Gaming in the late 90s captured the depths of my imagination. Video games were hitting a fever pitch in popularity and beginning to influence many other mediums as well. This was how I would enter the world of card games with Pokemon. It wouldn't be long before I would be introduced by my cousin to the amazing game that is Magic. It would be even less time before it started to capture my imagination. From my very first games and my earliest boosters, I was enamored with the art and flavor of the game and it pulled me in swiftly in the wondrous year of 1999.

Despite getting into Magic with the Tempest and Urza blocks of the time, it was the creatures of Legends that would truly come to wow me. I didn't get to see most of them in their original printings at first but would come to know them with time through friends and family. I'll never forget the time my friend Zach introduced me to the elder dragons and how awestruck I was when I saw them in my uncle's collection soon after. Not only did that collection have elder dragons in it, but it also had a myriad of other legendary creatures from Legends and their reprints of Chronicles.

Many of these captured my imagination instantly. I'll never forget the first time I saw the art of Richard Kane Ferguson on Dakkon Blackblade and Sol'kanar the Swamp King. Nor will I forget the stunning designs of cards like Johan, Rubinia Soulsinger, and Ayesha Tanaka. In truth, it was often the art that would drive me to these cards the most and I'd come to love many of their abilities - even if they were a far cry from the standards of the day, even then in 1999. But I love them for all their weirdness as it gives them a special charm that persists even now.

One of the ones that I felt truly encapsulated this was Xira Arien. It's such a weird card when you look at it today. It's a Jund insect with flying and an ability that lets you pay and tap her to draw a card. This just feels so uncharacteristic for Jund it's not funny and the art just lends to the weirdness of the whole package. I loved playing with her as a result, as she just felt like a strangely awesome way to draw cards. I even remember once upon a time opening a Japanese pack of Chronicles in the hopes of getting specifically her and being excited when I actually got her.

Now, with the printing of new versions of many of these classic legends in Dominaria United with Legends Retold comes a new Xira. Xira, the Golden Sting is similar to her original card in some respects, being a regal insect woman who can draw you cards, but in a way that feels fitting of a more modern Jund card. Rather than just pumping mana to draw cards, she makes you work for it by making you attack and put counters on opposing creatures. Once you kill those creatures, you then get to draw and you get a little insect out of the deal. Not bad, if a little creepy!

This new card and my love of the original inspired me to bring to you yet another take of Classic Commander featuring a Legends Retold revision. Let's check out a list!

Xira, the Golden Sting | Commander | Paige Smith

• Commander (1)
• 1 Xira, the Golden Sting

• Creatures (37)
• 1 Ant Queen
• 1 Army Ants
• 1 Barbed Shocker
• 1 Birds of Paradise
• 1 Bloom Tender
• 1 Carrion Beetles
• 1 Caustic Crawler
• 1 Caustic Wasps
• 1 Creakwood Liege
• 1 Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1 Elvish Piper
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Gleancrawler
• 1 Golgari Guildmage
• 1 Grave-Shell Scarab
• 1 Heartstabber Mosquito
• 1 Hex Parasite
• 1 Joiner Adept
• 1 Joraga Treespeaker
• 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
• 1 Monstrous Carabid
• 1 Mortipede
• 1 Nantuko Cultivator
• 1 Nantuko Elder
• 1 Nantuko Husk
• 1 Nantuko Shaman
• 1 Nantuko Vigilante
• 1 Necropede
• 1 Phyrexian Swarmlord
• 1 Plague Stinger
• 1 Primordial Sage
• 1 Robber Fly
• 1 Scute Mob
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Symbiotic Beast
• 1 Taurean Mauler

• Instants (6)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Doom Blade
• 1 Go for the Throat
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Putrefy
• 1 Terminate

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Decimate
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Maelstrom Pulse
• 1 Night's Whisper

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Beastmaster Ascension
• 1 Cover of Darkness
• 1 Phyrexian Arena

• Artifacts (7)
• 1 Coalition Relic
• 1 Darksteel Plate
• 1 Door of Destinies
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Trigon of Infestation

• Lands (37)
• 1 Mountian
• 6 Swamp
• 10 Forest
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Karplusan Forest
• 1 Llanowar Wastes
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Savage Lands
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Swarmyard
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 Tainted Wood
• 1 Vivid Crag
• 1 Vivid Grove
• 1 Vivid Marsh

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With Xira being a legendary insect and making insects, my first instinct was to try making a sort of insect tribal deck. Now, there's not really many insect lords or anything and to be frank most of the insects in Magic - and especially Classic Commander - are pretty rough. That made it a little bit more challenging than I'd have wanted, but hey I like a challenge. Thankfully, while the majority of insects are pretty rough, there were a handful of particularly notable ones that still managed to stand out!

Gleancrawler was a very quick and obvious pick for a deck like this. The Golgari Swarm fittingly offers a lot in the realm of insect-style cards and Gleancrawler is a great top end that keeps your creatures coming back. Thanks to the Golgari we also have Grave-Shell Scarab and Mortipede, as well as the non-insect cards of Putrefy and Golgari Guildmage. There's a handful of potent infect creatures in Plague Stinger, Necropede, and Phyrexian Swarmlord - which can spit out even more tokens - to sneak in some quick kills. And if you need more tokens, you've always got the likes of Ant Queen to get the token making chain rolling.

There're also a few insects that offer some pretty solid utility. I was somewhat surprised to see Caustic Wasps pop up on my radar, as it's basically a Trygon Predator that only hits artifacts. Repeatable artifact hate is strong, and this is definitely a sweet option to have! Carrion Beetles was another fun find in that it can take out multiple cards from graveyards repeatedly for cheap each turn, which can keep many decks in check. Hex Parasite sucks away counters and kills planeswalkers as well, while a well-placed Caustic Crawler can wipe out opposing creatures. And if you need to filter through your deck a little, Nantuko Cultivator's got your back, allowing you to discard a bunch of useless chaff to get to the good stuff.

I almost went with a slight elves sub-theme as the excellent Wirewood Hivemaster makes a bunch of insect tokens for you playing some mana dorks to ramp your deck. Unfortunately, the Hivemaster didn't end up making the cut, but there are still some great elves in the mix. Most are just mana dorks but Elvish Piper can help you get big creatures out quick and the aforementioned Golgari Guildmage can help you cycle through cards to keep your creature chain going. And if you start running out of steam, cards like Phyrexian Arena and Primordial Sage will help keep the draws coming again.

Once your board has enough setup, you've got a few options to pump up your creatures. Door of Destinies and Beastmaster Ascension are two of the more obvious ones, as you get bonuses from simply playing creatures and attacking. Creakwood Liege is another simple one, but this not only pumps your creatures but makes new ones as well. They're not quite insects, but hey, worms are close enough right? If all else fails, you get the repeatable pumps of good ol' Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to bring the deck home and beat in your opponents' faces.

With this deck, you might also be able to use both versions of Xira as well. Unlike the last two Legends Retold Classic Commander decks, which featured legends that were originally vanilla and dull, this one has an original legend that's actually quite solid. As such, you can do what I've been doing for the other lists and simply run the new legend as a placeholder over the classic Xira Arien or you can do it a little differently. It's not hard to find a cut here or there and slip in the original. Most of the insects are rough enough that you can find a substitution and then put the actual insect back into the deck if playing true Classic Commander with Legends Xira helming the deck instead.

What you end up with isn't always going to be the cream of the crop and the best of the best of decks when it comes to Commander. The thing is, though, not everything needs to be the greatest and can instead just play off a fun theme in cool and inventive ways. I think an insect-based Xira does that quite well and pulls it off in a fairly solid fashion. Give it a try with your friends at your next Commander night and see firsthand just what the buzz around Xira is all about!

Paige Smith

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