In Archenemy: Nicol Bolas, one player takes on the role of the elder dragon Planeswalker, Nicol Bolas. The opposing team plays as Gideon Jura, Chandra Nalaar, and Nissa Revane. Each character has a 60-card deck, containing a non-premium planeswalker card, and Nicol Bolas has an additional deck of 20 all-new oversized scheme cards. Each deck utilizes colours previously shown to be linked to their respective characters; notably, Nissa uses both blue and green, while the entire Gatewatch team lacks any black.