Magic’s newest set is on the way, the hotly anticipated Modern Horizons 3. Printing a bunch of powerful new cards that can’t go in Standard, the previous two iterations both were seismic events in Modern, Legacy, and Commander massively shifting the meta and providing valuable reprints. This time around we’re getting another bumper crop of cards including a bunch of new Eldrazi and a welcome reprint of fetchlands. A new set means new cards, and we’re wrapping up our review with the colorless cards. As usual we won’t be looking at everything, and we’ll be doing this primarily but not exclusively with an eye for Commander play.
Depth Defiler
TheChirurgeon:Wait, we’re counting the Devoid cards as Colorless? You know what?Fine.The last section was too big anyways so we may as well split these into this section. Sure. This guy is whatever. Sick art, though – I think it’s cool to guess whose spawn an Eldrazi is by looking at their design. This little guy is one of Ulamog’s, I’m pretty sure.
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FromTheShire:We’re absolutely counting them as colorless, it says it right there in the reminder text! And was in no way influenced by there otherwise being about a dozen truly colorless cards of interest in the set. Theoretically both of the modes are useful at least and it’s on a very Kindred-relevant body, but it’s likely the growing mass of really powerful Eldrazi means this one isn’t making the cut in your deck.
Marcy:Certainly feels like you are going to just play this for 6, right? Like would you ever play it for 5?
Loxi:The effects aren’t terrible, but it’s definitely not worth 5 mana in constructed play. Card draw and a bounce on a decent body is nice in limited though.
BPhillipYork:This is fine, but probably slotting in at 5 mana is just too much. 6 For a 3/5 that draws you a card and returns a creature to its owners hand. The one exception is possibly with so many Eldrazi with cast triggers now you could use this to get your Ulamog or something else back that you want to recast if you have absurd amounts of mana but somehow no cards.
Emrakul’s Messenger
Marcy:I’m actually curious to see if this has any placement in Faerie or Rogue decks. I know in Commander this is maybe easier to slot into a deck, but in a constructed format, I don’t know if this is that influential tribally, and doesn’t really mesh synergy with either of those types.
Loxi:Being 2 mana means this can come down really early if you need, which makes this quite an effective mana accelerator in Mono-blue decks, even ones without actual synergy with the Eldrazi. I think you have to have enough draw to warrant this seeing play in a typical Eldrazi deck, but if you’re going hard into the blue/control shell it’s a nice way to get to your fatties faster.
FromTheShire:Solid little ramp piece with 3 relevant creature types. Even better once you get out pieces to turn sacrificing the tokens into card draw on your opponents’ turns.
BPhillipYork:This is a neat enabler for Eldrazi spawn decks which have been mostly under supported. You can get a lot of leverage out of it by triggering on your opponents’ turns, and in turn having something to sacrifice for mana each turn makes that much more feasible.
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Hope-Ender Coatl
TheChirurgeon:This is pretty great – stapling a Force Spike onto a Wind Drake is something I can get behind.
Loxi:I think cards like this are pretty slept on in Commander: lots of players will fully tap out in the early-mid game, especially to play expensive ramp spells. It’s a nice way to punish greed.
Marcy:Really solid card. A Flash counter and or blocker, there’s some very fun way to use this, especially during things where your opponent may assume they’re safe to be greedy, such as on a turn-ending before untapping fully, and I agree with Loxi: players like to tap out a lot carelessly.
FromTheShire:As someone who has gotten plenty of people with a surprise Mana Tithe, effects like this are surprisingly useful. In this case you lose the surprise element because you’re in blue, but you gain a relevant body.
BPhillipYork:Creature counterspells are kind of neat, and 3 for a 2/2 flyer that also can counter a spell is pretty cool, but this just doesn’t seem like it will really make the cut.
Kozilek’s Unsealing
TheChirurgeon:I didn’t think much of this card until I realized you could evoke a Nulldrifter to draw five cards. That’s pretty sick.
Marcy:This is a card that rewards you for paying attention to CMC and nothing else about cards. A very, very great reward for Nulldrifter, but I think in general has some good value, especially in Eldrazi decks.
Loxi:Sarkhan’s Unsealing but blue and with a pretty crazy ceiling for the upper end. This could be a generally good staple in Simic Stompy decks, and if you can manage a way to flash it in or cheat it out before you dump all your big spells, it’s got a much higher threshold. It’s cheap enough of a card that it being stone-useless on entry is alright considering how fast it can get out of hand later on.
FromTheShire:This is one of those great cards that doesn’t seem QUITE threatening enough to demand immediate spot removal for a lot of players, but will snowball very quickly if left on the table. Especially in kindred decks you can run into the problem of dumping your entire hand onto the table and them being board wiped, and this not only lets you cast some bigger things before the wrath happens, it also reloads you for afterwards.
BPhillipYork:Well this is gross. Auto-include for big fat Eldrazi decks or else Eldrazi Spawn decks. A super enabler for decks that ramp obscenely then drop huge threats every turn.
Nulldrifter
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TheChirurgeon:This guy got a lot of attention in previews and with good reason – it’s an extremely cool update on Mulldrifter, only bigger and beatier. Mulldrifter already enables a ton of shenanigans, and worst case you can always evoke it for two cards. But that’s the cool part – when you evoke a Nulldrifter, you’re still casting a spell with mana value 7… which will trigger effects like Ugin’s Binding or Kozilek’s Unsealing for much cheaper. This is probably my favorite card in the set, and I love how much nonsense it’s set up to let you pull off.
Marcy:Yeah, I think the attention this card got was valid, and then it’s just gotten better as we’ve seen more and more cards that would interact with it. Very literally “better” Mulldrifter, which is already a great card, and not even “broken”, which I wish more of these cards were a bit more like this.
Loxi:Don’t ever doubt how strong Annihilator is; against the right decks, even a dinky little Annihilator 1 creature can really have it’s chip damage add up.
FromTheShire:Great nod to a Commander staple, and with the acceleration these decks are going to be packing 7 mana isn’t even that much. Slightly dinged by the draw being a thematic but worse cast trigger rather than ETB, but also definitely better once it’s on the board due to the annihilator.
BPhillipYork:A solid big fat Eldrazi deck component, 7 colorless to draw 3, with flying and annihilator 1 is sort of icing on the cake, but there’s not enough Titans to fill a deck. 3 mana to draw 2 and then auto-sacrifice a creature is fine too, there’s uses for that. There’s also alternatives like flinging it with the trigger on the stack, or sacrificing it before its sacrifice trigger goes off for an effect.
Twisted Riddlekeeper
Marcy:This is so expensive and does so little and is just kind of sh*t, really. Like that Emerge “discount” is literally worthless.
Loxi:I don’t particularly like Stun on this scale in Commander, but again this is a really nice limited hitter.
FromTheShire:Seems more like a Limited haymaker than a Commander card, love the art though.
BPhillipYork:This seems over costed for tapping down 2 permanents for 2 turns and a 5/5 flyer for 8. Certainly if you are proliferating or something it’s more useful, but a slot in a deck and that much mana you want more bang for your buck generally.
Ugin’s Binding
TheChirurgeon:It’s a solid effect and being able to get a free second cast of it when you evoke something is pretty solid.
Marcy:This is a really, really strong card. It is very much like Cyclonic; you benefit from using this earlier in the game for a quick soft-removal, and then you can use it later in the game to absolutely destroy the board state. I actually really like this because while it is strong, it is fair and conditional to it.
Loxi:Ironically, I think most people will play this for the Cyclonic Rift part of the second bit and just use this as great mill/discard-fodder. Cyclonic Rift has been a staple of Commander for a while, and regardless of your opinion on that card, it’s undeniably pretty powerful to have a similar effect. Luckily, the use-case for this is more niche and in an archetype that isn’t short of finishers, so I think it avoids the common durdle-stall-the-game issue that Cyc Rift sometimes has.
FromTheShire:Yeah the Rift effect is the star of the show here. Lots of tricksy ways to trigger it and has the potential to be just as game ending as the OG.
BPhillipYork:Wow Cyclonic Rift when you cast a big colorless spell is something else. That’s a really strong card to just pitch to something or discard off rummage. It’s also sort of a looming threat, and kind of dangerous in that sense but even so, super neat card.
Eldrazi Linebreaker
Marcy:Pretty good if you’re going aggro with all of your Eldrazi tokens or a swing-wide deck that this card could slot into.
Loxi:I really like how this provides a nice use for Spawn/Scions outside of burning them for mana or using Overrun-esque effects to make them powerful. It also goes deeper on making your titans even more terrifying, which is really the fun we’re looking for here.
BPhillipYork:Solid haste giver for big fatties that you want to come out and force annihilator triggers on turn 1. Also solid for spawns and scions decks.
TheChirurgeon:I read this as “Eldrazi Linebacker” the first few times and kept trying to figure out what they were going for before realizing my mistake.
FromTheShire:Not a bad comparison because this card can run people right the hell over in 60 card. Come down on turn 3 with a Reaver Drone or an Endless One for 1 and an Eldrazi Mimic or It That Heralds the End out, target itself with the haste and you’re swinging for 10. I’m not sure that the 1 drops available are truly strong enough to make this a deck but I won’t be shocked if someone figures something out, if not immediately down the line. Also great in Commander for giving your Titans haste.
Frogmyr Enforcer
Marcy:The weirdest thing about this card is… the prototype version is pretty useless? Actually, this card is kind of useless, except that you can probably Affinity it out, but… still, weird.
Loxi:I can’t imagine playing this in Commander, but this is a card that Pauper players are wishing for (or dreading the idea of) getting downshifted in the future I’m sure.
FromTheShire:Another classic nod that I think probably gets used for being a 7 mana card you can cast for free if at all.
BPhillipYork:Yeah, great affinity for artifacts is never problematic. For Commander this really is kind of meaningless, and probably as pushed as Modern and other formats have gotten it’s kind of meaningless there too.
Ghostfire Slice
TheChirurgeon:This seems like a sweet way to get 4 damage for R in Commander.
Marcy:So more often than not a 1 mana spell that does 4 damage in Commander? Oof.
FromTheShire:With Domain being a sizeable portion of the current Modern meta in addition to the random inclusions in other decks like Omnath, Locus of Creation I expect this to see some testing in Burn sideboards. It also has the upside of being able to hit protection from red sources. That being said, I think this likely ends up not turning on often enough to be worth it in actual play, or in the case of Domain the extra 1 damage isn’t what you need, it’s to remove the Leyline of the Guildpact.
BPhillipYork:This is pretty solid. Like, one of your opponents is going to have something multicolored in Commander, so this becomes essentially an auto-include for any red deck. Your worst case scenario is 3 for a 4 damage spell, which, you just won’t cast. But Lightning Bolt for 4 is solid.
Herigast, Erupting Nullkite
Marcy:I think this might be one of the better Emerge cards, especially since it gives everything else Emerge too.
Loxi:Emerge can be really good, but it is a bit restricted in that you only can sacrifice one creature and not just a bunch of them. It’s something you have to build around a little bit, but if you do, you have some really powerful recursion and a really straightforward engine to start getting pretty crazy value from sacrificing off your bigger creatures.
FromTheShire:This is stupid good even if simply played fairly, but there are multiple ways you can do things like cast this on turn 4 with enough mana floating to immediately sacrifice it to emerge one of the Ulamogs.
BPhillipYork:I like the idea of Ulamog emerging out of Emrakul emerging out of Kozilek, all in the same turn. With the insane draw from casting big Eldrazi some kind of bonkers cycle is certainly possible, and really a hilarious win condition would be just cycling your Titans endlessly to deck people via exiling their deck.
Skittering Precursor
Marcy:Good sacrifice engine. Comically tiny power and toughness for how large this thing is implied to be though.
Loxi:Speaking of sacrifice synergy, this is a nice way to use some of those triggers you’ll get from Emerges. It’s nothing crazy, but extra bodies will add up quick.
BPhillipYork:Potentially pretty bonkers, really solid for any kind of on death and sacrifice trigger deck to just generate even more triggers.
Spawn-Gang Commander
Marcy:Yeah, feels like this probably doesn’t do much better than the original, and maybe doesn’t do anything at all.
Loxi:Similar to the traditional Goblin counterpart. The sacrifice effect is sub-par but there if you need it. The real payoff is getting a whole bunch of extra tokens. 4 bodies for the price of 1 is even nicer when you can sacrifice the tokens to get some of the mana back.
BPhillipYork:Neat, and gives you a way to sacrifice your big Titans in response to being exiled so they go back into your deck. For 5 mana probably not worth playing unless you are focused on spawns and scions. It’s a little too obvious though I feel, like this card just feels very predictable to me, when I saw it I was immediately a bit disappointed, because of course.
FromTheShire:When I said I wanted more new Goblins in MH3 this is not what I had in mind Wizards.
Path of Annihilation
Marcy:Fairly interesting little ramp card, if a little slow in doing so, but it does sort of give you Eldrazi Convoke?
Loxi:Getting to use your Spawns/Scions as real mana dorks is pretty potent, and while not the primary reason you’ll take this, the lifegain is a nice touch. It’s pretty great in my books.
BPhillipYork:Well if lifegain wasn’t meaningless this would be something, making your Eldrazi tap for mana is pretty funny, and could be really hilarious given how many ways there are to generate spawns and scions. Also can then use them to generate a huge amount of mana in one turn, first tapping then sacrificing for mana.
TheChirurgeon:It’s neat that this gives us a view of what Emrakul’s Wastes might have looked like. We only saw two in Oath of the Gatewatch – the ashen bone wastes left by Ulamog’s brood and the Bismuth-like crystals from Kozilek. We never got to see Emrakul’s as she had been called to Innistrad. Apparently her wastes are just writhing masses of tentacles.
Propagator Drone
Marcy:I think you’ll see this pop up in token decks for sure, but maybe not in an Eldrazi deck, oddly enough?
Loxi:This is pretty silly in most token decks right? Like, Eldrazi aside this is absolutely nuts assuming you have enough of a power curve/make small enough tokens to trigger evolve on them often.
BPhillipYork:This is pretty nifty, your spawns and scions can get big fast with this, and it’s also a mana dump if you really need it. You could turn this into a Rube Goldberg type thing and generate infinite tokens by reducing its cost, giving them haste, and playing Path of Annihilation, but that’s a lot of steps for an unending horde of Eldrazi scions.
Sowing Mycospawn
Marcy:Probably one of the cards in this set with a kicker that I like the most, what a hateful little shroom.
Loxi:It’s not bad for hybrid ramp and land destruction, but it’s a bit expensive in my books. Exiling lands is always handy, there are worse ways to splash your land hate.
BPhillipYork:Non-conditional land tutors are rare enough this is kind of nice to have if you want to run Eldrazi – Tron in Commander. Stacking land destruction (exiling even) on top of that is fairly nasty, though that’s 6 mana, which is a lot.
FromTheShire:4 mana to tutor any land out of my deck directly to the battlefield is absolutely something I will pay without hesitation in a lot of decks. Plus bonus body I guess.
Territory Culler
Marcy:I find the Landfall ability fascinating; what a great card for self-mill/graveyard decks.
Loxi:A 7/5 with Reach is honestly a really nice body to be tied to a filtering/draw effect. Even if you aren’t running a ton of landfall synergies, it’s an archetype that wants a lot of ramp anyway, so you’ll likely get some good value from this one.
BPhillipYork:Weird sort of card since generally you want to mill creatures, but there are scenarios like where you have a way to play lands from your graveyard where this would help you choose what goes into your hand and then just play the lands from your yard. Too expensive to really just generically slot in to use its ability for card selection.
Thief of Existence
Marcy:Really kind of bizarre spot removal for… smaller creatures?
Loxi:Weird mana cost, not particularly a great Commander creature in my opinion.
BPhillipYork:Exile removal for enchantments and artifacts is okay (or battles lol), and you’re always going to get something with this, but they’ll just have an incentive to blow up your Thief to get their card draw, so that’s probably a net loss for you.
FromTheShire:I think the utility of exiling a true problem is often worth them drawing a card.
Wumpus Aberration
Marcy:This card is so stupid, I love it.
Loxi:Can’t crumpus the wumpus.
This card is hilarious but more of a limited beater than anything.
BPhillipYork:I do kind of like how WotC will invent some creature type, like wumpus, and keep revisiting it every few years. It’s a nice callback, and maybe a beater, but not for commander.
Titans’ Vanguard
Marcy:I don’t know if this is great or just okay. Does what it says it does, unlikely to be game changing, but certainly something you need to deal with.
Loxi:A pretty easy to include force multiplier if you’re going wide. Nothing fancy, but absolutely scary.
BPhillipYork:Pumping up your spawns and scions with this is solid if that is what you want to do with Eldazi, it’s a go wide horde that slowly gets tall.
Abstruse Appropriation
TheChirurgeon:This feels like it should be a blue card, but I think I’m OK with branching some steal effects into black/white? I like how this still keys off colorless mana, even if that is a drawback.
Marcy:This really does kind of feel like a Blue card, or at least Blue and White? Black feels odd here.
Loxi:Utter End absolutely in shambles.
BPhillipYork:Neat. Nice to see Orzhov get stronger instant speed removal that’s basically unconditional in this vein. Also potentially strange upside, but great for like stealing your opponent’s Rhystic Study and becoming twice as annoying.
Wastescape Battlemage
Marcy:Uh, sure, why not. Kind of expensive, situational, unlikely you’ll play this for both kickers and probably just choose the one you need the most, so he’s either 3 or 4 mana; 5 feels too expensive really for what it does?
Loxi:It ends up being a bit expensive for what you get if you ball out on the kicker costs together, but it has some decent flexibility for a nice on-theme creature to run. I wouldn’t really run it outside of Eldrazi, but I wouldn’t fault someone for running it there. I wish it had Flash or something though.
BPhillipYork:Fairly flexible utility card, and okay costed if you’re worried about bouncing creatures or blowing up artifacts and enchantments. Since it’s not instant speed it’s not reliable enough removal to use when you need it.
Breaker of Creation
Marcy:The Hexproof certainly makes up for the low toughness, but honestly if this were also an 8/8 this thing would be kind of insane, and it’s already very good, although it is important to note it is not ETB, but Cast.
Loxi:This is a certified Big Boi, and Annihilator and protections make this a pretty solid piece to drop in the midgame and just start smashing sh*t up.
BPhillipYork:Well, that’s a big fattie with annihilator, awesome.
Devourer of Destiny
TheChirurgeon:That opening hand rider is pretty neat – like a super mulligan or a free Impulse before the game starts.
Marcy:A really interesting mulligan-ish effect for the fact that you have a card that is effectively very bad to have in your hand early on. Kind of sucks if you hit 4 cards you really want and have to toss three of them, though.
BPhillipYork:7 mana for an exile and a 6/6 and this card selection thing. This seems like a neat effect. I doubt it’s really moving the dial enough, but it certainly could be in 4 of decks. I don’t think I’d run this in Commander as it’s too unlikely to be what I need when I need it, and too many important permanents are multicolor.
FromTheShire:Oh so you’re saying we now have basically a slightly tuned down Once Upon a Time? Banned in Modern Once Upon a time? I don’t see any way this could become a problem then.
Disruptor Flute
Marcy:You and I both know someone is going to play this IN RESPONSE to a card already being cast, which is going to be very funny to explain why that doesn’t work.
Loxi:Pithing Needle, but music themed so now you can sing to the tune of “Borborygmos.”
BPhillipYork:It is weird to see a stax piece like this with flash. To me it’s a great way to basically lock out a Commander, though that’s kind of a dick move.
Echoes of Eternity
TheChirurgeon:This card is insane.
Marcy:I’m shocked they didn’t add something like, “only once per turn,” but this is for Modern, not Standard, so there you go. This card is bonkers dangerous and broken.
Loxi:I hate to be a broken record, but this card quite literally does both of the things I crack jokes about WoTC using to push cards into Commander – “triggers an additional time” and making copies of things. It’s so comical that they made this card that I don’t even have anything to say about it besides that you’ll be seeing it at your tables.
BPhillipYork:Yeah this is a dumb card and creates dumb trigger combos and copy permanents that do crazy things, and this is like a double doubler. Yeah, it costs a lot but it’s all colorless, and artifact ramp and Tron are things, so this seems just dumb. But I’ll definitely play it. Here’s my token Kozilek, the real one gets put into my yard and reshuffled into my deck to be cast again and draw even more cards. Yay.
Eldrazi Ravager
Marcy:Oh, this is so nasty. Cycle it early, bring it back, or just keep doing that with your little 0/1 tokens. Could even be a fair shake for finding its way into mill decks.
Loxi:Cycling and recursion makes this flexible enough that I can see the value of running it as a midgame beatstick just because it’s pretty much always a decent card, barring it being a bit mediocre if you’re digging for a finisher.
BPhillipYork:Neat. A medium size annihilator with a built in recursion. Solid for battlecruiser decks.
Emrakul, the World Anew
TheChirurgeon:Madness Emrakul is the card they were too cowardly to print in Eldritch Moon but I’m here for it. Another sick way to trigger those 7+ cast effects.
Marcy:I don’t like this as much as the other Emrakul’s, but this is still pretty good. She’s still a huge bomb and a giant threat, but unlike the other two, this one has a LOT of ways to just whiff.
Loxi:Honestly, as downright brutal as this card is, it’s probably the least un-fun Emmy to see at a table. From a power standpoint, it’s a really effective way to swing a table, and if you’re ahead too it can backfire if you just decide to slam it willy-nilly. I dig it, it’s a fun design and doesn’t feel particularly oppressive. In 1v1 this will just probably win the game, but at 12 mana or requiring Madness shenanigans, it should.
BPhillipYork:Neat. Mass control, weird protections, highest madness cost ever (though not by a huge amount.) Neat to have a way to cast Eldrazi via madness. If they’d gone deeper on the Cthulu theme they could’ve given Eldrazi a trait like they cost 1 less for each card you’ve discarded this turn. Oh well.
Glaring Fleshraker
Marcy:This really just feels like a game ender, especially if you pair it with something like Kozilek’s Command down there, or other ways to easily pop out tokens.
Loxi:You should probably play this in basically every Eldrazi deck, it’s really good. That’s it, this does pretty much everything you want with a very low opportunity cost.
BPhillipYork:A spawn doubler, for go-wide Eldrazi spawn/scion decks an important piece, but also just generally useful for generating mana to cast even more big fatties.
Idol of the False Gods
Marcy:I wasn’t really sure about this till I kept reading. It is a very odd mana rock, because you are spending mana to get 1 less than you spent, but I think the threat here is that it then also becomes an 8/8 that makes opponents start sacrificing permanents, which seems pretty strong, especially since it is safe from creature-based removal until you turn it on.
Loxi:This one’s got a pretty unique design. It’s pretty easy to crack a Spawn early and just beat the hell out of people with Annihilator early if you want to play more aggressively rather than focus on hard ramping.
BPhillipYork:Interesting, a generator that just turns into an 8/8 eventually with annihilator 2. Pretty solid for what it is and a mana dump and just a looming threat you can drop on turn one. Also can help you get over a hump by “saving up” mana, even it’s at 2 for 1.
It That Heralds the End
TheChirurgeon:I love this little guy, and I’m very much here for Eldrazi finally having a solid Herald creature.
Marcy:Nice banner effect, good ramp for your expensive Eldrazi (or other colorless) bombs. Just a good, solid card.
Loxi:Another card that you probably should run in your big E decks, but I think it’s super helpful towards the archetypes they’re pushing besides “ramp and play your gigantic dude,” so I’m all for it.
BPhillipYork:Yeah, awesome, another enabler for big fat Eldrazi.
Kozilek’s Command
TheChirurgeon:This is a set of four really solid effects and I like the way they largely define “things colorless can do” identity-wise.
Marcy:This feels very, very strong and has really no “bad” options.
Loxi:This is a great example of a charm – flexible, but always useful enough that it won’t ever feel like it’s completely dead, and has even more flexibility due to it’s X cost.
BPhillipYork:All of these modes are pretty useful, which is really weird on a modal instant like this. It’s a bit pricy, but it can do multiple useful things, always. Neat card.
Kozilek, the Broken Reality
Marcy:This feels like an oddly fair version of Kozilek, let alone a big Eldrazi. He has almost no real big down-sides for opponents except the Manifest trigger might mess with their hands? But this doesn’t feel as game ending as older versions.
Loxi:I really think this shines as a way of building up your Spawn/Scions to be in “actually scary creature” territory. The manifesting is a neat political tool on top of just being a good way to pick up some more cards when you cast this. I don’t really see this one being a great commander compared to the plethora of other options we have now, but it’s not a bad support tool. Lacking protection or combat keywords is a bit tough.
BPhillipYork:Interesting to give your opponents manifestations, and also things to sacrifice to your annihilator triggers, but also just lots more card draw. Honestly I like this card for more “fun” games because it gives you opponents something to feed to those annihilator triggers early, so they aren’t forced to sit in the game with no permanents and suffer.
Null Elemental Blast
TheChirurgeon:This is a really sweet little one-mana answer. I suspect it’ll be frustrating more than I’d like even in Commander, but it’ll almost certainly have play there.
Marcy:Yeah this feels like an auto-include card in Commander no problem, but there are probably other formats that will like this too.
Loxi:Go sit down at your average table and see how many multicolored commanders, let alone spells, get cast. It’s restricted, but you’re usually hard pressed to find games where it’s entirely dead unless you sit down at a table with all mono-color decks or other colorless enjoyers.
BPhillipYork:Neat. Solid, really solid for Commander IMO. Probably going to become a staple.
Solar Transformer
Marcy:Kind of wondering if cards like this are going to lead us to seeing things likeAetherworks Marvel decks again.
Loxi:2-mana rocks are great, ones that give you other resources are even better. It’s only really useful in energy decks in my opinion, but I’d definitely push this one there.
BPhillipYork:Well it’s a 2 cost mana rock, and that alone is something. It makes you some energy and can be used for limited mana fixing. So all in all a really utilitarian new staple card for decks, and also quite useful for energy decks.
Ulamog, the Defiler
Marcy:I love how just bonkers powerful this card really is, like your opponent is likely to just scoop to losing half of their library, but then they also have to deal with something that will otherwise very likely wipe out every permanent they control when it swings, and also one shot them? Gross.
Loxi:Sweet lord, this card is dirty. Powerful cast trigger, check. Protection, check. Finishing power on board, check. It’s all you want from a big, splashy creature, and has a whole bunch of easy ways to juice up its Annihilator trigger to be big enough to just knock a player out in one swing. If you have any ways to Spark Double and/or give this Haste, it should close out a game pronto.
BPhillipYork:So, uh, Ulamog gonna be pretty big, and annihilator X equal to those counters is going to be really unpleasant. This is a really nasty threatening big creature that is going to munch up entire board states.
Vexing Bauble
Marcy:We joked about this when it was revealed in the group chats, and this has got to be the most spiteful little card I’ve seen in a while. I love it.
Loxi:It’s a flexible hate card. Totally depends on the speed/nature of your meta, but it’s good niche hate.
BPhillipYork:This is an instant cEDH card that is going to be used to stax out certain kinds of decks and things, and also can be used to create lockouts of certain deck archetypes or full on lock situations. Really nice that you can always sac to get rid of it when you want to.
FromTheShire:Instant sideboard staple in multiple formats. Hell, it might even be main deck-able in some metas.
Winter Moon
Marcy:Just absolutely punishing for Commander and Tron decks.
Loxi:Basic land enjoyers rejoice, this is the answer to all your buddies and their greedy manabases. Jam this in a mono color deck and watch the sparks fly.
BPhillipYork:Well, people hate cards like this, and there it is. More non-basic land hate. Red/Blue can now run an extremely solid non-basic hate package.
FromTheShire:I’m in love.
Monumental Henge
Marcy:The fact that this is not only sorcery speed makes this really valuable, I think. Filter your deck before your turn, or find that thing you need at the right time? Very good; not quite as insane as the green land, but probably second best?
Loxi:It’s a pretty alright utility land in decks that have enough hits that you’ll consistently hit that Historic card. Drawing cards on a land is nice, even if it’s basically an emergency-only use case.
BPhillipYork:This is fine. Really too expensive to be very impactful, but a decent enough non-basic plains type utility card.
Archway of Innovation
Marcy:This card is very likely going right into Emry, Lurker of the Loch and similar decks, huh.
Loxi:Well this one’s pretty dumb. It’s not hard to have more artifacts you’re willing to tap to outweigh the one mana to tap it (see: Treasures). I think most blue artifact decks can find some space for this one.
BPhillipYork:Why. For real why, that’s a way to make Treasures and Clues and Food and Blood and Gold and Powerstones and Junk. So many sources of cheap artifacts that you can then use with this to cast huge spells.
Spymaster’s Vault
Marcy:This is pretty worthless I think? I could be wrong but it feels weak compared to the others.
Loxi:You probably only want this in decks that have a bit of control over the X cost here, but it’s a nice way to filter your hand and grow your board. It’s a pretty low opportunity cost for it, especially in Black, which can just make this a Swamp again with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
BPhillipYork:Interesting. Lets you make something big in response to deaths, or mill away if that’s what you really want. Could be useful for empowering something you really need to get to some threshhold.
Arena of Glory
Marcy:The only way this could be more red is if it hurt you and your opponent somehow.
Loxi:This might be the most Red land to ever Red. It’s alright, when you really need the haste it might come in clutch, so as long as you don’t rely on having real mountains too often it’s not too shabby.
BPhillipYork:Well exerting a land is new thing, interesting idea. As a source of haste really useful, and will show up in plenty of decks just for this, slam it into Godo decks right away. Any deck where you need to get out a commander and attack immediately that has red color identity will run this.
Shifting Woodland
Marcy:Whoa, this is an insane card, really. I mean, perfect in mill colors and an amazing ability to take advantage of what you’ve tossed in there that is uncounterable except with a Stifle? Nuts.
Loxi:This has the highest potential for stupidity of all the cards in this cycle, since most dedicated mill decks will laugh at the requirement and laugh even harder at the ceiling of this for a mere 4 mana.
BPhillipYork:Mmmmm fun for mill, but pretty slow. You need 4 mana and to have milled away something you want to copy. Potentially really dangerous if built to do just this. So many big permanents now are about ETBs and things though that dumping mana into this unless it’s just to turn it into a huge beater kind of loses something. Which, granted, is definitely something you could do.
FromTheShire:This card is absolutely bonkers. Have you easily turned on delirium like you can in Modern? Did you do it with self mill? Was one of those milled cards Omniscience? Congrats, you win the game. Yes this is a real thing people are already brewing around.
Snow-Covered Wastes
Marcy:Sure, why not.
Loxi:Ok.
BPhillipYork:Cool.
FromTheShire:Bunch of haters. Seeing a new snow land IS cool, plus this opens up avenues for decks that care about both snow permanents and colorless mana. Bonus if your Commander pod has gotten Eldrazi heavy, you can do the classic tech of running all snow basics so your Extraplanar Lens only doubles your mana and not theirs.
Ugin’s Labyrinth
TheChirurgeon:I really like this as colorless ramp where you can get the card back later on when you need it. That’s nice.
Marcy:Another really solid land. Love that it refunds you and protects something; hard to get something that’s stuck to a land without land destruction, and if left untapped, you can always just get the card back, potentially baiting it out.
Loxi:I mention opportunity costs a lot, and utility lands in colorless decks tend to have the lowest of those since they don’t really have other lands to lean back on besides Wastes. Due to this, I think this card is exceptionally good, since there isn’t really much it’s competing for a slot with. If you’re in a Devoid colored deck, it’s still super useful since you’ll still heavily be invested in cards that need colorless sources.
BPhillipYork:Yes, more “Ugin” cards that get slammed into Eldrazi decks. I guess there’s no real way to stop that but it’s so anti-lore to me.
Urza’s Cave
TheChirurgeon:Good lord.
Marcy:As a Tron player, I approve of this land.
Loxi:Urza really just was like the Dora the Explorer of Magic, huh. This dude just went everywhere and somehow always had a house.
Clearly he just regretted his financial choice of building a tower and then tunneling into a cave.
BPhillipYork:Okay sure a new Urza card why not. Also one that lets you fetch any land. So great, yeah.
FromTheShire:Ridiculously good.
That wraps up our look at the set’s colorless cards. Join us next time as we look at the Commander precons released alongside the set! In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
