Burning Wheels: Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Commander / EDH Combo Control Cruel Control Theme/Gimmick UBR (Grixis) Wizards

ramen44

Creature (10)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dragon Mage
• 1x Fate Unraveler
• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Kederekt Parasite
• 1x Master of the Feast
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Trinket Mage

Land (36)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 7x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riptide Laboratory
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Enchantment (14)

• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Dream Halls
• 1x Exquisite Blood
• 1x Forced Fruition
• 1x Helm of the Ghastlord
• 1x Liliana's Caress
• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Possibility Storm
• 1x Underworld Dreams
• 1x Waste Not
• 1x Wound Reflection

Artifact (16)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Memory Jar
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Temple Bell

Instant (12)

• 1x Cerebral Vortex
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Hinder
• 1x Insidious Dreams
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Psychic Strike
• 1x Spell Crumple
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Wheel and Deal

Sorcery (11)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Wheel of Fate
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change

Commander (1)

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Copied deck "Razing the stakes" from Alizer313 and then edited to reduce cost and add my own personal touch.

After countless edits here's what I have realized:

This deck could use an increase in card quality that would come at a hefty price. These improvements have been noted. And It could also run faster dual lands, but those lands are like ten bucks a pop or more. There are also some more expensive utility lands that would benefit this deck such as Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold to name a few. That being said I kept the Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth because having ample black mana sources is invaluable. Speaking of invaluable: Consecrated Sphinx.

Combos / Useful Gems

Mind Over Matter + Wheel effect = discard to untap a lot of stuff (like mana rocks) before casting wheel.
Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell + Pain effect like Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Mind Over Matter + Library of Leng
Sire Of Insanity + Library of Leng
Sire Of Insanity + Liliana's Caress
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Mind Over Matter
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind + Helm of the Ghastlord
Phyresis + Nekusar, the Mindrazer or Fate Unraveler now you only need to do 10 damage
Exquisite Blood Getting this card down will make your odds of winning go up tremendously.
Wound Reflection Now you only need to do half the work.
Forced Fruition with as many pain cards as you can stack.
Insidious Dreams + Wheel effect for a huge play.
Cerebral Vortex This card adds some explosivity after using wheel effects.
Dream Halls This card allows you to wheel and play everything until you can't wheel again.
Waste Not High value card.
Possibility Storm I considered taking this out for a more straightforward card, but I think I will laugh anytime i get this in a hand and that is priceless.
Riptide Laboratory + Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Dragon Mage, Jace's Archivist, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, or Trinket Mage.

Wheel of Fortune style effects or simply: Wheels

Memory Jar
Molten Psyche
Reforge the Soul
Wheel of Fate
Whispering Madness
Windfall
Winds of Change
Dragon Mage
Wheel and Deal
Jace's Archivist

Not too much to say about these. They are the crux mechanic of the deck. Wheel effects add chaos and pain while also allowing you access to a lot of your deck each game, that being said, don't get attached to your hands. Dragon Mage and Jace's Archivist are nice because of the play with Riptide Laboratory. A shoe in that isn't here is Wheel of Fortune.

Tutors

Demonic Tutor
Insidious Dreams is an amazing card for a sweet Windfall.
Trinket Mage will be great with Riptide Laboratory.
Archmage Ascension looks easy to activate and is inexpensive.
Diabolic Tutor
Lim-Dul's Vault
Increasing Ambition

Here I focused on a few inexpensive tutors that would get the job done. I think the flashback on Increasing Ambition will make it a decent pick for the deck if one cannot afford the obviously better Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal , Gamble, Mystical Tutor or Intuition. I was given a Demonic Tutor from a friend who had a damaged copy but replaced with a near mint or else I would not run it due to the ($10 cost).

Card Draw

Mind's Eye
Sensei's Divining Top
Consecrated Sphinx
Temple Bell
Forced Fruition

Outside of the wheel effects I looked for lasting and powerful card draw. Temple Bell is good for comboing with Mind Over Matter. Forced Fruition could backfire hard, so have a solid board of pain before casting. Sensei's Divining Top is a winning card, Crystal Ball is not. Scroll Rack would be incredible in this deck.

Counterspells

Forbid
Hinder
Spell Crumple
Swan Song

Forbid is an obvious pick because the buyback can be paid willingly. There are only 4 counterspells in this deck, they are to be used wisely, but perhaps more are needed. They are fairly strong, I wanted the few that I had to be very firm. Hinder , and Spell Crumple are both great for tucking commanders because I am that evil. Swan Song is only 1 mana so I felt it would be a good addition. A useful counter to add would be Pact of Negation, or Mana Drain.

Pain

Niv-Mizzet,the Firemind
Liliana's Caress
Phyrexian Tyranny
Underworld Dreams
Wound Reflection
Bloodcheif Ascension
Exquisite Blood
Phyresis

I tried to focus on having more draw pain than discard pain since discarding isn't a main feature of the deck and an enemy's Reliquary Tower could put an end to discarding.Things to mess around with could be Gratuitous Violence, Megrim, or Kederekt Parasite.

Board wipes / Show Stoppers

Decree of Pain
Plague Wind
Cyclonic Rift
Pox

Recursion

Beacon of Unrest
Past in Flames
Buried Ruin

Things to add to help with this would be Yawgmoth's Will, Academy Ruins, and maybe Mystic Retrieval.

Acceleration

Cabal Ritual
Dark Ritual
Chromatic Lantern
Coalition Relic
Commander's Sphere
Darksteel Ingot
Dimir Signet
Sol Ring
Gilded Lotus
Izzet Signet
Rakdos Signet
Talisman of Dominance
Talisman of Indulgence
Nightscape Familiar Doubles as a chump with regenerate!

There are probably better artifacts that come at a price like Thran Dynamo, Lotus Petal , Mana Crypt, I tried to have these help my cheap land pool by being multicolored.

One thing that isn't in this deck is spell copiers like Fork, Twincast, Reverberate or Increasing Vengeance, These seem interesting and may add versatility and reactivity to the deck. The downside is that I would likely have to reduce the pain effects to incorporate this.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.25
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH Decks
Based on	Razing the Stakes Octrate EDH