Nicol Bolas (Archenemy Bolas)

Archenemy*

rudedog

Creature (18)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Blood Tyrant
• 2x Bone Picker
• 1x Deathbringer Regent
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 2x Flametongue Kavu
• 2x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Molten Primordial
• 1x Nicol Bolas
• 2x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Overseer of the Damned
• 1x Sphinx of Jwar Isle
• 2x Vampire Nighthawk

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Land (24)

• 1x Cinder Barrens
• 4x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 2x Highland Lake
• 3x Island
• 1x Keldon Necropolis
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Submerged Boneyard
• 6x Swamp

Instant (6)

• 2x Doom Blade
• 2x Grixis Charm
• 2x Lightning Bolt

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Cruel Ultimatum
• 1x Dreadbore
• 1x Slave of Bolas
• 1x Sudden Demise
• 1x Worst Fears

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Death Pit Offering
• 1x Elder Mastery
• 1x Palace Siege

Artifact (3)

• 1x Darksteel Pendant
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence

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I found the archenemy decks to be too weak for my taste, so I powered them all up while trying to retain as much Gatewatch flavor and balance as possible. This deck is what Nicol Bolas morphed into. It's the least altered of the decks, but what additions it got are pretty nasty, especially Worst Fears, which takes control of the entire Gatewatch!

As with all the other decks my deck building restrictions were no more than 2-of any non-land card and no more than 1 of any rare. I finally broke down and gave bolas some counter magic since he was getting wrecked so hard in the late game. Monetary value is intentionally kept to a minimum.

Bolas' defining characteristics are cruel, overpowered, and multicolor. Cruel is expressed with cards like Fleshbag Marauder, Slave of Bolas, and Worst Fears that force the Gatewatch to do things they don't want to do as well as cards like Palace Siege and Death Pit Offering that allows him to wantonly throwing away the lives of his minions. Overpowered is expressed by having all his cards be strictly better than the Gatewatch's cards. Bolas gets Lightning Bolt while Chandra has to make due with Searing Spear; Gideon gets Aerial Responder while Bolas gets Vampire Nighthawk. Finally, Bolas milks his grixis multicolor spells for all he's worth.

Current playtesting has produced some very swingy dramatic games so I'm pretty happy with how Bolas came out. Feel free to offer suggestions if you think there is something great (and inexpensive) I've overlooked.

Other decks in my boxed Archenemy game:

Gideon Jura

Nissa Revane

Chandra Nalaar

Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Legality	This deck is Archenemy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 16 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	4.00
Tokens	Zombie 2/2 B