Return of Nicol Bolas!
Page 1 of 1
Return of Nicol Bolas!
Return of Nicol Boals!
Hi all, been awhile since I’ve got to write down the goings on in magic for myself and the rest of the team. Everything is back to normal now so should start being able to write more, basically because I just like doing it. So before we start though, I like to thank my fellow team members: Aaron, Nate, Steven, and Mr. Reed (the other Jason). Also want to thank my local store for wanting to support us and become more competitive. So Thanks Alluring Treasures for all that you do. If you don’t know who they are check out the store here: www.wartornfront.com. Definitely the biggest store in the valley (unless you count great escape games).
Enough thanks, down to magic. For my new list I have to thank my Brother and team member Aaron. He said a few weeks ago that “all I got to do is survive, and then I win” at the time he was talking about his Bant control and adding in feeling of dread. As he plays more standard than I do I decided that was probably a good moto to live by as a control deck. So…I came up with “Kill Everything Grixis” and if you wondering yes it does indeed kill everything, with over 20 different ways to interact and remove creatures. This is the list:
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Nicol Bolas
1 Liliana of the veil
1 Tamiyo the Moon Sage
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear
3 Tragic Slip
1 Barter in Blood
1 Curse of Death’s hold
1 Ultimate Price
1 Victim of Night
3 Think Twice
2 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Thought Flare
2 Rolling Tumbler
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 ????
So that’s the main deck and for now I can’t remember the last card in the deck. I’m sure it was removal of some kind. So if you’re counting that is 21 different ways to interact and kill creatures. The main win condition of the deck…Nicol Bolas. At the IQ last weekend I won 6 of my 8 game wins in qualifying with a Nicol Boals-Ulimate. The other was a Tamiyo Ulimate with a Pillar of Flame in Hand. I’ll give a round by round analysis here soon. The side board wasn’t much different, except vs. control. For the most part I would take out all the removal and just turn into a control hate deck.
Sideboard was:
SB:
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Slaughter Games
2 Rakdos’ Return (for those of you who haven’t noticed this is the correct spelling of the card…)
2 Dissipate
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Curse of echoes
1 Curse of Death’s hold
2 Sever the Bloodline
1 Cyclonic Rift
Report:
Round 1: Grixis vs. Naya Midrange
Game 1 – my opponent mulls to five, and I kill everything. Then Turn 8….I slam Nicol bolas and destroy a land and he scoops.
Game 2 – my opponent mulls again to six this time, we played a very good game but eventually I have a hand full of removal and he plays a Garruk, primal hunter hoping to draw 5…I in response, well do what I will do all day and kill everything in response. The Garruk draws nothing, all creatures are dead and I go to my 8th land…and well Nicol Bolas! Opponent scoops soon as I tap 8 and show Mr. Bolas.
*spoiler, we rematch in the top 8.
Round 2: B/R zombies vs. Grixis
Game 1 – I destroy everything and he has me at 10 life, I have Nicol Bolas, and Tamiyo ready to ultimate, and my opponent is on 4 lands…I lose this by the way. My opponent had to top deck in the following order to win the game – messenger – searing spear -> pillar -> pillar -> pillar any other sequence he doesn’t get there and dies…well he did and won. But knowing this is a really good match up for my deck I just quietly move to game 2
Game 2 – kill everything; win with an Jace ultimate taking an aristocrat and Nicol Bolas to steal thunder maw hellkite
Game 3- is really close, but he was super aggressive with double underworld connections putting himself at 7 and I triple burn him with pillar, pillar, spear
Round 3: Human Reanimation vs. Grixis
Game 1 – I removal a little action, he never hits much on his milling and T8 Nicol Bolas! Opponent scoops.
Game 2 – he hit way more action, and built up a huge graveyard, at the point in which he goes for the reanimate team, I have 7 mana and thought flare to find 1) Negate or 2) Rakdos Charm…on card four of the flare I see the charm and snap play it to exile his yard and then I get to T8…well we all know what happens here.
Round 4: Grixis vs. Grixis
This was against a friend from AT, so we had a pretty good match.
Game 1- my planeswalkers easily dominated the game but a few timely top-decked rakdos returns end up killing me and key walkers right before they win the game, ben and I have a few good laughs at this.
Game 2 – I make a side boarding error and it costs me dearly. Thinking that you would take out olivias in the mirror I take out my removal as killing snap isn’t really worth it…unfortunately ben calls my bluff playing his olive and wins the game with her as a 4/4 -.-
Round 5: G/w midrange vs. Grixis Control
Game 1 and 2 – I mull to 5 both games and he draws the nuts. Although after the match we talk and I believe this opponent is the nicest magic player in the world. More on this later.
Round 6: America midrange vs. Grixis
Game 1- I kill everything and end up Jace ultimate to find his main decked Tamiyo and my Nicol Bolas
Game 2 – see above lol
So I finally make top 8, my second time in two weeks. I split to go grab food while the round finishes and they do a deck check.
Top 8:
Round 7 – rematch vs. my round 5 opponent. (G/w vs. Grixis)
Game 1 – we sit down to the match and the judge stops us. I find out I’m getting a game one loss for writing down searing blaze instead of searing spear. He also informs us that because its top 8 the higher seed gets to choose whether to play first or draw still… My opponent was shocked by that so he asked me “would you like to play first” I respond “yes” and he says ok “I’ll be on the draw”. This was huge to me because he has a really hard time being me on the draw. I end up doing what I do and win again thanks to Nicol Bolas
Game 2 – he can’t again keep up with all the removal and card advantage and dies to a T8….Nicol Bolas
I would use his name and let you know, but I can’t spell it for the life of me, so just know there are still nice awesome people even in the top 8 of bigger events.
Round 8 – naya vs. grixis
Game 1 – pretty uneventful, I kill everything and don’t read Ajani, caller of the pride’s ultimate and die to 20+ 2/2 cats. Gotta say I felt pretty lame here.
Games 2-3 not making the same mistake, I kill everything and kill Ajani this time with a well-placed Rakdos Return to take his hand and planeswalker.
Round 9 – naya vs. Grixis (rematch of round 1 oppenent)
We agree to split the cash and play for the points and gp byes.
Game 1 – I win by killing everything and well Turn 8 comes and he scoops
Games 2-3 I kill everything but he is able to lay down a Sigarda…I realize I have no way to remove her and die 4 turns later
So congratz go to him, he played well and I was glad to have a rematch vs. him since our match 1 was pretty one sided. I came out behind this time but it was fun.
Since playing the deck at fnm and the IQ I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my list compared to other grixis list like “why don’t you play rakdos keyrune, Olivia, nighthawk, rakdos’ return, etc” and well I found out that all those cards do is make it where I can’t survive to win as my brother said. For example, if r/b aggro searing spears the Olivia after you tap out for her and then slams aristocrat or dragon you just lost the game. My version doesn’t have the flaw, for I never have to tap out. This argument goes for most of those cards. Rakdos’ Return on the other hand was a meta call, I believe for the most part people in the valley love their aggro decks, and return just is a really bad fireball vs. them. It also fails to interact with creatures of any kind except big slow ones and I usually don’t mind if those kind do hit the field. So in short by playing those cards you are actually playing less ways to intact with creatures and you open yourself up to being blown out. Some people tired pointing out that you could just wait till turn 6 to play the Olivia, but that seems equally as bad because now I have a card that does nothing until I survive but doesn’t help me get to the survival stage of the game. I’ll admit all the cards people have asked seem good but none of them really help you survive as well as just killing the creature they play. Only time I want Olivia I think is vs. Bant control…stealing tusks seem good.
Overall: I liked the deck, many changes will be taking place to the deck but I’ll leave my tech for next week’s article as there is another event this Saturday I’ll be taking my Grixis list too.
Again thanks to my team for staying up till 3 am so I can playtest my Grixis list and Alluring Treasures for helping me acquire cards to play it. Again feel free to check them out here: www.Wartornfront.com and come to FNM sometime and beat a team WarTornFront member and you get a 1$ off FNM. Challenge us in modern, legacy, standard, or EDH (select members only for EDH haha). Thanks to Red Sky comics for Hosting the Event, and also Thanks to The Arcane Lab for hosting the week before too.
*disclaimer the deck might be card or two off, I’ve made changes to the deck and can’t remember exactly where I started…but it should be on magic.Tcgplayer.com soon I’m told.
Hi all, been awhile since I’ve got to write down the goings on in magic for myself and the rest of the team. Everything is back to normal now so should start being able to write more, basically because I just like doing it. So before we start though, I like to thank my fellow team members: Aaron, Nate, Steven, and Mr. Reed (the other Jason). Also want to thank my local store for wanting to support us and become more competitive. So Thanks Alluring Treasures for all that you do. If you don’t know who they are check out the store here: www.wartornfront.com. Definitely the biggest store in the valley (unless you count great escape games).
Enough thanks, down to magic. For my new list I have to thank my Brother and team member Aaron. He said a few weeks ago that “all I got to do is survive, and then I win” at the time he was talking about his Bant control and adding in feeling of dread. As he plays more standard than I do I decided that was probably a good moto to live by as a control deck. So…I came up with “Kill Everything Grixis” and if you wondering yes it does indeed kill everything, with over 20 different ways to interact and remove creatures. This is the list:
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Nicol Bolas
1 Liliana of the veil
1 Tamiyo the Moon Sage
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear
3 Tragic Slip
1 Barter in Blood
1 Curse of Death’s hold
1 Ultimate Price
1 Victim of Night
3 Think Twice
2 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Thought Flare
2 Rolling Tumbler
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 ????
So that’s the main deck and for now I can’t remember the last card in the deck. I’m sure it was removal of some kind. So if you’re counting that is 21 different ways to interact and kill creatures. The main win condition of the deck…Nicol Bolas. At the IQ last weekend I won 6 of my 8 game wins in qualifying with a Nicol Boals-Ulimate. The other was a Tamiyo Ulimate with a Pillar of Flame in Hand. I’ll give a round by round analysis here soon. The side board wasn’t much different, except vs. control. For the most part I would take out all the removal and just turn into a control hate deck.
Sideboard was:
SB:
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Slaughter Games
2 Rakdos’ Return (for those of you who haven’t noticed this is the correct spelling of the card…)
2 Dissipate
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Curse of echoes
1 Curse of Death’s hold
2 Sever the Bloodline
1 Cyclonic Rift
Report:
Round 1: Grixis vs. Naya Midrange
Game 1 – my opponent mulls to five, and I kill everything. Then Turn 8….I slam Nicol bolas and destroy a land and he scoops.
Game 2 – my opponent mulls again to six this time, we played a very good game but eventually I have a hand full of removal and he plays a Garruk, primal hunter hoping to draw 5…I in response, well do what I will do all day and kill everything in response. The Garruk draws nothing, all creatures are dead and I go to my 8th land…and well Nicol Bolas! Opponent scoops soon as I tap 8 and show Mr. Bolas.
*spoiler, we rematch in the top 8.
Round 2: B/R zombies vs. Grixis
Game 1 – I destroy everything and he has me at 10 life, I have Nicol Bolas, and Tamiyo ready to ultimate, and my opponent is on 4 lands…I lose this by the way. My opponent had to top deck in the following order to win the game – messenger – searing spear -> pillar -> pillar -> pillar any other sequence he doesn’t get there and dies…well he did and won. But knowing this is a really good match up for my deck I just quietly move to game 2
Game 2 – kill everything; win with an Jace ultimate taking an aristocrat and Nicol Bolas to steal thunder maw hellkite
Game 3- is really close, but he was super aggressive with double underworld connections putting himself at 7 and I triple burn him with pillar, pillar, spear
Round 3: Human Reanimation vs. Grixis
Game 1 – I removal a little action, he never hits much on his milling and T8 Nicol Bolas! Opponent scoops.
Game 2 – he hit way more action, and built up a huge graveyard, at the point in which he goes for the reanimate team, I have 7 mana and thought flare to find 1) Negate or 2) Rakdos Charm…on card four of the flare I see the charm and snap play it to exile his yard and then I get to T8…well we all know what happens here.
Round 4: Grixis vs. Grixis
This was against a friend from AT, so we had a pretty good match.
Game 1- my planeswalkers easily dominated the game but a few timely top-decked rakdos returns end up killing me and key walkers right before they win the game, ben and I have a few good laughs at this.
Game 2 – I make a side boarding error and it costs me dearly. Thinking that you would take out olivias in the mirror I take out my removal as killing snap isn’t really worth it…unfortunately ben calls my bluff playing his olive and wins the game with her as a 4/4 -.-
Round 5: G/w midrange vs. Grixis Control
Game 1 and 2 – I mull to 5 both games and he draws the nuts. Although after the match we talk and I believe this opponent is the nicest magic player in the world. More on this later.
Round 6: America midrange vs. Grixis
Game 1- I kill everything and end up Jace ultimate to find his main decked Tamiyo and my Nicol Bolas
Game 2 – see above lol
So I finally make top 8, my second time in two weeks. I split to go grab food while the round finishes and they do a deck check.
Top 8:
Round 7 – rematch vs. my round 5 opponent. (G/w vs. Grixis)
Game 1 – we sit down to the match and the judge stops us. I find out I’m getting a game one loss for writing down searing blaze instead of searing spear. He also informs us that because its top 8 the higher seed gets to choose whether to play first or draw still… My opponent was shocked by that so he asked me “would you like to play first” I respond “yes” and he says ok “I’ll be on the draw”. This was huge to me because he has a really hard time being me on the draw. I end up doing what I do and win again thanks to Nicol Bolas
Game 2 – he can’t again keep up with all the removal and card advantage and dies to a T8….Nicol Bolas
I would use his name and let you know, but I can’t spell it for the life of me, so just know there are still nice awesome people even in the top 8 of bigger events.
Round 8 – naya vs. grixis
Game 1 – pretty uneventful, I kill everything and don’t read Ajani, caller of the pride’s ultimate and die to 20+ 2/2 cats. Gotta say I felt pretty lame here.
Games 2-3 not making the same mistake, I kill everything and kill Ajani this time with a well-placed Rakdos Return to take his hand and planeswalker.
Round 9 – naya vs. Grixis (rematch of round 1 oppenent)
We agree to split the cash and play for the points and gp byes.
Game 1 – I win by killing everything and well Turn 8 comes and he scoops
Games 2-3 I kill everything but he is able to lay down a Sigarda…I realize I have no way to remove her and die 4 turns later
So congratz go to him, he played well and I was glad to have a rematch vs. him since our match 1 was pretty one sided. I came out behind this time but it was fun.
Since playing the deck at fnm and the IQ I’ve gotten a lot of questions about my list compared to other grixis list like “why don’t you play rakdos keyrune, Olivia, nighthawk, rakdos’ return, etc” and well I found out that all those cards do is make it where I can’t survive to win as my brother said. For example, if r/b aggro searing spears the Olivia after you tap out for her and then slams aristocrat or dragon you just lost the game. My version doesn’t have the flaw, for I never have to tap out. This argument goes for most of those cards. Rakdos’ Return on the other hand was a meta call, I believe for the most part people in the valley love their aggro decks, and return just is a really bad fireball vs. them. It also fails to interact with creatures of any kind except big slow ones and I usually don’t mind if those kind do hit the field. So in short by playing those cards you are actually playing less ways to intact with creatures and you open yourself up to being blown out. Some people tired pointing out that you could just wait till turn 6 to play the Olivia, but that seems equally as bad because now I have a card that does nothing until I survive but doesn’t help me get to the survival stage of the game. I’ll admit all the cards people have asked seem good but none of them really help you survive as well as just killing the creature they play. Only time I want Olivia I think is vs. Bant control…stealing tusks seem good.
Overall: I liked the deck, many changes will be taking place to the deck but I’ll leave my tech for next week’s article as there is another event this Saturday I’ll be taking my Grixis list too.
Again thanks to my team for staying up till 3 am so I can playtest my Grixis list and Alluring Treasures for helping me acquire cards to play it. Again feel free to check them out here: www.Wartornfront.com and come to FNM sometime and beat a team WarTornFront member and you get a 1$ off FNM. Challenge us in modern, legacy, standard, or EDH (select members only for EDH haha). Thanks to Red Sky comics for Hosting the Event, and also Thanks to The Arcane Lab for hosting the week before too.
*disclaimer the deck might be card or two off, I’ve made changes to the deck and can’t remember exactly where I started…but it should be on magic.Tcgplayer.com soon I’m told.
Page 1 of 1
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
|
|