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A dear friend gifted me a Nicol Bolas card. It was a tongue-in-cheek gift because I have had a history of getting steadily beaten down by his Nicol Bolas deck. So, as a tribute to his deck, I have decided to build one of my own. It is inspired by how helpless I felt watching my permanents getting destroyed, and controlled by Nicol Bolas.I have decided to build the deck around his ability to destroy and take control. I want the deck to feel as if he is ever present, working behind the scenes and manipulating the battlefield to his favor, in preparation for his grand appearance.NOTE: Lots of one-offs due to my limited collection. Also, I want this deck to have a distinct feel from my others, and would like to find ways to focus on creatures that have devastating ETB abilities, which fit within the theme of the deck (such as Mindclaw Shaman).
This deck is a bit scatter-brained, as I am still putting all the pieces together, and working with my rather limited collection of cards. The basic idea I'm shooting for:1. Unblockable creatures for cipher, and curiosity2. Kraken for early blockers3. Wizards to gain control of opponent's creatures4. Illusions to pump up Simic Manipulator5. Everything else to disrupt and keep the opponent guessing and on the defensive6. Saving grasps to keep the Wizards out of harm's way (last resort)7. Counters to keep opponent from using spells that could harm the wizards8. Murder and other direct damage spells to keep the opponent's defenders off the board (and get rid of creatures too powerful to take control of)7. Nicol Bolas, to bring the pain.
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After playing about a dozen games, and only winning four, I have concluded that the deck (aside from it sucking majorly):1. Needs dual lands, badly.2. Needs to have the creatures:spells ratio re-balanced. Most of my losses were due to not pulling a single creature for the first 4-6 turns (a nightmare against fast creature-based decks)3. I need to purchase some specific creatures and spells to improve the deck's efficiency. Looking into creatures that are unblockable, hexproof, and some cheap defenders (such as Fog Bank)5. Cipher is tons of fun, so I will look at some cheap and relevant cipher spells.6. Beguiler of Wills is fun to use, so I may structure the deck around it. Perhaps find a way to generate token creatures/copies7. Simic Manipulator is fun as well, so I am thinking about pairing it with a Ring of Eros, or finding a more efficient way of boosting it. Or scrapping it. I dunno.Over-all I need to tighten up, and pick one or two mechanics and focus on them. I'm thinking destroy and control. So I will try to focus on creatures/spells that allow me to take control of, or destroy the opponents creatures.
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You do need some faster creatures, the other thing about this deck that needs work is the spells, if you don't want to add any low drop creatures, then add some eltrikeries, more pillar of flame, more searing spears and, Mizzium mortars can protect you from a 4/4 or anything with 4 toughfness for only two mana. If your going for budget though, its semi expensive. VERY BAD SPELLING, SORRY. Also, with all the return to your hand stuff, your going to have to pay lots of mana to get your creature back into play, making it diificult to cast other spells that turn. You should (in my opinion) Switch your return to hand cards with draw a card and some other good spells.
Hi Laservader123!Thank you so much for the suggestions. I'm going to outline my thoughts:1. Electrickery!! Thanks for pointing this spell out. I shall definitely consider adding it.2. I *DO* want to add low cost creatures. I am going to put a list together of how I want to tweak this deck, and create a new deck.3. Mizzium Mortars is also a beautiful suggestion. I am loving the overload mechanic.4. Switching to draw a card spells is in the works, and a great idea. I'll add those to the new "to buy" deck.Thanks for helping me further plan this deck out. I'd upvote your reply twice if I could :)
I have tried your draw sample hand and you really need duel lands, guild gates, drowned catacomb, dragonskull summit, and others are good choices, but again they add price.
Yes, I need dual lands badly. So badly.I want to put some love into this particular deck, so I will see how much I can afford to spend. I may do a mixture of buying individual cards, and gambling on boosters. Also, isn't Dragon's Maze supposed to focus on dual lands?
You may be (like me) trying to build a deck online, get reviews on it, change it then buy it, if you are, cut out the lands as they do add price, you can get those from home and from other decks you might have, also, lets say you want to have 4 searing spears in this deck, and you have two at home, then when you build this deck put it at two and add the searing spears later. This will cut the price.
Well actually this is a deck that I actually own. It's very hodge-podgy as I am using the cards I actually have. I have never actually considered using MTG Vault the way you are.So I will definitely build another deck, for reviews, and put my ideal Nicol Bolas setup for review. Should I tag it as unloved to get attention? Or would that be considered misuse of the Unloved tag?