While you can't incorporate Nicol himself with him, Tasigur, the Golden Fang is a really good option. He's a villain, he can shut down a game and he keeps costing 1. What more could you want?
I think the deck could run better if you focus on milling yourself. Put out Laboratory Maniac and protect him with counter magic and you only have to worry about decking one person rather than spreading out your mills. You could also toss in Mirror-Mad Phantasm and some Clone effect to just mill your whole deck for the win.
You would need two other cards, I think. Enchanted Evening and then some ETB creature. This also, incidently, will give you infinite mana as well.
EDIT: The problem with this combo is that if someone destroys Day of the Dragons in response to its ETB trigger, it will permanently remove all of your enchantments. So, back that up with counter magic!
You could also toss in Word of Seizing or Grab the Reins or some other sort of effect for a cheaper Insurrection. And finally, I would use Fire/Ice. None of the other split cards would really help in this deck but this one is one of my favorites.
Also, what do you think about Skaab Ruinator? I love that guy, and think he'd work fairly well.
The exiling creatures from your graveyard is what really makes me hate him. You've got win cons that rely on creatures staying there and have a ton of ways to get creatures back from your graveyard to your hand or to play, why hamstring your strategy?
I also loved Tracker's Instinct, definitely an auto-include. Pedantic Learning always seemed like an expensive way to draw cards. I'd rather play something like Rhystic Study if I wanted to draw cards at random times. Its amazing how many people don't pay that extra 1.
cast living death with mikaeus in play...i want to do this all day. now would we want Mikaeus as the commander or as just one of the 99?
I don't think works like you think it does. Creatures in play are exiled, then creatures from graveyards are put in to play then the exiled creatures are put in to the graveyard. They lose undying when they get shifted to the exile zone.
I'd play Tasigur only so you can also play Villainous Wealth.
EDIT: The problem with this combo is that if someone destroys Day of the Dragons in response to its ETB trigger, it will permanently remove all of your enchantments. So, back that up with counter magic!
You could also toss in Word of Seizing or Grab the Reins or some other sort of effect for a cheaper Insurrection. And finally, I would use Fire/Ice. None of the other split cards would really help in this deck but this one is one of my favorites.
The exiling creatures from your graveyard is what really makes me hate him. You've got win cons that rely on creatures staying there and have a ton of ways to get creatures back from your graveyard to your hand or to play, why hamstring your strategy?
I also loved Tracker's Instinct, definitely an auto-include. Pedantic Learning always seemed like an expensive way to draw cards. I'd rather play something like Rhystic Study if I wanted to draw cards at random times. Its amazing how many people don't pay that extra 1.
Hmm, read that one wrong. My bad.
I don't think works like you think it does. Creatures in play are exiled, then creatures from graveyards are put in to play then the exiled creatures are put in to the graveyard. They lose undying when they get shifted to the exile zone.