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One of the more exciting War of the Spark cards for me was Domri, Anarch of Bolas. The card didn't appear especially powerful, but it did pique my interest as a potential role-player in a couple of my favorite decks: GR Moon and Temur Delver.
As the static-ability walkers spoiled, I identified in them one critical weakness: a lack of cohesion. While the abilities they offered seemed interesting one by one, taken together on a card, I felt most of the walkers did too many different things. We'd only want one of its many abilities in a given matchup, for instance, and Modern has better cards for executing that ability.
Domri, Anarch of Bolas offends less on this count, and I felt it would be possible to build a deck that benefited from all three of his modes. To make use of Domri's abilities, the deck would need to:
- Go wide or want to buff creature power by 1 for some other reason
- Make use of an additional mana per turn
- Have creatures large enough to turn fight mode into a reliable kill spell
As it does every so often, my brainstorming led me back to two of my old pet decks: GR Moon and Temur Delver. Read on for proposed builds in each archetype and my preliminary thoughts on Domri in the decks.
An Embarrassment of Riches Walkers
GR Moon is a stompy deck that ramps into turn two Blood Moon and promptly pressures opponents until the game is over. It differs from Ponza in that it doesn't run land destruction cards, and has a much lower mana curve, enabling Faithless Looting to sift through the deck. Its primary closer is Tarmogoyf.
One of my longtime nitpicks with GR Moon, an archetype I've played around with for four years now, has always been the lack of effective planeswalkers to run. With Fatal Push legal, it's critical that Tarmogoyf be as big as possible, giving us plenty of incentive to fit walkers into the list. Granted, we've since received an adequate walker for the strategy in Sarkhan, Fireblood—see this article for more on his roles in the deck. But as they say, the more the merrier, and I think Domri too offers GR Moon some unique angles.
Domri's Roles
Domri's static ability rewards us for running Goblin Rabblemaster. The 2/2 has made it into a few of my Moon builds, especially the earlier ones with rituals, but has mostly held a flex spot in my builds. Lately, the card is proving itself as one of Modern's strongest options for quickly pressuring disrupted opponents. Giving every Goblin token +1/+0 significantly increases Rabblemaster's power, effectively doubling its per-turn damage output. Additionally, granting our creatures +1/+0 turns an excess of mana dorks into more pressure.
The mana addition also meshes with GR Moon's strategy. We like to dump mana sources beyond the fourth with Faithless Looting and Sarkhan, using that chaff to dig into business. Domri gets that ball rolling a turn earlier. Instead of deploying a fourth land, we can sandbag it and still have access to the same amount of mana. It's icing on the cake that our creatures can't be countered.
Fight mode is nothing new, as it's something the old Domri Rade also featured. But while Rade's other two abilities weren't worth our time, Anarch's are, incentivizing us to seriously weigh fight mode's applications. One of GR Moon's classic issues is its lack of hard removal. While splashing black is an option, and the first one I employed, it's not so elegant, especially with color-intensive walkers in the mix. Domri's -2 lets Tarmogoyf take out pretty much any threat across the battlefield, including other Goyfs thanks to the +1/+0. I've also used the -2 on a freshly-deployed Hazoret the Fervent before making a hasty attack. Of course, in lieu of a fatty, the ability leaves much to be desired—we can't be caught bringing a Bird of Paradise to a gun fight.
Here's the build I'm working with:
GR Moon, by Jordan Boisvert
Card Choices
This deck really wants to start with a mana dork in hand, be it Birds, Hierarch, or Sprawl. That's why we run 10 of them, an ample amount under the pending London Mulligan. With all those Bolt targets, as well as Rabblemaster, I figured it safe for Magus of the Moon to make an appearance. 4 Blood Moon isn't so many when your gameplan depends on it.
I split the walkers down the middle, maximizing the odds of sticking both. Looting can then ditch walkers as necessary with an equal chance of finding the right one down the road.
The sideboard maxes out on some of the best hate in the format. Dire Fleet Daredevil returns from the last build as another way to remove large threats across the table, especially against the Goyf decks, which also tend to run Fatal Push. There are no Surgical Extractions here because Damping Sphere hoses Izzet Phoenix better, and Anger of the Gods takes care of Dredge.
Tuning Temur Delver
My other long-lost deck, Temur Delver, uses Domri for slightly different purposes. It has no interest in deploying lots of creatures or going wide with tokens. Rather, Temur takes advantage of Domri's planeswalker type with self-mill effects to grow Tarmogoyf for value, and especially enjoys the +1/+0 boost on its creatures.
Domri's Roles
Tarmogoyf has long proved problematic for this deck, too, and now our Goyfs beat theirs in combat. Hooting Mandrills is also way more threatening when it's got Gurmag Angler-levels of power, not to mention impossible to stonewall with an Angler under Domri. Cutest of all, though, is the buff granted to Delver of Secrets. Not only does a 4/2 flier end the game very fast, Insectile Aberration now grants ferocious for Stubborn Denial!
As with GR Moon, Temur Delver usually finds itself strapped for mana. The extra boost from Domri helps cast threats while keeping up counterspell mana. And fight mode is relevant for the same reasons: we can finally remove big creatures with our bigger Goyfs.
Something to keep in mind about Domri in this deck, compared with in GR Moon, is that it won't be coming down ahead of schedule. Rather, Domri is a tap-out turn three play, or a way to punish opponents who commit mana to dealing with our creatures. Once it's down, they can't counter our future threats, which are larger than before and can also take out enemy creatures. Against aggro decks, Domri doesn't need to be dead on arrival each time; his +1 can generate a mana for Hooting Mandrills, or Tarmogoyf if we've got another to spare, and these creatures can protect him for the turn cycle.
The list:
Temur Delver, by Jordan Boisvert
Card Choices
Snapcaster is a bit clunky in Temur, but I like the upside of keeping a single copy in the mainboard of a four-Scour deck. Taking a cue from Grixis Shadow, I've included 2 Faithless Looting here as a means to sift through unwanted cards or dump rare card types into the graveyard—Domri in particular can clog in the early-game. Bauble is here to make Tarmogoyf worth playing over Death's Shadow, and so is Tarfire.
The other flex spots are occupied by Flame Slash, a killer of Thing in the Ice, and a couple blue protection spells: Simic Charm and Lazotep Plating. Both of these save our threats from removal with upside. Simic's benefit is its flexibility: we can use it to soft-disrupt a combo by bouncing a creature, or to trample over an enemy blocker with Hooting Mandrills. Plating, too, is flexible, as outlined in my War of the Spark spoiler review. But its bonus effect of generating a token happens no matter which "mode" we choose—countering a burn spell; saving a creature; protecting Domri; or just end-step amass. Of note: with the planeswalker in play, our amass token is a 2/1! I like amass here because it insulates us from edict effects, as on Liliana of the Veil, and gives us blockers for the damage race or pressure for an enemy planeswalker.
This sideboard does indeed run Surgical Extraction, as well as Damping Sphere and some Moons of its own for the big mana matchups. Huntmaster and Hazoret remain Temur staples in my eyes. The Werewolf and his token increase their power by a lot with Domri in play, and Hazoret hits like a ton of bricks no matter what. The final Stubborn sits in the sideboard for spell-based matchups.
A Walker on the Wild Side
I don't think either of these decks will upend Modern, or even close—they both have fundamental issues that Domri doesn't fix. But I do think the walker improves them on some metrics. For me, part of the fun of Modern is being able to gradually strengthen beloved decks as new cards are released. Which War cards have you feeding your pets?
![Insider: QS Cast #121 – War of the Spark Part II [Unlocked]](https://www.quietspeculation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Viviens-Arkbow-War-of-the-Spark-Art.jpg)
For this reason, pros have tended to pick very safe and well-known decks. That London would be Modern was also a 
Specifically, the decklist rule makes Meddling Mage much better. Mage is a very powerful card, but only good if you actually name a relevant card. It struggles against decks with multiple key cards or imperfect information. Forest, go could mean a slow start from Elves, Hardened Scales, and Tron or Amulet Titan. A turn 2 Mage in the dark is a wild guess. With access to opponents' decklists, each blind Mage was at least in the ballpark, and far more potent.
The 
Given that, the interesting part of the Top 8 is that no UW Control made it. UW 
Despite its numbers being relatively down from GP levels, Phoenix is maintaining a 
As for Phoenix itself, I've remained hopeful that the metagame would naturally adjust and push it back down. That doesn't appear to be happening. Izzet Phoenix continues to show up in 
Open decklists also punished players looking to branch out. A lot of the value of picking a wonky rogue deck is opponents being confused by something unexpected. That wasn't possible. Therefore, London was not really a test of what the mulligan was capable of because there was no incentive to push the envelope. As a result the rule didn't get a very rigorous field trial, just a nice safe unveiling. Thus I don't consider it valid data.
![Insider: QS Cast #120 – War of the Spark Reactions [Unlocked]](https://www.quietspeculation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Stadium-Vendors-Battlebond-Art.jpg)
As in, combo decks don't seem to have polarized the metagame, despite 
Other combo decks weren't as fortunate. I did catch 
Most striking about the new data is how familiar Modern looks. A range of archetypes continue to be present, and new tech choices keep cropping up, as they always do—this month, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper has made a name for herself, popping up in BW Tokens, Whir Prison, Abzan Rock, and Esper Control, 
Vizier Combo
A Chandra was dropped for a Jace, which was banned at the time; Sleight was nixed for Opt, which was also not legal. But the biggest addition to the deck was Electrodominance, which allows the combo to be more consistent. This introduction informs the other swaps: Leak was traded for Remand, a superior option when the combo is more reliable; with less need for Plan Bs, Bolts, Snaps, and Moons became Abrade, Flame Slash, and Tormod's Crypt, all better interactive cards for staying alive, and more copies of Greater Gargadon.
and gets a little deeper than Opt, but at the cost of letting down shields. In a deck splashing 4 Remand, I'm still a bit puzzled about its inclusion.
And here's that 
I'm optimistic about the London mulligan. We know Wizards is interested in going forward with it, or they wouldn't be taking so much testing time. This weekend's Mythic Championship is the final proving ground for the rule change. I think should the tournament's results reflect the trends explored here, or deviate minimally, there's a good chance the London is implemented. That being said, London has much higher stakes than Magic Online, and the world's best will be trying their darnedest to break the mulligan. But they 
