As the end of the MTG’s Metronome storyline, Reality Fracture was bound to deliver some truly revolutionary moments. While experiencing Jace as a villain, and the Echoverse’s opportunity for ‘what if’ reimaginings was already a treat, a far bigger bomb was just dropped in the MTG story, and there’s even a card connected.
That said, this character reveal in and of itself is a big spoiler for the Reality Fracture story. For that reason, if you want to read the story for yourself, consider this your spoiler warning. With that out of the way, here’s yet another massive MTG villain making its lore return after a decade-long hiatus.
MTG Emrakul, the Exigent Doom
While Emrakul has appeared in card form semi-recently in Modern Horizons 3, the last time we saw this Eldrazi Titan in the lore was back in Eldritch Moon in 2016. There, she took over Tamiyo’s mind to seal herself into the moon, and has not appeared since. While the Reality Fracture story doesn’t seem to be quite finished yet, Emrakul does appear there, talking to Tam, yet another potential blunder that Jace caused.
While Emrakul’s return in the lore hasn’t been totally fleshed out yet, her card looks like the real deal. Doubling as both a massive threat and a way to ramp your mana, Emrakul could be exactly what Standard needs to support a new ramping strategy. Thanks to its Ward effect, Emrakul will be surprisingly difficult to deal with on its own, but untapping all your lands means that Emrakul will rarely enter play alone.
Past Standard, Emrakul, the Exigent Doom will certainly see Modern experimentation alongside the multiple Eldrazi decks that already exist. The card can both help ramp out other threats like
Devourer of Destiny
Devourer of Destiny
You may reveal this card from your opening hand. If you do, at the beginning of your first upkeep, look at the top four cards of your library. You may put one of those cards back on top of your library. Exile the rest.
When you cast this spell, exile target permanent that's one or more colors.
, and the extra mana she makes when cast pairs quite nicely with
Kozilek’s Command
Kozilek’s Command
Choose two —
• Target player creates X 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature tokens with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}."
• Target player scries X, then draws a card.
• Exile target creature with mana value X or less.
• Exile up to X target cards from graveyards.
. That said, Emrakul seems a bit slow compared to the options already available in Modern, so she may not make the cut.
Modern aside, Emrakul seems fantastic in Commander, where her ability to double as a ramp piece could easily allow her to see play in any deck playing bigger bombs. From colorless decks like
Zhulodok, Void Gorger
Zhulodok, Void Gorger
Colorless spells you cast from your hand with mana value 7 or greater have "Cascade, cascade." (When you cast one, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order. Then do it again.)
to ramp decks like
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 1 life and draw a card.
, Emrakul could become an extremely common sight at EDH tables.
This alone, plus the massive existing Eldrazi appeal, should make Emrakul, the Exigent Doom an extremely popular card to pick up. It will be interesting to see what role Emrakul plays at the end of the Reality Fracture storyline.
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