This past weekend, two major Regional Championships took place. Qualified players from The United States and Australia battled it out for their shot at an invite to the Pro Tour.
As you might expect for two highly competitive Modern events, Grinding Breach was everywhere. If you wanted to succeed with an archetype other than Breach, you needed to have a really good gameplan for the matchup.
Well, the Regional Championship in Australia has concluded, and Breach did not emerge victorious. Neither did Orzhov blink or Boros Energy. Instead, a unique colorless Eldrazi build managed to win the event with only one loss during the Swiss rounds! Boasting an undefeated record versus Breach, this innovative take on a popular ramp strategy may be poised for long-term success.
Eldrazi Package
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Type: Land
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons 3
- Card 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 woth Ugin’s Labyrinth, add two colorless instead. Tap: Return the exiled card to its owner’s hand.
Like most Eldrazi ramp decks in Modern, colorless Eldrazi relies on two key lands to help you keep pace in such a fast format. The first is Eldrazi Temple. Eldrazi Temple is a simple card but is extremely powerful with enough Eldrazi spells in the mix.
The second land is Ugin’s Labyrinth. Ugin’s Labyrinth is the closest thing we have to Ancient Tomb in the Modern format. It even casts your non-Eldrazi spells ahead of schedule. That is, of course, assuming you have huge bombs to imprint.
Fortunately, this deck has no shortage of cards with mana value seven or greater. Devourer of Destiny is the best of the bunch. This is because Devourer sets up your future draws nicely when it’s in your opening hand. Once you have enough mana to work with, returning your imprinted Devourer to your hand and casting it to exile an opposing threat is a great option to have.
Nulldrifter and Emrakul, the Promised End serve as the other huge haymakers to exile to Ugin’s Labyrinth. Obviously, these cards cost a lot of mana, so in the interim, you need cards to play. This is what makes Kozilek’s Command so strong.
Kozilek’s Command is a versatile spell that your “Sol” lands both synergize with. Being able to make a handful of Eldrazi Spawn to set up a big follow-up while simultaneously exiling a small creature like Ocelot Pride can easily put you in the driver’s seat.
Artifact Package
- Mana Value: 0
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Type: Legendary Artifact
- MTG Sets: Scars of Mirrodin, Modern Masters 2015, Kaladesh Inventions, Double Masters
- Card Text: Metalcraft– Tap: Add one mana of any color. Activate this ability only if you control three or more artifacts.
Where this colorless Eldrazi deck starts to differentiate itself from typical Gruul Eldrazi decklists is with its slew of artifacts. You won’t find any copies of Sowing Mycospawn or Malevolent Rumble here. What you will see is a collection of cheap colorless artifacts to maximize Glaring Fleshraker.
Glaring Fleshraker is an elite win condition that has made a name for itself in Vintage. You may not have the original Moxen to fuel it, but the recently unbanned Mox Opal does a great job filling the void. Other zero-mana artifacts like Mishra’s Bauble work to turn on metalcraft, and trigger Glaring Fleshraker all the same. Add in Darksteel Citadel, and Mox Opal is as reliable a Mox as they come.
The presence of both Mox Opal and Ugin’s Labyrinth ensures that one of your strongest hate pieces in the form of Chalice of the Void can come down early and disrupt your opponent. Versus Boros energy, casting Chalice for X=1 on turn one on the play and locking out Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls is a devastating play. At the same time, against Breach, playing Chalice for X=0 after jamming your own zero-drops may let you steal games you otherwise wouldn’t win.
Speaking of plans that can mess with Breach combo, using Ugin’s Labyrinth and Mox Opal to accelerate out Karn, the Great Creator is one of your best paths to victory. First of all, Karn’s static ability shuts off opposing copies of Mox Opal, Mox Amber, Mishra’s Bauble, and Grinding Station. Karn can then tutor up a bunch of different hate pieces or bombs like Cityscape Leveler, depending on the situation.
On top of abusing Mox Opal and Glaring Fleshraker, filling your deck with efficient artifacts also makes Urza’s Saga a great tool. Your Constructs are bound to be huge.
Beating up the Top Decks
- Mana Value: 2
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Artifact
- MTG Sets: Fifth Dawn, Mystery Booster 2
- Card Text: Tap, Sacrifice an artifact: Target player mills three cards. Whenever an artifact enters the battlefield, you may untap Grinding Station.
At the end of the day, it has proved rather difficult to hate out Grinding Breach in an effective manner. The deck is fast and extremely resilient. Yet, that didn’t stop colorless Eldrazi pilot Thomas Bot from coming prepared to beat up on the best decks in the format.
This deck has a solid combination of pressure, hate pieces, and top-end plays that make its Breach matchup better than you might expect. Chalice and Karn go a long way. The acceleration Mox Opal gives you makes it a bit easier to stave off early pressure from Boros Energy. Karn tutoring up Ensnaring Bridge can be a bit tough for Boros to beat without a fast Goblin Bombardment, too.
From there, Kozilek’s Command and Devourer of Destiny conveniently exile Ketramose, the New Dawn or Psychic Frog out of Orzhov blink or Dimir tempo.
Unlike more traditional Eldrazi ramp decks, this archetype is less vulnerable to land destruction. Glaring Fleshraker can singlehandedly generate a ton of mana and pressure the opponent at once. While you do open yourself up to artifact hate, such as Stony Silence, these styles of cards do very little when it comes to stopping you from casting your Eldrazi payoffs.
Throughout the tournament, Thomas Bot played against almost exclusively top tier decks in Breach, Boros Energy, Orzhov blink, Dimir Frog, and Eldrazi ramp. The only match Thomas lost was versus Eldrazi ramp. Modern may be a hostile environment, but this amazing performance really goes to show that with a solid gameplan, anything is possible.