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Grixis Planeswalker EDH - Nicol Bolas

Commander / EDH Group Hug Multiplayer UBR (Grixis)

NickyBolas

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Creature (19)

Land (37)

Commander (1)

Commander: Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Nicol Bolas EDH deck for a Planeswalker EDH league.

Working with the League's Sphere of Influence rules (which currently say that you can only see players on your own plane), coupled with the current movement rules (which currently say that you may planeswalk to another plane after your draw step - but at the cost of skipping either your main phases or your combat step), this Grixis Support deck focuses on punishing opponents that are in my SOI, while buffing allies at the same time.

After multiple iterations of testing Grixis Stax, Counterspells, and Groupslug, the card base gradually shifted towards a Nekusar-esque build since many of the cards in the deck allow all players to draw, while only negatively impacting opponents.

Early game, when teams are isolated in their SOIs, we use group-hug "everybody draws" cards like Font of Mythos, Howling Mine, Well of Ideas, Fevered Dreams, Nin, the Pain Artist and Minds Aglow to generate large advantages and Noble Benefactor, Show and Tell, and Braids, Conjurer Adept to accelerate allies.

Once the battling begins we repurpose the card-draw with punishing effects via Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Psychosis Crawler, Kaervek the Merciless and Nekusar, the Mindrazer or keep it one-sided via Notion Thief. Additionally, we keep opponents in-check with Stranglehold, Leyline of the Void, Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, coupled with heaps of counters and removal spells.

Late game, we can use Mind Over Matter + Temple Bell/Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind to draw or draw-damage opponents to death, and discard Kozilek, Butcher of Truth to restock after going ham.

Finally, Obliterate is a last-resort option to suicide bomb a cluster of enemy players grouped together on an enemy plane.

Gameplay

Nicol Bolas & Daretti vs. Garruk & Venser | Trinisphere Plays | Planar Chaos

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First big EDH Night Down — March 6, 2017
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First big EDH night with the deck was a success, with a surprise free-for-all win to boot.

Overall the deck is very slow and reactive which can be a problem against more competitive control decks. I'd like to reduce the average CMC to get some board presence faster while still maintaining some heavy bombs for Show and Tell.

Removing:

  • Braids, Conjurer Adept - Without a reliable way to sacrifice her, I found she was a liability more often than an asset. I spent some games with her as a dead card in my hand because I wasn't willing to risk it.
  • Noble Benefactor - Similarly, without a consistent way to sacrifice him, the opponents had time to react.
  • Thraximundar - The ruleset greatly neuters Thrax's power, as haste is less valuable when you lose combat/main phase while moving around the board.
  • Mind Over Matter - While this deck draws a ton of cards, it doesn't draw them in big bursts like Nin, the Pain Artist does, which is a deck that does degenerate things with tap/untap effects. Really this card only exists to combo off with Temple Bell and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and that's just not enough to justify the include.
  • Obliterate/Death Cloud - The suicide bomber concept seems unnecessary and unsporting.
  • Mountain - Tweaking the manabase

Adds

Playtest Tweaks — Feb. 22, 2017
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Revision 2 See all

(5 years ago)

Date added 7 years
Last updated 4 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

15 - 0 Mythic Rares

56 - 0 Rares

12 - 0 Uncommons

7 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.10
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders The Trinisphere Decklists
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