Kozilek, the Great Distortion

Kozilek, the Great Distortion is a fever dream of battlecruiser play style with the upside of protecting the board state while drawing and discarding the deck as fuel. He fills the void of any board state. Large enough to always be a threat and enough stack interaction to keep people checking your hand for the gamble that is mana cost. The idea of not holding counter spells but giving up something of value that isn’t predestined to counter a spell. The choice of mutual loss while maintaining board advantage. The deck started with Kozilek as a closer, but his advantage outweighed other cards in the deck.

The deck was originally all high cost Eldrazi and enough mana rocks to get by. Over the first few games it became apparent that I only had high cost cards and few early game plays. Over a few iterations it became apparent that the only Eldrazi I wanted were control pieces and Kozilek. Mana rocks were a two fold gift to Kozilek, there is a considerable overlap with removal spell costs and medium value spells in the 3-5 mana range. With the new direction taking shape I felt that Kozilek became the center and was able to generate value rather than occasionally stop a game finishing sorcery.

A plethora of colorless artifacts to ramp up and supplement Kozilek activated ability. Mana rocks have significant mana cost overlap with the majority of removal spells and 2-4 cost combo and synergy pieces. Colorless begets more utility for the otherwise negative lack of color. Fully colorless rocks either have additional options or provide more mana to compensate.

There are 5 main pump cards that turn Kozilek from a 2 turn commander kill into 1. Fireshrieker is a straight forward value card that can also protect Kozilek from smaller than 13 toughness deathtouch creatures, powers greater than 13 are a threat regardless. Hedron Matrix, Eldrazi Conscription, and Blackblade Reforged all serve the same purpose with varied bonus value. Grafted Exoskeleton is normally a more toxic card, but in Kozilek is generally viewed as more normal and provides a more merciful option by promoting its destruction and subsequently sacrificing Kozilek. I have always viewed the Exoskeleton as the most merciful pump option.

Kozilek’s natural evasion (Menace) pairs well with Silent Arbiter and any other traditional evasion such as flying or protection from specific colors. Void Winnower’s main purpose is to remove blockers from the available pool. With Even off the table it also allows you to cast even spells from hand before attempting to fill your hand with more odd mana cost spells increasing your chance to counter an opponent or several opponents attempts at freedom.

Colorless producing lands before the Titan was released were always a trade off to restrict their auto inclusion in colored decks. The access to a long history of printed colorless utility lands proves effective for finishing the game and recovering from early mistakes. Standard utility lands for Eldrazi range from Eye of Ugin to Rogue’s passage. Mikikora is usually an end step advantage or counter ability fishing opportunity.

Kozilek is mostly about early prevention of opponents combos as there are limited options to use once they hit the battlefield and no guarantee of mana cost in hand. Counter early and possibly throw Kozilek in danger to cast again and refill the hand. A board wipe is a setback, but not always so with a plethora of mana rocks and a Kozilek cast to fill hand. Forcing a board wipe from a player you know to run several is often to your advantage. Knowing the current political climate is important to force conflicts, not necessarily bargain. Most people don’t like to bargain with a Menace with Menace.

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