[Deck] Doran Rider

[quicksilver]

With the new printing of Murkfiend Liege, I new this card was just waiting to be broken in half. He is essentially a 4/4 for 5 mana that gives all of your other creatures +1/+1 (some +2/+2) and allows all your creatures to untap during your opponents untap step. Since this is essentially a better Seedborn Muse, it seemed logical to try to break it with Tradewind Rider. Then it came to me, Tradewind Rider + Doran is some sick combo there, makes Tradewind a 4/4 flier for 4 mana with an awesome ability. And thus Doran Rider was born:


Doran Rider:

Creatures:
2 Tradewind Rider
4 Doran, The Siege Tower
3 Dark Confidant
1 Murkfiend Liege
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Anger
1 Wonder
1 Brawn
1 Trigon Predator
1 Tireless tribe
1 Rofellos, LLanowar Emissary
1 Quiron Ranger
1 Eternal Witness
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Genesis
4 Birds of Paradise

Spells:
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Survival of the Fittest
2 Vindicate


Lands:
3 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
2 Bayou
2 Savannah
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp


SideBoard:
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Extirpate
3 Stifle/Blue Elemental Blast (can’t decide yet)
1 Squee
1 Tinket mage
1 Painter’s servant
1 Grindstone
2 Tormod’s crypt


Card Choices:
Tradewind: Duh he's the core of the deck, amazing synergy with Doran, Murfkiend Liege and any other creature.
Doran: Just a sick card.
Dark Confidant: Gives you a draw engine to draw into survivals/tredewind/doran
Murkfiend Liege: He is really good by him self, plus the synergy is undeniable
Squee: Needed for the survival engine. Plus he can flashback therapy, tap for tradewind, and pump tireless tribe.
Wonder: Flying allows you to not only beat in unblocked but block opponents flyiers as well. Plus he can flashback therapy, tap for tradewind, and pump tireless tribe.
Brawn: Pretty much a necessity with the tireless tribe combo. A 3/3 trampler for 4 isn’t too bad either. Plus he can flashback therapy, tap for tradewind, and pump tireless tribe.
Trigon Predator: Every deck needs artifact and enchantment removal. He does both, plus with Doran and Murkfiend he is a 5/5!
Tireless Tribe: combos with Doran, just pitch anger, brawn, and wonder + 2 other cards and you have a flying, tramping, hasted, 21/21 for 1 mana.
Rofellos: He’s isnane, every survival deck needs him.
Quiron ranger: Great synergy with rofellos and tradewind
Eternal witness: He is obvious
Magus of the moon: You run a basic of each color so he doesn’t hurt you at all. He just straight up wins too many matches
Gensis: Allows for recursion of your bombs.
Birds of Paradise: Has good synergy with quiron ranger, allows you to accelerate and fixes your colors

Cabal Therapy: This stops combos and can slow other decks until you gain control
Force of Will: Best counter ever, no reason not to run it
Brainstorm: Best draw spell legal
Swords to Plowshares: Best creature removal ever
Survival: The engine of the deck
Vindicate: Randomly amazing, let’s you hit any problem card your opponent may have.

Lands: I love this mana base. The deck can operate just fine on the 17 land count. It makes it so you never get mana flooded. The basics mean wasteland and magus do little to you. Plus add in quiron ranger birds and rofellos and you have tons of mana.

SideBoard:
Tarmogoyf: I side these in for matches where it’s good to have large cheap creatures
Extirpate: I love this card. I side it in every single match.
Stifle/Beb: I can’t decide which one would be better
Squee: If they bring in graveyard hate I bring in another squee which neutralizes their hate.
Tinket mage: Allows you to side into Painter’s servant/grinstone combo and be able to get it all with a survival. Also allows you to fetch tormod’s crypt
Painter’s servant/ Grindstone: you can side into the combo
Tormod’s crypt: Hate for ichorid. You can tutor for it with trinket mage which is found by survival.


Now I know this list is 63 cards but I just couldn’t figure out what to cut, everything is so good and absolutely needed.


I have done some playtesting with this and it seems to be a powerhouse. Haven’t lost a game yet. It dominates Gro due to its higher creature count. Therapy and Force beat combo and your creatures are too big for agro to handle. I’m going to bring it to the NOVA tournament this weekend and smash face with it. I’ll let you know how I do.

[nitewolf9]

Your blue count is a little low...wouldn't you wana run thoughtseize over force?

Edit: Wait, I forgot that you can hard cast force if you need to, never mind. Also, where is spiritmonger? He dominates the ground and is great with wonder.

[Illissius]

Also, where is spiritmonger?

I think you might've meant, "Where is Tarmogoyf?"

(Answer: It's in the sideboard. Inexplicably enough.)


Tarmogoyf: I side these in for matches where it’s good to have large cheap creatures

Isn't that... all of them?

EDIT -- Okay, I think I fell for the satire. An idiot may or may not be me, but I'm pretty sure is. Awaiting confirmation. The manabase does sort of give it away.

[Swing4Five]

EDIT -- Okay, I think I fell for the satire. An idiot may or may not be me, but I'm pretty sure is. Awaiting confirmation. The manabase does sort of give it away.

Yea... I had a lot of 'wtf' moments reading this, then read your comment here, and had an 'ah, that makes a lot more sense' moment.


edit: your you're

[quicksilver]

Your blue count is a little low...wouldn't you wana run thoughtseize over force?

Edit: Wait, I forgot that you can hard cast force if you need to, never mind. Also, where is spiritmonger? He dominates the ground and is great with wonder.

Ya force is great being able to hard cast, which this deck can easily do once it gets 5 mana, with at least two of it blue.

I think Spirit monger, while a very good card, doesn't quite belong in this deck. If I had the room I would run more Merkfiends instead.


I think you might've meant, "Where is Tarmogoyf?"

(Answer: It's in the sideboard. Inexplicably enough.)



Isn't that... all of them?

EDIT -- Okay, I think I fell for the satire. An idiot may or may not be me, but I'm pretty sure is. Awaiting confirmation. The manabase does sort of give it away.

There just isn't enough room in the main for goyf unfortunatly.

Satire? I'm sorry you feel that way. If you want to give some serious feedback I would appreciate it, but please don't knock the deck before trying it. It really does run very smoothly and the mana base actually works out really well.

[Cire]

Ya force is great being able to hard cast, which this deck can easily do once it gets 5 mana, with at least two of it blue.

Is this Satire?

i mean really? By the time you'll have 5 mana to hardcast force all the matchups you really need it in (combo) would of killed you by then.

[Jak]

Run 4 Magus main, serously. You have access through basics to all the colors you need under a moon and 4 fetches to get them. Take advantage of that.

Other than that, the list looks awesome. I wonder how much more awesome it would be if you added the painters-grindstone combo in...

[thefreakaccident]

I think we have a new hulk-flash on our hands.

[Isamaru]

Why are you playing all of those incarnations (you only need one or two), therapy, force, magus of the moon, vindicate, etc.? Brainstorm seems worthless here. You can cut a lot of those cards.

It might be enjoyable to play for the creator, but this isn't something that really needs to be discussed... its just got a few different choices than normal Survival decks... why not just put it in that thread?

[Jak]

I think we have a new hulk-flash on our hands.

I doubt it. I mean, this deck is packed with control and beef that will win games left and right, but it still loses horribly to Pox.

[Swing4Five]

Counterbalance needs to find a spot in there.

[SuckerPunch]

I doubt it. I mean, this deck is packed with control and beef that will win games left and right, but it still loses horribly to Pox.

Yeah but then again, what deck DOESN'T lose to Pox. :tongue:

Okay, I'm kidding with the sarcasm. Pox is actually extremely strong, probably the most underrated deck in the format from what I've seen when I've run up against it.

[Illissius]

Needs more Berserk Murlodont.

[Nihil Credo]

Painter combo, dude. It instantly solves the problem of having just 13 blue cards. And Painter is a 3/3 with Doran out!

[quicksilver]

Painter combo, dude. It instantly solves the problem of having just 13 blue cards. And Painter is a 3/3 with Doran out!

I have thought of puttin that combo in the main. You can get trinket mage and painter's servant with survival. It's not bad. But I couldn't find room in the main so I had to put it in the side. I already have the doran tireless tribe combo in there.

[AnwarA101]

This deck looks very intriguing. Is this the deck that breaks Doran? I mean I knew he was solid, but he makes the creatures in this deck insane!!!

[thefreakaccident]

The awesome synergy that the deck has is amazing... I can see this in some top 8s in the near future.

[Xenocide]

Doran Rider:
...List...


That list looks quite interesting. I would drop Tireless Tribe, Brawn, and Rofellos. Tribe + Brawn seems like a danger of cool things. As for Rofellos, with only 13 forests it seems that hitting GG on turn 2 will be hard to do consistently, not to mention that the number of forests out wont be that high (also you are running 63 cards, making it even more difficult to find those forests).

[xsockmonkeyx]

8/10

[Citrus-God]

I think this deck needs Enlighten Tutor. I mean, it'll be soo cool to be able to run 7-8 copies of Survival with 4 FoWs and 4 Therapies for protection. Also, did I mention this deck would be baller if Survival resolves? Also, but running ETutor, you can run a mini-toolbox maindeck, like say MD Seal of Primordium or AEther Vial.

[AngryTroll]

You'd increase the threat density of the deck if you moved Goyf main, going up to 67 cards. If you add in a few lands, you keep the same land ratio.

If you do draw Survival, well, the deck is bomb and you can fetch Goyfs too. However, if you don't, you now also have 4 Goyfs as bombs to play. 4 Absolute bombs out of 63 cards is a lower ratio than 8 bombs out of 70.

For this reason, you can probably run the Painter's Grindstone combo mainboard also, again increasing the land count. With so many different win conditions mainboard (prison, combo, aggro), no sideboard hate is really effective against you!

[Brehn]

Looking at the list, I think Dark Confidant might cause too much pain, given that you're playing him alongside a full playset of Force of Will. Therefore, I'd either include some life-gaining creature for your Survival toolbox (Ravenous Baloth? Kitchen Finks? Maybe Dedicated Martyr - he is the NUTS against Ichorid and I can see Ichorid being a problematic matchup) or Sensei's Divining Top. Note that including Sensei's Divining Top gives you the possilibity of playing Counterbalance, which has some awesome synergy with your curve - while Balance/Top is a "One-Sided Chalice @ 1 and 2" in Threshold it would be a "One-Sided Chalice @ 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5" in here! Broken. Obviously this can only work with some manabase adjustments. Since Fetchlands have an awesome synergy with Top, I'd suggest:

-2 Tropical Island
-1 Bayou
-1 Savannah
+2 Windswept Heath
+1 Bloodstained Mire
+1 Polluted Delta

Another good thing is that playing 8 fetchlands you'll never ever be colorscrewed! I've cut duals to remain the resiliency against decks packing Wasteland. Let me know how your testing goes.

[Mordenkaynen]

Yeah, Bob seems like the weakest card in the deck (1/1 with doran, giving much pain). Is he so necessary (especially when the deck has 63 cards because of him)?
Also why brawn? With wonder? Do you really afraid of bitterblossom? Or what?
I'd agree that "danger of cool things" have some place here.

[quicksilver]

Yeah, Bob seems like the weakest card in the deck (1/1 with doran, giving much pain). Is he so necessary (especially when the deck has 63 cards because of him)?
Also why brawn? With wonder? Do you really afraid of bitterblossom? Or what?
I'd agree that "danger of cool things" have some place here.

You need to have bob so you have some sort of engine going if you can't get a survival. you need it to draw into your good stuff. I really like brawn in the deck, the fact that he is solid on his own makes him worth the inclusion. And I don;t think there is any danger to the tireless tribe doran combo. It only takes one extra slot in the deck and just immediatly wins the game for one mana. Seems pretty good to me.

[spirit of the wretch]

Wow, this deck seems great! Magus of the Moon really pushes it over the top. I have some suggestions though:
You're mana is great but I don't like Vindicate here at all. Primal Command does in fact the same and it gives you more flexiblity. It's also much easier to cast, as almost every land produces green mana. The 7 life may come in handy against Dreadstill which I think is a key MU.
4 Dorans seems just unreasonable. I would cut one and play Sakashima the Impostor instead. He's awesome duplicating your key creatures and even Doran! Plus he improves your blue card count. He also taps for the Riders, flashbacks Therapy and feeds the Tribe.
I don't like the Stifles in the SB at all. Your MD already rapes combo with 4 Therapy and 4 Forces (and the two Commands) so they seem completly unnecessary here. Try some Wastelands. They are good against decks that play many non-basic lands. Plus you can recur them with Witness.

[quicksilver]

I'll keep Sakashima the Impostor in mind. He might be good to protect the combo when I swing in with tireless tribe, I can have a second "doran" out in case they have swords to swords one.

[Jak]

Played the deck at my local tonight. Got first out of 13 players easily. My list is a little different than the OPer's because I upped the Magus count to 2 and played 4 goyfs. I cut the Confidants and the Vindicates. Not sure if I am sold on those changes but Goyf was a house.

First round played against UGw Thresh. I took control of the game by owning his hand and dropping fat. Therapy is amazing. Game 2 he set up CB and hit a few key spells, but then Rider hit and I bounced all his stuff. GG!

Second round was against Goblins. This MU is a cake walk. Play fat, beat with fat that flies, win. GG!

Third round was against POX. I was terrified by this MU. First game I got Survival down quick and just kept tutoring up beats. I countered a few LD spells while he kept my board in check. Finally, I swing in with 2 hated goyfs. Game 2 he blew me out of the water with Double dark rit into Stalker. No force :(. Game 3 he got mana screwed after he had to play an early Pox because Goyfs own. GG!

Fourth round was against TES. Force and Cabal Therapy stole the show and my Dorans and Goyfs never looked back. GG!

This deck is amazing. Can it be moved to Established now?

[ReAnimated]

So are there any new updates with this deck? and what are the bad MU's?

[Radley]

don't you get problem with mana screw? do you always have a use for tireless tribe? don't you think it's just a win more card as if you already have tradewind, you've almost already won, it just makes the kill faster.

[Media314r8]

I'll keep Sakashima the Impostor in mind. He might be good to protect the combo when I swing in with tireless tribe, I can have a second "doran" out in case they have swords to swords one.

It seems like if someone has a swords in this situation, they'd probably aim it at the 1/x thing swinging at them for lethal, in which case you would lose your hand for their 1 card, W mana, and you gain 1 life. If you want to pitch your hand in such a gambit, play combo, and win through orim's chant, otherwise, leave the aboutface/tribe combo where it belongs- in 2001.

@ deck:

You run no accel outside of the rofellos pipedream, and no goyfs. I'm trying to figure out how you make it to the mid/late game with only 4 forces and 4 swords. Have you moved goyf to the MB yet, or possibly considered exporer (huge speed boost, good with therapy) or sakura trbe elder, either of which can chump you into the mid-late game where you can play your bomby CMC 3+ cards? IMO right now anything akin to tempothresh or goblins can beat the tar out of you by just dropping turn 1/2 threats and waste/porting/stifle-ing you, keeping you from you colored/big mana.

EDIT: I just saw birds. Still seems worse IMO than STE or explorer, as it dies to fanatic/incinerator/wierding and it's ilk, while the other two get you permanent sources of waste-proof/ removal-proof mana. I'm not sure if the bords-> turn three therapy or explorer -> turn two therapy is better in this deck, explorer has been discussed in many forums, but perhaps birds wins here as giving your opponent basics (if they have access to any) + magus of the moon = not a combo.