BWG Doran Variant

[DrewliusMaximus]

I was going to ask about this idea in the Rock thread, but there's no recursion in it. If this belongs in an existing thread...my bad.

I goldfished the following list last night:

4 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
2 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Plains

4 Birds of Paradise
3 Treefolk Harbinger
3 Sakura Tribe-Elder

3 Doran

4 Thoughtsieze
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Confidant

4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Enlightened Tutor

2 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Sensei's Top
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Jitte

At some point I will buy Goyfs and use them, but for now, I'm trying to find ways not to use them.

So, as you can see, since I'm not joining the Metagoyf here, I'm trying to fight it. Major points are:
1. Tutors - to add flexibility, combines well with Top, makes building the Sideboard easier, and hopefully it isn't too slow considering all the stuff you can play early-game.
2. Ensnaring Bridges - Whoever has already tried this with Doran, how was it? With the spells in this list being cheap, I think the cards-in-hand can be kept low even with a Confidant out. I'm thinking these can be an easily sideboarded slots for lots of stuff (like Runed Halo, Rule of Law, specific-color-hating enchantments, etc.).
3. Slightly heavy-green manabase with Birds and Tribe-Elder for a little more resilience against mana-disrupting, specifically Blood Moon.
4. Engineered Explosives - instead of Deed because without recursion I don't want to sweep the board completely. Also, EE can be played faster, and is a better answer to Counterbalance and Chalice.

Any feedback is much appreciated....

[Isamaru]

You might as well just play Ghostly Prison over Ensnaring Bridge, but I think thats pretty cute. Maybe you could try Meekstone instead? I guess Englightened Tutor says 1 each.

Looks good, but yeah... this has been done 1000 times now.

[DrewliusMaximus]

I know that lists like this, if not exactly this list, are all over deckcheck.net (although I haven't seen Enlightened Tutors, Ensnaring Bridges, or Meekstones too often). But it doesn't seem to qualify as Rock, and didn't seem appropriate for the Deadguy thread either without any land destruction.

Why Ghostly Prison over Bridge? The opponent can pay out of the Prison whereas the Bridge can completely shut down their combat phase. I guess Prison is more effective against something like Goblins and Ichorid though.

I do like the idea of 1 Meekstone and 1 Ensnaring Bridge (or Prison).

[Mordenkaynen]

Bob is not synergic with Doran I guess ;) If you can run 4th color I'd suggest shadowmage infiltrator. A! Yeah, snake from coldsnap is qiute good in this place [1gg, 1/3, draws when deals damage to an opponent, destroys combat partner at the end of combat].

What about snuff out?
And what about bitterblossom/TS? They seem excellent with bridge.

[DrewliusMaximus]

Mordenkaynen, I don't think Confidant's slight anti-synergy with Doran is a big deal, especially considering he's there primarily to draw cards, not as a real threat. Orhan Viper is actually an interesting idea with Doran and Meekstone/Bridge effects. I don't see Viper as a replacement for Confidant though because Confidant draws you cards guaranteed, whereas Viper has to hit. If you use Viper, Snuff Out becomes an option, but with Confidant, it could hurt you too much.

I don't want to add a 4th color as I am already concerned with LD and Blood Moon. Bitterblossom in deck with Enlightened Tutor and Meekstones/Bridges does sound sweet.

After thinking about it, there's got to be 1 Meekstone in there as an early-game target for the tutor.

[Mordenkaynen]

Ok. I just want to say that you haven't so big threats count to use 1/1 creature that catches any removal (except those which don't target black) and draws with pain.
If you want this, may be phyrexian arena (or something like this) would be better. If you want to draw quickly.. I'm not sure. There are some ways.. like sylvan library, but it doesn't seem good. May be night's whisper..
Well what about how the deck works? When do you need that card advantage?

What about TS? When the opponent can't attack but have ten champblockers - what would you do? I think with fetches, tutors, discard and removal he won't be uncastable. And having another big guy fits the ability to win)
Another - much worse guy is exalted angel.

May be 1 oblivion ring is good with e.tutor.

[DrewliusMaximus]

First of all, Oblivion Ring is good idea and definitely worth trying. A nice all-around solution card.

I don't want Tombstalker if I'm going with Meekstones or Bridges.

I like Confidant over Arena or Night's Whisper because even though he's susceptible to creature removal, he:
1. provides a chump blocker if necessary
2. draws cards without pain quite frequently with Top
3. can be sac'd to flashback Cabal Therapy
4. costs 2 instead of 3 and only needs 1 specific colored mana

However, I think the deck could be rearranged to have Orhan Vipers instead and it could be cool. With heavier green, it would be less vulnerable to land destruction and Blood Moon too. Maybe somebody (or myself) can post a list later on.

[Mordenkaynen]

) Sorry, I thought that bridge limits only opponent's creatures. So I got it.

[herbig]

Maybe I'm just awesome, but what about the 2/10 guy? Now that would be hot...

[DrewliusMaximus]

To put that 2/10 guy in I feel like you'd have to go heavier White so you could reliably cast 2WW. Also, it might be more trouble than it's worth to find him and play him since he can just be STP'd or removed some other way. However, that guy would certainly stop Goyfs like no other, and once Doran was out, he'd be a hell of a beast.

[Mordenkaynen]

2/10 has no trample and that's not good really. What about Necroskitter from new set? Seems interesting.

[DrewliusMaximus]

Yeah, Necroskitter does seem cool. With him I think you'd have to go heavier Black, which would be fine because you might actually want to replace STP's (that's hard to say) so you could kill creatures and send them to the graveyard instead of removing them from the game.

I'm pretty sure that after all the Eventide cards are spoiled there will be all sorts of new ways to build Mono-black, BW, BG, and BWG stuff.