@ygamretuta - Yep, Think Twice goes out too. You don't really need card advantage that badly against an aggro deck.

@ygamretuta: I can respect Magmaquake . Played with it in my steady FNM deck (Gruul Burns All the Things!) for a while, before dropping it for other things. It can make for a well-placed instant-speed wrath, well capable of eating a planeswalker in the process.

KrazyCaley, what do you think of replacing Staff of Nin with Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius ? The same CMC, potential for more damage and more card draw, and a 5/5 flyer in one?

@ygamretuta part of the stratagy of this deck is to not play any creatures, there by causing the other player's removal to be a dead draw. Niv-Miz is a great card, but you run a large chance that it will die from any removal that is sitting in the other player's hand. The choice is still possible if you are willing to keep mana up to protect him. I have personally switched the mystic revivals for snapcasters just due to my meta being more midrange heavy with some aggro decks, as opposed to a control heavy meta. Sure my snaps can get removed, but by that time they have done the job.

@ygamretuta - What TheBearShaker said. He's a fine creature, but as they ONLY creature he's just going to suck a ton of removal.

How do you feel about warped Physique instead of devour flesh? Most of the time your hand is going to be pretty full, and it doesn't give them the lifegain, nor the choice of what to sac.

Devour Flesh gets past Hexproof, their life doesn't matter to Bolas, and Warped Physique can't help the Elder Dragon out of a tight situation, and only really helps him when he's already winning.

Nicol Bolas does not need help winning, mortal...

Well I think it'd be more helpful when they go the Naya Blitz or G/W Aggro route, because rather than sac, say, a foundry street denizen, you can kill their legion loyalist, firefist striker, reckoner, or smiter.

You have Murder open turn 3, Devour Flesh is mainly for turn 2 so they don't get too established on the board before Barter in Blood comes into play.

As an aside, I've used Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker s -2 in combo with Devour Flesh to jump out of range of Boros Charm and other burn spell death range.

Nicol Bolas rick roll us...

Re: Devour Flesh and Warped Physique . - I really prefer Devour to Warped, the question is, do I put in Warped in place of Murder or some such? That I am still considering.

I've been using this deck to playtest against my Grixis list, The Beast and the Harlot tonight, and I think the TappedOut play-tester just really hates your deck. I've had to mulligan to 4 almost every game due to either having 1-(or zero)-land hands with your list. In addition to this fact, I've also had a lot of hands with your list in which I'll wind up with multiple black kill-spells, but lands that produce only Blue or Red mana. All in all, my deck has come up victorious in all playtests, and I feel like I'd play your deck as good as (if not better than) my own list due to the level of familiarity I have with the cards and colors involved...

@bluemax87, I have had this issue with nearly all of my decks using any form of electronic game simulation. There is just something different about the way I shuffle I guess that actually spreads my decks mana/spells out correctly. I definitely would not base any deck's play ability without the deck's creator behind the wheel so to speak.

@bluemax87 - Want to be added to the list? It's about 12 people long or so right now, might have to wait a bit.

I'm already on your list with my Esper deck (that's my actual competition list). XD

Have you had to deal with Voice of Resurgence yet?

I was dominating gameday this weekend with my tweak of your deck, Bolas for a Better. . . Whenever, Time is Relative. And in the semi-finals, I got stampeded by a turn 2 voice, fallowed by turn 3 voice and rancor on the first both games in a row. Maybe it was just luck working against me, with him getting lucky hands, and me only getting ETBT lands. I even have 3 Pillar of Flame s main boarded, just didn't see them show up.

Other than Pillar of Flame how would you best deal with voice?

Voice of Resurgence is an AWFUL card for Bolas to deal with. You basically have to treat it like a very cheap Thragtusk - best when countered or made a target of Slaughter Games ; otherwise you're going to have to trade in some of your card advantage chips. Thus my frantic attempts to use Essence Scatter against it in the most recent Daily Dose.

KrazyCaley Pillar of Flame is the answer to Voice of Resurgence . I know it hurts me playing voice, that exile part is an annoyance.

@gufymike - Pillar of Flame certainly looks a lot more attractive now that they've given us YET ANOTHER reason to run it.

Voice is awful as a face up while using any control deck, forces you down to sorcery speed so early. You need to get keep it off the board if you can with counters, and if you can't bite the bullet and kill it, at least the token doesn't populate more. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is a great answer though... -2 a voice onto your side of the board and watch the tears flow from the other side... they quickly learn just how annoying it can be.

karley tell me what were your reasons for running Curse of Death's Hold in the sideboard over Illness in the Ranks ?

the only deck i can name of the top of my head were i would use curse over illness would be against aristocrats or something since most of those have 1 thoughness but thts it.(even here with all other removal illness hurts big time).

maybe against greens manadork army but even so.

i guess am missing the big picture so against what deck do you use them and what are you sideing em for?

2nd i agree on Pillar of Flame play 4 in my control deck just to laugh at voice. keep in ind Sever the Bloodline does it to and can work as a token wipe(most of the time its only 1kind anyway).(Pillar of Flame +Staff of Nin = exiled Thragtusk )

last but not least i am pretty sure youve mentiond it somewhere but am literly to lazy to search through 1 mil on comments you have to search for it. why no Far / Away ?

Sagi007 from running bant hexproof against grixis contorl with Curse of Death's Hold on the field and with early game edict effects, it stalls the deck so much and if you're running two or more curses on the fieled, it just kills it unless you're running Loxodon Smiter also. But this is my experience and not his reasoning.

There are actually a TON of one-toughness creatures in this environment, especially in red, green, and white. Plus, even one plus a Staff of Nin = infinite 2 toughness removal. I used to run Illness in the Ranks , but found myself wishing more often than not that I had Curse back.

have you considered Ral Zarek ?? I've been running a deck that is based off this one. There are some changes him being one. I just pinged someone 10 times with Staff of Nin using his ultimate. it also contains things like Turn / Burn Dimir Charm and Far / Away

@dbrannon - Had plenty of discussion re: Ral in past comments. Just not super impressed with him vs. other potential cards.

I hope this deck doesn't die with the rotation... maybe it'll turn into a grixis superfriends type of deck? :)