The announcement of Commander Masters and its four precons was a very welcome surprise. Amongst these four precons, we’re getting a lot of archetypes and strategies we’ve never seen in preconstructed decks – An Abzan enchantress deck, a Jeskai super friends deck, a five-color Slivers deck, and finally, a colorless Eldrazi deck. Today we’ll look at the Eldrazi deck, Eldrazi Unbound.
Eldrazi Unbound is set to release on Augast 4th, 2023. It will contain 10 brand-new cards, including the commander, and is the first colorless commander precon.
Considering the release date is so far out, that’s all we know for sure now. However, we can make educated guesses about how it’ll work, what we may see in the deck, and what cards may be reprinted. Aside from strict speculation, we can look to past releases to help surmise some things. Let’s jump right in,
Deck Strategy
There are a couple of ways to build Eldrazi – Big Mana, Exile, Tokens, and Sacrifice, to name a few. But unless the new commander enables one of these other strategies, only one is reasonable for a completely colorless build, and that’s Big Mana. What does this mean? Well, it’s usually built around casting expensive spells for a reduced price. This is a safe bet that the deck will go in this direction. So, assuming it does, what might the deck look like?
Related: Eldrazi Commander Deck – Ultimate Guide
Cost Reduction And Ramp
There are a ton of high-mana, high-power Eldrazi that you could look to power out. However, before we get to those, let’s look at ways the precon might cheapen its spells. Eldrazi or other cards that can provide mana or make other creatures cost less would make a lot of sense. Here are a few examples of things I expect to see:
Colorless Big Mana decks will also take advantage of the fact that all their spells can be cast with mana from things like Sol Ring, Thran Dynamo, and Hedron Archive. Mana rocks are going to be your friend in this deck. Aside from the few I just mentioned, almost any rock that produces colorless mana and has an upside would be good here.
Related: Commander Masters Precons – The Best New Cards
On top of that, there are plenty of lands that put Eldrazi way ahead of curve as well. I expect the precon will be quite powerful, and I hope to see these four lands in the deck to power out creatures.
I don’t think it’s likely that these are included, but the Urza lands would add quite a lot of power to the deck as well.
Furthermore, there are a ton of utility lands that tap for colorless/generic mana and have other abilities. These abilities are usually balanced by the downside that the lands don’t produce colored mana. However, that won’t a downside at all here. So, many of the lands in the precon will likely have some tech on them.
Large Creatures
So, you’ve got the mana, now what are you going to cast with it? Big Eldrazi, of course. Many will probably have some excellent benefits besides their power and toughness. These are some cheap (money-wise) commonly played Eldrazi that would be logical to include.
- Artisan of Kozilek
- Pathrazer of Ulamog
- Bane of Bala Ged
- Desolation Twin
- Endbringer
- Ulamog’s Crusher
- Breaker of Armies
I’m sure there will also be a few high-dollar Eldrazi reprints, but we’ll go over my prediction for that later. For now, let’s move on.
Card Draw
There are a few things that every commander deck needs. They are card draw, ramp & removal. We’ve already been over some options for ramp/cost reduction but we still need the other two. And getting them in colorless means it’ll be through less common means. After all, even common colorless card draw like Skullclamp won’t be great here. Here are some options that I hope make their way into Eldrazi Unbound.
Infiltration Lens
You’re going to have some creatures that demand to be blocked. Equipping them with this is a great way to generate some card advantage with your attacks. It’s cheap to cast and equip and makes chump blocking a pain for your opponents.
Tome of Legends
Overall, you’ll be paying three mana to draw a card with this, but in a colorless deck that’s acceptable. You’ll always get the first complementary counter, and casting your commander and attacking isn’t too hard most of the time.
Idol of Oblivion
Considering this makes an Eldrazi token, I think that’ll be all the justification WOTC needs to include this in the deck. That said, how good it actually is in the deck depends on how many cards create tokens. I think this will be an all-star if they include a decent bit. If they don’t (and I have a feeling they won’t) it won’t be at its best.
Mind’s Eye
This is a little higher up on the curve, but it can still come down pretty early with other mana-rocks. You won’t always be able to pay the one mana to draw but in my experience, a lot of times you will. This helps to ensure no extra mana goes to waste and sorta lets you cash in on the draw spells of other players.
Lastly, I expect to see some card advantage stapled onto the lands in the mana base. Here are some examples:
Removal And Boardwipes
You have to have a way to answer opposing threats. Getting to the late game is very important, especially when many of your spells are costly. Here are some options I think will likely find their way into the deck.
Related: Best Colorless Removal In Magic: The Gathering
These listed above are all very common for precons, so they’ll likely appear. Now let’s look at some of the less common stuff I hope to see.
Titan’s Presence
In my opinion, this is the best single-target removal spell the deck can run. If there’s one thing you can count on, in Eldrazi, it’s that your creatures will be the biggest. If you’ve got a card in hand larger than what you want to remove, you get a three-mana exile effect at instant speed.
Spatial Contortion
Spatial Contortion has a few things I like about it. First, it’s cheap to cast. Second, it’s an instant. I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but the deck will be clunky if all the removal spells are expensive or have timing restrictions.
Considering I think WOTC is going to bring the heat on these Commander Masters precons, I think Spatial Contortion is going to be a good include. There are a couple of things to note: It can’t take down huge threats outright, but if you hit them after combat, it can do the job. Next, it can be used as a pump spell on your unblocked Eldrazi and get a little boost.
Duplicant
This is a very interesting card for the deck. It’s a six-mana exile effect, but it’s also a creature. This means that you’ll likely be able to reduce the casting cost sometimes. Furthermore, it has power and toughness equal to the creature it exiled. This means that it can also double as a threat and makes the value you get for six mana a lot better.
Scour from Existence
This is expensive but clean – It can remove creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and even lands. All at instant speed. I’d rather have an expensive answer than no answer at all.
All Is Dust
I would be shocked if this weren’t in the deck. It’s a mighty card and is often a one-sided
Ratchet Bomb
Given that Eldrazi Unbound will likely have the highest average CMC of the Commander Masters precons, this will be quite good. It can come down early and build toward wiping the
Possible Reprints
If you look at recent commander precons, they usually have a reprint value of around $95, give or take. I think the Commander Masters precons will be a little higher. For the sake of conversation, let’s say around $100. Although, I think once everything is revealed, it’ll be slightly north of that. We know that 10 of the cards in the deck will be brand-new. Aside from these 10, some number of the cards will probably be new cards from Commander Masters itself.
I think it’s safe to assume that around 60 cards in the deck will be reprints – Keeping in mind that any new cards from the main set will also technically be reprints. So, we’ve around 60 cards to make up around $100 worth of value. Everything I’ve mentioned so far would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $45. Here are my guesses for what the pricier reprints will be.
- All is Dust – $7
- Forsaken Monument – $9
- Kozilek, the Great Distortion – $13
- Ugin, the Ineffable – $4
- Wandering Archaic – $4.50
- Lightning Greaves – $8
Cards You Should Pick Up Before Eldrazi Unbound Releases
If you pick up Eldrazi Unbound when it releases and want to make it more powerful, you’ll want to add some top-tier Eldrazi cards. Each of these is pretty expensive and may increase even more once the precon is out. Furthermore, given their price, they won’t likely be reprinted in the deck.
- Void Winnower
- Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter
- Pathrazer of Ulamog
- It That Betrays
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
- Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
- Emrakul, the Promised End
- Spawnsire of Ulamog
- Commander’s Plate
Official Deck List
Eldrazi Unbound
End Step
Commander Masters has everyone talking, and Eldrazi Unbound might be the most hyped precon from the set. We probably have quite a while (assuming there are no leaks) before we have official spoilers. Nevertheless, I enjoy making educated guesses based on precons past as to what we may see in the deck. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed reading it. Until next time, get out there and play some Commander.
