Nicol Bolas Mono-Instant EDH

Commander / EDH* Control Multiplayer Theme/Gimmick UBR (Grixis)

radio414

Instant (52)

• 1x Aetherspouts
• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Consume the Meek
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Crypt Incursion
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Darkness
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Disdainful Stroke
• 1x Dismiss
• 1x Dragonlord's Prerogative
• 1x Evacuation
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Firemind's Foresight
• 1x Geistblast
• 1x Into the Core
• 1x Jace's Ingenuity
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Learn from the Past
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Memory Plunder
• 1x Moonlight Bargain
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystical Teachings
• 1x Opportunity
• 1x Overwhelming Intellect
• 1x Prophetic Bolt
• 1x Psychic Spiral
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Reins of Power
• 1x Reiterate
• 1x Slaughter
• 1x Starstorm
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Stunning Reversal
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Thrilling Encore
• 1x Time Stop
• 1x Turnabout
• 1x Volcanic Offering
• 1x Wild Ricochet
• 1x Word of Seizing
• 1x Wretched Confluence

Land (42)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Flamekin Village
• 1x Hanweir Battlements  ^Meld
• 7x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Malice
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Winding Canyons

Commander (1)

Creature (4)

• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Stunt Double
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Decree of Pain

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Maybeboard

Instant (3)

• 1x Fault Line
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Slaughter Pact

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This deck has always had a non-permanents theme going to it. It used to be a Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge deck consisting entirely of either powerful instants and sorceries, with enough stall to get the game to that point. However, after enough disappointing wins on the back of Blatant Thievery and not much else, I decided to go back to the drawing board a little bit and see what I could do with only instants.

For a while, I didn't even use Flash creatures. Decree of Pain was the exception because of the cycling text, but, tempted by Kolaghan's Command and the third mode of Wretched Confluence, I finally gave in, and I've been enjoying the deck much more because of it.

Some things of note:

*The high land count is a concession to the lack of mana rocks afforded by the deckbuilding restriction. This deck really needs to be hitting its land drops, and the large number of draw spells generally helps with smoothing past floods.

*There is an infinite combo in the deck (Reiterate + Turnabout ), but it is barely tutorable (Mystical Teachings) and easy enough to disrupt. Reset is a better option (allowing Firemind's Foresight to find the combo plus Lightning Bolt), but Turnabout is enough more versatile that I prefer it anyways. If you don't want the combo, I'd recommend removing Turnabout, replacing it with something like Necromancy or a similarly spicy card.

*This list was tuned for my local metagame, with specific answers for certain cards. For example, in your meta, Psychic Spiral may not be the win condition it often is for me, and therefore should definitely be removed. There are enough other instants in Grixis colors with versatile enough effects that there should be something for your personal EDH experience.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Exclude colors	WG
Key combos	Reiterate + Turnabout
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 52 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.12
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone