Nicol Bolas

**Effect:** | ■ (This creature is put into your mana zone tapped.)
■ Double breaker
■ When you put this creature into the battle zone, your opponent discards 7 cards from his hand.
 **Metagame Status:** | Meta

**Nicol Bolas** is one of the Magic: The Gathering shock cards in Super Black Box Pack along with Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and is unlike in the real game, the stronger of the 2 shock cards.

## Story

* *Main*: Nicol Bolas in MTG Salvation Wiki

Nicol Bolas is an Elder Dragon who had survived the Dragon War at the dawn of Magic: The Gathering's history and is over 25000 years old. He is among one of the strongest Planeswalkers in the MTG multiverse and is a very dangerous, cunning and powerful antagonist throughout the lifespan of MTG. His most lethal power is his touch which shatters the mind, and he is also a master of Red (Fire), Black (Darkness) and Blue (Water) Magic. However, The Nicol Bolas now is simply a fragment of his former powers.

It is unknown how Nicol Bolas entered the Duel Masters world, but just like Jace, The Mind Sculptor, Awoken Zeus Olympios and Red Dragon Caller, Sonia, it could have been unrelated to the lore, or he could had been introduced from a dimensional rift caused by the epic war of Revolution Saga.

While the card effects are based on a watered down version of Nicol Bolas's Planeswalker Form, the artwork shows him in a young state.

## Card Explanation

Anyone can easily identify how powerful and great Nicol Bolas is from the blatantly powerful effects, which are basically screaming out to kill anyone who sees them.

While it is a 8 to 7000 power 3 civilization creature with double breaker based on Darkness, Fire and Nature which does not seem spectacular and makes him difficult to summon, the 8 cost and the Dragon race allows it to be cost trampled with Jackpot Entry, Dragon Secret formation and if it is hit on the 4th turn in a MaltNEXT deck, it will devastate the opponent and disable him for a good while.

Enough said, let's talk about the effects that make this card a monster.

First, when it is put into the battle zone, **the opponent discards 7 cards from his hand!** You read that right, 7 cards. While it might not be a 1 to 10 advantage like Radio Roses, Zenith of "Wisdom" a one to 7 advantage is atill pretty shocking and can basically discard all of the opponent's hand. Note that the number "7" is Magic: The Gathering's starting hand count, Duel Masters starts with only 5, and thus this usually ends up with an all discard. While Ryusei Kaiser, The Eternal will ruin the party, decks these days don't pack it and thus unless against counter Madness, it is safe to deplete the opponent completely.

Its second effect is an attack trigger that does fixed removal, which is an improvement over Zen and Aku as Bolas does not need to be linked. Nicol Bolas DOES get summoning sickness however, but if it manages to survive a turn, it can wreck massive havoc in the battle zone by destroying the opponent's finishers or system creatures.

In practice this has actually been used in 5 color control or MaltNEXT.

This has caused it to be the top rare of Super Black Box Pack along with the Aki Eda Ochappi, Pure Hearted Faerie and Mode Change Hyperspatial Revive Hole, and can sell for more than a price of 2000 yen on the secondary market.