[Deck] Doran Life w/Survival

[GreyICE]

3 Starlit Sanctum
3 Plains
1 Forest
4 City of Brass
1 Scrubland
2 Savannah
1 Bayou
4 Windswept Heath

4 Nomads en-Kor
3 Shaman en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
4 Doran
4 Task Force

4 AEther Vial
4 Living Wish
4 Survival of the Fittest (basically the best creature tutor in legacy)
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

3 Thoughtseize
4 Duress

3 Diamond Valley

1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Shaman En-Kor
1 Diamond Valley
1 Eternal Witness
1 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Tormod's Crypt/Leyline of the Void (Ichorid)
3 Krosan Grip (God I hate counterbalance)
2 Swords to Plowshares

I posted this in SCG, which was a bad idea. Anyone care to help me along? I really like this deck, but it definitely needs a little something to get there.

[Tical2000]

The deck looks interesting. Why do you run City of Brass though when you could just run more duals?

Also, a trample enabler might be nice. A single Brawn can work well with SotF.

[GreyICE]

The deck looks interesting. Why do you run City of Brass though when you could just run more duals? Mostly? I'm experimenting with the manabase on and off. That's the latest incarnation. While the any color is nice, I think COB will eventually go.


Also, a trample enabler might be nice. A single Brawn can work well with SotF.
That could be cool. I do like the idea, so the combo doesn't receive the DI chump block treatment.

[Vetinari]

I think you should focus on your plan B more and try to fit some staples like Deed, Goyf, StP, Confidant, Shriekmaw (SB material), Vexing Shusher (SB),...

The question is what to cut. 4 Dorans seem excessive with him being a Legend. With Survival you can probably safely drop to 2 (3 for metas with a lot of burn where it becomes more important to redirect damage to his big wooden behind.).

Squee is a win-more here. Once you get Survival going you are probably going to win anyway. If not, I doubt Squee will make much difference.

Orim's Chant and/or Abeyance might be better disruption/protection than discard.

With this in mind, we get:

-2 Doran
-1 Squee
-4 Duress
-3 Thoughtseize
-1 Land

+3 Abeyance
+2 Orim's Chant
+4 Dark Confidant
+2 Chrome Mox

Confidant is probably your best option as helps you dig (all your spells are cheap so you don't suffer overly).

I opted for a 3/2 split of Abeyance and Chant in favour of the former becouse it stops a bunch of things that can ruin your day (Deed, EE,
Gempalm Incinerator, Wasteland,...).

Moxen somewhat offset the slowdown incurred by set-up cards (Wish, Survival, Chant). A possible alternative would be Elvish Spirit Guide (+: you can survival for it and in a pinch it can go aggro).

Trample is pointless, there are only a handful decks (FT, Aluren, I Will Survive) that can kill you after you go off and the only one among them seeing noteworthy play (FT) doesn't run any creatures.

[Moczoc]

This deck is very interesting for me, I still have my old Life deck. I will later think about this. I can say: don't play too few winconditions (/Dorans). I played too much draw games wich ended with a billion life and an Opponent who's still alive :/
It would be good to play +1 Test of Endurance in the main deck and +1 Academy Rector in main deck and +1 in the sideboard.
With Aether Vial at 4, it's a win without attacking.

[GreyICE]

I think you should focus on your plan B more and try to fit some staples like Deed, Goyf, StP, Confidant, Shriekmaw (SB material), Vexing Shusher (SB),...I really like the shusher, the shriekmaw, and the confidant. Those are great ideas. But I think with Deed and Goyf, we're really heading towards B/G Survival. While it's not a bad archtype, it's not one particularly suited for the life combo. I'd be tempted to cut the combo at that point. Which is probably worth exploring, but not in this thread.


The question is what to cut. 4 Dorans seem excessive with him being a Legend. With Survival you can probably safely drop to 2 (3 for metas with a lot of burn where it becomes more important to redirect damage to his big wooden behind.). He dies so often though. And he's a combo component. Eh, 2-3 is probably right anyway. He is maximum awkward with the Sanctum.


Squee is a win-more here. Once you get Survival going you are probably going to win anyway. If not, I doubt Squee will make much difference.
I disagree. Without squee, Survival lets you trade one combo piece for another. The combo pieces still die just fine to StP. With Squee, Survival blows through infinite spot removal. It's Eldrami's Call, every turn, for G.


Orim's Chant and/or Abeyance might be better disruption/protection than discard.
No. They solve half the problem. I tested them over splashing a third color and disrupting the manabase. There are two categories of cards this deck hates. The first is counterspells. They work fine here. The second is Counterbalance/Engineered Explosives/Pithing Needle/Blood Moon disruption. This does less than nothing against those.

Replace one with Cabal Therapy? That I'd buy. But the chants and abeyance aren't enough. Test the GW build if you don't believe me, it's just too little.


With this in mind, we get:

-2 Doran
-1 Squee
-4 Duress
-3 Thoughtseize
-1 Land

+3 Abeyance
+2 Orim's Chant
+4 Dark Confidant
+2 Chrome Mox

Confidant is probably your best option as helps you dig (all your spells are cheap so you don't suffer overly). Hmm. I really, really like Confidant. You are totally correct.


I opted for a 3/2 split of Abeyance and Chant in favour of the former becouse it stops a bunch of things that can ruin your day (Deed, EE,
Gempalm Incinerator, Wasteland,...).
DuressSeize is your friend ;) Wasteland kinda sucks for us anyway.


Moxen somewhat offset the slowdown incurred by set-up cards (Wish, Survival, Chant). A possible alternative would be Elvish Spirit Guide (+: you can survival for it and in a pinch it can go aggro).Huh. One of EGS. Interesting. Not sure its worth a slot.

[Vetinari]

I disagree. Without squee, Survival lets you trade one combo piece for another. The combo pieces still die just fine to StP. With Squee, Survival blows through infinite spot removal. It's Eldrami's Call, every turn, for G.
With Squee as a one-of you still need to trade a combo piece just to get him and then go on you merry way. Witch incidentally takes ages if you go through Squee every time. With 20+ creatures in the deck having extras is quite conceivable.


No. They solve half the problem. I tested them over splashing a third color and disrupting the manabase. There are two categories of cards this deck hates. The first is counterspells. They work fine here. The second is Counterbalance/Engineered Explosives/Pithing Needle/Blood Moon disruption. This does less than nothing against those.
Abeyance completely solves for EE (blowing it up as an activated ability) and partially for Counterbalance (they can't use Top stack their deck. The rest is just a matter of baiting with the right CC and setting up Vial if need be).


Replace one with Cabal Therapy? That I'd buy. But the chants and abeyance aren't enough.
If your combo pieces are so valuable you don't want to use them for Survival, what are you going to use to flashback Therapy with?


One of EGS.
I was thinking more along the lines of 2+. Since, unlike the Moxen, they are one-shot only 4 would probably be the right number.

[GreyICE]

With Squee as a one-of you still need to trade a combo piece just to get him and then go on you merry way. Witch incidentally takes ages if you go through Squee every time. With 20+ creatures in the deck having extras is quite conceivable.
Yeah, survival usually results in a turn 4 go off. Which is quite acceptable frankly, as it can win through DI hate. It makes the gobbos matchup slightly worse, but frankly we're still talking very favorable, just not the insane blowout of the old GW life.

I frequently do what you mentioned (trade a combo piece for another, go off). But against thresh, if survival resolves, you want to be able to say "I win." Squee does that.


Abeyance completely solves for EE (blowing it up as an activated ability) and partially for Counterbalance (they can't use Top stack their deck. The rest is just a matter of baiting with the right CC and setting up Vial if need be). There's absolutely no way that's true. Test the deck. It works fine for Storm combo, but I need one of my components to stay in play for a turn. That's my main phase, my opponent's entire turn, and my next attack step. It's too much leeway for something to go wrong. DuresSeize also strips StP, Diabolic Edict, and other things that disrupt my combo.



If your combo pieces are so valuable you don't want to use them for Survival, what are you going to use to flashback Therapy with? Survival is a card selection without squee. With squee it's a card advantage engine.

[Tical2000]

I think you should focus on your plan B more and try to fit some staples like Deed, Goyf, StP, Confidant, Shriekmaw (SB material), Vexing Shusher (SB),...

The question is what to cut. 4 Dorans seem excessive with him being a Legend. With Survival you can probably safely drop to 2 (3 for metas with a lot of burn where it becomes more important to redirect damage to his big wooden behind.).

Squee is a win-more here. Once you get Survival going you are probably going to win anyway. If not, I doubt Squee will make much difference.

Orim's Chant and/or Abeyance might be better disruption/protection than discard.

With this in mind, we get:

-2 Doran
-1 Squee
-4 Duress
-3 Thoughtseize
-1 Land

+3 Abeyance
+2 Orim's Chant
+4 Dark Confidant
+2 Chrome Mox

Confidant is probably your best option as helps you dig (all your spells are cheap so you don't suffer overly).

I opted for a 3/2 split of Abeyance and Chant in favour of the former becouse it stops a bunch of things that can ruin your day (Deed, EE,
Gempalm Incinerator, Wasteland,...).

Moxen somewhat offset the slowdown incurred by set-up cards (Wish, Survival, Chant). A possible alternative would be Elvish Spirit Guide (+: you can survival for it and in a pinch it can go aggro).

Trample is pointless, there are only a handful decks (FT, Aluren, I Will Survive) that can kill you after you go off and the only one among them seeing noteworthy play (FT) doesn't run any creatures.

I fail to see how Chant/Abeyance is an improvement over discard. You basically made the deck worse.

And explain to me again why trample is pointless? Please elaborate, because I don't really see how it is.