My Favorite Cards for Xavier Sal

Some very good and some less popular cards for Xavier Sal! I have a deck built around his popular ability and it's one of the most entertaining decks I own. I'm always changing the deck list but the cards in the video are always going to stay in.
My Deck List
archidekt.com/decks/7080083/x...
Music by Me

[@Lunaarvibes]

Finally a video on this style of Xavier. I have had this same deck idea since I saw this commander come out. But it has been so hard to find people discussing or theorizing about this version of them. Thank you so much for the video! Your deck varied a lot from mine but you sold me on some cards.

[@seanmikel]

Nice deck concept, and nice to see more videos for him to come out. Thoughts on these few things i have in my deck that might be worth thinking about (caveat* I proxy with no shame in this day and age): 1. Reef Worm - instant sac to make your token to populate from. 2.Thornbite Staff + Glen Elendra Archmage - for repeatable counters to boardwipes. 3. Vigean Graftmage for repeatable untaps once you put a +1/+1 on Xavier. Plus if you get her out first, she gives Xavier the needed +1/+1. 4. Compy swarm seems similar to what youre going for. 5. The Scarab God to get copies of your opponents creatures 6. Oko, The Ringleader has great synergy. 7. Astral dragon to copy your lands into 3/3 dragons. Pair with Intruder alarm or Vigean Graftmage to combo off.

[@20x20]

haven't looked at the decklist yet, but I'd say that spark double and irenicus' vile duplication would be real good in this because you can then make copies of xavier that are non-legendary and they are each proliferate/populate targets, respectively.

[@SwedeRacerDC]

Thanks for sharing! Definitely a cool deck to look into. I had a couple ideas for creatures that you may like in your deck. Master Biomancer comes to mind as a broken guy to copy making each one enter with exponentially more counters to be able to remove and populate more. Biophagus is just a good manadork that gives you counters to work with. Evolution Sage will give you proliferation with landfall triggers. Vigean Graftmage could be an all-star here. Get him out before Xavier to graft a counter onto Xavier. Then you can untap Xavier multiple times and abuse him even more. There are infinite mana combos that you could do with this. Finally, Ayara's Oathsworn will be an incredibly broken tutor here if you can get it going. Once it deals combat damage to get that 4th counter (possibly only after dealing it once before and proliferating twice), you will tutor for anything you need or just want. Then remove the counter with Xavier. Don't proliferate her anymore and just keep tutoring every time she deals combat damage. She should hopefully win you the game even if it's in a bit of a standstill. Just make sure she can get through somewhere. Some of these may not be good with how you built the deck, only you will know that answer, but I thought I would suggest some cards

[@pizza_for_cowboys]

Will definitely put Ayara's Oathsworn and Graftmage in! Very cool creatures I haven't seen before 👍👍👍

[@guru_of_discomfort5328]

This is awesome! Definitely some really good casual play picks. I look forward to seeing what else you come up with

[@jaivse5085]

not many people know this but battles uses Defense Counters that you can use for Xavier Sal

[@izzyv830]

chronozoa is such a fun card to break. im so excited to put it in the new obeka

[@starslayer18]

Right there with you. Chronozoa is essentially the Scute Swarm of Obeka, Splitter of Seconds. She is going to be so much fun to build.

[@SwedeRacerDC]

This is a very interesting commander to build around. I think I want to put him into my Attaxa unique counters deck, which is built around Perrie the Pulverizer, not infect or superfriends.

[@charlespriest2103]

If I’m not mistaken doesn’t the cronozoa trick not work because you assign the target of the populate before you pay the cost of tapping and removing a counter so while on the next turn you could populate cronozoa tokens you can’t have 3 on the turn it dies

[@charlespriest2103]

Also city of death is is good tech thanks

[@alexreffand]

No, it doesn't target and it isn't modal. You create the token and choose what it's copying as the ability resolves. Since removing the time counter is part of paying the cost to activate it, chronozoa triggers and resolves before Xavier Sal, creating two tokens. Then Xavier Sal's ability resolves, so it sees the two tokens for you to choose from.

[@pizza_for_cowboys]

It all depends on if the Chronozoa dies before the Populate trigger resolves. Since removing the last Time Counter is part of the activated cost, I'm pretty sure it has to be sacrificed before Xavier populates. But I can see it going either way. Even if you don't get 3 Chronozoa turn 5, getting 2 of them is still very good!

[@SwedeRacerDC]

Since Chronozoa has fading, it will be sacrificed when the last is removed before populate resolves. The biggest thing here is that populate says choose and doesn't require a target. Very good use of chronozoa. This is what I call the lieutenant of the deck, because it really serves the commander so well

[@koffeeing2116]

Correct me if I'm wrong but, doesn't populate specify "creature tokens"? so you wouldn't be able to populate Garruk's pack leader or chronozoa?

[@pizza_for_cowboys]

Right, they need to be tokens so you'll need something like Cackling Counterpart or Mirage Mockery. I have a category of copy cards in the deck list! Chronozoa doesn't need a copy spell though, because populate doesn't specify a target. You 'choose' a creature token as it resolves, so when Xavier removes the last counter from Chronozoa, Populate goes on the stack, then the Chronozoa sacrifices itself from its triggered ability which makes 2 token copies, then Populate can resolve and you then 'choose' a token you control.