I have been having such the super happy fun time with my Domri Obliterator deck from last Flores Friday that I decided to do a videos-tacular follow-up and talk about the changes I have made (and would in future make) to the deck. I hope you will enjoy the deck's admittedly surprising ability to navigate a variety of opponents and battlefield positions even when it is not unlocking the Domri Rade + Phyrexian Obliterator achievement.
First up, here is the Domri Obliterato deck I played with during this video series:
Creatures (33)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Deathrite Shaman
- 4 Demigod of Revenge
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 3 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Phyrexian Obliterator
- 2 Shriekmaw
- 4 Vengevine
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
- 4 Spellskite
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 2 Shriekmaw
- 4 Viridian Shaman
- 4 Dismember
Sideboard
The only change I made to the deck versus the deck I posted last Flores Friday was to sub out one Blood Crypt for one copy of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. My friend (and new daddy) Luis Neiman was the first person to suggest Urborg to me, but not the only person; hat tip to commenters Chris 'cml' Morris-Lent and J.T. Erickson for similar suggestions.
I am not a huge fan of playing multiple copies of the land in this deck (seeing as I did not adopt, as some readers suggested, Liliana of the Veil, which would allow me to dump a bonus Urborg); plus, the deck only has 23 lands with a relatively high high-end plus some moderate ongoing mana responsibilities.
Two additional notes on land before we begin:
I cut a Blood Crypt because red is the least important color in this deck in terms of getting mana under pressure. You generally only need it now Now NOW if you are trying to play a fast Magus of the Moon, and both of your routes to turn-two Magus of the Moon can make red anyway.
(For those who asked) I like to play Snow-Covered basic lands in bigger formats just because it is the fastest query on MTGO; I can type “snow-c” and hit return and add all the lands I want. Nothing more arcane than that!
Okay, here are some fun matches with Domri Obliterator:
I thought this matchup was kind of interesting to play back. It looks like he is wearing a leprechaun suit woven of interlocking four-leaf clovers with his blind flip on Delver of Secrets on Lightning Bolt and further blind flip(s) into relevant removal, but obviously we got some space from his missed land drops.
Fighting against Aggro-Control with Domri Obliterator is a kind of non-intuitive mano a mano. I think you just want to try to kill their guys. Their guys aren't actually that scary other than a relatively small number of hyper aggressively costed creatures (Delver of Secrets and potentially Tarmogoyf). Yeah, it can suck to get Remanded a bunch, but if you are not actually on a clock, it's not like they have a lot of Wraths and Sphinx's Revelations to close you out. If you get any kind of a legitimate threat game on the battlefield they actually have to respect that, and they are long-game dogs to your Fauna Shaman chains and are at least somewhat exposed to your Domri Rade combo.
Of all the different kinds of decks in Modern, I would want to play against Delver variants second-least (the way I had the deck set up initially I don't even have sideboard cards against Eggs), but Delver is nevertheless winnable. On balance I am actually pretty comfortable playing against various other combo decks, especially ones that let you block and / or give you time to Jokulhaups them.
I was perhaps inordinately overjoyed at reading my opponent for the Lightning Bolt at the tail end of Game Three.
This actually reminded me of a lengthy conversation I had with onetime #1 Apprentice Joshua P. Ravitz at the Edison Open a few weeks ago. Josh said that he tries to figure out “why” the opponent did something or other, but I didn't like that line of thinking over much because “why” might just be because he made a mistake. Though you might be gaining value from your opponent making a mistake, devoting brain cells to “why” can actually send you, yourself, down the wrong path.
Are you “supposed” to win when the opponent makes a mistake? You are probably more likely to win, but it's not exactly causal; if everyone won when their opponents made mistakes Magic would be a very different game.
Rather than try to figure out “why” the opponent chooses something or other, I try to focus on figuring out what he has; from that position I can start plotting out the ranges of his possible actions, and how he might beat me. Look at how Zvi Mowshowitz talked about playing The Aristocrats so differently from Tom Martell (siding out Champion of the Parish as opposed to loving Loving LOVING Champion of the Parish in a matchup). I think the “why” versus “what does he have” / "what does he want to draw" questions ultimately try to get to the same place, but “why” seems the less sure path.
Obviously I was a favorite to win Game Three even after his Gifts Ungiven (I was going to get a free card from Path to Exile, and I still had Domri Rade going); the question was simply how I could lose. I imagined how I might lose (he had Lightning Bolt) and simply played around that possibility.
From a utilitarian standpoint I think I win if he doesn't have Lighting Bolt most of the time; and I played such that I could win even if he did, so no harm even if I was wrong (which I wasn't).
I mostly included this one because of the sweet Vengevine finish. The deck went the Demigod route most games with Fauna Shaman, but I thought it was fun to show a game that not only hit Magus lockdown, but did so with such style and power and relentless Vengevines.
The spot was such a complete lockdown. Not only could we keep him off of the WW necessary to come back, but Deathrite Shaman would have been there to fight Geralf's Messenger had we hit a potential creature trade situation.
Also this was the first match I played when I really realized how much the deck needs Viridian Shaman in the main.
I was pleasantly surprised at the deck's ability to contend with a super-fast beatdown deck. Conclusion aside, I felt like Huntmaster of the Fells (alone) was too expensive.
There has been some controversy around Magus of the Moon (at least included in this deck). I certainly learned my lesson from being on the wrong side of the opponent's Magus of the Moon in Game Two!
There are lots of ways this deck can approach fighting a fair deck, whether midrange or midrange control.
One strategy is to jam Magus of the Moon and mana-screw them; this isn't exactly a flawless strategy, as many decks with (now) a bunch of Mountains in play might just be able to remove it for R; but it is a strategy and has Mind Twisted the bejeezus out of more than one opponent.
Separately, if an opponent gives you a long time with Fauna Shaman and / or Domri Rade, that is a potential route to inevitability only if the opponent doesn't have some kind of mad “over the top” endgame plan. Like you can contrast U/R/W with Sphinx's Revelation versus U/R/W with Gifts Ungiven. I would be pretty comfortable tapping Fauna Shamans and activating Domri Rade in the first case; in the latter case we have seen multiple instances of a Gifts opponent pulling out of it with Unburial Rites for Elesh Norn or Iona. Iona is particularly problematic because if the opponent chooses black, he can keep you from getting out from under it with a Phyrexian Obliterator. Obviously the addition of Viridian Shaman maindeck can help here because if you have Fauna Shaman, Iona is at least race-able with Vengevines.
That said, if you can untap with Fauna Shaman twice, a fair opponent should probably be worried.
… Oh, and I finally got to say “Achievement Unlocked!”
If I were going to go win a PTQ with Domri Obliterator this weekend, I would run the following list:
Creatures (33)
- 1 Spellskite
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Deathrite Shaman
- 4 Demigod of Revenge
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 1 Magus of the Moon
- 4 Phyrexian Obliterator
- 2 Shriekmaw
- 3 Vengevine
- 1 Viridian Shaman
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (23)
Last week my sometimes SCGLive colleague Glenn Jones suggested Magus of the Moon has little utility outside of being a hate-bullet. I don't know if I agree in all cases, but I don't see much harm in going down to one copy in this main. I am less concerned about the Magus of the Moon nonbo with Phyrexian Obliterator because if you play Magus it is usually either wrecking them or quickly dead, so you don't necessarily need to wreck them with Phyrexian Obliterator as well.
In addition to going down to one Magus of the Moon, I dropped back to one copy of Huntmaster of the Fells. Huntmaster was pretty good in a couple of the above matches, but overall slow—especially when you might be facing a fast beatdown deck and need blockers on demand. Kitchen Finks gains as much or more life faster and leaves you spare mana for Fauna Shaman sooner. That said I still kept one Huntmaster of the Fells for situations like against the Orzhov Midrange where having a Huntmaster online and potentially flipping represents a strong battlefield advantage.
I sided in all four Spellskites in quite a few matchups. Little guy deserves at least one maindeck spot. Among its many virtues, Spellskite buys us time against one of the most successful combo decks in Modern, in Game One.
By the same token I thought Dismember was kind of random in my original sideboard; I never sided it in against any deck but pure Exarch Twin (not even Birthing Pod with Exarch / Kiki-Jiki combos though that may have been wrong). I want to try Big Game Hunter, who is like a fifth Shriekmaw but sometimes crazy better with Fauna Shaman. Who knows? Maybe he will be such a big game I end up wanting to play all four.
LOVE
MIKE
About Mike Flores
Mike has written for The
Duelist, The Sideboard, and MagicTheGathering.com and has returned to StarCityGames.com to continue his legacy. He is a championship deck designer and Magic theory pioneer.