Overview:

This Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck focuses on a hybrid stax/wheel strategy, leveraging forced card draw and resource denial to drain opponents. While it has strong synergy and disruptive elements, it lacks the speed, redundancy, and protection of higher-tier decks.

Primer:

Core Strategy: The deck aims to slow opponents with stax pieces (Winter Orb, Blood Moon) while deploying incremental damage through wheel effects (Reforge the Soul, Jace's Archivist) amplified by Nekusar and backup payoffs like Psychosis Crawler. Win conditions include:

1. Stax Lock: Static Orb + Winter Orb to cripple resources
2. Wheel Burn: 3-4 resolved wheels with Nekusar in play (28-40 damage total)
3. Alternate Damage: Mindcrank mill or Scrawling Crawler chip damage

Key Phases:

1. Early Game (T1-4): Deploy mana rocks, light stax (Sphere of Resistance), and protect Nekusar with Swiftfoot Boots
2. Mid Game (T5-7): Resolve asymmetrical wheels (Wheel of Fate), lock opponents with Back to Basics/Blood Moon
3. End Game (T8+): Chain wheel effects with damage amplifiers or deploy Damnable Pact as finisher

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands + 1-2 ramp artifacts
• Prioritize early protection (Propaganda) over reactive spells
• Avoid stax-heavy hands without wheel payoffs

Critical Sequencing:

1. T1-2: Land + Fellwar Stone/Mind Stone
2. T3: Nekusar or Teferi's Puzzle Box
3. T4-5: Back to Basics/Blood Moon followed by wheel

Weaknesses:

Critical:

• No guaranteed wincon post-stax lock (reliant on slow wheel burns)
• Fragile to commander removal (3+ removals cripples damage output)

Moderate:

• Limited recursion for key artifacts/enchantments
• Weak to artifact/enchantment wipe recovery

Minor:

• Self-stax conflicts (e.g., Blood Moon vs own mana base)

Most Important Cards:

• Teferi's Puzzle Box
• Winter Orb
• Back to Basics
• Blood Moon
• Psychosis Crawler
• Reforge the Soul
• Wheel of Fate
• Mindcrank
• Damnable Pact
• Jace's Archivist

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 5/10

• Goldfish kill ~T8-10 through incremental damage
• No fast mana beyond Sol Ring delays key plays

Resilience: 4/10

• Minimal protection for Nekusar/stax pieces
• Slow recovery from board wipes

Consistency: 6/10

• 10+ wheel effects provide redundancy
• Lacks tutors for critical stax pieces

Interaction: 5/10

• Mostly sorcery-speed removal (Slagstorm, Bend or Break)
• Limited counterspell density (3 counters total)

Rating Justification:

This deck sits between "Optimized Casual" (rubric 5.0) and "Focused" (6.0). It outpaces precons with stax elements and synergy, but lacks:

• cEDH-level speed (no T4-5 deterministic wins)
• Robust protection packages
• Tutor density for critical locks

Effective wins through stax occur ~T7-8, aligning with 5.0-6.0 benchmarks. The hybrid strategy gives flexibility but prevents extreme optimization in either stax or combo directions.

Power level: 5.0 - 6.0