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Domri Brings the Noise in Standard

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Domri, Chaos Bringer
Since Wizards announced a return to return to Ravnica I've been hoping that Domri Rade would show his face. Domri has always held a special place in my heart and I've been yearning for the time to return to my old Stomping Ground. With the introduction of Riot and Domri, Chaos Bringer I'm now ready to start bringing the noise.

In discussions with Team Nova and from what I've seen on social media, the reception on Domri has been lukewarm. Well, I'm here to go ahead and change your mind. I don't think Domri is lukewarm, but I do think it's quite medium.

Domri, Chaos Bringer demands a certain kind of deck to work in. Frank Karsten went ahead and did the math for everyone and it's looking like at 32 creatures you'll almost always have two hits off Domri's minus 3 but you're looking at 26 monsters as the sweet spot to mostly hit two creatures. The +1 is a great buff to any creature but it isn't limited to only casting creatures. Not every creature we're going to play will have Riot but the ability to give it to any of them means we have a ton of flexibility in what looks like a rigid creature deck. Since the mana off Domri can be used for anything it helps us cast other Planeswalkers or even helps Kick some spells like Shivan Fire or Fight with Fire. I think there're enough powerful cards to play around Domri that we can make it work without going crazy or building a weaker strategy.

Riot is really the centerpiece of some of these decks and the messed up part here is that Riot stacks. So, having a Rhythm of the Wild in play with a creature that has Riot or using Domri's +1 will result in multiple instances of Riot. This means, depending on how we build the deck, we can crunch through any opponent's defenses, never have to commit fully to the board, and can protect our smaller creatures from damage based wraths.

The way I see it, there are really two paths to take trying to build a Domri deck. The first is a hyper aggressive build that wants to put the pedal to the metal.


Growth-Chamber Guardian
This deck really just has one mode and that's turn creatures sideways until our opponent dies. I've tried to trim on all frills and just do what I can to get them dead. Legion Warboss might look a little out of place since it's the smallest of creatures and Rhythm specifically says Non-Token; but, there are several slower decks against which a turn two Warboss will quickly to end the game. With the ability to give Warboss Riot you can attack for four damage out of nowhere. Putting a counter on Warboss can even help make the tokens larger past the first counter which could become relevant when you're trying to push through damage.

Creature decks lately have really evolved to include a ton of built in card advantage and Domri, Chaos Bringer helps plays to that end. Growth-Chamber Guardian also helps fill this role. With both Domri and Rhythm of the Wild there is an endless supply of ways to trigger Growth-Chamber Guardian. This leads to ensuring you'll always have creatures to pull from and a mana sink as well. Part of the concern of these kinds of decks is running out of gas early on and not being able to keep up enough pressure, but between Guardian and Domri it seems like the gas will flow forever to let you keep pace with some of the control decks in the format and help bury some of the other midrange decks in card advantage.

Hydroid Krasis
But, if you're like me, two colors just ISN'T enough. I need more. I crave more. When the set is fully spoiled I'll write my "cards to buy" article again, but I can give you a small preview in that I think Hydroid Krasis has the potential to be busted in half. Because you draw the cards and gain life no matter what, this card is going to be great even if it gets countered. It also means we want to build our deck to produce a reasonable amount of mana. Fortunately Wizards went ahead and gave Green mages the go ahead with Incubation Druid to really get the mana flowing. Being able to power out a Hydroid Krasis and draw several cards can change the fabric of any game. Playing Blue gives us access to some sweet cards besides Krasis, like Frilled Mystic, Hadana's Climb, and Incubation // Incongruity. Besides the average counterspells in the sideboard some of the new spells we get are fantastic. The Mystic Snake 2.0 in Frilled Mystic gives us a welcome change for Gruul decks in a way to interact with control or combo decks. It can even be used to gain some tempo in creature mirrors. I'm not sold on playing more than a couple due to the expensive cost of the card. In truth the card's color cost isn't very prohibitive which is really nice.

What I didn't consider previously was how good Hadana's Climb got again and how well it pairs with Incubation Druid. While Riot will do some great work, having Hadana's Climb gives another way to grow creatures fast and work toward flipping to Winged Temple of Orazca as fast as possible. The wealth of counters achievable with Riot, and having Hydroid Krasis in the deck, makes this an easily attainable goal. On board stalls can be solved by flipping Hadana's Climb. So what does our preliminary list look like?


Since this deck has a ton of mana sinks, I wanted some more expensive cards like Carnage Tyrant alongside planeswalkers and Hydroid Krasis to ensure there's always something to do with our mana. Carnage Tyrant being double uncounterable with HASTE is a nightmare for control decks.

Incubation // Incongruity certainly stands out as an odd choice, but I think it's actually relevant. One half being able to draw a card means it will always be a decent top deck and the other half being a removal spell that can remove anything is quite the boon, especially in these colors. While a card like Lava Coil will certainly remain one of the best removal spells, but with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria on the rise I want to try to lean on removal that can plays multiple roles. A 3/3 is easy to fight through with some of the massive creatures we have but isn't a 3/3 easier to beat than a Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Skarrgan Hellkite either way.

I'm excited about Domri's place in this new Wild West of a Standard format! Be sure to join me next week when I count down the cards you're going to want to build around and buy!

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