Bolas EDH

Commander / EDH* Control Multiplayer UBR (Grixis) Value Engine

Philbert_001

Land (37)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 9x Island
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave

Planeswalkers (7)

• 1x Chandra, Awakened Inferno
• 1x Jace Beleren
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
• 1x Saheeli Rai

Tutor (5)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Gifts Ungiven
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Scheming Symmetry
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Interaction (17)

• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Shatterskull Smashing  ^Flip
• 1x Slaughter Pact
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Snuff Out
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast

Draw (11)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Expressive Iteration
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

Finishers (3)

• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1x Massacre Wurm

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Ramp (13)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Liquimetal Torque
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

Copying (6)

• 1x Cursed Mirror
• 1x Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Sublime Epiphany

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Sideboard

Other (1)

• 1x Cruel Ultimatum

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This is my oldest and most tweaked EDH deck (from 2007). I added it to TappedOut for the metrics but now that it's public it should have a primer. My Meta is casual yet powerful and this is my most tuned deck. Beneath the bells and whistles, the core identity is an adaptive control deck that aims to drain the entire table with multiple copies of Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star, or Massacre Wurm.

Themes Show

1.) Table Drains - The main win condition of the deck is draining all players at the table at the same time. Keep an eye out for ways to make massive life swings with Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star, and Massacre Wurm.
2.) Planeswalkers - Unchecked, most of these cards can end the game. They're usually not unchecked tho. Which is also fine, if they generate a little bit of advantage and then die they've served the purpose of getting heat off my back. Opponents can think you're 'handled' when you lose a planeswalker and forget the advantage they gained while on the board.
3.) Clones - I really enjoy playing with everyone else's toys at the table but I hate steal effects. Stealing permanents always makes a target on my back and I want to keep a lower profile at the table. Besides, clones can provide double duty, making extra triggers of the table drain creatures. Rite of Replication on a Gray Merchant is often a win that drains for 60+ life.

Interaction Package Show

Mana is always at a premium. You try to progress your board but also need to buy the time to enact a mega-drain of the table.
1.) Free spells - Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Slaughter Pact, Snuff Out, Fierce Guardianship, Deadly Rollick, and Deflecting Swat all have free costs. I like the threat of never being in a 'shields down' moment.
2.) Sweepers - Damnation, Toxic Deluge, Shatterskull Smashing  , Cyclonic Rift, Vandalblast; You always need a few ways to deal with a board that's grown out of control. I don't run many but I do have tutors which inflate the chances of seeing one of these cards.
3.) Planeswalkers - a handful of the planeswalkers require a bigger initial investment but things like Liliana, Dreadhorde General and Chandra, Awakened Inferno both have sweeper-like effects on the board. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God doubles up on any planeswalker ability as well as being its own draw engine and removal suite.
4.) Versatility - Cryptic Command, Rakdos Charm, Sublime Epiphany, Mystic Confluence; Versatility is necessary to a control deck. These spells allow me to tackle any number of situations thanks to bounce, tapping down opponents, counter, graveyard hate, etc. And, like Jimmy Wong, I too dream of killing someone with Rakdos Charm damage.

Citadel Combo Show

Build Your Own Yawgmoth's Bargain! Bolas's Citadel when combined with Sensei's Divining Top or Necropotence allows the user to to pay 1 life and either draw or set aside the top card of their library. Any spell on top can be cast for life instead of mana, with enough life the deck can rip thru its cards to find Gray Merchant and a number of clone effects. This is the explosive engine that allows Bolas to compete with the most powerful 8's and 9's at the table. The top of library tutors and Brainstorm allow you to select most any card to play for free. Liliana Vess can assemble the combo over two turns and Saheeli Rai's ultimate can find it on the spot.

Budget Replacements Show

1.) Mana Base - Revised Dual Lands and the Fetches are the easiest cuts for simpler things like Theros Scrylands or Ravnica Bouncelands. Even more Islands and Swamps would be welcome. There are a lot of color needs on the deck and access to colors is important but you have a few turns to set that up before playing your commander  . If Ikoria taplands are all you have access to, use those!
2.) Fast Mana - Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, and Mana Crypt are not at all necessary to pilot the deck. I just like them and had the tradestuff available to get them. Change out for any 2-mana rock. It won't be as explosive but something like Everflowing Chalice can still put in work. The goal is to play your commander on turn three.
3.) Free Spells - Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Fierce Guardianship, Deadly Rollick, Deflecting Swat; They ensure I'm never completely 'shields down' but they are pricey. Swap out for other free spells like Foil and Massacre or just efficient interaction like Baleful Mastery or Chaos Warp.
4.) Uncuttables - Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Kokusho, the Evening Star, Massacre Wurm, Rite of Replication; These make up the backbone of win conditions in the deck. Change whatever else you want but it's just not my Bolas deck if it's not killing everyone at once from a bunch of clones.
5.) Proxies! Talk about it with your group but I welcome proxying any card you're priced out of playing. Let's all just have some fun.

Rule Zero Show

So, there's a Gifts Ungiven in the decklist. This is a banned card. Most of my games are against a small group of friends and they're cool with it. I like the versatility of it as well as the politics. This deck doesn't abuse the graveyard much beyond Snapcaster Mage and Volrath's Stronghold so Gifts turns out to be more of a subgame along the lines of Fact or Fiction. Except in this case I get to solve the puzzle of what I need in a situation and my opponent then needs to solve the puzzle of what I'm thinking. I love these choice-type decisions and Gifts is just right up my alley.

In untrusted company I replace it with a Cruel Ultimatum instead.

Changelist

-Nicol Bolas as Commander, replaced with Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  

9/10/18 -Cyclonic Rift, Reins of Power, Shriekmaw; +Evacuation, Blasphemous Act, Ravenous Chupacabra, respectively. (Evacuation was chosen over Rift because I want to reuse my ETBs as well)

9/21/18 -Siege-Gang Commander, Phantasmal Image; +Island, Temple of Deceit (Siege-gang was too off-theme and Image was too fragile for effects in the deck that want to target. Needed some more land to smooth out mulligans)

9/22/18 -Dreadship Reef, -Command Tower, -Gem of Becoming, -Darksteel Ingot; +Temple of Epiphany, Temple of Malice, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Indulgence (Reef and the 3-cost rocks are too slow, Command Tower is needed in a different deck. The new rocks are faster and the scry lands round out the set for these colors)

1/29/19 -Cruel Ultimatum; +Toxic Deluge (Ultimatum targets too strongly and I want this deck to string all the opponents along until the final blow, Deluge reinforces control of the table and gets under a Gaddock Teeg.)

3/7/19 -Magus of the Future; +Future Sight (swap for resiliency, and I like the Eternal Masters art)

3/11/19 -Anathemancer, -Bloodgift Demon; +Baleful Strix, +Combustible Gearhulk (Anathemancer is on curve but the ability is too niche to play early, Baleful Strix is more proactive and also a low CMC. The demon is too slow, I'd rather have a creature actively affect the board, the Gearhulk can be a political tool to draw cards or deal direct damage)

3/12/19 -Snuff Out; +Tragic Slip (I may be irrationally preoccupied with Gaddock Teeg. Also kills Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Blightsteel Colossus)

5/13/19 -Dragon's Hoard; +Fellwar Stone (Fellwar stone allows for a turn-3 Bolas, the Hoard is rarely relevant as there aren't many dragons in the deck. It's better used elsewhere)

5/20/19 -Future Sight; +Bolas's Citadel (Citadel's cost synergizes with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and with Sensei's Divining Top it becomes a Yawgmoth's Bargain.)

5/24/19 -Crypt Angel; +Deliver Unto Evil (Crypt Angel's focus of UR creatures is more narrow than I'd like. And I've been keeping an eye open for ways to get things back that aren't creatures. So Deliver Unto Evil is a perfect fit as the commander can flip and then I can cast Deliver. Also, it's gorgeous.)

6/22/19 -Fellwar Stone; +Talisman of Creativity (Talisman finishes the color cycle of talismans and fellwar was the cut because I'd rather pay life for colors than rely on the opponents' deck construction)

9/9/19 Updated Sol Ring with alter artwork by Sam Shieh.

11/22/19 Currently contemplating replacing Ravenous Chupacabra with Murderous Rider. I also want to make space for Dockside Extortionist (Phyrexian Gargantua?) and replace Greed with something else that draws cards. Also toying with the idea of including Thrull Parasite.

11/22/19 -Clever Impersonator, Greed; +Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Necropotence Shapeshifter is a pet card and this lowers the curve by allowing a morph, I rarely find that I want to copy anything other than creatures. Necro is stronger, cheaper, and I think the manabase can support the triple black that also fuels Gray Merchant

11/26/19 -Reliquary Tower, Faerie Conclave; +Island, Swamp. I wanted to better support the addition of black casting costs and reduce the number of tapped lands I had. Reliquary Tower is often lackluster as it only helps Consecrated Sphinx and Necropotence, it's just not relevant often enough so it's better as a Swamp. Conclave tapped for U but the tap restriction meant falling behind in mana production or just getting discarded while other lands were actually played. The creature flexibility wasn't worth anything because I found myself so rarely playing the card at all. Better it be an Island.

12/8/19 -Ravenous Chupacabra; +Murderous Rider. Love the art, takes out planeswalkers, can't be copied for effect but I never found myself copying or even playing Chupacabra anyway. And this is gorgeous.

12/15/19 -Deliver Unto Evil, Heat Shimmer; +Demonic Tutor, Mystical Tutor, I caved and decided to add a couple tutors back to the deck in place of a couple cards that are more reactive than proactive. I don't want to find the same things every time, but I do want to find the new cards I'm putting into the deck, this seems like the best way.

12/25/19 -Phyrexian Gargantua, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker; +Dockside Extortionist, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, Merry Christmas! Replaced the card draw of the Gargantua with the ramp of the Extortionist and went from big Bolas 'Walker to little Bolas 'Walker for more card draw and proactive interaction. Also lowers the curve, 2 and 5 are a lot less than 6 and 8.

2/20/20 Adding Tymaret, Chosen from Death to the maybe board, Withered Wretch always seemed too niche but a potentially big butt and the life gain could be really nice additions.

3/2/20 -Time Stop; +Tymaret, Chosen from Death Cutting Time Stop because it's too dang expensive to keep up 6-mana for the mother of all counterspells. Tym gains life and keeps graveyards in check while having a huge blocking body. And helps the devotion of Gary

3/6/20 -Temple of Malice, Temple of Deceit, Temple of Epiphany, Crumbling Necropolis, Mikokoro, Center of the Sea; +Swamp, Mountain, Drowned Catacomb, Dragonskull Summit, Sulfur Falls Cut the Scry lands for the Check lands and added more basics at the expense of a colorless source and the tapped tri-land. Want to test it with more untapped lands. I think it'll help with the slightly higher curve by allowing me to play cards on the turn I get to that much mana instead of the turn after. Losing Scry could lose some consistency but it's only three cards and the added draw engines have been putting in work in my recent games.

3/15/20 -Ghost Quarter; +Strip Mine swap for the more efficient card.

3/18/20 -High Market; +Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, concerned about the number of black mana symbols the deck needs to support I removed a colorless source for the ultimate black source. Social distancing means a lot of tweaking...

3/24/20 -Combustible Gearhulk; +Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, Bolas has got to have a sleeper agent, right? Flavor win! Also does a lot of what I want Bolas to do, keep the opponents fighting each other. Decided to cut Gearhulk because the floor is really low. Clone effects can help its positions but I'd rather save those for higher impact cards like Gary or Massacre Wurm. This also lowers the curve a little more.

3/26/20 -Phthisis, Spellbound Dragon, Sword of Fire and Ice; +Vampiric Tutor, Torrential Gearhulk, Cyclonic Rift. Rift is back! Quaran-tweaking is going well. Sword is out for Vampiric Tutor, I never find myself wanting to go shields-down to equip the sword. Torrential Gearhulk adds devotion for Thassa and plays nicely with the suite of instants I have (and newly added Rift and VT).

5/5/20 -Wurmcoil Engine; +Archaeomancer, Keeping an eye toward etb triggers, the burgeoning instant and sorcery theme, Thassa's devotion, average mana cost, and blue cards to pitch for Force I made the swap from the Engine to the wizard.

5/7/20 -Swamp, Mountain; +2 Island, with the addition of new blue cards I'm looking to even out the color balance. There's a 1-symbol difference between Black and Blue while Red is over represented. Urborg is still there to aid in making sure I've got the triple black needed for other spells.

5/20/20 Updating little bolas walker to stained glass bolas

7/2/20 -Vesuvan Doppelganger, Chancellor of the Spires; +Saheeli Rai, Watcher for Tomorrow. Made cuts for curve considerations and Saheeli copies my creatures while also having synergy with the Bolas walker

7/28/20 -Torrential Gearhulk; +Brainstorm the Gearhulk is too often stranded in my hand. Brainstorm lowers the curve, smooths draws, and synergizes with fetch lands, recursion creatures, and Bolas' Citadel.

8/18/20 -Tragic Slip, Blasphemous Act; +Mana Drain, Vandalblast Tragic Slip isn't getting morbid often enough to be useful. It's a harder hurdle to clear than initially expected. Blasphemous Act is in a similar boat and with the added tutors I have ways to just get Damnation or Toxic Deluge instead, making this a redundancy I don't really need. So they're out for Mana Drain and Vandalblast. Every time I pilot I want more ways to deal with problem artifacts so Vandalblast comes in. And a friend convinced me to raid my trade binder and get a Mana Drain. With the binder sundered, Bolas gets a new counter.

8/19/20 -Watcher for Tomorrow; +Thassa's Oracle Making the swap for the Oracle because it can combo with Top and Citadel late in the game as well as smooth draws early on.

8/31/20 -Island, Bojuka Bog; +Fabled Passage, Prismatic Vista Cutting another tapped land and an island for two fetches that can grab untapped lands. Made the change for consistency and color demands, bog got the cut because I frequently want untapped lands and (maybe this is confirmation bias but) bog's situational effectiveness is outweighed by it's tapped nature. I still have Rakdos Charm and Tymaret, Chosen from Death for graveyard hate.

10/14/20 -Greater Gargadon, Murderous Rider; +God-Eternal Bontu, Snuff Out Replacing Gargadon with a different type of sac outlet in Bontu. Bontu draws cards, helps with devotion, and has a more immediate impact on the board. Murderous Rider is being replaced with Snuff Out because I wanted a free kill spell and never want to hold mana for the Rider. The body isn't impressive in EDH and neither half of the card can be recurred. Playing with Rider has just shown this isn't the home for it.

10/15/20 -Tymaret, Chosen from Death; +Ashiok, Dream Render Opted for the broader and cheaper graveyard hate tool in Ashiok. Also doubles to prevent tutors for more competitive games.

10/16/20 -Thassa's Oracle, Thassa, God of the Sea; +Phantasmal Image, Narset, Parter of Veils The party from Thassa is over. Thassa's ability is outclassed and the oracle isn't the early game presence I wanted. So the Image is back and adding another control element in Narset.

11/11/20 -God-Eternal Bontu, Massacre Wurm, Vesuvan Shapeshifter; +Pestermite, Glasspool Mimic  , Sakashima the Impostor Bontu was an exciting sac outlet but I need those at instant speed, having it on a creature just wasn't good enough. Massacre Wurm is underperforming, far fewer token/go-wide strategies in my group these days. I have plenty of wrath effects, especially with the addition of the new tutors. Vesuvan's morph doesn't mesh with the ETB reuse I want my clones to have. Sakashima can reuse ETBs by bouncing and also becomes something else as well as Vesuvan. Glasspool Mimic   is a versatile clone effect. And lastly, because I've been streamlining the win condition to be cloned Gray Merchants, I need an alternate in case he gets exiled. Enter Pestermite. Can go infinite with Kiki-Jiki, or just attack planeswalkers and tap blockers. I'll see if this becomes too dominant a strategy for my table.

11/17/20 -Pestermite, Evacuation; +Kokusho, the Evening Star, Lightning Bolt I can't do it, I can't play Kiki/Pestermite combo. I'll just draw it and think, "oops, I win." It's so anticlimactic and I need to not have such a linear strategy. So I'm bringing in Kokusho as Gray Merchant #2. It interacts similarly with clone effects causing massive life swings. Secondly I'm removing Evacuation for Lightning Bolt because I want more efficient single target removal and Bolt hits small creatures, low loyalty planeswalkers, and nearly half the legendary creatures in the game.

12/14/20 -Mind Stone, Strip Mine; +Command Tower, Thought Vessel, I missed having Reliquary Tower's effect but didn't want to take up a land slot again, and I never used Mind Stone for the card draw effect. Also decided to add more colors, Bolas is a greedy deck and wants more colors.

12/30/20 -Fabled Passage, Prismatic Vista; +Island, Swamp, needed the fetches for a landfall change to another deck.

01/04/21 -Rakdos Carnarium, Dimir Aqueduct, Izzet Boilerworks; +Arcane Signet, Massacre Wurm, Island Continuing to expunge the tapped lands from the deck while increasing colors and ramp. Massacre Wurm is back as another method to drain the whole table. I felt like 40 land was too much so this moves to 38 and adds another ramp source.

01/11/21 -Mana Drain, Maze of Ith, Wayfarer's Bauble; +Hullbreacher, Notion Thief, Narset's Reversal, Replacing Mana Drain with Narset's because I want to try out the copy effect. I never have anything to spend all that mana on anyway. Wayfarer's Bauble is out for Hullbreacher in the ramp category. Notion Thief is getting a test over Maze of Ith as I never want to spend my land drop on Maze if I can help it. Hullbreacher and Notion Thief might be too dependent on what my opponents are doing but I'm eager to test them (they might be too mean too?)

01/13/21 -Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker; +Dack Fayden, Reevaluating Kiki's place in the deck. It can only target my own creatures, which are increasingly legendary. RRR is a hard casting cost that'll usually make hitting BBB or UUU harder if I try for it early. Dack has good synergy with Consecrated Sphinx and can be positively back-breaking in 1v1 matchups where I also have Hullbreacher or Notion Thief. (Also just realized that those cards also synergize with Jace Beleren which reduces the reliance on my opponent's playing into my gameplan.)

01/28/21 -Notion Thief, Cauldron Dance, Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch, Memory Plunder, Consecrated Sphinx, Puppeteer Clique; +Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Teferi, Master of Time, Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Ugin, the Ineffable, Valki, God of Lies  , Spark Double I got a small taste of more planeswalkers and decided to make a big shift into way more heavy hitting 'walkers. Grabbing all the ones I wanted to play, that I thought looked cool, and expanded the list with another clone that can also clone my 'walkers. Cut some of the more reactive cards and made some space in the 6-slot because there were a lot more 6's incoming. Izzet Chronarch and Archaeomancer are getting replaced by larger card advantage engines, Cauldron Dance makes less sense with less creatures and especially without the wizards, Puppeteer Clique is making way for Valki   because he does a similar job more proactively and is also a 'walker. Memory Plunder hurts to lose but it's a bigger cmc that's reactive and 'walkers seem more fun.

02/05/21 -Dack Fayden; +Mystic Reflection Moving Dack to the sideboard, it's very good in 1v1 matchups but the abilities are underwhelming in multiplayer, I like to shy away from raw steal effects as they turn the whole table against you. Mystic Reflection is really neat, it can turn any of my zombie tokens into other beaters, Garys, or even disrupt an opponent's play. I'm excited to test it out.

02/25/21 -Drowned Catacomb, Dragonskull Summit, Sulfur Falls, Phyrexian Tower; +Crumbling Necropolis, Mystic Sanctuary, Bojuka Bog, Feed the Swarm, Metas be shifting. I need more graveyard hate so Bog is back. And I can't play a broken cycle of cards so all the check lands are coming out for a rainbow land and some utility. Lastly, I've been looking for a spot for Feed the Swarm forever and with the new planeswalker subtheme there is less to sac to Phyrexian Tower.

02/27/21 -Ugin, the Ineffable, Sakashima the Impostor; +Consecrated Sphinx, Liliana Vess, I really miss drawing too many cards, Sphinx is back in and Vess is replacing Sakashima. I'd misread Sakashima's return ability, it can't be abused in a single turn for multiple ETB triggers or even save the creature itself.

03/03/21 -Crumbling Necropolis; +Dust Bowl Really think I need some nonbasic land interaction. Adding Dust Bowl because it's repeatable but also mana intensive so it can't be easily abused.

03/10/21 -Thought Vessel, Hullbreacher, Lightning Greaves; +Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, My playgroup banned Hullbreacher thru Rule #0, Lightning Greaves has a better home in a different deck, there aren't enough creatures needed protection in here anymore. And switching Thought Vessel to a mox just speeds up my turns a tiny bit. Mana Crypt rounds out the new faster ramp artifacts for some more explosive games.

03/22/21 -Chaos Warp; +Deflecting Swat, Switching for the free spell alternative. I really enjoy these types of effects but they're usually expensive or narrow. Deflecting Swat is free (sometimes) and also redirects abilities!

04/11/21 -Grave Titan, Lightning Bolt; +Deadly Rollick, Reality Shift, Making some changes for more efficient removal. Exile against problem creatures is much more important than knocking 3 loyalty off a planeswalker. Grave Titan is out primarily for cmc/mana value considerations altho it's been a mainstay for a long time.

04/29/21 Updating Demonic Tutor from its old art.

06/10/21 -Teferi, Master of Time; +Ponder, Teferi has underperformed as a card advantage engine. He sees a lot of cards but I want to net cards and Ponder at least replaces itself and has good synergy with citadel

07/14/21 -Xantcha, Sleeper Agent; Cruel Ultimatum, I've been playing a lot of 1v1 commander and Xantcha has been sided out so many times it makes sense to just make the switch. Xantcha to the board and Cruel Ultimatum to the main.

07/23/21 -Cruel Ultimatum; +Blasphemous Act, trade for a new/old sweeper. Kinda forgot this existed as I traded my old one away but fits neatly with the other control elements of the deck.

07/29/21 -Dust Bowl; +Strip Mine, Making the swap for the more efficient, but one-shot, card.

08/05/21 -Strip Mine -Bolas's Citadel; +Ancient Tomb +Bolas's Citadel, Had a conversation about letting people have their fun. Lands are fun. And the decks where lands are a problem can generally play them from the 'yard so Strip Mine isn't even that much of an impediment. Decided to speed up a bit more with Ancient Tomb instead. Making an art update for Bolas's Citadel

09/29/21 -Mystic Reflection, -Reality Shift; +Mana Drain, +Resculpt, Mystic Reflection had big hype and hasn't delivered at all. Swapping out for this pretty Mana Drain so I have more interaction. I also realized I have more to spend the mana on that I originally thought. The walkers and other 6-drops can use the boost of mana as well as transforming Bolas   himself. Resculpt is a temporary test. I like the extra flexibility of hitting artifacts, let's see if a 4/4 is really that much worse than a 2/2 in the long run.

10/04/21 -Blasphemous Act; +Shatterskull Smashing  , Making a swap for another virtual land as well as a removal spell that hits planeswalkers. Smashing   is more flexible where I feel like I'm always holding Blasphemous Act for the right time to maximize use.

10/12/21 -Spark Double; +Cursed Mirror, A few reasons I made this switch. Spark Double only copies my creatures or planeswalkers, so it really only copies one of the drain creatures. The planeswalkers don't usually live long enough to clone. Second, I wanted to add more mana to the deck. I'm interested in seeing how often I can copy an etb (anywhere on the table) and then have a mana rock left over.

10/24/21 -Cryptic Command; +Fierce Guardianship, easing some of the color requirements of spells in the deck and increasing my suite of free counters. I do love being "shields-down" without actually being shields-down.

10/27/21 -Mystic Sanctuary, Bojuka Bog; +Prismatic Vista, Fabled Passage, Down on the etb tapped lands again. Looking for more colors and freed these two basic-fetches from another deck. Utility is nice but casting my spells is better.

11/01/21 -Valki, God of Lies  ; +Grave Titan, Cutting the theft effect. Valki   should only be played on the back side and that's just not fun for me. Instead, Grave Titan's back!

12/12/21 -Grave Titan; +Scheming Symmetry, "I must go, my people need me." Grave Titan is moving to a new Marchesa deck I'm working on so I added a symmetrical tutor I hope to break the symmetry on.

01/11/22 -Vandalblast; +Meltdown, Listening to how there are few counters to strategies that rely on lots of small artifact tokens like treasures, that Vandalblast costing 4R to actually stop them means it's ineffective, led me to find Meltdown. For R I can take down treasures and the fastest mana rocks, same for 1R. And I can still cast it for 4R to take out most artifacts of other strategies too. The tradeoff is that I endanger my own artifacts and lose the flexibility of targeting a single artifact but I think I can live with that. (Also updating art for Narset, Parter of Veils, and the Ravnica Block Signets)

02/08/22 -Feed the Swarm; +Murderous Rider taking out slow interaction against enchantments for instant speed interaction against planeswalkers

02/13/22 -Fabled Passage; +Otawara, Soaring City, relaxing the sometimes-tapped land with untapped utility, looking forward to seeing this deal with some planeswalkers

2/21/22 -Narset's Reversal, Darkness; +Cryptic Command, Sublime Epiphany, Reversal is very situational and seeing it on top when I've got Citadel combo going is a bummer. Either of these modal spells will provide better proactive interaction whether on top or in hand. Darkness is getting the cut temporarily, as a test, the fog to protect Planeswalkers is less important when the goal to close out a game in one big turn. Also, While it's more expensive, Cryptic can stop a combat step as well.

3/12/22 -Murderous Rider; +Liquimetal Torque, poor Murderous Rider, so pretty and yet cut from this list so many times. Trying out the Torque so I can use existing artifact removal against other permanents. And when there's no target or removal spell? It's ramp! I think this card is low key broken.

3/15/22 -Ashiok dream weaver, Narset, Parter of Veils; +Mystic Confluence, Gifts Ungiven/Cruel Ultimatum; cutting some of the staxy planeswalkers for some splashier spells. Gifts Ungiven is a Rule 0 card that I'll replace with Cruel Ultimatum in public groups. Now the light theme is "choices" with modal spells and modal permanents

3/21/22 -Meltdown, Resculpt, Dockside Extortionist; +Vandalblast, Slaughter Pact, Expressive Iteration, So the Meltdown experiment was short-lived. Turns out hitting my own mana rocks actually hurts a whole lot in here. Dockside has been underwhelming in my meta, so it's getting moved to make space for Expressive Iteration. And Resculpt is being replaced by the free, Slaughter Pact. The targeted artifact removal numbers are staying the same because of Vandalblast coming back and I love me some free spells.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 1 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.94
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Chandra, Awakened Inferno, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	COMMANDER DECKS FOR TABLETOP SIM 2, Liked decks, Rob’s EDH