Grixis EDH - Nicol Bolas Dragons

Commander / EDH Dragons Tribal UBR (Grixis)

NickyBolas

Other (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dakmor Salvage
• 1x Desolate Lighthouse
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 2x Island
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave

Control (6)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Dragon (23)

• 1x Bladewing the Risen
• 1x Boneyard Scourge
• 1x Dragon Mage
• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Hellkite Charger
• 1x Hellkite Tyrant
• 1x Hoard-Smelter Dragon
• 1x Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
• 1x Malfegor
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
• 1x Runehorn Hellkite
• 1x Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
• 1x Skyline Despot
• 1x Spellbound Dragon
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Stormbreath Dragon
• 1x Thunder Dragon
• 1x Thundermaw Hellkite
• 1x Utvara Hellkite

Ramp (7)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Neheb, the Eternal
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

Utility (7)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Warstorm Surge

Commander (1)

Dredge (11)

• 1x Ancient Excavation
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Chart a Course
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Forbidden Alchemy
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Stinkweed Imp
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Reanimator (9)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Body Double
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Exhume
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

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Maybeboard

Other (6)

• 1x Avaricious Dragon
• 1x Boltwing Marauder
• 1x Flameblast Dragon
• 1x Glorybringer
• 1x Scourge of Nel Toth
• 1x Windfall

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Title

Concept

Masters 25 includes Nicol Bolas, so you know I'm going to have to represent Big Daddy again on the Masters 25 episode of The Trinisphere! This time I'm going to change it up and play Grixis Tribal Dragons! Jund tribal dragons have a lot of benefits that we lose when transitioning to Grixis: Ramp, Atarka's double-strike, and Savage Ventmaw. Instead we'll take advantage of what blue brings to the table: Better Control aspects, card selection, and controlled self-mill.

How It Plays

This is leaning towards a pure reanimator build so, while Jund would be ramping, we're going to be dredging so that we can cheat our dragons into play with reanimation spells to avoid their prohibitive costs. Mass-reanimating can lead to huge swings when given haste, and in conjunction with Dragon Tempest, Warstorm Surge, or Scourge of Valkas.

Card Selection

Dredge/Self-Mill

• Cathartic Reunion, Faithless Looting, Tormenting Voice, Frantic Search, Forbidden Alchemy, Ancient Excavation, and Wheel of Fortune all provide ways to quickly dump cards into our graveyard.
• Buried Alive gives us the specific card selection
• Stinkweed Imp is our only true dredge card, but it's such a powerful dredge piece that we can't pass it up. Additionally, it has some great synergy with "Draw, then Discard" effects, since you dredge him and then discard him immediately afterwards.
• Sneak Attack can put creatures from hand to graveyard for a single red, with the added benefit of them punching people in the face on their way out.

Reanimation

• Living Death and Patriarch's Bidding are our big game-winning reanimation spells.
• Animate Dead, Exhume, Dread Return, and Dance of the Dead provide us with targetted reanimation to keep pressure up while we're digging for our swingier spells.
• Bladewing the Risen is a dragon that reanimates other dragons. What more could you ask for?
• Yawgmoth's Will provides us with the ability to reanimate some of the more combo-centric enchantments that get milled or destroyed.

Dragons

• Utvara Hellkite is the premier "reanimate me" dragon since he can generally leave behind other dragon tokens.
• Scourge of Valkas provides us with a easily reanimated Dragon Tempest and can easily lead to lethal damage during a mass-reanimation spell since each reanimated dragon sees all other reanimating dragons as "on the battlefield" when triggering the Scourge.
• Dragon Mage is another powerful dragon that fills your graveyard with juicy targets each time he flies into the red zone.
• Spellbound Dragon is a personal favorite of mine, putting dragons into the bin while growing on the front-end by 6 or 7 on attack.
• Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius makes the cut over Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind due to his more aggressive and combat-centric design and mana-sink ability.

Gameplay

Azusa vs Animar vs Nicol Bolas | Trinisphere Plays M25 EDH | MTG

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.08
Tokens	Dragon 5/5 R, Dragon 6/6 R, Manifest 2/2 C, The Monarch