Am I the Bolas? - This Game Has Changed

October 28, 2026

You think that players are new, but then they flip a Smothering Tithe. Are they actually new, or are they lying about their deck?

Background image for Am I the Bolas? - This Game Has Changed

Pox Plague | Art by Camille Alquier

Hello, and welcome to Am I the Bolas? This week, if you're in a bracket, know the bracket!

This column is for all of you out there who have ever played some Magic and wondered if you were the bad guy. I'm here to take in your story with all of its nuances so I can bring some clarity to all those asking, "Am I the Bolas?"

I'm ready to hear you out and offer advice. All you have to do is email amithebolas@gmail.com with your story, a pseudonym you want to use, and of course, only include details you don't mind in the column! You might see your story below one day.

I'm Mike Carrozza, and it's almost Halloween!

Call to the Grave

Spooky! Gross! Fun!

(Post edited for brevity, clarity, and then some.)

SUBMISSION

Hi Mike!

Thanks for your articles, they always give me a laugh. This happened somewhat recently and I was wondering if I could have played through it better.

My partner and I were at an LGS wanting to test out some new decks. We'd both built some pretty underpowered thematic decks we wanted to test out: an Izzet Polymorph deck and a Snake theme deck led by Hish of the Snake Cult. We got paired with a Y'shtola, Night's Blessed and a Kenrith, the Returned King deck, which immediately set my alarm bells off.

I clarified that we were looking for silly, Bracket 2 and asked if it was "that kind of Kenrith deck." The Y'shtola player assured us that neither one of them was going to combo off, but that the Kenrith player had a really good deck that was really annoying. I switched to a more powerful Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel and Nikara, Lair Scavenger Partner deck, still in Bracket 2, intending to keep them in line so my partner could test their deck out.

In the end, for that game, Y'shtola and Hish ended up mana screwed, and my deck popped off. I realized that both the Y'shtola player and the Kenrith player were newer to the game, as they were asking me to explain a lot of game rules, like flickering or combat damage triggers. Kenrith kept trying to make deals with me to not kill him, but once he demonstrated he could kill me using a pretty cool Tainted Remedy combo with Kenrith's gain life ability, I took him out with a Nikara loaded up with counters, and the other two quickly followed, so we could shuffle up and try again.

Tainted Remedy
Nikara, Lair Scavenger
Kenrith, the Returned King

To me, it seemed like they had both overestimated their power level, so I switched to my Polymorph deck. I got a much slower start, and this time the other three players got a better start, getting out their commanders and a few more pieces. Both the Kenrith player and the Y'shtola player started deploying prison effects, loading up on Propaganda and Sphere of Safety effects, which was hurting my partner's deck a lot since they couldn't do much without attacking.

I cheated out an Icebreaker Kraken (if that shows you the power level I was at), and then Chaos Warped the Kenrith player's Sphere of Safety so we could attack him. Imagine my surprise when it flipped over into Smothering Tithe, specifically the $200 printing, which I'll admit ticked me off a bit. I ribbed him a bit about playing a Game Changer worth more than both of our decks combined.

He laughed it off, said something about not really knowing about Game Changers, then untapped and played Pox Plague. Then I said I was pretty sure he was at the wrong pod and needed to go up a bracket for playing mass land destruction. The Y'shtola player turned to him and said, "I told you that was a bad idea to put in your deck!" He offered to cycle it away and the table voted for it, and the game continued without everyone losing most of their lands, but because I wasn't sure what else was going to come out of his deck, I focused on him until he got knocked out, and Hish of the Snake Cult cleaned up after that.

Maybe too long of a story, but I'm curious about your thoughts. Did the other two players misrepresent their decks? Or am I the Bolas for getting salty about a newer player just wanting to play their shiny expensive card and cool land destruction? I feel like I never had a good read on what power level the table actually was at, but maybe that's my fault as a more experienced player to ask the right questions.

Sincerely,

Poisoned, not Poxed

Hish of the Snake Cult

VERDICT

Thank you for writing and asking me to weigh in on your story. As I mention every week, if folks don't write to me, there's no column, so if you, the reader, want to send me a story, whether it's your own or one from Reddit or a friend's, please send it to amithebolas@gmail.com and I'll get to it here.

Ooh, la la! Better brush up on your Bracket System, everybody! There's a part of article that's going to be some real choir-preaching, because what I want to touch on most, you already know! Readers of a Magic: The Gathering Commander column might be a little too entrenched and invested in the game to really learn this lesson, but it's worth discussing.

Having the Rule Zero conversation and discussing the Bracket System as shorthand is only really effective if you're all familiar with it.

Clearly the Kenrith player was engaging with bracket talk with half-knowledge at best. If you're here, reading this column, it's my expectation that you want to be a better player socially. My hope is that people reading this column are here looking for ways to improve how your gaming experience feels for yourself and your opponents.

The baseline for this consists of three things:

1. Being kind, honest, and communicative - let people know how you feel without ruining the vibe but don't keep your feedback to yourself

2. Being open and receptive - be ready for that feedback energy to be turned your way and willing to accept when things you need to work on hit home

3. Being informed or willing to learn - learn about the damn Bracket System or admit you're unfamiliar with it but willing to listen

Impassioned Orator

The rules of engagement for Commander have changed, and if people don't know or understand the system, you can teach them if they're receptive. This story feels like Kenrith shrugged off a couple of things and had a mild understanding of what the brackets mean. I can see this being a frustrating situation. Not knowing about Game Changers feels like a fundamental block of the system missing from this guy's foundational understanding of this discussion and ultimately, feigning enough knowledge to get through the conversation can feel quite disrespectful. That's frustrating and I hate it, but also, you reckon this guy's out there thinking about being better to play against? Not yet, at least! This is a new player! It's the kind of disrespect that feels like it's out of ignorance of the faux pas.

Some people are kinda gonna suck. They texture your night in a strange way. But they can get better, too! I'm glad you spoke up. It's not up to you to be the teacher, but it's definitely worth it to let them know to get better acquainted with the format's discussion tool to help determine deck weight classes. If this was deliberate, I don't foresee many folks enjoying games with them until they identify that they want to hang in Bracket 3. I think there were better questions to ask, but at a certain point, I get that it can feel a little rigid to be essentially interviewing your opponent about their deck. I guess pilot's experience with the game would be a decent thing to add to the Rule Zero chat since it seems like you'd somehow both over and underestimated the deck! Fun little flip flop!

Anyway, here's another thing. You talked about your partner's Hish of the Snake Cult deck and wanting to play to assist them. I hope they're cool with that because my first thought was that if somebody did that to me, I'd feel like I wasn't getting an accurate read on how my deck works. I wouldn't like that! I hope you talked about this with your partner. I'm just glad this submission wasn't about poison counters.

Resounding Scream

Not the Bolas, but keep some perspective. Not everything needs that pinch of salt. Happy Halloween!