Bolas Control Assistance
Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 20, 2012, 6:41 p.m. by shifterfox
Working on a Bolas control deck for a friend, however, I'm needing help constructing it properly. I don't have a whole lot of experience building control decks. The only control/combo deck I ever constructed was a Pyromancer's Ascension deck after time warp had already dropped. Lets face it, though, There is only so much you can do with Pyro. I need some serious control structuring assistance. D:
Corvus_corax says... #3
First of all I think you need a plan... -_-
It doesn't look like you'll be getting anywhere if you don't even know how you want to get Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker onto the field. You would have to survive some pretty heavy stuff in order to get him out.
How about running some undead so you can field wipe opponents without worry or just have many sacrificial creatures such as Gravecrawler on hand in order to cast spells like Bone Splinters . Black Cat is also an idea, in that case, since it's a zombie to boot! Distress and Duress are cards you can use to good effect in combination with your blue dispel cards (but I agree with nfcnorth, I'd avoid double mana cost cards). Play Duress in order to peek at his hand, and maybe get him to discard a card. Then if you have a blue counter spell you'll know what to wait for. Or, at least, you'll know what he's up to...
Anyway, I won't suggest too much when you don't really have a plan. I think I'd be complicating things as there's just a bit too many options.
Hope I helped though. :)
August 21, 2012 5:55 p.m.
shifterfox says... #4
Thank you both for your suggestions. One other gave a few suggestions on the deck's comments page. I appreciate all of the help thus far for ideas.
its hard to say which strategy to take. Currently, I've just finished going through all of innistrad block and m13's list of cards looking for all cards I'd give consideration for the deck. I've come to two seperate deck template ideas...both run control, just in different forms.
Template A: Creature themed. A deck filled with creatures that have great 'pressuring' and controlling abilities in addition to being cheap, useful attacks/blockers. Cards like Fog Bank would hold off early turn brutes while later game I'd possibly try to get a card like Havengul Lich to bring back my creatures(or my opponents that I slay). I'd also use creatures like Ravenous Rats and Vexing Devil to assist in disrupting my opponent or getting in some early game damage. I'd still run a few counter/draw spells for this deck, but it would overall run more like an aggro/control, using a variety of creatures to stall the game until bolas hits the field..
Template B: Instant/Sorcery themed. While there would be creatures in this template, they'd be more likely to be Augur of Bolas and Archaeomancer . A large portion of the deck would be instant/sorcery spells to completely hold off the opponent for the duration. Mystic Retrieval would be used, and this deck would also have to have some heavy draw power to keep going. I think that would be the hardest part to setup in this template, besides a game condition that isn't bolas himself. Maybe a card like card:Devil's Play could be a good choice for a game-ender in this idea.
I'll likely try both out in the end and see how they run. Going to be PLENTY of playtesting in the future. x.x
August 21, 2012 9:33 p.m.
shifterfox says... #5
Well, the instant/sorcery template collapsed. I don't know if its because I suck at building a control deck or what, I just know I couldn't continue to sweep the board of creatures fast enough and didn't have enough blockers to use. So the deck is now in stage two: creatures. Its not mostly creatures, but it has a decent amount of creatures that have some rather useful abilities.
I need playtests! Anyone who reads this, please, feel free to playtest against it and then comment on the deck with a summary of your match against it, and then recommend what you would change about it. =3 I really will appreciate it!
August 22, 2012 3:14 p.m.
Corvus_corax says... #6
If you wanted to run an Instant/sorcery template you would still need creatures. I'm interested in seeing what your deck looked like.
It seems quite obvious to me that your strategy now is all over the place. Chances are pretty low that you'll get the land you need at the time when you need it. card:Traveler's Amulet can help you there. I would add four card:Traveler's Amulet, two-three Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (four is way overkill), and start from scratch. You need two primary colors and a third splash of color only for late game (I would go two-four Mountain cards, and that's it - let card:Traveler's Amulet do it's thing).
On a final note: the creatures you are using now aren't helping each other out at all. You need to increase the synergy of your cards. Make them all fill each other out and make your weaknesses your strengths.
August 22, 2012 3:59 p.m.
shifterfox says... #7
the instant/sorcery design looked roughly like this(lands were just about the exact way they are now, maybe a land here or there different, usually just a basic though. It ran on almost the exact same mana. I didn't notice this until I redid the creature version), for those who are curious:
4x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker 4x Think Twice 4x Killing Wave 4x Death Wind 4x Dissipate 2x Archaeomancer 4x Augur of Bolas 4x Mystic Retrieval 4x Pillar of Flame 2x card:Devil's Play
If I lessened the number of bolas in the deck, I would likely use it to put in the Vessel of Endless Rest that I have in it now. my biggest issue was constantly increasing my mana source. I almost always had all 3 colors. I just couldn't get it higher than 5-6 lands total before I'd get overran. Usually cause I didn't have the mana to use the spells in my hand effectively enough to take out what was before. I was capable, but I lacked the mana to do so. shrugs. xD man I suck at control decks. Aggro is so much easier! but I love a good challenging puzzle.
August 22, 2012 4:32 p.m.
shifterfox says... #8
I've now made a second decklist for the instant/sorcery themed version of the deck. It can be found here to playtest/work on: Methodical Mind Games 2
I will be working on both decks simultaneously. I will also likely altarnate which deck I deckcycle until they both can run smoother. I'll start with the i/s version today. I made another adjustment to it and I'm getting the feeling I'm getting close to making it run correctly. Of course, I've yet to playtest it. I added the Vessel of Endless Rest into it, as well as Thought Scour for cheap draw/early 'deck hate'. Then I threw in a few Downpour for a cheap way to hold off larger creatures a few more turns as I build up my mana for Bolas.
I'd like to add some hand hate into the deck, but I honestly am not sure if I have the room to add that. I also dont know what I would take out to put such a card in. ._.
nfcnorth says... #2
Well you will want to run a lot of cheap removal with the black you have cards such as Go for the Throat and other kill spells. You will also want some counters like Mana Leak and Negate with the blue part of the grixis color scheme. For red spells I recommend Pillar of Flame since it gets rid of undying things for good. That should be a good start to the control scheme. For more control feel free to add some planeswalkers such as Tamiyo, the Moon Sage , Chandra, the Firebrand or even a Karn Liberated .
As for creatures try to use one that have both good offensive and defensive attributes at a low cost, things like Vampire Nighthawk or cards with good enter the battlefield abilities such as Skinrender or Zealous Conscripts . Also when running three colors it is a good idea to pick one or two main colors and splash the other color(s). Try to limit the double mana symbol casting cost cards to one or two colors and also don't play too many of them as getting the right mana is not always easy. One final note is you will want some sort of deck thinning as well so a couple of draw spells would be good.
Hope this helps! You don't have to use any of the cards I mentioned just used them as an example of the types of cards you probably want to run.
August 21, 2012 12:27 a.m.