Should I Keep Font of Mythos in my Nekusar Deck?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on Sept. 20, 2024, 8:53 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have a copy of Font of Mythos in my Nekusar, the Mindrazer EDH deck, but I am wondering if I should keep it, in that deck, because that deck already has plenty of cards that force my opponents to draw cards, and my opponents shall receive that card's benefit before I do, unless I find a way to cast it on an opponent's turn, so I am contemplating replacing that card with another card that punishes my opponents for drawing cards, such as Razorkin Needlehead from the upcoming Duskmourn set, which would also have the additional benefit of lowering my deck's mana curve. Alternatively, I could replace the font with Cutthroat Negotiator, as I have been hoping to put that card into at least one of my decks.
What does everyone else say about this matter? Should I keep Font of Mythos in my Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck, or replace that card with another one?
I would cut Font of Mythos, Howling Mine, Master of the Feast and Temple Bell - not one of those cards does enough to win you the game. Forced Fruition is a trap also - it usually reads "let them combo off by giving them every card they need to win on a single turn, without being able to do enough damage to stop them."
Nekusar works best when he is hyper explosive, tossing mass damage on the field through wheels. Instead of wasting your time with these small, incremental damage, you really should be looking to add Dark Deal, Windfall, Winds of Change
. Whispering Madness, etc. Teferi's Puzzle Box is another high impact card that should be a must-include. Phyresis, Glistening Oil, and other ways to confer Infect will drastically will increase your odds of winning. Cards like Curiosity add huge card advantage. And auras like Helm of the Ghastlord and Sigil of Sleep can use Nekusar to help lock out opponents.
Cut the lifegain cards like Ivory Tower and Elixir of Immortality, as well as combat-focused cards like Akroma's Memorial. None of those do anything for your actual gameplan.
You also could stand to get your average mana cost down. Seizan, Perverter of Truth, for example, is synergistic, but five mana is steep and the card slot would be better off as a wheel.
September 20, 2024 11:33 p.m.
DrukenReaps says... #4
Caerwyn is also completely correct if you were really looking to take the deck from chip damage to what is effectively a combo win. Not sure what kind of power level you're looking to be at though... The chip damage can be fun to play against, the dark deals and friends often just win before opponents have much of a chance. Great direction if you're having trouble getting wins. Gets kinda boring after a few months though imo.
Although Tergrid, God of Fright Flip, Sangromancer, and Archfiend of Ifnir become quite funny in Wheel-usar.
September 21, 2024 6:12 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
Caerwyn, I appreciate your suggestions, but I specifically avoided the cards that you mentioned in your second paragraph, because they do not fit my play style, and this deck also does not have sufficient recursion to recover the cards that I would discard.
Also, since when is an average mana cost of 3.58 high? When I first built this deck, its average CMC was 3.70, so I believe that I have done a fairly good job of reducing its mana curve, thus far, and replacing Font of Mythos with a less expensive card would further contribute toward that goal.
DrukenReaps, those cards that you mentioned are very nice cards, but they have no synergy, at all, with this deck, unfortunately, so I cannot pout them into it.
September 21, 2024 9:19 a.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #6
3.58 probably became too high about ~2019/2020.
I've noticed the average commander power level has gone up significantly. Even the occasional unaltered precon can be fairly strong.
Though, this is all meta dependent. There is a casual benefit to purposefully toning down. I personally have a difficult time with this, so I try playing generically weaker commanders which when tuned, are still not degenerate.
September 21, 2024 10:17 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #7
I have some fun stuff in my torture deck (https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/10-05-19-torture/) that could replace font. Nin, the Pain Artist is fun. Even stuff like Painful Lesson. Poke around and see what you think. I agree that the new Pinhead guy is a good idea... even fits my torture theme!
September 21, 2024 3:08 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #8
RiotRunner789, what happened, in that year? Did a specific Commander product have a major impact upon the game?
September 21, 2024 8:08 p.m.
Gidgetimer says... #9
There was nothing in particular that happened in 2019/2020 that "made" 3.58 "too high". I would even suggest that it is a personal experience thing, since I feel that 3.58 is high to the point of needing to come down a bit starting around 2016/2017. It all comes down to playgroup and the experience you want.
I started playing commander in 2013 and my first 3 decks all had an average CMC over 4 and I thought anything up to 4.25 was fine. As my group got more refined average CMCs that high started becoming a problem. So around 2015 I started aiming for the average CMC to be under 3.75. Another couple of years and I started wanting to run sub 3.5. From there I started to tuned to different play experiences since pushing the average CMC any lower started to break other people's expectations for the game.
Now I run decks with average CMCs of 1.89-3.94 with the sole deck over 3.5 being a Miirym deck that isn't supposed to win; the decks below 2.75 tuned to a competitive experience; and the casual decks being 3.0-3.5. So it is my take that anything over 3.5 is too costly even in the most casual environs and has been for nearly 10 years. As always though, YMMV and if you are in a playgroup where you can run that slowly, then there is nothing wrong with a higher CMC.
September 22, 2024 12:30 a.m.
DrukenReaps says... #10
My own decks tend to be between 3 and 4 average CMC but my typical group tends more towards the battlecruiser games of old. I think a deck's strategy can also impact how much a higher average CMC even matters.
A recent example of it not mattering as much is Kona, Rescue Beastie. Kona can afford a higher average CMC because the evil goodest boy is dropping in Eldrazi for free.... probably turn 3 xD Depending on your ramp.
September 22, 2024 1:04 a.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #11
I believe that in 2017 or 2018 commander became the #1 format (fact check needed).
WOTC really started to uptick cards specifically aimed for commander in more products than just commander precons. They tried creating brawl in 2018 or 19?, which directly also helped commander. About 2021 or 22, they started making precons with every standard release (use to be once be year). Now, the flood of commander cards is constant.
Now, I'm going off memory, but I believe that engine started when they noticed it became number 1 and has only ramped up since.
September 22, 2024 5:17 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #12
RiotRunner789, I personally believe that focusing so heavily on EDH is warping this game, but that is a subject for another thread.
September 23, 2024 9:10 p.m.
This is why I want to see some more viable "punish low cmc" cards come around :) ... I've absolutely torched playgroups with a simple Culling Ritual
DrukenReaps says... #2
Razorkin is basically your commander and having more redundancy for a fairly unique effect is always good. The only thing I would say is if I ran Nekusar I'd want at least 20 ways to make everyone draw cards. So if you have more than that, Razorkin feels like a good addition. If you have less than that I'd hesitate to make that change, though Cutthroat could be good since you benefit most there.
tldr-
Cutthroat if you have less than 20 forced draws
Razorkin if you have more than 20 forced draws
September 20, 2024 10:07 p.m.