Just how good is Rise of the Eldrazi Rare, Eldrazi Temple?

Pretty elfin’ good, we think.

Eldrazi Temple

The first thing I thought when I saw Eldrazi Temple was “Temple of the False God”.

Longtime readers know how YT feels about a Temple of the False God. I played Temple of the False God in my Biorhythm deck, the first deck (to my knowledge) that broke Windbrisk Heights (though I used Naya Rith’s Charm rather than Spectral Procession as my trigger finger), and many other decks that ran cards like Eternal Dragon, like the G/W Control deck that Brian Kibler used to make the Top 8 of US Nationals in 2004.

Temple of the False God was a little greedy. It was not useful, for instance, on turn one. Even as a second land, Temple of the False God can make you scratch your noggin and throw one back… teary-eyed as your regret the non-action on that Eternal Dragon in your close-to-sick opener.

How about Eldrazi Temple?

The name itself hearkens to Temple of the False God… Temple to Temple, as it were.

Provided you can use colorless mana, Eldrazi Temple is good starting on turn one. I had to double-take on the second ability:

T: Add 2 to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast colorless Eldrazi spells or activate abilities of colorless Eldrazi.

Can you play a MOTHERLOVIN’ TURN ONE MOTHERLOVIN CUP?

Sadly, Everflowing Chalice is not Eldrazi.

Damn.

So what good is Eldrazi Temple?

Well, you are one mana closer to slamming down that Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Fifteen mana is like thirty mana when compared to fourteen mana (this is a concept that GHWeiss turned me onto a couple of years back). Think about it: The idea of being “manascrewed” with fourteen lands in play is probably strange, but being manascrewed is really about the absence of your ability to play your spells. Emrakul costs fifteen mana. When you’ve missed drop fifteen a couple of turns in a row, that can start feeling insurmountable.

A core function (and almost the only reason you will add a colorless land like this one to your deck list) of Eldrazi Temple is going to be pulling you to virtual-fourteen, one mana closer to your bombastic Eldrazi boom booms.

Which boom booms?

Gigantors are hawt and all, but I think this one will be the most commonly played of the lot:

All is Dust

All is Dust “only” costs seven mana; with Eldrazi Temple that pulls it down to non-Temple of the False God Akroma’s Vengeance mana. Multiple copies of Eldrazi Temple may have your opponents tearing their hair out.

All is Dust is [generally] more powerful than Akroma’s Vengeance (despite not cycling), in particular because it poops on Gideon Jura or Sarkhan the Mad. On the other hand, the main reason we played an Akroma’s Vengeance-based deck in 2004 was to blow up all the artifact lands (which All is Dust doesn’t do… Not that it matters in 2010).

All is Dust seems — at this point, before I’ve actually played any Rise of the Eldrazi — as the most “splash-able” of the big Eldrazi spells. Most of the other cards seem like the kind of stuff you will have to play Summoning Trap and / or a ton of specialized mana to play; but All is Dust will see play in regular control decks as catch-all Wrath redundancy or Planeswalker suppression.

Eldrazi Temple, when casting Emrakul, will feel like a free fifteen. With All is Dust, it will play out like twelve mana when you are under pressure. I know that it won’t be exactly like those gigantic amounts of mana when you look at the board and lands tapped, but when cards that cost 10-11 mana are competing with Blightning and Countersquall, the value of mana acceleration this good — and this opportunity cost-less — can’t be exaggerated.

Long story short – Staple

Go get your playset. If you have any designs on fatty boom booms over the next two years, you will probably want four.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come, Part 3