Zhulodok, Void Gorger Commander Deck Guide

Zhulodok, Void Gorger | Illustration by Lius Lasahido

It’s not every day that you build an EDH deck around a colorless commander, and an Eldrazi commander to boot. Zhulodok, Void Gorger is an Eldrazi/colorless commander that was designed to be a less mana-intensive option than the traditional Eldrazi, but at the same time it’s a payoff for casting expensive spells.

Colorless commanders are very restrictive in what we can effectively play, but here we’ve got nice options. It helps that WotC released the Eldrazi Unbound precon with Zhulodok as one of the commander options, and this deck helped supply old and expensive Eldrazi cards, as well as new options for this deck.

Without further ado, a fun and powerful take on a Zhulodok, Void Gorger EDH deck.

The Deck

Roaming Throne | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu

The Commander: Zhulodok, Void Gorger

Zhulodok, Void Gorger is the reason why I’m building this deck. It’s a 7/4 colorless Eldrazi commander, so you can play only colorless cards: colorless creatures, colorless artifacts, and colorless lands (Wastes and nonbasic colorless lands). The commander costs 6 mana to cast, and whenever you cast a 7+ mana value colorless spell, you get to cascade twice. It’s totally possible to follow Zhulodok with a 7-drop and create a huge imbalance in the game. Keep in mind that the two cascade triggers resolve one at a time. Plus, cascade doesn’t care if you resolved the 7+ mana spell or not, so even if the spell is countered, you’ll get the two cascade triggers.

Creatures

Most of this deck is composed of giant Eldrazi creatures. From It That Betrays to Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, there’s no shortage of big win conditions. After all, your commander is hungry for 7+ mana value spells, and you’re surely going to cast many of them throughout the game.

However, there are the little guys that help in the early game, too. For example, Roaming Throne will double our Eldrazi triggers. Skittering Cicada is good early and it can get huge when we’re casting expensive spells. In the supporting role, you also have Abstruse Archaic, a creature that can copy activated or triggered abilities from colorless sources – and between creatures, artifacts, and non-basic lands, you have a few to choose.

There’s also the ramp and colorless staple Solemn Simulacrum to round it out.

Interaction and Sweepers

Colorless is the worst color for interaction, removal, and sweepers. That said, there are some options:

There’s the classic Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots pair to protect your commander or to give haste to powerful Eldrazi. Not of This World is a free protection spell that works to defend your commander or your main haymakers.

You have some spot removal spells usually tied to creatures. Meteor Golem can destroy a nonland permanent, as well as the Ulamog cards. Titan's Presence can get something good if you reveal an expensive colorless spell.

It’s worth noting that your big Eldrazi have annihilator X, so once they start attacking, your opponents’ forces will crumple, so that works for interaction and removal as well. Finally, you have a flexible card in Ugin, the Ineffable, acting as mana reduction for your colorless spells, targeted removal, or card advantage in the form of creating 2/2 Spirit creatures.

In the sweeper department, there’s the classic All Is Dust, which gets rid of any non-colorless permanent. You also have cards like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and  Calamity of the Titans that act as sweepers.

Expensive Bombs

Your commander gives you double cascade triggers whenever you cast a colorless spell that costs 7 mana or more. This is why you play Zhulodok as a commander. You want to cast your spells when you have your commander in play to get the two cascade triggers. What’s more, this deck has the power to, say, cast a 10-mana spell and cascade into a 9-mana and an 8-mana spell, getting to drop three huge bombs onto the battlefield.

Both Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Kozilek, the Great Distortion provide card advantage when cast. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are also removal spells when cast. You have lesser Eldrazi like Pathrazer of Ulamog and  Ulamog's Crusher, too.

Flayer of Loyalties is insane. You’ll get to not only Act of Treason a creature but also turn it into a 10/10 with annihilator 2 for a turn.

Rise of the Eldrazi is an awesome card, getting all the bonuses from casting Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

Kaldra Compleat is a 7-mana spell, a strong creature when it comes into play, and a fierce equipment later on.

Artisan of Kozilek is many times be a two-for-one, returning a big creature from your graveyard to the battlefield.

The Mana Base

A colorless mana base means that you could put 35 Wastes in the deck and call it a day. Naturally, you’ll want to mix in many colorless utility lands to get the most out of your cards. Also, many colorless lands generate more than 1 colorless mana. Some of the noteworthy lands you’re playing:

• War Room can draw you a card each turn without paying life. Bonder's Enclave is another fine option to draw cards.
• Command Beacon can make you cast your commander for only 6 mana when the commander tax is too high.
• Field of the Dead is a win condition in long games. Most of your lands have different names, and the land can be tutored via Expedition Map.
• You’re playing the Urza lands, as well as a new Urza land called Urza's Workshop. These lands can generate between 2-4 mana on the right conditions.
• Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin are essential in Eldrazi decks since they can generate so much mana.

Also, you want many, many mana rocks in this deck. Your commander costs c, and there’s a few spells that cost 10 or more mana. You’re playing around 10+ cards that generate mana, either mana rocks like Thought Vessel or creatures like Manakin.

A problem with this deck is to have so much mana and ramp available but no cards. Cards like Hedron Archive, Arch of Orazca, Mind Stone, and Dreamstone Hedron double both as mana production options and as card draw later.

The Strategy

Ramp, ramp, and more ramp! The biggest problem with this deck is to close the gap between the early game and effectively casting your commander to start bombing the battlefield. This is a deck that you want to chain mana rock into mana rock in the early game.

Cards like Basalt Monolith, Bitterthorn, Nissa's Animus, Solemn Simulacrum, and Hedron Archive are especially good early, allowing you to ramp. You’ll also want lands like Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin sooner rather than later. Similarly, a card like Urza's Incubator allows you to cast your commander on turn 4 by itself.

War Room allows you to draw a card by paying 3 mana and no life, while Guildless Commons is a colorless bounce land and keeps the lands rolling, and both of these effects are interesting to have early.

In the mid to late game, if you’re still alive, it’s time to capitalize on your high mana production, cashing in some mana rocks for cards. The main goal here is to use your commander and your expensive stuff to generate 10 to 15 mana-worth of spells due to all the cascading. The main risk here is becoming the table's enemy and being attacked from all sides. Here’s where you get to choose between focusing on nuking a single player or attacking everyone and trying to distribute annihilator triggers.

Combos and Interactions

The most important interaction to keep in mind with this deck is the double cascade trigger that happens when you have Zhulodok in play and cast a colorless spell that costs 7 or more. Let’s say I cast Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, a card that costs 11 mana.

The first cascade trigger goes to the stack, so you’ll reveal cards from the top of your library until you find a spell that costs 10 or less, and cast it. This spell goes on the stack and can be countered. Let’s say it’s a Void Winnower. It ETBs (enter the battlefield) – no additional triggers.

Now you have the second cascade trigger. You find Hedron Archive with it, and it also goes to the stack and can be countered. Hedron Archive ETBs – no additional triggers.

Finally, Ulamog is on the stack, but first, Ulamog’s trigger resolves – “destroy target permanent”. Finally, if Ulamog isn’t countered, it ETBs.

Here are other interesting interactions:

A card like Manifold Key can’t generate infinite mana with Basalt Monolith, but it can spice up the mana production from the Monolith or other mana rocks. You can also untap The One Ring to draw more cards. Basalt Monolith does go infinite with Forsaken Monument though, allowing you to effectively produce infinite mana.

Forsaken Monument does it all in this deck, from buffing your colorless creatures to generating extra mana and even some life, allowing you to survive an extra round or two.

Spine of Ish Sah + Staff of Compleation is a neat combo. You cast the Spine, ideally getting two cascade triggers from the commander, destroy something, then use the Staff of Compleation to destroy the Spine, and it returns to your hand. You can cast it again by paying 7 mana and repeat the whole process. It’s a great mana sink, and it gives you so much card advantage.

Rule 0 Violations Check

There’s an infinite mana-producing combo in the deck that happens when you combine Basalt Monolith and Forsaken Monument. The monument adds an extra mana every time you tap Basalt Monolith, so you get 4 mana, spend 3 to untap, and do it again. Besides chaining Spine of Ish Sah and Staff of Compleation again and again, there isn’t anything else to dump the extra mana into. You could add something like a Walking Ballista to this deck to use the extra mana and win from there.

Budget Options

Here’s where the problem starts: This deck is in the $700-900 range, with many cards costing $30+ each. Many of these cards are very expensive since there aren’t that many good colorless expensive cards to put in a deck like this, so many Zhulodok or Eldrazi EDH decklists are similar to each other. Also, the deck is very dependent on expensive quality ramp like Eye of Ugin, Ancient Tomb, or Mana Vault. That said, here are some suggestions to lower the deck cost.

• Roaming Throne can be replaced by Palladium Myr – early game ramp.
• Cityscape Leveler and Void Winnower can be replaced by Deceiver of Form and Breaker of Armies.
• Commander's Plate can be replaced by Mithril Coat, a slightly less expensive option.
• Mana Vault, Urza's Incubator, and The One Ring can be replaced by other cards like Fellwar Stone, Mirage Mirror, and Chimil, the Inner Sun.
• Akroma's Memorial can be replaced by Platinum Angel.
• Ancient Tomb and Field of the Dead can be replaced with two Wastes.

As for other expensive cards like the Eldrazi Titans or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, my suggestion is to replace them with colorless spells that cost 7+ mana. That can range from common spells like Eldrazi Devastator, Ancient Stone Idol, and Ruin Processor, to more expensive options like Spawnsire of Ulamog and Platinum Emperion.

Other Builds

An affinity build can be done using many colorless artifacts and mana rocks. The benefit to this approach is that there are many options to cheat expensive spells into play with cards like Myr Enforcer and Sojourner's Companion. Metalwork Colossus is also a nice option.

Another option is to go full Eldrazi typal with many cards like Matter Reshaper, Eldrazi Mimic, Blight Herder, Eldrazi Scion tokens, and more. 

Commanding Conclusion

Flayer of Loyalties | Illustration by John Tedrick

Here’s my take on Zhulodok, Void Gorger, guys. It’s a mid-tier EDH deck: not quite cEDH-level but it’s also not a casual, light deck. It’s also worth noting that Modern Horizons 3 will have Eldrazi as one of its themes, with cards like It That Heralds the End and Emrakul, the World Anew already spoiled, so Zhulodok will get new toys to play with.

I hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks for reading, and if you have other good suggestions to replace cards like the titans Kozilek and Ulamog, feel free to join the discussion in our Draftsim Discord.

Take care and stay safe!