Legacy - Eldrazi Aggro: Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Hello! Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, my beloved Legacy community! We all know that Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast barely give us any time to breathe before they release a new set, so Bloomburrow highlights are already right around the corner.

However, that doesn't mean we can't bring you a deck tech on one of Legacy's most beloved archetypes, which also got an extra boost from Modern Horizons 3: Eldrazi Aggro!

When the MH3 spoiler season was over, it was clear that three new colorless tools were perfect for Eldrazi decks. First, It that Heralds the End is a new lord (creatures that grant +1/+1 to creatures of a same type) that gets you to your end game faster. The second card, Glaring Fleshraker, puts more pressure on each opponent each time an Eldrazi enters the battlefield under your control, and also creates extra bodies to make the most out of It that Heralds the End. They also help us play bigger monsters on the board. Finally, Kozilek's Command is a true toolbox, and solves many issues these lists had before MH3 came along.

The question that still stands is: how do we build the rest of the deck?

As usual, with lists that adopt several cards from the latest set, unlike established archetypes, it takes a little longer to agree on what is the most optimal 60-card version. The fact we couldn't access Magic Online lists for a while also delayed this process.

Basically, besides the 3 cards I listed above, there is a wide variety of new Eldrazi cards that are viable for this deck, like Devourer of Destiny, Eldrazi Linebreaker, Sowing Mycospawn, and Nulldrifter, besides other tools, like Vexing Bauble and Disruptor Flute. So, currently, we have lists with green, red, and 100% colorless, and they're all unique in terms of which creatures they bring and how many of them.

The list we'll discuss today was played by Kazuki Watanabe in a big tournament in Osaka, and got him to Top 8. They decided it was interesting to use all the cards we listed so far!

To use all of these different colors in a basically colorless deck, we'll use Cavern of Souls and Secluded Courtyard (which also create colorless mana), Lotus Petal (which replaced Elvish/Simian Spirit Guide, popular in mono color lists), and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth.

An interesting interaction involves Nulldrifter and the discount It That Heralds the End gives you: it both reduces its full cost and its Evoked cost.

Finally, this list uses Vexing Bauble as a disruption card in its main deck. Bauble has an advantage over Chalice of the Void in this list because it doesn't have as many ways to create 2 non-Eldrazi mana on turn 1 as traditional Stompy lists, which means Chalice is less efficient. A Bauble in play also protects you not only against counterspells, but also Evoked Elemental Incarnations (Grief and Fury, for instance). Then, we have Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as a way to use your mana that you'll find through Eye of Ugin in drawn-out games.

The list above doesn't use a few cards you usually find in other lists, like City of Traitors, Boseiju, Who Endures, Eldrazi Mimic, Endless One, Reality Smasher, Chalice of the Void, Mox Diamond, Once Upon a Time, and The One Ring.

Eldrazi Aggro, has fewer plays on turn 1, even though it really resembles "Stompy" decks (Red Prison and Boros Initiative, for instance). Nonetheless, it can explode on turn 2. So, you can keep hands that don't do anything on turn 1, as long as you have a plan for the next turns.

Obviously, if you know your opponent's deck, you need to go after interactive hands. For instance, against combo decks, you want Vexing Bauble on turn 1 and Thought-Knot Seer on turn 2.

Starting hands:

This is a risky hand because it has too many lands, but it is solid. Two Baubles may already be quite strong against the right opponent, and make up for your lack of gas, considering you can sacrifice one and keep the other's effect. Cavern of Souls guarantees your Eldrazi will go through counters, but Bauble already does this partially as well. The fact it has two Temple also means you'll be able to play any future Eldrazi faster. Verdict: Risky keep because it doesn't do much.

Even though you can play Command on turn 2 for 1, this hand is incredibly weak, as it automatically loses to Wasteland and relies too much on your top deck. Verdict: Easy mulligan.

Even though this hand has 4 lands, one is a Wasteland, which is practically a disruption spell. It has basically everything you need: Bauble on turn 1, Fleshraker on turn 2 protected by Cavern, and Seer on 3 activating Fleshraker. Verdict: Easy keep.

This hand abuses the power of Eye of Ugin. If you play Courtyard on turn 1 to protect Eye from Wasteland, on turn 2 you can already choose between 3 cards - Fleshraker, Linebreaker, or Nulldrifter - and you can already play either Mycospawn with its Kicker or the other 2 Eldrazis on turn 3. It's precisely the type of hand this deck wants. Verdict: Easy keep.

This is another hand with too many lands, but it lets you put your Eldrazi in play fast, and has Command to deal with some issues. It's important to have in mind that, with Eye or Tomb on turn 1, you can always play Command for 0 (pick "exile cards from the graveyard" + "Scry" and draw cards) to swap it for a new card. Verdict: similar to the first starting hand we saw, it's a risky keep because it doesn't do much.

As this deck's base is colorless, and we only have colored mana to summon Eldrazi creatures, our sideboard options are limited. A few of the answers we have that don't rely on colored mana are Dismember, Disruptor Flute, and Spatial Contortion.

Wastescape Battlemage is your artifact/enchantment removal; you'll use the mana from the lands that create colored Eldrazi mana to play it as well. Karakas is an option you can tutor with Sowing Mycospawn. Finally, Faerie Macabre and Unlicensed Hearse are your usual suspects against graveyards.

When I was researching other common cards for this archetype's sideboard, I found All Is Dust, Canoptek Scarab Swarm, Leyline of the Void, Mindbreak Trap, Null Elemental Blast, Null Rod, Soulless Jailer, Thorn of Amethyst, and Warping Wail.

Scaminator

It's always important to remember Nulldrifter and Sowing Mycospawn trigger when creatures are summoned, not when they enter play, so they won't create cards for your opponent if they're reanimated (you'll still have to deal with a 4/4 Annihilator if that happens with Nulldrifter, though).

Kozilek's Command offers you a graveyard answer even before you get to your sideboard, and Vexing Bauble avoids both Force of Will/Daze and Grief. Post-side, you have to remove a few of the best cards for their Reanimates, and you need answers against their graveyard and Psychic Frog.

In:

Out:

Grixis / Temur / Dimir Delver

It is critical to play around their Wastelands, and save your 2-mana lands for the turns you'll use them for the first time.

Murktide Regent is a problem if they put it in play early. Kozilek's Command is quite useful to kill their small creatures and also create value, either drawing cards or creating Eldrazi Spawn tokens.

Post-side, Unlicensed Hearse handles Dragon's Rage Channeler and Murktide Regent. Dismember is great against Psychic Frog in black lists, and against Questing Druid in Temur lists.

In:

Out:

Red Stompy

Blood Moon is your biggest nightmare, so you need Lotus Petal to play Sowing Mycospawn and find your Wastes.

Post-side, that also applies to Wastescape Battlemage's Kicker. This is probably your worst opponent. The only good thing is that their Chalice of the Voids are practically worthless against you, and that your Vexing Bauble locks down Chrome Mox and Fury.

Disruptor Flute is useful to delay Blood Moon, and Dismember kills Magus of the Moon.

In:

Out:

Beanstalk Control

Your Eldrazis are quite strong and Cavern of Souls is great against control decks. There's not much to say about this matchup. You can even ignore this sideboard suggestion, as Bauble is interesting against Force of Will and Solitude's. Karakas is great against Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath.

In:

Out:

Necro Storm

This game relies entirely on who won the dice. If they start playing and have "The Hand", there's not much you can do. Just pray they have to mulligan until oblivion (this happens surprisingly often).

If you win the dice, Vexing Bauble will potentially stop a turn 1 combo and get you some time to play Thought-Knot Seer on their Necrodominance. Post-side, Disruptor Flute will tax the main piece in their combo.

In:

Out:

Eldrazis live! Even though this isn't the strongest archetype in the current, unbalanced Legacy meta (spoiler: to be the strongest archetype, you need Grief, Reanimate, and Troll of Khazad-dûm), Eldrazi Aggro has shown us it can compete with the other decks, and should become even more powerful after a possible Grief ban, which will open the metagame for more decks. As of now, decks with these interactions represent more than 30% of the format!

Still, Eldrazis are a valid, and fun, option, particularly if you like playing creatures and tapping them to attack.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!