Eerie Ultimatum – Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
Date Reviewed: April 10, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.25
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
2020 and 2021 might have been the worst years of my life, and I suspect there are others who feel the same way. That makes it very hard to make objective assessments of anything that went on during those years; indeed, I still wonder how much of the Magic melodrama of those years was fueled by the overarching meltdown and how much would have happened anyway. Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths is a set that I don’t believe ever got a fair run at things. I still think it is not accurate to say that the companion mechanic is automatically, inherently broken – you cannot lump Keruga and Umori in with Lurrus and Yorion, the idea of any format banning Lutri or Jegantha is ridiculous, and the heavy-handed errata that makes reading the card not explain the card is absolutely embarrassing. And we become so fixated on issues like this, that we forget that Ikoria is a normal-sized Magic set with lots of other cards, some of them interesting.
Its Ultimatum cycle is a good case study of this. It’s intended to be the second half of a cycle from way back in Shards of Alara, and I think the cards’ careful design and naming are a sign that they were designed well before 2020-21. Contrast the Streets of New Capenna triomes, where people’s immediate first reaction was that the design could or should have been named for Alara’s mini-planes. The wedge-colored Ultimatums are all multiversal and all interesting, and Eerie Ultimatum is one of the most appealing of all ten. Part of that is its timing: in an era where Commander is the most popular casual variant, it essentially reads “Put your entire graveyard into play (and probably win the game)”. But even beyond that, it works well with common play patterns in its colors, provides a late-game nuclear option that threatens any opponent, and rewards care in both deckbuilding and gameplay. It is such a quintessential casual card that I’m surprised we never reviewed it before. Then again, 2020 was a difficult year all around.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
The Ultimatum cycle, split over two tranches, were all explosive spells that aimed to make quite a splash in terms of what you got for seven mana. Eerie Ultimatum is certainly explosive, a mass reanimation spell that plays brilliantly in Commander in particular…seven mana to pull everything back and ideally end the game then and there. The catch is, of course, that Eerie Ultimatum demands a healthy amount of set-up to really maximize the mileage of, and seven colored mana definitely is a tall ask (even if green being there helps, thanks to its color ramping abilities). If you’re looking to cast this, you want to make it a decisive move, because opponents who survive the storm might not make it easy for you.
Constructed: 3 (a bit too awkward to make work with all of the targeted hate running around)
Casual: 5
Limited: 3 (tricky to cast in its Limited environment)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We’d be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉
Click here to read over 5,000 more MTG Card of the Day Reviews!
Daily Since 2001.
