I made a thread for this in the wrong place last night. I figured if I was making threads it was kinda my duty to make one for the old lizard.
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-GodUBBBR
Legendary Planeswalker- Bolas
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God has all loyalty abilities of all other planeswalkers on the battlefield.
+1: You draw a card. Each opponent exiles a card from their hand or a permanent they control.
-3: Destroy target creature or planeswalker.
-8: Each opponent that doesn't control a legendary creature or planeswalker loses the game.
{{4}}
It's so big and powerful!
Now that there are five playable Bolas cards, is there anybody who feels the need to switch to the new one, or are we all satisfied with our current Bolas provider? Personally, I've never seen a Bolas card that I liked half as much as Kess, Dissident Mage.
That mana cost just looks awful to me. I switch from Planeswalker to God-Pharaoh recently, in part because of the mana cost, and I'm not interested in switching to UBBBR.
The mana cost is way too restrictive for something that is only just somewhat better than Ral, Izzet Viceroy or Ob Nixilis Reignited. If this was 2UBR, I'd be into it, but as is it's a hard pass for me. The moment you're unable to cast it on turn 5 is the moment it becomes worse than the previously mentioned cards IMO.
They left out the part where Yawgmoth is resurrected,but has been cleansed as Yawgmoth the Redeemed,and now must awaken Chromium so that Karn can fuse with him and create what can only be known as : the ultimate taco.
While the card is extremly good for it's cmc, I think that awful mana cost is going to make it ultimately not stand the test of time.
I'm testing it out, cause my cube has incredible mana fixing, lol bolas and the +1 is unprecedented card advantage for a "5 mana" planeswalker. I see it more of a short term meme thing, than an honest test. I definitely like 4 cmc creature bolas better.
I'm guessing the passive ability should mostly matter if you have two planeswalkers on the battlefield, since in general, you'll want to kill an enemy planeswalker with the - asap. But it's something Im curious to see the amount of value it adds, I expect it to be pretty marginal, but also very cool.
The +1 is it's bread and butter and so impressive on a planeswalker of this casting cost.
The -3 leaves bolas unfortunately vulnerable, and makes him a bit weak on the backfooting against creature strategies. I ultimately would rather play bolas in a deck with a lot of cheap interaction than as part of a ramp/super friends package to ensure the highest probability the battlefield is at near par when you play him. You really want to +1 over and over again as much as you can.
Cool card tho and I look forward to messing around with Grixis Bolas Tribal on MTG:A
This is essentially the a stronger form of the classic 5-cmc Jace, Unraveler of Secrets / Ob Nixilis Reignited template that Teferi, Hero of Dominari has perfected. Bolas is definitely more powerful, but the mana cost is a killer. OG Bolas Planeswalker was rough with 4UBBR since black tends to be tertiary anyways because it's the most splashable of the colors, BBB is a huge dealbreaker.
This card was an all-star in both Grixis and Modern cube on MTGO.
If you get it early and commit to Grixis control, it's an absolute bomb and you prioritize fixing and signets/coalition relic, which you should be doing in that color combination anyway.
I think the +1 is way better than people are giving credit for - this is not an Ob-Nixilis variant - it's two card advantage per turn. If anything, it's more on par with the power-level of 7 mana Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh +1 ability, except dragon-god's +1 is probably better because it's guaranteed two card advantage per turn since you draw and they have to exile permanents if there's no cards in hand.
I played silly amounts of grixis this standard season, featuring a full play set of both 4 cmc and 5cmc Bolas. I also played 5 cmc Bolas in modern cube and every cmc bolas in my own cube at various points.
I’m very confident 4 cmc bolas is the best bolas ever printed by a noteable margin. 5cmc bolas isn’t far off in raw power, but it’s narrow cost makes basically everything I posted in my original analysis still stand.
I played silly amounts of grixis this standard season, featuring a full play set of both 4 cmc and 5cmc Bolas. I also played 5 cmc Bolas in modern cube and every cmc bolas in my own cube at various points.
I’m very confident 4 cmc bolas is the best bolas ever printed by a noteable margin. 5cmc bolas isn’t far off in raw power, but it’s narrow cost makes basically everything I posted in my original analysis still stand.
Yeah obviously they are both good.
But if standard is any indication, Dragon God seems to be a four of more commonly that 4 cmc bolas, although obviously if you are in Grixis you are going to play both.
I played silly amounts of grixis this standard season, featuring a full play set of both 4 cmc and 5cmc Bolas. I also played 5 cmc Bolas in modern cube and every cmc bolas in my own cube at various points.
I’m very confident 4 cmc bolas is the best bolas ever printed by a noteable margin. 5cmc bolas isn’t far off in raw power, but it’s narrow cost makes basically everything I posted in my original analysis still stand.
Yeah obviously they are both good.
But if standard is any indication, Dragon God seems to be a four of more commonly that 4 cmc bolas, although obviously if you are in Grixis you are going to play both.
Hah! Funny you reference that stream. At 1:17:50 he gives me a generous shout out (Jordan/Heisenb3rg96).. Am friends with Reid and was the one in his chat suggesting him to try out kefnet in the build....
His list definitly includes four 4 mana bolas, so I'm not sure where you got the idea he plays 2-3.
And I would argue the opposite, 4 mana grixis is an untouchable four of while some people play three copies of 5 mana bolas. (though really almost everyone plays 4 of each).
I played silly amounts of grixis this standard season, featuring a full play set of both 4 cmc and 5cmc Bolas. I also played 5 cmc Bolas in modern cube and every cmc bolas in my own cube at various points.
I’m very confident 4 cmc bolas is the best bolas ever printed by a noteable margin. 5cmc bolas isn’t far off in raw power, but it’s narrow cost makes basically everything I posted in my original analysis still stand.
Yeah obviously they are both good.
But if standard is any indication, Dragon God seems to be a four of more commonly that 4 cmc bolas, although obviously if you are in Grixis you are going to play both.
Hah! Funny you reference that stream. At 1:17:50 he gives me a generous shout out (Jordan/Heisenb3rg96).. Am friends with Reid and was the one in his chat suggesting him to try out kefnet in the build....
His list definitly includes four 4 mana bolas, so I'm not sure where you got the idea he plays 2-3.
And I would argue the opposite, 4 mana grixis is an untouchable four of while some people play three copies of 5 mana bolas. (though really almost everyone plays 4 of each).
Small world! Cool to know, guess I wasn't paying enough attention!
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God UBBBR
Legendary Planeswalker- Bolas
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God has all loyalty abilities of all other planeswalkers on the battlefield.
+1: You draw a card. Each opponent exiles a card from their hand or a permanent they control.
-3: Destroy target creature or planeswalker.
-8: Each opponent that doesn't control a legendary creature or planeswalker loses the game.
{{4}}
It's so big and powerful!
Now that there are five playable Bolas cards, is there anybody who feels the need to switch to the new one, or are we all satisfied with our current Bolas provider? Personally, I've never seen a Bolas card that I liked half as much as Kess, Dissident Mage.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
I'm testing it out, cause my cube has incredible mana fixing, lol bolas and the +1 is unprecedented card advantage for a "5 mana" planeswalker. I see it more of a short term meme thing, than an honest test. I definitely like 4 cmc creature bolas better.
I'm guessing the passive ability should mostly matter if you have two planeswalkers on the battlefield, since in general, you'll want to kill an enemy planeswalker with the - asap. But it's something Im curious to see the amount of value it adds, I expect it to be pretty marginal, but also very cool.
The +1 is it's bread and butter and so impressive on a planeswalker of this casting cost.
The -3 leaves bolas unfortunately vulnerable, and makes him a bit weak on the backfooting against creature strategies. I ultimately would rather play bolas in a deck with a lot of cheap interaction than as part of a ramp/super friends package to ensure the highest probability the battlefield is at near par when you play him. You really want to +1 over and over again as much as you can.
Cool card tho and I look forward to messing around with Grixis Bolas Tribal on MTG:A
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
My High Octane Unpowered Cube on CubeCobra
If you get it early and commit to Grixis control, it's an absolute bomb and you prioritize fixing and signets/coalition relic, which you should be doing in that color combination anyway.
I think the +1 is way better than people are giving credit for - this is not an Ob-Nixilis variant - it's two card advantage per turn. If anything, it's more on par with the power-level of 7 mana Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh +1 ability, except dragon-god's +1 is probably better because it's guaranteed two card advantage per turn since you draw and they have to exile permanents if there's no cards in hand.
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
2018 CubeTutor Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc
I’m very confident 4 cmc bolas is the best bolas ever printed by a noteable margin. 5cmc bolas isn’t far off in raw power, but it’s narrow cost makes basically everything I posted in my original analysis still stand.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Yeah obviously they are both good.
But if standard is any indication, Dragon God seems to be a four of more commonly that 4 cmc bolas, although obviously if you are in Grixis you are going to play both.
Take Reid Duke's standard grixis stream as an example, Dragon-God is dominant as a 4 of while 4 mana bolas is a 2-3 of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0JP6TleHIQ&t=5136s
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
2018 CubeTutor Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc
Hah! Funny you reference that stream. At 1:17:50 he gives me a generous shout out (Jordan/Heisenb3rg96).. Am friends with Reid and was the one in his chat suggesting him to try out kefnet in the build....
His list definitly includes four 4 mana bolas, so I'm not sure where you got the idea he plays 2-3.
And I would argue the opposite, 4 mana grixis is an untouchable four of while some people play three copies of 5 mana bolas. (though really almost everyone plays 4 of each).
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Small world! Cool to know, guess I wasn't paying enough attention!
360 card powered Chicago cube:
https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/e7r
2020 Numerical Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/817969-2020-numerical-cube-power-rankings
2018 CubeTutor Power Rankings:
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/the-cube-forum/cube-card-and-archetype/803301-cubetutor-power-rankings-2018-by-color-and-cmc