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Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Card of the Day
Daily Since November 2001!
|
Image from
Wizards.com |
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Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
- Hour of Devastation
Reviewed
July 24, 2017
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 5.0
Multiplayer: 4.0
Commander [EDH]: 4.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale:
1 - Horrible 3 - Average. 5 - Awesome
Click here to see
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Card of the Day Reviews
|
David Fanany
Player since
1995 |
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
Apparently four-ability planeswalkers are a
thing we get on a semi-regular basis nowadays.
At least they've managed not to make anyone as
ridiculous as Jace the Mind Sculptor, though I
will note that the God-Pharaoh here manages to
have an ability that steals cards from your
opponent while also increasing his loyalty,
which might sound familiar. It also does insane
things in Commander where people's decks are
full of things like Time Stretch and Rampaging
Baloths. There will be situations where you
never actually need to use any of his other
abilities, but he's just about exactly as good
at controlling opponents' resources as you would
expect, given who he is.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 5/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5 |
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James H. |
The God-Pharaoh's return has come, and the
people were found unworthy.
As a seven-mana, three-color planeswalker, you
would hope Nicol Bolas brings the goods...and he
does. His +2 is high-variance, but it's very
scary: you can potentially rip an Eldrazi titan
off the top to cast or something else
sufficiently ruinous (like an Hour of
Devastation). His +1 is also suitable if your
opponent has no board to speak of, and it can
make sure no more answers exist to get Bolas off
the board. His -4 is, humorously enough, the
same amount of damage as Deem Worthy; while you
would hope Nicol Bolas isn't a glorified burn
spell, there are far worse ways to close out a
game. His ultimate is...a bit weak, honestly.
Complete evisceration is nice, but you're
probably very far ahead if you are in position
to use it.
A high starting loyalty makes Bolas hard to get
rid of, he has the ability to make his own
answers, and his -4 closes out games well on its
own. The universality of his +1 and his ultimate
also makes the God-Pharaoh the rare planeswalker
to scale well to multiplayer games. If there's
one issue, it's his mana cost: 7 mana, in three
colors, is a bit of a steep price in a format
that isn't the most conducive to three-color
decks.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4.5 |
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