MTG Salvation

This thread is dedicated to the discussion of how best to use the new Nicol Bolas.





The first thing that comes to mind is obviously Grixis control. Running cards like torrential gearhulk and a bunch of removal and sweepers, with Bolas a good win condition.

The Alternative to this, is adding Bolas into a Temur Marvel shell, and attempting to cast him via aetherworks marvel



Amended post in light of bannings. -- Lugger

Discuss

Alright here's my first brew involving Nicol Bolas, it's a Tapout Control variant as opposed to a Draw/Go

First post!

I really love the new Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh card. Hefty loyalty and a huge board presence with a +2 activation. I have been looking at some of the cards that might fit into a Grixis Control deck that might have just been overlooked because it had no home, and perhaps the card that stood out the most to me was Reduce // Rubble. If the deck can play cards like Fatal Push, Essence Scatter, and Grasp of Darkness, it may be able to get some solid use out of Reduce // Rubble.

Also was pretty interested in using The Locust God with something like Pull from Tomorrow.

I am sure the default approach will be to use Torrential Gearhulk, but I am not entirely sold on that strategy yet. I like to look outside of the obvious at first.

Hour of Devastation is a good additon to this decktype.

I think the best thing to do is look at the current Izzet Control lists, and then figure out how we can adapt them to use our new toys. Here's a stock Goldfish deck:



So, first things first - the sideboard Temur Tempo list idea is ridiculous and gone. We'll clean that and our manabase up later.

Going Grixis gives us a better end game in Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh but we need to play him on a board of 2 or less opposing permanents or he'll get mobbed to death. Thankfully, we got the biggest of deals - Hour of Devastation. A true sweeper that crucially hits pumped up Constrictors and Rishkars, can take out Glorybringers and Hydras, and removes planeswalkers (long the bane of this archetype) is a huge gain. That it also eats random Hazorets and Rhonas' is just gravy if that "Empty Hand of God" deck takes back off. We also get to generally tighten up our removal/counter/disruption suite, since we now have access to Abrade and Consign // Oblivion as new cards and Unlicensed Disintegration and Fatal Push as on-color power cards. We can also run less maindeck Negates, since the boogie-man of Marvel is gone and we don't just scoop to resolved planeswalkers.



I went for a full four maindeck Glimmers and Gearhulks, as I think anything less is super wrong. The removal base was built to minimize black's presence in our deck while maintaining good interaction on those crucial turns 2 and 4. I'm not totally sold on the mana or maindeck Commit // Memory, but it does seem like a spicy inclusion alongside Hulk.

Sideboard is built with the upcoming meta in mind and the ability to board in more answers to Vehicles (Abrade, Negate) and more early interaction against super aggressive decks. Chandra is everywhere and I imagine Glorybringer will be as well, so Chandra's Defeat seems good. Sweltering Sun got moved to the board as I think it's unneeded against the presumed main meta decks, but will be wanted against leaner vehicle builds as well as the various token and human lists popping up.

I think it is a real thing to include Chandra, Torch of Defiance in these control decks. She removes creatures, is a reasonable win condition and allows you to play Bolas on turn 5 instead of 7. Or play Hour of Devastation with essence scatter or negate backup and live through it.

Quote from Unhlyjspr360 »

I think it is a real thing to include Chandra, Torch of Defiance in these control decks. She removes creatures, is a reasonable win condition and allows you to play Bolas on turn 5 instead of 7. Or play Hour of Devastation with essence scatter or negate backup and live through it.

Chandra is great, but I was reluctant to play anything that has a chance of dying to Hour. Chandra has to be plused twice AND not attacked to live through the hours. Bolas and Gearhulk conveniently always live it.

I dont think that downside is relevant. Worst case she comes down either deals 2 or adds 2 mana for a spell. Then fogs until turn 5 when you wipe the board and stabilize.

Here's another Grixis Control deck I've been working on since the full spoiler hit.

You know how dynavolt worked in a grixis shell, I think the same thing can be done with imminent doom in a bolas control shell.

Patrick chapin wrote an article on it and I think the fused spell cards will help make bolas control a reality.

As for a deck here's what Ive been thinking of doing once the set hits, and after getting a hint of how imminent doom can be a hard card to deal with.



The idea is to play/protect yourself while immenent doom ticks up or the kill. Some other cards I'm having problems fitting in there are
Gonti, lord of luxury
Supreme will
Abrade

At this point I know torrential is still good, but with abrade and all the artifact hate coming in, its hard not to think there may be a better alternative. Lol maybe maindeck thing in the ice instead? Haha

There are just a lot of things to play with in this coming set.

What about just using Tezzeret the Schemer to provide the red mana, along with Crypt of the Eternals? In theory, you could run a solely UB shell, which would provide more consistency in being able to cast spells (i.e. only needing red for when you draw Bolas), and also leads to the (highly unlikely) chance of playing T4 Tezz, + for mana rock, T5 + on Tezz again, play land, Bolas. As an additional, running Contraband Kingpin as a 2-drop slows down a lot of aggro decks, plus you get the scry every time you plus Tezz. It could also be good with the arti hate mentioned in the previous post.

Has anyone tested with Crypt of the Eternals at all? I'm really curious to know how that plays and whether it's consistent enough to warrant your splash color spells costing an additional mana.

I see a few trends here - UB splashing red, UR splashing B, and BR splashing blue (see the recent VS video on SCG). I don't really see the ability to consistently make UU RR BB easily, so the idea of playing Never/Return in the same deck as Hour of Devastation and Disallow doesn't seem very good. I like the idea of taking what already works - red/blue control - and adding a light black splash.

I also think the new "charm" spells will be awesome (obviously Abrade with it's ability to kill vehicles/Gearhulks) - Supreme Will has entire-game value and Doomfall's exile will be relevant.

Here's the list I'll be testing with this week. Note that I really like one-ofs in a deck that can draw cards. This will also help me see what works, what doesn't, and what I would like to see more. It's definitely not a tuned list.