[Deck] Doran, the Siege Tower Aggro

[Clark Kant]

Here's a deck I built to utilize the very best cards that green, white and black have to offer along with the two most undercosted creatures in the game (Goyf and Doran). This deck will surely draw comparisons with Pall Wall Aggro. PWA is an incredibly cool and novel deck idea that Cavius deserves credit for coming up with. I just don't think it's viable.

The problem with Paul Wall Aggro imo is that it's heavy creature deck that can rarely win without casting and keeping in play both an army of creatures and a slow easily disruptable two card combo.

Being reliant on getting both Doran, an army of creatures and Rolling Stones can ever be viable imo, esp against combo or control decks.

It also plays a whole ton of bad cards to abuse that combo.

This build doesn't play any bad cards, just the very best cards that green, black and white have access to.

Here's my initial list...

// Deck: Under Siege

4 Thoughtsiege
4 Duress
4 Reanimate
4 Swords to Plowshores
4 Vindicate/Smother/Pernicious Deed

4 Dark Confidant
3 Gadook Teeg

4 BoP/Skyshroud Elite
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Doran, the Siege Tower

4 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Bayou
4 Scrubland
3 Savannah
1 Forest
1 Swamp

Gadook Teeg is there to deal with Storm combo, Landstill, Damnation and FoW.

Confidant works well with such a low cc card base.

Goyf is just plain insane. You play lots of fetchlands, artifacts, creatures, and sorceries. That's a 4/5 right there. But relying on your opponent to play instants isn't much of stretch. Goyf is almost always a 5/6 by midgame.

My main concern is, that there is some great high toughness creature that I'm blanking on and that the deck should be running.

Edit: Named the deck, cut Rancor for Skyshroud Elite

[MattH]

Shield Sphere has Defender.

[Clark Kant]

Fixed. Shield Sphere is not a big loss. It can be replaced with any card without hurting the deck. If anything, cutting it probably made the deck better as it no longer has to run any cards that are bad by themselves.

The point of the deck is to use the very best cards that black, white and green have to offer, and also to play the two most undercosted beaters in the game, Tarmogoyf and Doran, along with Reanimator to get them back into play when they get killed.

[Soto]

Rancor won't help because of Doran.

[ParkerLewis]

My main concern is, that there is some great high toughness creature that I'm blanking on and that the deck should be running.

I don't think there's something better than Phyrexian Walker, which you already thought of.

But since you've got to get rid of the Spheres...

[Clark Kant]

Good point. Neither Rancor nor Berserk work here. :(

-4 Rancor
+4 Negator?

[TheCramp]

I was just thinking about building a deck just like this, here is what I was playing around with on paper:

Mana: 21
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Hearth
2 Swamp


Man Plan: 23
5(4 +1/3 +2 ?) Skyshroud Elite/Isumaru
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Doran, the Siege Tower
4 Dark Confidant
4 Phryexian Negator
3 Umezawa's Jitte

Hate: 16
4 Duress
4 Hymn/Thoughtseize/Castigate
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Mother of Runes/Condemn/Teeg/Vindicate/Chant/Smother ???? (this is the slot that I figure is for you're metagame)

If you were to go with Isumaru and Teeg, it might be worth thinking about Karakas, but I dont see D&T vindicate on legs in this list, so you might be better off with Yavamia Hollow, or, your know, a plains.

Mother of Runes is my 1st pick in that last list. She is killer support for Negator, and can really shine when it comes to making the deck more aggresive. I often think of her as a superb defense option, and she is. But making Doran or Goyf pro-green to swing past opposing goyfs seems like a solid option to have. Win now > Lose Later, after all.

[Mijorre]

-4 Rancor
+4 BoP?

It may avoid you the savage wastelanding.

[ParkerLewis]

Good point. Neither Rancor nor Berserk work here. :(

-4 Rancor
+4 Negator?

If you're willing to consider additional cards that require doran to be useful, then maybe you could try something like Slagwurm Armor (@1cc it's also fine with Confidant) or Ensouled Scimitar.
Solidarity would also be a great finisher.

[Clark Kant]

BoP is interesting. Plus it's a 1/1 flyer under Doran.

Skyshroud Elite is an excellent idea as well. A 3/3 under Doran for 1 mana that's very good without Doran either.

For now, I'm going to try...

-4 Rancor
+4 Elite

If wasteland proves to be a problem, I'll go with BoP.

I always wanted to play Slagwurm Armor. It's makes your Teeg and Confidant very hard to burn and lets them attack and block with impunity as well. Not sure if its worth it though.

[Slag]

I hesitate to suggest silklash spider because you're running bob, but it would be a 7/7 for five that can nuke a thousand sky hussars, if breakfast still runs that kill. A bit more realistic might be citanul wooreaders, which would be a 4/4 for three that can draw cards if need be.

[Clark Kant]

I recommend people try out this deck as is. Playing it feels a lot like playing thresh, except without the reliance on the graveyard or cantrips. Discard serves a function very similar to countermagic.

I dare to say it might actually be better than Thresh!

I don't think running bad cards for the sake of Doran is the way to go, esp since you don't have a way to tutor for Doran either (I cut Harbringer from the deck).

Neither 5 for 7/7 or 3 for 4/4 are very impressive either.

Elites are nice because they are 3/3 for 1 of 2/3 for 1 without Doran. No one could argue that Elite is a bad card.

[thefreakaccident]

low cc creatures + deed = not a combo....

Bop is not needed & neither is reanimate (why is this popping up in ur lists recntly?). I would say run either explosives or vindicate before you run deed, a huge creature that you could consider is mystic enforcer.... Gaddock teeg is amazing in here tho!

[Clark Kant]

Because you do plan to reanimate opposing creatures. You run 4 Goyfs. So you won't see one early on most games. But odds are, between you and your opponent, you will see one early on most games. Just make your opponent discard it, or Smother it etc, and you can bring it into play on your side. That flexibility is well worth 2 life (or the 3 life it cost to reanimate your Goyf/Doran or an opponent's Sea Drake/Goyf etc).

Reanimate is extremely consistently useful, esp with Thoughtseize to discard your opponents best creature.

Deed does have very poor synergy with all the low cc creatures this deck runs, thats why Vindicate got top billing for that slot, followed by Smother.

You sometimes don't get Threshold till turn six-seven or so, so I'm not sure Mystic Enforcer is a good call here. This is meant to be an uber fast and aggressive deck, with disruption to back up it's fast threats. Mystic Enforcer isn't a fast threat often enough.

BoP is there to provide consistent acceleration to make up for the lack on one quick burst accleration that Dark Ritual offered. It enables second turn Doran, which is fantastic if you don't have a Goyf in your hand to cast. That said, I'm still like Elite in this slot too.

[Lejay]

If you have difficulties finding another creature in the deck's theme, I suggest you run Unearth.

[GiantGrowth]

How much has this deck been playtested, is it as amazing as it sounds? lets hear some results with the basic list we have right now.

[Wallace]

Diden't I already start a thread with almost the same bulid on this deck?

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=7139

[LordEvilTeaCup]

Diden't I already start a thread with almost the same bulid on this deck?

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=7139

The builds seem different to me, but I think your deck name is pure win.

[meanee]

Does the ability to snatch a creature from your opponent's graveyard really make reanimate the better choice? I would go with unearth, as that is never a dead card, and it can reanimate ALL your critters. Anyway, I don't think it is necessary to have any reanimation effect at all.

And also. I have testet a couple of different builds of this deck, and it is really not that good... Unfortunately. The deck loses to almost all kinds of kombo, and the control match (truffle, landstill) is a joke... BUT; if you expect a thresh-filled meta, this deck could be the right to play, as it more often than not, simply trashes thresh. That is my experience anyway.

- meanee

[Wallace]

Does the ability to snatch a creature from your opponent's graveyard really make reanimate the better choice? I would go with unearth, as that is never a dead card, and it can reanimate ALL your critters. Anyway, I don't think it is necessary to have any reanimation effect at all.

And also. I have testet a couple of different builds of this deck, and it is really not that good... Unfortunately. The deck loses to almost all kinds of kombo, and the control match (truffle, landstill) is a joke... BUT; if you expect a thresh-filled meta, this deck could be the right to play, as it more often than not, simply trashes thresh. That is my experience anyway.

- meanee

Really? Did you ever draw any of your discard? Combo is not this decks best match up but is ok. You play 8 discard spells which should be able to slow down combo long enough take control. Plus your board will have some more combo killers in it, ie duress or Cabal Therapy. I do agree with you on the reanimate spell though, not needed. Check out the Jenny from the block thread to look a another list for Doran, very similiar.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?t=7139