Getting a few steps closer to foiling out the God-Pharoah! Waiting until the new Ravnica sets hit to pick up the foil shocklands. Next will likely be the remaining foil fetches.

This deck is sweet! and has some card combos I really want to try out. Mainly Omniscience into Obliterate!

Managed to snag the new printing of Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker from the Guilds of Ravnica Mythic Edition! I was surprised that the price wasn't as unreasonable as I had feared, and it looks pretty great. The wings in particular are a glorious blood red that really gets set off by the foiling.

Nicol Bolas doesn't have friends, he has servitors. Haha. So much filth here, I love it xD

Updated the deck description.

I'm going to make a few tweaks to the land base (mostly due to some foil fetchable dual lands on order).

I'm also considering the Doomsday package. It takes up a fair amount of space and has some cards that are just dead outside of the Doomsday pile (Lion's Eye Diamond, Laboratory Maniac). I've never actually been able to pull off the DD win, so I'm considering adding more control instead. I just really, really love the look of the Invocation Doomsday art, and it feels extremely on-theme.

Picked up an Invocation Force of Will at a very nice discaount from my LGS on Black Friday! Another (pricey) step closer to full foil...

Love your list working on a similar list. Just curious what you would remove and replace your doomsday package with? As I don't have access to a doomsday.

Arcan1s_666, that's a very good question. I'm honestly not sure - I have something of a mental loop where I try to think about what to replace, and then I just go back to "But the Invocation Doomsday looks so pretty and flavorful!"

But honestly it would likely be more interaction first and foremost. Maybe more draw that doesn't rely on discard.

The full Doomsday package is: Doomsday, Laboratory Maniac, Lion's Eye Diamond, Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Deep Analysis and Yawgmoth's Will. Yawgwin is too good to remove on its own, so that stays regardless (even though the foil is going to cost me...). Gush is also pretty great. So is Deep Analysis. So we really only have ~4 cards to play with.

My Maybeboard is pretty filled with ideas. The biggest weakness of the deck right now is lack of creature defenses. I have some, but not a lot. Evacuation would be a great include - I would get to re-cast Bolas, and most of my opponents get hosed worse just because I'm so creature-light. And it's instant speed, which is always a bonus. Warped Devotion and Words of Wind would be interesting. Devotion hits me too, though, so it's still iffy. I keep wanting to run it (I already own a couple foils, it's cheap), but I need to have a good density of bounce and some way to make sure I'm not suffering worse. I suppose I'm not running a ton of permanents and that might be helpful. Archfiend of Depravity might be nice too, to help keep the enemy creature count low.

Of course, a different combo would also be possible. Worldgorger Dragon, likely with Flash as an enabler, works with Animate Dead and ETB-untapped lands to generate infinite mana. As long as you can stop the loop (usually by reanimating something else), you can make infinite mana for a Torment of Hailfire win. It's compact, uses mostly cards that are not dead outside of the combo, but it's also pretty risky and vulnerable to interaction - it generates mana for opponents too if they have ETB-untapped lands.

Lastly, I could just add a few more tutors. Getting Geth's Grimoire or Waste Not on the field is pretty important to the rest of the deck. Tutors help with that, and with finding the win condition when it's time.

Those are my current thoughts, anyway.

Have you ever thought about including the cardBlack Lotus?

waterbottlessuck - I mean, I wouldn't exactly call this deck a budget list...but Black Lotus is both well outside of my actual price range, and it's banned in Commander. Lion's Eye Diamond is the closest we'll ever see to a format-legal Black Lotus, and that card is already in my deck as part of the Doomsday package. If Doomsday goes, so will LED.

Hey i just want some advice im trying to build a more prison style nicol bolas deck with cards like strangle hold blood moon, blood sun, back to basics, and a buch of basic land artifact tutors. I have a basic idea my favroite commander of all time is Nekusar, The Mindrazer ive played him for 3 years now and i know how hard getting grixis decks mana base to work so im looking for advice on building this if you have any time help would be much appreciated from a fellow grixis lover

Hey ZOa - I'd love to help, I really enjoy brewing. I'll shoot you a message.

I would highly suggest Rakka Mar she provides blockers and board pressure. She was Bolas' minion on the jund shard of alara

Again I'm considering removing the Doomsday package. In its place I'm considering:

• Gwendlyn Di Corci - she provides extra discard, and the card discarded is random. Lack of a foil option is disappointing, but Reserve List should be enough bling.

• Rakka Mar - as suggested by Deadpoo111, this is flavorful and can help build a board for pressuring life totals or just some defenses.

Had a game recently where I did absolutely nothing, because I drew into Lab Man and Gitaxian Probe on turns ~2 and 4. I think the current Doomsday pile jsut has too many dead cards.

As a compromise (so that I can keep Doomsday and the sweet Invocation), I'll be removing the existing pile, but I'll keep Doomsday itself as effectively a tutor for the Dramatic Scepter plan. Still very flavorful, but hopefully with fewer dead cards.

Right now Im looking at what to add. Executing DD with a Dramatic Scepter pile is going to be harder and more mana intensive than a typical Lab Man pile, but I do prefer games to be longer than the typical Doomsday fast combo, and I'd like to have fewer dead cards.

Doomsday is in, but the Lab Man pile is out.

Ordering a few more foils. Looking to increase the creature presence, and I need to ensure I still have viable DD piles for the Dramatic Scepter win. Fortunately I only need to draw a total of 3 cards, not 6 like with Lab Man.

I'm getting the Invocation Consecrated Sphinx and The Locust God . The God in particular should give me a lot of nice flying blockers (and attackers if needed). Also, obvious flavor win.

Thief of Sanity is in. Evasive cheap body, and his ability lets me steal a card from hand and cast it myself. Total Nicol Bolas play. Similarly, I'm getting foils of Stolen Strategy , Etali, Primal Storm , Grenzo, Havoc Raiser , and Fiend of the Shadows . Not everything will likely go in, but they're all pretty on-theme.

Rakka Mar is in for the Bolas flavor text and board presence.

I'd also really like to add Tezzeret, Artifice Master . Makes flying blockers and draws cards, and if he gets his Ultimate it's an immediate Omniscience. No real downside, and he is a slave to Bolas, after all.

I'm running a risk of making the average CMC too high. The early game is rough unless I specifically have good defenses in hand.

More suggestions welcome.

Wow...those WAR spoilers. Not even done with spoiler season, release a month away, and I'm already foaming at the mouth.

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God is just...so perfect. So is Bolas' Citadel. Omniscience-lite. I'll need to add some lifegain for that one. Seriously, the Citadel makes Doomsday absurdly easy to resolve even with my sub-optimal piles. And the flavor!

A list of cards that need immediate consideration for this deck: Liliana, Dreadhorde general Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted Dreadhorde Invasion Liliana's Triumph (this is such a beautiful card...) Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

That's just so far. The deck might transform into more Superfriends with these events. The trick is trying to restrict walkers to only those controlled (aware or otherwise) by Bolas, and maintain the overall strategy of "draw lots of cards, play control, steal and reanimate, then win with an overpowered combo."

Managed to get the Locust God into play last night, and oh wow is that card good. This deck draws cards so well that I was able to make a bunch of tokens, which made excellent blockers. I didn't add that card to create a new win condition, but honestly it might turn out that way almost on accident sometimes.

I'm finding myself a little vulnerable to lifedrain decks. I use my life as a resource, but I'm not ending the game quickly enough to tolerate much slow drain. Bloodchief Ascension was added partially to help with that, but I may also want to add Sangromancer . She's another flying blocker, and she could gain me a lot of life for just doing what this deck wants to do in the first place. I don't want to go too overboard here, this isn't a lifegain deck, I just want to maintain enough of my resource that I can afford to continue spending it. And of course the upcoming Bolas' Citadel provides some excellent incentive for modest lifegain.

War of the Spark spoilers are now complete...and oh wow, what a set. There are so many incredibly useful toys for so many decks...but for Nicol Bolas above all.

Obviously I also need to get my hands on that Mythic Edition Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God .

I'll be archiving the comments after WAR drops, but until then I'm going to have a lot of decisions to make. I've moved the WAR acquisitions I need to the Sideboard, and more might show up as I look through the set more.

Some cards are convenient alternatives to other cards that don't have Bolas flavor - Yawgmoth's Will for example can probably be replaced with Deliver Unto Evil without losing too much functionality. The Elderspell is going to be an obvious inclusion both as removal for enemy walkers (and my playgroup has several Superfriends decks), and as a way to turn my own walkers into an immediate ultimate. With Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God this could be a phenomenally flavorful alternative win condition - it just doesn't get much better than that. It only needs to kill 2 other walkers to pump Bolas up to his ultimate.

Bolas's Citadel is going to really force me to think about lifegain - Sangromancer is an obvious option given the discard I'm throwing around. This single card is just a treasure trove of potential. Self-discard effects with Library of Leng can mean you can use life instead of mana to cast anything in your hand. Any sort of topdeck manipulation like Scroll Rack or Sensei's Divining Top get crazy, and Top can basically draw cards at a cost of 1 life per card. It makes Doomsday a thousand times easier to resolve, since you don't need to have draw in your hand to crack the pile, you can just use the top card for that.

WAR has come, and this is getting really difficult. There are just so many excellent new cards printed - more Bolas art, more quotes, more thematic cards, etc, and so many of them are actually really good. I have all the cards I need (not all in foil yet), but I'm having a really rough time finding space for the new toys while retaining enough balance in the deck. I've been going back and forth over cuts and additions for weeks now, since the spoilers really. Tough decisions, and suggestions are always welcome.

I've been trying your list myself and ended up cutting wheel, dark deal both talismans, syphon mind, nexus of fate and capsize for tezzeret the seeker, ashiok, dream render, liliana vess commander sphere visage of bolas and bolas the deciever and i'm planning on testing words of waste for elixer of immortality. I find I get stuck with to many combo pieces in hand and can't wheel when I have no way to get back combo pieces beyond deliver onto evil

Hi Arcan1s_666, thanks for the comment.

I'm still very much in progress modifying my list after WAR. So far it looks like at minimum I'll be losing Liliana Vess and Tezzeret the Seeker and Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver . I'm also looking at increasing the number of instants and sorceries, partially to leverage the new God-Eternal Kefnet . This includes more focus on asymmetric discard sorceries (think Arterial Flow ). Some of these may replace a few of the wheels, because the desired effect is to produce card advantage for me (by reducing opponents cards in hand, or more ideally doing that while also getting card draw from Geth's Grimoire ). I agree that wheeling can be tough when you have one combo piece in hand and few ways to recur them. I use wheels because they force my opponents to discard their entire hands, which gives me a ton of triggers, and because I can Notion Thief to keep those hands empty.

Another answer to that specific problem is to wheel when it would be advantageous to do so even when you have a partial combo. Obviously if you have a full combo you want to keep that hand, but if you have one piece of a combo but you have Geth's Grimoire or Waste Not , go ahead and wheel - you'll draw such a giant flood of cards that you're likely to draw a piece of a different combo and/or a tutor or two. Playing with wheels often requires learning to "let go" of your existing hand even when it has a few pieces you'd like to keep.

I'm also likely to add Yawgmoth's Will back in. It's just too good. Previously I thought I could replace it with Deliver Unto Evil for both cost and flavor, but I think the ideal is actually to just run both. Playing out of my opponents' graves is great, but I'd very much like to play from my own as well when needed.

Have you considered Oppression and Painful Quandary having read your previous reply I understand your trying to leverage kefnet more however you may find the incidental discard helpful.

Got a chance to play at the LGS last night, and it was glorious.

I landed an early No Mercy , which effectively prevented my opponents from attacking me. The Nekusar player correctly informed the rest of the table that this was unwise, but they failed to listen. I was able to largely bide my time and build up mana, with Tezzeret, Artifice Master providing some card draw. I held up Cyclonic Rift and waited for the opportune moment.

That moment arrived after the Atraxa player had killed my other two opponents and was swinging in at me for a 1-shot Commander damage kill. I Rifted at the end of combat. He was already tapped out. At the end of his turn, I cast Wheel and Deal . He was sad. The God-Pharaoh was pleased.

On my turn, I landed Bolas's Citadel . I cast Vampiric Tutor from my hand to put Omniscience on the top, then cast it for 10 life off Citadel. Kess, Dissident Mage . Consecrated Sphinx . Draw 2 from Tezzeret. Whispering Madness on top, cast for 4 life. I filled my hand, and was able to use Isochron Scepter and Dramatic Reversal to kill my opponent with an arbitrarily large Torment of Hailfire for the awesome flavor win.

It was a very good night.