{"ops":[{"insert":"There has been a box of Eldritch Moon on the shelf of my LGS for a few weeks now, calling my name like the Green Goblin mask. Innistraid is my favorite plane - SOI-EMN is my favorite block set on the plane - and I knew that it was only a matter of time until I bought a pack to crack, despite preferring to purchase singles. But, imagine my surprise when I open the pack and find a foil "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Emrakul, the Promised End"}},{"insert":" at the back.\n\nIt wasn't the box calling my name, it was Emrakul. Choose me'mrakul. Take me'mrakul. I'amrakul.\n\nSorry, sorry, almost lost myself to her corruption there for a second. Anyway, naturally, my first instinct upon realizing what I had opened was to ask \"how can I use this to become my pod's whole problem?\" And this, my friends, is the answer I have come to.\n\nLooking online, most of the people who have made the... mad decision to build Emrakul in commander went with Eldrazi Kindred. That is certainly an appropriate direction to take the deck, and it is probably fun, but I decided against it for two reasons: 1) two of the players in my pod almost quit Magic during Eldrazi Winter and I don't want to subject them to that again, 2) I didn't think it felt as good mechanically as it sounded lorewise. So, I kept digging and eventually came across a combo that specifically leverages Emrakul's unique assets to win the game. My love for this game's lore is closely followed by my love for doing weird stuff in this game, and I started plotting.\n\nAs I understand it, The Promised End combo is as follows: we need a way to grant Emrakul Flash across multiple turns (in this deck, I am using "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Skittering Cicada"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vedalken Orrery"}},{"insert":"), a way to bounce Emrakul back to our hands at Instant speed (for which I have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Erratic Portal"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Cloudstone Curio"}},{"insert":"/"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Endless One"}},{"insert":"/"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ugin's Conjurant"}},{"insert":"), "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Unwinding Clock"}},{"insert":" and enough artifact mana/card types in our graveyard to bounce and recast Emrakul every time we untap. From there, we simply cast Emrakul at some point during the opponent's turn we are controlling, take control of the extra turn that Emrakul gave them, bounce her back to hand, repeat until that specific opponent loses the game and then do the same to our other two opponents one at a time. Technically, I think we can literally just have them draw and pass to themselves until they deck out... but that's not fun for anyone. As such, I included "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant"}},{"insert":" which - in addition to being a good value piece for Emrakul even if we are not comboing - allows us to basically take control of all of our opponents one at a time in turn order and force them to ignore us while fighting each other to death. We will probably have to draw pass mill the last one just to be safe, but I think that letting them finish the game - with some back seat driving from me - is better than it just ending on the spot.\n\nThat being said, we are a colorless combo deck that is already running Cloudstone Curio... more game ending combos were never more than one extra card away. In this case, either "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Glaring Fleshraker"}},{"insert":" or "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Aetherflux Reservoir"}},{"insert":" turn a Curio loop - most likely with Endless One and Conjurant - into infinite burn damage to all our opponents. From there, well running Fleshraker and Reservoir just means we might as well run some "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sensei's Divining Top"}},{"insert":" combos as well. After all, Emrakul costs \"13\" mana, so cost reducers like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Helm of Awakening"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Jhoira's Familiar"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Immortal Sun"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ugin, the Ineffable"}},{"insert":" just help us cast her quicker. Plus, we are a colorless deck, so "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mystic Forge"}},{"insert":" is our best piece of card draw, and where else am I going to run "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Echoes of Eternity"}},{"insert":"? It is all just so... free. All of these cards are good outside of the combo lines, and if we just so happen to get the right mix of them on the field we just win the game, on the spot,\n\nI told you I was going to be the entire problem, didn't I'amrakul?\n\nBefore I dive into the rest of the deck, I do just want to go over one more combination of cards really quickly. This is less of a combo and more of a tutor chain, but colorless decks gotta do what colorless decks gotta do. In this case, we have a land/artifact tutor chain involving "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tezzeret, Cruel Captain"}},{"insert":"/"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Urza's Saga"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Expedition Map"}},{"insert":"/"},{"insert":{"card-link":"World Map"}},{"insert":"/"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Urza's Cave"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Inventors' Fair"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Crucible of Worlds"}},{"insert":". Basically, if we find any part of this chain, it eventually leads us to Crucible of Worlds, which will let us loop Inventors' Fair to find any artifact from our deck (including Curio, Portal or Top). We also have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Buried Ruin"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Myr Retriever"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Scrap Trawler"}},{"insert":" and a dedicated land cloning package ("},{"insert":{"card-link":"Echoing Deeps"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Mycosynth Gardens"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Thespian's Stage"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Vesuva"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mirage Mirror"}},{"insert":") to give us extra redundancy in this tutor chain.\n\nSo, we win by comboing off with some kind of Eldrazi shaped Rube Golderberg Machine. That is all well and good, but how do we get there? Well, my friends, it is all in the vegetables - the draw, ramp and removal.\n\nNot counting Sensei's Divining Top, we run 15 pieces of card draw to help churn through the deck and find our win cons. My predilections towards land based draw are well known, and well represented here with "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Arch of Orazca"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fomori Vault"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Fountainport"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Geier Reach Sanitarium"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sea Gate Wreckage"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"War Room"}},{"insert":". Furthermore, we have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Matzalantli, the Great Door // The Core"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Palantír of Orthanc"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Trading Post"}},{"insert":" to draw cards while also getting things into the graveyard for Emrakul. Then there is the aforementioned Mystic Forge, Immortal Sun and Ugin, the Effable. Finally, we have some incidental card draw on "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mind Stone"}},{"insert":", Kozilek's Command and Summon: Bahamut.\n\nWhen I was building the ramp package for this deck, I thought of it in terms of two groups: regular ramp and then ways for Emrakul to reduce her own cost.\n\nIn terms of regular ramp, we have 31 pieces, ranging from the UrzaTron lands, to Eldrazi sol lands, to tons of artifacts for use with Unwinding Clock. The only ones I really want to shout out are "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Wayfarer's Bauble"}},{"insert":" (it can get Wastes guys, it doesn't need the Basic it gets to have a type), and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Forsaken Monument"}},{"insert":" (the fact that it doubles our mana is only the beginning... but the rest of the book is kind of short considering we only have 17 creatures in the deck).\n\nWhere it gets really interesting - at least to my brain, which has succumbed to the influence of Emrakul just like Bruna did - is how I built the deck to reduce Emrakul's cost as much as possible by her own effect. There are currently nine card types in the game - artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, kindred, land, planeswalker and sorcery - and thankfully colorless has access to all of them. As such, I plumed the depths of Scryfall looking for as many "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"acceptable "},{"insert":"cards of each type as I could find. \nIt should already be obvious that we have plenty of artifacts (42, to be exact), and the lone colorless battle - "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Invasion of Ravnica // Guildpact Paragon"}},{"insert":" - is a removal spell that I would be happy to play without wanting access to its type. The deck has 16 creatures (not counting Emrakul or Guildpact Paragon), 4 enchantments (a card type which I am actively cheating to get more of, Echoes of Eternity is the only traditional enchantment in the deck, but "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Summon: Bahamut"}},{"insert":", Urza's Saga and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Valgavoth's Lair"}},{"insert":" pick up some of the slack), 8 instants, 7 kindred cards, 38 lands, 3 planeswalkers (Tezzeret, Ugin and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Ugin, the Spirit Dragon"}},{"insert":") and 3 sorceries. I promise you, this is the best I can do without making the deck absolute trash.\nBut just having these various card types isn't enough, Emrakul demands that we must cast them aside to accelerate her arrival. As such, we run a small discard and mill package to stock our graveyard with card types. For discard, we have the aforementioned Fomori Vault, Geier Reach Sanitarium, Matzalantli and Trading Post. For mill, we have my boys(?) "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Millikin"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Warring Triad"}},{"insert":" to mill us over time as we tap them for mana, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Tocasia's Dig Site"}},{"insert":" for repeatable card selection, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Eden, Seat of the Sanctum"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Sequestered Stash"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Codex Shredder"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Perpetual Timepiece"}},{"insert":" to mill and get important things back if needed, Palantir of Orthanc if one of our opponents is drunk and the be all end all itself - "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mesmeric Orb"}},{"insert":". Together, this should allow us to cast Emrakul for 6 or 7 mana as opposed to 9 or 10 mana - which makes comboing a lot easier. Just be sure to never have Mesmeric Orb and the Hourglass Pendant on the field at the same time if you are going for The Promised End combo - that will kill you.\n\nAs for removal, we have 18 pieces. The deck is very creature light (which is also why we run "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Field of the Dead"}},{"insert":"), and people will either be afraid of the face-up cosmic horror we have in the command zone or know what we are capable of, so we need ways to protect ourselves until we can let Emmy do her thing. To that end, we have four boardwipes in the form of "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Blast Zone"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Selective Obliteration"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"All Is Dust"}},{"insert":" and Ugin, the Spirit Airlines Dragon. All of these but Blast Zone are one sided, and honestly even if we lose stuff to Blast Zone we should be able to buy enough time to get that stuff back. From there, we have "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Null Elemental Blast"}},{"insert":", "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Spatial Contortion"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Warping Wail"}},{"insert":" simply because they are cheap pieces of interaction, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Kozilek's Command"}},{"insert":" because it is a versatile kindred card, "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Eldrazi Confluence"}},{"insert":" to blink Invasion of Ravnica, and some 5 mana lessons because I couldn't find much else.\n\nAn Eldritch Moon is approaching Innistrad, and this time I'amrakul think she will find that the soil is receptive.\n"}]}