Domain Primer

[Anonymous]

Stop the wierd looks! I get enough of those because I'm a girl...I don't need them over my deck choice, as its won several tournies for me already.

Well then. It seems that as T1(or Vintage, if you prefer) has evolved over the last few Blocks, it seems that none of those annoying themes that R&D has stuffed down type 2 player's throats have made their way into Vintage. This is most likely because they are all low impact in such a high powered format, and because most of them are pretty useless anyway. The notable exception at this point has been Threshold, which is currnetly being used by Grow in the form of Werebear.

Even with the weakness of themes, the most powerful theme to appear came in Invasion as Domain cards. Despite the fact that(to me, at least) Invasion Block reeked of Ice Age's mediocre attempts to encourage multicolored play,(look at Ice Age Block cards like Primitive Justice - it has the first inklings of Kicker Costs)  Domain was a viable deck in Block constructed, and some people even tried it in type 2, with little success. That was most likely because they were forced to run the slow Domain cards against decks like Fires and Maddness. But in Vintage, there are several cards that take the place of the bad domains, and use good ol' T1 brokenness to remedy slowness.

With that said, it should not be assumed that this is a lightning quick deck, but rather a somewhat accelerated form of an existing Block deck.

The Basics

Now that you've had an unnessecarly long lecture on the deck concept and history, its time to look at what the major compnents of the deck often are, broken down by color.

Land
7 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp

Green
4 Harrow
3 Rampant Growth
2 Wall of Blossoms

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant/Dismantling Blow/Aura of Silence/Seal(metagame dependant for which and how many)
1 Wrath of God/Moat

Red
1 Gorilla Shaman(dependant on # of Rampant Growths)
4 Tribal Flames
1 Karevek's Torch

Black(many decks do not run any black maindeck, but bring it in sideboard to deal with certian decks. In creature-heavy metagames, it should be run maindeck)
2 Diabolic Edict

Blue(the cardbase for blue is extremely variable, so I will post what I run)
4 Arcane Denial
3 Mana Leak
2 Whispers of the Muse
1 Ancestral Recall


MultiColor
4 Ordered Migration

Sideboard(always metagame dependant, but for a mixed metagame)
2 Siccoro
2 Lobotomy/City of Solitude
2 Perish
1 Disenchant/Dismantling Blow/Aura of Silence/Seal
2 Price of Progress
2 Planar Birth/Sacred Ground
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Island


The speed of the deck is often very hard to see, as it takes practice to make the deck go off - i.e. get all 5 basic land types in play - early.

The mana distribution is simply to safegaurd against not getting a forest. Any other land is easliy fetched, but running a spell-approiate number of forests is simply too risky here. The rest of the deck falls neatly into place after casting Harrow and Rampant Growth. Usually, all that's needed is a single Harrow, since you can often draw the land types you don't open up to in your first few draws. After you get all 5 land types out, keep your mana open, and drag more out with other Harrows/Growths as opportunties arise,  but always be able to coutner problem cards - most notable are Land Destruction spells. Most of your spells can be used to stall and/or clear up the board for Ordered Migration. A single ordered is all you need to win in most cases, even against a deck like Keeper, which has no good way of dealing with what you throw at it other than countering, which you should be prepared for. If you have to face keeper, try to force counterspell wars on them to ensure Ordered gets through. If it doesn't, you always have your red damage spells to fall back on. Karevek's Torch is debatable here, as I've seen fireball fill the same role of a late game big damage spell to finish off your opponent. Don't worry about the X cost, as you're always got spare mana at that point.

That's all I'm going to write for now. Its getting late, so I'll submit parts II and III some other time, if anyone wants to read them. Thanks for reading, and proceed to laugh at me.

[BlurredWeasel]

Seems...umm...janky

First, I'll assume only the recall as power, because at least the lotus would fit in really nicely.

With the amount of control that runs around in general in type one, I think it is risky to play harrow.  /me force of wills that

I'm also wondering about the extra basic lands in the board.  Why?



Also on another note...I'm not sure about the rules on this, if I have a tundra out, is that 2 basic land types, because it counts as a plains and an island?  I know it isn't basic, but does it count as 2 basic land types, because if it does, this deck could be so much stronger with 4 fetch lands, and then blue based duals (or any base duals...whatever)

-Chris

[Anonymous]

The baisc lands in the board are there to rebalance the manabase after changing the color distribution by sideboarding.

As for Duals, I tried using white based Duals with the Mirage fetchlands when I first modified the PCD, and decided that they were too slow. This was true even after adding Tropical Island and Land Grant. This deck often is able to win just by waiting the opponent out and being able to win through sheer card advantage, but that requires setting up the defense with Moat,(or Wrath, for those who can't afford a Moat) and it needs to come out early to work well, especially in my metagame, where Sligh and the Black decks(Void and Suicide) are everywhere. Also, loosing one Dual Land is like loosing two basic lands of different types, which is devastating to this deck. Granted that's remedied by runnig Crop Rotation, but its restricted, it really a wasted slot. Ok...now for part II

Part II: Card by Card analsys

Green

Harrow
2G
Instant
Sacrifice a Land: Search your library for two baisc lands and put them into play. Shuffle your library afterwards.

This is what makes the deck work. Without Harrow, the deck simply can't get set up fast enough to defend itself against the onslaught that the other decks in the environment try to use.

Rampant Growth
1G
Sorcery
Search your library for a baisc land card and put it into play, tapped. Shuffle your library afterward.

This just insurance on getting your lands in the early game, and can be used to thin the library in the late game.

Wall of Blossoms
1G
Summon Wall
0/4

When Wall of Blossoms comes into play, draw a card.

The wall can hold back all of Sligh's attackers, and buys you a turn against Suicide and Void, which is often the difference between winning and loosing. Against more passive decks, it provides drawing.

White

Swords to Plowshares
W
Instant
Remove target creature from the game. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.

Another great card for gaining time against creature based decks. Ignore the creature's power when casting it, as your oppnent gaining life is a non-issue.

Aura of Silence(there are others listed, but this is my favorite)
1WW
Enchantment
Artifact and Enchantment spells your opponents play cost an additional 2.
Sacrifice Aura of Silence: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

While the double White can sometimes be hard to get, you should never have to wait longer than turn 5 to get it. Granted, this is too long agaisnt Combo, but you'll usually be able to get it turn 3, when it can really shut combos down. Any of the other removal spells have their pros and cons also. Let the meta decide which you use.

Wrath of God
2WW
Sorcery
Bury all creatures.

Mass removal. Plain and simple. Basically, a poor man's Moat, but not quite as good.

Moat
2WW
Enchantment
Creatures without flying cannot attack.

One of the all time great defensive cards. Amazing against any aggressive deck, and even some of the more passive ones, most notable Accelerated Blue.

Red

Gorilla Shaman
R
Summon Gorilla
1/1
XX1: Destroy target noncreature artifact with total casting cost equal to X.

Good ol' Mox Monkey. Great in almost any match, especially against an 'accelerated' deck.

Tribal Flames
1R
Sorcery
Tribal Flames deals X damage to target creature or player, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control.

Sligh uses Incinerate, and this is just a big Incinerate. Two damage is worth more than instant speed, as almost everyone agrees. Also good against Negators before you get enough lands to actually kill him with damage.

1 Karevek's Torch
XR
Sorcery
Interrupts(instants) targeting Karevek's Torch cost an additional 2 to play.
Karevek's Torch deals X damage to target creature or player.

In a deck that often dumps all its land, this can be the backbreaker for many oppoents. Superb in the late game.

Blue

Arcane Denial
1U
Interrupt(instant)
Couter target spell. That spell's controller may draw up to two cards at the beginning of next turn's upkeep. Draw a card at the beginning of next turn's upkeep.

Probably the most controversial spell in the deck. Everyone seems to hate it, and I have no idea why. Its great in a multicolored deck such as this, as it provides a 'hard' coutner for only 1 blue mana. And even though you can't use it turn 1 unless your run Power, its giving a better sort of card advantage to your opponent that Force of Will does. Hey, you even get to draw a card too.

Mana Leak
1U
Interrupt(instant)
Coutner target spell unless its caster pays an additional 3.

Another good couter, albeit a weaker one. Its great agaisnt Sligh, which often only has 4 lands on the table, usually with a few tapped. And if nothing else, it ties up three mana.

Whispers of the Muse
U
Instant
Buyback 5
Draw a Card

In a deck that prides itself on having 5 lands by turn 4, this is a never-ending supply of card advantage. Even better in the late game, where it can be used to dig deep for counters or answers.

Ancestral Recall
U
Instant
Target player draws three cards.

The original draw spell. I only just pulled Timetwister to run this when alot of people in my area started running Sligh and Suicide, and filling my opponent's hand became much too dangerous. In this deck, I prefer the twister, since you are often in danger of decking yourself, but with fast decks in an environment, Ancestral Reacall is a much safer way to gain  that last bit of card advantage.

Black

Diabolic Edict
1B
Instant
Target player sacrifices a creature.

Great for big critters that Tribal Flames can't kill, or as a backup when swords is going to be coutered. Also, the only card in the deck that can consistently remove Morphling.

Multicolored
Ordered Migration
3UW
Sorcery
Put a Bird token into play for each basic land type among lands you control. Treat this token as a 1/1 blue creature with flying.

Under normal circumstances, this is your win condition. Its almost as good as Morphling in the sense that its exremely difficult to remove with a single spell. It eats hippies and sometimes even Morphlings. I've even had a person runnig a fully powered deck tell me how evil he this this thing is.  

Other cards(not in the deck, but to be considered)

Time Walk
1U
Sorcery
Take an extra turn after this one.

More turns equals more time to build up a defense. It should be used if you own it, which unfortunately, I don't.

Exotic Disease
4B
Sorcery
Target player looses X life and you gain X life, where X is the number of basic land types amog lands you control.

Great in a fast environment, as it gives you an extra turn in most cases. Think of it as a more expensive Time Walk that doesn't resolve right away.

Moxen
0
Artifact
T: Add (insert color here) to your mana pool.

They help, especially with the double colored requirement for Moat and Aura of Silence. Personally, I don't use them, but the final descision is in the hands of the person building the deck.

Black Lotus
0
Artifact
T, Sacrifice Black Lotus: Add three mana of any color to your mana pool.

The most famous card in the game, and for good reason. Another good helper for the dual colored requirements on some spells, and once again, its up to you to run it or not.

Draco
16
Artifact Creature
9/9
Draco costs 2 less to play for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Draco unless you pay 10. This cost is reduced by 2 for each basic land type among lands you control.
 
Some domain decks have started sperating the decks into two categories: 'Domainion', the type of deck described above that focues on card advantage and a slower kill, and 'Blitz Domain' which typically uses Moxen and Lotus to speed itself up, then drops Dracos, Quirion Dryads, and Wayfaring Giants coupled with burn to crush their foes. Unfortunately, they have a very weak defense and can't start attacking until turn 4 in most cases. Can they win? Yes, and in fact, they are execllent against Keeper, because Draco can kill Morphling, and can't be targeted by The Abyss.

Wayfaring Giant
5W
Creature - Giant
1/3

Wayfaring Giant gets +1/+1 for each basic land type among lands you control.

See Draco for commentary.

Quirion Dryad
1G
Creature - Dryad
1/1

Whenever you cast a white, black, red, or blue spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Quirion Dryad.

See Draco.

Well, that's it for part II. Part III will focus on the sideboard.

[Anonymous]

Isn't there a counterspell that counters unless the opponent pays 1 for each basic land type you control? That would be better than arcane denial

[Anonymous]

There is, but it costs 2U.(at least, I don't know the actual cost) Beleive me, Arcane Denial is far better than anyone gives it credit.

[Nikodemus]

Evasive Action is 1U, the same cost as mana leak.
Please do not use arcane denial, it is just bad.

You counter one of their spells, and cantrip yes.
Your card expenditure = 0
Their card advantage 2 (that they drew) - 1 (that you countered) = 1 for them.  NOT worth it at all, there are MANY better counterspells out there.


After looking at your list, you are using the domain mechanic purely for Tribal Flames and Ordered Migration?

[Nova]

A very well written article to a very strange deck.  In a really low-powered metagame this might work, but in a competitive field the chances are low.

@Nikodemus: Arcane denial isn't the only bad card in that deck  

Let us proceed by examining the matchups this has against the 3 main branches of decks (combo, aggro, control).

1. Combo- In T1, combo goes off too fast for domain to stop it.  Even with 7 counters, it's not enough.  It's not really the quantity of counters that hurts combo, but the lack of pitch counters (read: Force of Will) is a nail in the coffin.  Dragon, Neo-Academy, Turboland, and others will have fun resolving all their devastating spells and winning the game before you can set up.

2. Aggro- T1 aggro is nearly as fast as combo, and disruptive to boot.  Take suicide black, for instance.  Suicide can rip your hand to shreds, lay out a negator, and win.  Sligh can burn you out.  Aggro decks often have few cards that you can disenchant, giving you potentially useless cards like Aura of Silence.  The comforting thing is that you do have 4x Swords to Plowshares, Moat, and Wrath of God, so all is not lost in the Aggro matchup.  Your chances against aggro seem ok, but just ok.

3. Control- You do not have enough counters, and specifically enough GOOD counters, to win against dedicated control decks in T1.  Since domain is admittedly slow, the beat em before they set up method is out.  Since that path is gone, you have to see whether domain has enough must-counters to push through.  Looking at the deck, it's apparent that there aren't enough must-counters to break through a counter-wall.

The fundamental flaws in the deck are:

1. It is slow, very slow.

2. It has too many card-disadvantage spells (arcane denial, the burn spells).  Life totals don't matter until the last one is lost.

3. It has almost nothing for card drawing.

4. The kill conditions are grossly unstable and costly.  Compare ordered migration to sacred mesa or Morphling.

5. The synergy of the domain style cards in this deck isn't enough to justify building the deck around it.

[Matt The Great]

Lastly, even if you wanted to still use Harrow for mana-fixing, you only need one of each basic land in the deck. Those seven forests could as easily be four Tropical Islands, two Tundras, and a Forest. This would not screw with Harrow at all, and if you did this to all your lands you probably wouldn't need Rampant Growth AND Harrow both.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your responses! This actually drew less smack than I expected, which is nice. Well, with the holiday weekend, I found the time for some major tweaking on the deck, and all that has come together into the final deck. I just now was able to read what you've all written, so I can't say much about that,  but I did discover I made an error earlier. Its fixed in my deck, but since I don't have a real account here, I'm not able to edit the earlier posts. Thanks again for reading and I hope to continue the debate over this deck.

Evasive Action
1U
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays an additional 1 for each basic land type among lands you control.

This has replaced Mana Leak maindeck. Please don't fling poo on Arcane Denial. Its amazing. Trust me.

Final Domain Deck

Land
6 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp

Green
4 Harrow
2 Rampant Growth
2 Wall of Blossoms

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Moat
2 Global Ruin

Red
4 Tribal Flames
1 Karevek's Torch

Black(many decks do not run any black maindeck, but bring it in sideboard to deal with certian decks. In creature-heavy metagames, it should be run maindeck)
1 Mind Twist

Blue(the cardbase for blue is extremely variable, so I will post what I run)
4 Arcane Denial
3 Evasive Action
2 Whispers of the Muse
1 Time Walk

Artifact
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl

Final Deck: 60 Cards

The changes are fairly obvious, as are their reasons.

Changes in the final deck

Time Walk In - Ancestral Recall Out

This was definately for the better. More will be explained in the match by match analysis.

Global Ruin In

This was an idea I had been toying with for quite a while, but until recently, my meta has been Dual heavy, and in that environment it hurts me more than them sometimes. Now that monocolor decks (in the form of Sui, Void, Acc. Blue, and Sligh) are returning, this card is much more powerful.


1 Forest Out - 2 Moxen In

I found that in the late game I was often flooded with mana that I hadn't fetched early on, and most of that was green. Removing a forest has helped there, and the Moxen help establish the deck in the early game, which is probably the biggest understatement of the century. Note, however, that the deck can still run without them.

Mox Monkey Out

Despite the return of Acc. Blue to my environment, something needed to go, and oftentimes he just couldn't pull me through other matchups well enough to warrant a maindeck slot. See sideboard.

Mind Twist In

Against Control and Combo, this is a must counter, and an obcenely devastating card after sideboarding. See sideboard for more information.

Diabolic Edict Out

Even with more creatures in the environment, the additional Moat was more help than these guys main. They are however, a major sideboard option against decks with Morphling.

1 Seal of Cleansing Out

Not enough major artifacts/enchantments(generally) to warrant a second. Against certian decktypes, this is a strong SB.

1 Moat In

Best creature defense in the game. Period. Makes Sui and Sligh easy matches when it gets out.

3 Mana Leak Out - 3 Evasive Action In

Leak makes them pay 3. Evasive Action makes them pay 5 90% of the time. 5 > 3.

1 Rampant Growth Out

Usually the second and third growths were dead cards, although there are exceptions to this. All and all, I needed another slot maindeck for all my changes, and this was what I decided to let go.

Cards I'm Currently Testing(in order of likelihood of appearance)

1. (3-4) Force of Will

Against combo, this is much better than Evasive Action, as it provides a second 'hard' counter, and more importantly, a pitch-counter. The only reason this isn't there now is a combination of my hatred of this card, and my intense hatred of Blue as a color.

2. Dual Lands w/ Onslaught fetchlands

A difficult descision, but its looking better for the duals. A few gauntlets should be done to finalize my descision.


The Sideboard

3 Orim's Chant
2 Siccoro
2 Back to Basics
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sacred Ground
2 Planar Void

The Sideboard: Why

Orim's Chant

I was tempted to include this main, but a lack of space forces me to side it. Its such a versitle spell, it comes in for almost every matchup game 2.

Siccoro

Blue causes trouble for this deck, and I hate it on top of that. Hate is needed.

Back to Basics

As with so many other blue cards, I'm forced to adknowledge its  power. With Global Ruin, this acts as a 1-2 punch against Combo and Keeper.

Sacred Ground

This was a no-brainer. Anyone trying to get to my land is a serious threat.

Seal of Cleansing

Extra enchantment removal.

Diabolic Edict

Kills Morphling. This is good for other reasons, also, but that's the big one.

Gorilla Shaman

A helpful little ape, to say the least. Brought in for Moxen, Black Vise, etc.

Planar Void

While other combos weren't as serious a threat, I had tons of problems with Dragon. This has solved most of them.

Match-by-match analysis

Keeper: 4-6

This was probably the hardest matchup that produced a 'favorable' result, as much as you can call 40% favorable. Back to Basics made almost every match I won possible, while Chant and Global Ruin helped in others. More revisions are needed, especially for pre-sideboard.

Parfait: 7-3

This was a fairly easy matchup, because of the slowness of the deck. Ruin also helped bring in victories.

Zoo: 7-3

This was almost as hard as Keeper. Simply so much aggression, and so few speedy ways of dealing with it.

Enchantress: 5-5

It all depends on stopping Replenish. And the odds of that are pretty much 50/50. A little easier after SB, but not much.

Sligh: 6-4

Running ways to pick off their creatures is critical, and quite easy to do. The speed is the killer, but still, a fairly easy matchup.

Stompy 4-6

Like Sligh, but it has Naturalize. I'm toying with adding Perish SB. Not as bad as the 40% win makes it look, though.

Dragon Combo: 1-9 (Before SB change) 4-6 (After adding Void SB)

This was my biggest problem as far as combos go, because of the lack of piece restriction. As you can see, Void works wonders.

Trix: 3-7

My best combo matchup, and mostly due to its slower speed. As  with all combos, this is a massive problem deck for me.

Acedemy: 2-8

Nasty stuff. Almost as nasty as Dragon. The restriction of so many great artifacts makes this a bearable matchup, though.

Nether Void: 6-4

The easier of the two black matches, but with the massive creature removal, this wasn't too problematic. Sinkhole and Hymn are the major culprits in the lost matches.

Suicide Black: 5-5

The speed makes this very hard. Fortunately, I'm usually able to mount a defense quickly enough to win, but sometimes I'm too slow.

[BlurredWeasel]

Quote "1. (3-4) Force of Will

Against combo, this is much better than Evasive Action, as it provides a second 'hard' counter, and more importantly, a pitch-counter. The only reason this isn't there now is a combination of my hatred of this card, and my intense hatred of Blue as a color."

Ok, so what you are saying, is that this is a great card, and capable of winning games alone (against the combo you so hate), yet you refuse to use it because of your...and I quote "intense hatred of Blue"

This makes no sense, what is your goal, to win, or to have fun?  Because they are two distinct things in magic.

Last type 2 tournament I went to, I had that choice, I could have come up with some weird combo rogue deck, or I could play astroglide....I played the netdeck, and won the tourney with it.

Please let me know what your goals are when you present a deck, because you keep putting this as a serious t1 deck, yet with no supporting reasoning behind many of the cards, and lack of cards.

Like...why not run both ancestral and time walk?  why not all 5 moxen to speed things up (lots of colorless in there), and so on.

Some suboptimal cards certainly can be replaced....like why not ditch the 4 tribal flames for 4 FOW so you can have early defense (they can serve the same purpose of stopping an early creature) but also better your matchup versus combo.


My thoughts,
Chris

[Matt The Great]

Also, no one is ever going to let an argument stand at "this card is good because I say it is." Especially one so inherently flawed* as Arcane Denial.

*It shoudl be noted that Arcane Denial is the best counterspell for multiplayer, for reasons I shant go into here. If this deck is designed for multiplayer, I don't think any knowledgable player would begrudge you the use of this card - but you've stated that this deck is meant for Type One play.

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for your comments. After reading them, I've made some revisions, and this was the result. Please note that the reason that I don't run 5 Moxen is because I only own 2.

Land
6 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp

Green
4 Harrow
2 Rampant Growth
2 Wall of Blossoms

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Moat
2 Global Ruin

Red
No Maindeck Red.

Black(many decks do not run any black maindeck, but bring it in sideboard to deal with certian decks. In creature-heavy metagames, it should be run maindeck)
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor

Blue(the cardbase for blue is extremely variable, so I will post what I run)
4 Arcane Denial
3 Evasive Action
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
1 Timetwister

Artifact
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl

Final Deck: 60 Cards


The reason for Arcane Denial is because I need the 'hard' coutner more than I need the card advantage I'm throwing away to cast it. From expierence, I can feel safe saying that the risk of waiting for double blue to cast this would be too great to offset the loss of card advantage.

[Anonymous]

Sorry about the double post, but I just realized that I made a mistake. My record against the Zoo was 3-7 not 7-3. And above the double blue woud be for a standard counterspell.

[Matt The Great]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that last post. Arcane Denial is card advantage for your opponents, not you. So cutting it for a card that gives a one-for-one trade (like Counterspell) is good.

Evasive Action #4 would at the very least be better, more so if you tried my suggestion of running dual lands and only token amounts of basics to Harrow for. That would also make the Rampant Growths unneeded, and then you'd have two more slots to fill. You would be unable to run Global Ruin, though.

Where is your victory condition in that last deck?

[Anonymous]

Ordered Mirgration is the win condition. I had been cut/pasting it from the original, and I guess I missed all the multicolored cards. On the Arcane Denial, I was saying that with the current deck structure, I'm willing to give my opponents card advantage in exchange for only having to pay 1U as opposed to UU to counter their spell, since UU is much harder to get.

As for the Dual Lands, I just finished running a new test model with Windswept Heaths, Plateaus, Scrublands, and Savannahs in for some of the basic lands. I'll post my results once I get something I like and that's consistent. Thanks for your advice and patience.

[Matt The Great]

Here's a thing to think about though: both Force of Will and Arcane Denial give the opponent card advantage, but Force of Will costs zero while Denial costs 1U. FoW also has a late-game option to not give the opponent card advantage, whereas Denial will always be weak.

Secondly, as long as you're paying 1U to counter something Evasive Action is better than a Denial, especially with the dual land plan. In the first two or three turns, both are hard counters, and after you establish domain and get all five land types, it's still effectively a hard counter, because no deck has five extra mana to throw around.

Also, have you considered Collective Restraint in place of the Moats? 3U should be easier to cast than 2WW, and if you ever do include Force of Will they increase your blue-spell count. Also, most decks don't have five mana to spend to attack with, and even if they do they won't after a Global Ruin. The Restraints also work against flying creatures.

Lastly, which Moxes do you have? If they're the blue, green, or white ones you should probably include them.\n\n

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Matt. I'll try making that change. The duals are working well so  far, to the point where I'm just looking at which ones to use. I've tested with a mix of White and Blue based Duals, and I'll have to buy the Collective Restraints to test them. The FoWs are already in there. As for Moxen, I have Sapphire and Pearl. I have Twister, Time Walk, and Ancesral Recall in case you were wondering.

[Matt The Great]

Wow, my bad for not looking closer. I'm sorry.

Maybe you should test the Restraints by proxying them first, before you lay out the cash.

[Anonymous]

Alright. After some revisions, here is what I feel is a reasonable final product, ready for mid to high level type1 competition. Any further suggestinos are appreciated.

3  Flooded Strand        
2  Plateau          
1  Scrubland        
3  Tropical Island      
4  Tundra  
3  Underground Sea      
1  Volcanic Island    
3  Windswept Heath
3  Wall of Blossoms
2  Collective Restraint      
1  Seal of Cleansing    
3  Abeyance  
1  Ancestral Recall  
1  Crop Rotation  
2  Diabolic Edict      
4  Evasive Action      
4  Swords to Plowshares      
4  Force of Will  
1  Demonic Tutor  
2  Global Ruin  
1  Mind Twist    
4  Ordered Migration  
1  Time Walk    
4  Tribal Flames    
1  Mox Pearl      
1  Mox Sapphire  
 
Sideboard
2  Gorilla Shaman    
3  Planar Void    
1  Seal of Cleansing  
2 Tranquility  
3  Orim's Chant    
3  Sirocco  
1  Jester's Cap

[Remikaly]

I have had a domain deck that I've played around with recently, and even though I have no power, what I have come up with is has some similarities to what you ended with, but with different kill mechs.
I use 2 sylvan libraries for one thing, and all of your shuffle effects would make it awesome.  I do not have all the duals or fetchlands to run it the way you do, so I still run 2 ruins and all basics.  I guess you wouldn't need the 3 birds that I use though (only have 3) because of your much better (color wise) manabase.
My kill mech is usually the slow but steady Collapsing Borders which usually swings the game 4 points every other turn (me +2, them -2).  Restraints I run no less than 4 of, because they only get better, and make them overextend so that the ruin hurts so much more.  Legacy Weapon also closes the deal on annoying permanents, or chews lands so that restraint gets stronger.  You used Torch in your earlier build, but I think death grasp is much better.  I also threw in a token Phantom Nishoba that ends the game much quicker than the borders.
I can't believe that no one has mentioned Yawgmoth's WIN yet, because that card has helped me come back from countered or destroyed Borders, replay a key land (or moxen in your case), and much more.  Granted since I am almost entirely enchantment based I can just use replenish, but those are in another deck right now...
I apologize for this being hastily thrown together, but I hafta go, and this isn't exactly the Extreme Vintage forum...

[Anonymous]

Here we go, my last entry on the Domain article/primer thingy. I've revised it a bit, adding more commentary on the changes, and offering the original PCD as a reference. I'd really like to see someone (perhaps me, if I get the chance, which I probably  won't) take this to Neutral Ground or some other massive T1 event and test it, just to see how someone other than me plays it in a powered metagame does. (I'm the only one who's done it that I know of so far)

Well then. It seems that as T1(or Vintage, if you prefer) has evolved over the last few Blocks, it seems that none of those annoying themes that R&D has stuffed down type 2 player's throats have made their way into Vintage. This is most likely because they are all low impact in such a high powered format, and because most of them are pretty useless anyway. The notable exception at this point has been Threshold, which is currnetly being used by Grow in the form of Werebear.

Even with the weakness of themes, the most powerful theme to appear came in Invasion as Domain cards. Despite the fact that(to me, at least) Invasion Block reeked of Ice Age's mediocre attempts to encourage multicolored play,(look at Ice Age Block cards like Primitive Justice - it has the first inklings of Kicker Costs)  Domain was a viable deck in Block constructed, and some people even tried it in type 2, with little success. That was most likely because they were forced to run the slow Domain cards against decks like Fires and Maddness. But in Vintage, there are several cards that take the place of the bad domains, and use good ol' T1 brokenness to remedy slowness.

With that said, it should not be assumed that this is a lightning quick deck, but rather a somewhat accelerated form of an existing Block deck.

Without further ado, I present the Domain PCD:

Land
8  Forest    
3  Island      
3  Mountain      
3  Plains      
3  Swamp        
2  Terminal Moraine  

Artifacts    
2  Stratadon

Creatures    
1  Kavu Recluse  
2  Kavu Scout  
1  Magnigoth Treefolk  
1  Quirion Dryad  
2  Quirion Explorer    
2  Quirion Trailblazer  
3  Samite Pilgrim  
1  Wayfaring Giant  

Spells
2  Exotic Curse    
1  Strength of Unity  
1  Confound      
1  Gaea's Might        
3  Harrow  
1  Rith's Charm      
1  Treva's Charm        
2  Worldly Counsel  
2  Allied Strategies      
1  Breath of Darigaaz    
2  Exotic Disease  
1  Ordered Migration    
1  Primal Growth    
3  Tribal Flames  
1  Wandering Stream  






The Basics

Now that you've had an unnessecarly long lecture on the deck concept and history, its time to look at what the major compnents of the deck often are, broken down by color. This was the first revision I made of the PCD, using no power. It can still be played in an unpowered Type 1 metagame.


The first revision: Replacing sub-optimal block cards with staples. No power added.

Land
7 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp

Green
4 Harrow
3 Rampant Growth
2 Wall of Blossoms

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Disenchant/Dismantling Blow/Aura of Silence/Seal(metagame dependant for which and how many)
1 Wrath of God/Moat

Red
1 Gorilla Shaman(dependant on # of Rampant Growths)
4 Tribal Flames
1 Karevek's Torch

Black(many decks do not run any black maindeck, but bring it in sideboard to deal with certian decks. In creature-heavy metagames, it should be run maindeck)
2 Diabolic Edict

Blue(the cardbase for blue is extremely variable, so I will post what I run)
4 Arcane Denial
3 Mana Leak
2 Whispers of the Muse
1 Ancestral Recall


MultiColor
4 Ordered Migration

Sideboard(always metagame dependant, but for a mixed metagame)
2 Siccoro
2 Lobotomy/City of Solitude
2 Perish
1 Disenchant/Dismantling Blow/Aura of Silence/Seal
2 Price of Progress
2 Planar Birth/Sacred Ground
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Island

This build runs alot of sub-optimal cards, and requires a heavy modification in the direction of control or aggro to become competitive, but with some practice it can work. Also a very fun twist for when you're bored.

After playtesting against many popular t1 decks, this was the next step revision.

Land
6 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp

Green
4 Harrow
2 Rampant Growth
2 Wall of Blossoms

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Moat
2 Global Ruin

Red
4 Tribal Flames
1 Karevek's Torch

Black
1 Mind Twist

Blue
4 Arcane Denial
3 Evasive Action
2 Whispers of the Muse
1 Time Walk

Artifact
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl

MultiColored

4 Ordered Migration


The Sideboard

3 Orim's Chant
2 Siccoro
2 Back to Basics
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sacred Ground
2 Planar Void

Comments on the second revision

Time Walk In - Ancestral Recall Out

This was definately for the better. More will be explained in the match by match analysis.

Global Ruin In

This was an idea I had been toying with for quite a while, but until recently, my meta has been Dual heavy, and in that environment it hurts me more than them sometimes. Now that monocolor decks (in the form of Sui, Void, Acc. Blue, and Sligh) are returning, this card is much more powerful.


1 Forest Out - 2 Moxen In

I found that in the late game I was often flooded with mana that I hadn't fetched early on, and most of that was green. Removing a forest has helped there, and the Moxen help establish the deck in the early game, which is probably the biggest understatement of the century. Note, however, that the deck can still run without them.

Mox Monkey Out

Despite the return of Acc. Blue to my environment, something needed to go, and oftentimes he just couldn't pull me through other matchups well enough to warrant a maindeck slot. See sideboard.

Mind Twist In

Against Control and Combo, this is a must counter, and an obcenely devastating card after sideboarding. See sideboard for more information.

Diabolic Edict Out

Even with more creatures in the environment, the additional Moat was more help than these guys main. They are however, a major sideboard option against decks with Morphling.

1 Seal of Cleansing Out

Not enough major artifacts/enchantments(generally) to warrant a second. Against certian decktypes, this is a strong SB.

1 Moat In

Best creature defense in the game. Period. Makes Sui and Sligh easy matches when it gets out.

3 Mana Leak Out - 3 Evasive Action In

Leak makes them pay 3. Evasive Action makes them pay 5 90% of the time. 5 > 3.

1 Rampant Growth Out

Usually the second and third growths were dead cards, although there are exceptions to this

Sideboard

Orim's Chant

I was tempted to include this main, but a lack of space forces me to side it. Its such a versitle spell, it comes in for almost every matchup game 2.

Siccoro

Blue causes trouble for this deck, and I hate it on top of that. Hate is needed.

Back to Basics

As with so many other blue cards, I'm forced to adknowledge its  power. With Global Ruin, this acts as a 1-2 punch against Combo and Keeper.

Sacred Ground

This was a no-brainer. Anyone trying to get to my land is a serious threat.

Seal of Cleansing

Extra enchantment removal.

Diabolic Edict

Kills Morphling. This is good for other reasons, also, but that's the big one.

Gorilla Shaman

A helpful little ape, to say the least. Brought in for Moxen, Black Vise, etc.

Planar Void

While other combos weren't as serious a threat, I had tons of problems with Dragon. This has solved most of them


At this point, I was fearing two things that turned out to be holding the deck back:

1. I was worried that I didn't have enough blue cards I could afford to loose to support pitch-counters.
2. I was afraid that running dual lands could upset the library thinning/mana accelerating of Harrow and Rampant Growth, and was worried about nonbaisc hate destroying me.


The third revision: More power, pitch counters added

Land
6 Forest
4 Plains
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp

Green
4 Harrow
2 Rampant Growth
2 Wall of Blossoms

White
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Moat
2 Global Ruin

Red
No Maindeck Red.

Black
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor

Blue
4 Arcane Denial
3 Evasive Action
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
1 Timetwister

Artifacts
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire

MultiColored
4 Ordered Migration


This did wonders against combo and control, for obvious reasons.


The final revision: Ready for high-level competition.

This version is what I hope will become the basis for a new type 1 archtype. It focuses on gaining control in the early game with Abeyance, Swords to Plowshares, and couterspelling, gaining card advantage and building up tempo with Collective Restraint and the draw spells in the midgame, then dropping a Golbal Ruin to cripple your opponent and winning with Ordered Migration. The sideboard focuses on strengthening key matchups. Adding Dual Lands has actually accelerated the deck to a position where it can actually set its defense up earlier in the game and run more game breaking cards, because the number of land fetchers has been reduced.

2  Flooded Strand        
2  Plateau          
1  Scrubland        
3  Tropical Island      
4  Tundra  
3  Underground Sea      
1  Volcanic Island    
3  Windswept Heath
3  Wall of Blossoms
2  Collective Restraint      
1  Disenchant  
2  Abeyance  
1  Ancestral Recall
1  Worldly Counsel  
1  Diabolic Edict      
4  Evasive Action      
4  Swords to Plowshares      
4  Force of Will  
1  Demonic Tutor  
2  Global Ruin  
1  Mind Twist    
4  Ordered Migration  
1  Time Walk    
3  Tribal Flames    
1  Mox Pearl      
1  Mox Sapphire
3 Sylvan Library    

Sideboard
2  Gorilla Shaman    
2  Planar Void    
1  Seal of Cleansing  
1  Tranquility
2  Circle of Protection: Red
2  Orim's Chant    
3  Sirocco  
1  Jester's Cap
1  Diabolic Edict



There you have it, the finished Domain article. I'd really appreciate any thoughts on what I've said, or any questions anyone may have. Thanks again for putting up with my ramblings.

[j_orlove]

Quote Comments on the second revision

Time Walk In - Ancestral Recall Out

This was definately for the better. More will be explained in the match by match analysis.

Um, huh? Ancestral is simply the best card you could run.

[Anonymous]

At the time that revision was made, the extra turn was worth far more than the three cards, as tempo was a larger problem. Notice, however, that both are in the final deck.

[Anonymous]

This is a classic example of chivalry amoung geeks.  Always show courtesy to a lady.  If this had been posted by a guy...

I do give you total credit for an EXCELLENT post, very well written.
But really don't see how this deck beats anything.  ICT looks viable after seeing this.  

Please, Please, Please, do not run arcane denial.  Giving your opponents cards with a counter spell is against so many concepts of the game it is ridiculous.

TNT comes over and gorilla butt smashes this deck.  

I don't think parfait is an easy match up for any deck if it is played by a skilled player.  Also Chant, Bloodmoon and you are on the fast train to shufflinng up for the next game.

Ankh sligh would be very bad for this deck, and the ankh is coming back.

please test the new version on line against the following decks.

TNT
Nether Void both the mono black and deed version
Ankh Sligh and Generic Sligh
Paragon Keeper
Reanimator
PT Junk
Gro
Grow-a-tog
Mask
Dragon/Academy/Trix some fast combo deck.
Parfait (remembering that most competative builds run bloodmoon maindeck.)


numbers against these decks are important.  Against skilled players I am sorry to say I don't think this deck can go better than 50/50 against any of them.

I give you total props though for trying to bring domain to type 1.

[Deletehead]

Well, I personally love the Domain idea simply for it's versatility
and if you don't have power then it would probably be a better
choice than keeper. The only question I have is, Why no Pernicious Deed? It's a really strong card and would really
help you in the zoo matchup, granted it would blow up your
Birds but you can always make more, anyway I think the
coolest way to play Domain would be to use Gaea's Blessing
to recur Tribal Flames (20 damage for 8 mana, not too shabby)
and I think you should avoid non-basics at all costs to make the deck tougher to disrupt...