So with Eye of Ugin banned from modern now, I took a look back at the old Heartless Eldrazi Deck that was still around before the Eldrazi Winter.
With the current release of Kaladesh block, I thought I may be up to something interesting with the addition of Scrapheap Scrounger. I wanted to bring back the cost reduction power of Eye of Ugin in another manner, so I tried to experiment with this alternative build that revolves around a much spoken interaction of Eternal Scourge + Gemstone Caverns but with the addition of Serum Powder, Scrapheap Scrounger and Heartless Summoning.
Basic Idea:The gist of this deck's playstyle is somewhat explosive and midrangey, with the capability to grind the opponent by recurring Scrapheap Scrounger & Eternal Scourge repeatedly. Ideally you want to have your opening hand with multiple copies of Eternal Scourge and Gemstone Caverns/Serum Powder, which you can exile to redraw your hand, assuming you do not have Heartless Summoning & Eldrazi Temples in hand already.
Ideally you want to start the turn with a Gemstone Caverns in play and power out Heartless Summoning by turn 1 or 2. Then you can drop Scrapheap Scroungers for free and hopefully land Chalice of the Void for 1 or 2 to get your early game going.
Starting turn 2 or 3 onwards you will have Thought-Knot Seer for disruption and Reality Smasher to hit the opponents hard. If the opponents hold out the midgame aggression, the new Chandra and Sea Gate Wreckage is there to help you grind card advantage if you dump your hand early, until you draw into the Promised End which hopefully will mindslave your opponent into concession, which given the right conditions, should allow you to cast it for as low as 6 mana(although I expect it to be casted around 7-8 mana on average).
Card functionsHeartless Summoning - The main draw of the deck. With this out we can play our eldrazis as fast as 2 turns earlier than normal, although they come at a cost of being 1 less power & toughness. You'll only need 1 on the field most of the time. The rest can be discard fodders.
Scrapheap Scrounger - This card here wants to mimic the explosive play similar to Eye of Ugin + Eldrazi Mimic with Heartless Summoning. While this is somewhat a poor imitation, you are still able to recur this guy through out the game with Eternal Scrouge.
Thought-Knot Seer - This card functions more like Tidehollow Sculler in the deck as hand disruption. Could be powered out as early as turn 1, although I think you generally do not want to do this as your hand will be left quite empty just to put it on the field.
Reality Smasher - Our hasty Loxodon Smiters in the deck. Optimally you will drop these starting turn 2 and get the beat down going before anyone else.
Simian Spirit Guide - Another accelerant in case you do not have Heartless on field. The slots for this card is actually replaceable, and I think it is better served in another strategy or playstyle. But getting Chalice on 1 or 2 counters in turn 1/2 looks pretty sweet. I dont know.
Chalice of the Void - Based off the many decklists floating around, too important not to put in. You can shut off early aggressors with this.
Dismember - Honestly am not sure about this card, but Fatal Push is a no-bo with Chalice.
Relic of Progenitus - Originally there as interaction for Eternal Scourges, now that I think about it, this could be moved to the sideboard in favor of putting in more threats/disruption MB like Collective Brutality/Kolaghan's Command/Oblivion Sower/new Kozilek/new Ulamog, since Heartless is there to lower your casting curve after all. And Relic is kind of no-bo with Scrapheap and Emrakul itself.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - one of our source of card advantage. This is something untested as I'm not sure if it fits into this aggressive strategy. Some interactions with this card is during turn 2-3 (with 2-3 lands in play), you can power this out early with Simian Spirit Guides and using its +1 to land in Chalice of the Void for 1.
Emrakul, the Promised End - This is the Late Game ender, because you can cast it for lower than 8cmc. However I've considered Bedlam Reveler & Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger in this slot before, they could be better.
Landbase is fairly rough and untuned. So is the sideboard. Maybeboards are flex slots depending on playstyle/meta.
Alt buildsAnother route this deck could go is to mirror the old Heartless decks, instead of playing the explosive midrange game, plays the control game through disruption and early removal such as Thoughtseize/Inquisition of Kozilek, Lightning Bolt/Fatal Push, Terminate/Dreadbore, and play into the big dudes like Ulamog/Sower/ emerge cards like Distended Mindbender.
I feel this strategy has some other merits worth exploring, but I need more feedback from all of you who wants to test this strategy extensively.
