The goal of this deck was to capture the "Evil-Mastermind" flavor of Nicol Bolas while restricting myself to only using old border cards. (Almost an Inverse of the Modern format.)
In the early game this deck wants to start getting ahead on cards, & bide its time.
A few ways to do this:
-play a "rattle snake type enchantment" so players don't attack you, thereby letting you conserve & stockpile your kill/counter spells-play an enchantment that functions as a 2nd draw step-play a field wipe spell setting everyone back
If you find yourself falling behind, blow everything up including everyone's lands!**
**Normally I never use Armageddon-type cards, and I usually frown when someone breaks out a deck specifically looking to blow up all lands ...
However this is Nicol Bolas we are talking about!!! He doesn't care for the rules; he just does as he pleases! Why do you think white field wipes only blow up either all lands OR all creatures? Because white wants you to think it is being fair. Not Nicol Bolas, he uses RED mana to nuke things! He doesn't just want to win; he wants to Dominate; he wants his opponents in tears!! He doesn't use half-measure spells from sissy-colors!! Why do you think Chromium & all the other Elder dragons died out? Yeah, just think about it for a little...
(If you rather not go the land destruction route, in the Maybe-Pile you can substitute in a bunch of haste enchantments, big splashy creatures, and of course Dragonstorm with a host of dragons!)
Once you have developed your board, you want to start scheming for the endgame. By scheming, I mean you probably just drew a tutor spell, and you have a critical choice to make. Here is the answer: DON'T cast your tutor spell! (Unless you really need to.)
First you want to try and exhaust your opponents resources to their limit; Wait until everyone has used their 1st AND 2nd few volley's of removal/ field wipes/ & counters; then go tutor."Going digging" too early might result in the other players getting suspicious; they may start to gang up on you, or perhaps after one of your opponent makes a threatening play of their own you end up realizing you tutored for the wrong spell. Again key word is 'might', and the right moment will often change. What you are really doing is just trying to hedge your bets, until you can get just a little more information because 'whiffing' on that 1st tutor can end up setting you waaay back.
When it does come time to burn your tutor:maybe you use it to get one of your bonus-draw step enchantments (almost always a wise choice), ...or if you are not under great durress you start chaining tutors for more tutors (merchant scroll for mystical tutor for ...), eventually settling upon Relearn/ Recoup. Allowing you to rechain/ recast into one your 7+ mana spells (preferably with counter backup) in order to remove all hope your opponents had of winning!(Recall & Ill-Gotten Gains are another 2 EDH legal old-border cards that could help with instant/sorcery recurrsion. I am just not currently running them.)
Some of the Tips/ Synergies between your "back-breaker" level spells:
Devastation/ Apocalypse:
If you have one of these hold back on land drops, and wait for just the right moment.If you have an instant which returns lands to your hand (Gush, Thwart) wait to cast it until Devastation/ Apocalypse is on the stack in order to save a bunch of your lands & putting you very far ahead of your opponents. Remember a spell CAN"T target itself, but you can still "try" and counter and un-counterable spell (it just won't be countered & your counter-spell goes to the graveyard when it resolves)
Other Back-Breakers:
Blatant Thievery: I love stealing my opponents' mana rocks/ draw enhancements, especially when I already have a nuke-all-lands spell!
Time Stretch is best when you have something proactive to do with your extra turns, otherwise it will feel like a really over costed "Draw 2 cards"; One example is already having summoned Nicol Bolas before you cast Time Stretch. Now can attack each (most) of your opponents and wipe their faces clean of smiles and their minds clean of coherent thought.
I haven't used this deck very much, so it still needs some fine tuning. So feel free to leave comments and feedback!!
