Ever since the banning of Eye of Ugin, we’ve seen a number of interesting takes on the Eldrazi archetype trying to find the right combination of cards to bring back the Eldrazi menace. Bant is sort of the default build, featuring Noble Hierarch, Ancient Stirrings, Drowner of Hope, and Path to Exile. Other builds focus on Red cards like Lightning Bolt, Urza Lands, or any number of other options. Despite all the combinations that people have tried, t00yot has come up with one that is pretty unique:

Black-Green Eldrazi ? Modern | t00yot, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (13)
• 4 Reality Smasher
• 4 Tarmogoyf
• 4 Thought-Knot Seer
• 1 World Breaker

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Liliana of the Veil

• Spells (19)
• 4 Ancient Stirrings
• 4 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 3 Thoughtseize
• 2 Abrupt Decay
• 2 Dismember
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Oath of Nissa

• Lands (24)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Swamp
• 4 Eldrazi Temple
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Verdant Catacombs
• 2 Hissing Quagmire
• 2 Overgrown Tomb
• 2 Tectonic Edge
• 2 Twilight Mire
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Chalice of the Void
• 1 Damnation
• 2 Flaying Tendrils
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 2 Grafdigger's Cage
• 2 Nature's Claim
• 1 Night of Souls' Betrayal
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Obstinate Baloth

Buy This Deck

A big strength of the Eldrazi deck is that it absolutely crushes Black-Green decks. The combination of Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher are brutal against decks that just want to trade cards, particularly when those decks feature removal like Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile, which are particularly lackluster against the Eldrazi threats.

Given that Black-Green is so good against the unfair decks, while Eldrazi are great against fair decks, it makes a weird kind of sense to mash the two together and see how it works out. The combination of Thoughtseize, Tarmogoyf, and Liliana of the Veil means that you can still just Jund people out of games, but having Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher on backup is a fantastic place to be.

To me, the most interesting aspect of this deck is the mana base. Not only do you have to be able to cast Black and Green one-drops and Liliana of the Veil, you also want to be able to play Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher on turns three or four. Llanowar Wastes is an easy pickup, as is Eldrazi Temple and some number of Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge. Cavern of Souls would not be an unreasonable card to play. This combined with the fetch/shock manabase to clean up the remaining colored sources makes the mana pretty consistent.

To me, the two most interesting cards in this deck are Oath of Nissa and Engineered Explosives. Oath of Nissa allows the deck to more easily curve Liliana of the Veil into Thought-Knot Seer or Reality Smasher, since all of your colorless lands can also painlessly cast Liliana of the Veil. Engineered Explosives, on the other hand, is just a fantastic metagame choices. There are many decks like Affinity, Infect, and Death's Shadow that are overwhelmingly reliant on either one- or two-drop permanents. Engineered Explosives cleans up these cards without any substantial vulnerability to the likes of Apostle's Blessing, pump spells, or Spell Pierce. Engineered Explosives was an awesome metagame choice for any Black-Green deck, and particularly in one that isn’t playing cards like Dark Confidant or Grim Flayer.