Xavier Sal, Infested CaptainXavier Sal, Infested Captain | Art by Bryan Sola

Infested? I thought you said invested!

Welcome once again to Fire and Ice! This is the data-driven series where I go over cards that are becoming more or less popular for different Commander decks, and talk about why they may be gaining or losing popularity. I'm Julia, EDHREC's Duchess of Data, and I'm super excited to jump into today's article!

EDHREC, of course, has a ton of data. We'll draw conclusions from that data about how certain commanders' decks have changed over time, give insight in about new cards, and hopefully provide some tech for your favorite commander's list.

Today, we're focusing on Xavier Sal, Infested CaptainXavier Sal, Infested Captain. He's a three-mana commander that melds counters, tokens, and aristocrats together in one neat package. He does a lot for just three mana and currently sits as the 322nd most popular commander on EDHREC, with 7,831 decks to his name. Let's see what puts the wind in this Pirate's sails!

Xavier Sal, Infested CaptainXavier Sal, Infested Captain

What's Hot and What's Not for Xavier Sal, Infested Captain?

For , Xavier is a 3/3 Human Fungus Pirate (one of the coolest type lines in all of Magic). We can him and remove a counter from one of our permanents to populate, or him and sacrifice a creature to proliferate. He turns creatures into counters and counters into creatures!

This commander's Sultai color identity provides him with access to some of the best counter production and death trigger synergies in the game. We've got classics like Hardened ScalesHardened Scales and Blood ArtistBlood Artist, with a very deep card pool to back up those staples.

Among Xavier Sal's most popular cards are Kiora's FollowerKiora's Follower (in 53% of lists to untap our commander), Doubling SeasonDoubling Season (in 34% of decks to bolster both halves of our game plan), and Tyvar, Jubilant BrawlerTyvar, Jubilant Brawler (in 42% of decks for all the utility he provides).

What's Fiery for Xavier Sal Decks?

Pensive ProfessorPensive Professor - Fire Score of 12.40

This creature is a fantastic fit for any -based counter deck. In this deck, we'll be proliferating constantly. Sometimes, we'll be placing three or four counters on this creature per turn, just using our commander's abilities! This three-drop is a fantastic card draw engine that rewards us for playing the game as we were already planning to, and its high Fire Score is not shocking in the slightest.

Expansion AlgorithmExpansion Algorithm - Fire Score of 8.17

Whether we're placing loyalty counters on planeswalkers, storage counters on lands, or plain old +1/+1 counters on creatures, proliferating is one of our deck's primary objectives.

Paying to proliferate X times is a great rate. Given the in our commander's color identity, we'll have no problem making enough mana to pump into this spell's casting cost. If we manage to proliferate a Gyre SageGyre Sage or Kami of Whispered HopesKami of Whispered Hopes with this spell, we're on the fast track to victory.

Echocasting SymposiumEchocasting Symposium - Fire Score of 7.36

We look now towards the token-centric half of our deck. This six-mana spell lets us turn any creature we control into a token that we can then populate. This enables some crazy strong play patterns. Imagine making multiple copies of Dreamtide WhaleDreamtide Whale or Tendershoot DryadTendershoot Dryad! Our opponents will be dead in no time.

is admittedly a lot to ask to make just one token upon initial cast, so this spell is best slotted into decks that can control the board and take it slow.

Germination PracticumGermination Practicum - Fire Score of 5.77

This spell can provide us with dozens of power and toughness each turn. If we've got just five creatures on board, we'll be gaining 10 points of beef each turn! That's enough to take some serious chunks out of our opponents' life totals, while giving our commander enough fuel to populate over and over again.

Much like Echocasting Symposium before it, this Paradigm spell has a high mana cost for the effect it provides. It's worth it, though; these spells provide us with some much-needed inevitability.

Berta, Wise ExtrapolatorBerta, Wise Extrapolator - Fire Score of 4.87

We can cast this Frog Druid the turn after Xavier Sal, and it'll start making us mana right away. I'll admit that I'm surprised that this creature doesn't have any "once per turn" restriction built in, especially considering the fact that Berta can gain +1/+1 counters from her increment ability.

Berta also makes Fractal tokens, which is a good mana sink if we're desperate. These tokens can't be populated by our commander well, but we can use them as sacrifice fodder to proliferate!

Applied GeometryApplied Geometry - Fire Score of 4.07

We can't populate the token copy that Applied Geometry creates, as it's a 0/0 that'll die upon entering the battlefield. But, paying four mana for a 6/6 version of any creature that we've got on the field is not a bad rate at all.

Plus, because this cloned creature enters with +1/+1 counters on it, the clone will benefit from effects like Mutational AdvantageMutational Advantage and Deepglow SkateDeepglow Skate!

What's Icy for Xavier Sal Decks?

ThrummingbirdThrummingbird - Ice Score of -4.02

Ideally, we cast this Bird on turn two, cast our commander on turn three, and it's off to the races with a neat little value engine online. But if we don't have any counters available to proliferate on turn three or four, Thrummingbird can fall a bit flat. It may feel just a bit too slow for some pilots' tastes.

As I see it, this creature can still be worth including. It can provide us with a steady stream of counters turn after turn, even if it may not shine in the early game.

Tezzeret's GambitTezzeret's Gambit - Ice Score of -3.81

This card, on the other hand, I understand removing from your list. Yes, three mana is a good rate to draw two cards, but this spell must be cast at sorcery speed and only provides a small burst of card draw. Those are some significant drawbacks, even if Tezzeret's Gambit is technically on-theme for this list.

If I'm going to play a three-mana way to draw cards, I'd rather include Pensive Professor!

AtomizeAtomize - Ice Score of -3.34

In Commander, removal needs to be mana-efficient. It's difficult to justify holding up more than one or two mana to answer a threat these days, especially when there are so many powerful cards that players want to cast on their own turns.

Yes, Atomize is in line with our game plan. Yes, it'll add a few counters to our board. But sometimes we just won't be able to cast this spell because it costs a whole four mana. 99% of the time, I'd rather have Assassin's TrophyAssassin's Trophy in my deck. It's significantly easier to cast, and has most of the same end result. Thematic removal spells are neat in Bracket 2 and 3, but they become much less cute as we optimize decks more thoroughly.

What's in a Xavier Sal, Infested Captain Deck?

Here's a list for this commander that has all of his Fiery cards included and all of his Icy cards excluded.

Conclusion

This commander has always intrigued me. It's part of a few really interesting game-ending combos over on Commander Spellbook and combines two disparate strategies gracefully, but I don't feel that it leans hard enough into any one theme.

Xavier Sal does it all, but doesn't do any one thing particularly well. He's certainly neat, but not necessarily as adept as other Sultai commanders are at creating tokens, creating counters, or sacrificing creatures.

Have you built a deck around this Human Fungus Pirate? If so, what drew you to him? Let me know in the comments, and I'll be back soon with another Fire and Ice!