Exponential Excellence by user9781675

Format: Commander

Commander: Zaxara, the Exemplary

Bracket: 3

Deck overview

This is a Sultai X-spell and Hydra-counters deck built around Zaxara, the Exemplary. Zaxara is simultaneously a mana engine and a token engine: his tap ability produces two mana for large X costs, and every spell with {X} in its mana cost creates a 0/0 Hydra that enters with X counters. The deck's core loop is to ramp early, land Zaxara, then chain X-cost draw spells, removal, and Hydra creatures into an ever-growing board. Primary wins are overwhelming trample damage from enormous Hydras and the alternate counter-based win of Simic Ascendancy. Villainous Wealth and Finale of Revelation are late-game X payoffs, while Unbound Flourishing, Corpsejack Menace, Innkeeper's Talent, and The Earth Crystal multiply counter production exponentially. This is a midrange snowball deck: it can explode quickly with a doubler, but it does not rely on compact infinite combos.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Alchemist's Refuge
• 1 Benevolent Hydra
• 1 Biomass Mutation
• 1 Black Sun's Twilight
• 1 Bloom Tender
• 1 Blue Sun's Twilight
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Bridgeworks Battle // Tanglespan Bridgeworks
• 1 Celestial Reunion
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Corpsejack Menace
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Curse of the Swine
• 1 Deathcap Glade
• 1 Dreamroot Cascade
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Duskshell Crawler
• 1 Elementalist's Palette
• 1 Erebos's Intervention
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Fanatic of Rhonas
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Finale of Revelation
• 4 Forest
• 1 Gargos, Vicious Watcher
• 1 Garruk's Uprising
• 1 Gnarlid Colony
• 1 Goldvein Hydra
• 1 Green Sun's Twilight
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Hungering Hydra
• 1 Hydroid Krasis
• 1 Innkeeper's Talent
• 1 Inspiring Call
• 1 Invigorating Surge
• 4 Island
• 1 Kalonian Hydra
• 1 Kodama of the West Tree
• 1 Lair of the Hydra
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 March of Swirling Mist
• 1 March of Wretched Sorrow
• 1 Mathemagics
• 1 Mistrise Village
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 1 Nature's Rhythm
• 1 Negate
• 1 Neverwinter Hydra
• 1 Nyxborn Hydra
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Ozolith, the Shattered Spire
• 1 Path of Ancestry
• 1 Primo, the Unbounded
• 1 Primordial Hydra
• 1 Profane Command
• 1 Pull from Tomorrow
• 1 Quilled Greatwurm
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Repulsive Mutation
• 1 Revitalizing Repast // Old-Growth Grove
• 1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 1 Simic Ascendancy
• 1 Spectral Denial
• 1 Stargaze
• 1 Steelbane Hydra
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Terrasymbiosis
• 1 Thassa's Intervention
• 1 The Earth Crystal
• 1 The Eternity Elevator
• 1 The Goose Mother
• 1 The Ozolith
• 1 Three Tree City
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Tyvar's Stand
• 1 Unbound Flourishing
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Vastwood Hydra
• 1 Villainous Wealth
• 1 Voracious Hydra
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Woodland Cemetery
• 1 Wren's Run Hydra
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
• 1 Zagoth Triome
• 1 Zameck Guildmage
• 1 Zaxara, the Exemplary