Throw the horns

Commander / EDH Budget Discard Dragons Multiplayer UBR (Grixis)

rco

Lands (37)

• 1x Bad River
• 1x Canyon Slough
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 7x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 7x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rocky Tar Pit
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Ramp (10)

• 1x Burnished Hart
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Gem of Becoming
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Indulgence
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Cards (9)

• 1x Ancient Excavation *list*
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Geth's Grimoire
• 1x Harvester of Souls
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Thief of Sanity
• 1x Waste Not

Answers (17)

• 1x Consign / Oblivion
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Crux of Fate
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Hour of Devastation
• 1x Molten Disaster
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Negate
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
• 1x No Escape
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Recoil
• 1x Slave of Bolas
• 1x Soul Manipulation
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Terminate

Support (10)

• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Dragon Tempest
• 1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
• 1x Hellkite Charger
• 1x Scourge of Valkas
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Vedalken Orrery
• 1x Viridian Longbow
• 1x Warstorm Surge
• 1x Whip of Erebos

Commander (1)

Standalone (16)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Crosis, the Purger
• 1x Dark Intimations
• 1x Dragonlord Silumgar
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Fog Bank
• 1x Gomazoa
• 1x Grave Upheaval
• 1x Hypnotic Specter
• 1x Liliana's Reaver
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
• 1x Painful Quandary
• 1x Pestilent Kathari
• 1x Sangromancer
• 1x Seer's Vision
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

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Maybeboard

Other (19)

• 1x Abyssal Specter
• 1x Arcbond
• 1x Cruel Ultimatum
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Disdainful Stroke
• 1x Earthquake
• 1x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
• 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 1x Languish
• 1x Megrim
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Pain Magnification
• 1x Runehorn Hellkite
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Soul Collector
• 1x Soul's Fire
• 1x Stalking Vengeance
• 1x Windfall

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He's big (8 mana!). He's bad (8 mana?). He's Bolas.

A certain Dragon has been getting a lot of attention in Magic story and in Wizards' marketing for the last couple of months. You might have noticed this and thought "gosh, I wonder if he'd make a good Commander deck?" The recent versions of Bolas are all planeswalkers, so you might have thought "maybe Grixis superfriends?" or even "maybe Grixis goodstuff?"

But as all old players of a certain age (old) know, Nicol Bolas was an Elder Dragon Legend long before he was a planeswalker. So we're going to build a Bolas deck with Bolas as the commander. More to the point, we're going to build the deck around our (nigh uncastable) 8-drop Elder Dragon Legend. We may not technically "win" every game, but we should be able to make some folks very concerned about Nicol Bolas in every game, and that's its own kind of winning.

You might like this deck if...

• You like a good haymaker. Bolas is a haymaker.
• You like to play the villain. Bolas is definitely a villain.
• The idea of everybody else discarding their hands makes you giggle. Or doesn't make you feel bad. Or only makes you feel a little bit bad.
• Your playgroup is "casual competitive", whatever that means. If your friends don't run any interaction, they won't have a good time. If your friends are cEDH tryhards, you won't have a good time. He costs 8 mana.
• You want to put the "ED" in "EDH".

Building Around Bolas

Did you know that old cards are weird? They really are. The first time most people read NB, they assume he has to deal combat damage in order to trigger and murder their hands. That is certainly the way every Magic card made in the last 20 years works, but my dragon friend only needs to reach out and touch them.

Here are a bunch of cards that will make your friends say "wait, does he do the damage?":

• Dragon Tempest
• Scourge of Valkas
• Warstorm Surge
• Viridian Longbow (this one might be bad)
• Chandra's Ignition (this one ends games)

We also run a few haste granters, since it's really rare for Bolas to survive a cycle of turns:

• Fervor
• Dragon Tempest (seriously, this card is great)
• Dragonlord Kolaghan

If people aren't able to kill Bolas over the first cycle of turns, Hellkite Charger is gross. We also pack a Fireshrieker , because once we're turning Bolas sideways that cuts the number of times he has to hit from 3 to 2.

Early Game

Ramp. Don't die. This is all we're trying to do.

Obviously we've got a full set of signets and talismans. We also run Gem of Becoming , because Bolas. Also Wayfarer's Bauble , Fellwar Stone , and Burnished Hart because they're very ok. Our secret weapon is Journeyer's Kite , which can provide a significant amount of card advantage and guarantee that you get to 8 (or 10, or whatever) mana. In a similar vein we've got Liliana of the Dark Realms , who in addition to basic swamps can pull out Smoldering Marsh , Sunken Hollow , Canyon Slough , and Fetid Pools .

On team "don't die" we've got Baleful Strix , Fog Bank , Gomazoa , and Pestilent Kathari . Also a bunch of spot removal. Finally, we've got gesturing at our untapped swamps, islands, and mountains, and saying "are you sure?" I find this actually works pretty well.

I recently added Whip of Erebos because I was taking so many hits. That it gives your creatures lifelink without having to wait for an equip means that it works well with stuff like Dragon Tempest , Scourge of Valkas , and Warstorm Surge .

Synergy: Deathtouch and Specters

We're running several things that help a creature deal damage, mostly to any target, without having to swing. We run a bunch of creatures with deathtouch and discard triggers to take advantage of that. Baleful Strix , Pestilent Kathari , Liliana's Reaver , Harvester of Souls , and Dragonlord Silumgar are all board wipes waiting to happen. Hypnotic Specter is a classic that triggers a discard from any damage, not just combat damage.

Synergy: Discard

Our game-changing move is usually to make one or more players pitch their hands. We hope to have Waste Not , Geth's Grimoire , and/or Sangromancer on hand when it happens, for sweet value. We also run a handful of other discard enablers. Some tables have enchantment removal at the ready, but when they don't Painful Quandary puts the game on easy mode. Syphon Mind is a great draw spell, and even better if we've got Waste Not out. Recoil is great incidental discard, and Seer's Vision is like a Thoughtseize for the whole table.

I used to have a whole Specter tribal subtheme. I found that I wasn't able to get them through consistently, and that when I could one or two discard triggers (before the specter inevitably died) just weren't worth it. But have you read Hypnotic Specter ? It's a ridiculous Magic card. And I'm still testing Scythe Specter .

Dubious Inclusions

Some of the cards in here miiiiiight be bad. These are the ones I'm worried about:

• Pestilent Kathari , Liliana's Reaver : These don't get to ping as often as I'd like. As deterrents they're fine, but not amazing.
• Hypnotic Specter , Scythe Specter : These might not do enough.
• Dark Intimations , Slave of Bolas : They have Bolas flavor, but might be weak. Especially SoB.
• Viridian Longbow : This might not ever work with Bolas. We typically don't have 3 spare mana to equip the turn we cast, and he doesn't typically survive for a full cycle of turns.
• Crook of Condemnation : This should probably be a Rakdos Charm . But Crook has Bolas flavor, and the repeatable aspect might be interesting.

Dubious Exclusions

Here are some cards that seem like they belong in the deck, but haven't found a spot. Also, some of them aren't as great as they might seem. I think?

• Arcbond : If Chandra's Ignition is good, surely Arcbond would be good? The thing is, Arcbond only works if (1) somebody else hits Bolas or (2) you can engineer things so one of your dudes pokes Bolas. Oh, and you need to have 3 mana available and as usual you probably need to have that the same turn you cast him. I found it rotting in my hand too often.
• Soul's Fire : This is like a proactive version of Arcbond . Or a limited version of Chandra's Ignition ?
• Abyssal Specter : Doesn't require combat damage, just like Hypnotic Specter . But one more mana, and the discard isn't random.
• Earthquake : Gosh, we've got a lot of fliers. That was intentional, but I'm not sure where to fit in all the non-flyer hate.
• Stalking Vengeance : This is a way to almost guarantee a Bolas trigger, but it's also a 7-mana groundpounder.
• Animate Dead : Gosh, those graveyards are full. Shouldn't we pilfer them?

Date added	7 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 31 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	My bag, Bolas, Commander/EDH, Grixis, EDH Decks (Others), Favorite Commander Decks, Commander Shelf