“Defeat is always momentary!“
Art:Herald of Kozilek
by Johannes Voss
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Herald of Kozilek is one of the coolest commanders in the format, and Izzet Eldrazi is a very interesting concept. I have been having a ton of fun with this deck, and playing a mainly colorless deck within an Izzet shell makes for some pretty fun and sweet gameplay. This deck is quite strong and allows us to have a pretty sweet board full of some of the most menacing creatures in the multiverse. I hope you all enjoy this one as much as I have been. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Herald of Kozilek Eldrazi!
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Why Herald of Kozilek?
Herald of Kozilek is a huge part of our deck and is arguably one of the most important cards in the deck and a good rule of thumb is that we should cast as soon as we possibly can. Herald of Kozilek is certainly a powerhouse for the deck as they discount a good majority of the deck, allowing us to turn up the pressure on our opponents and get a board established with ease. Herald of Kozilek is a great card for the deck that I typically like to protect as much as I can.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We do have some mana-ramp that also gets our commander discount in Manakin
and Ornithopter of Paradise
which are great ways to speed out some of our bigger Eldrazi like Ulamog's Crusher
and Eldrazi Devastator
which are some of the best of the best. We do have some cards that are strong mana producers like Emrakul's Hatcher
, which sadly doesn’t get the discount, but the three hatchlings we create can allow us to go off and also count for our cards that count the Eldrazi creature type. Rapacious One
is another strong Eldrazi hatchling producer, and if it hits, it can put us very ahead on mana or draw a ton of cards with Distant Melody
. We have a couple of strong cards that require specifically colorless mana, like Blinding Drone
, Gravity Negator
, and Kozilek's Pathfinder
, which are all great ways to take advantage of some of the extra mana we have and get some strong benefits for the deck. I love Nettle Drone
within the deck as it is a great way to get some damage to our opponents passively, and in turn, we can untap Nettle Drone quite a bit.
Instants:
We are in Izzet, and we are able to play a ton of colored cards even though the deck mostly focuses on colorless cards. We have ways to protect our creatures and stop our opponents in Counterspell
, Arcane Denial
, and Cancel
, which are all great ways to protect our own commander and creatures as well as stop our opponents from getting out of hand. Spell Shrivel
is an amazing card that is great at three mana but since it is a devoid spell, we are able to cast it for two, which can be broken at pretty much any stage of the game, and against most decks it is quite hard for our opponents to pay for. Consuming Sinkhole
gets the discount from our commander, and in games, I have used this against strong lands like Path of Ancestry
and Tocasia's Dig Site
and in a couple of games I was able to kill a player with the damage from Consuming sinkhole.
Sorceries:
Distant Melody is a very strong source of card draw for the deck, and even in the early turns, we can easily draw a ton of cards off of this, thanks to some of our Eldrazi being decently cheap. Divination
is another source of card draw, certainly not as strong as distant melody, but when we are high on mana, we can easily cast this and keep on casting creatures in a single turn. Touch of the Void
is discounted by our commander and is essentially a Lightning Strike
with an exile effect on death, which can be very strong against a variety of the decks in the format. We don’t get a discount on Slip Through Space
, but a cantrip and an unblockable creature are perfect for us and can easily be used to finish off an opponent.
Artifacts:
We have quite an advantage through our artifact package; not only do we get extra mana production that allows us to run out our creatures early but we also get a discount from our commander, casting cards like Arcane Signet
for one mana and Sisay's Ring
for three mana allows us to become hyper-aggressive with our creatures and produce an absolute ton of mana. We don’t really have any non-rocks in our artifact package besides Wedding Invitation
, which is a great way to get some extra card draw and guarantee a big hit with one of our bigger and badder Eldrazi.
Enchantments:
Fall from Favor
and Witness Protection
are both great ways to take out key threats from our opponents and are absolutely perfect for commanders. We also have some quite strong offensive enchantments in Sticky Fingers
, which is great in the early game for some extra mana production and is also great when we have big creatures out because we can utilize the menace to hit in for some big damage. Aqueous Form
is an amazing way to look ahead at the deck and get some guaranteed damage. It is absolutely perfect for only one mana. The same is true for Arcane Flight
, which is a great way to make our Eldrazi more evasive, and a buff is always nice.
Land Base:
Since we have a lot of cards that require specifically colorless we have quite a few sources as well as some Wastes
as well as the typical Izzet basics that you would expect. We also have some strong nonbasics for the deck, like Captivating Cave
and Cave of Temptation
, which are both colorless sources and can provide a buff to our creatures, which is quite strong. We also have The Surgical Bay
and The Autonomous Furnace
which represent a strong source of card draw for the deck. I like this landbase a lot and think its quite efficient and strong for the deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We can establish quite a strong board early with our mana rocks and the static discount from our commander.
- Even though most of our deck is colorless, we actually have quite a few colored cards that allow us to stop opponents from destroying our overall game plan.
- We are decently strong in the early game, as we have some pretty strong Eldrazi.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Our commander is a huge part of our deck and a gigantic removal magnet.
- Even though we do have big creatures, some of them are quite weak to some pretty simple single-target removal.
- Many of our Eldrazi are not great blockers, and we can take a ton of damage against any deck that focuses on trample.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck through and through; since we are in Izzet, we don’t have a ton of ramp, but we do have a passive discount for a good majority of the deck from our commander; from this we can cast a ton of Eldrazi for cheaper than their cost, some are small like Benthic Infiltrator
, and we also have some more impressive ones like Eldrazi Devastator and Ulamog's Crusher almost all of the creatures in our deck are quite strong in combat and can put quite a bit of pressure on our opponents.
Conclusion:
Herald of Kozilek is a very fun Pauper EDH commander who is an enabler for one of the strongest creature types in the game; even though we don’t have access to some of the best at common, we still do have access to a ton of the very strong ones, and it allows us to put major pressure on our opponents. This deck is a blast to play and doesn’t feel that overwhelming for our opponents as we are not comboing off or doing anything super broken. I hope you all enjoyed this one as much as I did! Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!