All Hail the Dragon God
This deck is all about taking control of your opponent’s things and often not being nice about it. Permanents, spells, targets, even turns are all at your disposal. Everything is yours to do with as you please, to amuse and abuse.
With Nicol Bolas, the Ravager as your Commander, you become one of Magic’s greatest villains, reveling in the power to make players and permanents dance to your will and him. Beware, however, as this power comes at a price and games will quickly degenerate into Archenemy when your machinations come to light and fruition.
This is not a deck to make friends with. You have been warned.
The Game Plan
The first few turns should be spent setting up your mana base and board. As you can see with the mana curve, spells lean towards the higher casting costs so you need to carefully analyze what your opening hand will let you do and heavily consider mulliganing if you don’t have enough lands and rocks. An early turn Thief of Sanity can quickly set the mood and potentially snag a mana rock or mana ramp spell. A Turn Two Valki, God of Lies
can set back a more aggressive player in addition to snagging a mana dork (although I prefer playing him as Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, don’t hesitate to play him as Valki if you know the decks you’re playing against). Never underestimate the power of a well timed Dockside Extortionist or Mana Drain.
Because this deck can take a while to get moving, counterspells and board wipes are necessary to slow down opponents and prevent them from gaining a solid foothold. Leadership Vacuum is an underrated card that can cripple a player’s game plan, especially in the midst of combat or before a combo goes off (this really punishes those decks that are too reliant on their Commander). Suddenly ending the turn with Time Stop also works well, especially if an attacking horde is headed your way.
The low creature count means you will be susceptible to aggressive decks. Disrupt Decorum and Illusionist's Gambit goes a long way to point those creatures at the others. And nothing’s funnier than casting Domineering Will to use your opponents’ creatures to block creatures attacking you. Dominate may cost more and only net you one creature, but it stays on your side if it survives combat. Grab the Reins, when entwined, can send a creature back into an opponent’s face (usually the owner . . . because they deserved it).
Don’t worry about casting the Commander. This deck functions without it. Casting it and immediately transforming it is the most ideal scenario, but don’t pass up the opportunity to weddle down your opponents’ cards when hand sizes are low. Also, don’t be afraid to cast him should you need a creature on the battlefield.
Stealing control of permanents is a slow process. To that end, try to gain control of permanents or spells that will create an oppressive board state for the other players. A few of the lands and mana rocks will allow you to create Red and White Mana for accessing activated abilities on permanents you steal. They will also help you with casting creatures from graveyards with Havengul Lich.
This deck isn’t about combos, but there are a few worth mentioning. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + Cabal Coffers is a given. Academy Ruins can continuously retrieve Oblivion Stone and Mindslaver--this will cost you a card draw, so use it wisely. Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top: this will let you draw the lands and cards you don't want to cast (or can’t); adding Exsanguinate to this adds fuel to the casting. More of a value engine but Havengul Lich + Snapcaster Mage let’s you regularly cast instants and sorceries out of your graveyard insofar as you're able to kill Snappy (he does make excellent chump fodder).
I once cast a Turn One Opposition Agent with a Swamp and Mana Crypt on a first turn fetch land. There is such a thing as being too mean.
Game enders are Insurrection, Memnarch or Tibalt’s ultimate with a healthy amount of mana, and the always flavorful Torment of Hailfire. Some people might outright concede before then as getting beaten in the face by their own creatures can be demoralizing. Always consider attacking the player with the lowest life total if you can kill them. You may lose that person’s permanents, but you will have one less player to worry about.
And if you’re going down, take as many things and players with you as possible.
Something to keep in mind. There is a subtheme of paying life, mostly tied to lands and Mana Crypt. Exsanguinate is the only life gain as it also functions as player removal in the late game. If you tap too much into your life, Bolas's Citadel and Necropotence can be rendered unusable. I have died to Mana Crypt’s upkeep cost.
Because the psychological aspect of the card is a whole lot of fun. If nobody has an answer to it, you can threaten players with getting their best creature and beating them in the face with it. After all, an ally is just another person to exploit.
What’s Not In The Deck
Cyclonic Rift -- It was once in here, but I needed it for another deck. This deck prefers things on the battlefield or in the graveyard for retrieval.
Mana Geyser -- This one is still up for debate, if only for its sheer power for producing mana. Unfortunately, it only produces Red Mana. On one hand, it can fuel the X spells and cover generic mana costs. On the other hand, there aren’t many spells that can use Red.
Mana Vault -- I have the card in my possession, but I technically don’t own it. Once I get around to remedying the situation, it will go in.
Jeska's Will -- It has the same problem as Mana Geyser, and the higher mana curve also causes issues. In general, I’m avoiding Red’s impulsive draw effects for this deck.
Underworld Breach -- Abusive, and that certainly appeals to Nicol Bolas’s sensibilities. However, I don’t have an interest in this card for the deck. That doesn’t rule out adding it at a future date.
Rise of the Dark Realms -- if I had one, it would be in here.
Free counterspells (you know what they are) -- At one point, several of them were in the deck. I decided to move them to a more competitive deck. The power level of this deck is right where I like it: Quasi-Competitive with a strong flare for the Casual.
Cloning spells -- I once had a couple in here, but I realize they weren’t on point for the theme of the deck. Nicol Bolas doesn’t copy. He takes.
It That Betrays & Tergrid, God of Fright
-- I did try out It That Betrays. The biggest issue was how the deck is not centered around making the opponents sacrifice their permanents. The casting cost also made it difficult to play. When Tergrid came out, I considered the card as it was a cheaper version of It That Betrays. Unfortunately, it has the same problem with sacrificing. Ditto for discarding.
Expropriate -- I have one, currently with a council voting deck I’m working on. If I get another copy, it will come here.
Necromantic Selection -- Casting cost is the primary reason I haven’t included it in the deck. The deck already has an issue with the higher costing cards cluttering the hand. Rise of the Dark Realms and Expropriate have a higher priority for inclusion, so I doubt this will be added in the future.
Narset's Reversal -- Another one of those “too many decks, not enough copies”. Copy spells, in general, went with the clone spells for much of the same reasons. Like Wild Ricochet, Narset’s Reversal offers more than just simply copying a spell.
Blasphemous Act -- Yeah, I should have one of those in here.
Rhystic Study & Mystic Remora-- Another "too many decks, not enough copies". They will certainly boost the card drawing for the deck, but oddly enough I'm fine without them. Should I acquire more, I will consider adding them.
What Was Once In Here
This deck was originally inspired by the Bolas vs Ajani duel decks. Taking control of things wasn’t a strong theme in the beginning, but it quickly became the focal point. Some cards were a lot of fun, and as the deck progressed, they sadly were dropped for better spells. Here’s a few that I would love to return to the deck.
Slave of Bolas -- Take an opponent’s creature and then sacrifice it at the end of the turn. This was especially fun when you could copy it. Multiple times. Sorcery speed didn’t bother me.
Radiate -- Copying a spell for each legitimate target is something worth abusing. I loved pairing this with Slave of Bolas, Recoil, Bribery, and Dominate. This thing was also fun defensively when someone tried to target me or my stuff with their spells.
Split cards -- Loved the versatility and flexibility of them. Some halves are a little too situational, but it was always funny when they aggravated an opponent.
Enslave -- It’s fun pinging someone because I’m controlling their creature. Now that there’s more ways to copy enchantments, this is a lot more fun.
Copy spells (Fork, Twincast, etc.) -- Getting double duty out of your spells is a blast. So is copying another player’s counterspell.
Recoil -- Still one of my favorite bounce spells. Works best if you can copy it several times and/or when the player has a couple of cards.
The Primordials from Gatecrash -- Expensive little creatures (in mana cost) but it’s so much fun playing with other people’s spells and creatures.
Starstorm -- One of my favorite Red board wipes. Instant speed removal, and it cycles!
Multiple Planes, Infinite Alternate Dimensions
You don’t have to play the deck as is. My opinions on netdecking is finding one you like playing with and tailoring it to what you have or what you like.
You don’t need all the different versions of Nicol Bolas, but I won’t deny how fun it is seeing Bolas literally beside himself.
There’s nothing wrong with having other planeswalkers in the deck. I once had a few different ones like Jace, Liliana, and Chandra. I chose to restrict planeswalkers to Nicol Bolas around the time Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation expansions came out.
While I consider cloning and copying to not be in flavor for the deck’s theme, you may have a different opinion. They still compliment the deck very well and offer better flexibility.
If you want this deck to lean more competitive, pull the tap lands and some of the higher casting cost spells. Having the ability to create White and Red Mana is nice, but not necessary or needed. You should also consider increasing the land count as this is a control deck at heart and you need to drop a land every turn. Increasing the number of fast mana rocks will also help. Think about adding some more board wipes like Blasphemous Act. Switching out some of the counterspells for the free ones is recommended. Playing more tutors goes without saying. Some of the cards listed in “What’s Not In This Deck” should be considered as well.
If you want this deck to be more casual, start with dropping the expensive cards as they heavily sway the scale to Competitive. Some cards are pretty mean, so consider your playgroup and meta (I’m looking at you, Opposition Agent). There’s plenty of similar spells with different casting costs that can be substituted (i.e. Black Sun Zenith is a great alternative to Toxic Deluge). Increasing the number of higher costing spells will lean this deck towards Casual--just remember to adjust the number of lands and mana rocks accordingly. Consider the cards listed in “What Was Once In Here”.
Final Word
Nothing will stop you from quoting or acting like Nicol Bolas. That will not stop the other players from tossing you into the garbage can after the game.
