I’m pretty sure the win condition is breaking your opponents will to play magic

You can bounce your own permanents until your army token is arbitrarily large and then kill opponent.

Feels like this deck could really use a better sideboard card against B/W Vampires. Right now there's nothing particularly effective. Veil is okay, but they're an aggressive deck and you can't afford to durdle. Beyond that they have lots of ways to do damage through Root Snare, and you can't afford to drop that either because they attack for so much. Meanwhile Sorin is effectively a Lightning Strike every turn ...

Ideas anyone?

Ah. I was thinking it would get chumped, but I forgot the token was black, not blue.

https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... 1565287629 Vampires 11-3 vs. Nexus, RIP.

I feel like there're ways to beat Vampires though. They can't beat an active Lyra right?

EDIT: Turns out it isn't so simple. Vampires can run Mortify, which kills Lyra. My God, they attack from so many angles.
EDIT #2: Noxious Grasp also kills it and they're already incentivized to board in that card because of Tamiyo, ouch.

Okay, losing faith with Nexus now, purely because of the Vampires matchup. It's true I haven't searched thoroughly for a solution, but based on reasoning, one probably doesn't exist. The point is that one would be hard-pressed to make a deck that targets Nexus better than Vampires. As everyone knows, to beat Nexus (or combo decks in general for that matter), you need a clock and disruption. A clock without disruption means they can race you; disruption without a clock means they'll eventually draw out of it. Vampires not only naturally comes with both, it comes with an especially effective clock (since much of the damage is unfoggable) and especially effective disruption (since Mortify not just deals with Wilderness Reclamation, it also deals with postboard creature plans).

If it were possible to turn Vampires into a good matchup, Nexus would undoubtedly get hit with the banhammer. Of course, it's possible that perhaps a solution is out there and hasn't been discovered yet, but at this point, if the hivemind hasn't found it yet I think I might as well believe it doesn't exist and try another deck.

It's looking like I'll continue to play Nexus till rotation. Main reason is inertia. Learning another deck takes time & wildcards that I can't really be bothered investing. Besides, Nexus does do something powerful.

Soooo ... notes:

- Arboreal Grazer is surprisingly good. When you need to goldfish as fast as possible it's one of the better draws. It also stops random creatures such as Paradise Druid, Deputy of Detention, or even Field of the Dead Zombies from attacking your planeswalkers. I can easily see it as a 3-of somewhere in the 75.
- Mu Yanling, Skydancer was surprisingly poor. If you are forced to play your wincon before comboing, you'd prefer if it helps you stall to the combo. Mu Yanling does do this, but only if played on turn 3. Against aggressive decks, by turn 5 for example, she's going to die anyway unless you have Root Snare. If you also have that then there's a good chance she'll survive (since playing the two cards only costs 5 mana), but even if she lives she's not actually that good - making a 4/4 that might still not buy you a turn. Callous Dismissal does this better.
- Nissa, Who Shakes the World has been surprisingly good. If she survives, the mana boost is tremendous. Of course surviving isn't easy, but she does untap a land, and if you have a Breeding Pool lying around somewhere then she effectively lets you hold up Root Snare as well (+ Negate postboard). She can perform Shifting Ceratops' role of attacking planeswalkers, and ticking up to 6 also means she's hard to burn out. Definitely considering a singleton copy of it in the maindeck.
- Narset, Parter of Veils has also been surprisingly good, now that I look at her differently. Even if you can't activate her twice, she's an Impulse that gains you some life, which is acceptable. In fact her very presence forces the opponent to attack her, unlike Tamiyo (who can reasonably be ignored to present a 1-turn faster clock). Later in the game if you are still searching for the combo she's a better draw than Mu Yanling.
- Jace, Wielder of Mysteries has been meh. I've yet to cast him before comboing. He just doesn't impact the board.

I have been playing Ondrej Strasky's version (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2199792#paper) with Search for Azcanta instead of Anticipate (a mistake on my part, didn't netdeck properly). It's OK, but has not been discernibly better than the GP Denver list. One thing I like about it though is the 28 lands - Nexus wants to make tons of land drops, and having this many is great.

I'll tweak the deck a bit more. Arboreal Grazer might be the missing piece against Vampires. That matchup will never be good, but I'm OK with 40%.

More notes:

- I think Nissa is the best win condition. She actually allows you to race big Chandra's emblem (if Chandra ticks up twice though, the clock might be too fast). Further the 3/3 can buy time especially post-board if opponent boards out removal. If one is concerned about it dying then you can always not target any land. Meanwhile if Nissa survives the mana boost tends to be substantial. Current lists don't have that many Forests, but she's still usually good for 2-3 extra mana, which is huge with playing something and still having mana to Nexus. Finally, and it's happened to me already, you can actually kill your opponent with Nissa without comboing. For example let's say a Vampires player attacks with everything and you fog. Next turn, you play Nissa, hit him for 3, and Nexus. Turn after that, hit him for 6, Nexus. Turn after that, hit him for 9. That's 18 damage. If opponent shocked themselves or paid 4 life to Adanto Vanguard, they're actually dead.
- The one disadvantage of Nissa compared to Callous Dismissal is that she's less effective against 3-mana Teferi. Yes, Nissa can feasibly attack Teferi off the board, but opponent obviously knows Teferi is crippling to Nexus and will not tick down. If Teferi ticks up, it's hard to play Nissa because you won't have Reclamation in play to Nexus on the same turn even if Teferi dies.
- Having played a lot more with the Ondrej Strasky's version, it's not inferior to the GP Denver list. Chemister's Insight's synergy with Wilderness Reclamation is strong, but Drawn From Dreams is simply much better a card at assembling the combo. I don't regret 4x Drawn From Dreams right now; if I'm trying to combo I'd play that card before Tamiyo as well.
- That said I've tweaked the deck somewhat. I'm running 2 Search for Azcanta because it's slow, but still very good if it flips, and it synergizes well with Tamiyo. Also gone down to 27 lands. 28 felt too many, but 26 sometimes too little.
- Current sideboard plan vs. aggro (the toughest matchup) is -1 Tamiyo -1 Search for Azcanta -2 Drawn from Dreams for +3 Arboreal Grazer and +1 whatever, potentially Root Snare, potentially Veil of Summer. I can also see cutting an Opt for another Veil of Summer if opponent has Mortify. I've taken to cutting Tamiyo because she's great if you have Wilderness Reclamation out, but without it she's much weaker and often simply unplayable.
- Tip: always play Nexus before using card draw effects, from Opt to Search for Azcanta, if you can afford it.
- Tip: given the choice between Wilderness Reclamation and Drawn From Dreams, I usually play Reclamation, even if I don't have any ways to use the mana that turn. The extra draw step informs what to get with Drawn From Dreams. Drawn From Dreams becomes a lot more powerful with Reclamation in play as well. This is especially the case if I'm approaching the point when I can Nexus with Reclamation mana.