I'm continuing my "I read the comments" theme this week. Last week I got a request from a reader and I liked the idea a lot.

"But Jason" I can sense you all thinking "aren't you worried about DMX being upset about the title of this article" and I just want to remind you that DMX will never find this article and we're probably good. If he does, [insert your own joke about one of us stopping, dropping, shutting the other down and setting up shop].

"But Jason" I hear you also saying "what would an X deck look like? What are you trying to include to make the most of his unique abilities?" Well, I'm glad I pretended you asked. To me, X is a very powerful commander because even if they get rid of him in one of the ways someone might in Limited, such as discarding him, you can choose to have him go in the command zone. I wish we could use Illusionist's Bracers or Training Grounds to really cheat, but since X is too sneaky to be considered in play, we're stuck activating him the old fashioned way. That's OK, because the rest of our deck can be all about getting that value. What would the deck look like?

20 Bushels -- Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 X

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Clever Impersonator
• 1 Clocknapper
• 1 Consuming Aberration
• 1 Defective Detective
• 1 Dimir Doppelganger
• 1 Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1 Evil Twin
• 1 Faerie Artisans
• 1 Fatespinner
• 1 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1 Graveyard Busybody
• 1 Hostage Taker
• 1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
• 1 Memnarch
• 1 Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker
• 1 Phoebe, Head of SNEAK
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Spy Eye
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

• Instants (12)
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Disallow
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Memory Plunder
• 1 Spell Counter
• 1 Spelljack
• 1 Very Cryptic Command

• Sorceries (11)
• 1 Acquire
• 1 Bribery
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Expropriate
• 1 Five-Finger Discount
• 1 Knowledge Exploitation
• 1 Mouth to Mouth
• 1 Praetor's Grasp
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Subcontract
• 1 Traumatize

• Enchantments (6)
• 1 Control Magic
• 1 Greed
• 1 Mind's Dilation
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Treachery

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (38)
• 10 Swamp
• 15 Island
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Tainted Isle
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Watery Grave

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I think I loaded this with enough ways to swipe their stuff to satisfy anyone. Unlike my Rubinia Soulsinger Enchantress deck, though, we actually have ways to kill combo decks that don't play a ton of creatures (I'm still going to play that deck forever because it's hilarious against creature decks) so I think this is pretty solid. We could build a few subthemes to this deck by swapping a few cards around.

Graveyard Busybody and Over My Dead Bodies are a pretty good combo and you can make sure those and our existing spells like Rise of the Dark Realms are even better if we have a decking subtheme. Nemesis of Reason, Fleet Swallower, Traumatize and Mind Funeral really dump a ton in their yard and that lets us have a large selection of their stuff to hit them with. We can even just one-shot with Consuming Abberation and Rogue's Passage.

We can add more "on hit" creatures like Ophidian which means we need to add cards like Whispersilk Cloak. Spy Eye is pretty good in that role but adding a few more to join the ranks of cards like Thada Adel, Acquisitor would be good. Adding a few sneaky Rogues increases our chances of hitting the prowl cost on Knowledge Exploitation, which is super helpful. Shaving some of our non-hitters like Phoebe and Faerie Artisans can make some room.

If you like casting spells like Bribery, Acquire, and Praetor's Grasp, try adding cards like Snapcaster Mage, Archaeomancer and friends to rebuy our spells. We can add ways to bounce our creatures to continue to re-buy those spells, sacrificing their creatures when necessary to give us mana to keep replaying Bribery and Acquire. I recommend stealing mana rocks when you can to fuel your future ambitions. One tap of their Sol Ring is worth 40 mana according to Sun Tzu. It won't actually tap for 40 but it will feel like it when you have 4 mana worth of cards that a lot of people think are too good for Commander and they have 0.

All in all I think this is a fun deck and I appreciate the opportunity to make the same tired DMX joke as everyone else. There are a lot of different ways you can customize this shell, or play it as-is for maximum creature theft. If you have any suggestions, just know that I read the comments. This was a blast. I'll be back in a week and will most likely be doing a 2017 retrospective. We learned a lot about how to build 75% this year and I'm looking forward to seeing exactly what. Until next time!