Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 8 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost7
RarityMythic
TypeLegendary Planeswalker — Bolas
Loyalty 7

Key Takeaways

  1. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh offers card advantage, dominating the game by disrupting opponent strategies and drawing cards.
  2. With resource acceleration and instant-speed abilities, it dictates the pace of gameplay and disrupts opponent turns.
  3. Its high mana cost and specific mana requirements can challenge deck building and timely gameplay strategies.

Text of card

+2: Target opponent exiles cards from the top of his or her library until he or she exiles a nonland card. Until end of turn, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost. +1: Each opponent exiles two cards from his or her hand. −4: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh deals 7 damage to target opponent or creature an opponent controls. −12: Exile each nonland permanent your opponents control.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh provides a significant edge by allowing you multiple options to disrupt your opponent’s hand and field while drawing cards yourself. This planeswalker’s abilities can swing the tide of any game by providing a relentless stream of card advantage that pressures your opponents.

Resource Acceleration: One of the key abilities of Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is its potential to untap lands, thus accelerating your resources. This can lead to a rapid increase in available mana, enabling you to cast more spells or activate more abilities sooner than expected, fundamentally changing the pace of the game.

Instant Speed: While Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh itself isn’t an instant, many of its disruptive abilities can be activated during any player’s turn, similar to instant speed interactions. This flexibility offers strategic depth and unpredictability, allowing you to effectively respond to your opponent’s actions on the fly and maintain control of the board.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One downside to unleashing the power of Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is that certain abilities may require you to discard cards. In situations where your hand is already depleted, this can further strain your resources and options during the game.

Specific Mana Cost: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh demands a diverse mana base, needing one of each except green to cast. This can sometimes pose a deck-building challenge, particularly in formats where mana-fixing resources are limited or when competing against fast-paced aggressive decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Seven mana is a sizeable investment, even for a planeswalker of Nicol Bolas’s caliber. This cost can be prohibitive in the early game, and the impact of Nicol Bolas may arrive too late against more tempo-oriented or aggressive strategists who aim to close out the match swiftly.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh boasts a suite of abilities that cater to various in-game situations, ensuring that it adapts to multiple playstyles and deck archetypes. This card can control the game, deal damage, and even manipulate players’ hands, making it a dynamic inclusion in any collection.

Combo Potential: This planeswalker card has a high synergy with other cards that benefit from loyalty abilities or discard effects. Its capability to both disrupt opponents and provide card advantage can be a vital component in decks that capitalize on such interactions.

Meta-Relevance: Within the shifting sands of the MTG meta, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh remains a relevant choice. Its ability to influence the board state and pressure opponents keeps it as a formidable option against various competitive deck builds.


How to beat

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, emerges as a formidable force on the battlefield, overwhelming opponents with a suite of powerful abilities. To neutralize this threat effectively, consider strategies that negate his influence before he can assert control. Direct damage spells, such as Lightning Strike, can remove Nicol Bolas’s loyalty counters, but often, these efforts alone won’t suffice due to his high loyalty upon entering the battlefield.

Players may also want to explore counterplay options such as exile effects or using cards like The Elderspell to strip away all loyalty from Nicol Bolas and potentially boost your own planeswalkers. With Nicol Bolas often dictating a rapid endgame, early disruption like Thoughtseize to remove him from your opponent’s hand preemptively can be key. This card also offers insight into your adversary’s game plan, granting you the opportunity to adapt your strategy on the fly.

Ultimately, a mix of early game hand disruption, mid-game control, and late-game finishers can create a robust defense against Nicol Bolas, turning what could be an inevitable defeat into a hard-fought victory against one of Magic’s toughest adversaries.


BurnMana Recommendations

With Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, you hold the reins to an astonishing power that can dictate the flow of the game. This planeswalker’s vast array of abilities equips you with the versatility to respond to a multitude of scenarios, edging out opponents with card advantage and strategic depth. Mastering such a formidable card requires finesse and understanding of its synergies and potential. For dedicated players aiming to optimize their decks, incorporating Nicol Bolas into your arsenal can be a game-changer. Embrace the challenge, and let’s dive deeper together—discover strategies, synergies, and tips to maximize your gameplay with Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in your corner. Join the quest for dominance at BurnMana.


Cards like Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh demands attention with its sheer power and abundance of abilities. In MTG, it shares a conceptual space with other high-impact planeswalkers such as Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. Ugin’s sweeping ability to exile colored permanents is a display of raw versatility, while Nicol Bolas’ range of targeted disruption and card advantage asserts its dominance on the board in a more direct manner. Both present game-ending threats, but Nicol Bolas entices with its ability to disrupt the opponent’s hand, and represents an immediate four-option threat.

Another counterpart is Liliana Vess. Although less costly in terms of mana, Liliana offers a different angle of attack by centering on graveyard manipulation and targeted discard. Nicol Bolas overshadows it with a wider array of control over the game’s state. Additionally, the inclusion of Tezzeret the Seeker can be seen. While Tezzeret excels in artifact manipulation, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh leverages its raw power to control various game aspects, demonstrating versatility that can pivot roles from aggressor to controller effortlessly.

Comparisons reveal that Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is a multifaceted threat that when played, can turn the tides with its intimidating suite of abilities, placing it as a formidable card among MTG’s legendary planeswalkers.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - MTG Card versions
Liliana Vess - MTG Card versions
Tezzeret the Seeker - MTG Card versions
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Ugin's Fate (UGIN)
Liliana Vess - Lorwyn (LRW)
Tezzeret the Seeker - Shards of Alara (ALA)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh MTG card by a specific set like Hour of Devastation and Hour of Devastation Promos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Printings

The Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh Magic the Gathering card was released in 6 different sets between 2017-07-14 and 2022-11-02. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12017-07-14Hour of DevastationHOU 1402015normalblackRaymond Swanland
22017-07-15Hour of Devastation PromosPHOU 140p2015normalblackRaymond Swanland
32017-07-15Hour of Devastation PromosPHOU 140s2015normalblackRaymond Swanland
42017-07-20San Diego Comic-Con 2017PS17 1402015normalblackVincent Proce
52020-08-13Amonkhet RemasteredAKR 2472015normalblackRaymond Swanland
62022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 2602015normalblackRaymond Swanland
72022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 5302015normalblackRaymond Swanland
82022-11-02Secret Lair 30th Anniversary Countdown KitSLC 20172015normalborderlessUta Natsume

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2017-07-14 Casting the card exiled with Nicol Bolas’s first ability follows the normal timing rules for casting that card. For example, if the card is a creature card, you can cast that card only during your main phase while the stack is empty.
2017-07-14 If the card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.
2017-07-14 If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs, such as emerge costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, such as that of Tormenting Voice, you must pay those to cast the card.
2017-07-14 If you don’t cast the card exiled by Nicol Bolas’s first ability that turn, it will remain exiled.
2017-07-14 In a multiplayer game, if a player leaves the game, all cards that player owns leave as well. If you leave the game, any spell or permanent cards you control from Nicol Bolas’s first ability are exiled.
2017-07-14 The cards exiled by Nicol Bolas’s first and second abilities are exiled face up.
2017-07-14 While resolving Nicol Bolas’s second ability, each opponent chooses which cards to exile from their hand. Any opponent with two or fewer cards exiles their entire hand.
2017-07-14 You may cast the nonland card exiled by Nicol Bolas’s first ability that turn even if Nicol Bolas is no longer on the battlefield or under your control.

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks