Nekusar - Ancestral Curiosity

Commander / EDH*

LabManiac_cobblepott

Instant (25)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rebuild
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Turnabout
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Creature (9)

• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Firebrand Archer
• 1x Gorilla Shaman
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Reckless Fireweaver
• 1x Tandem Lookout
• 1x Thermo-Alchemist

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 6x Island
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Artifact (16)

• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Chromatic Sphere
• 1x Chromatic Star
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Commander (1)

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Sudden Demise
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Ophidian Eye
• 1x Sigil of Sleep

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Note:

This is both the precursor to, and the evolution of the Thrasios & Vial Smasher version of this shell. Nekusar was the original prototype. I tested adding G to investigate the some interesting lines and flexibility, but it winds up reducing consistency at the end of the day. This is due to usual 4 color vs 3 color issues as well as trying to exploit too many attack surfaces (instants/sorceries, artifacts, land drops, opponent draws, opponent casts, etc). Narrowing focus to mainly spells and artifacts winds up improving reliability considerably.

Note: (Again!)

Huge left turn! Going back to 4 color, but leveraging Flashhulk and Razaketh, the Fouldblooded. Yeah, this shell as a Flashhulk deck. Check it out: Razahulk Firebrand!

Nekusar - Ancestral Curiosity

Game plan is straight forward. Charge forward with typical Ad Nauseam lines, generating large amounts of mana, draw lots of cards, and kill opponents off of cumulative ping effects.

A refinement of the broader plan above is the idea of composing events that occur very frequently with effects that exploit those events taking place. The glue that holds this together is the 'deals damage' trigger.

Damage Dealers

• On casting instants or sorceries - Guttersnipe, Thermo-Alchemist, Firebrand Archer
• On artifacts entering the battlefield - Reckless Fireweaver
• On opponent draw - Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Damage Exploiters

• Draw cards - Curiosity, Tandem Lookout, Ophidian Eye
• Bounce opponent creatures - Sigil of Sleep

So for example, suppose you get Firebrand Archer + Curiosity on the board. Every noncreature spell you cast will deal damage to each opponent. Assuming a typical 4-pod, that's an Ancestral Recall every time you cast a spell. It doesn't take much imagination to realize how quickly that produces a win.

Or maybe you get Reckless Fireweaver + Sigil of Sleep . Adding a bounce effect on a creature from each opponent for every artifact you cast can be fairly disruptive to opponents who care about creatures. Alternatively, you could throw it on Nekusar, the Mindrazer adding an asymmetric board wipe to all your wheels. Seems good.

The free Ancestral Recall subplan is exactly that: a subplan. If you happen to stumble across a Curiosity effect and a Guttersnipe, by all means use them. But otherwise, you're playing the storm game. Your tutors are looking for Ad Nauseam, Paradox Engine, Notion Thief, Mind's Desire, etc based on the situation. The Ancestral Recall subplan is there to dramatically improve consistency in getting there and closing the game out through disruption.

More discussion, evaluation, etc to come...

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 41 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 28 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.85
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	Top Tier Decks, Inspirational Decklists/Primers, Nekusar lists, Grixis (UBR), ja, Cedh decks, Cedh, Other decks, DAMN, Cedh