(Rosheen, Roaring Prophet | Art by Fang Xingyu)

Mill Si(X)

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Rampaging Yao Guai is the only X-cost creature that can destroy multiple artifacts and enchantments upon entering the battlefield?)

Oh hey, another Rosheen.

You would think that brewing around X spells would be right up my alley, but it's honestly something that I've never even looked into. The first Rosheen Meanderer came out, and I don't think I even bothered to shrug. So why do I like this one so much more? Well, it turns out, all I needed to get on board was a bit of mill.

It turns out, six cards is a lot. How much? Well, to be blunt, enough to Escape a card with Underworld Breach, twice. That's right, we're not talking a low-powered deck, here. I actually think that Rosheen might be good enough to keep up with the big boys. So, with that in mind, let's talk win-cons, shall we?

Underworld Breach is the boogeyman of the format for good reason. Being able to reuse any card in your graveyard is good enough, but to be able to use the same card over and over again? That's just combo city. What's even better about it, however, is that it's not a dead card if you don't have a combo... The same as the other two pieces of this combo. With our gameplan being self-mill, we already love Grinding Station. Mana Crypt is in the running for best card in the format, alongside Underworld Breach. Combine the three, and you're milling your entire deck, then replaying the key pieces with Breach. Not bad for three cards that we'd love to be playing anyhow.

Significantly less good, but still made of cards we'd love to be playing anyhow, are Dino DNA and Dockside Extortionist. You do need Dockside to be making six treasures to get infinite tokens, or seven for infinite tokens and infinite mana, but either one loops. More important, however, is the fact that Dino DNA is just quite good in a deck that's going to put as many creatures in the graveyard as we are.

In a similar vein is Agatha's Soul Cauldron. There is a combo with it available in Gruul, but it doesn't exactly blow me away. Said combo involves Temur Sabertooth, however, which is also a known combo with Dockside Extortionist that can be pulled off with a Sabertooth in the graveyard and a Cauldron in play. Infinite treasures is nothing to scoff at, especially when you have a deck full of X spells to use as the payoff.

Which reminds me, there's still another whole half to our commander: Metalworker for X spells.

While this half of the card doesn't feel nearly as good as the self-mill portion, I think it's the key to whether or not we can make Rosheen work at a high power level. Gruul isn't exactly known for reanimation or blink, meaning there's no easy ways to reuse our commander's ability over and over again. That means that to make Rosheen not get laughed off of the table, we're going to need the X spell portion of things to not be laughable.

In short, this deck only works if there are good, quality X spells to grab and cast with our commander. So, let's find out if there are, shall we?

Top 10 Gruul X Spells

Rosheen's second ability, you may note, does also allow for the payment of X abilities, in addition to mana costs. While I did consider combining the two, really what we're looking for in the deck is for Rosheen to mill and give us a useful X spell back after we've done so. So while there will be X abilities that we'll want to utilize, they're more of an afterthought than the main thing we're looking for. As such, we'll feature them down in the honorable mentions, and just keep our list straightforward and to the point today.

Criteria: Gruul cards with a mana cost including X. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Stonecoil Serpent

(49,138 Inclusions, 1% of 4,008,439 Decks)

There are so many versions of the X/X for X that it used to be a real decision on what microcosm of advantage you could squeeze out from one specific one that would fit your deck. Well, no more! Decisions are the enemy, and Stonecoil Serpent is the only real decision. With all that said, I'm not actually sure that the Serpent does enough to warrant inclusion in a high-powered Rosheen build. While we do want to find enough X spells to reliably hit one for each mill, we also want them to be immediately impactful, not an X/X that we're not going to want to cast while we have anything else to do.

9. Awaken the Woods

(56,098 Inclusions, 4% of 1,584,917 Decks)

One of the splashier cards I recall from The Brothers' War spoilers, Awaken the Woods didn't make quite as much of an impact as folks thought it would. Which is not to say that it doesn't see a ton of play, just that it wasn't the best card ever as many were saying it would be. Why? Well, there's no doubt that it can be impactful to make seven Dryad Arbors, but at that point we're talking about you spending nine mana to not win immediately win the game. Similarly, paying three mana for a Llanowar Elf feels bad. No, where I think most of this play is coming from, and where I think Awaken the Woods shines, is in the middle tier. Four mana for two lands is a rate you're okay with, but five for three or six for four? You're over the moon. With that in mind, then, this is a mid-game spell that we'd love to have.

8. Invasion of Ikoria

(58,866 Inclusions, 5% of 1,250,178 Decks)

And... enter the tutors. The most played battle that's yet been printed, Invasion of Ikoria is a direct-to-the-battlefield creature tutor that you'd be happy to be playing even if it didn't have a backside. You're also not going to be looking a gift Zilortha in the mouth, however. As for what it can do with Rosheen? Well, for our high-powered version, we already established that we're going to try to win with Temur Sabertooth and Dockside Extortionist, so...

7. Comet Storm

(65,952 Inclusions, 3% of 1,940,549 Decks)

I came into this list wanting to talk about not getting Comet Storm, how it seemed too expensive for not enough payoff, and all of those type of things. I have to admit, though, goldfishing a Rosheen deck has me wondering how I never saw the appeal. With a little bit of mana, you can take care of a problem, at instant speed. With a lot of mana, you can have a one-sided board wipe, at instant speed. With a ton of mana? Well, with a ton of mana, you can just kill the whole table and solve all your problems, at instant speed. I know I'm late to the party here, but consider me sold!

6. Tyvar's Stand

(69,826 Inclusions, 5% of 1,453,091 Decks)

Tyvar's Stand almost feels like it was created specifically for Rosheen. Because let's be honest: Tyvar's Stand, 90% of the time, is a spell that costs one mana. When you've got a ton of mana sitting around in the late game, however? It can read "target player loses the game" fairly easily. And while that might not seem that likely a scenario at a high-powered table, it kind of is with Rosheen. First off, if you're ever planning on playing an X spell, Rosheen will always tap for at least two, as you can reveal the X spell you're about to play to her ability before then declaring that you're casting it. Combine that with her return ability, and it can be pretty easy to luck into three or four X spells in hand to pump Tyvar's Stand up to the point that you're taking out that player that got picked on in the early game.

5. Shatterskull Smashing

(72,206 Inclusions, 4% of 1,940,549 Decks)

In similar fashion to Tyvar's Stand, Shatterskull Smashing just feels like complete gravy. If you need a land, it's a land, and an untapped one at that. If you've got enough mana? Then it's a heck of a removal spell, especially with a Rosheen in play. It just goes in the deck, no questions asked.

4. Walking Ballista

(109,125 Inclusions, 3% of 4,008,439 Decks)

More astute folks may have noticed that our stated Rosheen win-con of Dockside Extortionist and Temur Sabertooth isn't actually a win-con.

 

So why can we get away with that? Well, for one, we're playing a deck full of X spells. If there's a deck that can get away with "1. Dockside Extortionist, 2. Temur Sabertooth, 3. Infinite Treasures, 4. ... 5. Profit?", we're it. If you are looking for something more solid, however, then might I present Walking Ballista? Bad Mogg Fanatic in the early game, beefcake that can remove blockers in the mid-game, and infinite mana outlet in the late game, Walking Ballista can do it all. While normally I would council against playing it in a high-powered deck that didn't have it as a dedicated combo piece, Rosheen would be the easy exception even if we didn't have a combo that needed a guaranteed out. Acquiring six to eight mana to put down a Ballista that can instill fear is easy with Rosheen in play, and even when it exhausts itself taking care of low-toughness problems, then it can just... sit there and wait in the graveyard for the Underworld Breach to find the infinite mana and the outlet that lets you win with it, all at once.

3. Chord of Calling

(109,106 Inclusions, 6% of 1,856,740 Decks)

Triple green is a tough sell, but Convoke does make affording Chord of Calling a lot easier. Combine that with the instant speed, and it's extremely easy to play down a creature for your turn, pass while mumbling something about how threatening someone else's board looks so no one's suspicious, and then look for a game-ending creature at the end of the last player's turn. While I was originally a bit dubious of this one, the more I've played with it, the more I've come to appreciate it.

2. Green Sun's Zenith

(129,173 Inclusions, 7% of 1,856,740 Decks)

With that said, if you do need a specific green creature, then there is a much cheaper option at sorcery speed. Green Sun's Zenith is the cheapest of the direct-to-the-battlefield creature tutors, and is possibly reusable to boot! The only question I have is, why isn't it just at the top of this list?

1. Finale of Devastation

(153,511 Inclusions, 8% of 1,856,740 Decks)

Oh, right. Because there's another option at a single mana more that can get any creature to the battlefield, and straight-up win you the game as well when you have a good amount of mana. Put simpley, Finale of Devastation is the lazy high-powered deck brewer's best friend. Need to grab a key creature? Throw a Finale of Devastation in there. Don't know how you're going to actually win the game? Throw a Finale of Devastation in there. Not sure whether this high-powered play thing is actually for you? Cut a Craterhoof Behemoth from your mid-power deck, throw a Finale of Devastation in there, and realize that you can indeed have your cake, and eat it, too.

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Honorable Mentions

As previously mentioned, there's a whole category of cards that work with Rosheen's second ability that we've neglected to go over. Well, no more!

Top 10 Gruul Cards With X Abilities

1. Kessig Wolf Run
2. Treasure Vault
3. Steel Hellkite
4. Well of Lost Dreams
5. The Mycosynth Gardens
6. Blast Zone
7. Shigeki, Jukai Visionary
8. Heroes' Podium
9. Lair of the Hydra
10. Hydra Broodmaster

So, why did we neglect to bring it up? Mostly because I was extremely underwhelmed with this list. There are some great X abilities out there, and these are... not it. So, let's grab the lands from the list for our list, and then move on to the real stuff that we'll actually want to abuse. First off, the stuff that's going to make life hard for the other folks at the table:

It's no secret that fast mana makes the high-powered tables go round, and there's few better options for dealing with it than Gorilla Shaman. One of the options that is, however? Well that's Meltdown, AKA the spell that Hammer Mage is emulating. Finally, even high-powered decks need lands, meaning that a fistful of early mana and an Orcish Settlers' activation could make things a bit awkward, at least until you pull out the win.

Where is all that early mana gonna come from, though?

Well, the answer, as always, is from $$$. Fast mana doesn't come cheap (at least outside of mana costs), and Candelabra of Tawnos is no exception. With that said, any means to filter your commander's mana from "X only" to being able to spend it on whatever you want is going to help out in a massive way, not to mention Candelabra just being regular good with multi-mana lands like Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors. If you aren't willing to do the crime or the time to get a copy of the real Candelabra, however, fear not: Magus of the Candelabra can do everything the OG Tawnos can, except worse!

All right, then, we've found our best X spells, our best X abilities, and we've found the Gruul section over at cEDH Analytics. Let's put it all together and see what we've got!

Well, we may have put a whole bunch of cEDH cards in, but a cEDH deck is not what we have here. Don't get me wrong, it could hang around and be a nuisance, but when it comes to regularly winning games? Absolutely not. Still, it looks to be a fun deck at a high-powered table that won't mind you slapping down your commander on turn two and then untapping to Awaken the Woods for six on turn three.

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Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

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What Do You Think?

Much as I hate the 1-10 power level scale, there's no doubting that folks still use it. I do feel that it has some weak spots, however, given that the only rankings that actually matter most of the time are 6-10, which doesn't actually leave much room for nuance on the scale. So, with that in mind:

And finally, now that we've determined that the 1-10 scale in fact does not work and should be abandoned at your earliest opportunity, what do you think of Rosheen? Is this finally a good enough X commander, or could we push a little further? What X spell didn't we cover today that has really been working out for you?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the fancy dining room table in the mansion, once we're done adding all these table leaves.

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