Prefer to watch? The full breakdown is on our channel.
Make every turn count. Zimone, Infinite Analyst rewards you for casting one X spell every turn: the more counters she has, the more of a discount you get, and each first X spell grows her again. The Quandrix Unlimited precon already has the X spells. Our upgrades fix the opening, add interaction that scales with X, and protect the counters that make the engine run. The affordable Budget upgrade is 19 swaps. The premium Baller upgrade is 36 new cards plus one extra basic Island, and it uses the whole turn cycle. Want the full 100-card lists? Here's the Budget list on Archidekt and the Baller list on Archidekt.
Price date: Budget and Baller picks are based on card prices recorded September 24, 2026, when the video was made (the video was published September 26, 2026). Prices change, so check current prices on the store.
Shop the cards: we put the Budget and Baller cards from this guide in one place. Shop the Quandrix Unlimited upgrade cards at Arcane Arena. Cards we have in stock are linked below. We ship to US addresses only.
How the stock deck plays
Watch this part of the video (0:35)
The stock list ramps into Zimone, then spends the game casting X creatures and X spells, with Nev, the Practical Dean, Goldvein Hydra and Hydroid Krasis as the big threats. It works, but the opening is slow, the deck can't do much on other players' turns, and one board wipe resets all your counters. Those are the three things both builds fix.
How Zimone's discount works
Watch this part of the video (0:58)
Rules check: Zimone makes the first spell with X in its cost that you cast each turn cost one generic mana less for each +1/+1 counter on her. Casting that first X spell also puts two +1/+1 counters on her, but those counters arrive after you have paid for the spell, so they discount next turn's spell, not this one. The discount only reduces generic mana, never colored mana. Work out the full cost of every X first, then apply the discount. Doppelgang at X=2 is six generic mana plus green and blue before Zimone helps.
Budget upgrade: 19 swaps
Watch this part of the video (1:22)
A better opening
- Llanowar Elves · turn-one mana.
- Arbor Elf · untaps a Forest. Enchant that Forest with Wild Growth and every untap is worth two mana.
- Wild Growth · an extra green every time the enchanted land taps.
- Farseek · finds any land with the Island type, including a Forest-Island dual like Breeding Pool, and puts it onto the battlefield.
- Incubation Druid · taps for one mana, or for three once it has a +1/+1 counter, and this deck hands out counters constantly.
- Dreamroot Cascade · a green-blue land that enters untapped once you have two other lands.
Keep the engine fed
- Geometer's Arthropod · whenever you cast an X spell, look at the top X cards and keep one.
- Wilderness Reclamation · untaps all your lands at your end step, so you can tap out on your own turn and still hold up countermagic.
- Final-Word Phantom · flash and flying, and during each opponent's end step you can cast spells as though they had flash. Your sorcery-speed X spells now go off at the end of someone else's turn.
Protecting the Budget engine
- Condescend · counter a spell unless its controller pays X, then scry 2. Count their open mana.
- Syncopate · the same tax counter, and a countered spell gets exiled.
- Repulsive Mutation · puts X +1/+1 counters on a creature, then counters a spell unless its controller pays mana equal to your greatest power.
- March of Swirling Mist · phases out up to X of your creatures. They dodge the wipe and keep their counters.
- Inspiring Call · draws a card for each creature with a +1/+1 counter and makes them all indestructible. Note that it stops destroy effects, not exile.
Budget finishers
- Doppelgang · for each of X target permanents, make X token copies. Copy your best Hydra, or your best ramp.
- Pest Infestation · destroys up to X artifacts or enchantments and leaves you twice X Pest tokens.
- Strength of the Tajuru · multikicked +1/+1 counters spread over your team.
- Finale of Revelation · draw X. At X=10 or more, you also shuffle your graveyard back, untap five lands and have no maximum hand size.
- Drown in Dreams · with your commander out you get both modes: draw X, or have a player mill twice X.
Budget: every card in and out
Watch this part of the video (4:35)
In (19): Llanowar Elves; Arbor Elf; Wild Growth; Farseek; Incubation Druid; Dreamroot Cascade; Geometer's Arthropod; Wilderness Reclamation; Final-Word Phantom; Condescend; Syncopate; Repulsive Mutation; March of Swirling Mist; Inspiring Call; Doppelgang; Pest Infestation; Strength of the Tajuru; Finale of Revelation; and Drown in Dreams.
Out (19): Brass Infiniscope; Decisive Denial; Entrancing Melody; Eureka Moment; Expansion Algorithm; Fractal Harness; Ingenious Prodigy; Nexus Mentality; Primal Might; Quandrix Apprentice; Quandrix Charm; Quandrix Command; Striding Shotcaller; Stroke of Genius; Tanazir Quandrix; Temple of the False God; Zimone's Hypothesis; Zimone, All-Questioning; and Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy.
Baller upgrade: 37 swaps
Watch this part of the video (4:54)
Sixteen Budget cards stay: Llanowar Elves; Farseek; Geometer's Arthropod; Repulsive Mutation; Condescend; March of Swirling Mist; Inspiring Call; Drown in Dreams; Wilderness Reclamation; Doppelgang; Dreamroot Cascade; Finale of Revelation; Pest Infestation; Strength of the Tajuru; Incubation Druid; and Wild Growth. Here's what Baller adds on top.
Using the whole turn cycle
- Seedborn Muse · untaps all your permanents during each other player's untap step. You get your full mana on every turn.
- High Fae Trickster · flash and flying, and you can cast all your spells as though they had flash. With Seedborn Muse, every X spell can come down at instant speed.
- Birds of Paradise · one-mana fixing in any color.
- Utopia Sprawl · an extra mana of your chosen color every time the enchanted Forest taps.
- Breeding Pool · a green-blue dual that counts as a Forest for Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl.
- Rejuvenating Springs · a green-blue land that enters untapped in multiplayer.
Turning X into more than a creature
- Branching Evolution · doubles the +1/+1 counters put on your creatures, Zimone included.
- The Earth Crystal · the same counter doubling, plus green spells cost one less.
- Terrasymbiosis · once each turn, when you put +1/+1 counters on a creature you control, you may draw that many cards. You can decline a small event to save it for a big one.
- The Ozolith · when a creature leaves with counters on it, those counters go onto The Ozolith, and you can move them back onto a creature at the beginning of your combat.
- Broodguard Elite · enters with X counters. When it leaves, those counters go onto another creature, and The Ozolith gets a matching set too. That's strong, but it's not an infinite combo.
- Wan Shi Tong, Librarian · flash, X counters and half X cards. Opponents who search their library feed him more.
- Sporocyst · X counters, up to X basic lands from your library (they enter tapped), and a card at X=5 or more.
- Tyrant Guard · sacrifice it to give every creature you control that has counters hexproof and indestructible.
- Heroic Intervention · hexproof and indestructible for everything you control, at instant speed.
- Swan Song · one mana to counter an enchantment, instant or sorcery.
- Slippery Bogbonder · flash, hexproof, and it gathers counters from your other creatures onto one protected creature.
Baller finishers
- Finale of Devastation · tutor a creature onto the battlefield. At X=10 or more, your team gets +X/+X and haste. A creature it finds doesn't get Finale's X.
- Cyclonic Rift · overload it to return every nonland permanent your opponents control to hand, then swing.
- Mathemagics · the target player draws two to the power of X cards. Use it to refill your own hand, or to make an opponent draw more cards than they have left. Agree on that kind of finish with your table first, and count your own library before you aim it at yourself.
Baller: every card in and out
Watch this part of the video (8:46)
In (37): the 16 Budget cards above, plus these 20: Seedborn Muse; High Fae Trickster; The Ozolith; Branching Evolution; Finale of Devastation; Broodguard Elite; Mathemagics; Breeding Pool; Rejuvenating Springs; The Earth Crystal; Terrasymbiosis; Heroic Intervention; Wan Shi Tong, Librarian; Sporocyst; Tyrant Guard; Utopia Sprawl; Swan Song; Birds of Paradise; Cyclonic Rift; Slippery Bogbonder; and one extra Island.
Out, part one (19): every card from the Budget out list.
Out, part two (18): Altered Ego; Benevolent Hydra; Biomass Mutation; Commander's Insight; Deekah, Fractal Theorist; Elementalist's Palette; Guardian Augmenter; Lifeblood Hydra; Mana Bloom; Open the Way; Perplexing Test; Primordial Hydra; Quandrix Campus; Stonecoil Serpent; Study Hall; Temple of Mystery; Troyan, Gutsy Explorer; and Yavimaya Bloomsage.
Upgrading in stages: keep these 16 Budget purchases
Watch this part of the video (9:12)
Built Budget first? Keep the sixteen Budget cards listed above. Syncopate, Final-Word Phantom and Arbor Elf are the only Budget picks that leave. Then add the 20 Baller-only cards plus one Island, and cut the 18 stock cards from part two of the out list. That's 21 in and 21 out, and you're on the exact Baller list.
Which build fits your table?
Watch this part of the video (9:41)
Budget fixes the opening, adds real interaction and protects your counters through a wipe, and it's an easy weekend project. Baller turns every opponent's turn into your turn too, with Seedborn Muse untapping you everywhere and High Fae Trickster letting you cast anything at instant speed. It's a strong-casual build, not cEDH, so talk to your group about the Mathemagics finish before you use it.
A note on prices
We keep prices off this guide on purpose, because singles move constantly and any number here would be stale within a week. The Budget package is built to be genuinely affordable and the Baller build is the premium version. For current, live prices on any of these cards, check them at the store. The Budget and Baller picks reflect prices recorded September 24, 2026.
Build it
Want the full walkthrough with the reasoning on every card? Watch the video here. When you are ready to build, shop the cards: every upgrade from this guide at Arcane Arena. We ship to US addresses only.
More Budget vs Baller upgrade guides
Each one has a Budget upgrade and a Baller upgrade for a Commander precon, with every swap explained.
- Tramplesaurus Rex Upgrade Guide (Ghalta, Primal Hunger)
- Reign of Dragons Upgrade Guide (Lathliss, Dragon Queen)
- Wretched Ranks Upgrade Guide (Ghoulcaller Gisa)
- Multiverse Reforged Upgrade Guide (Jace, Multiverse Architect)
Earlier Budget & Baller guides: Wakanda Forever and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Budget & Baller.
Which precon should we upgrade next? Tell us, and we will put it on the table.
Unofficial fan content. Magic: The Gathering is © Wizards of the Coast. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast. Card and synergy data from EDHREC and Scryfall.