A distant light was shining

Commander / EDH* Battlecruiser Combo Control Goodstuff Reanimator UBR (Grixis)

Nominae

Land (37)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 7x Island
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vivid Crag
• 1x Watery Grave

Instant (10)

• 1x Brainstorm SL
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Murder
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Steam Augury
• 1x Terminate

Creature (18)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Consuming Aberration
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Demanding Dragon
• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Sepulchral Primordial
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sire Of Insanity
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 1x Zealous Conscripts

Artifact (10)

• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Obelisk of Grixis
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Karn, Scion of Urza
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Ancestral Vision
• 1x Chain Reaction
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Hour of Devastation
• 1x Mizzium Mortars
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Settle the Score
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Yawgmoth's Vile Offering
• 1x Zombify

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Control Magic
• 1x Diabolic Servitude
• 1x Greed
• 1x Painful Quandary
• 1x The Eldest Reborn

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Maybeboard

Instant (3)

• 1x Counterflux
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Desperate Ravings

Artifact (1)

• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Exhume
• 1x Victimize

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Waste Not

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This is my take on Nicol Bolas commander; any help is appreciated. Discard big stuff, reanimate them.. If it doesn't work, wipe the board and try again. This list packs lots of removal and stealy things to survive against the other battlecruisers out there.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager   is a strong creature, with strong stats for his cost. He’s also a flyer that draws cards! Can help you be aggressive early, defensive later, and his planeswalker form is really, really scary. It forces people to discard stuff, which we can reanimate later, draw cards or kill creatures. If left untouched, his ultimate will kill somebody.

.Creatures :

• Consecrated Sphinx Strong card draw engine. You can expect to draw at least 6 cards in a turn cycle, minimum, and that's if they don't have additional card draw. This card can help to discard some other creatures by discarding to hand size. It's effect is a MAY so you don't even have to if you don't want to discard.

• Consuming Aberration This beast will fill your opponents’ graveyard, which is secretly our graveyard too, while becoming a massive beater.

• Deadeye Navigator Blink outlet, can lead to infinite mana with Peregrine Drake , which then leads to infinite discard with Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  , infinite damage with Demanding Dragon , infinite exile-mill with Gonti, Lord of Luxury , reanimation of every creatures in our opponent's graveyards with Puppeteer Clique and Sepulchral Primordial , ramp with Solemn Simulacrum , the ability to cast every instants in your graveyard with Torrential Gearhulk , OR steal the board with Zealous Conscripts . So that's cool.

• Demanding Dragon is a simple dragon, ok stats for his mana cost but his effect and it's combo with Deadeye Navigator and Peregrine Drake is why he's here. Like most of this deck's creatures, you can play them without thinking about the combo, you'll have ways to bring him back later.

• Dragonlord Silumgar Another dragon, this one will steal your stuff while he's here. A good target to bring back from the dead when a big threat hits the board or when a planeswalker is about to ultimate.

• Gonti, Lord of Luxury is a big stuff killer with deathtouch, and might steal a threat in your opponents’ decks. Hit the control player if you want counter or removal, the ramp if you need lands, 'tis a very versatile card.

• Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur will make you draw, a lot. Making you and your opponent's discard will give you targets to bring back and will help a lot of cards in your deck. You can flash him out by surprise at the end of a turn if you have the mana, or reanimate him in the early turns to give you the win.

• Liliana, Heretical Healer   is a small blocker in the beginning, giving you life back with lifesteal and her 2/3 stats, and she will give you a 2/2 chump blocker when flipping. She makes everybody discards cards and brings back creatures from your graveyard. You won't hit her ultimate often, but when you do, you win.

• Nightscape Familiar is a small chump blocker, you can spend your mana to regenerate him and block during mid-late game, and use him as a creature-mana rock to accelerate early.

• Peregrine Drake is sometime a kinda free 2/3 flying blocker, sometime a monstrous game winner combo enabler with Deadeye Navigator.

• Puppeteer Clique gives you an annoying flying 3/2 that comes back, and can give you any creature in an opponent's graveyard for his etb effect or block TWICE. Reanimate him for crazy value.

• Sepulchral Primordial 7 CMC, 5/4 intimidate + 3 creatures in your opponents graveyard of your choice. There's always something good, and you can just keep bringing him back.

• Sheoldred, Whispering One One is the real mvp.. She does everything you want: fill your opponent's graveyard by making them sacrifice things, bring back stuff from your board…

• Sire Of Insanity You discard your hand! You discard your hand! Everybody discards their hands! Making everyone enter topdeck mode shuts down most decks. Just make sure you are ahead before playing this guy, as you won't have many way to control the board after, and he usually attracts a lot of hate.

• Solemn Simulacrum is just pure usefulnes. Ramp, chump blocker, card draw. Good card to sacrifice when Liliana, Heretical Healer   is present.

• The Scarab God There's usually no need to introduce him. Left alone, he will win the game. If no one can exile him, you're going to have a good time. Can give you any creature from any graveyard, an army of 4/4s, scry, a noncombat damage win condition. All the while he’s an almost invincible 5/5 and a way to exile annoying stuff in your opponents’ graveyard if you have a fellow graveyard deck across the table.

• Torrential Gearhulk can be a surprise blocker, messing with combat math by bringing back removal spells like Murder or Terminate , It can be a counterspell, draw spell Cyclonic Rift , Mystic Confluence , Rakdos Charm .. And so everytime you bring him back.

• Zealous Conscripts will often try to sneak a quick victory attack on unsuspecting ennemies, and have a great potential with the Deadeye Navigator combo.

.Enchantment

• Animate Dead and Diabolic Servitude are two cheap reanimation spells, with Diabolic Servitude being able to do so multiple time if the creature is killed, at the cost of exiling the creature.

• Bloodchief Ascension is a nice way to give you life, but will bring a lot of attention to you if your opponents can't deal with it. It also will hurt a lot when combined with Consuming Aberration , Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur , Sire Of Insanity or any mass removal ( Chain Reaction Crux of Fate ).

• Control Magic is your usual cheap steal effect, can come handy if there isn't a lot of enchantment removal.

• Greed is a simple draw outlet, spend your mana left at the end of your opponent turns.

• Painful Quandary is another card that will either fill your opponents graveyard or hurt them a lot. In either way, it also brings a lot of hate.

• The Eldest Reborn kills stuff, discards stuff, bring back from the dead.. It does them all.

.Planeswalkers

• Karn, Scion of Urza is a nice way to draw some cards, and can give us sweet tokens that build up power thanks to our mana rocks.

• Liliana, Death's Majesty will fill your graveyard, bring back your creatures, and clean the board.

• Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is a very powerful planeswalker. Each of his effects hits like a truck. You can exile 2 cards in each of your opponents hands, his +1 used on a big stuff player can be really fun, he can deal 7 damage to anything, and he can clean every board but yours, exiling their stuff. He's not that synergetic with the other cards in this deck, but it’s a Grixis deck centered around Bolas so…

• Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker another scary planeswalker. Will destroy annoying lands/artifacts/enchantments/Planeswalkers, steal creatures, and his ultimate will just wreck one enemy player. .Sorcery

• Ancestral Vision , Ponder , Preordain are cheap and effictient draw effects that most deck running blue should run.

• Chain Reaction , Crux of Fate , Hour of Devastation and perhaps Mizzium Mortars to help you when the board feels bad, don't get overwhelmed..

• Dreadbore , Settle the Score and Yawgmoth's Vile Offering for slow and versatile removal with upsides.

• Yawgmoth's Vile Offering and Zombify to help bring back your creatures..

• Demonic Tutor is always useful in every situations..

• Torment of Hailfire is a strong finisher, even more so with the Deadeye Navigator and Peregrine Drake combo, as it kills everyone. If it doesn’t kill, it will at least slow everyone down. Can also combo with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Stronghold .

. Artifact

• Charcoal Diamond , Chromatic Lantern , Coldsteel Heart , Dimir Signet , Izzet Signet , Obelisk of Grixis , Talisman of Indulgence , Thought Vessel and Worn Powerstone are all cheap and efficient mana rocks to help accelerate your game and avoid mana drought.

• Swiftfoot Boots will be usefull on most of your creatures, haste & hexproof at a competitive cost is amazing.

.Instants

• Murder , Terminate as easy and quick removal, Cyclonic Rift is helping to fill this post too but also help to mass clear the board.

• Brainstorm small cantrip to help smooth our draws.

• Fact or Fiction draw cards and discard others, win-win. Try to target players that don't know your deck as they will often try to throw your big creatures in the graveyard.

• Counterspell as one of the few counters in this deck, as I don't like having a lot.. Mystic Confluence is also there as a more versatile card, to bounce & draw.

• Izzet Charm allows us to draw, discard, counter or bolt a creature.

• Steam Augury is very much like fact or fiction, but then your opponent will decide which card you will keep. Again, try to pick someone that doesn't know your deck if possible.

• Rakdos Charm can destroy an artifact, kill other graveyard loving decks or one-shot token decks.

(Thank you DarkStarStorm for the proofreading)

I'm thinking of taking back Thought Vessel and Reliquary Tower , or keeping only one, they can be helpful when drawing our whole deck with Jin-gitaxias or Consecrated sphinx, but they can also shut down our discard which slows down our reanimation. Let me know what you think !

Date added	6 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.82
Tokens	Construct 0/0 C, Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH, I like these