This decks takes the best from the Domain package (
Matca Rioters
and
Tribal Flames
), with the best of the Snow package (
Skred
and
Gelid Shackles
), with the addition with the
Kor Skyfisher
utility (with
Abundant Growth
,
Nylea's Presence
and all other etb effects we have), and with the aura package around the tutoring of Heliod's Pilgrim.
The basic idea of the deck is a mix between Boros Monarch and Angler-Delver. We want to mantain value sometimes, while other times we can cast a turn 2
Nylea's Presence
followed by a turn 3 5/5 Matca Rioters. There are plenty of ways in the deck to give evasion to out creatures as well as to deal with most of the threats that will be present against the decks in the meta.
This deck is more powerful for it's aura package, but it is not dependant on it. If you think your opponent runs mass enchantment destruction just play around ir being a bit more conservative with your enchantments in hand. The only cards that depend on enchantments in the deck are
Aura Gnarlid
and
Ancestral Mask
, and they are still decent with only one aura on the battlefield and amazing when there are more.
Card explanations:
Nylea's Presence
and
Abundant Growth
are our color fixers in early game. They draw us a card, and also
Nylea's Presence
enables maximum Domain on its own. For the late game we should have been using our lands to fetch our remaining land types.
Kor Skyfisher
does in our deck the same as in Boros Monarch. But is can also be used to change place of auras we control, or to recast a Fists of Ironwood for that extra tokens against edicts.
Matca Rioters
is our equivalent to the
Gurmag Angler
in this deck (except that it always costs 3 and does not suffer from opponents'
Bojuka Bog
s).
Tribal Flames
is both a removal of choice and a finisher. On early game can reliably deal 2 to 3 damage, while one with Domain can kill a Gurmag Angler, or make an opponent lose a quarter of its starting life. If you have domain and somehow 4
Tribal Flames
in hand and 8 lands, four of those adding red, you have most surely won. More often than note just one of those seals the gameafter some beating.
Aura Gnarlid
is our other beater. Its ability counts our land enchantments too, which makes it quite big in midgame, and huge in lategame. Also has built in evasions which makes it a perfect choice for the deck.
Skred
is our other removal of choice. Well known for its use in Skred Delver, lets us take advantage of our reliance in basic lands and our higher land count.
Heliod's Pilgrim
is the swiss-army knife on this deck. For a start it can tutor us
Nylea's Presence
to ensure easy Domain, but also has much more utility:
-
Fists of Ironwood
is our tutorable anwer against edicts. You can enchant it to a small creature of an opponent and still get the same value. Can give evasion to our Matca Rioters and can be bounced with Kor Skyfisher for extra tokens.
-
Vampiric Link
is our choice against fast decks. It provides a very useful lifegain, although can also be used on an opposing creature to turn it's net damage output to zero (unless you're dealt lethal damage before the lifegain trigger resolves, be cautious).
-
Snake Umbra
can be our extra card draw engine, while providing some extra pump and protection via totem armor. This is the reason why this deck does not run Monarch Cards. It is usually faster that Boros Monarch so not that many cards are expected to be drawn while the resilience provided by Snake Umbra can be really welcome.
-
Pentarch Ward
is our control-decks-killer. If you are able to stick this only a Aura Gnarlid or a Matca Rioters, and you have creatures to protect against edicts, then the game is settled. Also includes evasion wich doubles its effectiveness.
-
Ancestral Mask
is the tutorable beater of the deck. In this deck it as good as in Bogles: if you are winning, it settles the game. If you are losing, it does not do nearly as much, but still pumps a nice bit. Only one is run since we can tutor it exactly when needed.
-
Gelid Shackles
is our tutorable removal. It is our main response against
Atog
and
Ulamog's Crusher
, and an useful removal choice overall.
-
Skygames
is the tutorable evasion card choice. I chose this over Cartouche of Knowledge since we already run Pentarch Ward, and we can play it safely whithout risking instant speel killing of the creature it is targetting. We run a high land count so making us lose one land is not usually that much o a problem (and you can still use the land for mana instead of for the ability), and it can also change target each time it is used, which turns it for me a solid choice.
For the sideboard:
I chose the amazing
Jungleborn Pioneer
since it serves both as protections against edicts and as a hexproof creature over which we can safely play our Ancestral Mask.
Prismatic Strands
are our choice of fog-like effects. Here they do as well as in Boros Monarch, protecting us from aggro decks, burn decks and combo decks reliant on damage.
Negate
is our counterspell choice, since has only one blue in ist cost, it is more useful against Tron decks than
Mana Leak
or
Spell Pierce
, can counter spells such as
Flame Slash
and aura spells which
Dispel
can't, we can afford the 2 mana cost with the higher land count we run, and we can already deal with creatures with all our other removal. Stick in them four putting out some removal against any control matchup for a very nice tempo advantage.
Agains Affinity and Bogles we run the corresponding package for each: two
Ancient Grudge
and a single tutorable
Flamespeaker's Will
, and the equivalent for Bogles with
Ray of Revelation
and
Mortal Obstinacy
. This the best configuration I have thought of against these matchups.
Some land destruction of graveyard hate could be added to the sideboard, but for now it performs nicely as it is.
Hope you like it and if so please upvote it :)
