Doubling Season Planeswalkers - Doubling the fun

[Noctalor]

So, Ace/Homebrew asked me to open a post about this deck, lets do this.

The deck should be considered as a control/combo, our gameplan is to get in control using our planeswalkers, or to go ham with doubling season.

For those who are not familiar with the enchantment this is how the card interact with our deck:

1) First of all, if we have 1 season se get x2 counters, if we have 2 we get x4 counters, if we have 3 we get x8 counters and if we have 4 we get x16 counters
2) Playing a Planeswalker will trigger the season, so if you play a 4 loyalty pw it will come in play with 8 counters
3) You get no bonus if you go for a +X loyalty ability, because putting counters is not an effect, but a cost

So, how do we exploit the card?
We are locking for PW able to come in play and insta-ult if their loyalty is doubled, the "OMG THIS GUY DECK IS CRAZY" card is in fact this guy


If we have the setup we can chain 4 jaces into 4 cards from our opponent deck into a card from our deck, this is insane ofc and most decks get completely rekt by this combo, given that we can easily end the chain with a 14 counter Ugin

So atm our list looks like

4 Doubling Season
4 Jace, Architect of Thought

the next step should be to find a way to not get smashed while we get this togheter, the best way (i found) in modern is to play Fog, fog is great here because it can "timewalk" if needed but most important it will save our planeswalker, also we get the cool prop that a lot of modern decks get SMASHED by fog, for example having 2 fog vs infect is cool, most decks will in the end be affected by the fog, you will likely gain at least 7/8 life per fog.
Given how good the card was i decided to play the list in a bant shell, because fk this we play holy day also.
This ofc will in the end be a pain vs non aggressive decks, but hey this format sucks so yuo will play vs a good 80% aggro, also we are in a tier2 position, so we have to take risks to have a good shot.

So now we have

4 Doubling Season
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Fog
4 Holy Day

Given that we are bant we can now look for some cool PW to put in the list, i decided for:

- Ugin, we can pretty much cast this guy most of the times, if we have a season is bonkers, also a big dude is good to have for the chain combo
- Narset, pretty good vs unfar decks, we can lock them out with a season, also is really good that the loialty is so high
- Tamiyo, most decks will attack with all they have into a fog, add tamiyo and here you have a draw 6, cool, also most deck concede to tamiyo ult into fog (LMAO)
- Garruk Wildspeaker, this guy is needed here, his ability to ramp is actually insanely good because he let you go for example t3 garruck into t4 season with fog/remand up into combo with counter up, pretty good, also the beasts are ok for stalling and can become a wincon with season in play given how fast you can ramp 3/3 into his ulti.
Given how we crave for mana add to the mix sakura tribe elder, serum visions and remand, and why not some supreme verdict?
so now we have

4 Doubling Season
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
4 Fog
4 Holy Day
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Supreme Verdict

Now all we have left is the manabase, we play a pretty beefy one

4 Simic Growth Chamber

Yup, this is good here working with 4 garruk, also in the early game we dont have much to do

2 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Temple of Enlightenment

Again we can afford to play those, and deck manipulation is pretty good here

4 Misty rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Plains
2 Forest
3 Island

Here we go, this is our final decklist


4 Misty rainforest
2 Flooded Strand
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Temple Garden
1 Plains
2 Forest
3 Island
2 Temple of Mystery
1 Temple of Plenty
1 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Simic Growth Chamber
4 Doubling Season
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
1 Narset Transcendent
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
4 Fog
4 Holy Day
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Supreme Verdict

So lets talk a bit about our MU

We have a pretty good MU agains any form of aggro, for example affinity is a joke for this deck, our 8 fogs are doing work.
We struggle a big against single threat aggro control decks, for example a land delver into bad things is pretty bad because we are going to fog into little damage and we struggle to deal with tax counters and snapcasters.
Not cool against some combo, pretty much a bye against some others.

So what do we put in our sideboard?

This is mine atm:

3 Nature's Claim

Good vs twin, good vs tron, those are the main focus, ofc is a great tool against a good number of decks

2 Repeal

Works well here, being able to bounce a delver is really helpfull and we have plenty of targets, against the mono threat decks this card is amazing

3 Ratchet Bomb

This is cool against a lot of decks and help if we decide to go full control because the combo is not the best

2 Relic of progenitus

General stuff, we hate grave because fk grave

3 Dispel

This card is THE BEST here, its so good in countermagic mu, please play this one

2 Spell Pierce

Again general stuff, pls no thoughtseize

Hope it helps, see ya

[Ace/Homebrew]

Ace/Homebrew asked me to open a post about this deck.

Thanks man!
I've only played Doubling Season in EDH, so I was not aware of the combo with Jace, Architect of Thought.

Just brainstorming here, so feel free to shoot down all my suggestions.
Is Pollen Lullaby better than Holy Day?
Would Idyllic Tutor let you play less Doubling Season? Might also let you run singleton Ghostly Prison or Propaganda? The downside would of course be telegraphing your bomb...

I'm pondering about a RUG build. You could almost pretend to be Scapeshift combo for the first few turns... but I guess then the question is 'why not just play Scapeshift?

[Noctalor]

Thanks man!
I've only played Doubling Season in EDH, so I was not aware of the combo with Jace, Architect of Thought.

Just brainstorming here, so feel free to shoot down all my suggestions.
Is Pollen Lullaby better than Holy Day?
Would Idyllic Tutor let you play less Doubling Season? Might also let you run singleton Ghostly Prison or Propaganda? The downside would of course be telegraphing your bomb...

I'm pondering about a RUG build. You could almost pretend to be Scapeshift combo for the first few turns... but I guess then the question is 'why not just play Scapeshift?

You're welcome

I tested the tutor and had poor results, we are stoll able to dig into season pretty effectively (we have 4 remand 4 serums 4 temple 4 jaces and a lot of time thanks to fogs) and we can even win w/o season in play (this appens quite a lot).

Wasnt aware of pollen lullaby, the card need testing for sure, big one, thx!
(we often are super tight on mana, but i see this card being better than 2x holy day at least!)

I think that our best option is bant or stright UG, still feel free to work on this, the deck is pretty narrow so basicly no one is working on it, but man this is fun to play

[Ace/Homebrew]

I think that our best option is bant or stright UG, still feel free to work on this, the deck is pretty narrow so basicly no one is working on it, but man this is fun to play

I like that gives you Lightning Bolt, Izzet Charm, and Ral Zarek. But I trust your judgment on Bant working out best for you.

My personality wants to come up with ways to rush out Doubling Season, but this is a control deck with a combo finish so games tend to go 10+ turns right? If you win without the combo, how do you do it? Attacking with 3/3 beasts?

[Noctalor]

I like that gives you Lightning Bolt, Izzet Charm, and Ral Zarek. But I trust your judgment on Bant working out best for you.

My personality wants to come up with ways to rush out Doubling Season, but this is a control deck with a combo finish so games tend to go 10+ turns right? If you win without the combo, how do you do it? Attacking with 3/3 beasts?

You generally play 2 kind of games, you either go on a rush season into jace or you grind them out.

In the long game you end up winning by choking their wincon (for example vs affinity maybe you end up with a perma jace -1/-0 while tamiyo keep in check the mandands and slowly you get there with garruk) or by just getting your late game monsters.
If you get to stabilize you can make great use of jace -2 for CA, and in the end of the long game your wincons are:
- They cant beat a tamiyo emblem + fog
- They cant beat a narset emblem
- Ugin do his thing
- They lose to a jace ultimate (there are plenty of decks that just lose to this play, against tron for example you can get a emrakul and a ugin, or maybe you are a bro and you go for a season into karn ulti because YOLO)
- You eventually get your season and go ham
- You win with garruk (dont understimate the raw power of the guy, decks tend to give no fucks about their life total against us, so you can just win with 2 beast and a overrun, sakura helps too)

In general non combo games tend to be really crazy, with an insane amount of variables and choices to be made, you can take several lines thanks to the planeswalkers and you either find the combo soonish or you end up winning in a narrow way/get smashed by tarmoskill

[Ace/Homebrew]

Looks like a lot of cards came out recently that make this strategy more resilient!

http://www.starcitygames.com/article...he-Planes.html

[CaptainTwiddle]

A nice little combo that I've included in brew that I've been working on is Oath of Gideon + Garruk Wildspeaker. The Oath gives you bodies to protect your planeswalkers and lets them enter the field with an additional loyalty counter (if you have Doubling Season, I believe you can choose how the replacement effects are applied and could therefore have a walker that starts with 4 loyalty enter with 10 [ (4+1)x2=10 ]. Garruk in particular is nice with Oath of Gideon, because the Oath adds bodies and then allows Garruk to immediately hit his ultimate. That alone isn't enough to win most of the time, but it allows you to turn random mana dorks into a win condition. You could lean toward a G/W/x planeswalker tokens strategy. The Nahiri, the Harbinger + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn combo is a natural inclusion. You can go all 5 colors and play Ral Zarek to combo with Nahiri as well, not to mention ultimating Ral with other planeswalkers in play is just nuts. Oath of Nissa is going to be key in that type of list. I also like the Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl combo.

[square_two]

So, the new Tamiyo is yet another planeswalker to check out here.

Comes down under Doubling Season and immediately draws you 3 cards and gives you Omniscience as an emblem. Lives afterward, as well. Not too shabby.

[Meekrab]

The Nahiri, the Harbinger + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn combo is a natural inclusion.

Jace is (paradoxically) better at summoning Emrakul than Nahiri, though. He gets your opponent's 4 best spells along with her and doesn't leave an uncastable bowl of spaghetti in your hand if swinging with Emrakul doesn't immediately win the game.

Ajani, Caller of the Pride is a cute three mana Doubling Season-enabled wincon as well, though it gets blown out by any sweeper.

[CaptainTwiddle]

Here's my take on the "Doubling Walkers" deck:

Doubling Walkers
CREATURES
4 Arbor Elf
2 Coiling Oracle
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
SPELLS
4 Doubling Season
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
2 Oath of Nissa
3 Path to Exile
1 Ral Zarek
4 Serum Visions
4 Tamiyo, Field Researcher
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
4 Utopia Sprawl
LAND
3 Breeding Pool
3 Temple Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Windswept Heath
3 Forest
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground

The pairing of Jace, Architect of Thought and Tamiyo, Field Researcher is what gives this deck a shot at being legitimate.

Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl allow for explosive mana production and the ability to cast Garruk or Jace as early as turn 2. Once you have Doubling Season online, Jace can immediately ultimate to find another Jace + the best spell from your opponent's deck. Tamiyo, who can be found via Jace's ultimate, then immediately ultimates to draw cards and let you cast your spells for free. You can just chain your walkers into one another, with Ugin being a massive bomb. The single Ral Zarek was added to the list to ensure that you do in fact win when you go off (you should get to take at least one extra turn off his ultimate, which will be enough). Thanks to Jace, you get to win in a lot of different/fun ways depending on what your opponent is doing. Otherwise, you can just have your Garruks make some beasts and then Overrun on your kill turn.