A terror to many, and to too few he is nothing to scoff at. A prime pick to be the Archenemy at any game night.
He is the one and only, Nekusar the Mindrazer!
(Deleted the old one because I didn't know how TappedOut works without money :P)
The Goal of any properly ability abusive Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck is to deal damage to your opponent by making them draw cards and to speed up the game. He is a mix of Underworld Dreams and Howling Mine. Now keep in mind that the cards we give our opponents WILL accelerate the game tremendously, especially when we wheel. How this particular Nekusar deck is built is that it packs heavy on spells because we can wheel into more lands/spells since we only play one land a turn. But having an opening hand that isn't sketchy is really hard due to the land base. I find myself most times having the exact amount of mana I need to finish a game AKA "tap out to finish", so "free" interaction like Force of Will and Pact of Negation are rather crucial to running a low land count due to needing to tap out most of the time to stay on curve and apply pressure or even to win the game by protecting your final wheel.
Because we want to make everyone draw cards, single target draw; A: Doesn't speed up the game enough (doesn't spread the love). B: I've never heard of anyone benefitting off someone else drawing cards from your spell unless you have Notion Thief. C: We don't get enough value by targeting your opponent with Blue Sun's Zenith, and I would argue that you have a high chance to lose the game by doing that, and that this isn't a group hug deck. So with those points in mind we need ways to make everyone draw cards cheaply and fast, enter Wheel of Fortune effects. A "Wheel" in magic is when one or more players discard their hand and draws cards, usually 7. We run Windfall, Dark Deal, Reforge the Soul and some unconventional wheel cards like Memory Jar, so then we make everyone draw cards and lose life and we get draw ourselves, potentially into more wheels and apply more pressure.
Now when we wheel our opponents discard a lot, so we can further punish other players by adding cards like Liliana's Caress, Megrim, Raiders' Wake, and Waste Not to gain further value off our wheels. With these you can kill by turn 5 if you have a really nut hand, but that's magical Christmas land, but you can win out of nowhere given the correct conditions.
We are also running some unconventional answers like AEtherize, Curse of the Swine, Illusionist's Gambit, and Mirror Match, and if anything, they can be discard fodder for cards like Windfall if we don't need them for Aggro decks. And to add a bit of extra oomf to the deck overall, we'll run Leyline of Anticipation because obligatory: Flash, that and it can be brutal to cast Day's Undoing at instant speed on an opponents turn with Hive Mind giving all other players a copy to cast making it really hard to stop.
Sometimes we will run into complications, like not wheeling or drawing into more wheels, to mitigate this we'll run Recoup because we can gain more value due to our wheels being sorceries with the added ability to target sorcery speed tutors from the bin that we either used or discarded due to a wheel when we cast recoup from hand or flash it back. I threw in Snapcaster Mage for similar value as Recoup but with more utility the later we are in the game, but Mystic Retrieval is very good as well for similar value making them what is effectively another copy of the spell for an additional cost, or in better terms rebuying a spell.
All in all, Nekusar the Mindrazer is a blast to play if you like being spiky and overall mean to your play group. With an emphasis on speed, hand disruption and low CMC wheel spells with loads of synergy, some games can be won without needing to summon Nekusar, just play your discard hate spells and wheel for massive damage.
NOTE, IF YOU SEEK TO WIN ALL OF THE TIME WITH ANY ABILITY ABUSIVE NEKUSAR DECK YOU SHOULD LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE.
The reason for this is because Nekusar gets hated out in a playgroup that knows Nekusar's capabilities, which isn't necessarily that it can kill them without combat, but the sheer fact it helps their opponents get to their win cons faster. It may seem shitty to tell you this but if you complain about getting targeted all of the time when you aren't playing archenemy, then you need to play a different deck or get used to it and have fun seeing other people play a fun game. As every Nekusar's philosophy, If you happen to kill the table that's cool, but if you don't then the reward is that you sped up the game.
I feel I need more creature/Planeswalker removal. Nothing really supports this through my games, but sometimes I feel I need more answers to select creatures since Nekusar can't remove them. Nin, the Pain Artist is really good removal, but she isn't good unless its a stalled board state and that she's a creature that needs to tap and have X mana dumped into it. Sure she can do what she needs to but I feel she's rather good when I need her. So I guess other than Nin what would I trade out for Hero's Downfall?
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