Commander Deck Tech - Nicol Bolas, the Ravager

By far, one of the most present and iconic villains in Magic: The Gathering is Nicol Bolas, the Dragon that tried to conquer the multiverse and fell to his own greed. Today, he'll star in this Deck Tech in the Nicol Bolas, the Ravager version!

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is a double-faced creature that transforms itself into a planeswalker on its other side. Its creature side forces each opponent to discard a card, and has a good body - 4 mana for a 4/4 that Flies is worrisome for opponents.

The Grixis combination is perfect for this entire villainous side, and it will be based on this that we'll build a control deck, with a planeswalker sub-theme!

This list is very optimized, but it isn't yet ready for cEDH - this is a deck for a strong table, so we'll aim for tables with a higher power level, but not so high it is a cEDH deck, despite the staple choices in it. At the end of this article, we'll also show you a budget version, built around this same Grixis Planeswalkers line.

Accelerators

Playing without Green means we'll use several mana rocks most times, and this list isn't an exception. We use several high-cost spells, so having as much low-cost mana rocks as we can and playing them as soon as possible is our goal, particularly because we use Ancient Tomb, which brings us more aggressive play lines very early on.

We can access basically every single 2-cost mana rock possible: Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Izzet Signet, Talisman of Creativity, Talisman of Indulgence, Talisman of Dominance, Thought Vessel, Mind Stone and Fellwar Stone.

Obviously, we also use Sol Ring, and, to finish this artifact section, we have Chromatic Lantern and Relic of Sauron, which will provide us with access to card draw. To ramp too, we use the iconic Dockside Extortionist to create Treasure tokens.

Planeswalkers and Interactions with Them

Besides the commander himself, we use three other versions of Nicol Bolas; Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, which, by the way, is one of our win conditions, and Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh. This last one in particular has a very cool interaction with Displacer Kitten. With this kitten on board and by using Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh's +2, while we cast non-creature spells from one of our opponent's top deck, we blink this planeswalker and use its +2 again, repeating this process until we hit a creature spell or a spell without a target, such as a counter, for instance.

We use several other planeswalkers to help us get a win. Ashiok, Dream Render prevents your opponents from tutoring cards, Narset, Parter of Veils prevents their mass card draw, and Vronos Masked Inquisitor defends our planeswalkers well with its +1, phasing out up to two planeswalkers.

Thanks to the abundant number of artifacts we use, Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge significantly lowers our creatures' and planeswalkers' mana cost, not to mention its life gain, which will help us stabilize our health points.

Finally, as the planeswalkers we chose, we have Geyadrone Dihada as well to give us health, Liliana, Dreadhorde General to create blockers or remove creatures and give us eventual card draw, and Teferi, Master of Time to recycle our hand, phase out problematic creatures and possibly give us 2 extra turns.

Considering this deck somewhat focuses on planeswalkers, it would be weird if we didn't use The Chain Veil to have additional activations and Deepglow Skate to enable some Ults. Spark Double is also included, and, finally, we have Deliver Unto Evil - A thematic Nicol Bolas deck needs this card to significantly recover the resources we've lost. The Eldest Reborn removes resources from our opponents and can Reanimate some interesting opponent creature or one of our planeswalkers.

Tutors and Win Conditions

To end the game at once, we have the Bolas's Citadel, Aetherflux Reservoir and Sensei's Divining Top combo. It is possible to play without focusing on this combo and using it in the case of an emergency if the situation is indeed unfortunate. After building a good board with our planeswalkers on it, using Decree of Annihilation's Cycling basically guarantees a win, removing everyone's resources and leaving only you with your planeswalkers. Finally, we have Expropriate, which isn't quite a win condition, but it is quite a card for your opponents to deal with.

As tutors, we use almost all available - Grim Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor and Mystical Tutor, which will provide us with play lines like placing Expropriate on our top deck and casting it with Bolas's Citadel. As said before, this deck isn't focused on the only combo it has, so the idea with these tutors is to search for answers or look for planeswalkers.

Finally, we have Expedition Map exclusively to search for Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or Cabal Coffers, to have this duo on board and create countless mana, which will allow us to end the game in a gigantic Torment of Hailfire. We also use Opposition Agent to prevent our opponents from tutoring cards.

Defensive Resources and Answers

We count with a few cards to stall the game, considering this deck takes some time to develop its board. Stranglehold holds off the early game ramp cards and your opponents' possible tutors. No Mercy, Propaganda and Silent Arbiter can hold off more aggressive decks, but if these cards alone aren't enough, we have Cyclonic Rift. And to not lose our gas, we use Rhystic Study.

Now, let's see our wide array of answers and removals. Starting with counters, we use the 3 spells that can be played for free: Force of Will, Fierce Guardianship and Force of Negation. As other counters, we have An Offer You Can't Refuse, Counterspell, Arcane Denial and Mana Drain - I'll highlight Mana Drain, which allows us to cast high-cost spells when played well.

As target removal, we have Feed the Swarm and Chaos Warp to deal with enchantments and similar, Vandalblast and Rakdos Charm to deal with artifacts or answer with the other options in this card, and Bitter Triumph to deal with creatures and planeswalkers.

As global removal, we have Toxic Deluge, Damnation, Blasphemous Act and Hour of Devastation to deal with possible enemy planeswalkers decks.

This version is not as budget-friendly as it could be, but it is an alternative that is quite cheaper, with some Proliferate cards to grow your planeswalkers faster. It is quite different from the list we initially presented, but it carries the same initial idea.

This is a deck that I played a lot IRL with previous versions, and being able to bring it in an even more refined way is quite rewarding. As said before, it doesn't fit into the cEDH scene, but it is perfect to play at tables with strong decks, so the game is fair and nice.

Did you like this deck? Would you focus on another strategy? In Combos? Share your thoughts!