Ravager of the Nexus

Posted on July 13, 2018

Welcome back everyone, Magic 2019 will finally be live for paper Magic. We'll get to start playing sweet cards like Nicol Bolas, the Ravager, Nexus of Fate, Sarkhan, Fireblood, Tezzeret, Artifice Master, and many more! I had some brews for you a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't include any Nicol Bolas, the Ravager brews. Today we will correct that, and I also want to an Hour of Promise deck with Nexus of Fate. We got a lot of sweet brews today so let's go ahead and dive right in, the first one I want to talk about is a Grixis Bolas deck.

Grixis -- Magic 2019 Standard | Oliver_Hart

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Liliana, Death's Majesty

Sorceries (2)
2 Doomfall

Enchantments (1)
1 Arguel's Blood Fast

This deck was made by Oliver, who played in a competitive Magic Online league and went 5-0. This deck is your traditional Grixis midrange deck but it has a slight twist, it uses its graveyard more than normal. Liliana, Death's Majesty not only fuels your graveyard but she also brings back the powerful creatures when your graveyard has targets. Reanimating Torrential Gearhulk, The Scarab God, or even Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is big game. Reanimating Nicol Bolas, the Ravager with Liliana, Death's Majesty is a nice and effortless way to transform Nicol Bolas. Once you have Nicol Bolas, the Arisen you can then start reanimating creatures and planeswalkers from any graveyard. This allows you to basically loop Nicol Bolas with Nicol Bolas and/or Liliana, Death's Majesty. This is a cycle that is extremely difficult to beat if your opponent is not ready for it or has no graveyard hate.

I really like this build of Grixis too because if someone does start attacking your graveyard, you can still just out value them with your creatures and other spells. It's also very hard for them to shut off your graveyard completely because you have so many ways to fuel it.

Mono-Red seems like it can be a tough matchup because Goblin Chainwhirler just straight up eats eight of your creatures. We do have access to Essence Extraction, Yahenni's Expertise, and Gifted Aetherborn after sideboard which really helps against them.

Speaking of Mono-Red . . . Let's fit Nicol Bolas into a Big Red style of deck.

Big Red -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Sorceries (1)
1 Cut // Ribbons

Enchantments (1)
1 The Eldest Reborn

Artifacts (3)
3 Dragon's Hoard

Chainwhirler and Nicol Bolas? Now we're talking. This deck acts like a midrange deck but leans more so on the controlling side than anything else. You have a ton of removal to try and keep creatures at bay while ticking up your planeswalkers like Sarkhan, Chandra, or Karn. I really like Sarkhan, Fireblood and I think he's underrated. Two mana a turn from a three-mana planeswalker adds up quickly, even if that mana is only for Dragon spells. Being able to pitch away dead removal spells against control for new cards is very relevant. You also have Dragon's Hoard to help you ramp up a bit and generate some card advantage as the game goes on.

Soul-Scar Mage may look odd here, but it really does help in taking down bigger creatures or indestructible creatures with your burn spells. It's also a mini combo with Chainwhirler, as I'm sure many of you are aware. I'm just not sure if it's better than say some more removal spells like Sweltering Suns, Doomfall, or Hour of Glory.

All right, the last list I want to talk about is a Bant Nexus of Fate deck.

Turbo Nexus -- Magic 2019 Standard | Ali Aintrazi

Planeswalkers (4)
4 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Artifacts (3)
3 Thaumatic Compass

If you remember the Control decks that won by just ulitmating Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, then this should look very similar. What I've done is take that deck and merged it with an Approach of the Second Sun type of control deck. Except instead of Approach, we are playing Nexus of Fate and that's because it's a better card in a vacuum and it helps us get closer to Teferi's ultimate ability. Teferi's plus ability works fantastically with Nexus of Fate. When you go to untap two lands at the end of your turn, you can respond and float two mana then untap those lands and essentially make Nexus of Fate just cost five mana.

Against control decks your game plan will usually be to attack them with 2/2 zombies off Hour of Promise or get to a point where you can crack Ipnu Rivulet multiple turns in a row to mill out their entire library. You can also use Ipnu Rivulet to mill yourself if you're attempting to thin your deck out to draw more Nexus of Fates and get closer to infinite turns.

You should fare well against aggressive decks since your deck is almost all removal with a few win conditions. Thing like Seal Away, Cast Out, and Settle the Wreckage are all still very good against Mono-Red and aggro. Leonin Warleader is pretty good out of the sideboard against those the aggressive decks because not only is it so hard to kill since it has four toughness but making lifelink cats when attacking also really helps. Regal Caracal and Leonin Warleader can work in great conjunction against Red.

Leonin Warleader will shine more against the control decks after they sideboard out all their removal against you, you just need three swings to close the game out. Then against slower midrange decks like Mono-Green, I'd bring in Approach of the Second Sun since they can't interact with that card.

Well, there you have it. Three sweet decks thanks to Magic 2019. I'm not sure what I'm excited to do more, cast multiple Nexus of Fate or transform Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. Either way, it's going to be epic and extremely fun when I do so. If you have any sweet brews from Magic 2019 feel free to leave them below in the comments, I'm always looking for new things to try out.

As always boys and girls, thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Ali Aintrazi

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