Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Xantcha, Sleeper Agent!

Xantcha is a three mana 5/5 that enters the battlefield under the control of an opponent of our choice, must attack each combat if able but can’t attack its owner or Planeswalkers their owner controls and for three mana Xantcha’s controller loses two life and you draw a card, which can be activated by any player.

Xantcha is a neat Commander that forces the player that they are being controlled by to attack one of your opponents while also giving your everyone the ability to drain the player that controls them to draw a card for three mana.

This makes Xantcha a really fun Group Slug Commander in which we give things to our opponents, only for them to duke it out with each other while we gain value from it, which sounds like a very chaotically fun game to me.

The first thing we need to look for are ways to give our opponents more creatures that must attack.

Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos is perfect for this because not only must Alexios attack each combat if able and is unable to attack you, but they also cannot be sacrificed which is a potential downside of Xantcha. Alexios also switches control at the beginning of each player’s upkeep, untaps itself, puts a +1/+1 counter on itself and gives itself haste, meaning that unless he is targeted for removal, he will wheel back to us and we can deal a massive amount of damage.

If we want to gain some resources with a creature that will could consistently shift control, then we can use Khârn the Betrayer, who must attack or block each turn if able, draws two cards whenever we lose control of him, and if damage would be dealt to Khârn, then that damage is prevented and we can choose an opponent to gain control of him.

Now, we can’t guarantee that Khârn won’t attack us, but that is where cards that goad creatures come in handy. The Sound of Drums is a really solid goad enchantment because if it would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage instead and we can pay three mana to return it to our hand from the graveyard.

Parasitic Impetus also works as a really good goad enchantment because not only does it give a creature a +2/+2 boost, but whenever that creature attacks, it’s controller loses 2 life and we gain 2 life. Shiny Impetus is also helpful as a goad enchantment because it also gives a +2/+2 bonus, but also happens to make us a Treasure token whenever that creature attacks.

Bloodthirsty Blade is a unique Equipment in that it can attach itself to creatures our opponents control, but the reason for that is to give that creature a +2/+0 boost and goad it. Speaking of buffing creatures our opponents control, Agitator Ant allows each player put two +1/+1 counters on a creature they control, and each creature who put counters on it this way become goaded.

The next thing we need to consider is that there will be times where Xantcha will die in combat or be sacrificed, so we need ways to prevent that.

Feign Death effects are going to be very useful in this case, because even if our opponent sends Xantcha to a very bad attack, we can use Feign Death to have it come back with a +1/+1 counter. Due to how the rules work, they will first enter the battlefield under our control, but will then switch control to an opponent.

We can pack our deck with effects like this, Undying Malice being the same as Feign Death, Supernatural Stamina to give the creature +2/+0 before it can come back, Not Dead After All to give the creature a Wicked Role token when it comes back, and Ashnod’s Intervention to not just give a +2/+0 before death but also triggers when the creature dies or is put into exile from the battlefield.

Mystifying Maze is an interesting land to include in the deck, because we can exile Xantcha for a turn, coming back to our control at the beginning of the next end step, only going back to an opponent because of their ability.

If we want to still have Xantcha deal some damage, we also have access to cards like Backlash, which taps an untapped creature and it deals damage equal to its power to its controller, or if we happen to have fewer creatures than our opponents we can also use Deadly Tempest, which destroys all creatures and each player loses life equal to the number of creatures they controlled that were destroyed this way.

There are also cards we can play to have our opponents be limited in how they can interact with us if we can’t get any goad effects in play, one of the better ones being Crawlspace, which only allows up to two creatures to be able to attack us, which is helpful as we reach the end game.

In order to win the game, we need ways to get our opponents to lose a lot of life simultaneously.

Sower of Discord is an example of what we are looking for because when it enters we choose two players and whenever damage is dealt to one, the other loses that much life. This means that if we play some spells that deal some damage to each opponent, two of our opponents will lose double that amount of life.

So something as simple as a Razorkin Needlehead, which deals 1 damage to an opponent whenever they draw a card, can deal extra damage to two opponents, and Scrawling Crawler also dealing 1 damage to an opponent whenever they draw card, while also having the benefit of having each player draw a card at the beginning of our upkeep.

We can also make use of unfavorable blockers like Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll to deal damage to an opponent whenever they take damage while being indestructible creatures with ways to deal damage to themselves if our opponents are playing cautiously, with Brash Taunter being able to fight a creature and Stuffy Doll dealing 1 damage to itself.

If we want a consistent source of damage then we can play Rite of the Raging Storm, which makes 5/1 Lightning Rager creature tokens that can’t attack us or Planeswalkers we control that have trample, haste, and sacrifices itself at the beginning of the end step. We combine this consistent token generation with an effect like Avatar of Slaughter, which gives all creatures double strike and they must attack if able, then we can deal a massive swing of damage.

While I didn’t talk much about Xantcha’s activated ability, if we slow roll the game, then there are definitely ways we can win that ability. Braid of Fire is a bit pricey, but has the best Cumulative Upkeep cost of adding a red mana to your mana pool, which we can use to drain our opponents while drawing cards.

As creatures die during the game, we can also make use of Black Market, which adds a charge counter whenever a creature dies and at the beginning of our precombat main phase, we add black mana equal to the number of charge counters on Black Market, which we can use to draw an absurd number of cards and drain the opponent that controls Xantcha rapidly.

Xantcha is a neat Commander that plays in a unique way that we can be creative in how we keep Xantcha in play to get the most benefit from them, even though they are under the control of our opponents.

That is the hardest part of playing the deck, making sure that Xantcha stays in play long enough for us to get our game plan working. They suffer from being able to be sacrificed by our opponents or destroyed by a board wipe if we don’t have an answer, but they provide such a unique play experience that it makes Xantcha worth playing, in my opinion.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual