Bolas's Citadel

Legendary Artifact

You may look at the top card of your library at any time.

You may play the top card of your library. If you cast a spell this way, pay life equal to its converted mana cost/mana value rather than pay its mana cost.

{T}: Sacrifice ten nonland permanents: Each opponent loses 10 life.

Combos

• Bolas's Citadel + Etherium Sculptor + Sensei's Divining Top
• Bolas's Citadel + Leonin Elder + Sensei's Divining Top
• Bolas's Citadel + Magister Sphinx + Sorin Markov
• Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Soothsaying

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (45)

sylvannos on Hoax Storm v2

1 week ago

@FireMind42: Yeah in that case, you'll want to go for Underworld Breach or Paradoxical Outcome (or something weird with both). I'd lean more towards Paradoxical Outcome because it lends itself better to straight U/R Storm. Not to mention, it opens up Displacer Kitten + Coveted Jewel shenanigans. Then you won't have to rely on rituals so much (Desperate Ritual, Goblin Electromancer, and Seething Song are especially awkward). You can then fit more artifact mana and draw spells.

You'll still want Bolas's Citadel because you're never going to actually spend black mana to cast it and the card is just the nuts in Storm. Memory Jar is always fun with Hullbreacher and Narset, Parter of Veils, but Bolas's Citadel is like Yawgmoth's Will and Yawgmoth's Bargain in one card that can be Tinker'd for (especially with Sensei's Divining Top, Brainstorm, and Ponder). You'll still need Sphinx of the Steel Wind in your sideboard, which is another card you're never going to actually cast.

Since you don't want Monastery Mentor, you'll have to get by with Laelia, the Blade Reforged. Sometimes you'll want to Grapeshot. Sometimes you'll want to Brain Freeze. Sometimes you'll want to Empty the Warrens. Other times, you need something that can get big quick and an easy way to do that is Laelia, the Blade Reforged, Treasure Cruise, and Dig Through Time. She's mostly for Underworld Breach, but I'm not sure you'll need that with Paradoxical Outcome.

I also don't know how I forgot to mention Mind's Desire in my original post. That's the reason to play pure U/R Storm in Vintage LOL. Personal Tutor may also have a potential spot somewhere in this list. It grabs Tinker, Grapeshot, Time Walk, Mind's Desire, and draw 7s. I'd even consider it over the second copies of Past in Flames and Grapeshot.

griffstick on Rune-Scarred Demon or Sidisi, Undead …

3 weeks ago

It's over costed because cards like Bolas's Citadel exist at 6 mana or Vampiric Tutor at instant speed is the best tutor and thats 1 mana. The best fit for Rune-Scarred Demon is in Rakdos, Lord of Riots. If its a tutor your looking for its very bad at that. The power of tutoring for any card is strong. It gets worse the more you spend for that tutor. Being able to cast the spell you tutored for in the same turn is what makes for a strong tutor.

Sleepysherlock on Spell-Slinging Mardu Copies

3 weeks ago

Lot of my suggestions are leaning into tokens because Blood Avatar clearly wants that, and if i can find a spell that makes tokens than Extus will be happy too. Thats my idea.

Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, Blood for Bones, Rakdos Charm, Fiery Confluence, Crackle with Power, Storm King's Thunder, Bonus Round, Sram's Expertise, Electrodominance, Jaya Ballard, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Assemble the Legion, Secure the Wastes, Call the Coppercoats, Fury Storm, Ashnod's Altar, Prosperous Partnership, Divine Visitation

Let's take a short break here, because you need better creatures. Creatures that have VALUE as you recast them over and over, maybe even discard outlets. I hate to say it (and i'm not going to list them) but Aristocrat creatures are ideal here because they are cheap, and gain life which can then be used to cast wild stuff like Bolas's Citadel.

Dragonmaster Outcast, Viscera Seer, Cathar Commando, Leonin Relic-Warder, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Lagomos, Hand of Hatred, Pitiless Plunderer, Mahadi, Emporium Master, Woe Strider, Ophiomancer, Mayhem Devil, Children of Korlis, Insolent Neonate, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Sengir Autocrat, Syr Konrad, the Grim, Sun Titan

Also if this just ins't the direction you wanna go thats ight

griffstick on top cards of each color

1 month ago

{W} Esper Sentinel

{W} Swords to Plowshares

{U} Rhystic Study

{U} Expropriate

{B} Bolas's Citadel

{B} Vampiric Tutor

{R} Dockside Extortionist

{R} Jeska's Will

{G} The Great Henge

{G} Return of the Wildspeaker

sylvannos on Hoax Storm v2

1 month ago

To start with, there's a few cards that have better Vintage equivalents. Overmaster and Spell Pierce should be the 3rd. and 4th. copies of Force of Will. Leftover space from cutting those can be Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, or Flusterstorm. You don't need Faithless Looting because we have Paradoxical Outcome, Sensei's Divining Top, Gush, Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, and Brainstorm to choose from. Merchant Scroll also belongs in here, because you can use it to grab Ancestral Recall at the very least. Usually you want it to make sure you have protection in hand by grabbing countermagic.

Library of Alexandria isn't good in this deck. And you're not the type that needs 8x {UR} sources, so Steam Vents can go, along with a few copies of Volcanic Island (1 or 2). Replace all of these with four copies of Scalding Tarn and basic lands. Or even just play 6x fetches. You need to be able to shuffle after using Brainstorm, Ponder,and Sensei's Divining Top.

From here, you have a solid U/R Storm shell. However, I wouldn't play straight "Modern U/R Storm, but Power 9" dot dec. 2 mana is a lot for Goblin Electromancer, there are easier ways of winning than Grapeshot, and so on. The question then becomes "Where to go from here?"

• Paradoxical Outcome is just the nuts. By bouncing moxen and cheap artifacts, it's a ritual (since you can replay everything for {0}, untapping it all) and it's a draw spell. However, Paradoxical Outcome requires Mox Opals, Lotus Petal, Lion's Eye Diamond, etc. so you'll have to cut rituals (likely Seething Song). The upside is you get an extremely powerful engine that can often end the game with a single Paradoxical Outcome.
• Thassa's Oracle is the new hotness for Vintage combo cards. You can win the game by casting Brain Freeze on yourself, then casting Thassa's Oracle. It also opens up more combos using Demonic Consultation and Doomsday. Sometimes you've just drawn a bunch of cards and have ~3 cards left in your deck.
• Tinker is too good in Storm not to play it. You're either getting Memory Jar, Bolas's Citadel, Time Vault (Voltaic Key is already good in Storm when combined with Mana Vault and friends), or a random wincon like Sphinx of the Steel Wind boarded in for game 2. Bolas's Citadel will essentially flip the top half of your deck into play.
• You can also play draw 7s (Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Memory Jar, Diminishing Returns) in combination with Narset, Parter of Veils and Hullbreacher.
• Mana Drain is good, but you may find it too slow if you make any of the above changes. It definitely does more work in a more control-oriented Storm deck with Narset, Parter of Veils, Dack Fayden, Grim Tutor, etc.
• Lastly, there's the question of Underworld Breach, Yawgmoth's Will, Monastery Mentor, or some combination of these. Underworld Breach will mean you can stay in two colors. Playing black for Yawgmoth's Will allows you to play Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence, Doomsday, Tendrils of Agony, and hardcasting Bolas's Citadel. Monastery Mentor both scales up and goes sideways. A single token is enough to kill someone combined with Paradoxical Outcome or a draw 7. Monastery Mentor is like casting Tarmogoyf and Empty the Warrens for three mana and one card.

Hope this helps! Welcome to MtG's oldest and greatest format.

Gleeock on top cards of each color

1 month ago

Boy, I don't play too much mono-color. Maybe:

{W} - Akroma's Will & Tragic Arrogance

{U} - pass/ Mass Polymorph & Bident of Thassa

{B} - Protection Racket & Bolas's Citadel

{R} - Descent into Avernus & Fiendish Duo

{G} - Oath of Druids & Selvala's Stampede

Probably could be convinced of some other things though

multimedia on Rise of the Constructs (Budget)

2 months ago

I added two more budget artifact creatures from Phyrexia ONE set, Unctus, Grand Metatect and Transplant Theorist.

Unctus, Grand Metatect seems powerful for a three drop artifact creature and it's compleated Grand Architect, nice flavor. Repeatable loot from other blue creatures being tapped and repeatable way to make Urza an artifact or any other creature I control blue. It's also an anthem effect for other artifact creatures. The anthem effect does turn off Foundry + Sword combo, but it's other repeatable effects make up for this as well as I have ways to bounce or remove Unctus if I want to combo with Foundry + Sword.

Transplant Theorist is repeatable loot and a way to save cards in my graveyard from being exiled or put bottom of library nonartifact cards to maybe cast again. I really like that Theorist triggers from artifact ETB not cast since then it can trigger creating a Construct or Thopter and there's no bullshit only once per turn restriction. It triggers for any artifact not just creatures, good interaction with Master Transmuter bouncing an artifact or casting with Anrakyr the Traveller. It triggers to loot when I play an artifact land, that's a big bonus. Pair Theorist with Bolas's Citadel to keep Citadel going because I can see the top card of my library before I choose to loot with Theorist. If the card is a land, loot, if not continue Citadel.

Masterful on Necronomicon | Teysa Karlov | Primer

2 months ago

kirbysan Mondrak is very versatile as a creature, but I think I agree with you it doesn't do enough for us as is. We focus more on death triggers than token generation, so it doesn't get as much value in our deck as it would a pure token deck. It also conflicts with Teysa as a 4-drop engine-support card. The sac outlet is nice, but having to sac 2 creatures each time and costing 1 mana makes it sorta awkward. It's a great blocker which is nice, and I wouldn't blame anyone for playing it, but it's not efficient enough.

If you're getting color screwed with the new mana base, that's unfortunate, but even with a perfect mana base you'll be color screwed, flooded, or mana screwed sometimes. Because it takes so long to play EDH games, and everyone's meta is different, getting good experimental data is hard. Sample size is always low, so finding the best strategy relies on theoretical stats. You getting mana screwed right after changing the mana base probably may feel like a strong correlation, but it's still anecdotal and probably a coincidence. I'm yet to be mana screwed and have found the new mana base strong given that it counters a lot of strong cards in the meta, but that's also anecdotal. In theory, this amount of dual lands should be good enough to make sure we aren't color screwed a significant amount of the time. That being said, if your meta isn't playing the counter cards much and you have the fetchlands lying around, or if you like playing fetchlands, play them. It's not a huge difference in the functionality of the deck.

jelwell Weatherlight Compleated is definitely at its best on turn 2, but that also has an opportunity cost of not developing a ramp piece or fodder creature. It takes so long to get online without Teysa that I'm pretty pessimistic about it at this point. If you have a Bolas's Citadel on board, you're really ahead anyway.

I'm not a fan of Transmogrant's Crown since we already have many Skullclamp tutors, and it's much worse than clamp. If I wanted another clamp I'd play Steelshaper's Gift before this one. But if someone is making a budget Teysa list and doesn't have many tutors, crown might be good there.

I still don't know what to do with Sanguinary Priest. If he were 3 mana, he'd be a slam dunk, but 4 is competing with Grave Pact and the likes. Being able to control the board with this much precision could be powerful, but I'm still considering it.

kirbysanjelwell I'm more disappointed in the new dominus than I thought. I was hoping it'd have the same sac-indestructible ability as Mondrak. Not only do we not get a sac outlet, but the indestructible counter is pretty hard to get early on and might hurt us. At 5 mana, he's just a weaker Teysa in our 99, which stacks worse than Luminous Broodmoth. We can't afford to play too many clones of Teysa in the 99 anyway since they're expensive and clog our hand. If we have Teysa out alongside some death triggers, we're already super ahead. Much like Ratadrabik of Urborg, this card is overkill when ahead and super bad when behind.