Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

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Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip

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Legality

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

Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

Legendary Planeswalker — Bolas

+2: Draw two cards.

-3: Nicol Bolas, the Arisen deals 10 damage to target creature or planeswalker.

-4: Put target creature or planeswalker card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control.

-12: Exile all but the bottom card of target player's library.

Stardragon on 3 color Generic Planeswalkers for …

1 year ago

wallisface First of all txs for taking your time to look at all of them. 2nd I'm not missing Grixis so much as I skipped it since grixis has Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver and Nicol Bolas, the Arisen  Flip as solid generic grixis planeswalkers so I didn't feel the need to make another one

As for you other comments lets take one step at a time First Ceara how is not doing temur things?

I disagree with on her first ability it fine there are plenty of walkers who's + ability makes tokens so there should be no problem there as it helps protect her and give a body. As for her second I have to agree that it should be reworked. And I'll fix her last abilities wording problem

On to Chichan I may cut it down to Scry 3 but so what if it's not very red he has two other colors in his identity and every ability needs to mach each color look at Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver first ability it doesn't match blue, or look at Angrath, the Flame-Chained's last ability it fully a black ability or Dakkon, Shadow Slayer's full kit his +1 isn't white, his second ability isn't either blue nor black and his last ability is almost entirely blue. Long story short not every ability need to match every color of the walkers colors. So other than being too much it fine

As for Chichan's second ability how is it unnecessarily wordy? I tells you cast spells for free by discarding three card from your hand (maybe will cut that to two)and to make more balanced you can play two more spells the turn you use this effect so it doesn't turn into a more clunky Omniscience. The same as the argument before even if it anti white so what? And this effect isn't as anti-white as you think, while not common there are cards like Idol of Endurance,Patrician's Scorn, Flawless Maneuver, Sivvi's Ruse, Sram's Expertise and to a lesser extent Sunforger and each has a different way to make spells free, add red and blue that do have discard for effect an its fine the only reason i see no black to this effect (though all colors have some free spells)so again it fine may reword it a bit but I don't think I need to change the effect

For his third effect I agree it's underwhelming/powered and will give it a buff

For Gwisin Noh- I admit I'm not overly to happy with her but abzan has so many options it was one of the hardest things for me to make generic any ideas for new kit is welcome for now I take you ideas and rework them but don't expect to much form this one

Next is Kuva- since it fine not much to say I don't get the read from a precon deck I fail to see if that a bad thing or not?

Nimthall time ok so he may be a little overpriced i was worried that his abilities were too powerful as a kit so made him cost more to balance him out

i feel his 1st is fine i mean there are zombie token out there other than just vanilla 2/2 again not common (and not counting embalm or eternalize or decayed) but there are a few like Corpse Cobble, Soul Separator or hun that it just those two that make unqie zombie tokens really? well hun i guess I'll just make them 2/2s but feel like 1 token is an under powered effect

i saw you had no problem with his second ability so I'll just move on to the third

His third ability yeah let just is rough and need rewording now that im reading also, as for the enchantment grabbing thing it was to help justify the mana cost

Shataj Sar Spotlight time

I think your right on making only one token here and taking out horsemenship and adding vigliance or maybe first stike instead will keep the haste.

as for her last ability i like the exile part but the life gain can go

For Sibrel- Other than the either you don't seem to mind the kit overall and i don't know why the "either" is that TBH will take that out

For Vull- What are your Jund motifs i wonder

Anyway will reword his first ability but he's a battle hungry blood thirsty barbarian do you really think he not going to attack? I'll be keep his effect the same

For his second effect to tell you the truth I couldn't decide which one to choose so did both still can't decide which one would fit better since they're both jund abilities

I see you no problems with his last effect

Finally Zendik's time to shine

I don't what to say really he's not favorite thats for sure

His first ability is heavily based off Soulfire Grand Master ability only for artifacts hell was think of making this an enchantment like effect like the WoS walkers had but it also work well his second and third abilities as a whole

his second is maybe too powerful will rework it

His third ability is worded poorly but I truly don't know how to this one, and for control decks this would be a great win con to flood your opponents after you gather enough artifacts (maybe I should add enchants on to this effect as well)

Also remember to look at the kit as whole and just individual abilities, since an ability may look weak by itself but it may work very well with the other abilities together Zendik is great example of this

SilentPlague on Black & Red Aggro

3 years ago

I see the control, but don't see much of the aggro. I don't necessarily see this being a win by turns 6-8. That is generally where I draw the line for aggro, but don't mistake me as the authority on that. Your deck average CMC is good for this, 3 or under in my opinion. Dreadhorde Butcher is a great early game play. I'd have 4 in this deck. Sprite Dragon is a good card, but not for this deck. You have at best, 6 chances for an island, given you are not short another color and that makes Sprite Dragon difficult to play early like you would want. Having either Nicol Bolas, the Arisen or Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip for the late game is doable, but if you take out those 2 and the 2 faerie dragons, I think you can find better fits. For my agro decks, I assume if I can't win early, I likely will not win at all. So I have no back up. This lets me focus on putting in more aggressive creatures for the early game. You have only one other demon.

Also note that Avatar of Woe and Bone Dragon really work against each other. Maybe focus on one of them. For instance, you have cards for exiling creatures (not good for the avatar). So maybe Bone Dragon is the choice here. You would likely want to not have cards that pull spells from your graveyard as well. Such as Unbreakable Bond if you want to keep getting the dragon back out. Also note that Rakdos, the Showstopper could really hurt you in this scenario even more than your opponent. Not sure that card fits here.

I would suggest looking into cards with menace. They are usually cheap and are very aggressive, given they are hard to block. Stormfist Crusader is a good one that can work with control as well. To keep the control aspect, put in cards such as Heartless Act and Terminate. This keep the opponent creature count low and the game in your hands. Act of Treason is a good one to keep in for control.

Sorry if I went too deep here. You can ignore me and it won't hurt my feelings. I'm just snooping around getting ideas of my own as well and waiting for criticism to come back to me from time to time.

Rhadamanthus on If Nicol bolas can't deal …

4 years ago

Kogarashi has the right answer. The zone change makes Nicol Bolas, the Arisen a different object from the Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip that was targeted by Kiora, the Crashing Wave 's ability.

Kogarashi on If Nicol bolas can't deal …

4 years ago

The damage will not be prevented.

  • 400.7. An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence.

The transform ability of Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip exiles the card before transforming it, in order to facilitate the planeswalker side actually receiving loyalty counters so that it isn't immediately sent to the graveyard. Exiling is a zone change, and because of this, Nicol Bolas, the Arisen has no memory of its previous existence, including being the permanent that Kiora, the Crashing Wave prevented the damage of.

While there are nine exceptions to the rule I quoted, none of them cover a DFC that transforms into a planeswalker.

dingusdingo's quoted rule applies to DFCs that transform without being exiled (because they do not leave the battlefield in order to transform). Bolas and the five DFC planeswalkers from Magic Origins are exiled as part of the transformation ability.

doodkyle on If Nicol bolas can't deal …

4 years ago

My opponent controls Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  Flip in play. I use Kiora, the Crashing Wave +1 ability to prevent all damage that would be dealt to and by Nicol bolas. On the next turn my opponent paid to transform him into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen if my opponent uses his -3 ability is the 10 damage prevented?

saluma on How do I deal with …

5 years ago

Hello Im playing a grixis control deck, Bolas competative control and I would like some help / advise on what to sideboard to deal with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn . If my opponent tries to cast if via Through the Breach I could just counter the breach. However that only solves the problem until he/she gets enough mana to hard-cast it anyways because Through the Breach decks tend to be very rampy. The same problem comes with tron. They will eventually get enough mana to hard-cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn because my goal is to use Jace, the Mind Sculptor , Nicol Bolas, the Arisen or Liliana, the Last Hope ultimate abilities to win, and that takes some time.

Im very greatful for any help and advice I can get. Thanks in advance! :)

Caerwyn on New to MTG and could …

5 years ago

I am a big fan of SynergyBuild's suggestion, and will be posting a couple thoughts on the recently-posted list.


Adding to the list of absolutely broken cards that you can run four copies of, Gitaxian Probe is outstanding, regardless of what colours you are playing. Two life is insignificant when compared to drawing another card, and can help you quickly dig for your combo pieces.


With regards to Nicol Bolas, the Arisen, you and your friends seem to have made a mistake as to how milling a player works. You do not lose the game for having zero cards in your deck--you lose the game when you try to draw a card, but are unable to do so due to having no cards in-hand.

Nicol Bolas, the Arisen's -12 ability leaves you with one card in your library. On your next draw step, you will have 0 cards in your library, but, unless you are forced to draw, you have not yet lost the game. You will, however, lose the game on your next draw step/if you are forced to draw a card.

So, how do you counter this strategy?

  1. You can remove Nicol Bolas before he transforms.

  2. Reaching 12 loyalty points is difficult, and you can always attack Nicol Bolas to prevent this from occurring.

  3. Related to the above, winning the game first. SynergyBuild's plan can win really early (without a banlist, you can probably consistently win on turn 1-2).

  4. You can make it so you no longer draw cards. Abundance, for example, does not cause you to draw cards--you directly put the cards in your hand. Because you are not "drawing" your last card, the replacement effect from Abundance will keep you from losing the game due to mill.

Sismir on is the legen rule killing …

5 years ago

if i have to planeswalkers of the same name example Nicol Bolas, the Arisen and Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver, is it the kegend rule that does one of them die. and can i keep them both with Mirror Gallery?

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