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The time of giant monsters is now! Battle for Zendikar spoiler season is in full swing and man do I have a powerful one for you. We knew they were coming and we’ve been anticipating them since the name was spoiled last year.
That’s right, the Eldrazi are back and this time they have an army. The idea of a giant war on a planet seems like such a fun story to experience. It doesn’t get better than traveling with heroes from around the galaxy to a world taken over by corrupt giant beings.
Ulamog is among the leaders of the Eldrazi army and he’s coming for you. Take a look.
Most of us feel the need to immediately compare Ulamog (or any other legend) with their previous version.
Both Ulamog, the Inifinite Gyre and his new self rid the board of problematic permanents. The original exiles one, while the new exiles two. That makes it seem like the new one is clearly better, but when comparing the second abilities, the new one comes up short.
Milling is clearly worse than the annihilator trigger. The Ceaseless Hunger costs a mana less which seems like a small detail, but it is actually quite impactful. Lessening the cost of any huge spell lets you cast it sooner. If we happened to see a mana doubling effect, the drop from eleven to ten would be felt even more. The mana cost may be irrelevant though, because players will be utilizing See the Unwritten as well as reanimator spells to cheat Ulamog the second into play. I’m surprised that the shuffle clause wasn’t attached to the new Eldrazi titan, but it opens more possibilities.
Who knows what other gigantic monstrosities are lurking in the shadows of Zendikar? But if Ulamog was the only one, I know he would be seeing play for one simple reason. Indestructible means more now than the last time around.
When we first met the Eldrazi, one card in particular was around to help us in times of need. That card was Path to Exile. Not only was that the card we needed to remove an indestructible threat, but it is also a constructed staple. For this iteration, we don’t have that caliber of a weapon to fight back with.
Once indestructible Ulamog hits the board, how can he be removed? If this question doesn’t have a good answer, this titans strength goes way up.
No matter what, Ulamog is a vile villain that brings excitement to the plane of Zendikar. I’m looking forward to seeing how this set and its story unfolds.
Stay tuned to Quiet Speculation for more spoiler coverage in the next couple of weeks.
Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com
Abzan Charm is a clear answer to these Indestructible creatures.
Abzan Charm is a great card but what if Abzan isn’t very good in the new format. It still comes down to how our tools match up to the threats.
True, Abzan is extremely popular now and a green-based strategy seems to be the favorite (See the Unwritten, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Anaimist’s Awakening, etc.) moving forward as well though.
Abzan loses mostly nothing from rotation aside from thoughtseize. Even hero’s downfall has a sorcery speed replacement.
Have you been working on a post rotation Abzan list? I’d love to see that!
A 10/10? I’m thinking Crackling Doom is gonna work almost every time haha
Now we’re thinking. Maybe there are more answers than it appears at first glance. I think we’re still going to get wrecked by some giant monsters though.
There’s also Utter End…
Maybe the removal will force us to build our decks around it. There have been formats like that before and this could be one of them too.
Interesting that Abzan Charm, Utter End and Crackling Doom all share the BW part of the colour pie. Abzan Charm and Crackling Doom both cost less but are colour narrow, while Utter End can be used in Esper Dragons as well as BW although BW on its own hasn’t really been a dominant archtype.
We could see some type of mana fixing that makes running all of them a possibility as well. That would be interesting. Examples would be five color control or a green deck that can fix mana really well but something else could be printed that works as well.