Be sure to also watch the Booster Box Game For Streets Of New Capenna here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jLtoath31Kzdl40.html

Prof: Lets get this one banned, here's a decklist The entire Commander community: this has got to be the fairest and most casual Xander deck ever made!

This card is ‘unfun’ in the sense that when you put this in the command zone to start a game, the whole table gangs up and knocks you out immediately

This honestly seems like the safest, most friendly version possible. My immediate thought was Corpse Dance and a sac outlet as the go-to, and a bunch of haste givers and reanimation spells as backup. I'd want Xander hitting the battlefield, attacking, and then promptly dying as often as possible. Why pay 7 to keep casting him when I can sac him and pay at most 5?

Since Xander has red, why not some extra combat turn cards? Doubling his attack clause for a turn can cause havoc.

Clone spells are the way to go, get yourself both etb and death triggers for pretty cheap. You can even run Mirror box/sakashima/spark double to keep your multiple xanders.

The Professor's recipes always call for 47 metric tons of kosher salt.

I highly doubt that this card will be banned. I actually see him more as a reanimation target in grixis reanimator decks along side the old Jin-Gitaxias and Vilis than as a commander.

Exile, countering, or stealing him seems like some of the only ways to deal with how much he has going on. Shuffling him back into the library is also viable, but hitting it with a "change" also takes out his abilities and makes him mute. Stifling his abilities whenever they trigger can also help to alleviate some of his nastiness. Problem with this is that everyone has to run at least one of these options and be able to get it rid of him while there are free sacrifice outlets and a plethora of counter spells as well as flicker abilities to keep him safe in grixis colors.

You forgot Syr Konrad!!! He’s gonna put the work with Xander. All three of Xander’s moves trigger him. Definitely an auto include.

Hahaha! When tergrid came up, I knew that the prof was serious about banning the commander. No one would do that!

I expected a Blade of Selves, because while Xander IS legendary, you would get two extra ETB and death triggers immediately on attack.

I am loving the format of this deck teck. Popping the relevant text looks so nice and is very well done. Love the quality always one of the best content creators.

Clones that don’t ignore the legend rule for all kinds of death triggers. Plus the amount of reanimation in that deck you could easily do it over and over again.

I honestly don't see Xander as a big issue. The issue is in people's approach to EDH. Just play interaction, like, at 7 you can see him coming and have time to react. I don't see him as a ban target. He's just an interesting and mean commander. This isn't on the same level as Leovold or Braids, you can gain a board around him, and you're never left with no cards in hand.

I just realized that there's essentially a softlock. Xander, Nim Deathmantle, Tergrid, and Ashnod's Altar. Assuming your opponents run creatures, you will essentially just leave them with a card in hand and a single permanent on the battlefield for the rest of the game. Very expensive to pull off though

I love the text of cards being magnified, what a great viewing improvement!

WOTC, specifically said they wanted to see a shift to more expensive and more powerful commanders. I suspect this is the direction we will see new commanders. I also think the fact this is target player vs all opponents will really shake up the political battles between players which is exactly what makes for awesome multiplayer games!

One card missing from this list is Hellkite Courser. Brings in Lord Xander without have to cast him, gives him haste to attack and with a sac outlet kills him at end of turn giving you all his abilities. Plus you soul bond Hellkite Courser with Dead Eye Navigator, you get Lord Xander every turn.

For some added fun, you could also run Nim Deathmantle and ashnod's altar, when paired with either waste not or tergrid you should always have enough creatures available to sacrifice to loop the enters and leaves the battlefield triggers until your opponents have no boards or hands

I feel like this is another Xanathar situation, where everyone says they're gonna be busted and then they hardly get played because they become removal magnets and cost too much for an effect that targets one person. Like, at least in my local meta which is decently interaction heavy, he's rarely gonna stay on the battlefield long enough to make an impact, if he even hits it. And he has big splashy effects, but they target one person, then everyone else kills whoever played him. I don't know, I might be wrong, but this guy feels like an at most fine card that everyone is losing their heads over.

"Target" not "each" for all three abilities while having a 7 mana target on your back. I don't see how this is anywhere near ban worthy. Seems like playgroup house rules or power capping are sufficient..

I don't see any issue with this card, especially if it's in the command zone where you actually have to ramp to 7 to hard-cast it

I feel like adding the new Jin-Gitaxias and hullbreaker horror is beneficial, just to punish opponents for thinking about responding to your deck. Also, treasure is probably going to be critical for keeping this deck afloat on mana production.

When it comes to more "notorious" commanders, I feel like they're some of the most honest decks you can play outside of traditional stompy. I'd much rather play against a Xander than some deck that's supposedly "just a 7" that winds up with a combo win turn 5 out of nowhere. He's big, dumb, Grixis (Maestro) fun, and I love him. Great video.

My youngest is named Xander. The card is so accurate it's scary.

You rounded up when you showed your example of hand destruction, instead of rounding down like how the card says. You should’ve discarded 3 cards and have been left with 4, not the other way around.

A few notable includes maybe: fraying sanity (Bruvac redundancy), spark double (more Xander), traumatize (more Xander mill), Narset parter of veils (deny hand refill)

My personal Xander list is "Upkeep tribal". I use Paradox Haze, Sphinx of the Second Sun, a few enchantment copying spells and clone effects, and a few of the "clone enchanted creature on upkeep" Auras. I'm also pert reanimator, and part land destruction on top of that.

A personal synergy of mine is using Ashnod's Altar with Nim Deathmantle, so with Xander, every 2 mana gives 2 Xander's triggers. Adding things like Genesis Chamber, so u can do it for free to nuke everyone else's hands and boards. Pure evil

I think we need more "when it dies this turn reanimate it" type of effects and sac outlets. Also, fraying sanity is great I heard

One major card: Kefnet's Last Word. I've used this in my own Xander deck, and ngl, it has such a nice home in his deck so far. With the ability to also use cards like Commit // Memory and even older with Mirror of Fate, to ensure that no matter what, as many times as you draw, when Kefnet's Last Word gets exiled, you can bring it back. One thing that you did miss to mention, I believe. When using Bruvac, the Grandilloquient, Xander's ability mills HALF, and with Bruvac, that gets doubled, essentially wiping out an entire library. If you play 1 v 1 commander, it's a sure fire way to get people salty, especially with the new (and imop, better demonic tutor) "Illicit Shipment," to where you can easily pull Bruvac out before you swing. Great video though, definitely may try to mirror this deck to see how it plays out, thank you for another great video, Professor!

Idk, I honestly don't think he's that bad. I feel like he'll take forever to get cast, and then get countered or killed and then never cast again. 7 and 9 mana is a lot. He also seems pretty easy to just say 'no thanks' to in pre-game talk.

I was going to question Arcane Flight over Aqueous Form, but obviously it was included because of the fantastic art. Xander is a collector of such fine pieces after all.

Thank you for speaking up for us few Iona players! I got a sweet foil from my LGS and then she’s banded 😞

I like Thought collapse and Didn't say please as counterspells, the added middle finger of mill to making things fizzle is fun.

Given the colours, running things like Dark Deal and Windfall could be a way to capitalize on Xander's mill ability forcing opponents to draw if their deck is low enough

I don’t like the perspective that commander should be a 4 player game of solitaire that chugs along until someone either combos off or drops a craterhoof. There should be cards like Xander that make the players at the table uneasy and force them to plan around or hold interaction

blade of selves with or without mirror gallery. am I right in thinking the tokens fully enter the battlefield and so trigger the first ability before being sacrificed to trigger the third?

I just drew this card from a pack today, and was wanting to build a deck around him. This is super nice.

Lol imagine actually wanting this 7cmc grixis commander to be banned and comparing it to stuff like leovold, braids, tergrid, etc.

I'm surprised blade of selves didnt make it in here. the tokens it creates would all get the etb and destruction procs wouldnt they?

Clones, more flickers like teferi's time twist, extra combat steps in red and loads of protection in black like malakir rebirth that you can even sac to yourself. Seems like a really fun arch enemy esque deck

I did a lot of what you went with, but also have a ton of clones so I get the EBT and then the death trigger as it dies to the legends rule. Then I have things to steal stuff from my opponents graveyards like Scarab God.

if you really want to get out of control, i think bloodchief ascension is the perfect add. with Xanders mill ability on attack, if bloodcheif is active the opponent is more than likely going to take 60-80+ damage and you will gain that much life. its a one mana card that can cause Xander to one shot.

If we’re banning a card mentioned in this video it should probably be Deadeye Navigator. Nothing good can ever come from that card.

my buddy who (up until very recently) only played yugioh, pulled an alt-art xander on an impulse pack buy. the Grixis Mill deck he plays now is the stuff of nightmares, and he's having the time of his life.

Nice Avatar of Woe reference, chief :) been playing with that card since I was eleven with my parents' collection. Huge house if you're built around it in a low power meta.

Lord Xander seems like it is best dealt with by letting it resolve once and then tossing something like a Pacifism on him. That way if he's ignored by the table or maybe even protected from the owner's removal he won't be able to do anything anymore.

I'm surprised that you haven't mentioned Consuming Aberration. It might be viable addition to Necrogoyf and definitely has potential to make this more miserable :)

Nice, I'm gonna build this deck for sure :D

I will give him a try in my Obeka Reanimator Deck. Most spells & abilities will cheat him in from hand or GY and directly provide haste. Furthermore he can be sacrificed at the end of turn if I want to… plus doubling him up with Araumi, Mirror March, Flameshadow Conjuring. Surely I have Sakashima and Mirror Box out to avoid instant legend rule problems. This will be wonderful! Magical wonderland.

TBH I don't see the issue with Xander. He's _SEVEN MANA_ with no card draw, no ramp, no protections, no haste, no evasion. Plus, each of his abilities only affect a single player, and he puts a target on his owner for the other players to all gang up against. Yes, there are some haste enablers in Red and colorless, yes Blue gives some protection with counterspells. BUT, that requires setup and having other cards. Just like any other strong commander around, he requires other setup and work to go off. He is totally, 100% *_NOT_* ban worthy. The first and third ability lean into control-y strategies, while I personally see the middle ability as the main game-ender. Also, the middle ability is something you really do not want to do to graveyard-based decks, which have become increasingly more common over time.

Maybe include some graveyard hate, in case of your opponent playing a self mill deck Also Sheoldred would be nice (for you) And to bring even more chaos to the table, you can include something that goats creatures

This seems way better in the 99 of most Grixis decks. I can't wait to use this in my Marchesa deck

For colorless, evil assistance, use Strionic Resonator. For only 2 mana, it can double one of the effects. You can also use undying to retrigger the sac engine. Or, Panharmonicon. Just add more ETB creatures to multiply pain.

I just want a Drawn Together art alter of Xander! Also The Beamtown Bullies have much meaner tricks to pull

I don’t see this card as anywhere near ban worthy. He is too expensive to get him out reliably before an opponent has an answer. Even if you run all of the fast mana, jeweled lotus, mana vault, lotus pedal etc, the odds of them all being able to be played even within let’s say the first 3 turns is unlikely to best. Plus if you come up against any form of exile removal or a counter spell it is stopped pretty easy.

is there a reason the deco doesn't run like helm of the host or stuff to repeat combat extra turns ect?

I feel called out when you mentioned Iona in my Angel deck XD

I mean, yeah he does powerful things, but you're basically just saying "Grixis Tap-out Control has a synergistic commander now." Maybe it's enough to see Tergrid banned, but a 7-mana commander that needs a lot of help isn't particularly ban-worthy imo. There are way more noxious things you could be doing more easily in Commander.

he is still a 7 mana boy, baby-bolas just seems more efficient and be able to do similar things. The mill aspect seems neglable since he does it way to slowly and the sacrifice half stic sounds nice and all but is way too inconsistent since it heavily relies on your opponent.

I was so stoked to get this in my prerelease, although I chose Evelyn the Covetous as my grixis commander and will just run this guy in that deck

Not sure why Xander needed his own video for a kneejerk reaction but: Xander is 7 mana, unless you rush for mana to get him out right away, you may see him between turns 4-6 on average. His abilities do suck, but for 1 person and 9 times out of 10, people will stop him. Also to get the effects you want in the video requires set up where people will spend resources to stop. This video was just, not necessary unless you just wanted to make a deck tech on em.

I think that Xander is a great Nuclear-deterrent style commander for a politics deck. He's not going to show up until mid to late game, and if he does there will be so many answers to his casting. I think he's a powerful, but not broken or degenerate commander.

This video has made me want to make a deck to blink/extra combat/sac at instant speed deck and constantly recurr it

Thanks for this. _Mark of Eviction_ might be a little better than _Escape Routes,_ in some cases.

I was surprised you mentioned banning this card in your last video, but an entire video to get it banned? If it was a deck tech taught by Evil Prof, this would be a great video. The card is an overcosted disrupter, doesn't even have haste for its attack trigger, and is a meager one-sided boardwipe at best. This is a perfectly fine value bomb by cost and triggers, especially in a multiplayer format that you so viscerally wish to remove it from. In short, not bannable in the least.

The RC is a joke :) if they don't ban thassa's oracle and they ban this first, i'll lose my mind also, if you want to be completely annihilate your friends, add: nim deathmantle + ashnod's altar + genesis chamber have that on the field and cast xander, it enters, opponent discards half, you create myr, sac myr, sac xander, you have 4 mana, xander triggers, opponent sacrifices half of their nonlands, nim deathmantle triggers, you pay the 4, xander enters again, repeat adnauseam :)

A couple cards I have are Mirror box to remove the legendary rule and infinite reflection for added fun as well as demonic tutor and profane tutor to help me fine cards.

Past few videos we've gotten that Mustache we were promised. This is dope.

Xander is bae ;)

A 7 drop that can be bounced, countered, and exiled. Its fine. No bans, let people do powerful things.

Not sure if anyone mentioned it but Blade of Selves would immediately put 3 of its dies triggers on the stack, and you can use sneak attack to get the full value of the card for 1 red mana

Hey prof, you'd do yourself a favor by changing plaguecrafter and flesh bag for instants with an additional cost of sacrificing creatures. Opponents can respond to fleshbag marauders effect on the stack with a swords to plowshares, but they can't respond to a village rites sacrificing Xander as a cost.

The problem of the CRC banning cards before they're released is that WotC will take that as an excuse to take control of the format over from them. Which would be a complete disaster, as WotC is clearly in the mood for Ragavans over non-expensive play.

Targeting only one player and costing 7 mana makes this card less powerful than it looks, I don't think it needs to be banned

I felt the Iona rage on a personal level, lmao

Brilliant video and very funny. The prof is a legend!

The fact that people are calling for this dude to be banned tells me a lot of people run little to no interaction. Or at least the loudest in the community don't.

"Lets get this commander banned." Me, who already dropped 30 bucks on Sneak Attack and Splinter Twin while prebuilding a ReXandermator deck: "I'm doing my part."

One missed out card that comes to my mind is Blade of Selves. Each combat one ETB and Die trigger for each opponent -1. You could also uses red multiple combats abilities for more 'not fun'

i love it. when he gets that snide tone i get comic book guy vibes.

I feel it should not be banned. It costs 7 mana and being in the command zone it's somewhat harder to cheat into play. Grixis ramp is not exactly the best. There are plenty of 7 mana win the game cards, this is not that bad.

This thing isn't even bannable, and I would absolutely say is a completely overhyped card that is very lackluster. How do you read this and think it's even playable in commander?

cool vid prof, but I feel like duskmantle guildmage is a must include in a lord Xander deck (an attack that makes an opponent lose 30+ life is just gross), and if you're gonna have a duskmantle guildmage you may as well throw in a mindcrank for the infinite combo

Can you use Satoru to bring Xander into play while activating his enter and attack abilities?

i love how everyone focus on the 7 mana, as a way to nerf it and forgets how ridiculously EASY is for blue, black, red to cheat out creatures outside of their mana cost xD this bastard will be hitting the field turn 3 or 4 xD

I will admit it is a powerful commander but I dont think it is that bad. I mean like 7 mana??!! thats pretty expensive and also considering that bouncing and exiling exist I dont think this has to be banned. And go ahead make another video on this try to prove me wrong.

Don't forget Sheoldred as having opponents sac and you return creature from yard seems pretty good to me especially if you are able to recur Flesbag and Plaguecrafter or any other creature that can do some fun things! Also Vela of the Nightclad is really good as whenever Vela another creature you control leaves the battlefield she does 1 damage to each opponent and blinking Xander a few times can have painful consequences!

something i thought of using was the equipment Blade of Selves and give it myriad. toss in cards that can make copy tokens of it alongside mirror box and similar cards to ignore the legendary ruke. not that it needs to be ignored as you will still get the etb and death triggers lol

I know this is a joke. Lord Xander is not that powerful a card. It is a battle cruiser card.

the cards not bad. its 7 fuckin mana and does nothing we havnt seen on a lower cmc. prof u have gone insane man

This was literally my first ever deck. Sir Conrad, Bruvac, Oona. Favorite card in magic

Don't forget Blade of Selves. You may not get the attack trigger on the copies but you get the ETB and death trigger for each opponent other than the one he attacked before blockers are declared.

I couldn't believe they printed this card. Not that it's overpowered, it's just a real "feels bad" for the opponents AND the pilot. As an opponent, you have to assume you're the target for every trigger. As a pilot, you're everyone's target just by laying your deck on the table. This card could really ruin 1 players game night and just doesn't seem fun to play with or against.

The fact that this commander is not viable for cedh, and has a cmc only for casual, means that it will be played in casual games. His abilities are not powerful or game breaking, but go really against a commander mentality in which all players at the table are able to play and have fun. Not all people knows the social conventions around rule zero, and the stigmatization around some kinds of strategies. I would ban it before is out to prevent people wasting the money in a deck they don't know the vast majority of the causal community won't have a good time. This commander in casual can only have two kinds of games: it does nothing because it is 7 mana and everybody focuses you before you are able to use it, or you use it and nobody plays except you.

Obviously a Bolas Planeswalker or two to hit the rare interaction with Dark Intimations. Also, some copy instant/sorcery interactions with your red/blue wedge could really go the distance with some of those stronger spells, especially Capital Punishment and Cruel Ultimatum.

I mixed xander and around 20 other mill/discard cards into the new horror commander deck and it's beautiful.

Boo. Don’t try and get someone new banned 😅😂