Legends Legends - Nicol Bolas
The time has finally come, dear friends, for Legends Legends to tackle the ultimate villain of the Magic: The Gathering franchise. That's right, today we take on the Elder Dragon Nicol Bolas, archenemy of the Gatewatch and nearly omnipotent Dragon God. What possesses a planeswalker to bend the will of such a mighty being to their own purposes? Let's find out!
General Thoughts
Nicol Bolas is one of the original five Elder Dragons from which we get the format name. As a Legends Elder Dragon, Bolas is a three-color legendary creature that costs with an additional upkeep cost each turn of . Whenever Nicol Bolas deals combat damage to a player, that player discards their entire hand. This is a surefire way to lock an opponent out of answers to the 7/7 flying Dragon we just dropped, but we'll want to use spells that synergize well with discard effects to fully capitalize on our eight-mana commander. To that end, we're using quite a bit of discard-based control effects to prevent anyone from pulling too far ahead while we amass enough mana to cast Nicol Bolas. Along the way, we'll drop a few of the planeswalker versions of Bolas to keep the pressure on before sealing the deal with our commander.
The Forever-Serpent
The most important parts of a discard deck are, well, our sources for discards. We want to prioritize slow yet repeatable effects rather than faster one-offs, like Duress.
One of the easiest inclusions for a discard deck is Court of Ambition. Besides the value it generates from introducing the monarch into the game for just four mana, we'll also have a consistent source of at least one discard effect each turn across the board.
Two of our more punishing discard effects are Oppression and Zur's Weirding. We've opted for Oppression over the similar Necrogen Mists; I've seen too many storm decks going around lately to be content with just one discard each turn. Zur's Weirding, on the other hand, changes the entire layout of the game. This enchantment is highly divisive: its effectiveness really depends on how well you know your opponents' decks and how well you can recognize the threats or disruption they draw into.Telepathy is in a similar vein in that it allows us to spot any problematic cards we want our opponents discarding.
Burglar Rat is one of the easiest ways to get the discard ball rolling, being a cheap blocker in the early game and a simple trigger for all of our "whenever a player discards..." effects.
I've loved Liliana's Reaver ever since its first appearance in the Commander 2014 Ob Nixilis deck. Nobody ever wants to block it and lose their valuable creatures, so we tend to just amass an army of Zombie tokens while ripping apart their hands each combat.
Originally, this deck ran quite a few of the Specter creatures, but this final draft has seen them cut down to just one: Scythe Specter. While this Specter does cost a whopping six mana, its discard effect hits each opponent and comes with a touch of direct life loss to boot. I guess you could consider Archon of Cruelty as a sort of super-Specter, with the added bonus that it needs only to enter or attack to trigger rather than actually connect with an opponent.
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal and Dragon Mage round out our combat phase discard triggers with some big creatures that'll threaten life totals in addition to cards in hand.
Of course, the most consistent access to discards we have comes from our collection of villainous planeswalkers. Liliana of the Veil, Angrath, the Flame-Chained, and Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage each have a loyalty ability we're guaranteed to get a few activations out of before they die, and Davriel acts as another Megrim, too!
Finally, we've opted for Recoil rather than standard targeted removal, Distress rather than a Duress effect, and Cyclonic Rift rather than a Damnation or Blasphemous Act so we can force a ton of discards during our opponents' clean up steps.
The Ravager
This section includes all of our discard synergies; Liliana's Caress and Megrim are the two staples of this effect, with Raiders' Wake to back them up.
Quest for the Nihil Stone and Shrieking Affliction take a turn or two to start up, but once they do, they'll be a consistent source of damage on the already-oppressed opponents. Bandit's Talent takes a little longer to start up, but the reload it gives our hand in the late game is much needed, especially when we've been fighting against our own Oppression the entire game. Similarly, Geth's Grimoire will draw us a ton of cards over the course of the game, especially when it triggers off of a spell that hits each opponent, like Syphon Mind.
Tergrid, God of Fright is one of the most insanely punishing cards to throw in a discard deck, and she's one of the single saltiest commanders in EDH; she's perfect for our villainous Bolas deck.
The Raven Man and Tourach, Dread Cantor are both low-end creatures that'll swell into a real threat in the late game if they're left unanswered, either going wide with an army of Bird tokens or punching that Light-Paws player square in the head with our prot-white Tourach.
Folks may not remember when Waste Not was designed by the Magic community back in 2014, but it's by far one of the most mono-black discard cards ever created. The sheer value we'll generate from dropping it early can seal the deal on the game for us right then and there.
The Deceiver
This deck's biggest issue is dealing with opponents once they have no cards in hand. Topdecking opponents don't have nearly enough cards in their hand to really capitalize on our Megrim effects. Luckily, Bolas is known for his deceptive plans and double-crossings. We'll keep our opponents' hands full with Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Seizan, Perverter of Truth, and Kami of the Crescent Moon. Dictate of Kruphix helps with this, too, and we shouldn't be afraid to toss these creatures to our Fraying Omnipotence when they've exhausted their usefulness. In a similar vein, expect Arcane Denial over Counterspell or Negate for its ability to refill our opponents' hands.
Additionally, we're running Coveted Jewel to help shore up reaching the high converted mana costs of our Nicol Bolas planeswalkers and our commander.
The Omnipotent
Controlling the game by denying our opponents a hand is a classic strategy that dates back to Magic's earliest years. Once we have the game locked down, we just need a big haymaker to end it. Lucky for us, every Nicol Bolas planeswalker card has a game-ending ultimate effect we can reach for.
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God is one of the simplest game-enders, but it might be hard to pull off when everyone has consistent access to their legendary commander. We can use the other Bolas's' effects to clear those commanders and legendaries off the board until their commander tax has become too steep.
Since we'll already have access to a lot of mana by the end game, Torment of Hailfire is an excellent on-theme mana dump to blow our opponents away.
Other than that, our best bet is to shoot for a huge wheel with our Dragon Mage or Wheel of Fate while we have multiple instances of a Megrim effect on the field.
Mana Base
Being an eight-mana Elder Dragon is a luxurious existence that requires a certain level of comfort. Both our commander and many of our Bolas planeswalkers cost 7+ mana, so we'll need to continue ramping well into the midgame to cast them regularly. To combat this, we're running no fewer than 12 mana rocks, including Visage of Bolas and Gilded Lotus to help us reach those high-CMC spells.
Nicol Bolas Decklist
Budget
Overall, this deck should cost around $250 to assemble. The most expensive cards are Cyclonic Rift and Liliana of the Veil, unsurprisingly. Cyclonic Rift can be replaced with an Upheaval, but it's a direct downgrade to the popular overload instant.
Wrap Up
Nicol Bolas is the undisputed villain of the Magic Multiverse, only recently defeated and locked away in the Prison Realm as of War of the Spark. We know that the Magic writers love to revive dead characters, though, so I'm sure we'll see Bolas again sooner or later, especially ones that were never confirmed dead. Hell, they even like to revive the confirmed dead (I'm looking at you, Phyrexian Jace).
How would you build a Nicol Bolas deck? What sort of villainous discard effects go best with his damage trigger? Is he truly the most playable of the original Elder Dragons? Let me know what you think in the comments!
Thanks again for reading!
