Quandrix Unlimited precon.

How it plays.

Core game plan

Early turns are about mana and setup: lead with Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, or a green ramp spell like Nature's Lore or Three Visits, and try to land a counter doubler such as Hardened Scales or Ozolith, the Shattered Spire before you start dumping counters. Cast Zimone, Infinite Analyst when you can protect her or follow up the same turn, since her two-counters-per-X-spell trigger compounds fast. In the mid game you start casting X-spells: a Goldvein Hydra or Hydroid Krasis, an Ingenious Prodigy for cards, or Lattice Library to spit out Fractal tokens whenever you cast your first X-spell each turn. The deck wants to commit one large threat at a time and grow it rather than overextend. Late game you use Zimone's accumulated discount to deploy a huge X-spell cheaply, double its counters with Tanazir Quandrix or Fractal Harness, and swing for big trample damage. Pull from Tomorrow, Stroke of Genius, and Commander's Insight refuel the hand so you never run dry. If the board stalls, Biomass Mutation or a Fractal Harness double turns a wide board into a one-shot.

Key cards

• Zimone, Infinite Analyst. The face commander and engine: the first {X} spell you cast each turn costs {1} less per +1/+1 counter on her, and casting that spell puts two more counters on her. She makes your hydras and X-effects progressively cheaper while becoming a sizeable threat herself.
• Primo, the Unbounded. The alternate face commander, entering with twice X counters as a trample threat, and turning any base-power-0 attacker (every fresh Fractal token) into more Fractal tokens sized to the damage dealt. He pairs the counters theme with token swarms.
• Hardened Scales. A one-mana enchantment that adds one extra +1/+1 counter every time counters are put on a creature you control. It multiplies hydras, Fractals, and Zimone's growth, and stacks with the deck's other replacement doublers.
• Ozolith, the Shattered Spire. Another +1 replacement effect that also covers artifacts you control, plus a sorcery-speed activated ability to add a counter and a cycling escape hatch if you draw it late. It stacks multiplicatively with Hardened Scales and Kami of Whispered Hopes.
• Tanazir Quandrix. A 3GU flyer that doubles the counters on a target creature when it enters, then can copy its own power and toughness onto your other creatures when it attacks. It converts a single grown hydra into a board-wide threat and is the deck's biggest single counter multiplier.
• Unbound Flourishing. Doubles X on any permanent spell with {X} in its cost, and copies any instant, sorcery, or activated ability whose cost contains {X}. Cast a hydra and it enters twice as big; cast an X removal spell or draw spell and you get a second copy.
• Hydroid Krasis. A flying, trample hydra that draws half X cards and gains half X life on cast, and that draw-and-gain happens on cast so it triggers even if the spell is countered. It is ramp into card advantage into a body, exactly what the deck wants.
• Lattice Library. Enters with X study counters and makes a Fractal token sized to those counters both on entry and every time you cast your first {X} spell each turn. It is a repeatable Fractal factory that lines up perfectly with Zimone's once-per-turn trigger.
• Pull from Tomorrow. An instant-speed Draw X (then discard one) that refills your hand. As your first X-spell of the turn it can be discounted by Zimone and grows her, and it keeps the deck from stalling out after a big play.

Combos and synergies

• There are no infinite two-card combos in this stock list; it is a value-and-snowball deck built on stacking replacement effects. The core engine is multiplicative counter doubling: Hardened Scales, Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, Kami of Whispered Hopes, and Benevolent Hydra each add an extra counter, so running two or three at once turns a small counter event into a large one (each doubler applies in turn, so two of them on a 2-counter event yields 8, not 6). Tanazir Quandrix doubling a hydra's counters, then Fractal Harness or Primordial Hydra's upkeep doubling on top, produces explosive single-turn growth without going infinite. Unbound Flourishing is the best force multiplier: it doubles X on permanent spells and copies X instants, sorceries, and abilities, so a single Stroke of Genius, Curse of the Swine, or Hangarback Walker activation does double duty. Owlin Spiralmancer copying your first X-spell each turn, and Deekah, Fractal Theorist plus Quandrix Apprentice triggering off instants and sorceries, are the supporting value loops. Zimone, All-Questioning in the 99 can also make a Primo, the Indivisible Fractal token whenever you control a prime number of lands on a turn a land entered.

Mulligan

Lines and sequencing

• Try to resolve a counter doubler (Hardened Scales, Ozolith, the Shattered Spire, Kami of Whispered Hopes, or Benevolent Hydra) before you start spending counters, since the doublers are replacement effects and only help counters added after they are on the battlefield
• Sequence your turn so your single most important {X} spell is the first one you cast, because only the first X-spell each turn gets Zimone's discount and only the first one triggers Lattice Library, Owlin Spiralmancer, Nev, the Practical Dean, and her own counter growth
• Hold up Tyvar's Stand or Silkguard to protect Zimone or your biggest hydra; both can fizzle targeted removal, and Guardian Augmenter even gives your commanders hexproof outright
• When you cast Hydroid Krasis or Brass Infiniscope's draw trigger, remember the card draw and life happen on cast, so commit to the X you want even into open mana, since countering the creature still leaves you the cards
• Use Tanazir Quandrix's enter trigger on whichever creature is already biggest, then attack to copy that power and toughness onto the rest of your board for a wide alpha strike
• Cast a permanent X-spell like a hydra or Stonecoil Serpent with Unbound Flourishing out to double X for free, and save instants like Stroke of Genius or Curse of the Swine for when Unbound Flourishing can copy them
• Against go-wide or token decks, Perplexing Test or Oversimplify resets the board, and Oversimplify even hands you a Fractal sized to your own exiled power so you rebuild ahead

Pilot difficulty

Intermediate. Choosing X values and ordering your first X-spell of the turn around Zimone, doublers, and Lattice Library takes some thought, but the deck is forgiving and has no fragile combo to execute.