[Deck] Colorless Eldrazi Stompy

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Zyste
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Post by Zyste » 4 years ago

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While many decks in Modern attempt to make broken plays by turn 3 or 4, Colorless Eldrazi is only content making broken plays on turn 1 or 2; "Land, pass" is never an acceptable first turn play for us. This is a deck that is extremely aggressive; Attacking, interacting, and yes, even mulliganing, require brutally calculated choices.


Why Play Colorless Eldrazi?

Unlike many of the more linear decks in Modern, this deck is very interactive and requires an understanding of your opponents wincons and options to maximize your chances. The deck has a strong match-up against many of the popular decks in the format, as it can usually overwhelm your opponent with fast, heavy damage, while simultaneously restricting their choices and/or shutting off their outs. The look of shock when you play a Chalice of the Void for 1 on opening turn, or swing for 10 damage on turn 2 is something to behold.


Deck Construction

Because of the limitations of using only colorless mana sources, the availability of cheap, colorless eldrazi, and the need for fast, interactive gameplay, the majority of the deck is generally consistent from player to player. There are generally 5 non-land flex spots in the main deck, and about 5 in the sideboard, depending on your meta. The land count in this deck may also seem high for an aggro deck, but many of them are utility or man-lands, which serve alternate purposes to our strategy.


Again, most of the deck is locked-in. The lands can be played around with depending on the utility needs of your meta. Generally the flex spots in the above list are the three Matter Reshapers and the two Endless Ones. Alternatives include Smuggler's Copter(1-2 copies) for draw consistency, and Karn, the Great Creator if you transform the sideboard into a toolbox.

The deck thrives on four copies of Chalice of the Void, with the four Simian Spirit Guides and the Gemstone Caverns helping us drop chalice for 1 on our opening turn, effectively shutting down many decks. Four Eldrazi Temples accelerate us with the Spirt Guides so that we can drop Eldrazi Mimic, then into our larger threats to push huge damage in the early turns, while the Dismembers help clear the path for us. A set of Eternal Scourges provides us with recurring threats in the face of removal that let us grind out the match.

The sideboard is a mix of additional removal and hate-specific cards, but is highly flexible to your local meta. Generally the copies of Relic of Progenitus stay consistent, as they perform double duty as graveyard hate and also a means of putting our dead Eternal Scourges back into exile for grindier matches. Ratchet Bomb used to be our only boardwipe available to us, but the printing of Blasting Zone has improved our ability to deal with wide threats. Bomb does stick around though, since Zone can't deal with tokens.

The 4 serum powders help with one of the most fundamental aspect of the deck, which is in the mulligans. I've looked at three copies in light of the new London Mulligan rules, but the consistency loss while mulliganing is a bit more than expected. Speaking of mulligans...


Mulligans

One of the unique aspects of this deck is how aggressive it is when it comes to mulligans. Mulliganing is a tricky skill in Magic and most players tend to be timid when it comes to this decision. Colorless Eldrazi wants us to take full advantage of the mulligan to maximize our early turn plays. If your opening hand is going to dawdle for a few turns before doing anything, you may have already lost the game. We purposely run Serum Powders so that we have a better chance of getting those impressive openers. Unless we know what deck our opponent is running against us, we want that opening hand to drop a turn one Chalice of the Void for 1, or have a strong curve of creatures dropping on turns 1, 2, and 3 fueled by Eldrazi Temple and Simian Spirit Guide.

The London Mulligan rule change has improved our mulliganing as well, by letting us see a full seven cards each time, and even letting us put cards back into the deck before exiling to a Serum Powder! As an example, say you just took your first mulligan and you draw a new seven of: Wastes, Zhalfirin Void, Endbringer, Scourge, Dismember, Powder, and Chalice. This is an underwhelming hand and should not be kept in any circumstance. But while many of the cards are not super important, we do want to keep our chances of a turn one Chalice of the Void up, should we need to mulligan again. The new rule lets us put the Chalice back on the bottom of the library, then we exile the remaining six (including an Eternal Scourge, giving us +1 card advantage) and redraw six new cards from the remaining 54 card deck.

Because of the advantages of this system that let us fish out our broken early plays, We can win games even when mulliganing down to 3 card hands.



Pros and Cons


PRO
  • Aggressive in the face of non-interactive decks. If our opponent can't block or remove, they'll be overrun in a few turns.
  • Has a equal-to-strong match-up against many meta decks. Chalice on 1 as an opening play will keep many decks idling for a few turns while we deply threats.
  • Fun and rewarding to learn to play and understand how to combat a variety of decks. Knowing your opponent's gameplan is important for our openers, as well as our interactive cards for removal and hand-disruption.


CONS
  • Inconsistency is the biggest enemy of Colorless Eldrazi. When the deck is on, it's crushing. But when it strumbles, it falls hard.
  • Weak to very grindy matches with mid-range decks that run creatures outside our removal range.
Last edited by Zyste 4 years ago, edited 3 times in total.

Jacketboi
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Post by Jacketboi » 4 years ago

It's worth noting that it's very easy to splash colors in the deck as well. I currently run a red splash with Eldrazi Obligator main and red sideboard cards like Abrade, Hazoret the Fervent, Anger of the Gods, etc. I personally believe the red splash way better than regular colorless, since you only lose utility lands.

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CavalryWolfPack
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Post by CavalryWolfPack » 4 years ago

I've also been messing with a red splash lately and I've enjoyed it. Still learning the ropes with the deck currently, but so far it's a ton of fun

deaddrift
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Post by deaddrift » 4 years ago

You can splash R or W for a good variant on this, but I think it's a mistake to dismiss the utility land package so quickly. Playing 21 utility lands effectively ups Colorless Stompy's spell count by a LOT, and this is extremely important, in a deck that has so many dead draws.

I'm still waffling on 3 or 4 Serum Powders, not sure how I feel about that.

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ThatOneNinja
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Post by ThatOneNinja » 4 years ago

To be as blunt as possible, there is no build where less than 4 powders in correct. Its the centerpiece of the deck. The fact that the OP has a list with only 3 Powders (and an Endbringer....ugh) is making my eyes twitch.

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ThatOneNinja
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Post by ThatOneNinja » 4 years ago

I ended up going to two IQ's that were in my area with the Red splash version and I decided to put a tournament report together. Unfortunately, I started 4-1 in both tournaments but then ended up losing all three of my matches that I could have got Top 8 with.
Note: I would play 3 Leylines but I only own 2.

IQ #1 – 68 players, 7 rounds, final record 4-3 for 17th place (right outside the money RIP)


Round 1 – Humans – Win (2-0)

Game 1: I get super lucky by screwing him over with a turn 1 Chalice on the play. He has no Cavern of Souls but he stalls for a long time with Reflector Mage. I amass an army with Seasoned Pyromancers, almost die to fliers, but he ends up doing 10 damage to himself with Horizon lands and I eventually rip an Obligator to close it out.

Game 2: I use Gemstone Caverns to bolt his turn 1 play and follow it up with an Anger of the Gods to close out the game.

Round 2- Burn – Win (2-0)


Both matches I Chalice him. Not much else to say.

Round 3 – Titanshift – Win (2-0)

Game 1: He kills my Mimic with Wrenn and Six, but I dump 4 power on the board with Seasoned Pyomacer, take his Sakura Tribe Elder with TKS and finish him off the turn before he was going to combo.

Game 2: I use Gemstone to play a turn 1 Obligator. He kills it but I'm able to rip more Mimics + haste creatures to kill him the turn before he combos again. Obligator really shined in this match.

Round 4 – G Tron – Lose (1-2)

Game 1: He assembles Tron through 2 Ghost Quarters and a Chalice on one. Tron doing tron things.

Game 2: He keeps a bad hand and I punish him with TKS and topdeck a timely Ghost Quarter.

Game 3: He mulls to 5 and I almost get it with a Ghost Quarter but I just cant keep him off Tron and he uses Karn to stop my Smasher with Ensnaring Bridge. I would have won if I was on the play or ripped an Abrade. Oh well.

Round 5 – UW Control – Win (2-0)

Game 1: I have three TKS for which he has three Paths. I get him to 3 but he rips a Wrath on the turn he needed it and locks me with Jace.

Game 2: We both mull to 5 but I have a Seasoned Pyromancer and Chandra to refuel with and he is also forced to Path me which ramps me into Reality Smasher.

Game 3: I'm able to play a turn one Obligator with Gemstone Caverns which keeps him off kilter the whole game since he was on a slow Planeswalker plan.

Round 6 – Eldrazi Tron – Lose (0-2)

Game 1: I have a hand that is astonishingly good against a deck that cares about Chalice on one. He does not and I lose despite him mulling to 5. But I got to discard two Serum Powders to Seasoned Pyromancer so that was cool.

Game 2: I get stomped. This is a tough match-up

Round 7 – Eldrazi Tron – Lose (1-2)

At this point I'm pretty tilted that I got paired against two of the three people on E – Tron in the tourney.

Game 1: I get stomped

Game 2: She keeps and bad hand and gets punished by TKS.

Game 3: I think I got lucky when she mulls to five but she's able to grab an Ensaring Bridge with Karn before I can kill her. I have a one turn window to draw TKS or Abrade but don't. She rips another Karn and locks me.

IQ #2 – 39 Players – 6 rounds, final record 4-2 for 9th place (double RIP)

Round 1 – UR Phoenix – Win (2-0)


Game 1: He keeps and one lander + cantrips and gets completely wrecked by my Turn 1 Chalice on the play.

Game 2: He keeps and slow Aria of Flame hand that also gets punished by Chalice.

Round 2 – Tron – Lose (1-2)

Game 1: A close game where I rip Ghost Quarter + Chalice to break up + slow Tron but he O-stones the board the hard way. Luckily I rip a Smasher for the win.

Game 2: With both mull to 5 and I dont have enough resource to stop him fron Tron-ing.

Game 3: I get Tron-ed real good.

Round 3 – UW Control – Win (2-0)

Game 1: For some reason he keeps a triple Field of Ruin hand that full of counterspells. He gets wrecked.

Game 2: I draw all four of my Scourges and he is forced to waste time Path-ing and Oust-ing them. Eventually they beat him down.

Round 4 – UR Phoenix - Win (2-0)


Game 1 : Similar to my first match against Phoenix, he keeps a one lander and gets wrecked by Chalice on one.

Game 2: In more deja-vu, my this opponent also keeps a slow Aria hand. He almost gets me with it, but I rip a Chalice plus having a low pain manabase saves my bacon and I'm able to kill him quick with Smasher + Mimic.

Round 5 – Dredge Win - (2-1)

Game 1: I cant find a decent hand despite two Powders and mulling to 5. He has a mediocre start but I cant do anything to stop him. If I had Chalice on one turn one I probably could have stole it.

Game 2: I have Relic and Anger of the Gods to slow him down but I then I flood out. I get lucky when he misplays and doesn't double block my Smasher which takes him to two and I kill him with Ramunap Ruins.

Game 3: I keep and hand of Leyline, Relic, and Anger of the Gods. I also draw Chalice and he's effectively locked out of the game.

Round 6 – UW Control – Lose (1-2)

In yet another unfortunate turn for me, I get paired down against a local player who has a tie so we have to play it out. He knows how to play against me much better than other UW players.

Game 1: I have a very aggressive Mimic + Obligator draw and he just spins his wheels while I beat him down.

Game 2: A very long and hard fought game. He stabilizes with Timely Reinforcements, traps two of my Smashers under a Detention Sphere, and follows up with Baneslayer which I dont have an answer to since I used both my Dismembers to kill tokens to push through damage. I make a bad misplay by playing a creature into a counter that I knew he had instead of ticking up Blastzone to free my Smashers a turn earlier. He also misplays by attacking with Baneslayer the turn before I release the Smashers but he has a Fact or Fiction that gets him Snap into Path to save him from his mistake. I do have another turn to draw Obligator to kill him with his own Baneslayer but I'm not lucky this time.

Game 3: I keep a double Temple hand but don't draw TKS or Smasher and he has Ceremonious Rejection, Snap, and Timely Reinforcements anyways.

Closing Thoughts

I thought the deck performed quite well and is certainly able to go toe-to-toe with the top meta decks. I was impressed with all the red cards and playing a lot of basics helped in my UW control matches. Obligator being a fast-hasty clock won me multiple games I otherwise would have lost (I think I only stole a creature with it twice). The London Mulligan really helps Tron decks so I think another Damping Sphere could be a good idea. Overall, I would recommend this version of the deck over Colorless if you have a lot of Humans, Dredge, and UW. The red cards were clutch against them and having Abrades for all the Ensaring Bridges running around is also nice.

Zyste
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Post by Zyste » 4 years ago

ThatOneNinja wrote:
4 years ago
To be as blunt as possible, there is no build where less than 4 powders in correct. Its the centerpiece of the deck. The fact that the OP has a list with only 3 Powders (and an Endbringer....ugh) is making my eyes twitch.
Yeah. At the time I wrote this up, I was messing around with seeing how three copies worked with the new mulligan. Though I should have just left the list with the four to be more consistent with most decks. I'm definitely finding a bit of consistency loss because of it, even if it does mitigate dead draws a little.

GPash
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Post by GPash » 4 years ago

Honestly, with the new London Mulligan I don't think Powder is necessary at all. The whole point of Powder was to circumvent mulligans in order to find Chalice/Temple/etc. The London Mulligan does this for you. I've played the deck quite a bit before/after the LM change and it seems that Powder is now the worst card in the deck by far. Will likely be cutting them completely.

Mtgthewary
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Post by Mtgthewary » 4 years ago

Played my biggest tournament ever in Frankfurt mkm series. 460 players and like allways no ssg and no chalice. More lands, creatures and 4 relic main allways. My last big tournament with 110 players I finished 5:1:1 at place 10, this time I finished 20 with 8:2. Lost versus whir prison and top 8 rb goblin player. I beat 8 rack, rw prison, red prowess, 2*uw, Infect, 2*burn. Chalice is still not needed and relic is great. Like I allways say, you can beat easy red decks without chalice and endless one instead. It's funny how they bring in useless artefact hate

GPash
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Post by GPash » 4 years ago

Mind sharing your 75?

Mtgthewary
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Post by Mtgthewary » 4 years ago

Sorry don't know how and can't find rulings for. Difficult on my small cellphone too. I used 25 lands main with 4 mutavault, 3 blast zone, 3 tectonic edge, 3 wastes, 4 temple, 3 Gemstone, 4 ghost quarter, 1 bojuka. Instead of chalice and ssg I used 3 endless one with PS reshaper and PS relic. Rest was same in main. My sideboard was another bojuka, 1 tectonic edge, 1 Gemstone, 4 leylines, 4 spatial contortion, 1 surgical, 3 ratchet

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bellune
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Post by bellune » 4 years ago

I've been playing the deck for a while and in the current meta I've had great success playing 2 Karn, Scion of Urza main deck.

I guess 1 would probably be more right, but at the moment it's a game changer against midrange matchups like Jund, which has become very popular. The extra draw is very helpful, and the occasional artefact token is often very relevant to close out a game.

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bellune
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Post by bellune » 4 years ago

Mtgthewary wrote:
4 years ago
Chalice is still not needed and relic is great. Like I allways say, you can beat easy red decks without chalice and endless one instead.
I feel like chalice is game changing only if it gets out turn 1 on the play.
On the draw or on turn 2, it's pretty much useless and has almost never won me games, apart from the obvious death shadow/phoenix matchups.
I still play it, but I'm considering dropping it now that faithless looting is banned.

Modern is becoming a very resilient format, and in many situations, hate cards aren't very good.

I always tell that story when I played against humans this year. After losing game 1, in game 2 I get a torpor orb out turn 1 on the play, feeling pretty good about it, and got crushed anyway : meddling mage on TKS (i had 2 two in hand), another meddling mage, couldn't play anything and got easily beat.

In a similar fashion, sometimes your chalice will wreck the opponent, sometimes he's lucky to have plenty 2-drops in his hand and doesn't care at all.
And if it comes down too late, he'll have the time to play his 1-drops anyway.

GPash
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Post by GPash » 4 years ago

Yeah, in my experience playing the deck, Humans way always one of the worst (if not THE worst) matchups. Just horrendous. I also feel like it's plausible to move away from Chalice as midrange green decks like Jund that pack a ton of permanent removal are becoming more prevalant.

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bellune
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Post by bellune » 4 years ago

On another subject : is Once Upon A Time playable in this deck ?
Probably not, but I thought it would be interesting to at least consider it.

An extra Eldrazi Temple or creature in early game can definitely be game-changing.
The card would be useless in later game, though, without a green splash...

Just a thought.

Mtgthewary
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Post by Mtgthewary » 4 years ago

It is. I tested with proxys 2 days and it felt great. Can't say for sure because of small sample size, but I felt like having now a safe fast great start. You have temple in hand? Good... No temple? OK so you have maybe once upon in hand and that's like temple turn 1. You have no temple and no once upon? OK, so you have serum powder and let's try again. This means now we have 12 cards which are great in starting hand and we only need 1 of them. Access for green sideboard against bridge or other artefact seems nice too. Only problem is which lands we will cut for green (I use 4) and which other Mainboard cards for once upon (I decide cutting 2 relic, 2 endless one, but I have less problems cutting cards because no simian and chalice allready). By the way, with once upon I can find better lands Like bojuka, blast zone, tectonic, mutavault and so on...

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