Deck List and Individual Card Discussion
The Commander – 1 card
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
/ Nicol Bolas, the Arisen
I love Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. He’s so much cheaper to cast than his predecessor, Nicol Bolas from Legends, and doesn’t turn you into the archenemy in the same way that a Flying 7/7 that forces you to discard your hand if he damages you does. As such he gives you more breathing space in the early-to-mid game as a result.
He comes with the ability to transform into a Planeswalker version of himself, Nicol Bolas, the Arisen, with four great abilities. With a +2 ability to give me card draw and access to both creature removal and reanimation through his minus abilities, he’s a powerful Commander to have in the Command Zone.
Bolas Theme – 21 cards + 5 cards later
These are the cards that are in the deck almost solely because they’re on theme for Nicol Bolas. Whether it’s other versions of the Elder Dragon, minions he’s had in the Magic story, or spells that he’s cast himself, these are all cards that someone would almost expect to face in a Nicol Bolas theme deck.
Three of the four other Planeswalker versions of Bolas himself are in the deck (the fourth, Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver, was the hardest cut from the deck, but it always seemed a little lacklustre when I played him). All are very versatile, providing card draw, removal, and even win conditions amongst other things.
Three Bolas-themed board wipes help me to control the board. In the case of Hour of Devastation, it even lets me keep my Bolas Planeswalkers alive whilst damaging all other Planeswalkers (though sadly Professor Onyx and Angrath, the Flame-Chained will have to suffer if they’re in play).
The trio of Gods from Hour of Devastation are big, beefy Creatures, with decent abilities and have an inbuilt way to come back from being destroyed. The Scarab God also attacks my opponents’ Graveyards whilst giving me copies of their best Creatures, The Scorpion God is Creature removal (and draw) on a stick, and The Locust God gives me a Flying Insect army (and looting at will).
There are other minions of Bolas in one form or another in the deck. Rakka Mar is one of Bolas’s minions from the Shards of Alara block, and she's a repeatable source of decently-statted Elemental tokens for a very cheap price. Neheb, the Eternal is part of Bolas's undead army from Amonkhet, and provides me with explosive ramp later in the game. Finally, Professor Onyx represents Liliana Vess, who was (unwillingly) part of Team Bolas during the War of the Spark and she gives me card selection, removal, and an ultimate that dovetails extremely nicely with what the deck's trying to do.
The remaining Bolas-themed cards don't really fall into any particular category. Sensei's Divining Top comes from when he once presented himself as Sensei Ryu, and also happens to be a great source of card selection. The Judge Foil Mana Drain has a quote from Nicol Bolas on it so I felt it deserved a place in the deck and it’s one of only a two cards that interact with the stack, the other being Soul Manipulation. Deliver Unto Evil is some great recursion, particularly if I have one of my four Bolas Planeswalkers in play. Deep Analysis is great on-theme draw. Bolas's Citadel gives me the chance to dig deep into my deck at the cost of my life total to try and overwhelm my opponents. I love the Invocation artwork of Omniscience to the point that the playmat for this deck is this artwork, signed by the artist himself, and as Omniscience is one of Bolas's true goals it doesn't seem right not to have this here.
The last two cards in this category, Crosis's Charm and Demonic Tutor, are more like placeholders. They're the closest black-bordered approximations to two cards that are not legal in Commander, but that I'd like to play in this deck anyway. Take a look at the Sideboard section below for more details.
ETB Discard Package – 16 cards + 1 Land
All versions of Bolas have had the ability to force his opponents to discard cards, as his maddening touch ravages their minds. The deck has always leant into this theme, and whilst the previous version focussed heavily on Creatures with Enter the Battlefield abilities similar to Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, as well as ways to reuse those abilities, this version no longer does so; instead it has a variety of different methods to force discard so as not to get shut down by a particular silver bullet card.
Having said that, there are still three cards that use the deck's former theme of Enter the Battlefield abilities to force opponents to discard. Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger also punishes them with life loss if they discard Lands or have no cards in hand, and can be brought back to the battlefield with his Escape ability. Tourach, Dread Cantor is a relatively recent addition to the deck, but is very flexible; if I need an early Creature (such as to wield a Sword to ramp me) I can just cast him as normal, or I can wait until I can cast him with his Kicker cost for a great discard effect, and if I cast my Commander on the turn afterwards, Tourach is then attacking as a 7/6 with Protection from White. And Dire Undercurrents turns all of my Black Creatures into ETB Discard Creatures with the side effect of turning my Blue ones into Cantrips.
Two cards force discards off of dealing combat damage. Pain Magnification is a very interesting card as it encourages my opponents to send their Creatures at my other opponents, as they’ll get the bonus of forcing a discard if they hit them with a Power 3 or greater Creature. As an Artifact, Sword of Feast and Famine will survive any board wipes that would otherwise hit Creatures and can go on any Creature in the deck, giving it a healthy boost in Power and Toughness with Protection as a form of evasion, as well as ramping me by doubling my mana on any turn that the Creature deals combat damage to a player.
Four cards can force discards without needing to have my Creatures attack, so if my opponents have good Creatures to block with I can still force them to discard. Additionally, they force discards at no mana cost to me, which is great if I can cast Tergrid, God of Fright
(see below) and then activate one or more of them on the same turn. Each has their own pros and cons: Rakdos Augermage gives me the best choice of targets, but unless I'm already Hellbent I also lose the best card in my own hand, Gwendlyn Di Corci hits their hand at random, Cao Cao, Lord of Wei forces two discards, as does Cephalid Broker, though the latter also forces them to draw first (so can even hit a Hellbent opponent), but if they have any cards in hand it gives them the benefit of looting.
There are four cards that are all on theme for being Nicol Bolas-related as well as forcing my opponents to discard cards. Torment of Hailfire both gives me a spell that can force my opponents into tough positions as well as potentially being a win condition all by itself, whilst all three of Dark Intimations, The Eldest Reborn, and Cruel Ultimatum give me varying amounts of draw, removal, discard, and Graveyard recursion.
The last three spells don’t really fit into any particular subcategory. Chain of Smog is reasonably efficient, but there's every chance that the target of the spell will copy it and either send it my way (whence I will copy it again and send it at another player) or will just send it at another player anyway. I expect the Siren of the Silent Song to mostly be activated by attacking and as it has Flying its low Power and Toughness aren't that big a problem. Angrath, the Flame-Chained just sits there and forces discards each turn (unless I use either of his other abilities), but his plus ability also starts hurting my opponents, hopefully making the game end sooner.
I don't have a lot to say about Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace. At a cost of 4 mana (counting tapping itself as one of those)m it's a repeatable effect that lets me force each player to discard a card. I’m going to preferably use it when I’m already Hellbent, but if I have to discard as well then so be it.
Profiting From Discard - 4 cards + 1 Land
The previous version of this deck had a variety of cards in this category, including ways to try and deal damage to opponents for having few or no cards in hand as a way to end the game quicker. I’ve pretty much gotten rid of these cards, as most of the time my playtesting found that I didn’t have a large enough density of them to be doing enough damage and I didn’t have the deck slots available to increase how many I had in the deck. As such, this category is more about me profiting from my opponents’ discards rather than trying to actively punish them for it.
Tinybones, Trinket Thief and Waste Not both key off of discards to let me draw cards. Tinybones can also be a potential win condition, if I can get rid of all of the cards in my opponents' hands. Waste Not also gives me the potential for mana and/or Zombie tokens.
Telekinetic Bonds is a really interesting card. It’s not terribly abusable, due to the cost of its triggered ability, but it does allow for some neat interactions in the deck. Amongst other things, it lets me tap Siren of the Silent Song to use its Inspired ability in my next Untap step without needing to attack and/or untaps it immediately for further forced discard.
Tergrid, God of Fright
is possibly the most powerful of these effects, as she lets me steal any permanents that my opponents discard, as well as incidentally steal anything sacrificed from the battlefield such as Sagas or Fetch Lands. In a pinch I could also cast her as Tergrid's Lantern instead, if I really needed to force some discarding.
Howltooth Hollow is something of a pet card: I have a soft spot for cards that can’t really go in any other decks and the Hideaway ability of Howltooth Hollow seems like the hardest of the five to activate in Commander. If there’s any deck that someone can get its ability to go off in it’s this one, though likely less often than some previous versions of the deck.
Removal for Non-Creature Permanents/Graveyards – 7 cards + 1 Land
Whilst Grixis generally does well with regards to getting rid of Creatures, it still has issues with dealing with Enchantments. As such I need some rather specific cards to deal with those, as well as other non-Creature Permanents and dealing with cards in Graveyards of Reanimator decks.
Vandalblast is a cheap way to take care of an annoying Artifact, with the option to Overload it to take care of ALL of the annoying Artifacts.
Whilst Wizards of the Coast have recently printed some Black anti-Enchantment cards, they’re somewhat narrow and situational. Cyclonic Rift and Chaos Warp, on the other hand, allow me to get rid of exactly which Enchantments I want to, but are also flexible enough to deal with other situations.
Rakdos Charm is mostly here as Artifact removal, but also helps against Graveyard strategies and token decks that go wide.
Immersturm Predator is a relatively new card from Kaldheim that is a reasonably sized evasive Creature, triggers Pain Magnification on each attack, grows each time it taps (whether from attacking or from Telekinetic Bonds), helps against Graveyard strategies, and can even be made Indestructible to survive removal.
Author of Shadows is another relatively recent addition to the deck. It gives me some mass Graveyard exile, with a bit of theft tacked on the top.
Flood of Tears allows me to bounce all non-Land cards on the board, which is an emergency reset switch if I need it against someone who has a massive board presence.
Hive of the Eye Tyrant is the only card from Adventures In the Forgotten Realms that I've added to the deck. It enters play tapped and taps for Black mana, but can also be turned into a 3/3 with Menace (so works with Pain Magnification) that exiles a card from the defender's Graveyard when it attacks. It's a little on the lower end of the power spectrum, but it's also a low opportunity cost to do a handful of things that my deck wants.
Ramp – 10 cards
This deck has a high average CMC and some expensive spells in the deck, so I need some early-game ramp to help me cast my powerful spells. In Grixis, this usually means mana rocks, but there are a handful of other things here, too.
Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Izzet Signet, and Rakdos Signet are all fairly standard fare as cheap mana rocks to help accelerate the deck and sometimes fix the mana. If I’m lucky I can maybe cast my Commander on turn 3, or in exceptional situations turn 2.
Dreamscape Artist is a repeatable Harrow on a Creature, which is an extreme rarity for a mono-Blue card. He comes down on turn 2 and activates on turn 3, sacrificing one of the lands you tapped to pay for the ability and discarding something from hand to get two untapped Basics of your choice onto the Battlefield so you can also cast a 2 drop in the same turn. It's repeatable and gets Lands into play, so it's somewhat safer than general Artifact ramp, though he’s still vulnerable to Creature removal.
Sword of the Animist is another way to get Basic Lands of my choice into the Battlefield. It works best with cheaper evasive Creatures, but can still be a way to ramp up in the mid game, too.
Chromatic Lantern is in the deck to help with its insane colour requirements at times, all the way up to the casting cost of Cruel Ultimatum of UUBBBRR. It was also the first Expedition/Invention/Invocation I ever pulled from a pack, at GP London 2016's main event (went 2-3 drop, in case anyone cares).
Gem of Becoming is something of a pet card, seeing as I pulled a foil one from a pack of M13 back in 2012 when I first started playing Magic again, but it’s a perfect Bolas-themed card, and is usually pretty good in game too as it lets me hit my land drops for the next three turns.
Sword of Hearth and Home is another way to tutor Basic Lands to the Battlefield, but it also gives me a Flicker trigger when it deals combat damage. There are only a handful of Creatures with ETB effects, but these include Bolas himself to force discard and Scholar of the Ages to bring back Instant and Sorcery cards from my Graveyard.
Everything Else – 1 card
Scholar of the Ages is in the deck solely to give me the option to retrieve some Instant and/or Sorcery cards that I've either discarded or already cast earlier in the game. As a Creature, she's much easier to get back from my Graveyard than other types of cards, giving me a better chance of getting those spells back.
Lands – 37 cards + 3 MDFC Sorcery/Lands
Lands are, of course, the lifeblood of almost every deck (Oops All Spells and Goblin Charbelcher aside). This deck has some very hefty colour requirements, sometimes needing 1BBB on turn 4 (for a Kicked Tourach, Dread Cantor) followed by needing 2UUU (for Telekinetic Bonds) or 2RRR (for Rakka Mar and her activated ability) on turn 5, going all the way up to an eye-watering UUBBBRR for Cruel Ultimatum. As such, I’ve tried to go for a healthy mix of Lands that provide me with multiple colours of mana, especially in the early game where I may have a different mix of requirements from game to game.
Academy Ruins is one of the very few Colourless mana producing Lands in the deck and it gives me the opportunity to retrieve Artifacts from my Graveyard. For a deck with Black in it, there’s not actually a great deal of recursion so this is one of the cards in the deck specifically to help out on that front.
Whilst Ash Barrens also produces Colourless mana, I generally intend to use this for its Basic Landcycling ability more than anything else. It's especially good to do on turn 1, as there are very few things I otherwise want to do on the first turn.
Cephalid Coliseum is an interesting land in this deck. It taps for Blue, at the cost of one life per tap, but later in the game when I've got a fully stocked Graveyard, it either gives me the chance to loot three times if I'm digging for a specific card, or I can use it on a Hellbent opponent to get three free discards, which is great if I've got any of my profiting from discard cards in play. It's not terribly powerful, but it works well in some scenarios, and the opportunity cost of including it isn't bad at all.
Hive of the Eye Tyrant, Howltooth Hollow and Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace have been explained earlier, in more appropriate areas of this deck analysis.
Witch's Clinic is a bit of a weird inclusion. Gaining 4 life each time my Commander swings is nice, but it's included mostly because it combos nicely with Nicol Bolas, the Arisen's -3 ability, as it will allow me to gain 10 life at the same time as removing something from play.
The three MDFC spell lands (Agadeem's Awakening
/Agadeem, the Undercrypt
, Sea Gate Restoration
/Sea Gate, Reborn
, and Shatterskull Smashing
/Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
) are all extremely useful to the deck due to their versatility. I consider them as Lands in the deck, with the spells on their front face being a bonus on top of that. In general, if I draw them in the early-to-mid game then I can either play them tapped (if I don’t need their mana that turn) or pay the 3 life to have them come into play untapped. But If I draw them in the late game, then I get to cast the spell face, which can be quite useful. In rare scenarios, I can even play them as a Land in the early game, sacrifice them to Dreamscape Artist's ability to help ramp me, and then use Scholar of the Ages to bring them back to my hand to cast them.
Sideboard – 17 cards + 1 Plane
Sideboards don't exist in Commander as standard. However for this deck, with my opponents' permission, I have a Sideboard to allow me to swap a couple of cards in, as well as a Wishboard as one of those cards can give me the ability to cast things from my Sideboard.
Swapboard – 2 cards
Neither Booster Tutor or Seek Bolas's Counsel is legal in Commander, but that's not going to stop me trying to include them in my deck. At the start of each game I'm going to say to my opponents, “I have a silver-bordered card and a Mystery Playtest card in my deck. Can I use them? If not, I have two black-bordered cards I will use instead.” I'll be more than happy to discuss the cards with them (including their potential targets and my self-imposed limitations (see below)) and, if they let me use them, then I'll swap these two into the deck in place of Demonic Tutor and Crosis's Charm; if they don't then I'll just leave the two Black Bordered cards in the deck instead.
Booster Tutor is in the deck for two main reasons. The first is that I love opening packs of Magic. It got to the point where I had to stop myself from buying packs specifically to open, so now I only really open packs for Limited, as pre-release prizes, or if cards in the game tell me to do so (like Booster Tutor!). The second reason is that I love the idea that Nicol Bolas is so powerful that he can pluck a spell from thin air that he didn't even know before that moment. I plan on limiting myself to taking only Grixis-identity cards and to only take cards that aren't already in the deck (so as not to violate either the Colour-Identity or singleton rules of Commander).
As soon as I saw Seek Bolas's Counsel in the Mystery Booster Playtest reveals, I knew I had to get one for this deck. It's a cheap spell that gives me one random effect out of six possible choices. One of them is quite bad, as it replicates the original Nicol Bolas's downside (though at the cost of losing the game rather than sacrificing the Creature); however, for the first 6 years of this deck's life it had that Bolas as its Commander, so I'm not unused to paying for that trigger. The upsides though are great and at such a low mana cost I think the gamble is worth it, especially on such a thematic card.
Planeboard – 1 Plane
If I get the right random result after casting Seek Bolas's Counsel then we all Planeswalk to the Pools of Becoming. This is here simply as reference if I get that result from casting that card, and has no use otherwise.
Wishboard – 15 cards
If I get the right random result on Seek Bolas's Counsel, then I can cast spells from my Sideboard; but, as already discussed, Commander has no sideboards. So at the start of the game, if my opponents allow me to use Seek Bolas's Counsel, I'll THEN ask them if my 15-card Wishboard is okay for me to cast spells from if I get the right result from Seek Bolas's Counsel.
I have gathered together a set of 15 Bolas-themed cards for this Wishboard. These cards have been chosen for theme, especially if they are part of a cycle, as I don't want anyone accusing me of Rule 0-ing a Sideboard for competitive advantage.
The three minions of Bolas from M13 (Augur of Bolas, Disciple of Bolas, and Mindclaw Shaman) were solid inclusions in my deck up until its revision post-Amonkhet, where I just couldn't find the room for them any more. There are plenty of targets for Augur of Bolas to hit including the three Sorcery/Land MDFCs, which actually gives him some flexibility, though I'm sure that there will still be times when he enters the Battlefield and I just look at the bottom three cards of my Library. I have several good targets to sacrifice to Disciple of Bolas (who once sacrificed Nicol Bolas himself to draw seven cards to try and dig for an answer one game) including the Amonkhet Gods and Rakka Mar's Elementals. Historically, the Mindclaw Shaman has never really done all that well for me as I've never targeted a player who had a juicy spell to cast for free, but I live in hope that this will change.
At various times since M19 was released I've considered adding each of the big Bolas-related spells from M19. Apex of Power is actually fairly useless being in the Wishboard; I think the best use of it would be to cast it, Mana Drain my own spell then next turn use Scholar of the Ages or Deliver Unto Evil to bring it to my hand, and then cast it again using the Mana Drain mana. card:Fraying Omniscience was in an earlier version of the deck where the game plan was to completely strip my opponents' hands of cards, and will still work well in that function if I need it to. Patient Rebuilding is a bit of a trap, as I imagine that it will draw more hate (for the incidental milling) than the benefits it'll give me but it's extremely thematic and will still draw me some cards.
For ages both Visage of Bolas and Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver were in the deck but were eventually cut in order to make room for other things. Visage is expensive for a mana rock, and this Bolas is a bit on the pricier side of the Bolas Planeswalkers and definitely less effective than the others. Some day maybe I'll be able to free up some room in the main deck to put them back in, but for now they're just two options in the Wishboard.
There are two classic theft effects in the Wishboard. Slave of Bolas is from Bolas's first appearance on Alara and In Bolas's Clutches is from a more recent cameo on Dominaria. Neither of these is particularly efficient compared to something like Mind Control, but they've both got great art and truly show off Bolas's power.
Like the three Creatures from M13, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Sarkhan the Mad were staples in this deck until the post-Amonkhet revision. There aren't as many Artifacts in the deck now as there used to be, so Tezzeret isn't as useful, but I can still see him generating some value. Sarkhan was also a lot better when his -4 allowed my Nicol Bolas to deal damage to an opponent and force them to discard their entire hand. Either way, these historic minions of Bolas can still give him support.
I pulled a foil Imminent Doom whilst I was playing in an Hour of Devastation League at my local store but I've never been able to fit it into the deck. The main issue is that there were never really enough 1-drops in the deck to comfortably allow me to get to two Doom counters (though there are plenty of 2 drops and higher in the deck so it'd be fine after that initial hurdle). But having both it and Tezzeret's Gambit in the Wishboard actually kind of works, as the Gambit allows me to Proliferate the Doom counter so that I can start building more counters and sending more damage out.
God-Pharaoh's Statue is the greatest monument to Bolas's magnificence... but is actually kind of lacklustre. It taxes my opponents for 2 mana per spell, but costs 6 to begin with, and I have no other taxing effects to stack this with. It also makes them lose 1 life in my End Step, which is an extremely slow way to kill them. I think that the best use for this may be to finish off an opponent who's left on 1 life, for style points.
Flip
