Forgotten Pasts: Eldrazi Winter

Many Modern players are relieved we finally got past the Hogaak Summer, with Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis and Faithless Looting banned from the Modern format. However, this seems all too familiar. Ridiculously huge threats being produced insanely fast? Winning games on turn 2 or 3 consistently? This sounds like Eldrazi Winter! However, many new players to the Modern format only hear its name mentioned from time to time without context or general knowledge of its reign of terror. Today we’ll be discussing what has been regarded as one of, if not the worst, Modern metas: Eldrazi Winter.

In the Beginning

In late 2015, Battle for Zendikar released as an expansion. A return to the plane of Zendikar, it featured a creature type seen only once: Eldrazi. However, there were two new critical differences in this set. One was the presence of lower-costed, higher impact Eldrazi, much more in line with modern creature designs. Most of the best Eldrazi from the other set had higher costs, going up to 15 mana. The new Eldrazi went as far down as 2 mana. This could be fine, but the other difference was what intrigued deck builders. Devoid was the main mechanic of the Eldrazi, making them “colorless” via keyword while allowing for colored costs. This difference, combined with lower mana costs, meant lands designed to ramp into the expensive Eldrazi from Rise of the Eldrazi were very efficient at pushing out these threats early and consistently.

BW Eldrazi - Matthew Dilks

Creatures (14) 1 Spellskite 4 Blight Herder 4 Oblivion Sower 4 Wasteland Strangler 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger Spells (20) 2 Expedition Map 4 Relic of Progenitus 4 Path to Exile 1 Slaughter Pact 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Lingering Souls 1 Thoughtseize Planeswalkers (1) 1 Liliana of the Veil

Lands (25) 2 Plains 2 Swamp 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Cavern of Souls 4 Eldrazi Temple 4 Ghost Quarter 2 Godless Shrine 4 Marsh Flats 1 Vault of the Archangel 2 Eye of Ugin 2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Sideboard (15) 1 Crucible of Worlds 2 Engineered Explosives 2 Stony Silence 2 Celestial Purge 2 Disenchant 1 Slaughter Pact 1 Liliana of the Veil 1 Duress 3 Timely Reinforcements

[Editor’s note: this list is from the Cincinnati SCG Open on 1/2/2016. Dilks placed 10th. In 2019, he has consistently been on top of the SCG Leaderboard.]

The main build people tried was Black/White Eldrazi, which used Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin to land early creatures in Endless One and Oblivion Sower, keeping the board clear with All is Dust, and combining the spot removal of Path to Exile with Wasteland Strangler to effectively double-dip in the fair matchups. The deck showed some success but was not a dominating force. It couldn’t effectively stop decks like Splinter Twin variants from beating them with well-timed combos and generally great tempo plays, and it struggled to put down the efficiency of decks like Jund and Abzan, who stripped their hands and played huge Tarmogoyfs and hard-to-answer threats like Liliana of the Veil. The deck’s mana was also somewhat clunky, relying on Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth to shore up some colored mana issues. 

The New Cards

Fast forwarding to early January 2016, Oath of the Gatewatch preview season was wrapping up. To those paying attention, this set was going to be disastrous on the face. Another set of low-costed Eldrazi was coming, but these were of a different caliber. Six, critically, looked playable within the existing shell: Eldrazi Displacer, Eldrazi Mimic, Endbringer, Matter Reshaper, Reality Smasher, and Thought-Knot Seer. In playtesting, the slow value plan of BW paled in comparison to the blistering speed of fast mana and hyper-efficient creatures. While a 4-mana Thought-Knot Seer was a good card, casting it for effectively 2 mana from 2 so-called Sol Lands, named after Sol Ring, TKS became an unreasonable threat. The deck was still somewhat of a dog to some Splinter Twin variants with slower hands but was overall dominant in testing. No deck could truly match its speed or power.

Bannings

On January 18, 2016, 4 days before Oath of Gatewatch was set to release. Wizards of the Coast was looking to shake up the metagame for competitive diversity in anticipation of Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch. They did so by banning two of the most played cards at the time: Splinter Twin and Summer Bloom. Splinter Twin was a combo deck looking to use the deck’s namesake, Splinter Twin, to make infinite haste creatures and swing for lethal. This was infamously one of the Modern format’s allstars, sometimes known as the Modern deck. Summer Bloom was the essential piece to a deck named Bloom Titan, a deck which looked to ramp exceedingly fast and win through swinging with an essentially self-buffing Primeval Titan, as it could grab game winning pump lands. Both decks were incredibly consistent and incredibly fast at the time and were a huge part of the meta. Notably, many feel Splinter Twin in today’s Modern format wouldn’t be nearly as threatening and are pushing for it to be unbanned. But that’s an article for another day. With these two decks losing their essential pieces, many players were left looking for the next big deck in the format, and they ended up finding it. 

Into the Pro Tour – The Eldrazi Menace

Let’s skip forward to the weekend of February 5th, 2016. The Pro Tour for Oath of the Gatewatch was underway. Players from Team ChannelFireball and Team Face-to-Face Games brought decks that were near-identical to the deck presented by Luis Scott-Vargas from Channel Fireball: 

Colorless Eldrazi by LSV

Creatures (26) 4 Eldrazi Mimic 4 Endless One 4 Matter Reshaper 4 Reality Smasher 4 Simian Spirit Guide 2 Spellskite 4 Thought-Knot Seer Spells (4) 4 Dismember Artifacts (6) 4 Chalice of the Void 2 Ratchet Bomb

Lands (24) 4 Blinkmoth Nexus 4 Eldrazi Temple 4 Eye of Ugin 4 Ghost Quarter 3 Mutavault 3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 2 Wastes

This deck was the epitome of what a Stompy deck from Legacy looks and acts like, but in Modern. Using fast mana (Simian Spirit Guide/Sol Lands), the deck was able to either explode out of the gate and kill an opponent as early as Turn 2 or lock out and pick apart the opponent by using under-costed threat after under-costed threat to slowly beat them into submission.
The Turn 2 line began with an Eye of Ugin into 3 Eldrazi Mimics. Turn 2 was play an Eldrazi Temple, exile a Simian Spirit Guide, then cast Reality Smasher. The Mimics all became 5/5s, and you smashed into your opponent for 20 damage with Trample. Even if disrupted by a Thoughtseize or similar discard spell, this could still put a fast clock on an opponent. 

The deck’s play pattern was mostly dumping Mimics and Endless Ones on Turn 1 using Eye, following up with Thought-Knot Seer, and finally playing a Smasher and killing on Turn 3 or 4. It could also lead on Chalice Turn 1 (Any land except Eye + Simian Spirit Guide), which cut off most removal that the deck cared about. Depending on the flex slots chosen, it could be a very grindy deck as well, with Oblivion Sower able to tear apart any variation of the mirror and beating Blue-White or Jeskai Control. 

However, Team East West Bowl brought a Blue/Red variant of the deck:

UR Eldrazi - Team East West Bowl

Creatures (33) 4 Endless One 4 Eldrazi Mimic 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 4 Eldrazi Obligator 1 Ruination Guide 4 Thought-Knot Seer 4 Reality Smasher 4 Drowner of Hope 4 Vile Aggregate Spells (3) 3 Dismember

Lands (24) 4 Eye of Ugin 4 Eldrazi Temple 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Steam Vents 2 Island 4 Shivan Reef 3 Cavern of Souls 1 Gemstone Caverns Sideboard (15) 1 Gemstone Caverns  3 Hurkyl’s Recall  3 Chalice of the Void  2 Gut Shot  3 Stubborn Denial  2 Relic of Progenitus  1 Grafdigger’s Cage

The UR Eldrazi deck sacrificed some of its pure speed and raw power to end games on the spot more often. The core power of [/c]Endless One[/c]s, Mimics, Thought-Knots, and Smashers powered out by Sol Lands was still present. The additional utility of Skyspawner as a flying attacker that goes wide on board, Drowner of Hope to tap through opposing boardstates, and Obligator as a way to double down on damage all lent the deck the ability to avoid grinding as much as the Colorless version. This gave it a slight edge in the mirror, though how much it mitigated the importance of the die-roll is somewhat debatable.

Against a field of Tron, Infect, Affinity, Burn, and a few combo decks of various sorts, the Top 8 had 6 copies of Eldrazi decks. The top 20 were 40% Eldrazi decks. The only other decks with multiples in the top 20 were Affinity (15%) and Zoo (10%). A new deck doing this well in an established metagame was unheard of. Usually, dominant breakout decks happen when a metagame is vulnerable or when an existing archetype receives a powerful new tool. 

These Eldrazi decks were unmatched in speed, power, and consistency. Their aggressive gameplan could often outpace Affinity, and they beat them soundly with Chalices and Ratchet Bombs. Infect couldn’t get damage to stick through the relentless assault of creatures and was vulnerable to Chalice, Dismember, and Blinkmoths blocking Inkmoths. Tron was ripped apart by Thought-Knots and Ghost Quarters. Burn was simply too slow. Combo decks tended to get eaten alive by Thought-Knot Seer. Eldrazi went taller and just as wide as Zoo. Control got slaughtered by both the speed and pure power of the deck. Stabilizing at 5 against a deck that could put a Hasty, Trampling 5/5 into play was a risky proposition at best.

The Pro Tour was, and still is, one of the events that saw some of the highest levels of competitive play in Magic. Not to mention, the Pro Tour was perhaps the most effective way to see high-level Modern play for most players. These insane decks were broadcast to everyone watching, their absurdity being performed in front of players’ very eyes. Decks of the Eldrazi archetype, in the end, made up 75% of the Top 8 results. (https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/ptogw/top-8-decklists-2016-02-06) This is a substantial reason as to why so many people were playing variants of this same deck which in turn meant it dominated the metagame. Dominated here is even a massive understatement: it defined the metagame. 

Defeating the Eldrazi – Fight Fire with Fire

People tried playing all sorts of variations of decks trying to keep down the menace. The only decks that stood some chance were decks that went about as fast, namely Affinity and Infect, hoping to match against the slower draws from the deck. But many people adapted by playing the deck, and adapting it to beat the mirror. The most successful deck overall was UW Eldrazi: 

UW Eldrazi - Ross McGee

Creatures (28) 1 Phyrexian Metamorph 4 Drowner of Hope 4 Eldrazi Displacer 4 Eldrazi Mimic 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner 3 Endless One 4 Reality Smasher 4 Thought-Knot Seer Spells (7) 3 Dismember 4 Path to Exile

Lands (25) 1 Island 1 Plains 1 Wastes 4 Adarkar Wastes 2 Cavern of Souls 2 Caves of Koilos 4 Eldrazi Temple 3 Flooded Strand 1 Ghost Quarter 2 Hallowed Fountain 4 Eye of Ugin Sideboard (15) 2 Chalice of the Void 2 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Rest in Peace 1 Stony Silence 2 Disenchant 1 Gut Shot 1 Hibernation 2 Hurkyl’s Recall 2 Stubborn Denial

UW Eldrazi combined the advantages of the explosive, but grindy, Colorless with the ability of UR to skip the grind sometimes. In the long game, it could simply flicker Drowner of Hope multiple times to generate lots of combatants and build towards a lethal tapdown. It beat the mirror by being able to flicker away blockers, tapping them down, and dismantling attacks the same way. 

The same deck type that was dominating Modern was also changing the face of Legacy and Vintage. Legacy added two more Sol Lands in Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors, as well as Wasteland to better punish nonbasics from opponents. Vintage had a White Eldrazi deck that was jammed together with either Mentor or Shops lists, using Containment Priest in conjunction with Eldrazi Displacer to eat through opposing boards. By the end of the year, Thought-Knot Seer was unequivocally the best creature of 2016, having dominated and defined the year’s major constructed formats. 

And in the End…

Less than three months after Oath of the Gatewatch released, Eye of Ugin was banned. It was the linchpin in an archetype that spanned almost half of the metagame by the time the ban came around and dominated top placements with 60% or more at all major events it was played at. That level of dominance is shared by only a few decks throughout the history of Magic, including Black Summer and Combo Winter.

Conner Gandy was assisted by GlassNinja in writing and researching this article.