Its becoming impossible to be around fellow card slingers without someone bringing up the eldrazi menace and more to the point what they think will be banned from the modern deck. Wizards have said that they will be looking at the deck for bannings but not what exactly will get hit with the ban hammer.

Many people are looking at this as the demise of our colourless friends. However, I think now is the best time to start picking them up! Think about it, the cards are insane and already see play in legacy! Gerry Thompson smashed a star city invitational to a second place finish recently with this list:

LANDS (25)

4 Ancient Tomb

4 Cavern of Souls

4 City of Traitors

4 Eldrazi Temple

3 Eye of Ugin

1 Karakas

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

4 Wasteland

CREATURES (21)

4 Eldrazi Mimic

1 Endbringer

4 Endless One

4 Matter Reshaper

4 Reality Smasher

4 Thought-Knot Seer

SORCERY  AND INSTANTS (4)

3 Dismember

1 Warping Wail

OTHER SPELLS (10)

4 Chalice of the Void

2 Mox Diamond

4 Thorn of Amethyst

This deck is all about hitting hard and fast while disrupting your opponents with the ever hated turn 1 Chalice of the Void on 1 which is even more brutal in legacy than modern. 4 Thorn of Amethyst operate as Chalice 5-8, grinding most decks to a halt while you bash them with Reality Smashers and Thought Knot Seers.

There were 4 copies of the deck in the top 16, which in a format with more playable decks than most of us have had draft decks is nothing to scoff at. The deck has continued to do well online and in paper ever since. For me this is enough reason to try and pick up the under costed overpowered Eldrazi now while the looming modern bannings keep their prices down. Whilst the ban will likely push prices down, I expect this to be temporary, as most cards which appear as 4 ofs in Legacy decks command a healthy price in the long run. Many modern players may also see the Eldrazi as a cheap gateway in to Legacy, which will also feed an upwards trend in the cards prices long term. So if you like the look of this deck, now is the time to get hold of the cards.

If legacy or future value isn’t what gets you going then remember that wizards did say that they didn’t want to ban the deck out of existence. If the deck survives in modern  as a top tier deck then this will likely skyrocket the prices of the cards left. Its also possible that the deck could go down its old school pre oath mono black heartless summoning line.

And lets not forget that Thought-Knot Seer is a house on its own, vendillion cliques bigger brother with a better ability and a bigger body. The lack of flash hurts it but I see this guy being a big player in decks that are willing to play the pain lands to cast him. And could show up as a 2 or even 3 of in any deck that plays a mana base which can support him. There’s plenty of playable options that tap for colourless other than the painlands from ghost quarter and tectonic edge to cavern of souls and desolate lighthouse. Wizards is only going to print more in the future. Which leads straight back to the legacy and modern Eldrazi decks future value. Wizards isn’t going to stop printing awesome colourless cards so its only a matter of time until these decks get some new powerful pieces to turn sideways and smash tournaments with. This is especially relevant in legacy where the cards are powerful but not too powerful that they deserve a banning. It is highly unlikley that any of the cards are banned, and as such i will be picking up a playset or so of each whilst the prices remain releatively low.

Conclusions:

Eldrazi are awesome.

Wizards is going to keep printing cards to make the deck better over time.

Some cards are good enough to see play on their own outside of a dedicated Eldrazi shell.

Prices are held low because of upcoming bannings, with potential to spike if modern deck is still good.

Four of’s in legacy decks always rack up value over time.

Pick them up while they are still cheap.