I finally tackled Temur in my last “New Perspectives” article, which you can find here. For this week, I’ll be taking a look at some two-color brews instead, all built around Domri, Anarch of Bolas. Green/red is traditionally known as a very aggressive color combination, and this iteration of Domri is no exception to that rule. That being said, there’s more than one way for the Gruul to grind their opponents into the ground, and Domri, Anarch of Bolas can be an excellent Oathbreaker for a variety Gruul strategies. As always, I’ll be going over three different builds of this Oathbreaker with three different Signature Spells.
The Oathbreaker
Let’s begin by taking a look at the individual abilities on Domri, Anarch of Bolas.
This static ability is strong, yet subtle. It’s essentially the front end of an anthem effect, making it particularly effective in go-wide aggressive strategies. Most planeswalkers that can similarly buff your board often do so via loyalty abilities, so it’s pretty sweet that Domri can passively boost your creatures just by being in play. Very on flavor for Gruul.
This ability would be solid even if it only added mana, but to add insult to injury, it also protects all of your creature spells from counterspells until end of turn. It’s also worth noting that although this ability is clearly geared towards ramping out creatures, you can spend the mana on whatever you want. This type of ability also pairs particularly well with Signature Spells that only cost one mana.
Conditional spot removal is still spot removal, and this ability’s condition isn’t too harsh given Gruul’s assortment of huge creatures. It’s also nice how Domri’s static ability gives your creatures a little more power to toss around with this fight effect. Prey Upon on a stick isn’t especially flashy, but it can be a very effective means of clearing the way for your horde of attackers.
Domri, Anarch of Bolas is a pretty straightforward stompy Oathbreaker, and it’s not very difficult to build a traditional stompy list around him (as I did in this Stompy article). Even still, there are some less-than-traditional ways to utilize Domri’s abilities.
Build #1: Trample Tribal
Decklist: Domri Trample Tribal
Ikoria introduced a variety of different “keyword matters” subthemes, with the green/red keyword of choice being trample. Domri’s static ability makes him very well-suited to leading the charge in a trample tribal deck, and although there are many potentially devastating Signature Spells for this type of build, I’ve opted to go with Thrash / Threat for this list. The Threat half of the card is clearly fitting for a trample tribal deck, and the Thrash half can be a very handy way to remove opposing Oathbreakers, allowing us to send our full force at our opponents’ faces. It’s true that there aren’t many dedicated cards built specifically for trample tribal, but that won’t be much of a hindrance for this deck given the sheer amount of powerful tramplers across MTG history.
- Trample Matters: Proud Wildbonder and its “super trample” effect is the primary payoff for trample tribal we’re running from Ikoria. We also have access to a payoff from all the way back to Time Spiral, that card being Stonebrow, Krosan Hero. Quartzwood Crasher is another threat that can help our strategy snowball out of control by continually creating even more tramplers. Given our focus on boosting our creatures’ power, the static effect on Zilortha, Strength Incarnate is sure to come in handy. Alternatively, we can protect our creatures from combat damage entirely with Vigor leading the charge. Even though most of our creatures already start with trample, Legion Loyalist‘s attack trigger will augment their effectiveness even further. We can also finish our opponents off with a surprise Ram Through, green’s latest “burn” spell.
- Power Boosts: Giving our creatures even more of a power buff will help guarantee we’re able to trample over any blockers. Grafted Wargear, Rancor, and Shadowspear are all cards we can attach to our various threats as we see fit, and both sides of Arlinn Kord offer some sort of power boost. Mechanics like bloodrush and mutate are another effective means of growing our creatures, and Gemrazer, Ghor-Clan Rampager, and Sawtusk Demolisher all slot perfectly into this strategy. Verdurous Gearhulk‘s enter-the-battlefield trigger also offers a very potent, and permanent, power buff. Other threats, such as Kavu Predator and Managorger Hydra, will naturally grow themselves over the course of the game.
- Other Tramplers: Untamed Kavu is a low-drop creature that scales very well into the late game, with vigilance being a nice added benefit. Conversely, Yidaro, Wandering Monster is an excellent late-game threat that can be used as a cantrip early on, when necessary. Shifting Ceratops and Skinshifter are two particularly versatile creatures, thanks to their respective activated abilities. Given our deck’s ability to easily pressure and remove opposing Oathbreakers, Crimson Honor Guard‘s triggered ability can easily deal a lot of extra damage in just a few turn cycles. Carnage Tyrant and Stonecoil Serpent are two more resilient threats due to their respective forms of protection. I’ve also decided to run Primeval Titan in this build, partially because it’s a huge trampler, and partially because it can tutor up useful lands like Kessig Wolf Run and Raging Ravine.
Build #2: Domri’s Dinos
Decklist: Domri’s Dinos
When considering what creature types I could build a Domri deck around, I briefly considered using a typically go-wide tribe, such as elves or goblins; that is, until I realized that beefier creatures types work much better with Domri’s -2 ability, and there’s no creature type better-suited for this role than dinosaurs. Back in Ixalan block, dinosaurs were formally introduced to MTG along with the enrage mechanic, which triggers upon dealing damage to a creature. This seems like a great mechanic to pair with Domri’s fight ability, and Rile is a synergistic Signature Spell that can immediately be cast off of Domri’s +1 ability. Oddly enough, the further I got in building this list, the less enrage creatures I actually ended up including. I’m pretty okay with this unexpected development since Rile also happens to draw a card and give the targeted creature trample until end of turn.
- Tribal Synergies: A higher-cost tribe like dinosaurs needs some lower-cost support, and there are many fine options for this specific tribe. Drover of the Mighty and Otepec Huntmaster will help our dinos hit the board a bit quicker, and they each have their own respective additional upsides for playing dinosaurs. Marauding Raptor is a similar mana-accelerant for our dinos, and it happens to pair very well with the enrage mechanic. As for cards higher on our mana curve, we have Regisaur Alpha to turn our other large threats into large hasty threats, and Quartzwood Crasher will leave us with plenty of dinos to spare. In addition to our Signature Spell, we’re running Commune with Dinosaurs and Savage Stomp as two other handy dino-themed spells that can easily be cast off of our Oathbreaker’s +1 ability.
- Redundant Rage: I ended up not running too many enrage cards in this list, but the few I did include are certainly worth it. Ranging Raptors turns all of our damage enablers into potential ramp spells, which will be particularly helpful with casting our larger dinosaurs. Ripjaw Raptor‘s enrage trigger is even more powerful in this deck, and it won’t take much effort to keep our hand full of gas with this dino in play. We’re also running some redundant ways to ping our own creatures that won’t feel like dead cards when we’re still digging for our enrage cards. Raging Swordtooth‘s enter-the-battlefield trigger can be devastating on a board full of 1-toughness creatures, and we can always point Raging Regisaur‘s attack trigger at one of our opponents instead of our own board. Reckless Rage is another damage enabler that functions very well as a regular removal spell since most of our creatures have toughness to spare.
- Other Dinos & Friends: Rampaging Ferocidon will shut down any lifegain shenanigans our opponents may be running, and its triggered ability will punish any go-wide strategies that try to go under us. Although it isn’t a “real” dinosaur, Chameleon Colossus counts as a dinosaur for gameplay purposes, and that activated ability is simply too strong to ignore. Ghalta, Primal Hunger and The Great Henge both come with high mana costs that will be easy to reduce thanks to our dino horde. We can also hasten our stampede with the likes of Arlinn Kord, Footfall Crater, and Rhythm of the Wild.
Build #3: Gruul Aristocrats
Decklist: Domri Eats the Rich
Now, before anything else: yes, I know the “aristocrats” archetype is traditionally reserved for decks running black, namely for cards like Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat. Despite this usual restriction, I was curious to see what an aristocrats deck in Oathbreaker might look like outside of the typical color combinations, and Gruul colors have been working out surprisingly well for me. Red has access to its own set of “death pingers” and sacrifice outlets, even if they aren’t quite as efficient as the traditional tools of the trade. We can also ping our opponents in red simply by having creatures enter the battlefield, and both red and green are great at swarming the board. This list’s Signature Spell, Tempt with Vengeance, is an excellent curve-topper since it fuels our board with plenty of extra fodder to help close out the game.
- Sacrifice Fodder: Even though they aren’t the traditional primary colors for aristocrats, green and red have their fair share of efficient fodder. Blisterpod, Grim Initiate, and Tukatongue Thallid are one-drops that leave an extra body behind for us to sacrifice. At the two-drop slot we have Goblin Instigator, Mogg War Marshal, and Nest Invader to fill a similar role. Careless Celebrant is another two-drop that can help keep an opposing Oathbreaker in check, though its trigger unfortunately can’t hit players. Near the top of our curve we have Kozilek’s Predator and Mitotic Slime, both of which will provide us with plenty of extra bodies. I also, personally, think of Claim the Firstborn as a piece of sacrifice fodder, even though it really just turns one of our opponent’s creatures into more fuel for the fire
- Sacrifice Outlets: Gruul colors don’t have access to as many efficient sacrifice outlets as black, but they still have enough options for this deck. Goblin Bombardment is typically the most impactful sacrifice outlet for this list, though Weaponize the Monsters can do a decent impression when necessary. The only other free, repeatable sacrifice outlet this deck has is Bogardan Dragonheart, which can be very handy for pressuring opposing Oathbreakers. Greater Gargadon is similarly efficient up until it actually hits the field, which shouldn’t take too long given all of our token generators. The next largest beastie we’re running is Dragon Broodmother, and we can use her dragon tokens as either sacrifice fodder or outlets, as we see fit. Grafted Wargear can function as a sorcery-speed sacrifice outlet, though it’s also useful as a simple creature buff. As far as one-off sacrifice outlets, we have Heartfire to turn one of our creatures into some surprise damage, and Eldritch Evolution to try to cheat on our mana-costs a little.
- Payoffs: Hissing Iguanar, Goblin Sharpshooter, and Outpost Siege can all be used to ping our opponents as we sacrifice our board, and we’ll be growing Blood Aspirant in the process. Fortunately for us, we also still have access to good old Skullclamp to keep our hand full of gas. This deck can also burn the rest of the table out through cards like Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, and Klothys, God of Destiny, all of which become even deadlier when paired with Torbran, Thane of Red Fell.
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Trample & Dinos: Arlinn Kord, Footfall Crater, Rhythm of the Wild, Once Upon a Time, Ram Through, Arboreal Grazer, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic, Llanowar Elves, Carnage Tyrant, Quartzwood Crasher, Shifting Ceratops, Yidaro, Wandering Monster, and Zilortha, Strength Incarnate
- Trample & Aristocrats: Rancor and Grafted Wargear
- Trample, Dinos & Aristocrats: Kessig Wolf Run
Not Gruul? Then Die!
There are a lot of options for Gruul Oathbreakers out there, but Domri, Anarch of Bolas is definitely the one I’ve had the most fun brewing with so far. I already have my own Domri Stompy list, so it was fun to branch out a little and see how what other kinds of anarchy Domri can stir up. Trying to build an aristocrats deck without black was especially challenging, but I’m pretty happy with the end result.
Have you tried building around Domri, Anarch of Bolas in Oathbreaker? Are there any others way you do/would want to play Gruul in Oathbreaker? Make sure to share your thoughts and brews with me in the comments or on Twitter!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com