Some players claimed you could already see curling in promotional videos produced in the weeks leading up to the sets release
With all sorts of ways to reanimate and regenerate him with other Zombie-related cards, you can maximize Thraximundar's power turn after turn without dropping momentum
Skip the $20+ cards (Thrumming Stone, Coat of Arms, Cover of Darkness) and the deck still hums: Commander: Karumonix, the Rat King (~$1) Engines: Pack Rat (~$3.30), Piper of the Swarm (~$3), Ogre Slumlord (~$0.45), a couple of Relentless Rats / Rat Colony (~$56 each cap the copies to stay on budget) Payoffs/utility: Crypt Rats (~$0.50), Nezumi Bone-Reader (~$0.40), Bontu the Glorified (~$3) as a sac outlet, Throne of the God-Pharaoh only if budget allows The rest: cheap black removal, Swamps, and a Sol Ring The whole list comes in well under $50, and it scales up gracefully add Marrow-Gnawer and Thrumming Stone later and the same shell jumps several power levels
The keys to finishing out the rest of the deck are to make sure we actually kill our opponent, not just go big and give them time to counter with a combo finish, and to make sure we have something to do at every point in the curve so we dont fall behind between the initial burst of mana and our expensive top end
5 Nuka-Cola Vending Machine (Borderless, Surge Foil) Who Doesn't Enjoy An Ice-Cold Nuka-Cola
Ulamog, the Defiler (Retro Foil) $76.99 Most Eldrazi titans create prohibitive board states and totally flip the advantage, even if most of these cards have high mana costs