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Hallelujah it’s raining Snakes (Xyris Ikoria)

Commander / EDH* Group Hug RUG (Temur) Tokens

Poly_raptor


Maybeboard


So after this weekend of previews I’ve pre ordered the new commander deck Arcane Maelstrom and I’ll be rebuilding it one of two ways.

This is the build focused around Xyris, the Writhing Storm

You can see the build with Kalamax, the Stormsire here.


Kalamax, the instant storm

Commander / EDH* Poly_raptor

SCORE: 3 | 1 COMMENT | 498 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS



This deck aims to win via 3 different avenues.

  1. Dealing damage with several creature ETB triggers such as Impact Tremors and Purphoros, God of the Forge

  2. An aggressive group hug draw strategy that will cause opponents to wheel, shuffle hands and draw x amount of extra cards each turn and then hit them for damage related to hand size.

  3. A big horde of poisonous snake tokens.

This long boi looks like an absolute beast, at first I saw it as a friendly locust god but the more I read into it, the more I saw potential for a real monster. For example: The Locust God + Winds of Change could get you a lot of locust tokens, a well timed cast might result in 10 tokens. If we cast this with Xyris, the Writhing Storm in play and everyone has even 6 cards in hand, Xyris, the Writhing Storm would next you 18 snake tokens.

He also gives us card draw per turn too, with the evasion he has we can easily hit 3 cards per turn. Potentially more if he is pumped up with our snake amplifiers.

To really utilise his unique ability, I’m running a lot of early game cards to help fill everyone’s hands with Howling Mine and Horn of Greed effects. A particular favourite of mine in this section is Malignant Growth.

A well timed Prosperity in the mid to late game cast after Battle Hymn could end the game if we have an Impact Tremors in play.

Nin, the Pain Artist comes to good use, along with Teferi's Puzzle Box and Forced Fruition for the finishers and I’m also running several Time Reversal esk spells to keep the snakes falling for the sky.

Now we have people drawing multiple cards per turn, we need to use this to our advantage, it’ll be quite difficult as people will draw into answers for our threats. But we can hopefully get them out of the game quickly using upkeep effects like Iron Maiden and also by equipping Xyris with Sword of War and Peace, if we stack the triggers so that Xyris combat trigger resolves first, we’d get 5 cards, 5 snakes and then hit them for another good chunk of damage. Runeflare Trap or Molten Psyche could then knock someone out of the game.
If the damage that we’re dealing to people for drawing cards doesn’t kill them, the snakes will, we’re running a few anthem style effects to pump them up, which will also pump up Xyris, as he is part Snake. Eldrazi Monument and Beastmaster Ascension are very strong here, but the real MVP of this section is Triumph of the Hordes, this end the game quickly if we need too and with Fires of Yavimaya we can give all our snakes haste and pump them even more.

I’ve added in The Locust God for more aggro tokens and I’m running Parallel Lives to really get the snakes a swarming along with Archetype of Imagination for some extra evasion, if people really aren’t dead now then Throne of the God-Pharaoh will finish them off for good.

Since we’re a wide board, we’re running the usual suspects like Cryptolith Rite & Growing Rites of Itlimoc  , i can’t afford no cradle. Mana Echoes should net use some solid mana each turn and Battle Hymn / Storm the Vault   can produce a hell of a lot of mana to sink into a big draw spell.
To finish off I’m just running some good counterspells and utility cards to help control the board and keep things in our favour, Dosan the Falling Leaf and City of Solitude will protect us in our own turns, meaning we don’t have to worry as much, whilst Seedborn Muse is a must when all our snakes are mana dorks.
.

This is just the first draft of this deck, let me know cards you would add and cards you would cut.

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99% Casual

Competitive

Revision 4 See all

(3 years ago)

-1 Anger main
+1 Arcane Signet main
+1 Battle Hymn main
+1 Beastmaster Ascension main
-1 Blue Sun's Zenith main
+1 Call to Heel main
-1 Careful Consideration main
+1 Cascade Bluffs main
+1 Castle Embereth main
-1 Cephalid Broker main
+1 Cephalid Coliseum main
-1 Cerebral Vortex main
+1 Ceremonious Rejection main
+1 City of Solitude main
-1 Consecrated Sphinx main
+1 Counterspell main
+1 Cryptolith Rite main
-1 Day's Undoing main
+1 Dosan the Falling Leaf main
+1 Dream Fracture main
and 74 other change(s)
Top Ranked
Date added 3 years
Last updated 3 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

51 - 0 Rares

19 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.29
Tokens Insect 1/1 UR, Snake 1/1 G, Treasure
Folders Xyris, Inspirational Xyris decks
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