Doom Prevails Upgrade Guide: 16 Easy Changes You Can Make

Doombot Harbinger | Illustration by Myles Wohl

Avengers: Doomsday and MTG’s new Marvel Super Heroes Commander both have something in common: They’re using Doctor Doom to generate hype. But Doctor Doom doesn’t like to be used. Or do you take Doom for a fool?

Anyways, MTG’s putting him to good use: The Doom Prevails Commander precon is excellent, and it has many powerful reprints that are already staples in the format. Today, we take a look at the decklist to uncover its strongest points, and explore how to make budget changes that improve the overall experience.

The themes of this deck are villains, connive, draw and discard, and dealing damage to your opponents with your villains. With so many themes, we’ll have to decide which factors to improve and which ones to leave behind.

Doom Prevails Deck Overview

Doctor Doom, King of Latveria | Illustration by Nathaniel Himawan

Doom Prevails is a Grixis Commander precon () with Doctor Doom, King of Latveria as its main commander. Doctor Doom deals 2 damage to each player whenever you discard a land card, which you can do mainly through the connive mechanic. Doom also makes a villain connive every turn: If you discard a land, that’s damage to everyone, and if you discard a nonland card, your villain of choice gets stronger with the +1/+1 counter. That’s the whole idea.

Loki, the Deceiver is the second possible commander in this precon. Loki is kind of a villain lord that says: Whenever a villain you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card. And when Loki attacks, you make a token copy of a villain you control until the end of turn.

Doom wants to chill and discard cards, while Loki wants to get in with villains, and of course they work together very nicely. But I’m inclined to pivot to Loki as the main commander and move Doom to the side. There are many powerful villains already in this deck that are very good if you can make additional copies of them and attack, even if for a turn. Seems like the God of Trickery has deceived the technological sorcerer this time.

Upgrade Plan

Now that I’ve decided to go with Loki, the Deceiver, let’s tailor the deck more to its skillset.

The base precon has 29 villain creatures, which is a good number. For this upgrade, I want to take a look at how I can improve the villains and how the villains work with Loki's ability, and take out cards that were put here to synergize best with Doctor Doom, King of Latveria.

Basically, I want villains that are cheaper and that are good when you make a token copy them. That includes good enter effects, decent sizing, damage triggers, and death triggers. Of course, we can’t have all of them in a single card, so I’m going to change the villains suite a lot, but I won’t alter the total number that much. I’ll also want to round the precon’s edges to reduce its flaws, be it bad mana, lack of ramp, or interaction.

Budget Considerations

Marvel Super Heroes hasn’t been released at the time of writing, so I’m not suggesting cards like M.O.D.O.K., Doctor Doom, or Loki, God of Mischief, as the price on these is through the roof. I want to preserve the precon as best as I can, and it's already expensive to start with. Similarly, the mana base is kept as it is, but if you have good lands to replace the worst ones, then by all means do that.

Oscorp Industries

Suggested Cut:

Oscorp Industries is another tri-color land for this deck that has mayhem, synergizing with discard. Considering the amount of discarding the deck has and its theme, this should have been in the original list.

Choked Estuary is an okay blue-black land that enters tapped most of the time.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Suggested Cut:

An Offer You Can't Refuse is an EDH staple, especially if you want to protect your creatures from a wrath or spot removal.

Visions of Villainy should be good in this deck, but you’ll have a lot of card draw from this new build.

The Master, Multiplied

Suggested Cut:

When I saw Loki and its ability, I immediately thought of The Master, Multiplied. With The Master around, Loki’s illusion tokens don’t need to be sacrificed at the end of the turn.

Containment Construct is good with Doom if you’re discarding a lot, but here, it gets slightly worse.

Sundial of the Infinite

Suggested Cut:

Sundial of the Infinite is also here to end the turn and prevent those illusion tokens from going away. You activate this during your end step when the sacrifice triggers go on the stack, and you keep the tokens you've created.

Damocles Base, Sword of Kang is a powerful vehicle, but it doesn’t do anything special in this deck, and you don’t want to use a villain to crew it.

Doom Reigns Supreme

Suggested Cut:

You need that much card draw, but it’s so easy to add Doom Reigns Supreme as a 2-mana enchantment to a deck that wants you to play a lot of villains, and it improves your initial hand so much. And when you sacrifice this plan, you’ll get some cards from your opponent.

Moonstone, Harsh Mistress gets the axe in this transition from discarding into villains-matter.

Green Goblin, Revenant

Suggested Cut:

Flying and deathtouch on a villain is nice, but the real power is the synergy with discard. This is a card that should be good with Loki and Doom. Especially with all the conniving going on. If you draw and discard a card and attack with Green Goblin, Revenant, you’ll discard once and draw two. With Loki’s token making, you’ll discard two and draw even more.

Superior Foes of Spider-Man gets the axe because I want to make this deck cheaper, and because there's no direct incentive for casting cards from exile.

Norman Osborn / Green Goblin

Suggested Cut:

Norman Osborn / Green Goblin is a powerful Grixis card and commander that synergizes a lot with what’s going on here. Norman Osborn draws you a card thanks to Loki, and Green Goblin is super strong with connive. You’ll basically get to cast the cards you’ve discarded with a mana discount.

I’m cutting Glorious Purpose here because I’m trimming down on the connive plan.

Mysterio, Master of Illusion

Suggested Cut:

Mysterio, Master of Illusion was chosen because it’s a villain that floods the board with other villains, even if they’re illusions. It’s excellent with Living Lies of Loki, too.

To make room, let’s get rid of another tapland, Foreboding Ruins.

Carnage, Crimson Chaos

Suggested Cut:

You can cast Carnage, Crimson Chaos from your graveyard with mayhem, and it allows you to retrieve a 3 mana value creature, which this deck has a lot of.

Progenitor's Icon is a mana rock that can give your villains flash, but that’s not an effect I’m looking for in this deck.

HYDRA Assault Robot

Suggested Cut:

Dealing a damage each time a villain enters the battlefield is excellent in this deck. HYDRA Assault Robot is a cheap villain that deals a lot of damage when you’re playing villains and making Loki’s illusions.

I have doubts about whether Madame Hydra will be playable in Draft, and it doesn’t synergize with Loki’s illusion tokens.

Crimson Cowl, Master of Evil

Suggested Cut:

Crimson Cowl, Master of Evil makes more villain tokens while you’re attacking. It’s just one per turn, but if that’s the deck’s plan, this card gives you a lot of tokens. It’s a nice copy target for Loki, allowing you to make more 2/1 villains each turn.

I’m cutting Syphon Mind as pure card draw, since the deck's doing just fine on card flow.

Kingpin, Wilson Fisk

Suggested Cut:

Considering that Loki makes you sacrifice a token each turn, nothing better than adding a villain to the mix that gives you two Treasure tokens. Kingpin, Wilson Fisk doesn’t need a sacrifice outlet to be good, and up to two Treasures per turn is strong.

As powerful as it seems, I’m cutting Molecule Man because I’m cutting the most expensive cards from the deck and because you don’t have a lot of ways to make this hit consistently. Many times, it’s going to be a 5/5 vanilla creature.

Living Lies of Loki

Suggested Cut:

Living Lies of Loki gets very strong if you’re planning on creating villain illusion tokens with Loki. You’re hitting hard with a villain, and if it dies, you’ll draw a card. Exactly what we want in this deck.

Klaw, Master of Sound‘s first ability isn't super relevant, nor is it the most impressive creature to make copies of with Loki. Fine, but cuttable.

Doctor Octopus, Master Planner

Suggested Cut:

It’s hard to go against card draw and +2/+2 to all your guys, even if Doctor Octopus, Master Planner costs 7 mana in the first place. Plus, copying this should be game.

I’m cutting Iron Monger, Sadistic Tycoon because I’m also reducing the connive package. If I had Doom as the commander, I’d certainly play Iron Monger.

Super-Adaptoid

Suggested Cut:

Super-Adaptoid doesn’t synergize with villains, but 90%+ of your creatures are legendary creatures, so it should be super strong and also copy any relevant abilities from other villains you control.

The Frightful Four is okay but cuttable because I want more proactive villains, and most players will be able to work around the trigger without much problem.

The Spot’s Portal

Suggested Cut:

The Spot's Portal is interesting as an unconventional black removal spell that deals with any creature, and puts the card onto the bottom of their library. It’s designed to work with villains, so there’s also that, but the 2 life isn't terrible if you've got nothing in play. Propaganda is a nice control/prison card, and we all appreciate the reprint, but it’s not doing anything here, really.

The Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the final decklist with all the alterations.

If you want to get only the new cards I suggested, feel free to click the shopping cart icon in the decklist below.

Commanding Conclusion

Doom Reigns Supreme | Illustration by Alexander Gering

So there you have it folks, 16 easy changes to improve the Doom Prevails EDH precon. I wanted to change the commander to Loki, the Deceiver because I think it makes the most sense with what we already have in the precon, but if you really want Doctor Doom, King of Latveria to be your commander, that’s no problem.

Doom is also really powerful, and with all the conniving this deck can provide, you’ll deal a lot of damage to your opponents' faces. You’d probably like to play more lands that cycle, and more fancy effects like wheels. An excellent card to add in that case would be Tectonic Reformation to cycle lands easily. You can also go into the connive and mayhem route a bit stronger.

What do you think of this Commander precon? Do the changes make sense? Let me know in the comments section below, or discuss it over in the Draftsim Discord. For more from us, subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.

Thanks for reading, guys, and I’ll see you next time!

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