Doctor Doom, King of LatveriaDoctor Doom, King of Latveria | Art by Nathaniel Himawan

Welcome to another deck tech showcasing a new commander. Today, let's take a look at Doctor Doom, King of LatveriaDoctor Doom, King of Latveria, an interesting leader for a deck that cares about Villains, looting, and, particularly, discarding lands.

Just like in previous articles, we're here to...

• Highlight interesting game plans for a new commander.
• Build a budget-friendly (~$40) "Core" power level deck following these plans.
• Work through important card categories and discuss notable inclusions.
• Include a deck list and a deck checklist.
• Go through mid-budget upgrades (<$20 per card) as options to invest more into this strategy.

What Does Doctor Doom, King of LatveriaDoctor Doom, King of Latveria Do?

Doctor Doom's most powerful ability is its first one: "Whenever you discard one or more land cards, each opponent loses 2 life." Causing each opponent to lose life (rather than having to choose a single player) is perfect for a multiplayer format like Commander. The way this ability is worded is important – "one or more land cards" means a simple Merfolk LooterMerfolk Looter activation and a powerful wheel effect like WindfallWindfall will both cause opponents to lose 2 life at most. This mean we're going to want to maximize individual discard effects rather than relying on discarding our whole hand at once.

Before we go too far down that path, though, what else does this commander do?

This Human Noble Villain's second ability reads: "At the beginning of combat on your turn, target Villain you control gains menace until end of turn. It connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)"

In summary, we're looking for some combination of the following to start brewing this deck:

1. Effects that allow us to discard land cards (ideally one at a time)
2. Effects that care about us discarding cards in general
3. Cards that ensure we have plenty of lands to discard
4. On-theme Villains that pair well with our commander

Discard Outlets for Lands

When I first saw Doctor Doom, King of LatveriaDoctor Doom, King of Latveria, my mind immediately went to Seismic AssaultSeismic Assault. In the right deck, this enchantment can serve as a flexible board control option or a finisher.

For more redundancy, we can also add an older version of this card, Land's EdgeLand's Edge, which allows all players to activate it, and a newer version, Pyre of the World TreePyre of the World Tree, the back side of Invasion of KaldheimInvasion of Kaldheim. These permanents each have upsides and downsides: the Assault has a tough color identity for a three-color deck, the Edge can be used by other players to disrupt you, and the Invasion takes some setup to begin activating its relevant side. While it's often annoying to draw a duplicate of an effect we've already found, this deck's high prevalence of looting means we can simply trade in a redundant land discard outlet for a different card.

Additionally, some lands, like those with cycling, simply serve as their own discard outlets.

Dakmor Salvage and Friends

Dakmor SalvageDakmor Salvage feels important for this strategy, and I'm Challenging its Stats! It's still very early, but a 13% inclusion rate is far too low. Dredge means we can make any looting effect like connive automatically "draw" this land and then discard it back into our graveyard, even if we start with no cards in hand. Combined with our commander, this means guaranteed life loss for our opponents every time we loot. Fellow Future Sight land Tolaria WestTolaria West and these twotwo mapsmaps help us find this important piece of the puzzle.

Spellshapers

First appearing way back in 1999 in Mercadian Masques, Spellshapers are creatures that can "cast" the same "spell" each turn at the cost of discarding a card. Because we're trying to discard lands anyway, they're a perfect fit, whether it means disruptiondisruption, recursionrecursion, or... blue Harrow?blue Harrow?

Discard Payoffs

While it's great to discard lands with our commander in play, we can't always count on everything going the way we'd hoped, which is why our devious backup plan includes Faith of the DevotedFaith of the Devoted, to continue the life loss train, cards like Captain Howler, Sea ScourgeCaptain Howler, Sea Scourge and Cryptcaller ChariotCryptcaller Chariot, to create a more threatening board state, and cards like Archfiend of IfnirArchfiend of Ifnir and Feast of SanityFeast of Sanity, for mass disruption.

On-Theme Villains

Importantly, our commander doesn't rely on having a different Villain on the battlefield to make its menace and connive ability work, it can just target itself. However, if we want to spread out our conniving, it still makes sense to add a smattering of on-theme Villains.

Luckily for us, many Villains can advance our strategy in various ways. They can serve as discard outlets (Green Goblin, RevenantGreen Goblin, Revenant, Norman OsbornNorman Osborn), reward you for discarding (Hobgoblin, Mantled MarauderHobgoblin, Mantled Marauder, Green Goblin, NemesisGreen Goblin, Nemesis), and/or provide value in another useful way (Tombstone, Career CriminalTombstone, Career Criminal, Doctor DoomDoctor Doom, Doctor Octopus, Master PlannerDoctor Octopus, Master Planner).

On-Theme Veggies

Commander decks usually have some combination of lands and ramp to ensure the pilot can cast their spells, card advantage to advance their own game plan, and targeted and mass disruption to prevent opponents from advancing their game plans.

Lands

The average Doctor Doom, King of Latveria deck has a full 40 lands, which is awesome! This commander's ability rewards players for not overloading their decks with TalismansTalismans and SignetsSignets and also disincentivizes players from including too many MDFC lands.

But what kind of lands do we want to include? First, lands with cycling are incredible, triggering our commander and other discard payoffs by themselves, no questions asked!

Second, Agna Qel'aAgna Qel'a is a land that is also a discard outlet: perfect. If we wanted to double or triple down on this kind of effect, we could also include Desolate LighthouseDesolate Lighthouse and/or Geier Reach SanitariumGeier Reach Sanitarium, but too many colorless lands can be a bit iffy in three-color decks.

Finally, lands like Drownyard TempleDrownyard Temple and Oscorp IndustriesOscorp Industries are actively hoping to be discarded because they will still end up on the battlefield.

Card Advantage

While this deck will have a lot of card selection, it's also important to make sure we don't run out of gas. This is where cards like Ghostly PilfererGhostly Pilferer, Dig Through TimeDig Through Time, and Treasure CruiseTreasure Cruise come in. These advantage pieces will keep our hand full while fitting into our greater strategy: the Pilferer is an additional discard outlet while the high mana value delve spells are a good pairing with a land-filled graveyard.

Targeted and Mass Disruption

Rather than just sleeving up CounterspellCounterspell and TerminateTerminate and calling it day, we're including more on-theme ways to disrupt our opponents. Lightning AxeLightning Axe and Bitter TriumphBitter Triumph are efficient ways to removing opposing threats while serving as extra ways to discard lands.

When it comes to mass disruption, Terror TideTerror Tide and Molten CollapseMolten Collapse can frustrate multiple opponents' plans at once, while Change of PlansChange of Plans and Ripples of PotentialRipples of Potential can simultaneously protect many of our creatures while sticking to our +1/+1 counter/discard theme.

Deck List

• Ledger ShredderLedger Shredder
• Fear of Missing OutFear of Missing Out
• Psychic FrogPsychic Frog

For more mana consistency and repeatable looting options, try:

• Currency ConverterCurrency Converter
• Relic of SauronRelic of Sauron

Finally, why not just make a bunch of (nonlegendary) versions of Doctor Doom and go wild with mass life loss and conniving Villains!

• Spark DoubleSpark Double
• Irenicus's Vile DuplicationIrenicus's Vile Duplication
• Quantum MisalignmentQuantum Misalignment