MTG: Terrors Unknown – Top Five Eldrazi Commanders
Sometimes, when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss stares back. Sometimes, it’s one of these terrifying Commanders.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering. You use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, aka, your Commander.
Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your Commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is an excellent source for Commander info and can give you ideas on how to build your next Commander deck or tune an existing one.
Right up there with Slivers, Eldrazi are one of the most powerful creature types in the game. While they can get a bit expensive, their ability to draw on mana of any color (in most cases) and nasty keywords set them apart from other typal decks. At the head of the charge are these five Commanders, some of whom aren’t even Eldrazi themselves.
Zhulodok, Void Gorger
Hailing from Commander Masters, the first and best of the Eldrazi Commanders adds a lot of spice to their deck. Zhulodok is a decent beater at 7/4 for six, one of which HAS to be colorless, but his power comes from his cascade effects. Colorless spells cast from the hand with cost seven or more gain double cascade, meaning you get two more free spells.
Most Eldrazi are already pretty pricey, so getting to cast them and then getting two more is a pretty nasty combo. Plus, it says mana value, meaning if you reduce their cost, they still activate the effect.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion
One of the OG Eldrzai monstrosities, Kozilek’s second incarnation is no less nasty than his first. A 12/12 with menace for ten is already a decent value, but Kozilek doesn’t stop there. When you cast him, you get to refill your hand, and then you can discard a card to counter a spell of the same value. Kozliek makes sure you’re stomping faces AND spells.
Morophon, the Boundless
A Changeling Commander that was rightfully banned for a long time, Morophon is a lot more fair in a mostly colorless deck. While he does take care of the very few pieces of color in an Eldrazi deck, his primary power comes from being a big colorless +1/+1 effect. Eldrazi are strong already, so the anthem effect is just icing on the cake.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Now, this is a nasty one. Ulamog is an indestructible beatstick right out of the gate, but his hatefulness doesn’t stop there. When you cast him, two permanents are exiled. It doesn’t have any stipulations beyond that, so Ulamog can eat whatever he wants. Even worse, every time he attacks, the player he attacks loses the top twenty cards of their library forever. A lot of decks don’t mind mill since they have recursion, but mass exile is hard to contend with.
Animar, Soul of Elements
A surprise sleeper hit, Animar is a nasty leader for a colorless deck. When you drop a creature, Animar gets bigger, and the bigger he is, the less your spells cost. However, since most of your deck is colorless already, his reduction can free all your Eldrazi in just a few casts. Animar is here to catapult your giant star gods onto the field with no effort.
What do you think of these Commanders?
