Hello again readers, long time no see! As Trick dutifully reported, I've been absent due to uni (school) work, and also as I've started a new job with longer hours. My schedule is finally settling down, but aside from having no time to write I also had no time to test or get cards prepared for Nationals qualifiers! I still wanted to play, so I cast around for an interesting deck I could make with the cards I had. Having just come into possession of four Jace, the Mind Sculptor I knew I wanted to play them, but without Elspeth or Martial Coup my netdecking options were rather limited. Then the TCG Player $5k happened, and one of the top-8 decks caught my eye – Alex Viksnins' Brilliant Ultimatum deck.

I Can't Believe You're Playing That Card

I, like everyone else, thought Brilliant Ultimatum was too much effort for too little payoff, but with the Eldrazi in the picture there are finally spells worth casting that you would rather pay WWUUUBB for than their normal mana cost. Casting Emrakul is almost an auto win, as there are so few cards that can answer it and especially not when you factor in the free turn. I was excited by the possibilities of this new rogue deck, and decided it would either be that, Polymorph or Red Deck Wins. I found time for a little bit of testing with some friends who were also thinking about going to NQs, and decided Polymorph was too fragile – my buddy's Jund with maindeck Thought Haemorrhage and Duress had something to do with that. RDW and Brilliant Ultimatum both seemed worthwhile though, and I decided to work on the rogue concoction.

As hinted above, my deck selection was restricted by card availability and I had to make a few changes to the $5k list – no Elspeth, no Glacial Fortress and only 2 Emrakul. Celestial Colonnade was an easy swap for Fortress, but I was losing a planeswalker good on both defense and offense, as well as one of my Ultimatum targets, and I looked for some replacements for these slots. I went through the planeswalkers available to the Esper colours, and none of them grabbed me as appropriate – white Ajani requires creatures to be useful, Tezzeret is too narrow, and old Jace has negative synergy with new Jace who is far more useful in the deck. Sorin Markov could certainly work but I don't have any of those either, and then I stumbled on the biggest, baddest 'walker of them all.

That's the Greediest Deck I've Ever Seen

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker demands attention. Sure he's in another colour, and he costs 8 mana, but forget those barriers. If it proved too hard to cast that would become apparent in testing, but I tried not to put up barriers based on assumptions. Just look at those abilities! As soon as he comes down he can just end Elspeth or Gideon while gaining loyalty. He can seize your opponent's Baneslayer Angel or even Emrakul and use it against them. If you get the ultimate off, it's basically game over. There is almost no situation where he can't meaningfully contribute to the game, even if it is just picking off your opponent's lands while building towards his ultimate. Bolas is exceptionally powerful as a repeatable answer to planeswalkers – planeswalkers are innately powerful because there are a new card type, and as such there are so few good answers to them. Super Friends' success is based on its ability to flood the board with planeswalkers, every one of which can affect the board immediately and eventually win the game. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is one of the only cards in the format that can answer planeswalkers and put you ahead – since every planeswalker gets to do something before you can kill it, most other solutions like Oblivion Ring will leave you only marginally behind.

The red mana, as it turns out, is no obstacle at all. I re-jiggered the lands, adding an Arid Mesa, a Mountain and two Crumbling Necropolis, cutting two Tar Pits and a Plains. The four sources are plenty when you don't need the red before turn 8, and half your spells are either cantrips or proper card draw. You don't even lose any blue, black or white sources! It's an extra land but it is hard to feel flooded when your curve goes up to 8. There is always the chance of hitting him off of Brilliant Ultimatum as well, and though it is hardly a discount you certainly don't feel ripped off once you have Nicol Bolas in play.

Now, without further ado, my decklist!

Wall Street

[cardlist]4 Arcane Sanctum

4 Marsh Flats

4 Celestial Colonnade

2 Crumbling Necropolis

2 Creeping Tar Pit

1 Arid Mesa

3 Swamp

3 Island

2 Plains

1 Mountain

2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Wall of Omens

1 Path to Exile

4 Ponder

4 Spreading Seas

4 Esper Charm

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Day of Judgment

2 Liliana Vess

1 Gideon Jura

4 Brilliant Ultimatum

1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Sideboard

4 Kor Firewalker

3 Negate

1 Spell Pierce

1 Path to Exile

2 Oblivion Ring

1 Perimeter Captain

1 Celestial Purge

1 Mind Shatter

1 Telemin Performance[/cardlist]

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. The deck's plan should be fairly obvious once you read the text of Brilliant Ultimatum – it lets you cast spells for free, and your plan is to cast Emrakul and just win. The rest of the deck is dedicated to get you to a situation where you can cast that one spell by disrupting your opponent and controlling the board, and drawing into enough cards to fix your mana and find win conditions. There are a ton of tapped lands in the deck and after playing at regionals I would like to get rid of a few of them for M10 lands. The manlands are not that helpful in this deck, as you don't so much win by damage as damage is just the inevitable result of the winning game state you create.

The sideboard is pretty thrown together with a few cards I wanted to test out. Kor Firewalkers and Negates are obvious and were both awesome when they were supposed to be. Spell Pierce was in as an alternative Negate, but it just wasn't as good in this deck. The extra Path, the two O-Rings and the Captain were supposed to be Wall of Denial, but my friend who was going to bring them went to the wrong venue. Each proved useful, but O-Ring is a pretty shoddy answer to planeswalkers. I never got to cast Mind Shatter, Celestial Purge served a valuable purpose and there should probably be more. Telemin Performance was very tasty against a couple of decks and I highly recommend it as a one of if you're playing blue.

The Tournament

First of all a plug for my local TO, Scott Paisley. He runs all our bigger-than-FNM events in Perth, and if you want to come along you can find out about upcoming events here, but since the site is only occasionally updated you're better off signing up to the mailing list – details at the same link. I rocked up just in time having dropped by my friend Jason's house to pick up cards – normally he would be judging our local events like this, but he was too ill to go. I was going to meet another buddy Mike at the tournament and switch out some of my sideboard cards, but he'd gone to the wrong venue entirely! I still had one friend show up, Victor, who was going to play my Devastating Red deck with his newly bought Kargan Dragonlords. After scribbling the late forced changes on my decklist and submitting, I said some hellos and started anxiously shuffling before round 1. With pairings up I headed to my first round opponent.

Round 1: Anthony, Turbofog

This is karma paying me back for so dutifully doing my assignments this last fortnight! With two maindeck Emrakul, it is almost impossible for me to lose against his mill plan and though he takes about twice as many turns as I do and has us both drawing 8 cards a turn, I just discard Emrakul over and over and eventually I land Nicol Bolas when he taps out. I add counters until he gets to ultimate, and Anthony scoops it up with about 15 minutes left on the clock for him to win out. Game 2 goes to turns in much the same fashion as the first, it's all I can do to sort out which cards to discard each turn and keep playing at a reasonable pace. I side in my counterspells and Performance for the Walls and Seas. It ends in farce as he goes to discard Emrakul at end of turn, and I say I want to cast Esper Charm on an Oblivion Ring before that point. He's already started shuffling his graveyard into his library, and as the last game of the round we have a bunch of people offering opinions on what should be done. When the judge asks us to play out the Esper Charm and the ensuing counter-war reveals he won't have enough cards in his hand to discard Emrakul, the situation is irreparable and with him one game down in turns anyway I score the win.

1-0

Round 2: David, Grixis Control

David ended up being forced to play for top-8 and losing out, and his deck was pretty interesting – heavy on counterspells, with Cancel, Countersquall and Negate all maindeck and old favourite Cruel Ultimatum as a finisher. I feel heavily favoured in this match, and it boils down to me throwing unbeatable spells at him until I hit one he can't counter. Game 1 he Cruels me, emptying my hand – and tapping himself out. I tutor up Nicol Bolas with Liliana, brainstorm it into my hand with Jace, cast it and start destroying his lands. He keeps playing but has no answer at all for Bolas, who ultimates two turns later. I side in my counterspells and Celestial Purge for the Walls. Game 2 follows much the same course – he's unable to put much pressure on me early on and can't deal with my planeswalkers, and my end game spells are better than Cruel Ultimatum. I attack with Emrakul and he sacrifices his Jace and five lands before scooping. He then goes "argh, I could have won if I kept Jace and bounced Emrakul!" missing that in that cast he would have 1 land and Jace.

2-0

Round 3: Shawn, Super Friends

Shawn is one of the best local players, and I'm still yet to get a match win against him. We throw planeswalkers at each other, and the games turn on whether I can get my mana to work or not – if he can lock me out of my spells, I can't stop his Ajani or Elspeth killing me which is what happens game 1 – his deck can go for the throat surprisingly quickly. Game two we both side out our walls and I cast Telemin Performance, fetching up his Baneslayer Angel. I use Jace to keep him off a second BSA while bashing him, and when Jace is finally used up I cast Nicol Bolas and steal the second BSA drawing the concession. Third game I Telemin again, getting Ulamog but he casts Jace and bounces it, causing much frowning on my side. He has a pile of planeswalkers to take the game and the match. Afterwards he shows me his own Telemin Performance, and I count myself lucky as my only creatures after boarding are Emrakuls.

2-1

Round 4: Robert, Red/Black Aggro

Here's the match I was worried about, but fortunately Robert hasn't teched up and is running Ball Lightning. I get horribly smashed game one, as I can barely interact with him. I sideboard in nine cards and the match looks a lot better. Game two I get two Kor Firewalker and stabilize at 9 life – and once I've stabilized, I can't really lose. In game 3 I go Perimeter Captain, Wall of Omen, Wall of Omen, Kor Firewalker; and though he Vendettas my Firewalker it's not enough. Nicol Bolas clobbers him, and I'm well placed for top 8. My friend Victor and I start talking about top 8ing and if we're going to go to Nationals, which pretty much cursed us for Round 5...

3-1

Round 5: Victor, Devastating Red

Of course. I was pretty comfortable with the red match after my success in the last round but I got horribly clobbered – game one I was a dog once again, but in game two I kept a red-hate-filled hand and ended up stuck with no blue. I Purged his first Manabarbs, but he had another the next turn followed by a Bushwhacked Devastating Summons. No chance. With me on 5 and Victor with about 12 power of guys on the table, he made a phone call to see if he could afford to go to Canberra. He decided he'd rather save to go to Melbourne for a holiday, and scooped me into a position to ID in the last round. I think the red match is pretty horrible for this deck

4-1

Round 6: Tristan, Sovereign Mythic

Tristan takes a fair bit of convincing to ID, but once it's all laid out by the more experienced hands he agrees and we take a break and watch the last couple of matches.

4-1-1, into to top 8

Top 8: Shawn, Super Friends

Though we are all qualified for Nationals, the TO is offering varying pack prizes for the top 8 and I get paired against Shawn once again. These games are much more one-sided, as my mana-luck has deserted me and I am never really in it – he has turn 2 Seas and turn 4 Ajani Vengeant in both games, from memory, and I badly misplay with Marsh Flats to lock myself out of Brilliant Ultimatum mana in game 2. The top 8, for those curious, included traditional Jund, Sedraxis Jund (even this guy called me greedy!), Vampires, Super Friends, two red/black aggro decks plus my deck, and Victor finished 9th with mono-Red.

Post-Tournament Thoughts

Since this tournament was basically my testing sessions for the deck, there are several things about it that only became apparent afterwards. Firstly, the manabase is something of an Achilles heel. While you're able to get the colours you need fairly easily, playing mostly tapped lands forfeits the tempo advantage to your opponent – even when you are on the play, you feel like you're not. Additionally any sort of mana-denial can be crippling, especially in multiples – I was dreading seeing a Tectonic Edge on the other side of the board. That said, the pay-off is definitely worth it. Nothing else can contend with this deck once it reaches its stage 3, as you don't particularly care about big Mind Spring or Martial Coup.

Another thing that will need a lot of thought is the sideboarding plan. I was taking out the cantripping two drops which were weak in a given match –eg. Spreading Seas against red, or Wall of Omens against fog. The issue then is that the rest of the deck doesn't function as well. The deck is driven by its engine of cheap cycling cards, and taking them out makes your main line of play weaker. Telemin Performance was my favourite sideboard card, as many decks rely on Wall of Omens as their early defence and will get rid of them in game 2, either bringing in no creatures or bringing in big fatties like Baneslayer Angel. Celestial Purge was also excellent, and I highly recommend it to all white decks.

Nicol Bolas has absolutely proven himself to me – against aggro or control he is extremely powerful, and even if they remove him you get at least a Vindicate or permanent Mind Control out of it. Grixis in particular has no way to deal with him besides some feeble burn spells. Whatever I end up playing in upcoming tournaments, I will certainly be trying to play Bolas. Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you're going to Australian Nationals give me a shout!