Last updated on November 28, 2024
Evolving Wilds | Illustration by Alayna Danner
Who is unfathomably big and powerful, incomprehensible for mortal minds, older than most worlds, and their idea of a crunchy brunch includes devouring said worlds?
If you’re a Marvel fan, you may be thinking about Galactus. And if Lovecraft is more in your wheelhouse when it comes to incomprehensible ancient beings, then you may be thinking about Cthulhu.
Both references happen to be precisely on point if talking about the Eldrazi! When WotC unveiled them, their three-beat introduction was, literally: “Cthulhu meets Galactus.”
And as you may have guessed from this Magic set‘s name, Rise of the Eldrazi is where this ravenous meeting started.
Let's meet these huge hungry entities and the set that brought them into the MTG multiverse!
Rise of the Eldrazi Basic Information
Consume the Meek | Illustration by Chippy
Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE), released in April 2010, is the third MTG set in the Zendikar block. It followed the original Zendikar (October 2009) and Worldwake (February 2010).
In general, the third sets of a block were small sets (less than 180 cards) which continued and expanded upon their block's mechanics. Rise of the Eldrazi is unusual in two ways: It's a large set (more than 240 cards) and has its own distinct mechanics. It's pretty much a standalone set as far as cards and mechanics go.
Rise of the Eldrazi: Set Details
| Set Symbol |  |
| Set Code | ROE |
| Number of Cards | 248 |
| Rarities | 100 Commons, 60 Uncommons, 53 Rares, 15 Mythics, 20 Basic Lands |
| Mechanics | Eldrazi, Annihilator, Level Up, Rebound, Umbra Armor (formerly Totem Armor) |
Rise of the Eldrazi: Important Dates
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| Set Release | April 2010 |
| Available on Draftsim's Draft Simulator | No |
About the Set: The Story
Zendikar is a vast, wild plane, full of deadly dangers. Ancient stones called “hedrons” float in the sky and ancient ruins dot the land, luring adventurers with promises of thrill and treasure. Mana is particularly strong here, and a lot of the sets taking place in Zendikar have mechanics closely connected to lands and mana sources. The original Zendikar, for example, introduced the landfall ability word.
Rise of the Eldrazi‘s storyline tells the awakening of ancient gargantuan beings that swallow planes whole – Magic designers went for a mix of Lovecraft's Great Old Ones and Marvel's Galactus, making them really hungry for mana.
A brave team of planeswalkers, with Chandra Nalaar, Jace Beleren, Nissa Revane, and Gideon Jura among them, had already banded together to protect Zendikar from Ob Nixilis, and they team up again against the Eldrazi menace. Rise of the Eldrazi, and the original Zendikar block's story as a whole, ends with a bit of a cliffhanger – the story continues in the Battle for Zendikar block (released five years later, in 2015-2016), where the Eldrazi are defeated. These events lead to the creation of the Gatewatch (kind of Marvel's Avengers, but with more spark), itself a story arc that would continue until those characters faced Nicol Bolas in War of the Spark.
Rise of the Eldrazi Mechanics
Eldrazi Creature Type
As you may expect, many of Rise of the Eldrazi's cards and mechanics focus on the titular monstrosities: This set introduced Eldrazi as a creature type.
ROE's Eldrazi have an interesting quirk, though, when looking at them from the vantage point of modern Magic: Nowadays the Eldrazi are famous for being colorless creatures, but colorless mana as we know it hadn't been codified yet.
That's why you can cast Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, from Rise of the Eldrazi, with generic mana, but you need colorless mana to cast Kozilek, the Great Distortion. Cards with colorless mana in their mana costs were an innovation that came with Oath of the Gatewatch – in Rise of the Eldrazi, colorless casting costs literally hadn’t been invented yet.
A lot of ROE's cards are about acquiring the resources to cast these mana-hungry monstrosities. Among those we have Eldrazi drones and Eldrazi spawns.
Drones are creature cards with both the Eldrazi and drone creature type. They cost between 2-6 mana, and unlike the “pure” Eldrazi these drones are all colored (for example Nest Invader is a green creature, and Rapacious One is a red creature). All drones interact in some way with Eldrazi Spawn.
The Eldrazi Spawn are colorless creature tokens, and of course, their single-minded goal in life is to generate mana to put the big Eldrazi in play. Their self-sacrifice ability is a mana ability: It doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to.
Annihilator
Okay, so we have Magic's version of what would happen if Galactus and Cthulhu had a lot of humongous, mana-ravenous babies. Any guesses at what their annihilator ability does?
Yep, pretty much as you'd imagine: “Annihilator X” is a triggered ability, found on the big Eldrazi like Ulamog's Crusher. Whenever an annihilator creature attacks, the defending player has to sacrifice X permanents. That's any type of permanent – including lands.
There are nine annihilator cards in ROE, and the mechanic returns with Modern Horizons 3.
Level Up
Big hungry Eldritch abominations aside, much of Zendikar's flavor tends to be tied to quests and adventure. If you've ever played a role playing game, the level up mechanic will be fairly familiar: It's an activated ability that lets you make a creature stronger over time. You pay the level-up cost at sorcery speed and your creature gets higher power, higher toughness, and increased abilities.
Joraga Treespeaker is a 1/1 with no other ability when you play it; spending will level it up into a very good 1/2 mana dork, and if you level it all the way up to 5, all your elves become mana dorks.
Hexdrinker from Modern Horizons 1 is the only card outside ROE with level up, and it appeared on several reprints including a card from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander product.
Rebound
Rebound is a static ability on some instants and sorceries. If you cast a rebound spell like World at War from your hand, it goes to exile rather than your graveyard upon resolution. During your next upkeep, you'll get the chance to cast it again from exile… and for free!
Rebound has been used in a handful of sets after ROE; there are even a couple of rebound cards in Doctor Who.
Totem Armor/Umbra Armor
Totem armor (now errata'd to umbra armor) is a static ability found on some of Rise of the Eldrazi‘s auras. On top of other abilities that each aura may provide (Spider Umbra grants reach and +1/+1, Mammoth Umbra grants vigilance and +3/+3), totem armor prevents the enchanted creature from being destroyed, and the aura is destroyed instead.
Tribal (Kindred) Cards
Among its innovations, Rise of the Eldrazi has the first instant and sorceries with only generic mana in their casting cost, for example All Is Dust or Not of This World. These are also tribal/kindred spells with the Eldrazi creature type.
Rise of the Eldrazi Card Gallery
White
Blue
Black
Red
Green
Multicolor
Colorless
Lands
Notable Cards
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
There are two reasons why you may never see a card in an Eternal format like Commander: Either it's absolutely unplayable garbage, or it's so strong that it has earned itself a ban.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn deserves its ban, and that's why you don't see it in EDH decks. It's Magic's best battlecruiser, though, and as such sees plenty of play in Legacy and Modern, though.
Evolving Wilds
Yeah, big Eldritch monsters are cool and all, but do you know the most popular Rise of the Eldrazi card out there, the one that's been reprinted a whopping 65 times (and counting!)?
Although a humble common, Evolving Wilds is one of the best budget lands in Magic. It's not as powerful as a proper fetch land like Marsh Flats or Arid Mesa (both introduced in the original Zendikar), but it's a wallet-friendly way to buttress any multicolor deck's mana base.
Bear Umbra
The most popular of the umbra armor auras, Bear Umbra is an excellent green enchantment and one of the best ways to untap all your lands.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
More like Butcher of Budgets, if we're being honest. Buying a copy of Kozilek, Butcher of Truth demands north of $40, which makes it the most expensive card from Rise of the Eldrazi.
The price tag may be justified, though, given that Kozilek is competitive-playable in Modern, sometimes shows up among the 99 in top-tier cEDH decks, and is one of the best colorless commanders you can play.
Splinter Twin
Splinter Twin became a Pro Tour powerhouse in 2015, until it suffered the harsh fate of excessive success and earned itself a ban in Modern.
This red enchantment still sees plenty of Commander play, both in competitive and casual decks.
Artisan of Kozilek
A huge creature with annihilator would already be an interesting target for reanimator decks, but Artisan of Kozilek can do the reanimating part all by itself. Being a colorless creature, it can join the ranks of any reanimator commander and sees extensive cEDH play.
Inquisition of Kozilek
Commander players don't have much use for this black sorcery – juicy targets that cost 3 mana or less are scarce in the multiplayer format – yet being a Thoughtseize without the life loss lets Inquisition of Kozilek make the cut in Modern and Duel Commander decks, where threats are very often in the 3-mana range.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Another big bank buster, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre‘s price tag is only slightly cheaper than that of Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and it's an equally solid colorless legendary for your command zone.
Like Kozilek, Ulamog also comes with a sort of anti-reanimation clause (if it ends up in your graveyard from anywhere, you have to shuffle your graveyard into your library), but it's one of the only two Eldrazi with indestructible.
Soul's Attendant
Soul's Attendant is one of the cards that make up the infamous Soul Sisters pair, the other being Soul Warden from Exodus.
This human cleric doesn't see much 60-card play, but, as one of the best lifegain cards in Magic, this white creature is fairly common alongside lifegain commanders.
Training Grounds
Training Grounds is one of the best blue enchantments, often making the cut in the 99 of cEDH decks that have Thrasios, Triton Hero as one of the partner commanders.
Pawn of Ulamog
Although Pawn of Ulamog isn't an Eldrazi itself, this vampire shaman can spawn Eldrazi Spawn when nontoken creatures die. This black creature is one of the best token generators in black, and an excellent inclusion in aristocrat decks.
It That Betrays
Like Pawn of Ulamog, It That Betrays is an excellent sacrifice payoff – with the interesting caveat that, in this case, “sacrifices must be made” applies more to your foes than to yourself.
Talk about adding insult to annihilating injury!
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
With so many ravenous Eldritch abominations running amok, I guess it's a good thing that Rise of the Eldrazi included a strong angel to fight for the good folks' side: Linvala, Keeper of Silence.
This white commander is a fairly annoying stax piece as it shuts down all activated abilities from enemy creatures – including mana abilities from Eldrazi Spawn, or any other mana dorks your opponents thought they were going to use.
Eldrazi Conscription
They may be destroyers of planes and eaters of worlds, but Eldrazi Conscription proves that the Eldrazi believe that sharing is caring: With this colorless enchantment even your puny non-Eldrazi creatures can become humongous threats with annihilator on top!
Available Products
Rise of the Eldrazi has the usual range of products from MTG sets printed at that time: booster packs, intro packs, and a fat pack – ROE is from an era way before Play Boosters and Collector Boosters.
Sealed product from that time tends to be quite pricey – after quickly browsing on Amazon, it looks like a Rise of Eldrazi booster pack is around $50, a fat pack is well over $1,000, and a booster box is absurd.
Booster Pack
The ROE booster had your standard 15-card layout with 1 rare/mythic, 3 uncommons and 10 commons plus a nonplayable card.
- Set 3 of 3 in the Zendikar Block
- Age range: 13 and up / Number of players: 2
- Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
Fat Pack
The ROE fat pack is some cool card storage with eight boosters, plus some other goodies, but this far exceeds the price you should pay considering the highest-valued individual cards are less than $50.
- Brand new in original factory-sealed packaging!
- . Rise of the Eldrazi is the third of 3 in the Zendikar block Available in 15-card booster packs, intros, and fat packs that contain 8 boosters · Premium foil cards and token cards randomly inserted 8 Packs/15 Cards 6 Per Case
Booster Box
A box of 36 ROE boosters is too much for me to recommend purchasing, but amazing to see for anyone who has one stashed away.
The usual advice here is, rather than packs, buy singles either from online stores or directly from other players.
- Brand new in original factory-sealed packaging!
- Rise of the Eldrazi is the third of 3 in the Zendikar block Available in 15-card booster packs, intros, and fat packs that contain 8 boosters. Premium foil cards and token cards randomly inserted. 6 Box Case 36 Packs 15 Cards
Wrap Up
Eldrazi Conscription | Illustration by Jaime Jones
Back in 2018, Magic's head designer Mark Rosewater introduced us to the Rabiah Scale – an informal scale similar to the Storm Scale, that Mark created to rate the likelihood of revisiting an existing plane in a future Standard-legal set. It's called “Rabiah” because Rabiah is the plane where the Arabian Nights MTG set takes place, and Rabiah is a 10 on the scale (that's to say, don't expect future sets to return to that plane anytime soon!).
When talking about the Zendikar plane, Mark noted that: “Market research shows that players like it more without Eldrazi than with them.” That's the most likely reason why there were exactly zero Eldrazi when Zendikar Rising revisited the plane in 2020. But the times (and scales), they seem to be changing, since Eldrazi are prominently featured in 2024's Modern Horizons 3.
At any rate, Rise of the Eldrazi was the debut for these huge, hungry entities of Magic's Multiverse – and now that the Phyrexians are gone (after the events of March of the Machine), the Eldrazi may be the next Big Bad that Magic's heroes will have to defeat.
I hope you've enjoyed this set overview, and if you have comments or suggestions on which sets, new or old, you'd like us to tackle next, do stop by for a chat at the Draftsim Discord.
And good luck out there!
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