Magic: The Gathering: 10 Most Powerful Planeswalker Cards

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker has one of the best plus abilities in the game. Gaining three loyalty counters while destroying another Planeswalker, land, artifact or enchantment is a phenomenal ability and his -2 can make for great mid to late-game swings.

Unfortunately, like Karn, his mana cost is just too high to compete with some of the other, quicker, Planeswalkers. His -9 ability is great but certainly not the best in the game and certain decks might be able to recover before you can take advantage of it.

For 8 mana with a required double black, one blue and one red mana, and coming in at only 5 loyalty, admittedly with an effective 8 loyalty with his +3 ability, means that Nicol Bolas is likely going to die before he can get enough turns to be worth the mana investment. Unless you dip a fourth colour into green for some extra ramp, the creatures your opponent has by the time you play it will just be too strong, and that’s if you’re not dead first.