Budget cEDH: Zaxara, the Exemplary

Today's article brings a deck tech for Zaxara, the Exemplary, and commander with interesting abilities and an easy to find and execute combo.

Zaxara is a four mana 2/3 commander who can be tapped to two mana of any color. Plus, it gives you an X/X token every time you cast an x-cost spell, which creates a fascinating synergy with x-cost spells to maintain the board.

She can consistently hit the board on turn 3 in this deck, playing a big role in acceleration, as you will have at least 7 mana on turn 4 (3 lands, 2 from Zaxara, one from the ramp used to accelerate her cast), which will guarantee you a huge advantage over your opponents.

The deck has a main and a secondary combo line, in case the main one becomes unfeasible. They all generate infinite colored mana and depend on how to spend that mana

Infinite Mana

Zaxara + Aura

The most consistent combo in the deck depending solely on the commander + Pemmin's Aura or Freed from the Real, and if you need to do this on your turn with Zaxara having entered the battlefield, you will need to use Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves.

Condition for the combo: Zaxara on the battlefield without summing sickness and Freed from the Real or Pemmin's Aura and mana to cast it and activate the aura's ability.

*1- Cast the aura enchanting Zaxara.

*2- If Zaxara is tapped, activate the aura's ability to untap it.

*3- Tap Zaxara to generate two blue mana.

*4- Activate the aura's ability to untap it.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have infinite mana.

This is definitely the fastest and most efficient way to win games, managing to go for the win on turn 5 with one or two protection spells. In case the Zaxara gets too expensive, there is Sanctum Weaver as a replacement for the commander, and it works as a ramp in the worst case scenario.

Kiora's Follower + Aura + 2 mana Land

This combo should only be used if for some reason it is not possible to put Zaxara on thebattle field. It's a line that depends on a specific creature, Kiora's Follower, and an aura that increases the mana generated by a land, Fertile Ground. Wild Growth can only generate infinite green mana, which doesn't help you win matches.

Combo condition: Kiora's Follower on the battlefield and enchanted with one of the auras that untap, Fertile Ground in a land that generates at least one blue mana.

*1- Tap the land, adding two blue ones.

*2- Tap Kiora's Follower to untap the land.

*3- Activate the Aura ability to untap the follower.

Repeat these steps until you have infinite mana.

This combo is only a secondary line for emergencies, and should not be considered as a main line as it depends on many cards.

Spending infinite mana

To spend your infinite mana, there are several cards in the deck that allow you to turn that mana into cards in your hand to end the game.

For this, you need to be generating infinite colored mana, and it's quite simple:

*1- Cast the draw x spell on yourself to draw exactly all the cards in the deck.

*2- Cast Blue Sun's Zenith targeting an opponent (with an x ​​greater than the number of cards in their deck), if you used it to draw the deck use any card that allows you to draw a card to return it to your hand.

*3- Cast a card that allows you to draw a card, to draw Blue Sun's Zenith that was shuffled into the deck.

*4- Cast Zenith on an opponent, with x greater than the number of cards in their deck.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have no more opponents.

Ramps

The list has enough ramps to be almost guaranteed a ramp on turn 2 and Zaxara on turn 3, which makes its development way easier.

Mana Bloom is an excellent card in this list because it works to store mana, and with Zaxara on the battlefield it still gives you a Hydra.

The deck features talismans, signets, and dorks. Another important information is that Kiora's Follower with zaxara is enough to generate 4 mana. This also works for Sanctum Weaver, but it needs one more enchantment on the battlefield for that.

Unfortunately, the deck is heavily dependent on rocks and dorks, which makes it more vulnerable to sweepers, such as Culling Ritual, which even though it delays your game if you have rock and dork of mana value of two or less, is still more interesting to lose one or two pieces and generate 8 mana with the ritual to do some draw or tutor spell to go for the win.

Tutors

This list runs two of the transmute tutors, but only Perplex has a second utility in the deck, as a counterspell. Drift of Phantasms at most works as a pitch for interactions if needed.

As enchantment tutors are not possible in Sultai, we will use generic tutors to find the parts, which work well, as they don't just find the parts, but anything required in certain situations.

Scheming Symmetry is a dangerous card, often your opponents will think that attempting to go for the win is better than looking for an answer to stop some threat — not that they are entirely wrong, but if a player manages to combo on their turn, which is before yours, it's no use having you combo on your turn.

Long-Term Plans is an instant speed tutor that interacts very well with the deck's cantrips, and as you'll see later, this deck can draw many cards.

Card Draw

This list has a few ways to draw cards, and some of them generate advantages over time such as: Verity Circle, Notion Thief, Ghostly Pilferer to draw card when opponents cast commander and Oakhame Adversary that can draw many cards without expending more resources from your hand, in addition to Frantic Search, which virtually costs 0 mana and can still be a positive mana net if you have enchanted lands that generate additional mana.

The list also has many massive draw cards to interact with the infinite mana, but as there are many, it will not be uncommon to have more than one in your hand, so it is possible to use one to fill your hand in the pass and have more peace of mind to combo or respond to opponents.

In addition, the list has many cards that work as interaction and can also filter your hand, such as: Blink of an Eye, Into the Roil, Kenrith's Transformation, Keep Safe and Arcane Denial that replaces themselves or filter the cards, in addition to some cantrips like Ponder, Preordain and Gitaxian Probe.

Interaction

This deck is mostly running sweepers or removals that can handle more than one permanent, with a few exceptions for one-off removals that have a reduced cost or that give you some sort of advantage.

The counterspells on this list are either widely played counters, such as Dispel, Counterspell, Negate, Delay and Misdirection, or they are my personal bets that have been accumulating good results, such as Lose Focus which can deal with more than one spell at once, spending only one card from the hand and Disrupting Shoal, which can spawn you a hydra and be cast by pitching another card, and finally Memory Lapse, which in addition to nullifying, plays to the top of the guy's deck, delaying his draw by one turn, in addition to nullifying the spell.

This is not a control deck, it can't generate enough value to keep locking down opponents. The idea of ​​interactions is to protect the combo, help stop an opponent who is about to win, and remove threats.

Stengths:

— This deck generates value fast enough to be ahead at early game.

— Even though it doesn't have many counterspells, it manages to protect itself reasonably well, especially with the boots that are on the list.

Weaknesses:

— This deck relies heavily on the commander to generate value. Too much focus from opponents to deal with it ends up delaying your game plan.

— The list depends on good starting hands and protections to win at early or mid-game.

I close this article here, stay tuned as we will have another budget deck guide soon!

If you want me to try to come up with a budget list for a specific commander or a specific strategy, you can put it in the comments that I will probably bring in future articles.