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Nekusar, the Mindrazer

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Nekusar, the Mindrazer

At a glance

  • Commander: Nekusar, the Mindrazer
  • Colors: Grixis
  • Archetype: Grixis wheel / draw-punisher control
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

The Commander (real printed text)

Nekusar, the Mindrazer — , Legendary Creature — Zombie Wizard (3/3) “At the beginning of each player’s draw step, that player draws an additional card. Whenever an opponent draws a card, Nekusar deals 1 damage to that player.”

The scout’s description is accurate. Nekusar is the entire clock: he turns every card any opponent draws into 1 damage to its controller, and forces an extra draw on each player’s draw step (which, for opponents, is an extra ping). The 99 is built to multiply opponent draws and survive long enough for the symmetric damage to add up — while my own draws are pure value (I take zero from my own draws because the trigger only fires on opponents).

Gameplan

  1. Resolve Nekusar. Now every opponent’s natural draw step pings them, and so does the extra card he gives them.
  2. Layer group-draw effects (Vision Skeins, Words of Wisdom, Soaring Show-Off, Howling Golem, Friendly Teddy / Runed Servitor death triggers, Clockwork Fox, Vault Plunderer) so the whole table draws repeatedly — each of those draws is a ping to every opponent, and the symmetric damage is asymmetric in my favor because Nekusar doesn’t hit me.
  3. Hold the board flat with a deep counter + removal suite while the pings accrue.
  4. Close with reach/drain inevitability — Pestilence and Crypt Rats (repeatable damage to all players), Evincar’s Justice (buyback table-drain), plus opportunistic burn to the face. Forced-draw + life-loss spells (Sign in Blood, Painful Lesson, Foreboding Fruit, Blood-Toll Harpy) double-dip: the opponent loses life from the spell and eats a Nekusar ping for the draw.

I never need to attack. Opponents bleed out from their own cards while I out-grind them on resources.

Key synergy lines

  • Vision Skeins / Words of Wisdom + Nekusar: every player draws → every opponent takes a ping per card. Words of Wisdom nets me 2 cards while forcing each opponent to draw (and take 1).
  • Forced-draw-on-a-single-target spells (Sign in Blood, Painful Lesson, Foreboding Fruit, Read the Bones can target opponents? No — those self-target; the “target player” spells like Painful Lesson can be aimed at an opponent): point them at an opponent to make them draw-2-lose-2 and eat two Nekusar pings.
  • Jace’s Erasure: every time I draw (and I draw a ton), an opponent mills — incremental decking inevitability on top of the damage.
  • Pestilence / Crypt Rats: uncapped board sweep that also burns every player — with the table at low life from pings, these become a one-card finisher.
  • Death-trigger group draw (Friendly Teddy, Runed Servitor): chump/trade them, then everyone draws → pings all around.

Role breakdown (with counts)

  • Lands — 37 (22 nonbasic fixing + 15 basics). Three-color so we sit at the high end with heavy fixing.
  • Ramp / mana rocks — 10: Dimir Locket, Izzet Locket, Rakdos Locket, Commander’s Sphere, Manalith, Prophetic Prism, Mind Stone, Chromatic Star, Sphere of the Suns, Guardian Idol (all double as color fixing — every one taps for any color or fixes the shard).
  • Card advantage / draw engines — 11: Sign in Blood, Night’s Whisper, Read the Bones, Phyrexian Rager, Sea Gate Oracle, Augur of Bolas, Divination, Mulldrifter, Compulsive Research, Deep Analysis, Costly Plunder. (Plus the group-draw payoffs below feed me too.)
  • Group-draw payoffs (the engine) — ~10: Vision Skeins, Words of Wisdom, Howling Golem, Soaring Show-Off, Friendly Teddy, Runed Servitor, Clockwork Fox, Vault Plunderer, Painful Lesson, Foreboding Fruit, Jace’s Erasure.
  • Spot removal / interaction — 11: Diabolic Edict, Cruel Edict, Geth’s Verdict, Fleshbag Marauder, Doom Blade, Cast Down, Eyeblight’s Ending, Snuff Out, Terminate, Lightning Bolt, Lava Coil, Flame Slash, Tragic Slip, Introduction to Annihilation. (Counts above target; edicts get around hexproof.)
  • Counterspells — 9: Counterspell, Mana Leak, Negate, Arcane Denial, Dissolve, Exclude, Izzet Charm, Psychic Strike, Soul Manipulation.
  • Mass / pseudo-wipe — 4: Drown in Sorrow, Mephitic Vapors, Pestilence, Crypt Rats (Evincar’s Justice is a recurring drain-wipe too).
  • Drain / reach finishers — 5: Pestilence, Crypt Rats, Evincar’s Justice, Blood-Toll Harpy, Cephalid Looter (table-wide loot fuels pings).

Manabase / fixing note

37 lands: Command Tower / Path of Ancestry / Crystal Grotto / Shimmering Grotto / Rupture Spire / Crumbling Vestige (six “any color” sources), all three guildgates + the six UBR tapland duals, Dimir Aqueduct, plus 15 basics (6 U / 5 B / 4 R) — backed by 10 rocks that each tap for any color. ~26 fixing sources well clears the ~17–19 target, so all three colors are reliably castable.

Pilot notes

  • Mulligan toward fixing + an early rock; you want Nekusar online turn 4–5 and protected.
  • Don’t over-extend Nekusar into open mana — he’s the whole engine; bait or counter-back removal before recommitting.
  • Point single-target “target player draws” spells at the opponent who’s lowest or most threatening — it’s burn that also draws them into more pings.
  • Sequence wipes (Drown in Sorrow / Mephitic Vapors) before deploying your own value creatures so you keep the board flat while pings tick.
  • Hold up Pestilence/Crypt Rats mana once the table is in burn range; they often end multiple opponents at once.

Weaknesses

  • No true wheels at common — opponents choose whether to cast the cards Nekusar feeds them, so the clock is slower than a real Nekusar list with Windfall/Wheel of Fortune.
  • Lifegain decks blunt the ping plan; lean harder on Pestilence and removal-grind in that matchup.
  • Nekusar dependency — without him on board the deck is a durdly control shell. Protect him.
  • Symmetric draw can backfire if an opponent has better payoffs for a full grip; counter-magic and the wipe package are there to keep them honest.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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