Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh
Legendary Planeswalker — Bolas
+2: Target opponent exiles cards from the top of their library until they exile a nonland card. Until end of turn, you may cast that card without paying its mana cost.
+1: Each opponent exiles two cards from their hand.
−4: Nicol Bolas deals 7 damage to target opponent, creature an opponent controls, or planeswalker an opponent controls.
−12: Exile each nonland permanent your opponents control.
- CMC
- 7
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BRU
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Hour of Devastation Promos
- Price
- $3.34
- EDHREC rank
- #5592
Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh lands on the board and immediately threatens to exile an opponent's hand or their best permanent — seven loyalty at seven mana is a closing threat, not a support piece. The cost is real: triple blue, triple black, one red means you need a near-perfect mana base, and decks that can't ramp to seven reliably will find him stranded in hand. If your shell can get him down, Nicol Bolas, the Ravager's flip ability is a clean path to cheating that seven-mana cost entirely.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager flips into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen for eight mana, and one of that planeswalker's loyalty abilities puts Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh directly onto the battlefield from any graveyard — bypassing the color-pip problem entirely and giving you two Bolas threats operating simultaneously.
Esika, God of the Tree
Esika, God of the Tree's back face, The Prismatic Bridge, cheats a permanent onto the battlefield from the top of your library each upkeep, and Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh is exactly the kind of high-cost, high-impact planeswalker that Bridge is designed to circumvent — 21% inclusion across nearly 24,000 Esika decks reflects how reliably that engine fires.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh actually gets played — the format's slower pace gives you time to hit seven mana, and the multiplayer table means his minus-four exile ability almost always connects with something worth taking. In Legacy and Vintage he's too slow and too fragile against counterspell-heavy environments where seven mana is a fantasy, but he's technically legal in both. Pioneer and Modern are the same story: midrange and combo decks don't want a seven-drop that doesn't close immediately, and he sees essentially no competitive play there. Oathbreaker is an interesting edge case — as a planeswalker he's a legal commander in that format, and his ultimate is a genuine one-shot win condition if you can protect him.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$3.34 cheap tier
At $3.34, Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh sits in budget rare territory despite being a marquee mythic planeswalker, driven down by multiple printings and modest competitive demand. That price is stable — casual and Commander interest keeps a floor under him, but nothing in the current meta is pushing it higher.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
- Esika, God of the Tree
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.