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I'm constructing an Eldrazi based deck and I'm thinking about possible ways of getting one onto the table. What I already considered:

Do you know any other cards like these?

Edit: I'm talking about the "big three" Legendary Eldrazi -- Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

8 Answers 8

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I'm assuming you mean the "big three" Legendary Eldrazi -- Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. If you want any Eldrazi, like a Pathrazer of Ulamog, you can always use reanimation spells. These three, however, have the persnickety clause:

When {card name} is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles his or her graveyard into his or her library.

Thus, you have to use instant-speed reanimation, cheat on costs, or hardcast them normally using obscene mana acceleration (which is basically "cheating them out" for most intents and purposes).

The proven competitive decks that do this are:

  • Legacy "Sneak and Show," using Show and Tell and Sneak Attack.
  • Modern "Tron" decks, using the power of the UrzaTron (Urza's Mine, Urza's Tower, and Urza's Power-Plant, which produce 7 mana from three lands) to hardcast Eldrazi. Basically you use lots of cards like Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map, or Gifts Ungiven to set up the Tron, and then go crazy with Eldrazi, Karn Liberated, and Wurmcoil Engine. Some of these decks also run Through the Breach as a backup plan.
  • Before banning, Modern had "Twelvepost," which used Cloudpost, Glimmerpost, Vesuva, like a faster and more consistent Tron.
  • Before banning, Modern also had "Hypergenesis," using cascade tricks to set up a super-fast Hypergenesis.
  • Legacy "Elves" is an occasionally-successful but easy-to-hate deck that chains a ton of mana dorks, usually with Glimpse of Nature, to hardcast Emrakul.
  • Vintage has "Oath," which uses Oath of Druids (banned in Legacy) to cheat out Eldrazi.
  • You can take inspiration from a variety of other decks that access huge amounts of mana, such as "High Tide," "Amulet of Vigor," "Enchantress" (via Serra's Sanctum, mainly), and "MUD" (via Metalworker and Cloudpost). Many of these don't actually need a card like Emrakul to win but sometimes play it anyway because it goes "over the top" of many other strategies.

Other approaches I've seen used (ranked in approximate order of jankiness):


If you're looking for a top-tier tournament deck, I recommend:

  • Sneak and Show for Legacy: it was totally the top deck for a while. Main down side is that it was totally the top deck for a while, of course, so many players know how to play against it.
  • G/R Tron for Modern. Faster and more consistent than the other Tron decks, and pretty cheap to put together, especially if you already own the Eldrazi. The main down side is that it is pretty weak against some of the other combo decks (like Storm) and hyper-aggressive decks.

If you're looking for a deck to play at "casual" tables, my recommendation is a Windbrisk Heights + Summoning Trap deck. It's still very powerful but not as obviously "unfair" as the tournament combo decks — some players vehemently dislike seeing turn-3 Karn every other game — and the aggressive/midrange creatures give you a decent fallback plan even if the whole table is dedicated to hating out your combo.

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    Downvoter: Why the downvote? Anything I can fix?
    – Alex P
    Jul 6, 2012 at 16:00
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    +1 Nice extensive answer. For casual, don't forget [mtg:Mana Echoes] the token generating drones, and the Eldrazi that gets copies you own from outside the game
    – user1873
    Jul 6, 2012 at 16:26
  • I'm just a casual player I just checked out the Eldrazi cards and I wanted to put together a nice deck.
    – Adam Arold
    Jul 6, 2012 at 19:48
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    Only other major competitive deck I think you missed is Doomsday + Shelldock Isle, although that deck is possibly one of the hardest to play in existence.
    – WLPhoenix
    Jul 24, 2012 at 22:06
  • a little nit picky - but I don't believe there was ever a point where hypergenesis wasn't banned. I think it was on the banlist for the community cup which was the first test of modern, and has been ever since
    – Patters
    Oct 24, 2014 at 8:37
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Here's a non-comprehensive list of additional ideas:

* — The creature card is cast, so you get a free turn from Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

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  • You need to cut down your list of graveyard revival, unless you include ways to instantly play most of those cards or Stifle the Eldrazi trigger. Vishidian Orrey
    – user1873
    Jul 6, 2012 at 15:14
  • Ahh, yeah. Forgot about the whole graveyard trigger thing. editing to remove graveyard revival.
    – Hyppy
    Jul 6, 2012 at 15:19
  • Also, how does Dream Halls work with colorless creatures?
    – Alex P
    Jul 6, 2012 at 15:41
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    @AlexP: Painter's Servant comes to mind.
    – Hyppy
    Jul 6, 2012 at 15:53
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    @Faults, Because although they are colorless, the legendary Eldrazi are not artifacts, and thus not legal choices for Tinker. (Tinker is also banned in all official formats except Vintage and MTGO's "Classic" -- and it's restricted to 1/deck in both of those!)
    – Brian S
    Dec 10, 2013 at 22:57
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  1. Quicksilver Amulet.

  2. Get Skittering Invasion on the board to spawn off 5 tokens and then play. Cryptic Gateway to tap 2 of the tokens to play any Eldrazi from your hand.

  3. The harder way: Urza lands like Urza Incubator, as well as the Urza land combo.

  4. 12 post the crap out of it!

All of these ways are how my deck works, and I have been able to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on turn 4 multiple times; as well as being able to play Eldrazi left and right by turn 6 and quickly take control of the game.

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    Welcome to the site! I have made some grammatical and formatting updates to your post; please note that as a Q&A site, as opposed to a standard forum; such things are more important. Your answers will be much better received, and you will receive more reputation, if you take a little care with your posts.
    – GendoIkari
    Oct 4, 2014 at 5:24
  • He literally never came back after that day. Guess it was too much to handle. Oct 26, 2015 at 20:16
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I have a deck that uses Deathrender, which says:

Whenever equipped creature dies, you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield and attach Deathrender to it.

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Hows a 17/17 with annihilator 6 sound? xD

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    Like something I want to snap kill.
    – deworde
    Oct 12, 2015 at 13:07
  • Won't happen with Emrakul.
    – Adam Arold
    Feb 6, 2017 at 23:24
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I might suggest trying Possibility Storm. Use it to find Emrakul and play him for free on turn 5. Or use Quicksilver Amulet to play him on turn 4-5.

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I would recommend Belbe's Portal. 5 mana to play it, pick a creature type, then 3 and tap to put a creature of that type from your hand onto the battlefield.

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You can make an Eldrazi + Cloudpost because Cloudpost will only double every time you lay one down. With all 8 locus lands on the field equals to 36 colorless land total.

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Decks like Eldrazi Spawn rely on swarming the field with Eldrazi Spawn tokens that you can sacrifice for colorless mana. If you manage to get Growth Spasm in play, it becomes really easy to spam the field with tokens and play the big three.

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