Doom Prevails precon.
Develop Grixis mana and a card-selection engine, then deploy Doctor Doom when you can profit from discarding your own lands.
At the table
Pod notes →- Keep
- Three lands with Grixis access, an early accelerator or selection spell, and a payoff you can use without missing land drops.
- Develop
- Set up selection, deploy Doom, and decide land drain versus nonland connive growth one discard at a time.
- Finish
- Accumulate drain while Villains and Robots pressure life totals; retain mana for discard-trigger payments.
- Watch out
- Only your land discards trigger Doom. One event with several lands is one trigger; a land discarded to connive gives no counter.
Guide reviewed List fdf30538
Rules and list review, not a playtest record. Turn windows and matchup advice are estimates. The list reference covers card quantities and the command zone; card changes require another guide and pod-note review.
Rules basis: Magic Comprehensive Rules, August 19, 2026. Bracket basis: Wizards’ October 2025 update and February 2026 follow-up.
Develop Grixis mana and a card-selection engine, then deploy Doctor Doom when you can profit from discarding your own lands.
Opening hands
Seven cards from this build. Commanders start in the command zone. In multiplayer Commander, the first mulligan is free. For later mulligans, draw seven again; once you keep, put one card on the bottom for each mulligan beyond the free one.
KeepShow the seven
- Command Tower
- Island
- Mountain
- Arcane Signet
- Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord
- Ultron, Unlimited
- Bedevil
Assumes Doctor Doom, King of Latveria is the chosen commander in the command zone and a four-player Core pod. Three lands plus Arcane Signet develop and fix mana, while Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord and Ultron, Unlimited give this hand a concrete plan. Check the timing of colored costs before choosing the first land.
BorderlineShow the seven
- Command Tower
- Island
- Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord
- Ultron, Unlimited
- Bedevil
- Blasphemous Act
- Abomination, World Ravager
Two lands make the expensive end of this hand dependent on further mana development. Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord is a reason to consider it on a later mulligan, but at seven cards with the multiplayer free mulligan available I would usually seek a more dependable third land or accelerator. Do not count a future draw as guaranteed.
MulliganShow the seven
- Command Tower
- Blasphemous Act
- Abomination, World Ravager
- The Squadron Sinister
- Tri-Sentinel, Act of Vengeance
- Kindred Dominance
- Lady Loki, Agent of Chaos
One land and an expensive hand cannot reliably develop the stock plan. Keeping several attractive payoffs does not compensate for missing land drops; use the multiplayer free mulligan when available, then follow the London mulligan procedure if drawing again.
How it plays.
Core game plan
Develop Grixis mana and a card-selection engine, then deploy Doctor Doom when you can profit from discarding your own lands. Doom watches one or more land cards you discard in an event: opponents discarding lands do not trigger him. Connive offers a choice: discard a land for Doom's drain, or a nonland to put a counter on the conniving creature. Mayhem cards and graveyard resources reward carefully timed discards; retain enough land drops and colored mana to cast the next turn's spells.
Key cards
- Doctor Doom, King of Latveria. At the beginning of combat on your turn, a targeted Villain you control gains menace and connives. Whenever you discard one or more land cards in one event, each opponent loses 2 life; Doom does not gain you life.
- Loki, the Deceiver. Alternate face commander, also run in the 99. On attack he copies another Villain you control as a tapped, attacking, nonlegendary Illusion, and whenever your Villains connect he draws you a card. He converts a wide Villain board into both extra bodies and steady card advantage.
- Ultron, Unlimited. Connives on attack and, whenever any creature you control connives, lets you pay 1 to make a 2/2 Robot Villain token. With Doom or Baron Strucker handing out extra connives, Ultron quietly builds an army of Villains that everything else in the deck rewards.
- Baron Strucker, HYDRA Overlord. Discounts your Villain spells by {1}; another Villain entering may connive, but you can choose this only once each turn across all such entries.
- Iron Monger, Sadistic Tycoon. Whenever a creature you control connives, he puts a +1/+1 counter on EACH Villain you control. In a board with several connivers this turns one connive trigger into a full-team pump, pushing real damage through menace.
- Tombstone, Career Criminal. Villain spells cost 1 less and his enter trigger returns a Villain card from your graveyard. He smooths the curve and recurs your best threats after they die or get discarded.
- Madame Hydra. Every Villain spell you cast makes a 2/1 menace Villain token. She converts the typal density of the deck into a go-wide board that Loki, Iron Monger, and the anthem effects all scale off of.
- Damocles Base, Sword of Kang. A 5/5 flying deathtouch Vehicle whose combat damage forces a villainous choice: opponents sacrifice a creature or lose 2 life and let you draw two. Crewed by your Villains, it is repeatable removal, card draw, and drain in one.
- Black Market Connections. At your precombat main, choose its resource modes and pay their listed life costs. Doom does not itself gain life to reimburse these payments.
Combos and synergies
- Doom plus connive or another discard outlet converts your land discards into life loss for each opponent. Discarding multiple lands in one event gives one Doom trigger, not one per land. Lethal Scheme's creatures connive separately, so resolve each draw/discard choice and resulting triggers in order. Ultron can turn qualifying discards into Robot tokens only if you pay the required {1} for each trigger you use. These are resource-dependent synergies, not a promise of an unlimited loop.
Mulligan
- Three lands with Grixis access, an early accelerator or selection spell, and a payoff you can use without missing land drops.
- A balanced hand that develops an engine while retaining an answer to a meaningful opposing threat. Check tapped-land timing and required colors, not just total land count.
- Zero or one land without a dependable route to develop mana.
- Expensive payoffs without early ramp, or several synergy payoffs with no way to supply their required bodies, spells or resources.
- A hand relying on drawing the chosen commander: the commander starts in the command zone, not the opening seven.
Lines and sequencing
- Ramp before paying for several discard payoffs; hold a land when you still need the next land drop.
- With Doom present, compare a land-discard drain to a nonland-discard connive counter rather than claiming both from the same land.
- Resolve separate connive actions from Lethal Scheme individually and count actual Doom triggers.
- Reserve {1} per Ultron token you intend to create; the token is not automatic.
- Doom's trigger causes opponents to lose life; it neither gains nor costs you life. Track actual life costs from cards such as Black Market Connections separately.
- After graveyard hate, prioritize fresh card selection and board development instead of assuming discarded resources remain available.
Pilot difficulty
Intermediate. The main plan is readable, but sequencing, trigger timing and resource accounting matter. Use the pilot reference and worked interaction before taking a long turn.