What better way to honor the day than with a Red/Green planeswalker?
If you're not caught up on the Planeswalker Deck Project in all its glory, well, there's no better time to binge-read, starting with my intro.
Domri, Chaos Bringer is one of those Planeswalkers that isn't super interesting from a mechanical perspective. He mostly seems like a fairly straightforward value engine.
However, I am very interested in the implications of Domri's Riot ability. It gives +1/+1 counters to a color combination that doesn't typically care about them. So what can be done on that front?
Trying to answer this question led me to think about a card I enjoy a great deal, that I haven't ever tried to use before outside of the Limited format: Rage Forger. And there are an awful lot of Red/Green Shamans…
Embrace the chaos:
Magic: The Gathering TCG Deck - Domri, Chaos Bringer by Andy Hurst
'Domri, Chaos Bringer' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite!
Created By: Andy Hurst
Event:
Rank:
Freeform (Casual)
Market Price: $38.16
Hull Breach
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $1.54
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/72147_200w.jpg
Choose one — • Destroy target artifact. • Destroy target enchantment. • Destroy target artifact and target enchantment.
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Troll Ascetic
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.43
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/166887_200w.jpg
Hexproof (This creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.) {1}{G}: Regenerate Troll Ascetic.
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Tattermunge Witch
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $0.09
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/128971_200w.jpg
{R}{G}: Each blocked creature gets +1/+0 and gains trample until end of turn.
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Yamabushi's Flame
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.09
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Yamabushi's Flame deals 3 damage to any target. If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead.
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Domri, Chaos Bringer
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $0.86
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/183182_200w.jpg
+1: Add {R} or {G}. If that mana is spent on a creature spell, it gains riot. (It enters the battlefield with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste.) −3: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal up to two creature cards from among them and put them into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. −8: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of each end step, create a 4/4 red and green Beast creature token with trample."
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Cleansing Beam
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/131994_200w.jpg
Radiance — Cleansing Beam deals 2 damage to target creature and each other creature that shares a color with it.
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Mad Prophet
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.03
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Haste {T}, Discard a card: Draw a card.
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Ire Shaman
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.05
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/161778_200w.jpg
Menace (This creature can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.) Megamorph {R} (You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for {3}. Turn it face up any time for its megamorph cost and put a +1/+1 counter on it.) When Ire Shaman is turned face up, exile the top card of your library. Until end of turn, you may play that card.
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Gigantomancer
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.53
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{1}: Target creature you control has base power and toughness 7/7 until end of turn.
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Eternal Witness
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $2.93
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/227335_200w.jpg
When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, you may return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
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Kumano, Master Yamabushi
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.32
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/12077_200w.jpg
{1}{R}: Kumano, Master Yamabushi deals 1 damage to any target. If a creature dealt damage by Kumano this turn would die, exile it instead.
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Wildheart Invoker
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.01
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/226987_200w.jpg
{8}: Target creature gets +5/+5 and gains trample until end of turn.
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Gruul Guildgate
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $0.10
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Gruul Guildgate enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {R} or {G}.
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Rhythm of the Wild
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $3.19
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/183219_200w.jpg
Creature spells you control can't be countered. Nontoken creatures you control have riot. (They enter the battlefield with your choice of a +1/+1 counter or haste.)
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Mindclaw Shaman
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.25
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When Mindclaw Shaman enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals their hand. You may cast an instant or sorcery spell from among those cards without paying its mana cost.
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Fissure
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.17
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/1751_200w.jpg
Destroy target creature or land. It can't be regenerated.
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Dowsing Shaman
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.15
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/125407_200w.jpg
{2}{G}, {T}: Return target enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand.
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Scorching Missile
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/9494_200w.jpg
Scorching Missile deals 4 damage to target player or planeswalker. Flashback {9}{R} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
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Timber Gorge
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $0.10
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Timber Gorge enters the battlefield tapped. {T}: Add {R} or {G}.
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Lust for War
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.12
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/34851_200w.jpg
Enchant creature Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped, Lust for War deals 3 damage to that creature's controller. Enchanted creature attacks each combat if able.
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Armory of Iroas
Market Price: $0.03
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Whenever equipped creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on it. Equip {2} ({2}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
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Silverback Shaman
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.01
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Trample When Silverback Shaman dies, draw a card.
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Wickerbough Elder
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.05
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/227361_200w.jpg
Wickerbough Elder enters the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it. {G}, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Wickerbough Elder: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
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Seal of Primordium
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.33
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/128930_200w.jpg
Sacrifice Seal of Primordium: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
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Bloodline Shaman
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.19
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/10637_200w.jpg
{T}: Choose a creature type. Reveal the top card of your library. If that card is a creature card of the chosen type, put it into your hand. Otherwise, put it into your graveyard.
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Bosk Banneret
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.19
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/17955_200w.jpg
Treefolk spells and Shaman spells you cast cost {1} less to cast.
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Lead the Stampede
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.09
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/212626_200w.jpg
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal any number of creature cards from among them and put the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
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Ainok Survivalist
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.04
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/196504_200w.jpg
Megamorph {1}{G} (You may cast this card face down as a 2/2 creature for {3}. Turn it face up any time for its megamorph cost and put a +1/+1 counter on it.) When Ainok Survivalist is turned face up, destroy target artifact or enchantment an opponent controls.
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Sunder Shaman
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/183315_200w.jpg
Sunder Shaman can't be blocked by more than one creature. Whenever Sunder Shaman deals combat damage to a player, destroy target artifact or enchantment that player controls.
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Stony Strength
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.06
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/183436_200w.jpg
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. Untap that creature.
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Reclamation Sage
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.11
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/226985_200w.jpg
When Reclamation Sage enters the battlefield, you may destroy target artifact or enchantment.
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Rage Forger
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.26
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/18040_200w.jpg
When Rage Forger enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Shaman creature you control. Whenever a creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it attacks, you may have that creature deal 1 damage to target player or planeswalker.
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Gaea's Blessing
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.20
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/162223_200w.jpg
Target player shuffles up to three target cards from their graveyard into their library. Draw a card. When Gaea's Blessing is put into your graveyard from your library, shuffle your graveyard into your library.
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Seal of Fire
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.83
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/93811_200w.jpg
Sacrifice Seal of Fire: It deals 2 damage to any target.
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Forest
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.99
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230468_200w.jpg
({T}: Add {G}.)
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Mountain
Color Identity:R
Market Price: $0.99
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230467_200w.jpg
({T}: Add {R}.)
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Elven Rite
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.15
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/5337_200w.jpg
Distribute two +1/+1 counters among one or two target creatures.
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Draconic Disciple
Color Identity:G,R
Market Price: $0.16
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/169072_200w.jpg
{T}: Add one mana of any color. {7}, {T}, Sacrifice Draconic Disciple: Create a 5/5 red Dragon creature token with flying.
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Leaf-Crowned Elder
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $2.16
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/18007_200w.jpg
Kinship — At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top card of your library. If it shares a creature type with Leaf-Crowned Elder, you may reveal it. If you do, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.
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The main plan is to build out a board of Shamans, then drop a Rage Forger, then smash and threaten with a big board—while also dealing buckets of damage with Rage Forger triggers. However, this deck has the tools to go late if necessary. Mad Prophet allows us to turn late lands into more business, and we are not at all short on mana sinks. Kumano, Wildheart Invoker, Dowsing Shaman, flashing back Scorching Missile, and Draconic Disciple can all make use of extra lands late.
When applying the beats with Rage Forger, remember that it doesn't care about how the counters got there, just that they're there. So keep that in mind when choosing Riot on Rhythm of the Wild or Domri, or how you distribute your counters from Elven Rite.
The removal here is pretty bad. However, if we're looking to combat artifacts and enchantments, it doesn't get much better than our deck. With Wickerbough Elder, Sunder Shaman, Reclamation Sage, Hull Breach, and Seal of Primordium (that can sometimes be recurred via Dowsing Shaman), enemy artifacts need to sleep with one eye open. We do have one very solid piece of traditional removal in [[Fissure], which straight up destroys a creature, in a very unusual fashion for a mono-Red card.
I absolutely despise Hexproof. I'm fine with it on combat tricks that can counter a removal spell, but as a constant ability stapled to a creature or other permanent...ugh. Interaction is severely diminished and so many of the ways we usually use to combat opposing permanents and strategies become useless pieces of cardboard. It tends to create board states where the opponent just feels helpless. So yeah, Vote No on Hexproof. Having said all of this, there is exactly one Magic card where I enjoy the presence of this infernal keyword, and that card is the Troll Ascetic (formerly known as "Troll Shroud", since exproof didn't exist as a named keyword yet). Troll Ascetic is the ultimate survivor, requiring a major lapse of judgment on your part of a Wrath of God from the opponent to get the troll out of the way. Back in the day, it was only this one creature that had this ability and that made it special. Now it's just universally annoying.
This is truly the jewel of this deck, the card we're most hoping to draw every game. The mana and cards that this monster generates by dropping creatures into play for free during your upkeep adds up to a probably insurmountable board presence. We also get a solid body for the cost, but the free stream of creatures is the real asset.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Kamigawa Legends have the coolest names in Magic. The Master Yamabushi's stats are blah, but the ability here is what we're paying for. And man, if we end up with some mana we're not using, Kumano can get his machine gun on and mow down the other side of the board. Unfavorable combats suddenly become much more appealing if Kumano can finish off the others and can also go to the dome in a pinch.
Is this card really weird because of its lopsided stats? (Omar Little Voice) Oh, indeed. But if this lil fella ever gets onto the battlefield, your opponent is screwed. 1 mana to turn any other creature into a 7/7 will end the game in rapid order. Obviously the dream scenario here is to get the five finger discount via Leaf-Crowned.
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I am most used to seeing this effect across Grixis colors, and usually more so in Blue or Black (or Blue/Black) than Red. And it's extremely powerful! Getting to take the best spell out of the opponent's hand and then casting it for free can be a game swinging effect. Since Mindclaw has a bit of a steeper casting cost, it's harder to screw up, since we get to take something around or after Turn 5 and can't blow it on an earlier turn. Honestly I'm very surprised to even see this effect at Uncommon. I don't believe I've ever been unhappy to see this card in my hand (or, in the case of Leaf-Crowned Elder, on top of my library).