Doran Revisited

Last week, I went over my formula for building a Commander deck from your personal collection.  This week I am going to go over what kind of cards you should be on the look for when you are looking to improve your Commander deck. I have been playing the Doran deck for about a week now.  The deck has been performing very well.  Even so, I felt like it was lacking the epic feel that most commander decks bring to the table.

As luck would have it, the local card store made a large purchase of a player’s personal collection.  I was able to strike while the iron was hot and pick up a ton of cards for the Doran deck to help illustrate what I look for when I am upgrading a commander deck.  

The first set of cards I look for when upgrading, are lands.  I want lands that can tap for multiple colors, lands that can tap for a ridiculous amount of mana, or land that have strong abilities.  Dual lands from the original sets as well as the onslaught dual combine well with fetch lands.  If a land taps for colorless, it should carry a useful ability.  Good examples are; Academy Ruins, Hall of the Bandit Lord, and Wasteland.  From the cards the shop had available, I picked up the following;

•          Volrath’s Stronghold – Graveyard Recursion
•          Horizon Canopy – Taps for multi and can draw cards
•         Thawing Glaciers – Mana fixes + guarantees you have mana drops
•          Strip Mine – Land Destruction
•          Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth – See next card
•          Cabal Coffers – Taps for a ridiculous amount of mana
•          Flagstones of Trokair –When this goes to graveyard, get a dual land
•          Marsh Flats – Fetches are always good, they can get duals as well as basics
•          Verdant Catacombs – See above
•          Windswept Heath – See above
•          Godless Shrine – Dual lands make land specific searches better
•          Temple Garden – See above
•          Savannah – See above
•          Bayou – See above
•          Murmuring Bosk – Works like a dual land for most purposes

 In the last article, I encouraged you to go grab whatever mana fixers you could find.  As you go along, you will find that a certain style of mana fixing and accelerating better matches your color identity.  Blue decks like to run heavy artifact acceleration. Red decks may use Gauntlet of Power. Mono colored decks like to use cards like Gauntlet of Power and Extraplanar Lens.  In green decks, I look for green spells over artifact accelerants.  In general, more people have answers to artifacts than lands.  In addition, if you play a lot of green land tutor spells, you thin your deck so that you can draw into more effective spells.  These are the mana fixers and accelerants that I was able to get a hold of; 

•          Sol Ring – Always good
•          Deep Reconnaissance – Not the best, but you can flash it back
•          Seedborn Muse – This card is nuts in multiplayer
•          Sakura-Tribe Elder – A blocker with an upside
•          Seedguide Ash – This card is insane, when it dies you get 3 dual lands
•          Mirari’s Wake – Doubling your mana production is never a bad thing
•          Crucible of Worlds – Recurring fetch lands will keep you running
•          Land Tax – This is just an amazing card early on
•          Krosan Tusker – Cycle for land or play for beats
•          Search for Tomorrow – A good turn 1 play
•          Primeval Titan – Go get Cabal Coffers and Urborg
•          Journey of Discovery – Good even without the entwine
•          Kodama’s Reach – Cultivate #2
•          Far Wanderings – Threshold is so easy to achieve.  I always get 3
•          Solemn Simulacrum – Get this guy if you can, he can go in every deck
•          Nature’s Lore – Brings in a Dual land untapped

One of the differences between a good Commander deck and a great Commander deck is the way the deck draws cards and searches for answers.  The more you draw and the better your tutor, the more consistent your deck will be.  Deck consistency is difficult to achieve in a singleton format.  Any cards that can help you get around this problem will make your deck better. I found the following cards to throw into this Doran deck;

•  Survival of the Fittest – This card got banned from legacy for a reason.  Its power level is off the charts.
• Sensei’s Divining Top – It is rare that a Commander deck would not benefit
• Phyrexian Arena – When your life total is 2x normal but your hand stays the same size.  Paying life for drawing cards gets a lot better
• Chord of Calling – Instant speed creature tutoring and playing is a beautiful thing
•  Eldamari’s Call – Just tutoring at instant speed isn’t bad either
• Tooth and Nail – Do you know a better way to cast Ulamog and It That Betrays?
•  Demonic Tutor – One of the best tutors ever printed

The removal cards that were in the original deck were mostly subpar. When I am looking to upgrade my removal suite, I look for efficiently costed cards that go above and beyond your normal removal.  This general means removing cards from the game, acting at split second, or effecting multiple targets.  Here are the new removal cards I grabbed for Doran;

• Krosan Grip – This is a must have for Green.  It stops combos and kills tops
• Return to Dust – Your answer to indestructible artifacts and enchantments.
• Damnation – Any wrath effect that costs 4-5 mana can be included in a Commander list
• Woodfall Primus – Kills a planeswalker, and then kills another the first time it dies.
• Austere Command – This is one of my favorite wrath effects.  By choosing the right modes you can make the wrath one sided.
• Duplicant – This is a great way to kill an indestructible creature with a large upside.

In the original article, I only had a few categories of cards I was looking for.  When I expand a deck, I also expand the types of cards I find useful.  There are utility cards that I like to put into decks to help push through the big finishers in the deck.  At this point I am looking for cards that protect my creatures and recur spells and creatures from the graveyard.

•          Genesis – What’s better than Terrastadon? Cast him twice!
•          Eternal Witness – If you play green, play this card
•          Lightning Greaves – When you play big powerful creatures, you want to start hitting with them as soon as possible.  This is useful in almost every Commander deck

After putting in these new cards, I was able to play a few games with the new and improved deck.  The upgrades made for some impressive plays that I was unable to achieve with the previous build.  I am very happy with the way the deck has been improved.  I hope you can use this guide to improve upon a Commander deck that you own.

With these purchases, I am forced to slow down for a few weeks on getting the last few cards for the Arcum deck.  Next week, I am going to go over tactics about dealing with facing multiple opponents who are working against you.

Thanks for Reading!