illegalKross Haha hard to keep up with all your usernames brah!

There are no true problematic matchups at this time although more dedicated control decks like Esper make for very long games and we sometimes die to mill because of that, so you might want to be more on the agressive side against those.

Blue Tempo can be a pain in the ass in game 1, but you board out the expensive stuff and in the cheap stuff and it's about 50/50.

For decks using Pheonix, make sure you get to exile that sucker.

WAR spoilers have started, we've got a few cards with potential so far.

Widespread Brutality seems like an expensive boardwipe, might be good if theres good removal with amass, but I think Ritual of Soot is still stronger atm.

Ob Nixilis Cruelty good removal, though it costs 3 CMC, also has exile clause, this seems like something for future use, maybe after rotation.

Emergence Zone This seems good as a 1 of we might use, basically adds 2 mana to your win con or board wipe and gives it flash

Cant wait to see grand daddy bolas

EastsideRock Ya, its kinda weird, I dont often return to a community so many times (It generally changes after I quit games where I use that name), but I'll be illegalKross for years to come so my name wont be changing anymore.

OUR GOD HAS BEEN SPOILED!! BEHOLD THE GREAT:

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God UBBBR Legendary Planeswalker - Bolas

Static: Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God has all loyalty abilities of all other planeswalkers on the battlefield.

+1: You draw a card. Each opponent exiles a card from their hand or a permanent they control

-3: Destroy target creature or planeswalker.

-8: Each opponent who doesnt control a legendary creature or planeswalker loses the game

Starting Loyalty: 4

illegalKross Hell yeah, I'm devouring these previews like a fat kid in a candy store. I will send my picks once the full set is spoiled. But we have a lot of work to do because as of today, W/U control just got some BUSTED cards!!! (new 3-mana Teferi, and an uncounterable negate)...DAMN!!

illegalKross Holy frickin hell!!!! It's not a April Fool's joke!?!?! BOLASSSSSS is busted hahahahhaha!!! Fuck yeah!!

I actually see 4 color being a thing. There are too many good cards for esper and grixis to not consider it, but the landbase would need some work.

Between new Bolas, Teferi...

And ugh I think Azorius or Dimir just splashing for another color but running the new Jace, it costs like triple blue... but ugh it and Teferi (both of them now) seem sweet.

Master Card List

I made a list of all of our potential (viable) card options in standard currently, just as a master list. I'll add WAR cards once they are linkable on tappedout.

Thought it would be helpful to always know what our card options are. Also could help new/budget players subsitute cards for this deck.

illegalKross That list is awesome man, I will refer to it! On the subject, the ones I saw I remembering so far except from BOLAS is Thoughtseize (yes it's back!), and the 2-mana instant edict. The -5-5 card will be good if there are playable indestructible stuff in the set (Gods!?)

Are you sure Thoughtseize is getting reprinted? I saw a "spoiler" of one but it was a fake (they used the art from a judge promo I think it was).

Another interesting card is Angrath's Anger (his sorcery card)

Angrath's Anger BR

Sorcery

Choose One -

*Target Player Sacrifices an Artifact

*.... sacrifices a creature

*.... sacrifices a planeswalker

illegalKross Dammnn, didn't see that one, I love me some edict effects. This one is GREAT! Versatility at low cost is very powerful.

Wouldn't Disinformation Campaign be a really good choice for a cruel control style deck? Especially with how often we're surveiling? Perhaps even Ill-Gotten Inheritance ?

Khazrax They are pretty slow, it's a brutal world out there. These against decks like mono-blue, mono-red, black-red, is way too slow. If the meta was super grindy and slow maybe, but at the moment I don't really see it. The deck is performing really well against the grindy decks already so the core is meant to have quick answers against fast decks, while a lot of the sideboard is to compete with the UWx control decks, which I have been quite successful against lately - for instance if Unmoored Ego lands, it DESTROYS a lot of the decks who only have 1ish wincon (Teferi OR Niv usually...)

EastsideRock That i get, but i played like 15 or so matches with your deck list on magic arena and personally it isnt for me (i might just be garbage, stay tuned)

but, i changed it to Dimir, running a play-set of each of the cards i mentioned and honestly it took awhile for me to lose. Crap hands happen, so there were some things i simply couldnt answer, like a handful of mono-red aggro decks and a orzhov deck that beat me to a pulp. otherwise when i start discarding their cards they usually concede, and if they dont i'll break out the Doom whisperers or Ravenous Chupacabra and beat em to death.

Khazrax Fair enough bro! Whatever matches the Arena meta and your playstyle! I've had a great run this week with my list, but I play on MTGO.

I'd like to point out this list isnt the strongest in MTG Arena's best of 1 formats, but is pretty strong in the best of 3 formats.

Since game one is kind of a "scout" game, to see what we are up against, then our sideboard makes the matchup much more in our favor.

illegalKross no friggin clue what that means, but yeah the 4x Thought Erasure helps to see what we're up against quite fast lol

In MTG Arena, Ranked and some constructed events, you only play a single game with no sideboard at all. Hence best of one, so not having sideboard for our control deck can make it more difficult to beat things like Carnage Tyrant, and Teferi in game 1.

Which is why I only play this in the best of 3 events where it really shines.

For a while ive been questioning just how good Doom Whisperer is, i always feel bad when it gets removed by a cast down or something, but it wins too many games to cut. Dream Eater on the other hand has disapointed me too many times, it feels to slow and it never wins me any games, it only slows the game down which can be accomplished by some other form of bounce or even more counter magic mainboard for the combo/control matchups, idk maybe im just playing Dream Eater wrong. Just wondering what you think.

Also is the Nicol Bolas, the Ravager supposed to be in the list now or is it placeholder for God Bolas?

illegalKross We don't have many win cons so they have to be played wisely. Dream Eater works very well at their EOT when they are almost out of gas and perhaps still have one threat on the board, you bounce it, then surveil 4 to prepare to lock them out. Then on your turn you untap with it, a hand with some gas + the card you chose to put on top with the surveil. From there you either drop a second threat (Whisperer or Ral) and they are usually all tempo-ed out, OR you coast to victory with the Eater while continuing to counter/kill everything they deploy from there. I feel the opposite way you do about it, it has won me many games, that Surveil 4 at end-game is usually backbreaking for them as I get to prepare my draws with exactly what I need to lock-out the game.

And no Bolas is there for the real haha, I updated the description mentioning the reason for swapping the 3rd Whisperer from him.

EastsideRock Been following list for years (probably since Shadows) for ideas whenever I have Standard in Paper. Was planning on taking some type of Thought Erasure deck to MagicFest Kansas City and was wondering your opinion on some strategies of the deck moving into WAR. First, what do you think removal will look like going forward with all these new Planeswalkers? It's going to feel bad having all creature removal if everyone is doing walkers and vice versa so finding a balance with playing will be needed. And second, do you think anything new replaces the current threats in the deck? All the threats seem to be around 5 cmc (including New Nicol Bolas :D) so which do you think are the better options for what the deck is trying to do? Thanks!

MattN7498 Thx for your message and for being part of team BOLAS! It's a little bit early to tell, but I don't like to work in the wrong direction so I tend to wait until the full spoiler is out, then I can really analyze more in depth. BUT with that said, we will have many polyvalent options which hit both walkers and creatures, we already have Contempt, Bedevil and Eldest Reborn, and I will definitely fit the new RB sac spell Angrath's _. Regarding wincons, we don't technically need more or better ones but I will definitely try the new Bolas, not sure how I will make place for him, but again, probably no more than 24h after full spoiler, I will put something together.

Other than that I'm sure I forget some new cards but I like the new Lili 1B instant edict. There's a few red burn spells that look decent, I will have to revise the whole removal suite, but I don't think the change will be drastic. What we could really use is a better catch all board wipe, I don't think we will get one at this point but we never know!

EastsideRock Yeah kinda hard to have anything concrete without everything going into Week 1. Hopefully the supposed "Elder Spell" is a field wipe in our colors which would be nice! The removal options available will be really nice. Personally, my favorite iteration of the deck was during Amonkhet with the removal options but rotation. But in terms of wincons, I guess Ral has the best chance of winning on the spot with the ultimate if you can get there and card selection/removal is the best available which is why you went with him. I'm just a little hesitant on a big cmc card like Doom Whisper in a field of Mono Red.

Hi mate, I've started looking into grixis control myself, and, from what I've gathered, running a few niv-mizzets is game winning against control, I've also looked into playing with the new Nicol Bolas PW, it looks like it will be a great way to start winning the game after stabilizing the board. About your counter suite, I think running sabotages in place of the essence scatters is better since we already have 7 cards to deal with early drops and the catch all off the sabotages should be better here.

In my version I've also included the Ral, Storm Conduit combo, where you expansion another expansion infinitely and just win the game, and having the expansions mean or game against control is also much better, since we can copy most, if not all, of their interaction and card draw, and also we can turn 5 carnarium, expansion the carnarium and clear most boards. In addition, I think running field of ruin in a 3 color deck is too greedy, it will bite you more than it will help you, if lands become a problem in the meta we can add those to the SB. Also in the SB, I think we should run a number of liliana's triumph, since it's a really cheap edict effect that will let us deal with stuff like carnage tyrants and other hexproof garbage. Thats the feedback I wanted to give, good luck grinding those wins.

When updating for War of the Spark, check out the combo between Bolas and Elder Spell.