MH3 Eldrazi Spoilers
By Tom Trapman
What’s that on the horizon? It looks like a writhing mass of nightmarish Lovecraftian tentacles! The Eldrazi, every Magic player’s favorite cosmic horror from beyond the void, is making a return in Modern Horizons III and we have a sneak peek of some of the latest spoilers to hit the internet.
There’s a huge number of blurry potato camera photos floating around right now as well, but let’s focus on the slightly more confirmed, and apocalyptically oriented, batch of Eldrazi hitting the battlefield now that the debut has happened.
Devourer of Destiny on Mana Pool
Devourer of Destiny
Another tool in the Tron toolbox. Devourer of Destiny potentially does a fair bit for the Modern Tron deck. In your opening hand, it will help you assemble the missing pieces of the Tron puzzle by stacking your deck a little bit, while also giving you a solid body and a powerful removal effect as a payoff on turn 3.
It also pairs nicely with the new Ugin’s Labyrinth. Depending on what else gets revealed in the coming weeks, Devourer of Destiny could see play as an alternative to Karn in Tron decks, and maybe as a consistency-fixer in combo decks that need that sort of thing.
Ugin’s Labyrinth on Mana PoolUgin’s Labyrinth
This card is going to be hot. Any land that can produce multiple mana is powerful and there are a huge number of decks that can take advantage of Ugin’s Labyrinth. Ask any Commander player how it feels to start the game with a Sol Ring versus not, and you’ll get the idea.
You even get the exiled card back later in the game, so there is no real drawback with this card.
Breaker of Creation on Mana Pool
Breaker of Creation
Annihilator is back. While not the most fun mechanic to be on the pointy end of, Annihilator is undeniably powerful. With Annihilator 2 and Hexproof from each color, if Breaker of Creation gets cheated into play in the early turns of a game it’s likely GG.
The life gain is a nice bonus as well, since lands count as colorless permanents.
While not as impactful as the more well-known Eldrazi titans, Breaker of Creation might be a solid budget option.
Wumpus Aberration on Mana Pool
Wumpus Aberration
The classic Wumpus gets the Eldrazi treatment, and since most decks that play Wumpus Aberration will have plenty of ways to generate colorless mana, this will likely be a well-costed 6/6 beater.
The Wumpus will probably be a strong limited pick assuming colorless mana generation isn’t too hard to come by, but outside of draft and sealed it isn’t likely to be making too big of a splash.
Oblivion Sower on Mana PoolOblivion Sower
Oblivion Sower is a reprint originally from Battle for Zendikar and will fit nicely into a number of Commander decks that want as many enter the battlefield effects as they can get their hands on.
Since the effect isn’t restricted to the four cards exiled off the top of the library, there are definitely scenarios where Oblivion Sower nets you ill-gotten gains in the double digits in the form of your opponent’s land base when paired with a bunch of exile effects.
Good times for you, less so for your opponents.
Writhing Chrysalis
on Mana Pool
Writhing Chrysalis
Besides being a gross mental image, Writhing Chrysalis is going to be an MH3 limited all star. Without any support, this wriggly guy can hit the board as a 4/5 body with Reach that also generates two additional colorless mana to do with what you like. At four casting cost, that’s solid value.
This guy can also ramp you to seven and hang back to wait for its opportunity to grow up and start putting the pressure on.
Overall, Writhing Chrysalis is very versatile, and super gross, all at the same time.
Kozilek’s Unsealing on Mana Pool
Kozilek’s Unsealing
This card does a lot, just not right away. Typically that’s a downside for cards like this. Playing this on turn 3 has no immediate impact on the board, which opens you up to all sorts of tempo issues and generally falling behind, but in this case the effects might more than make up for it.
The Eldrazi Spawn tokens on the slightly smaller end of the mana cost curve is a nice effect. It produces blockers and mana to give you more time to benefit from the real power of the card, the draw three when you cast a 7 cost creature. Triggering the effect just once is a big gain in value, filling up your hand just when you would normally be running out of gas.
It also gives you the chance of chaining the effect, where you draw your next big beater to trigger the effect again on your next turn. It’s one of those cards with big swings in variance. Some games it will come down and get destroyed immediately without doing anything, and in other games it will draw you nine cards for three mana.
Definitely worth testing out.
Corrupted Shapeshifter on Mana Pool
Corrupted Shapeshifter
This thing is an extremely versatile limited contender. Options are always nice to have and Corrupted Shapeshifter can either go on the offense or play defense decently well.
A 3/3 flyer for four mana is almost always strong in draft and sealed, and a 2/5 vigilance isn’t too shabby in the right situation. I’m sure the 0/12 defender mode has its uses in a limited format with plenty of giant monsters running/slithering around too.
Emrakul, The World Anew on Mana Pool
Browse MH3 on Mana PoolThe Eldrazi Titans
Let’s wrap up the fun with the BBEG’s of the multiverse. The Eldrazi titans are back with some nifty new effects and plenty of beef to shake the battlefield everytime they appear.
Every single one of these monstrosities will likely win you the game if they stick around for a turn, but let’s go around the table and speculate a bit on each of them, since they’re each ridiculously powerful in their own way.
Emrakul, The World Anew
Emrakul is extremely handsy and she/it wants to get her/its tentacles on everything. Stealing all of one of your opponent’s creatures is a crazy effect and being a 12/12 flyer with protection from almost everything makes Emrakul very formidable. Outside of Commander, having Emrakul hit the table is likely game over for your opponent.
Being able to Madness Emrakul onto the board for 6 colorless mana… feels absolutely crazy (pun 100% intended). In the right deck where that happens consistently on the fifth or six turn, Emrakul is a ridiculously powerful play even on the off chance it dies somehow.
In that scenario you just end up back at parity since all your opponent’s creatures hit the bin too!
Kozilek, the Broken Reality
Kozilek is straight up raw power. In most games, you’re probably only going to target yourself with his Manifest effect. In which case, you end up with 19 power on the board, spread over three bodies, and get to draw two cards, for the comparatively low price of 9 mana.
Playing on a team means Kozilek is even more busted, netting you four cards instead of two while beefing up your ally’s board at the same time.
If you can cast him, Koziliek is bananas.
Ulamog, the Defiler
Lastly, Ulamog, the Defiler. Besides the art being excellently epic and suitably terrifying, Ulamog might be the least fun for your opponent to see on the other side of the table.
With Kozilek, there’s plenty of power hitting the board, but he’s vulnerable to removal.
With Emrakul, you lose your team but can at least reset the board if you manage to remove her.
If Ulamog gets a chance to attack at least once, your opponent is probably going to have most of their permanents disappear.
In a limited format with tons of massive, high casting cost creatures, Ulamog will usually have between four and seven +1/+1 counters on it, making him/it huge and giving it such a high Annihilator that one attack will likely mean game over.
The same is true in a format like Commander. There are tons of high casting cost legends and spells floating around to feed the Defiler and getting smacked with a double-digit Annihilator is not something most players will be able to recover from.
The only saving grace for your opponent is that Ulamog’s built in protection in the form of Ward isn’t fool-proof. Sacrificing two permanents might be a small price to pay compared to losing their whole board.
That’s it for the article today! There are so many build-around cards in Modern Horizons 3, plus a massive number of awesome reprints, sweet new Eldrazi and Legends, and beautiful new art prints that it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a home run. What are your favorite MH3 reveals so far? What Commanders are you looking to brew with in our Eldrazi filled future? Let us know!