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Modern E-Tron Play Notes

This article is part of a series on Tron.

Last updated: 2026-03-08

Current List

Variations

E-Tron currently comes in two flavors:

  1. A green version that plays 4 Sowing Mycospawn (a.k.a. "Mikey"). To get a reliable source of {G}, you'll typically play 6 talismans (mostly 4 Talisman of Resilience and 2 others) and a green land, like Boseiju.
  2. A colorless version that plays 4 Mind Stone and gets a few maindeck flex slots from not needing to build around the Mycospawn.

The list linked above is primarily built as the green variant, but the maybeboard contains all the cards to turn it into the colorless variant.

High-level Strategy

Your basic plan is that of a control deck. Survive the first few turns while ramping, then cast game-ending spells. Interaction is focused around answering early threats from aggro and combo decks. The {G} variant additionally leans into E-Tron's land destruction. You are favored against aggro and control strategies and bad against combo.

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.

It's important to have a theory for casting a game-changing spell by turn 4, ideally on turn 3. Most opening hands should do that with at most one lucky draw, or Devourer and up to two draws. In post-board games, it's OK to keep hands that don't do that, but can interact well.

In game 1, any hand that doesn't do something by turn 3 should be mulliganed. Go down to four if you have to.

With modern Eldrazi Tron, the standard plan for game 1 is as follows –

Early Turns: Ramp & Survive

You should have a plan to cast a big threat on turn 3, ideally for {7}. Otherwise, most hands should be mulliganed. Some exceptions:

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

This list's 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. Some other versions play Emrakul, the Aeons Torn or one of the other ones.

Basics to Remember

Land Destruction

And under-appreciated aspect of E-Tron is how many ways it has to destroy lands.

  1. Karn + Liquimetal Coating
  2. A kicked Mycospawn for {4CG}
  3. Ulamog

The colorless variant currently doesn't lean into this strategy, but it's very viable with the green build.

How to Ramp

While getting urzatron is always plan A, there are additional ways to get {7} by turn three:

Karn, the Great Creator

Karn is the hardest card in this deck to play right. He has three basic roles:

  1. Land disruption.
  2. Hate piece against artifacts
  3. Toolbox
  4. The Emry we have at home

Land Disruption

Probably Karl's strongest mode. Liquimetal Coating makes lands into artifacts and Karl's +1 ability turns those artifacts into 0/0 creatures, removing them.

However, while Karl's on board, any artifact lands are already useless because of his passive. This means Liquimetal Coating activated in the opponent's upkeep can turn a land off for a turn.

Hate Piece

The passive turns of any mana rocks and other activated abilities of artifacts. Liquimetal Coating can turn things into artifacts. You do the math.

Karn's +1 ability destroys any artifact that costs {0}, which is half of any affinity deck.

Toolbox Mode

The most fun part of playing an E-Tron deck is having access to your sideboard toolbox. It's like having a real life Bat Belt.

Good toolbox cards that work no matter what:

Emry-Lite

You may have seen Affinity generate extra mana with Emry + Opal:

  1. Tap Opal for mana
  2. Sac it to an outlet
  3. Replay it with Emry
  4. Tap it again

E-Tron can do the a similar thing with Karl, Relic of Progenitus and Mind Stone. Karl's -2 ability can get exiled artifacts and the Relic can exile them from your graveyard.

This trick works with any artifact you can sac, such as Haywire Mite.

Protection

Because of his versatility, Karl is a removal magnet. As you play him, you should have a theory as to how your opponent will try to answer. If they have e.g. Lightning Bolt, then activating the -2 ability immediately will put Karl in range. If you then grab a sideboard card that only works with Karl on board, your opponent can effectively 2-for-1 you by killing Karl.

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

Managing Hate

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.

Sideboard

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:

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
  4. Cavern of Souls to manage around Consign to Memory

Most modern tron lists play 4-8 mana rocks (Talisman of Impulse, Talisman of Resilience, Mind Stone), which is often enough to play around Blood Moon and similar, and gives enough access to {G} and {C}. 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, too.)

The absence of a single basic land in the list mostly doesn't come up, and I've won games by removing sideboard tech with the Boseiju. I'm even considering running two of them.

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.
  3. Whoever gets land destruction going can often shut down the opponent.
  4. If an Ensnaring Bridge sticks, then the match is will be decided by Glaring Fleshraker or getting Ugin to 11 for the ultimate.

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.

The mirror match is one where I would consider using the Karn + Liquimetal Coating coating to blow up enemy lands. I have won a few mirror games that way.

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:

Combo Decks

Most combo deck matchups are not favorable. The worst is Amulet Titan, but even Storm and Belcher are fairly bad matchups.

Fortunately, we have lots of combo hate cards:

Card Belcher Neobrand Storm Titan
Disruptor Flute ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Damping Sphere ❌ ⚠️ ✅ ❌
Trinisphere ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Ensnaring Bridge ❌ ✅ ❌ ✅
Vexing Bauble ❌ ✅ ✅ ❌
Torpor Orb ❌ ⚠️ ❌ ✅
Haywire Mite ✅ ❌ ⚠️ ✅
Tormod's Crypt ❌ ❌ ✅ ⚠️

In game 1, rely on Karn to fetch the key hate pieces, depending on the situation.

For post-board, there are two schools of thought:

  1. Sideboard out three dead cards and bring in 3 Disruptor Flute.
  2. Sideboard like a normal deck and bring in everything that works.

Approach 1 preserves the utility of Karn as a universal out, but sacrifices speed for consistency. Approach 2 provides more opportunity to react fast, but risks turning Karn into a dead card.

I don't believe either approach is right in 100% of the cases, but in general:

Amulet Titan

Targets for Disruptor Flute:

Belcher

Targets for Disruptor Flute:

Neobrand

Targets for Disruptor Flute:

Naming the big creatures is generally bad. Griselbrand is the only one with an ability, and they can just grab another creature instead.

Storm

Tips for Disruptor Flute.

Game Replays

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