Domain has been an incredibly popular archetype in Standard for a long time now. Despite losing the various tri-color lands from Streets of New Capenna (such as Spara’s Headquarters) via rotation, four and five-color Leyline Binding strategies are still plentiful.
Since the release of Duskmourn, though, many players have been exploring unique directions to take the deck. The arrival of the Overlords in particular has provided the archetype with a ton of flexibility.
Well, some players have gone as far as to cut Atraxa, Grand Unifier and Archangel of Wrath from the maindeck entirely and focus on the Avatar Horrors. One creative build that recently made top eight of a Magic Online Standard Challenge plays no maindeck creatures that aren’t Overlords. As we will see, there are tons of innovative ways to maximize them that you may not have thought of.
If that weren’t spicy enough, the pilot of the deck registered 80 cards in the maindeck! Yes, you read that right. There’s no Yorion, Sky Nomad to speak of in Standard, so this is truly wild. Nonetheless, the deck performed exceptionally well, and we felt it deserved to be highlighted.
The Normal Domain Ramp Elements
- Mana Value: 5W
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Sets: Dominaria United, Breaking News
- Card Text: Flash. Domain– This spell costs 1 less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control. When Leyline Binding enters the battlefield, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until Leyline Binding leaves the battlefield.
Like most multicolor Standard shells, this deck is focused on keeping the board clear while ramping to high-impact bombs that can take over the game. As such, there are still some important pieces that commonly show up in the more traditional Domain builds.
For interaction, Leyline Binding is as good as they come. While Leyline Binding isn’t a removal spell for opposing turn one plays, it doesn’t take long before the powerful enchantment receives a big discount. The Surveil lands that have two basic land types help in this department while simultaneously smoothing out your draws. You’ll also find a playset of Get Lost. Like Leyline Binding, Get Lost is extremely versatile.
For ramp, Heaped Harvest is a solid tool that gets you closer to casting your haymakers. On top of that, it helps fix your colors by grabbing basic lands of any color you’re missing. It synergizes super well with Torch the Tower out of the sideboard as a bonus, since you get to search for an additional basic land even if you sacrifice Heaped Harvest to help with Bargain.
Given the deck’s high land density, Spelunking is a nice three-mana play, too. There aren’t any outrageous combos or Cave synergies present but letting all your Surveil lands and lands from Heaped Harvest enter untapped can help you cast multiple spells in the same turn.
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What the Overlords Bring to the Table
- Mana Value: 3GG
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/5
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Impending 4 – 1GG (If you cast this spell for its impending cost, it enters with five time counters and isn’t a creature until the last is removed. At the beginning of your end step, remove a time counter from it.) Whenever Overlord of the Hauntwoods enters or attacks, create a tapped colorless land token named Everywhere that is every basic land type.
In the creature slot, it’s typical to see Overlord of the Hauntwoods as another ramp element. Playing it on three mana is decent, since the land you create immediately makes Leyline Binding cost only one mana. Alongside Spelunking, your Everywhere land gets to enter untapped, letting you cast Leyline Binding on the same turn as a follow up.
However, this deck goes further and utilizes full playsets of both Overlord of the Boilerbilges and Overlord of the Mistmoors. These Horrors are elite win conditions. Impending them is perfectly reasonable, but it’s also easy to get to a point where you can just cast them straight up.
By themselves, they’re pretty strong inclusions. However, there are some notably strong interactions they have with some other cards in the deck. First of all, having this many Overlords only makes Up the Beanstalk that much scarier. Even when you cast your Overlords for their Impending costs, Up the Beanstalk still triggers.
The Overlords work well alongside Ill-Timed Explosion, too. Because the Overlords can all be cast earlier in the game than something like Atraxa, you get to run a lot of them without fear of drawing too much top-end. Between the Overlords and Leyline Binding, it’s not difficult to discard a card with high mana value to Ill-Timed Explosion.
Where things get really interesting is when you draw one of your copies of Doppelgang. Doppelgang serves as the ideal subsequent play after Impending any of your Overlords. Doppelgang lets you copy your Overlords even when they aren’t creatures. Importantly, your copy will not have any time counters on it whatsoever, so you’ll be able to attack with it on your next turn. Sometimes, you’ll get to copy Overlord multiple times if you have a lot of mana, which is devastating for the opponent.
If you’re fortunate enough to have Bitter Reunion out, you can set up a turn where you copy an Overlord, give it Haste, and attack right away. Getting this many triggers on Overlord of the Boilerbilges or Overlord of the Mistmoors should be enough to win most games.
Where You Get Your Edge
- Mana Value: 1B
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 1/1
- MTG Sets: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Card Text: Flying, lifelink. When Depp-Cavern Bat enters the battlefield, look at target opponent’s hand. You may exile a nonland card from it until Deep-Cavern Bat leaves the battlefield.
The way this deck is constructed, you have a very strong matchup against any of the black midrange decks in the format. You have plenty of answers for any beefy threat that gets played. Your Overlords all generate so much value, so assuming you don’t get run over, they will inevitably take over the game.
Even versus Dimir midrange which can play a more tempo-oriented role, Overlord of the Mistmoors is an absolute beating. The fliers line up perfectly against Deep-Cavern Bat and Faerie Mastermind. Even in the face of Counterspells, this deck makes use of a playset of Cavern of Souls. This is one nice benefit to filling your deck with Overlords is that they all have the same creature types.
The matchup that can be a bit concerning is definitely Gruul Prowess. Outside of Torch the Tower in sideboard games, you don’t have access to much efficient removal that comes down in the first two turns. If the opponent is able to stick a Heartfire Hero or Slickshot Show-Off, there’s a good chance you just die before you get to cast your Overlords.
In this sense, the matchups can be a bit polarizing, but this deck can still be a strong metacall. This strategy really goes to show just how amazing the Overlords actually are, and how trivial it is to abuse their power.
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