Disciple of Bolas

Creature — Human Wizard

When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice another creature. You gain X life and draw X cards, where X is that creature's power.

Combos

• Alesha, Who Smiles at Death + Disciple of Bolas
• Disciple of Bolas + Epicure of Blood + Spike Cannibal

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (48)

GodzSoldier on daddy... something's crawling under the bed...

7 months ago

Made_Compleat Thanks! Yeah, in terms of exiling I find them way faster at growing umbris than most other affects. Plus most of them replace themselves, which in a deck that doesn't have card advantage in the command zone, is pretty valuable. I had a look at your deck as well. Since you're more creature focused, I was thinking maybe take a look at Cut Your Losses or Disciple of Bolas!

legendofa on Using ChatGPT to generate a …

10 months ago

To address this primer specifically:

"This is my Commander deck with a focus on utilizing the high power of the Commander to trigger effects that scale with a creature's power. The deck strategy revolves around four main themes:"

• This is a good capture. The first sentence is a little unwieldy, but that's a style point rather than a content point.

Token Generation: The deck includes cards that can generate tokens based on the power of a creature. Examples include Fungal Sprouting and Ghoulcaller Gisa.

• I count five cards that create tokens, and one of them doesn't create scaling tokens. In my opinion, four cards isn't a "main theme."

Card Draw: There are cards that allow the player to draw cards equal to a creature's power, such as Disciple of Bolas and Momentous Fall.

• This is an okay comment. While it ties into the power scaling, the act of drawing isn't a main theme. It's card advantage, but it doesn't rely on drawing the way Queza, Augur of Agonies does.

Power/Toughness Manipulation: Some cards create creatures whose power and/or toughness are based on the power of another creature. For example, Miming Slime creates an ooze token with power and toughness equal to the power of the creature with the greatest power among creatures you control.

• This comment is somewhat inaccurate. It gets the closest to the core "power matters" theme, but P/T manipulation as I interpret it isn't present. P/T isn't being manipulated, just tracked. The rest of this point is redundant with the first "main theme."

Life Gain/Loss: Some cards in the deck, such as Essence Harvest and Rite of Consumption, can cause a player to gain or lose life equal to a creature's power.

• This is a fine capture, if somewhat underdeveloped.

This deck also has a good amount of recursion and removal cards, along with cheap ramp to ensure that the commander can come out as early as turn 4. For instance, Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord and Hell's Caretaker can bring creatures back from the graveyard, and Beast Within and Sever the Bloodline can deal with problematic permanents on the opponent's side of the field. For ramp, the deck includes staples like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and a suite of mana dorks (Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves) and land fetch cards (Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wayfarer's Bauble).

• The formatting in this section is good, but Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord's ability is misinterpreted. Again, the substance is kind of missing, basically saying "These are cards that are in this deck" without describing how or when to use them. What is a "problematic permanent" for this deck? What creatures would you want to recur?

jarncards on hasteland

1 year ago

For global haste you can use Fires of Yavimaya, Concordant Crossroads, Mass Hysteria, and Urabrask the Hidden who will also conveniently turn off other people's haste. Anger and Barbarian Class also give haste after more effort.

Ant Queen, Artifact Mutation, Battle Hymn, Circle of Dreams Druid, Dragon Broodmother, Pest Infestation, Scute Swarm, Tempt with Vengeance, Sylvan Offering, Termagant Swarm are all useful if you can give haste to all of them.

Birds of Paradise is just the best mana dork.

You have green, so you might as well use the standard ramp package with Cultivate , Kodama's Reach, Explore , Farseek, , Rampant Growth, Three Visits and Nature's Lore. Probably ignore most mana rocks, because people are going to want to vandalblast you just because of the treasures.

Relentless Assault, Scourge of the Throne, Combat Celebrant, Hexplate Wallbreaker, World at War grant extra combats, with Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault potentially going infinite.

Vandalblast goes in every red deck. Even though youll have a ton of treasures i'd still run Brotherhood's End too

For draw spells consider Scroll Rack, Garruk's Uprising, Elemental Bond, Soul's Majesty, Furious Rise, Rishkar's Expertise, Beast Whisperer, Shamanic Revelation, Disciple of Bolas, Pact of the Serpent, Painful Truths, Harmonize, Sign in Blood, Night's Whisper, Read the Bones, Ambition's Cost, Ancient Craving, Damnable Pact, Commune with Lava, Lifeblood Hydra, or maybe Necropotence although the color restricion on necro is tough, treasures should take care of it.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer , The Reaver Cleaver , Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge , Ancient Copper Dragon , Old Gnawbone Ziatora, the Incinerator for more treasure makers. Pyrohemia and Pestilence could be fun with the extra mana. Awaken the Woods is an amazing x spell too, but wont appreciate the two aforementioned cards.

If you're using magda the deck will benefit from dragons and expensive artifacts. throw in Imperial Recruiter and Worldly Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor all go in your colors. so you can get her more consistently. Darksteel Forge and Gate to Phyrexia can be tutored into play with her for five treasure.

If you use dragons, you could add Dragonstorm, but you should carefully consider how many cheap spells you expect to be able to cast if you arent building specifically towards this card. Chatterstorm, Empty the Warrens, Yawgmoth's Will, Jeska's Will, Mana Geyser, and Manamorphose, Past in Flames are all good on their own and would add synergy.

If it ends up dragon tribal, cards like Crippling Fear , Kindred Dominance, Crux of Fate

Swashbuckler Extraordinaire is a very good payoff for using treasures if you dont use certain other nightmarish dragons like Atarka, World Render, Blast-Furnace Hellkite, Terror of Mount Velus, Thrakkus the Butcher

Tae_Grixis on Wizards of the Coast, a Hasbro Subsidiary

1 year ago

Disciple of Bolas is a great inclusion. Even without other creatures, just make the original and the copy target each other.

Crow_Umbra on Army of the Damned

1 year ago

I love to see people playing Alesha. Some newer cards that could work well for her:

I think some of these could probably replace Mentor of the Meek and Disciple of Bolas:

• Professional Face-Breaker - Kind of a budget Tymna the Weaver. Would pair nicely with your Pitiless Plunderer.

• Tocasia's Welcome - Works well in tandem with Welcoming Vampire. About half of your creatures would trigger it.

• Welcoming Vampire

• Preston, the Vanisher - Will create an Illusion token copy of any creature you reanimate. The priciest recommendation. I'm not sure if this due to Jump Start 22 being hard to find.

Alesha has a lot of cool options and tech. Lots of cool variability in her deck lists.

jarncards on SaladFingers

1 year ago

I might run fewer/creatures, since stickfingers will until you reveal x creatures, not just x cards. The fewer you have the higher chance you hit one that destroys the table if you just overload on ramp and reanimates. Rather than these things Crawl from the Cellar,Ghoul's Feast,Gravepurge I'd focus on just reanimating and is easy to get and will probably serve you better. If you really do want it back in your hand Genesis Skullwinder and Eternal Witness do this while attached to a body.

Rather than sending to your hand these will just bring back Diregraf Rebirth, Victimize, Reanimate, Exhume, Unearth, Whisper, Blood Liturgist, Stitch Together,Dread Return.Geth, Lord of the Vault is expensive but can fill your yard as well as revive others. Finale of Devastation revives or tutors, and is a finisher.

Blossoming Wreath,Gnaw to the Bone probably heal less than lifelink, and there's a ton of ways to give lifelink.

Rampant Growth is slightly inferior to Three Visits and Nature's Lore as long as your dual lands have both typesOvergrown Tomb, Bayou, Woodland Chasm, although I'd definitely run all three if there's room. Culling Ritual would be an amazing ramp/wipe card you can use to nuke all tokens and then cast stickfingers. Sakura-Tribe Elder is just rampant growth that works as a blocker for one turn, and it is another creature in your graveyard. Lotus Cobra ramps too, particularly with your other ramp options.

And you'll likey have enough mana to use Decree of Pain, if not, other wipe options are Damnation,Pernicious Deed,Death Cloud,Deathbringer Regent,In Garruk's Wake,Killing Wave,Necromantic Selection,Plague Wind,Reiver Demon,Toxic Deluge. Torment of Hailfire works as a finisher too Endurance is basically the only way you can protect your graveyard that I can think of. I'd probably run Veil of Summer too.

Moodmark Painter gives the +x/+x buff and is on a body Garruk Relentless  ^Flip flips into Garruk, the Veil-Cursed, but its tricky to make this one work

Since you'll have access to really big creatures these can be nice for draw. Greater Good, Momentous Fall, Return of the Wildspeaker, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Morbid Curiosity, Life's Legacy, Disciple of Bolas, Doom Weaver, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.

Mesmeric Orb,Stitcher's Supplier would be an amazing graveyard filler.

Zombie Infestation and Wild Mongrel is usefull for dumping creatures out of your hand

I think every single black deck should run Dauthi Voidwalker, and the more grave hate you have the more you could take advantage of Living End/Living Death if you use these as mass reanimates. they are the cheapest.

Life from the Loam and Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip would be good helps for mana and options.

As long as you run Filth run Crop Rotation and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth too since it will make every creature you have unblockable.

Deathrite Shaman would benefit from more fetch lands Marsh Flats,Verdant Catacombs,Misty Rainforest would help mana fix as well as throw more lands into your graveyard.

You have a fairly high number of tutors, and a ton of ramp, so i'd consider Panglacial Wurm. It's a card you dont need to waste a draw to get and can be cast instant speed. And its fun to surprise people with it at least once.

MeneerDutchy on Henzie “The Toolman” Taylor ETB

1 year ago

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Gidgetimer on Sacrifice a card that has …

1 year ago

The Eldrazi Scion tokens have an activated ability that reads "Sacrifice this creature: Add {C}. If you sacrifice the creature to this ability to add colorless mana, it will not be around to sacrifice to Disciple of Bolas. If you sacrifice it to Disciple of Bolas, it will not be around to activate the mana ability.