Hello everyone! I'm Levi from The Thought Vessel, and this is Commander Kryptonite, the series that looks at some of the strongest commanders in the format, their strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately, how to beat them. This week, in light of all the new Eldrazi being spoiled in Edge of Eternities, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at an Eldrazi commander. I decided to look at the most popular colorless commander for Eldrazi at the moment: Zhulodok, Void Gorger.

The Commander

Zhulodok, Void Gorger was a precon commander from Commander Masters. The commander itself doesn't explicitly have Eldrazi synergy, but rather has synergy with colorless spells that have a mana value of seven or greater. This usually leads to Eldrazi but doesn't have to. In fact, one criticism of the precon for Zhulodok, Void Gorger was that the list didn't have as many Eldrazi spells as one would expect. But when these high mana value spells are cast, they have cascade, cascade--meaning that every big spell effectively becomes three spells. So, Zhulodok can start out slow, then explode in the midgame by burying everyone else in value.

The Deck

A deck like this typically wants to ramp quickly to get to the bigger spells as fast as possible. Through some of the scariest creatures in the game, this deck looks to knock down everything in its path. It takes advantage of only using colorless spells with cards like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Eye of Ugin, and Forsaken Monument to further leverage its advantage. The deck has the special ability of being a rolling value engine that also has enough explosion from individual cards to turn the entire game on its head. Here's an example of what a typical Zhulodok deck might look like at your local game store.

Zhulodok, Void Gorger | Commander

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zhulodok, Void Gorger

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Abstruse Archaic
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Bane of Bala Ged
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Conduit of Ruin
• 1 Emrakul, the Promised End
• 1 Endbringer
• 1 Flayer of Loyalties
• 1 Glaring Fleshraker
• 1 Geode Golem
• 1 It That Betrays
• 1 It That Heralds the End
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Kozilek, the Broken Reality
• 1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
• 1 Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter
• 1 Meteor Golem
• 1 Oblivion Sower
• 1 Palladium Myr
• 1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
• 1 Sire of Seven Deaths
• 1 Skittering Cicada
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1 Ulamog, the Defiler
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1 Void Winnower

• Instants (4)
• 1 Not of This World
• 1 Null Elemental Blast
• 1 Titan's Presence
• 1 Warping Wail

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 All Is Dust
• 1 Calamity of the Titans
• 1 Desecrate Reality
• 1 Echoes of Eternity
• 1 Rise of the Eldrazi

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Ugin, Eye of the Storms
• 1 Ugin, the Ineffable

• Artifacts (25)
• 1 Akroma's Memorial
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Commander's Plate
• 1 Darksteel Monolith
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Chimil, the Inner Sun
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Forsaken Monument
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mirage Mirror
• 1 Mystic Forge
• 1 Portal to Phyrexia
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 The One Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Unstable Obelisk
• 1 Urza's Incubator
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (27)
• 1 Arcane Lighthouse
• 1 Arch of Orazca
• 1 Blast Zone
• 1 Bonders' Enclave
• 1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 1 Mage-Ring Network
• 1 Eye of Ugin
• 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1 Eldrazi Temple
• 1 Guildless Commons
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sanctum of Ugin
• 1 Scavenger Grounds
• 1 Sea Gate Wreckage
• 1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon
• 1 Tyrite Sanctum
• 1 Ugin's Labyrinth
• 1 Urza's Cave
• 1 Urza's Mine
• 1 Urza's Power Plant
• 1 Urza's Tower
• 1 Urza's Workshop
• 1 War Room

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Strengths

Eldrazi are exceptionally strong at two things: being gigantic and destroying everything in their path. There are special board wipes that destroy everything with a color, and cards that steal permanents. Once this deck gets rolling, the double cascade can put out enough mana to make it incredibly hard to stop.

Weaknesses

These types of decks can take a lot of time to get online and have to dedicate a lot of slots to ramp spells to get to high mana values early. This has two negatives. The first is that these ramp spells can be the next spells up and waste cascades. The second is taking the first few turns off to get ready. Against an aggro deck or an aggressive combo deck, opponents can cross the finish line before Zhulodok has even left the blocks.

Cards to Look Out For

1. Ultima, Origin of Oblivion - This is a more recent addition that's growing in popularity as more Final Fantasy packs have been opened and singles have become available. This is effectively a second version of Forsaken Monument. Anything that can make colorless lands tap for extra mana is a massive problem, as we want to slow this deck down as much as possible.
2. All Is Dust - I can almost guarantee that Zhulodok is going to be playing this card and other board wipes that can clear out all colored permanents at once because of how one-sided they are. Holding back cards and counterMagic is going to be a must to ensure we're prepared for this spell going onto the stack.
3. Echoes of Eternity - This one's pretty self-explanatory. It's going to double up every spell that Zhulodok plays as long as Echoes of Eternity is in play. That's an insane amount of value being produced at once.
4. Ugin, the Ineffable - This card doesn't get a lot of respect since it's one of the weaker Ugins and is less than $1.00, but getting to discount every colorless spell by two mana and having the option of either card advantage or removal is very solid turn over turn.
5. Commander's Plate - In a mono-colored Voltron deck, this is a strong equipment card to keep a creature safe and attacking. In a colorless deck, this is +3/+3 and protection from all colors. Putting this on a large Eldrazi can put everyone on a turn clock immediately.

How to Eliminate the Eldrazi

This is a game that'll work in three steps. Step one: chip in for damage and removal early to slow Zhulodok down and bring the life total to a reasonable level. This is going to help us in phase three. Step two: Zhulodok gets scary. This will happen naturally and will make the Eldrazi player public enemy number one. This leads us to step three: team up with the rest of the table to take out the Eldrazi player all at once. From there, we put our best effort into climbing to the top of the pile and sealing the win.

Commander Kryptonite

If you're still having issues with Eldrazi, consider adding these cards to your 99:

1. Vandalblast - This also applies to any mass artifact removal spell. Colorless decks can't use land-based ramp as efficiently as Green, so there's usually an artifact sub-theme that can be attacked.
2. Drannith Magistrate - When Drannith Magistrate is in play, cascade effects are shut off since spells can't be cast from exile. Be careful though--this card attracts a lot of hate from the table.
3. Insurrection - Colorless decks aren't very capable of countering spells on the stack, so a card like this can do wonders. As soon as Zhulodok builds up a big enough board, simply steal it for the turn and attack for lethal.

Wrapping Up

And that's how you beat Zhulodok. If you have a commander you'd like to see featured on Commander Kryptonite, send us an email at thoughtvesselshow@gmail.com. Until next time, happy gaming!