Bolas.dec

[xTrainx]

I have severe budget problems, and play this as more of a hobby rather than a sport, but I still like to do well in the game. This is my Bolas/Beats deck, just wondering if you have any within-cheap-range ideas. Numbers in parentheses mean I don't have them, but am willing to get them if it is a good idea. Final numbers written are based on parentheses numbers.

x4 Swamp
x3 Mountain
x4 Island
x3 Forest
x4 Terramorphic Expanse
x(2) Bad River
x(2) Rocky Tar Pit
x(2) Mountain Valley

Total Lands: 22

You act as lands: these are really just an idea I'm throwing out there...good idea?

x2 Mistvein Borderpost - another land for the main colors
x1 Veinfire Borderpost - more red support

Total "lands" - 3

x(4) Cursecatcher
x2(4) Sage of Epityr
x1(2) Kathari Bomber
x2 Spiketail Drakeling
x1 Jhessian Zombies - landcycling
x1 Igneous Pouncer - landcycling
x1(2) Sedraxis Spectre - want more, hand control on opponents
x1(4) Bloodbraid Elf - definately want more
x1 Blood Tyrant

Creatures: 19

x(1) Brainstorm
x3 Unsummon
x3(4) Ponder
x(2) Lim-Dul's Vault
x1(2) Counterspell
x2(3) Bituminous Blast
x(4) Rampant Growth
x2 Lavalanch
x2 Shard Convergence
x2 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Spells: 24

Total Cards: 68

-----------------

Need to slim down the deck by 7~8 cards. Please help me.

Cascade, in my opinion, is an incredible ability, allowing me to thin out the lowcosting cards. Testing it to see how it does en mass.

Starting to cross into the control range now...some better late cards may be better, or I could add Beacon of Tomorrow if I was running through my deck really fast.

Trying to decide between two or three LimDuls, wondering if Shard Convergence + Landcycle + Rampant Growth is enough of a mana accel or not.

Mainly been playing this against casual beats decks:

a okay Naya deck and a Burn/Beats Red deck, occasionally a wtfisthis black deck.

Wins against all three of these, mana is generally not a problem unless I don't get a blue/black/red mana.
I'm able to hit one mana almost every turn, missing one in eight turns tops. Note that this is without Rampant Growths/extra Bloodbraids because I havn't bought them yet.

The main issue when playing is that as I try to run up to Bolas, I tend to get overwhelmed by their creatures, so that when I get Bolas out either A. They target Bolas with the attack and kill him. B. I die.
The increased number of creatures in my deck helps, but I'm considering swapping out Unsummon for Boomerang to push their mana back.

More hand control should be taken into consideration, and I need more draw power(getting 4 Brainstorms would probably fix that >_>). Definately need either a fast draw engine or I need to keep their hand low/mana setback them.

Ponder + Sage allows for me to seemingly control what I'm going to draw, and Cascade can allow me to pull out those at times as well.

[xTrainx]

bump

[Mirrislegend]

If you want to win via Bolas, then focus on that. You can retain the alternate win con (Throng), but lose the beats (Remains) and the bad creatures (Surveilling Sprite blows) for more ways to slow down your opponent and control the game effectively.

-2 Shambling Remains
-2 Surveilling Sprite
-2 Countersquall
-2 Think Tank
-2 Portent
+2 Echoing Truth
+4 Counterspell
+4 Brainstorm

[xTrainx]

Deck edited with cards from the new set, some are in there as test ideas.

[jthanatos]

Splash green for the ability to mana ramp and doubling season? Bolas is pretty hot when he comes into play with 10 counters.

[freakish777]

Terramorphic Expanse is better than the Mirage fetchs if you're only running basics.

Terminate is a pretty good card (it's common, and getting reprinted in Alara Reborn to boot).

A Lim-Duls Vault or two would let you find Bolas on demand (if you don't mind paying a little bit of life).

[xTrainx]

So I should run Terramorphmic's over the Mirage ones?

So something more like:
x3 Bad River
x2 Rocky Tar Pit
x2 Flood Plain
x2 Mountain Valley
x4 Terramorphics

More help on thinning out the deck is more than welcome.

[freakish777]

13 fetchs (that either come in tapped or put the land in tapped) will be too many. You want 6~8. And yes, Terramorphic is better if you only ever have basic lands to fetch (they should be a 4of, then perhaps 2 Rocky Tar Pit and 2 Bad River).

Additionally if you have colorless mana symbols on spells, Grixis Panorama would also be good.

[xTrainx]

I'm gonna go with a high side in terms of "bad" fetches.

x4 Terramorphics
x3 Bad River
x2 Rocky Tar Pit

and then
x4 Swamp
x3 Mountain
x4 Island
x2 Forest
?x1 Exotic Orchard?

For a total of 20(21) Land. Forest is to use Bloodbraid Elf(once I get some more) for the Cascade, pretty much just a splash.

Do you have any ideas for slimming the deck out?

[xTrainx]

deck slimmed down a bit/edited some.

[Fossil4182]

I've been looking to build a deck like this for a while now as a side project and I've found only three reliable ways to get him into play. First is to cheat him into play with Eureka. Second, is to mana ramp and get him out ASAP. You could...in theory get him out turn 3-4 under "ideal" conditions. Last, which is what you've looked at doing, is to slow roll him out with board control and counter magic.

Regarding the first suggestion. Cheating is awesome. Plus, depending on what lands you have access to, casting Eureka may not be all that difficult. Under those conditions, you just need to have Bolas in your hand the turn you cast Eureka. Additionally, you could just splash some other Planeswalker cards or some really expensive, yet broken cards into the deck and fetch it out. Maybe something with like G/u/b. Green to cast Eureka and allow you to drop into beat mood and u/b for mostly tutor and draw effects. The down side to this deck is that you almost have to think of it as a combo deck. This is good because it will let you drop him, however if Eureka gets counter...that's problematic. Additionally, you're letting them drop their awesome casual broken jank off it as well which can cause problems (though Bolas' abilities make it slightly less of a problem). Additionally, like most combo decks, if you don't go off with Eureka the odds are you aren't going to win the game.

The mana ramp option seems to be one of the best ones out there imho. First, you get Bolas into play faster. Looking at the card, it can dominate a board fairly easily if it resolves. However, the problem is that later in the game it may not matter if he's in play. Moving quickly to drop Bolas means that you'll get access to his abilities much quicker. Additionally, Doubling Season is awesome. You'll get the mana fairly quickly which is great for being able to dump him on the table and getting access to all the colors is good as well. You'd also have the ability to splash colors here as well meaning that searching would not be a problem. I would suggest Blue as a secondary color, mostly for cards like Brainstorm, Ponder, Impulse. You might want to toss in a Lim-Duls Vault or two for good measure as well considering it WILL let you find Bolas when the time comes. Another good strength of this model is that it'll allow you to drop other annoying and really big creatures as well.

The B/U/R deck approach is also good for a few reasons. First, board control is casual is almost unfair, but hey you're playing Bolas right? Having countermagic and creature disruption is great. Red is a little tricky, but Terminate and maybe some of the newer b/u/r cards from the Alara cycle could be useful here. This route also gives you the chance to play Cruel Ultimatum which is powerful in casual to say the least. You'll get access to the best search cards: like everything black that starts with demonic or tutor. Its a little more theme based which adds some level of Timmyness to the deck. Furthermore, as like with the mana ramp route, you'll have alt win conditions via something broken. (I'd go Morphling, but I'm kind of mean like that) Additionally, if you go heavy blue, go broken with Timewalk effects to really abuse your planeswalker. Hell, cards like Savor the Moment become awesome with Bolas on the table. But in reality, Savor and Stitch in Time are prob your safer bets. If you want to go high end, I'd suggest maybe Time Stretch for the double turns (you should win after that point if Bolas is in play) or even something like Beacon of Tomorrow if you want to the recursion effect.

Just some food for thought. I'll post a deck list if I ever get around to putting one together.

[xTrainx]

Woah. Fossil...thats really in depth.

Thanks.

I'm thinking about trying something between the mana ramp and the B/U/R game, splashing in green like I have been. I'm also thinking about using Shard Convergence to remove unnecessary lands from the deck, but allowing me to drop lands turn after turn.
Rampant Growth as well, and then some fetches, but not a heavy green.

Decklist updated.

[xTrainx]

I feel like I'm almost there, but I can't figure out what to do next.

Bump.

[Fossil4182]

Why don't you post some results?

I mean what kind of decks are you playing against and how's the performance of the list working out? Potential problems or things that are working well?

[xTrainx]

Slimmed the deck some. Bump.