Magic: The Gathering – Azlask, The Swelling Scourge Commander Deck Guide

Magic: The Gathering's Eldrazi hit the scene for the second time in the span of a year with Modern Horizons 3's Eldrazi Incursion Commander precon, hot off the tail (tentacles?) of the Eldrazi Unbound precon from Commander Masters. Between its unique take on a five-color colorless deck and an impressively powerful and confusing face commander, it was the easy standout from its product line-up.

Magic: The Gathering - Modern Horizons 3's Eldrazi Incursion Commander Deck Guide

Eldrazi Incursion is a unique mix of all colors and no colors all at once.

Ulalek, Fused Atrocity got a lot of attention with the release of the precon, but Eldrazi Incursion's backup commander promotes a different style of Eldrazi gameplay altogether. With an emphasis on preserving your Eldrazi Spawn and Scion tokens, Azlask, the Swelling Scourge takes the eldritch horrors in an unusual direction.

The Decklist

Commander (1)

Azlask, the Swelling Scourge

Creatures (30)

Emrakul's Messenger

It That Heralds the End

Masked Vandal

Nest Invader

Wastescape Battlemage

Catacomb Sifter

Chittering Dispatcher

Eldrazi Displacer

Eldrazi Linebreaker

Eldrazi Repurposer

Flayer Drone

Glaring Fleshraker

Matter Reshaper

Mirror Entity

Realmwalker

Skittering Precursor

Ezuri, Claw of Progress

Minthara, Merciless Soul

Meren of Clan Nel Toth

Sowing Mycospawn

Writhing Chrysalis

Blight Herder

Rukarumel, Biologist

Ulalek, Fused Atrocity

Drowner of Hope

Brood Monitor

Drowner of Truth

Nulldrifter

Spawnbed Protector

Decimator of Provinces

Planeswalkers (1)

Ugin, the Ineffable

Sorceries (5)

Malevolent Rumble

Nature's Lore

Three Visits

Selective Obliteration

All Is Dust

Instants (7)

Eldritch Immunity

Swords to Plowshares

Heroic Intervention

Warping Wail

Ugin's Binding

Kozilek's Return

Eldrazi Confluence

Enchantments (6)

Awakening Zone

Black Market Connections

Kozilek's Unsealing

From Beyond

Path of Annihilation

Echoes of Eternity

Artifacts (11)

Skullclamp

Sol Ring

Fellwar Stone

Idol of False Gods

Idol of Oblivion

Talisman of Creativity

Talisman of Resilience

Commander's Sphere

Maskwood Nexus

Roaming Throne

Forsaken Monument

Lands (39)

Ash Barrens

Bountiful Landscape

Bountiful Promenade

Cavern of Souls

Command Tower

Corrupted Crossroads

Eldrazi Temple

Exotic Orchard

Eye of Ugin

Fabled Passage

Forest (2)

Grand Coliseum

Island (1)

Luxury Suite

Mana Confluence

Morphic Pool

Mountain (2)

Plains (1)

Path of Ancestry

Prismatic Vista

Rejuvenating Springs

Sanctum of Ugin

Sea of Clouds

Secluded Courtyard

Shrine of Forsaken Gods

Spara's Headquarters

Spectator Seating

Spire Garden

Swamp (1)

Temple of the False God

Training Center

Ugin's Labyrinth

Undergrowth Stadium

Vault of Champions

Wastes (2)

Ziatora's Proving Ground

The Commander

Most Eldrazi decks are dedicated to fast ramp in service of huge battlecruiser creatures, but Azlask, the Swelling Scourge advertises something a little more nuanced for the creature type. Azlask asks that you forego the top-end Eldrazi that you typically see in these decks, and instead hone in on the Eldrazi Spawn and Scion tokens these decks tend to generate.

Spawn and Scions are usually just speedbump tokens that are meant to be used as one-off ramp tools to get to your more expensive plays, but Azlask wants you to keep those tokens around. Doing so will give you more fodder for Azlask's activated ability, turning those critters into mini annhilating titans on their own.

The balance comes from stocking up experience counters. To get experience counters, Azlask needs to be around to see other colorless creatures die. The easiest way to do that is sacrificing one of the aforementioned tokens, but doing so reduces the number of creatures that benefit from Azlask's ability. There's a push and pull between sacrificing and preserving these tokens.

Note that Azlask cares only if a colorless creature dies, not an Eldrazi specifically, so artifact creatures that sacrifice themselves can be a huge boon to the deck. Additionally, the five-color activated ability pumps all your creatures. Only the Spawn and Scions get Annihilator 1, but everything gets the power and toughness bump.

If you have the mana to activate Azlask's ability multiple times, each creature will get pumped for each activation, and multiple instances of Annihilator will all trigger separately.

The Strategy

There are three main goals for this deck. First is to amass as many Spawn and Scion creatures as possible. Second is striking a balance between how many you're willing to sacrifice for experience counters while maintaining enough board presence to win a game. And third, is going for the kill with your tiny annihilators.

Play Eldrazi, build up experience, make a huge attack – that's the plan.

This runs contrary to how a lot of Eldrazi decks tend to play. Most Eldrazi strategies want to convert all their mana resources into huge game-ending plays, but this deck doesn't actually have that many large top-end plays. Conserving your mana-producing tokens is key, and you really only want to sacrifice them to cast spells that replace them with more Spawn and Scions.

Azlask is not the type of commander you want to run out as soon as you can. Since it builds up experience counters by seeing other colorless creatures die, you should build up a board first, then cast Azlask once you have a few on-demand ways to build up experience. Thankfully Azlask also generates an experience counter if it happens to die, as well.

If a board wipe causes Azlask to die at the same time as some other colorless creatures, it will produce an experience counter for each colorless creature that died alongside it.

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Important Interactions

Creature types matter for this deck. Azlask's affinity towards Scions and Spawn creatures usually means the tokens you'll be creating, but there are some ways to amplify the typal part of your strategy. Changelings count as both relevant creature types at all times, and Maskwood Nexus turns all creatures you control into the corresponding types.

There's an interesting dynamic between Azlask and the other experience counter creatures present in the deck. Since experience counters go on the player, not the creatures, each experience counter creature essentially helps the others. It doesn't matter which one made the experience counters; they all benefit from them.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress is basically present to build up experience for Azlask, and it'll make experience every time one of your Eldrazi tokens enters play. Meren of Clan Nel Toth gains experience when you sacrifice those tokens, and even reanimates creatures pretty consistently. Minthara also creates experience when you sacrifice Eldrazi, and can provide a nice board pump to boot.

Mirror Entity is basically a back-up win condition, as it often is in token-based decks. If you can't stick Azlask on board, Mirror Entity gives you an alternative ways to filter all your mana into making your army of Eldrazi creatures huge. They'll gain all creature types too, so they'll benefit from any Eldrazi-related effects you have on board.

Budget Considerations

The presented Azlask list aims for a mid-power casual experience, with plenty of potential to increase the power level of the deck, or decrease accordingly.

As it stands, this list foregoes many of the most powerful Commander staples for a more unique casual deck, though Azlask's color identity means you have access to literally anything you might want to play.

Budget Increases

The easiest way to increase this deck's overall power and consistency is with fast mana. There's already a decent helping of that, but you could easily add Mana Crypt and Ancient Tomb to bolster the manabase. Smothering Tithe is also a consideration if you want access to more ramp.

Blue staples like Cyclonic Rift, Mystic Remora, and Rhystic Study could all make the cut, though you run the 'risk' of making your deck feel more similar to other existing decks. That's not an issue for many players, but you might want to avoid cards like this if you're attempting to maintain a novel experience.

A five-color commander also gives you access to all the best free spells in Commander. Force of Negation, Deflecting Swat, and Deadly Rollick are some of the top-tier options, though they're not exactly budget-friendly options. Flawless Maneuver also works well in a creature-based deck, and it's much more affordable than other free spells.

And finally, you can overhaul the colored portion of the manabase. This list currently runs the cheaper Battlebond lands with a few Triomes and expensive colorless lands, but you could easily convert this to a fetch land plus shock land manabase, and even add in original dual lands if you have them.

Remember that the deck has a colorless mana component that you need to fulfill. However you adjust the manabase, keep a healthy number of lands that tap for colorless mana.

Budget Decreases

Increasing the power level of the deck is the easier part; it's much harder to find budget cuts. The manabase currently features Ugin's Labyrinth and a few pricey Triomes. Feel free to cut those for cheaper lands of your choice. More of the Modern Horizons 3 Landscapes won't hurt, and Painlands like Llanowar Wastes can fix your colors while also tapping for colorless mana.

Maskwood Nexus, Roaming Throne, and Black Market Connections are all generically powerful typal cards that cost anywhere from $7-$35 depending on the card. These can be subbed out for inexpensive typal support cards like Herald's Horn, Kindred Discovery, or even Pillar of Origins for additional ramp.

Ugin's Binding is also fairly expensive, and while it's excellent in the deck, it's far from necessary. You can swap it out for your board wipe of choice, but universal board wipes aren't really what this deck's interested in. Avoid the usual staples like Blasphemous Act or Toxic Deluge, and opt for conditional board wipes like Kindred Dominance or Crippling Fear.

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