Kess, Harbinger of Bolas

Commander / EDH*

Ruecian

Land (34)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Duskmantle, House of Shadow
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 5x Island
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip
• 1x Eye of the Storm
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Omniscience
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Search for Azcanta  ^Flip

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
• 1x Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Instant (20)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Diabolic Edict
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Increasing Vengeance
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Slaughter Pact
• 1x Stifle
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Word of Seizing

Artifact (10)

• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Primal Amulet  ^Flip
• 1x Pyromancer's Goggles
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Runechanter's Pike
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Cruel Ultimatum
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Intimations
• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Hour of Devastation
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Shatterstorm
• 1x Sins of the Past
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Windfall

Creature (5)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Nicol Bolas
• 1x The Locust God
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x The Scorpion God

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A Nicol Bolas themed EDH deck that merges flavor and viability. I have avoided storm to keep it more casual but also avoided using bolas as the commander to maintain win conditions and versatility.

Omniscience, Visage of Bolas, Nicol Bolas the Deciever, Shatterstorm and a few other cards are a bit lackluster and included for flavor purposes, but the deck has so much draw and discard to fuel Kess' ability use that these cards; when not useful, don't even tend to get in the way.

The main win condition is Torment of Hailfire. you build up your mana base slowly, get increasing vengeance in your graveyard and a one mana counter-a-counter spell in your hand. cast torment leaving two red and mana for the counter, pass priority, then respond to torment with increasing vengeance from the graveyard(with kess ability) which costs two red to get the two copies of your target since it was still cast from the graveyard, then you have the one mana open for countering a summary dismissal. Pyromancer's goggles can make two copies of increasing vengeance and primal amulet is just value town for basically anything you need to answer, or to double up hailfire/vengeance for the win.

A secondary win condition is eye of the storm casting sins of the past, to basically choose whatever spells in your graveyard you need to happen multiple times one the eye first then repeating them for as many instant and sorceries you have in your graveyard.

I also added Runechanter's pike for the third possible win condition, because you'll usually get a strong benefit from it, and commander damage or even regular damage on a god is suddenly viable in your otherwise spell-slinger deck.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	99
Avg. CMC	3.42
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Insect 1/1 UR, Manifest 2/2 C