Neheb the Eternal: Guide for EDH

There are some who say that mono color decks in EDH are limited in their resources and therefore are limited in their capabilities. To a certain extent, this is valid. However, every now and then a mono colored commander appears that bends that color’s main weakness into its very strength. Welcome to our Neheb the Eternal EDH guide. Mono red decks can be very explosive. However, mono red decks tend to struggle with mana advantage as they will need to rely on rituals and artifact ramp most of the time. Not for us though. A well-built Neheb deck will grant so much mana advantage that it easily surpasses any other green deck at the table. Generating anywhere between 20-50 red mana with Neheb is totally doable and opens up multiple archetypes that are normally not feasible for mono red. Depending on your playgroup and own experience, you can tailor your Neheb deck in various ways / archetypes. There are Neheb decks that run many creatures and extra combat spells. There is the famous Dragon’s Approach archetype too. There are also various midrange strategies for Neheb. The archetype of our choosing here is the Burn strategy. There are many spells in mono red that just do an absurd amount of damage (including to yourself) that create such an insane amount of mana that winning the game from there is not very hard. I consider this approach a bit on the glass cannon side of strategies, but it makes up for this through sheer explosiveness and speed. With this strategy, we are not lounging and durdling until turn 8. Nah, we will be aiming to burn our opponents out on turn 5 and do it with a dirty grin on our face. Neheb is not a commander for cEDH however. Neheb costs a whopping five mana and the main strategy just folds if Neheb is dealt with. In environments where interaction is plenty, Neheb can struggle, especially if he is just sitting on the board unprotected. If you blow opponents out of the game with 40 damage once, then you can bet that the next game Neheb will have a giant target on his back. So, packing protection spells and reading the table are a must for Neheb. The risk is well worth the reward though… This is my full deck list: I fully recognize that this deck is not budget by any means as I have been collecting Kaladesh Inventions over the years. However – please note that this deck can be built on a budget quite easily by just taking the regular versions. Also – the deck runs 23 mountains so this by itself makes it great for any budget starter build! Do note that infinite combos and infinite mana are banned in our playgroup. This is why a card like Aggravated Assault is not in the deck.

Neheb’s Mechanic and General Game Plan

Neheb is a unique commander. This is the only legendary creature that grants red mana at beginning of each post combat main phase for each one life lost by all our opponents this turn. There are few important things to note here:

• Neheb counts life lost in total, not only the damage dealt. If an opponent cracks a fetch land in your turn, this loss of life will contribute to Neheb’s mana generation.
• This is TOTAL life lost, this turn. Multiple combats followed by additional main phases will count all the life lost during previous phases. Note that the part additional main phase is key for Neheb as his trigger happens on each post combat main phase. This makes Seize the Day an incredible card. More on this below.
• Neheb grants the mana pay out on your post combat main phase. This means that we need to have a very clear sense on sequencing – both in the first main phase and combat in every turn.

The general game plan is straightforward:

1. Drop Neheb quickly and safely.
2. Any damage spell either copied or doubled (see “burn steroids”) will result in massive life loss for our dear opponents.
3. After combat, Neheb will generate a metric ton of red mana.
4. Look for Wincons with our card advantage slots and proceed to casually burn the table down.

Card choices and their rationale

Mana Advantage

Including lands we run about 15 slots dedicated to ramp / mana advantage. These slots are here to power out Neheb as early as possible as we need to avoid / get under countermagic at all cost. Do note that this does not mean automatically that we just ramp hard and drop Neheb at any given moment. We need to assess the decks at the table, the amount of cards in players hands, the mana open etc. Also, we need a clear path to find the pieces we need. If we do not have way of getting to the cards we need, then dropping Neheb is a no go. Assuming that staples like Jeska’s Will and Dockside Extortionist are well known at this point, let’s have a look at some other cards that are perhaps a bit less reputed. Do not underestimate the front side of Birgi. Getting one mana back each time a spell is cast is extremely potent and enables giant storm like turns. Note that her mana does not fade away. The backside of Birgi is card advantage which is extremely important as well. This makes Birgi one hell of a card for mono red decks as she brings the full package. We are not here to play it safe, are we? This card generates tons of damage and treasures to all players in our upkeep. This timing is important as we get to capitalize on the trigger first. Yes, this does grant treasures to our opponents, which is a downside. However, up til now I have found that the sheer damage this card generates is just to good to pass up. Neheb basically turns all the total damage to opponents into red mana, which makes the granted advantage asymmetrical. When Descent Into Avernus sticks, players will know this will be a short and funny game. I cannot recommend this card enough. More risky cards! Yes, Helm of Awakening also helps your opponents. Do we care? Nope! Our deck is positioned to capitalize on its effect way more than your opponents. We are a spell slinger deck that benefits tremendously from discount effects as we can jam more spells in one turn leading to even more explosive and game ending plays. This card has won me the game more than once. Casting Neheb / spells just becomes so easy with this Ogre on the field. Opponents mostly feel that 3 life for 1 mana is a lot. However, in this deck where we look to win by turn 5-6 a bit of life means nothing to us. If we burn the entire table down including ourselves then this is a win too! Normally we will cast this rock for two mana so that it taps or one. However, in the event we are stuck with a ton of mana in the post combat main phase we can pump it all into this rock if it’s in our hand. A Chalice that taps for 20 might come in handy next turn…

Damage

These slots basically enable our giant explosive turns with Neheb as they all inflict massive life loss on our dear opponents. We run 16 slots for consistency. A lot of these spells also damage creatures on the board, doing double duty. Let us highlight a few: Casting either sorcery against the abundance of land ramp decks in our meta is just glorious. Neheb loves cheap sorcery spells that inflict massive damages and then makes tons of mana! (Do take care not to burn yourself down first though..) Keep an eye out for spells like this. Double duty all day. For four mana you deal damage to all players and to all creatures without flying. As Neheb has 6 toughness, we are not hindered by this. A board clear and damage to opponents granting mana post combat. Great efficient spells. A whopping 6 damage to each opponent already means 18 mana post combat main phase. Paired with any of the “burn steroid” cards (see below) you see where this is going… This card is great as it also offers card advantage. Are you sometimes annoyed by a blue player with Rhystic Study on the field and so many cards in hand? Yeah he or she will be taking 20 damage from this wheel alone. Thank you for your contribution dear opponent! We run a few of these earthquake effects as they also do double duty. They act as damage dealer precombat inflicting life loss on opponents but they can also be used as finisher when we already gained sufficient mana to close out games. Versatility is the name of the game!

Card Advantage

Card advantage is definitely another area where mono red struggles. Especially when you have giant explosive turns where you cast a lot of spells you run out of gas quickly. Wheels tend to grant the quickest and most efficient card advantage, so we run several. Cards like Faithless Looting and Ignite the Future are also this deck’s lifeblood as they can be recast from the graveyard. Let’s take a look at some of the spicier card advantage slots: This big dumb sorcery is made for Neheb – the required 10 mana basically drops out of his pocket when he runs to the bus! We need every effect we can find like this. This is basically drawing 7 cards for zero mana. I am definitely not a fan of the ridiculous multitude of Chandra planeswalkers existing. However, this one does make the cut. Her passive lets us double a spell once a turn, which is already impressive. However, her +1 ability lets us dig 5 cards deep into our deck each turn, granting you one sorcery or instant to cast of this selection. We desperately need to dig through our deck to find the right pieces, so this value cannot be underestimated. Generally we cast a spell that damages all opponents and swing in combat each turn. This dragon then draws us at the very minimum 10 fresh cards and comes with a serious flying body. Just give it a spin, you will not be disappointed. This friendly giant has double applicability. He can cause considerable damage on attack to al opponents or we can let him dig through our deck. Granted, he is a bit slow and needs to hit the battlefield before Neheb. In the games that he does, it’s very nice having him around. This monstrosity draw us four cards on cast. If we untap with Kozilek this usually means someone is sacrificing their entire board. For a spellslinger deck we normally do not want slow creatures like this but for this baddie we will make an exception. The look on opponent’s faces when this ugly thing is coming their way is just too much fun.

Burn Steroids

Our deck gains insane benefit from doubling damage, copying spells or extra combat spells. Why, you ask? Because it effectively brings each opponent’s life total to a mere 20 instead of 40. Being a burn deck, we can easily reach lethal damage numbers. We have divided this steroid category accordingly: 1. Double damage Yes Fiery Emancipation is even a triple damage spell. Any one of these cast successfully followed up by a damage spell is usually lights out for the table. These grant double / triple damage to all forms of damage, so precombat, combat and postcombat. Your opponents will be reduced to smoldering crisps with these. 2. Copy effects: Twice the fun means twice as much damage and twice as much scoop inducing plays. Opponents rarely survive if one of these burn steroids resolve. Cheers boys, pack it up and shuffle for another round! Increasing Vengeance can even be cast from the graveyard making this an extra juicy card to draw into. 3. Extra combat enablers Seize the Day untaps just one creature but the flashback allows us a third combat and post combat main phase, This card’s effect cannot be underestimated. If you weave in damage to all opponents in between your combat different steps, you will be generating so much mana you can easily look for a Wincon and cast it. We also run Relentless Assault, which is considerably weaker, but still good enough.

Removal

In general I have not placed a lot of emphasis on removal as we focus on player removal here. As you will note many removal spells are one and the same as the damage spells as they do double duty. This is why creature heavy decks tend to struggle against us – we will be wiping the board clean a lot. Of course being in mono red we run as many interaction spells that we can such as Red Elemental Blast / Pyroblast and Tibalt’s Trickery. As mono red can struggle dealing with enchantments / planeswalkers, we have included “Eugene” aka Ugin, The Spirit Dragon when we need a total reset.

Wincons

Ok, so we generate a metric ton of mana, then what? There are four giant X spells that act as direct win cons: Any of these spells combined with say a “casual” 20 mana will usually be enough to burn out the table as your opponent’s are probably far from their starting life total to begin with. These spells are a prime candidate for countermagic, mind you. If you happen to dig into interaction spells, save these to protect your wincons. Another spicy and different Wincon is Repercussion. With this in play and a solid Earthquake for 5, your opponents will take 5 for every creature they control (and will generally lose those creatures). This by itself sets them back to the Stone Age if it does not kill them outright.

Notable exclusions

• Jeweled Lotus: banned in our playgroup.
• Heartless Hidetsugu: Win more and too slow.
• Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer – I get why this little guy is good. However, for us this would only mean in turn one or two. Outside of this, he would quickly die to our damage spells.
• Torbran, Thane of Red Fell – Never needed him. Too slow.
• Guttersnipe – interesting effect but he will likely just die from our damage spells.

Main takeaways and tips

• If you take glee in burning the table down quickly, this deck is for you. If you love high risk high reward, this deck is for you.
• This deck is not for you if you are keen on playing control, draw go strategies or like non-aggressive plays.
• Mulligan aggressively. We need at least 2-3 lands and preferably one mana rock and one draw spell in the opening hand.
• Neheb is a giant hate magnet and rightfully so. Never cast him without a clear path to progression or victory. Analyze the board and your opponent’s lands. Counterspells wreck us. The same applies to targeted removal. Who is holding (blue) mana open and what kind of decks are we up against?
• You can wait a bit with casting Neheb if it’s very clear he’s going to get removed anyway. Usually, one explosive turn is all we need. We are a fast glass cannon build and are not geared towards midrange strategies, where we are usually outvalued and outgunned. Choosing one giant explosive turn and wrecking the table that same turn is this deck’s strength.
• Sequencing is important and for many reasons. Keep track of (fading) mana and do not move to combat too quickly. Expect and anticipate countermagic in your sequence of spells.

That’s all for now folks! Don’t hesitate to reach out to us in case of questions or comments!