The first time I built a deck with this commander, it just didn't work. It's not his fault. I was using him for color identity more than playing to his abilities. If I want to build a deck all about copying stuff and stealing stuff, I need a different commander.

No, this is not a sneak peek at anything I have in the works, although... No. Focus. FOCUS!

Check out the current (and likely to be gradually updated) list on Moxfield.

Terminology review

• Library: the draw pile
• Graveyard: the discard pile
• Mill: target player places the top card from their library into their graveyard
• Wheel: target players discard their hands and draw seven cards
• Deck out: attempting to draw or mill from an empty library, resulting in automatic loss

A Commander deck has exactly 100 cards, but the commander starts in a special command zone where it can be cast at any time. When a commander is destroyed or exiled, it can be returned to the command zone and cast again with an extra cost of 2 generic mana for each time it has been sent back.

Strategy

Nekusar, the Mindrazer likes to force opponents to draw themselves to death until they lose too much life or just run out of cards in their library. I started looking up cards which force players to draw, add more punishment when they draw, and mill straight to their graveyards to force one of these two losses.

This deck offers a risky way to play. Games usually have a "pod" of four players, so after setting aside their commanders and drawing seven cards to start the game, there are 92 cards to be drawn or milled in each opponent's library. That also means lots of cards that can put a halt to my shenanigans if they built their decks for interaction. Handing opponents more cards means potentially handing them the answers they need for my strategy.

Avenues for addressing this might mean adding more forced discard options, which black does well. I might try adding more spells and abilities which damage players based on the cards they have in hand. And I can always add more blue counterspell effects.

Win Conditions

Aside from constant pings from Nekusar and other cards, there are a few combos which can end the game faster.

• Peer Into the Abyss - this could be a seven-mana one-shot kill against a single player. "Target player draws cards equal to half the number of cards in their library and loses half their life. Round up each time." Add in some pings from Nekusar and/or other sources for each card drawn, and that could easily be lethal damage.
• Duskmantle Guildmage's first ability plus Mindcrank and any damage source creates a loop of life loss until it hits zero, or they mill to an empty library. The former says, "Whenever a card is put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere this turn, that player loses 1 life." The latter, "Whenever an opponent loses life, that player mills that many cards."
• Phyresis turns all Nekusar's damage into poison counters, making any combo forcing opponents into drawing ten or more cards an auto-win for me. This works like that legacy deck I recently covered. Commander/ EDH doubles the total life points each player has at the start as compared to 60-card formats, but does not change the number of poison counters it takes for them to lose.

Final Thoughts

I still have a few copy and theft effects I might replace, and a few land-fetching artifacts probably need to go. As it stands, this deck might approach a tier 8 power level. I have room for upgrades, but I don't plan to buy more of the fast-ramp staples and dual lands that would push this into tier 9.

A decade ago, Nekusar was considered one of the scariest commanders if someone had a deck stuffed to the gills with fast mana and wheel effects, but power creep has not been kind to this Grixis Zombie Wizard. My goal is just to have a very competitive casual deck, though. Something I can bring out for special occasions, not as one of my friendly game go-to decks.

Have you played with (or against) Nekusar or a wheel/mill deck? Was it fun to play with (or against), or more of a slog? What budget-ish cards should I consider adding, and which current cards should probably go? Chime in with a comment!