While most traditional MTG archetypes rely on closing games via combat damage, there are plenty of unique decks that focus on combo angles instead. In Commander, there are even a small subset of legends that serve as alternate win conditions by themselves. One of the most recent examples, Doctor Doom, Unrivaled, just boasted a Duel Commander tournament win, showing off its competitive potential.
Winning with an Empty Library
The primary objective for this mono-black deck is to assemble a game-winning two-card combo. Unsurprisingly, the first piece of the puzzle is your Commander, which allows you to win the game with an empty library. While reducing your library to zero may seem difficult, the second card,
Demonic Consultation
Demonic Consultation
Choose a card name. Exile the top six cards of your library, then reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a card with the chosen name. Put that card into your hand and exile all other cards revealed this way.
, does it for you. All you have to do is name a card not in your deck, and you’ll exile your entire library to enable Doctor Doom’s activated ability.
While setting up a two-card combo is normally tough in a Singleton environment, Doctor Doom sits in the command zone, so you only need to find the other half. From there, eight different tutors, including
Demonic Tutor
Demonic Tutor
Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle.
and
Beseech the Queen
Beseech the Queen
({2/B} can be paid with any two mana or with {B}. This card's mana value is 6.)
Search your library for a card with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
, make Demonic Consultation trivial to find. To help, Doctor Doom also serves as a card draw engine, helping you find your tutors.
To buy yourself time while you spin your wheels, removal spells like
Fatal Push
Fatal Push
Destroy target creature if it has mana value 2 or less.
Revolt — Destroy that creature if it has mana value 4 or less instead if a permanent left the battlefield under your control this turn.
and
Defile
Defile
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each Swamp you control.
help stave off early pressure. This deck also utilizes a wealth of board wipes as catch-up mechanisms, including
Toxic Deluge
Toxic Deluge
As an additional cost to cast this spell, pay X life.
All creatures get -X/-X until end of turn.
and
Dead of Winter
Dead of Winter
All nonsnow creatures get -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the number of snow permanents you control.
.
Once you’ve stabilized and found Demonic Consultation, your final step is to push your combo past counterspells. The easiest way to do this is to strip the opponent of disruption with discard spells like
Duress
Duress
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
and
Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize
Target player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life.
. You can also tutor for
Yawgmoth’s Will
Yawgmoth’s Will
Until end of turn, you may play lands and cast spells from your graveyard.
If a card would be put into your graveyard from anywhere this turn, exile that card instead.
to double up on your discard spells and Demonic Consultation in grindy games.
Taking on Risks
Ultimately, what makes Doctor Doom such an intriguing Duel Commander choice is that it attacks from a unique angle that some decks aren’t equipped to handle. Assertive, creature-heavy strategies like
Brigid, Clachan’s Heart
Brigid, Clachan’s Heart
Whenever this creature enters or transforms into Brigid, Clachan's Heart, create a 1/1 green and white Kithkin creature token.
At the beginning of your first main phase, you may pay {G}. If you do, transform Brigid.
have few answers to either combo piece, and your board wipes make racing extremely difficult. Not to mention, Doctor Doom’s beefy Lifelinking body can buy a lot of time versus White Weenie or Mono-Red Aggro, especially if you protect it with discard spells.
Unfortunately, this deck’s one-dimensional game plan has its own set of vulnerabilities. Right off the bat, Doctor Doom’s lack of Haste is a major liability. Unlike
Thassa’s Oracle
Thassa’s Oracle
When this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. (Each {U} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.)
, Doctor Doom relies on an activated ability to win, so you risk your opponent killing it repeatedly.
Thousand-Year Elixir
Thousand-Year Elixir
You may activate abilities of creatures you control as though those creatures had haste.
{1}, {T}: Untap target creature.
at least lets you cast Doctor Doom and combo off the same turn, but setting it up isn’t always easy.
Things only get worse if your opponent lands a hate card like Pithing Needle, shutting down Doctor Doom completely. After all, outside of
Blast Zone
Blast Zone
This land enters with a charge counter on it.
{T}: Add {C}.
{X}{X}, {T}: Put X charge counters on this land.
{3}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy each nonland permanent with mana value equal to the number of charge counters on this land.
, you really don’t have good answers to problematic artifacts in mono-black.
With these problems in mind, it’s understandable why Doctor Doom has yet to emerge as a top-tier Duel Commander archetype. Nonetheless, the deck certainly has a ton of upside in the right metagame.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!