Big Time Zaxara

[Gorillajay]

It's Big Time

So i've had a Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth sitting in my binder for some time now and I've been itching to use them. Additionally another deck of mine with shared colors has become a bit stale and needed a refresh.

I am not interested in playing a Mono black deck, or anything reanimator related as I already have that archetype fulfilled in my deck arsenal. Trying to see if I can force the package into a 3 color shell. The thought is with enough land tutors I can reliably always find a way to get the package. Additionally, being in with HEAVY ramp and having Zaxara, the Exemplary in the command zone can also be a reliable way of getting big mana.

Once we have big mana there's nothing super out of the ordinary here. Good ol' fashioned big dumb X spells will finish the job. Namely Torment of Hailfire, Exsanguinate, and my personal favorite Villainous Wealth.

Additionally, with the density of spells we are playing we can find ourselves with a couple of not-so-small hydras to do whatever we want with. Block, lay down the beats, etc. This could potentially be a backup plan as well. Most decks on EDH Rec for Zaxara are using a lot of counters synergy and big board win-more esque enhancers. I am not looking to invest into the Hydra & +1/+1 Counters synergy much from a card slot perspective so you won't find that here. However, I do think it's kind of great that we just get some free bodies to throw around while we draw cards and work towards the big finish.

I will say this deck is a bit inspired by @Mookie's Tasigur list. I believe both decks can play similar roles within a game. While Tasigur is grindier and has card advantage in the zone, Zaxara is mana advantage and board presence.

Deck Notes:

• Higher density of 2 mana ramp to increase changes of turn 3 Zax - Right now im counting 11 ways to do that, which puts us at about a 67% chance of casting Zax on Turn 3. Side note: I've seen a lot of success in brewing with high density 2 mana ramp and 4 mana commanders, so I am attempting to emulate that consistency.
• Turn 3 Zax means potentially 6/7 mana turn 4. So I've slotted a few mana doublers in at that slot like Mana Reflection and Nyxbloom Ancient
• From there the plan is to use spells to draw big, or control the board till I find them.
• Spellseeker tutors a few key spells like big draw x spells or finishers
• There are 8 ways to tutor for Cabal Coffers / Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Dryad of the Ilysian Grove also acts as an Urborg.
• Green Sun's Zenith can tutor for Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, Nyxbloom Ancient, Nexos
• Board Wipes are mostly bounce focused to buy time to do the thing.
• The counterspell package is a bit awkward/unique, I was trying to avoid the usual package These may feel clunky but I'd like to try out the more expensive but more flexible ones. With a lot of mana available I think it's worth a shot.

Notably I've excluded a few cards like Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura. The Mana infinite mana combo is too simple for my tastes. I've also excluded the usual good unconditional tutors such as Demonic Tutor.

This allows my game plan to unfold a little more uniquely each game. Luckily casting big mana X draw spells are still pretty effective at finding your finishers.

Concerns/Weak Spots:

I suppose if things don't just curve out smoothly and I have the wrong cmc spells at the wrong time then it will be clunky. I could potentially try filling spots with cheaper/cantrip draw in order to smooth it out. However in goldfishing so far it feels relatively smooth.

Specifically, I am worried about potential situations where I have a ton of mana and no outlet for it. We are pretty reliant on drawing at least 1 big mana draw spell to get our train really going. This is the reason we play so many of them (well that and the fact that they make Hydras for free). The good news is with Zax on Turn 4 we should have around 6/7 mana available, even more Turn 5 if we continued to play more ramp spells. This means we can cast a relatively tame Draw spell to reload with just that mana available. From there once we untap we should have big mana and a full grip of cards in hand to do whatever we need to finish the game. Be it, find our coffers package with our tutor suite, use our wipes to set others far back and course find and cast our finishers.

So far, in goldfishing it feels like it's achieving what I want and is currently pending some testing. Open to feedback or suggestions if anyone has experimented in this area before.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commander

1 Zaxara, the Exemplary

Big Mana (6)

1 Cabal Coffers

1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

1 Mana Reflection

1 Nexos

1 Nyxbloom Ancient

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Big Payoff (3)

1 Exsanguinate

1 Torment of Hailfire

1 Villainous Wealth

Board Wipes (6)

1 Aetherize

1 Culling Ritual

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Damnation

1 Filter Out

1 Nylea's Intervention

Card Draw (11)

1 Blue Sun's Zenith

1 Finale of Revelation

1 Hydroid Krasis

1 Ingenious Mastery

1 Mind Spring

1 Mystic Confluence

1 Pull from Tomorrow

1 Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn

1 Silver Scrutiny

1 Stroke of Genius

1 Thassa's Intervention

Counterspells (5)

1 An Offer You Can't Refuse

1 Arcane Denial

1 Disallow

1 Mystic Confluence

1 Voidslime

Enhancer (3)

1 Altered Ego

1 Seedborn Muse

1 Unbound Flourishing

Ramp (16)

1 Animist's Awakening

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Bloom Tender

1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove

1 Elementalist's Palette

1 Farseek

1 Glimpse the Core

1 Hour of Promise

1 Nature's Lore

1 Open the Way

1 Rampant Growth

1 Sakura-Tribe Elder

1 Sol Ring

1 Three Visits

1 Utopia Sprawl

1 Wild Growth

Targeted Removal (9)

1 Black Sun's Twilight

1 Curse of the Swine

1 Druid of Purification

1 Pir's Whim

1 Pongify

1 Profane Command

1 Rapid Hybridization

1 Resculpt

1 Steelbane Hydra

Tutors (9)

1 Crop Rotation

1 Expedition Map

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Hour of Promise

1 Nylea's Intervention

1 Pir's Whim

1 Spellseeker

1 Sylvan Scrying

1 Tempt with Discovery

Recursion (2)

1 Black Sun's Twilight

1 Profane Command

Lands (38)

1 Alchemist's Refuge

1 Breeding Pool

1 Cabal Coffers

1 Castle Locthwain

1 Castle Vantress

1 Command Tower

1 Dryad Arbor

7 Forest

7 Island

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Morphic Pool

1 Nurturing Peatland

1 Overgrown Tomb

1 Polluted Delta

1 Rejuvenating Springs

4 Swamp

1 Undergrowth Stadium

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1 Verdant Catacombs

1 Waterlogged Grove

1 Watery Grave

1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

1 Zagoth Triome

Approximate Total Cost:

[Mookie]

This looks sweet! It always makes my day when I hear about someone referencing one of my decks. <3

Compared to Tasigur, Zaxara, the Exemplary leans in a very different direction - instead of a black hole mana sink to dump mana into, it effectively doubles the effect of your spells. You get the big X spell you cast, plus a free X/X hydra. This makes your deck significantly more threat-heavy - instead of grinding your opponents out, you can beat down instead. Plus you can lean into all sorts of big creature synergies like Greater Good (although I would be hesitant to run too many of those, since they're a bit win-more - if you're pumping out 6/6s with Zaxara, you're probably already winning).

If you're concerned about flooding out, I'll recommend throwing in another utility land or two, like Castle Locthwain or Arch of Orazca. If you're running a lot of land fetching for Urborg + Coffers, it's relatively free to expand the toolbox a bit (although I do certainly understand concerns re: not having fixing for T3 Zaxara).

Not sure what I would recommend re: number of draw spells - you always want one to start popping off, but multiple often feel redundant. Hmmm... unfortunately, I think it's a hard problem to solve without testing and figuring out what feels right.

I'll mention Awaken the Woods as another potential inclusion.

[Gorillajay]

This looks sweet! It always makes my day when I hear about someone referencing one of my decks. <3

Compared to Tasigur, Zaxara, the Exemplary leans in a very different direction - instead of a black hole mana sink to dump mana into, it effectively doubles the effect of your spells. You get the big X spell you cast, plus a free X/X hydra. This makes your deck significantly more threat-heavy - instead of grinding your opponents out, you can beat down instead. Plus you can lean into all sorts of big creature synergies like Greater Good (although I would be hesitant to run too many of those, since they're a bit win-more - if you're pumping out 6/6s with Zaxara, you're probably already winning).

If you're concerned about flooding out, I'll recommend throwing in another utility land or two, like Castle Locthwain or Arch of Orazca. If you're running a lot of land fetching for Urborg + Coffers, it's relatively free to expand the toolbox a bit (although I do certainly understand concerns re: not having fixing for T3 Zaxara).

Not sure what I would recommend re: number of draw spells - you always want one to start popping off, but multiple often feel redundant. Hmmm... unfortunately, I think it's a hard problem to solve without testing and figuring out what feels right.

I'll mention Awaken the Woods as another potential inclusion.

Thanks! Yeah, I like how Tasigur and Zaxara are 2 different sides of the same coin.

Great suggestion on the utility lands, I can also replace the pain lands with a couple of the horizon lands like Nurturing Peatland and Waterlogged Grove as well to help with potential stalling out.

Edit:
Tweaked the lands and added Castle Locthwain, Castle Vantress, and Horizon lands.

[Mookie]

Several other lands I'll mention are Rogue's Passage / The Black Gate (because your hydra tokens lack evasion), Deserted Temple / Vesuva (to untap / copy Cabal Coffers) and Lair of the Hydra (mostly on principle for flavor reasons).

As a side note, I also think you could get away with running significantly fewer basics - If you're referencing the basic count from my list, I'll note that I'm running a ton of Cultivate effects that fetch basics, plus Boundless Realms and Early Harvest. I only see two spells in your deck that specifically fetch basics and no Life from the Loam stuff to recur fetchlands, so I don't think you should be concerned about running out. Seems like as good of a reason as any to run more fixing and/or utility lands.

On the flip side, I'll note that the presence of Cabal Coffers makes land-based ramp somewhat better compared to nonland ramp - may be reasonable to cut Arcane Signet for Into the North or something similar. It does look like you're running pretty much every 2 mana ramp spell already though.

I guess I'll also note that you appear to be light on recursion in case Cabal Coffers is destroyed, so may be a reasonable choice to run Wildest Dreams or something similar.

[Gorillajay]

As a side note, I also think you could get away with running significantly fewer basics - If you're referencing the basic count from my list, I'll note that I'm running a ton of Cultivate effects that fetch basics, plus Boundless Realms and Early Harvest. I only see two spells in your deck that specifically fetch basics and no Life from the Loam stuff to recur fetchlands, so I don't think you should be concerned about running out. Seems like as good of a reason as any to run more fixing and/or utility lands.

The primary reason for the high basics count is Nexos. Not entirely sure if he is worth the extra restriction, but so far he seems pretty strong. For just 2 mana effectively doubling a good number of your spells can quickly create extra value. Testing should hopefully highlight if this is worth it or not.

If I end up removing him and cutting back on basics I believe I'll end up adding a few more utility lands and Coffers/Loam recursion redundancy effects.

On the flip side, I'll note that the presence of Cabal Coffers makes land-based ramp somewhat better compared to nonland ramp - may be reasonable to cut Arcane Signet for Into the North or something similar. It does look like you're running pretty much every 2 mana ramp spell already though.

Good call out, I didn't feel like doing the whole snow land package only for Into the North, I use snow lands and that card in my Thalia and The Gitrog Monster deck which also has Field of the Dead synergies. Luckily they just printed a new card that I can use instead. I can swap Glimpse the Core in for Arcane Signet for the reasons you mentioned. I don't think the coming into play untapped comes into play to often in this deck.

I guess I'll also note that you appear to be light on recursion in case Cabal Coffers is destroyed, so may be a reasonable choice to run Wildest Dreams or something similar.

I don't have nearly any recursion. I think Wildest Dreams Could be a good add for that reason alone. Need to consider what I could cut here in it's replacement.

[Mookie]

The primary reason for the high basics count is Nexos. Not entirely sure if he is worth the extra restriction, but so far he seems pretty strong. For just 2 mana effectively doubling a good number of your spells can quickly create extra value. Testing should hopefully highlight if this is worth it or not.

Ah, makes sense. I haven't seen Nexos played before, so totally missed that interaction. Yeah, a two mana doubler does seem strong - I'm curious how it will work out!