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Rise of the Eldrazi
 
 

Rise of the Eldrazi
Rise of the Eldrazi logo
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description an opened Hedron
Design Brian Tinsman (lead),
Aaron Forsythe,
Graeme Hopkins,
Gregory Marques,
Bill McQuillian,
Devin Low
Development Matt Place (lead),
Mark Globus,
Erik Lauer,
Gregory Marques,
Mark Rosewater
Art direction Jeremy Jarvis
Release date April 23, 2010
Plane Zendikar
Themes and mechanics Big mana, brood lineage, colorless Eldrazi spells, defenders
Keywords/​ability words Annihilator, Level up, Rebound, Totem armor
Set size 248
(100 commons, 60 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares, 20 basic lands)
Expansion code ROE[1]
Development codename Prosper
Zendikar block
Zendikar Worldwake Rise of the Eldrazi
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Duel Decks: Phyrexia vs. The Coalition Rise of the Eldrazi Deck Builder's Toolkit

Rise of the Eldrazi is the fifty-second Magic expansion released in April 2010 as the third set in the Zendikar block.[2] Prerelease events were held April 17–18, 2010.[3] Launch parties were held April 23–25, 2010.

Set details[ | ]

Rise of the Eldrazi is set like its predecessors Zendikar and Worldwake on the plane of Zendikar and continues the storyline from those sets. However, unlike other third sets in a block, Rise of the Eldrazi is a large expansion.[4] The set contains 248 cards (100 Common, 60 Uncommon, 53 Rare, 15 Mythic, 20 Basic Lands). That's one common less than Zendikar and includes basic lands which usually are not reprinted in the third expansion of a block. The free space on the print sheets was used for Hand of Emrakul and Ulamog's Crusher, which are more common than the other commons. Each set of basic lands (i.e. all Plains, all Islands ...) forms a collage when put together.[5][6] The expansion symbol of the set is an opened hedron. The set is a complete "mechanical reboot" of the block; unlike the two preceding sets it is not Land-themed and mechanics from the preceding sets did not return but focuses on a race of colorless creatures called the Eldrazi.[7][8] For this, the limited environment was slowed down, players were helped to speed up their ability to cast larger spells [9][10] and R&D found a way to make instants and sorceries matter.[11]

The colorless spells featured in the set have translucent boxes through which larger artwork can be seen. These colorless cards are put in front of colored cards in the numbering, despite Colorless artifacts being placed behind colored cards in normal sets.

Rise of the Eldrazi is the first non-first set in a block to have basic land cards. It is also a set that has an uncommonly low count of cycles. While regular Magic sets often have 10 or more cycles, particularly large sets, Rise of the Eldrazi only has two cycles that are not basic lands.

Flavor[ | ]

“  And Carnage Shall Follow  ”

For thousands of years, Zendikar has had a reputation as a deathtrap. It's been a world of deadly perils to planeswalkers and native explorers, punishing any who seek to loot its hidden treasures and exploit its potent mana. But unknown to the plane's denizens, there's a sinister reason for Zendikar's danger: for millennia, the plane has served as a prison for the Eldrazi, astral monstrosities native to the Blind Eternities, the space between planes. Now, the perils facing adventurers on the plane of Zendikar have taken an even deadlier turn. The Eldrazi have been released.[12][13][14][15]

The Eldrazi have transcended the colors of mana as we know them. As a result, the Eldrazi progenitors themselves and those closest to them are colorless. But don't let the mana cost fool you—these Eldrazi are not artifacts. Each of the colossal Eldrazi spawns its own "brood lineage." The three brood lineages are composed of Eldrazi Drones and other subordinate beings, each reflecting the image of its progenitor.

Marketing[ | ]

ROE 6-card booster

Rise of the Eldrazi 6-card booster

Rise of the Eldrazi was sold in 16-card booster packs, 6-card boosters, 5 intro packs[16] and a fat pack.[17] The regular boosters featured art from Gideon Jura, Sarkhan the Mad, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Kargan Dragonlord.[18] The 6-card booster featured the art from Induce Despair.

The promotional card given to participants at the Prerelease tournaments was Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, one of the colorless Eldrazi creatures.[19] At the Launch party event, Lord of Shatterskull Pass was given away, which highlights Level up.[20] The promotional cards given to Game Day Event participants was a full-art Staggershock, winners received a foil full-art Deathless Angel.[21] The Buy-a-Box card was Guul Draz Assassin. Visitors to PAX East received a personalized “Eldrazi Death Hug”.[22]

Regular boosters of Rise of Eldrazi come with a bonus sixteenth card that is either a “tips & tricks card” or a creature token from Rise of Eldrazi. One face of the Rise of Eldrazi bonus card has one of five different rules tips or is one of six different creature tokens. The other face has one of 13 advertisements for organized play programs, Rise of the Eldrazi, Duels of the Planeswalkers for Xbox Live, Magic Online, fat packs, Zendikar: In the Teeth of Akoum and Ultra Pro products for Magic.

Tips & Tricks[ | ]

The tips & tricks cards are:

Tokens[ | ]

The Rise of Eldrazi tokens in numerical order are:[23]

  1. {C} 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn creature produced by Awakening Zone, Brood Birthing, Corpsehatch, Dread Drone, Emrakul's Hatcher, Essence Feed, Growth Spasm, Kozilek's Predator, Nest Invader, Pawn of Ulamog, Rapacious One, Skittering Invasion, Spawning Breath, Spawnsire of Ulamog; there are three different artworks for this token, labeled 1a, 1b, and 1c.[24]
  2. {R} X/X Elemental creature produced by Devastating Summons
  3. {R} 4/4 Hellion creature produced by Hellion Eruption
  4. {G} X/X Ooze creature produced by Gelatinous Genesis
  5. {C} 5/5 Legendary Goblin Golem artifact creature named Tuktuk the Returned produced by Tuktuk the Explorer

Misprints[ | ]

Mechanics[ | ]

The set features several large colorless creatures called Eldrazi which were previewed with Eye of Ugin from the previous set, Worldwake.[25][26] The first creature to be shown was Kozilek, Butcher of Truth which also features the mechanic Annihilator which forces the defending player to sacrifice several permanents when the creature with Annihilator attacks. The set also contains the first Instant and Sorcery spells without colored mana in their casting cost. For this purpose, the set also brings back Tribal cards. There are four tribal colorless cards in the set, all with the creature type Eldrazi and a converted mana cost of 7 or greater. The four tribal cards in the set are Not of this World, Skittering Invasion, Eldrazi Conscription, and All is Dust. The Eldrazi theme is further enhanced by the use of a mechanic nicknamed "Brood lineage" which produces 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature tokens that can be sacrificed to add {C}. All colorless Eldrazi have transparent card frames.

One of the set's major themes is growth. Level up is a new mechanic that allows creatures to gain benefits permanently in exchange for a mana investment.[27][28] The set also contains creatures that grow using other means - Tuktuk the Explorer is a 1/1 Goblin legend that turns into a 5/5 Goblin Golem when sent to the graveyard, whilst Sphinx of Magosi grows using +1/+1 counters. Growth is also shown through temporary power/toughness benefits, as seen on creatures like Bloodthrone Vampire, Nirkana Revenant and Wildheart Invoker.

Another subtheme of the set is the heavy use of efficient Walls and other creatures with defender, including a wall (Overgrown Battlement) that benefits more based on the number of creatures with defender. These stop smaller creatures from attacking effectively, meaning that larger creatures, like Eldrazi and levelers, are needed to win games. The set also contains several "Casting Cost" matters cards, which scale an effect to another card in play, in the graveyard, or revealed from hand.

Totem armor on the other hand is a mechanic on Auras which replaces the destruction of the enchanted permanent with the destruction of the aura. Rebound is another mechanic to get more use out of Instants and Sorceries.[29][30] When an Instant or Sorcery with Rebound is cast from hand, the card is exiled as it resolves and its controller may cast it again at the beginning of his or her next upkeep.

The set features Gideon Jura as a card and Sarkhan Vol made a return appearance as Sarkhan the Mad. Sarkhan the Mad is the first Planeswalker card to be printed without an ability that increases the number of loyalty counters on it. Meanwhile, Gideon does not have an ability colloquially referred to as an "Ultimate", a big effect costing a lot of loyalty counters, but instead can turn himself into a creature. Both cards also mark a change in templating as they use pronouns such as "him" and "himself" which were previously exclusively used to refer to players but not to cards or characters.

Many of the smaller Eldrazi Drones that are aligned with colored mana, as well as some spells, produce Eldrazi Spawn creature tokens. These 0/1 colorless creatures can be sacrificed to add one colorless mana—perfect for casting those enormous Eldrazi.[31]

  • Sacrificing an Eldrazi Spawn token to add {C} is a mana ability. No player may respond to it. You may activate the ability while you're casting a spell, you're activating an ability, or a resolving spell or ability requires a mana payment from you, for example.
  • Some abilities affect Eldrazi Spawn. Such abilities affect these tokens, of course. Such abilities also affect Mistform Ultimus and creatures with changeling, since they have the creature types Eldrazi and Spawn.
  • Not all creatures with creature types Eldrazi and Spawn have "Sacrifice this creature: Add {C}." These tokens do only because the effects that create them say that they have that ability. Mistform Ultimus doesn't have that ability, for example. If an Eldrazi Spawn token loses its abilities, you'll no longer be able to sacrifice it for mana.
  • Some of the instants and sorceries that create Eldrazi Spawn tokens have targets. If all the spell's targets are illegal by the time it resolves, the entire spell is countered. You won't get any Eldrazi Spawn tokens.

Cycles[ | ]

Rise of the Eldrazi is unusual in having only a very small number of cycles. There are two cycles in Rise of the Eldrazi:

Cycle name {W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Invokers Dawnglare Invoker Frostwind Invoker Bloodrite Invoker Lavafume Invoker Wildheart Invoker
A cycle reminiscent of cards from Legions. All of these creatures have an activated ability that costs {8} to activate.
Rare Levellers Hedron-Field Purists Echo Mage Guul Draz Assassin Lord of Shatterskull Pass Kazandu Tuskcaller
A cycle of rare Levelling creatures, each with the Level Up cost of NC

Mega Cycles[ | ]

Cycle name {W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Planeswalkers Gideon Jura (Rise of the Eldrazi) Jace, the Mind Sculptor (Worldwake) Sorin Markov (Zendikar) Chandra Ablaze (Zendikar) Nissa Revane (Zendikar)
Five monocolored planeswalkers, each with their part of the Zendikar storyline. Rise of the Eldrazi finished the cycle with Gideon Jura.

Pairs[ | ]

Rise of the Eldrazi has one matched pair.

Matched Pairs Description
Irresistible Prey
({G})
Prey's Vengeance
({G})
An instant and sorcery depicting two sides of a battle in the artwork by Jesper Ejsing

Reprinted cards[ | ]

The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Rise of the Eldrazi:

Functional reprints[ | ]

Rise of the Eldrazi has 7 functional reprints:

Colorshifted[ | ]

Strictly better[ | ]

Strictly worse[ | ]

Notable cards[ | ]

  • Coralhelm Commander, a staple in Extended and Legacy Merfolk decks.
  • Khalni Hydra, to date the card with the largest number of mana symbols of a single color in its cost, excluding Unglued's B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster).
  • Realms Uncharted, which heavily references Gifts Ungiven
  • Vengevine is notorious mostly from its once-powerful interaction with Survival of the Fittest in Legacy, now with a niche in madness-heavy Hollow One decks.
  • Enatu Golem is the fourth in the strange series of Soul Net, Onulet and Anodet Lurker. Each are artifacts that gain an increasing amount of life from their death. Onulet was meant to be "Onulets", an anagram of Soul Net, but the art only returned one, hence losing the plural. In that trend, Anodet Lurker is an anagram of "Darker Onulet", and Enatu Golem is one of "Mega Onulet".
  • Inquisition of Kozilek is comparable to Thoughtseize in terms of powerful hand attack spells and is better in situations where paying life to Thoughtseize is detrimental. Inquisition sees lots of play in Modern and Legacy, both formats where most spells cost less than 3 mana value.
  • Eldrazi Conscription holds the distinction of being the only colorless identity Aura (Visions of Brutality has devoid) and the first colorless enchantment.
  • Evolving Wilds is a simple common fetchland that would go on to be reprinted heavily across almost a dozen Standard sets as a mana-fixing tool for Limited play.
  • Wall of Omens has seen lots of play in Modern and Standard decks as a barrier to aggressive decks that replace itself. Sea Gate Oracle saw similar play rates in Standard as a creature that replaced itself, making it a key card for Birthing Pod decks, and is also a commonly played card in Pauper decks that can abuse its ability with flicker effects
  • Kor Spiritdancer is a powerful card for Modern Bogles and Aura style decks, as it both provides card advantage and is a great candidate to wield aggressively costed Auras
  • Ulamog's Crusher is among the best creatures to reanimate in Pauper, where it sees significant play
  • Eldrazi Temple is a powerful enabler for Eldrazi decks in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage, and contributed to the so-called "Eldrazi Winter" of Modern after the release of the later Battle for Zendikar block included many cheaper Eldrazi creatures.
  • Overgrown Battlement is a payoff for creatures with defender that is a key part of the Walls Combo deck in Pauper, often accompanied by other defenders from the set like Mnemonic Wall and Vent Sentinel
  • Kiln Fiend is the namesake of a spell-based aggro deck in Pauper that can kill the opponent in a single attack by growing the eponymous card with spells
  • Distortion Strike is an efficient evasive spell that has enabled Infect decks in both Modern and Pauper
  • Tajuru Preserver is the first card to prevent sacrificing permanents.
  • Ancient Stirrings is a powerful card selection spell that has been used in numerous decks built around colorless permanents; namely, Eldrazi and Hardened Scales decks in Modern, and Tron decks in both Modern and Pauper.

Banned and restricted cards[ | ]

  • Splinter Twin is a powerful and flavorful creature Aura that is the main moving part of Splinter Twin combo decks, which was paired with Deceiver Exarch from New Phyrexia in Standard. Splinter Twin was a major archetype in Modern, being the winning deck of two Modern Pro Tours, but was banned in 2016.
  • Emrakul, the Aeons Torn used to be tied with Worldspine Wurm as the biggest nontoken creature in Magic history, and had the second-highest converted mana cost of any spell, after Draco from Planeshift, though this distinction has since been broken due to the reveal of Impervious Greatwurm in Guilds of Ravnica, it being a creature with both 16 power and toughness. Emrakul is banned in Commander and has seen extensive constructed play in multiple formats, such as Through the Breach and Tron in Modern, Show and Tell in Legacy, and Oath of Druids in Vintage.
  • Prophetic Prism was such a highly important card for various Pauper Affinity decks that have dominated since the beginning of the format that it was banned in the format in 2022. It has also seen play in various Modern artifact decks for similar reasons.

Intro packs[ | ]

The intro packs are:[32]

Intro pack name Colors Included Foil rare
{W} {U} {B} {R} {G}
Leveler's Glory W U Student of Warfare
Leveler's Scorn U B Sphinx of Magosi
Invading Spawn B R Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Eldrazi Arisen R G Conquering Manticore
Totem Power W G Gigantomancer

References[ | ]

  1. Product info
  2. Magic Arcana (November 16, 2009). "Announcing: Rise of the Eldrazi". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  3. Tim Willoughby (April 12, 2010). "Talking of Gods and Monsters: A Prerelease Primer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. Mark Rosewater (December 07, 2009). "Playing With Blocks". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  5. Magic Arcana (March 29, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Swamps". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  6. Magic Arcana (April 28, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Basic Lands". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  7. Mark Rosewater (March 29, 2010). "On the Rise, Part I". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  8. Mark Rosewater (April 26, 2010). "You Had Me at Eldrazi". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  9. Mark Rosewater (April 05, 2010). "On the Rise, Part II". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  10. Brian Tinsman (April 26, 2010). "Designing Rise". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  11. Mark Rosewater (April 12, 2010). "On the Rise, Part III". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  12. Wizards of the Coast (March, 2010). "Explore Rise of the Eldrazi". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  13. Doug Beyer (March 29, 2010). "The Eldrazi Arisen". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  14. magicthegathering.com Staff (April 05, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Art Preview Gallery". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  15. Adam Lee (May 03, 2010). "Writing the Eldrazi". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  16. Magic Arcana (March 09, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Intro Packs". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  17. Magic Arcana (March 11, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Fat Pack". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  18. Magic Arcana (March 10, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Booster Packs". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  19. Magic Arcana (March 30, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Prerelease Card". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  20. Magic Arcana (April 19, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Launch Party Card". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  21. Magic Arcana (May 04, 2010). "Game Day Cards". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  22. Magic Arcana (April 07, 2010). "Eldrazi Death Hug". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  23. Magic Arcana (April 05, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Tokens". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  24. Tom LaPille (April 09, 2010). "The Hand That Feeds". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  25. Magic Arcana (March 1, 2010). "The Secrets of the Eye". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  26. Mike Turian (April 09, 2010). "Commonly Large". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  27. Tom LaPille (May 14, 2010). "Leveling Up". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  28. Wizards of the Coast (March 2, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Mechanics". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  29. Mark Rosewater (May 24, 2010). "On the Rebound". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  30. Tom LaPille (May 28, 2010). "Controlling the Rebound". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  31. Tom LaPille (April 30, 2010). "The Other Eldrazi". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  32. Wizards of the Coast (April 13, 2010). "Rise of the Eldrazi Intro Pack Decklists". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.

External links[ | ]

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