All 5 Nicol Bolas Planeswalker Cards in Magic Ranked

Pedro Furtado (djorso) February 20, 2026 Collecting, Deckbuilding, MTG Cards

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Nicol Bolas is one of MTG’s main villains and an embodiment of the Grixis colors in MTG. Back when planeswalker cards were novel, 2009's Conflux featured a 3-color planeswalker card in Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, distinctive from other planeswalker cards at that time that left no doubt about who’s boss here. Bolas is ancient, wise, selfish, and aggressive at times. Today, we’re taking a look at all the Nicol Bolas planeswalker cards, ranking them, and discussing his character and if or when we’re going to see him next. Let’s go!

Table of Contents show

What Are Bolas Planeswalkers in MTG?

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Bolas planeswalker cards in MTG are the many planeswalker cards depicting Nicol Bolas. All of them are Grixis cards with the Bolas type. Since Bolas is really powerful and impactful as a character, most of his planeswalkers have a high mana value; his first planeswalker card costs a whopping 8 mana. As such, they’re often used in value decks or as control finishers. Bolas’s abilities often let you destroy creatures or permanents, highlighting his destructive power, or gain control of other creatures, showing that he’s a persuasive and manipulative villain.

#5. Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver

Clearly the weakest and simplest one, Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver was designed for an Hour of Devastation Intro Deck. Paying 8 mana to destroy a creature and draw a card isn’t good now and wasn’t good back then. And just ticking this planeswalker up won’t do any good either.

#4. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker was the first Bolas planeswalker card, already designed to be awesome. At that time, 8 mana was viable for a midrange/control finisher. It’s nice that you can destroy anything that’s not a creature or gain control of target creature, which is often better than removal and reflects Nicol Bolas’s manipulative flavor. It still sees play in Commander and in low-powered Cube.

#3. Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh

Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh has a much better and less restrictive casting cost, while having four abilities this time around. It’s nice that you can get card advantage on both uptick abilities, either by getting something from their library or making each opponent discard two cards, which is huge in Commander games. Here we also have one of the few planeswalker cards that deal damage straight up to an opponent’s face.

#2. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

The best pure planeswalker Bolas card, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God was a staple in Standard and Pioneer for a time, and it’s a pretty popular card in Commander. It’s very optimized as a 5-mana planeswalker with removal and card advantage in the same package. It’s nice that while drawing a card on the +1, you’re forcing your opponents to lose something, and on an empty board, it’s a very powerful ability. You don’t want to spend that much mana on a pure removal effect, though.

The casting cost on this card is restrictive, but WotC really didn’t want this to be a 6-mana card. This Bolas also has an excellent passive for planeswalker decks, leeching off other loyalty abilities. Finally, we need to talk about this card and The Elderspell. You can kill all other planeswalkers, put the counters on Bolas, and ultimate for the win.

#1. Nicol Bolas, the Ravager / Nicol Bolas, the Arisen

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager has excellent stats and a good enters effect. Making everybody discard scales well in Commander games, and this legend can be an excellent Grixis commander . If you’re not happy with the 4/4 flier, you can transform this card into Nicol Bolas, the Arisen.

It’s quite a powerful planeswalker card, with four abilities and 7 starting loyalty, allowing you to draw two cards on the plus ability. Of course, you’ve already invested 11 mana into this card, so it better be good. The other abilities are straight-up removal or reanimation, which includes planeswalker cards. It’s nice that you can use a Nicol Bolas, the Arisen to reanimate a Nicol Bolas, the Ravager in formats like Pioneer.

Bolas Payoffs

Deliver Unto Evil is the best Bolas payoff, allowing you to straight-up draw up to four cards from your graveyard if you have a Bolas around. Otherwise, you’re getting two cards chosen by an opponent.

Dark Intimations makes your opponent lose cards and creatures while you draw cards and recover something from your graveyard. And if you cast a Bolas planeswalker, it’ll get an additional loyalty counter by exiling this. The initial effect is much better than the graveyard upside.

Hour of Devastation is a 5-damage red sweeper that gets creatures and planeswalker, except Bolas planeswalkers. It’s nice that it stabilizes the board against creatures that are threatening to hit your Bolas walker.

Visage of Bolas only works if you have the worst Bolas card, Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver, and it's a pretty sad mana rock either way.

Wasp of the Bitter End isn’t bad as a 2/1 flier for 2 mana. If you cast a Bolas, you can turn it into removal.

Who Is Nicol Bolas?

Nicol Bolas | Illustration by D. Alexander Gregory

Nicol Bolas is an elder dragon from Dominaria, and a former planeswalker. He’s very powerful, capable of fighting many planeswalkers at once. For a long time, Nicol Bolas was the evil mastermind from MTG lore. He was introduced as a main story villain in Conflux in 2008, although his first creature card came from Legends in 1997. His plans slowly unfolded through minions like Tezzeret. Core Set 2019 explored more of the Ancient Dominarian dragons, including Bolas’s sibling relation with Ugin.

Khans of Tarkir block explored the conflict between Ugin and Nicol Bolas, since Bolas killed Ugin and stopped the Dragonstorms there. But Ugin was ultimately saved by Sarkhan Vol, so he’s still alive. The events of Oath of the Gatewatch made planeswalkers unite against Eldrazi, but they would team up later to defeat Bolas. From 2017-2018, Nicol Bolas’s machinations took center stage, following the events of Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation, and the final conflict in War of the Spark. Thanks to a combination of efforts between Niv-Mizzet, Jace, and Ugin, the Gatewatch neutralized Bolas and imprisoned him in the Meditation Realm.

His most recent lore apperance with in Tarkir: Dragonstorm (with a light reference in Lorwyn Eclipsed), when Jace’s plans for a post-Omenpath Multiverse lead him into the Meditiation Realm and awoke both Bolas and Ugin.

Is Nicol Bolas Dead? Desparked?

After the conflicts on Ravnica depicted in War of the Spark, Nicol Bolas was arrested in the Prison Realm, called the Meditation Realm. He lost his planeswalker spark and is guarded by Ugin there, so he theoretically can’t escape. Or can he?

Spoilers: At the end of the Tarkir: Dragonstorm story, it was revealed that Jace visited Ugin and Bolas in the Meditation Realm, and the events there made the whole realm break into fragments. We don’t know for sure, but the evidence points that Bolas is now free.

When Is Nicol Bolas Coming Back?

This is the million-dollar question. Nicol Bolas is too important a villain for the MTG universe to be locked away forever. We’ve already been reintroduced to him with Tarkir: Dragonstorm, though the details of his role as the story of the Omenpaths unfolds or currently unknown.

What Other Nicol Bolas Cards Are There?

These cards all mention Nicol Bolas, usually as their disciples or planeswalkers influenced by him:

We can also highlight the original Nicol Bolas card as a dragon from the Legends set. Or a specific event in War of the Spark, where Bolas's Citadel appeared in Ravnica. Domri, Anarch of Bolas and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas show the influence Bolas has had on other planeswalkers.

Wrap Up

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker | Illustration by Izzy

If you like Grixis colors and control in general, by now you must have played at least a version of a Nicol Bolas card. It’s also a necessary villain for MTG lore once the Phyrexians are down, and in a world where most powerful planeswalkers are desparked, Bolas can return as an ultimate threat. Given that MTG's been power crept a lot since Bolas’s last appearance, I can only predict that the next time he appears, he'll produce a multi-format staple card.

What’s your favorite Nicol Bolas card? Let me know in the comments section below, or over on our Draftsim Twitter/X.

Until next time, stay safe!

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Pedro Furtado (djorso)

Pedro started playing Magic way back when in Fourth Edition. After a long hiatus, he now plays mostly MTG Arena Standard and Limited. His biggest MTG regret is trading a bunch of Force of Wills for Serra Angels.