Avatar: The Last Airbender released some incredibly powerful MTG cards into the ecosystem. It’s great to see new cards causing change in formats as old as Legacy, but this is also a clear sign that some aspects of a new set are clear power outliers.
Badgermole Cub is certainly the talk of the town, but there are other menaces that MTG Avatar released onto the world. Just stopping Cub, for example, is not enough to slow down the new Airbending infinite combo deck that is considered by many to be the best deck in Standard. Fortunately, one overlooked Standard card stops the Airbending combo, and a whole bunch of other strategies in Standard, Modern, and Legacy, cold. Heck, in older MTG formats, Doorkeeper Thrull is even used in its own share of combos.
Doorkeeper Thrull MTG
For two mana, Doorkeeper Thrull’s ability to shut down entry effects of artifacts and creatures is at a premium right now. Flash adds a lot of extra value to the card, allowing you to secure some value with careful play rather consistently, even if it dies to removal shortly after.
Doorkeeper Thrull’s position has improved significantly in Standard, but the card actually sees most of its play in Modern. Thrull commonly appears in Domain Zoo decks as both a way to shut down some core cards in bad matchups, as well as pull off some combos of your own. Thrull notably stops the majority of tools in Modern Blink strategies and shuts down Weapons Manufacturing in Affinity builds. This also turns off Kappa Cannoneer‘s unblockable trigger, which gives Domain a fighting chance against the Turtle.
Outside of that, Doorkeeper Thrull sets up a small combo of its own with Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury. Instead of your Titan dying when cast from hand, Doorkeeper Thrull will turn off its entry ability, keeping it in play. Phalge can easily take over a game of Modern from there, giving your opponent a very small window to deal with the problems that Doorkeeper Thrull caused.
Similar to its Modern Phlage combo, Doorkeeper Thrull sees most of its Legacy play in Stiflenaught builds. This shuts off the detrimental entry effects of both Phyrexian Dreadnaught and Nulldrifter, giving you access to massive undercosted creatures to quickly take over the game.
Shutting Down Standard Combos
Right now, Doorkeeper Thrull seems to be at its best in Standard for a whole bunch of different reasons, the biggest being its ability to stop the powerful Bant Airbending combo deck. Utilizing Doc Aurlock, Grizzled Genius, this deck can continually play Airbended cards for free, creating an infinitely large board of tokens with Appa, Steadfast Guardian.
The catch, however, is that all of the core Airbending cards in this strategy trigger when they enter the battlefield. Aang, Swift Savior and Appa, Steadfast Guardian are the core Airbending cards used here, and they both get shut down by Doorkeeper Thrull. Even outside of the combo itself, Doorkeeper Thrull shuts down other core cards to the strategy, like Aang, at the Crossroads, Quantum Riddler, and Aven Interruptor. While the deck does have answers to Doorkeeper Thrull in the sideboard, they won’t be able to win the game with Thrull in play, something that high-placing Standard lists have been picking up on.
Outside of the Bant Airbending combo, Doorkeeper Thrull also stops some other Standard strategies cold. Simulacrum Synthesizer decks, in particular, have a very difficult time against Doorkeeper Thrull. Their entire strategy revolves around artifacts entering the battlefield, which Doorkeeper Thrull shuts down. It’s not uncommon for this deck to have zero outs to the Thrull, conceding as soon as it enters play. This will likely impact how the deck is built moving forward, and is a big reason to play Doorkeeper Thrull over Torpor Orb.
Finally, Doorkeeper Thrull can shut down strategies that revolve around Nurturing Pixie bouncing permanents back to their hand. This seems to be a bit less important in current Standard, however, as most bounce strategies have moved beyond including white in their decks. The blue bounce tools get around Doorkeeper Thrull’s effect.
A Necessary Roadblock
Similar to Clarion Conqueror, Doorkeeper Thrull acts as a very lethal way to attack some popular strategies that otherwise may be somewhat difficult to keep under control. This creature isn’t the hardest to deal with, but it does force decks to play some off-theme cards to remove the hate piece, knocking them down from a power level perspective.
This is incredibly important for current Standard, as it allows a bunch of archetypes to see play that otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to, thanks to some bad matchups. Instead of a format becoming stale when a powerful strategy emerges, hate pieces like Doorkeeper Thrull allow for the signature ebb and flow of a metagame that makes formats like Modern so balanced.
If you’re having trouble with any of the decks discussed in this article, let this become your invitation to try Doorkeeper Thrull for yourself.
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