Some Commander decks win through careful planning, others through intricate combinations, and some simply make the battlefield too dangerous for anyone else to survive. Colorless Eldrazi decks tend to belong to that last category. They are built around enormous creatures, devastating effects, and a mana base designed to cast spells that most decks could never afford to play consistently. When they finally get going, every turn can feel like another catastrophe waiting to happen.

At the head of this particular invasion is Zhulodok, Void Gorger, a commander that turns expensive colorless spells into opportunities for even more destruction through Cascade, casdade (yes, double cascade).

The strategy is straightforward in concept, but its execution requires some patience. You need to establish your mana production, find opportunities to deploy your expensive threats, and make sure you get the most out of Zhulodok’s ability. Fortunately, this list has plenty of tools to accomplish those goals. Between powerful mana rocks, specialized lands, cost-reduction effects, and some of the most recognizable Eldrazi in Magic, the deck has no shortage of ways to turn a slow opening into an overwhelming late game.

This is a deck that wants to make every big spell count. Once the pieces come together, the void doesn’t simply arrive. It starts bringing friends.

Building the Mana Base

A deck filled with expensive spells needs more than a few ordinary lands to function. One of the biggest challenges for an Eldrazi strategy is reaching the mana required to cast its threats while still having enough resources to continue developing afterward. This list approaches that problem from several directions, combining specialized lands, mana-producing artifacts, and effects that increase the amount of colorless mana available.

Eldrazi Temple provides additional colorless mana that can be spent specifically on Eldrazi spells and abilities, while Eye of Ugin reduces the cost of colorless Eldrazi spells. These lands help make the deck’s expensive creature package more manageable without relying entirely on artifacts.

The classic Urza lands also make an appearance. Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower reward you for assembling all three pieces, with the Tower becoming a particularly powerful source of mana once the full set is available. Urza's Workshop offers another substantial source of colorless mana.

Other lands contribute in more specialized ways. Ancient Tomb provides two colorless mana at the cost of life, while Scorched Ruins can produce an impressive amount of mana at the expense of sacrificing two lands when it enters. Shrine of the Forsaken Gods can produce additional colorless mana once you have enough lands, and Sanctum of Ugin can help find another large colorless creature after you cast a qualifying colorless spell.

Then we have the mana rocks: Sol Ring, Mind Stone, Thran Dynamo, and Worn Powerstone provide straightforward mana acceleration.

Palladium Myr and Metalworker are creatures that can also contribute to our mana production. With so many artifacts in this list, Metalworker has plenty of opportunities to become a major contributor.

Forsaken Monument is especially important because it improves several aspects of the deck simultaneously. It increases the amount of colorless mana produced by your sources, strengthens your colorless creatures, and provides life whenever another colorless permanent enters under your control. That combination makes it one of the most valuable supporting cards in the entire strategy.

Ultima, Origin of Oblivion contributes another mana multiplier. Whenever you tap a land for colorless mana, Ultima adds an additional colorless mana. This makes your specialized lands even more productive and helps the deck reach its most expensive spells sooner.

Double Cascade

The central attraction of Zhulodok, Void Gorger is its ability to give colorless spells cast from your hand with mana value seven or greater two instances of cascade. This is an enormous amount of value attached to something the deck already wants to do. A large Eldrazi is a threat by itself, but with Zhulodok on the battlefield, casting one can also produce additional creatures, artifacts, planeswalkers, or other useful spells. You are effectively turning your expensive threats into packages of multiple spells.

One particularly powerful way to amplify this strategy is Echoes of Eternity. This enchantment copies colorless spells you cast and causes triggered abilities of colorless spells and other colorless permanents you control to trigger an additional time. Since Zhulodok’s cascade abilities are triggered abilities of the qualifying colorless spell, Echoes can make each of those abilities trigger an additional time. The result is four cascade triggers instead of two.

Echoes also copies the original colorless spell itself. A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token when it resolves, potentially giving you another copy of an enormous creature or artifact. However, that copy wasn’t cast from your hand, so it doesn’t receive Zhulodok’s double cascade. Even with that distinction, the amount of value Echoes can generate is remarkable.

Abstruse Archaic provides another way to take advantage of triggered abilities from colorless sources. By paying mana and tapping it, you can copy an activated or triggered ability you control from a colorless source. That can include one of the cascade triggers generated by Zhulodok, or a powerful cast trigger from one of your other Eldrazi, thus giving you additional flexibility.

The deck also includes Roaming Throne, which can name Eldrazi to amplify triggered abilities of other Eldrazi creatures you control.

The Eldrazi Titans

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is one of the deck’s strongest ways to refill its hand. Kozilek, the Great Distortion offers a different kind of support. Its cast trigger draws enough cards to bring your hand up to seven.

The two Ulamogs are equally threatening. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger exiles two target permanents when cast, giving you an answer to troublesome threats before it even resolves. Meanwhile, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre destroys a target permanent when cast and carries annihilator four. It is another threat that immediately affects the game, even if opponents manage to answer the creature afterward. Its ability to shuffle your graveyard into your library also gives it some resilience against being permanently removed from your resources.

Emrakul, the Promised End allows you to control an opponent during their next turn, potentially turning their resources and decisions against them. Emrakul, the World Anew is a more direct threat. Its cast trigger lets you gain control of all creatures target player controls. It also has flying and protection from spells and permanents that were cast that turn. However, there is a serious drawback: when Emrakul leaves the battlefield, you must sacrifice all creatures you control. It is an extremely powerful card, but one that requires some care when deciding when to cast it and how to protect it.

Artisan of Kozilek can return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield when cast, while Bane of Bala Ged exiles two permanents whenever it attacks. It That Betrays takes advantage of opponents sacrificing permanents by allowing you to put those permanents onto the battlefield under your control. Together, these threats make combat increasingly difficult for opponents to navigate.

Artifacts, Protection, and Additional Threats

Not every threat in this deck needs to be an Eldrazi. The artifacts included support the strategy by protecting your board, improving your creatures, or creating additional ways to close out a game.

Darksteel Forge gives your artifact permanents indestructible, making it much harder for opponents to dismantle your mana production and supporting pieces through destruction effects. Lightning Greaves offers a more immediate form of protection by giving a creature haste and shroud, while Commander's Plate can make Zhulodok more difficult for opponents to interact with through colors.

Platinum Angel and Platinum Emperion provide particularly unusual forms of protection. Platinum Angel prevents you from losing the game and your opponents from winning it, while Platinum Emperion prevents your life total from changing. Neither card guarantees victory, but both can create difficult situations for opponents.

The deck also has ways to turn its enormous creatures into even greater combat threats. Akroma's Memorial grants your creatures a broad collection of combat abilities, including flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, and haste. Loxodon Warhammer adds power, trample, and lifelink, while Kaldra Compleat creates a formidable combination of stats and combat abilities when equipped.

Super State is another powerful option for turning a single creature into a devastating attacker. It sets the enchanted creature’s base power and toughness to 9/9, gives it several combat abilities, and allows combat damage dealt to one opponent to be dealt to each other opponent as well. Putting it on an already imposing creature can make a single attack extremely dangerous.

There are also several utility artifacts that help the deck operate more flexibly. Vedalken Orrery allows you to cast spells as though they had flash. Unwinding Clock untaps your artifacts during each other player’s untap step, allowing mana-producing artifacts to become available again and making it easier to keep resources open.

The One Ring provides protection from everything until your next turn when it enters, while its activated ability can generate card advantage over time at the cost of accumulating burden counters. The Ten Rings takes a different approach to card advantage, allowing you to draw up to ten cards in your hand at the beginning of your end step.

Finally, Karn Liberated, Ugin, the Ineffable, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon offer additional forms of control and utility. Their abilities provide ways to interact with opposing permanents, generate resources, and influence the battlefield without relying exclusively on creature combat.

Controlling the Battlefield

A deck built around enormous creatures can sometimes struggle when opponents develop their own boards faster or establish defensive positions that make attacking difficult.

All Is Dust is one of the most devastating tools available to a colorless deck. It forces each player to sacrifice all colored permanents they control. Portal to Phyrexia provides another powerful way to disrupt opposing boards.

Spine of Ish Sah can destroy any target permanent when it enters the battlefield. It also returns to its owner’s hand when put into a graveyard from the battlefield, making it a reusable answer when paired with an appropriate way to sacrifice or otherwise move it off the battlefield.

Steel Hellkite offers more targeted control through combat. After dealing combat damage to a player, you can pay mana to destroy nonland permanents that player controls with the chosen mana value. It is particularly useful when you need to remove several troublesome permanents that share a cost.

The deck also includes Karn, the Great Creator, which can shut down activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control. This can be especially disruptive against opponents relying on artifact-based mana or utility pieces. Its other ability can also retrieve an artifact card from outside the game or from exile, depending on the rules and tournament setting in which you’re playing. In ordinary Commander games, the outside-the-game portion is generally subject to the table’s rules.

The key to using these effects is understanding when the battlefield has become too difficult to manage through individual answers. Sometimes removing one permanent is enough. Other times, a full reset is the best way to create an opening for your Eldrazi to take over.

Closing the Game

Once the deck has established its mana production and begun resolving its larger spells, it needs very little help turning that advantage into a victory. Its creatures are enormous, many of them have powerful attack triggers, and Zhulodok makes it difficult for opponents to keep pace with the number of spells you can generate.

The most direct path to victory is combat. Annihilator forces opponents to sacrifice permanents before they can even declare blockers, while threats such as Bane of Bala Ged and It That Betrays make those attacks increasingly punishing. With Akroma's Memorial providing haste and evasion, the deck can sometimes move from developing its board to threatening lethal damage in a single turn.

Void Winnower makes defending against your threats even more difficult. It prevents opponents from casting spells with even mana values and from blocking with creatures that have even mana values. This can restrict the options available to opponents at exactly the moment when they need to stabilize.

There are also ways to end games without relying entirely on attacking. Summon: Bahamut can destroy nonland permanents during its first two chapters, draw cards during its third, and deal damage to each opponent during its final chapter based on the total mana value of your other permanents. In a deck filled with expensive artifacts and enormous creatures, that final chapter can represent a tremendous amount of damage.

The Aetherspark offers another source of value by attaching itself to a creature and gaining loyalty counters whenever that creature deals combat damage during your turn. Its loyalty abilities can provide additional cards or a substantial burst of mana, making it a useful supporting permanent in a deck that already wants to attack with large creatures.

The important thing is not to become so focused on casting the biggest possible spell that you forget to evaluate the board. Sometimes the best play is to remove a key permanent before committing to playing a threat. Sometimes it is better to protect your mana production or wait until you can cast a threat with enough resources left to follow it up. Zhulodok rewards explosive turns, but those turns are most effective when they are planned rather than rushed.

Check out the decklist here:

Closing Thoughts

Zhulodok is a commander built around one of the most satisfying experiences in Commander: spending a tremendous amount of mana on a spell and receiving even more than you paid for. It is not a strategy that asks for subtlety. It asks for patience, careful resource management, and the ability to recognize when the time has come to unleash everything at once.

Once the Eldrazi begin arriving, opponents are forced to answer threat after threat, often while struggling to keep their own resources intact.

And that is the true appeal of Zhulodok, Void Gorger: every enormous spell is another opening in reality, and every opening brings the void a little closer.

If you’re interested in other articles about colorless strats, feel free to check out these articles: Colorless the endless force of the void | Eldrazi colorless EDH and Annihilator Guide: Bring The Eldrazi Terror