Azlask Five-Color Eldrazi | $100 Budget EDH Deck Tech

Azlask, the Swelling Scourge | Illustrated by Alexander Mokhov

Echoes of Eternity | Illustrated by Isis

All Is Dust | Illustrated by Jason Felix

Hey, nerds! For this week's deck tech I wanted to build Azlask, the Swelling Scourge five-color Eldrazi. If you're looking for a unique and powerful Eldrazi commander, then look no further. Instead of casting massive threats, we want to overwhelm our opponents with an army of tokens, then wipe their boards clean with annihilating Scions and Spawns. I'll be breaking down the key cards, budget swaps, and upgrades, so without further ado, let's get into it!

Key Cards

Scion-Producers

Let's kick things off with the Scion-producers. There aren't a lot of ways to create Scions, but I included what I think are the best with Sifter of Skulls, Brood Monitor, Vile Redeemer, Spawning Bed, Spawnbed Protector, and From Beyond. Originally I cut From Beyond, but then I read the card and realized it lets us tutor any Eldrazi card, like Echoes of Eternity, for two mana. Reading the card explains the card. The others are Blisterpod, Catacomb Sifter, Eldrazi Skyspawner, Scion Summoner, Eyeless Watcher, and Drowner of Hope. I consider these to be the Scion B-Team, but they all produce Scions at a great rate, so they can stay.

Spawn-Producers

You'll notice I didn't include a lot of the new Eldrazi from MH3; that's because they only produce Spawns when they're cast. There are a few exceptions to this, like Eldrazi Repurposer, Glaring Fleshraker, Writhing Chrysalis (god, I hate this card in Limited), Spawn-Gang Commander, Emrakul's Messenger, and Drowner of Truth. They either provide a powerful effect, produce Spawns on death, or double as land. The only other creature that produces Spawns is Chittering Dispatcher. That's because the best of the bunch is the noncreatures, with Kozilek's Unsealing, Path of Annihilation, and Skittering Invasion. 

Utility Eldrazi

The final batch of Eldrazi are what I'm calling utility Eldrazi. These are creatures that might not line up exactly with our strategy but that still provide incredible value, so they have to be included. Eldrazi Displacer provides us with a cheap and easy way to blink our token-producers, and it goes infinite with Brood Monitor, giving us infinite experience counters. Eldrazi Linebreaker can turn a single token into a massive hasty threat. Combine that with our commander's ability and our opponents are in for a bad time. Or we can use Sire of Stagnation to punish all those Landfall decks. Other notable utility Eldrazi are Propagator Drone, Smothering Abomination, Sowing Mycospawn, Titans' Vanguard, Angelic Aberration, Oblivion Sower, Benthic Anomaly, Nulldrifter, and Breaker of Creation. 

Honorary Eldrazi

Of the 33 creatures in the deck, only two of them aren't Eldrazi: Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Ezuri, Claw of Progress. You might be wondering why I would include non-Eldrazi creatures in an Eldrazi deck. It turns out that both of these creatures can help provide us with a metric ton of experience counters without having to do much work. Every time we create a token, Ezuri gives us an experience counter, and with Meren and Azlask in play, whenever one of our Eldrazi dies, we get two experience counters. 

Ramp

Unlike other five-color decks, which can take advantage of green's land ramp, I decided to primarily use artifact ramp. This is for two reasons. 

1. Glaring Fleshraker, Herald of Kozilek, Ugin, the Ineffable, and Echoes of Eternity, either reduce or provide a benefit when we cast colorless spells. This is also why all but two of the creatures in the deck are devoid. 
2. We have a nonzero amount of creatures and abilities that require colorless mana, and there aren't any fetchable lands that produce colored and colorless mana. 

Along with some of the cards mentioned above, we have nine of the talismans, Sol Ring, Snapping Voidcraw, and Ashnod's Altar. Technically Path of Annihilation is also ramp, since it allows us to tap all of our Eldrazi for colored mana. 

Removal, Utility, and Draw

I tried to only include devoid and colorless spells for interaction. This is probably the weakest portion of the deck, but we have Null Elemental Blast, Abstruse Appropriation, Scour from Existence, and All Is Dust. There is some other colorless removal we could add, but I'm happy with this suite.

Card draw shouldn't be too big of an issue thanks to Skullclamp, Kindred Discovery, and Staff of Compleation. Some creatures can draw you three or four cards with Kindred Discovery in play. Skullclamp is just a busted card and a great inclusion here. Staff of Compleation lets us draw, add mana, or proliferate our experience counters. Unnatural Restoration is graveyard recursion, so it's kind of like card draw, and you can proliferate with it.

Finally, we have Mystic Reflection and Cauldron of Souls. Mystic Reflection lets us turn our Spawns and Scions into another Eldrazi, like Sire of Stagnation, when they enter. This gets even better when we're generating multiple tokens at once with something like Brood Monitor or Spawn-Gang Commander. Cauldron of Souls lets us sacrifice our entire board and then give them persist to bring them back.  I included Gavony Township in the deck so we can remove the -1/-1 counters from all of our creatures letting us use Cauldron again.

Budget Swaps

I don't usually do a budget swaps category, but there are some cards I think are easy to replace with some budget options that may be better for the deck. Starting with the cuts, let's remove From Beyond, Staff of Compleation, and Spawnbed Protector. These three cards are the most expensive in the deck aside from All is Dust, but that's too good to cut. From Beyond, while a great tutor, is only here to be a second copy of whatever Eldrazi you may need. I'd swap it out for Chthonian Nightmare. Nightmare was in the original list, but I wasn't sure if there would be enough three or fewer mana creatures to be able to abuse it. Next is Staff of Compleation, which I'd cut for Insidious Roots. Insidious Roots is great since it lets you tap your tokens for mana and gives you Plants as creatures leave your graveyard. Finally, Spawnbed Protector can be swapped out for Metallic Mimic. Mimic is great since it gives your Eldrazi who enter counters and combos nicely with Cauldron of Souls.

Upgrades

If you want to spend a little more money, you could make some solid upgrades. Starting off we have Coat of Arms and Akroma's Memorial. These are great at closing out the game in conjunction with Azlask's ability. Warleader's Call is also a solid upgrade that buffs your creatures and pings opponents whenever a creature enters, but otherwise, the deck actually feels solid at $100. You could add the Eldrazi Titans if you have some lying around, but I don't think they improve the deck enough given their high pricetag. 

And that wraps-up my $100 Azlask Eldrazi deck. I'd love to hear your thoughts down below! Let me know if you think I missed any key cards or upgrades. See ya!