Theft Decks: What's your pick?

[Cyberium]

See title. I'm thinking about making a theft deck, though there are plenty of options about.

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus: Rogue/Ninja, combat centric theft deck.

Nihiloor: Horror/mill. New precon thankfully makes this idea even more viable now. Focuses more on blinking, cloning, and reanimation.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen: Replacing white with red for more theft shenanigans. PWs + Phyrexian artifact build, with Memnarch.

Inniaz, the Gale Force: Donate-theft for extra chaos (ironic for Azorius). Good aggro even if stealing fails.

Thoughts?

[pokken]

Nobody likes theft decks. I don't want to go deep down the rabbit hole explaining this but I have made one and see a lot of people build them then play a couple games then people start groaning any time it comes out.

It's an extremely well trodden archetype much like 5c superfriends that might as well be a paperweight.

[Ruiner]

I think it really depends on how hard you lean into the theft that dictates how much heat you draw. Whether that is a problem is really up to you (sometimes it's fun to aggro everyone and try to survive and win)

I have a Zareth San, the Trickster roguish deck with a number of other theft effects included but it isn't all my deck does. It generally plays out as a UB control deck that steals here and there. My playgroup doesn't tend to mind.

Regarding Nihiloor, a friend of mine tried to build that deck, and maybe it's because my play environment leans towards more tuned up decks, but that deck was just so slow and way more effort than it was worth to utilize his abilities. He'd be cool for a mindflayer themed deck, and in more relaxed environment he may work but it seemed like a lot of hoops to jump through to really utilize the commander.

Merieke Ri Berit is one you didn't list, but she's a pretty classic theft commander.

I have an awful BW clerics deck that plays a bunch of theft effects to convert others to your flock. It is pretty terrible but if you want a low power bad deck to goof around with where you don't care if you win, it can still be fun.

[onering]

Jelava. She plays a bit differently than many theft decks because instead of only stealing permanents you end up mostly stealing spells. Of course, Jelava does this anyway without a theft theme, so you still need to add in theft spells to make the theme happen. Due to Jelava's inherent tie to instants and sorceries, you have a lot of incentive to lean into more of the theft spells that cast opponents cards rather than grab permanents, so you can recast those spells you already cast with Jelava and make the most of other instant and sorcery synergies like copy effects. You'll also find yourself running instant and sorcery based theft (so you can cast your theft using Jelava) and mixing in copy permanent effects that are instants and sorceries. All told, it's a deck that relies on using your opponents cards against them, but in a way that relatively minimizes how many of their cards you actually have to keep ahold of (the most annoying part of theft decks for most people). There's still a need to rely on a decent amount of traditional steal effects, just not so much as the typical theft deck.

[Cyberium]

Nobody likes theft decks. I don't want to go deep down the rabbit hole explaining this but I have made one and see a lot of people build them then play a couple games then people start groaning any time it comes out.

It's an extremely well trodden archetype much like 5c superfriends that might as well be a paperweight.

I can see why people get upset about theft: Not only that they can't use their favorite cards, their opponent is the one using them. It's also heavily dependent on opponents' deck, both its weakness and fun factor.

Regarding Nihiloor, a friend of mine tried to build that deck, and maybe it's because my play environment leans towards more tuned up decks, but that deck was just so slow and way more effort than it was worth to utilize his abilities. He'd be cool for a mindflayer themed deck, and in more relaxed environment he may work but it seemed like a lot of hoops to jump through to really utilize the commander.

Nihiloor is definitely slow for more competitive environment, which is why I rely on other theft cards to do most of the stealing. What really caught my eyes though was his ability to drain life when attacking with a stolen creature. If I manage to duplicate his second effect (such as with Helm of the Host), even a stolen 1/1 can do addition 4+ damage at each attack (equate to 8+ life exchange). An idea I had before was a token/exchange deck where I create tokens and exchange control with opponents' creatures (such as with Akroan Horse).

[folding_music]

I really like Nihiloor as a permanent-heavy control deck requiring you to play further big hitters, that steals one critical creature and then, at an even more critical juncture, bounces Nihiloor back to hand to save the day, without having to run any other creature stealer cards maindeck... as a big stack of yoinks I think it's ironically less compelling. blue black can do just about anything and having steal be your gimmick will probably depress the other players

[Treamayne]

Nobody likes theft decks. :) I don't want to go deep down the rabbit hole explaining this but I have made one and see a lot of people build them then play a couple games then people start groaning any time it comes out.

It's an extremely well trodden archetype much like 5c superfriends that might as well be a paperweight.

I can see why people get upset about theft: Not only that they can't use their favorite cards, their opponent is the one using them. It's also heavily dependent on opponents' deck, both its weakness and fun factor.

I tend to prefer borrow decks (theft until EoT - and niche things like Wellspring) or Clone decks (equally dependant on opponent's stuff, but less likely to cause ragequits).

That said:

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus: Could be interested, especially since the Theft isn't in the CZ, so you don't have to lean on it too hard.

Nihiloor: Since the drain is on the person who owns the stolen critter, it allows ways to bypass pillowforts so it could be interesting. Also, EOT buffs let you "cheat" trading a smaller creature for a bigger one.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager // Nicol Bolas, the Arisen: I would put Bolas in the 99 for a Thraximundar or Evelyn, the Covetous deck. . .maybe even Admiral Beckett Brass if you want a lower power version.

Inniaz, the Gale Force: could be interesting, if the playgroup is right. The "chaotic" nature of sliding permanents right will probably cause problems in the wrong playgroup

Also consider Garza Zol, Plague Queen - as there are many Vampires that steal creatures

[Igzex]

I actually played Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge and absolutely nobody liked playing against it. I learned that in a singleton format, exiling cards from your opponent's decks can kind of sting because those are cards they're not gonna be able to cast for the rest of the game so yeah be careful about building her too.