The Heartstone is Xantcha's Heart

Commander / EDH* BR (Rakdos) Phyrexian Saga Theme/Gimmick

smack80

Creature (24)

• 1x Blood Pet
• 1x Hex Parasite
• 1x Plague Myr
• 1x Vampire Hexmage
• 1x Activated Sleeper
• 1x Bone Shredder
• 1x Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor
• 1x Priest of Gix
• 1x Defiler of Flesh
• 1x Gixian Puppeteer
• 1x Kardur, Doomscourge
• 1x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Terror of Towashi
• 1x Vindictive Lich
• 1x Argentum Masticore
• 1x Greven, Predator Captain
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden
• 1x Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
• 1x Furnace Host Charger
• 1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
• 1x Massacre Wurm
• 1x Wurmcoil Engine

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Spectacular Showdown
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Ill-Gotten Gains
• 1x Unnerve
• 1x Gix's Command
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Mass Mutiny
• 1x Mob Rule
• 1x Breach the Multiverse
• 1x Insurrection

Land (37)

• 1x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blightstep Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Haunted Ridge
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Peak
• 1x The Seedcore
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Saga

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Curse of Opulence
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Cover of Darkness
• 1x Treacherous Link
• 1x Oppression
• 1x Phyrexian Scriptures
• 1x The Brothers' War
• 1x Rite of the Raging Storm
• 1x The Cruelty of Gix

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Manifold Key
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Batterbone
• 1x Bloodthirsty Blade
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Planar Atlas
• 1x Heartstone
• 1x Phyrexian Totem
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Batterskull

Instant (7)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Cast into the Fire
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Hagra Mauling  ^Flip
• 1x Curtains' Call

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Maybeboard

Creature (18)

• 1x Battlefly Swarm
• 1x Bilious Skulldweller
• 1x Evolved Sleeper
• 1x Sleeper Agent
• 1x Vindictive Flamestoker
• 1x Generous Plunderer
• 1x Magebane Lizard
• 1x Perilous Myr
• 1x Soulless Jailer
• 1x Unworthy Dead
• 1x Zenith Chronicler
• 1x Phyrexian Negator
• 1x Balthor the Defiled
• 1x Kethek, Crucible Goliath
• 1x Karn, Silver Golem
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Darkest Hour
• 1x Planar Void
• 1x Glistening Oil
• 1x Yawgmoth's Edict
• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x No Mercy

Artifact (2)

• 1x Claws of Gix
• 1x Coldsteel Heart

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Unearth
• 1x Call of the Death-Dweller
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Disrupt Decorum
• 1x Kindred Dominance

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Most players know that Karn Liberated became corrupted and in turn gave rise to New Phyrexia was because he carried within himself a drop of the Glistening Oil of Phyrexia. But what they might not know is the reason he had this oil in the first place. The Heartstone installed by Urza into Karn to give him sentience originally came from Xantcha, Sleeper Agent who was a Phyrexian machine wrapped in human skin. She was built by Gix, Praetor of Phyrexia, along with thousands of others including Kerrick who destroyed the Tolarian Academy.

Xantcha joined to the forces of good and eventually sacrificed her own life and gave her Heartstone to help save Dominaria, without knowing that it carried the seed of destruction of Mirrodin (and perhaps other worlds).

She was the main protagonist of the novel Planeswalker, which followed Brothers War in the Artifacts novel cycle.

This deck aims to be a fun Xantcha deck without being the same big-mana-Exsanguinate deck that everyone else is making. I tried to include many cards that either mention Phyrexia or Xantcha or reference her storyline, without including too many terrible cards.

Ill-Gotten Gains tells the story of Xantcha and Urza breaking into Phyrexia and Xantcha stealing her Heartstone back.

Top Ranked	Achieved #28 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	101
Avg. CMC	3.47
Tokens	Construct 0/0 C, Gold, Lightning Rager, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Deathtouch, Wurm 3/3 C w/ Lifelink