Xantcha, Woke Agent
Commander / EDH*
SCORE: 102 | 45 COMMENTS | 16883 VIEWS | IN 40 FOLDERS
Mistake Fix & Quick Mini-Update —Aug. 14, 2018
Whoops! In my last update I said that I added Blasphemous Act but didn't actually make the space in the deck for it. I made a couple of little final additions/cuts to the deck before I give it some extensive playtesting. This should be the last change for a good bit!
Cuts: Glacial Chasm, Crown of Doom, Fumiko the Lowblood, Read the Bones, Thaumatic Compass Flip
Additions: Blasphemous Act, Tree of Perdition, Mountain, Pyrohemia, Braid of Fire
So without going into too much detail, when I look at Xantcha I see two obvious ways to build her according to her textbox. You can either maximize the fact that she can only attack other players and build her in a pseudo-voltron way with infect, pump spells, damage doublers, etc; sort of like an odd Zurgo Helmsmasher/Karona, False God deck. The other obvious way to build her is you can maximize utilization of her activated ability through damage doublers, ramp, cards that punish opponents for drawing cards, etc. This change is meant to move slightly away from the first option and more towards the second option.
Taking away the pillowfort cards like Glacial Chasm and Thaumatic Compass Flip means I'm more vulnerable to players just attacking me instead of each other. This leads me away from using effects like Fumiko the Lowblood, Goblin Spymaster, and War's Toll. I'm currently only cutting Fumiko for now, but depending on how Spymaster works out, I may be adding Fumiko back in or also taking Spymaster out.
I'm removing Crown of Doom because I wasn't too impressed with the few games that I was able to play it. It turns Xantcha into a 3 turn commander damage kill compared to a 5 turn, but that doesn't seem like a worthwhile reason to run the card.
Lastly, I'm taking out Read the Bones because frankly I couldn't find any more slots in the deck to cut and it was tied with Goblin Spymaster and Indulgent Tormentor for cards to remove. Ultimately ended up removing Read the Bones because it doesn't have a recurring effect, loses me life, and doesn't give me any active board presence.
As far as the additions go, these are all solid cards that I've mentioned adding to the deck (or had in the deck at one point) and think they deserve to at least be playtested. Braid of Fire (suggested by Gleeock) fills a similar role to Neheb, the Eternal by synergizing with Xantcha's activated ability and Pyrohemia incredibly well. Blasphemous Act and Pyrohemia are great at clearing the board when needed. Finally, Tree of Perdition is just a great card for doing exactly what this deck wants to do: lowering life totals as quickly as possible.
Let me know what you think! As I mentioned before, I'm probably not going to make anymore changes to the deck until I've gotten to playtest it for a bit (for my sanity & my wallet's sake).
Tempting to debate finally being a useful sink for Braid of Fire . I'm not sure though.
August 13, 2018 3:13 p.m.
Also, on the fence with Vampiric Link the 2-for-1 & potential for the lifegain to discourage the ability activation :(
August 13, 2018 3:16 p.m.
pokepower116 says... #4
Braid of Fire is definitely tempting. Xantcha is an amazing sink for this card. My only concern would be how long the game lasts. Two mana is such a low investment that it might be worth putting into the deck anyways. Also would make a stronger case for Pyrohemia getting added back into the deck too!
As far as Vampiric Link goes, I think you're spot-on with your analysis. I don't think the lifegain offsets the potential of getting 2-for-1'd and once my opponents know that I'm gaining life for every Xantcha activation; they will probably stop doing it. It also would be a nonbo with 3 cards currently in the deck (Sulfuric Vortex, Havoc Festival, and Rampaging Ferocidon). Along the same line of thinking, I considered adding Phyresis into the deck. However, since it would be the only source of infect, she would either need to attack the same enemy twice or have someone pump 15 mana into her activated ability before she (or the enchantment) gets removed. Alternatively there could be a damage doubler on the battlefield, but I think that's bordering on thinking too wishfully.
Adding in Braid of Fire is really tempting but also hard to slot in. As I mentioned in the update section, I'm trying to add more card draw, another boardwipe (Pyrohemia or Chain Reaction?), and a land. You could somewhat make an argument for Braid of Fire being card draw with Xantcha, but that might be stretching it too much. I'm also looking for cuts in the deck so that I can include those categories of cards; but I love every card that's currently in there. Thinking Crown of Doom even though it encourages attacks and potentially turns Xantcha into a 3 turn kill instead of a 5 turn. Let me know what you think!
pokepower116 says... #1
Gleeock Wholeheartedly agree! As I mentioned in my update, I actually considered Spectral Searchlight for that exact reason. It's definitely worth trying out to see if anyone will take me up on it. Added to the decklist :)
August 13, 2018 12:28 p.m.