X Gon' Give It To Ya

When X spells are good, they are really really good. This is a whole class of card that lets you pour every ounce of spare mana you have into an incrementally more and more powerful effect. That makes them fantastic mana sinks, provided you have a lot of mana to spend. And that's the catch of course - because of their very high power ceiling, X spells are almost always costed to make them inferior to comparable spells when cast for small amounts of mana. That makes them suffer badly in fast formats, particularly the very fastest like Modern.

Fortunately for us Commander players, X spells are at their absolute best in our slower, more ramp based format. With time to build your mana base (or preferably a juicy infinite mana combo) X spells are guaranteed to deliver death and destruction. Let's find our which are the absolute best X spells for Commander.

Honorable Mention - Mass Manipulation

Admittedly, Mass Manipulation looks very expensive when you look at its single target cost, which is why it doesn't quite make our main list. There are much cheaper ways to steal a creature than paying 6 mana, 4 of it blue!

With the above said, once you start to be able to pay 8 or 10 mana for this and start stealing the two or three best creatures in play, it really shines. At 10 mana, this steals all of your opponents' Commanders permanently at a stroke. That will outright cripple many decks (and possibly some friendships along with it!)

This effect is never going away either - no enchantment removal answers for traditional mind control effects like Corrupted Conscience are available for your opponents. In most cases they will have to seriously consider killing and recasting their own Commander. Hugely impactful if you can properly feed it, very few cards can instantly swing a game as much as a properly funded Mass Manipulation.

10. Martial Coup

Martial Coup has a very specific job to do, and it does it very well. Board wipes are usually the enemy of token decks, but sometimes, you still have to press that reset button if your opponents boards are just too much to handle.

Provided you can muster at least seven mana, Martial Coup wipes the entire board and instantly rebuilds your token army at the same time, putting as many 1/1 soldiers into play as you can pour mana into X.

Held back by its high mana cost compared to other wrath effects and the fact that the tokens will only be at their most effective in dedicated token decks, Martial Coup is nevertheless a key piece in the right archetype.

9. Crackle with Power

A triple X spell is always going to be slow to get going, and Crackle with Power definitely fits that bill. This is dire for its minimum cost, acting as a 5 mana Lava Axe or a 5 damage sorcery speed removal spell.

The reason Crackle with Power makes it onto our list is because its design makes it one of the best scaling X spells in existence. As soon as you can make X two, three or even 4, this starts to become much more efficient than the competition. That's because of the damage multiplier built into it, a mighty 5 times the value of X with an extra target to boot each time. That means that, cast for an X of 8, it threatens to kill all of your opponents instantly even if they're still at their starting 40 life.

The power of this card depends completely on how effectively you can fuel it. There are more flexible options if you need something that holds its own in the early game, but it's hard to beat this as a pure damage finisher.

8. Finale of Glory

There were some very strong entries in the Finale cycle, but Finale of Glory definitely takes the cake.

This is effectively an entire army in a single card. Its fail case is a very efficient horde of 2/2 vigilant soldiers, up to nine of them if you're paying 11 mana. If you can pay 12 or more, you'll be getting 10 or more 4/4 vigilant angels to go with them.

Yes you're paying a lot of mana if you want that full mixed earthly and heavenly host, but if you can resolve this for 12, your opponents are realistically going to have to kill you or wipe your board in the next turn cycle or you will win the game next turn.

7. Green Sun's Zenith

Far more expensive than standard tutor effects like Demonic Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith more than makes up for it with its ability to not only find any card in your deck (assuming you can cough up the necessary mana) but to place it directly into play.

Better still, unlike many of the cards in this list, Green Sun's Zenith is - of course - in green, the natural color of ramp. You even get the added bonus of shuffling the card back in after you cast it, and it's very unlikely to ever be a bad topdeck in the mid to late game given its ability to find whatever creature you need for any situation. Assuming you built your deck well of course!

6. Sphinx's Revelation

The ultimate Azorius mana sink. Sphinx's revelation isn't the most efficient X-based card draw spell out there, but it has a lot of other things going for it. Most importantly it's a rare instant on this list, allowing you to hold up counters, flash creatures and other instants at the same time.

Being able to use all your mana guaranteed if you don't need to counter anything is extremely useful, particularly if you've got plenty to spare. The lifegain shouldn't be sniffed at either, and can be vital in close games. After all what's the point of drawing a bunch of cards if you don't live long enough to use them?

5. Exsanguinate

For when you absolutely need to extract ALL the blood.

A real classic in Commander, Exsanguinate benefits from that crucial "each opponent" phrasing. It's obviously a powerful finisher that can win games out of nowhere, but even if it's not outright winning you the game, the life total swings this card can generate are huge.

Exsanguinate is even more powerful if you can pair it with cards like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose that care about how much life you gain to do massive damage to an opponent all over again, or cards like the aptly named Exquisite Blood do double up on your lifegain.

4. Comet Storm

Comet Storm is a really interesting comparison with Crackle with Power from earlier in our list. We've placed it higher for a few reasons, but these cards can definitely each shine when the situation calls for their unique abilities.

Comet Storm's hallmark is flexibility. It is just as comfortable dealing 12 damage to a player's face as it is killing 4 1/1 elf tokens. That's thanks to its dirt-cheap multicker ability, which you can choose to mix with any amount of X in any ratio exactly as the situation calls for.

That flexibility is a big part of what pushes Comet Storm above other pure damage options on our list, but it's also important to note that this can be cast at instant speed. The ability to wait for the perfect moment makes it far more likely to resolve in the face of counter-magic or to hit creatures when they can't be protected.

3. Torment of Hailfire

Torment of Hailfire is pound for pound the single strongest X spell out there when it comes to attacking your opponents' life totals. Every single mana invested into the X here represents 3 life, triple the 'standard' rate for most other cards on our list.

This is a card that, in true Nicol-Bolas spirit, demands some truly cruel choices from your opponents. Yes opponents can avoid life loss by sacrificing nonland permanents or discarding cards to keep themselves alive, but there's no way they're getting out from under this without being badly mauled. Opponents are highly likely to be absolutely crippled by a big Torment in terms of resources in hand and on the board even if they're not outright dead immediately.

2. Walking Ballista

The only creature on our list, Walking Ballista is also an oddity because of just how inefficient it is compared to almost every other spell on this list in terms of what you're getting for every mana spent. Effectively this creature offers 1 point of power and toughness or 1 point of damage for every mana spent casting it. That rate gets even worse if it's already in play, with 4 mana required to put a single counter on it.

Why on earth is it so high on our list then? Well Walking Ballista has two very important thing going for it. Firstly, it can target any creature or player for damage at will at instant speed once in play. Secondly, and just as importantly, it's colorless. That makes this the go-to finisher for any deck in any combination of colours that can generate infinite mana. Yes a comet storm could do the same job for a lot less mana, but what if you're not playing red? And what does extra cost matter if you're generating infinite mana anyway? Put this ultra-reliable arrow-faced guy in any infinite mana combo deck you have and don't look back.

1. Villainous Wealth

The clue's in the name - if you cast this for a decent amount of mana, you will be the villain at the table. Equal parts powerful, fun and flavorful, Villainous Wealth offers you the potential for untold riches at the expense of a hapless victim.

Of course, everyone knows that you've got to spend money to make money, and you will want to invest enough mana into this to make sure you can cast the vast majority of spells this might find off the top of your opponent's deck. You'll need to choose your target carefully too - that Eldrazi deck might have some really juicy hits, but that's no good if you can only make X 5 or 6. If forced to cast it early, target an opponent with a lower curve.

If you want to go for maximum villainy, with access to infinite mana this can be used to exile an opponent's entire library, giving you literally every spell they have in the process. Sadly you won't get to keep any permanents you find once they die next turn to decking, but you'll still get every ETB trigger, every spell effect and every last scrap of their dignity.

Card Crate Blog Team

Jonathan Widnall

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Nov 08, 2021
Jon Widnall

X Gon' Give It To Ya

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