He's got BIG Bolas

Commander / EDH*

Kingtalk

Creature (34)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Arjun, the Shifting Flame
• 1x Banewhip Punisher
• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Carnifex Demon
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Crosis, the Purger
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Dreamstealer
• 1x Eternal of Harsh Truths
• 1x Evil Twin
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Frontline Devastator
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Identity Thief
• 1x Kami of the Crescent Moon
• 1x Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Lord of Shatterskull Pass
• 1x Magus of the Wheel
• 1x Manticore Eternal
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Soul Snuffers
• 1x The Locust God
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x The Scorpion God
• 1x Undead Alchemist
• 1x Wildfire Eternal
• 1x Wonder

Land (35)

• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 7x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Artifact (9)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x God-Pharaoh's Gift
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring

Instant (2)

• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Soul Manipulation

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Intimations
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Mind Grind
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Wheel of Fate
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Call to the Grave
• 1x Everlasting Torment
• 1x Fevered Visions
• 1x Kumena's Awakening
• 1x Training Grounds

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"You've got Bolas kid, I'll give you that."

Hey everyone! This is a Nicol Bolas themed deck that I built a while back to be a secret commander deck incorporating all three gods from Hour of Devastation. I previously has Nicol Bolas as a placeholder commander, but now with Bolas being a 4 cost he's gonna be a bigger part of my gameplay as he's a lot more likely to be cast. Let's talk about our secret commanders though.

All of the 3 gods from Hour of Devastation are great cards on their own, but there's also synergy between them. The Locust God gives us locusts when we draw cards, The Scorpion God draws us cards when things die with -1/-1 counters on them, and The Scarab God brings stuff back from any player's graveyard. So we can see that the three of their effects can work pretty well together if they're all on the field, even just having two of them is pretty powerful though. Now that being said, they're all part of the 99 and it's very unlikely we're gonna get them all without running lots of tutors, and that's not fun. Let's take a look at how this deck works, and what kind of synergies we can create between the effects of these three secret commanders.

• Locust God (Card Draw)

Let's start out with what kind of card draw mechanics we have in here. Card draw is important in every commander deck, but in this one it's one of the main themes. Not just because of The Locust God but also because we need to be able to find him in the first place, along with out other gods. Card advantage is also good in this deck because of how many themes there are. I usually only like to run 2 solid themes in a deck so it has solid synergies, but with the fact that we effectively have 4 commanders we're building around it's a bit more eclectic than my usual offerings. Bloodgift Demon is a Phyrexian Arena that has wings and can target other players as well, kinda neat. Disciple of Bolas will draw us cards and put something in our graveyard, as well as gain us some life to boot. Kami of the Crescent Moon isn't the most thematic, but it is a great card draw outlet. Skullclamp is one of my absolute favorite artifacts, and it's so busted in coordination with The Locust God. Fevered Visions gives you a draw trigger at your end step, and punishes your opponents for having too many cards in hand. Arjun, the Shifting Flame is a recurring Memory Jar that doesn't cost $35. I have a ton of creatures with afflict in here, because it's thematic with the Hour of Devastation block Eternal of Harsh Truths is no exception, and he draws me cards too. An effect I included a lot of in here is "wheel" style effects, everyone discard your hand and draw 7 cards. It's great card advantage and it puts stuff in graveyards. Examples of such effects would be Reforge the Soul, Whispering Madness, Windfall, Wheel of Fate, Magus of the Wheel.

• The Scarab God (Re-animation)

If you've played Standard at all since Hour of Devastation I'm sure you're familiar with The Scarab God, he's a real nice guy if he's on your side. I didn't focus insanely heavily on his effect, it's pretty powerful just by itself and doesn't really need much support to function properly. I threw in Training Grounds not just for him but other cards as well, including our new commander!! Our scarab boi doesn't need much support, but I gave him a little bit. Havengul Lich is a great card, happy to run it in most Dimir decks. There's also the aforementioned God-Pharaoh's Gift, and then I'll include Soul Manipulation in this section as well since it brings something back to the hand. It's not a true re-animation spell though. Speaking of re-animation though, let's touch on The Scarab God and his effect. He likes zombies, and the creatures he brings back are zombies. I didn't include a ton of reanimation effects in here, but I did throw in some zombie synergy for him. I'm not going to list all the zombies in the deck, but really just the cards that provide some sort of synergy. Metallic Mimic gives a little boost to our undead bois. Lich Lord of Unx is one of my favorite zombie tribal cards, along with Undead Alchemist who I just really love. Nightscape Familiar doesn't necessarily provide zombie synergy, but he is a zombie and he gives us cost reduction for most stuff in our deck. Finally Coat of Arms because why not?

• The Scorpion God (-1/-1 Counters)

The Scorpion God is a pretty sweet card, and I've played against someone who built an EDH deck around him. He can be pretty nasty. This deck certainly isn't built around him, but there are cards in here to enable him to draw us cards, and disable our opponent's creatures a bit in the process. Everlasting Torment is maybe one of my favorites, cheap to cast, prevents our opponents from gaining life, and makes all damage distribute -1/-1 counters. Black Sun's Zenith is always a good time, makes dealing with indestructible a bit easier and can be a board wipe too. Soul Snuffers is good for just coating the board in -1/-1 counters. Carnifex Demon is good at doing that too, and he flies!

• Bolas Cruelty

Anyone who's familiar with Nicol Bolas knows that he's kind of an bad boy. That's alright though, because he's not being mean to us right now, just everyone else. Bolas likes to make people discard and mill, he likes to steal stuff, and blow things up that are important to them. The Bolas planeswalkers encompass these themes very well. Take a look at Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker he can blow up non-creatures, steal creatures, or just ruin someone's entire game plan. We want to really embrace this cruelty, so the next section is all about that. Obvious the previously mention Bolas card is in this section, as well as Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh which I've had a hell of a time getting a copy of. Our new commander is actually really sweet, and you might notice that every one of his flip loyalty abilities synergizes with what we're trying to do with this deck. Dark Intimations is pretty sweet, and thematic as well, plus it bumps our next Bolas planeswalker that we play! Crosis, the Purger is another mean ol' Grixis dragon, making our opponent dump their cards of any one color, as well as letting us look at their hand. Speaking of mean dragons, Dragonlord Silumgar is pretty mean. Mind Grind for me is just one of the cruelest cards you can play against someone, and that's alright. We want as many of their cards in the graveyard as possible for our Scarab God. I like copying stuff too Clever Impersonator and Evil Twin both do that, and our twin is really quite mean.

• Miscellaneous

I didn't focus on removal nearly as much as I normally would in a Grixis deck, because of the other themes I had to prioritize, so I'll touch on that briefly as well as non-creature recursion. Crux of Fate is going to be aboard wipe a lot of the time, can be pretty good if we have Crosis, the Purger or our commander out. Call to the Grave is generally going to be annoying for everyone at the table (except that pesky Meren of Nel Toth deck) we have zombies though, so no big deal. I also included Kess, Dissident Mage so we can recast our instant and sorcery spells, figured it's always good value. Archaeomancer is in here too because he's a good card.

Anyway! That's a bit of an overview of what the deck is supposed to do. I think this is a fun deck, let me know your thoughts! Thanks :)

Top Ranked	Achieved #17 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.91
Tokens	City's Blessing, Copy Clone, Dreamstealer 4/4 B, Insect 1/1 UR, Spirit 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
Folders	Nicol