I'm wondering, your commander thrives on creatures with big power numbers and/or double strike. With all your creature mana acceleration, some bigger offensive swingers may be exciting to add. I might include hydras in a Xenagos deck: Mistcutter Hydra, Savageborn Hydra, Apocalypse Hydra or Primordial Hydra. Should you go more offensive, Greater Good will keep you in the game. Good Luck!
I do have Mistcutter Hydra in the list. I'm not sure what happened when I formatted it but it seems to have dropped it. The best part about cards like Mistcutter Hydra and Great Sable Stag is their protection from blue and uncounterability. Blue is the #1 color that creature-based Gruul seems to have trouble dealing with. Out of those I'd probably pick Savageborn to toy with since he seems pretty fun as well as Greater Good. Thanks for the suggestions!
COLOR IDENTITY
This deck is NOT a G/R deck. This is a Mono-Green with a splash of red. The sooner that you accept this fact while constructing the deck, the easier that it will be to build it. Very few red cards are good enough to make the cut. Make sure that when you are adding red cards that they have a purpose.
RAMP SELECTION
Artifact based ramp is the worst possible choice for this deck. We are not ramping into Maelstrom Wanderer. We don't get free spells once we get to our magical number. On our own, our Commander does nothing. Ramping into him with artifacts achieves nothing. They can be stolen (Dack Fayden) or destroyed (Reclamation Sage, Disenchant) extremely easily, disrupting the game plan.
Land based ramp (Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Search for Tomorrow etc) is better than artifact ramp and has advantages and disadvantages to creature based ramp. It is not as explosive, but it is FAR more safe than creature based ramp, as a single well placed Pyroclasm will not wipe you out. It also makes you less susceptible to Ruination and Blood Moon effects, but more likely to succumb to an Armageddon.
Creature based ramp is the best choice, in my opinion. It is the most explosive, starting as early as turn 1. It provides devotion for Xenagos. But most importantly, after you've resolved Xenagos, it provides bodies even if you haven't drawn a win condition yet. This is important because you can lay down some early damage (even if it is not a lot) or kill opposing planeswalkers with them. And, if you have enough devotion for Xenagos, he can start swinging as well. Artifacts will never get you here. While this choice is the most weak to removals - it comes with a huge upside. Topdecking an artifact or land spell after Xenagos is out and you're hellbent is awful. If you topdeck an elf and you happen to have Kessig Wolf Run you can continue to swing for the fences. In addition, Elves can be sacrificed to Birthing Pod or discarded to Survival of the Fittest - both are important tutoring tools.
UTILITY SPELLS AND REMOVAL
I'll start with removal since there is less. Unfortunately, there are not many slots that this deck can dedicate to removal. The ones that we do have are either amazing (Lightning Bolt, Song of the Dryads) or double up as win conditions (Flametongue Kavu, Polukranos, World Eater). Also, some of the cards listed as win conditions can also be used as removal (Inferno Titan, Balefire Dragon [While I am not currently playing Balefire Dragon, I do recommend him for creature-heavy metas.]). And, of course, Domri Rade also has a removal option.
So, onto the utility spells. There are a few Xenagod 'tenants' that need to be addressed first:
1) The turns before Xenagos resolves are actually the most important turns of the match.
2) Despite what you may think, this is not a One-Hit KO deck (excluding Malignus, we'll get to that later). We need to have some sort of redundancy and card advantage engines so we can keep up with other decks.
3) Unlike the last tenant would have you believe, this deck does not stop for anything. You should be playing something every turn if possible to try and run your opponent out of resources (counterspells, removals) or to use these utility spells to gain leverage over the opponent (Planeswalkers, Courser of Kruphix/Oracle of Mul Daya/Heartwood Storyteller etc etc)
So most of our utility spells either provide us with some kind of card advantage, tutoring, or artifact/enchantment removal. Planeswalkers also really count toward the utility spell count, but I wanted to make sure to separate them. Most of the choices are self explanatory, but I'll get into the ones I've chosen that might need some explanation:
Heartwood Storyteller - this guy is the nuts. After a Turn 1 mana dork, you get to play him on turn 2 and reap all of the benefits. The majority of the deck is not non-creature spells, so you'll rarely be providing your opponent with cards. Worst case scenario, he gets counterspelled (Deal!) or removaled (So... your opponent discarded a card so that you could draw a card. Deal!). If he doesn't though, chances are that you'll get to go on a card drawing spree.
Ohran Viper - same as Heartwood. If you get a turn 1 dork and follow it up with this guy on turn 2, you get to let the card draw flow. Also doubles as a nice blocker and provides two devotion.
Vexing Shusher - Two devotion, decent body, beats up blue decks. Worth.
LAND SELECTION
We'll get to the beats soon, I promise! It's really the least important part of the deck though
SO: Lands. Ensuring that you have the best possible mana base is SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO important. Drawing and keeping 7 in any deck is important. Going back to the Color Identity - we only need 4 Mountains for our red fetch related needs as we have very few spells with double red in their mana cost. I also kept the colorless land count low because there are actually very man spells with GG or GGG in their mana cost. G is super important. Most notably I've excluded Wasteland and Tectonic Edge in the land destruction department because they can only be used once and make mulliganing a pain in the rear. Obviously they're very powerful cards and should be included if you feel that they need to be.
Fire-Lit Thicket was excluded purposefully because there were so many games where I could not produce G on turn 1 because I had this land and a CIPT tapped land or another colorless land.
WIN CONDITIONS
Alright, the fun part! There are a few conditions that I chose for my win conditions:
1) Trample printed (Xenagos does not provide this)
2) If no trample, another insane effect that warrants its inclusion (Thrun, the Last Troll ruins blue, Malignus is a one-hit kill with Xenagos AND if ANYTHING with protection blocks it, it dies due to his 'Damage cannot be prevented' clause, Genesis Hydra gives you an uncounterable free spell, Inferno Titan can wipe an opponents board clean with two triggers in the same turn, Wurmcoil Engine can provide a 24 point life total swing versus other aggressive decks and gives you more creatures when it dies, and Gaea's Revenge doesn't require Xenagos to attack but can only ever be killed by entire board wipes or Mono-Green removal. Sick.)
3) They have some sort of recursion built in (Vorapede, Weatherseed Treefolk - can also be used to Birthing Pod AND he still comes back to your hand B)
Panglacial Wurm is one of my favorites. You'll often go hellbent in this deck and be reliant on a topdeck to secure the victory. If you happen to hit a fetchland, a creature to pitch to Survival of the Fittest, or have something to sacrifice to Birthing Pod you can also use that time to drop a 9/5 Trampler from orbit and be swinging for 18 on the same turn. Legit.
Siege Behemoth was the best card to come out of Commander 2014 for this deck. It has hexproof so it cannot be removed and it swings for 14 damage, no questions asked due to its effect. This kind of ability is so powerful here to avoid being chump blocked into oblivion. If you feel like you need an additional card with this ability, I would consider Rhox.
Thunderfoot Baloth is not worth playing BECAUSE if you DON'T have Xenagod out (and people CAN and WILL prevent you from doing this!) he is literally the worst 6-drop in your deck and he'll only end up swinging for 14 anyway. He doesn't provide any kind of advantage (Soul of the Harvest) and the additional buff to your mana elves will rarely matter. Terra Stomper is much better to combat blue decks.
Deus of Calamity provides all the devotion to turn Xenagod on by himself and wreaks havoc on your opponent's mana base. Also he is a reason we try to play very few colorless sources.
MULLIGANING
The most important part of piloting this deck is learning how to mulligan. A hand with 4 lands and 3 win conditions is NOT keepable. I would throw away everything but 2 lands to have the best chance to dig for a mana accelerant and/or an advantage engine. Realistically, unless the other 6 cards in your hand already provide an excellent start, you should under no circumstances keep a 'win condition' card in your opening hand. They do not do anything unless Xenagod is out and you should be spending your early turns getting him out and getting some sort of advantage rolling.
Whew, alright. That was a lot of information. Hopefully this helps everyone with their Duel Commander Xenagod deck. Let the discussion continue!
I totally agree with Dan that creature-based mana ramp is the way to go. Radha, Heir to Keld is a fine addition here.
Not really. Mana dorks all should either cost one mana to produce one mana, or cost more than one mana with the potential to produce more than one mana. The exception here is Sakura-Tribe Elder, who gets you a land that can't be destroyed, or Devoted Druid, who, by herself, can get a turn 3 Xenagos. Radha doesn't do anything different that a 1 mana dork does, and we aren't abusing her RR ability.
And why wouldn't you utilize her RR ability? She can also attack after Xenagos and provide you with this RR.
What are you using the RR for? It can only be used during the declare attackers phase. After that it phases out of your mana pool. We're not playing Violent Eruption, Char, Fated Conflagration, Briarhorn etc
I played Radha as a general before I played Xenagos. She's not necessary here.
Sorry, thought we were talking about driver's deck list.
Frankly there are a lot of cards in driver's list that are quite bad. I'll go over them now and offer some explanations:
The artifact ramp cards: covered in my first post in the thread. They provide no devotion, don't ramp as effectively as mana elves, can be stolen or destroyed and don't have the possibility of putting pressure on the opponent.
Wall of Roots, Overgrown Battlement, Sylvan Caryatid: defenders have no place in this deck. Caryatid is the most playable out of all of them due to being spot removal and Pyroclasm proof. However, tapping for more than one mana because there are MORE defenders on the battlefield is not something that is synergistic with Xenagos's ability and Wall of Roots can only produce so much mana before it dies.
Sheltering Ancient: If your opponent has no creatures to put +1 counters on, this creature dies to its upkeep cost. Neat idea though.
Strangleroot Geist, Boggart Ram-Gang, Great Sable Stag, Fanatic of Xenagos, Witchstalker, Huntmaster of the Fells, Hellrider, Arc-Slogger, Vengevine: All of these cards are FANTASTIC in Radha, Heir to Keld all-in aggro curveout decks. There's a different standard for this deck though. With Xenagos at the helm, launching 3/3's at our opponent's face will not accomplish much as you wasted an entire turn to tapout for Xenagos in the first place. If your opponent doesn't actually FEAR what you are going to be buffing with Xenagos, they won't care about what you're doing and will proceed to win unimpeded. Thrun, the Last Troll gets a free pass here because he has three extremely relevant abilities for beating control heavy matches.
Phyrexian Hydra: Anything with protection can block it indefinitely (unlike Malignus) and mixing your damage types is a horrible idea. Even if you happen to give it trample, if your opponent happens to block 5 of its damage (assuming Xenagos pump) they'll be stuck at 9 infect, and presumably will deal with the hydra after (counting its ability of course) meaning that the 9 damage you COULD have done to them didn't actually matter because you aren't going to re-infect them somehow.
Cream of the Crop: This deck cannot waste time with cards that neither put pressure nor advantage on the board. The theory behind the card being that you can select a large creature to play next turn is sound. However, if a creature with a large amount of power has ALREADY ENTERED THE BATTLEFIELD then you are probably doing well in the match and this card did nothing for you other than waste mana and a card from your hand.
Ancient Grudge: There is currently no artifact centric deck that is clobbering the meta and there are no artifacts that you truly should fear (except for things like Ensnaring Bridge but only like, Daretti, Scrap Savant plays that and that deck isn't winning any gold medals). Anyone using artifact acceleration are also decks that you can race or happen to slow down with your artifact destruction creatures (Reclamation Sage, Wickerbough Elder, Acidic Slime); they then can apply pressure, unlike Ancient Grudge.
Lightning Strike, Searing Spear, Flame Javelin, Char: You will most likely win very very few games by 'burning' someone out. And this deck hardly needs the removal; the threat of dropping a gigantic hasty 12 power creature will keep their creatures in check. And if your opponent is playing a heavy control game, chances are that you aren't going to be using these spells anyway and they'll be dead in your hand. And in other matchups (Griselbrand, Thraximundar, Maelstrom Wanderer) they'll be completely and utterly useless.
Tranquil Thicket, Forgotten Cave: What? Just play lands that come into play untapped. Cycling for one card won't help you: keeping a hand with 7 cards because none of the lands slow your opening game plan is far more important.
Starstorm: This deck has no reason to wipe its own board. Play Sudden Demise instead if there are a lot of creatures in your meta. If they're mostly green decks, don't play this card and race them.
Is there a reason Gaea's Cradle isn't in your deck? With 43 creatures and lots of elves, it seems pretty decent.
On a bit of a wilder note: what about the C14 card Volcanic Offering? Since you've already mentioned that non-colour producing lands are to be kept to a minimum, so much so that Tec Edge and Wasteland aren't making an appearance, why not include another way to nuke a troublesome non-basic lands (like Maze of Ith/Kor Haven, both of which seem pretty bad for this deck). Plus, the Offering also explodes all but the largest of creatures (or those with relevant protection). Also, it's an instant, making it better vs the blue decks.
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Is there a reason Gaea's Cradle isn't in your deck? With 43 creatures and lots of elves, it seems pretty decent.
On a bit of a wilder note: what about the C14 card Volcanic Offering? Since you've already mentioned that non-colour producing lands are to be kept to a minimum, so much so that Tec Edge and Wasteland aren't making an appearance, why not include another way to nuke a troublesome non-basic lands (like Maze of Ith/Kor Haven, both of which seem pretty bad for this deck). Plus, the Offering also explodes all but the largest of creatures (or those with relevant protection). Also, it's an instant, making it better vs the blue decks.
I personally do not own a Gaea's Cradle anymore but it would make the list.
Volcanic offering requires four totally different targets to be worth it, and it still costs 5 mana to boot. I'd rather drop a creature. This is another card that interacts more favorably in a Radha, Heir to Keld deck by being able to be cast off of RR mana.
Dan Pyre, how succesful have you been with this xenagos deck of yours? I'm thinking in building one and i wanna know if i can build something similar with a starting $100 budget (i would have to cut all those dual lands, survival of the fittest, BPod and other cards probably, at least for now). What are your worst matchups?
You should try to get an Anger, as that will give you easy Haste.
I would never run Anger in this deck. We already have a haste enabler as a general with a power and toughness boost on top of that. Since more than likely we only need one creature to swing at a time, having global haste is not very helpful is many situations. Brawn however is potentially worth considering since we do need trample frequently but the card itself is not a threat (unlike Nylea, God of the Hunt since our devotion to green is easy to get to 5) so I am still hesitant to include it.
Dan Pyre, how succesful have you been with this xenagos deck of yours? I'm thinking in building one and i wanna know if i can build something similar with a starting $100 budget (i would have to cut all those dual lands, survival of the fittest, BPod and other cards probably, at least for now). What are your worst matchups?
I'll start by saying that Xenagos will never, ever be a Tier 1 competitive Duel Commander deck. You will never see this deck in the Top 8 of a 100+ person DC tournament or anywhere else where the metagame is highly tuned.
That being said: Xenagos has the potential to completely and utterly blow any deck out of the water with its sheer presence of threat. If your opponent happens to misstep when you have a bomb in hand or doesn't have the proper removal or counterspell suite you will decimate them. Very few decks can handle a Turn 3 Xenagos, God of Revels into a Turn 4 Primeval Titan/Inferno Titan/Malignus/Wurmcoil Engine. Additionally, not many decks are able to race that kind of damage output.
I have taken my Xenagos list to two tournaments so far. Both had around 12-14 participants. I placed in the top 4 in one of them and in the other I went 2-2. Nothing to be sad about but not spectacular either. I was able to defeat some competitive decks with it (Maelstrom Wanderer, Nin, the Pain Artist and Marath, Will of the Wild) but also lost to others (Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Prime Speaker Zegana and Wydwen, the Biting Gale). For how much the deck loses to variables such as bad opening hands, opponents having the sweeper prior to Xenagos being cast, or land screw/flood, I've been happy with the deck's performance.
Like any deck, a budget version will be much worse than a developed list. Survival of the Fittest and Birthing Pod aren't non-negotiable, but you'll be giving up two of green's best resources in creature tutoring. Having the best land base possible allows us to play GGG spells in the same deck and still be able to swap and play RR spells or more than red spell in a turn while ALSO supporting some colorless lands. I would make getting the fetchlands and at least a Stomping Ground a priority. Primeval Titan is also just the best target for Xenagos nine times out of ten so make sure to pick a copy up for the deck (as well as lands to tutor for while playing PrimeTime such as Dust Bowl, Raging Ravine, Kessig Wolf Run etc).
Just remember when building the deck, whether budget or not, that green is the most important color in this deck. At one of the tournaments I actually played a Xenagos mirror match. I managed to take game 1 after a bit of a power struggle. However, the second game he played three mountains in a row while I played a turn 4 Malignus boosted by Xenagos and he lost immediately. He had too many red sources in his deck and could not mulligan properly to make sure his early game was playable. Manabase is so important.
To wrap up my thoughts I'll say this: Xenagos, God of Revels is an extremely fun deck to play and can roll with the best decks in the format and still have a chance. However, this deck will never be a Tier 1 choice because the variability problems it faces are so much more pronounced than other decks that any stumble in the early game may as well hand the win to your opponent. If you like playing big green and red stompy creatures and you want to play the Duel Commander format then this deck truly is the best place to start.
Thanks for the help and the information, i guess i will have to search for a monocolored general, any recommendations? I only have a $100 budget for now, and i wanna build a general that is closest to tier 1 or even a t1 itself, i will upgrade the deck over time to get there...
Whats my best option? I see blue sometimes in top 8, like vendilion, azami and teferi pw, but vendilion is really expensive.
In green i was thinking of Azusa, Omnath or that new monogreen c14 that puts a 5/3 when lands go to grave.
White idk, maybe Thalia?
Dont know much about black and red too.
Thanks for the help and the information, i guess i will have to search for a monocolored general, any recommendations? I only have a $100 budget for now, and i wanna build a general that is closest to tier 1 or even a t1 itself, i will upgrade the deck over time to get there...
Whats my best option? I see blue sometimes in top 8, like vendilion, azami and teferi pw, but vendilion is really expensive.
In green i was thinking of Azusa, Omnath or that new monogreen c14 that puts a 5/3 when lands go to grave.
White idk, maybe Thalia?
Dont know much about black and red too.
Waiting for your response
If you want to play a budget mono-colored deck and still be as competitive as possible, I think Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is your best choice. You get hand disruption to beat unfair decks, removals to fight creature decks, a quick win condition with some regeneration resiliency and you get card draw effects.
I'm also biased because he plays like my favorite way to win: get a guy into the red zone. It's why I enjoy Xenagos, God of Revels and Thraximundar so much.
On topic, I've recorded two pretty interesting games playing Xenagos on Cockatrice. I'm going to attempt to figure out how to do some commentary and upload them here. I have no idea what I'm doing so stay tuned.
Update: Here's a game commentary vs. Nin, the Pain Artist. I've never done this before but hopefully it helps clear some things up about Xenagos and how he plays and brings up some more discussion. I have another set vs. Narset, Enlightened Master that I'll work on commenting now.
Update: Here's a game commentary vs. Nin, the Pain Artist. I've never done this before but hopefully it helps clear some things up about Xenagos and how he plays and brings up some more discussion. I have another set vs. Narset, Enlightened Master that I'll work on commenting now.
I tried Lifeblood Hydra for some time but it was never a card I yearned to see. Whenever I was casting it for larger than x=3 I was already truly in a position to win the game so the potential extra cards did not matter.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker does not do much in this deck since Xenagod can only buff one creature at a time. He is also impossible to cast with RRR in his mana cost.
I think See the Unwritten is a fine card to test but I have not been able to at all so far. If anyone has any experience playing it, please let me know
Bonfire of the Damned is a no-go. We can't manipulate our library to Miracle it and its regular mana cost is too prohibitive. If you feel you need a board wipe, consider Sudden Demise.
I have built this deck but I use a lot really good 6 and 7 power guys Muliganus is really good lol at 5 cast cost he one shots your opponent. I also play sneak and attack and the some of the eldrize and a few more big power guys lIke the 13/13 out of scrouge block. I enjoy my deck 1v1 and alot of ffa games have kill 4 man pods in a turn playin extra combat phases and getting more xenagos triggers with hydra omnivore lol I could go on about this deck. But I also play unfair maelstrom wonder as everyone calls it at my local area have a 80% game win with it lol.
2 Gruul Signet
2 Talisman of Impulse
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Fellwar Stone
2 Mind Stone
3 Birthing Pod
Creatures: 38
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Boreal Druid
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Sheltering Ancient
2 Overgrown Battlement
2 Wall of Roots
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Strangleroot Geist
2 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Fauna Shaman
2 Mistcutter Hydra
3 Great Sable Stag
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Wood Elves
3 Fanatic of Xenagos
3 Boggart Ram-Gang
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Vithian Renegades
3 Yavimaya Dryad
3 Witchstalker
4 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Hellrider
5 Phyrexian Hydra
5 Arc-Slogger
5 Vengevine
5 Deus of Calamity
5 Vorapede
5 Xenagos, God of Revels
6 Inferno Titan
6 Terra Stomper
6 Primeval Titan
6 Soul of the Harvest
1 Wild Growth
1 Utopia Sprawl
2 Lignify
3 Song of the Dryads
2 Cream of the Crop
Instants: 11
1 Nature's Claim
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Lightning Strike
2 Searing Spear
2 Starstorm
3 Beast Within
3 Flame Javelin
3 Char
3 Rhystic Lightning
Planeswalkers: 1
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
Sorceries: 2
1 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Nature's Lore
Lands: 37
Command Tower
Kessig Wolf Run
Stomping Ground
Treetop Village
Yavimaya Hollow
Cavern of Souls
Raging Ravine
Karplusan Forest
Tarnished Citadel
Copperline Gorge
Rootbound Crag
City of Brass
Forgotten Cave
Mossfire Valley
Wooded Foothills
Tranquil Thicket
13 Forest
8 Mountain
I'm wondering, your commander thrives on creatures with big power numbers and/or double strike. With all your creature mana acceleration, some bigger offensive swingers may be exciting to add. I might include hydras in a Xenagos deck: Mistcutter Hydra, Savageborn Hydra, Apocalypse Hydra or Primordial Hydra. Should you go more offensive, Greater Good will keep you in the game. Good Luck!
Firewild Borderpost is also good.
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
Mana Ramp - 18
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Boreal Druid
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Arbor Elf
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Wild Growth
1 Utopia Sprawl
2 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
2 Devoted Druid
2 Priest of Titania
2 Lotus Cobra
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Somberwald Sage
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Wood Elves
Utility Spells - 17
1 Worldly Tutor
2 Sylvan Library
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Survival of the Fittest
2 Vexing Shusher
3 Courser of Kruphix
3 Ohran Viper
3 Heartwood Storyteller
3 Fierce Empath
3 Chord of Calling
3 Eternal Witness
3 Reclamation Sage
4 Wickerbough Elder
4 Birthing Pod
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Spellbreaker Behemoth
5 Acidic Slime
3 Domri Rade
4 Xenagos, the Reveler
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
5 Garruk, Primal Hunter
6 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Removal - 4
1 Lightning Bolt
3 Song of the Dryads
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Polukranos, World Eater
Win Conditions - 16
2 Genesis Hydra
4 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Nylea, God of the Hunt
5 Deus of Calamity
5 Vorapede
5 Weatherseed Treefolk
5 Malignus
6 Terra Stomper
6 Wurmcoil Engine
6 Inferno Titan
6 Primeval Titan
6 Soul of the Harvest
7 Gaea's Revenge
7 Siege Behemoth
7 Panglacial Wurm
7 Giant Adephage
Lands - 39
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Mountain
14 Forest
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Command Tower
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Rootbound Crag
1 City of Brass
1 Mana Confluence
1 Raging Ravine
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Dust Bowl
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Yavimaya Hollow
Second, let's talk card choices.
COLOR IDENTITY
This deck is NOT a G/R deck. This is a Mono-Green with a splash of red. The sooner that you accept this fact while constructing the deck, the easier that it will be to build it. Very few red cards are good enough to make the cut. Make sure that when you are adding red cards that they have a purpose.
RAMP SELECTION
Artifact based ramp is the worst possible choice for this deck. We are not ramping into Maelstrom Wanderer. We don't get free spells once we get to our magical number. On our own, our Commander does nothing. Ramping into him with artifacts achieves nothing. They can be stolen (Dack Fayden) or destroyed (Reclamation Sage, Disenchant) extremely easily, disrupting the game plan.
Land based ramp (Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Search for Tomorrow etc) is better than artifact ramp and has advantages and disadvantages to creature based ramp. It is not as explosive, but it is FAR more safe than creature based ramp, as a single well placed Pyroclasm will not wipe you out. It also makes you less susceptible to Ruination and Blood Moon effects, but more likely to succumb to an Armageddon.
Creature based ramp is the best choice, in my opinion. It is the most explosive, starting as early as turn 1. It provides devotion for Xenagos. But most importantly, after you've resolved Xenagos, it provides bodies even if you haven't drawn a win condition yet. This is important because you can lay down some early damage (even if it is not a lot) or kill opposing planeswalkers with them. And, if you have enough devotion for Xenagos, he can start swinging as well. Artifacts will never get you here. While this choice is the most weak to removals - it comes with a huge upside. Topdecking an artifact or land spell after Xenagos is out and you're hellbent is awful. If you topdeck an elf and you happen to have Kessig Wolf Run you can continue to swing for the fences. In addition, Elves can be sacrificed to Birthing Pod or discarded to Survival of the Fittest - both are important tutoring tools.
UTILITY SPELLS AND REMOVAL
I'll start with removal since there is less. Unfortunately, there are not many slots that this deck can dedicate to removal. The ones that we do have are either amazing (Lightning Bolt, Song of the Dryads) or double up as win conditions (Flametongue Kavu, Polukranos, World Eater). Also, some of the cards listed as win conditions can also be used as removal (Inferno Titan, Balefire Dragon [While I am not currently playing Balefire Dragon, I do recommend him for creature-heavy metas.]). And, of course, Domri Rade also has a removal option.
So, onto the utility spells. There are a few Xenagod 'tenants' that need to be addressed first:
1) The turns before Xenagos resolves are actually the most important turns of the match.
2) Despite what you may think, this is not a One-Hit KO deck (excluding Malignus, we'll get to that later). We need to have some sort of redundancy and card advantage engines so we can keep up with other decks.
3) Unlike the last tenant would have you believe, this deck does not stop for anything. You should be playing something every turn if possible to try and run your opponent out of resources (counterspells, removals) or to use these utility spells to gain leverage over the opponent (Planeswalkers, Courser of Kruphix/Oracle of Mul Daya/Heartwood Storyteller etc etc)
So most of our utility spells either provide us with some kind of card advantage, tutoring, or artifact/enchantment removal. Planeswalkers also really count toward the utility spell count, but I wanted to make sure to separate them. Most of the choices are self explanatory, but I'll get into the ones I've chosen that might need some explanation:
Heartwood Storyteller - this guy is the nuts. After a Turn 1 mana dork, you get to play him on turn 2 and reap all of the benefits. The majority of the deck is not non-creature spells, so you'll rarely be providing your opponent with cards. Worst case scenario, he gets counterspelled (Deal!) or removaled (So... your opponent discarded a card so that you could draw a card. Deal!). If he doesn't though, chances are that you'll get to go on a card drawing spree.
Ohran Viper - same as Heartwood. If you get a turn 1 dork and follow it up with this guy on turn 2, you get to let the card draw flow. Also doubles as a nice blocker and provides two devotion.
Vexing Shusher - Two devotion, decent body, beats up blue decks. Worth.
Fierce Empath - Tutors up a win condition right on your early turns. Mostly finds Terra Stomper vs blue decks and Primeval Titan vs everyone else.
LAND SELECTION
We'll get to the beats soon, I promise! It's really the least important part of the deck though
SO: Lands. Ensuring that you have the best possible mana base is SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO important. Drawing and keeping 7 in any deck is important. Going back to the Color Identity - we only need 4 Mountains for our red fetch related needs as we have very few spells with double red in their mana cost. I also kept the colorless land count low because there are actually very man spells with GG or GGG in their mana cost. G is super important. Most notably I've excluded Wasteland and Tectonic Edge in the land destruction department because they can only be used once and make mulliganing a pain in the rear. Obviously they're very powerful cards and should be included if you feel that they need to be.
Fire-Lit Thicket was excluded purposefully because there were so many games where I could not produce G on turn 1 because I had this land and a CIPT tapped land or another colorless land.
WIN CONDITIONS
Alright, the fun part! There are a few conditions that I chose for my win conditions:
1) Trample printed (Xenagos does not provide this)
2) If no trample, another insane effect that warrants its inclusion (Thrun, the Last Troll ruins blue, Malignus is a one-hit kill with Xenagos AND if ANYTHING with protection blocks it, it dies due to his 'Damage cannot be prevented' clause, Genesis Hydra gives you an uncounterable free spell, Inferno Titan can wipe an opponents board clean with two triggers in the same turn, Wurmcoil Engine can provide a 24 point life total swing versus other aggressive decks and gives you more creatures when it dies, and Gaea's Revenge doesn't require Xenagos to attack but can only ever be killed by entire board wipes or Mono-Green removal. Sick.)
3) They have some sort of recursion built in (Vorapede, Weatherseed Treefolk - can also be used to Birthing Pod AND he still comes back to your hand B)
Panglacial Wurm is one of my favorites. You'll often go hellbent in this deck and be reliant on a topdeck to secure the victory. If you happen to hit a fetchland, a creature to pitch to Survival of the Fittest, or have something to sacrifice to Birthing Pod you can also use that time to drop a 9/5 Trampler from orbit and be swinging for 18 on the same turn. Legit.
Siege Behemoth was the best card to come out of Commander 2014 for this deck. It has hexproof so it cannot be removed and it swings for 14 damage, no questions asked due to its effect. This kind of ability is so powerful here to avoid being chump blocked into oblivion. If you feel like you need an additional card with this ability, I would consider Rhox.
Thunderfoot Baloth is not worth playing BECAUSE if you DON'T have Xenagod out (and people CAN and WILL prevent you from doing this!) he is literally the worst 6-drop in your deck and he'll only end up swinging for 14 anyway. He doesn't provide any kind of advantage (Soul of the Harvest) and the additional buff to your mana elves will rarely matter. Terra Stomper is much better to combat blue decks.
Deus of Calamity provides all the devotion to turn Xenagod on by himself and wreaks havoc on your opponent's mana base. Also he is a reason we try to play very few colorless sources.
MULLIGANING
The most important part of piloting this deck is learning how to mulligan. A hand with 4 lands and 3 win conditions is NOT keepable. I would throw away everything but 2 lands to have the best chance to dig for a mana accelerant and/or an advantage engine. Realistically, unless the other 6 cards in your hand already provide an excellent start, you should under no circumstances keep a 'win condition' card in your opening hand. They do not do anything unless Xenagod is out and you should be spending your early turns getting him out and getting some sort of advantage rolling.
Whew, alright. That was a lot of information. Hopefully this helps everyone with their Duel Commander Xenagod deck. Let the discussion continue!
Not really. Mana dorks all should either cost one mana to produce one mana, or cost more than one mana with the potential to produce more than one mana. The exception here is Sakura-Tribe Elder, who gets you a land that can't be destroyed, or Devoted Druid, who, by herself, can get a turn 3 Xenagos. Radha doesn't do anything different that a 1 mana dork does, and we aren't abusing her RR ability.
What are you using the RR for? It can only be used during the declare attackers phase. After that it phases out of your mana pool. We're not playing Violent Eruption, Char, Fated Conflagration, Briarhorn etc
I played Radha as a general before I played Xenagos. She's not necessary here.
Frankly there are a lot of cards in driver's list that are quite bad. I'll go over them now and offer some explanations:
The artifact ramp cards: covered in my first post in the thread. They provide no devotion, don't ramp as effectively as mana elves, can be stolen or destroyed and don't have the possibility of putting pressure on the opponent.
Wall of Roots, Overgrown Battlement, Sylvan Caryatid: defenders have no place in this deck. Caryatid is the most playable out of all of them due to being spot removal and Pyroclasm proof. However, tapping for more than one mana because there are MORE defenders on the battlefield is not something that is synergistic with Xenagos's ability and Wall of Roots can only produce so much mana before it dies.
Sheltering Ancient: If your opponent has no creatures to put +1 counters on, this creature dies to its upkeep cost. Neat idea though.
Strangleroot Geist, Boggart Ram-Gang, Great Sable Stag, Fanatic of Xenagos, Witchstalker, Huntmaster of the Fells, Hellrider, Arc-Slogger, Vengevine: All of these cards are FANTASTIC in Radha, Heir to Keld all-in aggro curveout decks. There's a different standard for this deck though. With Xenagos at the helm, launching 3/3's at our opponent's face will not accomplish much as you wasted an entire turn to tapout for Xenagos in the first place. If your opponent doesn't actually FEAR what you are going to be buffing with Xenagos, they won't care about what you're doing and will proceed to win unimpeded. Thrun, the Last Troll gets a free pass here because he has three extremely relevant abilities for beating control heavy matches.
Phyrexian Hydra: Anything with protection can block it indefinitely (unlike Malignus) and mixing your damage types is a horrible idea. Even if you happen to give it trample, if your opponent happens to block 5 of its damage (assuming Xenagos pump) they'll be stuck at 9 infect, and presumably will deal with the hydra after (counting its ability of course) meaning that the 9 damage you COULD have done to them didn't actually matter because you aren't going to re-infect them somehow.
Cream of the Crop: This deck cannot waste time with cards that neither put pressure nor advantage on the board. The theory behind the card being that you can select a large creature to play next turn is sound. However, if a creature with a large amount of power has ALREADY ENTERED THE BATTLEFIELD then you are probably doing well in the match and this card did nothing for you other than waste mana and a card from your hand.
Ancient Grudge: There is currently no artifact centric deck that is clobbering the meta and there are no artifacts that you truly should fear (except for things like Ensnaring Bridge but only like, Daretti, Scrap Savant plays that and that deck isn't winning any gold medals). Anyone using artifact acceleration are also decks that you can race or happen to slow down with your artifact destruction creatures (Reclamation Sage, Wickerbough Elder, Acidic Slime); they then can apply pressure, unlike Ancient Grudge.
Lightning Strike, Searing Spear, Flame Javelin, Char: You will most likely win very very few games by 'burning' someone out. And this deck hardly needs the removal; the threat of dropping a gigantic hasty 12 power creature will keep their creatures in check. And if your opponent is playing a heavy control game, chances are that you aren't going to be using these spells anyway and they'll be dead in your hand. And in other matchups (Griselbrand, Thraximundar, Maelstrom Wanderer) they'll be completely and utterly useless.
Rhystic Lightning: hahahahahahahahahahaha
Tranquil Thicket, Forgotten Cave: What? Just play lands that come into play untapped. Cycling for one card won't help you: keeping a hand with 7 cards because none of the lands slow your opening game plan is far more important.
Starstorm: This deck has no reason to wipe its own board. Play Sudden Demise instead if there are a lot of creatures in your meta. If they're mostly green decks, don't play this card and race them.
On a bit of a wilder note: what about the C14 card Volcanic Offering? Since you've already mentioned that non-colour producing lands are to be kept to a minimum, so much so that Tec Edge and Wasteland aren't making an appearance, why not include another way to nuke a troublesome non-basic lands (like Maze of Ith/Kor Haven, both of which seem pretty bad for this deck). Plus, the Offering also explodes all but the largest of creatures (or those with relevant protection). Also, it's an instant, making it better vs the blue decks.
I personally do not own a Gaea's Cradle anymore but it would make the list.
Volcanic offering requires four totally different targets to be worth it, and it still costs 5 mana to boot. I'd rather drop a creature. This is another card that interacts more favorably in a Radha, Heir to Keld deck by being able to be cast off of RR mana.
I would never run Anger in this deck. We already have a haste enabler as a general with a power and toughness boost on top of that. Since more than likely we only need one creature to swing at a time, having global haste is not very helpful is many situations. Brawn however is potentially worth considering since we do need trample frequently but the card itself is not a threat (unlike Nylea, God of the Hunt since our devotion to green is easy to get to 5) so I am still hesitant to include it.
I'll start by saying that Xenagos will never, ever be a Tier 1 competitive Duel Commander deck. You will never see this deck in the Top 8 of a 100+ person DC tournament or anywhere else where the metagame is highly tuned.
That being said: Xenagos has the potential to completely and utterly blow any deck out of the water with its sheer presence of threat. If your opponent happens to misstep when you have a bomb in hand or doesn't have the proper removal or counterspell suite you will decimate them. Very few decks can handle a Turn 3 Xenagos, God of Revels into a Turn 4 Primeval Titan/Inferno Titan/Malignus/Wurmcoil Engine. Additionally, not many decks are able to race that kind of damage output.
I have taken my Xenagos list to two tournaments so far. Both had around 12-14 participants. I placed in the top 4 in one of them and in the other I went 2-2. Nothing to be sad about but not spectacular either. I was able to defeat some competitive decks with it (Maelstrom Wanderer, Nin, the Pain Artist and Marath, Will of the Wild) but also lost to others (Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Prime Speaker Zegana and Wydwen, the Biting Gale). For how much the deck loses to variables such as bad opening hands, opponents having the sweeper prior to Xenagos being cast, or land screw/flood, I've been happy with the deck's performance.
I would say that this deck's worst matchups are hard control such as Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Nin, the Pain Artist as they will just never let you resolve Xenagos. Reanimator/combo decks have a faster clock and still get to control the game (Scion of the Ur-Dragon/Child of Alara). Other ramp decks typically just have a better win condition overall like Prossh, Skyraider of Kher or Griselbrand.
Like any deck, a budget version will be much worse than a developed list. Survival of the Fittest and Birthing Pod aren't non-negotiable, but you'll be giving up two of green's best resources in creature tutoring. Having the best land base possible allows us to play GGG spells in the same deck and still be able to swap and play RR spells or more than red spell in a turn while ALSO supporting some colorless lands. I would make getting the fetchlands and at least a Stomping Ground a priority. Primeval Titan is also just the best target for Xenagos nine times out of ten so make sure to pick a copy up for the deck (as well as lands to tutor for while playing PrimeTime such as Dust Bowl, Raging Ravine, Kessig Wolf Run etc).
Just remember when building the deck, whether budget or not, that green is the most important color in this deck. At one of the tournaments I actually played a Xenagos mirror match. I managed to take game 1 after a bit of a power struggle. However, the second game he played three mountains in a row while I played a turn 4 Malignus boosted by Xenagos and he lost immediately. He had too many red sources in his deck and could not mulligan properly to make sure his early game was playable. Manabase is so important.
To wrap up my thoughts I'll say this: Xenagos, God of Revels is an extremely fun deck to play and can roll with the best decks in the format and still have a chance. However, this deck will never be a Tier 1 choice because the variability problems it faces are so much more pronounced than other decks that any stumble in the early game may as well hand the win to your opponent. If you like playing big green and red stompy creatures and you want to play the Duel Commander format then this deck truly is the best place to start.
Whats my best option? I see blue sometimes in top 8, like vendilion, azami and teferi pw, but vendilion is really expensive.
In green i was thinking of Azusa, Omnath or that new monogreen c14 that puts a 5/3 when lands go to grave.
White idk, maybe Thalia?
Dont know much about black and red too.
Waiting for your response
If you want to play a budget mono-colored deck and still be as competitive as possible, I think Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon is your best choice. You get hand disruption to beat unfair decks, removals to fight creature decks, a quick win condition with some regeneration resiliency and you get card draw effects.
I'm also biased because he plays like my favorite way to win: get a guy into the red zone. It's why I enjoy Xenagos, God of Revels and Thraximundar so much.
On topic, I've recorded two pretty interesting games playing Xenagos on Cockatrice. I'm going to attempt to figure out how to do some commentary and upload them here. I have no idea what I'm doing so stay tuned.
Xenagos, God of Revels vs. Nin, the Pain Artist
Xenagos, God of Revels vs. Narset, Enlightened Master
The deck is really cool, i watched the 3 Nin games, it really works well, i liked Malignus so much. haha
I'll watch the Narset one later.
Xenagos Playlist
Lifeblood Hydra, Kiki-Jiki, see the unwritten and bonfire of the damned?
I tried Lifeblood Hydra for some time but it was never a card I yearned to see. Whenever I was casting it for larger than x=3 I was already truly in a position to win the game so the potential extra cards did not matter.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker does not do much in this deck since Xenagod can only buff one creature at a time. He is also impossible to cast with RRR in his mana cost.
I think See the Unwritten is a fine card to test but I have not been able to at all so far. If anyone has any experience playing it, please let me know
Bonfire of the Damned is a no-go. We can't manipulate our library to Miracle it and its regular mana cost is too prohibitive. If you feel you need a board wipe, consider Sudden Demise.