How Good is Daxos the Returned?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 5, 2016, 2:07 p.m. by Flagellum
I realize that Daxos isn't considered to be a top tier competitive commander. He seems like a good enchantment oriented commander that can be built several ways. I have a couple of questions about him:
What is the best way to build him? Discard, Control, stax, pillowfort, or perhaps a mix of all the above.
Is Erebos a better suited enchantment control general because he can utilize mana doublers and is a draw engine himself? My issue with Erebos is every deck seems to be black goodstuff with a higher cmc skewed curve.
How good is he without Serra's Sanctum? I ask because I doubt I'll ever be able to find/aquire it. I'm aware of the infin combo. This will be a quasi-budget build (~$150-200) is why I ask.
He seems best to me as a pillow fort control commander. On my mobile but I can explain more later if you want.
October 5, 2016 2:44 p.m.
PookandPie says... #4
Daxos is a pretty average Commander overall.
Honestly, the best deck I saw with WB Daxos was basically WB Goodstuff with a light pillow fort theme. Early Luminarch Ascension gave him a boost, Koskun Falls, Sphere of Safety, Ghostly Prison were enchantments I saw every so often to discourage attacking him.
You shouldn't run Starfield of Nyx since that'll kill Daxos' tokens (and if you're going to kill Daxos' tokens, you should be running literally any other WB Commander, period). I see way too many Daxos decks running this card and it has the severe drawback of killing your tokens if you ever control 5 or more enchantments (including Daxos' tokens). The player I saw with Daxos became severely depressed when I read and explained to him that Starfield took him from the greatest board position to the worst one. Run Replenish or something instead.
Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Aura of Silence, Anguished Unmaking, Return to Dust, Darksteel Mutation, Prison Term, Council's Judgment can make up some of the removal package. Skybind can be adorable if you add a lot of mana acceleration to your deck, as you can pay mana through Daxos on an opponent's upkeep to flicker away an opponent's lands or creatures, or even save your own Daxos with removal/sweepers on the stack.
Necropotence seems like a practical requirement if your mana base is anything decent. No Mercy would probably be helpful, though not required like Necro. Contamination could be easily upkept by this deck with -producing mana rocks (Marble Diamond, Coldsteel Heart, etc.). You could also add Bitterblossom which would work wonders with Daxos and Contamination, both. Attrition works well with Bitterblossom and Daxos as well. Synergy!
Replenish, Crystal Chimes seem solid for the eventual Bane of Progress destroying all of your stuff. Sun Titan will help as well.
Demonic Tutor, Plea for Guidance, Enlightened Tutor, Vampiric Tutor can always make sure that you're only a short time away from getting the cards you need.
Cathars' Crusade just seems good with token generating Commanders. It'd probably be adorable with Daxos.
Those're all the card suggestions I have. Daxos wouldn't be particularly good as a Commander, but not every Commander has to be tier 1 in order to have a good game, so build it to whatever your playgroup's level is and have fun with it.
October 5, 2016 4:04 p.m.
Thanks PookandPie. Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I was wanting an enchantment based deck that included . Daxos sounds good on paper but he is very mana hungry as Orzhov is in general. Hmmm
October 5, 2016 5:14 p.m.
Daxos just plays a different strategy than your average Orzhov Commander. Most play around a ton of Life Gain/Loss.
I find Daxos to be fun. He isn't the most Competitive but he can he a lot of fun. I tend to play him when people aren't playing Top Tier decks.
Don't build him if you want a Competitive deck. Sadly some of the cards to optimize him are fairly expensive so that's another negative.
October 5, 2016 5:29 p.m.
I built mine as a strong Prison deck and it was disgusting. I took it apart because it was too efficient. Spending 3 mana to crap out 10/10+ Enchant Creatures while I had Sphere of Safety up is how like every game ended up going.
October 5, 2016 6:45 p.m.
Lhurgyof Do you still have a deck list on hand? I would love to see it. If you don't maybe you could recreate it just so we could look at it?
October 5, 2016 6:58 p.m.
iAzire: I didn't ever put it up on tappedout because I had it for so little time. It used some of the base deck, but I heavily modified it.
October 5, 2016 8:39 p.m.
Yes, please do! Prison was one way I was looking to build him. Stuff like Cage of Hands can also be bounced back to your hand to make more XP counters.
October 5, 2016 8:43 p.m.
GoldenDiggle says... #11
I enjoy Daxos, he doesn't win often, but he is fun to play if you enjoy enchantments.
As a color, Green is better at enchantress type decks because of cards like Verduran Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, and Eidolon of Blossoms, which allow you to replenish your hand.
White has a few cards like Mesa Enchantress, Greater Auramancy, and Sigil of the Empty Throne, that create advantages as well.
For the most part, black enchantments (in my experience) provide the card advantage that was missing in the green cards with enchantments like Phyrexian Arena, Underworld Connections, and Necropotence.
Orzhov in general bring some interesting enchantments to the table, such as Necromancer's Covenant, Soul Link, and Debtors' Knell. (Honorable mention to Gift of Orzhova, Purgatory, and Athreos, God of Passage, but not really for this deck.)
If you want, you can check out my deck. How Enchanting!. It needs a few cards, and currently those slots are being filled by the precon deck.
October 5, 2016 9:50 p.m.
Play Zur the Enchanter!! He gives you access to blue enchantments like Propaganda and Rhystic Study
October 5, 2016 10:24 p.m.
Zur is an instant KoS commander that will undoubtedly draw the ire of the table. I have seen a budget-ish deck or two that might work. It's the land base that I fear the most, $$ wise.
GoldenDiggle: Black does replace the green draw that is missing but black also has way more of it (Necropotence, Dark Prophecy, Phyrexian Arena ect. ect.). What black doesn't offer is ramp which you have in spades in green. Daxos would love him some green.
greyninja: If I was doing Esper enchantments I'd probably fall back on Oloro simply because he does well in a pillowfort setting. Though I already have a life gain matters deck with Karlov (well, life gain triggers, not how much par se). But seeing as I'v already built and torn apart Oloro twice now I don't have it in me to run Esper just yet (although Aetherflux Reservoir + Sydri, Galvanic Genius does have me wondering....).
I wasn't looking for a top tier commander necessarily as I just rebuilt Brago. Aside from him I have a couple T2/T3 generals (although my Purphoros deck I'd say is pretty nasty). A good mix.
October 5, 2016 11:04 p.m.
@Flagellum, yea I was just chucking that out there. Zur is fun and I ran him for a while, but it was too repetitive and turns take too long.
Wait, do you have a deck already and you're looking to build a second? Or switch karlov to enchantments? (Sorry I haven't read all the comments)
October 5, 2016 11:26 p.m.
I do have a Orzhov deck with Karlov that is pretty voltron. The two are different enough (life gain triggers vs. enchantments) that I don't necessarily care if I have a second. Plus I have some nice black control enchantments that were hard to find in my area that I just can't trade in yet (i.e. No Mercy, Contamination, Attrition, ect.). So I was wanting an enchantment based general that doesn't necessarily sit on his a$$ all day durdling about (cough, Oloro, cough).
October 6, 2016 12:06 a.m.
Here is my Daxos deck. I love the story behind his character so when he was announced I had to build a deck. Daxos the Returned Returns It's fairly strong once it gets going but I'll agree with most of the comments already here: lacking Green and Blue enchantments is a tough climb. Mine is a pillowfort style with token generation sub-theme. It doesn't create a ton of mana but Serra's Sanctum is a huge benefit. That and any other way to cheat mana like Nykthos and Cabal Coffers. It all helps.
October 7, 2016 4:20 p.m.
I have Nykthos, Coffers, and Urborg, ToY but no Serra's Sanctum and no plans to buy it either for ~$70. Another card I wished I picked up when it was $30. Same goes for Blood Moon and Crucible of Worlds...
Now I'm torn, I was wanting to build this but now I'm not sure. He seems like a cool casual deck which is fine, but I think I want something else.
I've been looking around at punisher/hand disruption decks with either Mogis, God of Slaughter or Nath of the Gilt-Leaf (with stax too). But I think both are just as slow as Daxos. I do already have a Karlov deck which I thought wouldn't bother me having 2 Orzhov decks but meh...
davidsays1 says... #2
From what I've seen he isn't very good at all everytime i see him at a local tournament he never wins, and he makes spirits that don't fly so they are very blockable.Enchantment hate doesnt really exist which is his strong suit sure there are cards that deal with enchantment but they are seen less in my local area then cards that deal with artifacts are seen.I bought his deck and didn't like him i liked karlov so much more.
October 5, 2016 2:37 p.m.