General Exes Archetype

[TekLazar]

So I have been staring longingly at the cards

and their partners




(power level is all over the place)

because I am a Timmy and I love me some big creatures and spells that get big.
But is it worth it to make this an archetype?

It can synergize with +1 counters for the creatures, but is that enough? I also worry that this as an archetype is one dimensional

Step 1: ramp
Step 2: cast x spell
step 3: ???
step 4: profit?

I think that the modal x spells like the interventions, voracious hydra, fireball, breakthrough, and from the opponent's side, torment of hailfire, could help stipulate that but it brings me to my next question.

Would you
1. make this a dedicated archetype and risk the draft feeling too on rails? (pick X and ramp)
or
2. make it a happy discovery for the drafters but run the risk of it being a trap archetype?

Also also, what x spells have been good for you?

Here is the search on scryfall for cards with X in the cost because it was sort of annoying to figure out how to do that
Here are other cards rosheen meanderer and unbound flourishing can help with

 

[ravnic]

Honestly, I would only add Unbound Flourishing as a build around (because it is monocolored and doesn't die to creature removal), and try to get as many generally useful X spells into your list as possible without stepping on the toes of other archetypes. There are Hydras, removal spells, card draw spells and token producers, all things cubes tend to want anyway.

 

[Rasmus Källqvist]

My worry is that this is perhaps to situational to really show up as a proper theme, but it is a fun sub-theme interaction kind of thing that someone might discover. Rosheen seems maybe like the best card there? For Unbound Flourishing, really how many cards do you need to play with it for it to be worth the cost? You're down one card for some extra mana added to the X spell, that requires you to also have an X-spell you want to play.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

So I have been staring longingly at the cards

The biggest issue I see with trying to enable this as a deck is the raw inconsistency of it. Although there are a lot of good spells, you can't run too many in your cube because they're not usually that effective until being cast for higher values. A spell with X in it's cost is rarely less than a 5 drop, with a couple of exceptions like Thassa's Intervention, Stonecoil Serpent, and Hangarback Walker. There are literally only three cards that specifically work to abuse X-spells, and although they're all centered in green, they kind of ask you to run 4-colors (although you don't actually need to go into red, but Fireball effects are realistically some of the easiest X spells to play).

If you really want to try this, I'd recommend going along with what Ravnic said:

Honestly, I would only add Unbound Flourishing as a build around (because it is monocolored and doesn't die to creature removal), and try to get as many generally useful X spells into your list as possible without stepping on the toes of other archetypes. There are Hydras, removal spells, card draw spells and token producers, all things cubes tend to want anyway.

I think this is a pretty decent suggestion. Most X spells are pretty narrow, but if you center the deck in green you have a nice ramp package to back up the higher density of X spells you'll need to run in the color to make it work. Green has a lot of X spells it's happy to play, like Green Sun's Zenith, Voracious Hydra, Finale of Devastation, Gelatinous Genesis, Genesis Hydra, and even Wurmcalling (for the memes). Then, you play your colorless options (Stonecoil Serpent, Endless One, Hangarback Walker, and Walking Ballista), and you have the core of the deck.

Now, you get to use your other 4 colors as gravy for the X-y package you have going on in green. Torment of Hailfire is a fine place to start for black. Red gets it's millions of Fireball variants (although I'd advise running no more than 2 or 3 because most red decks don't even want one). Blue has a lot of nice card filtration effects that go well with an Unbound Flourishing. Blue Sun's Zenith is great, so is the previously mentioned Thassa's Intervention. There's also some nice disruption effects like Stolen by the Fae. In addition, lots of good counter spells cost X, but copying them with Unbound Flourishing doesn't always do much (save for Condescend).


TL;DR and In Conclusion, Zaxara, the Exemplary and Rosheen Meanderer are too slow and susceptible to removal to use to anchor an entire archetype, but Unbound Flourishing can function as a pretty interesting build around card. Just don't flood the entire cube with X spells, because that will certainly have a negative effect on gameplay.

 

[TekLazar]

My worry is that this is perhaps to situational to really show up as a proper theme, but it is a fun sub-theme interaction kind of thing that someone might discover. Rosheen seems maybe like the best card there? For Unbound Flourishing, really how many cards do you need to play with it for it to be worth the cost? You're down one card for some extra mana added to the X spell, that requires you to also have an X-spell you want to play.

To me I think playing one card for unbound flourishing and rosheen meanderer can be enough because they are a narrower (but more mana) seething song or geosurge that sticks to the board. Although if seething song would more consistently fit into someone's deck, maybe I should just play that instead

Honestly, I would only add Unbound Flourishing as a build around (because it is monocolored and doesn't die to creature removal), and try to get as many generally useful X spells into your list as possible without stepping on the toes of other archetypes. There are Hydras, removal spells, card draw spells and token producers, all things cubes tend to want anyway.

More on this in a second

The biggest issue I see with trying to enable this as a deck is the raw inconsistency of it. Although there are a lot of good spells, you can't run too many in your cube because they're not usually that effective until being cast for higher values. A spell with X in it's cost is rarely less than a 5 drop, with a couple of exceptions like Thassa's Intervention, Stonecoil Serpent, and Hangarback Walker. There are literally only three cards that specifically work to abuse X-spells, and although they're all centered in green, they kind of ask you to run 4-colors (although you don't actually need to go into red, but Fireball effects are realistically some of the easiest X spells to play).

If you really want to try this, I'd recommend going along with what Ravnic said:


I think this is a pretty decent suggestion. Most X spells are pretty narrow, but if you center the deck in green you have a nice ramp package to back up the higher density of X spells you'll need to run in the color to make it work. Green has a lot of X spells it's happy to play, like Green Sun's Zenith, Voracious Hydra, Finale of Devastation, Gelatinous Genesis, Genesis Hydra, and even Wurmcalling (for the memes). Then, you play your colorless options (Stonecoil Serpent, Endless One, Hangarback Walker, and Walking Ballista), and you have the core of the deck.

Now, you get to use your other 4 colors as gravy for the X-y package you have going on in green. Torment of Hailfire is a fine place to start for black. Red gets it's millions of Fireball variants (although I'd advise running no more than 2 or 3 because most red decks don't even want one). Blue has a lot of nice card filtration effects that go well with an Unbound Flourishing. Blue Sun's Zenith is great, so is the previously mentioned Thassa's Intervention. There's also some nice disruption effects like Stolen by the Fae. In addition, lots of good counter spells cost X, but copying them with Unbound Flourishing doesn't always do much (save for Condescend).


TL;DR and In Conclusion, Zaxara, the Exemplary and Rosheen Meanderer are too slow and susceptible to removal to use to anchor an entire archetype, but Unbound Flourishing can function as a pretty interesting build around card. Just don't flood the entire cube with X spells, because that will certainly have a negative effect on gameplay.

(Oh I wouldn't even consider all 3 of the build-arounds at the same time haha)
These are really sweet write-ups, I do wonder if in a lower powered environment (where murder is 4 mana) Rosheen could shine alright, she does pass the incendiary flow test. Obviously she'd need targets more like villainous wealth, endless one, mindswipe, or something silly like ol' buzzbark, I mean, savageborn hydra. That could be sweet as well, but these cards need to be playable outside of this archetype.
That's been my conclusion of Zaxara as well, she can get out of hand with a lot of x spells, but that's the issue, "a lot of", the fact that her tokens don't even get trample is just removing icing from the cake. I already have a much more interesting card in Faeburrow Elder (I would probably only run Zaxara in an edh cube with freed from the real, and even then she's still probably too fair).
But either low powered or not, I would agree that focusing on green is likely the way to go to make this a complete archetype.

 

[Alfonzo Bonzo]

Depends on how janky you want to go, and how much you want to design your cube with that interaction in mind.

Rosheen Meanderer and Unbound Flourishing don't ask much of you in terms of card slots, but depends how deep you want to go in the theme.

X spell permanents have a natural affinity with proliferate, so there's an overlap there you could go for.

There are plenty of things with X in their cost in other colours:



You could have ways for other colours to slowly build up to big X spells, like



But if you really wanted to play for Rosheen you're probably just best adding her in and then the playables in green and artifact that have already been mentioned. Then it's just an exciting bonus when you get to cast them.

 

[Nanonox]

Another card that works well with X spells is



It provides a bit of ramp, but more importantly it can double your red spells if you want to double up with a spells matter theme in that color.



Give you X spells that can be cast for cheap(ish) and give you a good rate for the effect.

For Roshean to add mana and Flourishing that copies abilities: