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Tron Energy Play Notes

This article is part of a series on Tron.

Last updated: 2026-02-01

Play Notes

Tron's classical plan is to get urzatron (Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant & Urza's Tower) on turn 3, make {7} and cast a big threat.

With modern Eldrazi Tron, it typically goes like this:

Early Turns: Ramp & Survive

Don't mulligan too aggressively. As long as you have things to do on turns 1 and 2, you should be able to find the rest with Expedition Map, Kozilek's Command and Sowing Mycospawn.

Prioritize ramping towards having {7} mana around turn 3. Idealized turn-by-turn example:

  1. Urza's Mine + cast Expedition Map
  2. Urza's Power Plant + crack Expedition Map
  3. Urza's Tower, make {7}, cast Ugin

Talismans and eldrazi lands give you some flexibility here. This is a perfectly good plan:

  1. Ugin's Labyrinth exiling something. Cast Talisman of Impulse for {2}
  2. Eldrazi Temple, cast Sowing Mycospawn and find another Eldrazi Temple
  3. You have {7} already. Cast Devourer of Destiny

Mid-game: Stabilize

In modern, your opponent might be close to winning around turn 3, however your {7} drops can stabilize the game quickly. All your exile effects from Ugin and other late-game threats are cast-triggered, and cannot be easily prevented. (Other than Consign - see below.)

Ugin is the best option for stabilizing most games. It can make additional {3} which can be enough to cast more colorless spells and exile additional permanents.

Devourer of Destiny is often not enough to stabilize by itself, and the opponent can manage it.

Sire of Seven Deaths is a strong threat, but generally does not do much against aggro decks like energy.

Late-game: Inevitability

Your inevitability comes from Ulamog, which generally wins the game within 2-3 turns of being cast and clears the board. Turn 3 Ugin can provide the additional {3} mana to bring out Ulamog on turn 4.

Non-obvious Things to Keep in Mind

How to play Karn, the Great Creator

Karn is not an easy card to play. Activating -2 on the turn you play him puts him in range of Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Discharge. Grabbing a sideboard card that only works with Karn on board then just leaves you with a dead card in hand: this applies to Liquimetal Coating especially.

Good toolbox cards that work no matter what:

Activating the +1 ability before the -2 pulls Karn out of range of most removal and should be considered if you have time.

Targets for The Stone Brain

In most situations, you'll only activate the brain once, and so you must hit a card that really stops the opponent. This means hitting Ruby Medallion does not work, because storm has other discounters. Some targets that are usually good:

Other Non-obvious Lines with Karn

Playing Around Consign to Memory

Consign is the only mainstream card that can stifle cast triggers on the big eldrazi. It can also hit almost every spell in the deck. This also means every spell in your deck is potentially Consign bait.

Try to cast threats in pairs, starting with the weaker one. If it resolves, don't cast the second spell, forcing your opponent to waste tempo. If they counter the weaker threat, go on and cast the stronger threat.

Stone Brain, if you have it, should be brought out against Consign - at worst, it'll eat one; at best all four.

Disruptor Flute and Trinisphere can also be useful.

Managing Land Hate

Your greatest weakness is nonbasic lands. The following cards can be back-breaking:

Of these, Blood Moon is the hardest to manage. Against decks that might play it, try to find a talisman early so you have access to colorless mana through the Blood Moon.

The creatures die to removal and Damping Sphere can be played around by leaning into the talismans.

Finally, common land destruction is:

These are all mostly tempo plays by the opponent, as it's not difficult for you to find more lands.

Dealing With Artifacts

Most artifacts being colorless, typically the only tools the deck has to remove them are:

As the tools are limited, they should be reserved for absolute must-hit pieces. You might consider playing around something like Damping Sphere, so you can hit Isochron Scepter later.

What One-off Land to Play

Tron likes to play 20 lands that make {C}: 12 Urza lands and 8 eldrazi lands. Typically, this means a single flexible land slot, where you have three choices:

  1. Basic Wastes to play around Blood Moon
  2. Basic Forest to make it easier to cast Sowing Mycospawn
  3. Boseiju

Most modern tron lists play 4-8 talismans (Talisman of Impulse, Talisman of Resilience), which is often enough to play around Blood Moon and similar, and gives enough access to {G}. For this reason I'm a big fan of Boseiju, which reduces the vulnerability of the deck to artifacts. (And can, in fact, hit a Blood Moon if you really want to.)

Sideboard, Toolbox Cards and Karn, the Great Creator

The sideboarding plan for most matchups is to board in 3 Disruptor Flute and get rid of a dead card (often Dismember, Sowing Mycospawn or Boseiju).

Other than the flute, we have a toolbox of a sideboard, accessible from game 1 with Karn. There are some spicy choices, but the mainstays are:

Matchups

Mirror

Key factors that decide the mirror:

  1. Whoever gets Karn first, can often shut the opponent out of getting Karn by pulling Chalice of the Void from the sideboard.
  2. Whoever gets tron first has an advantage

Our list plays 6 talismans and multiple ways to deny lands. If the opponent relies heavily on tron lands, even a Damping Sphere can be advantageous.

Be careful with Ugin's Labyrinth, which will be a prime target for their Sowing Mycospawn around turn 3 or 4. Pull back your exiled card before it gets hit.

As with most matchups, you're not sideboarding a lot, but relying on Karn. We just get rid of some dead cards:

Out:

In:

Toolbox cards to grab with Karn:

Game Replays

Continue to Tron vs Yawgmoth 2-0, the next article in the series Tron.