Since the release of Modern Horizons 3, the Modern metagame has seen a complete transformation. The top echelon of archetypes are pretty much entirely new decks with a multitude of MH3 cards present. Bant Nadu may draw a lot of attention, but Energy variants, Jeskai Control, Eldrazi ramp, and beyond crowd the top tables at events, too.
Interestingly, it seems one of these strategies may have gotten yet another boost with the introduction of Bloomburrow. Multiple undefeated Eldrazi ramp decklists from Magic Online Leagues splashed blue for Portent of Calamity. Portent of Calamity is an interesting source of card advantage that frankly, the vast majority of decks won’t be able to use effectively. However, the upside of casting something huge for free is very high, and the Eldrazi ramp deck accomplishes this goal well.
Making Portent of Calamity Work
- Mana Value: XU
- Rarity: Rare
- Text: Reveal the top X cards of your library. For each card type, you may exile a card of that type from among them. Put the rest into your graveyard. You may cast a spell from among the exiled cards without paying its mana cost if you exiled four or more cards this way. Then put the rest of the exiled cards into your hand.
Portent of Calamity is a strange card that, at minimum, is going to draw you some cards. The problem is that you only get to select one card of each card type in total. As such, even if you construct your deck in a way where you have a lot of different card types to reveal, the variance associated with this card is quite massive.
For instance, let’s say you cast Portent of Calamity for X=4. Chances are, you won’t reveal four different card types off the top. As such, you won’t get the bonus of being able to cast a spell for free. Paying a bunch of mana for card selection without impacting the board in any way simply won’t cut it in this era of Modern.
In this sense, you really need to be careful with your deck construction. Not only do you need a lot of different card styles to reveal, but you also need to ramp hard to invest mana into Portent of Calamity. The more mana you put in, the farther you’ll dig for different card types and a big haymaker to cast. Fortunately, the Eldrazi Ramp deck meets all of these requirements.
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Card Types, Ramp, and Bombs
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Text: Imprint- When Ugin’s Labyrinth enters the battlefield, you may exile a colorless card with mana value 7 or greater from your hand. Tap: Add colorless. If a card is exiled with Ugin’s Labyrinth, add two colorless instead. Tap: Return the exiled card to its owner’s hand.
In Eldrazi Ramp, there are plenty of lands and creatures to reveal. Portent of Calamity and Malevolent Rumble are sorceries you can show off, while Kozilek’s Command and Ugin’s Binding add to your instant count. Then, The One Ring and Talisman of Curiosity fill out the artifact slot, and Utopia Sprawl adds an Enchantment to the picture.
Of course, many of these cards produce mana in their own right. The presence of Ugin’s Labyrinth really kicks things up a notch. Plus, you can search for the potent land with Sowing Mycospawn at will. It’s not uncommon to use these ramp elements to help make a bunch of Eldrazi Spawn tokens with Kozilek’s Command, then go off with Portent of Calamity. This makes it likely that if you spend a lot of mana on Portent of Calamity, you’ll get your free spell reward.
As you might expect, there are a few different game-changing threats to dig for. Emrakul, the Promised End is an elite bomb that is very realistic to hard cast normally. The fact that Malevolent Rumble and Portent of Calamity put excess cards into your graveyard helps make Emrakul cheaper when you’re casting it from hand. Beyond Emrakul, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and World Breaker are also great cards to cast off Portent of Calamity.
As we’ve seen, this deck does a good job of checking all the boxes needed to make Portent of Calamity worthwhile. You can always cast Portent of Calamity in the early game off of Ugin’s Labyrinth to fuel your hand if applicable, though the real reward comes later. Portent of Calamity isn’t an easy card to use, but perhaps it has found a powerful home.
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