[Primer] Eldrazi Stompy

[Holly]

This is a work in progress and not yet finished but a good start for everyone interested in Eldrazi's in Legacy. For work reasons I wont be able to have any progress until the 23rd of march, sorry for the delay.

Introduction
Eldrazi Stompy also known as Eldrazis Shops is the newest deck in the Legacy and Modern pool. It plays similar to other stompy Decks like “Dragon Stompy” but makes use of the new Eldrazi creatures from Oath of the Gatewatch which had a lot of impact for the following reasons:
- The most important ones are completely colorless, thus making the „Sol-Lands“ (Ancient Tomb & City of Traitors) stronger as those now could cast the lock-pieces and the threats without additional manafixing needed.
- They’re pretty good on the cost/power ratio while having additional benefits.
- Compared to the beaters MUD plays (f.e. Wurmcoil Engine) they can make use of 2 further „Sol-Lands“ in Eye of Ugin & Eldrazi Temple thus having an overall more stable manabase which is a little bit more difficult to disrupt and just more consistent while lessening the need of other acceleration pieces thus lessening the chance of a hand consisting of all mana and no pressure.

Since the deck is still new there isn’t one list to play, everything apart from a few card choices is still in flux and depends on your general strategy and expected matchups.
You can play a straight colorless version or splash different colors which opens up new maindeck and even more important sideboard choices, though as usual at the cost of a weaker manabase.
In general a „Stompy“ deck trys to play a lock piece, followed by a threat which is now protected/cant be answered and kill the opponent with it.
There are 2 camps of Eldrazi players, one who favor a more aggressive approach, trying to keep the curve as low as possible and attack the opponent before he has any chance to recover from the first dropped lock piece.
The other camp favors a higher end manacurve to play the most powerful Eldrazis, making use of the lock pieces to get in the actual mid/lategame and dominate the board.
Those 2 variants share a lot of cards in common, but there are several cards one list would play while the other does not. In each cards description I’m going to add which variant profits more from the inclusion of each card.


Card choices
24-26 Lands
The correct land count hasn’t been figured out yet and always does depend on the rest of your list and also on the use of other acceleration.

Ancient Tomb
The best land in the deck and the oldest „Solland“, yes sometimes the damage will kill you but those 2 colorless mana enable you to play your (for Legacy) high costed creatures as well as dropping your important lock pieces on turn 1. Play 4.

City of Traitors
The disadvantage of the City is clear but the risk is well worth it to give you a higher chance to drop your lock pieces t1, followed by a huge threat turn 2.
Depending on your actual decklist you might want to play fewer or more of those as it matters a lot whether you want them mostly to drop Chalice/Thorn on turn 1 (which can be helped out in other ways) or need them to cast non-Eldrazi threats.
Most people try a balanced approach and play 3 Cities, depending on your decklist you can argue for 2 or 4.

Eye of Ugin
Its a legendary which sucks. It doesn’t add mana for your non-Eldrazi spells which sucks. The ability needs you to have 7 mana which rarely happens.
But it makes some of your most broken starts possible as it „taps“ for 2 for all your Eldrazi creatures without hurting you.
If you can actually play 2 or more creatures in a turn it effectily makes 4 or 6 mana !
When playing a more aggressive approach of Eldrazi-Stompy you want to max out on those Eyes, as the disadvantage of it being legendary wont come up as often in shorter games. If you’re playing a lot of non-Eldrazi cards you might want to settle on 2.

Eldrazi Temple
Similar to Eye it allows you to drop your Eldrazi threats way faster than usual though is restricted to a maximum of 2 mana per turn unlike Eye. On the other hand it doesn’t suck in multiples and can cast your non Eldrazi cards aswell. The first Eye will be better than the first Temple more often than not but you rather draw more Temples than Eye’s.
Depending on your decklist you probably want to play a mix of 4-8 copies of Temple/Eye. Aggressive versions favoring more copies of both for the maximum chance of broken starts.

Cavern of Souls
As most or all creatures in the deck share the „Eldrazi“ type Cavern of Souls ability to make your threats uncounterable is a great way to get a edge in control-matchups as you reduce their outs to just their removal.
Even when you’re playing non Eldrazi creatures and name them with cavern it wont hinder your manabase as its still produces colorless for your Eldrazis!
But more than that the Caverns allow you to fix your mana in case you’re splashing one or more colors. But be careful when splashing non-Eldrazi creatures as its still gonna be the most common announced creature type.
Note: If you want to make use of the „uncounterable clause“ the mana added can’t be the colorless one you need to spent for casting f.e. Thought-Knot Seer.

Crystal Vein
Some people like it better than City of Traitors as you don’t have to sacrifice it when playing the next land, other hate it as its gonna be even more awkward to play it turn 1 into Chalice/Thorn than City is gonna be.
Most use them when they want more ways of having 2 mana on turn 1 without overloading on City of Traitors (thus reducing the chance of drawing multiples) and without playing other acceleration.

Wasteland
Depending wether you have room for more colorless-only lands or not Wasteland is a great choice. While the deck is mana hungry and you won’t always use it to hinder your opponent it helps a lot against annoying lands of your opponents (Tabernacle, Maze of Ith, Rishadan Port, Thespian Stage).
Aggressive colorless variants could want the full 4 as they have the room for it, other variants most likely still want to play some number of them to battle the mentioned problem-lands. In any case the use of it should be carefully considered, as the deck is very mana hungry and losing a land is a huge cost. Take some seconds to think whether its worth it or not before destroying your opponents land.

Ghostquarter
Poor mans Wasteland but good enough for those who want the extra land destruction. It’s possible you’ll find them in a super-fast list as a 2 of. A decent choice if you expect a lond of land or mirror matchups.
Another point worth mentioning is that it can act as a fetchland if you're killing your own land. This might make a splash a tad more feasable though more important it allows you to run 4 Ghostquarter and 4 Waste and have virtually 8 copies against Bloodmoon. Then again you have to destroy your land preemptive or have Ghostquarter untapped for that to work.

Rishadan Port
Apart from niche situations its going to be worse than Wasteland. Nonetheless its an alternative to Ghost Quarter (I doubt a list can make slots for all 3 of those). I haven’t tasted it personally because I’m doubtful you’ll want to tap 2 lands (3 mana at times!) to stop your opponent from using 1 mana. Does have the advantage of working better against basics compared to Ghost Quarter.

Mishra’s Factory
Most likely played in the more aggressive variant, the deck builder probably has to chose some mix of those and Wasteland depending on the valuation. Definitely do getbetter when you’re playing equipment.
Inkmoth Nexus is an alternative for the ability to fly over with equipment during board stalls, but therefore is weaker on its own.

Corrupted Crossroads
It’s here to fix your mana for Eldrazi-Creatures, between Cavern and it you could be looking at 8 sources of every color for each Eldrazi, its hard to find room for all those good lands but if you’re seriously thinking about playing 3 or even 4 colors of Eldrazi you should try to fit some of those in. If you’re playing the colorless variant or just splash for one color skip on those, there’re better alternatives.

Wastes
Allows you to play through Bloodmoon and From the Ashes. Helps a lot against Back to Basics. Otherwise a useless land. You can’t fetch for those which makes playing only 1 or 2 most likely a waste of effort. Most decks don’t want to afford to waste their land slots on Wastes, but if you expect the above cards you can/should try to make some room for those.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Another legendary land which doesn’t even accelerate you like Eye of Ugin does..doesnt it? It actually can make you 2 mana in combination with said Eye of Ugin (letting you tap the Eye for B), giving you another possibility of having 4 mana on turn 2 (note those 4 mana can’t cast Thought-Knot Seer).
Its also a great way to reduce damage from Ancient Tomb in the lategame when you only need them to tap for 1 mana and it fixes your mana in case you’re running a black splash. If you make use of all those abilities you should consider running 3 or 4 but otherwise don’t overload on it for the chance to make Eye of Ugin tap for mana, its still a good 1-2 of if you have the slot.

Karakas
Yet another legendary land. It helps you in different matchups (Reanimator, SneakShow and Lands most commonly) which without it are some of the more problematic matchups. If you’re splashing white it even fixes your mana and then there’s no reason to not play at least one copy.

Grove of the Burnwillows
If you're playing at least one of those colors this land will fix your colors while still providing colorless mana. The lifegain is not irrelevant but as you won't need much colored mana negligible. Also the obvious combo with Punishing Fire.

Horizon Canopy
Fixes your mana if you're splashing white and green and smooths out your land-heavy draws, an ability this deck otherwise lacks.
But be careful, for one it doesn't produce colorless mana which can be awkward at times and the lifeloss is an actual factor between Ancient Tomb and Dismember.

Painlands
Those are just here to fix your mana in case you splash some color and can’t use better lands for those colors.

Gemstone Cavern
For those of you feeling lucky, on the play it’s a worse Waste, on the draw its pretty much a Chrome Mox which you can pitch any card to. I haven’t any experience with it yet but I’m eager to try it as a 1-of.


Acceleration
Some shy away from acceleration for the card disadvantage they bring with them or for being to slow to actually matter. But if you want to maximize your chance of a turn 1 lock piece without mulligans and/or want to diminish the number of the worse sollands you play you might want to opt for the inclusion of some of those. People who use them found out 3 to be a good number between constistenly getting speed without ruining your deck, although it heavily depends on your goal (for example landing turn 1 a lockpiece or fix your mana) and landbase.

Mox Diamond
On the plus side its free, fixes your mana stays in the game and can give you even 3 mana on the first turn, all while getting rid of those extra copies of lands the lands you rather only draw once (legendary lands, City of Traitors). On the other hand its only better as an additional land while you’re still hitting your land drops, can lead to awkward starting hands and is card disadvantage. If your curve goes rather high or you try to splash multiple colors you should strongly think about adding some of those in your list. Colorless variants are better of with other options.

Simian Spirit Guide / Elvish Spirit Guide
One time acceleration for your turn 1 lock piece for card disadvantage. Mostly used in case you want to stay at 8-9 ways of having 2 mana on turn 1 without playing 4 City of Traitors. If you play Worldbreaker you should chose the Elf as it fixes your mana and can get you out of Bloodmoon. If you don’t chose the Ape as you can still cast it during a Bloodmoon (gets slightly better when playing equipment).

Lotus Petal
This is an alternative to the spirit guides. The advantage of the Lotus Petal is that it can actually fix your mana in any color, not just red or green (in any case, be careful with relying on those 1 time effects for your manafixing !). This can be specially interesting for lists trying to splash 2 or more colors for non-Eldrazi cards.
Therefore it has anti-synergy with your lock pieces though, mostly Thorn of Amethyst and Sphere of Resistance or Trinisphere. Sometimes, but less common, even with Chalice of the Void.
You’ll never be able to cast it as a 2/2 beater to carry equipment.
In theory it can also be a problem that it can get countered, but that’s not something you should actually worry about when building your deck.

Mindstone/Talismans
Both help you ramp, though the focus here is to ramp in your mid/lategame and not for your t1 lock piece. Lists which might be interested in playing those cards are top-heavy lists or lists playing some non-Eldrazi threats while maxing out on Temples. Note that those mana rocks also help you play around Bloodmoon. The Talismans will fix your mana for splashes, the Mindstone can be cashed in for a card if you don’t need the manafixing.


7+ Lock pieces
General conses is that you want to play at least 7 lock pieces to give you a decent chance of having access to at least one without mulliganing to oblivion.
As you want them to be playable on turn 1 many people feel they should cost 2 mana. While 3 mana can be done with Mox’es/Spirit Guide’s those will severely hamper your win % against decks where its boom or bust on turn 1 (f.e. fastcombo). Though feel free to add some of the more expansive ones as piece number 8-10. Despite being very important to the decks core, the more aggressive version doesn’t want to overload on those as drawing just lock pieces without threats is bad and will give opponents the chance to overcome them.

Chalice of the Void
This is your first and from now on your favorite lock piece. The whole decks wraps
around it and just its inclusion determines the rest of the deck enormously. It’s well worth it. A lot of decks simply fold to a turn 1 chalice on 1 and even later Chalices lock out a good portion of most decks. It’s the best thing you can do turn 1 by a whole lot.

Thorns of Amethyst
Most commonly this is the second lock piece as it hits most decks in Legacy.
It does stop some decks completely game 1, makes it very hard for others, is decent against yet another portion of the metagame and unfortunately there are also some matchups its weak against. Most people favor Thorns over the next mentioned Sphere as the latter does hinder you aswell.
If you expect lots of decks like Maverick, Elves, Death and Taxes and other creature centric decks you should skip on those Thorns and play something else.



Sphere of Resistance
Here is your other choice of 2 drop and while it hits pretty much every matchup
(apart from MUD and Affinity) it also severely hampers you, a trade-off most people do not find worth it. It is however a worthy consideration if you expect lots of creature-centric matchups (as a Thorns replacement), if you want even more disruption playable on turn 1 or as a sideboard choice.

Trinisphere
A mighty weapon, able to shut off your opponent completely allowing you to play
solitaire. Its still not a necessary maindeck choice as we can’t (or only rarely) have 3 mana on turn 1 and its dissynergy with Eye of Ugin. In the matchups where Thorn is weak Trinisphere is most likely as weak and thus most people have shied away from it, maybe making room in their sideboards. Some still swear on it though, but the (nearly) inability to pump it out turn 1 makes it much weaker than in a deck like “MUD” or “Dragon “Stompy.

Winterorb
Another 2 drop lock piece but bad enough in enough matchups (Combo decks) while also being annoying for yourself its most likely just a sideboard choice for some matchups. Then again the aggressive approach could combine its synergy with [card]Eye of Ugin to good effect.


Tangle wire
So far no successful deck included it, but some people are trying to combine this
magnificent piece with an aggressive strategy. I’d like to see it work out, if you’re playing it some strategy involving Eldrazi Spawns might work out for you.

Smokestack
While playing similar lock pieces Eldrazi Stompy/Shops is not a “Staxx” deck and you should stay away from including this in your list. Its way to slow for what we’re trying to do and apart from a combination with [card]Crucible of Worlds we can’t abuse it in any way.

Creatures
When lock pieces are your bread of the deck then those creatures are your favorite topping of choice, whether its peanut butter, nutella, cheese, bacon or even marmite. They’re your win conditions and can add another layer of disruption while smothering your opponent.

Thought-Knot-Seer
The card which had most attention before the set was released and for a good
reason. As a 4 mana 4/4 its decent sized and doesn’t die to the common non white
removal. Its colorless and as such compeltly castable of sol-lands. Its an Eldrazi thus giving you a maximum of 16 sol-lands for it and more to boot: It’s an awesome piece of disruption ! Yes they get a card back when this dies and sometimes they won’t have anything thus getting card advantage on a kill. But those occasions are far enough apart and do not undermine this creatures strength ! Play 4 end of discussion.

Reality Smasher
5 mana is a whole lot for nothing but a dump 5/5 beater in Legacy. But when that guy is castable on turn 3, has haste, trample and some sort of protection its well worth it. This guy is going to close out the games you’ve been locking before and he’s going to do that fast. You should have a good reason to not include 4 of those bad boy.

Eldrazi Mimic
Now we have the first creature which hugely determines the rest of your build. If you favor an aggressive strategy play 4 and be happy turning 2 of those sideways on turn 3 after playing a [cards]Reality Smasher[/carsd]. Even most “slower” decks want them as it’s the only Eldrazi 2-drop (apart from Endless one) and is free with an Eye of Ugin in play.
However it’s a weak stand alone card, even a 0 mana Goblin Piker is just that and as such a weak topdeck. At first its seemed to be an auto inclusion but in the past couple of weeks decks experimenting without them have been seen. In the future this card might be a splitting point between the 2 different variants.

Endless One
As a x-mana x/x its always unexciting but it will always fill your curve, can be super fast if you have the according opening hand and makes Eldrazi Mimic that much stronger. Aggressive colorless variants will want/have to play it, those decks splashing a color or two might have other choices.

Matter Reshaper
Don’t let you fool yourself into thinking this is the colorless Baleful Strix. It isn’t. What it does is filling the 3-mana slot which looks rather empty without it. With Eye of Ugin out it’s a Wild Nacatl which cantrips when it dies. That’s something aggressive decks do like, but it matches up poorly against a lot of other creatures (Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Tarmogoyf, Knight of the Reliquary, Eldrazi-Mirror).
Note: The ability to put something with cmc <=3 onto the battlefield is a may, so if you reveal a Chalice of the Void or an Endless One you can simply draw them.

Endbringer
We’re getting to the top of the curve, 6 mana is a lot even when having access to 16 sol-lands so the question is whether what we’re getting is worth it. As a 5/5 this not-so-little guy can bring the end to your opponent by smashing, though that’s what we have the actual Reality Smasher for.
The pinging is helpful for annoying opposing creatures like Dark Confidant or Young Pyromancer, it can put a stop to Thalia-attack-with-first-trike-while-being-equipped-with-Jitte-then-bounced-by-Karakas shenanigans which already is good.
Further this ability gives you an out to a resolved Ensnaring Bridge / Moat game 1.
Its also a good card to put into play against SneakShow as the tap ability can win you the game easily.
But wait! There’s more! He can even let you draw some cards in case non of the
above options is any good, that’s a fair amount of value for one card. Though as 6
mana is a steep step to pay you’ll only see some copies of him in the slower decks.

Oblivion Sower
Another 6 drop but without as much impact as the Endbringer. What it does offer you is a great body, matching up well against opposing Reality Smasher and Tarmogoyf. As processing is not as much of a deal in Legacy the exiling part isn’t interesting. Getting some lands on the other hand is nice as it can accelerate you into Eye of Ugin activations.

Blight Herder
It’s a 5 mana 4/5. Not exiting.
If you warp your deck around processing it would be worth it and I could see some use of him against creature heavy decks while also boarding Rest in Piece, but overall its weaker then other cards you get for 5-6 mana.

Phyrexian Revoker
The first non Eldrazi Creature I’m going to cover and while he’s flexible and can help you out in a lot of matchups, there are several others where he’s just a Goblin Piker.
The more aggressive versions will have enough 2 drops between the lock pieces and Eldrazi Mimic but those decks which opt to not include the mimic and play a more controlling/taxing deck will want a playset of this little phyrexian.

Lodestone Golem
Now we’re getting in Staxx territorial, 4 mana and hinders you nearly as much but its just a beating against most deck. You have to adjust your manabase as Eldrazi Tempel only adds 1 while Eye of Ugin adds 0 for casting this bad guy, but between him, Phyrexian Revoker and Thought Knot Seer you can deliver hard disruption while beating your opponent to death.

Phyrexian Metamorph
The only reason its not super awesome is that it costs 3 and 2 life (life which will be low for all those [card]Ancient Tomb usings) and being useless alone. But being able to copy Thorn of Amethyst, Thougt-Knot-Seer, Reality Smasher, Lodestone Golem and much more it’s just brilliant. As you can’t deny its disadvantages however most lists run 0-2.
Note: It also works with Eldrazi Mimic when copying a colorless creature.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Not really a thing as 10 mana is way to expensive even with all those sol-lands. But for some matchup its good to have as a searchable way of getting rid of annoying permanents. Better in your sideboard then in your maindeck though as most matchups won’t give you enough time to cast him.