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Browse > Home / Strategy / Articles / Budget Commander: Morophon Devoid Eldrazi | $50, $100, $200, $470

Budget Commander: Morophon Devoid Eldrazi | $50, $100, $200, $470


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Morophon, the Boundless is the perfect gift for us Commander players. We finally have a great commander option for every single Tribal deck possible. No matter what tribal deck you want to play -- Zombie, Human, Zubera, Trilobite -- you now always have at least one commander option that supports your tribe and lets you play all the relevant cards since Morophon grants you access to all five colors. The directions you can take a Morophon deck are boundless, since the majority of each Morophon deck will be dictated by your chosen tribe instead of the commander itself, though we'll cover a few key cards that every Morophon list should consider.

I've seen a lot of great Morophon brews already, building with tribes that never had a 5C tribal leader up until this point. Humans. Avatars. Gods. Bringers -- yes, the Bringers cycle (e.g. Bringer of the Black Dawn)! But out of all the sweet tribes available to brew, my absolute favorite option with Morophon has to be Eldrazi!

We've had eldrazi commander options for a long time. We have two versions of Ulamog and Kozilek to choose from, plus one version of Emrakul (the other one is banned). So technically we could make an Eldrazi Tribal deck with one of those at the helm. Unfortunately though, all those eldrazi commanders are colorless, which prevents us from running all the sweet colored eldrazi cards.

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In Battle for Zendikar, the vast majority of eldrazi cards require colored mana to cast. Even though they are treated as colorless cards during the game due to the devoid mechanic, they still count as colored cards when it comes to deckbuilding, which means devoid cards can't be legally run in a deck led by Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.

That's where Morophon, the Boundless comes in: suddenly we now have an Eldrazi Tribal leader that lets us play all the eldrazi cards! Woo!

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Five Color ... Colorless?

This deck is weird. On one hand, our deck is a Five Color deck, requiring all five colors of mana to cast our eldrazi spells. But on the other hand, despite requiring colored mana to be cast, the vast majority of eldrazi spells are colorless thanks to the devoid keyword. World Breaker a colorless card, not a green card, despite requiring green mana to cast. And that's the theme that unites our rainbow eldrazi into a cohesive deck: Colorless Matters!

Yes indeed, Colorless Matters is actually a thing. For example: We can use From Beyond or Conduit of Ruin to tutor World Breaker, ramp it out with Herald of Kozilek and Eye of Ugin, which lets us ping with Molten Nursery and Nettle Drone. Then we can give it haste with Forerunner of Slaughter, and finish by flinging it at someone with Barrage Tyrant. So yeah, it's a thing, and it's goddamn sweet.

But eldrazi cards aren't the only cards out there that care about colorless cards. There's some amazing colorless support cards that are powerhouses in our deck: Ugin, the Ineffable is amazing ramp and card advantage, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a one-sided board wipe that leaves our stuff untouched. For some extra hot spice, Spreading Plague wrecks our opponents' creatures while leaving ours untouched, and Mana Maze can be an absolute nightmare for our opponents while, again, barely affecting us!

Of course, we're not just focusing on Colorless Matters, but also Eldrazi Tribal! That means we can get full value of sweet cards like From Beyond and generic tribal cards like Urza's Incubator and Kindred Summons!

Speaking of generic good tribal stuff: Morophon, the Boundless is really good! Not only does it give a nice mana discount to our devoid eldrazi spells, but Morophon can straight-up cast all our eldrazi spells for FREE when paired up with either Fist of Suns or Jodah, Archmage Eternal: all our spells now have an alternative cast of WUBRG, and Morophon lets us cast our spells with a WUBRG discount, aka free! Free casting Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is kinda ridiculous!

This deck is so, so sweet. I've actually played two versions of 5C Devoid Eldrazi before on Commander Clash, once during Block Battle and more recently during Morophon Week. I'm going to take all I learned from those previous versions and bring you a tuned, perfected version of the deck! Let's get started!

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Devoid Eldrazi Lands

For Eldrazi Tribal, we've got a bunch of sweet ramp options with Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin, tutoring with Sanctum of Ugin, and mana-fixing plus utility with Path of Ancestry and Cavern of Souls.

For Colorless Matters we've got ramp with Shrine of the Forsaken Gods (it's like Temple of the False God but, uh, NOT TERRIBLE), mana-fixing with Corrupted Crossroads, and cute utility with Tomb of the Spirit Dragon and Ruins of Oran-Rief.

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Devoid Eldrazi Ramp

For Eldrazi options, Urza's Incubator and Herald's Horn also drastically decrease the mana cost of our eldrazi creatures. Many of our eldrazi creatures also come with ramp, either creating eldrazi scions (Catacomb Sifter) or eldrazi spawn (Awakening Zone) that can be sacrificed for ramp.

For Colorless options, the two big ones of note are Herald of Kozilek and Ugin, the Ineffable. Both can significantly accelerate our game plan, reducing the cost of nearly all the spells in our deck.

Speaking of Colorless ramp ... pretty much all the artifact mana rocks happen to be colorless, which pair wonderfully with Herald / Ugin and trigger a bunch of other Colorless Matters payoffs (Molten Nursery). 5C mana-fixing rocks like Chromatic Lantern, Fellwar Stone, and Coalition Relic are perfect here, but even the signet cycle (Golgari Signet) and the talisman cycle (Talisman of Creativity) do a great job here. Of course, mana rocks always come with a warning: artifact hate can ruin your day! Cards like Bane of Progress, Vandalblast, and Aura Shards can set you back severely if you're relying entirely on mana rocks for ramp. Colorless land ramp cards like Wayfarer's Bauble, Burnished Hart, and Solemn Simulacrum are less mana-efficient options, but they ultimately are safer in most playgroups. And of course, since we're in Green, staple land ramp like Rampant Growth and Sakura-Tribe Elder are both mana-efficient and safe options, even if they don't fit our theme.

If we are running a bunch of eldrazi scion token generators -- which I recommend -- we can use them to ramp while not sacrificing them: Earthcraft, Cryptolith Rite, and Song of Freyalise can turn them all into Birds of Paradise!

Most importantly, of course, is Morophon, the Boundless. Morophon is fantastic ramp for all our devoid eldrazi. But Morophon's true potential is unlocked when paired with either Fist of Suns or Jodah, Archmage Eternal. Both these cards give our spells an alternative casting cost of WUBRG, and since Morophon gives our eldrazi spells a WUBRG discount, that means our eldrazi spells cost zero mana to cast. That's right, Emrakul, the Promised End can be cast. For. Free! WOO! INSANITY!

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Devoid Eldrazi Removal

As a nice flavor-win, eldrazi happen to be reeeeally good at killin' (or "processing" if you prefer)! Oooh boy! Let's check out some of these hot options:

All Is Dust and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon being one-sided board wipes in a 5C deck is like poetry: it rhymes. I love it.

Special mention goes to Grave Pact / Dictate of Erebos for their high synergy with eldrazi spawn/scion tokens (Brood Monitor), since you can sacrifice the tokens for ramp while making your opponents sacrifice their creatures in the process.

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Devoid Eldrazi Card Draw

Not a lot of eldrazi draw cards, but two notable amazing ones are Sire of Stagnation and Kozilek, the Great Distortion. If you're running lots of eldrazi scion generators -- which I recommend -- then Deepfathom Skulker is really amazing, as are other Coastal Piracy variants like Bident of Thassa and HOLY CRAP SO GOOD Kindred Discovery! Oh and Vanquisher's Banner, Herald's Horn, all pretty deece tribal stuff.

There's not a lot of Colorless Matters card draw, but we got a very good option with the new release of M20: Mystic Forge. Oh, I can cast all my colorless/devoid cards off the top of my library? Don't mind if I do!

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Devoid Eldrazi Tutors

I couldn't find many colorless / eldrazi tutors, but two fantastic options include From Beyond and Conduit of Ruin. I guess you can count Ancient Stirrings as a limited form of tutoring too. There's also stuff like Sanctum of Ugin but I've covered those in the Lands section. Even with few thematic options, don't forget we're a 5C deck so we have access to literally all the best tutors in the format, from Vampiric Tutor to fancier stuff like Bring to Light.

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Devoid Eldrazi Graveyard Recursion

Again not a whole lot here to talk about, but Artisan of Kozilek is very good, and we have a powerful tribal recursion with Patriarch's Bidding!

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Devoid Eldrazi Protection

Most of the best thematic protection cards end up being countermagic: Warping Wail, Spell Shrivel, etc. They can stop board wipes like Wrath of God while also stopping a bunch of other important spells as well. However, there are some other notable options to keep our board safe: Void Grafter and Steely Resolve are nice answers to targeted removal, Etchings of the Chosen is a cool way to keep our important eldrazi alive, and Vile Redeemer can help us rebuild after a board wipe.

Looking beyond thematic protection, we're a 5C deck so we have access to all the best options like Teferi's Protection, Heroic Intervention, the best countermagic like Swan Song, yadayada.

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Winning

We have tons of options for winning the game. The first and most obvious is combat damage: a lot of our top-end eldrazi options simply win the game if left unanswered. The eldrazi titans -- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and Emrakul, the Promised End all explode onto the battlefield and kill opponents in a few swings.

Alternatively, we can focus on token wins by generating a bunch of eldrazi scions (Brood Monitor) and pumping them with anthems (Coat of Arms) for victory.

Finally, no matter what deck, you can be there's ways to jam some game-winning combos! One thematic option is Eldrazi Displacer + Brood Monitor. Monitor enters the battlefield with three scion tokens which you can sacrifice to pay for the Displacer's ability, blinking the Monitor, which comes back with three more tokens, aka infinite sacrifice and entering/leaving the battlefield. Pair this with a finisher like Flayer Drone and you have a 100% Eldrazi Combo Kill. There are many variations of this combo, like replacing Flayer Drone for Blood Artist.

And one more combo for you! As explained earlier, Morophon, the Boundless + Fist of Suns = cast all our eldrazi creatures for free. This is great for casting eldrazi titans for zero mana, and that'll win games pretty often, but we can also use this to go infinite. Add Cloudstone Curio to the mix with any two eldrazi and we can cast an eldrazi, bouncing the other eldrazi, then cast the other eldrazi the bounce the other eldrazi ... infinite bounce and eldrazi casting. That's infinite ping with Flayer Drone or Molten Nursery, or infinite tokens if one of the bounced eldrazi makes them like Brood Monitor. Easy peasy!

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Putting It All Together

Alright, now that we've gone over the card pool we're working with, it's time to talk about how we craft the deck. As I often explain in my Budget Commander articles, every time I build a rough draft of a deck, I make sure I have a certain ratio of mana, interaction, card advantage, etc. This gives me a reference point to compare to the deck and see which areas may need improvement. My general ratio is:

  • 50 mana; lands and ramp, usually a 37–13 split
  • 10 sources of "card advantage;" I use this term loosely but am mostly looking for card draw or any spell that nets me 2+ non-land cards in hand / directly into play
  • 6 targeted removal, split between creature / artifact / enchantment removal
  • 3 board wipes; creature-light decks might want one more, creature-heavy decks might want one less
  • 2 recursion
  • 2 flexible tutors;
  • 1 graveyard hate; since you need to keep Graveyard decks honest 
  • 1 surprise "I Win" card; something that can win games the turn you cast it without too much setup

That's always my starting point, which is then tweaked to suit the individual deck's strategy and further tweaked with playtesting. I always find it immensely useful to figure out some quick ways to improve the deck in question.

 

$50 List

The first list is kind of a durdly deck. We're running 50 mana sources, with 37 lands and 13 ramp, but that doesn't count any cards that produce eldrazi scions (From Beyond) which can be used as ramp in a pinch. Our scions play a significant role in our strategy: we use them to ramp, tap them to fuel Song of Freyalise, more draw cards with Deepfathom Skulker, and protect our more important creatures with Etchings of the Chosen.

We are loaded with excellent card draw options, like Sire of Stagnation and Mystic Forge. We've got flexible forms of interaction, be it countermagic like Ulamog's Nullifier or creature removal like Titan's Presence. We're also running a few non-colorless cards that add a ton of flexibility and power to our deck, like Abzan Charm, Painful Truths, and Ashiok, Dream Render. We can find the cards we need with amazing tutors like Bring to Light, From Beyond, and the always reliable Diabolic Tutor.

Finally, to close out the game we've got big beaters like Ulamog's Crusher and Artisan of Kozilek, but we've also snuck in the Eldrazi Displacer + Brood Monitor + Flayer Drone combo.

 

$100 List

With the extra $50 I tried to add as many cards as I could that add a huge power boost to the deck. All Is Dust, Ugin, the Ineffable, and Spreading Plague give the deck the biggest bang for your buck, absolutely perfect for what this deck wants to do. You can even tutor up All Is Dust with From Beyond since it's an Eldrazi card!

We picked up a few other smaller upgrades like Vanquisher's Banner, World Breaker, and Command Tower. But I quickly ran out of small upgrades and as we go deeper into Devoid Eldrazi, things like Void Winnower and Urza's Incubator are fantastic but start creeping towards the $10 price tag.

The new upgrades don't change our deck's strategy: we're doing the same thing we did with the $50 list, but now our deck is more explosive and our finishers are more impressive. Just overall better.

 

$200 List

Most of the extra $100 was spent making our mana even better: Eye of Ugin / Eldrazi Temple / Sol Ring and friends add even more ramp potential, but most importantly we've picked up Fist of Suns to make all our eldrazi creatures free with Morophon, the Boundless. Our mana-fixing is even better and faster thanks to cards like City of Brass and Chromatic Lantern.

We've finally added one of the eldrazi titans to our deck: Kozilek, the Great Distortion! It draws us cards, counters stuff, and hits hard!

 

$470 List

Here's a list with basically all the best thematic cards included. All the best eldrazi titans are here, the second-best board wipe with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, the best card draw with Kindred Discovery, and I've also tossed in Cloudstone Curio for even more combo potential. I think the only Devoid Eldrazi thematic stuff I've left out is Emrakul, the Promised End and It That Betrays, but neither felt like appropriate inclusions (feel free to disagree!).

The last thing to do with this deck is to add generic good cards, like Demonic Tutor, and continue upgrading the lands. Eventually you'll want your lands to be a bunch of dual lands that enter untapped (Temple Garden) and fetchlands to grab them (Wooded Foothills).

 

That's All, Folks!

I hope you enjoyed my take on Morophon Devoid Eldrazi. There's a lot of sweet Morophon brews out there, but using it to enable Devoid Eldrazi is definitely my favorite. For next Budget Commander I'll be tackling one or two of the new M20 commanders, plus I want to go back and continue updating my oldest articles. Thanks for reading!



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