One for many

By force of will

Forged by might

Driven by fire

Born by death

To rise eternal

So you want to play Just like Nicol Bolas? Welcome to the dark side my friend. Fitting what Bolas does into a commander deck is actually very difficult, he can be taken in so many different directions theme wise and his color combination is excellent on its own. I've been playing Bolas as my main deck for the past few years, I decided to make a waste not synergy/control deck.

The main win conditions include...

Nicol Bolas Commander damage! only 3 hits and its game, not to mention they are top decking after one hit.

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker If he ever gets his ultimate off usually the player scoops.

Zombie Beats. Waste Not is definitely a large enabler of this deck and the first card I tutor for before a wheel. The value waste not generates is insane! Usually you want to draw more cards or produce another 2 black mana but occasionally you get a board full of zombies. Many times it's easy to chain 2 wheels and wind up with anywhere from 5-30 zombies on board to swing in with. Army of the Damned was also added to help with this gameplan, it can be cast off of the mana generated from waste not for an army in a can effect. Definitely fun and flavorful!

The non infinite combo of the deck, This is fun and definitely jank. First you have to hard cast Omniscience its actually very doable once you psuedo storm with waste not wheels. now that all of your spells are free take a look at these 3 cards. Archaeomancer + Cruel Ultimatum + Dimir House Guard . dimir house guard acts as a sac outlet to ensure our archaeomancer is in the graveyard when we cast cruel ultimatum. we bring the archaeomancer back to our hand using cruel ultimatum, sac her, then cast cruel ultimatum again. you will draw through your deck and be able to play any spells in hand. if you're about to deck out just place down your Library of Leng and cast Wheel of Fortune placing your hand back on top and keeping cruel ultimatum in the top 7. Usually you should have enough cards left to kill each opponent, this combo is technically not infinite, but you can do it a number of times that it shouldn't matter. feel your flavor win as you attain omniscience, a feeling of an old walkers power, casting the signature spell of Nicol Bolas.

Theme cards include: Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, Sensei's Divining Top (sensei Ryu anyone?), Omniscience , Countersquall , Mana Drain , Damnation and of course Cruel Ultimatum. I've included more theme cards in the maybeboard for those who are interested.

The basics are the full arts from Amonkhet. I have been slowly upgrading the mana base, the next big buy is the red blue fetch land Scalding Tarn to finish the cycle.

This deck can easily be built on a budget as the core of the deck is really cheap. The key is leaving as much ramp as you can as our commander is very mana hungry. The mana base could be changed to vivids and other taplands. Damnation can be replaced with Blasphemous Act / Chain Reaction , Snapcaster Mage could be cut for a fun card like Animate Dead. Until i had a copy of Mana Drain i was running Arcane Denial. the key cards of this deck for the main strategy are the wheels. Wheel of Fortune is a bit pricey since the buyout, the deck can run without it but it should definitely be once of the first upgrades you make, the price will only go up due to the reserve list buyout. Any other budget restrictions I would replace with cheap card draw so you can draw into your answers more frequently. EDH can be as expensive or as cheap as you would like it to be. my suggestion to you when coming up with cuts is to always keep the mana curve in mind. Replace cards with either cheaper options or of the same CMC. This deck has been through years of upgrades and meta shifts to eventually evolve into what it is today.

Enjoy playing Dominaria's most ancient evil!