Nicol Bolas, Dragon God

Originally posted as clarification on ultimate ability, but was able to figure out my own stupidity. So, lets discuss thoughts on Bolas? Now that I have had my coffee, and am using him correctly, I am really enjoying him.
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His first two abilities are tied to a class of cards that is largely useless, as of the time that I'm writing this. Also true of these cards is the fact that they're locked away for most players. Making the Vanguard Elite packs dupeable is a pretty awful thing to do, and it still irks me even though I'm not really affected by it. Because of these two facts, Vanguards are a rarity in actual play, which makes his first two abilities pretty pointless.
His third ability is equivalent to punching yourself in the gut. It's overpriced, and destroys all of the good cards you've spent the whole match trying to get into play.
His mana gains are so-so at best. His deck restrictions are also lackluster. All in all, I can say I won't be wasting the resources on him, not even for the extra blue deck slots he provides.
I think the first is alright, draw cards and exile a card from the opponent’s hand is usable.
His second, killing an opponent’s creature is ok, but Bolas 1 does it cheaper.
the third I supposed is intended to be a coup de grace, but I it seems way to situational for me to want to kill him in this fashion.
the whole package is rather overpriced, maybe not for you.
i like that b3’s 2nd can deal with vanguards as well- saves having to put a card in just in case my opponent is running one.
i still won’t rate him higher than bolas 2 however- he is just awesome in standard
Huh... you make a very good point here. When the bottom 4 sets rotate out soon, the meta will drastically change and Vanguards will likely be seen more and more in matches as the months move forward. In the new standard, Vanguards will be very powerful.
Oktagon did not state that vanguards were a one set mechanic... so we may be seeing more of them in the future.
Maybe more Vanguards will come with newer sets, but until now I have only run into one deck, where I lost due to the combo of vanguards. That combo only worked due to a huge mana cascade in the first place. So far vanguards is such a niche, that it is irrelevant that Bolas3 can handle vanguards IMO.
it may change, but then new cards will also appear which can deal with it.
without having played with Bolas3 I defer ranking him, but 50$ for this? no thanks, man.
but at this point in time, Bolas3 seems weak. Definitely not spending $$$ on him, but miiiigggght get him for crystals.
I cannot directly link the pic here but here's a link
https://pin.it/yvfu56dovdqplj
One of my sons has a ftp account since April and all his prices show as different to mine. maybe a one off first time discount?