Magic the Gathering Card Analysis: Nicol Bolas

Nicol Bolas (not to be confused with Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker) is a legendary Elder Dragon creature introduced in the Legends expansion set of Magic: The Gathering. It is a 7/7 creature with flying and has a casting cost of two red mana, two black mana, two blue mana, and two colorless mana. It also has an upkeep cost of one red mana, one black mana, and one blue mana, which you must pay at the beginning of your upkeep or sacrifice Nicol Bolas.

Aside from being a creature with a high power and toughness, Nicol Bolas is useful because of his triggered ability. Whenever Nicol Bolas deals damage to another player, that player must discard their entire hand. This is a very good way to prevent your opponents from playing spells which may give them the advantage. Because Nicol Bolas has flying, it can only be blocked by opponents' creatures with flying. This makes it easier for Nicol Bolas to deal damage to opposing players.

One of the difficulties in playing multicolor decks is getting the proper colors of mana to pay for expensive spells. In order to bring out Nicol Bolas early in the game, it is best to include in your deck several non-basic lands which can produce more than one color and/or more than one mana at a time.

Two good lands for this purpose are Graven Cairns and Cascade Bluffs. Both lands can tap to produce one colorless mana. You can also pay one black or red mana and tap Graven Cairns to produce two black mana, one black and one red mana, or two red mana, and pay one red or blue mana and tap Cascade Bluffs to produce two blue mana, one red and one blue mana, or two red mana. This can help you get the mana you need to bring out Nicol Bolas earlier in the game.

The other difficulty is paying Nicol Bolas's upkeep cost. This may take up some of the mana you need for casting other spells, including creatures. However, this is made up by the fact that if you can force your opponents to discard their hands, they will be severely limited in the spells that they can cast against you.

Nicol Bolas is a powerful and useful card to have in any multicolor deck, as long as your deck has the right lands to produce the mana you need to cast it.

Source

MagicCards.info