Unleashing the Jankiest Emrakul Decks in Explorer

Decklists Explorer

ChrisCee March 26, 2023 3 min

Unleashing the Jankiest Emrakul Decks in Explorer

Before the release of Shadows over Innistrad Remastered, players long theorized how Emrakul, the Promised End could be implemented easier in MTG Arena. After all, its Mindslaver effect would be the very first of its kind for such a programmed version of the game, essentially giving its user complete interface access to the opponent's deck.

As described by Ian Adams at WoTC, putting Emrakul, the Promised End in MTG Arena was a herculean effort that would most likely only be put to waste. Programming it to work was an absolute headache, the effect is pretty much unique to Emrakul only, and worst of all, it would only see use in very niche decks outside of competitive play. Plus some pissed-off players scoop without even considering their free extra turn once Emrakul resolves.

Now that it is here though, is it really that niche? Can’t we build a reliable deck around Emrakul, the Promised End that can optimize its performance at least in Explorer as it did in classic paper Standard?

Nope. Definitely not against faster decks like Greasefang builds that can take you out on turn four or five.

But to be fair, we do have a lot of options for cheating Emrakul into play if we are playing Explorer. However, there are just too many natural counters for those options. So even in basic BO1 matchups, the chances of your deck relegating itself to alternative win conditions (instead of focusing on Emrakul) becomes quite high. That is not yet counting the possibility that your opponent’s deck simply doesn’t have any way to axe itself during the turn you commandeer their board. You’re just setting yourself up to be hit back hard during their extra turn, hence the requirement for that alternate win condition.

Of course, the fact that this article exists means that there is a way to enjoy the card in an adequately competitive manner. Much as how MTGA devs worked hard for its painstaking implementation, there is still light at the end of the tunnel for creating fun, janky decks with this remastered set’s most anticipated card.

Devoted to Emrakul

The most straightforward way to bring Emrakul, the Promised End to play is to just manually hard cast it with the help of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, preferably while taking advantage of its first passive ability. This means, that the deck should be chock filled with all different card types that are either independent enough, or could fairly synergize with each other with minor combos.

For this particular build, the alternate win conditions comprise of Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines, Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier, Brisela, Voice of Nightmares, and The Book of Exalted Deeds. Each of these components (including Emrakul) can then be fetched semi-consistently by Thalia's Lancers.

Gameplay video

Featured cards:

Devoted to Emrakul (Import)

Companion: Yorion, Sky Nomad

Main 80 cards (25 distinct)

Lands - 32

Side 15 cards (9 distinct)

Companion: Yorion, Sky Nomad