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Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver
Legendary Planeswalker — Bolas
mythic
+3: Each opponent loses 3 life unless that player sacrifices a nonland permanent of their choice or discards a card. −3: Destroy target creature. Draw a card. −11: Nicol Bolas deals 7 damage to each opponent. You draw seven cards.
Loyalty: 5
Semantic Tags
A spell that deals direct damage to creatures or players.
A spell that replaces itself by drawing a card as part of its resolution.
Puts additional cards into your hand. Includes direct draw, 'look/reveal and put into hand' effects, and conditional draw triggers.
Specifically removes creatures — destroy, exile, damage, or -X/-X.
Cards that directly win the game or threaten to end it quickly. Includes 'you win the game' effects and massive threats.
Forces opponents to discard cards from their hand. Targeted discard, mass discard, and discard-or-pay effects.
A card or token on the battlefield. See rule 110, “Permanents.”
Answers an opponent's threat by destroying, exiling, bouncing, or otherwise removing a permanent or spell.
Planeswalker-heavy strategy — proliferate, Doubling Season, planeswalker synergies.
Format Legality
Price history
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Printings (1)
| Set | Rarity | TCGplayer | Card Kingdom | Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour of Devastation#205 | mythic | · | · | · |
Related Rules
If an ability would produce one or more mana of an undefined type, it produces no mana instead.
Some abilities produce mana based on the type of mana another permanent or permanents “could produce.” The type of mana a permanent could produce at any time includes any type of mana that an ability of that permanent would produce if the ability were to resolve at that time, taking into account any applicable replacement effects in any possible order. Ignore whether any costs of the ability could or could not be paid. If that permanent wouldn’t produce any mana under these conditions, or no type of mana can be defined this way, there’s no type of mana it could produce.
To “tap [a permanent] for mana” is to activate a mana ability of that permanent that includes the {T} symbol in its activation cost. See rule 605, “Mana Abilities.”
An ability that triggers whenever a permanent “is tapped for mana” or is tapped for mana of a specified type triggers whenever such a mana ability resolves and produces mana or the specified type of mana.
A replacement effect that applies if a permanent “is tapped for mana” or tapped for mana of a specific type and/or amount modifies the mana production event while such an ability is resolving and producing mana or the specified type and/or amount of mana.
If an object’s enters-the-battlefield triggered ability or replacement effect refers to X, and the spell that became that object as it resolved had a value of X chosen for any of its costs, the value of X for that ability is the same as the value of X for that spell, although the value of X for that permanent is 0. This is an exception to rule 107.3i.
The tap symbol is {T}. The tap symbol in an activation cost means “Tap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already tapped can’t be tapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. See rule 302.6.
The untap symbol is {Q}. The untap symbol in an activation cost means “Untap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already untapped can’t be untapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. See rule 302.6.
Rulings
In a multiplayer game, each opponent in turn order makes their choice for Nicol Bolas's first ability, then all of the actions occur simultaneously. Opponents will know choices made by earlier opponents when making their choices, although a card chosen to be discarded this way isn't revealed until it's discarded.
If the target of Nicol Bolas's second ability becomes illegal, the ability doesn't resolve and you won't draw a card. If that target is legal but can't be destroyed, most likely because it has indestructible, you still draw a card.
While resolving Nicol Bolas's first ability, your opponent chooses a card to be discarded without revealing it, chooses a nonland permanent to be sacrificed, or chooses to do neither. Then that player discards that card, sacrifices that permanent, or loses 3 life. Your opponent can always choose to lose 3 life, even if they have cards to discard or nonland permanents to sacrifice.
If Nicol Bolas's third ability causes each opponent to have 0 or less life, but it also causes you to try to draw more cards than you have in your library, the game ends in a draw.