That Dragon Package is good, but makes the mana base intense, I like the discard, control with reanimator part. And bringing back Amonketh Control with all the Gods is a nice idea.
I like the idea of a Bolas theme, but I don't want to go the dragon route only cuz their are so many dragon decks and i do dragons mostly with my Kaalia deck. Nothing beats Nekussar for discard in my mind and I feel like we have plenty of re-animator decks available to us already. Honestly, I think I will probably just play a grixis "good stuff" stuff and flip Bolas for funsies when possible.
I'd probably go with the route of Group "Hug" for Bolas. Empower and enable my opponents to play things... and then just casually yoink the choicest bits.
I agree, I have that strategy as well, if u add copy effects, with steal spells and shittydownfall creatures, to give them... I haven't lost yet... Nobody is prepared for the combination of stealing, sack,take turns, copy, with land destruction ,a few counters. Very good, but deck wins without getting bolas to full potential
Pain Magnification combos insanely with Torment of Hailfire. Also, while kind of group huggy Dream Halls can tempt your opponents into discarding things to cheat stuff out. With enough control could become a viable lockdown strat.
I thought of that. It's a great value creature and reanimation is solid but it doesn't combo with worldgorger unless there is a lot more going on and I don't think I included sacrifice outlets. It just wasn't a PERFECT fit. But a strong contender for sure.
Grixis in general is the color combo that can be built flavorfully and powerfully without sacrificing much of either. But also Bolas just has such good fucking cards attached to him.
Thanks DJ. You gave me an idea. Since i moved to Germany i had to leave my MtG collection behind with most of my cards,but i bought the commander precon Lord Windgrace and a few packs in one of which i pulled Nicol Bolas the Ravager. I think i will run him as my commander with Xantcha stuffed in as well and then go blue for control/bounce/counters,black for reanimation and discard/ drain and red for burn,tricks (overmaster,shunt,reverberate,fury storm) and play the deck like that. Sure,the planeswalker side of the new Nicol Bolas is great but let's face it,you will never get it off unless you pay 11 mana to cast Bolas and then pay for the flip,and even then you run the risk of him eating a removal spell or burn.
I was considering that a re-entry / reanimation theme might be cool for bolas as well. There's obviously commanders like brago who do flicker better, but when black enters the equation, you can add reanimation. You could use stuff like feldon, entomb, mikaeus, grave betrayal, etc. And of course you get all stars like solemn sim, wurmcoil engine, the kamigawa dragons, and much more as support. That's how I'm gonna try building bolas.
I think that would be sick, just a Grixis good stuff deck that has bolas cards in it turns out surprisingly well. I didn't play archenemy (although I would've loved to considering) but he did really well as sort of a permission deck. even put in other walkers, like ashiok, OG baby jace , dak fayden, and the other bolas cards!
That's what I thought until I realized I could play cards like raider's wake and then Windfall to make everyone take damage. Not the most competitive, but it can win games!
Hey Jumbo, so here is a combo that can basically wipe one's hand....Megrim + Furnace of Rath/Dictate of the Twin Gods + Pain Magnification = moment someone takes 3 damage or discards a card, they lose their hand and takes 28 damage
well actually the trigger of the combo can be diferent. 1. When scorge etb, both activate at the same time, so first you put lathliss first, to ge the token and another etb from scorge, so in the first time you will end doing 3+3=6 dmg. 2. You will do the same with the other trigger of dragonstorm, you will be and extra of 5+5=10... for a total of 16dmg with the etb
One card for the Discard theme which I think would be very effective is Mind Twist: X and a black for a sorcery, target player discards x cards at random. Basically a second, more flexible copy of Wit's End.
Finally built Nicol Bolas Tribal, with every card being something Bolas had or may be able to cast in the lore. Plus, gotta have all his Planeswalker minions.
I currently have a Nicol Bolas themed punisher style deck, and I can't wait to switch out the commander to Bolas the Ravager instead of the original Nicol Bolas
DJ, check out this combo! You can actually win the game with just 4 copies of Dragonstorm with the creatures in your deck! Cast Dragonstorm with stormcount 3. Get Lathliss first, then Scourge of Valkas (SoV), then Bladewing the risen, then Worldgorger Dragon (WGD). Lathliss's ability triggers for the other 3 dragons entering with her, and SoV triggers for all 6 of the other dragons entering. Target your opponents with all of the SoV triggers except for the one with 7 damage, target your own WGD and put it on the stack above the WGD etb trigger. Then the WGD ability resolves, exiles your board and then it dies to SoV. Once it dies, everything comes back, so put Bladewing's ability on the stack first, targeting WGD, then Lathliss, then SoV. SoV deals the damage to opponents again, Lathliss makes more dragons, then Bladewing brings back the WGD. When it enters, put SoV ability on the stack above the WGD trigger, targeting your opponents for 6 and your own WGD for 7 again! This can be done till your opponents are dead and you still have infinite mana!
Im currently building a discard centric deck and thought nicol bolas would be a nice comander with good colors for a powerfull deck.. Im not into the dragon tribal but the reanmation Worldgrogar combo is something ill deffinlty considder looks very powerfull and fun. :D
Your combo with reanimating Worldgorger is dangerous. If you do not have something that you are bouncing that will directly kill your opponent it will result in an infinite combo that will not end and will then end the game in a draw. Also you cannot transform your commander to a Planeswalker in-between flickers because it is a sorcery speed ability. Other than that, awesome flavor and deck would love to make one of my own
I'm also not sure if that combo works the way you think it does, I'm not a judge but wouldn't exiling and returning the reanimate enchantment remove the target of that enchantment, making it fizzle on re-entry to the battlefield?
I would go with a discard deck with a flickering subtheme. Bolas + Dead-Eye Navigator or even Conjurer's Closet, and nobody will have a hand left. Maybe add a Panharmonicon.
The worldgorger is actually competitive, if you build around buried alive and necromancy with loads of tutors you can combo on t4 consistently and cuz your playing with blue you have acess to fow and pact of negation, once it resolves you just win by a million ways.... Ive been playing a deck with lots of wraths, ramp and a couple of reanimate which centers around flipping bolas and casting deepglow sakte, so far its been working wonders, and the flavor you get when your nicol bolas has over 20 loyalty and your just ultimating left and right is breathless.
Also. Another combo since you have infinite mana with WGD. 1. Get NB out. Transform to PW. 2. Drop a Chain Veil and activate. 3. Use a draw 2 or the reanimate ability then have NB deal damage to himself sending him back to the command zone. 4. Cast NB again and transform to PW. Since he is a new object, you can activate his abilities 2 times where the second ability is dealing damage to him so you can recast. 5. Rinse and repeat.
That's really cool! That means that even without the chain veil, if you have to go off with dragon without Bolas on the battlefield you can still strip everyone of cards in their hands with the loop you described ... even though the chain veil makes it really a great combo.
No siren of the silent song combos amazingly with megrim and bloodchief ascension they discard and kill take 2 ascension triggers u swing they take 2 more they took 4 damage and just to add insult to injury and pain magnification so they discard again and getting yet another trigger
I gotta say it was insane when i had Liliana's Caress, with Scepter Of Fergue, and Pain Magnification. And yes, i built a deck around this almost exactly. which is more of the playstyle that i go for. The only things i have in my deck, that r not in this vid is Psychic Corosion, Etrata the Silencer, and a very few amount of gain life.
Oh man i love your content and love bolas. This is awesome. My playgroup decided to build the dragons on a budget. I would have taken Bolas but i took Chromium cause I don't have an esper deck :(
Discard is mean enough, DJ. You dont need Worldgorger.... this is how you make un-friends. I went with Bounce and Attrition with Bolas. And discard. Cuz discard.
nicol bolas cruel control. def take advantage of discard spells...including myself. add kess, snapcaster, torrential gearhulk, and diluvian primordial jus to take some good instant/sorcires from opponents.
Really interested in this deck list. But as a fairly new-ish player to magic, I do have to ask the dumb questions; 1. What kind of opening hand am I aiming for? How many lands do I need to start with? Any specific spell(s) I should be aggressively mulligan I should be doing? 2. What are the decks weakness? (Aside from things like Ground Seal) The deck is super sorcery heavy and the few creatures it does run are all high cost late game combo pieces. How do you play and survive the early game? - Expanding on that a little more, how do you do the discard stuff without pissing off the whole table and getting focused down?
I already have a Nicol bolas deck, but it is Nicol Bolas (The Elder Dragon) rather than the new m19 Bolas. I focus on making my opponent discard the hand while I try and limit resources on field. For hand stuff there is the commander himself, but he also combos with Dragon Tempest both giving him haste, but because of how Nicol bolas is worded and he is the one doing the damage though dragon tempest I can make two players discard there hand with one cast of Bolas (By also swinging because of him getting haste). There is also Rakdos's Return, Mind Twist, and Wits End for the discard package, what makes Mind Twist and Rakdos's return great is that due to the fact they are X spells you don't need to invest a full 7 mana if they don't have 7 cards in hand. I of course run all the Bolas Planeswalkers, Eldest Reborn, and Hailfire for flavor reasons, but it is nice they also help me win. So in that way are decks are fairly similar. I also run lots of boardwipes, my deck is light on creatures opting for more of a spell slinger style of deck (Also why Kess is in my mainboard) so my 7 different boardwipes helps keep the board nice small and controllable. Out of my boardwipes I do run Niv Disk, and Jokulhaups so my planeswalkers are fine while everything else burns. One last addition I personally run is Overburden, due to being more of a spellslinger deck, my deck is not really hurt by this while some decks are repeatedly set behind on there turns due to this one enchantment.
I have a Muldrotha Mill/Discard deck, not made, just on paper and that I've tested online. Much of the U & B cards in the deck would go great in a Nicol Bolas, the Ravager deck that focuses utilizes discard mechanics. Of course I personally prefer Sultai, specifically Muldrotha for that, because Manabond + Storm Cauldron + Sasaya is just too fun, jank, but fun.
When getting scouge out for the 2nd dragonstorm you want lathiss to resolve be for scouge. You get 2 triggers of 3 damage. Then with the 3rd same thing you get 2 triggers of 5 damage.
7 tokens, each deal 14 dmg each, more/less 7x14=98, divided as you choose in multiples of 14. alternatively: dragon tempest out first & do that with lathliss into scourge into utvara, 1 lath, 4 scourge(5), 6 token(11), 8utva(19), 10token(29), swing 4 6 8 (18 (47)) 5x2(10(57)), get 5 tokens for 10x2 each (100) totalling 157, divide among 4 players 39 evenly with 1 to spare
Played this deck against Adaptive Enchantment and almost got screwed by ground seal. I think this deck could use some enchantment removal. Only one card that i found could deal with an enchantment and it shuffles it back in to the deck, so when it came out a second time and my one enchantment removal was in my graveyard I was nearly hosed.
i would build a mill/discard deck including mortivore, and consuming aboration as kick off's ;) fun to see creatures top over 80+ strenght and toughness
an use artifacts and, enchanments to protect them of give them hexproof and indestructable and menace, who know's mayby lifelink just for the because you can :P
Prince of thralls and any bolas planeswalker removal ability? Make everyone sacrifice/destroy permanents and gain control of them unless opponents pay life
Since Scourge of Valkas and Lathliss trigger at the same time, you can put the Valkas trigger first then Lathliss? This way, you get a dragon first that triggers Valkas again and would deal 3 damage. When the first trigger resolves, thats another 3 damage for a total of 6.
You know Scourge of Valkas and Dragon Tempest both say the dragon entering the battlefield does the damage, right? And OG Nicol Bolas doesn't have to deal combat damage to make them discard their hand, just any damage. Throw a Helm of the Host on him and someone gets blasted and discards their hand every turn.
Hey DJ, are you going to get Josh to record some sound bites for your intro? might be a cool addition :) also cool content over both of the channels :D
That's a great idea but that also sounds like a lot of work. Maybe way later when I want to make a cooler intro (maybe when I hire a professional) I'll ask a BUNCH of different people to contribute. When that happens one day, you will know it was your idea!
You need to be SUPER careful with Worldgorger Dragon combos!! If an opponent targets the dragon with any instant speed removal in response to gorger’s ETB, they can cause its LTB to resolve first, permanently exiling EVERYTHING!! Always keep a counterspell handy!!
No mention of cards like Shrieking Affliction or Quest for the Nihil Stone? Maybe I'm Just going down a harder discard path? Also, decklist link seems broken
Nice Deck Tech. I was going to build a nicol bolas Dragon tribal Deck and there it is. I Love the worldgorger Dragon interaction but how do i get him into the bin to reanimate him?? Keep Up the good Work.!!
Discard him to activate stuff, mill yourself, I usually discard him with Anje Falkenrath, and get something for him. There are many many ways to dump him into the Yard.
Was this made on Christmas morning? There is some real magical Christmas land stuff going on here. Please show some gameplay. I would put Omniscience and Sneak Attack in the deck.
This seems fun, but you have a little bit too much going on imo. A lot of these cards are only good if you have enough focus on that strategy and the fact that you're kinda splitting strategies makes you lose a lot of power. I'd probably go with Grixis goodstuff focusing mostly on ETB abilities. Add panharmonicon and stuff like that, while having lots of mana rocks for big stuff and to flip Bolas. Add the blue and black primordial to work with the graveyard too.
So I play this awesome card game that uses fantasy tropes and has an amazing long-running narrative that spans 25 years! What's that? Um, yes the most evil and powerful creature in the game is an ancient dragon named Nicol...
How many of each cards do you run for the deck? I’m new to commander and don’t fully know the rules and such but how many of each cards are in the deck?
I just wish he wasn't so expensive to get $20+ is a bit pricey for me xD. I built a deck around old bolas and cards like dragon tempest. It was slow but very dangerous late game lol.
Hey DJ I don't know if you have done a chromium deck tech yet but if you do can you create the deck a little different every deck list I've seen is a Voltron build but I think it would also make a really good reanimator commander
