Ok so i hVe combed over the card and tried to use what minimal analyzing skills I have and have to say this card has to be modern playable.
Yes the mana cost is heavy but with filter lands and near perfect mana in modern hitting colors shouldn't be an issue.
Surely this could be a viable finisher finally for grixis in modern? With things like thoughtseize and IoK to pave a way and cheap counter magic and removal to protect it surely this can make a impact? Coming down and having 4 loyalty and possibly 5 loyalty is no joke either.
Probably the biggest strike against Dragon God Bolas is that he costs 5 coloured mana, 3 of them black. This ends up clashing with those Grixis Control favourites, Cryptic Command and Field of Ruin. Yes, it's quite possible that the only nonbasic lands your opponent has on the battlefield are fetches and Ghost Quarter, making Field of Ruin unable to tutor out anything when it targets them.
Dragon God Bolas probably does compare favourably to Ral, Izzet Viceroy (the most popular 5-mana walker in Modern who cannot untap lands). But that may mean he sees play as a 1-of or in the sideboard.
I sure want him to, but not sure if you would want him alongside too many counterspells.
I feel like you'd want him in a tapout-style, discard-focused deck. Maybe kinda midrange-y.
If Counterspell is in Modern Horizons, I think New Bolas can be the finisher for the deck. As people have mentioned, the best counter spell in Modern right now is Cryptic Command which is just too hard of a mana cost to exist along side Bolas's Cost. But UU is easier to manage along side UBBBR. It is everything a control deck wants: Card Advantage, Discard, Kill spell, and finisher. It's certainly worth warping your deck's mana base to make it work.
I dont think this guy is gonna be a good fit for competitive grixis strstegies in Modern.
Casual modern? He looks awesome, you might have time to use him to his capacity and draw some cards/exile some bros/copy other walkers. But if you tap out for this against fast meta decks and theyll murderize your face.
Compare one of these to snapcaster + kolaghans command. Fewer colors, more versatile, instant speed. Thats what you want turn five, not tapping out to syphon mind and then die.
Awesome and fun card, but not designed for modern grixis i think.
Corey @ channell fireball prove me wrong lol
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I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
I could see him in some sort of G/x Superfriends with Oath of Nissa... or in just a core Grixis deck. But yeah, if there's a Counterspell alternate or someone finds a way to bust Kefnet, maybe.
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I think he slots poorly into Grixis Control, because Grixis Control slots poorly into the current modern metagame.
- Currently, the dominant decks in Modern include Tron, Izzet Phoenix, Grixis Shadow, Humans, and Dredge; current Grixis removal options (such as Terminate, Anger of the Gods, Damnation, Dismember, and Fatal Push) match up extremely poorly against the primary threats of all of those decks except Humans which is why Azorius and Jeskai decks (with get to run Path to Exile and Terminus) are effectively the only traditional control decks that have a share of the metagame today.
- As a result, Grixis control decks that do exist currently more "splash" Black so that they can emphasize running counterspells (namely a full four Cryptic Commands with Tasigur and Snapcaster to buy them back) to have more successful answers to those threats. A BBB card is a real strain to those deck's mana base.
- No Grixis deck currently runs planeswalkers even though Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a legal card in the format due to the emphasis on instant-speed control. This is key because Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God would really like to partner with some friendly 'walkers. Yes, he copies all abilities of ALL planeswalkers, but I think it will rarely be correct to keep an opponent's Teferi, Hero of Dominaria around to get that sweet draw + untap when Bolas can just -3 to kill Teferi instead. However, paying five mana to destroy an opposing Teferi (assuming you even get to resolve this Hot God through an enemy's Dovin's Veto) is simply too slow and vulnerable a play.
I do think a Superfriends deck is going to emerge in Modern, but I suspect that Dragon-God will be a fringe player in that deck. Standard is a more spicy format for him.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I am sorry to double-post, but now I have to take it back - this card may be the real deal in Modern thanks to The Elderspell, which can enable you to instantly win by supercharging Bolas. Here's my take on a uBR Control Deck with such a theme...
The goal is to get to two walkers on board, and then cast Bolas + The Elderspell to intantly get to 8 and end the game. The Elderspell is able to kill any opposting Teferis or Jaces or Lilis that might be stopping you. Ashiok, Dovin, and your own Lilis are here to run interference, slow opponents down, and protect you while being reay to get Elderspelled, while Karn does something similar while also enabling some bonkers sideboard shenanigans. Beyond that we've got a pretty standard sort of "tap-out control" suite.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
I am sorry to double-post, but now I have to take it back - this card may be the real deal in Modern thanks to The Elderspell, which can enable you to instantly win by supercharging Bolas. Here's my take on a uBR Control Deck with such a theme...
The goal is to get to two walkers on board, and then cast Bolas + The Elderspell to intantly get to 8 and end the game. The Elderspell is able to kill any opposting Teferis or Jaces or Lilis that might be stopping you. Ashiok, Dovin, and your own Lilis are here to run interference, slow opponents down, and protect you while being reay to get Elderspelled, while Karn does something similar while also enabling some bonkers sideboard shenanigans. Beyond that we've got a pretty standard sort of "tap-out control" suite.
Honestly, my first thought was to just dismiss this but that's a pretty tight set of control effects. May be viable if there's a way to cheat out Ashiok a turn early (Simian Spirit Guide maybe). Davrirl could be worth a slot or two as well.
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Yes the mana cost is heavy but with filter lands and near perfect mana in modern hitting colors shouldn't be an issue.
Surely this could be a viable finisher finally for grixis in modern? With things like thoughtseize and IoK to pave a way and cheap counter magic and removal to protect it surely this can make a impact? Coming down and having 4 loyalty and possibly 5 loyalty is no joke either.
So what's others thoughts on this?
Dragon God Bolas probably does compare favourably to Ral, Izzet Viceroy (the most popular 5-mana walker in Modern who cannot untap lands). But that may mean he sees play as a 1-of or in the sideboard.
I feel like you'd want him in a tapout-style, discard-focused deck. Maybe kinda midrange-y.
UWRUWR MidrangeUWR
BUGSultai MidrangeBUG
BUGRTraverse MidrangeBUGR (currently brewing)
But I’m not really a modern player
But all star in edh easily
Casual modern? He looks awesome, you might have time to use him to his capacity and draw some cards/exile some bros/copy other walkers. But if you tap out for this against fast meta decks and theyll murderize your face.
Compare one of these to snapcaster + kolaghans command. Fewer colors, more versatile, instant speed. Thats what you want turn five, not tapping out to syphon mind and then die.
Awesome and fun card, but not designed for modern grixis i think.
Corey @ channell fireball prove me wrong lol
I invision a future where one is not mighty when he can silence a crowd with brutality,
but when he leaves them speechless with wisdom.
- Currently, the dominant decks in Modern include Tron, Izzet Phoenix, Grixis Shadow, Humans, and Dredge; current Grixis removal options (such as Terminate, Anger of the Gods, Damnation, Dismember, and Fatal Push) match up extremely poorly against the primary threats of all of those decks except Humans which is why Azorius and Jeskai decks (with get to run Path to Exile and Terminus) are effectively the only traditional control decks that have a share of the metagame today.
- As a result, Grixis control decks that do exist currently more "splash" Black so that they can emphasize running counterspells (namely a full four Cryptic Commands with Tasigur and Snapcaster to buy them back) to have more successful answers to those threats. A BBB card is a real strain to those deck's mana base.
- No Grixis deck currently runs planeswalkers even though Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a legal card in the format due to the emphasis on instant-speed control. This is key because Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God would really like to partner with some friendly 'walkers. Yes, he copies all abilities of ALL planeswalkers, but I think it will rarely be correct to keep an opponent's Teferi, Hero of Dominaria around to get that sweet draw + untap when Bolas can just -3 to kill Teferi instead. However, paying five mana to destroy an opposing Teferi (assuming you even get to resolve this Hot God through an enemy's Dovin's Veto) is simply too slow and vulnerable a play.
I do think a Superfriends deck is going to emerge in Modern, but I suspect that Dragon-God will be a fringe player in that deck. Standard is a more spicy format for him.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
2 Dovin, Hand of Control
2 Ashiok, Dream Render
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Karn, the Great Creator
3 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
2 Deliver Unto Evil
4 Night's Whisper
Control: 17
3 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
1 Bedevil
1 Damnation
2 Anger of the Gods
4 The Elderspell
The goal is to get to two walkers on board, and then cast Bolas + The Elderspell to intantly get to 8 and end the game. The Elderspell is able to kill any opposting Teferis or Jaces or Lilis that might be stopping you. Ashiok, Dovin, and your own Lilis are here to run interference, slow opponents down, and protect you while being reay to get Elderspelled, while Karn does something similar while also enabling some bonkers sideboard shenanigans. Beyond that we've got a pretty standard sort of "tap-out control" suite.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
Honestly, my first thought was to just dismiss this but that's a pretty tight set of control effects. May be viable if there's a way to cheat out Ashiok a turn early (Simian Spirit Guide maybe). Davrirl could be worth a slot or two as well.