MTG-Variants/mtg-nicol-bolas-archenemy-reimagined.md

Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined

Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined is a variant on the original Nicol Bolas, Archenemy, which switches it to Commander-style decks (see below for the "-style" part) and attempts to solve some critical problems with the original. This variant features 5 prebuilt decks, representing Nicol Bolas, the 3 original Gatewatch members from Nicol Bolas, Archenemy (Nissa Revane, Chandra Nalaar, and Gideon Jura), as well as Jace Beleren.

What Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined is trying to do

After playing the original product several times, I found several glaring issues with it:

• There was far too much variance with the Bolas deck, often getting mana-flooded or, paradoxically, mana-screwed.
• The deck based way too much on the Schemes; unless those went off in the right way, the deck was quite weak.
• The first two added up to mean that, out of 7 total completed games played, Bolas lost every time, with about as many scoops due to obvious loss. While that has a certain flavour ring, the product was reflecting the early parts of the War of the Spark storyline where Bolas won consistently, so this felt off-flavour. I'm nowhere near the best Magic player, but that felt like too much loss.
• The Gatewatch decks weren't swingy enough. After 6-7 turns they were able to consistently mow down anything the Bolas deck did even in the face of Schemes and big pain cards like Cruel Ultimatum. I wanted to power these down slightly to provide a bit more variance especially into the late-game.
• The games were really short, barring long decision-making sessions among the Gatewatch: games rarely went longer than 8-9 turns before their power was overwhelming (previous point).

Additionally, there were some aspects that weren't exactly issues, but that I wanted to change:

• I wanted to expand towards the later part of the Bolas Arc, specifically the War of the Spark itself. Combined with the repowering of the decks, I felt like this would be a major flavour win, as we could decide the outcome of his entire plan with the game as well as add some more cool things.
• I really wanted Bolas to be commanding the Dreadhorde here, with much more of a Zombie/Amass theme and adding Liliana to his deck.
• I wanted the ability to mix-and-match Gatewatch members in a more consistent way to allow either more players in one game, or more variety between games (how would Bolas fare against, say, Gideon, Chandra and Jace? Or Jace, Nissa, and Chandra, etc.).
• I wanted a Commander-like deck structure. Not just for the singleton aspect, but also for the ability to repeatedly bring out the key Planeswalkers over a longer game.

How To Play Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined

Nicol Bolas, Archenemy: Reimagined is a complete "product" like the original; it features the 5 aforementioned decks, along with a Scheme deck for Bolas. The Scheme deck is unchanged from the original, but all 5 player decks are newly designed, while including all cards that were present in the original decks where applicable.

• The starting life totals of the players is variable with the following forumula:
  • Pick a Gatewatch member life total; this could be either 20, 30 or 40. Pick higher values for fewer Gatewatch members or for longer games with more players; pick lower values for more Gatewatch members or quicker games. Each Gatewatch member starts with this life total.
  • Nicol Bolas starts with the same life total as the Gatewatch, plus an additional 10 life for each Gatewatch member. For example, 3-vs-1 with 40 starting means Bolas starts with 40 + (10 * 3) = 70 life, or a 4-vs-1 with 20 starting means Bolas starts with 20 + (10 * 4) = 60 life. This should give him the life edge he deserves, while preventing the game from going on too long or providing a major disadvantage to either side.
• All other gameplay rules from Nicol Bolas, Archenemy apply (shared Gatewatch team turn, cross-blockers, Schemes, Archenemy-goes-first, etc.).

In terms of the decks, this is a Commander-like format, but more like Oathbreaker-with-Commander-decks. Specifically:

• The decks are all 100-card singleton.
• The Commanders of all 5 decks are the Planeswalkers those decks represent. All normal Commander/Oathbreaker rules apply regarding them. The planeswalkers represent the best functional version of the planeswalker, not necessarily the most story-accurate version or version from the original decks (e.g. we use the Amonkhet Nissa for her blue and green mana, and Gideon for his soldier aspects, but the Core Set 2020 Chandra as it fits her deck better).
• There is no Commander Damage rule; any damage dealt by the Commander Planeswalkers is treated as normal damage.
• Each Gatewatch deck is limited to a single Planeswalker card, their Commander. Bolas's deck features one additional Planeswalker, Liliana, Dreadhorde Commander, to represent his lieutenant; she is part of the 99.
• Each Gatewatch deck has that planeswalker's cooresponding Gatewatch Oath card as a "signature spell"; Bolas does not get a signature spell like this, as his Schemes represent that idea.
• The Oaths follow slightly tweaked "signature spell" rules:
  • The player may cast their Oath at any time from the command zone, regardless of whether they control their Commander or not (which, given the abilities of the Oaths, is quite critical). [Change from normal Oathbreaker]
  • If the Oath would leave the battlefield, it instead returns to the command zone. [Same as normal Oathbreaker]
  • The Oath costs {2} more to cast for each time it has been previously cast this game. [Same as normal Oathbreaker]
• Nissa's original Oath is not very useful in her deck, or this format generally, for various reasons. Thus, this variant features a new, custom Oath of Nissa card for use as her Oath. Instead of the complex pseudo-scry for the first ability, it uses a simple scry 4 instead, and the second ability allows an additional land drop when a planeswalker enters. The cost is also increased to 2 mana of her two colours, since the ability is a bit more powerful now. A render of this new card is provided here.

  Oath of Nissa {U}{G}
  Legendary Enchantment
  When Oath of Nissa enters the battlefield, scry 4.
  Whenever a planeswalker enters the battlefield under your control, you may play an additional land this turn.
  

• Each deck features 2 additional Legendary creatures as "lieutenants", key allies that help define the deck and provide strong synergies.

Decklists

The decklists are:

• Archenemy - Nicol Bolas (includes Schemes)
• Nissa Revane
• Chandra Nalaar
• Gideon Jura
• Jace Beleren

All decklists are in this folder for possible future additions.