Razin' minds, takin' names (competitive nekusar)

Commander / EDH* Competitive Discard Forcefeed Multiplayer Suicide Black UBR (Grixis)

goblinguiderevealpls

Creature (7)

• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Notion ThiefGC
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Trinket Mage

Land (29)

• 1x Ancient TombGC
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Island
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Chains of Mephistopheles
• 1x Dream Halls
• 1x Liliana's Caress
• 1x Megrim
• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x NecropotenceGC
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Underworld Dreams
• 1x Waste Not

Artifact (21)

• 1x Anvil of Bogardan
• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Grim MonolithGC
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lion's Eye DiamondGC
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Memory Jar
• 1x Mox DiamondGC
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Winter Orb

Instant (16)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Force of WillGC
• 1x IntuitionGC
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical TutorGC
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric TutorGC

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Demonic TutorGC
• 1x GambleGC
• 1x Imperial SealGC
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1x Laboratory Maniac

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Breathstealer's Crypt
• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Mystic Remora

Artifact (1)

• 1x Scroll Rack

Instant (3)

• 1x Dispel
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Stifle

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Blasphemous Act

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Gilded Drake

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Phyrexian Arena

Artifact (2)

• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Rakdos Signet

Instant (11)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Fatal Push
• 1x Hurkyl's Recall
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Misdirection
• 1x Remand
• 1x Twincast

Sorcery (10)

• 1x By Force
• 1x Cruel Tutor
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Grim Tutor
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Scrap Mastery
• 1x Wash Out
• 1x Winds of Change

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Starring:

Nekusar, the Mindrazer

and...

Wheel of Fortune !

I bought nekusar when commander 2013 was released, and after playing him for a few years, he soon became my pet deck and I invested years of time, money and theory into him, and he has turned into a true razer of minds, able to mill or damage spike opponents all while forcing them to loot through their decks as you do so!

After nearly 6 years, I am now "that guy" at my local game store that kills entire tables with nekusar, he's so fast and efficient he can compete with tier 1 cEDH commanders even though he's only tier 3.

The deck has evolved to a point where people will only play against nekusar with other expensive, top tier commanders. I usually dont bother playing him with casual decks as he is too unfair and can combo out before the game gets going

Its worth noting that although Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge and Kess, Dissident Mage are technically superior commanders for storm and competitive play, I was aware of this already, having also played with jeleva from the precon and kess as a potent new part of the 99. Secondly, this deck is much different than the other 2 due to its focus on wheel (mass, global looting) effects rather than storm spells, and this deck is designed for interactive multiplayer where I have plenty of interaction with opponents (i found decks that only interact with themselves boring, even though i do own a prossh deck it bores me), which makes the game more interesting and fun, while still being able to kill a whole table with draw damage or mill, as well as the fact that all of the high-threat interactions makes me the archenemy more often than not, but more than half the time, I can still wheel my heart out and win as the archenemy in a true grixis/bolas fashion! >:D

for wheel/storm deck beginners, running Library of Leng serves as excellent training wheels by allowing you to assess what cards you would and would not want to discard to your own wheels, but i would not recommend running it because by "saving" your cards from being discarded, you are denying yourself card advantage because rather than filling graveyard with spells

BUDGET version

for my budget alternative list for those who arent budgetless, see here

budget alternative

Wincons:

chaining Wheel of Fortune s with an Underworld Dreams effect in play for lethal using artifact ramp for speed and Board wipes to stave off opposing armies, as nekusar doesnt run many creatures and wont always get a good amount of zombies from Waste Not

Wheel multiple times, then cast a Timetwister effect and shuffle the wheels back into your deck and usually your hand

Before you are able to wheel off, a few things need to happen.

The first is setup, this is done through the various mana rocks such as Dimir Signet , Mana Crypt , Mox Diamond and Grim Monolith

Second to ramp is staving off creatures or answering opponents threats to buy enough time to combo out, this is done via plenty of creature wipes such as:

Blasphemous Act

Damnation

Toxic Deluge

Evacuation

Rakdos Charm to punish token/swarm/beatdown decks, potentially for lethal

As well as protecting nekusar, his pain enchantments, mana, and wheels with counterspells/permission and other mass wipes like Cyclonic Rift and Vandalblast

Casting Yawgmoth's Will , Dream Halls , Mind Over Matter , a Kess, Dissident Mage , Time Spiral or Mizzix's Mastery usually lets you cast enough wheel effects to end the game via flashback effects and pain spells,

overloading Mizzix's Mastery for multiple wheels/tutors or discarding to untap lands/mana rocks with Mind Over Matter or cast free wheels with Dream Halls usually wins you the game when it resolves, as you can essentially wheel for free a surprising amount of times for insane burst damage!

In the case of infinite life or damage immune opponents, milling them out with wheels, or Chains of Mephistopheles is always an option for mill, although its very situationally competitive as it slows drawing cards down to a crawl. you can slice through their Timetwister draw/graveyard shuffle value by exiling several hands of 7 by using Memory Jar in conjuction with Sculpting Steel to stack the "exile your hand" ability, or by nuking a graveyard with Bojuka Bog or Rakdos Charm before you 'twister, causing their decks to be much smaller than yours and thus they deck themselves before you when you cast more wheels afterward.

Finally, you can steal their draw with Notion Thief in order to cast a very large Windfall later on and prevent opponents from drawing answers

combine Notion Thief , Anvil of Bogardan or nekusar himself with Chains of Mephistopheles to create a soft lock where opponents cannot draw cards, with chains in play, a Wheel of Fortune would cause everyone to dump their hands and draw nothing, this is an alternate win condition via deck milling/draw lock in case nekusar draw damage doesnt cut it, and you negate your own self mill with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

Evacuation or an overloaded Cyclonic Rift and other bounce effects like Cryptic Command are INSANELY potent when followed up with a Windfall or Wheel of Fortune , bounce their permanents then force them to be discarded, usually at some life cost as well

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth + wheels or mill from Chains of Mephistopheles allows you to wheel or mill opponents out while continuously shuffling your graveyard back into your library to get around it

Sideboard:

the sideboard is for cards that would be in mainboard situationally, and thus I dont think they're worth a slot in my meta, in other metas they are mainboard worthy without question

Creature hate:

Torpor Orb

Breathstealer's Crypt

Blasphemous Act

The decks main weakness as a spellslinger deck is that i dont have a lot of blockers with or without Waste Not tokens, the sideboard is even more creature hate for swarm, aggro, tribal and combo decks

Protection:

Stifle , Misdirection and other permission spells like Mindbreak Trap help against storm and counterspells/other blue decks. Stifle in particular is one of the few ways to interact with opposing Bojuka Bog or Tormod's Crypt effects, which can be devastating after several wheels

Fork is mainly a utility spell primarily used on wheels to double up for lethal damage, however outside of wheel doubling they dont often see much use, if i were to run this i would probably include most of the functional reprints to maximize fork effects.

cards to run in a fork build Twincast Reverberate Fork Reiterate Increasing Vengeance Bonus Round

in more casual playgroups, Hive Mind , Forced Fruition and Swarm Intelligence can get pretty silly when you cast Wheel of Fortune . :)

Anti-lifegain:

Glistening Oil I dislike infect like everyone else, but in the event my opponents have near-infinite life its an alternate way to win when enchanted to nekusar besides the mill strategy, Phyresis also works if running both is necessary

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre is a second graveyard shuffle effect, in case kozilek isnt enough to keep your graveyard safe or an Entomb target, ulamog can also be ran if destroying a permanent is more beneficial than drawing 4 cards

Chains of Mephistopheles , it nukes hands when wheels go off and is mainly good with nekusar's effect to force looting, however its good against decks with infinite life or a lack of recursion as well as being an alternate win com via milling with wheels rather than drawing. running Necropotence and Anvil of Bogardan creates a draw lock (anvil + chains) while allowing you to draw as many cards as you can/need with necropotence, while not worrying about discard exile due to anvil

Hope you like the deck! If you do, dont be shy, give it an upvote, i would love to make this a better primer for new nekusar players

Top Ranked	Achieved #5 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	11 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	24 - 2 Mythic Rares 53 - 5 Rares 11 - 1 Uncommons 9 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.39
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Spirit 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Nekuzar, Commander (EDH), Watching, Cool Decks, Bases, Nekusar, EDH, Interesting Commander Decks, Decks, Commander-Decks