Hello happy people! I hope that your day is going incredibly well!

Today I am taking a look at my 4th Commander deck built around a new legendary dork from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. Here are my first three:

1. The first was built around Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos - Commanding Hidetsugu, Devouring Chaos | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com). This deck uses a number of big cost cards that have cheaper play costs like Blasphemous Act, the evoke-ing of Mournwhelk, the delve of Tombstalker and the suspend of Greater Gargadon to get big damage triggers and then be castable that turn. Love it a lot!
2. The second deck I built around was an Orzhov enchantments and artifacts matter build around uncommon newcomer, Naomi, Pillar of Order. (You can find it here - (Commanding Order with Naomi | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)). I tossed in tons of artifacts, enchantments, and creatures that counted as one or the other, like Esper Sentinel and Agent of Erebos. Then I used those types for removal of stuff like Dispeller's Capsule, Duplicant, and Seal of Doom. Then I tossed for, for game winning, the powerhouse of Nettlecyst and other similar pumping effects for a Commander damage win if needed. Check it out!
3. The third deck I created was around Tatsunari, Toad Rider. This deck played around 20 enchantments to get triggers off his cast ability to make his legendary fun, like Rhystic Study and Sylvan Library, around 15 Frogs and changelings to use his ability on like Yargle, Glutton of Urborg and The Gitrog Monster and then some Voltron-ish and unblockable elements to get some punches in like Archetype of Imagination and Whispersilk Cloak. You can check out this fun build here - (Commanding Tatsunari, Toad Rider | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com))
4. The fourth deck I crafted was around the Boros Samurai needs of Raiyuu, Storm's Edge. I included around 25 mostly Samurai with the trigger that Raiyuu has from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty as well as it's Commander set. I also tossed in Warriors like cards like Moraug, Fury of Akoum; Samurai loving things like Godo, Bandit Warlord; Samurai makers like The Wandering Emperor and loads more synergies. I made it feel Voltron around the leader. Enjoy it here!!! - Commanding Raiyuu's Samurai | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com)

And there we go!

Now...who am I building around today?

It's this 3-drop Rat Ninja! Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion is a powerful leader. Note that I am writing this up the day that Nashi is previewed and before EDHREC.com arrives to the scene with its data. It has ninjutsu for four mana. When it deals combat damage to a foe, you exile everyone's top card of their library and then you can choose one to play for free without using any mana just losing life equal to its casting cost. Nasty stuff! Note that playing this as a Commander means that I cannot Ninjutsu it out of the Command Zone, only from my hand. If you want to ninjutsu it, then you'll need to have it in your hand, but no one will be surprised if you do so. Therefore, we'll need to just hard cast it and then swing. Note that this is not in the color of easy unblockability (Blue) or haste (Red) so we'll need colorless ways to get those. Also note that this is not in a color of more attacks (Red) or turns (Blue) so we cannot use Relentless Assaults or Time Warps to get in more combat damage triggers. Sad. Please note that this reads "play" not "cast" so you can drop a land for no pain.

Nashi is a Bolas's Citadel in the Command Zone. It's cheap enough to come back after death. Note that he's better than the Citadel since you can cast from foe's decks, but he's also worse since you can only do it once per turn and needs a combat smack and is in an easier to answer creature form. I'll toss in the Citadel as well.

Nashi is nasty Spike. Normally I call dorks that are more fun in a Tammy/Timmy way with splashy plays or lean into my Jenny/Johnnie synergies that I can build all sorts of combos around. I want to stretch my deck-building muscles and add some fast and powerful combos with this and lean into the Spike-ish ness of Nashi.

Ready?

The first place I dug into was the power of setting up the top of your library with this pair. The Top is a ubiquitous card in Commander, and in this deck will not just allow you to set up a big Nashi but it will also be part of a few combos to win the game outright. The Rack is a fine way to drop cards in your hand to your library in any order to set up a key card for a Nashi trigger.

In addition to equipment and lands that will make Nashi hit for damage, we also have the Embrace of the Dauthi. This black uncommon from Tempest can, for two mana, give a dork shadow for the turn. Shadow means that it can only be blocked or block folks with shadow. You can give your foe's sole blocker shadow and swing with your team.

This is the first combo I have in the deck. The Blood is simple. As your foes lose life you gain it, which is a nice break on the life loss from Nashi and the Citadel. The Bond is simple. As you gain life, your targeted foe will lose it, which turns your life gain or their life loss into a game winner. If you have both, they will daisy chain and win the game.

Check out this card! It's initially in here to break the life loss of Nashi. As you lose life to cast a 2- or 4- drop spell from your foe or yourself, you can lose one fewer life if this is the first spell you cast this turn and two fewer life if it's the second spell, meaning you should gain around 3 life per main phase unless you drop a land. Good stuff!

But... this is an infinite combo with the Top and the Citadel. You tap the Top to draw a card and put it on top of your library. You lose a life to cast the Top with the Citadel. Gain life from this. Then tap the Top and repeat and gain a ton of life, and then spend 50 life for each foe and kill them. You won't need to deck yourself before you have enough life to kill all of your foes. Pretty strong, right? You can also kill with the Bond.

Let's turn to another combo in the build. The Forge is a backup Bolas's Citadel and Nashi. You can still look at the top card to make sure that your card is ready for a Nashi fun time in the sun. You can cast artifacts from the top of your library by spending its mana cost, and we have 20 non-creatures in here plus key dorks. You can also pay a life to exile the top card of your library in case it sucks for Nashi. Then you drop the Cloud Key and name "Artifact." Now your artifacts will cost one fewer, and I think I have 4 dorks, two of which are key combo enablers, that are also eligible for this discount. You'll need the Top which is now free. Tap it, draw a card, put it on top of your library. Tap it, play it for free, tap it, etc. This draws you as much of your library as you need. If you control the Aetherflux Reservoir, you can gain as least a few hundred life to win with. Also note that the only "chump" card in this combo that doesn't have great synergy with Nashi is the Cloud Key, and that's still a cost reducer for around 23 other cards in your deck, which is not bad.

Let's turn to some life-loss enablers.

To be fair up front, I know that this is an 8-drop. But with Cabal Coffers, Cabal Strongold, Nyx Lotus, and loads of Black pips and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, that mana should be here. Plus, you can always drop a land each turn from Nashi's face-punch. As you can see, Vilis is an eight-mana 8/8 flyer that can win the game with his size as a nice backup. You can pay a Black mana, spend two life and drop the size of something by -1/-1. Good stuff. Then when you lose life, you draw that many cards. Did you Nashi a 3-drop this turn and lose three life? Then draw three cards. This is a nasty engine with Nashi! It also works with many other life loss cards here and there like Phyrexian Arena and a big name you'll see later...cough cough...

Next up is this powerful 1-drop enchantment that has a similar thing going as Vilis. It will gain blood counters as you pay life. Please note that this will not trigger for losing life from damage. It just counts for paying life...like Nashi! As you can see, you'll put that many counters here, so a 5-drop for five life puts 5 counters on your enchantment. Then you can, at any time, pull four counters off and spend two mana and then Murder a dork. This is a great way to supplement your removal suite quite ably. Since you are not spending mana to cast your Nashi spell you can use your mana instead here.

Here's another infinite combo that I am running. You need Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and then either Trike or the Ballista. The Dark Mike is actually pretty good here. As you can see, he's a 5/5 with intimidate for six mana and when Humans deal damage to you they get destroyed, which is pretty good for the masses. Your Non-Humans get +1/+1 which includes Nashi and most of your team. Then, as your non-humans die, they come back with undying with a +1/+1 counter. If they die without a +1/+1 counter, then they come back with one. So here is how that works with Trike. You drop Trike. It's a base 1/1 with three +1/+1 counters. Remove two counters to shoot a foe for two damage. Remove the final counter to shoot itself while you control Dark Mike. It comes back with an extra counter so that's a now a 5/5 pull off three, and then pull of the final one to shoot itself and repeat. The Ballista is the same. It's also mana ramp at the end of the turn with your mass mana making and is one of three game winning options with another combo we'll look at later. All three of these fit in fine, although the Trike is a little undersized these days.

Let's turn to another combo. K'rrik is the card I alluded to earlier about keyways to lose life in this brew in addition to Nashi. Here you can spend two life for each Black mana required anywhere from activation abilities to casting costs. Also note that this fun guy is just a 2/2 but he does come with lifelink and he gains a lot of +1/+1 counters. He slides in perfectly into this brew. And then we have the Sigil. This doesn't have any synergy, it's just pure combo. It's a 2-drop enchantment that can spend two Black mana to force a person who just cast a Green spell to Coercion discard a card. That's pretty brake-ish on stopping ramp and stuff. But it's here for that to return it. If you control this when you control the Reservoir, then this could be the third spell you cast that turn when you drop it, so you'll have gained 6 life that turn already. Then you can tap all of your Nyx Lotuses and such and make a ton of Black mana and then bounce and replay it a few times. Just 8 Black mana will net you two more triggers so you will have gained 15 life with 5 casts that turn. That's pretty good even if you don't control K'rrik. Now, if you do, pay 4 life to bounce and 4 life to recast for spell #6. You will pay 8 life and gain 6. Total net - 2 life lost. Then repeat until you are gaining a few thousand of life. Nasty right? Then you kill with the Reservoir by paying 50 life per foe.

How about one more infinite combo and then we'll call it!

This is our 6th and final infinite combo. The Monolith is a fine mana rock for your brew, and you can tap it for mana and then untap it for mana and you don't lose any mana by running it. I also have Grim Monolith in here that costs two to drop, taps for three, and then untaps for four. Then, if you control the Rings, you can copy the untap ability of your Monoliths for two mana, and then tap them for three, and keep on going, making infinite colorless mana. I have three ways to abuse that infinite mana - the Barrens is one. You can turn it into a 100/100 and then swing if it was already in your battlefield. Another mana sink is the Walking Ballista that you can spend four mana each iteration and then make it a 1000/1000 dork and pull off those counters to kill your foes. A third way to pull off this win is Staff of Domination, which you can use to gain infinite life, draw a ton of cards, and kill with the Reservoir if you have it. A fourth way, by the by is if you control the Top and Mystic Forge and Reservoir but not the Cloud Key to make it free to recast over and over again you can recast it with the mana from this.

Check out Tendrils of Agony. As you can see, this four-mana sorcery will drain two life from a foe and you'll gain it and it comes with Storm. This is a way to kill if you are casting and recasting things over and over again, but you don't have the Reservoir to gain infinite life. You can get 100 casts, and then cast this and win the game. But even if you just have five or six spells cast that turn, this will be a 24 or 28 life swing, which can finish off a wounded player or really help you survive.

Since we are not using our mana for Nashi, we might as well be using our mana for extort! I tossed in four dorks with extort, including these two. If you pay five life to cast a Sanguine Bond for free with Nashi (or Bolas's Citadel) and then you control just one extort dork that's one mana to gain three and force your foe's to each lose one, so you netted lost only two life. Two dorks with extort and you'll gain a life. Great synergy here!

The Pontiff is a weaker 2/7 with extort for six mana, but he gives your whole team extort, like Nasty Nashi and friends. Note that two extorts will both trigger. The Ghast is a commonly played card in mono-black builds like this one for it's mana doubling from Swamps. I tossed it in for that (along with Nirkana Revenant), sure, but also because of that sweet extort loving!

I am only running three planeswalkers in my brew, and two of those are for obvious reasons. Sorin offers a few fun things. Don't sleep on his ability to drain two life from a target. It can finish off damaged dorks, almost about to die planeswalkers, and jumpstart the game winning combo of Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. The life gain is a nice break. But it's here to -3 and drop someone's life to ten so you can finish them off with 5 Tendrils of Agony or in a turn or two with Walking Ballista active as a mana sink, and more. It's pretty full on.

Every deck should run some mass removal, even one as dedicated to permanents as this one. I have two removal effects that will skip your stuff, and the Demon is the first one. As you can see, this 6/6 flyer for 8 mana is only two more than you'd expect. For that 2 mana, if you cast it from your hand, you can destroy all nonblack and nonartifact dorks and they cannot be regenerated. As you can see, that means that the Demon won't kill anything you control. I also have In Garruk's Wake to sweep opposing stuff only.

Then I have two cards that will sweep our stuff, the first is the four mana Damnation. A four-mana sweeper is pretty good and can keep you alive for a nice amount of time. The other sweeper is the six-mana Blood on the Snow, and with a bunch of Snow-Covered Swamps running around, that could easily be three or four mana or so in it. Just three Snow mana will replay Nashi and you won't have to lean on Commander Tax.

I am not running any reanimation in this build (save for Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt which replaces a land, and you can drop it as a land in case you have answered your own graveyard). Therefore, I don't care about my own graveyard, enter the 1-drop Planar enchantment. As you can see, whenever any player's card hits the graveyard from anywhere, it gets exiled. That includes you, sure, but that's no sweat off your face. It's a powerful first turn play before counter magic comes on board. Then the Leyline can be a before the first turn play. Sure, it's a 4-drop otherwise but it only hurst your foes. This pair really acts as a nice power play against the prolific graveyard abuse in this format's metagame. I also tossed in Bojuka Bog to help with this play.

Let's turn to some lands!

Check out this pair! I have tossed in the expected Access Tunnel, Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak and Trailblazer's Boots for Nashi, as well as the aforementioned Dauthi Embrace. But...I really wanted another option. Enter Shizo. It taps for Black and won't arrive tapped so there is no tempo loss by playing it. For just a Black mana and a tap you can give a legendary dork fear for the turn, so Nashi cannot be blocked save by Black and artifacts, which will leave out quite a few potential blockers. I love dropping this precombat and using it to slip past a defense that someone was relying on to net a Kashi trigger. Fun times! The Fountain is here for one simple reason. To gain 2 life. A break on Nashi's life loss, sure. But it also jump-starts your infinite combo that needs a life gain to kill. And it also won't arrive to play tapped.

Check out this Clinic. As you can see, this arrives untapped without any tempo loss. Nice! And then you can spend two mana and tap this to give a dork you control lifelink until the end of the turn. Since we have invested a lot of ways to make Nashi and her team unblockable, this can give you three life when she smashes for combat damage. It's a repeatable way to answer the massive life loss in this deck.

Here are two more lands. The first is from the same set as Nashi, the only other card in here. As you can see, this can channel for four mana to mill you three and then Raise Dead a dork or planeswalker. If you are full of lands, this is a nice way to use your cards on something. Like Shizo, this arrives to the battlefield untapped and taps for Black mana. It will also get heavy play at the kitchen table. The Beacon can tap and sacrifice to send a dork from your Command Zone to your hand. It does so at instant speed. If you get a dork through unblocked and you want to Ninjutsu out Nashi, then you can sac this, put her into your hand, and then Ninjutsu her to the battlefield and net that sweet trigger! It's really strong here.

And there we are with my deep dive into some cards...let's review the decklist below!

Nasty Nashi | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Nashi, Moon Sage's Scion

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Basilica Screecher
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Crypt Ghast
• 1 Dread Presence
• 1 Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1 K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Massacre Wurm
• 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1 Murderous Rider // Swift End
• 1 Nirkana Revenant
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Opposition Agent
• 1 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1 Pontiff of Blight
• 1 Reiver Demon
• 1 Thrull Parasite
• 1 Triskelion
• 1 Twilight Prophet
• 1 Vilis, Broker of Blood
• 1 Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 1 Walking Ballista

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Liliana Vess
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Instants (2)
• 1 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Agadeem's Awakening // Agadeem, the Undercrypt
• 1 Blood on the Snow
• 1 Damnation
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 In Garruk's Wake
• 1 Tendrils of Agony

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Dauthi Embrace
• 1 Exquisite Blood
• 1 Font of Agonies
• 1 Leshrac's Sigil
• 1 Leyline of the Void
• 1 Necropotence
• 1 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Planar Void
• 1 Sanguine Bond

• Artifacts (20)
• 1 Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1 Armillary Sphere
• 1 Basalt Monolith
• 1 Bolas's Citadel
• 1 Caged Sun
• 1 Cloud Key
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Extraplanar Lens
• 1 Grim Monolith
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Mystic Forge
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Rings of Brighthearth
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Staff of Domination
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Trailblazer's Boots
• 1 Whispersilk Cloak

• Lands (36)
• 21 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1 Access Tunnel
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Crawling Barrens
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Takenuma, Abanoned Mire
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 War Room
• 1 Witch's Clinic

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And there we go, 100 cards later! So... what did you think of my Nashi build? Too nasty? Or just right for your metagame? Let me know in the comments below!