My Playgroup's Best Deck is $20

[@pizzagumby7049]

Note to self: if I'm ever losing to a deck in my playgroup make a video essay on why that deck is the threat.

[@giuseppevgiordano]

If a friend of mine did a video essay on a deck I made I would consider it the best compliment I ever got, win rate be damned

[@ryanbolson23]

I mean, if it’s an interesting social topic, yeah?

[@CadOaThePickle]

my play group hates my angel deck, they sadly never made an essay about it

[@KOOLGRAF]

Even if just for learning how to play better against your friends new deck, not a bad idea!

[@blakefarber3718]

I think people underestimate the advantages of playing the game from a different angle, or with an intentional restriction. There's an elegance to simplicity.

[@00000EPIC00000]

"Who wants to draw cards? Oh you do? Okay, draw 21"

[@toolittletoolate]

You'll only ever be able to do that once. Or once per play group. Once people learn you could just kill them easily with commander damage when they thought you where trying to help them out they're probably not going to take the bait again.

[@DevineAbyss]

@@toolittletoolate You could make a deal with them. As in: "I will not butt it this turn, if you let it through" or even "I promise not to kill you this turn" and then dealing only 20 commander damage (:

[@edhdeckbuilding]

i mean ultimately they are just playing a xyris deck as intended. the ability is literally printed on the card.

[@Farycane]

@@toolittletoolate I do have a variant of this deck (Xyris with Combat Buffs, not a Xyris wheel deck) since like 2021 or smth, and it works and has been since then. People do want to have cards, and people are willing to risk some damage for cards

[@marvingonzalez926]

@@edhdeckbuilding All abilities are printed on cards.

[@nicholaslangrock475]

In the world of Magic, having someone build a spite deck after a disagreement you've had with them is the highest compliment one can receive. Also, Jack seems pretty cool

[@fairygoodmuller8065]

lol, my friend built the reaper king just for me after i strip-locked him XD i love him

[@nicholaslangrock475]

@@fairygoodmuller8065 ooooh, yeah the Reaper King is a spicy card. I take it he went the changeling tribal route due to there not being a ton of scarecrow support?

[@platonicbuu7454]

ehhhhhhh. maybe if you're friends with the player. we have a douchebag guy who does spite decks. i'm his current target and it's nothing but annoying

[@laurenhutchinson4194]

Jack IS awesome even though Hans is getting all the credit here 😊

[@dragonpianothem]

One of my friends tells me I play mtg wrong. For context, I played sparingly in my youth but was never quite as hooked on the game as other tcgs like yugioh and stuff until the unfinity set came out and I loved the space carnival esthetic as well as the art style of the alt cards. So I make commander decks using the eternal legal commanders from that set and try my damndest to break them or make them good, my friend hates it but I'm gonna keep going till I have one for every eternal legal legendary in the set. Like toy maker/ liquid metal combos using Captian Rex Nebula as the medium.

[@DrEnzyme]

"Who wants some cards?" menacingly stares at the weakest player at the table. "YOU want some cards."

[@LapahnYT]

me \(^_^)/

[@HellecticMojo]

or just audacious go after the strong one when no one volunteers. What are they gonna do? block it when you obviously have some kind of combat jank in your face?

[@ajzorger93]

​@@HellecticMojoalways go for the strong ones

[@apolux359]

Call an ambulance, call an ambulance *Uses Twenty-toed toad* But not for me.

[@atalhlla]

“He went for Temur colors…” And that’s how we knew it could only be a product on utmost evil. Nothing good comes of giving the Simic red mana.

[@Aigis31]

Nothing good comes of giving the Gruul Clans blue mana.

[@containeduniverselow4790]

lol!

[@BeaglzRok1]

Nothing good comes of giving the Izzet green mana.

[@Derbograder]

Because ferocious!!1

[@skruffytiger2002]

or giving the gruul blue mana

[@dancingmathusalem5451]

The "infinite resources" perception is so fun to leverage I have a Yorion blink deck, and just leaving 3 mana open with 5 cards in hand sends opponents into a tailspin "This removal is useless, he has a flicker or a counterspell" is a phrase I've heard too many times to count

[@Aigis31]

Ooh Yorion sounds fun. Do you have a deck list I could view?

[@dancingmathusalem5451]

@@Aigis31 I had written a whole reply but it seems like it got deleted because it had a link to the decklist Sadge It is my first deck ever I've built, I've tinkered it a lot, it's my baby at this point. I don't have a lot of the expensive cards that I'd ultimately like to put in (talking things like fetches or Solitude) because I'd like to build it in paper at some point. I basically play it as a heavy control deck, I run a TON of card draw and interaction/removal; the best way I've found to play is sort of hang back at the start and then take down the first person to pop off, taking advantage of the time you're gonna get left alone since you're helping taking down the threat. By the time you have a set board with Yorion in play it's very hard to interact with you in a successful way. The idea is that single target flickers on Yorion turn into boardwide blinks, which is doubly useful as both a lot of value and protection from interaction, including boardwipes (because stuff comes back on endstep, the boardwipe will miss everything but yorion himself), eventually even your own wipes. Yorion can blink any nonland permanent, particularly your mana rocks, which allows you to tap out but still retain mana for following turns. I generally win through sheer attrition (exhausting their resource through reusing etb removals) and the implied eventual Yorion beatdown, up to looping Agent of Treachery to chain steal their best permanents, but I do have 2 infinites that I get to use reasonably often. Peregrine drake+Archaeomancer+Ghostly Flicker+any ETB draw Preston the Vanisher+Felidar Guardian+Any land+any ETB draw+ a way to flicker the Guardian once to start the loop These get me both infinite mana and infinite draws, with the payoff being Blue sun's Zenith (to deck everyone else) I like them because all the cards are individually quite useful (the worst is Zenith, which can still be quite useful if I get a bit stranded to refill) The deck is built for consistency and resiliency, it may not be extremely powerful but I will get to meaningfully be part of the game basically every time. It's also quite resilient, a decent amount of redundancy and some recursion, with high amounts of card draw, means it's hard to put me down for good (plus as I said once setup I'm very hard to actually remove in the first place) I also like that I'm not too reliant on my commander, which is why I went for Yorion over something like Brago; in fact, I have won quite a few games before casting Yorion once, since it's manly there to pull double duty as a big value turn and pseudo protection/multiplier for my blink cards. I've been eyeing some cards to swap out, mainly tech cards that I've found not useful, but unfortunately I don't get to play this deck as much as I'd like to (commander players LOATHE control so I try to mix it up) Unfortunately I can't post a link to the list it seems. If you want I can just comment the whole decklist here, I guess?

[@dancingmathusalem5451]

@@Aigis31 Maybe you can find it like this, on deckstats the code is 236714/3149471

[@BeaglzRok1]

No fear, make them have the answer. If they do have the flicker/counterspell, the card is a brick anyway outside of niche situations where you're using your hand to discard for value. If they don't, it wasn't useless. If you wait because you're scared and are waiting for them to make a mistake, that gives the opponent time to draw the card that you were worried they had.

[@KrayZieTyler]

LOL three people in a pod, just politic with those three to force all the cards out of your hand. Out of 5 cards, the possibility of you having enough interaction and open mana to respond to three different forms of removal/interaction is minimal.

[@TakopathTraveler]

What's also kind of crazy to think about is how Xyris makes the worst buffs playable. Instant buffs are inherently balanced around the idea that they're one-time use. As a result, on a single turn basis, a buff generally provides more stats per mana spent than equipment or enchantments. On most creatures, a buff is an inherent card disadvantage unless using that buff lets you destroy one or more other creatures (eg., combat trick). In commander, this is further exacerbated by the fact that there are triple the amount of cards in play from an opponent. Xyris turns a 1-mana +3/+3 into "draw three cards". Feather already sees a ton of play turning buffs from -1 to 0 in card advantage. Xyris turns cheap buffs into straight up card draw advantage, while also making snake tokens. And the cherry on top? Apparently, your friend has managed to make his opponents *happy* that Xyris is smacking them.

[@LibertyMonk]

The sheer audacity of tricking someone into protecting your commander who's halfway to killing them is amazing. Being happy about it is one thing, I'll take the cards for 3 damage two or three times happily. But spending cards to protect it, when I'm one hit from dying to commander damage (assuming they have 2 buff spells)? Insane.

[@macces82]

"Instant buffs are inherently balanced around the idea that they're one-time use." *laughs in Feather, The Redeemed*

[@benjaminsheffer6945]

It reminds me of my friend's Lathiel deck, which turns lifegain into 1/1 counters. An unplayable card that only gains you five life for one mana now gives a creature five counters for one mana. Some of the best commanders are the ones that make bad cards good.

[@Gemini476]

@@LibertyMonk Sure, you're spending a card to protect it... but that's because you'll get to draw cards next time Xyris attacks you, so when you really think about it isn't that negate just a delayed two-mana draw-five? (NOTE: Hand size doesn't matter if you lose to commander damage.)

[@sethb3090]

You start out by not buffing it. 3 damage doesn't worry anyone, and 3 cards? Wow, you might be their best friend! And all you're doing really is making a finite number of 1/1s, and drawing some cards to do that more. Later on, you discover that snakes are actually not anyone's friend.

[@elbiggamehunter]

Since the deck was so cheap, and I had most of the cards already, I threw this one together and played a few games with some friends. Man, this deck is super fun and can easily knock out opponents. You always have something to do, and people love drawing those cards. Thanks Hans for proving your friends wrong and making a super awesome deck.

[@humasabih5733]

Do u recommend me to build it im 13 , love magic and wanna make my own deck as I have been surviving of precons for way too long 😂

[@glaucoruzzetti9630]

I'm an old player who's coming back to mtg and I don't want to spend a bunch of money of it just for the fun of playing some games. This deck seems really fun to play and even better cheap! Could u share the card list by any chance?

[@partykrew666]

@@glaucoruzzetti9630 its in the description of the video

[@glaucoruzzetti9630]

@@partykrew666 yeah thanks man, I noticed this morning, I'm honestly feeling so stupid 😅

[@elbiggamehunter]

@@humasabih5733 oh for sure! It’s a lot of fun to play and is easy on the wallet. Give it a go. It’ll be a fast favorite!

[@CreepsMcPasta]

I adore when decks use underrated mechanics

[@federicocalvo7660]

And the most important mechanic of all: social interaction with the other players.

[@InsomniacVampire97]

Woah, wild to see the best creepypasta content creator in a mtg comment section. I agree with you, this commander is so cool. I played him with a bunch of wheel effects so I would make maximum snake bois.

[@ShinnyMetal]

It's why I love my scry landfall deck. Scry cards are cheap as hell and makes for an incredibly consistent deck

[@biobuilder332]

Bro didn’t you groom minors ☠️

[@alexanderhand138]

Your videos got me through covid mate, cheers

[@ddshocktrooper5604]

There's something poetic about how after convincing a friend that you're actually helping them by smashing their face in with your commander to draw a bunch of cards... that the table then fills up with snakes.

[@sebastianahrens2385]

You absolute gigachad even provided the deck list. Never would've thought about buff spells in a Xyris deck, but in retrospect, it makes a lot of sense.

[@edwardcomerford2452]

Could you post the deck list? I couldn’t find a link.

[@ggsolokid3725]

This video released just before the premiere of my Xyris group hug deck. I Hope no on catches on to my snake building empire.

[@metricarea7546]

Welcome to the dark side

[@raptorjesus7952]

nice, it was probably my next deck as well! would you mind sharing yours? :)

[@iv9753]

Fascinating. I really ought to learn this stuff more intensely in order to incorporate these lessons into my own playing, but it's a lot to wrap my head around

[@LibertyMonk]

The core tenets are: 1: Don't use power unless you're willing to be "the threat" or "the archenemy". 2: Silver linings (without going all the way to group hug) are a major political tool in FFA formats. 3: Make the deck predictable, so people don't remember that one time you got lucky. Performing the same way every time lulls them into false security. 4: Seriously, check your curve, your mana base, and card selection. These boring things are the easiest way to make a deck stronger without anyone noticing.

[@Raykahn]

I really, really appreciate this video. I have a group slug deck with a 100% win rate for many of the same reasons this Xyris deck is successful. By and large, its primary mechanic is managing player perceptions about how threatening it is, and I purposefully have avoided cards that are too 'agro' and would bring unwanted attention to how good the deck can be. As is, it almost never comes across as unfair, which makes it rare for people to target it out of spite. I'm not even sure if the people in my playgroup realize it has a 100% win rate. It flies so far below the radar most don't give it any deference, save for one person. One person in my playgroup is completely aware of how dangerous the deck is, and has tried to get me to upgrade it on occasion with the hope that a couple new tricks will make everyone else realize how threatening it is. Even with this awareness, though, he still falls victim to the same traps of 'in the moment' decision making that allows it to remain effective. The best part about having one person realize it is when they try to explain all these concepts to others in the playgroup they sound like a lunatic shilling conspiracy theories. Super easy to deflect and counter by saying he's trying to distract from his own board. Thanks again for making this video.

[@NathanBiller]

I want to see your list!

[@reyfox3631]

Agreed, I want to see that deck list!

[@ThreeMinuteGaming]

Also very curious about this list, I love group thug and highly political decks.

[@mturnbull42]

I love the Ezuri-Kyler scale. It perfectly explains what I enjoy about my 5C dungeon deck: it's slow, but the value is ongoing. The featured deck is also a perfect example of an important Commander principle: the best ways to win are 1) make a deck so good that 3 opponents trying their best can't possibly beat you (i.e., lie about power level) or 2) incrementally build value so that you're still ahead when the dust clears. Great stuff.

[@jcmalbec]

Our playgroup has a very similar dynamic with Gor Muldrak, piloted by my friend. This deck probably wins 60-70% of its games because none of its abilities are particularly spicy or noteworthy and it hands out free 4/3 blocking/attacking fodder. Why worry about the player whose creatures can change the creature type of another creature, when someone else has buffed merfolk tokens everywhere. The game usually ends up at a point where they have sailed through to the final two players before everyone realises they were probably set to win for the last 2 or 3 turns.

[@alexandrbatora9674]

dude, I needed to google that name, wtf, this is such cool card, and your frined is a true mvp!

[@tonjolley6422]

The concept of "Velocity" is very helpful in describing HOW a deck plays. Thank you for conceptualizing this.

[@pipsdontlie3031]

I've always wanted to build this deck. Seeing how cheap it could be made makes me a lot more enthusiastic about doing that

[@blueredlover1060]

Buff spells were really important in Standard for a while. Heroic was a playable deck in 2014, and cards like Defiant Strike were incredibly important to winning with the deck. Hell, that entire deck I took out of the bulk bin and won both standard tournaments and took games mercilessly in modern.

[@ColossaldreadmawOP]

You can also play it in pioneer where it just got second place at the ProTour

[@blueredlover1060]

@@ColossaldreadmawOP Niw, certainly. Pioneer didn't exist at the time, though.

[@diox8tony]

@@ColossaldreadmawOP Slick-shot showoff + soul-scar, got second place? yea, magecraft/prowess has been popping off the last 4 years.

[@kondorr2831]

I love Xyris, they are my baby. I have a deck more built around the snake tokens, and when I heard the "Does anyone want to draw some cards" line I laughed, cause I say that all the time

[@Faroonite]

I play Xyris, and I’m beginning to think it’s a universal phrase for us

[@Kheldae]

Indeed. Forced Fruition is also a beast in there

[@wyatt1479]

Helm of the host plus mystic reflection. Swing wkth xyris

[@Falchieyan]

I even spice it up mine with a bit of all-player ramp and tutors, as there are several win cons in the deck that just suddenly throw out wins after a Wheel effect (Impact Tremors, Purphuros, Devlish Valet) so I tell the group "Ok, I'm going to give you all the card draw and ramp your deck needs, if you can't beat me by the time I assemble a handful of pieces then idk it's kind of your fault."

[@crackerman5519]

Xyris players assemble! I run mine with a strong politics theme :D

[@Tomoffy]

PLEASE MAKE MORE VIDEOS!! I love your takes and I love your voice.

[@MerlorMerlor]

fantastic! i wish more people would talk about the dynamics of a deck rather then the cards in it.

[@zserv]

I built this deck and now it's my go to deck. It's so stupidly fun. I've upgraded it a bit, but specifically trying to maintain the "teehee oopsie" win factor. Thank you Snail and Hans!

[@MCXL1140]

Deck is now like $50-60, lol

[@NSixtyFour]

fuuuuuhhhhhh.....

[@UncleMerlin]

@@NSixtyFour just buy singles. its still 30 dollars

[@oficado58]

proxy it.

[@nontinteressamki419]

I don't know where do you check for prices but this deck it's still supercheap

[@elijahbracey6959]

The precon xyris comes in is that expensive because of deflecting swat that’s the whole price of the deck happens to be a really great card in the xyris deck so if you wanna play both cards it might be worth investing but not if your building the deck on a budget

[@sorin_markov]

I too have a Xyris deck, but I barely use the commander to draw cards. I call my deck the fun police because it helps struggling players and tries to keep degenerate decks in check with lots of counterspells and removal. I usually just help everyone draw cards and do their thing without being *too* threatening, then cast an overrun with 20-30 snakes and clear the table. My opponents get max 1 round to go from "this dude is helping me do my thing and stopping the Krenko player from killing me" to "hey, he has a lot of snakes, that's a problem" This is an interesting alternative take and I might see how it works in my pod, which is maybe a bit higher power than the deck you outlined.

[@salubrioussnail]

That also sounds like a solid way to go with Xyris. Hans' version is definitely not wildly strong in the interaction department before turn 5-6, so it probably doesn't work so good if you're trying to play the "no, stop, don't do that" role with some faster decks.

[@Someone-lg6di]

Similar to how grismold can get. Giving free tokens with caveat of take care of them

[@Bhit_Whyz]

Not related to the content of the video, but xyris has been my favorite commander for a while. There are so many different ways to take the deck that span the entire power range without sacrificing fun at any of the levels. My current version is a mill deck that relies on psychic corrosion/altar of the brood and something like prosperity.

[@markoutlaw9571]

Plz do more in depth deck analysis videos like this. It was I really interesting watch

[@ThreeMinuteGaming]

I made a similar deck with Commader John Benton from Dr Who who has essentially the same mechanic, except it's selesnia, the commander is only 3 mana, and he has haste (!!) and trample (!!!!). The deck is almost entirely buff spells (usually also with protection of some kind), fight spells, and cards that let you dump more lands on the field as you quickly end up having massive fistfulls of cards. People will let you hit them all the time, as you can political to people and say "I'm gonna hit you for 7 so we each get 7, sounds good?" and they just...let you do it. People actively try to keep you alive because they want to draw. ...then you have the spell that when you hit a player you hit every other player, and you have 30 pump spells in hand and 20 lands on the field. They try to kill Benton but you protect him, they try again and you just protect him AGAIN. If they did manage to kill him before you have already ramped out of control and the madlad has HASTE so you get instant value the second he drops. And next thing I knew I hit a player for over 200 damage, which killed the whole board before my draw 200 would resolve and mill me out. It's only downside is it's one trick, so if people are smart they'll kill the commander on sight. But they won't, because they want cards. I've played this deck several times, often with the same group, and they still let you hit them early because they want that draw. It's just too tempting. Fun as hell deck, dirt cheap (under $50), and allows for fun politicing while still having a real chance to win the game against more expensive decks.

[@Zadap]

This is how it felt winning with my unsleeved volo bulk deck, nobody expects the double paladin of predation toxic win.

[@NaibafEtten]

oh god, i love my volo deck. how many copys of blightsteel collossus do i want? yes, all of them.

[@NyctoDarkMatter]

People KNOW Volo needs to be removed, but he's not a problem; until he is. XD

[@sordid_rose4847]

Fascinating stuff, and just what the doctor ordered, for me. I just scared my table shitless with a basic/cheap animar deck last weekend, and I was kind of discouraged when I realized I just built a really strong deck on accident. This week I've been looking for a way to build a pretty mid-deck next and this really strikes me as a winner in that category. I really appreciate how fleshed out your information is here. 😊

[@Koko-fp2pl]

Do you have a decklist for the animar deck?

[@Someone-lg6di]

My recommendation with strong cmdrs is put a limitation in place that hinders them. Jodah the unified is my deck but all the legends in the deck must either. Create tokens based on power or are planeswalkers

[@unseeliedream42]

wow. i absolutely love these kind of deep dive into a dech/archetype

[@kodyly]

I am making 10 cheap decks in the coming months to help level up my pod's diversity, and you just convinced me this should one of them. Looks fun!

[@Dsparky121]

I built a Xyris deck, but I advertise mine as ‘Temur Nekusar’ it’s far more wheel heavy with a bunch of go wide pay offs such as Shared Animosity, Cryptolith Rite, or Impact Tremors. This take on the deck is also super cool, I enjoy seeing buff spells get used, I’ve got tons rolling around in my bulk boxes.

[@ItWasMe93s]

The one I run is a go wide version of the deck with the tokens called "snakes on a plain"

[@Rythmicrythyn]

Lol I named mine Neville Flynn's Worst Nightmare. Guess where he's from and who he's played by? 😂

[@mr.calcium7662]

Xyris is one of my favorite commanders, personally I run him as a wheel deck, it's really funny printing out dozens of snakes with a single wheel spell with stuff like doubling season on the board

[@haikuheroism6495]

this is (I think) the only video of yours that I've rewatched multiple times. The way that you talk about the psychology around the deck really interests me and it gets me thinking about my own weird deck and how it works. I have a hydra kindred deck with Vorinclex Monstrous Raider as the commander. I don't really know why but it wins most of its games despite being really unbalanced and I think it's similar to the Xyris deck. My playgroup knows that it's a threat, but they still think of it as the threat it was a turn or two ago. A lot of my cards are seemingly innocuous "infrastructure" that doesn't really do anything until I pay 2 green and suddently have a 16/16 hydra on the board. I want to make a video like this one about it and dig into how it works. Anyway, good video and it gets me thinking. 10/10

[@cookiemonster8711]

I'd be interested

[@JustTouchCards]

Yes! Xyris is my favourite deck. I play it more group huggy. Enchantments that allow everyone to draw an extra card each turn, get everything set up so people draw a bunch of extra cards each turn and then play out Xyris, creating 2-3 snakes per opponent's turn, and having a hand of protection for Xyris too.

[@studmcmillionaire8807]

Your exploration of Xyris is thoughtful, esp wrt thoughts on cards in hand + card velocity as that's something most people who got into Magic playing casual commander sorely underrate. As an aside, In one of my pods, a player runs Xyris with a bunch of wheels, using commander damage as a back up. I also underestimated Xyris' power until she killed the whole table on turn 6 with Impact Tremors and a pair of wheels. Surprisingly versatile snek

[@Aigis31]

That is so spicy, I can't believe I never thought of that! Xyris truly is one of the most weirdly interesting commanders WotC has made.

[@alexdavis4043]

I am tuning a CEDH playable version of what you described. We play weekly and I have been trying to make a wheels deck that can compete with the T1 CEDH decks (Yuriko, Talion, Blue Farm, etc.) decks that everyone brings to the table. Xyris has been the most successful so far

[@hrdcrWired]

Decks that make for a more fun and interesting game across the table are quickly becoming my favorite category of deck. I'm currently building Kros, Defense Contractor. He'd be a great subject for a video!

[@aronsock1028]

This channel is rapidly becoming my favorite

[@Nephalem2002]

I’ve build a Xyris Deck, and I can tell you for a certainty it’s one of the funniest decks I have ever played. I go for normal wheels and such, but I never thought of Buff Spells as an option 🤔

[@metricarea7546]

Purphoros go brr

[@bananajoe9951]

I love that I have to pay more in shipping than the deck is worth...

[@metalgauntlet3731]

I run a Xyris deck too! It's also my playgroups "strongest deck" with an almost complete cedh Najeela at the table as well. The deck has become a super villain at the table and is usually the focus if ever played. When we went to the con it did great at every competitive table. He's very slept on. My deck is a wheel deck though.

[@TheNeoDaedalus]

Very interesting thing to watch. This reminds me of my Niv-mizzet Reborn deck. It's a deck I build out of bulk and its theme is jus ravnica and two color cards. Plenty of limited only played cards and gates jank (no maze's end, that is too high of a profile cards for the table). It normally just plays basic magic, put cards on the board and occasionally swing, but because of what the commander does it tends to refill the hand just regularly enough that it ends up pulling ahead on resources and has a surprising number of wins. And it's never perceived as a threat as it has no combos, no massive synergy, no hyper ramp etc. it just keeps chugging while other players wipe each others' more dangerous resources out and I end up beating them with my angel of despair or other such junk. Anyways, thanks for this vid, interesting stuff.

[@deadheather2864]

This was very well thought out! It is very smart to have the deck be low budget and unassuming like you said, not having the tower land etc. Thats so cool! My first instinct is to try to add power and make it do more better. But the advantage of just being a guy with some lands and a full hand very clearly leads to more won games. I'm so surprised and loved this. (small story) in a budget tournament I went to with some friends, one friend built Xyris deck (not this way but) and to this day remains the only budget deck thats been kept together after the tournament due to how fun and "friendly" it is to play.

[@JohnLucPicard98]

I love your channel. I’ve been off and on magic for quite some time but now I’m sticking with it for good. I like how you approach topics for new players and veterans. Great content. Hope to see this channel have 100k subscribers

[@thetuerk]

4:17 This in yugioh we call the Honest effect! There is a monster card called Honest you can discard whenever a monster you own with the Light attribute is fighting, and it lets your monster gain as much attack power as the monster it is fighting, effectively turning even the most horrendously outmached fight into a winning one. As players grew wiser, a saying crystalized: "Always assume your opponent has an Honest in their hand" I wanted to mention it because that fear of interacting with the buff decks monsters really reminded me of this interaction in yugioh

[@Sillimant_]

Things have changed now. You're either getting your shit popped or honest gets negated

[@haruhirogrimgar6047]

​@@Sillimant_ Honest isn't getting negated in the damage step by most cards. Especially as modern Yugioh has been slowly shying away from activation negation. But you do probably pop the card before Battle, or MP2.

[@zylowolfzan3345]

This deck reminds me of a decklist I made around Kharn, the Betrayer, from the 40k Universes Beyond release. Kharn's entire gimmick is that he MUST attack and block at every opportunity, and if he would be dealt damage, he just doesn't take that damage, but instead you hand him off to another player. When you lose control of Kharn, you draw three cards! He's entirely built around a variety of enchantments and equipment that do things when the equipped/enchanted creature deals damage, but specifically AVOIDS cards that GIVE Kharn that ability. Things like Captain's Claws, for example. This means that no matter who controls Kharn, you always get some value out of it. But also, people don't necessarily want to kill it off, because the value it gains is usually fairly minor, and in exchange people are tossing Kharn around the table and drawing a bunch of cards. It's a fun time! Lists like this really feel like what the Commander format was made for, just some weird jank that everyone can have fun with.

[@anniemays186]

I adore this video, and honestly it sounds almost exactly like something i would play! I might give it a try

[@florian8356]

I did not expect this video to be as good as it was. Great job, subscribed!

[@spencerghattas8185]

(this video is a feather, the redeemed deck tech under a temur disguise) Great video! Love seeing good threat assessment.

[@PangolinPyrrhic]

This was so viscerally interesting to someone with a Xyris deck, but who plays it completely differently. Mine's a much more generic wheel kind of deck, and this gave me some very good ideas in how to retune it whenever mine gets stale. Everyone here is saying temur is simic with red, but I always saw Xyris specifically as Locust God with green.

[@lordofhallows2664]

putting Zada in would be insane with the ability to make so many snakes

[@zulkhaireesulaiman8575]

Omg, thank you

[@CountDravda]

Excellent video. I bought and upgraded the "Silverquill Statement" precon from Strixhaven, and it honestly plays similarly. Drawing your opponents cards is massively advantageous in Commander, and I can win despite being completely up-front with my win-con: "I'm going to use Breena triggers to draw cards and build an army of fliers to beat you all down. Make use of the Breena triggers yourself if you'd like; my game plan is the same either way."

[@fablerh2476]

Ok it's rare that I stick to a video with seemingly poor visuals. Compliment on your content, you really got me hooked. And thanks for making me want to check that deck out, after seeing Xyris every once in a while in action and thinking every time yeah, that seems like fun. But all of those builds were power, your approach is really interesting.

[@PutYaHandsUp]

I do this with Simic. Ivy, gleeful spellthief is really good with buff spells. Maybe not the same effect as "snake good" but it does very well

[@jwarner1469]

I've been tinkering with my own version of this deck list for a while, and have managed to overcome *some* of the weaknesses illustrated. Board wipes can't generally be evaded by most protection spells, except when they can. Cards that Blink or Phase out your commander/board, which are prevalent enough on the decks low budget, in addition to just having counter spells, often provides sufficient coverage.

[@AlMagmaGaming]

I've had something similar happen with my Budget-CEDH Deck. The Core Combo is Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer and Wirewood symbiote. While some people see wirewood as a threat for its ability to bounce my commander to hand, most are just confused by the choice. I'll even leave Rocco on the board to bait away destruction spells from Wirewood, which Wirewood acts as a protection for Rocco anyway. When I start building my board state, most people ignore me since I usually use Rocco to search for mana dorks. To them I'm ramping for a larger creature. Not realizing the combo the mana dorks can pull off. By the time they realize that I've been building an "Exodia" to kill the table it's usually too late. Rocco can search for most solutions including graveyard and exile recovery. I even have alternate ways to assemble "Exodia" to confuse people I play against. (To them) Suddenly, I'm not playing my game winning Combo? (To Me) They both do the same thing, but this one does it in a different route. Deception does wonders. Mana dorks are dangerous.

[@N1NJ4P1R4T3]

Thanks for this video. This just inspired a possible strat change in a deck I'm building for a "special rules" tournament my playgroup does.

[@Kyodie-bz1sf]

I like this deck. So its mine now. None of my friends have seen this video probably so im going to be a smart unique lil guy now

[@andrewmcnally5013]

I've had a similar experience with my Sheoldred, the Apocalypse Commander deck. I don't run heaps of wheels like some decks for her do, but I have the usual stuff like Howling Mine. One game I had out Sheoldred and the Court of Ambition. I didn't keep the Monarch status, but that was ok. Between regular draws and the Court's discard or lose 3 life, everyone lost life gradually. Eventually someone pointed out that they were all on low-teens in life and that I was still in high 30's. Sometimes a more subtle approach works really well.

[@wayfarerzen3393]

This reminds me of the all-artifacts-and-burn deck I made for my playgroup back in college. It would give everyone at the table HEAPS of drawcards every turn and generally help specific players if they needed it... while building an odd but ultimately unassuming mana base. That would suddenly go infinite in any one of 5 ways and comet storm the table for infinite damage.

[@MageSkeleton]

For anyone interested, doing Keskit, the Flesh Sculptor with Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer or doing Prava of the Steel Legion with Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel make for really powerful budget builds for anyone interested in something "powerful" and "budget" but not touching blue.

[@heyihavenoclue7541]

Great demonstration of Game Theory strategy of winning as cooperating, being forgiving, etc. Great video!

[@thisisthefkingmoa]

Xyris is easily the commander i like the most nowadays. I do not play a lot of magic, but i did adventure myself creating a burn & wheel deck for him which basically said "When creatures enter my battlefield, you get hurt. Now let me wheel all our hands and put 21 creatures in play" I have so much fun with it, i dont even win that much, but doing that much damage to everyone and having an army after is something that gives me a lot of joy.

[@manramen]

BTW i felt convinced by you to reproduce the deck, so I had to ultimately pay, more than what he likely spent (about 70 total but for someone who only just got back into after decades I consider it worth it)but i felt happy to go for this one as my first one i bought pieces for building. I just hope it works in my own casual commander setting :P Any tips would help but im getting most from this video alone :)

[@Varnockthe1st]

Fear is the mind killer, just turn sideways.

[@ConMan-bx1rk]

I have a Xyris deck with about a 40-50% win rate. One of the best decks for politics I’ve ever made

[@VickyWat]

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only for wallowing in.

[@cameroncall6591]

I built this deck for under $30. Wow it played great! My play group has been playing for over 20 years and they have now claimed he is a kill on sight commander. But great deck Salubrious Snail!

[@taylorlarson593]

This was well made and brilliant to listen to. The analysis is deep and accurate. I truly enjoyed this video

[@mattisbette3932]

For anyone wanting to build this deck, you might want to check out sergeant John Benton first. He has the same passive of "you and your opponent draw cards equal to damage this creature dealt". He is a selesnya commander instead of temur and he doesn't have flying but he has trample and haste. Also he doesn't create tokens when opponents draw but he makes up for it by costing 3 instead of 5 mana. So you can go for the same gameplan but faster. With turn one ramp, you can get him out turn 2 and start drawing. Also white has a lot of interesting multi use spells that both buff amd protect a creature. Also you can use some board wipes like promise loyalty if an opponent build to much of a board state with the cards you gave them.

[@canislavlazarov9217]

i had a deck using Xyris as commander - was fun, i played it around drawing cards, ramping up and finishing enemies off via mass spell damage in their faces OR using those little snake tokens to buff them and win using those creatures for lethal damage and even winning via commander damage - bite weak players at start so all but the strongest guy draw cards and then just couple more attacks to win the game. I recommend it for friendly tables.

[@jben6]

I've been toying with a similar idea, but focused on RG under Neyrith (or however its spelled). This method makes me smile. Thanks for the video!

[@peterkrygersrensen1283]

I actually love this video - It's an amazing deck (well done your Timmy friend) and you break it down in a very entertaining way

[@JuQmadrid]

A friend of mine also has a Xyris deck and it's quite difficult to deal with it because it draws so many cards and gets so many snakes is a pain in the neck. By the way, Sword of War and Peace, which is among the cheapest "swords of A and B", works amazingly with Xyris. For me, a powerful strategy allows for many card slots dedicated to interaction while being consistently powerful and that is just what you're describing here.

[@sangelititan1171]

I went the other way with this kind of deck: Instead of going for Xyris I made a Kalimax cantrip voltron deck. Nothing like swinging a 4/4 on turn 4, only for it to become instant commander lethal. My favourites are any spell that doubles power, due to how the stack works: Lets say I cast Unleash Fury first, copying it as a result. In response to it resolving, I cast Giant Growth for +3/+3, and slap a Shadow Rift on top. 4/4 becomes 5/5 with a counter, then 8/8 with Giants Growth, before doubling twice up to 32/32 as they resolve. All with Shadow, before the enemy can assign blockers. Cantrips can be wacky.

[@lauravturner]

This is pretty funny. My friend group did a budget challenge with a random commander. My friend Hana got Xyris. She'd never heard of the commander, but went away and made her deck... and Christ, the deck she made. Basically every Howling Mine synonym to make everyone draw anything from 3 to 15 cards a turn, meanwhile accumulating snakes and using Springleaf Drum effects to turn those snakes into any spell she wants. As the local chaos player, EVERYONE at my LGS is fearful of the power of Xyris now. Nobody underestimates the snake spewer.

[@xardin22]

I run Xyris at the head of my "Group Hug" Deck, My group loves to see him come out cause early game I tend to ramp everyone's mana and refill hands constantly, but the red part of the deck is full of punishing spells and effects, every one knows that letting me live is playing with fire but they always want to push their luck, on more than one occasion I wiped the entire table with one big play all cause they let me live too long lol so...who wants to draw some cards?

[@lumpusmaximus8100]

Very good video. Finally someone actually analyzing a deck - and it's even budget!

[@everydaypanda0874]

My best date was $20

[@powerspro3553]

Was it a mtg game?

[@ChevronSeven]

You guys are going on dates? :o

[@weaselhatgaming1010]

Well $20 is $20

[@yaseminturkoglu6748]

awww

[@skeletonrowdie1768]

Why date a 20$ bill though

[@alexlowe2054]

I've found incredible success with the similar concept of "looking unassuming" while playing a custom Hearthstone deck of mine. Being able to fake out your opponent is very useful, especially when you're playing a very careful resource balancing game. The Rogue class has tons and tons of draw in Wild, and features some crazy OTK decks, but it also has a lot of incredibly aggressive aggro decks featuring weapons and pirates. My trick is that those same weapon/pirate decks can run a huge amount of card draw, which I use to enable an OTK combo that works reliably due to the large amount of draw. My deck looks like a badly built wild weapon deck, right up until I OTK the opponent on turn 7. I think my deck needs the fakeout to win against most non-aggro decks, since most opponents never play anti-combo cards against my deck. Anti-combo cards usually help aggro decks by putting resources on the board. Playing aggro means they're usually fishing for control cards that don't save them from my OTK, and they're spending resources on surviving the aggression, rather than trying to stop the OTK. I've ran other OTK decks with a pure draw engine without the aggressive play style, and those decks tend to get hit with OTK disruption far more often, because the opponent knows that they only need to play anti-combo cards to win. Opponents will take the riskier plays that disrupt my combo, since that's the only way I win. But with aggro, opponents waste a lot of resources and time trying to survive against the aggression, thinking that's my game plan, even though I'm going to OTK them the next turn. They were playing the wrong game the whole time.

[@wolffow223]

this is the best example of "its not the deck, its the pilot"

[@doemagic]

very fun deck! I have a Sergeant John Benton deck which is the same idea but in selesnya, it’s so fun to pilot

[@htspencer9084]

I am planning to make a Sergeant John deck as well, hoping to fly under the radar!

[@captainbadon5923]

Built this deck card for card. After 5 pods with a variation of power levels and budgets ( and as always the cheapest deck at the table) I have a 4/5 (80% win rate) i also put the deck in Christmas flavoured sleeves and stuck a Santa hat sticker on the commanders sleeve. The ridiculousness has played into enhancing the videos strategy. 👌👌👌

[@forsureitsme]

Xyris just turn Giant Growth into Ancestral Recall??? 🤯

[@jahcode6132]

The strongest commander deck I've personally built is a Jeskai cantrip deck that has a lot of 1 drop red buff spells. They can definitely go off with the right deck. Commander is Shu Yun, The Silent Tempest. His ability is literally a built in buff instant so you might as well lean all the way into it. It plays into the same strategy you talked about, 90% of the nonland cards in the deck are one and two drop instants and sorceries. There are a few four-drop creatures but no card costs more mana than four to play. By themselves the cards are pretty unassuming but in practice has you swinging someone for an unblockable 25 commander damage turn 5.

[@rainx381]

I am a Xyris pilot for years and never looked back since switching over from Locust God. You tell it like it is with small beans syndrome.

[@jpwood9180]

I had a Kalamax Buff spells deck that runs a lot of the same cards here and while I loved all the cards, it became a Voltron deck as Kalamax was always the best target instead of something like Stormchaser drake. So I took it apart. But I feel inspired now to do my own take on Xyris Buff spells. Great video!

[@JohnReinhartPerez]

Adding zada to this deck would be nuts

[@flosiporosi7827]

Great video🎉 Your summary reminded me of the nelly precon, wich I enjoy playing a lot. Some of your points might come in handy in its future development

[@bryangelnett6237]

Built this deck with a few upgrades and it does not disappoint. 3/3 games won “mind you one of the players was playing his sheldrod deck”. I’m used to being arch enemy so it’s weird players are teaming up with me so adamantly to get cards. My friend played his kalia deck and would let me swing through just to get more cards. The snakes are super key to the plan I’m like yeah I have 25 snakes and no one really bats an eye.

[@bryangelnett6237]

100% recommend super cheap and really fun.

[@veraha4706]

@@bryangelnett6237can I get your deck list ? Looking to build it but not sure how the deck will play against stronger decks

[@jaelynr.2654]

Buff spells are a blast, and I will die on this hill! I prefer to go Bant over Jeskai colors though, because you can use White protection spells and buff spells to play it a lot more safely. My personal favorite deck is Derevi, and it uses buff spells on evasive creatures as it's main wincon. I see the appeal of Xyris though, that card is bonkers.

[@salubrioussnail]

Buff spells are great. I think Sergeant John Benton is probably the best way to make this specific deck, Xyris just ended up being the pick because my friend had already built the deck in Temur colors.

[@devinkerr5474]

I pulled this off with a Marchesa deck many years ago. It was about $30-$40 bucks and just ran a lot of steal and sac outlets. People seemed to focus on the price of my deck and deem it not a threat, or see some of my low-end creatures and not worry about me.

[@oOThilliOo]

I was happy to see Shore Up make an appearance in this deck. I think it’s a totally underrated combat trick / protection spell that’s totally slept on. Untapping a creature as a surprise blocker can be huge. It’s cool to see so many initially unassuming cards packed together into a successful deck.

[@piyh3962]

He's missing out on the powerhouse that is Embiggen. {G} for a draw 4 is better than Ancestral Recall.

[@SilentGe42]

First time on your channel. Great video, great analysis on a not so common deck. Keep it up. Subbed. Ps.: i will probably build the deck myself to try it. I would be curious what the would look like with a little more budget thrown in to it.

[@reezethevampire]

I'm obsessed with building decks based around mechanics I've heard other people talk shit about. I have a shades deck I built for that reason and it stomps and stomps HARD frequently killing players in 4 turns (it's not EDH, though). I also have a deck built entirely around making me hard to attack for the same reason and it routinely wins games without ever being touched. I also have a blue/white reanimator that casts creatures from exile because someone said that Eternal Scourge sucked and, finally, I have a deck built entirely around Necromancer's Stockpile because...well you get it.

[@MrSuneF]

I love my Xyris deck, it's not voltron though, it's windfall + overwhelming stampede / purphoros effects. It's one of the rare decks where you can have a powerful commander and it doesn't get removed all the time - everybody wants to draw cards :) Politics politics... aaaand bang. I could easily power it up, with some good counterspells, tutors, fast mana etc but honestly, it doesn't need it.

[@pbrown7501]

"Planeswalker emblems and experience counters are the most permanent type of resource, as something that opponents literally can't interact with" AKSHULLY, Suncleanser can remove all experience counters from a player

[@justking6998]

Took some serious insperation from this and made the deck! genuinely a super fun style you always come out of fucking nowhere with the win, and its also nice to be a bit of hug as well.