Two-In-One

Last week, I thought to myself: "Rise of the Eldrazi draft was a great format. How can I recapture that appeal?"

Okay, maybe I didn't. But bear with me. I draft a lot. And I get sidetracked in drafts by really dumb archetypes based on getting all the copies of a single card that I can. Jace's Erasure? All over it. Halimar Excavator? Got me! Golem Foundry was a failed experiment in this, but I'm recovering from that.



Which brings me to:

Raid Night
Spells
4 Raid Bombardment
4 Furnace Celebration
4 Quest for Pure Flame
4 Awakening Zone
4 Spawning Breath
4 Brood Birthing
3 Culling Dais

Creatures
4 Nest Invader
3 Kozilek's Predator
3 Chandra's Spitfire

Land
12 Mountain
7 Forest
4 Rootbound Crag

It's like two of my favorite draft archetypes in one!

You may have seen something similar to this from Conley Woods on ChannelFireball a couple weeks back. Or at least, Conley mentioned Furnace Celebration as a centerpiece in a Spawn-heavy deck. But this isn't just about Furnace Celebration. Here, it's sharing the party floor with Raid Bombardment, a common from Rise that I drafted basically a million of.

The key plan with this deck is to amass a bunch of spawn, then burn the opponent's face off. Quest for Pure Flame is a boon here, easily activating with one attack with an active Bombardment (or even half an attack! Be sure to watch for when you can activate it when half of the triggers have resolved to boost the rest of the damage) and getting it in multiples is just good times. Furnace Celebration acts as a counterpoint to the Raid Bombardment, letting the Spawns do double-duty and deal damage coming and going.

Rules note!
Since the Eldrazi Spawns' sac ability is a mana ability, it resolves immediately. So you can sacrifice it and the Furnace Celebration trigger doesn't go on the stack until after you've already got the mana! So you can spend it to pay for the ability. Nice Shock for 1!

Chandra's Spitfire is another card that hasn't had much love, but paired up with Raid Bombarmdent, it's a real beating. Sure I'll attack for 4! Oh, I've got a 4 Spawns too? I guess it's +12/+0 on top of that! Plus the 5 Raid Bombardment damage? Oh I guess you're dead.

I tried an early build of this last week and I was pretty impressed. Sticking an Awakening Zone seems pretty key in this deck. Another Culling Dais might be a nice addition too, as it's card draw and extra sacrifice outlets. It even sacrifices itself, so bonus!

So try it out! I can attest that it's an incredibly fun deck. And if you manage to do well with it or if you have improvements, feel free to let me know!

-Chris