It’s been a hot minute since the last time I posted a “New Perspectives” article, which was all about Nissa of Shadowed Boughs (linked here), but this week’s article is all about Grixis! Since Amonkhet Remastered was released on MTG Arena back in August, I’ve been thinking a lot more about the good old God-Pharaoh here and how he can be built around in Oathbreaker. Normally I don’t tinker around much with seven-drop planeswalkers in this format, but Bolas’s abilities hit just the right balance of “powerful” and “spicy” to suit my brewing tastes.
The Oathbreaker
Let’s begin by taking a look at the individual abilities on Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh.
This first ability is quite the wacky form of card advantage! Although it is a bit of a spin of the wheel, this ability can nearly guarantee you one free spell on each of your turns. The fact that this effect is slapped onto a +2 ability is also worth noting, since that means this ability doubles as an effective way to build/maintain Bolas’s loyalty count. I’d say this is one of the weaker abilities on this particular planeswalker, but it’s definitely a fun ability.
This second ability might secretly be the strongest of the God-Pharaoh’s abilities for Oathbreaker, at least when considering both the power and the cost of the ability. For the low cost of adding a loyalty counter to your Oathbreaker, the God-Pharaoh will decimate your opponents’ number of cards in hand. In a four-player game, this effect will permanently get rid of 6 random cards from your opponents (assuming they have any cards in hand to begin with). This kind of ability will effectively empty all of your opponents’ hands in just a few turns more often than not, which will help ensure that no one will be able to keep up with you in the late game. If you’re looking for this card’s “default” plus ability, you’ve found it.
For the record, this -4 ability has been errata’d to include planeswalkers your opponents control so yes, the God-Pharaoh can also function as Oathbreaker removal. 7 damage will typically be more than enough to knock out most Oathbreakers, and it’s a not-insignificant amount of damage to throw at an opponent’s face. While certainly not as strong as Bolas’s +1 ability, this -4 can do its fair share of work.
If you’ve reached the point where you can resolve this ability, you’ve probably already won the game in all but name; however, if by some strange twist of fate you somehow weren’t already well ahead, this ability will push you over the top. I don’t think I really need to explain why a one-sided board wipe that exiles everything it hits is a powerful effect, especially in a multiplayer format.
So, to address the dragon in the room; yes, big bad Bolas here does cost a whopping seven mana, which is not the easiest requirement to meet in Oathbreaker (especially outside of green color combinations). That being said, there certainly are slower types strategies that can utilize this kind of planeswalker as its game-ending top end. This card’s high mana cost—combined with its Grixis color identity—does heavily restrict it in the amount of deck styles it can be reasonably be run in, but that won’t be enough to stop us from having fun by clobbering people with the God-Pharaoh in Oathbreaker!
Build #1: Grixis Theft
Decklist: God-Pharaoh’s Thievery
The theme for this first list is entirely inspired by Bolas’s first ability. Grixis colors have access to plenty of effects that will allow you to take your enemies’ resources and use them to your own advantage, so there’s no shortage of support for this kind of strategy. Since we’re already being a bit ambitious by running a seven-drop Oathbreaker, I’ve decided to go big with this deck’s Signature as well by running Blatant Thievery. You likely won’t be casting this card more than once per game, but when timed well, this type of spell can help end the game fairly quickly. After all, why destroy your opponents’ Oathbreakers when you can simply recruit them to your side instead?
- Repeatable Steal Effects: Nightveil Specter and Thief of Sanity are both excellent three-drop flyers that can accumulate a lot of card advantage over the course of a game. Dack Fayden is a bit more limited in terms of targets for his -2 ability, but that ability can still be put to great use by “borrowing” cards like Heart of Kiran. A bit higher on the mana curve we have Angrath, the Flame-Chained to briefly steal opposing creatures, a decent number of which won’t live to make it back to their owner. Etali, Primal Storm comes at an even larger cost, but the strength of their ability in multiplayer formats like Oathbreaker certainly makes it worthwhile. We can also catch our opponents off guard by flashing in the brand new Opposition Agent, a card that is especially effective against decks that run tutors as Signature Spells. Lastly, Frenzied Fugue does only hit one target, but it also comes with the added hilarity of swapping control of the permanent back and forth between you and its owner.
- One-Off Steal Effects: Not all of our theft effects are repeatable, but they’re no less effective. Stolen Goods is another random theft card that’s templated the same way as Bolas’s +2 ability, making it a bit hit-or-miss. Bribery, on the other hand, lets you tutor for a specific creature, so make sure to target the opponent running the chonkiest threats. If you need to get rid of a pesky artifact on board, Hostage Taker can help you steal it over to your own side, or you can always just use it to exile a token. Dragonlord Silumgar‘s trigger can be used to steal an opposing planeswalker, as can The Eldest Reborn if you make it to its final chapter. Even still, my favorite one-off theft effect is definitely Gonti, Lord of Luxury thanks to the “mystery” nature of their enter-the-battlefield trigger.
- Spicy Steal Effects: The Akroan War is an interesting take on a red theft card, and it can potentially cause a lot of havoc in a multiplayer setting. We can take further advantage of this forced combat with tricks like Domineering Will and Reins of Power, each of which will be sure to make combat a sad time for our opponents. Although I don’t usually count on planeswalker ultimates, the last ability on Ashiok, Nightmare Muse is both very reachable and fairly powerful. We can harp in on the fun of an opponent’s Signature Spell with the help of Narset’s Reversal, though we can certainly target other spells if we want to. Finally, we have Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God to borrow opposing planeswalker abilities, of which there should be plenty in a format like Oathbreaker.
Build #2: Grixis Planeswalkers
Decklist: God-Pharaoh’s Legion of Doom
Superfriends is certainly not a new archetype to Grixis colors in this format, but Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God is usually the Oathbreaker you’d see at the head of such strategies. It’s true that Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh doesn’t bring any strengths that are specific to this sort of archetype, though I would still say he’s well suited to this style of deck. After all, superfriends lists are often looking to play the long game anyways, and reaching the long game is the only way you’ll usually be able to resolve the God-Pharaoh. My Signature Spell choice for this list, The Elderspell, is one of the go-to choices for this kind of deck, and it does admittedly feel like a bit of a “cheap” choice at first glance; however, I personally don’t feel nearly as bad for running The Elderspell in the command zone with this particular deck as I would feel running it alongside the Dragon-God. In this case you’ll have to resolve your seven-drop Oathbreaker before you’re allowed to cast The Elderspell, which is going to be a bit more of a challenge. That being said, if you get to fire off this Signature Spell with the God-Pharaoh in play then you’ll be very likely to soon end the game with that over-the-top -12 ability.
- Mana Acceleration: Since our Oathbreaker costs a whopping seven mana, we’ll want to have a bit of ramp if we want to actually be able to cast him. This list is running the traditional set of two-drop mana rocks, including Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Izzet Signet and Rakdos Signet. We also have good old Commander’s Sphere to join in on the fun, and Tezzeret the Schemer can add even more to our artifact-based ramp with the help of his Etherium Cell tokens. Chandra, Torch of Defiance is another excellent source of mana acceleration, though she can also lend us a bit of card advantage when necessary. Will Kenrith can do even better by lending us a bit of ramp and card advantage simultaneously with that sweet -2 ability!
- Planeswalker Support: Grixis typically isn’t the color combination for teamwork, but it does have plenty of ways to support its planeswalkers. Repeated Reverberation can be particularly devastating when paired with the right loyalty ability (Bolas’s -4, anyone?). Deepglow Skate will give a big boost to all of our planeswalkers, and we can use Savor the Moment to get even more uses out of them. The “slow blink” effect from Teferi’s Time Twist won’t give us an extra loyalty activation, but it is very useful for saving planeswalkers from spot removal or suddenly resetting their loyalty count. Although these colors don’t offer too much in the way of extra ramp/fixing, we can still use cards like Interplanar Beacon to make it easier to pay our various mana costs for our planeswalkers (or skip them altogether, in the case of Fires of Invention). Sarkhan the Masterless benefits our planeswalker-based strategy in terms of both offense and defense, allowing us to discourage opposing attackers and suddenly go on the attack ourselves.
- Other Planeswalkers: Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast and Saheeli, Sublime Artificer will provide us with plenty of chump blockers, and both of these walkers pair particularly well with the artifact-focused Tezzeret, Artifice Master. Narset, Parter of Veils is another great low-drop planeswalker since she simultaneously gives us more gas and slows down our opponents. Higher up on the curve we have threats like Ashiok, Nightmare Muse and Ugin, the Ineffable, both of which function as creature producers and forms of Oathbreaker spot removal. The -4 ability on Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a form of mass removal that can prove to be even more devastating to our opponents’ board states, and Liliana’s triggered ability will even draw us more cards in the process! Another fine way to whittle our opponents down is with the emblems from Chandra, Awakened Inferno, which are repeatable sources of damage that our opponents won’t be able to interact with (well, unless they kill us, but we’ll be avoiding that possibility regardless).
Build #3: Cruel Control
Decklist: God-Pharaoh Cruel Control
Both of the previous lists have been types of “control” decks, in one form or another; however, none of them have looked quite like this. For those that may not be aware, “Cruel Control” is a deck name traditionally reserved for Grixis control decks running the card Cruel Ultimatum, which is this list’s Signature Spell. This seven-drop sorcery doesn’t scale especially well into a multiplayer format like Oathbreaker, but knocking out each of our opponents with Cruel Ultimatum isn’t our end-goal. This deck has plenty of other win conditions—including its Oathbreaker—and all we’re aiming to do is cast a Cruel Ultimatum or two along the way. Seriously, if you’ve never resolved a Cruel Ultimatum before, I’d highly recommend trying it sometime because it is sweet!
- Targeted Removal: Like any good control list, this deck has no shortage of spot removal. Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt are two cheap instants perfect for taking down low-cost creatures, or even pinging down an Oathbreaker in the Bolt’s case. Abrade is another versatile instant that’s particularly helpful in a format where cards like Heart of Kiran and Sparkhunter Masticore are running around. Also at the two-drop slot, we have Dreadbore as another means of planeswalker interaction. We can also shut down a planeswalker more permanently with Imprisoned in the Moon, or we can temporarily remove/shuffle it away with Chaos Warp. Even still, our flashiest spot removal spell is Enter the God-Eternals, which will net us plenty of value for its pricy mana-cost.
- Boardwide Interaction: Being able to interact with the entire board state is another key trait of a control deck, especially in multiplayer formats like Oathbreaker. Cards like Plaguecrafter and Soul Shatter will cost all of our opponents a card, and Dark Intimations comes with the added upside of a little card advantage (as well as a small boost to Bolas later on). We’re can also interact with every creature on board with traditional board wipes like Blasphemous Act and Radiant Flames. To top it all off, we’ve even got mass planeswalker removal in the forms of Hour of Devastation, Storm’s Wrath, and The Elderspell.
- Win Conditions: The God-Pharaoh is definitely this deck’s biggest win condition, but it’s always a good idea to have some form of backup. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet isn’t a significant threat on his own, but he can add a lot bodies to our board when paired with all our removal. Alternatively, we can drain our opponents out of the game with triggers from Massacre Wurm. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger will also whittle away our opponents’ life totals and cards in hand, and Torment of Hailfire can straight up kill the rest of the table in the right situation. Chandra, Flamecaller is another one of my favorite planeswalkers to play in these sorts of decks, especially since she can double as mass removal or card advantage when necessary. Even still, our flashiest win condition is definitely our ability to transform Nicol Bolas, the Ravager into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen—and yes, I have actually managed to pull that off in a game of Oathbreaker before!
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Theft & Planeswalkers: Commander’s Sphere, Ponder and Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
- Theft & Control: Fatal Push, Impulse, Storm’s Wrath and Syphon Mind
- Planeswalkers & Control: Abrade, Baleful Strix and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
- Theft, Planeswalkers & Control: Arcane Signet, Dimir Signet, Izzet Signet, Rakdos Signet, Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt, The Elderspell, Blasphemous Act, Dreadbore, Preordain and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
Praise the God-Pharaoh!
Although Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh certainly isn’t the most versatile Oathbreaker I’ve ever covered, I’m still glad I finally got to write a bit about him. This sweet seven-drop is probably one of my personal favorite planeswalker cards, partially because of its design and partially from the history I have with playing it. I even used to have a (non-competitive) Modern Tron deck built around casting the God-Pharaoh as early as turn 3 with the help of Oath of Nissa or Cascading Cataracts—a feat that I’ve managed to accomplish on multiple occasions!
Have you tried building a deck with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in Oathbreaker yet? Are there any others way you do/would want to build around him in Oathbreaker? Make sure to share your thoughts and brews with me on Reddit 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