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Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion cEDH combat beats and combo. With the printing of Underworld Breach and Deflecting Swat, I've been investigating the viability of Neheb in cEDH. While he's certainly not as good as another Mono red commander like Godo, there are certainly some fun things that can be done with the deck and personally, playing on the fringe is more exciting than playing the top commanders. This is still a work in progress, but these are my findings so far.

I like jank commanders and wincons and trying to take them further. Mass rummaging and mana generation in the command zone is useful, and its a very different take on a combo deck.

Pros:

Solid combos

Multiple lines of play

Decent enough protection

Combat BEATS

Uses some interesting cards not often seen in cEDH

No one expects it

Mono Red wins in cEDH wins are the best

Cons:

Mono Red can be restrictive

Fairly commander reliant

Light on tutors

May be an uphill battle sometimes

At his simplest, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion combos with Aggravated Assault for infinite combat steps. The drawback is that you need to discard at least 5 cards per combat and to be unblocked. I prefer to try and drop Aggravated Assault after the damage has gone through, so being able generate additional mana after a Neheb attack is useful. With Nehebs ability to rummage and retain mana he generates though steps for the turn, this can also be used to set up the other combos.

The second combo is another simple one, Dualcaster Mage and Twinflame. Classic compact red combo and individually the cards are also fairly useful. This is usually not what you try to do, but if the stars align or you've lost too many other combo pieces, this works just fine.

Finally, the workhorse of the deck, Underworld Breach. In its own unique combo Underworld Breach is used with Library of Leng and wheels, including Neheb himself. Relevant when someone casts Angel's Grace. Utilising Breach, we can reuse rituals, Lotus Petal etc at the expense of cards dumped into our yard, which is what wheels and Neheb himself do. Mana Geyser is probably our best ritual to pull, however, depending on the situation or yard density, Lotus Petal or the smaller rituals work just as well. Without the wheels, Breach can be used to setup a post combat Aggravated Assault (one you've dumped on purpose or lost to enemy wheels or hand attack) and also facilitate the Dualcaster/Twinflame combo. Emergence Zone can even enable an instant speed win with Breach. Breach is just absolutely bonkers in this deck.

While it is possible to be able to pull off some of the combos listed above on turn two, were usually aiming for about turn 3 or 4. We want to drop Neheb as early as possible and with as many cards remaining in hand and start swinging. We have some haste enablers and protection for Neheb in things like Torch Courier and Lightning Greaves. However, once your meta is aware of what Neheb can do unanswered, he'll start to see removal. His toughness of 4 becomes relevant to get him out of bolt range, but he does eat things like counters and exiles. Luckily, we have a number of reactive spells to protect Neheb, like Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, Bolt Bend, Ricochet Trap, Fork and Deflecting Swat. Swat in particular is so efficient once Neheb is on the field, netting you free removal. Yes, the blue requirement of 3 of these spells sucks sometimes, but its often relevant in most pods.

If Neheb does get answered early however, we are not necessarily out of steam. As mentioned earlier, we still have our Breach and Dualcaster/Twinflame lines, however it can take a turn to get back in the game sometimes. We can grind out well enough here. Cards like Stranglehold, Epicenter and Boil can even the field for you for a while, giving you enough time to stabilise, not to mention the power of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon on multicolour decks. Anger of the Gods and Sweltering Suns provide excellent boardclearing as most creatures in the format are rarely over 3 toughness. Glinthorn Buccaneer can provide great pressure on decks that are based around paying a lot of life for things like Ad Nauseam, Necroptence etc, while Treasonous Ogre can turn our life to mana.

Bag of Holding: Yes, it seems counter-intuitive to exile cards from the yard when you want them there. Yes, timed removal can lose you cards. But the upside of refilling a hand to get huge draws off Neheb? Absolutely game swinging.

Runaway Steam-Kin: Its a bit of an odd card, seems clunky, but turn 1 or 2 this is a great little enabler. When buffed to 4/4, blocks a lot of smaller things. Can be drained mid a chain of rituals or other spells. Very unassuming. Nifty little card imo, has received the nickname Steamboat Willie in my playgroup.

Goblin Engineer: Grabs Greaves or Library of Leng, then turns to mana with Skirk Prospector.

Ideally, we want Aggravated Assault, 4 mana (at least 2 red, preferably by turn 2) and as much free-1cmc protection we can get. Turn 1 Neheb is best of course, but 2 or 3 and a haste enabler can work wonders.

Mulliganing aggressively can hurt Neheb quite a bit, but Wheel of Fortune at least can bring us back into the game. This is probably one of the biggest weaknesses in the deck, but honestly isn't as big a drawback as it might seem.

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Casual

94% Competitive

Revision 4 See all

(3 years ago)

+1 Burnout main
+1 Commander's Plate maybe
-1 Fabled Passage main
+1 Jeska's Will main
+1 Jeweled Lotus main
+1 Nahiri's Lithoforming main
-1 Neheb, the Eternal main
-1 Thrill of Possibility main
-1 Tormenting Voice main
+1 Vandalblast main
Date added 4 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 0 Mythic Rares

43 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

19 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.11
Tokens Copy Clone, Treasure
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