Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Legendary Creature — Eldrazi

When you cast Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, destroy target permanent.

Indestructible

Annihilator 4 (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player sacrifices four permanents.)

When Ulamog is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles their graveyard into their library.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (42)

TheOfficialCreator on Why is WotC Emphasizing Attacking …

1 month ago

What Niko9 says tracks, but I'd also like to bring in another angle.

I've long suspected that WOTC's design principles actually favor blocking over attacking, at least in mana value overall. That is to say, since blocking can't win you the game, as TypicalTimmy said, creatures can be given much higher toughness without boosting the rarity. Hence why Force of Savagery dies upon entering and is still a rare card for 3 mana while Aegis Turtle is largely forgotten by the community, is a common from an underpowered set, and is 1 mana.

Of course, with special abilities on blockers, it's harder to grant leverage to what a blocking creature can do, simply because that shifts the gameplay to the defending player, and those kinds of interactions are, for the most part, something Wizards would like to avoid outside of flash creatures. That isn't to say there aren't those kinds of blocking abilities, say, Steadfast Armasaur or Spike-Tailed Ceratops, but they are rarer for a reason.

Simply put, attacking should always be more highly rewarded than blocking, because it progresses the game, whereas blocking does not. Have you ever noticed that a LOT of indestructible creatures entice you to attack with them? Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre gulps down your opponent's board. Blightsteel Colossus deals massive amounts of poison damage. Avacyn, Angel of Hope has flying and can kick your opponents in the face.

There's reach, and that's about it for blocking abilities that are evergreen. (I'm not even sure if reach is evergreen anymore.)

There used to be regenerate, which is a more defensive mechanic.

But, like I said, blocking only slows down a game. It's a crucial part of the gameplay experience, but it shouldn't be able to dominate.

Mannlicher on Psycho Bunny Wonderland

1 month ago

Preface:

This deck was an idea to use some of my old cards, and also see just how nuts I could go with Kwain, Itinerant Meddler. This deck is a spider-web of synergy and combos, multiple infinite combos, and complete bonkers level shenanigans lurking behind a friendly-looking magic rabbit. This is not a budget deck, but in a gracious nod to Lewis Carroll, it is incredibly fun to go "down the rabbit-hole".

=====================

At it's core, the deck is group hug with card-draw, card based mana-ramp, and multiple options for life-gain. I use a few card-draw creatures as well, such as Shabraz, the Skyshark for their synergy with Kwain. Alternate win conditions include Approach of the Second Sun, Jace's Archivist, Windfall, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, Triskaidekaphile, and Test of Endurance; but the deck is also perfectly capable of beating someone to death with a giant fish - or a giant anything thanks to numerous life-gain options paired with an Archangel of Thune.

The deck has several prison elements with Moat, Silent Arbiter, and Archon of Emeria, as well as Propaganda, Ghostly Prison, and Sphere of Safety. Silent Arbiter and Crawlspace help directly reduce the deck's exposure to attack, along with Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer for any specific threats or "when attacks" triggers. Finally, since this deck does not rely on creatures or doing damage to win, and generates lots of cards in hand, Meishin, the Mind Cage is an easy way to reduce all opponents' creatures to 0 power. For direct damage and targeted attacks outside of combat, the deck includes The Wanderer and Greater Auramancy.

Card draw, treasure tokens, and unlimited hand-size combine with four different Tutors, an Urza's Saga, and a Teferi's Puzzle Box help you keep multiple options in hand, and hopefully keep Kwain hopping one or two steps ahead of your opponents (Remember to use the tutors before your Teferi's Puzzle Box hits the board). Tidal Barracuda, and Vedalken Orrery let you cast anything on anyone's turn. Walking Atlas helps get rid of lands anytime it's not tapped (another combo with Mind Over Matter), and Drumbellower and Teferi, Who Slows the Sunset make sure you're able to untap on every turn, so you can play cards anytime - including win-cons like Laboratory Maniac or Jace's Archivist on an opponent's end-step, then draw for the win.

Circling back to Sphere of Safety - the deck runs 18 enchantments natively, but also features Enchanted Evening to turn everyone's permanents into enchantments. (The deck also conveniently includes Cleansing Nova to destroy all enchantments, which is an absolutely devastating total board wipe when paired with Enchanted Evening, especially if you have Avacyn, Angel of Hope in play on your side). With Enchanted Evening on the board and Sphere of Safety, every permanent you control also counts toward your opponents' cost to attack you for each creature they target you with. Comboing Enchanted Evening, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and Greater Auramancy means every permanent has both indestructible and shroud, and prevents your planeswalkers from being targeted (or targeted for attacks) directly.

I am only running two counterspells, Mana Drain and Force of Negation, so the deck uses Dovescape to lock down any stray non-creature spells, as well as Tidal Barracuda and ultimately Forced Fruition to further reduce any errant spellcasting. And in this deck, Dovescape not only helps creates magnitudes of tokens, but each of those tokens is potentially an enchantment when it hits the board. With Enchanted Evening in play, those tokens, or ... literally ... any ... other card you play, combos off Archon of Sun's Grace to instantly create infinite (enchantment) pegasus tokens, and become effectively a 1 card infinite combo of 2/2 flying (avoiding Moat) lifelink pegasus. Every. Single. Time. any permanent hits the board under your control after you have both in play.

The Deck includes a The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale to help keep down on the riff-raff, (plus kill off a few billion pegasus every turn), and helps tie up opponent's mana; meshing with the prison cards we already use. For its own mana, there are some basic mana-rocks and a Smothering Tithe to help offset some of the higher casting cost spells if Braids, Conjurer Adept is not on the board.

The Smothering Tithe pairs well with sheer card-draw provided through Forced Fruition, Temple Bell, Kami of the Crescent Moon, and Kwain, Itinerant Meddler to almost guarantee several dozen treasure tokens each turn and help the deck rapidly ramp to maintain both card and board advantage towards casting an Omniscience.

More combo madness, Teferi's Puzzle Box helps spin through the deck looking for lands and combo solutions. Teferi's Puzzle Box also combos really well with Shabraz, the Skyshark and Alhammarret's Archive, effectively doubling the card-draw effect of Teferi's Puzzle Box each draw phase - and Sphinx of the Second Sun provides double the draw-phases per turn, so you're geometrically quadrupling your cards in hand each turn (and possibly playing them for free). And, for every card you draw, the shark is growing, your life is growing, and if you have the Archangel of Thune, everything else is growing too.

If you want to discard cards from your hand, to hit Triskaidekaphile for instance, or just go infinite with your commander, you can use Mind Over Matter, Omniscience, or Peace of Mind to manipulate your hand-size and either play or discard. The deck includes an Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Timetwister and Elixir of Immortality to shuffle your graveyard back into your hand, as well as Displacer Kitten and Angel of Finality to exile your opponents' graveyards with a quick bounce.

=======================

Summary Combos:

Forced Fruition + Smothering Tithe == Treasure Tokens

Teferi's Puzzle Box + Shabraz, the Skyshark == Giant Shark and TONS of life-gain every turn

Teferi's Puzzle Box + Shabraz, the Skyshark + Alhammarret's Archive == Sheer madness

Teferi's Puzzle Box + Shabraz, the Skyshark + Alhammarret's Archive + Archangel of Thune == Same as above, but now ALL of your creatures grow exponentially, every turn

Kwain, Itinerant Meddler + (any of the above) == even more nuts

Kwain, Itinerant Meddler + Mind Over Matter == Infinite combo, draw your deck

Kwain, Itinerant Meddler + Mind Over Matter + (any "if you cannot draw you win") = instant win

Enchanted Evening + Sphere of Safety == every card you have counts towards attack cost

Enchanted Evening + Cleansing Nova == total board wipe (lands, creatures, artifacts, all permanents)

Enchanted Evening + Aura Fracture + (any land) == targeted removal of any permanent

Enchanted Evening + Archon of Sun's Grace == infinite flying pegasus whenever ANY card hits the board under your control, even treasure tokens from Forced Fruition.

Enchanted Evening + Greater Auramancy == every card you play has shroud when it comes into play, but will interfere with Mind Over Matter combo with Kwain.

Sheer Card Draw and hand-size + Mind Over Matter == you can tap or untap whatever you want, whenever you want, and you can reshuffle your graveyard with Elixir of Immortality or Timetwister.

=====================

There's more I could write about with additional combos and card interactions, but those are the highlights. The deck is just all-out madness to play and can quietly build and recycle cards until it comes out of nowhere with an 600/600 flying shark. I enjoy it. I hope you will as well.

Thank you.

Spells on Deep Forest: Azusa, Lost but Seeking EDH [PRIMER]

4 months ago

artaud21 I think you're missing the point of what this deck wants to be doing, and you're way overestimating the potential negative impact of Ouphe and Bane. Both are tutor targets for when my opponents' board states are more threatening than my own. Just because a deck includes Null Rod or Collector Ouphe doesn't mean it shouldn't include any mana rocks. Take a look at the Metapod primer in the cEDH Decklist Database for example.

Sure, occasionally Bane of Progress destroys my own permanents, but it's always a necessary sacrifice when I get to destroy the plethora of degenerate artifacts and enchantments my opponents have out. I can honestly say that I've never found myself in a situation where Bane of Progress has ruined my gameplan. I also don't Genesis Wave for 25+ cards very often, which is the lone situation in which I could see Bane becoming a liability.

I'm surprised that you would even bring up creature removal or mass removal, because mono-green is not known for either of those things. I've got Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Beast Within for if there's a creature I absolutely must remove, Nylea's Intervention can occasionally take out pesky flyers, and I've got plenty of artifact and enchantment hate. The goal of this deck is not to be reactive and always have the perfect answers to deal with threats. This deck wants to tutor for Scute Swarm and kill the table as fast as possible with Craterhoof Behemoth. No, Azusa isn't always the fastest deck on the table, though you'd be surprised with how quickly she can get out of hand.

Wuzibo on Weakest Mono Color

7 months ago

I saw something the other day. It was a new video on youtube that was covering a budget Elesh Norn deck. When the video started, the man making the video played a voice recording from a fan that inspired him to make the video, or gave him impetus to.

In that short recording, the fan said "Given that mono white is generally regarded as the weakest mono color, i was wondering if you could showcase a budget mono white deck that is competetive." Or something to that effect.

I couldn't believe what i heard. Mono white is the weakest? I don't know by what metric. I played a few different edh decks in my day, but never mono white. I did, however, do mono green and mono red, and in my first big playgroup we all played together for a few years and at one point or another there was a mono colored deck of every color in our group. Someone else in our group played Elesh Norn for a bit. Someone Did purphoros, and i did too. I did daretti, heartless hidetsugu and yisan. Someone did sheoldred and Sidisi. Idk which mono blue someone did, but the theme of the deck was making everyone else draw their deck in like, 10-15 turns. I stuck with my daretti deck most of the time compared to the others who would switch it up more, because my yisan deck was more for messing around and i didn't have a good landbase for multicolored stuff. Eventually I was forced to build Zurgo Helmsmasher voltron deck that i turned into a Kaalia deck because voltron stuff is expensive as shit, even compared to the good angels, demons and dragons because my playgroup made Daretti unplayable, even though it was a decent deck. This playgroup was incredibly competetive and we actively tried to make the most overpowered stuff we could. This playgroup was active from 2014 to 2017. I stopped playing from 2018 to about a couple months ago. I wanted to give that as a background.

From my perspective, playing mono red anything was very weak for the simple reason that red didn't (and i checked, it still doesn't) have good spot removal or answers compared to the rest of the other colors, and it also has fewer things which are incredibly threatening on their own. I'm specifically thinking about enchantment removal. Red currently has access to 2 cards that, on their own, can deal with enchantments without wiping the board. One is Scour from Existence, and the other is Chaos Warp. Those are also 2 of the 3 cards red has that can deal with indestructible permanents/creatures on their own, that 3rd one being Burn from Within. I say on their own because technically i could play Mycosynth Lattice, make everything an artifact, and then Vandalblast or do something else that blows up a specific artifact, but i first have to make it an artifact with mycosynth, and mycosynth has to resolve and also not be destroyed or exiled or bounced in response to me casting vandalblast. I can also use mycosynth to make everything an artifact and then use Goblin Welder to force people to sac their stuff, but thats a lot of hoops to jump through.

Blue can just counter something threatening, or return it to your hand and then counter it when you try to cast it again. Blue can even counter stuff that explicitly says "this spell can not be countered" on it. Mindbreak Trap. They can counter when they're tapped out Pact of Negation. And even if your spells do resolve, they probably won't hit what you wanted to take out, because blue can phase its stuff out, blink it, or return it to their own hand. You have a big creature, like, say, a Hydra with X in the casting cost that is technically a 0/0 that enters with x counters on it, blue blink spells become removal, because then the counters fall off and it re-enters as a 0/0 and instantly dies. Blue also has the single best board wipe in the game Cyclonic Rift.

White has an absurd amount of really good removal spells like Path to Exile and other 1cmc white stuff that exiles - not destroys - creatures which is just strictly better than destruction. It also has Disenchant. What can red do vs one of the Nyx gods? nothing. How is it dealing with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. It's either found a way to pump out at least 4 1/1s every turn or it isn't, and when ulamog hit the field it probably blew up the 1 thing that could pump out those 1/1s. It also has inertion spells like Pacifism

Green has a bunch of that stuff as well, but it just tends to be tied to a creature with an etb effect. Reclamation Sage for instance. It also has Krosan Grip, which actually can't be countered or dealt with by blinking, or even mindbreak trapped. It does struggle with indestructible stuff a little bit, but at least it can make very large blockers that also have reach..

Black has ways to make you sacrifice all your stuff and no shortage of destroy effects, and ways to put a bunch of -1/-1 counters on it, so it even has a way to deal with indestructible stuff.

So i want to give you the situation that forced me to stop playing mono-red. The other players in my group generally didn't play monocolors as much. the only other one was the one with the sheoldred and sidisi decks. the elesh norn guy made his elesh norn deck out of his regular Marath deck. One guy played Karametra to start off with but then built slivers. And one guy played Rafiq while we got used to the game and then went back to Oloro- which included test of endurance and felidar sovereign. The sheoldred, oloro, and slivers player started running Leyline of the Void. I played daretti. When youre playing a mono-red deck that has to use its graveyard to do well, and the game starts with that out, that's awful, but it's made worse by the fact that i literally had no answers to it. It made my commander more a liability than an asset. His ult literally becomes abrogated when that hits the field. Same with containment field, but at least the game didn't start with that out, and the sheoldred player would at least get rid of that for mutual interest. What am i supposed to do as a mono red player about any leyline card, for that matter? So I did the only thing i could do, which is obliterate, O stone, nevinyrals disk, winter orb, blood moon, or hope i draw chaos warp or scour. The problem with chaos warp is that it can backfire. I chaos warped the ashnods altar the marath guy had one time to stop him from going infinite. He topdecked ulamog and won the game. So i basically have to blow my one good spot removal spell on an enchantment that isn't even really a threat, it just stops me from playing my deck with my commander. My only other option was a cheese 2 spell combo that just wins the game if uncountered - Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame. Because my options were limited to oppressive stall and boardwipes, and i have the potential to cast 2 cards for 5 mana and just win the game, the rest of the table comes to hate or fear me. They come to know that my strats involve stall and stax so they always take me out first. There was nothing i could really do. So i went to Hidetsugu. I never once got to tap him in a game. I went to krenko. Same issue. I went to purphoros, and did ok, but still, the lack of enchantment removal and ways to deal with indestructible stuff always felt bad, especially because my opponents had that stuff and had it for cheap. In mono-red, what do i do when someone puts Darksteel Mutation on my purphuros? How many sac outlets or -1/-1 counters are there(that i can put on my own creatures) in red? I got upset about it, especially because in the middle of our play time, the rule about chaos warp changed so i couldn't make them shuffle their commander away anymore. So they got to keep their ways to stop me from getting to do anything with my commander, but i didn't get my way to stop them from using theirs anymore. I understand it was because i was playing the aggro color and because i was a threat, but game after game of not getting to play the game started to drag. So i made a kaalia deck so mean they stopped playing with me. They didn't let me have fun playing pillowfort stax stuff, so i made a deck that was so aggro I usually won before they did anything with their commander, and then they didn't have fun, except for the sliver player who shared a lot of the ideas i had about the state of balance in magic and our local meta. Slivers are aggro and become scary really fast but it's hard to be aggro in a 5 color deck, and he understood how our playgroup evolved to just be more and more punishing to a monored yard deck and was happy to see me having fun playing commander for the first time in a long time. The sliver player and I are the only one who are still friends.

The point of this all is that, in my playgroup, the deciding factor was not usually your ability to make threats or create problems for your opponents. It was your ability to respond to threats and problems. In that department, red is sorely lacking primarily because it doesn't have enchantment removal or a good way to deal with indestructible stuff, or even big creatures for that matter

Is there something I'm just not getting? What are other people's thoughts?

Coward_Token on SATORU NINJA 'DRAZIES FROM THE BOTTOM NOW WE HERE

9 months ago

just so you know, Myojin of Night's Reach, Artisan of Kozilek, & Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre don't get their on-cast triggers from ninjutsu

Bitterblossom is pretty good for a steady stream of ninjutsu fodder, even if it's slightly slow

ghostfire86 on But Wait, There's More!

9 months ago

Working on a draw package for you in red:

Brand

Control of the Court

Faithless Looting

Khorvath's Fury

Wheel of Fate

Goblin Lore

Cathartic Reunion

Thrill of Possibility

Reforge the Soul

Wheel of Fortune

So…,any of these wheel effects while mainboarding:

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Some draw choices in white:

Esper Sentinel

Scout's Warning

Aura Blast

Unquestioned Authority

xXSpaghett69Xx on Jodah-Morophon Eldrazi

10 months ago

Just thought I should mention that Morophon, Jodah, and Razaketh can go infinite with Abundant Maw, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Ruin Processor, and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. USe Razaketh to tutor for Ulamog, the ceaseless hunger, return the cards to grave with ruin processor, for life gain, abundant maw for more life gain and a bit of damage, and Ulamog the infinite gyre to do it all again. He hits the grave and shuffles it back into your library before you tutor. You only need to cast Ulamog the ceasless unger every other time, since ruin processor returns them one at a time.

You are effectively destroying infinite permanents, dealing infinite damage, gaining infinite life, and you can fill that last slot with any other eldrazi that has an ETB trigger.

Spell_Slam on Waking the Demon

11 months ago

I used to run haste-givers like Anger in my deck, but I found that because of Rakdos, I tend to play a lot of my creatures post-combat, which made haste useless for the most part. I would take Anger, Ogre Battledriver and Urabrask out.

Walking Ballista is an excellent choice for this deck. You can play it early and attack or ping the opponent to cast Rakdos, or you can sink your mana into it and make a huge Ballista later in the game. Hangarback Walker is good in the same vein, but not quite as powerful (though it's strong against boardwipes, which the deck can be soft to).

I think you could take out a lot of the single-target damage spells from your deck. Lightning Bolt, Incincerate, Lightning Strike, Skewer the Critics, Exquisite Firecraft, and Char are all fine in 1v1, but in a multiplayer setting they feel pretty weak, and they almost act as a commander tax if you use them to play Rakdos.

I am not sure what your budget is, but investing in all the legal Eldrazi Titans and mythics will really improve your deck. Emrakul, the Promised End, Void Winnower, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are usually game-ending. If not, Rune-Scarred Demon, Duplicant and Knollspine Dragon are all pretty cheap and powerful cards to cast with discounts.

Cryptolith Fragment  ^Flip is one of the best mana rocks for this deck. It is both your fourth mana source (of any colour) to cast Rakdos and the damage enabler you need! Pilgrim's Eye is also similar in that it has good evasion and guarantees you a fourth land to both deal damage and play Rakdos the following turn.

I like Spear Spewer a lot more than Thermo-Alchemist or Nettle Drone usually because in multiplayer Spewer will guarantee 3 damage every turn and is much more flexible to play in the early turns at only 1 mana.