Card advantage is king, especially in our beloved EDH format. To keep the engine rolling and the land drops secured, we need card advantage and we need it a lot. Wheels in general grant so much card advantage that these spells can single handedly solve our problems. Are wheels risk free? Absolutely not. Do we care? No, we are here for risky wheels all day!
Xyris is a unique commander. He grants an insane payoff when your opponents draw their second and subsequent card each turn. A 1/1 snake entering the battlefield per card drawn by your opponents is nothing to sneeze at. To top it off, Xyris grants an additional three cards drawn per connecting attack step each combat, granting three additional snake tokens ETB’ing as well. Xyris is also on the group hug spectrum, as the card advantage on attack is also granted to the opponent attacked. This makes for many interesting politics.
A well-built Xyris deck packed with wheels will grant you so much token generation that it often will explode in a single turn. You will also regularly churn through your deck at blistering pace with at least 30 snakes on the board. Drawing 20-40 cards in a regular game is easily achievable with this type of deck.
Xyris is, not surprisingly, a kill on sight commander. As a 5 drop he usually outvalues everything at the table and opponents will catch up to this fact this rather quickly. Xyris also costs a whopping five mana and the main strategy just folds if Xyris is dealt with. No point in wheeling if we do not receive the pay off. Therefore, packing protection spells and reading the table are a must for Xyris.
The amount of janky game ending plays is well worth it though…
You will find my decklist on Moxfield:
I fully recognize that this deck is not budget by any means. However – please note that this deck can be built on a budget quite easily by just by skipping the expensive lands like Gaea’s Cradle and the shock- and fetch lands. Also, big wallet hitters like Wheel of Fortune and Time Spiral are not necessary at all, there are many budget friendly wheels that work just as well!
Table of Contents
Xyris’ mechanic and general game plan
Xyris is the only legendary creature that grants snake tokens ETB’ing when an opponent draws their second and subsequent card each turn. Also, it is the only legendary creature that grants card draw equal to its power when connecting to you and your opponent.
There are few important things to note here:
- Xyris counts all cards drawn after the first one each turn. If an opponent chooses to draw cards by themselves regardless of whose turn it is, we will start generating green 1/1 snake tokens after the first card drawn each turn.
The attack step is an important factor. - As Xyris has flying he usually connects. This means that we usually will draw three additional cards when Xyris is able to attack. Do we like to draw three additional cards and three snakes? Yes! Conclusion: we need Xyris to be able to start generating advantage immediately. Therefore, we want haste. Please see our decklist for the haste slots we use.
- Xyris grants a steady flow of tokens throughout the game. We therefore greatly benefit from cards that do something when a creature ETBs (hello Purphoros, God of the Forge) or when a card grants activated abilities to creatures (such as Cryptolith Rite).
- Drop Xyris quickly and safely
- Try to resolve a wheel (there are 11 in the deck) / attack with Xyris to enable card advantage
- Generate a metric ton of snakessss
- Look for payoffs and win
- An Offer you Can’t Refuse
- Glen Elendra Archmage
- Swan Song
- Force of Negation
- Mana Drain
- Fierce Guardianship
- Force of Will
- Mulligan aggressively. We need at least 2-3 lands and preferably one ramp spell and one wheel / protection spell in the opening hand.
- Xyris is a giant hate magnet and rightfully so. Never cast him without a clear path to progression or victory. Analyze the board and your opponent’s lands.
- Xyris can win games with just one wheel. It’s OK to hold off casting Xyris until the first pieces of interaction have been cast and catch up with the table later.
- Sequencing is important and for many reasons. Do not move to combat too quickly and try to prioritize your first main phase for casting wheels. Expect and anticipate countermagic in your sequence of spells.
The general game plan is straightforward:
Card choices and their rationale
Wheels
We run 11 slots dedicated to wheels. Assuming that the iconic Wheel of Fortune is well known, let’s take a look at some other interesting cards that fit in this Wheel slot.
This double side card is just awesome. It provides great flexible interaction as an instant when needed. Later, we can cast it from the graveyard to have everyone draw a fresh seven cards. We love cards that can be cast from the graveyard because we are dumping entire hands in the graveyard through our wheeling and excessive drawing. Cannot recommend this versatile card enough.
This Merfolk just oozes card selection. First on ETB, we get to dump our hand and draw cards equal to the number we originally held. Then, if we want, we can sac this Merfolk to shuffle all cards in hand to the library and draw a fresh seven for all players. Note that this activated ability is not limited to sorcery speed, meaning we can pop it whenever we want.
One of the pricier wheels for sure. This powerhouse from Urza’s Saga remains one of the stronger wheels out there. Being able to shuffle all hands and all graveyards into the libraries then drawing 7 for the table is already quite strong. What sends this sorcery over the top is the fact that you untap up to 6 lands afterwards, rendering this spell effectively free of cost (or even mana generating once we have Gaeas Cradle out). Once we resolve Time Spiral with Xyris out, it’s usually game over for the table.
Another spell that shuffles all hands and all graveyards into the libraries then allows 7 cards to be drawn. The glaring upside of this wheel is that it can be cast from the graveyard for a mere three mana with Flashback. Again, as we dump a ton of cards in the graveyard, this effect cannot be underestimated.
For just one red mana everyone shuffles their hands into their libraries to draw cards equal to the number they originally held. This effect for 1 mana is just insane, Winds of Change belongs in every deck that cares about wheels.
Take special note of its Miracle ability. If this is the first card drawn in our turn, we get the cast it for just two mana, which is awesome.
Mana advantage
Including lands we run about 15 slots dedicated to ramp / mana advantage. These slots are here to power out Xyris as early as possible as we need to avoid / get under countermagic at all cost.
Assuming that staples like Jeska’s Will and Dockside Extortionist are well known at this point, let’s have a look at some other cards.
In decks that have a lot of card advantage and just churn through their libraries cards like ours, these cards really shine. If one of these cards is out and we have a full hand we usually secure multiple land drops, placing us even further in the value train. As Gaea’s Cradle is in the deck we normally look for this land when churning through our library. So, we recommend to hold off playing the second land until we either find Gaea’s Cradle or we cannot wheel further.
Hardly a card that flies under the radar. This elf taps for 3 mana when Xyris is out, granting insane advantage.
We have to have a least one other snake in the deck to hang out with Xyris right…?
Utility
Ok, so we have Xyris out and just made some snakes. What’s next? We usually want to convert these snakes to more mana advantage so we can keep the wheel train rolling.
The following slots are crucial:
When wheeling, pay special attention and look for these cards. These slots allows us to jump to insane levels of mana (20+ usually) providing the first stepping-stone for a game ending turn.
Another great utility card is Underworld Breach. As our graveyard is usually full from wheeling, the ability to casting cards from our graveyard cannot be overestimated. It essentially provides us with a full second hand.
Protection
We need Xyris alive and well because wheeling without him does not progress us towards a win. Aside from countermagic (see Interaction below) we run the following slots for protection:
While Steely Resolve and Lighting Greaves are visible on the board and thus telegraphed, the other options allow for instant speed protection.
Interaction
We run 7 slots dedicated to counters and 7 slots for targeted removal. We do not benefit from board wipes so we avoid these.
Counters
Targeted removal
Wincons
We run 6 slots for wincons as we only run two tutors in this deck (Drift of Phantasms and Mystical Tutor. These cards usually grant us the win through snakes entering the battlefield or via combat:
Any of these spells combined with say a “casual” 21 snakes ETB’’ing (one wheel) or attacking will usually be enough to delete the table as your opponent’s are probably far from their starting life total to begin with. These spells are a prime candidate for countermagic, mind you. If you happen to dig into interaction spells, save these to protect your wincons.
Main takeaways and tips
That’s all for now folks! Don’t hesitate to reach out to us in case of questions or comments!
