I?m building too a casual Bolas deck! The flavour is real! To be honest the best commander though would be Kess, Dissident Mage, but she is no dragon...

Looking at your list I don't understand Pain Magnifier, you have to hit with a creature for 3 for instance or make 3 damages with a spell, it looks to me you have about 12 cards that can do that (and most of them creatures, so they have to go unblocked), so to me that looks really weak. How was it in your testing?

Sc1enc3, thanks for the comment! I agree, Kess, Dissident Mage could be a good commander. She could easily be swapped in. I'm sure i'll switch it up occasionally but I like Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip for now at least.

Pain Magnification says 3 damage from any source. So anything that deals 3 damage to an opponent, including anything from another opponent. So Lavaborn Muse's ability would activate this. Any attack from one opponent to another that does 3 or more damage, etc. I haven't tested it enough to say that it is staying in the deck forever. If I end up not liking it I may swap it for Wheel of Torture or Shrieking Affliction. If I ever end up getting Bloodchief Ascension that would also be a good replacement for it as well.

I have a Nicol Bolas deck I could share:

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/nicol-bolas-the-original-1/

Awesome deck description!

Mortlocke, thank you very much!

what about Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip. If people be discarding, why not take it for yourself?