Locations
Making Standard content on Magic Online has presented me with a dilemma common to many of your favorite Magic writers: Rotation hasn’t happened online yet, and I do not have access to the new cards. This week, I am bringing you another “rotation-proof,” pre-rotation deck: Red Eldrazi. I mentioned it in one of my first In Leagues, and now you get to see it in action! The deck first was put on my radar at Star City Games Indianapolis in the hands of Kent Ketter, and last weekend, it took sixteenth place at SCG Baltimore, piloted by Matt Bimonte (it did not, however, win, as I may have mistakenly said in one round). I have a good feeling about this one today, folks. Maybe the reason is just that I already recorded the videos. The main plan of the deck is to accelerate into top-notch threats like Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Chandra, Flamecaller, who continues to be my favorite card in new Standard. Its early game is shored up with threats like Hangarback Walker and Vile Aggregate, and the deck makes excellent use of Hedron Crawler.
Deck Tech
Red Eldrazi ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Morgan Wentworth
- Creatures (26)
- 3 Thought-Knot Seer
- 4 Reality Smasher
- 4 Thopter Engineer
- 4 Vile Aggregate
- 4 Hangarback Walker
- 4 Hedron Crawler
- 3 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
- Planeswalkers (4)
- 4 Chandra, Flamecaller
- Spells (5)
- 2 Spatial Contortion
- 3 Roast
- Lands (25)
- 10 Mountain
- 1 Rogue's Passage
- 3 Ruins of Oran-Rief
- 3 Sea Gate Wreckage
- 4 Foundry of the Consuls
- 4 Shivan Reef
- Sideboard (15)
- 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
- 1 Thought-Knot Seer
- 1 Roast
- 1 Spatial Contortion
- 2 Kozilek's Return
- 1 Oblivion Sower
- 3 Eldrazi Obligator
- 3 Fiery Impulse
- 2 Tears of Valakut
Match 1: Mono-Blue Eldrazi
The Mono-Blue Eldrazi matchup can be tough because of Ghostfire Blade. However, one of our deck’s main threats can come down and sweep the board, leaving the Blue Eldrazi player with one to no threats, which really tilts the matchup in our favor.
Match 2: 4-Color Rally
Red Eldrazi does not really have a great way to interact with Rally’s strategy apart from Thought-Knot Seer, and our opponent this round was able to see enough cards with Grim Haruspex and Catacomb Sifter that the Seer did knot really matter. Fortunately for aspiring Eldrazi players, the card Rally the Ancestors is rotating, removing the main incentive to play this deck.
Match 3: Jeskai Black
Jeskai Black can be a tough matchup if there is a fast clock via Mantis Rider or an opposing Chandra. Our threats are fairly powerful, between Pia and Kiran, our own Chandra, and Reality Smasher, that our top-decks have the potential to be very strong, which helps in games in which we are the aggressor early. In Game 3, our opponent had two Virulent Plagues out, which is great against Pia and Kiran, but bad against so many other threats. They are also what kept the opponent’s Chandra from killing our Chandra at the end of the game.
Match 4: Abzan Elves
Like Mono-Blue Eldrazi, Elves can be soft to sweepers like Chandra and Kozilek's Return. This matchup shows a great reason to deal 2 damage to every creature rather than 1, as Boiling Earth does—even the weenie creatures are 2 toughness or greater nowadays.
Closing Thoughts
Most decks play sixteen or so red sources, and I was only playing fourteen. This had a clear impact on my games. I would run two Battlefield Forge over two Sea Gate Wreckage moving forward. Since Shadows over Innistrad has already come out, I would also recommend switching out the last Sea Gate Wreckage and one Ruins of Oran-Rief for two Westvale Abbey.
