Budget zaxara by Jables

Format: Commander

Commander: Zaxara, the Exemplary

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 34

Deck overview

This deck is a Sultai X-spell midrange deck commanded by Zaxara, the Exemplary. The core game plan accelerates mana on Turns 1 and 2, lands Zaxara on Turn 3, and begins casting scalable X-cost spells on Turn 4 to create free Hydra tokens. As the game transitions into Turns 5 and 6, the deck converts this board presence into game-ending combat pressure using counter multipliers like Kalonian Hydra and Corpsejack Menace, alongside trample and unblockability from Garruk's Uprising and Herald of Secret Streams. Dedicated counter-based protection spells, including Ripples of Potential and Mutational Advantage, protect the team against both targeted removal and board wipes. Scalable card advantage from spells like Hydroid Krasis and Pull from Tomorrow keeps the hand full of threats, while alternate finishers like Exsanguinate provide direct reach if combat stalls.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Animist's Awakening
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Benevolent Hydra
  • 1 Blue Sun's Twilight
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Brass Infiniscope
  • 1 Bugenhagen, Wise Elder
  • 1 Cankerbloom
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Corpsejack Menace
  • 1 Curse of the Swine
  • 1 Dreamroot Cascade
  • 1 Dreamtide Whale
  • 1 Drowned Catacomb
  • 1 Elementalist's Palette
  • 1 Everflowing Chalice
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Fabled Passage
  • 1 Farseek
  • 1 Fellwar Stone
  • 1 Flooded Grove
  • 1 Foreboding Landscape
  • 9 Forest
  • 1 Gargos, Vicious Watcher
  • 1 Garruk's Uprising
  • 1 Genesis Hydra
  • 1 Geometer's Arthropod
  • 1 Goldvein Hydra
  • 1 Herald of Secret Streams
  • 1 Hinterland Harbor
  • 1 Hooded Hydra
  • 1 Hungering Hydra
  • 1 Hydroid Krasis
  • 1 Ingenious Prodigy
  • 1 Inspiring Call
  • 6 Island
  • 1 Kalonian Hydra
  • 1 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
  • 1 Kurbis, Harvest Celebrant
  • 1 Lair of the Hydra
  • 1 Lifeblood Hydra
  • 1 Llanowar Wastes
  • 1 March of Swirling Mist
  • 1 Mind into Matter
  • 1 Muddle the Mixture
  • 1 Mutational Advantage
  • 1 Myriad Landscape
  • 1 Neverwinter Hydra
  • 1 Nexos
  • 1 Nyxborn Hydra
  • 1 O'aka, Traveling Merchant
  • 1 Open into Wonder
  • 1 Opulent Palace
  • 1 Owlin Spiralmancer
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Patriar's Seal
  • 1 Perplexing Test
  • 1 Pest Infestation
  • 1 Primordial Hydra
  • 1 Pull from Tomorrow
  • 1 Rampant Growth
  • 1 Repulsive Mutation
  • 1 Retribution of the Ancients
  • 1 Ripples of Potential
  • 1 Silkguard
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Stargaze
  • 1 Steelbane Hydra
  • 1 Stonecoil Serpent
  • 2 Swamp
  • 1 Tanazir Quandrix
  • 1 Thassa's Intervention
  • 1 Thunderous Snapper
  • 1 Troyan, Gutsy Explorer
  • 1 Twilight Mire
  • 1 Unbound Flourishing
  • 1 Underground River
  • 1 Vastwood Hydra
  • 1 Voracious Hydra
  • 1 Wave Goodbye
  • 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
  • 1 Whiptongue Hydra
  • 1 Woodland Cemetery
  • 1 Yavimaya Coast
  • 1 Zaxara, the Exemplary