Meteor SwarmMeteor Swarm | Art by Olivier Bernard

Brewing Xcitement

Hello fellow brewer, and welcome back to Brew for your Buck, where we swap out the top 10 most expensive cards in a deck with 10 budget cards that add a unique twist. This time, I want to take a look at a deck I was toying around with last year but haven't pulled the trigger to build just yet. Gruul is a tough color combination for me to get excited about. Looking at the most popular themes for the color pair, none inspire me much besides Landfall, but I've already sold my soul to the almighty amphibianalmighty amphibian. I finally found some inspiration though when looking for a non-Izzet spellslinging commander:

Wort asks for a deck with a balance of creatures and spells (not unlike our Katilda and Lier deck), which can be difficult to do. Fortunately, her average list is filled with a bunch of spells that make creatures à la Dragon FodderDragon Fodder. Because of this, we see a lot of token payoff with her, but yet another token deck is not very inspiring (at least not to me). The inspiring part is what those tokens do with Wort on the battlefield: copying our spells with Conspire. There are plenty of generically powerful spells to copy in the deck already, but this is Brew for your Buck! We want a theme, which you may have already guessed from my not-so-subtle title.

That's right, we're copying X spells. There are a few sprinkled in already, but we're going to really lean into them today. Once the X spell is on the stack, copying it means whatever the value of X is, essentially doubling your invested mana. Another bonus with this deck is that the original list only costs $151, so we have an excellent chance of getting it below $100.

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Purphoros, God of the ForgePurphoros, God of the Forge ($19.26)
            2. Jeska's WillJeska's Will ($12.54)
            3. Awaken the WoodsAwaken the Woods ($11.71)
            4. Cryptolith RiteCryptolith Rite ($9.93)
            5. Primal AmuletPrimal Amulet ($8.79)
            6. UrabraskUrabrask ($8.38)
            7. Second HarvestSecond Harvest ($6.10)
            8. Vexing ShusherVexing Shusher ($4.68)
            9. Storm-Kiln ArtistStorm-Kiln Artist ($4.06)
            10. Krenko, Mob BossKrenko, Mob Boss ($4.00)

Total Value of Cuts: $89.45

Stomping GroundStomping Ground is the only land that would make this list, so swapping that out (Dwarven MineDwarven Mine ($0.23) is a great option since it usually comes with a creature) brings our total savings to $98.66.

Additions

There are plenty of X spells in the game to add, and we've seen recent inklings of more support for the archetype outside of just Rosheen MeandererRosheen Meanderer.

Xtreme Weather

One thing I quickly noticed about these X spells is that many of them depict natural disasters if not a full on e(x)tinction level event. We already have Comet StormComet Storm, so let's add its friends Meteor SwarmMeteor Swarm ($0.09) and Meteor BlastMeteor Blast ($0.28). Copying either with even a little bit invested into the X should kill pretty much any creatures or planeswalkers you need, and the latter can even hit players. HurricaneHurricane ($0.20) is a classic, and cheesing out a win with a green burn spell (that you can copy) is even more hilarious. It won't hit any of our creatures or tokens since none of them have flying, but it will hit our life total, so pick your timing carefully unless you want to draw the game.

Xtra Value

This deck e(x)cels at trading up on resources, generating effective card advantage by copying spells with many targets. By ForceBy Force ($0.56) is my favorite budget replacement for VandalblastVandalblast, and it gets even better here. There are always artifacts lying around, and picking off the critical ones can go along way to furthering your gameplan or currying some political favor with the rest of the table. Besides RegrowthRegrowth, this deck has basically no recursion, something I always want more of in my decks. Reap the PastReap the Past ($0.34) is not ideal for grabbing something specific out of your graveyard, but once copied it does a pretty good impression of drawing you a fresh hand.

Xponential Tokens

While we're focused on X spells for our budget package, we can't ignore the fact that our token generation is also integral to the deck's plan. We already have ArastaArasta, so we can add essentially another copy with our "not exactly budget" card: Dragonlair SpiderDragonlair Spider ($3.04). Why make tokens ourselves when our opponents can do the work for us? The Spider is a red AND green creature, which are high value since they don't limit spells we can Conspire. We also get Tears of RageTears of Rage ($0.14), a relatively unknown instant that screams alpha strike. Swing with all but two of your creatures, cast and copy it, and kill the table before the end step trigger even happens. It also has an X in the rules text so it kind of counts for the theme.

Mana Xcceleration

We'll wrap up with some ways to generate more mana. After all, we have a six mana commander and we want to dump as much value into the X on all of these spells as possible. An obvious addition is NexosNexos ($0.33), a creature from the Warhammer 40k decks that goes well with our mana base full of basic lands. In the same vein, Elementalist's Palette ($1.61) is another obvious inclusion here, helping us amplify successive X spells in later turns. Animist's AwakeningAnimist's Awakening ($1.14) goes perfectly here too, dumping a ton of lands onto the battlefield, and with so many instants and sorceries in the deck, we'll easily turn on Spell Mastery and get to untap them as well.

Wrap Up and Savings

Let's e(x)amine what we saved:

As e(x)pected, we dropped the deck down to way under $100. One gameplay note: copying the spells with Conspire doesn't cast them, so your Storm cards are not going to get better the more spells you copy in a turn. However, if you use Conspire to copy the original Storm spell, that will work the way you want it to, essentially doubling the Storm count without having to cast anything.

I'd love to hear from you about the deck! Are there any cool X spells I missed? Should we build a deck based around natural disasters? Any secret spell copying tech we should add? Let me know in the comments, and I'll see you next time when we brew for your buck!

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Please note: card prices listed in this article are accurate at the time of writing, but prices can vary over time and between locations.

Brian Cain

Brian played Magic intermittently between 2003 and 2017 when he fully embraced his love for Commander. Finding ways to maximize the value of each piece of cardboard in the deck is one of his favorite things to explore, especially if it involves putting lands in the graveyard! Outside of Magic, Brian works as a consultant in the marine industry, turning his passion for boats and ships into a career.