Neheb Help Please?

Commander Deck Help forum

Posted on April 10, 2017, 7:52 p.m. by Crayfish

I freakin' love minotaurs, and Neheb the Worthy looks like too much fun to pass up.

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I was wondering is you fine fellows could lend me a hand making a decent deck!

March of the Minotaurs - Neheb the Worthy

Panas says... #2

Minotaur tribal is going to be hard... Not a lot of good ones there. The command zone had a podcast about deckbuilding around him. I liked the discard/control take Jimmy Wong came up with. Check it out!

April 10, 2017 10:49 p.m.

sonnet666 says... #3

Or you could figure out the best creatures in red and black to give first strike to and tutor up Conspiracy every game.

April 11, 2017 4:16 a.m.

DeckedGuru says... #4

Using my own knowledge and EDHREC I've got a few ideas.

Under "Tribal" I looked at the most playable creatures in Minotaur tribal decks and came up with a fairly short list.

~ Ragemonger, Felhide Petrifier, Rageblood Shaman, Lord of Shatterskull Pass, Gorehorn Minotaurs, Kragma Warcaller, Oracle of Bones, Deathbellow Raider, Felhide Spiritbinder, Tahngarth, Talruum Hero, Taurean Mauler, Adaptive Automaton, Metallic Mimic; then new additions, Ahn-Crop Crasher and Cursed Minotaur; and finally if you want to lean into graveyard/discard synergy I'd go with Minotaur Explorer and Hurloon Shaman, and on top of those, if you're feeling really confident - Ruinous Minotaur.

Without a strong enough spread of creatures (unless some other good minotaurs besides Neheb get printed in Amonkhet), I'd recommend not going down the usual tribal route with cards like Door of Destinies and Coat of Arms, instead focus on what Neheb brings to the table. The clauses "As long as you have one or fewer cards in hand, Minotaurs you control get +2/+0." & "Whenever Neheb, the Worthy deals combat damage to a player, each player discards a card." show that this card wants you to be almost hellbent most of the time. A commander like Malfegor is a good place to start on this theme, giving us a pretty substantial list to choose from.

~ Malfegor himself, Avaricious Dragon, and Sire Of Insanity are probably as heavy as you want to go on non-minotaur creatures; Waste Not, Anthem of Rakdos, Gibbering Descent, Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace, Gamble, Grave Upheaval, Painful Quandary, Dark Withering, Kolaghan's Command, Call to the Netherworld, Dark Deal, Delirium Skeins, Behold the Beyond, Library of Leng, Pain Magnification, Megrim, Liliana's Caress, Quest for the Nihil Stone, Key to the City, and Necrogen Mists, all contribute to the discard theme. (If you want to use lands that end up in the graveyard Crucible of Worlds is definitely a great inclusion in the deck too).

We now want to keep Neheb from being blocked and/or killed by our opponents and get in for the damage we want him to, so I feel equipment are the way to go given our colors.

~ Sword of Feast and Famine does what we want here and more; Whispersilk Cloak, Swiftfoot Boots, Lightning Greaves, Loxodon Warhammer, Basilisk Collar, and Darksteel Plate keep Neheb untouchable, unblockable, or allow him to attack without fear of being blocked; functionally similar, the aforementioned Key to the City, whilst not an artifact, works as a discard engine and allowing Neheb to go unblocked, and in another vein a utility land like Rogue's Passage will probably come in handy.

Obviously you include EDH all-stars like Sol Ring, Sensei's Divining Top and Command Tower. Then all you should have to do is look at cards that you want in the deck from red and black that fit the theme or are just strong by themselves. Examples of strong stand-alone cards include Damnation, Terminate, Exquisite Blood, Stranglehold, etc.

April 11, 2017 11:25 a.m.

DeckedGuru says... #5

Edit to my comment: it should read "...the aforementioned Key to the City, whilst not an equipment, works as..."

April 11, 2017 11:31 a.m.

sonnet666 says... #6

DeckedGuru, While I don't think you're going in the wrong direction, you listed a lot of sup-par cards right there:

As far as the hellbent theme goes, I wouldn't focus too much on it, since Neheb's effect isn't that great, and there are only two hellbent card worth including, which also aren't that great... Instead if you focus on just capitalizing on the cards you're throwing in the graveyard and stripping away your opponent's hands, then you can still draw lots of cards without being counter to your main strategy. Stuff like Geth's Grimoire and Phyrexian Arena can keep you flush while your opponents struggle to have things to play, and Mask of Memory fits really nicely here since our commander is low cost and is going to be attacking.

Also, Mindslicer, and Insidious Dreams + Reforge the Soul/Wheel of Fortune/Magus of the Wheel.

April 11, 2017 6:56 p.m.

DeckedGuru says... #7

sonnet666, thanks for the advice. Here's how I'll change my list, given your input.

  • I'll swap out Anthem of Rakdos for Gratuitous Violence, you're right there, no contest.
  • Grave Upheaval will be sticking in my list, mainly because I think the basic land cycling is how I'll quite often use it, and if I'm desperate to reanimate something, I'd rather I cast on my turn and the creature has haste. Put those two together on one card, overcosted though it is, and the modality is what has me sold.
  • Dark Withering never actually made it to the previous cut, because I felt the same way about it as you. Terminate is already taking up that spot. So spot-on insight there.
  • Once again, the modality on Kolaghan's Command is what has me sold and I've actually used all 4 modes in one commander game before.
  • Library of Leng will be staying in my list, (I know this reason is so scrubby it's unreal) mainly because it negates the negative feeling of discarding a card I really wanted to play, my list doesn't feature much graveyard recursion.
  • Larceny is just a smidge off curve for my list, so I'll not be adding it in, but it would probably go well in a different build.
  • Megrim and Liliana's Caress are getting the axe, but Quest for the Nihil Stone is going to stay because it actually works well in the list. So, out come Megrim and Carress and in go your recommendations of Bottomless Pit and Bloodchief Ascension
  • Finally, because of the theme that I'm trying for my list, I'm not putting cards like Phyrexian Arena or Geth's Grimoire in, but they would probably make the cut in someone else's list.

So yeah, thanks. Some pretty good suggestions. When they finally put Neheb, the Worthy in the cardlist here on TAPPEDOUT, I'll post my list on this thread.

April 11, 2017 7:41 p.m.

DeckedGuru says... #8

April 11, 2017 9:59 p.m.

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