I can’t tell if it will be worse playing against the people the don’t understand the stack or those that do. #magicthegathering #mtg #mtgcommunity #cardgame #mtgcommander
I like Eldrazi in commander, because they're so open abut the fact that They Are The Problem. So many decks pull the 'Just A Little Guy' card whenever you start calling them out as a threat, saying that they only get going with the rest of a combo, or that the deck isn't actually doing anything while you can blatantly see them building the Death Star on the field. Eldrazi have none of this. The moment an Eldrazi hits the board having cost dozens of mana with an effect that says 'Every other player punches each other in the face until someone bleeds on their playmat', everyone knows who the problem is, and nobody can deny it.
Our resident eldrazi player wonders why we are always attacking them early bc they just have “little guys”. The other three decks they play consistently are two voltron decks and yuriko. Only one of those has “little guys” and they have burned the whole table for 14 dmg(42total) in a turn.
"Are you going to be part of the problem, or the-" Puts Isshin, Two Heavens as One in this with Annihilator (x) in play "I am going to be the WHOLE problem." Puts in Legion Loyalty "I'm gonna make the problem bigger" Takes control of you with Emrakul, the Promised End "And I'm gonna burn bridges for not only me but you as well"
See also: Slivers. Slivers are actually even worse in some cases because they’re so low to the ground and come prepackaged with Cryptolith Rites on a stick. All the biggest words-to-soiled-pants ratio clauses are here. Indestructible. Cascade. Search your library. Make another for a little mana. This is before we start accounting for 5 whole color’s worth of crimes
Heaven help whoever fires off Ulalek with Echoes of Eternity and/or Zhulodok, because you’re getting jumped in the parking lot for sure. Probably with assistance from the next table over.
Your warning is noted, but my current deck is mono-green lands with Titania Protector of Argoth as the commander. Now this isn’t your typical Titania nonsense with fetches, instead of those I run every strip-mine variant known to man, and a bunch of multiple land drop and “can play lands from the graveyard” effects. So I’m already on the list you see.
Maybe Iam just old school I prefer 8 [CENSORED] bears . . . It just hit me that the spooky frog ghost and tree couple card is the irl version of it and that’s hilarious
Fun Fact: Ulalek + Roaming Throne lets you double both Ulalek's effect and the effect of any Eldrazi copied by him. For example, If you cast Flayer of Loyalties and pay the additional cost, the Roaming Throne double trigger is still on the stack when the Ulalek trigger resolves and so that double becomes a quadruple, and Throne doubles the Ulalek double. Ultimately, you pay 12 mana to take control over 8 enemy creatures, turn them into 10/10 haste creatures with Annihilator 2. Basically, you are either winning the game, or are doing an orbital nuclear strike on a single opponent (annihilator 16 + 80 damage) who is likely going to jump you outside the LGS.
Ulalek aint gonna hit the table before that individual is beaten to death (in-game). Theres never been a commander that screams "Yall are really playing 3DH huh" more than this card.
@@Uzotrups No, that insane impact is just with a single payment. If you have extra mana for colorless flash cards/instants, you can actually copy that entire stack exponentially (eg. if you trigger the Ulalek double effect again, it doubles all spells on the stack).
If the triggered ability is "When cast, you may pay. If you do..." wouldn't the Roaming Throne's copy of that ability triggering also have to be paid into independently? How would the single payment carry over to the roaming throne copied triggers if they're each copied while looking for individual payments to resolve? This is a strong combo all the same given Tron mana capabilities and all the token-doublers/flash-enablers that exist. Can't wait to see it pop off on my dining room table 😂
Oh god, yeah, I think the most infuriating thing about this card will be having to explain why the copy ability will not copy what they think it does because that is not how the stack works. So many magic players don't understand the stack. "No, that eldrazi without flash will not make a copy of that other creature you just cast, it has already resolved and is on the battlefield. Oh my god no, you can't respond to the ETB of that other creature by casting that eldrazi, again, it doesn't have flash, you have to play it at sorcery speed. NO, YOU CAN'T......" You get the idea. I can picture it now.
So basically you need a way to give your eldrazi flash to get any mileage out of it besides just getting a second 10/9 and reanimate cast trigger off of Artisan of Kozilek
"Copy all spells you control", creatures are spells so yes he will get a copy of that creature (unless its a legendary in which case he did get it, resolves all triggers on the stack of getting it and then one is off to the grave) and if its a on cast effect, a copy of that effect to effectively get 3x the effect and 2x the creatures.
@@williamdrum9899 It's kinda the other players' fault for letting you get this set up, but imagine Ulalek into Echoes of Eternity into Ulamog, the Defiler. Maybe with Fblthp, Lost on the Range....
I built a Morophon deck with the purpose of running nothing but Devoid Eldrazi/spells and artifacts (lovingly called my 5-colorless deck) and then now they're printing all these haymakers with this set for that deck. It's wild.
I always wanted to do that since eldrazi are my favorite faction in mtg and I started playing around the battle for zendikar era, I've just been waiting for a colored eldrazi as a commander, and here he comes
Same, I was expecting this deck to have things like "this creature gets [effect] for each color in its color identity" to make the existing drones halfway playable, not cold fusion. I'm absolutely running Azlask (or as I call it, Alaska) instead because it supports both Spawns and Scions. I just wanted some fun stuff like a Processor Lord that can eat a Plotted card into the GY for color-pie bending effects, not Branching Evolution on Ulamog 3.0 for Annihilator 80.
I also built this as my first ever commander deck, as a bit of nostalgia-bait (being a functional version of the first standard deck I ever wanted to build. I am a little sad that this is a MH3 theme and precon, because now it looks a lot less personal and much less creative. 😔
The spaghetti-man players have cursed me to always fear even an empty board from a colorless deck. If they untap with anything, not even they know the absolutely heinous stuff that'll end with.
The moment I see a player's first land be a FUCKING WASTES, I know I have buckled in for some absolute fucking nonsense, and my only hope is that they either get RNGed straight to hell or they legitimately do not understand how to steer this second hand assemblage of blasphemies, war crimes, and sins against Mark Rosewater.
Chandra: "Hey guys look! I solved the Ulamog and Kozilek problem. With my fire!" Entire rest of the Gatewatch: "No Chandra. What you did was somehow make it *Worse!"*
@@mdb45424it's 5 color because despite the card effectively having no colour, a commander's identity is related to any mana symbols present on the card. For example, Tasigur is a mono-black creature, but he has blue/green pips in his ability text, making him able to bring both blue and green cards into his deck. Therefore, the Ulalussy got em all.
@@almond5284Tasigur doesn't have Devoid though? But I guess the best way to put it is that it's the Pips on the Card without factoring in any Rules that modify a cards colours.
Fun fact: With Echoes of Eternity out, you can keep copying the same spell a number of times equal to the CC you can pay, because Ulalek’s ability can copy other instances of itself.
I'm just happy to finally have a real tribal commander for Eldrazi. Eldrazi, horrors, phyrexians, and insects are my favorite tribes and I am so happy to finally have a true tribal commander for each of these tribes. Been waiting on this since I first played commander back in 2011 and to see them all happen within a relatively short time span just makes me very happy.
Zhulodok, Void Gorger was the Eldrazi commander (the only issue is that you can't play the devoid eldrazi with it) Now it'll still be in the 99 however
@laytonjr6601 Zhulodok isn't specifically an eldrazi tribal commander. They are more "big colorless creatures," which, of course, includes many Eldrazi, but is not specific to them in the way that Ulalek is. Many Zhulodok decks don't quite have enough eldrazi to be considered tribal (25+) because there are various artifact and other colorless creatures in there that better serve the big mana strategy Zhulodok leans more into. This is why I chose the specific wording of "real tribal leader." Though I guess that wording was more ambiguous than intended. More accurately, I should say that Ulalek is the first dedicated tribal leader for eldrazi.
I will say, I really love how this is worded. Without setup, this is simply CC to copy a creature only while it's being cast. With proper planning and knowledge of the stack, this becomes increasingly abusable. Ulalek will get a lot of mileage out of cascade and flash, and there absolutely has to be ways of comboing with colorless mana generation effects.
Never gave into simic before but had to here. Built him as ulalek , "confused" atrocity. Just a simic build with a slight group hug subtheme that goes about making a jenga tower out of the stack. Once you get two flashed out eldrazi on there and start exponentially copying triggers, all hells loose
@@Arenuphis yup! Which makes this soon gross. I've also included a defiler of dreams for the eldrazis that are blue. As for the defiler of vigor... It's extremely strong but it runs into the Cathars crusade problem of tracking different counter amounts.
Ordered two myself, each below $75. (Got lucky.) Once they announced another Eldrazi Commander deck I pre-ordered it, almost didn't matter what the deck ended up being. They had my had me at the "concept."
And before we are done with Eldrazi, just use Prototype Portal to Imprint Draco (who’s a 16 mana Artifact Creature - Dragon) and Cast the new Ulamog to give him 16 +1/+1 counters and Annihilator 16.
Remember everyone this sets also printing Kozileks Command which is an Eldrazi Instant, so I'm pretty sure you can play a dummy thick spaghetti monster pay the 2, then cast Kozileks Command in response to that spell going on the stack to get an extra copy of both the command AND the spaghetti monster.
Not thinking big enough. Cast spaghetti monster, hold priority. The Ulalek trigger on the stack, cast the instant. Topmost Ulalek trigger resolves, pay CC, copy the instant and the other trigger. Now you're getting 3 spaghetti monsters
@@sanscipher9166 and that is if you don't have extra colorless mana to spare to go disgusting. Remember, Ulalek copies ALL triggers. So the topmost Ulalek resolving ALSO copies the primary Ulalek trigger, which you can put on top of the doubled stack. pay 2 and double the whole stack again, including an Ulalek trigger on top. The only limit to this quadratic equation is your access to colorless mana. Btw, you are 5-colored and both Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap are accepteble instant spot-removal, who happen do be spaghetti spells.
@@sanscipher9166 again, since YT seems to having swallowed my reply. It's quadratic. Let's go through it, step by step. Minimalist approach. Starting point: Ulalek on board. Trigger refered to as U on the stack. Cast Sphagetti, refered to as S. Stack (bottom to top): SU Cast Inversion, refered to as I. Stack: SUIU Resolve topmost Ulalek trigger by paying 2, placing the copied U on top. Stack: SUI -> SUI SIU (2 Sphagetti/Inversions) Resolve topmost Ulalek trigger, placing the copied U on top. Stack: SUISI-> SUISI SISIU (4 Sphagetti/Inversions) Resolve topmost Ulalek trigger, placing the copied U on top. Stack: SUISISISI -> SUISISISI SISISISIU (8 Sphagetti/Inversions) repeat until you run out of mana, doubling the stack each time (except Ulalek trigger, which switch between 1 and 2 on the stack)
I'm going to have to walk to the top of my thinking mountain and sit with my chin on my fist for several hours contemplating the life choices that led up to the word ULALUSSY becoming part of my life
Hey, that shot at Heroes was uncalled for. Every time I see Zachary Quinto play a character in another movie I think hes going to start giving people a Lobotomy with The Force.
Fun art thing, this one has the visual signifiers of all the titans. Ulamogs head and branch arms, Emrakuls tentacles and Kozileks geometry veil thingy
I like to think the reason MH3 has these insane stack manipulating eldrazi cards (Ulalek, Echoes of Eternity, possibly more) is because trying to keep track of it with paper cards is the easiest way to make a player descend into cosmic madness. So I give them points for the flavour win.
Every set that comes out makes me want to build Toshiro removal. Not because ulalek is busted (it is, but that’s not it); it’s because I really don’t want some new player trying to figure out their own stack 🙄 never letting this commander resolve
I was wondering what the lore was behind this but staring at the art for 30 seconds trying to discern which brood it was then checking the name again it finally clicked that this is a fusion of [Ula]mog and Kozi[lek], and that's why it had the traits of both. Bisecting arms, tentacles, and a faceless bone mask from Ulamog. Some sort of carapace, eyes on it's joints, and those floating plates around the head from Kozilek.
I have a guy in my group who directly said he would rather play against a Slivdrazi Monstrosity led commander deck than either of the five color elderazi leaders spoiled for mh3.
The thing about Ulalek, he needs flash to do what he wants to do, you need flash on your eldrazi to copy other spells, cuz you need them on the stack first otherwise they resolve before Ulaleks ability, and you can’t cast eldrazi while other spells are on the stack, the other thing is if you get the flash the copies are exponential, as you control the copies, so what you do is you gain flash (there was like 10 or 11 cards to give eldrazi flash) you cast a spell, you interrupt it by casting an eldrazi, Ulalek triggers, you interrupt by casting a second eldrazi, you now pay for his ability, witch copies his other trigger, and loop until you run out of mana. FYI 11 triggers is 2048 instances of a spell, and if your copying your ramp like you should be, you easily have 22 colorless mana available, and shapeshifters count as eldrazi
now we wait for WotC to print an Eldrazi Lotus Cobra reference so that you can convolute your maneuver by copying Explosive Vegetation-like effects and netting two colorless off each resolution. As it is, I suppose you could copy an untap ability targeting your Sol Ring.
"you need them on the stack first coz otherwise they resolve before Ulaleks ability " Uh... No? All spells hit the stack on cast, so if you cast a basic ass Eldrazi like Void Winnower, Ulalek will trigger and you can duplicate it for CC...
@@ryanderenbecker8837 yes, on cast, you can’t cast a spell with triggers/spells on stack unless the spell is an instant or has flash, and If you’re talking about just copying the single eldrazi you just cast, I said that to copy OTHER spells you needed flash
@@Arvensa also, since copying is exponential, if you cast a seasonal ritual, and kick start it with some mana, it’s not quite infinite but it gives you a TON of mana, and you can just filter it through a monolith to create colorless as well
Question if you use Ulalek’s ability after casting an Eldrazi spell would you copy something like an up the beanstalk trigger as well since it goes on the stack? Trying to figure out what types of things synergise with it since I’m looking to build the deck when it comes out.
Yes, as long as you place everything you want to copy on the stack below Ulalek's triggered ability. (Also note that if you respond to Ulalek's triggered ability while it's still on the stack by casting another Eldrazi spell through either flash or Tribal Instants, you can cause the new instance of Ulalek's triggered ability to copy the first one still on the stack...)
I just got home from my shop, last game I had x2 Zhula'docs out. The eldrazi where if I cast a colorless spell I get a scion, and I get to ping everyone for 1 life, I also had throne out for double triggers of everything. I'll spare you the rest, but I ended up with like 60 cascades before we called it. Midway through I got echoes which just made it worse lol. I'm somewhat newer, but tryign to understand the stack at that point I feel like I'm going to need to bring paper and pen to keep track of everything....
Ideally, this will help spread understanding of how the stack actually works. In reality, the blind haven't led the blind this much since they tried to describe an elephant.
If you flash in an eldrazi while SR is on the stack, you copy SR. However, it would be easier, and dirtier to cast Energy Tap in response to casting your Eldrazi, get Ulaklek's ability resolved after the spell is on the stack, now you got two copies of ET to fire off, which means you're going to be able to cast another eldrazi and trigger the ability again almost assuredly.
It's a rare commander that can make Shields of Velis Vell playable, tho. (It's a 1 mv Eldrazi instant, thereby easily triggering copying spells &/or activated &/or triggered abilities (incl its own!))
One question. It is a Devoid card but uses colorless or all 5 colors to cast. So as a commander would it be a 5 color deck or only wasteland colorless? Makes a difference in what I can build with it.
So I’ve played like twice this year so I’m still unfamiliar with Commander, but would I be able to mesh this guy in my colorless deck? That mana cost is throwing me off.
