Nicol Bolas, Tyrant of Worlds

Commander / EDH Battlecruiser Control Theme/Gimmick UBR (Grixis)

Rhezzler

Land (36)

• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 5x Island
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 5x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave

Creature (6)

• 1x Archaeomancer
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Snapcaster Mage

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Omniscience
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Waste Not

Instant (19)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Artifact (13)

• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Sorcery (18)

• 1x Burning Inquiry
• 1x Cruel Ultimatum
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Deliver Unto Evil
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

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Sideboard

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Whispering Madness

Instant (1)

• 1x Dramatic Reversal

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Dragon Tempest

Artifact (3)

• 1x Geth's Grimoire
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Lightning Greaves

Creature (3)

• 1x Nicol Bolas
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Phantasmal Image

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Bribery
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Slave of Bolas
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Wit's End

Enchantment (3)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Blood Reckoning
• 1x Elder Mastery

Creature (6)

• 1x Augur of Bolas
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Mindclaw Shaman
• 1x Rakka Mar
• 1x Vengeful Pharaoh

Artifact (1)

• 1x Gem of Becoming

Instant (4)

• 1x Imp's Mischief
• 1x Magmaquake
• 1x Psychic Barrier
• 1x Soul Manipulation

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

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One for many

By force of will

Forged by might

Driven by fire

Born by death

To rise eternal

So you want to play Just like Nicol Bolas? Welcome to the dark side my friend. Fitting what Bolas does into a commander deck is actually very difficult, he can be taken in so many different directions theme wise and his color combination is excellent on its own. I've been playing Bolas as my main deck for the past few years, I decided focus on a discard synergy/control deck.

The main win conditions include...

Nicol Bolas, the Arisen , Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker , Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God - unanswered any of these can win the game or just provide solid value.

Zombie Beats. Waste Not is definitely a large enabler of this deck and the first card I tutor for before a wheel. The value waste not generates is insane! Usually you want to draw more cards or produce another 2 black mana but occasionally you get a board full of zombies. Many times it's easy to chain 2 wheels and wind up with anywhere from 5-30 zombies on board to swing in with. Army of the Damned was also added to help with this gameplan I just cut it from this version of the deck, but it can be cast off of the mana generated from waste not for an army in a can effect. Definitely fun and flavorful!

Torment of Hailfire a card you have probably lost to or won with many times in other decks, The difference is in this deck it fits our theme, Waste not also supercharges our mana production allowing for some blowout plays with this card.

The non infinite 4 card semi-resilient combo of the deck that will have you cackling maniacally as you assemble it. Omniscience + cruel ultimatum + dimir house guard + archaeomancer . The key is to make sure Archaeomancer is in the graveyard when we cast cruel ultimatum. We bring the archaeomancer back to our hand using cruel ultimatum, sac her, then cast cruel ultimatum again. How do we make sure she is in the graveyard you ask? Well Dimir House Guard of course, the house guard acts as a sac outlet and a tutor if needed for archaeomancer, don't worry you can just bring the dimir house guard back with the first cast of cruel ultimatum if you used it as a tutor earlier in the game. With this combo, you will draw through your deck and be able to play any spells in hand. If you're about to deck out just place down your Library of Leng and cast Wheel of Fortune placing your hand back on top of the deck with the library of leng's ability, you can choose keep cruel ultimatum in the top 7 resetting the loop cast Mystic Retrieval to return you wheel of choice for anther loop if needed. Usually you should have enough cards left to kill each opponent with these two loops, this combo is technically not infinite, but you can do it a number of times that it shouldn't matter, if for some reason you truly feel you need this to go to infinity add an Obstinate Familiar to the deck to prevent decking yourself. Feel your flavor win as you attain omniscience, a feeling of an old walkers power, casting the signature spell of Nicol Bolas.

Theme cards include: All of the Bolas Planeswalkers (I like to pretend the duel deck version does not exist), Sensei's Divining Top (sensei Ryu anyone?), Omniscience , Countersquall , Mana Drain , Damnation , Torment of Hailfire and of course Cruel Ultimatum. I've included more theme cards in the maybeboard for those who are interested.

The basics are the full arts from Amonkhet. I have been slowly upgrading the mana base, the next big buy is the red blue fetch land Scalding Tarn to finish the cycle.

This deck can easily be built on a budget as the core of the deck is really cheap. The key is leaving as much ramp as you can as our commander is very mana hungry. The mana base could be changed to vivids and other tap lands. Damnation can be replaced with Blasphemous Act / Chain Reaction , Snapcaster Mage could be cut for a fun card like Animate Dead. Until I had a copy of Mana Drain I was running Arcane Denial. The key cards of this deck for the main strategy are the wheels. Wheel of Fortune being the best of the wheels while also setting you back due to the reserve list, i would suggest upgrading to this but the deck can easily run without it, take a look at the sideboard for budget options. Any other budget restrictions I would replace with cheap card draw so you can draw into your answers more frequently. EDH can be as expensive or as cheap as you would like it to be. my suggestion to you when coming up with cuts is to always keep the mana curve in mind. Replace cards with either cheaper options or of the same CMC. This deck has been through years of upgrades and meta shifts to eventually evolve into what it is today. Originally The Elder Dragon himself Nicol Bolas was the commander, He's been replaced with his more mana efficient version Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  . If you decide to run a version of the deck with the original elder dragon take a look at the sideboard, I would definitely bring in Lightning Greaves and Dragon Tempest. The deck is very modular, personally I choose to not run Notion Thief and similar effects, if you do expect the groans that come with the additional power level they add to the deck.

Enjoy playing Dominaria's most ancient evil!

Top Ranked	Achieved #51 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 1 Mythic Rares 36 - 6 Rares 16 - 3 Uncommons 18 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.70
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	lol, Deck Inspiration, EDH decks, I like, Decks, interesting ideas, Other People's Decks I Like, EDH, fun things I like, Decks that I'm stealing