Well I’m certainly not the first one to report about this: Eldrazi Stompy has been a Legacy deck on everyone’s radar after the Eldrazi decks shook Modern at Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch, and this is when I immediately began brewing and tinkering a list. The Source thread is already incredibly useful for seeing lists and distilling what the core components are of the deck – and really, that’s what I’m aiming to do today – while also giving light to a few other options concerning the deck that people have been testing.

So yeah, this post will be all about sorting out the core of the deck, what its flex slots are, what its sideboard options are (actually, maybe sideboarding in another post…) and etc.

Before we get started though I have to mention: I will primarily be talking about the aggro versions of Eldrazi Stompy, most distinguishable via Eldrazi Mimic – we will save other builds with higher top-ends for another time.

Anyway, past the technicalities, on to the actual deck.

Eldrazi Stompy is, as its name suggests, a deck that like Stompy decks of Legacy’s past, aims to abuse ‘Sol Lands’, lands that produce two colourless mana, to power out creatures above Legacy’s typical curve very quickly, while also allowing the deck to deploy crippling lock pieces, often on turn one, to slow the game down for the opponent, but still allow the Stompy player to slam out giant creatures unhindered. Although seen as typically Tier 2 strategies due to their high variance nature (the decks always need a nice mix of acceleration, locks and threats, which can be sometimes difficult), Eldrazi Stompy deviates from previous coloured Stompy versions by concentrating on a Tribe and their synergy with a particular set of lands, adding greater consistency and perhaps pushing the deck above its Stompy peers.

Lands

The Eldrazi Stompy deck would not exist without its mana base. It is unique amongst Stompy decks because, due to the lands Eye of Ugin and Eldrazi Temple, for creatures that are typed Eldrazi the deck can potentially play sixteen Sol Lands. This gives the deck an huge amount of acceleration and explosiveness, unseen prior in Legacy mana bases. This also adds consistency to the deck as well, as previous Stompy decks struggled with hands with no Sol Lands – with up to sixteen in these lists, however, hands with no Sol Lands are a rarity and therefore most threats should be easy to deploy. Unlike other Stompy lists that ran basics however, Eldrazi Stompy typically runs no basic lands. This means that Wasteland and Blood Moon can be severely crippling for the deck.

Anyway, on to the actual lands, these guys should be familiar:

The typical eight Sol Lands of Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors should be well known to MUD and Stompy veterans alike. Most aggro lists will run full sets of both of these as having access to non-restrictive Sol mana is important. However, it is not unheard of to shave down Cities to perhaps three, to fit in flex lands, as it is the clunkier of the two.

These guys are new additions:

Eldrazi Temple is basically just a Sol Land for Eldrazi (and their abilities – well, at least for all the ones we’ll talk about here), though it is important to note that for non-Eldrazi it is simply just a land that produces <>. Therefore for Chalice of the Void purposes and other non-Eldrazi cards we can play, Temple will not synergise effectively with them, although it at least makes them castable.

Eye of Ugin is a bit different again. This can lead to some of the deck’s most busted starts with multiple Mimics or Endless Ones, but is also the clunkiest land due to:

a) It being Legendary.

b) It can’t cast non-Eldrazi at all, as without some assistance it doesn’t tap for anything.

c) If you run Trinisphere, this has dissynergy, decreasing Eldrazi’s by two mana, but if they go lower than three… – Trinisphere pushes it up to three anyway!

Due to these, Eye is typically the Sol Land cut down to three, and maybe sometimes two, primarily for consistency issues. However, four Eyes are potentially playable – it just means maybe mulliganing more hands and sacrificing some consistency for greater potential explosiveness.

Eye does, however, have additional functionality as being a card advantage engine if the game goes long. Once seven mana is hit, Eye can start to bring Eldrazi after Eldrazi at your opponent. This allows a Stompy deck like this to have something again unheard of – a powerful lategame and inevitability, instead of simply playing off the top and ripping useless acceleration.

Next we can move on to the flex lands:

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is probably the most popular addition due to its nice synergy with Eye of Ugin, allowing Eye to tap for mana and become a pseudo-Mishra’s Workshop for Eldrazi. It also allows Ancient Tombs to tap for B instead of painfully tapping for excessive colourless mana when your life total is a concern. However, Urborg is again a Legendary land, making multiples awkward and although its utility is nice – and sometimes explosive – it crowds out land slots for other potential additions. I’d play one or two.

Wasteland is one of the lynchpins of the Legacy format, and is also probably one of the lands this deck hates the most. Wasteland is great in aggressive draws and in combination with taxing lock pieces it can prevent the opponent from making larger plays, leaving the board clear for your aliens to swing through. It is also great at taking out opposing utility lands, especially those that deny mana such as Rishadan Ports and maybe even an opposing Wasteland (if you’re lucky). All these praises being said, Eldrazi Stompy is still quite a mana hungry deck, and you’ll find yourself tapping Wasteland for mana rather than sacrificing it often; in these cases having a different utility land may be more valuable. As such Wasteland may not be perhaps the auto 4-of people expect, though playing with a range of two to four is certainly a feasible number to be looking at.

Cavern of Souls is great since we’re only (or for some lists, mostly) one Tribe – Eldrazi. Blue is of course the hallmark colour of Legacy, and being able to resolve your things and ignore the Dazes and Forces in your opponent’s hand is great. That being said, there has been arguements against it – Chalice typically eats a Force anyway, so your Eldrazi can reign loose afterwards – but this is not necessarily always true, especially against Delver decks, against whom we will always tap out for our big threats and having these meet a Daze is a disaster. I’ve been playing three and have been happy with it (they’re somewhat useless in multiples) but many have argued for four as being standard, and in some metas I wouldn’t say that is wrong – drawing it every game can be very powerful. Don’t forget you can name Apes and Horrors too!

Manlands are a great option for our deck as well. Stompy decks can at times run out of steam and start topdecking, so having things to do with excess mana and continue the beatdown to get the last points of damage in, particularly against control, is certainly nice. Most lists look towards Mishra’s Factory as manland of choice, since, as we’ll likely be running multiples, the pump ability is very relevant. If you’ve maxed out those you can certainly run more if you have room. Mutavaults are the next best option, since don’t forget – they’re Assembly-Workers too! I’d be happy to find room for three Factories if room is available.

Crystal Vein, if you really want twenty Sol Lands, is an option, though generally City is seen as better since it can be reused for two mana over the course of many turns, as long as you don’t play another land. Of course, in certain scenarios you really wish that City was a Vein, so I could see it being feasible to swap a City for a Vein if one prefers. Anyway, Vein, if added in addition to the already existing Sol Lands, can add a huge amount of explosiveness to the deck and ensures almost all hands will have a Sol Land within it. However, Vein can be at times very clunky, and probably more importantly the card cuts into the other flex lands’ slots. Considering whether to fit some of these in really depends on whether all the flex lands slots haven’t already been filled, or whether you value greater acceleration over them.

Sea Gate Wreckage is a new land that can fit quite handily in our deck. Since Stompy decks tend to empty their hand very quickly, Wreckage can allow the deck to grind and accumulate card advanatage when nothing is going on. This slot fulfils a similar role to the manlands – changing excess mana laying around into threats. As such I’d look to fit it within those slots, though one to two is the number I’d look towards, as they are useless in multiples. It’s also feasible to put these in the sideboard too.

And there’s heaps of other lands you can play… Go nuts on Gatherer. Other popular utility lands include Karakas, Tower of the Magistrate etc. which have obvious applications.

Acceleration

Next we have acceleration options for the deck. This is particularly useful for putting into play lock pieces that cost three mana on turn one. It must be noted that some individuals may be perfectly happy to have no acceleration, especially if not running Trinisphere, as our lands can do a lot of the heavy lifting and acceleration is miserable as a topdeck.

Mox Diamond is quite popular, allowing plays such as turn one Trinisphere, but it has a huge rider of forcing the discard of a land (potentially forcing Diamond lists to run a little more lands than most), as well as being a generally miserable top deck in the latter part of the game. Again, this card adds explosiveness but can detriment consistency. I would look towards this primarily if desiring Trinisphere in your list and the running of Crucible of Worlds, which is a little mini-combo – allowing you to recoup cards lost to Diamond – but also potentially single-handely winning the game via Wastelock. Sweet.

Other acceleration options are the Spirit Guides. Unlike Diamond, who sticks around, the Spirit Guides are one-shot uses, making them lacklustre at times, especially when multiple are in hand, and they can feel very ‘all-in’. However, unlike Diamond, they can be less of a dead draw in the late game as they do not need a land discarded to generate mana. This can be very helpful when only one mana is lacking for a critical threat. It’s also notable that they can be actually cast via Cavern of Souls when a threat is required, especially in lists where picking up equipment is strong. Simian Spirit Guide is generally superior as he can become a threat under Blood Moon, but Elvish Spirit Guide can be strong in lists micro-splashing for World Breaker off Cavern and her.

Grim Monolith is a card well-known in MUD and is again another option for turn one Trinisphere. I think Monolith is very feasible, but can feel like a very poor option compared to other acceleration options, as two mana must be pumped into it initially to give a mana-boost, which may not be option at times. Diamonds and Spirit Guides are often quite nice as you can still Chalice on one off a non-Sol Land. Monolith cannot do that. Eldrazi Stompy is also pretty poor at taking advantage of its ability to untap in the later stages of the game and ramp out larger creatures, since most of the time our curve tops at five (or maybe six), though I’m sure versions with greater top ends and less Mimics could take advantage of it. But in aggressive versions I’m a little skeptical, but it could be okay.

Lotus Petal is also an option, but is generally subpar compared the Spirit Guides who can become threats. Only when colour is an issue is Lotus Petal more viable than them, so perhaps keep these in mind for two-colour builds.

Other, slower, but more stable acceleration options are the Talisman cycle (which gives access to splash colours) or Mind Stone which can be later cycled. These are incongruent with our aggresive game plan (we don’t want to durdle around tapping mana for trinkets), and do not give access to turn one Trinisphere either. However these are excellent options in more midrange builds, since these often lack early plays and stable ramp like this is very valuable, as can be the colour-fixing.

Locks

No Stompy deck is complete without its lock pieces – lists can run at minimum four Chalices, but generally seven or eight total lock pieces is a comfortable number.

The best of them all is Chalice of the Void. We utilise no one-mana spells, so Chalice of the Void does nothing to hamper us – but for a lot of other Legacy decks, they can no longer function at all. Ancient Tomb into Chalice is probably one of the best ways to open the game for our deck, but is not a complete necessity, surprsingly, as the deck still functions reasonably well without it. Also note you can set this on two for a lot of important matchups and still be able to cast Mimics or Revokers via Cavern of Souls.

Trinisphere is the typical go-to secondary lock piece seen in Stompy decks and it is feasible in Eldrazi Stompy lists too, especially if it can be accelerated out on turn one. However, I’ve already noted the card’s dissynergy with Eye of Ugin, which can slow us down and prevent us from utilising our most aggressive draws involving Mimics. Something to be wary of, but it isn’t a dealbreaker – sometimes even though your stuff is a little bit more expensive, your opponent’s is still a lot more expensive than they’d typically be and you’ll be able to capitalise on this per usual.

For those irked by Trinisphere, Thorn of Amethyst is probably the best compromise. This slows down the cantrip-laden blue decks of Legacy while hampering Eldrazi Stompy very little, as most of our deck is either creatures or lock pieces (and maybe some removal). However, creature-centric decks may not be affected by this at all – playing this on turn one against Death & Taxes or Elves is surely to bring out a fist-pump from your opponent.

Playing Thorn vs. Trinisphere really comes down to a few things:

a) How much do you hate the dissynergy with Eye, and how much is your list leaning on aggressive Eldrazi draws?

b) How much acceleration do you run? Being able to turn one Trinisphere escalates its strength.

c) How much of the metagame is immune to Thorn? If a large portion, maybe consider Trinisphere.

Another option to consider is Sphere of Resistance, if you are happy with the Thorn effect being sort-of symmetrical. I’d advise against this, however. The deck needs to curve out and is very mana hungry, and Sphere may be too detrimental. In decks abusing a stronger top-end though, and maybe becoming almost Stax-orientated, Sphere looks a bit more feasible. But we’re talking about the aggro version here, etc.

Creatures

The creatures of the aggro Eldrazi Stompy lists have distilled down to a very firm core.

Thought-Knot Seer is probably the strongest of all the Eldrazi we have. Being generally powerful interaction against the entire field on a beefy Bolt-proof body is very impressive, and again distinguishes Eldrazi Stompy as being a Stompy deck whose creatures are not just beaters, but also good pieces of interaction. Thought-Knot Seer also gives the deck multiple angles against combo, and makes combo one of the deck’s stronger matchups. Chalice on one into turn two Thought-Knot Seer is absurdly powerful – especially since this makes most common removal nullified, and the opponent will likely be unable to draw from the Seer at all. Also note a common play from opponents will be to Plow the Seer, draw a card off him and then you take your pick. Which is fine. But yeah, run four or you are insane.

Thought-Knot Seer is a bit subtle about how powerful he is – only once do you play some games do you realise how strong he is. But Reality Smasher just has raw power written across his face. This is getting into the high regions of your curve, but Reality Smasher can lead to some insanely fast games especially when in multiples. This makes five mana the golden amount of mana for this deck, which is hopefully being produced from three lands. Smasher also in general is great against the Legacy format – Decay and Bolt he is immune to – while Plows, although annoying, two-for-one your opponent. Legacy is often known as the ‘card quality’ rather than ‘quantity’ format (due to the nature of Brainstorm), and Smasher can really therefore pressure your opponent’s scarce resources. Smasher himself also demands a Terminus unless Miracles want to two-for-one themselves, which is great, because then chaining Smasher with Eye of Ugin becomes a real thing – he is generally your primary Eye target in most games. Anyway, run four. You’ll remember many a game as you play the deck where you’ll think… “If I’d only topdecked Smasher…”

Endless One is again quite subtle, but he’s secretly everything a Stompy deck wants. Being castable in the early turns to begin applying pressure, or drawing him late and powering out a vanilla 7/7 gives the deck a threat that is surprisingly flexible and forgiving of how much you’ve flooded out, or how mana screwed you are. He also can become a free Grizzly Bear with Eye of Ugin on the first turn, so multiples of these and Mimics can really lead to some blisteringly fast aggro games. Be wary of him actually being zero cmc when on the battlefield, as Engineered Explosives easily kills him, as does blinking him. Endless One I like as a four-of (although it’s arguable to cut some down) as he smooths out your mana curve, is flexible and adds consistency to a deck that can otherwise get some clunky draws.

Eldrazi Mimic is the card that distinguishes aggressive variants from more midrange ones. Although Mimic is an abhorrent top deck in the late game, Mimic gives the deck an early play other than Chalice and, as long as other threats appear beside him, he can get in for a lot of damage – curving Mimic into Seer into Smasher is good times. Multiple Mimics also can explode out on turn one with an Eye of Ugin, leading to the deck’s Affinity-esque draws, but remember that a hand of all Mimics can be pretty lacklustre if not followed up with other threats. Anyway, either run four or zero of these in your Eldrazi Stompy list, as you either want to draw them in your opening hand and capitalise on their speed as much as possible, or don’t want them at all.

Okay, the next batch of cards are what I believe are flex slot creatures.

Phyrexian Revoker is nice to keep the curve low and streamlined, but has a few things against him. Firstly, and I guess most importantly, he’s not an Eldrazi. So although he can be cast on turn one by Tomb or City, Temple or Eye will be no such help. As such, he can really mess with your curve and deployment of threats. Also, sometimes Revoker just isn’t very good in a matchup, or the only card you Revoker… Doesn’t really matter. Although I love him against Miracles, Blade decks, combo and many others, sometimes you have to resign yourself to having, in some matchups, a Bronze Sable in your deck. You can run as many of these guys you prefer.

Matter Reshaper is again nice as a cheap Eldrazi to get the beatdown going. The card also can accumulate some value, either cantripping or even ramping you to further plays. However, it must be noted that this guy is utterly atrocious against white-based decks, especially Miracles where he is essentially a vanilla 3/2. With Miracles as one of the top contenders in the metagame I’m hesistant to include him in my lists, but he is very reasonable in grindy matchups against Shardless BUG or Jund, so if your metagame is full of those, consider some number of him.

Endbringer is what I like to think of as a Eldrazi-planeswalker – although you have to untap with him. Costing a very scary six mana, Endbringer will do exactly as he says – bring the end on your opponent, as long as they’re playing a fair deck. In these situations he can either let you draw cards, ping away small creatures, prevent large creatures from attacking – all of these, or in combination, twice per turn as long as you have the mana. He’s also got a 5/5 body to boot. So he certainly does a lot of sweet things, but there’s a variety of knocks against him. Firstly, he does zilch against combo, instead he simply rots in your hand while you wished he was relevant card. Furthermore, six mana is a surpringly large amount of mana for this deck that can be hard to reach, especially when some opposing Wastelands are involved. I’d run Endbringer main if you expect a relatively fair metagame where he can shine as a true endgame bomb, but I’d shy away from him if you expect a fair amount of combo or your mana base to be pressured. Hence, he’s often not a four-of.

Some individuals have tried including Lodestone Golem within the creature suite but unfortunately I don’t think this is reasonable. Making Seer and Smasher a bump above their mana cost can really brutalise your curve-outs, and we really don’t have enough artifacts to make Golem’s effect asymmetrical. If only there was a Thalia-Eldrazi… I’d play that in a heartbeat.

Oblivion Sower is also a big badass Eldrazi… But unfortunately ends up as just a big dummy vanilla dude. I’d much rather prefer Endbringer before I play this guy, though if the Eldrazi mirror ever becomes a thing (unlikely) we’ll keep this guy in mind…

Conduit of Ruin is an interesting card, but I feel he is much more suitable to more midrange variants, where he can find singleton Ulamogs or World Breakers and accelerate them out next turn. I would not fault playing them in a more aggro variant though as a having one-of sevens can be powerful in the late game, but just remember that Conduit isn’t really giving you the card for free and until you draw that card all you really did was cast a vanilla 5/5. The same issues I’ve mentioned about Endbringer hold for Conduit too.

Utility

The deck often has some room for interactive spells – though again, these are entirely optional, but I think in general the Legacy metagame requires you to be able to interact with things that can slip through your locks.

Warping Wail is a very strong option since although its removal option is great, it also provides a very strong piece of interaction with combo, giving the deck so many angles (permanent-based, hand disruption, counterspells) that combo is very favourable. It’s also great against Miracles too to save your team from a Terminus. The Scion mode is also actually surprisingly relevant, as sometime mana can be a bottleneck when all you want to do is smash. Overall a very good card, and I’d definitely try and find at least two slots for it.

Spatial Contortion I am less of a fan. What Contortion kills, Wail usually does as well in Legacy, and Contortion is much less flexible. If you feel that the counterspell mode of Wail is not worth the very occasional limiting of what creatures it can exile, I guess Contortion is an option, though I’d always look to Wail first. Though I guess pumping up Smasher to get in for eight trample damage could be sweet?

Dismember looks strange when we have the aforementioned Contortion, but Contortion really misses when trying to kill Tarmogoyf and Gurmag Anglers, who can be too large for our threats to overcome at times. I also like that this gives us main deck outs to card such as Magus of the Moon and can also be a bit easier to hold up compared to Wail or Contortion. For those running Urborg as well, Dismember can become a little bit less painful to cast, since this is definitely a concern with Tombs added into the mix. Again, an overall strong card to consider.

Ratchet Bomb is a very slow catchall card, but it can be quite strong in the correct scenarios, especially against tokens such as those of Young Pyromancer and Mentor (just beware of blowing up your own Chalices or Endless Ones). It’s perfectly reasonable to find in the main as it can do some work (albeit, as I said, very slowly), though I prefer it moreso in the sideboard.

Gut Shot is another interesting card, that again, is much better relegated to the sideboard for matchups where small creatures are assured. In Legacy there are quite a few creatures with more than one toughness that Gut Shot cannot deal with, but Wail can (as most of them are 1/2s) so again, I’d look towards Wail over this despite Gut Shot’s ability to be ‘free’.

Equipment is also a hallmark of Stompy decks, changing any lousy dude lying around into a powerhouse. Umezawa’s Jitte is a great option since it can be cast and equipped off two Sol Lands and immediately dominate the board in creature-based matchups, but it is quite a dead card against unfair matchups or control decks. Sword of Fire and Ice is the other strong equipment option, providing the deck with card advantage if it connects as well as cutting through a sea of Elementals and shooting down Delvers – or just killing your opponent.

Ok, so hopefully we can see a vague core appearing. Let’s outline a purely aggressive Eldrazi deck list with everything we’ve talked about:

4 Ancient Tomb

3-4 City of Traitors

4 Eldrazi Temple

3-4 Eye of Ugin

0-2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2-4 Wasteland

3-4 Cavern of Souls

3-4 Mishra’s Factory

0-4 Mutavault

0-4 Crystal Vein

0-2 Sea Gate Wreckage

0-4 Mox Diamond

0-4 Simian/Elvish Spirit Guide

0-4 Grim Monolith

4 Chalice of the Void

0-4 Trinisphere

0-4 Thorn of Amethyst

4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Reality Smasher

3-4 Endless One

4 Eldrazi Mimic

0-4 Phyrexian Revoker

0-4 Matter Reshaper

0-2 Endbringer

2-4 Warping Wail

0-4 Dismember

0-4 Spatial Contortion

0-2 Ratchet Bomb

0-2 Umezawa’s Jitte

0-2 Sword of Fire and Ice

That’s… A lot of cards. But you can see how preferences and etc. give room to tweak numbers from this template of cards and then build a person’s unique list.

Let’s think about myself. I want to ensure I have strong interaction against Storm, as well as have a strong Miracles and Delver matchup – however, I am willing to suffer against non-blue opponents as I do not expect this to be a significant portion of the metagame.

Therefore, my mana base will prioritise Caverns and Factories as well as maybe find room for a Sea Gate Wreckage. Wasteland is not amazing against Miracles, nor against Delver who will typically be cutting me off mana:

4 Ancient Tomb

3 City of Traitors

4 Eldrazi Temple

3 Eye of Ugin

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2 Wasteland

4 Cavern of Souls

3 Mishra’s Factory

1 Sea Gate Wreckage

In terms of acceleration, I will utilise Simian Spirit Guide. This ensures greater chances of Chalice on one versus combo, as well as the surprise ability to play through Daze if needed. Also, additional threats against Miracles are appreciated. Again, note that you can simply play a few more lands and probably get away with no acceleration pieces.

4 Simian Spirit Guide

In terms of locks, I mentioned large amounts of blue and Storm, so Thorn it is. I also prefer having no dissynergy with my aggro draws.

4 Chalice of the Void

3 Thorn of Amethyst

Since Miracles and combo are prevalent, Revoker gets the nod over Matter Reshaper.

4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Reality Smasher

4 Endless One

4 Eldrazi Mimic

4 Phyrexian Revoker

And I’ll cap off the list with some pieces of interaction, prioritising Warping Wail for Miracles and Storm (and flavours of Delver), Dismember to round out the removal suite and Sword of Fire and Ice as a random bomb in my deck.

2 Warping Wail

1 Dismember

1 Sword of Fire and Ice

This gives me a list of:

Lands: (25)

4 Ancient Tomb

3 City of Traitors

4 Eldrazi Temple

3 Eye of Ugin

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

2 Wasteland

4 Cavern of Souls

3 Mishra’s Factory

1 Sea Gate Wreckage

Creatures: (24)

4 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Thought-Knot Seer

4 Reality Smasher

4 Endless One

4 Eldrazi Mimic

4 Phyrexian Revoker

Non-Creature Spells: (11)

4 Chalice of the Void

3 Thorn of Amethyst

2 Warping Wail

1 Dismember

1 Sword of Fire and Ice

Which looks pretty sweet!

Of course, Eldrazi decks aren’t this simple, because there’s coloured options to look at too. I think this is a nice starting point for aggro Eldrazi lists though, which certainly feels like the first level of this deck’s design. Then again, I’m more than happy to be wrong and more than happy for new unexplored options to be revealed!

Maybe I’ll talk about sideboard options and stuff in another post?

Anyway, hopefully this was helpful for those wanting to Smash in Legacy, or beat those Smashing in Legacy!