Starring:
and...
I bought nekusar when commander 2013 was released, and after playing him for a few years, he soon became my pet deck and I invested years of time, money and theory into him, and he has turned into a true razer of minds, able to mill or damage spike opponents all while forcing them to loot through their decks as you do so!
After nearly 6 years, I am now "that guy" at my local game store that kills entire tables with nekusar, he's so fast and efficient he can compete with tier 1 cEDH commanders even though he's only tier 3.
The deck has evolved to a point where people will only play against nekusar with other expensive, top tier commanders. I usually dont bother playing him with casual decks as he is too unfair and can combo out before the game gets going
Its worth noting that although
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
and
Kess, Dissident Mage
are technically superior commanders for storm and competitive play, I was aware of this already, having also played with jeleva from the precon and kess as a potent new part of the 99. Secondly, this deck is much different than the other 2 due to its focus on wheel (mass, global looting) effects rather than storm spells, and this deck is designed for interactive multiplayer where I have plenty of interaction with opponents (i found decks that only interact with themselves boring, even though i do own a prossh deck it bores me), which makes the game more interesting and fun, while still being able to kill a whole table with draw damage or mill, as well as the fact that all of the high-threat interactions makes me the archenemy more often than not, but more than half the time, I can still wheel my heart out and win as the archenemy in a true grixis/bolas fashion! >:D
for wheel/storm deck beginners, running
Library of Leng
serves as excellent training wheels by allowing you to assess what cards you would and would not want to discard to your own wheels, but i would not recommend running it because by "saving" your cards from being discarded, you are denying yourself card advantage because rather than filling graveyard with spells
BUDGET version
for my budget alternative list for those who arent budgetless, see here
budget alternative
Wincons:
chaining
Wheel of Fortune
s with an
Underworld Dreams
effect in play for lethal using artifact ramp for speed and Board wipes to stave off opposing armies, as nekusar doesnt run many creatures and wont always get a good amount of zombies from
Waste Not
Wheel multiple times, then cast a
Timetwister
effect and shuffle the wheels back into your deck and usually your hand
Before you are able to wheel off, a few things need to happen.
The first is setup, this is done through the various mana rocks such as
Dimir Signet
,
Mana Crypt
,
Mox Diamond
and
Grim Monolith
Second to ramp is staving off creatures or answering opponents threats to buy enough time to combo out, this is done via plenty of creature wipes such as:
Blasphemous Act
Damnation
Toxic Deluge
Evacuation
Rakdos Charm
to punish token/swarm/beatdown decks, potentially for lethal
As well as protecting nekusar, his pain enchantments, mana, and wheels with counterspells/permission and other mass wipes like
Cyclonic Rift
and
Vandalblast
Casting
Yawgmoth's Will
,
Dream Halls
,
Mind Over Matter
, a
Kess, Dissident Mage
,
Time Spiral
or
Mizzix's Mastery
usually lets you cast enough wheel effects to end the game via flashback effects and pain spells,
overloading
Mizzix's Mastery
for multiple wheels/tutors or discarding to untap lands/mana rocks with
Mind Over Matter
or cast free wheels with
Dream Halls
usually wins you the game when it resolves, as you can essentially wheel for free a surprising amount of times for insane burst damage!
In the case of infinite life or damage immune opponents, milling them out with wheels, or
Chains of Mephistopheles
is always an option for mill, although its very situationally competitive as it slows drawing cards down to a crawl. you can slice through their
Timetwister
draw/graveyard shuffle value by exiling several hands of 7 by using
Memory Jar
in conjuction with
Sculpting Steel
to stack the "exile your hand" ability, or by nuking a graveyard with
Bojuka Bog
or
Rakdos Charm
before you 'twister, causing their decks to be much smaller than yours and thus they deck themselves before you when you cast more wheels afterward.
Finally, you can steal their draw with
Notion Thief
in order to cast a very large
Windfall
later on and prevent opponents from drawing answers
combine
Notion Thief
,
Anvil of Bogardan
or nekusar himself with
Chains of Mephistopheles
to create a soft lock where opponents cannot draw cards, with chains in play, a
Wheel of Fortune
would cause everyone to dump their hands and draw nothing, this is an alternate win condition via deck milling/draw lock in case nekusar draw damage doesnt cut it, and you negate your own self mill with
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Evacuation
or an overloaded
Cyclonic Rift
and other bounce effects like
Cryptic Command
are INSANELY potent when followed up with a
Windfall
or
Wheel of Fortune
, bounce their permanents then force them to be discarded, usually at some life cost as well
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
+ wheels or mill from
Chains of Mephistopheles
allows you to wheel or mill opponents out while continuously shuffling your graveyard back into your library to get around it
Sideboard:
the sideboard is for cards that would be in mainboard situationally, and thus I dont think they're worth a slot in my meta, in other metas they are mainboard worthy without question
Creature hate:
Torpor Orb
Breathstealer's Crypt
Blasphemous Act
The decks main weakness as a spellslinger deck is that i dont have a lot of blockers with or without
Waste Not
tokens, the sideboard is even more creature hate for swarm, aggro, tribal and combo decks
Protection:
Stifle
,
Misdirection
and other permission spells like
Mindbreak Trap
help against storm and counterspells/other blue decks.
Stifle
in particular is one of the few ways to interact with opposing
Bojuka Bog
or
Tormod's Crypt
effects, which can be devastating after several wheels
Fork
is mainly a utility spell primarily used on wheels to double up for lethal damage, however outside of wheel doubling they dont often see much use, if i were to run this i would probably include most of the functional reprints to maximize fork effects.
cards to run in a fork build
Twincast
Reverberate
Fork
Reiterate
Increasing Vengeance
Bonus Round
in more casual playgroups,
Hive Mind
,
Forced Fruition
and
Swarm Intelligence
can get pretty silly when you cast
Wheel of Fortune
. :)
Anti-lifegain:
Glistening Oil
I dislike infect like everyone else, but in the event my opponents have near-infinite life its an alternate way to win when enchanted to nekusar besides the mill strategy,
Phyresis
also works if running both is necessary
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
is a second graveyard shuffle effect, in case kozilek isnt enough to keep your graveyard safe or an
Entomb
target, ulamog can also be ran if destroying a permanent is more beneficial than drawing 4 cards
Chains of Mephistopheles
, it nukes hands when wheels go off and is mainly good with nekusar's effect to force looting, however its good against decks with infinite life or a lack of recursion as well as being an alternate win com via milling with wheels rather than drawing. running
Necropotence
and
Anvil of Bogardan
creates a draw lock (anvil + chains) while allowing you to draw as many cards as you can/need with necropotence, while not worrying about discard exile due to anvil
Hope you like the deck! If you do, dont be shy, give it an upvote, i would love to make this a better primer for new nekusar players