Artisan of Kozilek

Creature — Eldrazi

When you cast this spell, you may return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Annihilator 2 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices two permanents.)

Discussion (51)

multimedia on Nikya, the New Way

2 weeks ago

Hey, 64 creatures? I understand Nikya doesn't let you cast noncreature spells, but 64 is kind of overkill.

Temur Sabertooth lets you take some advantage of Nikya's ramp by bouncing her to your hand to then use the ramp on a noncreature spell such as Primal Surge. Some noncreature spells within the budget to consider adding:

• Primal Surge
• Sol Ring
• Vivien's Arkbow
• Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• Guardian Project
• Rhythm of the Wild

Other cards within the budget to consider adding:

• Command Tower
• Ash Barrens
• Cinder Glade
• Rootbound Crag
• Game Trail
• Fauna Shaman : repeatable creature tutor and good to discard Genesis or Anger.
• Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip: mana sink to get creatures into your hand.
• Fierce Empath : tutor for a six CMC or higher creature, good with Temur Sabertooth as a repeatable tutor.
• Eternal Witness : recur any card from your graveyard, also good with Sabertooth.
• Steel Hellkite : with ramp it can wreck opponents, repeatable board wipe when it attacks.
• Artisan of Kozilek : big creature to use ramp with, reanimation and annihilator is powerful.
• Anger : haste enabler.

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Cards to consider cutting:

• 3x Mountain
• 2x Forest
• Hungering Hydra
• Zhur-Taa Druid
• Fertilid
• Primeval Protector
• Nessian Wilds Ravager
• Cyclops of Eternal Fury
• Burning Sun's Avatar
• Nessian Game Warden
• Heroes' Bane
• Stone-Seeder Hierophant
• Arbor Colossus
• Waker of the Wilds
• Dictate of Karametra

multimedia on Rakdos Beatdown

3 weeks ago

Hey, you're welcome :)

I don't want to discourage you by suggesting to add so many cards and cut so many cards. You have a really good plan for when you get Rakdos onto the battlefield, but the problem is you haven't included many ways to cast Rakdos. Because can only cast him if an opponent loss life for the turn. You have a great late game base of creatures, really good, but there's not very much, if any, early game plays to make. Commander decks want three plans at various stages of a game. One for the early game, one for the mid game and one for the late game. Right now you have planned out the mid and late game well, but have neglected the early game. My advice is sacrifice some mid and late game cards for early game cards.

Some examples of different plans for each stage of the a game.

Early game (ramp and pingers):

• Sol Ring , Rakdos Signet , Spear Spewer , Sin Prodder , Demonic Tutor

Mid game (Rakdos and reanimation):

• Rakdos, Solemn Simulacrum , Doomed Necromancer , Heartless Hidetsugu , Sidisi, Undead Vizier

Late game (Eldrazi and other big creatures)

In my opinion it's better to have a lot more early game plays then mid and late game. The early game plays should help to setup and get into the mid and late game. Low mana cast reanimation/enablers is an an example of early game plays that can be just as good as a mid/late game plays. Tutors are an excellent bridge between each stage of the game because they let you get a certain card for what ever stage you're at and in of need at the time.

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As I said in my last comment I think you can cut quite a few of the big creatures and replace them with more early game cards that let you interact with Rakdos faster.

Cards to consider cutting:

• Cinder Barrens
• Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Swamp
• Chainer, Dementia Master
• Endling
• Garna, the Bloodflame
• Geth, Lord of the Vault
• Greven, Predator Captain
• Hythonia the Cruel
• K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• Massacre Girl
• Nighthowler
• Overseer of the Damned
• Soul of Innistrad
• Tetzimoc, Primal Death
• The Haunt of Hightower
• The Scorpion God
• Fated Return
• Phthisis
• Blackblade Reforged
• Whispersilk Cloak
• Loxodon Warhammer
• Sword of Truth and Justice

All these cards are by no means bad, they're just in my opinion worse than the other cards here. In my last comment I listed about 20 cards for you to consider adding most except Heartless Hidetsugu and Artisan of Kozilek were one to three CMC. Which included pingers ( Spear Spewer , etc.), mana rocks ( Rakdos Signet , etc.), reanimation/enablers ( Doomed Necromancer , Buried Alive , etc.) and instant removal ( Chaos Warp , etc.).

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40 lands is a lot of lands, consider cutting some for additional mana sources (mana rocks)?

• Sol Ring
• Rakdos Signet
• Talisman of Indulgence
• Chromatic Lantern
• Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip

I think you're better off adding mana rocks then having lots of lands and equipment. I think it helps your deck more to have color fixing and ramp then equipment. Mana rocks are excellent early game plays. Equipment are mid to late game plays and they only do something if you have creatures on the battlefield who can attack. Rakdos or Sin Prodder could be good sources of a creature for equipment, but equipment overall is not doing much here. Because of mana cost for Rakdos then mana rocks that can make colored mana are more desirable then ones that can't. However if you have the powerful mana rocks that only make colorless mana ( Sol Ring , etc.) still play them because they're some of the best cards in Commander.

Lots of basic lands can be problematic when the main casting cost you're trying to make is for Rakdos. Some other playable Rakdos dual lands to consider adding:

• Blood Crypt
• Dragonskull Summit
• Graven Cairns
• Sulfurous Springs
• Tainted Peak

king-saproling on Fight me bro

4 weeks ago

Nice you picked a really cool general for your first EDH! Nice to see Gruul getting some love. You do have a lot of noncreature stuff though, which your general seems to hate.

You might swap some of those noncreature things out for some of these: Ruric Thar, the Unbowed , Krosan Restorer , Magus of the Candelabra (this guy is super good when your general is out, all your lands will effectively make 3 mana each!), Voyaging Satyr , Reclamation Sage , Genesis Hydra , Savageborn Hydra , Apocalypse Hydra , Garruk's Horde , Garruk's Packleader , Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip, Drumhunter , Artisan of Kozilek , Ulvenwald Tracker , Foe-Razer Regent , Gruul Ragebeast

multimedia on Rakdos Beatdown

4 weeks ago

Hey, you definitely like high mana cost cards (5 CMC plus). There's 28 here!

How do you expect to be able to cast Rakdos? Consider more cards that make an opponent lose life? This deck will have a difficult time functioning without having Rakdos on the battlefield, being able to reduce the casting cost of creatures. With a 4.9 avg. CMC even being able to cast Rakdos is going to be a problem.

My advice is focus much more on the early game and much less on the late game. You don't need 25 high mana cost creatures for Rakdos, it's overkill.

Cards to consider adding:

• Rakdos Signet
• Talisman of Indulgence
• Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip
• Spear Spewer
• Thermo-Alchemist
• Sin Prodder
• Nettle Drone
• Vial Smasher the Fierce
• Lobber Crew

In the early game you want to make it easier to cast Rakdos this means mana rocks that can help make mana for his difficult casting cost and repeatable pingers to be able to make your opponents lose at least one life to be able to cast Rakdos.

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Heartless Hidetsugu can reduce a ton of colorless mana with Rakdos with one activation. Use this reduction to free cast Eldrazi (Ulamog and Emrakul). Artisan of Kozilek can be reanimation and Void Winnower is also good. These Eldrazi are really the only high mana cost creatures you need because lets face it there's not a lot of other creatures that can even compare in power level.

Other high mana cost creatures of the ones here to consider keeping are: Ilharg, the Raze-Boar , Sidisi, Undead Vizier , Urabrask the Hidden , Etali, Primal Storm , Archfiend of Despair , Vilis, Broker of Blood , Sheoldred, Whispering One . This is a base to consider:

• Heartless
• LLharg
• Sidisi
• Urabrask
• Eltali
• Archfiend
• Vilis
• Sheoldred
• Ulamog
• Ulamog
• Emrakul
• Artisan
• Winnower

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There's beginnings of a reanimation strategy here with Chainer, Nightmare Adept . Reanimation is a good a backup plan to be able to get big creatures onto the battlefield without Rakdos. Reanimation needs two parts: enablers to get creatures into your graveyard and the actual reanimation to cheat them onto the battlefield. Consider expanding on each of these parts?

• Faithless Looting
• Buried Alive
• Gamble
• Apprentice Necromancer
• Doomed Necromancer : included in Merciless Rage.
• Animate Dead
• Reanimate

The Necromancers are good with Chainer. Discard a big creature than cast one of the Necromancers from your graveyard, it gets haste, sac it to reanimate the big creature you just discarded.

Other cards to consider adding:

• Sol Ring : included in Merciless Rage.
• Graven Cairns
• Dragonskull Summit
• Ash Barrens : included in Merciless Rage.
• Smoldering Marsh
• Eye of Ugin : Eldrazi tutor.
• Anger : haste enabler.
• Rakdos Charm : way to make opponents lose life, can reduce a lot of colorless mana with Rakdos or instant counter an opponents infinite creature and/or graveyard combo.
• Chaos Warp : instant permanent removal, included in Merciless Rage.
• Terminate : instant creature removal.
• Lightning Greaves : haste enabler, protection.

If you would like I can give you a list of cards to consider cutting. Good luck with your deck.

RNR_Gaming on Atla's Eggs

1 month ago

You only seem to have one titan. I'm assuming you'll be adding the rest later. Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger should definitely be in. Additionally, the lesser eldrazi: It That Betrays , Artisan of Kozilek and Pathrazer of Ulamog would all be great includes. You could also think about Darksteel Colossus and Blightsteel Colossus (I would wait for a reprint on blightsteel though)

multimedia on Best Budget Eldrazi Cards?

3 months ago

Some options:

• Artisan of Kozilek
• Bane of Bala Ged
• Conduit of Ruin
• Endbringer
• Reality Smasher
• Void Winnower
• It That Betrays

jpermar on Rakdos, Lord's Downward Spiral

3 months ago

A small tweak:

• Artisan of Kozilek -> Nullstone Gargoyle

Nullstone Gargoyle helps close out the game!

Hollandj20 on Ugin's Buy 1 Get 2 Free in progess

4 months ago

CPTNSTEF Sorry that I'm leaving a sort of string of comments, I'm comparing a decklist I made with Ugin and All is dust and am going by card type. Anyways, I think your creatures are lacking in a little power, you have a good middle game and a good way to get there, but I think this deck shiness in the late game. I would urge you to run a coule of more powerful creatures than Bane of Bala Ged or warden of geometries. I think Oblivion Sower would be a more powerful and beneficial include over Bane and I think that honestly, you might want to try Artisan of Kozilek over the Void Winnower. These cards let you progress towards an endgame that is overall more powerful and focused, and if you find any way of replaying these cards, they become even more invaluable.