Xyris, the Endless Ouroboros [Wheel Primer]

Commander / EDH Discard Group Slug Primer RUG (Temur) Sacrifice Snake Stompy Wheels

UltimateRoxas40

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dreamroot Cascade
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 2x Forest
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 3x Island
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rockfall Vale
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Stormcarved Coast
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Creature (16)

• 1x Adrix and Nev, Twincasters
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Jaheira, Friend of the Forest
• 1x Kaseto, Orochi Archmage
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Ohran Frostfang
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Roaming Throne
• 1x Runehorn Hellkite
• 1x Terror of the Peaks
• 1x The Locust God
• 1x Whirlpool Warrior
• 1x Witty Roastmaster

Instant (13)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Swan Song

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Burgeoning
• 1x Cryptolith Rite
• 1x Fevered Visions
• 1x Goblin Bombardment
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Parallel Lives
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Roar of Resistance

Commander (1)

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Khorvath's Fury
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Splendid Reclamation
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Time Reversal
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change

Artifact (10)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Curiosity Crafter
• 1x Junk Winder

Artifact (1)

• 1x Mana Crypt

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Prosperity

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"Xyris is a giant flying leviathan with a particular taste for humans, regularly raiding the nomadic airship city of Skysail for snacks."

I was extremely excited when the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set was released. I was in grad school studying Wildlife Biology at the time, and this plane felt like home to me (Minus the 100% certainty I'd die within 24 hours if I somehow ended up there haha). There were a lot of legendary creatures that jumped out at me, especially out of the Commander 2020 sets, including one of my other commanders Kathril, Nightmare of Indatha [Keyword Primer]. I also saw the Kalamax, the Stormsire precon, and wanted to build something with him. However, when I got the deck and saw Xyris, the Writhing Storm, I knew I had to build him instead. My playstyle is much more creature-oriented, so a spellslinger-style deck was difficult to envision for me at the time.

Our Commander

{G}{U}{R}Xyris, the Writhing Storm is a twist on the typical Wheels archetype, focusing more on combat tricks and token generation to win the game rather than incremental damage like Nekusar, the Mindrazer.

Xyris, the Writhing Storm really wants our opponents to draw cards, as each card our opponents draw generates us a 1/1 Snake Token. To maximize the token-creating potential, I decided to embrace the wheel theme, which is super-efficient, potentially disruptive, and scales well at a larger table/pod.

Thunder of Wheels and Flash of Fangs

• {U}{U}Commit / Memory - The Commit half is nice, but what we want is the 'Aftermath' effect of Memory. We can return everyone's hand and graveyard to their libraries, which for us restocks it with our Wheel-type cards, and it makes everyone Draw 7, which can create an army of 1/1 Snake Tokens if Xyris, the Writhing Storm is in play. And since there is a good chance that Commit / Memory has been wheeled itself, it can be easily activated in our graveyard as a surprise wheel if no one notices it getting dumped.

• {U}{U}Echo of Eons - Similar effect to the Memory of Commit / Memory, we all shuffle hands and graveyards back into our libraries and Draw 7. Wheeling so much can quickly go through our deck, so being able to shuffle our graveyard back into our library for more wheeling fun is good. And since it has Flashback, we can use it again or if the card itself got wheeled into the graveyard.

• {U}{U}Jace's Archivist - It's basically Windfall on a stick, and being able to repeat it multiple times is great at producing our 1/1 Snake Tokens.

• {R}Khorvath's Fury - We can make each player either reset their hand or take damage equal to their hand size. Remember that it hits all players, including us, so make sure you are ok with wheeling your hand or potentially taking 5-7 damage if you don't want to dump your hand.

• {R}Magus of the Wheel - I can't afford a Wheel of Fortune, so having one on a stick will have to do haha.

• {R}{R}Molten Psyche - Each player shuffles their hand into their library and then draws that many cards, generating a bunch of 1/1 Snake Tokens. If Metalcraft is active, we can also make each opponent take damage for each card they've drawn this turn! If you're able to, stack a few more Wheel effects first, so that when this spell is resolved, each opponent has drawn a significant number of cards from your Wheels, dealing a ton of damage to them. And with our mana rocks and boots, it's a good chance that Metalcraft will be online.

• {R}{R}Reforge the Soul - A more expensive (mana cost, not actual cost) Wheel of Fortune that has the potential to be Miracle cast for cheap. But since we will be wheeling ourselves too, Miracling this card might not happen as often as we hope.

• {R}Runehorn Hellkite - Another wheel that we can use from the graveyard if it gets wheeled there first. If not, it's a {5}{R} for a 6/6 Dragon with Flying, which might be useful as an additional way to deal damage since people won't want to kill it because of its graveyard effect.

• {C}Teferi's Puzzle Box - Another hand reset type effect, but it happens to each player on their upkeep, so if Xyris is out, we will incrementally gain 1/1 Snake Tokens rather than a whole bunch at once.

• {U}{U}Time Reversal - Similar effect to Echo of Eons, but we can use it only once, as the card gets exiled after resolving.

• {U}{R}Whirlpool Warrior - This creature can reset your hand if you don't like what you have, and once it's in play, you can sacrifice it to make everyone reset their hand. Good to use as a chump blocker then sacrifice it and make 1/1 Snake Tokens!

• {U}Windfall - One of the classics, everyone dumps their hand then draws based on which player had the most in hand.

• {R}Winds of Change - Everyone shuffles their hand into their library, then draws a new hand equal to the amount they had — nice effect for only one {R} mana.

Wheeling Payoffs

With all of our Wheeling, we have several areas that have large payoffs due to the Wheels and their effects.

Combat Payoffs

"Xyris will not be denied and invariably finds a way to overcome each new barrier between it and its next meal.”

• {G}Beastmaster Ascension - Pretty easy to turn on and pump up our regular 1/1 Snake Tokens into 6/6 Super Saiyan Snakes.

• {G}{G}{G}Craterhoof Behemoth - All our 1/1 Snake Tokens + Craterhoof Behemoth = Massive creatures with Trample. A single Wheel effect like Reforge the Soul in a four-player game will generate 21 Tokens, and with at least Craterhoof Behemoth and Xyris, the Writhing Storm in play, everything gets +23/+23 and Trample.

• {G}{U}Kaseto, Orochi Archmage - For {G}{U}, we can make Xyris unblockable and pump him a little, allowing both us and the attacked player to draw a bunch of cards and make some 1/1 Snakes.

• {G}{G}Ohran Frostfang - Gives all our attacking snakes Deathtouch, and if they get through to an opponent we can draw cards. Plus, its a snake, so flavor win!

• {R}Roar of Resistance - Gives all our Tokens Haste, so they can enter the battlefield and attack the same turn. We also can pump up creatures attacking our opponents by +2/+0. Good for us and a fun political move to make one of our opponents hit harder if they are attacking someone else.

• {C}Swiftfoot Boots/{C}Lightning Greaves - Gives one of our creatures Haste and Hexproof/Shroud, usually given to Xyris to protect him and start making 1/1 Snake Tokens.

• {G}{G}Triumph of the Hordes - Pumps up our snakes, gives them trample **and ** infect? Sounds awesome to me. Show everyone how venomous these 1/1 Snake Tokens are. Side Question - What kind of Snake is Xyris? Something with venom or more of a constrictor type?

Card Draw and Discard Payoffs

• {G}Burgeoning - Since we might be wheeling a lot, it would be nice to take advantage of the extra lands in our hand after refilling with a wheel effect.

• {C}Psychosis Crawler - For each card we draw, opponents lose that much life.

• {U}{R}The Locust God - When we draw cards, we gain 1/1 Flying Insects. Now with a single Wheel effect like Reforge the Soul in a four-player game, we will generate 28 tokens entering the battlefield, 21 1/1 Snake Tokens, and 7 1/1 Flying Insects.

• {G}Splendid Reclamation - If we draw into this mid-late game after wheeling a few times, this could give us a ton of extra mana to use on the following turns.

Token Synergies and Payoffs

• {G}{U}Adrix and Nev, Twincasters - What's better than 21 1/1 Snake Tokens after a good wheel? 42 1/1 Snake Tokens! Or 84 if paired with Parallel Lives.

• {C}Ashnod's Altar - We can turn our tokens into more colorless mana to cast our Wheel spells.

• {G}Cryptolith Rite - We can turn our snakes into mana dorks to make mana to cast wheels to make more snakes and...

• {R}Impact Tremors - As our tokens enter the battlefield, Impact Tremors deals 1 damage to each opponent.

• {R}Goblin Bombardment - Allows us to Sacrifice any creature to deal 1 damage to any target. A good way to threaten an opponent, or double up on damage by attacking with the creature, then sacrificing it afterward.

• {G}Oran-Rief, the Vastwood - After all our 1/1 Snake Tokens enter the battlefield, we can pump them all up. Only works on Green Creatures, but luckily, our 1/1 Snake tokens are Green.

• {G}Parallel Lives - See above with Adrix and Nev, Twincasters. So. Many. SNAKES!

• {C}Phyrexian Altar - We can turn our tokens into more colored mana to cast our Wheel spells.

• {R}Purphoros, God of the Forge - As our tokens enter the battlefield, Big Daddy P will smite our foes. One good wheel could end the entire game. And if not, he can pump up our board, then we swing in for the game.

• {C}Roaming Throne - With this Snake Throne, we can double up all of our commanders' triggered abilities (Triggered = When, Whenever, At). We can Double the Snake tokens and Double the card draw. In fact, we can Quadruple the number of tokens usually generated! Let's say that we attack with Xyris, the Writhing Storm and our opponent takes three damage. Both we and our opponent draw three cards, TWICE! Then Xyris, the Writhing Storm sees that an opponent drew six cards, so he creates six tokens, TWICE! Three damage leads to 12 tokens! And that's just off a single, non-pumped swing with our commander. Truly Bonkers.

• {R}{R}Terror of the Peaks - Similar to Impact Tremors, when a creature enters the battlefield, Terror of the Peaks deals damage equal to that creatures Power to any target we want.

• {C}Throne of the God-Pharaoh - After attacking with all of our 1/1 Snake Tokens or tapping all our tokens with Cryptolith Rite, we can drop this to drain life from our opponents as a surprise win.

• {R}Witty Roastmaster - Effectively an Impact Tremors on a body. When another creature ETBs under our control, it deals 1 damage to each opponent.

Extra Card Draw beyond Wheels

We want to make sure that we are able to quickly dig through our deck to find our Wheels or combo pieces depending on what strategy we are employing

• {G}{U}Edric, Spymaster of Trest - When a creature deals damage to any player except us, its controller draws a card. This both incentivizes players to attack people who aren't us and we make more 1/1 Snake Tokens if they do attack other people.

• {U}{R}Fevered Visions - This enchantment draws all players an extra card at the end of their turns, but it punishes our opponents if they have more than four cards in hand. Regardless of that, we can get a bunch of 1/1 Snake Tokens before our turn even starts.

• {C}Geier Reach Sanitarium - Everyone draws and discards, and we get 1/1 Snake Tokens.

• {C}Mikokoro, Center of the Sea - Everyone draws and we get 1/1 Snake Tokens.

• {U}Rhystic Study - Pretty Self-Explanatory. Draws cards and makes our opponents spend mana to prevent us. It is also a high-value target for removal, making it a great distraction so other players won't hit our combo pieces.

• {C}Roaming Throne - With this Snake Throne, we can double up all of our commanders' triggered abilities (Triggered = When, Whenever, At). We can double the card draw off our commander. Let's say that we attack with Xyris, the Writhing Storm and our opponent takes three damage. Both we and our opponent draw three cards, TWICE!

• {C}Skullclamp - With all of our 1/1 Snake Tokens in play, this becomes: Pay {1}, Draw two cards.

• {U}{R}The Locust God - Whenever we draw a card, we create a 1/1 Insect with Flying and Haste, which can be useful to use as aerial blockers, since our 1/1 Snakes don't have Flying. We can also pay {2}{U}{R} to draw and discard a card.

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The Locust God Infinite Card Draw

• We can draw our entire deck with The Locust God, Skullclamp and Cryptolith Rite

• Equip Skullclamp to a creature whose toughness is one, causing it to die and drawing us two cards. This triggers The Locust God twice, creating two Insect tokens with HASTE. We can tap one of them due to Cryptolith Rite, allowing us to equip Skullclamp to the other Insect token and repeat the cycle. Pair with Throne of the God-Pharaoh to end your turn with a ton of tapped creature tokens and potentially win the game.

• We could substitute out Cryptolith Rite for Ashnod's Altar or Phyrexian Altar to generate the mana, but we wouldn't net any tokens this way.

Ramp, Counters, and Removals

This deck wants us to get Xyris, the Writhing Storm on the field quickly, so it's important to ramp out quickly to get him into play.

Ramp

• Mana Rocks: {G}{U}{R}Arcane Signet, {C}Sol Ring, {C}Mana Crypt. All of these will accelerate the descent of our Snake Leviathan!

• Instant/Sorcery Ramp: {G}Farseek, {G}Nature's Lore, {G}Three Visits, {G}Cultivate, {R}Jeska's Will, {G}Splendid Reclamation. For Farseek, the best option to grab would be Ketria Triome, as it enters the battlefield tapped anyways, so you can easily get access to all three colors.

• Creature-based Ramp: {C}Ashnod's Altar, {C}Phyrexian Altar, {G}Cryptolith Rite, {G}Jaheira, Friend of the Forest. With all the 1/1 Snake Tokens we create, we can abuse them as Sacrifice fodder or Tap them as mana dorks.

Once Xyris, the Writhing Storm is in play, we want to make sure it sticks around! So we have a suite of counterspells and removal options to make sure nothing stops the Wheel!

Counterspells

• {U}Arcane Denial - Counter any spell, then we draw a card and the controller of the spell may draw two cards (and give us 2 1/1 Snake Tokens).

• {U}{U}Commit / Memory - A larger CMC counterspell than what we'd prefer, but since we care more about the Aftermath Memory side of the card, this is just an incidental gain.

• {R}Deflecting Swat - Change the target of any spell. Useful to redirect a counterspell or targeted removal spell. If Xyris, the Writhing Storm is in play, the spell is free to cast.

• {U}Fierce Guardianship - Counter any non-creature spell. If Xyris, the Writhing Storm is in play, the spell is free to cast.

• {U}{U}Mana Drain - Counter any spell, then add {C} based on that spell's CMC.

• {U}Swan Song - Counter any Enchantment, Instant, or Sorcery spell for one blue mana.

Single-target Removal

• {G}Beast Within - Destroy any permanent, and its controller creates a 3/3 Beast Token. Not much against an army of Snakes!

• {G}Boseiju, Who Endures - We can Channel this to destroy an artifact, enchantment, or nonbasic land.

• {R}Chaos Warp - Shuffle a permanent into its owner's library, then they reveal the top card of their library, and if its a permanent, they can play it, otherwise the card goes into their hand.

• {U}{U}Commit / Memory - On the Commit side of the card, we can not only bounce a nonland permanent, but we can put it two cards down in the spell owners library.

• {U}Rapid Hybridization - Destroy any creature, and its controller creates a 3/3 Frog Lizard Token.

• {U}Reality Shift - Exile any target creature, then its owner manifests the top card of their library.

Board wipes

• {R}Blasphemous Act - Deals 13 damage to each creature. Could easily be cast for 1 red mana with all the tokens we have.

• {U}Cyclonic Rift - Expensive, but if we have a horde of 1/1 Snake Tokens, we can bounce all potential defenders back to our opponent's hands, then swing in for the win.

Tutors

• {G}{G}{G}Chord of Calling - Finds any creature in our library, then puts it onto the battlefield. With Convoke, we can use our 1/1 Snake Tokens to make the spell cost nothing, then go get any creature we want.

• {R}Gamble - We search our library for any card, then discard one card from our hand at random, including the one we might have just tutored for. Ok if we search for something like Commit / Memory, Echo of Eons, or Runehorn Hellkite, that has beneficial effects both in our hand or from the graveyard.

• {U}Mystical Tutor - A quick and easy way to grab a Wheel spell. For extra spiciness, you can cast it in response to one of our own Wheel effects, to attempt and chain cast Wheels and make tons of Snakes.

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Cards Considering

• Underworld Breach - I've got a copy, but I don't feel like this deck really needs it, but being able to consistently cast things like Windfall over and over again with Purphoros, God of the Forge, Terror of the Peaks or Impact Tremors on the field to win the game does seem appetizing haha. I might add it in later.

• Xenagos, the Reveler - This is a great way to get a bunch of mana quickly, but I haven't had too many mana issues when I play the deck.

• Wheel of Fortune - What am I, made of money? I'm not a fan of the Reserve List haha. If for some reason, like I win the lottery, I might get a copy, but there are plenty of other RL cards I'd like to get first, so probably not adding this any time soon.

• Timetwister - If I can't afford Wheel of Fortune, definetly can't afford this haha. Might have to win two or three lotteries.

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Thanks for looking at the deck! If you liked it or found it helpful, please give it a +1. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Top Ranked	Achieved #20 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #17 position in Commander / EDH 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH RUG (Temur) 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Stompy 1 year ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 59 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.25
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Insect 1/1 UR, Manifest 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 G
Folders	My Deck Creations, Ideas, Other Commander Ideas, Decks I Use, to play, Commander, Kalamax, Decks, Decks to tryt