Pointed Discussion

This looks to me like a commander general. Legendary creature? Yes. Multicolored? You got it. Awesome ability that gets past mana restriction of commander? Sure thing! Shame it's more of a UB ability, I guess they didn't want him to steal Ashoik's thunder without being somehow connected to our sexless planeswalker.

Great equip/aura target, since no big creatures can block him. The added spell steal bonus makes him highly versatile, like using Noxious Revival to put opponent''s card on his or her library.

I bet this card tells a story. I see Daxos as a leader character. Someone who went on a journey to recruit the finest warriors, scholars and miscreants in all the land. Each of them had given him a challenge to win them over. So he had to use his cunning and tenacity in order to show them that he was capable leader. None of them where able to stand in his way and folded to his mastery, becoming a part of his band of adventurers for the gods. Where this ability would normally be associated with Blue/black, it fits perfectly in White/blue if we look at in this light.

Daxos reminds me of Odysseus of whom he may have been inspired by. I look forward to playing with this card and I feel his mechanics do show a bit of his character. I am very interested in learning more about him now and I hope at least part of my prediction is correct.

Beautiful white blue hero flavor. While the other heroes are straight out fighting monsters, this guy slips behind them and manipulates others into fighting for him, just as any clever hero would.

A few obvious combos - aqueous form is amazing - and in spite of his evasive abilities this guy is the first one I want to put it on. Doublestrike, be it fireshrieker or Ajani, caller of the pride - will double the magic, and double the fun.

In set - Ephara's Warden seems a designed combo

this wording has been long awaited

Been playtesting this guy for a little while now. Here's my findings:

Getting his ability off nice and early in the game is GAMEBREAKING. From games I've played, the ability to save your own hand and play your opponent's cards, most of which will be good, puts you so far ahead card advantage-wise. You either steal a useful card, exile something you can't play (but could still be useful to your opponent) but gain a ton of life for free, or exile one of their lands and watch as they, quite consistently (from my various plays), miss their important land drops. There's no situation where hitting with this guy is not worth the swing, because you're gaining life or exiling/stealing their resources in the process.

The fact that you have until the end of the turn to play the card you hit makes exiling counterspells even more lovely. ("No, I don't believe you will be casting 'at the end of my turn.'") Again, I have to stress that the worst-case scenario - hitting a land - is actually amazing early in the game. Not so much late game, but by then a good chunk of your opponent's lands are gone and you have the mana to play his creatures. He's another wonderful card to drop after a harsh-on-both-sides Verdict (on-color!) or other Wrath effect.

However, he doesn't do anything when he hits the field, which is troublesome. I've already had several games where he's been the best card in my hand, but I waste 2 turns trying to bring him out only to have him bounced/countered/destroyed. He has evasion, but little protection and Gray Ogre stats, which just doesn't help when you're losing a race. He dies to Magma Jet, which hurts a lot considering R/G's popularity.

Overall, I'm giving him 4/5. I wish I could do 5/5, since I 100% love the bojangles out of him and knew, the moment I saw him, that I wanted to build a deck around him, but he falls short at some key points in the duel. I would say he's great very-early game and late game, but nowhere in between. Rush this guy out if you can, but don't go off-curve or particularly out of your way to get him onto the field.

This is quite amazing for EDH, although it's going to have a great big target on it. That ability is powerful and not to be trifled with at any point in the game.

Hey look it's Brad Pitt!

I feel like the point of using this guy as a commander would be to just deal 21 damage with him. The only other pseudo-unblockable creatures I can think of, that are legendary, are a few with intimidate. But they all cost 6 or more mana. He is also in the colors of flying, unblockable, and pro-creatures. (Which makes him even more evasive) I kind of wish he didn't have that lengthy second ability and he instead just had hexproof.

No creature with even Power and Toughness can profitably block him with his evasive ability and the stealing effect if fun card advantage with built in survivability from the life gain. 4.2/5.

Holeeeee crap, this card does it all. To count it off:
- Evasion, par for the course for UW but with a unique twist. With a couple of auras and/or first strike (not hard for white to muster) it's either damage or death for the defending player.
- Lifegain, which by itself isn't too impressive, but can be nice if it's stapled onto another ability. Such as...
- Card theft. With mana of any color. And at any point of the turn at that. That kind of thing alone can upset games.
- All, for a measly 3 mana. I only wish this had a third color just so I could put it in a more flexible EDH deck.
This will be a beast in just about any format. I'm thinking it's about as scary as good old Saint Traft. So keep your eye out for it.

The Heroes in Theros don't seem very heroic at all to me. For example: this guy is a thief. Another example: almost none of the cards with heroic are anything other than faceless mooks.

This would combo well with Venser, the Sojourner I imagine.

"you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast it." This. Bypasses EDH's rules about not being able to add mana to your mana pool of a color other than that of your general. Previously only available on Mycosynth Lattice and I think one other card. Anyway, this is what makes this guy a brilliant general.

Perfect replacement for the Geist. He has evasion, lifegain, and the ability to steal a topdeck. And he makes a fun general too!

WHY? blue white is already too good. Well blue green white... but still

This guy doesn't have just a moonstone, he has a whole goddamned moon boulder.

Council of the absolute, meet daxos, daxos, council of the absolute. Your best friend cant use his favorite card, and you take it from him and play it for less.
SO MUCH FUN!

I pulled DoM outta the first Theros booster I cracked and was shocked that he wasn't a mythic. (one more point of power and he would be, I reckon.) I find he combos great with Angelic Accord. EDH material for sure. I think of DoM as an insurance card. At the very least, he can eat a Murder so someone else can live to fight. (Assuming he dosent steal that Murder.) Actually ended up jacking my buddy's Ajani, Caller of the Pride on the first game I played with him. That was satisfying. One of the best cards in the past few sets in my humble opinion. (Sorry, Geist of St. Traft...)

Beware of Scorpions!

What I find amazing is no one is talking about the synergy using Daxos and other good cards. By using whispersilk cloak, Daxos can't be blocked and can't be targeted by spells. Of course, Jace, the mind sculpter can help Daxos in several ways. First by looking at the top of opponent's deck; then by brainstorming. Daxos is going into a control deck I'm currently building.

Wow, this card is absolutely obnoxious.

I'm gonna call him Sweet Pea. Why?

The word mellitus comes from the classical Latin word meaning "sweetened with honey" or "honey-sweet". It was Thomas Willis who in 1675 added "mellitus" to the word "diabetes" as a designation for the disease, when he noticed the urine of a diabetic had a sweet taste. This sweet taste had been noticed in urine by the ancient Greeks, Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, and Persians.
-Wikipedia

Look, Daxos, I like you. I really like you. Your stealing stuff, totally fits in with my Stealing Stuff Commander deck. Your Legendary Status would make you Commander material. Your "cast as though", pure Commander catnip. There's just one issue, and I think we both know what it is.

It's your colour. I mean, losing Act of Treason was bad enough, but losing Dominus of Fealty over the Hybrid technicality is a bit too much. I've reviewed your suggestion to put Zedruu the Greathearted in charge, but he's more of a "giver" than a "taker". Oh, and don't mention Rubinia Soulsinger. I'm still very cross about that interview.

And... well, there's this girl. Her name's Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge, and we kind of share a lot of the same interests, and she's promised she can totally get me a meeting with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, and she's got her own Preconstructed deck...

Oh, please don't cry. Maybe they'll errata Yore-Tiller Nephilim one of these days! And technically Stealing appears in all the colours.
...

Can we still be friends in Theros Limited?

Exiling and stealing cards are great, but knowing what I'm exiling or stealing would help. Daxos asks, "Hey, Azorius Charm could you do me a favor and return this guy to the top of his library so I can get him to join us? Worst case scenario he'll get sent into oblivion."

Does the 'you may cast this card' text mean that you could play a stolen land even if you've already played a land that turn?

@deathtouchRoadrunner

Lands are not spells and therefore can't be cast.

I want to put this odysseus-like fellow in my EDH deck as the general. That way I can really not invest huge dollars on my own cards and just play with my opponent's jank stuff. It's great if you have cards that see what's at the top of opponents' decks obviously. Or good old cards like Time Ebb, which put cards there directly. There's hardly anything more fun than that, really.

Oh my goodness. He only says "you may cast that card until end of turn," not "you may cast that card as long as it remains exiled." That means that if you put the opponent's commander on top of their library and then deal combat damage with Daxos, you can cast the opponent's commander even if it's been sent back to the command zone!

Best of all, the additional mana required to recast a commander only applies to the card's owner, so you don't even have to pay any additional tax to do it!

Here is a statement from a judge verifying this:

http://magicjudge.tumblr.com/post/66749649488/

This guy's cute and all but...in my local meta, he has this hidden triggered ability called "Dies". It activates whenever he enters the battlefield or attacks.

In draft: "Daxos of Meletis"
"Magma Jet" or "Lightning Strike" or "Pharika's Cure"
"Okay..."

In Standard: "Daxos of Meletis"
"Doom Blade" or "Lightning Strike" or "Magma Jet" or several other cards.
"Okay..."

This isn't to say that he dies to removal. Lots of cards do that. He just dies to A LOT of removal. And since he has such a big target on his head, that makes him nigh-worthless for competitive play. If he were a 1/3, I think he'd be much better. It would allow him to survive the most common and cheapest forms of damage-based removal. You're not playing him because a 2/2 for 3 CMC is a good bargain, after all, and lots of other, more powerful things die to Doom Blade.

His psuedo-unblockable ability also isn't as relevant as people think, either. Keepsake Gorgon is a 2/5 and just kills him (with Deathtouch or by going Monstrous), Omenspeaker is a 1/3 that will wall him all day, and that Scorpion whose name escapes me trades waaay up with him.

Now, if you want to talk potentially overpowered and Mythic quality, make him a 2/3 and see how much better he becomes. People are comparing him to Geist of Saint Traft and I find that comparison insane. Geist was essentially 6 hexproof power, 4 of which was flying, for 3 mana. The only way to get rid of him was to favorably block him, and even then you'd probably still be taking 4 from the token, which, in Ravnica, could be Populated for permanence. Daxos is a 2/2, somewhat-unblockable for 3 mana that will never net you a card because every deck in any format has either removal for his face or chumps for him to eat.

Amazing in EDH:
- low cost, even after 3 hardcasts he is affordable and by that time you will win anyway
- the right colors, you get wipers and counterspells, as well as any utility you need (way to many to list here) to sneak few swords. Plus reanimation, etc.
- evasion, better than anything else, as 2/3s are rarely seen in EDH, while 2/2, 1/1s, etc are rarely expendable.
- life gain, huge as you get to pick from the usually high cost stuff in someone's deck.
- steals good stuff, you will never forget if he steals a sword or a whispesilk cloak.

Already the best UW commander.

It's pretty cool how this guy nails down the feel of Theros's "assistance of the gods" idea without actually having any of the keywords. On his own he'll run into a bear and flop dead, but give him some extra P/T or some evasion and suddenly he becomes a powerhouse like no other. Ran him in a WU draft last night. There's nothing quite like using griptide on a big bomb the turn before you swing in with him.

In limited, this combos nicely with Griptide If you want to know what's on top of your opponent's library. Decent way to be sure to hit, get the life, and either as removal or a control magic if you have the mana (more easily doable if you can Griptide on the end of your opponent's turn)

@MisterAction: The CompRules have been changed now, so that the "commander tax" applies to all players who cast him.

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/284b&page=3

I pulled this dude from a booster, and immediately dropped him into my Derevi EDH deck. Maybe not game-breaking-ly powerful, but really fun.

Turn 3: Daxos
Turn 4: Pass, use Derevi's last ability to flash her in and tap a would be attacker/blocker.
Turn 5: Cast whatever, swing with Daxos and Derevi, untap a couple mana sources (bounce lands or Basalt Monolith, anyone?) and cast their shtuff.

Try it once or twice, and try not to smile like a moron. I dare you.

I'm amazed no one is mentioning how good he becomes with Enchants... Following the theme much like Bruna and the ilk.

"Can't be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater"

Well then, slap a simple +2/+2 on him or something, and you pretty much force your opponent to do 2 for 1, 3 for 1, trades. Or just let him through for a ton.
(Granted, he still dies to removal, so doom blade etc :P). But with how many amazing protective Aura/Enchant cards W/U have access too, he'd be laughing! And at such a cheap cost I wouldn't even mind if he dies once or twice in Commander, still cheaper!

So good. EDH POWER.

@syrazemyla - Interestingly, though, that article fails to point out that under the revised rules, you only pay commander tax for each time you have cast that commander from the command zone.

Which is relevant if you've managed to steal the same commander multiple times during the same game, but no where near as much of a nerf as it sounds like.

Doran, the Siege Tower trolls this guy.

Go home Daxos! You're drunk!

The best general in all of Theros, better than any of the gods

The gods might be more powerful, but they are less flexible and more of a target. Daxos, on the other hand, is good enough to be a serious contender, but not so good that he paints a target on your forehead. The life gain is neat and there are about a billion different ways to build a deck around him. My current build seeks to deny draws and take the best spells my opponent has right out of their deck. I run a stone blade engine to back him up (dat flavor) so he can swing without any problems.

As for colors, this is probably one of the strongest color combos in EDH. For 3-color you are looking at BUG, RUG, and Junk as the best 3 based on results (though RUG is most likely due to Maelstrom Wanderer being prevalent). White is fantastic for the removal it has, so much board wipe. Blue is the best color anyway. He's an awesome 2-color aggro commander and so incredibly flavourful.


4.5/5 for flavor, synergy and utility.

Great fun with Lantern of Insight

t3 drop daxos
t4 drop a ocular halo, swing with daxos.
t5 give daxos vigilance, swing, then at end of opponent's turn, tap to draw a card.
Rinse and repeat, casting their cards. Add Call to Serve for additional evasion, and guaranteed survival against any 2/* that block him, barring deathtouch.