I heard the mention of Bolas and came as fast as I could... And for what I can see, I think I've already figured out your problem: you're pretty new to Modern as a format, aren't you? As a fellow Bolas lover and one who's been working hard to make the God-Pharaoh playable in the format, I'm more than willing and more than able to help, but before I do, I think there are a few things I'm going to have to explain... Perhaps it's better if we talk over private message?
yes, I've only been playing for a little under a year haha, and it was mostly in standard format. If you want to shoot me a DM go for it haha.
Hey, new guy to the forums. I made a Bolas Deck for modern. It was running fine, but the deck was upwards of 80 cards, I just couldn't decide what to take out. But now I've narrowed it down to 60. Here it is
Now here's where my problems regarding its reduced size come in
1) Fast decks DESTROY me, this deck is a slow kill. It can be pulled off but when it falls, it falls hard. If it's allowed to survive till the late game I end up always destroying who I'm playing with. But if I'm getting rushed with token spam or a fast deck in general it's extremely difficult to deal with unless I get lucky with a Black Sun's Zenith to clear the field.
2)I wasn't able to fit in an array of counter spells without cutting out my vital sorceries and enchantments. Should I worry about this? Now that I've limited the size, I have virtually zero control capabilities.
3) I feel like there are simply not enough fast creatures here to defend myself early game. Should I swap some things out for things faster and more powerful?
Is there anything in here I should replace for something more efficient? All feedback is welcome. Thanks for the help in advance.
Hey, new guy to the forums. I made a Bolas Deck for modern. It was running fine, but the deck was upwards of 80 cards. I've narrowed it down to 60. Here it is
Now here's where my problems regarding its reduced size come in
1) Fast decks DESTROY me, this deck is a slow kill. It can be pulled off but when it falls, it falls hard.
2)I wasn't able to fit in an array of counter spells without cutting out my vital sorceries and enchantments. Should I worry about this?
3) I feel like there are simply not enough fast creatures here to defend myself early game. Should I swap somethings out for things faster and more powerful?
Is there anything in here I should replace for something more efficient? All feedback is welcome. I've only been in the game for 9 months so feel free to educate me. Thanks for the help
Title says it all, I'm stuck on a rule regarding Slave of Bolas. If the creature I took control of with it is sacrificed at the end of the turn as the card dictates, will it go to the original owner's graveyard, or mine.? I tried looking everywhere for an answer but haven't found one. Thanks for the help.
Ratchet Bomb seems like your best bet as an answer. You're going to need to rethink your decklist a bit though. As others have mentioned, Heartless Summoning doesn't work the way you want it to. The Aristocrat/Summoning/Retriever combo is fine, but the rest of your value creatures need to be rethought. You're also going to want some way of tutoring up combo pieces. In mono black, your best options are Beseech the Queen and Infernal Tutor- especially since your deck requires a pair of Retrievers for the kill. I'd also suggest getting Fatal Push, Thought-Knot Seer, Wasteland Strangler, and any number of targeted discard spells into your deck.
regarding the heartless summoning. Im only using it to insta kill my Myrs and begin their cycle for free, (which is needed for the combo) as well as early game defenders such as sky gate that only cost (2) and a few other creatures with (2) in their mana costs. I made a mistake thinking I could use it to reduce colored costs. But that's not really what I was relying on, though it does help getting out falkenrath noble out for 2 black and (1) instead of a total CMC of 5 which is good. However I appreciate the rest of the advice. Will be swapping out some things for the cards you mentioned. This was a big help
However, that card you linked is nasty. Will definitely switch out the noxious dragon and phyrexian rager for 2 of those. A 4/4 for 2 mana and has annihilator? Yikes.
Sorry, friend, but Heartless Summoning only reduces generic mana cost. That is, not colored mana costs. Your Gifted Aetherborn still cost BB, and Phyrexian Obliterator still costs BBBB. I hate to burst your bubble, but you appear to have made some deckbuilding choices based on false pretenses.
There's even an official ruling on Gatherer:
9/22/2011
The first ability doesn’t reduce any colored mana requirements of the creature spell.
Hmmmmmm, I see. Forgive my ignorance hahaha. What would you recommend then? I'd still be fine paying 2 black for a gifted, that isn't terrible. Nor is 4 black for obliterator. But are there any fast, powerful cards you'd recommend that would benefit from Heartless? I'm looking to replace the filler cards in my deck with things better synergized with what I'm trying to pull off as well as figure out how to deal with the full necro hate my friend keeps throwing at me. Thank you for informing me of my mistake!
If you only play against this one opponent, and he's picking cards just to beat you, you have nothing to lose by doing the same back. Does he have good answers to Phyrexian Obliterator?
I do play with other people which is why this is a somewhat difficult problem to solve. As I don't want to narrow the scope of my deck to the point where it only plays against one type of strategy. Which is essentially what my friend has done with his Dino deck (which I don't get, because in group games we play with 3-4 other people. I'm not the only opponent he ever plays but he's making specific hate for my deck haha) and I can't for the life of me really think of any way of removing those artifacts outright unless I duress him or use something such as a dispossess.
However, that card you linked is nasty. Will definitely switch out the noxious dragon and phyrexian rager for 2 of those. A 4/4 for 2 mana and has annihilator? Yikes.
So I spent a little time making a monoblack that runs off of Falkenrath Noble, heartless summoning, and Myr retriever, the deck list is as follows:
CREATURES
4x Myr Retriever
3x Falkenrath Noble
3x Consulate skygate
(early on I usually have heartless out by turn 2/3. So 0 CMC for a 0)3 with reach early game I thought was a worthy investment)
2x gifted aetherborn
2x Warpath ghoul
2x Morkrut banshee (synergizes well when you play it if you killed a Myr for 0 cost)
INSTANTS/SORCERY'S
3x Doom Blade
3x recover
2x Duress
2x Harsh Scrutiny
1x Walk the plank(Filler card)
1x Murder (Filler card)
And 20 swamps
Now my friend is running R/W Ixalan Dino's. Which isn't that difficult to handle. But then for the sole purpose of making my deck unplayable he put in:
4x Silent Gravestone (target abilities from graveyards can't be activated) costs 1
4x Sentinel Totem (exiles all cards from all graveyards) costs 2
Which renders my Myr synergy useless, given how I need to have a Myr in the graveyard for it to pop off its infinite with heartless summoning. In turn doing infinite damage with Falkenrath Noble being in play
Now unless I go and totally reconfigure this deck, or dabble in green so I can run things like naturalize. Or throw out some of those filler cards for things like Dispossess. I honestly can't think of too many ways to deal with this. ive only been playing for 9-ish months. So please feel free to educate me. All help would be appreciated, Thanks!
PLANESWALKERS:
Nicol Bolas, God Pharaoh
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
CREATURES:
1x Progenitus
1x Ulamog,The Ceaseless hunger
1xBontu the glorified
1x The Scorpion God
1x God Pharaoh's faithful
2x Disciple of Bolas
2x Angel of the God Pharaoh
4x Augur of Bolas
SORCERIES:
1x Torment of Hailfire
1x Doomfall
1x Dark Intimations
1x Approach of the Second sun
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Slave of Bolas
2x Cruel Ultimatum
3x Wit's End
ENCHANTMENTS:
1x Cruel Reality
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Gideon's intervention
2x Faith of the Devoted
ARTIFACTS:
1x Throne of the God Pharaoh
2x Planar Bridge
2x God Pharaoh's gift
2x Gate to the afterlife
LANDS
3x Plains
2x Tranquil expanse
4x Island
1x Fetid Pools
1x Submerged boneyard
4x swamp
5x Mountain
Now here's where my problems regarding its reduced size come in
1) Fast decks DESTROY me, this deck is a slow kill. It can be pulled off but when it falls, it falls hard. If it's allowed to survive till the late game I end up always destroying who I'm playing with. But if I'm getting rushed with token spam or a fast deck in general it's extremely difficult to deal with unless I get lucky with a Black Sun's Zenith to clear the field.
2)I wasn't able to fit in an array of counter spells without cutting out my vital sorceries and enchantments. Should I worry about this? Now that I've limited the size, I have virtually zero control capabilities.
3) I feel like there are simply not enough fast creatures here to defend myself early game. Should I swap some things out for things faster and more powerful?
Is there anything in here I should replace for something more efficient? All feedback is welcome. Thanks for the help in advance.
Moved to Deck Creation - Torpf
PLANESWALKERS:
Nicol Bolas, God Pharaoh
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
CREATURES:
1x Progenitus
1x Ulamog,The Ceaseless hunger
1xBontu the glorified
1x The Scorpion God
1x God Pharaoh's faithful
2x Disciple of Bolas
2x Angel of the God Pharaoh
4x Augur of Bolas
SORCERIES:
1x Torment of Hailfire
1x Doomfall
1x Dark Intimations
1x Approach of the Second sun
2x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Slave of Bolas
2x Cruel Ultimatum
3x Wit's End
ENCHANTMENTS:
1x Cruel Reality
1x Overwhelming Splendor
1x Gideon's intervention
2x Faith of the Devoted
ARTIFACTS:
1x Throne of the God Pharaoh
2x Planar Bridge
2x God Pharaoh's gift
2x Gate to the afterlife
LANDS
3x Plains
2x Tranquil expanse
4x Island
1x Fetid Pools
1x Submerged boneyard
4x swamp
5x Mountain
Now here's where my problems regarding its reduced size come in
1) Fast decks DESTROY me, this deck is a slow kill. It can be pulled off but when it falls, it falls hard.
2)I wasn't able to fit in an array of counter spells without cutting out my vital sorceries and enchantments. Should I worry about this?
3) I feel like there are simply not enough fast creatures here to defend myself early game. Should I swap somethings out for things faster and more powerful?
Is there anything in here I should replace for something more efficient? All feedback is welcome. I've only been in the game for 9 months so feel free to educate me. Thanks for the help
Hmmmmmm, I see. Forgive my ignorance hahaha. What would you recommend then? I'd still be fine paying 2 black for a gifted, that isn't terrible. Nor is 4 black for obliterator. But are there any fast, powerful cards you'd recommend that would benefit from Heartless? I'm looking to replace the filler cards in my deck with things better synergized with what I'm trying to pull off as well as figure out how to deal with the full necro hate my friend keeps throwing at me. Thank you for informing me of my mistake!
I do play with other people which is why this is a somewhat difficult problem to solve. As I don't want to narrow the scope of my deck to the point where it only plays against one type of strategy. Which is essentially what my friend has done with his Dino deck (which I don't get, because in group games we play with 3-4 other people. I'm not the only opponent he ever plays but he's making specific hate for my deck haha) and I can't for the life of me really think of any way of removing those artifacts outright unless I duress him or use something such as a dispossess.
However, that card you linked is nasty. Will definitely switch out the noxious dragon and phyrexian rager for 2 of those. A 4/4 for 2 mana and has annihilator? Yikes.
CREATURES
4x Myr Retriever
3x Falkenrath Noble
3x Consulate skygate
(early on I usually have heartless out by turn 2/3. So 0 CMC for a 0)3 with reach early game I thought was a worthy investment)
2x gifted aetherborn
2x Warpath ghoul
2x Morkrut banshee (synergizes well when you play it if you killed a Myr for 0 cost)
2x ravenous chupacabra
1x Noxious Dragon.(filler card)
1x Phyrexian Rager (filler card)
ARTIFACTS/ENACHANTMENTS
3x Heartless summoning.
2x Grinding station
1x Dead weight (filler card)
1x Predators Gambit (filler card)
1x Skeletal Grimace (filler card)
INSTANTS/SORCERY'S
3x Doom Blade
3x recover
2x Duress
2x Harsh Scrutiny
1x Walk the plank(Filler card)
1x Murder (Filler card)
And 20 swamps
Now my friend is running R/W Ixalan Dino's. Which isn't that difficult to handle. But then for the sole purpose of making my deck unplayable he put in:
4x Silent Gravestone (target abilities from graveyards can't be activated) costs 1
4x Sentinel Totem (exiles all cards from all graveyards) costs 2
Which renders my Myr synergy useless, given how I need to have a Myr in the graveyard for it to pop off its infinite with heartless summoning. In turn doing infinite damage with Falkenrath Noble being in play
Now unless I go and totally reconfigure this deck, or dabble in green so I can run things like naturalize. Or throw out some of those filler cards for things like Dispossess. I honestly can't think of too many ways to deal with this. ive only been playing for 9-ish months. So please feel free to educate me. All help would be appreciated, Thanks!