Domri vs Teferi

Spellslingers Matchup Guide

This is the first in a series of articles focused on the spellslinger Domri, featuring gameplay strategies for tackling common matchups. Hopefully with these tactics you can get wild on your opponent. Rage against the metagame machine!

The Decklist

For this analysis I’ll be looking at a Teferi list from none other than the OTK-master himself and MTG-SS team mate Talaria.

Teferi

Talaria chooses to run a whopping 12 traps (40% of the deck), maxes out on Second Sun’s Dawn, and tops things off with Arcanis. Another notable feature is the inclusion of Snapcaster Mage, rounding out the lategame suit of cards by allowing him to rebuy his expensive spells.

We will be pairing him up against none other than my own Domri deck, which is a mid-range stompy deck that looks to abuse potent mana generating effects.

Domri

After exploring multiple two-drops, I’ve found that the impact of things like Shortcutter or Sword Cannoneer were so low that they typically did not have a high impact on games. Instead I’m opting to run Treetop Lookout who has applications against a surprising range of decks as traps become more popular in decks like Jace, Teferi, green decks running Wurm’s Wake and even now Liliana reanimator.

Now that we know what tools we have and what we are up against, it’s time to put together a coherent plan for attacking this time-bending menace of a mage. We can do this by understanding how we most often lose to this matchup, and then avoiding playing into those patterns.

Gameplan Patterns

Traps are excellent at dealing with individual threats one at a time, but aren’t adequate for dealing with a swarm of creatures since they traps usually cost more than the card they are answering, and because the attacker decides when the trap occurs. That means the Teferi player will need to commit mana on every turn it wishes to respond. That makes traps excellent at dealing with our higher curve drops, but usually poor at dealing with cheap, efficient threats. Unfortunately, the Teferi player mixes traps with efficient defensive walls to hold the line against your lower curve drops. Then they will rely on the impending Day of Judgement to create a sense of urgency encouraging the aggresor to play into traps. This makes them a natural predator for a mid-range deck like Domri that wishes to use large combat stats to create momentum over multiple turns. If they draw the perfect mix of responses to your threats, the door can quickly close on your window to win.

It’s not hopeless, there are some things working for you in the Teferi matchup. Traps by nature are narrow in application. A card like Negate or Absorb cannot effect cards already deployed, and things like Immolating Glare always trigger on any attack, meaning you, the attacker, control the outcome. The Teferi player can waste valuable removal meant for your larger threats on cards like Birds of Paradise.

Essentially there are two types of traps that you care about in this matchup, traps that trigger when attacking, and traps that trigger to stop cards from being played.

Cards to know

If you want to prioritize development, use your least valuable attacker to check for these traps before deciding which cards to play. The ammount of remaining open mana will inform you on which counterspell to play around.

Immolating Glare - If the opponent has open mana, play a card before attacking to test for Glare.

Vindictive Shot - Be aware that Vindictive Shot is bugged and will trigger off of any creature damage, including things like Grudge Match. On the other side, it also activates when zero power creatures attack, so Birds of Paradise can fish for this card if you want to setup a Grudge Match.

Disorient - Attack with Birds of Paradise in the early turns when you want to pull Disorient. At one mana it is difficult to play around and it is inevitable that it will get in your way if you simply leave it in their hand.

We also have to consider the counterspells.

Absorb - Only counters 3 mana cards and costs three mana, try not to give them easy tempo by playing into this when they have three gems unlocked.

Negate - Cheap but narrow, we only have a handful of cards effected by this.

Guess Again - A bluffed absorb can sometimes actually be this card. Our plan is to avoid the issue of having to consider this card by saving our Wurm’s wake for the turn before we want to drop a big play.

Teferi’s Staff

The range of available traps is too wide to play around everything, but I wanted to make a list of traps that Teferi might grab that can really mess you up if you don’t keep them in mind.

Crippling Bolt - This trap not only kills your threat, but it also prevents Debut abilities from triggering, so Gatstaf Agitators is devastated by this card.

Giant Growth - This trap is hard to check for since it only triggers when the opponent blocks, the standard birds of paradise check won’t work.

Molten Mistep - Attack with all your other creatures even if they have no power once you clear a path to start attacking just in case they have this trap.

Resilient Sphere - The main reason to know about this trap is Ulrich. While he is best played to finish off an opponent after they use Day of Judgement, sometimes they will take this card from the Teferi’s Staff and specifically to deny him.

Building a Gameplan

Birds of Paradise and Gatstaf Agitators are important for working towards the primary gameplan of building as much mana as you can so that you can attempt to overload the Teferi’s traps on turn 5. With 5 power, Gatstaf is also large enough that it can trade with Teferi’s big walls, and its low toughness is not a liability unlike in other blue decks like Ral or Ashiok.

Those who have played a lot of Magic the Gathering will already be familiar with why Wurm’s Wake is an excellent card against Teferi. The ability to deploy a card at the end of their turn plays around Day of Judgement and allows you to fish for absorb. It’s also ambiguous when you intend to use Wurm’s Wake since it’s castable with just fragile mana.

In an average Teferi game you will probably not be attacking into open mana gems until around turn 4 or 5 after you have developed your threats.

The goal should be to go for mana advantage so that you can overload their ability answer your threats and grab a tempo lead. Individual traps will hopefully be too clunky to allow them to win the board back once you get ahead.

Line up Wurm’s Wake with Teferi’s Acolyte Turns, forcing them to spend twice the amount of mana to commit traps. If they pass back, your wurms wake will cast and inform you if they have absorb or combat traps locked in. If Wurm’s Wake resolved, you can go for a big Treetop Lookout. If they counter wurm’s wake, you will have free reign on your turn to clear their blockers with Daybreak Ranger or Gruul Club. Alternatively you can lay down your Centaur Sage or Ulrich which both demand a tap out response such as Shell Games or Day of Judgement to answer adequately.

Be aware that After turn 6, in order to make enough mana to play your 8 drops through absorb you need 11 mana, which means you need a combination of creatures and fragile gems that equal 5 to have enough to play a three drop and an eight drop in the same turn. Lava Wave and Overrun are the most difficult cards to cast in the matchup, since they require a strong board presence and are stopped by both Negate and Absorb. If you have an opening to resolve a big card on your 11 mana turn, Craterhoof Behemoth will have the highest chance of resolving.

Mulligans

These are the cards you want to hold on to for this strategy. We are conceeding that early attacks probably won’t be possible and instead focusing on building up mana to try and swing the board in the mid-game prior to Day of Judgement.

Gatstaf Agitators

Birds of Paradise

Wurm’s Wake

Gruul Club

Daybreak Ranger

Treetop Lookout

Remember, if you have a full board and you set Wurm’s Wake, it will only cast if there is available space. You can use it as insurance for a turn you expect them to use Day of Judgement, then untap and counterattack with Wurm’s Wake and Ulrich to finish them off.

Gruul Club is two removal spells in one, and the second one doesn’t need to be cast which avoids playing into counterspell traps. If you can sneak this in once you have a developed board, it can be tough on the Teferi player to build up blockers for themselves as Turtles only grow when traps are triggered.

Lastly, I wanted to leave new Domri players with a budget build to try.