Doppelgang is my favorite card printed in years. Honestly, it's probably in my top three for most fun cards ever printed. It's a genuine Story Maker, where every time you cast it could end up in a tale years down the road. "Remember that time I Doppelganged my opponents whole board and had to Sharpie 57 basic lands!"

It promotes memorable gameplay and I can't say enough good things about my experiences with the card. And I'm not just saying that because I used the card to win my last Standard Showdown.

Doppelgang is a card that reaches across all three of the major Magic psychological profiles. It's a Timmy card. "I'm going to make 10 copies of my Trumpeting Carnosaur!" It's a Johnny card, "I'll return 8 lands from my graveyard on your end step using Aftermath Analyst. I untap and Doppelgang these five dessert lands to deal 20 damage." And, it's even a Spike card, "I'll Doppelgang my Mirrex for 5 copies and use the mana to Sunfall your board."

These are all scenarios I had while brewing with the card this week.

"Alexa, play Everything to Everyone."

With Duskmourn: House of Horror here in a just a few weeks, I wanted to return to my favorite card in standard before some new cards arrive to shake everything up again (the already previewed Overlord of the Hauntwoods looks like a card I will definitely explore once the set is legal). So here is where I stand on Doppelgang at the moment:

Doppelgang Sisters | Standard | Travis Hall

• Creatures (13)
• 2 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
• 3 Thundertrap Trainer
• 4 Clifftop Lookout
• 4 Fecund Greenshell

• Spells (9)
• 3 Get Lost
• 3 Doppelgang
• 3 Sunfall

• Artifacts (6)
• 2 Heaped Harvest
• 4 Ancient Cornucopia

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 3 Virtue of Strength

• Lands (27)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 5 Forest
• 5 Plains
• 1 Fountainport
• 1 Mirrex
• 1 Yavimaya Coast
• 2 Adarkar Wastes
• 3 Hedge Maze
• 3 Lush Portico
• 4 Fabled Passage

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Get Lost
• 1 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1 Sunfall
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Cease // Desist
• 2 Negate
• 2 Requisition Raid
• 2 Temporary Lockdown
• 2 Tranquil Frillback

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When building around Doppelgang there are two primary concerns. 1. How am I going to ramp into enough mana to make the card insane? And 2. How am I going to live long enough to get to that point?

First up, the ramp. I tried going the Aftermath Analyst route at first, but the loss of the Streets of New Capenna sac lands feels like you spend too much time durdling and trying to get lands in the graveyard to be effective. Instead, I elected to go with traditional ramp, using Ancient Cornucopia and Heaped Harvest. In this way, our ramp doubles up, giving us a bit of lifegain to keep us alive longer and help answer our second question.

Mass removal is the other way we answer the second question. While we do run a few creatures of our own, it's still worth it to run the best mass removal spells in the format. Temporary Lockdown shores up the early game, and even takes care of annoying permanents like Bandit's Talent, Innkeeper's Talent, and Up the Beanstalk. Many people prefer to go with Temur builds for Doppelgang, but I can't stand relying on the inconsistence of Ill-Timed Explosion as my sweeper. When I cast a removal spell, I want it to remove things!

Honestly, at its heart this feels like a combo deck. Virtue of Strength + Doppelgang. We run a fair number of non-basic lands in this deck, but you really only need 3-4 basics to make Virtue of Strength a significant jump in mana production. And really, it's when you hit 11 mana or 14 mana total that Doppelgang really starts to take over. You don't NEED 20+ mana, though it is very fun when you can get to that level. The Adventure half of the card is surprisingly relevant too, snagging a spent Fabled Passage to fill out your mana curve or regrowing a creature.

Greenshell serves as an alternative win condition, and a ramp/card advantage card. Lookout and Thundertrap Trainer trigger Greenshell and fill out the early game as chump blockers that provide value. Greenshell also makes a great target for Doppelgang, though you have to be careful and not deck yourself when targeting it.

The best top-end creature in the format, she serves as another way to refuel in removal heavy matchups. If you're familiar with standard at all you know how powerful Atraxa can be and she shines no less here. You can target Atraxa with Doppelgang to make multiple copies and even though the copies die to the Legends rule, you can still use the triggers to sculpt a perfect 7 card hand.

If you've never tried a Bant version of the Doppelgang deck, give this one a chance! You can't really go wrong when you're playing the most fun card in Standard!

You can find more of my musings on twitter @travishall456