How do you think the new Nicol Bolas will be implemented?

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Blorbleflorp
Blorbleflorp Posts: 47 Just Dropped In
in MtGPQ General Discussion
He seems very powerful and has THREE colors, something never seen before in this game. Let's speculate!



I think they may have to skip or reposition his first ability. It's just far too powerful to put on a 6 or 9 point cost. I'd wager they may just put it on his ultimate ability and add the number of cards you get from activation. 1/2/3/4 cards from their library.

How are they going to justify having access to 3 (not including multi color cards) colors in a single deck? Maybe they make him cost 1300 crystals and he takes immensely more runes to level-up.
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  • wickedwitch74
    wickedwitch74 Posts: 267 Mover and Shaker
    edited June 2017
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    I'd hazard a guess and say he's only a PVE enemy, and is not implemented as a playable Planeswalker. The development effort to create a balanced, three-color walker probably makes it a non-starter.
  • gruntface
    gruntface Posts: 161 Tile Toppler
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    Not sure we will get him. We didn't get 3 color Tamiyo from SOI for instance.

    http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=414495
  • wereotter
    wereotter Posts: 2,064 Chairperson of the Boards
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    gruntface said:
    Not sure we will get him. We didn't get 3 color Tamiyo from SOI for instance.

    http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=414495
    I second this opinion. Bolas is popular, yes, but a three color walker has already been skipped over when it could have otherwise been a goldmine for the developers to put into the game. Bant if for colors alone would have been insane. A Grixis walker would likely be skipped for the same concerns.

    However: if they do add him, I wouldn't be surprised if they put him in as just two colors, possibly red/black as we recently got a blue/black Tezzeret.
  • Lightcell
    Lightcell Posts: 78 Match Maker
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    Could have a limit on how many cards of each color can be used. First ability could move the first card in your opponent's deck to your hand. Second ability could stay the same and then last could board wipe your opponent.  
  • Dsagent
    Dsagent Posts: 73 Match Maker
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    Nicol bolas should be broken and powerful in all forms of MTG.
    Giving players this would not be a good idea.
    I am all for smother 3 color planeswalker though.
  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
    edited June 2017
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    He will be overpowered and expensive. 

    Hoping for 2 2 2 0 0 mana gains to keep SOME semblance of balance. He'll probably be 3 3 3 0 0 with obnoxiously high health and good abilities.

    This three-color walker WILL be the flagship planeswalker of Hour of Devastation, just as he is in the paper game. Quote me, mark my words, whatever. He is coming. Prepare for 3 color madness boys

    EDIT: as I said before we skipped Tamiyo because she wasn't that important with SOI block focused so strongly on the Gatewatch walkers and the inclusion of Liliana. Bolas is literally the god of the plane in Amonkhet. He is coming.
  • wereotter
    wereotter Posts: 2,064 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Dsagent said:
    Nicol bolas should be broken and powerful in all forms of MTG.
    Giving players this would not be a good idea.
    I am all for smother 3 color planeswalker though.
    True, though in paper magic, his absurd power and game breaking abilities come at the cost of him being an incredibly high costed planeswalker to play in colors not known for their ramping abilities, meaning he comes out incredibly late in the game, or in a deck that you have to juggle 4-5 mana colors in order to make it work.

    Given that in this format IF we get him, he'll just be the thing you start on the field with, he will have to be much weaker by design.

    Phase said:
    He will be overpowered and expensive. 

    Hoping for 2 2 2 0 0 mana gains to keep SOME semblance of balance. He'll probably be 3 3 3 0 0 with obnoxiously high health and good abilities.

    This three-color walker WILL be the flagship planeswalker of Hour of Devastation, just as he is in the paper game. Quote me, mark my words, whatever. He is coming. Prepare for 3 color madness boys

    EDIT: as I said before we skipped Tamiyo because she wasn't that important with SOI block focused so strongly on the Gatewatch walkers and the inclusion of Liliana. Bolas is literally the god of the plane in Amonkhet. He is coming.
    Tamiyo was a pretty important aspect of the Innistrad story. It was her notes and knowledge of the plane that led Jace to Markov Manor and the Drownyard Temple. She was the one present with Jace when Avacyn tried to kill them both, and ultimately it was her magic that imprisoned Emrakul in Innistrad's moon. She wasn't Gatewatch-centric because her personality as an observer rather than an actor made her uninterested to join, though it was also her that let on to Ajani that the Gatewatch was on Kaladesh so that he could arrive in time to save Chandra and Nissa from dying in Baral's Deadlock Trap with Mrs. Pashiri. So while she might not be a flagship planeswalker, she was and remains influential to the story.

    As far as your comments regarding mana.... I think Bolas needs something of the Koth treatment, though to a lesser extreme. I could see at level 60:
    W: -1
    U: 3
    B: 4
    R: 2
    G: -1

    I could even see him at level 1 having -3 on white and green matches just to make up for the power level of having three colors and on color mana against in three other colors.
  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
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    gruntface said:
    Not sure we will get him. We didn't get 3 color Tamiyo from SOI for instance.

    http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=414495
    I always thought that the reason we didn't get Tamiyo is that a 3 color PW would be too broken. Of course, now the game is in a death spiral and the level of power creep is off the charts, I don't suppose that matters any more.
  • arNero
    arNero Posts: 358 Mover and Shaker
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    I'm with those who said we probably won't be getting Bolas PW because we never get 3-color Tamiyo either. The level of flexibility that many colors offer would require the PW to be ground down to dust to be playable/balanced. (something like -2 white -2 green and +2 for the rest)
  • Sirchombli
    Sirchombli Posts: 322 Mover and Shaker
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    I'm just basing this off of the fact we didn't get tamiyo in the soi block. I don't think we'll get a playable bolas. He'll definitely be an event boss, either way 
  • Gideon
    Gideon Posts: 340 Mover and Shaker
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    I will play the contrarian. They will release a Bolas planeswalker for MTGPQ. Now is the time to do so because he is the the main bad guy across all the planes and has been so forever.
  • ErikInVegas
    ErikInVegas Posts: 102 Tile Toppler
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    I'd like to see Nicol Bolas as a PvE like WickedWitch suggested.

    I'd also like to beat my head against the wall vs a 3 colour Tamiyo as GruntFace noted. (maybe come Halloween?)

    Given that we've faced 2 colour bosses with +5+5+5+5+5 it seems doable and interesting to face a 3 colour with +5+5+5+0+0.

    A 2 on 1 vs Nicol might also might be cool depending on matchmaking.

  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
    edited June 2017
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    The only way out of getting tri-color Bolas is if he is a PvE walker only. I just don't see that happening knowing the price tag they could put on one.
  • DuskPaladin
    DuskPaladin Posts: 123 Tile Toppler
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    A lot has changed since Tamiyo, with the advent of a standard format, I don't think that a tri-color Planeswalker would be broken.

    We are still limited but 10 cards, and by his maximum creatures, spells and support slots. Being tri-color would allow some cool 3 cards combo, but I can't really see how he would be much stronger than dual-color ones. 

    He's also not a run-of-the-mill Planeswalker, but the oldest and strongest Planeswalker, it's ok if he's powerful, it's ok if he's the most powerful even. Many agreed that Kiora was the strongest, why not give her crown to Nicol Bolas, MTG's iconic super-villain?

    What can he do that Saheeli, Sarkhan or Tezz 2 couldn't already?

    What can he do in standard that would break the game is half?

    And even if by miracle someone managed to break him, the sets with those cards would eventually rotate out.

    They should revisit Tamiyo, also, I believe. People were scared about Deploy the Gatewatch + Gaea's Revenge, but you can do that now with Ajani 2, and he's not universally played.

    So, Devs,please don't be scared, and give us Nicol Bolas.


  • wickedwitch74
    wickedwitch74 Posts: 267 Mover and Shaker
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    I think, because decks are restricted to only cards within a Planeswalker's colors, the issue would be tri-color walkers mooting other walkers by allowing such a wide array of card choice.

    So there is this balance issue. There is an issue with opening up the possibility of additional card combo abuse. And there is the issue of how many runes it would take to level this monster up. It already takes a huge amount of runes to level up a dual-color Planeswalker. You'd have to take this one step further with Nicol.

    I would be very surprised to see a playable version of Mr. Bolas. He's a major antagonist throughout the history of the game, and I suspect we will see him only as a PvE enemy.


  • khurram
    khurram Posts: 1,080 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Nothing out of the ordinary would happen. Nothing any more broken than we currently have. It's funny people acting like the actual hour of devastation is gonna fall upon mtgpq if they release Nicol bolas.
  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
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    If they control his mana it won't be that bad. If he comes out with something like 3 3 3 0 0 for mana we are all going to get sick of him quickly :)
  • wereotter
    wereotter Posts: 2,064 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Phase said:
    If they control his mana it won't be that bad. If he comes out with something like 3 3 3 0 0 for mana we are all going to get sick of him quickly :)
    3 on each of his color.....

    Hey.... 'member when people were freaking out over how high Tezzeret's mana gains were for a two color planeswalker?



    Honestly, if they are going to give him three colors, give him bonuses on his colors, and not make his mana gains out of control, he'd have to have mana gains pretty much the same as Origins Liliana.
  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Gideon, Ally of Zendikar has 2 2 2 0 0...
  • wereotter
    wereotter Posts: 2,064 Chairperson of the Boards
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    shteev said:
    Gideon, Ally of Zendikar has 2 2 2 0 0...
    Six mana on a mono colored planeswalker is a far cry from 9 mana on a tri colored planeswalker.

    Lately it seems the standard is 9 mana overall on mono colors and 6 on duel colored. Based on that, Bolas would potentially only have +1 on each of his colors, or -1/-2 on white and green to make up for gains elsewhere. 

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