Upgrading Commander Precon: Eldrazi Unbound (Zhulodok, Void Gorger)

The Eldrazi Unbound deck has as its central theme the feared and admired Eldrazi, an ancient species native to the Blind Eternities; beings with undescribable appearances and powers beyond comprehension.

Our commander is Zhulodok, Void Gorger, which favors big spells with its Cascade ability, developing the game in a consistent and explosive way. This Eldrazi Unbound upgrade has among its goals the complementation of the deck with the Titans: Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Emrakul, the Promised End, once only Kozilek, the Great Distortion is present in the original version of the deck, which, without a question, is my favorite.

Eldrazi Unbound, undoubtedly, is the more consistent and powerful of all the Commander Masters precons, though its proposed game plan of using artifacts instead of a higher number of Eldrazi type creatures might seem fragile at a first glance.

However, in practice, the deck performs amazingly, as it resolves the great fragility of most Tap Out decks, decks which pride themselves on using all mana available playing big threats every turn, creating an immense amount of value at each magical play.

Precon List

The colorless deck has some themes in which we have artifacts, big spells, and counters. The two first ones are highly synergistic in a very consistent and fun deck.

However, the counter theme occupies very little space and doesn't present good synergies, wasting the great special thing about this deck: Cascades, though the secondary commander, Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate, is quite interesting outside this precon in particular due to the Manifest mechanic.

For the better understanding of this article, we've grouped the cards, dividing them by roles inside our list, in the following classification: Commanders and creatures of its type, Accelerators, Card Draw and Interactions.

The Commander: Zhulodok, Void Gorger

Zhulodok, Void Gorger creates a snowball which, in case it isn't contained after the first sequence of Cascades, can hardly be contained without the use of devastating global effect spells, such as Akroma's Vengeance, Nevinyrral's Disk, Exterminatus, etc.

Its goal is reached consistently on turns 5 and 6 - at the moment we start growing our board so much it gets dizzy. Its imposing body resists most damage-based effects, being hard to be removed without the appropriate spells, and due to the number of utility lands, it is common to amplify even more its power and resistance through counters.

Let's observe more cautiously its triggered ability. Playing great spells is a theme which is greatly appreciated by new and old players, but we'll rarely see this theme as a central theme in a creature deck. The reason is due to the fact it is very frustrating to pay more than mana and be answered by a Terror, Unexpectedly Absent, Essence Scatter or similar.

Many commanders try to solve that with the same mechanic, the good and old Cascade, once, when you cast this spell, resolving or not, you'll play something. That makes the effort of playing that gigantic spell way less taxing, after all, you'll double or triple the value created.

Typical Commanders for the Cascade Theme

Though rare, sometimes Cascade "whiffs", which means, it doesn't present the expected result due to some spell which can't be cast or still depends on variable costs, which in this case are always , and, for that not to happen, we'll need to remove some cards which will be bad or illegal targets for our sequence.

Out

Gigantic Spells

Our strategy's main goal consists in playing colorless spells from our hand with a mana cost of or bigger. The deck, in its original conception, comes with a considerable high number of them, from variable costs from to . They are:

They are all impactful cards, or tricks to speed up our game even more, cheating out costs - as we can observe with Ancient Stone Idol and Metalwork Colossus. Undoubtedly, this is a great idea, so let's add more cards which have Affinity with artifacts, such as Sojourner's Companion and Myr Enforcer, which in most matches will be played without their mana cost and will activate Cascade.

Sojourner's Companion can be an occasional tutor for an artifact land, so let's add Darksteel Citadel to be a target, and as it enhances Affinity.

Adding more Cascades is always important, and Ingenuity Engine has Cascade and allows you to return artifact cards, allowing for even more Cascades, and playing with Affinity, then, it is even better.

Maelstrom Colossus, when entering the game, already has a Cascade, being able to reach four or more in a particularly explosive turn. Sandstone Oracle always brings an efficient hand refill, and many are the times I realized the refill of cards in hand I had for playing it directly on the battlefield, so having a creature that replicates Kozilek, the Great Distortion's effect is essential.

In

Artifacts

In

Of course, we added some Eldrazi, with the ones with higher benefit-to-cost ratio; Pathrazer of Ulamog has Annihilator 3, and Ulamog's Crusher has Annihilator 2, so they are both financially attractive.

Conduit of Ruin reduces the cost of our creatures, tutors a spell, and is also a reasonably sized creature.

The Eldrazi

In

Accelerators

The package of accelerators and mana base in this precon are very solid, so just a few alterations are necessary to get even better results. For that, we added some tutors.

Moonsilver Key and Expedition Map allow for a faster access to the Urza Trio (Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Tower). Another possibility is using Moonsilver Key to look for Forsaken Monument.

Artifacts such as Forsaken Monument help with ramp. Other alterations are to add more artifacts capable of creating mana or more, such as Sarevok's Tome, which guarantees Initiative and an extra land, and Stonespeaker Crystal, which has a good activated ability.

In

Burnished Hart is present in a significant number of decks, particularly those which don't bring the color green. Its capability of correcting the mana curve is excellent, but a deck with only one color has many other artifact options which create the same mana advantage for a lower total cost.

Scaretiller is too slow for this deck's standard building, not finding that much space when we think of other options for converted mana cost.

Out

Card Draw and Interactions

This deck counts on a robust group of indirect and direct card draws, totaling something close to 15, considering cards capable of drawing two or more cards. The draws created by utility lands and smaller artifacts, those with a cost or lower, are always welcome, allowing for a consistent and continuous development, until the moment you'll play your big spells.

Precon Draws

Among the interactions, we'll find a great part of the problematic or underused cards, or even combat tricks such as Suspicious Bookcase and Fireshrieker, which show little functionality, once our focus isn't a single big threat, such as the Voltron archetype.

Transmogrifying Wand is a card that is very strong in decks with a lot of evasion, or even with a particularly strict budget, which isn't the case for this precon. Perilous Vault is almost always disastrous, after all, when we need to destroy all non-land permanents, we'll hardly return to the game, at least in its current setting.

Out

Upgraded Eldrazi Unbound

Commander Masters is a set that brought a series of important changes to the rarities of many cards, interfering with the structure of some formats outside standard Commander. Its illustrations are outstanding and the reprints of some older cards were very welcomed.

However, the reception of the community was somewhat divided, once the Masters title refers to older Premium products, and the set was focused on Commander's general public, which is formed of mostly casual players, them being the ones to appreciate this set and its precons. Particularly, I consider, without a question, Eldrazi to be the best of the decks, specially due to its new cards, with the enchantment deck coming as a close second. All lists are functional, allowing significant changes and balanced in a game among themselves.

Optional List: Eldrazi Titans

Many imagined various lists with the Eldrazi Titans as protagonists, and now I'll suggest a deck with formidable cards, such as Mycosynth Golem, focused on the use of artifacts and the powerful Titans, and allowing you to play truly gigantic cards even in the initial turns.

Even though it isn't centered around the combos, it is quite aggressive for some tables, and I suggest you use the most important Commander rule: talk it over before the match.

Leave your suggestions and comments down below! GGs!

See you next time.