Nicol Bolas Damage Matters (EDH / Commander)

Wanted to go for a more unconventional strategy for Bolas, centered around the fact that all he needs to do to discard a hand is deal damage to a player. Whether or not this is combat damage does not matter, which isn't normally the case so far as I can tell. I found some other creatures and auras with this same line of text, and included many other cards that cause those creatures to deal damage: This includes auras and equipment that ping, and spells that cause creatures to be the source of damage like Soul's Fire. Arcbond and Chandra's Ignition are incredibly powerful here, as they damage all other creatures and opponents. (and yourself, in the case of arcbond; be careful). A couple creatures such as Lightning Reaver and Toralf are just really good at spreading damage around and thus make good enchantment targets. Tergid, Tourach, Notion thief, and Syr Konrad all stay in the deck so that there is still some additional value for forcing discards. Bolas himself, of course, has a few devastating combos if you can keep him out. Fiery Emancipation will have him able to deal lethal commander damage in a single strike, and then something like Burning Anger or Chandra's ignition can instantly take out one or all of your opponents. River's Rebuke can return all of one of your opponent's nonland permanents to their hand, ripe for discarding; and unlike cyclonic rift, the whole table won't hate you! Just one of them. Choose wisely. Of course if you do want the whole table to hate you, just have notion thief out when using Bolas with one of those global damage effects; barbed shocker will work here too.

One of this big weaknesses of this deck is its protection, but there are some pretty good sources in here that hopefully will make it so you aren't completely left out to dry. Fiendlash, Livewire Lash, and Blazing sunsteel discourage opponents from damaging your key creatures. Counterspell, Perplex, swiftfoot boots, and in the right scenario even sigil of sleep can help guard against non-damage removal. Finally, Reanimate, Animate dead, and Storm Herald can help bring back cards that do end up in you graveyard. Rush of vitality is also a pretty good source of protection for a turn, and the lifelink it provides can be pretty substantial on the right turn. Really, lifelink is something I would probably add a bit more of in a rework of this deck. Our last sources of protection are untappers, since this deck really likes to go sideways: cards like Kelpie guide, dramatic reversal, freed from the real, and hidden strings can provide some pseudo-vigilance or ramp depending on the situation.

In short, if you're looking for and overly complex and fragile strategy that has potential to be cool sometimes and utilizes one of the original Elder Dragons in probably the least powerful ways possible, this deck is for you. Of course, even at his weakest, Bolas is still a force to be reckoned with. As long as you survive the mid-game, your last opponent will be hard pressed to oppose the will of the god-pharaoh with no cards in their hand.