C
Chaos Turtle
Guest
I've been playing a lot of Domain recently, and I offered the following analysis up at MTGnews' forums. For those who don't visit MTGnews, I'm reprinting it here, hopefully to stimulate some discussion.
I'd like to know if there's anything you think I'm overlooking, or if you just plain disagree with me altogether.
====
I do play Domain locally. I've been playing Sean McKeown's version, with a Rout replacing a maindeck Global Ruin (as I have only 2 Global Ruin to my name) for a few weeks now, and I win about 70% of all games, losing to beatdown with burn.
Some comments on card choices and strategy, in no particular order...
Fact or Fiction vs Allied Strategies:
Allied Strategies. Barring excessive countermagic/landkill (the latter being your sworn enemy until you have Harrow in hand and the mana to play it) you will have domain by the time you can afford to play this. Against decks with counters, you do not tap out to play this. You play it and leave enough mana open to ensure it resolves, unless you are counter-baiting. Fact or Fiction is only better when you don't have domain, but you'll (almost) always have the domain when you play Allied Strategies, and a counter-mage allowing this to resolve is a sure sign that she is low on counters.
Worldly Counsel vs Opt:
You must play four Worldy Counsel. This is a good card at 3 basic land types, great at 4, and stunning when you have domain. Even when you only have 2 basic land types, this is a slightly overcosted Sleight of Hand, and even if you're forced to play it with only 2 Islands on the board (you probably should have mulliganed that one) it's still a cantrip to help you out of a sticky situation.
The great thing about Worldly Counsel (and domain spells in general) is their usefulness at varying points in the game. Opt is only good in the first couple of turns. After that, you'll wish you were going deeper than 1 or two cards.
Global Ruin:
Three is enough. You'd be surprised and annoyed at how often Global Ruin is only Good (as opposed to Great). Two is probably too few, but I've been getting by just fine (remember the card draw/selection in this deck is amazing).
Reviving Vapors:
The Worldy Counsels are plenty of search for your deck. Your life total is usually not in danger, as you will often drop very low on life before establishing total and complete control. Want to gain life? Use those Absorbs wisely. This one only goes three cards deep, with a mana cost that's high enough to make it very likely that Worldy Counsel will go at least three and probably four card, without showing anyone what you're getting.
Absorb:
Duh. The only reason not to use four is, well I don't know. I imagin to keep other slots open. Absorb has the wonderful distinction of effectively countering Urza's Rage. Do not waste these when you have them, especially against mages playing burn.
Questing Phelddagrif:
Your kill card. Don't worry about playing it until you have board control, as control is your top priority. The only time you might want to play it early is if you're worried about getting it Lobotomied, but even then, it's risky, since tapping out too soon is often disastrous. Once you have it out, attack mercilessly as long as you have enough Restraints to keep your opponent from attacking you back. Give it flying if you need to; your card advantage easily makes up the difference against whatever your opponent draws. Go ahead and pump it if you have the mana and keep enough open to counter; those hippo token just sit over there looking stupid when they cost 4 or 5 mana to attack with.
Fertile Ground:
No. God no. Remember, landkill is your enemy, and losing card advantage is your worst enemy. Having your second land Vindicated with a Fertile Ground on it is an absolute disaster, and it will happen if you use this card.
Harrow:
Obviously a must-have. I just wanted to add a little bit of strategy advice here. Against black-white, expect Vindicate, and be prepared to turn an otherwise bad situation into a godsend by Harrowing away the targetted land. The lone exception is if the target is your only Swamp or Mountain, in which case Evasive Action might be a better idea.
Restock:
I can only see this as maybe being used to recover a destroyed Swamp or Mountain. While this can happen, I don't think that Restock is a solution. There's not really anything else in the deck that's going to be traumatic for you to lose to the graveyard, and Restock's high cost makes it sub-par for this deck.
Pernicious Deed:
I often wish I had room for three. In fact, I may replace that maindeck Rout with a Deed until I can get my third Global Ruin. The situations Deed will get you out of are many in number, and knowing you'll have one is a good reason not to waste your Evasive Actions on little creatures. The versatility here is astonishing, and the only time you'll hesitate to wipe out the board is when the opponent has got four-mana-cost stuff, which would require you to kill your Collective Restraints and/or Phelddagrif. In cases like this, if your opponent has enough mana to pay the Collective Restraint cost, you will probably want to go ahead and Deed for 4 (or more if she has bigger stuff than that out) and plan on either playing a Phelddagrif or Collective Restraint soon after. If you can't, go ahead and Deed if you have some counters and search in your hand. By the time such a situation arises, you probably have domain anyway, and most of your spells are inherently superior to your opponent's.
Note that Deed also takes care of that pesky Mask of Intolerance, which you would have countered if you had played first, right?
As long as we're talking about that little Mask, here's some more tips. If your opponent gets this out, don't go for the domain right away (duh). Focus on building your mana base, and rely on Chromatic Sphere to play the Pernicious Deed, which will then blow up the Mask and every other threat your opponent has played.
Chromatic Sphere:
Play four. Early game, if you're having a little bit of land trouble, use it right away to dig a little deeper. If land is not a problem, judge whether you'll need it later to make a color you haven't got out yet (black, in other words) or just use it to draw the card. Later in the game, just use it as a cantrip unless your Swamp has been destroyed and you still need to play a Deed.
Star Compass:
Two seems about right. I sometimes think I'd rather be playing basic land in their place, but they really do speed you up a turn, and sometimes opponents will overlook them when calculating what kind of mana you have available for countering.
Collective Restraint:
The card that will usually win you the game. Played as soon as possible (or as soon as you can protect it) it nullifies creature-based decks. Attacking you usually means they can't play anything else that turn, until the late game when they have lots of mana. Balance and good judgement is required when deciding how many of these to lay down. Often, two Collective Restraint just seals the game, but sometimes you will get people who can get ten mana when you have nothing to block with (Spectral Lynx is problematic here). In this case you need a Deed or another Restraint.
Putting Out 3 Restraints is a little risky if your opponent is playing the Deed game as well, or has Tranquility, but you've been saving your Absorbs have you not? If things look this bad, then you need to be very careful and outplay your opponent. Practice your poker face and keep plenty of mana available.
Legacy Weapon:
The random card. You only want one just because it's so expensive, and because you can get it back if by some chance it actually gets destroyed (hasn't happened to me yet). Barring getting burned out suddenly, you will win when you get this card. What to remove of course depends entirely upon your board situation. Usually you want to get rid of lands, to ensure your opponent can't ever pay for Collective Restraint. Take out creatures only if they are going to kill you or get you in burn range.
If your Phelddagrifs get Lobotomied and you have to go to the decking method to win, notice how nicely this card help you do that. Get your hand size up to 7 and just stop playing stuff unless you have to. You can just discard this every turn and keep drawing it, using your Allied Strategies to either A) fill up your hand midgame so you can pull this trick off and get lots of counters in-hand, or B) deck your opponent when she's low enough on cards. Luckily, this will hardly ever happen.
Sideboard:
Extra Deeds, for those weenie decks. Dismantling Blow, if you know that Mask of Intolerance is coming in. Gainsay versus other counter-decks. Lobotomy versus control decks (the mirror match perhaps?). Rith to handle beatdown when there's no opposing bounce (he catches up in damage races and makes a LOT of blockers). Dromar is good for catching up and for playing mean bounce-games with any color other than blue (duh, Collective Restraint). Rout for obvious reasons. I run a couple of Meddling Mages in mine just because of the number of Urza's Rages and Vindicates in the local metagame.
A couple more notes on dealing with problem cards.
Spectral Lynx can be bad for you. It's early beats, gets played before you can counter, and usually survives a Deed. Your Collective Restraint is your only answer unless you live long enough to blast that kitty with the Legacy Weapon. It's not such a big deal in the late game, even when your opponent manages to pay the Restraint's cost. By then you have a flying hippo that is capable of racing, even if you've fallen behind by as much as ten life.
Vindicate is also bad. You rely heavily on permanents to maintain control, and Vindicate can get rid of them all. Well, not Phelddagrif, and thank gawd for that. The real threat of Vindicate is having one of your lands blown away early. Hopefully you can counter it with Evasive Action, or have a Harrow ready to use. If not, you're going to be set back a lot, and a Lynx will probably finish you off. Pray there's only he one, and build that mana up fast, work on the domain and get a Collective Restraint into play.
Urza's Rage and other burn can be a problem. Just when you've managed to get everything under control, along comes an uncounterable Rage or an untimely Ghitu Fire to kill you out of the blue. If you have no counters, either one will just kill you, so in these matchups, you're Absorbs are solid gold. Save them for these two spells. I have actually won a game (only once, but still) while at 1 life by Absorbing an Urza's Rage.
Well, good luck. This is one of the more fun decks I've ever played, and I probably will play it all season long unless the metagame shifts to wreck it, or I decide to go with B/W/x (but I won't). It doesn't just play itself, though; you really need to be thinking all the time about managing your mana and how you want to use your counters.
I think that's all I have to say...
I'd like to know if there's anything you think I'm overlooking, or if you just plain disagree with me altogether.
====
I do play Domain locally. I've been playing Sean McKeown's version, with a Rout replacing a maindeck Global Ruin (as I have only 2 Global Ruin to my name) for a few weeks now, and I win about 70% of all games, losing to beatdown with burn.
Some comments on card choices and strategy, in no particular order...
Fact or Fiction vs Allied Strategies:
Allied Strategies. Barring excessive countermagic/landkill (the latter being your sworn enemy until you have Harrow in hand and the mana to play it) you will have domain by the time you can afford to play this. Against decks with counters, you do not tap out to play this. You play it and leave enough mana open to ensure it resolves, unless you are counter-baiting. Fact or Fiction is only better when you don't have domain, but you'll (almost) always have the domain when you play Allied Strategies, and a counter-mage allowing this to resolve is a sure sign that she is low on counters.
Worldly Counsel vs Opt:
You must play four Worldy Counsel. This is a good card at 3 basic land types, great at 4, and stunning when you have domain. Even when you only have 2 basic land types, this is a slightly overcosted Sleight of Hand, and even if you're forced to play it with only 2 Islands on the board (you probably should have mulliganed that one) it's still a cantrip to help you out of a sticky situation.
The great thing about Worldly Counsel (and domain spells in general) is their usefulness at varying points in the game. Opt is only good in the first couple of turns. After that, you'll wish you were going deeper than 1 or two cards.
Global Ruin:
Three is enough. You'd be surprised and annoyed at how often Global Ruin is only Good (as opposed to Great). Two is probably too few, but I've been getting by just fine (remember the card draw/selection in this deck is amazing).
Reviving Vapors:
The Worldy Counsels are plenty of search for your deck. Your life total is usually not in danger, as you will often drop very low on life before establishing total and complete control. Want to gain life? Use those Absorbs wisely. This one only goes three cards deep, with a mana cost that's high enough to make it very likely that Worldy Counsel will go at least three and probably four card, without showing anyone what you're getting.
Absorb:
Duh. The only reason not to use four is, well I don't know. I imagin to keep other slots open. Absorb has the wonderful distinction of effectively countering Urza's Rage. Do not waste these when you have them, especially against mages playing burn.
Questing Phelddagrif:
Your kill card. Don't worry about playing it until you have board control, as control is your top priority. The only time you might want to play it early is if you're worried about getting it Lobotomied, but even then, it's risky, since tapping out too soon is often disastrous. Once you have it out, attack mercilessly as long as you have enough Restraints to keep your opponent from attacking you back. Give it flying if you need to; your card advantage easily makes up the difference against whatever your opponent draws. Go ahead and pump it if you have the mana and keep enough open to counter; those hippo token just sit over there looking stupid when they cost 4 or 5 mana to attack with.
Fertile Ground:
No. God no. Remember, landkill is your enemy, and losing card advantage is your worst enemy. Having your second land Vindicated with a Fertile Ground on it is an absolute disaster, and it will happen if you use this card.
Harrow:
Obviously a must-have. I just wanted to add a little bit of strategy advice here. Against black-white, expect Vindicate, and be prepared to turn an otherwise bad situation into a godsend by Harrowing away the targetted land. The lone exception is if the target is your only Swamp or Mountain, in which case Evasive Action might be a better idea.
Restock:
I can only see this as maybe being used to recover a destroyed Swamp or Mountain. While this can happen, I don't think that Restock is a solution. There's not really anything else in the deck that's going to be traumatic for you to lose to the graveyard, and Restock's high cost makes it sub-par for this deck.
Pernicious Deed:
I often wish I had room for three. In fact, I may replace that maindeck Rout with a Deed until I can get my third Global Ruin. The situations Deed will get you out of are many in number, and knowing you'll have one is a good reason not to waste your Evasive Actions on little creatures. The versatility here is astonishing, and the only time you'll hesitate to wipe out the board is when the opponent has got four-mana-cost stuff, which would require you to kill your Collective Restraints and/or Phelddagrif. In cases like this, if your opponent has enough mana to pay the Collective Restraint cost, you will probably want to go ahead and Deed for 4 (or more if she has bigger stuff than that out) and plan on either playing a Phelddagrif or Collective Restraint soon after. If you can't, go ahead and Deed if you have some counters and search in your hand. By the time such a situation arises, you probably have domain anyway, and most of your spells are inherently superior to your opponent's.
Note that Deed also takes care of that pesky Mask of Intolerance, which you would have countered if you had played first, right?
As long as we're talking about that little Mask, here's some more tips. If your opponent gets this out, don't go for the domain right away (duh). Focus on building your mana base, and rely on Chromatic Sphere to play the Pernicious Deed, which will then blow up the Mask and every other threat your opponent has played.Chromatic Sphere:
Play four. Early game, if you're having a little bit of land trouble, use it right away to dig a little deeper. If land is not a problem, judge whether you'll need it later to make a color you haven't got out yet (black, in other words) or just use it to draw the card. Later in the game, just use it as a cantrip unless your Swamp has been destroyed and you still need to play a Deed.
Star Compass:
Two seems about right. I sometimes think I'd rather be playing basic land in their place, but they really do speed you up a turn, and sometimes opponents will overlook them when calculating what kind of mana you have available for countering.
Collective Restraint:
The card that will usually win you the game. Played as soon as possible (or as soon as you can protect it) it nullifies creature-based decks. Attacking you usually means they can't play anything else that turn, until the late game when they have lots of mana. Balance and good judgement is required when deciding how many of these to lay down. Often, two Collective Restraint just seals the game, but sometimes you will get people who can get ten mana when you have nothing to block with (Spectral Lynx is problematic here). In this case you need a Deed or another Restraint.
Putting Out 3 Restraints is a little risky if your opponent is playing the Deed game as well, or has Tranquility, but you've been saving your Absorbs have you not? If things look this bad, then you need to be very careful and outplay your opponent. Practice your poker face and keep plenty of mana available.
Legacy Weapon:
The random card. You only want one just because it's so expensive, and because you can get it back if by some chance it actually gets destroyed (hasn't happened to me yet). Barring getting burned out suddenly, you will win when you get this card. What to remove of course depends entirely upon your board situation. Usually you want to get rid of lands, to ensure your opponent can't ever pay for Collective Restraint. Take out creatures only if they are going to kill you or get you in burn range.
If your Phelddagrifs get Lobotomied and you have to go to the decking method to win, notice how nicely this card help you do that. Get your hand size up to 7 and just stop playing stuff unless you have to. You can just discard this every turn and keep drawing it, using your Allied Strategies to either A) fill up your hand midgame so you can pull this trick off and get lots of counters in-hand, or B) deck your opponent when she's low enough on cards. Luckily, this will hardly ever happen.
Sideboard:
Extra Deeds, for those weenie decks. Dismantling Blow, if you know that Mask of Intolerance is coming in. Gainsay versus other counter-decks. Lobotomy versus control decks (the mirror match perhaps?). Rith to handle beatdown when there's no opposing bounce (he catches up in damage races and makes a LOT of blockers). Dromar is good for catching up and for playing mean bounce-games with any color other than blue (duh, Collective Restraint). Rout for obvious reasons. I run a couple of Meddling Mages in mine just because of the number of Urza's Rages and Vindicates in the local metagame.
A couple more notes on dealing with problem cards.
Spectral Lynx can be bad for you. It's early beats, gets played before you can counter, and usually survives a Deed. Your Collective Restraint is your only answer unless you live long enough to blast that kitty with the Legacy Weapon. It's not such a big deal in the late game, even when your opponent manages to pay the Restraint's cost. By then you have a flying hippo that is capable of racing, even if you've fallen behind by as much as ten life.
Vindicate is also bad. You rely heavily on permanents to maintain control, and Vindicate can get rid of them all. Well, not Phelddagrif, and thank gawd for that. The real threat of Vindicate is having one of your lands blown away early. Hopefully you can counter it with Evasive Action, or have a Harrow ready to use. If not, you're going to be set back a lot, and a Lynx will probably finish you off. Pray there's only he one, and build that mana up fast, work on the domain and get a Collective Restraint into play.
Urza's Rage and other burn can be a problem. Just when you've managed to get everything under control, along comes an uncounterable Rage or an untimely Ghitu Fire to kill you out of the blue. If you have no counters, either one will just kill you, so in these matchups, you're Absorbs are solid gold. Save them for these two spells. I have actually won a game (only once, but still) while at 1 life by Absorbing an Urza's Rage.
Well, good luck. This is one of the more fun decks I've ever played, and I probably will play it all season long unless the metagame shifts to wreck it, or I decide to go with B/W/x (but I won't). It doesn't just play itself, though; you really need to be thinking all the time about managing your mana and how you want to use your counters.
I think that's all I have to say...