Doom Prevails precon upgrade guide

Doctor Doom, King of Latveria turns every surplus land into damage, which makes this the rare precon whose land count I'd leave exactly where the box put it.

I ran the stock Doom Prevails list through this site's engines before writing anything, and the number that changed my mind was 37. Thirty-seven lands in a deck averaging 3.65 mana reads like two too many, and every upgrade guide reflex says trim it. Then you read the commander again. Whenever you discard a land card, each opponent loses 2 life. In a four-player pod that's 6, and the deck hands you a free discard every combat. The flood isn't a flaw here, it's the ammunition — so most of what follows is about not breaking that.

What are the best Doom Prevails upgrades?

If you only buy five cards, buy these, in this order. Each one is argued further down.

1. Roaming Throne naming Villain — Doctor Doom is himself a Villain, so his combat trigger fires twice, and 21 of the deck's 25 Villains have a triggered ability behind it.
2. Shared Animosity — 25 Villains, and the token makers produce Villains too, so a four-creature attack is +3/+0 across the board.
3. Bone Miser — every land you discard now also adds {B}{B}, every creature card becomes a 2/2, everything else draws.
4. Seismic Assault — its activation cost is discarding a land, which means every activation triggers Doctor Doom separately.
5. Glint-Horn Buccaneer — 1 damage to each opponent on every discard, and it doesn't have to attack to do it.

The full twelve, plus what comes out for them, is further down the page. None of it is on the Game Changers list, so the deck keeps its Bracket 1 floor.

What the stock deck actually looks like

Every figure below comes from the shipped decklist, resolved card by card:

• 29 Villains out of 32 creatures — 91%, counting the commander. 20 are Humans and 28 are legendary.
• Six cards make you choose a creature type, and one of them is a board wipe, so the word matters more than usual.
• 37 lands, 15 basic. 22 enter untapped no matter what, 10 have a condition, 5 always enter tapped — and three of those five cycle, which turns out to matter a lot.
• Average mana value 3.65, with nine cards at six mana or more. That's the real problem with the stock list.
• 16 cards that draw against 7 that ramp. The draw count is unusually high and the ramp count sits under the 8–12 a deck this size normally wants.
• Bracket 1 floor. No Game Changers, no mass land denial, no extra turns, no tutors.

Nothing in that list is broken. It's just aimed slightly away from what the commander is asking for.

The connive is a choice, and this deck pays either way

Read Doctor Doom's two abilities next to each other, because they're in tension on purpose.

The first: whenever you discard one or more land cards, each opponent loses 2 life. The second: at the beginning of combat on your turn, a Villain you control gains menace and connives — draw a card, then discard a card, and if the discard was a nonland, that creature gets a +1/+1 counter.

So every combat you're handed a fork. Discard a land and the table loses 6 life in a four-player game, with no counter. Discard a nonland and one Villain gets permanently bigger, and nobody loses anything.

Most decks would call that a real cost. This one shipped with 37 lands.

And three cards in the 99 delete the choice altogether. Containment Construct lets you exile the discarded card and play it that turn. Moonstone, Harsh Mistress gives you until the end of your next turn. Currency Converter banks it and later cashes it for a Treasure if it was a land. Discard a land with any of those out and you drain the table for 6 and still make your land drop.

Then there's the graveyard half. Three of the deck's biggest creatures — Abomination, World Ravager at eight mana, The Squadron Sinister at seven, Chameleon, Master of Disguise at four — have mayhem, which lets you cast them from the graveyard for less if you discarded them that turn. Doctor Doom's connive happens at the beginning of combat, so the discard is already done by the time you reach your second main phase. Abomination goes from an eight-drop to a five-drop, and the deck's top end stops being a liability.

Two more cards sit on the counter side of the fork. Iron Monger, Sadistic Tycoon puts a +1/+1 counter on every Villain you control each time a creature connives, and Glorious Purpose adds a counter plus a plan counter, cashing out at six for a free run of spells off the top four. Those are the turns you keep the land.

Which creature type do you name?

Seven cards in the upgraded list make you choose a creature type: Kindred Dominance, Progenitor's Icon, Patchwork Banner, Secluded Courtyard, Unclaimed Territory, plus Roaming Throne and Herald's Horn from the swaps.

Name Villain. It covers 25 of the 30 creatures; Human covers 19.

The five it misses are Spark Double, Containment Construct, Roaming Throne, Bone Miser and Glint-Horn Buccaneer — and two of those five exempt themselves. Roaming Throne names Villain as it enters and becomes one. Spark Double enters as a copy of whichever Villain you already control. So the honest cost of naming Villain is three cards.

Which brings up the one downside of my add list that I want on the record: Kindred Dominance naming Villain will kill your own Bone Miser, Glint-Horn Buccaneer and Containment Construct. It still wipes three opposing boards and leaves 27 of your 30 creatures able to survive it, so it's a trade I'll take, but it isn't quite the one-sided sweeper it was in the box.

Doctor Doom being a Human Noble Villain pays off somewhere less obvious, too. Path of Ancestry scries whenever its mana casts a creature that shares a type with your commander — and with three types to match on, 24 of the deck's 29 creature spells qualify.

Nine cards cost six or more. Three of them earn it.

This is the cleanest cut argument I've found in a precon so far, and it fell straight out of the curve.

The stock list has nine cards at mana value six or higher. Three can be cast for far less than they print: Abomination, World Ravager and The Squadron Sinister both have mayhem, and Kindred Dominance is a sweeper that leaves your side of the table alone. The other six — Molecule Man, Extract Power, Lady Loki, Agent of Chaos, Titan of Littjara, Tri-Sentinel, Act of Vengeance and Blasphemous Act — have no discount and no graveyard escape hatch.

All six are cuts. After the swaps the deck has three cards at six mana or more instead of nine, 26 cards sit at exactly three, and the average mana value drops from 3.65 to 3.23.

The mana base, and the one card it doesn't support

Precon upgrade guides open by cutting taplands. Here that would be a mistake, and the reason is Doctor Doom again.

Canyon Slough, Coastal Peak and Fetid Pools all enter tapped unconditionally, and all three have cycling {2}. Cycling discards the card. With Doctor Doom on the battlefield, each of those lands is two mana for "draw a card and take 2 life from every opponent" — they're the only lands in the deck that can discard themselves. Keep all three.

The conditional ten mostly aren't a problem either. Scorched Geyser, Smoldering Marsh and Sunken Hollow want two or more basic lands and the deck runs 15 of them. Luxury Suite wants two or more opponents. Dragonskull Summit, Drowned Catacomb and Sulfur Falls want a matching land already down. That leaves Path of Ancestry and Crumbling Necropolis as the genuine taplands, and only one of them is going.

Run the hypergeometrics and the stock list is fine on single pips: black is 28 sources for 93.8% by turn two, red 26 for 92.1%, blue 24 for 90.1%. The double-pip picture is more interesting. Blue is 4 sources short of double blue, and exactly one card in the deck wants it — Titan of Littjara. Cutting that six-drop doesn't just free a slot, it deletes the deck's only double-blue requirement outright.

Black keeps a soft shortfall. Three cards want {B}{B}, and the check measures against the cheapest of them, so it reports double black by turn three at 82.2% after the swaps. In practice only Bedevil is a turn-three card; Kindred Dominance costs seven and Lethal Scheme has convoke, which a board of Villains pays happily.

Now the honest part. Seismic Assault costs {R}{R}{R}, and the upgraded deck runs 29 red sources. Feeding the same hypergeometrics that drive this site's calculators, that's triple red by turn five about 68% of the time, and by turn six about 75%. It's the one card in my twelve the mana doesn't really support, and I'm running it anyway: it costs less than a booster pack, and once it resolves it never asks for red again — every activation after that is free.

The land swaps are small and pointed. Scavenger Grounds makes colorless mana in a three-color deck and its ability exiles the graveyard that mayhem, Helmut Zemo and Endless Ranks of HYDRA all depend on. Crumbling Necropolis is a tri-land that always enters tapped. Out go both; in come Sulfurous Springs and Shivan Reef, which always enter untapped. The land count stays at 37, black climbs from 28 sources to 30, red from 26 to 29, blue from 24 to 26, and the always-tapped count drops from five to four.

What I'd cut

Twelve cards. Ten spells and two lands.

The six expensive cards with no discount

Covered above, but the individual reasons are worth having.

Lady Loki, Agent of Chaos is the one I expect argument about, so take her text literally: whenever you cast your first instant, sorcery or Villain spell each turn, you exile it and get a random card off the top instead. That trigger isn't optional. In a deck where 29 of the creatures are Villains, she spends every turn eating the spell you actually wanted to resolve.

Molecule Man gives your hand miracle {0}, which only ever applies to the first card you draw in a turn — and on your own turn your draw step has already spent it. Extract Power is six mana for a handful of cards you may not be able to cast. Tri-Sentinel, Act of Vengeance is a 7/7 for seven with an unearth cost of seven.

Titan of Littjara is the painful one. It's a 6/6 that draws a card per creature sharing its type, which in this deck is most of the board. It's also the only card asking for {U}{U}, and one of four six-drops in a list that already had nine cards at the top. The mana it frees is worth more than the draw it takes away, especially with 17 draw pieces left.

Blasphemous Act gets cheap fast — one less for each creature on the battlefield — but 13 damage to each creature includes your 25 Villains. Toxic Deluge lets you pick the number, and Kindred Dominance lets you pick a survivor. That's enough sweeping for a deck that wants a board.

Four cards that ask more than they return

Living Laser copies itself once per card discarded this turn, and Doctor Doom's connive gives you exactly one before combat. Five mana for a temporary 4/4 that gets exiled at the next end step.

Archnemesis enchants a single opponent and only pays when you attack that specific player. Kang Dynasty is a four-mana Saga whose third chapter pumps one creature. Doom's Time Platform costs four, then wants you to attack, then suspends the card for two turns before you see it — three separate delays stacked on one card.

Two lands

Scavenger Grounds and Crumbling Necropolis, for the reasons in the mana section: one makes the wrong kind of mana and fights your own graveyard, the other is just tapped.

What I'd add

Twelve cards, grouped by the job they do.

Turn the discard into damage

Seismic Assault reads "Discard a land card: this enchantment deals 2 damage to any target." No tap, no limit, instant speed. Each activation is its own discard event, so each one triggers Doctor Doom separately — three lands in hand is 6 damage wherever you want it plus another 6 off each opponent's total. This is the card the 37-land count was waiting for.

Glint-Horn Buccaneer deals 1 damage to each opponent whenever you discard a card, full stop. It doesn't need to attack for that half, so it just sits there turning every connive, every cycling land and every Seismic Assault activation into another point off all three opponents. Its {1}{R} ability is a second discard outlet when it does attack.

Bone Miser turns the discard into resources instead of damage: a land adds {B}{B}, a creature card makes a 2/2, anything else draws you a card. One timing note worth knowing — the mana from Doctor Doom's connive arrives during the beginning of combat step, so you'll want an instant or an activated ability to spend it on. Key to the City, Villainous Hideout and Currency Converter all qualify.

Two Villains conniving, and a reason to attack

Roaming Throne is the best card in this list. Name Villain and the triggered abilities of your other Villains each trigger an additional time — and Doctor Doom is a Villain, so his beginning-of-combat trigger fires twice, which is two Villains conniving every turn instead of one. 21 of the deck's 25 Villains have a triggered ability, including Madame Hydra's token, Prowler's connive, Iron Monger's counters and Kang, Temporal Tyrant's drain. It also enters as a Villain, so Doctor Doom can target it.

Shared Animosity gives each attacking creature +1/+0 for every other attacker sharing a type with it. With 25 Villains, and Madame Hydra, Endless Ranks of HYDRA and Ultron, Unlimited all making Villain tokens, a four-creature attack is +3/+0 on each of them. Doctor Doom hands one of them menace before blockers.

One more outlet, one more card

Key to the City is a discard outlet you can use every turn without spending a card on it, and the creature it makes unblockable is usually the one carrying a combat-damage trigger — Loki, the Deceiver, Stilt-Man, Towering Terror and Klaw, Master of Sound all want to connect. It untaps into an optional {2} to draw.

Thirst for Discovery draws three, then asks you to discard two cards unless you discard a basic land. The deck runs 15 basics. Three cards for one land and 6 life off the table, at instant speed, for three mana.

Cheaper Villains, smoother mana

Herald's Horn naming Villain is the third cost reducer in the deck: Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord and Tombstone, Career Criminal already shave {1} off each Villain spell, so with all three out your Villain creatures cost three less. The upkeep look at the top card hits on 25 of 30 creatures.

Talisman of Creativity is the piece the box left out — Doom Prevails shipped with Talisman of Dominance and Talisman of Indulgence and no third Talisman, and the missing one covers blue and red, the two colors with the fewest sources. Fellwar Stone rounds the ramp count from 7 up into the 8–12 band. Sulfurous Springs and Shivan Reef are the untapped replacements for the two cut lands.

Two cards carry most of the cost of this list, Roaming Throne and Bone Miser, and neither is required for the deck to work. Hover any name for its current price. If you buy nothing else, Seismic Assault, Shared Animosity, Key to the City and Thirst for Discovery together are pocket change and they capture the whole plan.

What the cut list flags that I'm keeping

My own analysis script shortlists these. It's wrong about all of them, and the reasons are specific enough to be worth writing down.

Skullclamp gets flagged as a single-creature Equipment in a go-wide deck. Look at what the deck goes wide with: Madame Hydra makes a 2/1 Villain token every time you cast a Villain spell, and Endless Ranks of HYDRA makes one per opponent and returns itself from the graveyard. Skullclamp gives +1/−1. A 2/1 becomes a 3/0, dies immediately, and draws you two.

Containment Construct gets flagged as off-type, and it is — it's a Construct in a deck naming Villain. It's also two mana that makes every land you discard free, which is the single best thing you can be doing with this commander.

Swiftfoot Boots is the other single-creature Equipment, and it stays because the deck has one creature that matters more than the rest. Doctor Doom is the only card here that connives without asking for anything first — Prowler, Clawed Thief and Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord need another Villain to enter, Ultron, Unlimited has to attack, and Villainous Hideout charges {3}. Hexproof on him is protecting the engine, not pampering a beater.

The three cycling lands get flagged for entering tapped, which they do. That's the least interesting thing about them.

Path of Ancestry is a genuine unconditional tapland and I'm keeping it too. It taps for any color in the identity and scries whenever that mana casts something sharing a type with Doctor Doom — Human, Noble or Villain, which is 24 of the deck's 29 creature spells.

Two cards I nearly ran

Both are cards other Doom Prevails lists reach for, and the arithmetic sent me the other way on each.

Bloodletter of Aclazotz doubles all life loss an opponent takes during your turn, which would turn Doctor Doom's land discards from 2 per opponent into 4, and does the same to The Frightful Four, Typhoid Mary, Fractured, Kang, Temporal Tyrant and Damocles Base, Sword of Kang. It costs {1}{B}{B}{B}. The upgraded deck runs 30 black sources, which is a long way from casting a triple-black four-drop on turn four, and it's one of the pricier cards in the format right now. If your build ends up heavier on black than mine, it's the first thing I'd try.

Kindred Discovery is the typal card everyone names, and it draws a card every time a Villain enters or attacks, which in this deck is constant. It also costs {3}{U}{U} — and I just spent a cut removing the deck's only double-blue card specifically so the blue count stops mattering. Adding it back would put the deck at four sources short of what {U}{U} on turn five wants. I'd rather have the consistency; if you'd rather have the card, cut Thirst for Discovery for it and find one more blue source.

The upgraded decklist

100 cards with the twelve swaps applied. Hover any name to see the card and its current price.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena — no account needed.

FAQ

How does Doctor Doom, King of Latveria actually win?

Through the discard half of his text more than through combat. Every land card you discard costs each opponent 2 life, which is 6 across a three-opponent pod, and his combat trigger hands you a free discard once a turn by making a Villain connive. The 37 lands aren't a rounding error — they're what that ability eats.

Should you discard a land or a nonland to the connive?

A land drains each opponent for 2 and gives no counter; a nonland puts a +1/+1 counter on the conniving Villain and drains nobody. With 37 lands the land is usually right. Three cards remove the choice entirely — Containment Construct, Moonstone, Harsh Mistress and Currency Converter each let you exile the discarded card and play it anyway.

Which cards should come out first?

The expensive ones that can't be discounted. Nine cards in the stock list cost six or more, and six of them have no way to be cast cheaply. Lady Loki, Agent of Chaos is the standout: her trigger is mandatory and it exiles your own first Villain spell each turn, in a deck with 29 Villains.

Do you name Villain or Human?

Villain, by 25 creatures to 19. Seven cards in the upgraded list make you choose, and two of the five creatures Villain misses fix themselves — Roaming Throne names Villain as it enters, and Spark Double copies a Villain you already control. The real cost is three cards, and one of them is that Kindred Dominance will kill your own Bone Miser.

Is 37 lands too many?

Not for this commander, and it's the one precon where I'd leave the count alone. A surplus land is normally a dead draw; here it's 6 life off the table, or 2 damage anywhere if Seismic Assault has resolved. The swaps keep 37 lands and trade a colorless land and a tapped tri-land for two that enter untapped, taking black from 28 sources to 30 and red from 26 to 29.

Are the cycling lands worth keeping?

Yes, even at unconditionally tapped. Canyon Slough, Coastal Peak and Fetid Pools each cycle for {2}, and cycling discards the card — so with Doctor Doom out, each one is two mana to draw a card and take 2 life from every opponent. They're the only lands in the deck that can discard themselves.

Does any of this move the deck out of Bracket 1?

No. The stock list runs no Game Changers, no mass land denial, no extra turns and no nonland tutors, and none of the twelve additions are on the Game Changers list either. You can check your own version with the bracket checker.

Why isn't Kindred Discovery in the list?

Because it costs {3}{U}{U} and one of my twelve cuts was Titan of Littjara, the only card in the stock deck that wanted double blue. Removing that requirement is most of what the cut bought. If you want the card anyway, cut Thirst for Discovery for it and find one more blue source.