Mana Echoes?

Make 3 snakes from hitting with stock commander, get 12 Mana (which dissipates with phases ending) or around 462 if you wheel the playgroup in a main phase and only have your commander out, without any other snakes.

Hey qwikster,

Tested mana echoes but it’s not that good imho. Yes it’s a ton of mana but it’s colorless only. With cards like earthcraft, cradle, Xenagos, phyrexian altar, battle hymn I already got more mana than I ever can use and it’s colored. Echoes was in the original list but I cutted it for Xenagos which does a lot more since it makes colored mana.

Perhaps seal the deal with Tears of Rage? Gotta fix that trample though.
How about Might of the Masses or Chorus of Might for commander damage.

Hey Piew, thx for your suggestions. I already got a permanent solution for tears of rage which is Shared Animosity. Instants don’t work too well as finishers here since you play a lot of wheels each turn and they end up in your grave. That’s why I go with permanent solutions here like shared animosity or beastmaster ascension. But honestly I think about cutting them too. The amount of tokens this deck produces is really high and all you need is haste to swing for the win. After some further testing I might reduce the cards that pump my tokens to a minimum.

I see you've included Tidal Barracuda. Love this card.
I'm thinking about Conqueror's Flail too.

Spark Double? Or is Sakashima enough?

How is the Barracuda working out? Didn't really like the card at first glance but I dunno how it plays in practice. (Mostly seems to me that it benefits the player before you and hurts the one after you.)

And do you feel your land-to-ramp ratio is enough to reliably get out Xyris without trouble from removal/missed land drops?

Hey Coward_Token,

Sakashima seems enough or may even be cut later. The idea behind sakashima was to copy Xyris and double up token production, but this doesn’t seem needed honestly. I’ve played now about 20-25 games with it and it changed quite a bit from the first list while I try to find the optimal path for the deck.

Ramp/Mana wasn’t an issue so far, I even did cut lands down from 36 to 34 and it still plays smoothly. The deck really surprised me about how well it plays and how explosive it is.

Barracuda so far is really nice. It prevents your opponents from playing stuff/removal in your turn while you play wheel after wheel and in addition it gives you flash like a leyline or vedalken orrery would do. I really like that.

This isn’t a final list so far, expect some more changes after further testing. It runs great so far but I’ll try to find out what cards are not needed or rarely used and will replace them with a bit more ramp or protection.

Have you tried Magus of the Wheel or do you feel there are already enough wheel effects?

Heya BluntSharpie!

I haven’t tried it. My problem with magus is that he needs haste to do well. Jaces archivist got that problem too but at least it’s not a one time use like magus. Also 12 wheel effects is enough I think. Got ways to reshuffle them, play them from grave and some of them got multiple uses on their own. It plays smoothly and should be enough

Why do I never see Indomitable Creativity in any list? I run it in my Locust God deck and it is a game winner. If you had an Ashnod's Altar it would be more efficient then Phyrexian Altar, but they both could add to X if you needed more mana, use the tokens as sac fodder for Creativity and get half your deck onto the battlefield. Never have to go for more than about 20 and there's no way one should lose after a turn like that.

Heya zggtf211, Creativity is not a bad card but not needed to win. Beside Purphoros my creatures and artifacts don’t win me games. And for purphoros a simple creature tutor gets the job done. Ashnod’s was in my first list but the colorless mana really doesn’t do a lot here. It’s not helpful if I have like 200 potential colorless mana but can’t cast any new wheels with that. Same is true for mana echoes. They could be helpful in some situations but altar was more like a dead card most of the time

This is awesome. Can’t fault it. Have my upvote.

I’m building Xyris but due to lockdown I can’t get any of the cards so I’ve simply updated the precon with the spares in my house! Played my first game with it the other night and managed to get a turn 6 wheel before the turn got passed to me so I untapped with 24 snakes and then dropped beast master ascension. It felt good.

Thx Poly_raptor, I’m glad you like it

This is a sweet list, perhaps you might like Betrothed of Fire? Enchant a snake, sacrifice it and gain +2 attack on all other snakes. Enchant Xyris, sacrifice a bunch of snakes and kill someone with commander damage!

HeyaSuperspek, glad you like it. That’s a great suggestion, didn’t think of that card. I’ll test that and may find a slot for that probably

I've been struggling with my Xyris deck lately and would love to hear your thoughts on a few things! My personal biggest hurdle has been dealing with removal against Xyris. Losing her the turn she comes out or in response to the first wheel seems to make it impossible to recover. Have you been having similar issues?

How has Underworld Breach been working out for you? I've been running Past in Flames in mine for a seemingly similar reason, though with the added benefit of not needing to cast it from my hand.

Hey Umahron, I did encounter that to a point but it’s never been a problem. Cards like boots, greaves, diplomatic immunity, spellskite etc help me to keep my commander safe. In addition to that you have countermagic to protect your commander. If you know the decks you play against play a lot of removal just don’t rush too much. Take it a bit slower, play the safe way and hold mana up for a counter and you should be fine. Despite that I’m planning to add a Kira, Great Glass-Spinner as soon as I found something to cut.

All I've read is the deck name, but have my upvote.

Wheels... I'm confused, I thought there were snakes on a motherfucking plane lol? I'll see myself out.

Thx EmperorNexys, I appreciate it. I hope the deck deserves the upvote too

You mean Rattlestar Ricklactica? Last_Laugh

An old friend of mine had a snakes on a plane deck using Levitation but luckily we also have Archetype of Imagination for Commander. Adds some nice, effective flavor, if that's something you value in a deck.

Seems like a pretty powerful deck to me, kinda reminds me of Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. Don’t know how many general snake buffs ya want but Seshiro the Anointed is pretty powerful. Tempt with Reflections has the potential to be a bit janky but it feels like it could work. Definitely deserves the upvote ;)