Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
Oracle Text
+2: Target opponent exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card. Until end of turn, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
+1: Each opponent exiles two cards from their hand.
−4: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh deals 7 damage to target opponent, creature an opponent controls, or planeswalker an opponent controls.
−12: Exile each nonland permanent your opponents control.
Card Rulings
7/14/2017 The cards exiled by Nicol Bolas’s first and second abilities are exiled face up.
7/14/2017 You may cast the nonland card exiled by Nicol Bolas’s first ability that turn even if Nicol Bolas is no longer on the battlefield or under your control.
7/14/2017 Casting the card exiled with Nicol Bolas’s first ability follows the normal timing rules for casting that card. For example, if the card is a creature card, you can cast that card only during your main phase while the stack is empty.
7/14/2017 If you don’t cast the card exiled by Nicol Bolas’s first ability that turn, it will remain exiled.
7/14/2017 If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs, such as emerge costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, such as that of Tormenting Voice, you must pay those to cast the card.
7/14/2017 If the card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
7/14/2017 While resolving Nicol Bolas’s second ability, each opponent chooses which cards to exile from their hand. Any opponent with two or fewer cards exiles their entire hand.
7/14/2017 In a multiplayer game, if a player leaves the game, all cards that player owns leave as well. If you leave the game, any spell or permanent cards you control from Nicol Bolas’s first ability are exiled.
+1: A better Unnerve
-4: Cinder Storm
-12: The meanest Plague Wind ever
That's one hell of a planeswalker.
couple things to note:
1. 7 is 1 less than 8. Yeah, yeah, this is basic, but it goes along with another point: B is less strict than BB. All around, this is the sharpest, meanest, most Rampable Bolas out of the three Bolas cards that we now have. (Deciever I think is also UBR NOT UBBR, but it's 8, not 7.)
2. Magic2013 brought us a few different cards that were flavored Bolas. Most people have probably forgotten them. There was a particular Mana stone that I THINK was better than Obelisk of Grixis. It searched Islands, Swamps, and Mountains? Oh, and Fetchable Duals are much more common than they used to be. Fetchlands have also been reprinted. All of them have.
3. So in the first place, if we snapshot what Standard and Extended looked like on Conflux's release and then compare that to what we have to work with today for Hour of Devastation.....in every way, from the common enemy lands up to the Fetchstones, we have much better Mana at the very least for Non-Standard. Mana is not going to directly be the issue for most people interested in this card.
4. Standard, though: How easy will 7 mana as a number be to get to in Standard? Battle for Zendikar/Oath of the Gatewatch overlapped with Shadows Over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon...
But the 2 Eldrazi blocks are both rotated away and now we're working with Kaladesh/Aether Revolt and Amonkhet/Hour of Devastation.
5. Aetherworks Marvel got its ass banned.
6. I seem to recall some M13-like nods and references to Bolas flavor just in Amonkhet alone. I'm sure there will be more artifact manastone support for Bolas in Hour of Devastation as well. The Cycling Duals are...at least half-decent. We have no fetches I think. Then there will be Green cards, and lastly,
7. Bit by bit, Black has picked up more parts of the color pie for mana production than it used to. I think that considering that Bolas costs only 7, not 8, in 3 colors, only 1 devotion to each, not 2, and that at 7 mana, it's definitely not silly to consider going 4 colors for him with Green....I think he's castable in Standard on turn 6. Maybe 5.
Question: Is that going to push him into the Top Tier or not? What else will that deck be able to do? Devoting to casting Bolas out quickly might be possible to warp your deck to do, but if it lacks enough support or meatshields it's still not going to take down any big events.
But there will be nice cards seeded in the set for him, no doubt. This is going to add up to a critical mass to make him plenty absurd enough for Commander and he's also going to make appearances in Modern events, but I just don't know how many yet. I'm certain he's better than Karn and Ugin.
(Yes, I've been waiting since Amonkhet was released to make this joke)
The +2 is mediocre, so many cards you can hit which are dead or very weak for you. Like you hit some weak cryptbreaker zombie or a counterspell that does nothing, pretty iffy ability.
+1 is mediocre too. A mind rot for a +1 on a 7 mana walker is weakish.
The -4 feels mediocre too, leaves him at 3 (or 4 with dark intimations) loyalty and isn't that great as protection for a 7 mana walker. If they have a few creatures or just two with 3 power you can't save your bolas, that is just quite weak.
Last ability is terible, if you've been +2ing a while you will win anyway. Hardly helps the planeswalker.
Overall weakish card. Marvel allows this to come out early but I doubt marvel wants it, it's just too likely to do a mindrot or kill 1 creature and then immediately die.
second, Karn's exile-discard power was on an 8 mana walker. and I think he only hit one card. this hits, not just two cards, but two per opponent. admittedly not relevant in Standard, but for example in Commander this card wrecks Karn which is pretty shocking.
Karn actually hit permanents fast, and Original Bolas hit and stole permanents fast. This only actually hits permanents fast if you topdeck from his +2. Let's look at that +2. Read it carefully.
As far as I can tell, that's a MILLING exile-search. It doesn't put the cards back! IT DOESN'T PUT THE CARDS BACK. A lot of cards get printed both with putting the cards back or with not putting the cards back.
Let's do a thought experiment: "Exile the top four cards of target player's library. Play the fifth card for free." "Exile the top five cards of target player's library. Play the sixth one for free." "Exile the top three cards of target player's library. Play the fourth one for free."
in some cases, you'll be ''hitting'' seven, or even ten cards (in multiplayer games, bad luck can happen) "a nonland card" is what's keeping this under control. In most formats, the ratio rule for good deck building is 1:3 cards of deck should be lands, ish, (with exceptions).
There's a 1:3 chance that you mill away a land into exile for free, and that land could be their off-color that you are -keeping- them off. If you hit two lands, and get a free spell, you are doing great for a +2.
If you hit three lands, and get a free spell, you're getting away practically with murder as long as the card does anything-- as long as it resolves and gives you a thing, even a small thing like a servo token or whatever. it's a +2 that you're using every turn, and you're stripping their deck and playing their spells. it's not like you're likely to land on their ''Hour of Revelation'' or anything THAT nasty off the top deck.
if that were likely, it would be an Ultimate all its own. but it CAN happen, if you play enough trick cards to mess with their library. it's GOING to be happening outside of Standard. which is pretty sick to think of.
in the meantime, you count about how many cards you're getting here:
+1 card for the card you often mill first before the free spell.
+1 card for playing a spell for free times:
->(calculate the Card Advantage of the spell you play for free)
on average, that's +2'ing a tough PW's loyalty for drawing 2 cards. there aren't a lot of +2 to draw two cards out there. and if you hit a removal spell you need? or you hit a creature with an ETB? a creature with a *repeatable trigger ability?!*
the worst is if hit an instant or sorcery with no valid targets.
probably the best is if you hit an artifact that happens to be in your opponent's deck but also happens to be good for your deck, because that's going to be your best chance at getting the maximum unfair synergies since not all of your opponents will be in your colors or strategies.
you hit the right artifact though, and...yeah it can be dumb.
are those Gear golem masterpieces still being used or are they not really tier 1?
if you steal a free artifact with this OR a free wrath off of this it's going to be amazing-- but EVEN if you don't.
if all you do is nab some small card that wasn't going to do much on it's own....
"I'd rather they be on my side" is the operative logic. it's really good to steal your opponent's spells.
this is easily the meanest + ability I've ever seen on a walker. The -4 to deal 7 is still better, but not really by much. the +1 is better for multiplayer but perfectly good to give you modality in Duels. any time that the +2 is somehow not what you want to do, chances are the +1 or the -4 are what you want. they cover bases. they overlap very well.
the overall card is excellent because the overall card makes sure there's always an ability you have that you want to use even when the other abilities are dead.
How many times do we look at creatures and think ''this dies to'' (insert spot removal)
How many times do Standard All-Star Rares get printed that say ''this does NOT die to'' (insert spot removal)
Imagine just for a second that Thragtusk was being printed in this set as a common. Absurd, I know but just imagine. Fans of Lightning Bolt and Lightning Bolt-esque cards would be very sad pandas if they were facing down Thragtusks all day every day.
7 damage is a hell of a lot of damage and is going to be able to fry most things. And it can also hit players if you're ready to blow them up after destroying their last defense.
In a tight spot against burn strategies, many cards exist to get players back into the game, gain free life points, put a creature token out, whatever. Burn spell-ing the creature usually feels bad. I don't know what kind of huge bulky thing in Green/White they might print this time to get around Open Fire (a very poor excuse of a burn spell if I ever saw one).
I'm willing to bet 7 damage will take care of nearly anything without Creature Type- God, though.
Notice how all these Eternalized Zombies are everywhere pumping up to 4/4? 7 is bigger than 4, lol. Oh yeah, sure, of course being able to blast players to the face and finish them off is also important.
What if a really key Rare card with Eternal turns out to be a super great 4/4 though? where are the burn spells then? I bet 7 damage will kill it though.
Or that nightmare Afflict 4 Jackal? 4 toughness is, once again, less than 7.
7 is a very fat stack of damage to dome against even big threats.
In non-Standard formats, 7 damage will kill a Titan. And some of those Titans can produce more than 7 damage per attack so it's important to kill them before you kill the player. Yowza.
+2 is blue reaching out and telling you what to do with your deck.
+1 is black telling you that you're not safe
-4 is red, lashing out angrily at anything in reach
-12 is blue/black/red in its purest form, reaching out against everything and wiping the field and after a bare minimum of 3 turns potentially keeping it that way.
Tell that to Gideon.
+1 will be destroying control mus once you handle their board, making it so they can't get back into the game.
The -4 isn't really there to shoot creatures, it hits players, too. This can easily be a win con right there.
Ultimates are almost always just win more. Never ever judge a pw by it's ultimate at all.
I have to say though, it's a bit funny that if I had a choice between popping the -12 and doing the +2 again, well frankly I bet I'd +2 again. I probably have built my deck with a more efficient way to get the gist of the -12 than relying on the God Pharoah to do it. But that -12 does help give him bombiness for Limited. Assuming that you somehow find yourself drafting and casting him in Limited,
he's 7 mana and three colors and he's controlly. This game has been going on a while. You might want to throw him away with one -4 and let the opponent attack him to death next turn. But your opponent might have lots of stuff you have to deal with to get the game under control, and maybe one Super Lightning Bolt isn't going to be enough to save you, and you have to risk it, you have to pump him +2, hope for some good free spells, and while you try to make the rest of your deck work properly (because the rest of your deck needs to be made of something), you allow Bolas to be a ticking bomb and decide that you want to build him up to his Ultimate. It's somewhere between over-confident toying and silly risk-taking.
I'm not sure how many other situations I'd find myself in really wanting to use his Ultimate. To be honest, his Ultimate is grandiose, arrogant, and yeah, win-more. But it's kind of great for flavor that it's like that. Good Strategy Play probably says that between the other 3 abilities he's got, you really have a better play than his Ultimate. But hey, maybe you just feel like being the God-Pharoah and really want to pop his Atomic Bomb just to be able to say you did it.
It's a well designed card. This is a good card to teach people about Planewalker Ultimates with. There are uses for that Ultimate, definitely but in most situations I'm perfectly happy using one of his other powers instead.
I like the card, and I'd put it in almost every deck if I had one. It's not like a Black Lotus. It's more fun than that. Any deck that can cast Bolas is going to feel a silly selfish evil glee if they decide to throw him one-of into the deck anyway just because they can. But it's a weak enough idea to do that that it's not going to warp tournaments horrifically like Emrakul 2.0.
This is an awesome Magic card and the first thing you should do with it is put it with your Archenemy: Nicol Bolas decks obviously.
Turn 4: Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Turn 5: +1 Chandra for RR, tap 5 lands, play Bolas.
As long as you can use your first 3 turns to set up so that Chandra doesn't get killed immediately, I feel this is gonna win some games.