That's a common fear with Notion Thief, but I'm a little confused by it. It seems to me that if someone plays Consecrated Sphinx and attempts to deck you with it, you basically win the game for free.
Consider: You go to draw for your turn. The opposing player chooses to draw twice, cards which you then draw. They then choose to draw four more cards, causing you to draw four more cards. They repeat this, until...
At any point during this cycle, you can draw any instant-speed removal for the Sphinx, and use it. You now have 30+ cards in hand and are in no danger of decking.
I've been waiting for the "Nekusar Fever" to die down a little before posting my own list (if that ever happens-- he is awesome), but I will let you in on the "sick tech" since you have an interest in shuffling your graveyard into your library: Diminishing Returns.
I've won more games than I can name with that card. It's cheaper than Time Spiral in mana cost (although it does not give you the mana back like Time Spiral does), cheaper than Timetwister in monetary cost, and exiling 10 cards from your deck is negligible because there's so much redundancy in this deck.
The only "odd" thing about Diminishing Returns is that it allows players to draw "up to" 7 cards-- but let's be honest, it's a pretty "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for your opponents. Either they avoid drawing to avoid damage, and therefore have nothing to react to your 7 new cards of gas, or they draw and are punished for it.
On a related note, I think Ill-Gotten Gains is a sweet card for Nekusar, being basically a wheel-for-graveyards. I run a smattering of one-shot mana accelerant cards like Turnabout and Seething Song in my list, not quite enough to "storm" but enough to get insane value off of things like Yawgmoth's Will and Ill-Gotten Gains (for example, get back a counterspell, a wheel, and a Turnabout), in addition to letting you continue to "chain" wheels without overwhelming amounts of mana up-front.
Another interesting thing I've been trying out is Leyline of the Void. A lot of opposing decks are utterly crippled by having key cards exiled in the huge swathes that casting wheels creates-- and it even forms a "combo" with Ill-Gotten Gains.
Finally, Notion Thief is grossly unfair in this deck and any Nekusar list that doesn't run him, or cut him because he "interferes with Nekusar" is not seeing the big picture.
Hey-- Exguardi here, Exguardi on MTGO. I don't play overmuch but when I do play it's exclusively Commander. I have a budget Yeva, Nature's Herald deck (20 tix), a budget Arcanis the Omnipotent deck (20 tix) and a slightly-better-than-budget Prime Speaker Zegana deck which combines my best green and blue cards.
I'm looking forward to playing with it myself, actually-- I'm still collecting a couple of the odds and ends (just got the most important piece today, Chance Encounter).
I've been playing a very similar Tibor and Lumia list which is a lot of fun when it goes off, but Melek, Izzet Paragon is basically Pyromancer's Ascension and that's amazing.
Sneak Attack is just an unfair card, it makes any deck feel so much stronger even when there aren't a huge number of targets to sneak into play. Most of my wins in my Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck came from Sneak Attack.
I've been looking for a general to helm a coin-flip deck for some time. Melek gives me not one but two chances to succeed on a Fiery Gambit, and that's all anyone should need in life. Comments, suggestions, critiques, and scurrilous falsehoods all welcome.
I've tried to avoid going the straight combo route with Melek (he's so good for that purpose that even with all the coin-flipping shenanigans, there still would have been room). I'm sure I'll still accidentally win a game or two with some ridiculous combination of cards, but Melek's just that awesome I suppose.
Greatly enjoyed the videos. I actually prefer the replays to live games, as it makes it much easier for you to explain your thought processes and cuts down on time lost due to players taking a break, or thinking about their turns for multiple minutes, etc.
I love Mishra decks. There's a Nether Void sitting in my local card store that I always wish I could afford to pick up on a whim so I could build Mishra EDH.
First thing I noticed when looking at your deck: you have an impossible number of nonbasic lands, and only 1 Swamp-- but 5 Islands. You might want to consider replacing 4 of the Islands with nonbasics, and adding Tainted Pact to the deck. Free instant-speed Demonic Tutor is good.
Unlike the City, the Oracle text for the Sword of the Ages confirms that the exile is part of the effect, not the cost. So it would definitely trigger Grave Pact and related effects.
No idea! I think they might escape exile, since the creatures that exist on the battlefield are separate objects from the "original" creatures that were sacrificed?
Well, that makes me sad. I think flavorfully it SHOULD be able to include itself-- the only thing more awesome than a legendary sword is a LIVING legendary sword.
I was in the process of rebuilding my Karn deck and was considering it as a removal spell, but I guess it isn't quite as useful for Karn then.
I don't really mind that it comes into play tapped, since I see it as an effect that can "wait," unlike the Disk. Unlike with the red cards, you can drop this down whenever you have the mana and furnish it with creatures later.
Also, I like the reach this gives to non-red, non-black decks that don't have many avenues of direct damage.
I came across Sword of the Ages the other day and I was curious as to what people think of it.
I originally thought you had to exile all creatures you control, but you can actually choose any number of creatures. Additionally, you actually sacrifice the creatures as part of the cost, and they are exiled on the resolution of the ability-- so anything that needs creatures to go to the graveyard will still activate (such as Vicious Shadows).
Another cool thing, Sword of the Ages will count itself if it is a creature at the time its ability is activated, if it was animated via an effect like Karn, Silver Golem.
Best of all, unlike most of these old cards the actual ability of the card doesn't cost any mana, so the only cost is up-front.
Consider: You go to draw for your turn. The opposing player chooses to draw twice, cards which you then draw. They then choose to draw four more cards, causing you to draw four more cards. They repeat this, until...
At any point during this cycle, you can draw any instant-speed removal for the Sphinx, and use it. You now have 30+ cards in hand and are in no danger of decking.
I've won more games than I can name with that card. It's cheaper than Time Spiral in mana cost (although it does not give you the mana back like Time Spiral does), cheaper than Timetwister in monetary cost, and exiling 10 cards from your deck is negligible because there's so much redundancy in this deck.
The only "odd" thing about Diminishing Returns is that it allows players to draw "up to" 7 cards-- but let's be honest, it's a pretty "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for your opponents. Either they avoid drawing to avoid damage, and therefore have nothing to react to your 7 new cards of gas, or they draw and are punished for it.
On a related note, I think Ill-Gotten Gains is a sweet card for Nekusar, being basically a wheel-for-graveyards. I run a smattering of one-shot mana accelerant cards like Turnabout and Seething Song in my list, not quite enough to "storm" but enough to get insane value off of things like Yawgmoth's Will and Ill-Gotten Gains (for example, get back a counterspell, a wheel, and a Turnabout), in addition to letting you continue to "chain" wheels without overwhelming amounts of mana up-front.
Another interesting thing I've been trying out is Leyline of the Void. A lot of opposing decks are utterly crippled by having key cards exiled in the huge swathes that casting wheels creates-- and it even forms a "combo" with Ill-Gotten Gains.
Finally, Notion Thief is grossly unfair in this deck and any Nekusar list that doesn't run him, or cut him because he "interferes with Nekusar" is not seeing the big picture.
Man, I love this deck.
Although I did splurge on a Sol Ring since, you know, Sol Ring.
I've been playing a very similar Tibor and Lumia list which is a lot of fun when it goes off, but Melek, Izzet Paragon is basically Pyromancer's Ascension and that's amazing.
Sneak Attack is just an unfair card, it makes any deck feel so much stronger even when there aren't a huge number of targets to sneak into play. Most of my wins in my Rakdos, Lord of Riots deck came from Sneak Attack.
1 Melek, Izzet Paragon" target="blank">Melek, Izzet Paragon
Creatures
1 Archaeomancer
1 Frenetic Efreet
1 Gilded Drake
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Goblin Electromancer
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Trinket Mage
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Artifacts
1 Cloud Key
1 Izzet Signet
1 Krark's Thumb
1 Library of Leng
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Matrix
1 Mind Stone
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
Enchantments
1 Chance Encounter
1 Eyes of the Watcher
1 Future Sight
1 Impulsive Maneuvers
1 Omniscience
1 Planar Chaos
1 Sneak Attack
1 Spellweaver Volute
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Deep Analysis
1 Faithless Looting
1 Fiery Gambit
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Mind's Desire
1 Mystic Retrieval
1 Past in Flames
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Show and Tell
1 Squee's Revenge
1 Stitch in Time
1 Temporal Mastery
1 Time Spiral
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
Instants
1 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Cryptic Command
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Force of Will
1 Frantic Search
1 High Tide
1 Hinder
1 Impulse
1 Izzet Charm
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Puppet's Verdict
1 Snap
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Turnabout
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
Nonbasic Lands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Great Furnace
1 Madblind Mountain
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
Basic Lands
11 Island
3 Mountain
Strategy
Plan A) Flip coins. Have a Chance Encounter. Win!
Plan B) Cast all the spells with Omniscience.
Plan C) Sneak Attack shenanigans.
I've tried to avoid going the straight combo route with Melek (he's so good for that purpose that even with all the coin-flipping shenanigans, there still would have been room). I'm sure I'll still accidentally win a game or two with some ridiculous combination of cards, but Melek's just that awesome I suppose.
Thanks!
First thing I noticed when looking at your deck: you have an impossible number of nonbasic lands, and only 1 Swamp-- but 5 Islands. You might want to consider replacing 4 of the Islands with nonbasics, and adding Tainted Pact to the deck. Free instant-speed Demonic Tutor is good.
I was in the process of rebuilding my Karn deck and was considering it as a removal spell, but I guess it isn't quite as useful for Karn then.
Where a poster indicated that Sword of the Ages would include itself if it was a creature.
Also, I like the reach this gives to non-red, non-black decks that don't have many avenues of direct damage.
I originally thought you had to exile all creatures you control, but you can actually choose any number of creatures. Additionally, you actually sacrifice the creatures as part of the cost, and they are exiled on the resolution of the ability-- so anything that needs creatures to go to the graveyard will still activate (such as Vicious Shadows).
Another cool thing, Sword of the Ages will count itself if it is a creature at the time its ability is activated, if it was animated via an effect like Karn, Silver Golem.
Best of all, unlike most of these old cards the actual ability of the card doesn't cost any mana, so the only cost is up-front.
Thoughts?
Something like Hex Parasite, though of course the issue with that card is the lands tapped to use its ability will be afflicted with wind counters.