Battle for Zendikar (MTG) Spoilers - Barrage Tyrant, Blight Herder and More

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Today, we have a look at some of the new Eldrazi from Battle for Zendikar. They’re quite interesting and there’s a good number of them to check out.

Barrage Tyrant is 4R for a 5/3, but it has Devoid. Like all of the Eldrazi with colors in their casting cost so far, Devoid makes it so that they actually count as colorless creatures. In this case, we get to see why Devoid may be a big deal, as it seems that colorless creatures will matter in this set a lot. For 2R, you can sacrifice a colorless creature and deal damage equal to that sacrificed creature’s power to a target creature or player.

This Fling effect is well worth that mana cost considering the high power that these Eldrazi we’ve seen already have. If we see even more incredibly massive Eldrazi printed in this set, this effect becomes all the more relevant. It’s on the top end of the curve for Constructed, but that effect could easily be a game finisher. With a creature like Hangarback Walker hanging around, there’s some value to be had here. Scuttling Doom Engine would have been a bomb with this card, but it’s no longer going to be in Standard when this is released.

I could definitely see this Tyrant ending games in Commander.  It’s similar to Bosh, Iron Golem’s effect, but he deals damage equal to converted mana cost, whereas this deals with power. Unfortunately, swinging a Blightsteel Colossus at someone’s face doesn’t KO a player immediately since it’s the Tyrant doing the damage, not the sacrificed creature itself. Then again, you could use the equipment Grafted Exoskeleton to give the Tyrant +2/+2 and infect. Anyway, this is a major contender for being a finisher in Red artifact decks especially with all of the colorless creatures you’ll have. It’s also a great thing to do with tokens of artifact creatures created by Feldon of the Third Path, as they’ll just be exiled at end of turn anyway. This is definitely one of my favorite Eldrazi so far.

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Blight Herder uses cards from exile in a way we’ve never seen before. If you take two cards removed from exile that your opponents own in their owners’ graveyards. If you decide to do this, you get to put out 3 1/1 Eldrazi Scion creature tokens into play. Similar to the 0/1 Eldrazi spawn from Rise of the Eldrazi, they can be sacrificed to add one colorless mana to your mana pool. The Herder is a colorless 5 drop with decent 4 / 5 stats, so it may be playable, especially since it can help you ramp into bigger spells. But the requirement of two cards already having to be exiled adds a good variance to this card that may make it a bit too unreliable in Constructed. It does have good synergy with the Ingest mechanic, which exiles cards from opponent’s libraries when that creature deals combat damage, so if Ingest is a Constructed-worthy mechanic then it’s possible this could see play. If not, then this is probably just a Limited-worthy card.

There are also 4 colorless Eldrazi that we have to look at.

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Incubator Drone is 3U for a 2 / 3 with Devoid. Those stats sound a bit low, but it comes with a 1/1 Eldrazi Scion token attached to it, so it’s not really bad at all. It’s probably a Limited only creature, but it’s a decent one. Mist Intruder is a bit more efficient as a 1/2 flyer with Ingest for 1U  It’s not exciting, but it’s a good Ingest engine for Limited. It’s also, as some players have already pointed out, a functionally better Storm Crow.

Eldrazi Devastator is an 8/9 with Trample for 8 colorless mana. It’s a bit boring, but a huge beater in Limited. It also is something really good to sacrifice to Barrage Tyrant. Kozilek’s Channeler is a mana dork, a 4/4 for 5 colorless mana with tap to add 2 colorless mana. At common, this is definitely a good Limited card, as it can fit in any deck.

Overall, I like these Eldrazi, and they should be pretty fun to play with in Limited. The Barrage Tyrant is my favorite to actually do something in Constructed, but I like it best in Commander.

Now, we have a bonus card, Gideon’s Reproach! It’s 1W for an Instant that deals 4 damage to a target attacking or blocking creature. It’s a functionally better version of a card called Arrows of Justice from Gatecrash, which cost 2 and hybrid White/Red mana. There’s already Sandblast from Fate Reforged in Standard that deals 5 damage instead for 2W. It’s probably playable out of the sideboard in Standard, but definitely a very playable removal spell in Limited.

Which of these cards are you most excited about? They’re all pretty solid cards, in my opinion.

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