Gods gave us two hands, Bolas took them

Commander / EDH* Casual Control Discard UBR (Grixis)

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Creature (19)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Azra Oddsmaker
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Bone Miser
• 1x Burglar Rat
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Ghostly Pilferer
• 1x Herald of Anguish
• 1x Hypnotic Specter
• 1x Nicol Bolas
• 1x Obsessive Stitcher
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Rankle, Master of Pranks
• 1x Rielle, the Everwise
• 1x Sedraxis Specter
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Sygg, River Cutthroat
• 1x Thief of Sanity
• 1x Trinket Mage

Artifact (14)

• 1x Bag of Holding
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Geth's Grimoire
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blast Zone
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 8x Snow-Covered Island
• 3x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 7x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Dead of Winter
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Deliver Unto Evil
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Whispering Madness

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x The Eldest Reborn
• 1x Waste Not

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Instant (15)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Hieroglyphic Illumination
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Negate
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Tale's End
• 1x Thrill of Possibility

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Liliana, Waker of the Dead
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
• 1x Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

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The objective of the deck is to assemble a discard + payoff and wreck everyone's hand while accruing advantage.

My first EDH deck, created after a long pause from Magic. Once upon a time Nicol Bolas was one of my favorite cards! The list is a casual control deck tinkered through time with new cards. It follows the "few tutors rule" that we use(d, thanks covid) at the LGS.

Discard Synergy

These are powerful combinations that don't win on the spot but seal the game more often then not:

• Draw+Discard for everyone: Whispering Madness, Burning Inquiry, Rankle, Master of Pranks, Geier Reach Sanitarium, Liliana, Waker of the Dead
• Payoff on Opponenets: Waste Not, Geth's Grimoire, Narset, Parter of Veils (with an effect which draws more than one)

The discard strategy is extended also on yourself only as a value engine:

• Self-Discard: Thrill of Possibility, Faithless Looting, Frantic Search, Azra Oddsmaker, cycling cards
• Payoff on Self: Bag of Holding, Bone Miser, Archfiend of Ifnir, Rielle, the Everwise

Creatures

This deck doesn't win by beatdown, so every of our creatures has a way to build card advantage for us:

• Discard creatures: Hypnotic Specter, Burglar Rat, Plaguecrafter, Sedraxis Specter, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  , Nicol Bolas, Herald of Anguish
• Steal from opponents: Dire Fleet Daredevil, Thief of Sanity
• Tutor: Trinket Mage (for sol ring or bag of holding)
• Draw: Baleful Strix, Azra Oddsmaker, Sygg, River Cutthroat, Rielle, the Everwise

The only expection would be Nightscape Familiar which speeds up our board development, in fact I don't always play it and it is in maybeboard. It's a nice card but feels it lacks the raw power needed to stay on top.

Lands and Mana Rocks

The decklist is not running too crazy on the expensive land and rocks side, but it definitely has to run all the solid cards. It's important to hit and a bit later also .

• fast mana: Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Talismans and Signets. To operate a discard+payoff usually the deck wants to be on 6 mana as soon as possible.
• dual lands: all the Grixis schocklands and as many fetchlands as possible. The current lists runs 2 plus a Prismatic Vista, truth be told: the more the merrier, depending on what you have available. Brainstorm followed by a shuffle is just so good. We also have effects which puts card on bottom of the library, we also need to shuffle to redistribute them (e.g. Narset will sometimes give a good card but also put a good card on the bottom of the library)
• utility lands: Canyon Slough, Fetid Pools, Geier Reach Sanitarium - they allow us to discard, either via cycling or via the ability. Finally there is also a Blast Zone which is quite important because Grixis doesn't have many ways to deal with enchantments.
• extreme mana fixing: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Chromatic Lantern, double black mana and double mana in general is a recurring cost with Bolas cards, so we have to be prepared.

In general try to avoid "comes into play tapped lands", the cycle lands are an exception because we can abuse their discard ability.

Instants and Sorceries

This is the suite of removal and draw we run on top of the discard spells.

Point Removal:

• Chaos Warp, super important to target enchantmnents, try not to use it on creatures or artifacts
• Drown in the Loch, incredibly flexible dimir card, basically an autoinclude for any control deck
• Izzet Charm, Rakdos Charm the charm have flexibility and reasonable effects, especially the Izzet one let you draw and discard. Rakdos charm should be help back in case you need to handle graveyards because the list doesn't have many other cards to do that.
• The Eldest Reborn, flavour and powerful effect

Mass Removal:

• Dead of Winter -X-X is quite relevant in my meta, could be a Damnation or something similar
• Fire Covenant mass-point removal, so strong
• Nevinyrral's Disk mass removal also for enchantments!

Permission:

• Dispel, Red Elemental Blast 1cc interactions, super important to have around to win counterwars
• Drown in the Loch, ridiculously powerful
• Muddle the Mixture, half-tutor, usually for Waste Not or for a 2cc silver bullet
• Tale's End, a generic counterspell which can also interact with abilities, it's a silver bullet

Card Advantage and Selection:

• Deep Analysis, Hieroglyphic Illumination draw 2! One has synergy with being discarded, the other creates synergy by discarding itself
• Deliver Unto Evil, extra flavour, the Ravager should be the commander so you have better odds of having the Bolas planeswalker
• Impulse, Ponder, Brainstorm :the best card selection in the game
• Scheming Symmetry the only perfect tutor we run, notice that Ashiock doesn't stop our opponents for searching, so use it in a political way

Top Ranked	Achieved #39 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #32 position in Commander / EDH 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH UBR (Grixis) 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.81
Tokens	Emblem Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Servo 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Casual EDH