Xantcha - Voltron Politics

Commander / EDH BR (Rakdos) Casual

jamosemtg

Enchantment (19)

• 1x Aspect of Gorgon
• 1x Black Market
• 1x Curse of Disturbance
• 1x Curse of Opulence
• 1x Curse of the Nightly Hunt
• 1x Demonic Vigor
• 1x Dragon Breath
• 1x Grisly Transformation
• 1x Inner Demon
• 1x Madcap Skills
• 1x Predator's Gambit
• 1x Sulfuric Vortex
• 1x Theater of Horrors
• 1x Torment of Scarabs
• 1x Undying Rage
• 1x Untamed Hunger
• 1x Visions of Brutality
• 1x Vow of Malice
• 1x War's Toll

Land (37)

• 1x Akoum Refuge
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 14x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rocky Tar Pit
• 14x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God

Instant (12)

• 1x Cast Down
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dark Dabbling
• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Fated Return
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Murder
• 1x Renegade's Getaway
• 1x Sulfurous Blast
• 1x Supernatural Stamina
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Thrilling Encore

Creature (11)

• 1x Doomwake Giant
• 1x Fate Unraveler
• 1x Fumiko the Lowblood
• 1x Herald of Torment
• 1x Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1x Nighthowler
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Sower of Discord
• 1x Spiteful Returned
• 1x Stuffy Doll
• 1x Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Breath of Darigaaz
• 1x Cut / Ribbons
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Languish
• 1x Mizzium Mortars
• 1x Pyroclasm
• 1x Sweltering Suns
• 1x Worst Fears

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Hedron Archive
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Magnifying Glass
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Pacification Array
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Victory Chimes
• 1x Worn Powerstone

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I've never written a real description for a deck before, but I'm really excited by Xantcha, so here it goes! The idea of this deck is to buff Xantcha, make sure she stays alive during combat by giving her evasion and/or removing anything that would kill her during combat, clear the board of chump blockers, and try to stay alive using prison mechanisms and politics. The deck wins by getting everyone low from Xantcha attacks and politicking and then using xantcha's ability to drain whoever's left. I'll break down the main components a little bit below. Just want to note that I made this deck out of cards already in my collection, so the card quality definitely has room for improvement (though this seems like the type of deck that doesn't really need super powerful cards to work well and be fun!)

Targeted Removal

I love that the removal in this deck can both act as a form of getting rid of any creature that could kill our Xantcha and as a way of keeping us alive. That's why I have tons of targeted removal in this deck, especially at instant speed. If anything big tries to attack us or block and kill Xantcha during combat, BAM - dead. And since everyone knows you have tons of removal, we can use it as a political tool to get people to not attack us. This is great since we'll be quite lacking in blockers most of the time.

Stayin' Alive

While removal is great at keeping Xantcha alive during combat, she'll generally be a high priority target and therefore prone to removal herself. So I included a few regenerate-like effects that can help.

Wimpy Wipes

I included a decent amount of board wipes in the deck but you'll notice that most of them do only a small amount of damage to each creature (4 or less). This way we can get rid of the chump blockers and keep our Xantcha alive. All that's left to block are the bigger guys, which we will likely be able to evade or remove anyways.

Buffing Xantcha

A 5/5 attacking people on turn three is alright, but it could be better. I like getting it to 7 power since that means three successful hits eliminates an opponent! And I also like giving it stuff like menace and intimidate to help it get damage through. This is pretty straightforward. There are definitely better buffs out there than the ones I had in my collection.

Mana Rocks

You'll notice a pretty decent amount of artifact ramp in this deck. Being in black and red, this seems like the best way to be able to abuse Xantcha's activated ability. We can drain our opponents more and draw more cards - all good things. Also, if Xantcha does die, we can easily recast her with all this mana!

Bestow?

I was excited about the idea of bestow when I first started making the deck. It seems too good - buff Xantcha, and when she dies, get a creature! The only downside is that there are only like 10-15 bestow creatures in black/red and most of them are simply not good. So I included anything that seemed worthy.

Politics

Since this deck can be very political, I included a couple of political cards such as curses, prison cards, and "attack each turn if able" cards. These all help to get our opponents' life low while protect ourselves, which helps in the endgame. Once everyone else is low, we should be able to just spend mana to use Xantha's ability and drain our opponents.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.17
Tokens	Clue, Gold, Ogre 3/3 R, Servo 1/1 C, Survivor 1/1 R, Zombie 2/2 B