Watch the trailer for the new movie: Nicolas "Bolas" Cage in: The Wicker Dragon!
Nicolas "Cage" Bolas stars in Hollywood's next sell-out blockbuster! It has kill! It has control! It has everything anyone could want for a Friday Night Movie! Coming to theaters near you!
WARNING! THIS DECK PLAYS NOT A SINGLE CREATURE AND IS NOT YET RATED. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Let's break down this deck, shall we?
Pillar of Flame
and
Searing Spear
are used mostly for killing creatures. Pillar goes really well at killing zombies and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, which can often be a death sentence to control decks. Searing Spear deals that extra point of damage and is an instant, so it can take out a Hellrider before attack is declared. Finally, using Tamiyo's final with one of these in hand is a win-condition that is usually impossible to stop.
Azorius Charm is good for two of its three modes; because this deck doesn't run creatures (unheard of!), giving your lack of creatures lifelink will matter only if you end up stealing a creature worth giving lifelink to with Bolas. Nontheless, putting a creature away or drawing a card can be really helpful.
Think Twice gives you two draws for one spell. It replaces itself, then later on it gives you value. Most importantly, it draws you a card on your opponent's turn, so you possibly topdeck a Terminus on attacking creatures. This is one of the most brutal thing to do to an opponent - and it's always satisfying.
Terminus and Supreme Verdict are the sweepers in the deck, and depending on how fast/aggressive the meta is, putting in more Verdicts may be helpful. Detention Sphere can, at times, be a sweeper too, although it can always be an Oblivion Ring when you need it to.
Elixir of Immortality is in there as a one-of to stop other control decks from milling the deck out, since a lot of control decks have adopted the Nephalia Drownyard strategy for mirrors.
Sphinx's Revelation has shown its worth, and is an obvious inclusion in the deck. It may even be worth putting in all four.
There are three kinds of counterspells in the deck:
Dissipate
, Rewind and Syncopate. Two Dissipates and a Rewind for hard, solid counters. Rewind also pays for itself, and you can counter a spell and still have mana to use Think Twice, Azorius Charm, or another counter. Syncopate can be used in so many different ways, that there are three in the mainboard.
Jace, Architect of Thought and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage are a spectacular tag team, and Jace does a lot of work in the deck, helping you survive creature swings and also helping you dig for answers. Tamiyo taps down threats, draws cards, and getting her Emblem usually leads to a "GG".
Then there is the star of this deck, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He's big, but with the sweepers and control in the early to mid-game, once does hit, it's often the game. He finishes what Jace and Tamiyo starts, and he finishes it fast. When he's not blowing up lands or Pikes, he can steal key creatures, which may mean an Olivia or Thragtusk. It only takes three turn to final him, and when you final him, you often leave your opponent with nothing to untapped next turn. And if they haven't scooped yet, you can simply blow-up anything they drop after. He's not just a game winner, he's THE game winner. Nicol Bolas is the star of this show, no doubt.
The land base is always up for debate, but it's worked solidly for me in general. Testing Nephalia Drownyard in the deck as well, which I don't think will affect the mana base too much.
As for the sideboard, there's an extra Elixir for control matches trying to win with Nephalia or Jace, Memory Adept. This comes to of the Memory Adepts in the side for an alternate win-con against control. Witchbane Orb is for matched against burn, like RDW, and against Jund, because Jund resolving a
Rakdos's Return
hurts a lot. Oblivion Ring is for more removal, especially against other Detention Spheres. Rest in Peace and
Purify the Grave
comes in against reanimator, sometimes Zombies, and sometimes against UW Flash(to combat Snapcaster Mage and Runechanter's Pike).
Dissipate
and Negate come in against control match-up, and there are more Supreme Verdicts for Aggro match-ups. Then finally there is two more
Pillar of Flame
for mana dorks, Thalia, Blood Artist, Gravecrawlers, etc.
tl;dr - Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker Control deck w/ Miracles. Is nice? What do you think?
