Eldranazi (EDH / Commander)

Alright so outside of precons, Ulamog was the first ever Edh deck i ever built and although the deck is still missing key pieces i can consistently win against tuned decks with this setup (note: not cedh those decks are awful) this however only happens cause of my understanding of my playgroups politics and what is needed at the start and midgame.

Why Ulamog? Firstly i began this deck wanting to build for Eldrazi, i find them interesting and their designs to be really memorable, along with this my first ever 10 dollar card was a Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger my friend gave to me a month into playing this game. I have some bias for building specifically for Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger however it is probably the strongest Eldrazi commander you can pilot. Kozilek, the butcher of truth is arguably second best as his annihilator ability and draw are both vital as the game drags on. However, Ulamog provides on demand removal which is outrageously important for the deck as it allows you to remove key enemy targets and its ability to exile 20 cards upon attack i would say is more powerful in EDH than annihilator is as a mechanic. I have had my opponents entire strategies and outs disappear from a single attack trigger. As such, i have found Ulamog to be the most powerful Eldrazi Colorless commander.

What is most important to this deck is the initial setup. Your starting hand should generally have 4+ lands if possible or 2+ lands and a handful of cheap artifacts. Early creatures do not matter much to this deck as you are trying to build up as much as you can towards the mid and late game as possible.

After this you have to play smart with what you topdeck, as Eldrazi you can draw a lot of hate from just existing as people don't know what to expect from a colorless deck and people don't like huge creatures with big numbers stapled onto them. Cards in the Lesser Eldrazi pile typically fly under the radar and can generally be safely cast meanwhile providing protection from early threats an early endless one at 3 or 4 can also protect you.

After you establish your board a little you want to gauge whether or not your opponents are close to winning themselves. I play in a infinite combo playgroup and as such murderous redcaps, solemnities and similar outlets usually have to be dealt with swiftly. Keeping a titan's presence can help a lot as the only other way you can help stop those infinite setups is by casting Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger. In an exile heavy meta Ulamog should never be cast unless you are absolutely sure it is safe or need it to get rid of enemy key pieces since suddenly you are enemy number 1.

From here on you have to slowly learn how to use Eldrazi within your meta, probably change out a few cards and change how you play against your opponents. Eldrazi are by no means a great deck and need an understanding of the deck and board politics to leverage a victory. The rest of this guide is centered around specific cards or ways of surviving. Thanks for reading my guide, hope you have fun piloting Eldrazi as much as i do.

One thing that is generally noted is that colorless has very few options for removal, thankfully they are only somewhat right. You have a range of removal, the most consistent being Ugin, Spirit dragon, All is dust, Oblivion Stone and on a certain level Steel hellkite. These cards are vital to the deck as generally wide strategies like tokens or aggro can pressure us heavily at the start and enchantment and removal heavy decks can ruin us. As such we need as much wide removal as possible in the form of these cards as they can save us from dead end games. Notably Ugin and all is dust are probably our strongest cards as they are both one sided board wipes that work as our versions of Cyclonic rift and can swing everything to our favor.

The more targeted removal is also powerful but very specific or costly. The strongest of these, Scour from existence, is very costly but can single target remove cards like Propaganda, cabal coffers, instant speed remove infinite combo pieces, or value targets. It is an outstandingly good card. Karn, Liberated fulfills the same role, as you are most likely going to use his - ability for some kind of removal the moment he drops in (unless you got him turn 2 or 3) however he is more of a threat, be careful when dropping him as the board can suddenly see you as the lead and will want to take you down quickly. Steel Hellkite is a surprisingly under the radar card, although it only removes cards with x converted mana cost a lot of people don't really notice it and can be caught of guard by it. You can also use it to threaten with firebreathing to get the last few points of damage. Titan's presence and Spatial contortion are there also for some extra creature removal. Again you are vulnerable at the start and these cards can be good to remove a few key pieces. Most importantly titan's presence can be kept to remove some infinite combo pieces if needed. Warping veil is its own niche card, i only use it to counter high power sorceries like plea for guidance, expropriate, enter the infinite, torment of hailfire or similarly powerful cards.

Mirage Mirror is probably one of the most versatile cards in the deck, it fulfills a lot of roles and can be considered top tier. Most importantly within the meta of this deck itself it can copy Thran Dynamo, Basalt monolith and similar tap 3 abilities for a +1 return on mana.You can copy Bane of Bala ged or Ulamog's crusher for more annihilator triggers. You can copy helm of awakening if you can cast multiple cards that turn for an overall return on mana. It can copy enemy cards, if the enemy has the Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth + Cabal coffers setup you can exploit them and copy their Cabal coffers. You can copy pillowfort cards like propaganda, ghostly prison. It is a great card and is really fun to play around with.

Recently played a game where chaos wand was mwp of the match, seriously this card is massively underestimated as it allows for some much needed versatility in your deck. The main key to it is understanding who you are playing against and their colors, the obvious is there like blue counterspells, green ramp, red/white removal and black tutoring/draw but there is a lot of nuance that can go into your chaos wand tappings as it can often save spells or wipe the board when you need it to. Highly recommend adding it for some fun controlled chaos.

the rest of this guide is WIP.