Quick Links
With the rate at whichMagic: The Gatheringreleases new Commander precons, there’s bound to be some overlap in deck themes, reprints, and new design space. That means it becomes increasingly important for more recent precons to addsomethingnew to the mix, something that makes them feel distinct from the many, many precons that came before them.
Eldrazi Incursion from Modern Horizons 3 is a great example of a deck that rehashes an established theme of an already-existing precon but does so in a way that feels unique. Unlike Commander Master’s Eldrazi Unbound deck, Eldrazi Incursion embraces the colorful side of Eldrazi creatures. Five-color Eldrazi’s quite the ambitious deck theme, as it were.
Eldrazi Incursion Precon Commanders
Eldrazi Incursion hastwo distinct commanders that pull the precon in different directions. Ulalek, Fused Atrocity is the face commander, and the default legend that most of this deck is built around. It takes a common feature of Eldrazi creatures–cast triggers–and doubles up most of your colorless shenanigans while they’re on the stack.
Ulalek’s triggered ability warrants some clarification. This ability lets you pay double-colorless manato copy all spells and abilities you controlwhenever you cast an Eldrazi spell. That means you’recopying things on the stack, not cards that have already entered the battlefield.
Even though Ulalek onlytriggerswhen you cast an Eldrazi, it copiesanythingon the stack, Eldrazi or not. If you can get something on the stack and then follow up with an Eldrazi spell, perhaps an instant orsomething with flash,you can actually end up copying non-Eldrazi spellsonce Ulalek’s ability resolves.
Your other commander of choice is Azlask, the Swelling Scourge. This one’s much more straightforward, rewarding you for holding on to any Eldrazi Spawn or Eldrazi Scion tokens you create to make a big annihilating swing when you activate Azlask’s ability. It’s an interesting sub-strategy,but a clear second-place commandercompared to Ulalek.
Azlask and Ulalek are both colorless in gameplay, but both have all five colors in their color identity for Commander deckbuilding purposes.
Technically, there’s also Morophon, the Boundless,a five-color legendthat could be run as the commander of the precon. Not only is it inherently less powerful than either of the other two options, but the cost reduction it offers isn’t that impressive in a deck full of colorless spells. It’s a fine inclusion in the 99, butless than ideal as the commander.
Return of the Wildspeaker
Imprisoned in the Moon
Yavimaya Coast
Eldrazi Incursion Commander Deck Key Themes
The Eldrazi creature typeis front and center here.Use your early-game Eldrazi creatures to generate mana for your top-end haymakers. Eldrazi Spawn and Eldrazi Scion tokens come in handy here and help accelerate from the early game directly into your late-game plans. Ideally, you’ll be casting seven- and eight-mana creatures while opponents are still setting up.
Colorless cards also play a big role in the deck, with devoid thrown in as a slight twist on the theme. For the most part,you’re able to pretty much ignore devoidas it relates to gameplay. All it does is make a card colorless regardless of the colors that appear in its mana cost, but it should have no real bearing on your decision-making process. Devoid cards just work favorably with the deck.
There’s not a lot of cohesion between your game-winning spells. Most of the expensive Eldrazi creatures do what can best be described as ‘big, splashy stuff,’ but they don’t exactly synergize with one another in any meaningful way. They do, however, collectively beat your opponents senseless if they can’t do anything about it. You almost certainlywillhavethe biggest creatureson board.
Eldrazi Incursion Deck Analysis
Eldrazi Incursion combines elements of typaland ramp decks.It’s actively looking to skip over the usual middle stages of the gameand get straight to the worldbreakers, which in this case includes actual World Breaker. Huge bodies and annihilator creatures can close out games in a hurry, it’s just a matter of consistently getting your expensive creatures on the battlefield first.
The early stages of the game should be dedicated to ramp, usually in the form ofmana rocks like Talismans and Everflowing Chalice. The ideal start for this deck (sans Sol Ring hands) is a turn-two Talisman into a turn-four ‘big mana rock’ like Hedron Archive. Unless the boardstate demands otherwise, prioritize ramping over playing early-game creatures.
Try not to sacrifice your Eldrazi tokens for mana too early in the game. It’s better to use them to cast a huge seven- or eight-mana play than a three-drop or four-drop.
This deck flounders exceptionally hard if it can’t produce enough mana. You have tons ofhuge card advantage spellsfor the late-game, but extra card draw doesn’t mean anything if you’re able to’t cast all the cards you’re drawing. Treat cards like Rishkar’s Expertise and Return of the Wildspeaker as last resort ways to refuel an empty hand, not as must-play cards once you have the mana.
The precon manabase is actively terrible and needs some dire attention if you want this deck to compete in any real capacity outside just precon v. precon matches. Remember thatyou have explicit colorless costs on top of being a five-color deck, so you’re realistically balancingsixtypes of mana all at once.
The painlands (Karplusan Temple, Caves of Koilos) and Landscapes help with the colorless portion of the deck, butdual lands like Temples could use an upgrade. Eventhe colorless utility landscould use some help. There’s no real reason a deck like thisneedsa land like Reliquary Tower or Tectonic Edge over other better, budget-friendly, colorless lands.
Eldrazi Incursion saw a huge price spike from most retailers, but the deck contents do not justify the pricetag.Do not pay $100+ for this Commander precon.
Replace With
Description
Vile Redeemer never really delivers on its promise of spawning a bunch of tokens if your board gets wipes, making you hold up mana for what’s essentially a bunch of air. Path of Annihilation ramps you, gains life, and lets all your Eldrazi tap for mana, even the dorky utility creatures like Spawn and Scions.
The precon’s doing okay in the mana rock department; it doesn’t need to lean too hard on huge mana rocks like Dreamstone Hedron, which become liabilities against artifact removal. It That Heralds the End is a mainline Modern Horizons 3 card that slots in perfectly for less than a dollar.
Suffer the Past is a strange inclusion in the precon, likely added to combatthe Graveyard Overdrive deckin heads-up precon battles. It’s not worth holding on to, and this deck can borrow more colorless removal from the Eldrazi Unbound precon with Desecrate Reality.
Imprisoned in the Moon is a flavor-include and a pretty weak one, considering there aren’t any Emrakuls in this deck anyway. It’s also a pretty lowball removal spell, which can be upgraded to a colorless sweeper like Calamity of the Titans.
Ugin’s Insight is in the precon for flavor reasons, but it’s an objectively weak draw spell. Kozilek’s Unsealing provides ramp, card draw, and another colorless permanent packed into one powerful enchantment.
Scry 1 from the Temples is about as minor of an upside as you can get, and Drowner of Truth provides the same mana fixing while also being a massive Eldrazi spell in situations where you don’t need more land. This basically repurposes a tapland as something that works favorably with Ulalek.
Fellwar Stone doesn’t produce colorless mana but still covers five of the six color requirements necessary to operate. Skittering Invasion makes much more sense if you plan to run Azlask as your Commander; otherwise, it’s a bit too much expensive fluff at seven mana.
