Archenemy Nicol Bolas Box (Deck 2 of 4: Nissa Revane)
This is your expected green deck (with a splash of blue)
Big creatures and trample are the name of the game. The small part of this deck that is blue is a nice refresher and makes the deck pretty flexible. I'm sure modifying this deck and making it a mono green could potentially make it stronger. Not sure though.
I am going to add the rules of this Archenemy Nicol Bolas box at the end of the post to give a quick summary of how this sub-game works. The decks all have 60 cards and can be used in normal play, not just in this mode.
Let's take a look at this Nissa deck!
Nissa, Worldwaker
Nissa always has a soft spot in my heart because Nissa was the first planeswalker I pulled out of a booster pack. With One of Nissa's +1 abilities can make your land become more than just a land, it can be a scary creature too! When it dies it just goes back to being a land, you can't really lose.
The -7 ability is pretty great too, you can put any number of basic lands onto the battlefield and they become 4/4 elemental creatures with trample. Gross. This is one part of the deck that could benefit from a mono green deck.
Explore
The reason that I am putting Explore as the first card is because a major mechanic of this deck is landfall. Landfall triggers if a land has entered your battlefield this turn. This would allow you to play another land, causing the ability to trigger again. Shout out to @treigh-c for finding this great combo.
Turntimber Basilisk
This is one of those cards that benefits from the mechanic landfall. This card already isn't that nice because of deathtouch but to top it off when a land has entered the battlefield this turn, you choose who blocks it! Guaranteed kill (except against first-strike 😮)
Thragtusk
I like this card because it has effects that trigger both when it enters and leaves the battlefield. When it enters the battlefield, you gain five life. Gaining life is never a bad thing. But when it leaves the battlefield, you get a 3/3 token. A replacement that has the same toughness, not too shabby.
Oran-Rief Hydra
This is another card that benefits from the mechanic landfall. This card can do some major damage if paired with an Explore (or two)!
As a 5/5 with trample it is already scary. But if you do the combo suggested above, with one Explore you could give this +4/+4, and with two would give it +6/+6! It goes from being scary to being nightmare fuel quickly.
Quick rules of Archenemy Nicol Bolas game (summarized by myself)
- One player is Nicol Bolas, and up to three others can be the planeswalkers Gideon, Nissa, or Chandra
- The player that has the Nicol Bolas deck starts with 40 life and the planeswalkers start with 20 life
- Nicol Bolas has a separate deck for schemes (I will include the scheme cards in the Nicol Bolas deck review). These scheme cards give bonuses to Nicol Bolas throughout the game. Some of these cards have lasting effects and others are only temporary
- The three planeswalkers are all playing against Nicol Bolas. If Nicol Bolas is defeated, all three planeswalkers win. But if Nicol Bolas defeats all three planeswalkers, then that player wins.
These rules do not need to be followed, but it makes for a different and fun mode to play.
This was deck two of four in the Archenemy Nicol Bolas box series. Here is the link to the prior deck in the series:
#1: Archenemy Nicol Bolas Box (Deck 1 of 4: Gideon Jura)
Hope you enjoyed this deck breakdown!
There are two more decks to write about in this box, I am intending to write about one each day. After all of them, I will make a post with all four decks in the post and have complete decklists.
Make sure you follow so you can keep up with each deck and see if this is a good box for you!