So, you just bought some Modern Horizons 3 packs, opened some cool new Eldrazi creatures, and now you want to make a deck around them - only you don’t want to run the new commander Ulalek, Fused Atrocity from the precon. You want to show people you can still make a strong deck with zero colors. It may seem difficult to build around such restrictions, and while Modern Horizons 3 has introduced a plethora of colorless spells to fill out your 99, there are some older, more obscure picks you can utilize to make your new Ulamog or Emrakul deck stand out from the pack.
LANDS
One of the most initially daunting, but ultimately exciting, aspects of building a colorless deck comes from choosing your land base. Since you’re looking exclusively for colorless mana, you have access to all the fun utility lands that normally you wouldn’t even consider because you’d typically need color fixing. Every one of your lands, while not necessarily as strong as, say, Inventors' Fair or Arcane Lighthouse, is going to have a unique ability on it. In this way, all of your lands can also be seen as spells, and if built right, you should never have a card in hand that does nothing. Some lands might be a little more underwhelming, like Zhalfirin Void and Crystal Grotto which only serve to scry 1, while some can actually be quite strong and push the game in your favor.
Everyone knows the power of Ancient Tomb in accelerating into explosive early-game plays, while also just being one of the all-around best lands that can slot into any deck. While not nearly as ubiquitously good as Ancient Tomb, if you’re trying to race to get your commander out as fast as possible (and especially if you don’t have access to colors), Crystal Vein is highly recommended. Eldrazi are so game-warping that often all it takes is a single cast of whatever titan you’ve put at the helm of your deck to shift the game in your favor. And while it may seem simple and straightforward, Crystal Vein simply gets you there a whole turn sooner. Sure, you may be losing any future access to this land, but when you’re snagging all of an opponent’s creatures with Emrakul, the World Anew or drawing four cards off of Kozilek, the Broken Reality, one measly land is the least of your worries. Without access to traditional mana acceleration outside of mana rocks, colorless Commander players have to take everything they can get, and even though this one has seen a steady price increase since late 2020, picking up a Mirage version for $4 is well worth the price.
Besides traditional mana ramp, your colorless deck is likely also going to be lacking in traditional card draw, as beyond things like Howling Mine or Mind Stone there’s little else to be found without dipping into a color or two. And while I wholeheartedly recommend the classic Mind's Eye for these decks, another great pick comes in the form of War Room. First appearing in Commander Legends, this one has been reprinted many times, and for good reason - it’s repeatable card draw for little drawback, and in our case, for the loss of zero life. The numerous reprints have firmly planted the price of this one at sub $2. The market is at basically no risk of drying out, so now is as good a time as any to pick one up.
| Crystal Vein | | |
| Crystal Vein | | |
| War Room | | |
| War Room | | |
This one is a personal favorite of mine, and one I’ve been rocking in my Vial Smasher deck since its introduction in Strixhaven: School of Mages. Wandering Archaic checks all sorts of boxes - its flip side provides some versatility in the form of card draw, which colorless decks so desperately need, and its main side is perfect for decks with high mana curves that tend to tap out. If Wandering Archaic is on the field and you tap out to cast your extremely expensive commander or any huge Eldrazi, you can still potentially impact the board through casting your opponents’ spells or forcing them to decide to either pay the extra mana or wait a turn or two until they can pay the tax. It’s like a more flexible Mind's Dilation that can hit the field earlier and trigger multiple spells per turn - what’s not to love?
Wandering Archaic has only been printed in Strixhaven, and while flip cards are becoming more and more common, that aspect of a card almost always means it’s less likely to be reprinted, and since this has sat steady around $7 since its initial printing, it likely has nowhere to go but up. For anyone playing colorless decks with expensive commanders and mana base, this should be an auto-include.
| Wandering Archaic | | |
| Wandering Archaic (Extended Art) | | |
One of the noticeable differences between the original Eldrazi titans and all the ones printed since is that the newer boogeymen can actually stay in the graveyard and be targeted by spells and abilities. This opens the door to all sorts of shenanigans, but in colorless those options are vastly more limited. One cool, albeit costly mana-wise, option (although this shouldn’t be an issue if you’re playing commanders with mana costs in the double digits) is Soul Separator, a dirt cheap rare from Eldritch Moon that has been looking for its time to shine. Using this will let you bring back your massive threats across two different bodies, one of which will have the targeted creature’s power and toughness, and the other which will have all other effects of the targeted creature on a 1/1 with flying. As mentioned before, it is expensive, costing eight mana total to pull off, but without access to traditional reanimation effects in black, getting two tokens at instant speed for this cost is actually not that bad, especially when one of them is going to have a huge body, and the other will have combat evasion and some powerful abilities like Annihilator.
Soul Separator also synergizes surprisingly well with the new Kozilek, the Broken Reality, and while you won’t get his cast trigger if you target him with Soul Separator, the 1/1 flyer you create will pump your 9/9 by an additional +3+2. Plus now that Kozilek is in exile, you can target it when Ulamog, the Defiler enters the battlefield to give the latter nine +1+1 counters - another cool interaction. Would I put this in a deck that runs Eldrazi that has access to black or other colors? Perhaps not. Would I put this in an exclusively colorless Eldrazi deck however? Absolutely, especially since it can be nabbed for less than a quarter.
Last but not least, I’d like to briefly mention Timesifter - only briefly because I’ve mentioned this card in this column before. That being said, if you’re running a colorless deck with a high mana curve (and especially if you have colorless top-deck manipulation like Sensei's Divining Top and Mystic Forge) and are looking to spice things up, look no further. Timesifter is disruptive, and if played right will give you numerous turns in a row - almost guaranteeing a win if you’ve built your deck right. It also feeds cards into exile to potentially give you more +1+1 counters on Ulamog, the Defiler… essential if you’re trying to sneak him into play instead of traditionally casting him.
I could go on, but $2 for a card with a single printing that has a slim chance of being reprinted due to the chaos and unpredictability it brings seems like a solid deal.
In Conclusion
Playing without the assistance of colored spells might seem intimidating at first, but in actuality there is just as much room for creative deckbuilding here as there is with every other archetype. These are just some of my suggestions, but there are plenty more available if you know where to look. I know I’m excited to see what creative decks this new wave of Eldrazi will bring, along with seeing how the format grows when colorless decks become more and more viable.
Further Reading:
Safe Bets for MH3 and Templar Knight
