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The Lich King - Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Control Forcefeed Group Slug UBR (Grixis)

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Land (26)

Creature (15)

Instant (25)

Artifact (13)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Sorcery (16)

Enchantment (4)

Maybeboard

Land (7)

Sorcery (4)

Instant (5)

Enchantment (4)

Creature (4)

Artifact (4)

This build and primer is still under construction

PREMISE

We win by the following:

  1. Pinging our opponents. We either loop wheels with Underworld Breach or chain into them.

  2. Brain Freeze ourselves and slam Thassa's Oracle on the table or mill out our opponent's.

  3. Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact with Thassa's Oracle

Politicking plays a big role, so hopefully you been practicing!

Please +1 Upvote if you enjoy my take on Nekusar, the Mindrazer

INTRODUCTION

The Cedh meta has slowed down quite a bit since the banning of Jeweled Lotus, Mana Crypt and Dockside Extortionist. I felt that Nekusar, the Mindrazer could hold his own and was thus resurrected.

Combos

I unfortunately will not list every variation of a combo as there are many ways to perform them. I'll instead, go over the standard practice for each one.

Cards involved:

Setup:

Initiating the Combo:

  1. Cast Underworld Breach by paying , putting our storm count to one.
  2. Cast Lotus Petal putting our storm count to two. Tap and sacrificing it, adding
  3. Cast Lotus Petal from your graveyard for its escape cost by exiling three cards (besides Brain Freeze) from your graveyard. Our storm count is 3.
  4. Tap and Sacrifice Lotus Petal, adding
  5. Cast Brain Freeze either from your hand by paying , or from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying and exiling three cards from your graveyard. Brain Freeze storm ability triggers, creating four copies of Brain Freeze targeting yourself, milling 12 cards and fueling your graveyard for Underworld Breach.
  6. Repeat from step 2, three more times. This dumps the rest of your library into your graveyard.
  7. Proceed to win by casting Thassa's Oracle from the graveyard for its escape cost by paying and exiling three cards from the graveyard or the riskier route is to Brain Freeze your opponents by milling their entire library.

Key Notes: - The initial mill of 12 cards sets you up to have three extra cards in your graveyard so you don't accidentally exile your wincon.

Cards Involved:

Setup

Initiating the Combo:

  1. Cast Tainted Pact by paying and hold priority.
  2. Cast Flare of Duplication for free by sacrificing a CREATURE already on the battlefield, targeting Tainted Pact
  3. Resolve the copy of Tainted Pact searching for Thassa's Oracle
  4. Resolve the original cast of Tainted Pact by exiling the rest of your library.
  5. Cast Thassa's Oracle by paying , triggering and winning the game.

Key Notes: - If you have the mana, you can cast a CREATURE and then proceed through the lines. You can also perform the same sequence with Demonic Consultation.

Cards involved:

Setup:

Initiating the Combo:

  1. Cast Thassa's Oracle by paying and hold priority.
  2. Cast Tainted Pact by paying thus exiling your library.
  3. Thassa's Oracle enters the battlefield, triggering, causing you to win the game.

Key Notes: - You can cast Tainted Pact and after you exile your library you can proceed to win by casting Thassa's Oracle

Cards involved:

Setup:

Initiating the Combo:

  1. Cast Thassa's Oracle by paying and hold priority.
  2. Cast Demonic Consultation by paying naming Obliterate (or any card of your choice not in the deck) thus exiling your library for not having said card.
  3. Thassa's Oracle enters the battlefield, triggering, causing you to win the game.

Key Notes: - You can cast Demonic Consultation naming Thassa's Oracle (since it's already in your hand) and after you exile your library you can proceed to win by casting Thassa's Oracle

Deck Discussion

Dragon's Rage Channeler:

  • Not sure how I feel about this card since it's a new addition. The main problem with this deck is running out of steam and this allows us to have a bit of top deck manipulation but i'm not so sure if it's effect is impactful enough. It almost fights for the same slot as a Sensei's Divining Top but another reason for it's inclusion is it feeds into Flare of Duplication

Flare of Duplication:

  • I still haven't used this card during a game. It was put in the deck to combo off with either Tainted Pact or Demonic Consultation. As long as you have either of them in your hand and a CREATURE on board, you can combo off with Thassa's Oracle.

Stranglehold:

  • We already have Opposition Agent, which are kind of counterproductive to one another. Plus, with it's high CMC, it's almost always a dead card.

Frozen Aether:

  • This is a great ability, and I want it to work but the deck doesn't contain enough stax to slow the game down enough where it makes this viable. I would rather cast other high CMC cards during late game.

Leyline of the Void:

  • This shuts down every Underworld Breach deck. But if it isn't in our opening hand to begin the game with it on field, it's usually a dead card. We have Dauthi Voidwalker we can play with a more viable effect

Time Reversal:

  • This is a restart. It disrupts player's that were thinning out their deck or relying on their graveyard. But with it's high CMC there's no additional payoff like Time Spiral or Echo of Eons

Kitsa, Otterball Elite:

Wishclaw Talisman:

  • We can activate this anytime during our turn, at instant speed as long as it's our turn. You can cast Into the Flood Maw to bounce it back to our hands or Dramatic Reversal to activate again in response to our first activation, allowing us to tutor twice. If you're not abusing this card then you're typically spending three mana to tutor for an Opposition Agent before passing it to one of your opponents and if that's the case, you might as well just use Grim Tutor

Magebane Lizard:

Cursed Totem:

Banishing Knack:

Kira, Great Glass-Spinner:

  • This gives all of our creature's protection for the most part. It can save us from Orcish Bowmasters triggers and any other forms of removal. This can almost guarantee our pingers staying on board most of the time.

Paradise Mantle:

  • Fills the spot for Mox Amber. We don't attack with this deck, so attaching it to any of our creatures assures us of having a mana dork.

Curiosity:

  • This could be a powerhouse attached to Nekusar, the Mindrazer. Grix's farm? This has the potential to consistently fuel our hands every draw step.

Whirlpool Warrior

  • This acts like a Winds of Change. It allows us to switch out our hands and gives us ability to swap it out again by paying . This also hits our opponents and with a total of four mana to achieve this, it's cheaper than most other wheel's that are available.

Wheel and Deal

  • This is the closest we can get CMC and effect wise to cards such as Dark Deal, Windfall and Wheel of Fortune. This feeds into our pingers, disrupts our opponent's hands, makes them use resources if needed. The only drawback is that it's four CMC just for us to draw.

STATS

There is no infect because:

  1. It's not the premise of the deck

  2. Having One or Two infect effects such as Tainted Strike or Glistening Oil take's up unnecessary slots for other valuable cards.

  3. You'll probably rarely cast Nekusar, the Mindrazer to take advantage of infect. He's a one-time cast type of deal plus he can be used as a decoy in the command zone to help keep counterspells at bay while assembling other combos

There are a ton of wheels that suite this deck, but you'll notice most wheels have been excluded due to their high CMC. Even the ones on creatures just due to the fact they can't be instantly used. The only high CMC wheels we use allow for us to reshuffle. Although the general premise of a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck is to chain as many wheels as possible; that option has become difficult since the banning of Paradox Engine.
This deck isn't linear enough to optimize Doomsday. That's an all-out, hail Mary play strictly revolving around builds that only utilize Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. If that's something you're interested in exploring, then I suggest checking out my Malcolm + Tymna

MAYBE BOARD EVALUATION

Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter

Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell or The One Ring

Curiosity + Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Tandem Lookout or Ophidian Eye or Mind Over Matter

  • Infinite Damage/Draw

Duskmantle Guildmage + Mindcrank or Bloodchief Ascension

  • Infinite Life Loss/Mill

Helm of Obedience + Leyline of the Void

  • Infinite Mill

Jace's Archivist + Mind Over Matter

  • Infinite Mill or Discard/Draw Damage

Maralen of the Mornsong + Opposition Agent

  • Lockout opponents from drawing resulting in a slow death or instant Scoop

Glint-Horn Buccaneer + Necropotence

  • Ping your opponents to death

Command Beacon + Crucible of Worlds

  • No commander tax. Cast from your hand instead of command zone

Timetwister:

  • I don't own it therefore it isn't in the deck. If you have one, then use it!

Chains of Mephistopheles:

  • Great card at hindering our opponents, prevents them from additional draw, which negates them from drawing into their missing pieces but Chains of Mephistopheles is favored for a deck that plays more into stax or mill.

Cyclonic Rift:

  • Arguably the best bounce spell in blue but depending on how you pilot this deck, I feel substituting Sigil of Sleep could be more sufficient. Why have a one-time use Cyclonic Rift when you can always have one on board.

The One Ring:

  • It's almost a staple, but if I have a wheel in hand or another creature sharing the same CMC as this then i'd much rather cast any of those than this. Essentially, I don't feel the payoff is strong enough for this type of build, but I could be wrong.

Mox Amber:

  • As much as i'd like to use this, we unfortunately don't have enough legendary creatures to reap the benefits of this rock. We have three creatures that are legendary (one being our commander) and having this in our deck will be a dead card almost every time.

Jace's Archivist

  • This is a Windfall on a stick, but it takes a full turn cycle in order to use it which can be removed by that point. It can be countered by Stifle effects and essentially just takes too long for it's effect to take affect.

Postscript

Nekusar, the Mindrazer can be built in so many different ways. You just have to tinker around with it to see which build fits your meta.

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Casual

99% Competitive

Date added 5 years
Last updated 2 days
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

15 - 0 Mythic Rares

60 - 0 Rares

15 - 0 Uncommons

9 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.03
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Construct 0/0 C, Fish 1/1 U, Orc Army, Treasure
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