Overview:

This Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck is a high-powered wheels/group-draw strategy focused on dealing incremental damage through forced card draw while maintaining cEDH-level mana bases and interaction. The deck combines explosive wheel effects, damage multipliers, and free countermagic to create a potent "storm-like" damage engine. While lacking true infinite combos, it leverages redundant draw-punishment effects and efficient tutors to consistently pressure opponents.

Primer:

Core Strategy: This deck aims to deploy Nekusar by turn 2-3 using fast mana, then chain wheel effects (Wheel of Fortune, Windfall) to burn opponents while refueling. Key damage amplifiers like Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse turn each draw into lethal threats. The backup plan uses reanimation (Animate Dead, Reanimate) and value engines (Rhystic Study, The One Ring) to out-resource opponents.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Fast mana (Mana Vault, Chrome Mox) + colored sources
• Early wheel (Burning Inquiry, Dark Deal)
• Protection (Force of Will, Deflecting Swat) Reject hands without acceleration or that rely solely on 4+ CMC plays.

Key Tips:

• Sequence wheels post-Nekusar but before damage doublers
• Use Library of Leng/Alhammarret's Archive to break parity on symmetrical draw
• Save free counters for protection rather than disruption
• Waste Not converts discard phases into explosive mana/card advantage

Avoid Traps:

• Overextending wheels without damage multipliers
• Keeping hands that rely on 6+ CMC cards without acceleration
• Wasting tutors on situational answers rather than core engine pieces

Weaknesses:

Critical:

• Commander-dependent strategy (3+ removals cripple the deck)
• Vulnerable to Rest in Peace/Leyline of Sanctity effects

Moderate:

• Limited creature-based interaction
• Relies on resolving 3-4 CMC engine pieces

Minor:

• Life loss from mana base mitigated by Sheoldred

Most Important Cards:

• Wheel of Fortune
• Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• Underworld Dreams
• Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• Teferi's Puzzle Box
• Alhammarret's Archive
• Waste Not
• Demonic Tutor
• Mana Vault
• Force of Will

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 8/10

• T3 Nekusar + T4 wheel (18+ damage/opponent) with fast mana
• T5-6 kill potential through chained wheels

Resilience: 6/10

• 7 free/low-cost protection spells
• Redundant damage sources but commander-focused

Consistency: 9/10

• 10+ tutors + 8 wheel effects
• Multiple damage amplification layers

Interaction: 8/10

• 7 S-tier counterspells
• Cyclonic Rift as board reset

Rating Justification:

This deck operates at cEDH-adjacent speeds (T5-6 wins) with premium interaction but lacks the T2-3 deterministic combos of true Tier 1 cEDH decks. The heavy reliance on resolving and protecting Nekusar keeps it below optimized stax/consultation builds. Comparable to high-powered casual decks with cEDH mana bases but more linear strategies.

Power level: 7.5 - 8.0