"Nicol Bolas , the Deceiver: Bolas Uppercut!"

"Nicol Bolas , the Deceiver: Bolas Uppercut!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

Today is Thursday , July 13 2017. One day before the official release of Hour of Devastation and it's accompanying products most notably  ,  the Planeswalker deck that features Nicol Bolas the Deceiver. There are a lot of reasons to probably try and own a Nicol Bolas but most likely it would be to improve certain builds of decks like in EDH or in Archenemy. 

I guess we will be seeing in the next couple of weeks if the God Pharaoh and the Deceiver will have any impact in Standard or Modern decks but for now I want to talk about the latter card as this one will be readily available in a box instead of the former which you might get in a lucky Booster Pack or as a single from one of your favorite suppliers. I like a sure thing. Nicol Bolas the Deceiver is sure to give opponents a really hard time when he hits the battlefield.

So at 8 mana , 5 and Grixis colors of blue , black and red the Deceiver comes in with a starting 5 loyalty counters(although if you know Nicol his loyalty is only to himself, I just wanted to get that off my chest).

So the first ability is designed to make multiple players suffer. Lose 3 life like good sheep or decide to stave off this life loss by sacrificing a non land permanent or discarding a card. Both alternatives can be pretty painful in certain situations but at least opposing planeswalker have a choice of poisons right?

Now if you think about it Nicol Bolas the Deceiver will come out pretty late in the game. Most opponents will most likely have lower life totals and he could pretty much serve as a coup de grâce here. Most likely if you are playing opponents who are not control they won't have much of a hand to discard or if you have been board wiping a lot chances are they also won't have much in the way non land permanents to sacrifice.

Oh and this gives a +3 by the way.2 more turns until the Deceiver Ultimates you.

The Deceivers 2nd ability comes as a saving grace if your opponent only has a single creature that is threatening you. And card advantage too. -3 loyalty counter stills sounds good because it is creature removal and card advantage all in one neat package.

"Booolaaaas Upppper Cuuuut!"

The Deceiver's ultimate ability is what I would like to call the Bolas Uppercut.There is even a scheme that let's you do the same thing in Archenemy. So apparently an uppercut from the planeswalker dragon is worth 7 points of damage to the face. So I imagine that in this case he lines up or makes his opponents surround him and he makes a little whirling motion to deal 7 damage to each of his opponents(Me and my imagination again). And get this if that is not enough to finish everyone off you also get to draw 7 cards from it. Maybe one of those cards could be the lethal thing that you are looking for. There are many things in the color of Blue , Black and Red that could kill opponents. 

Well , I am pretty pumped to own a copy of the Deceiver and add him to my existing Sultai+Red deck. He is sure to feel right at home. I also can't wait to Bolas Upper Cut all the members of my playgroup. That's a taking to the chin that I look forward to especially since it's not my chin. 

In closing I'd like to say this , For someone who is supposedly a Deceiver he sure is pretty open about what he intends to your opponents. Mainly killing them. So what do you think of the Deceiver? Would you be buying a copy?