"Ulamog The Ceaseless Hunger:Aba si Ben10!"

"Ulamog The Ceaseless Hunger:Aba si Ben10!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

When one of my team mates Mark Abude excitedly sent me a PM on facebook. I knew that I just had to check what it was about and the PM read.

"Doc! Nakita mo na ba yung bagong Ulamog? Bagay sa reanimator mo."

A picture of the Old Ulamog suddenly came to my mind and how frustrating it was not to be able to utilize it any of the Reanimator decks that I so loved. The original Eldrazi titan would be shuffled back to its owners library as soon as it falls into the graveyard. There was a new one though and this one seemed like it would be joining my ranks of Reanimation targets.

So I checked online , found the card and checked for that annoying line of text that said that I had to shuffle this titan back to my library. No sign of it whatsoever. My excitement grew.

So now on to the Titan itself that just begs to be called Ben10. He costs 10 colorless mana with a 10/10 frame. So this Ulamog is really a Ben10. His stats were impressive since I began thinking how cool he would be if he had Infect via cards like Tainted Strike , Glistening Oil or Phyresis.Instant death.Then again one of my personal goals is to make the Eldrazi into Infecting Phyrexians. Probably won't happen in awhile but I am making it happen with the cards already in print.

Despite the 10/10 frame Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger seems a bit weaker than his predecessor. Probably because Annihilate seems more like an intimidating mechanic than Ingest. His Ingest ability makes a defending player exile the 20 cards of his or her library whenever he attacks. Most players care about the permanents they have on the board and not about the future permanents that they will put on the board. Annihilate Hurt players in the now as opposed to Ingest hurting players in the future because of the exiled 20 cards. EDH players might be able to cope with this much better because there are a 100 cards in their decks. Standard Players would need to have creature removal that Bounces , Exiles or Forces opponents to sacrifice Ulamog in order to survive. Those are very few. It pays to be Indestructible.

If a player is able to block Ulamog for 2 turns then most likely they would die on his 3rd attack due to the fact that he won't be able to draw a single card on his next turn. If an opponent has no blockers at all then they after 2 attacks. So I expect Ulamog , The Ceaseless Hunger to be high on every ones wish list because make no mistake about it , if Atarka can kill you , Ulamog can kill you in more ways than one. 

There is also something special about this Ulamog. If you are able to cast him , meaning if you could ramp up to 10 mana and just cast him you could in essence Annihilate 2 permanents by exiling them. It doesn't matter if Ulamog is countered and is unable to resolve you still get to exile 2 permanents! 

A potential removal spell when you cast it. A potential killer when it resolves. Ulamog with annihilate will surely be missed but this Ben10 version deserves a spot worthy of fan boy adulation.