Why You Should Be Nerding Out About Emrakul, the Exigent Doom in Reality Fracture
When Jace started rebuilding the Multiverse into something he thought could work better, Jace deliberately left out some of Magic’s greatest disasters. No Phyrexians. No Nicol Bolas. No Eldrazi.
Pretty reasonable plan, except Emrakul is still sitting inside Innistrad’s moon, and Reality Fracture just gave her a reason to care about what Jace has been doing.
Tam reached Emrakul telepathically earlier in the Reality Fracture story and showed her the Echoverse almost by accident. Emrakul’s response was essentially that she destroys unhealthy worlds the way someone might prune a diseased branch from a tree.
Then she became interested in Jace’s artificial Multiverse, and now we have Emrakul, the Exigent Doom, a new 10-mana Eldrazi whose mechanics might be almost as interesting as what her return means for the story.
Jace Built a Multiverse Without Emrakul. Emrakul Noticed.
Reality Fracture has spent a lot of time showing us that Jace’s Echoverse is not simply another alternate reality. He tried to remove the events and threats he believed caused the most suffering, then discovered that changing history creates its own problems.
One of the things he removed was the Eldrazi.
Meanwhile, Emrakul senses the Echoverse, and suddenly the giant cosmic horror Jace intentionally excluded from his perfect world knows that perfect world exists.
Emrakul has had a new card since Eldritch Moon, but this is her first time back in a Standard-legal set in a decade. That alone makes the reveal feel bigger than another mythic spoiler.
Apparently Emrakul the Exigent Doom Can Ramp Into Herself Now
Then you read the card.
Ten mana for a 12/12 flying trampler is very Emrakul, but that isn't the part I'm staring at.
For three mana, you can exile Emrakul from your hand and turn one of your lands into a source that produces two colorless mana. Emrakul stays in exile until you're ready to cast her from there.
That solves one of the dumbest problems with putting a 10-drop in your deck.
Normally, drawing a giant Eldrazi with four lands in play means you've drawn a very impressive piece of cardboard that does absolutely nothing. Emrakul can instead become part of the ramp package that's eventually going to cast her.
That's the kind of design that makes me immediately start looking through boxes for all the stupid things I can pair with it.
The Moon Flavor Is So Obvious That I Love It
This is also where the mechanics and lore line up almost perfectly.
You exile Emrakul.
She sits there, inaccessible.
One of your lands starts producing extra mana while she's gone.
Eventually you have enough resources, and Emrakul comes out of exile.
I'm not saying the exile zone is literally Innistrad’s moon, but come on.
If that wasn't intentional, it is one hell of an accident.
Magic is at its best when the card still works mechanically after you strip the story away, but knowing the story makes the mechanics feel better. Emrakul, the Exigent Doom absolutely hits that mark.
Casting Her Doesn't Even End Your Turn
The other line I keep coming back to is the cast trigger.
When you cast Emrakul, untap all lands you control.
So after spending most of the game trying to reach 10 mana, you don't necessarily tap out, dump Emrakul onto the stack and hope nobody ruins your evening. If that trigger resolves, your lands come back online and suddenly you have another pile of mana to work with.
Now put that into an Eldrazi shell where you were already ramping.
Now think about Commander.
Now think about Ulalek, Fused Atrocity copying Eldrazi cast triggers.
This is exactly how a normal conversation about a new Magic card turns into three people standing around the table arguing about stack sequencing while somebody else is asking whether pairings are posted yet.
That's why I like this card.
It gives you things to mess with.
The Japan Showcase Fracture Foil Is Going to Get Attention
And if you don't care about any of that because you just want shiny cardboard, Emrakul has you covered there too.
Emrakul, the Exigent Doom #413 has a Japan Showcase Fracture Foil version in Reality Fracture.
That's one of the premium treatments in the set, and putting Emrakul on it feels like Wizards knew exactly which collector button it was pushing.
I'm not declaring it the most expensive card in Reality Fracture before people have even had a chance to properly open the set. We can allow actual sales to happen before turning every mythic into a retirement plan.
But if someone cracks a Japan Showcase Fracture Foil Emrakul at the LGS, everyone at the table is looking at it.
You know you are.
The Best Part Is That We Still Don't Know What Emrakul Is About to Do
This is why I'm more interested in Emrakul than I would be if Reality Fracture had simply dropped another giant Eldrazi into the set.
The card is fun. The premium treatment should be a chase. But the story surrounding her is the real hook.
Jace deliberately created a reality without the Eldrazi because he thought the Multiverse would be better without them. That new reality is becoming increasingly unstable, and Emrakul has now become aware of it.
We don't know exactly where that goes yet, and I'm not going to pretend we do.
But Jace built a Multiverse without Emrakul.
Emrakul found out.
That feels like the sort of decision a Planeswalker eventually regrets.
And if the result is more cards that let me put Emrakul in exile, turn lands into pseudo-Sol lands and then dump a 12/12 flying spaghetti monster onto the table, I'm willing to see where this goes.
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