Bolas Citadel Combo

Standard* Combo GWUB Post Rotation Primer

EchoScorch

Land (19)

• 2x Breeding Pool
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Forest
• 3x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x Island
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 4x Plaza of Harmony
• 4x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Swamp

Artifact (19)

• 4x Bolas's Citadel
• 3x Mox Amber
• 4x Navigator's Compass
• 4x Orazca Relic
• 4x Wand of Vertebrae

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Open the Gates

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Gift of Paradise

Planeswalker (6)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 4x Saheeli, Sublime Artificer
• 1x Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

Instant (8)

• 4x Depose / Deploy
• 4x Revitalize

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Sideboard

Creature (4)

• 2x Sailor of Means
• 2x Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp

Artifact (3)

• 3x Treasure Map  ^Flip

Instant (2)

• 2x Assassin's Trophy

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Karn, Scion of Urza

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Duress

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Making a working Bolas's Citadel deck in standard. I got the original idea by reading Frank Karsten's article on Channelfireball.com, April 7. At first I was overlooking this card, but with the cards we currently have in standard, the deck is very consistent and it has the potential to be competitive.

Karsten's original deck had three Scapeshift while it is a sweet card that thinned your deck and gave you the potential for life gain from Plaza of Harmony , it felt very underwhelming to me in testing. I have made a few spicey additions to the decklist for testing purposes, and a few of them are quite strong.

The Engine Show

The idea of the deck is very simple - Resolve a Bolas's Citadel , and either win the turn you play it or the turn after. In order to accomplish this you have to replace the life lost, manipulate the top of your library, and get enough nonland permanents to set up a kill. Being able to get card advantage from the top of your library and being able to cheat on mana costs makes the Citadel one hell of a card.

Ramp Show

Gift of Paradise - Allows our lands to produce two mana, gives us two life in the early game, and is a neutral net for casting off of the Citadel.

Mox Amber - Extra mana in order to cast spells, free to cast off of Citadel, and we have enough legendaries to turn it on when we are comboing off.

Orazca Relic - One of the more important cards in the deck. Gives you the additional mana you need early game, and provides you with an offset draw in order to filter off of the top of your library. In my experience, you need to prioritize sacrificing this over the others so that you can keep your life total high.

Kill Conditions - New! Show

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer - Brand new today, this is the replace for Sai. She produces thopters off of more of our spells than just our artifacts, and though we had to trim down of Fblthp in order to play them, she is quite strong. When we have one of these out, we produce two nonland permanents per card cast, allowing us to kill with the citadel faster.

Jace. Wielder of Mysteries - Another win-con that I included. In addition to being a win condition, his +1 either wins the game when you have no cards in library, or it can also filter the top of our library.

Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge - A one of. His static ability doesn't matter much, but after you create a few artifacts, you can use him as an alternative to another copy of Bolas's Citadel to win the game.

Filtering/Life gain Show

Navigator's Compass - Net gain of two life when cast when Citadel, it also allows you to filter mana in order to potentially cast un-castable spells.

Revitalize - I don't know about this slot yet, but this another card that allows us to have a net gain on life, and draw an extra card (Though the card doesn't matter much)

Wand of Vertebrae - One mana card that filters the top card of our library

Open the Gates - One mana card that takes a land out of our deck and shuffles it.

Depose / Deploy - Initally, you will lose life but if you have a few thopters built up, you gain enough life to help you close out the game. One of the best cards in our deck.

Possible other inclusions - Show

Heroic Reinforcements - One of my more spicey options. This card allows you to kill after creating a certain number of tokens, and it gives the ones created the turn of haste! You don't need to worry about casting this card normally, but if you had to you could use Navigator's Compass or Gift of Paradise .

Scapeshift - The main reason if you wanted to go with the gates plan. Allows you to thin your deck as well as gain some extra life.

The Antiquities War - I believe it was originally in the deck as a way to find copies of Citadel, but it feels very awkward once you already have citadel going. In the main deck I replaced it with Shimmer of Possibility because it is easier to cast, but there might even be some reason to play Board the Weatherlight if we have more white mana, because it sees one card deeper.

Well, that was a lot. If you like the deck, please comment and help reccomend cards. This is a very rough build of it, and now that I have removed scapeshift we don't really need the gates in the plan, though they do help with Open the Gates . With help, this could be the storm of standard!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 2 Mythic Rares 12 - 5 Rares 12 - 2 Uncommons 25 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.78
Tokens	City's Blessing, Construct 0/0 C, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	Nice decks