Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #880: Card Starting with X

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

There are eighteen cards in Magic that start (in English) with the letter X. I talk about them all in this podcast.

I'm not pulling out of the driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for another Drive to Work, Coronavirus Edition. Okay, today is a weird topic because I like doing weird topics from time to time. Today's topic is magic cards that start with the letter X. Okay, so first question, a little trivia question for you. How many cards in magic start with the letter X? Okay, I'll give you a second to guess. And the answer is 18. 18! That's a

lot. That's a lot of cards. So today I'm going to talk all about the various cards that start with the letter X. So our first card has the name, I'm going alphabetically, by the way. So the first card is X. So this is, other than the card that has no name from Unhinged, this is the card with the shortest name. I think it's the only card with one letter as its name. So X is... It's blue and a black. It's a legendary creature, human spy. It's blue and a black. It's a legendary creature.

Human spy. It's from Unstable. As long as X is in X's owner's opponent's hand, X's owner may cast X and activate X's abilities. That opponent can't cast X and plays with their hand revealed. Blue-black tap, put X into target opponent's hand. Three blue-black, you may play a land or cast a spell from the hand X is in. If you cast a spell this way,

you cast it without paying its mana cost. Two, two. Okay, so the idea was there were five factions in Unstable, and one of them were the spies, the spy faction.

And I just loved the idea of making sort of my master spy. And so we... And anyway, I was just looking for like a... Like, what is the most invasive spy? And I'm like, what if it hit out in your opponent's hand? And I'm like, what would that mean?

Like, that's what... Sometimes I just have like germs of ideas. And this card started out of, what if this card went into your opponent's hand? Now, in normal magic, sort of, you know, not unsets, you can't put your cards in your opponent's hand. So this was prime un-territory. And then I'm like, okay, well, what if he's a spy? What if the spy is spying on you?

And so the idea is that he goes into your opponent's hand, and then he can start casting spells out of it. And so, anyway, and then there was a bunch of, like, technical to make it work. The idea behind the card was, okay, he's a spy, he sneaks and goes into your opponent's hand, and then you can,

now that he's, you know, infiltrated your opponent's hand, you can cast spells out of it. That was the idea. There were a lot of words that were required to do this. Like, one of the problems early on is we didn't say that your opponent couldn't cast it. So if they had blue and black mana, the way to get rid of it

was they would just cast it. Now, they had control of it once they cast it. It's like, okay, the goal isn't for your opponent to play it. And so, we fiddled a lot with sort of the thing. And I, I like where it ended up. It's kind of cute. It's in blue-black, A, because this is the colors that would do this, and B, this is the, the spy, the spy faction was in blue- A because this is the colors that would do this and B this is the spy the spy faction was in blue black and then we were trying to give it a name we decided we would riff off like in James Bond

like there's M and there's Q we loved the idea of like spies having letters for their names and so X, I don't know, X just felt like very spy-like oh I've mentioned this before but I'll mention it now spies having letters for their names. And so X, I don't know, X just felt like very spy-like. Oh, I've mentioned this before,

but I'll mention it now just because I had a flavor text for this card that I was really proud of, and it just didn't fit because it was too long. But the flavor text was going to be X spots the mark because in spy lingo, the person you're taking advantage of is the mark, and so he spots him.

Anyway, I thought that was a very clever flavor text. It just didn't fit. We tried. There was a lot of text to make this fit. This is one of the cards I get a lot of questions about, just because it's a pretty weird card. And so I get a lot of people sort of implying or asking about it. But it's a fun card. It's legendary, so it can be a commander.

I know people have built some very weird decks around it, which is what I hope for with Uncards. Okay, next is, I think, the most recent card starting with X. Xanathar Guild Kingpin. That's hard to say. Four blue-black legendary creature, Beholder. He's a 5-6. Oh, by the way, did I mention that X was a 2-2? Hopefully I mentioned that. Anyway, Xanathar's a 5-6. Oh, by the way, did I mention that X was a 2-2? Hopefully I mentioned that.

Anyway, Xanathar is a 5-6. At the beginning of your upkeep, choose target opponent. Until end of turn, that player can't cast spells. You may look at the top card of their library any time. You may play the top card of their library, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast spells this way. So far,

the theme of X cards, starting with X, is they mess with your opponent's cards and can play them. That doesn't run through all 18 cards. So Xanathar is a crime lord in the Thieves Guildport in Skullport. He's from Dungeon Dragons.

And he's probably the best known named beholder. And so obviously we knew we were doing Dungeon Dragons. We wanted to do Beholders. They're very iconic to Dungeon Dragons. And Xanathar, there's a book with Xanathar's name on it.

And so very high profile. It's kind of like a monster manual. It's called Xanathar's Guide to Everything. So it just has a lot of references and things and monsters and this and that. And anyway, because his name's on a book and the book's very popular, he was one of the best known characters in D&D.

And so, okay, of course we need to do this. I actually did an article where I ran through all the different... Like, Xanathar didn't start in that slot. They had him do a different thing, but then a different card in another slot made more sense for Xanathar.'t start in that slot. They had him do a different thing, but then a different card in another slot made more sense for Xanathar. I think he started as mono-black,

but then they realized they had this cool blue-black ability, and so they mixed things around. But he ended up with a cool ability, and it's a pretty cool card. Also, so far, both starts with X cards are legendary, but that is also not a theme that will carry through. But Xanathar, definitely a fun card. Okay, next is Xantcha, Sleeper Agent.

One black-red 5-5 legendary creature minion. Xantcha Sleeper Agent enters the battlefield. An opponent of your choice gains control of it. Xantcha attacks each combat if able and can attack its owner or planeswalker its owner's control.

3 colon, Xantcha was one of the main characters, if not the main character, way back in Urza's saga. There was a book, I think, where Xantcha was the main character. She befriended Urza, and I believe that... Did she give Urza her spark? I'm trying to remember how that all played out. Anyway, she was a Phyrexian agent who came to realize, you know, she did the right thing. Oh, I'm sorry, Xantcha...

I think... Does Karn? Somebody get Xantcha's spark. Maybe Karn gets Xantcha's spark. I think Karn does get gets Zantra Spark. Maybe Karn gets Zantra Spark. I think Karn does get Zantra Spark. Anyway, she's a Phyrexian agent who sort of comes to realize her own humanity. We did make a card back in Urza Saga called Sleeper Agent, where you gave it to your opponent,

and it was representing the kind of card that Zantra was. But what often happened back in the day, and it happens now sometimes, is the book for the set was written after we were done with the set. And so while we had made a Sleeper Agent card, we didn't know Xantcha as a character was going to exist. It got written after we made the set.

So we didn't have the opportunity to make Xantcha. But she was a major character, played a big role. And so we had a lot of outcry from fans, like, oh, we need a Zansha, we need a Zansha. So finally, in Commander 2018, we made a Zansha. You'll notice that this card is really playing into the Sleeper Agent flavor, and it's mimicking what Sleeper Agent did.

Sleeper Agent, you gave it to your opponent. Here, let me read you the text to Sleeper Agent. So Sleeper Agent... Sleeper Agent was from Urza Saga. When Sleeper Agent enters a battlefield, target opponent gains control of it. At the beginning of your upkeep, Sleeper Agent deals

two damage to you. So the idea is, it's a one mana 3-3, but you give it to your opponent, but they lose two life every turn. So the idea is, they get it, it's a Sleeper Agent, but maybe it to your opponent, but they lose two life every turn. So the idea is they get it, it's a sleeper agent, but maybe it could help you because they're losing two life every turn. So Xantcha was a playoff that, she was a little bit bigger, but

three mana for a 5-5, same thing, you're giving it to your opponent. So that schtick for the sleeper agent, there. And then, the thing that's sort of cool about it, and this was designed obviously for a commander product, is she has to attack every turn, but she doesn't attack you. She can't attack her owner,

and she can't attack your Planeswalker. So, like, sort of, your stuff's off-limits, but she can attack other things. And then, to sort of tie into the life-loss thing from Sleeper Agent, people can pay mana,

three mana, to make her lose life, people can pay mana, three mana, to make her lose life. But the controller does get a card. And so there's a cost for making them lose life. So I thought that was kind of cool. Okay. Next is Xanthic Statue. So Xanthic Statue is one of the older X cards.

Not the oldest. We'll get to the oldest. From Weatherlight. So Xanthic Statue is one of the older X-Cars, not the oldest, we'll get to the oldest, from Weatherlight. So, Xanthic Statue is an artifact that costs eight, uh, five, um, activated ability for five, five generic mana, until end of turn, Xanthic Statue becomes an 8-8 golem artifact creature with Trampol. Um, so this is one of the earlier, it wasn't the first one, but the idea is it's a statue that can come to life. And you know, it is I think

the idea was, so this was in Weatherlight, so Weatherlight had a graveyard component so this wasn't really tying into the main theme. I think we're just trying to make a statue that can come to life and attack, and the idea is okay, it's an 8 mana for an 8-8, but it has an upkeep of 5 basically to be the eight eight.

And that's fun flavor text. So flavor text is, until you've lived as a statue, do not talk to me of pigeons. Karn Silvergallum. So Weatherlight was the premiere of the Weatherlight saga story. In fact, we were going to start in Tempest.

When we pitched the story, it started in Tempest. But they were so excited to get going, they decided they were going to do sort of a preamble in Weatherlight, and we scrambled to do that. And one of the things we tried to do was get all the characters in the flavor text

so you could start to meet... Because the characters weren't on... Some of them appeared in the art, because we were able to affect the art. But it was... We were trying to figure out... So we did a lot of flavor text where we would reference things.

So, like, I was the one that wrote Karn. So my guess is I wrote this. Because early on, the way we did it is each character had a writer that wrote their flavor text. And so I wrote Karn Ertai. So there's a very good chance I wrote this flavor text. Okay. Next up, Zanted Swarm.

So this is from Scourge. So Zanted Swarm is green for 0-1 insect. It's a creature. Flying. Whenever Zanted Swarm attacks, defending player can't cast spells this turn. This is a weird card. In some ways, I mean, it's kind of funny.

I mean, green has insects. Green has insects. But green is not very good at flying, although, once again, it's a 0 funny. I mean, green has insects. Green has insects. But green is not very good at flying, although, once again, it's a zero one, so it's not really flying for offense. And then it stops them from casting spells. Like, this is an odd... That's not really a green thing.

I think blue and white... I mean, white is a little more the proactive, you can't cast spells, and blue tends to counter spells. Neither of which is green. So this is a little more of the proactive, you can't cast spells, and blue tends to counter spells. Neither of which is green. So this is a weird card. It was in Scourge. This was Brian Tinsman's set.

I'm not sure what kind of purpose it was filling. Obviously, they wanted to capture sort of the swarm, and so they made it insects. I'm not really sure where this came from. This is not... I don't know. This is a weird card. Like I said, I was not on the team that made this card, so I do not know the origin. It is a quirky card.

Okay, next up is Xanthrid Demon. This is from Magic 2010. Three black, black, black creature demon flying trample. At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature other than Xanthrid Demon. Then each opponent loses life

equal to the sacrificed creature's power. If you can't sacrifice a creature, tap Xanthra Demon and you lose seven life. Seven, seven. Okay, so if you haven't listened to it, recently I did a podcast with Aaron Forsythe talking about the making of Magic 2010. One of the things we talked about in that is

for the first time ever, we made new cards. And this was a new card in Magic 2010. And we were, resonance was the important thing in Magic 2010. And so I think this card was like, okay, we want to make a demon. You're making a devil, you're making a

deal with the devil. And so the idea was, I think the idea behind this is okay, for five mana or six mana you get a 7-7 creature, flying trampling creature, and you're going to make your opponent lose life every turn.

Now, the trade-off for that is you've got to feed this demon. Now, the bigger you feed it, the more damage it does to your opponent. So it's kind of encouraging you to sacrifice bigger creatures. You could sacrifice smaller creatures, but, you know, there's sort of a balance there. And then the idea is, you don't, he's going to attack you.

That's what tapping him and doing you losing seven life, which is kind of an old school way of doing that. Some early creatures in magic would tap when that upkeep said you didn't pay them. They would attack you, sort of the flavor. But anyway, I thought that was pretty cool.

Now, Zathred shows up some other places. So it's obviously referencing some other things. So let's track that down. So let's look at the next Zanthrid Gorgon from Magic 2013. So Zathrid Gorgon is called Five in a Black, 3-6.

It's a Gorgon, like a Medusa. It's a creature, six. It's a Gorgon, like a Medusa. It's a creature, obviously. It's got death touch. Two in a black, tap, put a petrification counter on target creature. It gains defender and becomes a colorless artifact in addition to its other types. Its activatabilities can't be activated. It's a three, six.

So this is really just trying to play up. Okay, so, like, obviously a Gorgon has a stone gaze. That if you look at it, you turn to stone. I will note, by the way, in Magic, our Gorgons turn on... Like, Medusa, I believe, in original Greek mythology, just if she looked at you, you'd turn to stone. She couldn't turn it off. It was a punishment.

They were torturing her, basically. The gods can be so cruel. But the... She didn't really deserve it, by the way, if you know the story. Anyway, well... Okay, I don't get into the...

Anyway, the... In our version, in Magic's version of Gorgons, they can turn on and off. Like Vraska, you know, can turn on and off. They turn things to stone when they want to.

It's a conscious decision. But, I'm sort of curious. What is Zathrid from? Here, I'm going to look up what Zathrid is from. This is something I cannot do when I'm in my car. I cannot search for things. Oh, it's from Shandalar.

Let's see. What is Shandalar? Oh, no. It's a major... Zathrid is a major demon worshipped or followed by many people and creatures on Chandelar. Oh, so Chandelar was the setting of

the original Microsoft game that we made way back when, and it served as a setting for a lot of core sets. So that's what Zathrid is. Okay, and there's one more Zathrid. Zathrid Necromancer. This is from Core Set 2014.

So all the Zathrids are from the core sets, because that's where we tend to do a lot. Okay, so Zathrid Necromancer creature. Two and a black, 2-2. Human wizard. When Zathrid Necromancer or another human creature you control dies, create a tapped 2-2 black zombie creature token.

So obviously, we like to make flavor... The new cards in the core sets are super resonant. This was a Necromancer. So what does a Necromancer do? Well, takes dead things and turns them into zombies. So whenever a human dies, I guess this just... Oh, the other interesting thing is that Zathrid Necromancer, if he dies, you also get to choose a zombie. So you get a zombie, even...

He'll come back as a zombie, so that's kind of cool. Oh, there's one more Zathrid. There were four Zathrids. So Zathrid Skyblade from Magic 2015. So it's interesting. Real quickly, Zathrid Demon was in 2010. And then we did a bunch of Zathrids.

So 2013 was the Gorgon. 2014 was the Necromancer. 2015 was the Skyblade. So Zathrid Skyblade, a creature, again, 2 in black, 2, 1, human assassin, hexproof, so you can't target it. Creature can't be targeted, spells, abilities, your opponent controls. 3 in black. Until end of turn, Zathrid Skyblade loses Hexproof and gains First Strike

and Death Touch. So the idea is that she can't be targeted because she's an assassin so it's harder to get her because you can't find her. And then, but if she steps out

of the shadows because she can hide in the shadows, she loses her Hexproof so now you can get her but then she gets First Strike and Death Touch. So she's an assassin

that hides in the shadows that you can't find but when she steps out to assassinate somebody then she gets first strike and death touch. So she's an assassin that hides in the shadows that you can't find. But when she steps up to assassinate somebody, then she becomes vulnerable. So these are all, these are all tough. Oh, by the way, this card was designed by Rob Pardo. So Rob Pardo is a game designer.

And this was in, this was in Magic 2015 we did this thing where we asked game designers to design magic cards so we went and found different game designers and I think Rob Pardo I think at the time might have worked at Blizzard anyway he was one of the people that participated,

and he designed this card. And we don't normally put Hexproof onto black cards. Hexproof normally is in primary in green and blue. We do it a little bit in white. We don't normally do it in black. But the flavor of this was so good. It was such a flavorful thing. I'm like, okay.

We definitely let the Magic 2015 designers have a little bit more flexibility. We did more bends than normal because they were sort of making cool, flavorful cards. And this card is a super flavorful card. Okay, next. Xenagos, God of Revels. Okay, so...

So basically what happened is... Let's see. So Xenagos... There's Xenagos the Reveler. There's Xenagos, there's Xenagos the Reveler, there's Xenagos God of Revels. Is there another Xenagos? That's an interesting question. Let me check real quick.

Is there another Xenagos? Yes. No, there's Fanatica. So I guess Xenagos, you heard about Xenagos. I believe, is that Xenagos? What about the God of revels? Did he show up in the first set? I think he showed up in the second set, right?

Yeah, he showed up in the board of the gods. Okay, so what happened was in the story of Theros, we meet Xenagos. Oh, Xenagos is a planeswalker. So we met him first. Great. We meet him in Theros as a planeswalker.

He's Xenagos the Reveler. We'll get to him in a second. And then he achieves godhood. So in the second set, he becomes Xenagos, god of revelers. There's a vacancy in the red-green god. And so he becomes a red-green god. And so we did this cool thing, which we had never done before. The first set, he's a planeswalker.

And then he becomes another creature type, which becomes a god. A legendary enchantment creature god. Because all of them are. So we had done, like, I'm a creature, I become a Planeswalker, but we had never gotten Planeswalker to become something else. So, okay, I'm gonna go,

normally I'm going in alphabetical order. I'm gonna do Xenagos the Reveler first, since these two cards kind of go together. So Xenagos the Reveler was from Theros. Two red-green I'm going to do Xenagos the Reveler first, since these two cards kind of go together. So Xenagos the Reveler was from Theros. Two red-green, legendary planeswalker Xenagos, loyalty of three, plus one, add X-Man and any combination of red and or green, where X is the number of creatures you control.

Zero, create a 2-2 red and green satyr creature, token with haste. And minus six, X-L, top seven cards of your library. You may put any number of creature and or land cards from among them onto the battlefield. So Xenagos was sort of, he was, he's the leader. He is a satyr, a leader of the satyrs. And he was really into sort of having a good time

and definitely very sort of, what's the word I want? Hedonistic and just out to have a good time. And so we made the Satyr's Wind in red and green and we really made him a fun character and we decided to make him very creature-centric, right? Like he likes a party. So he can make mana, but he needs a lot of creatures to do that

and he can make creatures. And his big ultimate is you can get more creatures. So he really is a creature-focused red-green planeswalker. Okay, so what happens is, he figures out that there is a vacancy, that the red-green god would disappear. We later learn in Theros Beyond Death what happened to the red-green in the underworld. But anyway, so he, through machinations, figures out how to sort of rise to godhood,

and he becomes the Red-Green God. So in Born of the Gods, we have Xenagos, God of Revels. Three Red-Green, legendary enchantment creature god, indestructible. As long as your devotion to Red and Green is less than seven, Xenagos isn't a creature. At the beginning of combat, in your turn, another target creature you control gains haste and gets plus X plus X. You know, end of turn, exit that creature's power. So basically the idea is, the way all the gods work is, until you reach, until you have a certain number of devotion,

and I think it is seven for the multicolored creatures and five for the monocolored creatures, because the multicolored, like, Xenoblade counts both red and green creatures. So again, much like he cares about having creatures in his Planeswalker form, he also very much cares in this form, because devotion sort of pushes in that direction. And then he has an ability that really helps creatures, right? So the idea is he gives haste to something,

so he can make something, be able to attack the turn you play it. And then he gives them plus X, plus X, so he's doubling their power. So as a fan of doubling, a big thanks to Frizenagos, god of revels. And he was a 6'5", if I didn't mention that, when he becomes a creature. And by the way,

he's a legendary enchantment creature because God, because that's what the gods, we're mimicking how the gods were made. And the reason, by the way, the first set had the monocolor, cycle of monocolor gods.

The second set had the ally color gods. And the third set had the enemy-color gods. So we had to make sure the story worked. It turned out the story worked well for him to be in the first set and be a god in the second set. It matched what the story was up to. Okay, next up is Xenic Poltergeist

from Antiquity. So Xenic Poltergeist is the first card that I... In fact, I think at the time there was a card of every letter, but I think X and Q, I think? And Q wouldn't happen until Quorum Trench Gnomes and Legends, the next set.

But Xenic Poltergeist X was one of the ones that hadn't happened yet. I might be missing... There might have been one, like, J or something that might not have happened until Antiquities. Anyway, Xenic Poltergeist, one black black. It's a creature spirit, one one. Tap.

Until your next turn, Target non-creature artifact. Becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness, each equal to its mana value. That's a really cute ability. The idea essentially is it can sort of animate artifacts. I love this card. I played so much with this card. We later realized that really

animating artifacts like Alpha, Dozen, and Blue really is a blue ability. This was in a set all about artifacts, so there was a lot of sort of interacting with artifacts, and this was a relatively new ability, but we later said, okay, this is a cool ability, but really blue is the one that animates artifacts, not black, so we

stopped doing this effect in black, although it's a super cool card. Okay, next, Xenograph from New Phyrexia. Four in a blue, it's an enchantment. As Xenograph enters the battlefield, choose a creature type. Each creature you control is a chosen type in addition to its other types. I think what happens, we made a card called Conspiracy.

When was Conspiracy made? Conspiracy was... in Mercadian Masks. We made a card in Mercadian Masks that basically did what this did, although this only affects creatures you control, so it has to be creatures on the battlefield, where a conspiracy affects creatures in all zones.

But really, once again, it's put in black. Black's not really the one that changes creature types. That really is a blue thing. So we've been talking about, oh, this is a cool card. Let's make this card. And we've been talking about, oh, this is a cool card. Let's make this card. And we tweaked it a little bit, but we finally put it in blue. Because that, once again, that is apparently black.

One of the themes of X cards in black is it does things that blue really should do. Okay, next up is, I think it's Xiaodun, the one-eyed. So this is from Portal 3 Kingdoms. Two black black. I hope I didn't mispronounce it. Legend of Creatures, Human Soldier, 3-2. It's got horsemanship, which is basically what flying was in Portal 3 Kingdoms. By the way, I did a podcast with Henry Stern all about the making of Portal 3 Kingdoms.

So if you want to learn more about how horsemanship happened, you can go listen to that. Anyway, Sacrifice, Ja'u Dunn, the One-Eyed Return, I apologize, I'm mangling his name, return target black cards from your graveyard to your hand actually only during your turn before attackers are declared. So the idea is

it's a 3-2, essentially a flyer, that you can sacrifice it to get back a black card from your graveyard. So this allowed you to sort of get back something.

And once again, there were sorceries in Portal 3 Kingdom, but there were not a lot of sacrifice effects. There were a few, and I think most of them were in black, I believe. Okay, next. Ziraarian.

X-I-R-A. This is from Legends. She was the second ever creature starting with X. The first was Xenoblade. Black, red, green. She's an insect wizard. A legendary creature, insect wizard. Although in her first one, she was originally published. She was just summoned legend.

But anyway, so black, red, green, tap. Target player draws a card. Her original printer card, by the way, said target player draws one card. But in Oracle now, it's target player draws a card. Her original printer card, by the way, said Target Player draws one card. But in Oracle now, it's Target Player draws a card. Anyway, she was... So Legends was the first to introduce legendary creatures, introduce multicolored creatures. I think all the legendary creatures were multicolored. She was one of the more popular ones,

only because, you know, it was a card drawing engine. And at the time, there wasn't a lot of cards you tapped to draw you cards. There was an artifact that did it. Jamie Tome did it in Alpha. But this was the first, I think, creature, I think the first creature that tapped to draw you a card. And she looked cool. She's kind of this insect creature. When we first introduced Legends,

they were just creature type Legend. Legend wasn't even a super type, it was a creature type. And they didn't have any yet. So when it first printed, she was just legend. She had no other creature type. We later went back on the Grand Creature Update

and she became an insect wizard with a natural flavor. Okay, next. Zorn. Another recent card. This is from Adventures in Forgotten Realms. Zorn is two and a red. It's an elemental creature.

Three, two. If you would create one or more treasure tokens, instead create those tokens plus some additional treasure tokens. So it increases all your treasure tokens. I think he's an elemental made out of treasure is the flavor of him. There was a treasure sub-theme that ran through it,

and so I think treasure theme was in two different archetypes, and red was the center of them. So this was made... It's a rare card. So it was was made... It's a rare card. So it was definitely made... I think it was made more for constructed. Obviously it was rare than limited. But it showed up

in limited some of the time. Okay, two more cards and then we are done. Okay, next. Zun Yu Wei Advisor. Once again, I hope I pronounced that correctly. This is another card from Portal for Kingdoms. One ball black, one one. Human Advisor. So the way it was originally

written said, on your turn before you attack, you may tap Zun Yu to give one of your creatures plus two plus zero until end of turn. Now it is a tap ability, because in Oracle. But there were no tap symbols, I believe, in Portal for Kingdoms.

So we just would say, on your turn, we would tell you to tap. There was no symbol for tapping. And all of them, I think, were triggered abilities that happened, you declared before you attacked. So, like, the Oracle text now says tap, but actually only during your turn before attackers are declared. But anyway, the idea is, right before you attack, you can make one of your creatures bigger. You can make himself bigger. But he's a little 1-1, so he was better used on other creatures

because he's an advisor. See, he helped people attack better, but he himself wasn't really good. Okay, the final X card is Zerus, the Rising Storm. This is from Commander 2020. It's a 3-5 legendary creature, Snake Leviathan. It costs two green, blue, red.

So three colors, green, blue, and red, but five mana. Flying. Whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, create a 1-1 green snake creature token. Whenever Xeris the Writhing Storm

deals combat damage to a player, you and that player each draw that many cards. So two abilities, basically. One ability is that it makes you and the player you hit draw a card equal to the power. So, if you attack and you don't pump Xeris, you'll draw three and your opponent will draw three. But, every time they draw a card beyond the first card, you get one green snake. So, for example, on your turn, if you hit them, you'll get two snakes because it's their turn to have you draw a card beyond the first card, you get one green snake. So, for example, on your turn, if you hit them, you'll get two snakes, because it's their turn to have you draw a card.

So they'll draw three cards, but then you get two snakes. And I think this was made, I mean, this was made for a commander, so it's obviously made to be a fun build-around card, which it is. Anyway, that, my friends, is all 18 X cards. I believe... I didn't do the full research. I assumed X would have the least number of cards starting with this letter. I don't definitively know that. But I do know that we don't...

X is a weird card to start with. But it's kind of cool that in, you know, the many years that Magic has been, we've actually made a bunch of X cards. That is something you would think there wouldn't be that many of. But anyway, so now you all know all the cards starting with X in Magic. So I hope you guys enjoy this podcast. I like doing card stories. And while I'm home, it's a lot easier to do card stories than it is in my car.

So I've been trying to do more card design stories just where I have to go through the cards because it's a lot easier to do card stories than it is in my car. So I've been trying to do more card design stories, just where I have to go through the cards, because it's a little easier to do it when I'm sitting at my desk. Like today, I have cross-referencing stuff. I can't do that when I drive. But anyway, I can see my desk. So we all know what that means. It means it's the end of my drive to work.

Instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.