#grixis

Day 2 of Grixmas: Nekusar the Mindrazor

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Merry Grix-mas! Day 0 of me going over the different Grixis precon commanders. Today, er, yesterday was Nicol Bolas, the Ravager!

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“Spears, together! Take it down!”

Surrounded by polearms on all sides, the whip-wielding zombie finally fell to the Bant paladins’ weapons. With the largest foe torn apart, they then turned their attention to the lesser undead. But the horde had yet to attack.

“…What’s going on?” one squire hissed to the knight beside her.

“No idea, Rowena. Usually they’re more- Look out!”

One armored zombie shambled forward, while the rest of the undead dispersed into the surrounding wasteland. With a rotting hand, it reached out to Rowena, shrugging off a spear hit that merely scraped against its heavy plates. It groaned, seized her hand, and…

“Uh. Is this what usually-”

“Not at all.”

The other knights watched in disbelief as their enemy vigorously shook Rowena’s free hand. That is, until the squire studied the undead more intently.

“Hey, I recognize that armor…Dahlia?”

The zombie paused her shaking to nod, coupled with a wordless groan.

“So. I see the Knight of the Reliquary gig worked out well for you. And I also see you aren’t attacking us.”

Dahlia pointed first to the larger undead’s whip fallen on the ground, then awkwardly to her own back.

“What…oh. You’re thanking us, then.”

Another nod.

“Well. It’s been lovely catching up, but…Oh, not again.”

Rowena readied her spear as the undead slavedriver began to rise once again. Despite its grievous injuries, it still managed to almost regain its footing, only for Dahlia to trip it back to the ground. Rowena then quickly followed up with a spear through its head.

“Thanks for the assist.”

Rotten teeth angled into something resembling a smile.

“Nice to see you’re still on our side. And your form is still good, almost as good as mine.”

Dahlia’s smile disappeared, replaced by a more typical open-mouthed grimace. She pointed to the full-fledged knights behind Rowena.

“What…I’m almost a Knight of the Reliquary! And besides, I still fought here.”

The living knights laughed.

Commander Ask, for a custom commander! @illharg-the-rave-boar made this card for my character in our Blades in the Dark game.

Ilse is a literal mafia princess; the royal family used their wealth to turn into a crime syndicate!

The deck is deep into tier 1, straddling goad, crimes, treasure tokens, and legends. (I even have a small package of tutors to find Crown/Scepter/Throne of Empires.) It's mainly a deck throwing Act of Treasons around at instant speed to muck up combat.

This will be a bit of a wilder one since obviously I can't really know what people are already running with the commander beside your short summary.

The Royal Family's new Pirate Privateer! Doing some similar thing to the Queen, punishing people that dare take the monarchy from you.

Thieving Skydiver is really good at doing crime! One crime in specific, but shiny trinkets are the life of the underworld anyway. Thada Adel is a different flavor of Thievery, one that technically doesn't commit any crimes! But she's also a legend for the deck. Both of these also come with Evasion, a good way to reclaim a lost crown.

Plum probably came up during one of your searches, but he does do crime, treasures and legends! Peacock is a bit less direct about it, but she does turn your treasures into Clues. This not only allows you to sac them for card draw in a pinch, this also means that when you sacrifice your treasures for mana, her last mode triggers because they're Clues you're sacrificing. This allows your creatures to be unblockable and reclaim the Monarchy, but it also doesn't have to target YOUR creatures. It can be (victimless) crime, or you can just sac treasures during opposing turns to mess with people's combat and make alliances and enemies.

Another couple legends I assume came up in searches to connect the themes, though they aren't as easy to flavorfully fit into the deck... But then I realized that'd probably be most legends anyway.

Goblin Engineer is just nice to have around in a deck with Treasures, and he can find and reanimate two of the Empires artifacts, so that's another neat way to get there. Might struggle with the Throne, though.

I've wanted to try Buried Alive since it's available in modern but it hasn't made that big of a bang, this list plays 3 in the classic izzet shell.