For a long time, colorless decks were a unique deck building challenge for early EDH players. Without Wastes and missing Eldrazi for a good while, your "mono artifact" lists were some weird little brews. Then came the titans, and colorless decks would never be the same.

The Eldrazi Unbound Commander precon takes everything that the Eldrazi bring to colorless strategies and dials it up to 11. Of all of the Commander Masters preconstructed decks, Eldrazi Unbound stands out as the clear strongest option out of the box. Still, that isn't to say it can't be improved, and I have 15 cards that can significantly buff up these titanic threats.

A Distorted Commander

Before we talk about how we can build on this already powerful pile of cards, we should talk about your options for who can lead the deck. Zhulodok, Void Gorger is the face commander of the deck and is a great pick for your commander. Double cascade is some intense value, though is it the best option?

Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate isn't any competition. It's a cool effect, but the actual payoff for how mana hungry it is results in something decidedly… mediocre. It can potentially be a solid option in its own right, but the deck itself isn't particularly built to support Ugin's initiate here. So much so, that he'll actually make the list for cuts.

Normally, I strongly recommend just ignoring whatever "old" legendary creature is put in front of you in a precon. However, I'm going to be impressively boring here and recommend that you strongly consider Kozilek, the Great Distortion to lead your deck.

I will be upgrading the list with Kozilek in mind as my recommended commander, but Zhulodok, Void Gorger will be more than fine with these upgrades as well. This is most notable in that I'll be cutting some (mediocre) card draw expecting to have card advantage in the command zone.

Cut Some Tentacles

The deck is truly quite good at base. There are a lot of ways that it can be improved, but the improvements represent relatively slight bumps up in power level or improvements to the mana base (which is also functional as is). Before we get into it, however, here's the list to start:

As you may already be able to see, it has a surprisingly smooth curve, lots of ramp, and all kinds of payoff for that ramp. However, even some of its ramp payoffs are just boring beaters, and the scaling X creatures don't do a whole heck of a lot without having to devote substantial resources. Let's cut the worst of the lot:

  • Stonecoil Serpent
  • Hangarback Walker
  • Omarthis, Ghostfire Initiate
  • Suspicious Bookcase
  • Myriad Construct
  • Scaretiller
  • Phyrexian Triniform
  • Metalwork Colossus
  • Spatial Contortion
  • Endless Atlas
  • Investigator's Journal
  • Transmogrifying Wand
  • Perilous Vault
  • Wastes
  • Wastes

In addition to nixing some only okay payoffs for our ramp-into-big-stuff strategy, we remove some less efficient removal, some medium card draw, and a few cards that have generally failed to impress me in practice. We also cut some lands, but we'll be replacing them with more lands, so we're not adjusting the 38-count mana base (we want to be curving into our stuff as much as possible, after all, and our plays get mighty pricey).

Terrible Titans

Starting with the obvious, I want to run at least one additional representative for each of the Eldrazi titans. These are our biggest colorless payoffs, and should be in your deck if you can afford them.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is very scary and who I would actually recommend you make your commander, but I approach this assuming you want to run what starts in the deck (and won't assume you can afford the upgrade). Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger is stellar removal and a brutal beating, while Emrakul, the Promised End is a surprisingly sticky, tentacled threat.

Otherworldly Defenses

We're putting a lot of resources into playing out some of the scariest threats in the game, and your opponents will not want you to get to do anything with them. Protection is light in colorless, but we can add a full equipment suite to keep your threats alive. The base list has Lightning Greaves, and we add to that with Swiftfoot Boots and Whispersilk Cloak, while also tagging in Mithril Coat for instant speed indestructible on your titans.

Eldritch Rocks

The deck is already very good at ramping, but I strongly recommend going even harder on the strategy. Herald's Horn draws you some cards in addition to discounting your Eldrazi, with Urza's Incubator just piling on the discount. There are lots of additional mana rock, but Gilded Lotus is likely the most notable missing piece (though Basalt Monolith and some untappers couldn't hurt either).

Titanic Tutors

Here's the lands I promised, with Eye of Ugin and Sanctum of Ugin both helping you fetch up power plays. Leaning into the Eldrazi typal theme is a good idea for overall synergy, and the Eye is great for this. Conduit of Ruin does basically everything we want, grabbing a relevant play and helping to make your first card cheaper each turn.

Colorless Power

Finally, we have some wiggle room for some goodstuff, which is just the place I want to be. Wurmcoil Engine is pure power, representing a lot of stats on one body, piles of life, and the ability to trade into most threats. Void Winnower turns off a lot of cards for your opponents, most importantly stopping a lot of premium removal. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is a killer value add, serving as mass removal first, then giving you some inevitability.

Fully Unbinding the Eldrazi

The precon list is already remarkably close to something I would run myself, but with just these fifteen cards it's made into something notably more powerful than most preconstructed decks can aspire to. I suspect this deck will be able to go toe to toe with more tuned lists, and I think you'll find this is a very strong place to start your colorless Commander journey.