Check out the full decklist here: archidekt.com/decks/689005#Up... And don't forget to check out EDHREC for other great recommendations! edhrec.com/commanders/nekusar...
I just discovered this video series and it's great! 15 minute "deck techs" that go deeper by giving an actual example of historically used cards and making swaps based on current knowledge. I love it!
Gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure. Covid has tanked my personal finances, and I’m selling my collection tomorrow to help make ends meet. A decade’s worth of collecting, jeez it’s tough. I’m unsubbing, but not because I dislike the content here. I think it’ll make the choice less harsh if I cut myself out of the mtg community. The channel, podcast, site tools and articles, are fantastic quality. This game is incredibly complex when you break it down, you guys are truly doing the good work with the great, accessible resources you provide. Commander is/was/and likely will always be the best format. I’ll miss the company on car drives, and the jokes too.
@@awfulwaffle4281I feel like dramatic is not the right word. I see so many other things and groups that are more dramatic. If you compare TH-cam spaces for example, mtg TH-cam is very undramatic.
@TuttifruttiNinja everytime somebody quits this game they end up posting about it like people at wizards are going to see it and think geez guys Greg quit magic maybe we should sell less products for a cheaper price lol.just quit the game and move on cause nobody cares.
So you've got a Nekusar deck aiming explicitly for explosive turns. Chaining "wheel" effects into each other on the same turn is Plan A. It's what you prefer to be doing. You're also running two triple-black pip cards. You're so invested in big mana for your explosive turns that you are running Thran Dynamo. And you're hoping to go fast enough that you can cast Nekusar on the same turn you unleash your engine, because you anticipate that your opponents won't let Nekusar survive a full turn cycle. Well, given all that stuff, maybe there's a measly little card that could just help speed stuff up. It could be a cheap card. A common. A card worth less than $0.50. It'd be even nicer if it was some classic staple spell, going all the way back to the beginning of the game. Just a really well-known, really efficient workhorse of a card, perhaps so prolific that it would get printed back-to-back in core sets and expansion sets. Let's just go crazy and have it reprinted over 20 times, because it's been that much of a fixture in the game. The only card to get printed with three different card types, because they kept changing the rules. I'm only talking about the coolest card of all time. Friends don't let friends drive drunk. And friends don't let friends run a substantially black "wheel" deck in EDH without Dark Ritual.
i could do you one better. The thing about Dark ritual is that it's three black, and being a tri-color deck, that is really hard to pull off especially if you're ramping into the commander. I would say, by far the most underrated and greatest discovery i've found, is Heartless Summoning. For 2 mana and the cost of making all your creatures -1/-1, your creature spells cost 2 less to cast. Power and toughness aren't super important for a deck that relies on wheel effects instead of combat, and looking at not just nekusar but all the important wheel creatures, none of their toughness dip below 1. As a result, all those important creatures to set up come out really fast and/or allows you to cast Nekusar and then cast a wheel instant/sorcery that same turn with the mana you have left over
I've been working on a Nekusar deck and have been scratching my head on how to get enough mana to have a big turn. This is the perfect use for Dark Ritual!
Dark ritual isn't as great here as one would think, you could run it with your rock package of at least 10, it could be a potential mana boost IF you find it. I have tried it with the cabal ritual before, it was meh, Jeskas will is kinda a power house here as well. I have had mixed results with it for sure. Underworld breach is not bad at all. Dream halls as he said is a monster in this deck
@@8bit_outcast708 I think you might be right. I did some play testing and I think I would be better off with some more mana rocks. I also removed the cards with triple black pips because I couldn't consistently play them on curve. Something like thran dynamo seems to work better for me, but I may readjust what I need based on how aggressively my playgroup removes nekusar
Awesome series! I just found it, and I am hooked. I cannot wait for the theatrical debut of a Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) upping the average. Keep up the great work, and thank you for the fantastic content!
PLEASE do an episode on Xenagos, God of Revels!!! He's by far my favorite commander, and I'd love to see him get more love and attention, even if big stompy creature decks can be seen as "Boring". You will be making a devoted follower of the God of Parties very happy if you do.
Whew surprisingly not *that* many hot takes - Nekusar players have experience with the Howling Mine problem. Two points: 1) Tainted Strike over Phyresis because it can be instant speed with Kederekt Parasite, Fate Unraveler and Nekky himself depending on who's on the board. 2) infect aside, I've seen more profit from playing Havoc Festival as a backup in case infect doesn't pan out. The upkeep trigger halves their life before the draw, so it truly is a clock.
I love this series! Really solid decks, using the tuvasa video to help with making my version. Would love to see your take on Chainer, Nightmare Adept.
Well done on all of these. I’d love to see you do Oloro enchantress; a lot of the decklists I’ve seen seem to really struggle with the more synergistic aspects of the deck.
In my version I run Lab Maniac, Thassa’s Oracle, Jace Wielder of Mysteries, as alternate win cons since the focus is going to be on stopping Nekusar these other effects can just go off on a turn also. Mind Over Matter is a good card since you’ll be discarding a lot of cards you can use it to either refresh your resources or shut down opponents. (Still surprisingly budget friendly as of this post) also works really well with Basalt Monolith, Gilded Lotus, Chromatic Orrery, ect... maximizing resources is the art of Nekusar, don’t let your discards go to waste! Bone Miser is great with Mind Over Matter, Temple Bell is a keeper also. Just a fantastic card to include in the deck that turns otherwise useless card draw into priceless utility.
Hey love the videos I think they are really cool! I would really like to see a yidris upping the average because he is super versatile and has a lot of ark types to build around. I think I would be cool to see what you make of it!!!
A great super budget card you can always throw in your nekusar deck is curiosity as whenever it deals damage you draw cards so it means for each opponent you have and you play a whell you draw up to 21 cards extra, which can lead to a old fashioned lab man win or an thassas oracle win or just give your commander infected with tainted strike as it's 1cmc instant and phyresis which is an 2cmc enchantment that bestows infect if you wanna be uber mean. ;)
Been running Nekusar for a couple years myself. One enchantment that's noticeably absent from your list is Breathstealer's Crypt. It gets worse the more creatures you have in your list, but in a creature heavy meta, it's done it's fair share of work and gets plenty of groans at the table. Another card that admittedly I've not had the chance to try yet is Ominous Seas. Essentially reads, for each wheel, make an 8/8 octopus. Sure it doesn't really fit the gameplan of Nekusar, but when you;re creature light, seems like a solid way to get a bit of a defense or even allows you to get aggressive in a different way. One disagreement with your additions would be Phyresis. I'm not a fan of infect in Nekusar since you'll effectively need two wheels to kill your opponent. And the second you give him infect, he becomes even more of a priority target. And with Phyresis, if you do 7 infect and Nek is rmoved, you now need to play another wheel you wouldn''t have needed to before if you just avoided the infect plan. That said, if you go infect, I would personally rate them Glistening Oil >>> Phyresis = Tainted Strike. If life gain is an issue in your meta though, instead of infect, I prefer "can't gain life" effects. I've had Erebos, God of the Dead in my list for some time and he works as a mana dump if you need to dig a little further when you're without a wheel. Also Everlasting Torment fits the bill to help against life gain / fog effects and works nicely with Incendiary Command. Additionally, I'd keep Crosis's Charm in the deck (in addition to Chaos Warp). As you say, enchantments can be the bane of this deck (Abundance especially), and any extra ways to help get rid of that is welcome.
My GF runs a Wheel deck with Nicol Bolas at the helm instead for the surprise factor and because she just loves him. Two of her favorite additions to it have been Shocker and Barbed Shocker. They're very cheap versions of Dragon Mage with Haste, and Barbed has trample and haste as well. Paired with discard punishers and draw punishers, it gets the job done while also flying under the radar a bit as cards no one thinks too much about. Plus, they're cheap, both of them being under a dollar.
This deck taught me how to play edh and how to fight off a table lol also discard damage is better than draw damage for nekusar buuuut I just stacked damage on draws and discard while playing pillow fort cards.
This was the first deck I ever got, and it jump-started my obsession with the format. Heck, even Hour of Devastation and Theros: Beyond Death introduced new cards to the deck.
I would like to see Marchessa, the black Rose. Great video btw, i also noticed the howling problem, he was my first commander and after a few games i noticed, why am i giving free cards without some pain, and cut them out, same with cards like prosperity
Try the dirt cheap aura “Helm of the Ghastlord” equipping Nekusar with it and then wheeling will leave your opponents with no hand and you with all the cards you need
One budget cut I'd make is to drop Cyclonic Rift for Deathbringer Regent; 95% of the time you're casting Rift with overload, which makes it the same CMC as Regent. Whilst Regent only hits creatures and is sorcery speed, it's both $24 cheaper (oh wow, Rift's down to just over $24) and gives you a 5/6 flyer, which makes for a relevant blocker. Anyway, I'd like to see an UtA episode for Alela, Artful Provocateur. I like the card, but I'm really struggling to throw together a decklist that feels coherent, and I suspect I'm not the only one (the average decklist can't seem to decide what it wants to be either).
Since Alela is Esper colors, I'm of the goofy idea to stick Sharuum, Sen Triplets, Zur, and other Esper legends in for the lol's. Archfiend of Ifnir is a pretty good creature wipe against your opponents if you discard a bunch.
I've been tinkering with elsha the Infinite as of late. so far storm is strong but I need to figure out cheaping up the big enchantments like arcane bombardment and thousand year storm. suggestions?
I think any build is based on budget , card availability, and creativity. I have a nekusar deck and would love to put certain cards but I don't want to spend that much for those cards
I wonder if cards like Rhystic Study should be added in decks like this in order to play a more control plan before going off into the more combo side of the deck Also, could you do Sidisi, Brood Tyrant?
I've included rhystic as well as mystic remora in my list and haven't been upset about it. Until you're ready to go off you're very hungry for mana and more cards. Having one out can mean going off a turn or two sooner.
Hey folks im just building my second commander deck. Do you think the mines argument holds true for Xyris? edit: We dont run any infinite combos so the "draw them into their insta win" isnt such a problem
Yeah, I think it still falls into the same trouble as Nekusar, where wheeling is just the most efficient way to do things, and because wheeling is so strong your commander draws so much hate that you kinda have to stick with wheels to actually overcome being targeted.
Nekusar, was my first commander deck I built. I've been piloting it now for years. The best approach to this deck by far is to play a control approach. Board wipes, removal, counter spells. Set up with everything you got. Protect your board, while keeping their is limited. I honestly think the propaganda effects are a waste here. Double up on redundancy. I have been using Vedalken orrery and unwinding clock to great success. I run 12 mana rocks at the moment but I'm about to cut it down to 10. Deck plays just fine without orrery, it just gives your opponents less time to answer your stuff outside of instant speed. Hive mine are a bit too man intensive and a bit too swingy. You're playing for a long game at that point. My list definitely is not budget, but there is great budget options for stuff. Just think of a control package and you will be fine building this deck. Build 1/2 with your wheels and damage enablers and the other half with control and then slot in some good utility cards.
I know this is a list that strays away from cards like Howling Mine, but I think a staple regardless should be Teferi's Puzzle Box. It refreshes your hand giving you a better chance of playing lands every turn, lets you cycle to your best instants and sorcery cards quickly making tutor cards irrelevant for you and your opponent and of course it plays into Nekusar's damage ability. Sure the opponent draws a new hand each turn too, but isn't that what we're essentially doing with our Instant and Sorcery cards anyways? For a mere 4 mana that does so much to further our game and confuse and disorient our opponents in the process continually, this seems like a no-brainer staple for this commander.
In your Commander Showdown article, you suggested the cards Pendrell Mists and Vile Consumption, but these cards aren’t currently in your suggestions. What is your reasoning for not including them?
EDHRECast It’s alright lol. Video is still great. I do love your take on removing the Howling Mine effects to focus more on wheels aspect. Although not mentioned, I do also want to suggest Mizzix’s Mastery as its Overload is a useful finisher. P.S. I wanna suggest Joey’s beloved Feather, the Redeemed as the next commander to cover
I will keep asking for a Volrath the Shapestealer Upping the Average episode til I am blue in the face and my fingers fall off...or I get my consolation prize: an Ertai the Corrupted episode.
My nooby instincts didn’t care bone miser (when in reality, value wise it looks much better), but badgersaur is awesome. Both getting added to my concept Nekusar wheel deck for sure
I just built my nekusar last month and it suffers from the howling mine problem you talked about. I’ve only played it once though and spent too much money getting the mine cards to not run them, so I probably won’t be fixing it any time soon.
Howling Mine and Font of Mythos... a problem? Run Notion Thief to prevent your opponents from drawing more and to draw the cards they would've drawn, run Narset (Parter of Veils) to cut their draws down to one card a turn, run Ashiok (Dream Render) to shut off the tutors your opponents might draw into (as well as to hose their graveyard shenanigans), and Perplex to further the conundrums, since you're punishing opponents for discarding anyway, and you probably want to tutor for a spicy 3 CMC spell anyway. You can run Teferi's Puzzle Box in conjunction with your mine, font, and wheels to enable your draw punishment cards... and it turns your Notion Thief and Narset (Parter of Veils) into stax cards which can secure a win. Shoot. What if your opponents draw into sweet instants or sorceries from the group hug parts of your group slug brew? Run Reverberate, Wild Ricochet, Dualcaster Mage, and Twincast (or other spell copying/stealing cards)... so you can benefit from your opponent's instants and sorceries. Narset's Reversal and Spell Swindle work quite nicely as well. The spell copying approach allows for more fun, if you're not into stax, or you want to mess up someone else's stax strategy. Run Swarm Intelligence for more copying shenanigans. Depending on your budget, tutoring stuff to the top of your deck can be a good way to set up a safer and more effective wheel. Run Liliana Vess, Mystical Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor if your budget is higher... or run Riverwise Augur, Dream Cache, Brainstorm, and Conch Horn if your budget is lower. I run a different mix of high and low budget, since I like to mix things up and reduce aggro from other players. Creatures might be easier to destroy, but I find it better to lure my opponents into a false sense of security. I run decoy/pillow-fort targets like Fog Bank, Guard Gomazoa, Crawlspace, Meekstone, Propaganda, and Mystifying Maze. If you want more punishment for your opponents, Revenge of Ravens and Marchesa's Decree are a couple goodies, provided you you have allocated enough space for your draw and discard shenanigans. Recovering from my own discards and punishing my opponents in the process is a method I enjoy leaning into. I run Archfiend of Ifnir, Bone Miser, Faith of the Devoted, Bag of Holding, and Underworld Breach. Underworld Breach is a lovely card when I'm trying to set up for more wheels, which could secure a fun victory. Geth's Grimoire and Surly Badgersaur could be cool additions as well, though the grimoire only benefits from your opponents discarding. I dumped the funds into a Kozilek (Butcher of Truth), though I'm not running Temple Bell or Mind Over Matter. Removal can set up quite nicely for big wheels. I run Sigil of Sleep, Ætherize, and I managed to secure a Cyclonic Rift back when RTR was still in Standard. River's Rebuke is pretty good, though I don't recommend running Ætherspouts unless you're following up with multiple wheels. I don't run any of the Niv Mizzet iterations. They just don't fit my idea of securing a proper win, and I don't need them mixing with my Curiosity, Tandem Lookout, and Tainted Strike. Same goes for Glint-Horn Buccaneer and Brallin (Skyshark Rider), since I can just wait until my discard phase to win. Panic buttons and spot removal are quite necessary, especially when they act as distractions. My list isn't always cheap in mana or budget, but I run Vandalblast, Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge, Ob Nixilis (the Hate-Twisted), Hero's Downfall, Nicol Bolas (Dragon-God), and Nicol Bolas (Planeswalker). Rakdos Charm should be in my brew, but my removal package doesn't leave enough room for it. It is a wonderful dastard of a card, and I have it ready to go when I want to deck edit between games. Sinking your mana into a big splashy spell is good when it synergizes. Besides my aforementioned Kozilek (Butcher of Truth) and Swarm Intelligence, I run Rakdos's Return and Rune-Scarred Demon, because big flyers and nasty discard are pretty good. If you have the budget, you could run Archfiend of Despair and Wound Reflection, though your wheel, draw punishment, and discard punishment might not even need either of those. Shuffling your graveyard is key to staying in longer games. I used to run Elixir of Immortality, but I've had the deck for quite some time, and I sunk a bit more money into it. The card is still good, and you can run Psychic Spiral, Learn From the Past, and Quest for Ancient Secrets along with it. My much earlier brew resulted in more aggro and more losses. I ended up taking out Hive Mind, Forced Fruition, and Niv Mizzet (the Firemind), since people hated wheels to a great degree, and I couldn't catch up to my opponent's value. Cards like Mindmoil, Arjun (the Shifting Flame), Niv Mizzet (the Firemind), and Niv Mizzet (Parun) are much more suited to a Brallin (Skyshark Rider) // Shabraz (the Skyshark) partner brew, involving more comfort with attacking and more indestructibility options for permanents. Hopefully this clears up some confusion and provides some alternatives.
Archfiend of ifnir, there's also a bounce on damage enchantment aura you use to bounce any permanent, lastly you missed a bunch more discard damage effects. Again that damage is alot less in your face and can get the spike to around 56 per player in a single wheel
I use Crosis as my Grixis punishment commander because Nekusar is such a red flag, but these are good things to think about with that deck too. Could you look at Omnath, Locus of Rage? I need to rebuild that deck since wet Omnath isn't working for me any more.
Spark Double , Tidal Barracuda. spark double is a tricky card but its ability to clone legendary creatures can have some high potential. Tidal Barracuda is as close to Grand Abolisher as we can get in this color group the reward outweighs the risk
Personal opinion: Nekusar is the most overrated commander ever printed. People latched on to him like crazy and he was everywhere for a few years. I’m glad he’s fallen out of favor and people realize that he’s not that good. All he does is draw your opponents into their answers and piss them off. Love these videos but I don’t love Nekusar. Lol
![ฉันจะ "แพรี่" ให้หมด - ผู้แข็งแกร่งที่สุดในโลกอยากจะเป็นนักผจญภัยให้ได้ - ตอนที่ 04 [ซับไทย]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PvmuP8y9IPk/mqdefault.jpg)
I love when channels I watch make videos on the commanders I’m working on at the time
As do I. Just started upgrading a few weeks ago and and am expecting a few more deliveries soon to help give it some more oomph
This is easily one of the better Nekky deck techs. I learned a lot from simply watching it let alone playing it
I just discovered this video series and it's great! 15 minute "deck techs" that go deeper by giving an actual example of historically used cards and making swaps based on current knowledge. I love it!
Gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure. Covid has tanked my personal finances, and I’m selling my collection tomorrow to help make ends meet. A decade’s worth of collecting, jeez it’s tough. I’m unsubbing, but not because I dislike the content here. I think it’ll make the choice less harsh if I cut myself out of the mtg community.
The channel, podcast, site tools and articles, are fantastic quality. This game is incredibly complex when you break it down, you guys are truly doing the good work with the great, accessible resources you provide. Commander is/was/and likely will always be the best format. I’ll miss the company on car drives, and the jokes too.
Force to you ! Magic makes good memories ;)
People are so dramatic when it comes to mtg
@awfulwaffle4281 it's not because of the game, it's everything related to it that's making it hard, frankly no need to be a dick about it
@@awfulwaffle4281I feel like dramatic is not the right word.
I see so many other things and groups that are more dramatic. If you compare TH-cam spaces for example, mtg TH-cam is very undramatic.
@TuttifruttiNinja everytime somebody quits this game they end up posting about it like people at wizards are going to see it and think geez guys Greg quit magic maybe we should sell less products for a cheaper price lol.just quit the game and move on cause nobody cares.
I named my cat Nekusar 🤩 Excellent video as usual, couple of new adds to my favourite deck
So you've got a Nekusar deck aiming explicitly for explosive turns. Chaining "wheel" effects into each other on the same turn is Plan A. It's what you prefer to be doing. You're also running two triple-black pip cards. You're so invested in big mana for your explosive turns that you are running Thran Dynamo. And you're hoping to go fast enough that you can cast Nekusar on the same turn you unleash your engine, because you anticipate that your opponents won't let Nekusar survive a full turn cycle.
Well, given all that stuff, maybe there's a measly little card that could just help speed stuff up. It could be a cheap card. A common. A card worth less than $0.50. It'd be even nicer if it was some classic staple spell, going all the way back to the beginning of the game. Just a really well-known, really efficient workhorse of a card, perhaps so prolific that it would get printed back-to-back in core sets and expansion sets. Let's just go crazy and have it reprinted over 20 times, because it's been that much of a fixture in the game. The only card to get printed with three different card types, because they kept changing the rules. I'm only talking about the coolest card of all time.
Friends don't let friends drive drunk. And friends don't let friends run a substantially black "wheel" deck in EDH without Dark Ritual.
Agreed
i could do you one better. The thing about Dark ritual is that it's three black, and being a tri-color deck, that is really hard to pull off especially if you're ramping into the commander. I would say, by far the most underrated and greatest discovery i've found, is Heartless Summoning. For 2 mana and the cost of making all your creatures -1/-1, your creature spells cost 2 less to cast. Power and toughness aren't super important for a deck that relies on wheel effects instead of combat, and looking at not just nekusar but all the important wheel creatures, none of their toughness dip below 1. As a result, all those important creatures to set up come out really fast and/or allows you to cast Nekusar and then cast a wheel instant/sorcery that same turn with the mana you have left over
I've been working on a Nekusar deck and have been scratching my head on how to get enough mana to have a big turn. This is the perfect use for Dark Ritual!
Dark ritual isn't as great here as one would think, you could run it with your rock package of at least 10, it could be a potential mana boost IF you find it. I have tried it with the cabal ritual before, it was meh, Jeskas will is kinda a power house here as well. I have had mixed results with it for sure. Underworld breach is not bad at all. Dream halls as he said is a monster in this deck
@@8bit_outcast708 I think you might be right. I did some play testing and I think I would be better off with some more mana rocks. I also removed the cards with triple black pips because I couldn't consistently play them on curve. Something like thran dynamo seems to work better for me, but I may readjust what I need based on how aggressively my playgroup removes nekusar
Awesome series! I just found it, and I am hooked. I cannot wait for the theatrical debut of a Queen Marchesa (long may she reign) upping the average. Keep up the great work, and thank you for the fantastic content!
PLEASE do an episode on Xenagos, God of Revels!!! He's by far my favorite commander, and I'd love to see him get more love and attention, even if big stompy creature decks can be seen as "Boring".
You will be making a devoted follower of the God of Parties very happy if you do.
Great show! You should do the Ur-Dragon, really curious to hear your suggestions! 😉
Second this, I've been struggling with building him
I have had this deck since the beginning and know a lot of cards have been printed since that can improve the deck
Awesomeeeeeeeeeee! He is wheely wheely good!
Whew surprisingly not *that* many hot takes - Nekusar players have experience with the Howling Mine problem.
Two points:
1) Tainted Strike over Phyresis because it can be instant speed with Kederekt Parasite, Fate Unraveler and Nekky himself depending on who's on the board.
2) infect aside, I've seen more profit from playing Havoc Festival as a backup in case infect doesn't pan out. The upkeep trigger halves their life before the draw, so it truly is a clock.
Agreed with Havoc festival. That card actually gets more hate than Nekusar himself in my playgroup and has won me games many, many times.
Thank you!! I never thought about Havoc Festival. Since I can't get Glistening Oil, Tainted Strike will definitely suffice!!
Bought the Commander deck a while back, but never played or tested it out. Will definitely grab these cards to jumpstart it! 🙏
I love this series !!!
I love this series! Really solid decks, using the tuvasa video to help with making my version. Would love to see your take on Chainer, Nightmare Adept.
Well done on all of these. I’d love to see you do Oloro enchantress; a lot of the decklists I’ve seen seem to really struggle with the more synergistic aspects of the deck.
In my version I run Lab Maniac, Thassa’s Oracle, Jace Wielder of Mysteries, as alternate win cons since the focus is going to be on stopping Nekusar these other effects can just go off on a turn also.
Mind Over Matter is a good card since you’ll be discarding a lot of cards you can use it to either refresh your resources or shut down opponents. (Still surprisingly budget friendly as of this post) also works really well with Basalt Monolith, Gilded Lotus, Chromatic Orrery, ect... maximizing resources is the art of Nekusar, don’t let your discards go to waste! Bone Miser is great with Mind Over Matter, Temple Bell is a keeper also. Just a fantastic card to include in the deck that turns otherwise useless card draw into priceless utility.
Hey love the videos I think they are really cool! I would really like to see a yidris upping the average because he is super versatile and has a lot of ark types to build around. I think I would be cool to see what you make of it!!!
Thousand Year Storm would be a good add to this. Chain small spells and then copy the wheel effect once cast.
I'd still really like to see Ghave. I haven't seen an average list for him but I bet it'll have similar issues with being taken in so many directions.
Damn it, you've got me wanting to build Nekusar. Also i'd love to see your take on Sram, Senior Edificer
A great super budget card you can always throw in your nekusar deck is curiosity as whenever it deals damage you draw cards so it means for each opponent you have and you play a whell you draw up to 21 cards extra, which can lead to a old fashioned lab man win or an thassas oracle win or just give your commander infected with tainted strike as it's 1cmc instant and phyresis which is an 2cmc enchantment that bestows infect if you wanna be uber mean. ;)
Been running Nekusar for a couple years myself.
One enchantment that's noticeably absent from your list is Breathstealer's Crypt. It gets worse the more creatures you have in your list, but in a creature heavy meta, it's done it's fair share of work and gets plenty of groans at the table.
Another card that admittedly I've not had the chance to try yet is Ominous Seas. Essentially reads, for each wheel, make an 8/8 octopus. Sure it doesn't really fit the gameplan of Nekusar, but when you;re creature light, seems like a solid way to get a bit of a defense or even allows you to get aggressive in a different way.
One disagreement with your additions would be Phyresis. I'm not a fan of infect in Nekusar since you'll effectively need two wheels to kill your opponent. And the second you give him infect, he becomes even more of a priority target. And with Phyresis, if you do 7 infect and Nek is rmoved, you now need to play another wheel you wouldn''t have needed to before if you just avoided the infect plan. That said, if you go infect, I would personally rate them Glistening Oil >>> Phyresis = Tainted Strike.
If life gain is an issue in your meta though, instead of infect, I prefer "can't gain life" effects. I've had Erebos, God of the Dead in my list for some time and he works as a mana dump if you need to dig a little further when you're without a wheel. Also Everlasting Torment fits the bill to help against life gain / fog effects and works nicely with Incendiary Command.
Additionally, I'd keep Crosis's Charm in the deck (in addition to Chaos Warp). As you say, enchantments can be the bane of this deck (Abundance especially), and any extra ways to help get rid of that is welcome.
Curiosity > Glistening Oil > Phyresis. :P
phyresis is way better than oil@@TheStephenation
That point about Infect has just opened up a WORLD of other possibilities that I never knew about.
I go with the slow burn plan in my Nekusar deck, but I also play Devastating Dreams, Desolation, Decree of Annihilation
Awesome and in depth to make this commander deck the best. Can you guys please do one for Rankles, Master of Pranks?
Id love to see you do a nekusar deck teck with no budget limit
Hey really liked this video, 6 years after building nekuzar from constructed deck, still great options to improve. Could you do one for yenette?
I will suggest a lady who's fallen from prominence but was once a boogeyman on par with Nekusar: Sharuum, the Hegemon.
You CAN'T play her.
I never thought of underworld breach! I don’t know why?! It makes perfect sense!
Me too..lol..seems like an obvious oversight
Rin and Seri would be fun! Not the most unique commander but I’m enjoying the Cat Dog.
This is very useful! I want to see a clone deck next
anyone playing this deck should also look into Painful Quandary, you'll love it.
My GF runs a Wheel deck with Nicol Bolas at the helm instead for the surprise factor and because she just loves him. Two of her favorite additions to it have been Shocker and Barbed Shocker. They're very cheap versions of Dragon Mage with Haste, and Barbed has trample and haste as well. Paired with discard punishers and draw punishers, it gets the job done while also flying under the radar a bit as cards no one thinks too much about. Plus, they're cheap, both of them being under a dollar.
i think it would be cool to see you do Sydris Galvanic Genius (not just because i want to play her)
Shocker is a great tempo card and creature!
it would be interesting for you to do a emry lurker of the loch upping the average
Coincidentally i went Rakdos Wheels so seeing the spice in this is extremely enjoyable (for anything that isn't blue that is)
Hey joey do you think youll ever update these older commanders videos?
I would really like to see a Tayam Aristocrats theme deck once he's been out a bit longer.
This deck taught me how to play edh and how to fight off a table lol also discard damage is better than draw damage for nekusar buuuut I just stacked damage on draws and discard while playing pillow fort cards.
This was the first deck I ever got, and it jump-started my obsession with the format. Heck, even Hour of Devastation and Theros: Beyond Death introduced new cards to the deck.
I asume the same goes for xyris ? I ve been looking forward to build it .
I would like to see Marchessa, the black Rose.
Great video btw, i also noticed the howling problem, he was my first commander and after a few games i noticed, why am i giving free cards without some pain, and cut them out, same with cards like prosperity
Try the dirt cheap aura “Helm of the Ghastlord” equipping Nekusar with it and then wheeling will leave your opponents with no hand and you with all the cards you need
One budget cut I'd make is to drop Cyclonic Rift for Deathbringer Regent; 95% of the time you're casting Rift with overload, which makes it the same CMC as Regent. Whilst Regent only hits creatures and is sorcery speed, it's both $24 cheaper (oh wow, Rift's down to just over $24) and gives you a 5/6 flyer, which makes for a relevant blocker.
Anyway, I'd like to see an UtA episode for Alela, Artful Provocateur. I like the card, but I'm really struggling to throw together a decklist that feels coherent, and I suspect I'm not the only one (the average decklist can't seem to decide what it wants to be either).
Since Alela is Esper colors, I'm of the goofy idea to stick Sharuum, Sen Triplets, Zur, and other Esper legends in for the lol's. Archfiend of Ifnir is a pretty good creature wipe against your opponents if you discard a bunch.
Could your guys make one for the marchesa, the black rose? I am building one and it's pretty hard to find updated data for the deck
Looks great. Would you also do a Skullbriar the Walking Greave zombie theme in the future?
Could you get Dana doing some of the more obscure commanders for people like me who play eight and a half tails, Hakim loreweaver and other oddities?
I would like to see your take Ezuri, Claw of Progress
I'd love to see a Beckett or Kalamax if possible
I really want to see Brudiclad, Telchor ingeneer
I've been tinkering with elsha the Infinite as of late. so far storm is strong but I need to figure out cheaping up the big enchantments like arcane bombardment and thousand year storm. suggestions?
I think any build is based on budget , card availability, and creativity. I have a nekusar deck and would love to put certain cards but I don't want to spend that much for those cards
Ive always Stapled Rooftop Storm in my edh Nekusar deck, hes gonna be removed so cast him free helps
Just one card, peer into the abyss.
You guys should do Karador too :D
I wonder if cards like Rhystic Study should be added in decks like this in order to play a more control plan before going off into the more combo side of the deck
Also, could you do Sidisi, Brood Tyrant?
I've included rhystic as well as mystic remora in my list and haven't been upset about it. Until you're ready to go off you're very hungry for mana and more cards. Having one out can mean going off a turn or two sooner.
You should do a phage the untouchable deck list
What about the Waste Not that is only when you discard cards?
Damage spikes is also another term for Nekusar
Please please please Oloro and/or Karador next :)
I also loved this one thank you so much! Nekusar has been on my radar for weeks, this made me pull the trigger
Can we get a scion of the ur dragon going..?
How do you export to archideck? I know you have to highlight the card but from there?
Nekusar says his catchphrase is, "SPIN THE WHEEL!!!!!!"
ahhh yes, the famous "kneekusar"
I know that we got Muldrotha already, but Yarok could be some more sultai goodness
Do a Nekusar Upping the average redux stat!!!
You think youd do a Gonti upping the average??
Niku Niku Sar!
What about a 1vs1 version of nekusar?
Hey folks im just building my second commander deck. Do you think the mines argument holds true for Xyris?
edit: We dont run any infinite combos so the "draw them into their insta win" isnt such a problem
Yeah, I think it still falls into the same trouble as Nekusar, where wheeling is just the most efficient way to do things, and because wheeling is so strong your commander draws so much hate that you kinda have to stick with wheels to actually overcome being targeted.
Nekusar, was my first commander deck I built. I've been piloting it now for years. The best approach to this deck by far is to play a control approach. Board wipes, removal, counter spells. Set up with everything you got. Protect your board, while keeping their is limited. I honestly think the propaganda effects are a waste here. Double up on redundancy. I have been using Vedalken orrery and unwinding clock to great success. I run 12 mana rocks at the moment but I'm about to cut it down to 10. Deck plays just fine without orrery, it just gives your opponents less time to answer your stuff outside of instant speed.
Hive mine are a bit too man intensive and a bit too swingy. You're playing for a long game at that point.
My list definitely is not budget, but there is great budget options for stuff. Just think of a control package and you will be fine building this deck. Build 1/2 with your wheels and damage enablers and the other half with control and then slot in some good utility cards.
Got a list pls?
I know this is a list that strays away from cards like Howling Mine, but I think a staple regardless should be Teferi's Puzzle Box. It refreshes your hand giving you a better chance of playing lands every turn, lets you cycle to your best instants and sorcery cards quickly making tutor cards irrelevant for you and your opponent and of course it plays into Nekusar's damage ability. Sure the opponent draws a new hand each turn too, but isn't that what we're essentially doing with our Instant and Sorcery cards anyways? For a mere 4 mana that does so much to further our game and confuse and disorient our opponents in the process continually, this seems like a no-brainer staple for this commander.
The spice: curiosity on nekuzar
Do Haldan & Pako next!
Whispering madness
In your Commander Showdown article, you suggested the cards Pendrell Mists and Vile Consumption, but these cards aren’t currently in your suggestions. What is your reasoning for not including them?
Price restriction for one of them, forgetfulness for the other! Pretty sure I forgot to use Flickering Ward in the Tuvasa video, too. :P
EDHRECast It’s alright lol. Video is still great. I do love your take on removing the Howling Mine effects to focus more on wheels aspect. Although not mentioned, I do also want to suggest Mizzix’s Mastery as its Overload is a useful finisher.
P.S. I wanna suggest Joey’s beloved Feather, the Redeemed as the next commander to cover
Please do Zur, the Enchanter without the usual Doomsday combo.
I will keep asking for a Volrath the Shapestealer Upping the Average episode til I am blue in the face and my fingers fall off...or I get my consolation prize: an Ertai the Corrupted episode.
If I built Neekusar I would run Surly Badgersaur and Bone Miser for INSANE value from discarding my own cards to wheels
My nooby instincts didn’t care bone miser (when in reality, value wise it looks much better), but badgersaur is awesome. Both getting added to my concept Nekusar wheel deck for sure
Haha, I just cut Prosperity. I never have more than 8 or 9 mana when I'm going off, so it won't go bonkers
I cut Commit/Memory for Echo of Eons.
Pls do kess ❤️
please do prosh :D
You don't mix any counter spells into this deck?
I just built my nekusar last month and it suffers from the howling mine problem you talked about. I’ve only played it once though and spent too much money getting the mine cards to not run them, so I probably won’t be fixing it any time soon.
run the bounce removal suit in blue and bounce annoying permanents to their owners hand and then wheel them away.
what besides evacuation? aetherspouts is a bit conditional and costly
Howling Mine and Font of Mythos... a problem?
Run Notion Thief to prevent your opponents from drawing more and to draw the cards they would've drawn, run Narset (Parter of Veils) to cut their draws down to one card a turn, run Ashiok (Dream Render) to shut off the tutors your opponents might draw into (as well as to hose their graveyard shenanigans), and Perplex to further the conundrums, since you're punishing opponents for discarding anyway, and you probably want to tutor for a spicy 3 CMC spell anyway. You can run Teferi's Puzzle Box in conjunction with your mine, font, and wheels to enable your draw punishment cards... and it turns your Notion Thief and Narset (Parter of Veils) into stax cards which can secure a win.
Shoot. What if your opponents draw into sweet instants or sorceries from the group hug parts of your group slug brew?
Run Reverberate, Wild Ricochet, Dualcaster Mage, and Twincast (or other spell copying/stealing cards)... so you can benefit from your opponent's instants and sorceries. Narset's Reversal and Spell Swindle work quite nicely as well. The spell copying approach allows for more fun, if you're not into stax, or you want to mess up someone else's stax strategy. Run Swarm Intelligence for more copying shenanigans.
Depending on your budget, tutoring stuff to the top of your deck can be a good way to set up a safer and more effective wheel.
Run Liliana Vess, Mystical Tutor, and Vampiric Tutor if your budget is higher... or run Riverwise Augur, Dream Cache, Brainstorm, and Conch Horn if your budget is lower. I run a different mix of high and low budget, since I like to mix things up and reduce aggro from other players.
Creatures might be easier to destroy, but I find it better to lure my opponents into a false sense of security.
I run decoy/pillow-fort targets like Fog Bank, Guard Gomazoa, Crawlspace, Meekstone, Propaganda, and Mystifying Maze. If you want more punishment for your opponents, Revenge of Ravens and Marchesa's Decree are a couple goodies, provided you you have allocated enough space for your draw and discard shenanigans.
Recovering from my own discards and punishing my opponents in the process is a method I enjoy leaning into.
I run Archfiend of Ifnir, Bone Miser, Faith of the Devoted, Bag of Holding, and Underworld Breach. Underworld Breach is a lovely card when I'm trying to set up for more wheels, which could secure a fun victory. Geth's Grimoire and Surly Badgersaur could be cool additions as well, though the grimoire only benefits from your opponents discarding. I dumped the funds into a Kozilek (Butcher of Truth), though I'm not running Temple Bell or Mind Over Matter.
Removal can set up quite nicely for big wheels.
I run Sigil of Sleep, Ætherize, and I managed to secure a Cyclonic Rift back when RTR was still in Standard. River's Rebuke is pretty good, though I don't recommend running Ætherspouts unless you're following up with multiple wheels.
I don't run any of the Niv Mizzet iterations.
They just don't fit my idea of securing a proper win, and I don't need them mixing with my Curiosity, Tandem Lookout, and Tainted Strike. Same goes for Glint-Horn Buccaneer and Brallin (Skyshark Rider), since I can just wait until my discard phase to win.
Panic buttons and spot removal are quite necessary, especially when they act as distractions.
My list isn't always cheap in mana or budget, but I run Vandalblast, Blasphemous Act, Toxic Deluge, Ob Nixilis (the Hate-Twisted), Hero's Downfall, Nicol Bolas (Dragon-God), and Nicol Bolas (Planeswalker). Rakdos Charm should be in my brew, but my removal package doesn't leave enough room for it. It is a wonderful dastard of a card, and I have it ready to go when I want to deck edit between games.
Sinking your mana into a big splashy spell is good when it synergizes.
Besides my aforementioned Kozilek (Butcher of Truth) and Swarm Intelligence, I run Rakdos's Return and Rune-Scarred Demon, because big flyers and nasty discard are pretty good. If you have the budget, you could run Archfiend of Despair and Wound Reflection, though your wheel, draw punishment, and discard punishment might not even need either of those.
Shuffling your graveyard is key to staying in longer games.
I used to run Elixir of Immortality, but I've had the deck for quite some time, and I sunk a bit more money into it. The card is still good, and you can run Psychic Spiral, Learn From the Past, and Quest for Ancient Secrets along with it.
My much earlier brew resulted in more aggro and more losses.
I ended up taking out Hive Mind, Forced Fruition, and Niv Mizzet (the Firemind), since people hated wheels to a great degree, and I couldn't catch up to my opponent's value. Cards like Mindmoil, Arjun (the Shifting Flame), Niv Mizzet (the Firemind), and Niv Mizzet (Parun) are much more suited to a Brallin (Skyshark Rider) // Shabraz (the Skyshark) partner brew, involving more comfort with attacking and more indestructibility options for permanents.
Hopefully this clears up some confusion and provides some alternatives.
some nice suggestions and some suboptimal suggestions. hero's downfall in 2024?
Wait, phyrexian tyranny? Why not go torbrann thane of redfell?
Nekusar is suddenly hitting 21 when a player wheels a full hand
I’ve pulled it off once but the 3 red pips is really a limiter could be a land problem though
Isn't his damage technically commander damage too?
No, commander damage must be combat damage. Nekusar's triggered ability isn't combat damage, just normal damage, therefore it isn't commander damage.
@@sovereign683 lol!!! I've won a lot of fraudulent games recently then 🤦😂
Don't tell your playgroup...
Just print a wheel of fortune proxy if your playgroup agrees, fuck the reserve list.
Archfiend of ifnir, there's also a bounce on damage enchantment aura you use to bounce any permanent, lastly you missed a bunch more discard damage effects. Again that damage is alot less in your face and can get the spike to around 56 per player in a single wheel
I use Crosis as my Grixis punishment commander because Nekusar is such a red flag, but these are good things to think about with that deck too.
Could you look at Omnath, Locus of Rage? I need to rebuild that deck since wet Omnath isn't working for me any more.
Spark Double , Tidal Barracuda. spark double is a tricky card but its ability to clone legendary creatures can have some high potential. Tidal Barracuda is as close to Grand Abolisher as we can get in this color group the reward outweighs the risk
When did wheel get that expensive I payed under 20$ for mine lol
The problem with these budget cuts is that you need to have like 10+ mana to go for it. Budget, but significantly less powerful.
When the lifegain player says "why are you trying to kill me with alt win cons infect/cmdr damage? Thats not fair!" 😏
You pronounce Nekusar strangely
No Luxodon Warhammer or Grafted Exoskeleton?
duuuuude.
You do not pronounce his name strangely. It's fine.
I feel you don't have enough options for managing creatures,
Personal opinion:
Nekusar is the most overrated commander ever printed. People latched on to him like crazy and he was everywhere for a few years. I’m glad he’s fallen out of favor and people realize that he’s not that good. All he does is draw your opponents into their answers and piss them off.
Love these videos but I don’t love Nekusar. Lol