It’s been a while since I’ve tasted the sweet flavor of victory at a Prerelease. In fact, my last Prerelease win was for Ravnica Allegiance. Judith, the Scourge Diva was nasty…but not as nasty as Eldrazi.
At my Modern Horizons 3 Prerelease event last Saturday, my Sealed pool was ridiculous. I’m talking perfect deckbuilding pulls, not to mention me making my money back. I was running Simic Eldrazi. Ulamog, the Defiler. Echoes of Eternity. Path of Annihilation. I was drunk with power. Even though I didn’t run the Azlask, the Swelling Scourge I pulled, I knew I wanted to build around it after my stellar Prerelease experience.
This prompted me to look at some of the pieces I wasn’t lucky enough to pull. This set has made me fall in love with Eldrazi again, and I think it is my eldritch duty to share with y’all my favorite horrors of the Blind Eternities.
It That Heralds the End
It That Heralds the End was one of the first Eldrazi cards I saw from Modern Horizons 3. Everything about this card screams elegance. From the art right down to the ability, it’s gorgeous. It is everything an Eldrazi should be. Creepy, crawly, multiple appendages. It’s also a lord that reduces the cost of your biggest, baddest Eldrazi. It has a home in every Eldrazi deck (and even a few artifact ones as well). I was unlucky to not pull one in my Prerelease pool. I would’ve been even more unstoppable. It, much like many of the other creatures on this list, is not rare or mythic. It is just a funky little dude, and I love It.
Titans’ Vanguard
This might seem weird to you, dear reader, but Titans’ Vanguard is probably my favorite Eldrazi card from all of Modern Horizons 3. It reminds me of my favorite Eldrazi card ever, Walker of the Wastes. Walker of the Wastes would get a buff based on how many Wastes you control. I view Titans’ Vanguard as a spiritual predecessor to this absolute bad boy.
The Vanguard offers repeatable counters for all of your colorless creatures. When it’s cast or when it attacks, it gives all of your colorless creatures +1/+1 counters. Something about this design excites me. Maybe it’s because I’m so green when it comes to colorless synergies, but giving colorless things counters feels rare, especially when it can happen consistently. When I look at this card, I feel excitement…so of course I had to toss it into my Azlask deck.
Echoes of Eternity
Color me lucky, because Echoes of Eternity turned up in my Prerelease kit. I never thought I would be able to cast it…until I did. Maybe I’m the world’s greatest Magic player, or maybe I got lucky in my draws and plays. Either way, I was obsessed with this enchantment…because I got to see it pop off in a glorious fashion.
Echoes of Eternity does exactly what it says it will do. It echoes. It copies all of your colorless junk. Triggered abilities of colorless spells? Colorless permanents triggering? Token copies of colorless permanent spells? This enchantment does the most in such an amazing way. Playing it and getting token copies of my Broodscale or my Repurposer was so exciting. It’s colorless gluttony. I can’t wait to see the damage it will do in my commander deck.
Propagator Drone
It wouldn’t be an Eldrazi list without a weird green little blobby creature. Propagator Drone is my favorite weird green blobby creature. Eldrazi are famous for making little Spawn tokens, and the Drone gives creature tokens you control evolve. Let’s be honest, Eldrazi aren’t exactly small. They are big and beefy and huge and will trigger evolve many, many times. In a deck like mine, an Azlask deck, making your Spawns beefier is never a bad thing. You already want them beefy. Why not push things along? Propagator Drone also has the added ability of being a mana sink, churning out even more Spawn tokens which will contribute to your evolve plans. Some view Spawns as creatures; I view them as ramp. Why not continuously ramp by making bodies? It’s the perfect plan.
Glaring Fleshraker
I promise y’all that I didn’t come into this article with the intention of solely writing about uncommon Eldrazi. However, I can’t lie about the elegance in their design. I find that they excite me more than the rare and mythic cards.
Glaring Fleshraker is a simple card. Cast colorless spells, get Spawn tokens. Whenever colorless creatures enter the battlefield under your control, it deals one damage to each opponent. It’s kind of like a colorless Impact Tremors.
I enjoy the cyclical nature of this card. You cast a colorless spell (hopefully an Eldrazi), you deal a damage, you make a Spawn token, you deal another damage. That seems rather innocuous, yet can pack a wallop in the right deck. It is one of those elegant, uncommon designs that just sings to me.
Breaker of Creation
Breaker of Creation is one ugly Eldrazi. Good thing that, in order for me to like you, you gotta be a little ugly. Breaker of Creation has also broken a few mirrors in its lifetime, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about.
While Breaker of Creation may be draft chaff to some, to me, Breaker is everything. When you cast Breaker, you gain one life for each colorless permanent you control. While I may be viewing Breaker of Creation through the lens of a devoid, Eldrazi deck, it should also be noted that this card can shine in an artifact deck. Heck, it even pops off if you have a bounty of Treasure tokens. Sure, Breaker isn’t as glamorous as the Titans you’re used to, but it shines just as bright. Plus, the annihilator 2 isn’t something to sneeze at.
Wastescape Battlemage
When I tell you Wastescape Battlemage was a powerhouse during my Prerelease, I mean it. I was absolutely wowed by how versatile it was. It bounced many a creature and exiled many an artifact and enchantment. While I may be just a simple Commander player, I will always recommend this card in a Limited setting. At its best, it’s double removal. At its worst, it’s a two-mana 2/2. Wastescape Battlemage performed so marvelously for me in Limited that I just had to slot it into my Azlask deck. I will definitely report back on how it performs when my list is finished.
Idol of False Gods
Idol of False Gods is an Eldrazi Kindred spell, so it counts! Once again, we find ourselves facing the effigy of Eldrazi Titans, with a crowd of cultists surrounding them. Kind of reminds me of Costco members, I won’t lie. [Copy Editor’s Note: If the Eldrazi are offering $1.50 hot dogs, no wonder they keep getting recruits.] Despite that, Idol is just one of those spells that just hits. Sure, it makes tokens, but the true magic lies in the bottom half of the card. When another Eldrazi you control dies, it gets counters. Once it accumulates eight of those counters, it becomes a 0/0 creature.
To some, this seems like a slow payoff. However, in a deck that is focused around tokens meant to be sacrificed, this card becomes a two-mana 8/8 quickly. The beautiful thing about it is that the counters continue to stack even after it becomes a creature, meaning that 8/8 can turn into a 14/14 if you play your cards right.
Eldrazi Linebreaker
I’m like 90% sure that Eldrazi Linebreaker is a football reference, but I know nothing about sports and that’s just fine with me. What I do know are high-quality eldritch terrors, and the Linebreaker is just that. This big ol’ beef buffs one of your creatures’ power equal to the number of Eldrazi you control, with the added allure of giving it haste as well. I run many, many of the iconic Titans in my Azlask deck, and it wouldn’t hurt to give them haste, let alone a nasty buff.
Sure, I could run Rising of the Day or even Fervor, but where is the fun and flavor in that? The Linebreaker gets the job done, plus it kind of reminds me of that one SpongeBob meme where the Flying Dutchman asks SpongeBob to stop staring at him with them big ol’ eyes. I guess it’s the little things (though there isn’t really much little about this weirdo).
Writhing Chrysalis
Lastly, we have what seems like a deflated evil gnome-mushroom hybrid. Writhing Chrysalis looks like it partied a little too hard and is taking a breather. In all honesty, I feel a kinship with this deflated-looking Eldrazi Drone. That being said, despite its weirdo appearance, Writhing Chrysalis is pretty slick. Much like the Idol, Chrysalis likes it when you sacrifice Eldrazi, so much, in fact, that it gets counters whenever you do it. Writhing Chrysalis isn’t an all-star, but also isn’t something you ignore on the battlefield. Sacrificing Spawns is what you do in an Eldrazi deck, and Writhing Chrysalis is more than willing to benefit from the corpses you leave along the way.
Colorless Chaos
I used to despise Eldrazi. I found them to be overpowered and annoying. Anytime I played against an Eldrazi deck, I was immediately exasperated. It felt like a cat playing with their food, but playing the Eldrazi I did during the Prerelease felt different. It felt liquid smooth and dynamic. Each creature cast felt like I was propelling the game forward, rather than stalling it. At one point, even my opponent told me that, instead of scooping, he wanted to watch me pop off with Echoes of Eternity. He lost the game with a smile on his face. It was hysterical and we loved it.
I think we get caught up in the excitement of the titans and forget to look at the real bread and butter of the commons and uncommons. They’re just as exciting, if not more. I hope you think so too. Happy wandering the Blind Eternities, deckbuilders.
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