Hi everybody! I’m Ben Weitz, and I’ve decided to give this writing thing a
semi-regular try and see how I like it. If you know much about me and the
decks I like, it will come as no surprise that I’ve chosen to write about
R/G Eldrazi in the new Modern world. The deck proved itself viable by
winning Grand Prix Lyon, and since I will be headed to GP Phoenix in this
weekend, I’ve been working on incorporating the extremely powerful
Bloodbraid Elf into the deck. I started out playing only three, but it did
not take many games of casting the card to convince myself to move all the
way up to four. This is my most recent version:
Creatures (26)
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Bloodbraid Elf
- 2 Endbringer
- 4 Eldrazi Obligator
- 4 Reality Smasher
- 4 Thought-Knot Seer
- 4 Matter Reshaper
Lands (22)
Spells (12)
Most of the deck remains unchanged from
Grzegorz Kowalski
‘s GP-winning decklist. The main difference is that I cut the weaker,
non-synergistic main deck Scavenging Oozes and Forked Bolt for the
powerful, non-synergistic Bloodbraid Elf. The sideboard is also different,
but that’s natural in an ever-changing format like Modern.
R/G Eldrazi is, at its core, an aggressive deck. This can be contrasted
with previous iterations of (fair) Eldrazi decks, like Bant Eldrazi and
Eldrazi Tron. Bant Eldrazi was more of a midrange deck that frequently
played to control the battlefield with Eldrazi Displacer and Drowner of
Hope. Eldrazi Tron is a big mana deck which leverages the Eldrazi cards as
a midpoint between early and late game spells, and plans to invalidate the
opponent’s cards by playing large threats that require specialized answers.
R/G Eldrazi, on the other hand, has a fundamentally aggressive game plan of
dealing lots of damage to the opponent in the early game and finishing with
Reality Smasher, Eldrazi Obligator, Lightning Bolt, or Kessig Wolf Run as
ways to push through the final points of damage. That’s quite a few cards
that are capable of sneaking in a win, and this fact makes R/G Eldrazi
quite consistent at executing its game plan. Eldrazi Obligator, in
particular, is capable of dealing a huge amount of damage out of nowhere,
and even opponents as high as twelve life have been known to fall to its
fury. Even though Obligator can be at its best when ripped from the top of
the deck, you should not be afraid to play it early and often. Attacking
for four on turn 2 is exactly what an aggressive deck wants to do!
Luckily for us, the core stats of Bloodbraid Elf lend themselves to
aggressive gameplay. Adding four copies of a 3/2 haste to a deck that
already has eight haste creatures gives the deck even more potential to
push in damage against cards that have typically been powerful against
Eldrazi decks, such as Supreme Verdict, Damnation, Liliana of the Veil, or
Nahiri, the Harbinger. With the addition of Bloodbraid Elf, I can
confidently say that planeswalkers are simply embarrassing against R/G
Eldrazi (yes, even Jace). Bloodbraid Elf isn’t all upside, however. The Elf
sadly is not an Eldrazi, which means the card costs a whole four actual
mana, which is pretty expensive in Modern. Because R/G Eldrazi wants to
play out aggressively, there’s a fine line to walk between cheap threats
and expensive, hard-to-interact-with threats. I’m not confident that this
deck has the totally optimal composition of cheap and expensive cards, but
I do believe that whatever that is, it has four Bloodbraid Elf.
Now that we understand the philosophy and strategy behind R/G Eldrazi, we
can hop into specific matchups.
VS U/R Gifts Storm
Out:
In:
The first game can be rough because we do not have that many cards that
keep a Baral, Chief of Compliance or Goblin Electromancer off the
battlefield. That said, if you do draw an interactive spell, my experience
is that you are reasonably likely to win. We kill them very fast with all
the haste creatures, so they don’t have infinite time to set up.
Thought-Knot Seer is also an all-star in this matchup; just take whatever
they are most throttled on. A good heuristic is to take Gifts Ungiven ->
Mana Creature -> Manamorphose -> either cantrip or Ritual.
The Ratchet Bomb is optional since it is only really good against Empty the
Warrens, but every once in a while it kills Baral or an Electromancer. I
like to take out some expensive, slow cards because it isn’t a grindy
matchup and you just want to win ASAP and disrupt them while you can. The
graveyard hate cards make it hard for them to kill you quickly, but they
will eventually overpower them so you really need to back them up with a
clock. Warping Wail can exile Baral and counter Past in Flames (or Pieces
of the Puzzle if they sideboarded into that), but don’t hesitate to just
make a Scion and turbo out a Thought-Knot Seet or Reality Smasher. I don’t
usually expect Storm to sideboard in Blood Moon, but if they do, keep the
Talismans in instead of two Matter Reshapers.
VS Tron
Out:
In:
Tron is a close matchup, with a lot of games simply coming down to how good
their hand is. Oblivion Stone is their best card by far as Karn is
susceptible to haste creatures if he wants to interact with the
battlefield, and Wurmcoil Engine is vulnerable to being taken with Eldrazi
Obligator. Obligator really shines in this matchup as a way to punish your
opponent for drawing the wrong threat to go with their Tron pieces. The
versions of Tron that splash black are generally harder than the moon-green
ones, since Fatal Push is very good against Thought-Knot Seer, one of your
more powerful cards.
Endbringer is too slow to have a meaningful impact on the game since
fogging Wurmcoil Engine is not actually a good way to make progress in a
game, so it gets sideboarded out. I bring in all the cards that positively
interact with Oblivion Stone, but don’t be afraid to fire them off on
Chromatic Stars, Chromatic Spheres, and Expedition Maps, as Grzegorz won
one of his Top 8 matches by color-screwing his Tron opponent! Even though
Tron frequently plays Oblivion Stone with the mana to activate it, artifact
removal is still good against the powerful artifact because we have so many
haste creatures in our deck that force our opponent’s hand.
VS B/R Hollow One
Out:
In:
I usually like to try to race B/R Hollow One because otherwise you slowly
die to their small, evasive, recurring creatures. I also like racing
because Eldrazi Obligator and Reality Smasher are such effective tools at
winning races. Since a bunch of creatures out of the Hollow One deck cannot
even block, Obligator is particularly effective. It’s very hard to win if
they get a broken start with multiple early Hollow Ones because you have
few effective ways of removing it other than blocking, but that’s Modern
for you. Because of this, I think the matchup is unfavorable.
Even though they have a bunch of graveyard cards, I don’t really like
sideboarding in Relic of Progenitus because I think it’s just a bit slow
and will often only remove a single threat. Grafdigger’s Cage stops
anything from coming back from the graveyard and only costs a single mana
(be careful when resolving your Matter Reshaper triggers if you have a
Grafdigger’s Cage on the battlefield though). Kitchen Finks comes in as a
great card when racing. It’s a bit of a nonbo with Cage, but if you have
Cage on the battlefield, you’re probably in good shape anyway.
VS G/R Ponza
Out:
In:
This matchup is the only reason I have Talisman of Impulse in my deck at
all. It was super popular on Magic Online for a few weeks, and I wasn’t
happy constantly getting Blood Moon’d on turn 2. If you draw Talisman, they
probably can’t win unless they have a really good hand, and you should
frequently take it off of Ancient Stirrings. This iteration of Eldrazi is
also a lot less susceptible to Blood Moon than some previous colored
Eldrazi decks, since it plays red cards, like Bloodbraid Elf and Eldrazi
Obligator. You have a lot of acceleration to try and outpace their land
destruction, and if you get two threats on the battlefield, you’re in great
shape to win. If they don’t have Blood Moon, then Eldrazi Obligator can be
totally insane. Remember not to accidentally expose your basic Forests to
land destruction.
You don’t need a density of threats in the deck because their deck is not
good at removing your creatures. Matter Reshaper is the worst card that
requires colorless mana after Endbringer, which is expensive and thus, not
good against the deck with a million land destruction spells. Warping Wail
can counter land destruction, kill Arbor Elf, or ramp out a creature. I
originally only sideboarded them in on the play, but I think they’re good
enough on the draw as well. Don’t forget you can Pithing Needle Arbor Elf
because its ability is not actually a mana ability.
VS Jund
Out:
In:
I’ve always believed Eldrazi decks to have favorable Jund matchups, and
while the newest versions of both decks now get to play Bloodbraid Elf, I
believe Bloodbraid Elf is better against Jund than in Jund. Make sure you
kill Dark Confidant when you can, and do your best to play around Liliana
of the Veil as she is always their best path to victory. This is one of the
few matchups in which I don’t mulligan aggressively for an Eldrazi Temple
or a way to get mana fast. You don’t have to be fast, and mulliganing
against Thoughtseize is the worst. This is another matchup where Eldrazi
Obligator can do tons of damage, as Jund doesn’t have many creatures, but
most of them are Tarmogoyfs.
We are mostly pre-sideboarded in this matchup. Because we don’t have to be
fast, we can take out the copies of Talisman of Impulse. Noble Hierarch
gets to stay because it can swing for damage and protect Eldrazi from
Liliana. Kitchen Finks has always been a strong grindy card against Jund,
and Relic of Progenitus can be used to keep Tarmogoyfs from getting out of
hand. If your opponent has Lingering Souls or Grim Flayer, you probably
want the other Relic and you can cut an Obligator.
VS Mardu Pyromancer
Out:
In:
This is another grindy control/midrange deck, and I believe that R/G
Eldrazi has good matchups against grindy fair decks. My confidence against
this deck is lower though, since I have not played a lot of matches against
it. Lingering Souls and Young Pyromancer can both be problematic, and some
Pyromancer decks play Blood Moon as well. R/G Eldrazi is less susceptible
to Blood Moon than Bant Eldrazi since it actually plays red cards, and even
less so now that Bloodbraid Elf is in the deck, but you can still easily
lose games to it. On the flip side, they don’t have Tarmogoyf so they are
much softer to Reality Smasher (although more insulated against Obligator).
On the whole, I think it’s harder than Jund, but still good.
The swap of Tarmogoyf to Lingering Souls is enough to make me unexcited
about Eldrazi Obligator in this matchup, and we want to sideboard in some
interactive sweepers to take care of a Young Pyromancer or Souls that get
out of hand. These cards also have the benefit of killing Blood Moon.
Natural State is not worth sideboarding in because we aren’t soft enough to
Blood Moon to warrant playing a card that has no other targets.
VS G/W Hexproof
Out:
In:
G/W Hexproof has never been a good matchup for colored Eldrazi decks. Any
deck which obsoletes a 5/5 creature so quickly is not a good matchup for
Eldrazi decks, which get their advantage from having the biggest creatures
around. Your only hope of winning the first game is that they hit their
fail rate or never draw Daybreak Coronet.
Endbringer is too slow, and Matter Reshaper doesn’t really attack or block
very well. Dismember is not very good against G/W Hexproof either, as it
only kills Kor Spiritdancer. You do want some number of cards to interact
with the Kor Wizard, but I think leaning on Lightning Bolt is enough. If
they don’t put a lifelink enchantment on Spiritdancer, you also have outs
to Obligate it. Because our deck is built around pushing in damage, killing
lifelink enchantments is our top priority. All is Dust can also give us an
out if things really go awry.
VS Burn
Out:
In:
Burn has always been a very close matchup. If you draw Thought-Knot Seer,
you’re a favorite to win. If they draw multiple Eidolon of the Great Revel,
you’re also a favorite to win. It can be very tricky to figure out when you
should attack to prevent topdecked burn spells versus holding back to play
around a haste creature or a Searing Blaze. It’s so contextual that I think
you just have to play a lot of matches to get the hang of it. I will say
that I don’t often play around Searing Blaze because they usually snap
those off as soon as they can, so if you have a creature on the battlefield
that can attack, it’s safe to say that your next creature will be able to
block.
Warping Wail is not great, but it can sometimes counter a lethal Lava Spike
or Rift Bolt and can serve as a chump blocker in a pinch. Dismember is
obviously bad against Burn and, once again, Endbringer is our slowest card
so they both come out.
VS Affinity
Out:
In:
Affinity has existed since the dawn of Modern and will continue to exist
until the death of Magic. This is one of the only matchups that makes me
wish I was playing Bant Eldrazi instead of R/G Eldrazi. I loved playing
Bant against Affinity. The games were really fun and interactive, and
Eldrazi Displacer was such a great card in the matchup. As it is, you are
not a favorite to win game 1 because the random small creatures can make it
hard to push through damage with Eldrazi Obligator or Bloodbraid Elf, and
you don’t really have enough removal to actually kill all their threats.
Remember you can use Eldrazi Obligator on Arcbound Ravager to force action
from your opponent, but if they sacrifice the Ravager, then you can choose
not to pay the kicker for Obligator. Once they let you decide whether or
not to pay, they cannot respond. Luckily, after sideboarding we get to
improve significantly.
I used to play four Ancient Grudge just because it’s the best overall
sideboard card in R/G colors by a wide margin, but the onset of G/W
Hexproof and G/R Ponza has led me to play some copies of Natural State
instead. The cards to bring in are pretty self-explanatory. I dislike
Thought-Knot Seer against Affinity because they usually dump their hand so
fast it isn’t very effective. On top of that, they have Galvanic Blast
which trades very cleanly and cheaply with it. Thought-Knot Seer can be
good on the play, but I generally prefer to just keep it out of my deck and
focus on taking a control role and killing all my opponent’s relevant
artifacts. Endbringer may be slow, but its abilities are so good in this
matchup that I like to keep it in. Also your increased density of removal
spells makes the game take longer, and landing an Endbringer is pretty
close to game over.
VS UW / Jeskai Control
Out:
Or…
In:
In the past I thought that Eldrazi was well-positioned against U/W or
Jeskai Control decks simply because I did not think those decks were very
good. Nowadays I think they’ve received enough tools to pose a real
problem. Search for Azcanta provides a reliable end-game that isn’t
embarrassing in the early game, and Spreading Seas + Field of Ruin provide
outs to Cavern of Souls or Kessig Wolf Run. Bloodbraid Elf is absurdly good
against these kinds of decks though, and in this matchup you just jam
threats and hope their answers don’t line up (which happens pretty often).
Cavern of Souls is good enough that you should take it over Eldrazi Temple
off Ancient Stirrings in most instances. Remember to keep your powerful
lands in hand until the turn you use them to play around Spreading Seas and
Field of Ruin. Sometimes you want to play your haste creatures in your
second main phase because of Cryptic Command.
Relic of Progenitus isn’t fantastic, but it shuts down two of their very
best cards: Snapcaster Mage and Search for Azcanta. If you see Detention
Sphere, you should also bring in both copies of Natural State. Whether or
not to sideboard out Dismembers depends on if you think your opponent will
have Spell Queller against you after sideboard, but keeping one Dismember
for Celestial Colonnade is also pretty reasonable.
Unfortunately, Modern is way too big to cover every single matchup, but I
think these matchups comprise a significant chunk of the metagame. If
you’ve been getting crushed by a particular matchup that I missed, feel
free to ask me here or on Twitter about what sort of changes you could
make.
I love talking about Magic, and I especially love talking about Eldrazi!
Good luck!