When it comes to my “New Perspectives” series, it seems I’ve recently had trouble staying away from 3-color Oathbreakers. In my last “New Perspectives article I went over some ways to brew around Aminatou, the Fateshifter, and you can find that article here. This week I’m finally taking a look at the 3rd most popular Oathbreaker on EDHrec at the moment, with a whopping 362 decklists: Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God.
The Oathbreaker
Let’s begin by taking a look at Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God‘s individual abilities.
Surprisingly enough, this is actually the first static-planeswalker-ability I’ve covered in this series, and it’s a doozy. This type of effect obviously has strong and interesting applications in a format built around planeswalkers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s one of the biggest contributors to this card’s popularity in Oathbreaker. The power level of this ability increases even further when utilized in a superfriends strategy, or really any deck running additional planeswalkers, for that matter. And that’s just the card’s first ability! Quite the solid start for the Dragon-God.
While not particularly flashy, this ability is subtly strong, especially as a +1 ability. Having the default option of using your Oathbreaker to put yourself up a card would be fine on its own, but this ability also puts each of your opponents down a card, at least most of the time. Decks that can consistently produce one or more tokens every turn can mitigate the harm done by the second half of this ability, but hey, card advantage is still card advantage.
Ah, good old Hero’s Downfall. This ability is simple, straightforward and strong. Having access to planeswalker removal in your command zone can come in very handy in Oathbreaker, even at the cost of three loyalty.
The ultimate ability on a planeswalker usually isn’t something you’d want to build a deck around, but I’ve found this particular ability to be surprisingly effective in Oathbreaker, specifically because of The Elderspell. After destroying every opposing planeswalker, The Elderspell will usually leave Nicol Bolas with enough loyalty to use his -8 ability for the win. I’ve lost to this combination three or four times, and I’ve even won a game with it myself, so it’s no surprise to me that The Elderspell is the most popular Signature Spell to pair with this guy.
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God‘s strengths stem from the sheer power level of his abilities, as opposed to built-in synergies. Draw cards, kill the opponents’ things, win the game. It’s no wonder why so many players would want to build around the Dragon-God. For this article, I’ve chosen to look at lists with what I’d call “flavor-win” Signature Spells. I’ve also decided to specifically not use Deliver Unto Evil or The Elderspell as a Signature Spell, seeing as how they’re already the two most popular options to pair with Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, according to EDHrec.
Build #1: Grixis Amass
Decklist: Bolas Brutality
Although the Dragon-God himself doesn’t have any specific synergies with the amass mechanic, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to build a deck around him and his dreadhorde army. With only one set’s worth of support, the amass mechanic itself doesn’t pack much of a punch, but this deck’s Signature Spell gives the strategy a bit more “oomph”. Widespread Brutality is a payoff for amassing an army, as well as a way to help us close out the game by clearing the board of opposing blockers. Many of the amass cards from War of the Spark also grant benefits to any and all zombie creature tokens we may have, not just our army token, so this deck is running a bit of a zombie tribal/zombie tokens subtheme.
- Zombie Token Support: This deck is packing plenty of ways to turn our zombie tokens into serious threats. Vizier of the Scorpion, Dreadhorde Twins, Gleaming Overseer, and Eternal Skylord are all creatures that double as amass cards and token support. Dreadhorde Invasion is another amass enabler that can even give our attacking zombie tokens lifelink, once they get big enough. We can give all of our creatures menace by playing Angrath, Captain of Chaos, who will also contribute to our ever-growing-army. Metallic Mimic and Death Baron buff all of our incoming zombies, token and nontoken alike, and Death Baron‘s deathtouch will make our zombies especially effective in combat. We can also make one of our zombies into a greater threat by equipping it with Shadowspear or Sword of Sinew and Steel.
- Other Amass Cards: Lazotep Reaver and Aven Eternal are both reasonably-costed creatures that amass upon hitting the battlefield, while Grim Initiate and Herald of the Dreadhorde offer us a bit of insurance against most board wipes. It isn’t a creature itself, but Relentless Advance is one more clean and simple amass enabler. We can use Callous Dismissal to interact with our opponents’ permanents, and we can hold up mana for Lazotep Plating in order to protect our own board. Enter the God-Eternals packs a bit more of a punch, milling a player, killing a creature, and gaining us life while adds on to our army. The ceiling on Commence the Endgame is pretty high, but then again, having an uncounterable way to draw cards and amass will rarely be a bad thing for us. This next card isn’t an amass enabler, but I did want to highlight the inclusion of Marchesa, the Black Rose. A downside of casting Widespread Brutality is that it can kill our own non-army creatures, but Marchesa gives us a bit of protection in this area, and she works particularly well with all of our amass-creatures.
- Other Token Producers: Since there are only so many amass enablers to choose from, we’ll want to have some other zombie-token producers that can take advantage of all our token support. Curse of Disturbance can give tokens to most of our opponents, but our token support will ensure that our zombies are the strongest on the field. All of our amass-creatures happen to double as zombies themselves, so Diregraf Colossus will have no trouble generating plenty of tokens throughout the game. Liliana, Death’s Majesty adds to our growing zombie apocalypse, and Oath of Liliana is capable of generating a few 2/2s over the course of a game. Cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and Field of the Dead can passively create a horde of zombies, as can Grave Titan if we manage to keep it in play for a turn or two. Liliana’s Mastery both creates zombies and gives them a bit of support, and Rakshasa Gravecaller can add even more zombies to the mix for the small, additional price of sacrificing one creature.
Build #2: Grixis Dragons
Decklist: Bolas’s Dragons
In MTG Lore, Nicol Bolas fought Ugin on the plane of Tarkir long before he created his eternal army and set his eyes on Ravnica. The Dragon-God won this battle through trickery, and this monumental moment is represented on the card Crux of Fate. When built around as a Signature Spell, Crux of Fate can serve a very similar role to Widespread Brutality in the amass deck. A dragon tribal strategy can utilize Crux of Fate as a one-sided board wipe to clear the board of opposing creatures and close out a game. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God himself doesn’t add much to this deck outside of good old-fashioned value, but the grixis color combination actually offers a variety of strong support cards for dragon tribal strategies.
- Mana Support: Dragons aren’t known for their low mana-costs, so we’re going to need to be running some cheap mana ramp if we wanna get this strategy up off the ground. Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, and Izzet Signet are just the type of mana acceleration and mana fixing that we’re looking for. Dragon’s Hoard costs three mana to get down, but this handy mana-rock doubles as both mana ramp and card advantage. Sarkhan, Fireblood is another three-drop that adds fuel to the fire, and his card-filtering effect pairs particularly well with cards that we can return to our hand, such as Spit Flame. Last, but certainly not least, Dark Ritual can give us a huge, albeit temporary, boost in the mana department, and it even helps fix our mana for casting our Oathbreaker!
- Tribal Support: Bladewing’s Thrall and Boneyard Scourge aren’t as large as many of our other threats, but they can both be reanimated whenever we play out more dragons. We can also get a little bit of immediate value out of our dragons with Dragon Tempest and Scourge of Valkas, and the damage from these two cards can even be targeted at opposing planeswalkers. The static abilities on Thunderbreak Regent and Icefall Regent will disincentivise our opponents from targeting our dragons after they hit the field. Once we’re ready to attack our opponents with our flight of dragons, Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury and Silumgar, the Drifting Death will make sure our combat steps are as devastating as possible for our opponents. Sarkhan the Mad is another especially deadly finisher, and we can even capitalize on Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God‘s static ability to double up on Sarkhan’s -4 ability. The damage from that -4 ability can also be targeted at opposing planeswalkers if need be.
- Other Dragons: The kicker cost on Verix Bladewing makes them a four-drop threat that scales wonderfully into the late game. Glorybringer and Stormbreath Dragon are two classic five-drop dragons that each have their own strengths, the former functioning as effective spot removal and the latter being excellent at avoiding opposing white spot removal. We can use Dragonlord Silumgar to gain control of the biggest opposing threat in play, which could even be an opposing Oathbreaker. Niv-Mizzet, Parun will help us refill our hand after we deploy all of our dragons, and the incidental ping damage can whittle down life totals, planeswalkers, and creatures alike. Finally, we’re running Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, because of course we are. In most games, this card will just be a solid four-drop flying threat, but if you ever do manage to transform him into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen, get ready to have a LOT of fun.
Build #3: Grixis Torment
Decklist: Grixis Torment
This last deck is the “mean” list for this week. Similar to various grixis control strategies, this deck is looking to keep the board under control and play the long game; however, I’ve decided to differentiate this list from other grixis control strategies by taking it in more of a stax/group slug direction. Our Signature Spell and primary win condition, Torment of Hailfire, exemplifies the goal this deck perfectly. After wrecking our opponents’ boards and whittling down their hands, we’ll have no trouble ending the game with Torment of Hailfire. Our Oathbreaker’s +1 ability is particularly helpful for this type of deck since it picks away at our opponents and keeps our hand loaded with gas.
- Board Control: Having plenty of ways to keep the board clear will both keep us alive and make our Signature Spell even more deadly. Anger of the Gods and Yahenni’s Expertise are two light board wipes that work especially well in the early turns. For later in the game, we can use Blasphemous Act and Nightmare Unmaking to clear the board of creatures. Cyclonic Rift has become somewhat infamous in EDH, and it’s similarly effective in Oathbreaker when utilized in this kind of late-game archetype. There are a lot of board wipes that don’t hit opposing planeswalkers, but Storm’s Wrath and Hour of Devastation don’t share this limitation. This list is also running The Elderspell as an additional way to keep opposing planeswalkers off the battlefield.
- The Pain: Board wipes aren’t the only way we can deplete our opponents’ resources. Disinformation Campaign pecks away at our opponents’ hands while refilling our own, and it works especially well with our two surveil cards, Mission Briefing and Discovery / Dispersal. This list also runs multiple edict effects that can also make our opponents discard cards, such as Plaguecrafter, The Eldest Reborn, and Dark Intimations. In addition to playing generically strong cards to hurt our opponents, this list also has a handful of more niche answers for various strategies. Virulent Plague will shut down any deck looking to swarm the board with tokens, making our goal of keeping the board clear much easier. We’ll also want to limit our opponents’ ability to refill their hands, so the static ability on Narset, Parter of Veils will be very helpful. Finally, incidental lifegain has proven to be pretty strong in Oathbreaker, in my experience, so this deck is going deep to hate on lifegain by running Tainted Remedy. Not only does this enchantment prevent our opponents from buffering their life total against Torment of Hailfire, it also turns our opponents’ lifegain into even more damage.
- Other Ways to Win: Having some redundant means of winning the game will be handy to have in case we ever have trouble getting our Signature Spell online. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger‘s default role in this deck is being another enabler for our gameplan, but he can also end a game on his own if necessary. Another inclusion that functions similarly is Angrath, the Flame-Chained, but Angrath will make our opponents lose life regardless of what exactly they discard. Mogis, God of Slaughter is an indestructible permanent that will whittle away our opponents’ creatures while he does the same with their life totals. The emblems from Chandra, Awakened Inferno‘s +2 ability will be even more difficult for our opponents to answer, and our Oathbreaker can even stockpile the damage by mimicking Chandra’s ability. Although it’s generally not quite as effective as Torment of Hailfire, Exsanguinate is another way we can cause a massive life swing. To top it all off, this deck is also running Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh himself. The +1 ability on this big guy will decimate our opponents’ hands in no time, and his -4 ability can be used to answer an opposing threat or simply remove an opponent entirely.
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Amass & Dragons: Shadowspear and Lazotep Plating
- Dragons & Torment: Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Rakdos Signet, Izzet Signet, Anger of the Gods and Deliver Unto Evil
- Amass & Torment: Ponder and The Elderspell
- Amass, Dragons & Torment: Brainstorm, Preordain and Dark Ritual
All Hail the God-Pharaoh
It’s always interesting to me to take a popular Oathbreaker and try building some different, less popular strategies around them. I have a Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God + Deliver Unto Evil Midrange/Control deck myself, and it was really fun to explore other possibilities for old Nasty Bolas-ty. I’m also a bit of a vorthos enthusiast (outside of the recent story blunders), so building decks around some other flavorful Bolas spells was quite the treat for me.
How would you choose to build around Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God? If you have any Bolas Brews of your own, make sure to tell me about them in the comments or on Twitter!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com