The Dragon God | *BOLAS PRIMER*

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

Enral

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Dust Bowl
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 6x Island
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Omniscience
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Treachery

Artifact (18)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Instant (11)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Bedevil
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Negate
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Creature (4)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Notion Thief

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Bribery
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Windfall

Planeswalker (8)

• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

---

The Bolas Way

Introduction

This is my Bolas deck built around the theft/control theme. The goal is to control and manipulate my opponents' toys and beat them at their own game. The theme is inspired by his planeswalker flip side Nicol Bolas, the Arisen -4 ability: "Put target creature or planeswalker card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control". This deck was built with multiplayer inevitability in mind and gets more and more obnoxious the longer the game goes.

Deck Summary

The main plan of the deck is to gain insurmountable advantage by using various theft and control effects to mess with my opponent's game plan. There are several ways to end the game including to assembling a hand lock with Notion Thief / Narset, Parter of Veils + Windfall / Echo of Eons or infinite turns with God-Eternal Kefnet + Time Warp + Scroll Rack / Jace, the Mind Sculptor .

Why Bolas?

• He is an Elder Dragon and the strongest one at that!
• He is a flip walker which means I have the flexibility of killing via commander damage or his planeswalker ultimate.
• You get to play some sweet powerful thematic finishers like Torment of Hailfire .
• He is the the king of control and manipulation.

The Game Plan

The First Few Turns

The goal for the first few turns is to ramp as hard as possible. I run over 8 mana rocks in order to get at least 5 to 7 mana by turn 4. This will enable me to hyper ramp into the mid game while the table is still busy setting up their board.

Entering the Mid Game

By now we should have ramped enough to be able to play most of our spells. If I have Windfall / Echo of Eons in hand, tutoring for Notion Thief / Narset, Parter of Veils is almost always the best line to try to set up the hand lock. If I have a more creature disruption heavy hand, deploying bolas and quickly flipping him can gain us a huge advantage after using our boardwipe. If we have any theft effect in hand, using them judiciously on powerful permanents should be priority.

It is Inevitable

This deck is built to play a game of any length thanks to the card Echo of Eons + Mystic Retrieval . This card allows me to continuously cycle through my spells and recast them at a higher frequency the longer the game goes. God-Eternal Kefnet + Scroll Rack / Jace, the Mind Sculptor lets me rebuy my spells at a higher frequency to further disrupt my opponents and control the board.

The End Game

Notable Synergies

• Notion Thief + Windfall (or Narset, Parter of Veils ) = Everyone discards their hand while you draw a bunch of cards. This is usually where I am favored to win the game.
• Cyclonic Rift + Windfall = Overload a Cyclonic Rift EOT and cast Windfall to draw a ton of cards.
• God-Eternal Kefnet + Scroll Rack (or Jace, the Mind Sculptor ) = Rebuy any spells (backbreaking with Cyclonic Rift ).
• Dack Fayden + Notion Thief (or Narset, Parter of Veils ) = Force opponent to discard two cards.

It's Time to End Their Suffering

If our opponents haven't conceded by this point, we do have some ways to close out the game and end their suffering:

• Torment of Hailfire = This card is my main win condition and has won me more games than I can remember.
• Exsanguinate = Another card that can end the game.
• God-Eternal Kefnet + Scroll Rack + Time Warp = Infinite turns. This is my late-game win con which can be eventually assembled after locking out everyone's hand.

+1 or you'll faced the wrath of Bolas

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 5 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	4 years
Key combos	Notion Thief + Windfall Dack Fayden + Notion Thief Cyclonic Rift + Windfall God-Eternal Kefnet + Scroll Rack + Time Warp God-Eternal Kefnet + Scroll Rack
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	18 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.21
Tokens	Emblem Dack Fayden
Folders	My EDH Brews, Cool ideas, Great Ideas, Cool Ideas, Interesting Ideas, Thematic, Excellent Primer, Deck Ideas, decks, Maybe Build