[Premium] Rehearsing the Doomsday Scenario: Learning How to

[Jacob Orlove]

Rehearsing the Doomsday Scenario: Learning How to Build Optimal Doomsday Piles
By Stephen Menendian

Doomsday might be simultaneously the most misunderstood and most terribly misplayed deck in the format. Much of the problem comes from the inability on the part of players to craft good Doomsday stacks coupled with a misunderstanding of the importance of doing so. This article is designed to address that problem.

[ELD]

A very important topic for anyone who is going to play doomsday or against it.  No one wants to stack a yawgmoth's will pile while planning to use the dark rituals in the graveyard    

All ribbing aside, I've won so many games vs doomsday because of messed up piles it's amazing.  The game state is of the utmost importance, and cards like strip mine, a DA in the yard etc. need to be accounted for.  I'd like to see the article, but I'm not a fan of premium.  I guess I'll have to wait for the discussions to begin to see if there's anything I haven't thought up before.

[Saucemaster]

Actually, there are things *I* hadn't even thought to codify before, and I helped test this thing a lot.  Stuff like "how do I win if I DDay and my only card in hand is Beacon?" and a whole section on DDay stacks when you're holding Brainstorm.  A lot of the DDay stacks will be known to serious players of the deck, but I think the article's definitely worth a read even for people who've already put in a lot of time with the deck.  If nothing else, it'll save you from having to spend precious time in a tournament match figuring out a DDay stack that you'd never had to construct during testing.

[Dante]

Actually, there are things *I* hadn't even thought to codify before, and I helped test this thing a lot.  Stuff like "how do I win if I DDay and my only card in hand is Beacon?" and a whole section on DDay stacks when you're holding Brainstorm.  A lot of the DDay stacks will be known to serious players of the deck, but I think the article's definitely worth a read even for people who've already put in a lot of time with the deck.  If nothing else, it'll save you from having to spend precious time in a tournament match figuring out a DDay stack that you'd never had to construct during testing.

Definitely.  This is one the best articles from Steve that I can remember and he's written some very good ones in the past.

It even made me laugh out loud at one point:

Once you have decided on a kill, then you work backwards and try to construct a pile using that kill. Using both win conditions [Tendrils and Beacon] is anomalous. The difficulty of figuring this out now pales in comparison to the problems that my team and I have solved.  Playing Doomsday really can feel more like a mental mindbender than Magic.

That is classic Steve.  It's too bad he's taking a break (is that permanent?) and can't discuss the article...

My fiance was like "what are you looking at?"  I told her.  then she laughed too (although probably at me).