Alright alright, Bolas is cool and all, and it’s undeniable the kind of impact he and his elder dragon brethren have had on the game, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he should win the vote against Damia.
Okay, so I have to admit that Damia, Sage of Stone has very little impact on magic story and its player culture, and in fact only exists because of Bolas and his other EDH dragons seeing as she was printed in the first Commander product, hell she has very little lore herself, but here’s a short snippet:
“ Thanks to their petrifying gaze, gorgons make few allies. But many seek out the gorgon sage Damia, whose breadth of magical knowledge rivals that of any archmage—and whose prices cut deep. Many have thought of forcing secrets out of her; her statuary is littered with the stone forms of those who've tried. “
Sorry, did I say a short snippet? That’s actually all of her lore apart from some very painfully generic flavour text on Vow of Malice. So, if you’re voting depending on which character has more lore, or which card has more cultural impact on Magic as a game, then I definitely concede the point that Bolas’s card should win.
However, this isn’t a vote for the most iconic magic legend, or the most culturally relevant commander, just the favourite of the community of voters, so just hear me out on why Damia should get your vote.
Let’s start off with how claiming Nicol Bolas is the only card that gave rise to the most popular casual format ever played. I’m pretty sure Elder Dragon Highlander wasn’t a group of people playing Nicol Bolas decks, right? Oh yeah, if you take a look, there’s actually four other elder dragons! Sure, Bolas is the most iconic of the five, but he definitely shares his claim to inventing commander fame with his brothers and sisters.
Now let’s move on to the mechanics of the cards, something that wasn’t brought up much in your point why Bolas should win, which is a little strange considering both are game pieces. So, Bolas is a 3 colour legendary card, which is nice! It gives you a wide variety of cards for your card pool, and has both black and blue in his colours, some of the best colours for commander!
He costs 2UUBBRR, that’s... pretty steep, huh? 8 mana, alright but I suppose he has some wild effect that makes up for the cost upon entry, right?
“ Flying ”, that’s good, evasion is certainly nice!
“ At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Nicol Bolas unless you pay UBR. “ That’s not exactly what I was looking for if I’m going to be honest, hell that’s just more downside.
Okay so far Bolas is a flyer for 8 mana with an upkeep cost you have to pay every turn, when’s the upside showing up? “ Whenever Nicol Bolas deals damage to an opponent, that player discards their hand. Whenever Nicol Bolas deals damage to an opponent, that player discards their hand. “ Alright now that’s a great effect! Card advantage is important in Commander, and being able to decimate someone’s hand is fantastic, especially when people sometimes end up with 15-20 card hands in Commander! But it does trigger on combat damage to face, so it’s not super likely to happen.
Alright, what else does he have for 8 mana? He’s a 7/7, that’s sweet! Three punches from him and you’re dead thanks to commander damage! Okay I can definitely see potential here, what else does he do?
What? That’s it? Wow, for 8 mana and the downside of an upkeep cost, I don’t think his abilities really match up with the cost. Well, time to move on to Damia.
So, Damia is a 3 colour legend, just like Bolas, so they’re even on those grounds. But wait, Bolas is Grixis and Damia is Sultai? I’ve got to give Damia the advantage here, she’s got blue and black like Bolas does AND has green, meaning she has all of the best 3 colours in Commander in her deck!
She costs 4GUB, still pricey but at 7 mana that’s half as specific as Nicky B’s mana cost I’ve got to give Damia the point here too.
“ Deathtouch “ Okay so it’s not evasion, but she will kill any creature that isn’t indestructible or have protection from her in a fight, so she’s a great blocker!
“ Skip your draw step. “ JESUS that’s a bad downside, Nicol definitely wins this round, let’s say it’s 2 points to NB and 2 to Damia, they’re neck and neck!
“ At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have fewer than seven cards in hand, draw cards equal to the difference. “ HOLY HELL THAT’S AN UPSIDE! There are SO many things you can do with this! Want to run a deck full of 1 mana spells? Normally that’d lose you a game of commander since you’d run out of cards real fast, but thankfully Damia here basically says “draw seven every turn!” Want to play a control deck dream that always leaves you with answers in hand? Just save the spells you need in hand and play whatever’s leftover, you’ll draw into more answers at your next upkeep! Let’s say the Bolas player hits you and knocks you down to 0 cards in hard. Well you’re in luck, you go right back up to seven! If anything he’s just helped you dig further into your deck!! Want to play a value based deck instead? Just play Leyline of Anticipation and/or Vedalken Orrery (which, let’s face it, you were going to play anyway) and throw in an untap effect like Seedborn Muse or Wilderness Reclamation and you’ll have no trouble playing all 7 of the cards you draw every turn! Worried you’ll end up with a hand full of lands and no way to get rid of them? Throw in your choice of Zombie Infestation, Fae of Wishes, Oppression, and many more!
That’s not even mentioning all the combo possibilities you have with Damia’s ability to draw 7 every turn! Chasm Skulker, Horizon Chimera, Ominous Seas, Psychosis Crawler, Sphinx’s Tutelage, Toothy, all cards that’ll love the card draw from Damia and give you a fantastic advantage over your opponents. Don’t think draw 7 every turn is good enough? Want to draw 14?? Wow, that’s big, but I can get you there bud. Thought Reflection is your best friend there! Damia sees you with no cards in hand and tells you to draw 7. Thought Reflection sees you drawing 7 and tells you to draw 14! Now that Bolas that hit you last turn certainly feels foolish seeing you draw 14 cards thanks to him. But oh, that’s not enough? You want to double that too?? Well Alhammarret's Archive only ignores the first card you draw during your draw steps, but you don’t draw during your draw step! 28 cards it is. That’s enough for you now, right? Wait, you want to go even further?? Are you out of your mind?? Well, I do have a cheeky little combo for you, but it’s risky! Have you heard of Moonring Mirror?
Yes, this essentially doubles all of your draws but keeps your second set hidden away for later. And, thanks to its ability to save cards, you can either go for the explosive draw capabilities I outlined early essentially letting you decimate over half of your own deck in one turn, or you can slowly over a long period of time build up a lot of cards under there, just waiting for the perfect moment to switch your measly 7 card hand with the 40+ you’ve saved under the mirror. And once you have a hand of 40 cards, there’s a lot you can do with that, but there’s a particular favourite of mine, it’s not very good and is highly risky, but it’s won me a game or two!
Well I hope I’ve managed to convince at least one of you out there why Damia is the clear choice for your vote. Thanks for reading!
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