One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Commander is building around Magic’s sheer multitude of legends. The sheer volume of Commanders players can choose from is massive, and each option brings its own unique charm. Unfortunately, though, the bar Commanders need to meet to make a splash in a competitive environment is extremely high, so it’s rare to see an unexpected Commander break out in cEDH.
This makes it all the more impressive that an Ulalek, Fused Atrocity shell won at a big cEDH event out of nowhere. This underrated Eldrazi has a unique, abusable triggered ability that opens the door to a multitude of cool combo kills.
Combo After Combo
At first glance, Ulalek may seem a bit too niche to see cEDH play. After all, a common way to build around this Commander is to incorporate beefy Eldrazi with brutal cast triggers to copy. While this is a powerful strategy for casual play, it’s too slow to do any lasting damage in cEDH. This decklist, however, completely breaks from these norms.
Instead, the goal with Ulalek in cEDH is to assemble game-breaking combos with cheap, instant-speed Eldrazi spells and cards that copy triggered abilities. So long as Ulalek has two triggers on the stack at the same time, you can use one to copy the other, creating infinite everything. Of course, you’ll need to pay the two generic mana each time, which Candelabra of Tawnos or Magus of the Candelabra can do easily.
To get things started, cast any Eldrazi spell, like Glaring Fleshraker. Then, with Ulalek’s trigger on the stack, activate Candelabra to untap a bunch of your lands. Still holding priority, you can cast Eldritch Immunity, or any other instant speed Eldrazi spell, to trigger Ulalek once more.
By resolving the new Ulalek trigger, you’re able to copy all spells and abilities still on the stack, including Ulalek’s original trigger and Candelabra’s activation. Once you’ve untapped and floated enough mana with Candelabra, you can use some of that mana to pay for Ulalek’s copied trigger, resetting the loop. Winning the game from here is trivial, with Dimensional Infiltrator just one of many ways to do so.
While this combo line may seem a bit convoluted, it’s actually pretty easy to pull off, thanks to a surprising amount of redundancy. Kirol, Attentive First Year, Delney, Streetwise Lookout, and Strionic Resonator, for example, can copy Ulalek’s trigger without casting a second Eldrazi spell. Similarly, Nameless Inversion and Shields of Vlis Vel can replace Eldritch Immunity with ease.
If that combo was already a lot to keep up with, we have some troubling news. This Ulalek monstrosity has all kinds of infinite combos to assemble, from simple cEDH homestays like Basalt Monolith and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, to an infinite damage combo utilizing Spawn-Gang Commander. This makes both playing and playing against Ulalek a challenge, but thanks to this Commander’s breakout performance, it may be one that cEDH players need to master soon.
Strengths and Weaknesses
As a whole, while Ulalek’s sudden tournament-crushing effort is surprising, the deck has a lot going in its favor. Thanks to the multitude of different combos it can assemble, winning with Ulalek, Fused Monstrosity is both fast and consistent. A lot of the threats in this deck are creatures, as well, which dodges a lot of traditional instant speed cEDH interaction. Because Ulalek is the new kid on the block, common hate pieces like Cursed Totem and Null Rod don’t really stop the Commander, either.
Nonetheless, as powerful and cool as this deck is, it does still have its fair share of weaknesses. Given this strategy’s reliance on Ulalek, for example, it can be vulnerable to Drannith Magistrate and Counterspells. Add on Ulalek’s smaller disruption package, and this Commander can have trouble stopping opposing combos or protecting itself when necessary.
Despite these downsides, Ulalek, Fused Atrocity does have some serious potential. It’s unlikely to become a top-tier Commander overnight, but winning a 92-player tournament is impressive.
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