Mother of Hydras by Lunaris1021

Format: Commander

Commander: Zaxara, the Exemplary

Bracket: 3

DeckCheck Threat Index: 37

Deck overview

This Sultai deck is commanded by Zaxara, the Exemplary and focuses on maximizing value from spells with {X} in their mana costs. The early game establishes colored mana through land ramp and artifact acceleration, allowing Zaxara to enter on Turn 3 or 4. Once active, Zaxara acts as both a two-mana rock and a token generator, creating large Hydra tokens whenever an X-spell is cast. Midgame plays leverage draw engines like Elemental Bond and Garruk's Uprising, which trigger from both the cast creature and the accompanying Hydra token. The deck applies overwhelming board pressure through counter multipliers like Unbound Flourishing and unblockable effects from Herald of Secret Streams. It can close games rapidly via combat damage, devastating life-drain sorceries like Torment of Hailfire and Exsanguinate, or an infinite mana combo using Pemmin's Aura on Zaxara. Robust defensive spells like Heroic Intervention and Ripples of Potential safeguard the board against removal.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Amazing Acrobatics
  • 1 Animist's Awakening
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Battle at the Bridge
  • 1 Bighorner Rancher
  • 1 Branching Evolution
  • 1 Brass Infiniscope
  • 1 Combine Chrysalis
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Consign to Memory
  • 1 Corpsejack Menace
  • 1 Counterspell
  • 1 Cultivate
  • 1 Curse of the Swine
  • 1 Deathcap Glade
  • 1 Diabolic Intent
  • 1 Dramatic Reversal
  • 1 Dreamroot Cascade
  • 1 Elemental Bond
  • 1 Elementalist's Palette
  • 1 Erebos's Intervention
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Exsanguinate
  • 1 Fabled Passage
  • 7 Forest
  • 1 Garruk's Uprising
  • 1 Goldvein Hydra
  • 1 Herald of Secret Streams
  • 1 Heroic Intervention
  • 1 Hidden Lair
  • 1 Hinterland Harbor
  • 1 Hydroid Krasis
  • 1 Icy Blast
  • 4 Island
  • 1 Jumbo Cactuar
  • 1 Kinetic Ooze
  • 1 Lattice Library
  • 1 Lifeblood Hydra
  • 1 Mind Bend
  • 1 Mind Grind
  • 1 Mossborn Hydra
  • 1 Murkfiend Liege
  • 1 Nature's Lore
  • 1 Nev, the Practical Dean
  • 1 Oversimplify
  • 1 Owlin Spiralmancer
  • 1 Parallel Lives
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Pemmin's Aura
  • 1 Perplexing Test
  • 1 Primo, the Unbounded
  • 1 Primordial Hydra
  • 1 Profane Command
  • 1 Pull from Tomorrow
  • 1 Reliquary Tower
  • 1 Ripples of Potential
  • 1 Rishkar, Peema Renegade
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Root Manipulation
  • 1 Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
  • 1 Silkguard
  • 1 Slice from the Shadows
  • 1 Sodden Verdure
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Steelbane Hydra
  • 1 Stonecoil Serpent
  • 7 Swamp
  • 1 Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 Terramorphic Expanse
  • 1 The Goose Mother
  • 1 The Shire
  • 1 Three Visits
  • 1 Thunderous Snapper
  • 1 Torment of Hailfire
  • 1 Troyan, Gutsy Explorer
  • 1 Tyvar's Stand
  • 1 Unbound Flourishing
  • 1 Vastwood Hydra
  • 1 Vernal Fen
  • 1 Villainous Wealth
  • 1 Vineglimmer Snarl
  • 1 Wildest Dreams
  • 1 Yarok, the Desecrated
  • 1 Zaxara, the Exemplary
  • 1 Zimone, Infinite Analyst