Am I The Bolas? - Deal or No Deal?

August 20, 2025

Fiery EmancipationFiery Emancipation | Art by Harry Conway

Hello, and welcome to Am I the Bolas? 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 [email protected] 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. You might even hear it on the podcast. Which podcast?

THIS PODCAST!

I'm Mike Carrozza - dear lord, what is that smell!?

The Cabbage Merchant

"Two for one special!"

This week, spell it out.

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

SUBMISSION

Hey Mike,

There was an incident at a Commander game last year, at my school’s Magic club, that has been nagging me, and once I heard about this column I decided you should hear it. I was playing Roxanne, Starfall SavantRoxanne, Starfall Savant. The other people at the table were playing Kaalia of the VastKaalia of the Vast, Yidris, Maelstrom WielderYidris, Maelstrom Wielder, and Kenrith, the Returned KingKenrith, the Returned King.

Kaalia and Yidris were my friends, and Kenrith was the teacher supervisor. On turn two, I dropped Generous PlundererGenerous Plunderer, a card that gives myself and target opponent a Treasure on my upkeep. When it got back around to me, I noticed that Kaalia was complaining about being stuck on white, so I gave them a Treasure. For every upkeep from then until turn seven, I gave Kaalia a Treasure. With my help, they were able to steamroll the rest of the table into single digits, without attacking me. They said they were not attacking me because of the Treasures. I will note I made no promises, did not make any deals, only kept feeding Kaalia the Treasures. They never did draw a white source.

On turn seven, I gave them the last Treasure. With my ramping, I windmill slammed Fiery EmancipationFiery Emancipation and Earthshaker GiantEarthshaker Giant, and went to combat. I had enough power to kill either Kaalia, or Kenrith and Yidris. I went for the jugular, one-shotting the Kaalia deck. I was quickly eliminated by the rest of the table, and the game ended soon after that. Now comes the problem. The Kaalia player started arguing with me about that combat. They thought because the Treasures kept coming their way, there was a deal going on. I insisted that no deal had been made and I was well within my right. After the game was over, Kaalia moved to another pod to watch their game and tell the other four players that I had broken our deal. We began to argue again. I ask you: was there an unofficial deal going on, or was I breaking an unwritten rule? Am I the Bolas?

Sincerely,

Green Ramp Enjoyer

Earthshaker Giant

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 [email protected] and I'll get to it here.

Alright, GRE, let's get into. Also, I'm just going to call you Greg because it looks so silly to just see GRE without the G at the end. I hope you don't mind.

This is one of those submissions where I can already see the comments under it going long and argumentative. Depending on the day, I'd call this angle shooting or totally valid. Today, I'm going with angle shooting. I looked for a definition of angle shooting and this one makes the most sense:

Angle shooting is a poker term that "refers to using subtle, unethical, and often deceptive tactics to gain an unfair advantage over opponents, while technically not violating the explicit rules of the game. It's a form of bending the rules to mislead opponents and exploit their reactions."

(Shout out to PokerNews.com for the explanation.)

I believe this situation qualifies particularly because of this line: "They said they were not attacking me because of the Treasures."

There's an explicit direction from the Kaalia player saying "GREG, I am only doing this because of the Treasures" and then you keep giving them Treasures which to many would seem like a tacit or implied agreement to the terms. If this wasn't the case, then a clarification would be in order. "That's great, but we never really made that deal," would be fine. Then the Kaalia player would be able to threaten you with violence and you would then be in a position to explicitly take the deal or suffer the consequences.

Either way, speaking up at that moment to clarify would have been welcome, I'm certain.

That said, it's true, there was no "real" deal. There was no handshake. There was no explicit agreement. I think the Kaalia player could have phrased their intention a little more clearly in a way that would invite an affirmative or negative response, definitely. However, if the rest of the table could ostensibly articulate to their friends in telling this story later that "GREG kept giving Kaalia Treasures, so Kaalia never attacked GREG," I think this deal/not-a-deal was understood.

In the spirit of Magic, especially in Commander, the idea of "lying by omission" is a grey area that people venture into a couple of times until they realize that lots of players don't tend to be repeat podmates after that. It's almost like the super complicated game that we play - which considers nearly all the cards printed in the last 30+ years and is usually played with two extra opponents, therefore adding a difficult-to-navigate social element to it - has carved out some bits of etiquette that remain technically unspoken.

Acts of deception are generally pretty frowned upon. While not speaking up and letting the Kaalia player attack your opponents isn't really the problem, it's letting the Kaalia player believe that this arrangement was in place by not speaking up when they explicitly laid out their reasons for not attacking you that qualifies as a potential toe-dip into deception. Because you exploited this to go in for the kill on Kaalia while they had brought the rest of the table down to less than ten life, this is angle shooting.

I will say that, while I can appreciate a little bit of venting, going over to another table of friends to tell them you've done *gasp* the unthinkable wasn't entirely called for. I think the discussion should have remained between both of you and should serve as a lesson for both you and the Kaalia player.

Sidenote: If you're going to take out a player who had been an ally to you in the game, make sure you have a plan to handle the crackback of the other opponents who want their revenge!

Bolas.

Kaalia of the Vast

More Bolas:

Mike Carrozza

Mike Carrozza is a stand-up comedian from Montreal who’s done a lot of cool things like put out an album called Cherubic and worked with Tig Notaro, Kyle Kinane, and more people to brag about. He’s also been an avid EDH player who loves making silly stuff happen. @mikecarrozza on platforms.

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