Ulamog, the Defiler is an absolute monster can decimate your opponents if it gets even a single chance to swing. Unfortunately, getting it online with a good annihilator number is awfully tricky and can be a bit too slow. Fortunately, Twitch viewer CozyPorcupine turned me onto a build that is designed to drop Ulamog into play with haste as fast as turn three if the draws line up well.
The Setup
The primary objective of this deck is to fill your graveyard as fast as humanly possible with cards like Faithless Looting, Gamble, Demanding Answers, Thrill of Possibility and many more. This card velocity is so important because the combo ultimately comes from the graveyard. Gamble is an absolutely critical element which is unfortunate as it is a mythic from the special guest sheet, but it's worth the wildcards if you want to fully optimize this build.
The two combo pieces that need to be loaded into the graveyard are Ulamog, the Defiler and God-Pharaoh's Gift. God-Pharaoh's Gift is the key because it can exile Ulamog from our graveyard, putting a ten-mana value card into exile, then creates a 4/4 copy of Ulamog that sees the exiled card and enters with ten counters on it and, therefore, annihilator ten. Because the token also has haste, it can swing immediately and, often, destroy every permanent your opponent has in play.
The key to speed this whole situation up is Trash for Treasure. It allows us to sacrifice any artifact we have online and pull God-Pharaoh's Gift to the battlefield. This is made possible by our artifact lands which act as the sacrifice fodder for Trash for Treasure. If you thought running Drossforge, Darksteeladel, AND Treasure Vault was overkill, I assure you that it's not.
Also, be sure to play Trash for Treasure in the precombat main phase so you get the Gift trigger.
Plan B
This deck is very all-in on its combo, but there are two copies of Threefold Thunderhulk because it is an alternative target for God-Pharaoh's Gift as well as Trash for Treasure itself, assuming your graveyard has been targeted or you simply haven't found Ulamog yet. Because it enters as a 4/4 off of Gift, it enters as a 7/7 and drops seven gnomes into play. It's not as devastating as ending your opponent on the spot, but it still puts a strong on your opponent they have to respect.
Brass's Tunnel-Grinder is a great card that provides amazing card selection and graveyard filling power. It also is an artifact we can sacrifice to Trash for Treasure if we need to. This deck has very few permanent spells you want to play, though, so don't prioritize it into Tecutlan, the Searing Rift. Other decks really pop off with that land's ability, but this one simply doesn't, so don't stress it unless you need to ramp up to a hard cast Gift or Thunderhulk.
Strategies for Piloting this Jank
Given that this deck has SO MANY cards that discard and draw cards, don't hesitate to dump card draw spells to other card draw spells. In some brews, you'll want to hang onto copies of Demanding Answers or Thrill of Possibility to make sure you can continue the card momentum, but this isn't one of them. If you're drawing two cards, odds are you'll either find the card you need or another spell that lets you keep rummaging.
Respect the counterspell. If your opponent has two blue mana open and a fair number of cards in hand, running out a Trash for Treasure if you haven't forced any interaction yet might not be a good plan. I'm all for the of “make them have it,” but this deck has almost nothing if the Trash for Treasure gets countered, even with a perfect setup. I recommend leveraging cards like Gamble and Faithless Looting that provide good value to try and bait counterspells from the opponent before going all-in on combo.
Scrapwork Mutt isn't much on its own, but it does put two power on the board. This power can be used to block effectively or put your opponent on a clock. It's not a very imposing clock, to be sure, but it's ten turns if left unchecked that can be sped up with additional copies. It's not elegant, but that pressure matters, and the unearth can be clutch for picking off planeswalkers that can otherwise shut you down.
Okay, But is the Deck Good?
Frankly, not really, but it's fun when it works.
I've played a handful of best-of-one games with this deck and when the top of your deck cooperates and your gambles don't discard your Trash for Treasure, the deck is incredibly explosive. If you're looking to climb the ladder consistently and win a lot of games, I'm afraid build probably isn't going to do the job you. This combo is a fun, explosive play that can leave your opponent scratching their head as their lands evaporate, but there is too much interplay once you get higher up the ladder that makes it a bit too inconsistent.
Given that the deck also requires mythic wildcards in Gamble and Ulamog, it might not be an easy budget build either, but if you have cards or wildcards to burn, it's a very fun setup. The core combo could also find its way into other builds that leverage Trash for Treasure simply for value alongside other value artifacts. Perhaps I'll try to fold it into ados build leveraging Crabomination and Refurbished Familiar.
Basically, this build itself likely needs some iteration to become competitive, but the core combo feels very strong. If you want check out those iterations, stay tuned here for future articles, but also pop over to my Twitch channel and find me brewing live starting at 7:30am ESTndash; twitch.tv/hamhocks42.
