The Eldrazi are some of the biggest creatures that exist in the history of Magic, and they have the converted mana costs to match! Today we're taking a Top Ten (Converted Mana Cost) Countdown of some of the Eldrazi, from titans down to Spawn, and giving you some fun facts about our favorite unknowable alien monstrosities. Let's get started from the top!
10. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Currently sitting at a converted mana cost of 10, Ulamog is the only one of the three Eldrazi titans to have more than one card to represent it.
9. Void Winnower
Unofficially officially dubbed "the Eldrazi who can't even," Void Winnower weighs in at a hefty nine mana. It is also the sole survivor from a series of Eldrazi cards created early in design that cared about odds and evens.
8. Eldrazi Devastator
The spiritual heir to Ulamog's Crusher, Eldrazi Devastator is a French vanilla Eldrazi—that is, a creature with just a keyword ability and no other text.
7. Bane of Bala Ged
Annihilator as a mechanic did not return from its original appearance in Rise of the Eldrazi, and Bane of Bala Ged is the sole card in Battle for Zendikar with an ability somewhat similar to the old Eldrazi mechanic. Annihilator was not a very fun mechanic to play against, as it often left one player way behind with little chance of coming back. But in small (one card only!) doses, R&D determined it was all right to have it appear in BFZ.
6. Oblivion Sower
Oblivion Sower is quite the unusual Eldrazi. Most Eldrazi exile cards through the ability ingest. Then, Eldrazi Processors put cards from exile into the graveyard for an effect. Oblivion Sower is neither a Processor nor a card with ingest—but it both exiles cards and uses them for a (powerful) additional effect!
5. Kozilek's Channeler
Kozilek himself doesn't appear in Battle for Zendikar, but remnants of his brood permeate the set, oftentimes enabling bigger and scarier Eldrazi to come into play. The Channeler not only helps you ramp into more mana for the truly monstrous Eldrazi, it's also a 4/4 creature for five mana—which is pretty beefy!
4. Smothering Abomination
In Battle for Zendikar, devoid renders spells that have colored mana in their cost colorless—so we have weird and creepy Eldrazi in all colors except white. The art for Smothering Abomination was also showcased in the worldbuilding panel at PAX Prime, where we previewed Battle for Zendikar and gave players a peek behind the process of bringing the world of Zendikar to life.
3. Dominator Drone
Dominator Drone is an Eldrazi Drone, featuring the ingest mechanic to exile cards from an opponent's library. Also, if you look at the art and imagine the Eldrazi's appendages are the human's arms, it looks like the Eldrazi is posing to show off its abs. Weird, right?
2. Forerunner of Slaughter
Although the Eldrazi are mostly thought of as giant creatures, the small Eldrazi in Battle for Zendikar actually enable a very aggressive Eldrazi deck. Gavin Verhey built a great black-red aggro deck for Standard featuring Forerunner of Slaughter.
1. Endless One
Okay, so Endless One's converted mana cost is technically 0… but it has one in the name! Clearly it had to take this spot. Endless One is also only the third creature in Magic's history to have a mana cost of simply X—and it's definitely the strongest.
0. Scions and Spawn
The Eldrazi Scions and Spawn tokens are not only annoying (and in the case of the Scions, potentially deadly), they also showcase each of the titans' brood lineages. Can you identify which Spawn and Scions came from which titan?
Thanks for counting down some Eldrazi with me—and may you have the tools to take them down (or enlist their skills) at your local game store for Friday Night Magic!