In discussions with Team Nova and from what I've seen on social media, the reception on Domri has been lukewarm. Well, I'm here to go ahead and change your mind. I don't think Domri is lukewarm, but I do think it's quite medium.

Domri, Chaos Bringer demands a certain kind of deck to work in. Frank Karsten went ahead and did the math for everyone and it's looking like at 32 creatures you'll almost always have two hits off Domri's minus 3 but you're looking at 26 monsters as the sweet spot to mostly hit two creatures. The +1 is a great buff to any creature but it isn't limited to only casting creatures. Not every creature we're going to play will have Riot but the ability to give it to any of them means we have a ton of flexibility in what looks like a rigid creature deck. Since the mana off Domri can be used for anything it helps us cast other Planeswalkers or even helps Kick some spells like Shivan Fire or Fight with Fire. I think there're enough powerful cards to play around Domri that we can make it work without going crazy or building a weaker strategy.

Riot is really the centerpiece of some of these decks and the messed up part here is that Riot stacks. So, having a Rhythm of the Wild in play with a creature that has Riot or using Domri's +1 will result in multiple instances of Riot. This means, depending on how we build the deck, we can crunch through any opponent's defenses, never have to commit fully to the board, and can protect our smaller creatures from damage based wraths.

The way I see it, there are really two paths to take trying to build a Domri deck. The first is a hyper aggressive build that wants to put the pedal to the metal.

Aggro Gruul | Allegiance Standard | Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Nullhide Ferox
• 3 Legion Warboss
• 4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
• 4 Gruul Spellbreaker
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Skarrgan Hellkite
• 4 Thorn Lieutenant
• 4 Zhur-Taa Goblin

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Domri, Chaos Bringer

• Instants (2)
• 2 Thrash // Threat

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Rhythm of the Wild

• Lands (23)
• 10 Forest
• 5 Mountain
• 4 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Vivien Reid
• 2 Rekindling Phoenix
• 4 Cindervines
• 3 Thrashing Brontodon
• 1 Carnage Tyrant
• 1 Fiery Cannonade
• 3 Lava Coil

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Creature decks lately have really evolved to include a ton of built in card advantage and Domri, Chaos Bringer helps plays to that end. Growth-Chamber Guardian also helps fill this role. With both Domri and Rhythm of the Wild there is an endless supply of ways to trigger Growth-Chamber Guardian. This leads to ensuring you'll always have creatures to pull from and a mana sink as well. Part of the concern of these kinds of decks is running out of gas early on and not being able to keep up enough pressure, but between Guardian and Domri it seems like the gas will flow forever to let you keep pace with some of the control decks in the format and help bury some of the other midrange decks in card advantage.

What I didn't consider previously was how good Hadana's Climb got again and how well it pairs with Incubation Druid. While Riot will do some great work, having Hadana's Climb gives another way to grow creatures fast and work toward flipping to Winged Temple of Orazca as fast as possible. The wealth of counters achievable with Riot, and having Hydroid Krasis in the deck, makes this an easily attainable goal. On board stalls can be solved by flipping Hadana's Climb. So what does our preliminary list look like?

Temur Midrange | Allegiance Standard | Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Gruul Spellbreaker
• 2 Frilled Mystic
• 2 Carnage Tyrant
• 4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
• 4 Hydroid Krasis
• 4 Incubation Druid
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Skarrgan Hellkite

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Domri, Chaos Bringer

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Incubation // Incongruity

• Enchantments (4)
• 2 Hadana's Climb
• 2 Rhythm of the Wild

• Lands (25)
• 1 Island
• 2 Forest
• 3 Steam Vents
• 3 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 4 Hinterland Harbor
• 4 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Stomping Ground

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Negate
• 2 Cindervines
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 1 Banefire
• 1 Shivan Fire
• 2 Fiery Cannonade
• 2 Ravager Wurm
• 3 Lava Coil
• 1 Viven Reid

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Since this deck has a ton of mana sinks, I wanted some more expensive cards like Carnage Tyrant alongside planeswalkers and Hydroid Krasis to ensure there's always something to do with our mana. Carnage Tyrant being double uncounterable with HASTE is a nightmare for control decks.

Incubation // Incongruity certainly stands out as an odd choice, but I think it's actually relevant. One half being able to draw a card means it will always be a decent top deck and the other half being a removal spell that can remove anything is quite the boon, especially in these colors. While a card like Lava Coil will certainly remain one of the best removal spells, but with Teferi, Hero of Dominaria on the rise I want to try to lean on removal that can plays multiple roles. A 3/3 is easy to fight through with some of the massive creatures we have but isn't a 3/3 easier to beat than a Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Skarrgan Hellkite either way.

I'm excited about Domri's place in this new Wild West of a Standard format! Be sure to join me next week when I count down the cards you're going to want to build around and buy!