5C The god-emperor of Mardas

[Kristian]

Lo and behold! Your new master, the true god-emperor of Madara!

Now that we got the formalities out of the way... (This is just an introduction, if you don't feel like reading it, just scroll down to the deck list)

I started building on a "Bolas" deck a while ago. The idea was simple. I had Nicol Bolas, I had to play him. I decided in spirit of Nicol Bolas, that I had no need for puny creatures in battle. Real men use planeswalkers! The original design was BRWU, due to the heavy amount of efficient removal in white. I know Nicol Bolas is UBR, but lets face it, a 25000 year old planeswalker has been around the block and given the nature of Nicol Bolas, he probably somehow influenced or dominated something or someone that gave him access to white mana. He probably also realized that it would be wrong to ignore entire aspects of magic and thus I have an excuse for including white . I changed it into 5C because I traded for a foil violent ultimatum and a foil lavalanche, though these cards have since been cut, green was kept in the deck because of regrowth effects and other nice spells.

The deck functioned decently as a semicasual but was deassembled because I wanted to try other decks. I reconstructed the deck recently due to a small tournament but it had far too few lands and the results were not pretty... It has since been trimmed and tweaked alot and it's a blast to play! Without further ado, behold the creation!

Lands (39):
Volcanic Island
Badlands
Tropical Island
Bayou
Scrubland
Plateau
Taiga
Savannah
Tundra
Underground Sea
Flooded Strand
Misty Rainforest
Marsh Flats
Bloodstained Mire
Arid Mesa
Scalding Tarn
Wooded Foothills
Windswept Heath
Polluted Delta
Verdant Catacombs
Stomping Ground
Godless Shrine
Hallowed Fountain
Steam Vents
Temple Garden
Breeding Pool
Sacred Foundry
Overgrown Tomb
Watery Grace
Blood Crypt
Reflecting Pool
Rupture Spire
2 Island
2 Plains
Mountain
Swamp
Forest

Nonlands:

XCC
Demonfire
Banefire
Power Sink
Condescend
Syncopate

0CC
Pact of Negation

1CC
Sensei's Divining Top
Swords To Plowshares
Condemn
Path to Exile
Innocent Blood
Lightning Bolt

2CC
Mana Drain
Isochron Scepter
Swerve
Chainer's Edict
Incinerate
Counterspell
Diabolic Edict
Demonic Tutor
Lightning Helix
Regrowth
Muddle the Mixture

3CC
Coalition Relic
Maelstrom Pulse
Dissipate
Esper Charm
Vindicate
Naya Charm
Krosan Grip
Crosis's Charm
Jace Beleren
Oblivion Ring
Phyrexian Arena
Mortify
Putrefy
Dromar's Charm
Treva's Charm
Faerie Trickery

4CC
Damnation
Dismiss
Fact or Fiction
Cryptic Command
Wrath of God
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Day of Judgment
Barter in Blood
Ajani Vengeant

5CC
Hallowed Burial
All Suns' Dawn
Winds of Rath
Rout
Force of Will
Chandra Nalaar

6CC
Identity Crisis
Akroma's Vengeance
Sorin Markov
Austere Command
Catastrophe
Final Judgment

8CC
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

The deck has some expensive spells, but only a total of 13 has a CC higher than 4. The tactic is basicly sweep, remove and count until I can stick a planeswalker to the board. There's alot of reanimate/combo/midrange in our meta, so I've focused on countersspells and removal that exile or provides card advantage or limits the opponents tempo advantage. There's a minor amount of burn because it doubles as removal and wincondition. When it comes to tournaments, Identity Crisis will probably be switched out with Mind Twist. This deck is always the control deck, no matter which matchup

I'm considering the following cards for the deck:
Moat
Pernicous Deed
Engineered Explosives
The new Jace

Constructive criticism welcome!

-Kristian, fanboy of Bolas!

PS. this is my Bolas :

[Tabris]

I just build also a Bolas-deck since I ve got so many UBR cards I love to play. Adding white seems a little "un-bolas" to me, you said he is old enough to integrate some aspects of white magic...but! I dont think he need to

So regarding your deck; its not usefull to make suggestions as far as you have white in it. I could post my list but since its a casual "fatti-timmeay" deck, its not recommended to use it on competetive level.

Besides that I like the thread though.

[Kristian]

its not usefull to make suggestions as far as you have white in it

What's that supposed to mean?

[Mythrandir]

well, you'd probably be trampled over by aggro.

Unless you have a very casual format or non-aggro, this deck needs huge modifications:

You only have 1 mana accell (at least from what i could see... quick glance...) -> coalition relic
You need more, add talismans, it speeds up your game.

I know you want to play Bolas and that's fine by me... but you should really add creatures, things like pridemage, trinket mage, glen elendra archmage, etc, etc are just too powerful not to be in.

Also things like sorin, cryptic don't go really well in 5 color decks, because they are too mana intensive. Take a look at various 5C builds around here to take some ideas and then just add your favorites PW. And try and cut some of the 5 and 6 CMC (all sun dawn, final judgenment, cataastrophe, etc, etc..)

Also, yeah on the jace 2.0 he's very powerful

Although it isnt a very good review, hope it helps. (Search for 5c in our forums)

[pyyhttu]

You only have 1 mana accell (at least from what i could see... quick glance...) -> coalition relic

What he said.

PS. this is my Winter Orb.

[Kristian]

First and foremost, thanks for the response, it's always nice when people spend some of their time in order to help

well, you'd probably be trampled over by aggro.

Unless you have a very casual format or non-aggro, this deck needs huge modifications:

I'm blessed with a meta with next to no sligh/weenie/RDW and other superfast aggro (in fact, I think I'm the only one with such a deck). Most creature based decks are midrange like rock, naya or 4C noneblue. There's also a few other like reanimators, oath, lark, survival decks and more. It's a really fun meta because people can make weird deck ideas work quite well.

You only have 1 mana accell (at least from what i could see... quick glance...) -> coalition relic
You need more, add talismans, it speeds up your game.

I haven't really had any mana issues since the deck does just fine in early to midgame with 4 lands. I'm hesistant to add more mana sources simply because they'll be dead draws and I don't feel that mana has been much of an issues in the latest version.

I know you want to play Bolas and that's fine by me... but you should really add creatures, things like pridemage, trinket mage, glen elendra archmage, etc, etc are just too powerful not to be in.

The deck would probably improve by playing the best utility creatures, but that's a path I'd prefer not to take. The virtual card advantage it generates playing no creatures doesn't make up for it, but it helps.

Also things like sorin, cryptic don't go really well in 5 color decks, because they are too mana intensive. Take a look at various 5C builds around here to take some ideas and then just add your favorites PW. And try and cut some of the 5 and 6 CMC (all sun dawn, final judgenment, cataastrophe, etc, etc..)

I was worried about the mana intensity when I was constructing this deck, but it haven't been much of a problem. I'll keep it in mind though if I experience any.

The more expensive sweepers are the first to be cut when I find suitable replacements, they're usually handy, but there's an abundance of them.

Also, yeah on the jace 2.0 he's very powerful

Although it isnt a very good review, hope it helps. (Search for 5c in our forums)

I'll take a look one of these days. It hadn't occured to me even though it seems obvious now .

pyyhttu >>> Nice Winter Orb!

I'm considering cutting 4 of these cards:
Power Sink
Lightning Bolt
Isochron Scepter
Incinerate
Esper Charm
Phyrexian Arena
Winds of Rath
Akroma's Vengeance
Austere Command
Catastrophe
Final Judgment

In favor of:
Moat
Pernicous Deed
Engineered Explosives
The new Jace

My only objection is engineered explosives (and moat and pernicious deed to a small degree) is a bit specific as answer to threats.

[marchhare]

@ pyyhttu :

do u have an idea which pens are required to create something like your (extremely cool) winter orb ?

[GoblinPiledriver]

Do you made it by yourself?
How was it possible to paint the exact color at the frame like on the picture itself?

[Nastaboi]

On altered cards:

Here is a primer for altering cards by the artist himself. It's in Finnish, but pics are nice and I don't think he would mind if you register to our forums and shoot him a PM if you want some additional info/translation.

[pyyhttu]

@Marchare and GoblinPileDriver: That card was painted by Etro with acrylics, same guy to whose tutorial thread Nastaboi linked you to.

[marchhare]

thanks

[Mythrandir]

Well, if you're playing vs aggro and don't have problems with them, it's probably because they are bit suboptimal. Because i play 5CC (for quite some time now...  ) and sometimes a 4th turn wog or moat or whatever is just too late.

But as long as you keep winning, just keep the deck the way you like, but as soon as the meta starts to become a lot mroe competitive you really have to make some huge tweaks on there.


@the Altered cards... these have become quite common nowadays. Some are really impressive either on the technique and/or creativity. There are loads of artists out there eager to have some orders

Also, these make for some nice prizes... if you can get your hands on affordable artist