Nicol Bolas, the Deathbringer

Commander / EDH Competitive Control Discard Infinite Combo UBR (Grixis)

Wolffang988

Land (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Crypt of the Eternals
• 1x Darkslick Shores
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 6x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Luxury Suite
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Watery Grave

Planeswalker (7)

• 1x Geyadrone Dihada
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils *f-pre*
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
• 1x Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
• 1x Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor  ^Flip

Sorcery (15)

• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Bribery
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Deadly Tempest
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Mystic Retrieval
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x Slave of Bolas
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Windfall

Creature (10)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Etali, Primal Storm
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Xanathar, Guild Kingpin

Instant (9)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Negate
• 1x Saw it Coming
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vraska's Contempt

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Artifact (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Enchantment (10)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Corrupted Conscience
• 1x In Bolas's Clutches
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Mind's Dilation
• 1x Monastery Siege
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Treachery
• 1x Waste Not
• 1x Words of Waste

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”That’s a nice strategy, I think I’ll take it"

Intro

The core theme of this deck is having a wide variety of options available to you and stealing the opponent’s key pieces to use for yourself! There are a number of spells at your disposal to steal, counter, and destroy anything that poses a problem for you, and the deck is pretty consistent at what it does. Follow Nicol Bolas’ example and start scheming!

“A fine addition to my collection”

Spells such as Blatant Thievery, In Bolas's Clutches and Treachery are used to take control of problem creatures and valuable permanents on the battlefield, while Bribery, Praetor's Grasp, The Scarab God and Animate Dead set their sights on benefits from your opponent’s library and graveyard. Taking a key component of an opponent’s deck can often be much more useful than outright destroying or exiling it, denying them while simultaneously granting you more power!

(Gilded Drake is also a hilarious card in this deck if you can get your hands on one, you haven’t lived until you’ve swapped their creature for a 2/2 drake, then bounce the drake to your hand and do it again!)

“Even Eternity now belongs to me.”

You know it was in here, the infinite turns combo! I actually don’t find myself using this combo very often because the deck is quite capable of winning without it, but it’s a nice option to have. With God-Eternal Kefnet + Nexus of Fate + Scroll Rack you can take an infinite amount of extra turns by casting a copy of Nexus of Fate with the ability from God-Eternal Kefnet and then use Scroll Rack to position Nexus of Fate back to the top of your deck for the next turns draw to do it all again. From there it’s a simple enough matter to kill everyone trapped in your time loop!

“Victory through Destruction”

Sometimes the only answer in to wipe it all away. Luckily the deck excels in that department too!

With Damnation, Deadly Tempest, Cyclonic Rift, Vandalblast and a few others there are several great options for putting permanents in hands or graveyards en masse, where they belong! Blast the table with a boardwipe, and then take advantage by pulling value from their graveyards with cards like Animate Dead, Mnemonic Betrayal and The Scarab God. If their deck is also heavy of graveyard recursion, you can seize the opportunity to deny them by casting Echo of Eons, putting the graveyards back in their library and out of reach. A well timed boardwipe can also score you a satisfying (and hilarious) victory through Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God’s ultimate ability, causing all of your opponents to lose instantly.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	God-Eternal Kefnet + Nexus of Fate + Scroll Rack
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	24 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.86
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Emblem Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor, Foretell, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	The Five