Mechanics of Magic Overview: Emerge

Posted on September 9, 2024

Gonna be honest here: I have a very soft spot for the Eldrazi and their mechanics, and just like annihilator, emerge is definitely an Eldrazi mechanic.

Emerge is an ability that debuted in Eldritch Moon back in 2016. It was meant to portray the return of the Eldrazi as they "emerged" from other creatures after having infiltrated them, ala Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Interestingly enough, there are only 15 creatures in the game that have the emerge mechanic. 12 out of those 15 are colorless and only three of them aren't Eldrazi: Adipose Offspring from the Doctor Who set; Cresting Mosasaurus from the Jurassic Park set; and Crabomination from Modern Horizons 3. The rest? All Eldrazi.

Another interesting fact is that every creature that had emerge originally had either a Blue, Black, or Green emerge cost. The first card to deviate from this color group was Adipose Offspring, which was a white card with a white emerge cost. This was followed by Herigast, Erupting Nullkite in Modern Horizons 3, which had a Red emerge cost.

But what does emerge do?

Emerge requires the sacrifice of a creature to reduce the cost of the creature being emerged (or rather, to reduce their emerge cost). For example, if you have a creature with a mana value of four, and a creature with an emerge cost of four generic and two Blue, you can sacrifice the creature with mana value four to the emerge creature and your cost to cast the emerge creature will be reduced by four, making it only two Blue.

Boy, that was a mouthful.

All emerge creatures also have an ability that triggers either when it enters the battlefield or is cast.

When it came to creatures to sacrifice to emerge, mana values of three or four seemed to be the sweet spot. Typically emerge costs hovered between six and nine mana. So if you were sacrificing a creature with a mana value of three, on turn four, you could sacrifice it to reduce the mana cost of emerge by three, and play a seven-mana emerge cost. By sacrificing a creature with a mana value of four, on turn five, you could sacrifice it to reduce the mana cost of emerge by four, allowing you to play a nine-mana emerge cost. Three- and four-mana value creatures feel the most "ramplike" when it comes to emerging.

Additionally, Eldritch Moon had several creatures in the set that were specifically designed with emerge in mind. These were some seriously sacrificial creatures. Foul Emissary is a great example. Not only did it help find you a creature when it entered the battlefield, it had a mana value of three, and had the text "When you sacrifice Foul Emissary while casting a spell with emerge, create a 3/2 colorless Eldrazi Horror creature token." I was a big fan of Foul Emissary, but unfortunately, it's the only creature that actually references the emerge mechanic in its ability.

Emerge also played a big role in the Standard format it was legal in. Andrew Brown - who is now a member of Wizards R&D - managed a Top 8 performance at Pro Tour Eldritch Moon in 2016 with a Temur Emerge deck.

Temur Emerge | Standard - Pro Tour Eldritch Moon | Andrew Brown

Buy This Deck Export text

As you can see, the deck is trying to take advantage of numerous two- and three-mana creatures that all provide value, either when they enter the battlefield or die - such as Primal Druid, Matter Reshaper, and Shaman of the Forgotten Ways - along with emerge cards like Elder Deep-Fiend and Wretched Gryff. Notably, all the eldrazi in the deck also trigger both Sanctum of Ugin and Kozilek's Return, which was a big deal at the time. This was a shockingly synergistic deck.

Emerge is a super unique mechanic, and there aren't a ton of mechanics in the game that feel similar. It also happens to be attached to one of my favorite creature types in Magic.

Frank Lepore

Twitch | Twitter | YouTube