Pojo's Magic The Gathering
Mackerel's Pond

Welcome back, everyone!

Today I'm going to take a look at a Domain deck, sent to me by Raymond Schartz.

Now, the purpose of Domain is to get at least one of each basic land into play, so that you can take full advantage of the cards which include the text: 'for each basic land type among lands he or she controls' So with the card Wandering Stream, you would gain 2 life if you had a forest in play, 4 life if you had a forest and a mountain, but only 2 life for 2 forests.

Here's the original decklist;

2 Spiritmonger
2 Jungle Barrier

4 Collective Restraint
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Overgrown Estate
1 Yawgmoth's Agenda
3 Global Ruin
3 Ordered Migration
2 Earthquake
4 Harrow
3 Lay of the Land
4 Allied Strategies
2 Counterspell
4 Evasive Action

3 Yavimaya Coast
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Mountain
2 Plain
4 Swamp
7 Island
4 Forest

Now, it seems to me that this deck lacks focus. Modern Domain decks can afford to truly only play 2 or 3 colours, with the others as sleeper colours. For example, you might make a Domain deck that is half Blue, a third Green, and with only a dash of Red, Black and White. However, you do need to be sure that you can obtain the lands of the sleeper colours easily. The important aspects to a Domain deck are card drawing, and finding the relevant lands quickly, so I'll take the Blue/Green route.

First of all, there are the key Domain cards, staples in every deck of this type. They include Harrow (the best land fixer available in my opinion), Collective Restraint (shuts down opposition offensives), and either Worldly Counsel or Allied Strategies for effective drawing power. Of the two, I'd pick Worldly Counsel first. It's much cheaper than Strategies, so you don't have to worry about drawing too many in the early stages.

Next, we have to trim the fat. Cards like Earthquake and Ordered Migration, while powerful, don't really fit in with the theme of the deck. Overgrown Estate doesn't work well with the delicate balance of lands in this deck, and Yawgmoth's Agenda is far too costly to see play.

For a win condition, I'll stick with your simple direct damage one. That means we want some big creatures. However, they should also be hard to block because, while your opponent's creatures won't be doing any attacking with Collective Restraint in play, they can still block yours. So how about the largest creature in Type 2, Draco? When you have all 5 land types in play he costs a mere 6 colourless mana to play, and is a 9/9 flier. Thorn Elemental is another large creature with damage that's difficult to prevent. You can afford to wait to pay for these large creatures because with the Collective Restraint in place opposing decks will be focusing on dealing with that.

For the remaining spaces, some more evasive creatures are needed. Also, a few counter spells, so you can ensure that Draco or Collective Restraint comes into play. I'm going to alter the land so that it matches the new cards, and remove the 2-colour lands as they aren't counted as a basic land.

So, here's a revised deck list.

2 Phantom Warrior
3 Draco
3 Thorn Elemental
3 Magnigoth Treefolk
4 Mystic Snake

4 Worldly Counsel
4 Collective Restraint
4 Evasive Action
4 Harrow
2 Allied Strategies
2 New Frontiers

10 Island
9 Forest
2 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Mountain

The absolute nemesis of this deck is a land destruction one, which tears Domain to shreds, so here's a sideboard which should even the odds. Disenchant should be swapped in along with the extra Plains whenever you encounter a combo deck involving an enchantment.

4 Sacred Ground
3 Plains
3 Disenchant
3 Lay of the Land
2 Syncopate

An ideal starting hand with this deck would see you with Harrow, Magnigoth Treefolk, Mystic Snake, some land, and enough drawing power to find the twin keys to this deck, Draco and Collective Restraint.

The most vital aspect of this deck is to get the 5 land types out as soon as you can, powering up your other key spells. Wait, using counters and Magnigoth as a blocker until you can fire off the Collective Restraint. Finally, watch your opponent's face as the often scoffed at Draco hits the board and starts munching greedily on their life total!

I hope you all enjoyed watching my take on this deck take shape.

Thanks for sending in your deck, Raymond, and I wish you the best of luck with it!