MTG Commander - Nebuchadnezzar from Legends - EDH Primer

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Legends is full of legendary creatures. In fact, it's the set that introduced them into Magic in the first place. Most of them aren't very good, some were pretty good at one point, some are still decent Commanders, and a few are actually quite good. Nebuchadnezzar falls into the decent category as a blue/black Commander happy to get into your head and leave you with no options.

The Assyrian king himself is an okay creature on his own. He’s a 3/3 Human Wizard for 3UB and the Oracle text for his tap ability reads thusly:

X, Tap, Name a card. Target opponent reveals X cards at random from his or her hand. Then that player discards all cards with that name revealed this way. Activate this ability only during your turn.

The upside to this ability is that even though it can only be used on your turn, it doesn’t have to be used at sorcery speed. Also, unlike many discard abilities, Nebuchadnezzar’s ability can hit lands, as well. In Commander, this means you can hit multiple copies of basic lands.

To make our Commander good, we obviously need to know what our opponent has in hand. Enchantments like Telepathy and Seer’s Vision let us see our opponents’ hands at all times. Wandering Eye is an Illusion from Nemesis that makes it so that all hands are revealed - not my personal preference, but another option to consider. With the sheer amount of other discard cards that are run alongside Nebuchadnezzar, though, we’ll pretty much always have knowledge of our opponents’ hands anyway.

Enchantments like Megrim and Liliana’s Caress shock our opponents (deal 2 damage) for each card that they discard. Bloodchief Ascension takes a little bit to get going, but lets you gain 2 life on top of the shock. In addition, Waste Not is an Enchantment from Magic 2015 that lets us benefit from each card that is discarded - based on the type of card that is sent to the yard.

Many of our creatures also let us discard cards, such as Blizzard Specter, Guul Draz Specter, and the classic Hypnotic Specter. Then we have creatures like Chainer, Dementia Master, Coffin Queen, and Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni that let us take control of the creatures that end up discarded. We also have a couple of creatures that benefit from lots of cards in the yards, such as Avatar of Will (which can be cast for 2 Blue if an opponent has no cards in hand) and Wrexial, the Risen Deep (who can steal instants or sorceries when he deals combat damage.)

Here’s a skeleton list to get you started:

---

The 99:

Creature (20)

• Avatar of Will

• Blizzard Specter
• Bog Witch
• Chainer, Dementia Master
• Coffin Queen
• Dimir Cutpurse
• Dimir Doppelganger
• Doomsday Specter
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• Guul Draz Specter
• Hypnotic Specter
• Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
• Liliana's Reaver
• Nyxathid
• Rag Man
• Ravenous Rats
• Scion of Darkness
• Scythe Specter
  
• Siren of the Silent Song
  

• Wrexial, the Risen Deep
  
  

Artifact (9)

• Anvil of Bogardan
  
• Bargaining Table
  
• Geth's Grimoire
  
• Glasses of Urza
  
• Lashwrithe
  
• Sol Ring
  
• The Rack
  
• Wand of Ith
  

• Worn Powerstone
  

Enchantment (16)

• Animate Dead
• Bloodchief Ascension
• Breathstealer's Crypt
•  Dire Undercurrents
• Helm of the Ghastlord
• Larceny
• Liliana's Caress
• Megrim
• Necromancy
• Painful Quandary
  
• Seer's Vision
  
• Shrieking Affliction
  
• Telepathy
  
• Waste Not
  
• Words of Waste
  
• Words of Wind
  
  

Sorcery (9)

• Beacon of Unrest
  
• Brainbite
  
• Despise
  
• Duress
  
• Rise from the Grave
  
• Syphon Mind
  
• Tasigur's Cruelty
  
• Urza's Guilt
  
• Whispering Madness
  
  

Land (39)

• Bojuka Bog
  
• Dimir Aqueduct
  
• Dimir Guildgate
  
• Duskmantle, House of Shadow
  
•  Everglades
  
• 13x Island
  
• Jwar Isle Refuge
  
• Minamo, School at Water's Edge
  
• Nephalia Drownyard
  
• 16x Swamp
  
• Terramorphic Expanse
  
• Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  
  

Instant (4)

• Dimir Charm
  
• Peek
  
• Treacherous Urge
  
• Visions of Beyond
  
  

Planeswalker (2)

• Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
  
• Liliana Vess
  

(One note: Wand of Ith is not available on Magic Online. It can be replaced with Wandering Eye, the creature mentioned earlier.)

This deck can be built for roughly $125 USD in paper and 40 tickets on Magic Online (MTGO). The only expensive card in this deck is Minamo, School at Water’s Edge at $20, which is really nice to have to untap our legendary permanents (especially Nebuchadnezzar). You could live without it, though. Every other card is under $10, and most are $0.50-$2. So if you want to build a blue/black discard/control list on the cheap with potential for a nasty endgame, this is a really good place to start.