Price of Progress: No More Doran
Will Price | March 27, 2009 | 3:01 pmI really liked the BW deck I had been posting about a couple weeks ago. I won a lot of games with some sub-par cards. I was beginning to convince myself that the deck was PTQ worthy. That was, until I hit a rash of faeries/N-Level blue decks on MWS and began to lose faith. I decided I should try to add a little more power to the deck by cutting Descendant and Ghost Council for Tarmogoyf and Doran.
I sent my newly christened Doran list to local favorite/extended Doran expert Chris “magic players just call me Calcano” Calcano. He checked it out and sent me back this list, which I have been testing on and off for the past two weeks:
Doran
2 Windswept Heath
2 Godless Shrine
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Plains
2 Fetid Heath
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
2 Reflecting Pool
2 Treetop Village
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Dark Confidant
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Thoughtseize
4 Path to Exile
3 Chrome Mox
1 Slaughter Pact
This deck is a lot of fun to play. Who, other than MichaelJ, doesn’t love a turn 1 Dark Confidant? I was having pretty good success against Zoo and Bant decks, and non-elves combo. However, my blue deck matchup still seemed really bad even with the improved creature base. I am going to continue tweaking the sideboard to see if I can crack the matchup (testing Darkblast’s currently), but as a backup I have begun testing the Bant list that Jeff Cunningham placed 2nd with in the Seattle PTQ last weekend. I found the list in this tournament report.
I really like the Troll Ascetics, and I love the Worship in the sideboard. Blue decks seem to have a really hard time dealing with the Troll, especially once he picks up a Sword or Jitte. The sideboard is a little too advanced for me; I don’t think I could pull off the Trinket Mage + Relics and/or Engineered Explosives. I think I would rather just play 2x more Explosives and not have to spend the extra mana/turns to get my EE into play. I would also cut the single Kataki for a third Relic. Between Bant Charm, Path to Exile, and randomly Stifling a Modular trigger, that matchup is pretty good.
If all continues to go well, this is what I will be sleeving up for the Brooklyn PTQ in a couple of weeks. If anyone has any sideboard advice or tips on playing the deck, post them in the comments.
WillPoP
I don’t like Arena AND Bob in the same deck. One or the other. Not a fan of Mox. Yea, there is the dream of T1 Bob or Sculler but Noble Hierarch is sooo much better.
IMO drop Arena for maybe Witness and Mox then add 4 Noble’s.
I’d consider running one Llanowar Reborn in the main. That is if you don’t mind “CIPT”. It works very well with Finks and can help push through a match easier.
Just a thought.
I was working on something similar recently, with Nyxathid and Stupors, and without Doran or the arenas. Krosan Grip in the sb is pretty good against vedalken shackles, I was also messing with various copies of terror. Turns out terror is pretty good if theres no affinity in the room.
Updated list:
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Troll Ascetic
4 Rhox War Monk
3 Glen-Elendra Archmage
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Sword of Fire & Ice
4 Path to Exile
2 Stifle
2 Bant Charm
3 Treetop Village
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Flooded Strand
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Breeding Pool
3 Forest
3 Island
1 Plains
SB:
4 Worship
2 Stifle
2 Trinket Mage
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Telemin Performance
Play this deck: rolls Faeries, rolls Zoo, good matchups vs the field. Elves is tough. Lost in the finals by taking out too much gas for Cranials, and by drawing poorly. 3 Relics would definitely be too many.
//Land
1 Brushland
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Godless Shrine
4 Fetid Heath
1 Forest
3 Plains
4 Swamp
//Artifacts
2 Chrome Mox
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
3 Engineered Explosives
//Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Nyxathid
4 Kitchen Finks
//Spells
4 Path To Exile
4 Thoughtseize
3 Stupor
Sideboard:
3 Krosan Grip
2 Terror
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Rule of Law
4 Kataki, War’s Wage
1 Fracturing Gust
This is my similar list. I just think Nyxathid and Stupor are really cool cards to pull out on someone, it actually runs really smooth, I think this list is super tight.
actually that should be 4 Ascetic 3 Rhox
Hi, i know this is a bit late, but a team mate and i built this doran deck about 6 weeks ago, It has q’d 2 people but the results from the Toronto PTQ feb 14th never went up on the mother ship (it was around 100 people, the other one was 50 and is up on the site). This hasn’t lost to Fae in sanctioned play, i was in contention with it until i had the 73 card mirror match. This isn’t the sideboard we used but it is what i would play with now.
It’s really similar to Bant, but i like discard over situational counters.
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Forest
2 Godless Shrine
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
2 Swamp
1 Temple Garden
2 Treetop Village
4 Windswept Heath
22 lands
3 Dark Confidant
4 Doran, the Siege Tower
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
24 creatures
3 Path to Exile
3 Putrefy
4 Thoughtseize
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
14 other spells
Sideboard
2 Darkblast
1 Gaddock Teeg
3 Krosan Grip
2 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Path to Exile
3 Rule of Law
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
15 sideboard cards
Good Luck
I don’t disagree with this blog post…