Sound the alarms! Light the beacons! Magic: The Gathering’s biggest villain, Nicol Bolas, is about to return. At least, that certainly seems to be a distinct possibility right now, based on the latest story articles for the newest set Tarkir: Dragonstorm.
As anyone who has followed the last six years of Magic story will know, MTG’s draconic big bad, Nicol Bolas, was imprisoned in Ugin’s Meditation Realm at the end of War of the Spark. And now, in Tarkir Dragonstorm Episode 5: Recursion, the tale’s protagonists Narset and Elspeth have travelled there, through an Omenpath portal that’s been ripped into Tarkir.
That already seems like a very bad sign, and it now seems inevitable that Nicol Bolas will appear in some form in the next chapter of the story. But what makes matters worse is that someone called them there, and then, near the end of the episode, who else shows up but Jace Beleren?
Jace is one of the only people who knows about Nicol Bolas’ imprisonment, and since his new thing seems to be wreaking havoc for a ‘greater good’ he refuses to explain to anyone, the stage is set for some very bad shenanigans to go down.
A further hint: in the just-released worldbuilding video for Tarkir, story lead Roy Graham explains that Dragonstorm sets Magic up for its next story arc. “I can’t tell you what the name of that arc is just yet, but once you see it, I think you’ll know why.” Perhaps that story arc has a big B for Bolas in it?
Magic: The Gathering doesn’t have many big bads, and it tends to follow comic book logic of recycling its main villains every couple of years. We just saw the back of the Phyrexians in March of the Multiverse, and while the Eldrazi haven’t been part of the main story for many years they did appear extensively in Modern Horizons 3. Put that all together and it probably means that Nicol Bolas is overdue a return.
Is he going to turn up, steal a rocket and travel to space in Edge of Eternities? Only time (and upcoming story articles) will tell!
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