MH3 drastically changed the competitive landscape of Pauper. One of these changes was the Eldrazi package of Malevolent Rumble, Eldrazi Repurposer, and Writhing Chrysalis. These three cards have pushed Gruul Ramp to a consistent and powerful deck that now sits near the top of the meta, as well as Jund Broodscale Combo. Many more green-based decks have adopted this package, and I used it to elevate some green-based brews. Domain Zoo was one of the fist places I started at.
(full deck list on Moxfield @Fellowship_Games)
Domain Pay-offs
Just like in Modern, our main pay-off for having domain is Tribal Flames. Throwing a couple of these at the opponent will end most games. Matca Rioters is admittedly less impressive in a format that is good at spamming Tolarian Terror and Cryptic Serpent, but a three mana 5/5 is still a good beater. Meria's Outrider is a card that I had in the main deck for weeks before switching to Avenging Hunter. My reasons are that Hunter is just better card quality and is better to ramp into with Writhing Chrysalis. A 5/4 with trample is more powerful than a 4/4 with reach and Trap! making the opponent lose 5 life makes it comparable to Outrider. Deep into testing I began to dislike that Meria's Outrider lined up horrendously against Hydroblast effects and this was the tipping point for Avenging Hunter to take its slot.
The Eldrazi Package
The trio of Malevolent Rumble, Eldrazi Repurposer, and Writhing Chrysalis filled a lot of holes that this archetype had. In past builds, I played some number of Exploding Borders and Sarulf's Packmate in the four drop slot. Chyrsalis is so much better than these cards on rate, and helps ramp us into Avenging Hunter, or big turns that we can cast multiple spells. Jewel Thief was my previous choice in this slot, and I believe that Eldrazi Repurposer is the better choice most of the time, but especially because it synegizes with Chrysalis, and that the cast trigger guarantees the extra mana from the spawn token.
Malevolent Rumble is honestly one of the best MH3 cards in any format, and is strong in this list. Digging for Nylea's Presence is game-changing for this archetype, and the card selection is so powerful in a wide spread of situations. We can use it to assemble domain through our mana base if we can't find the Presence, or it can dig for preassure to end the game. The only downside is that it can't hit Tribal Flames, although it can hit the four copies of Seal of Fire against Broodscale. Overall, the eldrazi package adds a level of consistancy that allows decks to scale up mana while missing land drops, which is important for a deck that cares about getting on the board and beating down.
Zoo-Drops
It wouldn't be a Zoo deck without these two. Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape don't see meta play, but they add a lot of power to the board for one mana. Turn one is often spent playing a tapped land, so being able to follow that up with a 3/3 and a 2/3 on turn two makes up for that. Even though this a format of fast Myr Enforcers and Tolarian Terrors, we're able to keep up thanks to these above rate one drops along side Eldrazi Repurposer and Writhing Chrysalis. Ultimately, these are great support cards for our Domain plan and compliment our Eldrazi package to form a cohesive stompy plan.
Domain Enablers
Getting Domain online is crucial to the success of this deck. Games when you have an early Nylea's Presence feels like playing this deck on easy mode. That being said, the deck actually functions soundly without full Domain, because at it's core I've built it to be a base Gruul deck, or maybe more like a pseudo Naya deck for Wild Nacatl. A lot of this has to do with the construction of the mana base, which I'll discuss in a bit. Nylea's Presence had a huge influence on the final number of specific cards. Malevolent Rumble and Navigator's Compass are such cards, because they become too redundant if you already have a Presence in play. This is also true for every tapped land drawn beyond the point of already having Domain. This is an iherent rinkle in the deck building requirements of this archetype, and it is possible that this is where the bulk of future innovations can be made.
Navigator's Compass allows us to piece together Domain through our mana base when we've fetched out most of our land types. The 3 life gain is notably valuable against Burn decks and is what we lean on in sideboard games. Something worth noting is that this adds a land type at instant speed. This can help us save a Matca Rioter from a Lightning Bolt or Galvanic Blast if the opponent isn't paying attention. This doesn't come up often because it's an on-the-table trick that skilled opponents will notice, but I thought it was worth mentioning as it did come up often enough in testing.
The Mana Base
Working on the mana base was the most challenging aspect of the deck building process, and the list truly came together once it got solved, or reached a point of reasonable functionality. Initially, I was more in on the Landscapes, and was fetching one of each basic to scrape together Domain if we missed Nylea's Presence. However, I quickly realized that this was super clunky and the basic Plains, Island, and Swamp didn't cast any spells. This made me shift to a cleaner mana base that is mostly Gruul to cast our spells with the fetchable land types being attached to duals. This ultimately meant moving away from the Landscapes, and relying more on Oliphaunt and Generous Ent.
The various dual lands are split between what can be fetched with Oliphaunt and Generous Ent. Like I said before, the amount of tap lands does add a potential clunkiness and slowness to the deck, but I felt the ability to piece together Domain to be an important one.
Sideboard
For the sake of simplicity, I generally build my decks and sideboards with the top four or five decks of the format in mind. Currently that consists of Kuldotha Red, Grixis Affinity, Gruul Ramp, Broodscale Combo, and both the Mono-Blue Terror and Dimir Terror variants. This configuration of the sideboard and the guide below is for general use in an MTGO League. Change it to adjust for your local meta or personal preference. Sideboard Guide
Kuldotha Red | Grixis Affinity | Broodscale Combo | M-U & Dimir Terror |
In: 1x Electrickery 2x Tectonic Hazard 3x Navigator's Compass | In: 3x Gorilla Shaman 1x Deglamer | In: 1x Deglamer | In: 3x Relic of Progenitus 2x Pyroblast |
Out: 3x Avenging Hunter 3x Nylea's Presence | Out: 1x Navigator's Compass 2x Seal of Fire 1x Avenging Hunter | Out: 1x Navigator's Compass | Out: 2x Seal of Fire 1x Navigator's Compass 2x Tribal Flames |
The first thing you probably noticed is that there is no sideboard plan for the Gruul Ramp deck. That's because hard removal like Cast Down or Journey to Nowhere is what you want in that macth up, and we don't have access to those cards. The Gruul Deck is generally favored against us at it goes over the top of what we're doing. The curve of Writhing Chrysalis into Avenging Hunter was often too much to overcome in testing. Additionally, if they can keep their life total up and avoid getting burned out by Tribal Flames that is often good enough. Things get worse for us if they have access to lifegain such as Nylea's Disciple or Weather the Storm.
Kuldotha Red was a reasonable match up in testing , but I'd say it is favored against us in general. It's just a leaner and faster deck. Navigator's Compass is swapped out for Nylea's Presence as the enchantment taps us out on turn two without impacting the board. This is especially bad on the draw and we'll just get ran over by a Kuldotha Rebirth into Goblin Bushwhacker turn. We also swap our Avenging Hunters for sweepers, as the Initiative is a liability. Electrickery is worth talking about because I wanted one instant speed sweeper to punish players that over extend. Breath Weapon was a consideration as 2 damage is enough to clean up their entire board, however 3 mana is a lot with the amount of tapped lands we run. Kird Ape and Wild Nactatl are good blockers against Goblin Tomb-Raider and friends early.
Grixis Affinity felt miserable in testing if I'm being honest. Early Gorilla Shamans are crucial in the games we win. However, if the game drags on we're cooked. The build-your-own sweeper of Krark-Clan Shaman and Toxin Analysis is devastating. Reckoner's Bargain keeps them out of Tribal Flames range, so they have our two angles of attack covered. Kenku Artificer bodied us in testing as well. The solution could be that we need to be more hateful towards Affinity in the sideboard by going deeper on Deglamer or Cast into the Fire, but the match up just feels so bad in general.
Mono-Blue Terror was a close and fun match up in testing. Our creatures line up well in double block scenarios against Tolarian Terror, however, be wary of Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast breaking up double blocks with Kird Ape and blowing you out! Writhing Chyrsalis and the spawns are fantastic at blocking and buying time. Delver of Secrets is super managable for us with four Seal of Fire preboard, and Chrysalis to block it. Relic of Progenitus is our best start post-board and we can dig for, and cast it with Malevolent Rumble. Pyroblast is excellent at removing threats or fight over a counter spell. All in all this felt like a close match up.
Broodscale Combo is a blind spot in our testing. We don't have it built so we don't actually test against it. I build lists for competitive play in mind so that is why four Seal of Fire is in the main deck. In addition to the Seals we bring in a Deglamer as an extra peice of instant speed interaction. If you find this to be a poor match up, then perhaps more Deglamers can be added to hedge against this and Affinity.
Considerations
This is where I like to leave you with an organized sense of where this deck has been and what directions it could take. These are possible alternative ways of approaching the list that could be fruitful given a metagame shift or more testing. A White splash in the sideboard could be reasonable with some tweaks to the mana base. Cards that come to mind are Arashin Cleric, Dawnbringer Cleric, Thraben Charm, and Journey to Nowhere. The Clerics are cards that have applicability against both Kuldotha Red and Madness Burn. Thraben Charm is very flexible as it can be hard removal for the Gruul Ramp match up, exiles graveyards in the Terror match ups, interacts with the Broodscale Combo. Journey is the simplest option of hard removal for Gruul, and is especially great against Kenku Artificer. Rancor is a card I liked on paper but it never made the cut into testing. It could shine in match ups where we're clearly the beatdown, and it can be found with Malevolent Rumble. It never made the cut because I felt like we needed the full playset of Seal of Fire with Broodscale being such a force in the online meta. If you're playing in a meta that has little to no Lizards, then I'd look to this slot if you wanted to make cuts for Rancor. The same could also be said for Lightning Bolt if you wanted to add more burn to the list. Meria's Outrider could also be revisited if you head in that direction.
Fantasy Brewing
Often when working on decks it becomes apparent that a given archetype is missing a piece that doesn't exist in the format yet. In this case I feel like this archetype is missing a few more aggressive creatures to add to our Zoo package. Loam Lion could get us up to twelve aggressive one-drops with Kird Ape and Wild Nactl. The two-drop slot is currently vacant of two mana creatures. If we had either Flinthoof Boar or Nishoba Brawler, then we'd be more threat-dense and lower to the ground. These sort of thought experiments can venture into the realm of cringy Reddit posts, but I think these cards entering the format would be safe for Pauper, and add more threats into the slots that are missing them. The more this archetype can lower its mana curve, the more likely I am to pick this up again in the future. I want to thank you for sticking through with me to the end, and exploring the Domain Zoo archetype with me. If you like what we're doing here, then consider subscribing to our news letter to know when new posts drop. Head over to our homepage for links to our Youtube Channel, and other socials. Thanks again for reading and Joining the Fellowship!
Yorumlar