Bolas’s Citadel - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

Bolas’s Citadel is a fascinating Legendary Artifact from War of the Spark. This card is sort of a strange cross between the powerful Instant spell Ad Nauseam and a popular enchantment called Future Sight. But, Bolas’s Citadel is more powerful than those two cards combined.


Let’s take a look at what this six-mana Enchantment does:


Bolas's Citadel {3}{B}{B}{B}

Legendary Artifact

You may look at the top card of your library any time.

You may play the top card of your library. If you cast a spell this way, pay life equal to its converted mana cost rather than pay its mana cost.

{T}, Sacrifice ten nonland permanents: Each opponent loses 10 life.



Is Bolas’s Citadel a better Future Sight and Ad Nauseam Combined?


Future Sight is an enchantment that has you reveal the top card of your library at all times. The advantage is that you can play the top card of your library. But, with Bolas’s Citadel, you can look at the top card of your library at any time, but don’t have to reveal it. This means less information you give your opponent. Also, with the Citadel, you can play the top card of your library, but it comes at a price.


With Bolas’s Citadel, if you decide to play the top card of your deck, if its a spell, you pay life equal to that card’s converted mana cost instead of paying its normal casting cost. This is similar to the powerful Modern spell Ad Nauseum. That card allows you to reveal the top card of your library and add it to your hand as many times as you want. But, each card that you add to your hand comes at the cost of that card’s converted mana cost.


(One important note : lands cost zero converted mana, so they can be added to your hand for free. You can also choose to play lands from the top of your deck thanks to Bolas’s Citadel. Of course, that means you should check the top of your deck for a land before playing one from your hand.)


However, there are ways to make Ad Nauseum work well as a powerful draw spell. For example in Legacy Ad Nauseam Tendrils, the deck plays eight zero cost spells and twenty-four one-drop spells. So, when you cast your one copy of Ad Nauseum, the chances of it actually draining you of enough life to be a problem are fairly low.


Modern Ad Nauseam operates a bit differently, using an enchantment called Phyrexian Unlife to actually allow you to go below 0 life in exchange for dealing infect (poison) damage to you instead. This only buys you 10 damage, but sometimes it’s all you need to draw into the card that you need to win - in most cases Lightning Storm.



How is Bolas’s Citadel different from Ad Nauseam?


Whereas Ad Nauseum adds cards to your hand, Bolas’s Citadel allows you to instead cast them. Plus, you get to see what the next card is, so you can choose not to cast it if you don’t want to do so. Also, if you haven’t played a land card in a turn, you can choose to play that land without any penalty, essentially drawing you an extra card.


Plus, Bolas’s Citadel has a third ability. This tap ability allows you to sacrifice ten nonland permanents and have each opponent lose 10 life. While ten permanents is a lot - and it can actually include itself in the sacrifice - 10 life is a very substantial number. While this isn’t the main reason to play this card, it’s a nice weapon to have sitting there on the battlefield.



Will Bolas’s Citadel See Competitive Standard Play?


At six mana, Bolas’s Citadel is likely only going to be a single copy in a competitive deck, perhaps two copies at the most in a mono-Black deck.. Of course, Ad Nauseam is a five mana spell, so it’s not a huge stretch for this card to see play. The trick is playing a deck that can keep the game going long enough to cast the Citadel.


Fortunately, the Standard environment the Citadel of Bolas came into would support such a deck ready to play it. That deck is Esper Tempo, which proved itself as a formidable deck through Core Set 2020 Standard. Not every build of the deck plays Bolas's Citadel, but those builds that play Oath of Kaya and Elite Guardmage - both of which gain you life when they enter the battlefield - help take advantage of the Citadel's draw engine.



Bolas’s Citadel and Aetherflux Reservoir in Modern


The most obvious card that could make a Bolas’s Citadel deck work is Aetherflux Reservoir. People have been trying to make an Aetherflux Reservoir deck work in Modern for awhile with a card like Madcap Experiment to dig for the key artifact. Interestingly enough, Bolas’s Citadel may fit into that sort of deck. Because Aetherflux Reservoir decks can gain a substantial amount of life, a single Bolas’s Citadel could help speed the deck up significantly. This sort of deck, while it sounds good on paper, hasn't yet broken through into competitive play.



Bolas’s Citadel in Legacy or Vintage?


We have seen Ad Nauseum perform very well in Legacy, so what about Bolas’s Citadel? The key difference with the Citadel is that it allows you to cast cards, not put them into your hand. The sheer draw power of Ad Nauseum is key to the Legacy Tendrils deck digging into its key piece. While in theory having Bolas’s Citadel in play would be great - since you could play your Lotus Petals and Lion’s Eye Diamonds for free anyway - a six-mana enchantment is a lot to ask for in that format.


However, Bolas's Citadel HAS seen play in Vintage! You'll see the occasional Paradoxical Outcome deck run a copy of the Citadel. It's also a nice card engine for Tendrils of Agony Storm in Vintage. Bolas's Citadel can definitely see play in powerful decks if there's enough mana to power it out.



Bolas’s Citadel in EDH / Commander


The most obvious home for Bolas’s Citadel is in EDH. Six-mana Enchantments are much more at home in a format that takes awhile for board states to develop. Since you begin with 40 life in Commander, the ability to play many spells off of Bolas’s Citadel as soon as it hits the board is substantial. It’s very possible to play even a card that requires triple-Black in its casting cost earlier than turn six. Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, for example, make that cost easier to meet early on in a game. Also, black decks that also play green mana ramp should have little trouble casting Bolas’s Citadel on turn five or even turn four.


The number of EDH decks that can play Bolas’s Citadel is quite high. Plus, that tap ability to sacrifice 10 nonland permanents could be abused over and over in decks that create a lot of tokens. Ten damage may not be enough to close out a game, but it’s much more relevant in multiplayer as it hits all opponents. It’s going to be a very popular card in the format and any deck that loves sacrificing creatures will have a ball with it.


The top Commanders early in this card's life included VIlis, Broker of Blood, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Kethis, the Hidden Hand, Massacre Girl, and God-Eternal Bontu. Of these Commanders, only Yawgmoth is particularly popular. Then again, the others likely will have many more decks built over time. The Citadel of Bolas also hasn't worked itself into as many decks as it could be in yet, either.



While Bolas’s Citadel may not see much competitive 60-card Magic the Gathering play, it will most definitely be a powerful card in EDH. Players were rightly excited about the power level of this card. What do you think of Bolas's Citadel?



Read more War of the Spark card reviews here.