Do you prefer villains over heroes? Do you enjoy intricate strategies with lots of meaningful decisions? Do you love to monologue right before your inevitable win? In that case, you’re going to love the Doom Prevails precon.
It’s in Grixis colors (blue, black, red), which is quite fitting as one of the most iconic Magic villains (Nicol Bolas) also use this color combo.
UPDATE: (June 10th) The full decklist and all new cards are now revealed and you can find them below.
Conniving Villains
There are multiple things going on with this deck: connive mechanic, villains, and life drain.
So, the deck utilizes the connive mechanic. (Whenever your creature connives, you draw a card and discard a card. If you discard a nonland card, you put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)
It perfectly represents the planning towards your evil plan. Or you know, just improves the quality of cards in your hand and slightly grows your creatures. That’s fine too.
Next, there’s the life drain. Within the deck, you can expect effects that slowly but surely damage your opponents. (And gain you some life in the process.)
Finally, there’s the flavor of the deck: the villain creature type. It’s going to be interesting to see how many effects will specifically care about Villains. Will the deck focus heavily on them with cards such as Doctor Octopus, Master Planner? Or will it simply just contain a bunch of them, without specific synergies?
We shall wait a while longer to find out.
Doom Prevails Decklist
You can find the new cards below and reprints here.
Doom Prevails Spoilers
Doctor Doom, King of Latveria
For four mana, you get a 3/3. Not the largest, but we’re mostly interested in the text box anyways.
The first ability makes each opponent lose 2 life whenever you discard one or more land cards. It’s interesting to see this effect outside of green, but you shouldn’t sleep on it. With a proper setup this can be really problematic for your opponents.
Furthermore, the second ability helps with the first one. On your combat, one of your Villains gains menace and connives. You draw and discard, not only improving your hand but either growing a creature or dooming your opponents for a couple of damage.
All in all, the card is not insanely powerful in a vacuum. It requires a lot of planning, smart deckbuilding and setting the game for one powerful turn in which you can finish all your opponents at once.
As far as the flavor goes, that’s perfect. After all, villains do enjoy long schemes with a powerful payoff.
Loki, the Deceiver
Loki is slightly larger as a 4/4 with the same mana cost as Doctor Doom.
For its first effect you need to attack with Loki, which isn’t ideal — typically you’ll need to wait until your next turn to do so. However, the power level is there, as you can get another copy of one of your Villains. While it goes away on your end step, it does get around the legend rule, so you can do some fun stuff with it.
Furthermore, there’s also a second line of text, which can provide some card advantage occasionally.
All things considered, this probably isn’t the strongest commander, but can be a fun casual option and a cool deckbuilding challenge.
Other New Cards
Doom Prevails Upgrade Ideas
Speaking of planning ahead, if you know you’ll pick up this deck, you might want to acquire a few cards sooner rather than later.
All of these play well inside this deck and weren’t reprinted. So, if you think you’d enjoy these, now might be a perfect time to pick them up.
Green Goblin, Nemesis
First up, another villain — Green Goblin from Spider-Man. The creature type isn’t the only thing that works with Doctor Doom. It also rewards you for discarding cards.
With first ability, you’ll put counters on Green Goblin, Nemesis, which is likely your only Goblin.
The second effect is particularly strong. Not only are you getting Treasure tokens, you are already planning to discard lands, thanks to Doom. What’s not to like?
Norman Osborn / Green Goblin
We had one, yes. But what about a second Green Goblin?
Both sides of this card work well with Doom. The front side is a neat target for connive effects, while the back allows you to kinda rebuy your discarded card with the discount.
On top of that, it’s just a very flexible card good at various stages of the game. As such, it’s one of the first adds players will make, plus it’s also withing the Marvel Universe, so you’re keeping the theme intact.
If you want to add another Villain to the mix, aforementioned Doctor Octopus, Master Planner is also a neat option.
Cool but Rude
Now if you don’t mind about going to other franchises, this enchantment will do a lot of work here, with all three levels being very relevant.
The first one is kinda similar to conniving. The second is like Doctor Doom’s life loss but for any discarded card. Finally, you also get a Gamble on top of all that.
It’s such a neat little package that will significantly improve the deck. The card is currently sitting above five bucks on the secondary market, but that could easily change in upcoming weeks.
For more suggestions, check Doom Prevails Upgrade Guide.
What is Doom Prevails Collector’s Edition?
If you want to play the deck in style, there’s an additional option for you.
Collector’s Edition of Doom Prevails precon contains the same cards as its regular counterpart. So, why is it significantly more expensive?
Because each one of the hundred cards in the deck use the special surge foil treatment. That makes the cards really pop out, and does add quite a bit of value to the card, as we’ve seen with some previous releases.
Prepare to Set Your Schemes in Motion
So, that’s it for the Doom Prevails precon overview. At least for a week or so, when more details becomes available. As expected, we’ll update the article when that happens.
Until then, you can prepare for the new set with the following articles:
- Super Heroes Spoilers (all cards from the main set)
- The Soul Stone Odds (priciest card in the set)
- The Fantastic Four Decklist
- Wakanda Forever Decklist
- Avengers Assemble Decklist
Enjoy playing Magic, and may your inevitable victories never be abruptly stopped during your monologuing.