flashfires because it's a dead card if you aren't playing against mono-white, but if you can play Burning Wish instead, you get to include the opportunity to play blowout cards like that without any downside.
Great argument, and I've changed my vote to a No for wishboards. I don't think all tutors are bad, but the point you made makes me feel like wish cards are even stronger than a basic tutor for the reasons you stated. It won't even affect your deck building, and makes not playing wish cards a poor decision.
As a fun subtheme, the deck also has a number of ways to create goats to sacrifice to Eldrazi Monument to appease the terrible Eldrazi gods...
See: Eldrazi Monument. That's the only card I can think of. We brought up cubes because of how closely Doubling Cube matches the "hedrons" in the monument. Accidental flavor win
Altering some of the card art for the iffy cards or ones that don't fit in flavor-wise seems like a nice solution. Problem is I don't quite have enough of the creative talent for that. Does anyone have ideas for ways to get alters made efficiently, or easily, for beginners?
Lastly, found Coercive Portal to fit the "travelling from plane to plane" and "destruction" themes, it'll probably make the deck at some point. Also considering Khalni Gem. Deserted Temple has also been added.
Love the suggestions for Mind's Eye and Planar Portal; they work well in the deck, and have some flavor connection! Yes, Wasteland was omitted for budget reasons, but it certainly fits here. I'm especially excited by cards that are "accidentally" flavorful such as Temple of the False God and Crucible of Worlds. I'm still considering Door of Destinies... and would love more suggestions for obscure cards that are "accidentally" on flavor, since I'm having trouble figuring out how to search them all out.
As for Ugin and the hedrons, they do oppose the Eldrazi, but I'm playing them over non-related artifacts since they have some Eldrazi flavor. Aligned Hedron Network is a great emergency card so far, and puts Ulamog back in the command zone for repeated use. Not to mention I have ways to sacrifice the Hedron and return my Eldrazi to the field at instant speed.
Lastly, I'm open for cards that have an "adventure" theme, much like Zendikar.
The rest of the deck is a collection of lands and mana rocks that are complete flavor fails. Are there any obvious choices I'm missing, or questionably flavorful cards I could add to this deck? I want it to scream "I'm gonna eat your world!" The connection can be in the name, the art, the mechanic, or the flavor text! Lastly, I want the cards to still be somewhat playable... so no Hedron Scrabbler, please
Additions made with your help:
What if it's intentional?
Do the rules differentiate between the severity of the damage?
This question came to me in the shower and I was just curious Not planning on damaging anyone's cards!
It was labelled "Hatebear" but it's pretty strictly mono-W D&T. This list was actually posted by one of our own many pages ago, and his comments mentioned that he was sad he left out a Flickerwisp, and thought that Anafenza and Flagstones was pretty unnecessary. I've used that list as a jumping off point for my own paper build myself. It's been great
4x Leonin Arbiter
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2x Spellskite
1x Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
4x Flickerwisp
4x Blade Splicer
2x Vryn Wingmate
2x Aven Mindcensor
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Path to Exile
1x Dismember
4x Ghost Quarter
2x Tectonic Edge
2x Horizon Canopy
1x Mutavault
1x Eiganjo Castle
13x Plains
3x Stony Silence
2x Rest in Peace
2x Celestial Purge
2x Mirran Crusader
2x Kor Firewalker
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Grafdigger's Cage
The single Anafenza and Brimaz are mostly testing into an unknown meta. I still need to figure out which I prefer most.
About Thorn of Amethyst: I tested it a lot back in the day and it just isn't good enough to make my 75. The fact that it isn't a creature is too large a hurdle to put up with. It's never good late game, and even in the early game it won't win on its own since you still need to land a creature (and keep it around) in order to start putting on pressure. It's called "Death and Taxes" for a reason--not "Taxes." This is a tempo deck that can't afford a non-creature.
About Vryn Wingmate: the effect is great, but Thalia will always be better since she is both a turn faster, and has first strike. The 2/1 body, even in the air, is rather fragile, and is the main reason DnT players don't value Aven Mindcensor as much as we used to (despite the fantastic tax it provides). I want to test with two copies, but don't see myself jumping to three or four. I ESPECIALLY, don't see cutting a Thalia for it instead.
Yes, Thalia eats removal a lot. But that's because she is so good your opponent often needs to deal with her. Don't settle for a worse Thalia that the opponent will still end up removing. I'm going to test a 4/2 split with Thalia/Wingmate, instead of my current Thalia/Familiar setup. Remember that Lingering Souls is still a card, and Wingmate won't be too happy dealing with an army of 1/1 flying tokens.
Finally, when we get Vryn Wingmate, Goblins and Elves get their goodies as well. I can't wait to block their Goblin Piledrivers all day with my Thalia's The meta will shift from Grixis/Twin/Tron to a much faster and aggressive format. The new G/B elf may shake things up a lot, and the 2/1 first striking body will be really great to have Game One in most every matchup.
Great argument, and I've changed my vote to a No for wishboards. I don't think all tutors are bad, but the point you made makes me feel like wish cards are even stronger than a basic tutor for the reasons you stated. It won't even affect your deck building, and makes not playing wish cards a poor decision.