The Doomsday Playables

Preamble

This is a list of potential Doomsday maindeck playables that have been historically tried and are considered either off-meta, that is to say playable but maybe only useful in specific circumstances or with certain metagame portions in mind or are perhaps too cute to run and should probably be omitted from a list unless you really wish to play them (because everyone should be having fun with their list!). We will focus on each card individually: how much it has been tried, its benefits, what it might replace in a stock list (if there is such a thing) and any weaknesses or considerations it may have associated with it.

Quicken

Quicken is a cantrip effect that can be used to try and help power out your Doomsday within an opponent's turn or in other tricky situations for your opponent to deal with. Unfortunately the benefit of enabling this, even with a replacement card draw attached, is not really worth the slot. The deck already boasts a high density of card filtering, searching and card draw enablers which means Quicken has to compare itself against both cycling effects from cards like Street Wraith and cantrips like Ponder, Preordain and Consider all of which are likely the cards that would be replaced. If you really wanted to have an effect that allows these instant speed interactions (because who doesn't love casting Thoughtseize in an opponent's draw step) then Teferi, Time Raveler is likely better on all counts other than the color requirement.

That being said, Quicken enables interesting lines against Orcish Bowmasters when operating on a low life count. After the spell has finished resolving and you've drawn the card, the archers will trigger but you'll already have the next card — say Consider — from your pile in hand. You can respond to the trigger by casting Consider and Surveil away an oracle. The draw from Consider will trigger the archers again, putting a second trigger on the stack on top of the first which has yet to resolve. What if the draw from Consider was a copy of Unearth and you could cast it in response to all the Orcish Bowmasters triggers?

Tutors

There are many tutor effects available in Legacy however many are considered to be very archetype-specific. Some of the options presented have significant flaws or limitations that make them unsuitable for current iterations of Doomsday. Infernal Tutor is too reliant on the Lion's Eye Diamond and works poorly with a lot of the interaction slots the deck runs like Force of Will and Daze. Scheming Symmetry provides the opportunity for your opponent to either find their best piece of interaction or their own enabler to progress their game plan, especially dangerous in other fast combo matchups. Grim Tutor and Solve the Equation both provide solid tutor effects but 3 mana at sorcery speed is not a competitive option in the format. Grim Tutor's life cost is also too steep a cost when we already volunteer half our starting life total.

Of the options above, Wishclaw Talisman is probably the most effective in terms of usage however it still doesn't compare to Personal Tutor or Lim-Dûl's Vault's speed and is usually dismissed as a result. It also opens yourself to opposing answers like Abrupt Decay, Collector Ouphe and Prismatic Ending. If you were less concerned with speed and more concerned about card efficiency and were happy playing a slower game then the claw or even Solve the Equation would be the most viable alternatives. Do note however that tutoring for Doomsday with the claw prompts you to win the game in the same turn as most opponents will be able to answer it as soon as they untap if you give them a free tutor.

Profane Tutor has been experimented with a lot and can be a decent choice for lists. The card is best utilized on turn 2 which means, in theory, you want a high number of copies where possible to ensure it is found early on. Unfortunately, as additional later copies of the card beyond this turn are not useful, running high numbers of it can lead to a lot of dead draws from the deck. It also suffers the same issues as some of the other alternatives with speed being lost from its use.

Demonic Counsel and Splinter's Technique ask for specific deck constructions to function well in a combo deck and are considered slow since they are difficult to enable by turn 2. The former can be listed alongside Mishra's Bauble which is typically the fourth type you'll be missing. The bauble has its own use cases in the deck but is generally lackluster and expensive slot-wise when you can instead be listing copies of Flow State and Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student , 2 cards that are both better in terms of power and velocity. Baleful Strix is another card that can enable both tutor options. It is discussed further down this page so if you want to skip ahead, see #Striges.

Wishes

Wishes are also often discussed as a way to increase the number of pseudo copies of Doomsday within your deck. The most common one discussed is Burning Wish in regards to its mana efficiency and ability to also find a number of strong toolbox spells. However because of the requirement to add in a significant red splash to the maindeck configuration and given the majority of lists are purely blue-black without sideboarding, many people look to Death Wish as a possible alternative. Unfortunately none of the current wish effects are as efficient as the tutor equivalents in terms of mana cost and flexibility.

They also generally promote a slower style of play which would tend to omit tutor effects anyway for potentially additional card advantage engines and control elements.

Striges

Baleful Strix is a great card that can sometimes feel a bit off in a combo shell. It acts as a multifaceted tool that both helps delay opposing aggression whilst still cantripping and allowing you to keep a high blue count both in your 60 for pitching purposes but also in play for your devotion to . When striges are played it normally replaces some number of cyclers or other interaction slots because it tends to promote a slower pace of gameplay. Quite often it is listed alongside other tools that synergise with it. Things like Cabal Therapy, Unearth, Demonic Counsel or a generally more controlling build.

Unearth

Unearth was very popular as the current style of the deck was explored. It paired very well with Predict which many were running and held its own in a vacuum thanks to the cycling allowing it to be thrown back if unneeded. These days it is considered a little too cute as it requires the use of the graveyard and opens you up to otherwise weak interactions like Surgical Extraction, Endurance or Kozilek's Command. Despite this it's still perfectly playable alongside copies of Baleful Strix or other creature plans out of the sideboard and can function as an alternative to a second Oracle in piles.

Creatures

There are a lot of creatures which could be added to the list above but these are the examples picked. The idea in having these creatures is to change the style of the deck to enable two angles of attack; the conventional one winning with Doomsday and Oracle and the alternate plan which pressures life total. Sometimes opponents can overextend with cards like Sylvan Library or Ancient Tomb to find that their life total starts mattering all of a sudden. It also makes them have to consider retaining removal in a situation where they would otherwise prefer to have other types of disruption post-side.

Sometimes the creature plan is light in the maindeck but much heavier after sideboarding as part of a partial or complete transformational package. There are definitely ways that you can capitalise on the surprise factor as a result of it but do be aware, one of the pitfalls in running such a sideboard plan can be an over-reliance on transforming and a lack of trust or extreme dilution of the primary plan.

There are ways you can focus more on the creature plan with the early 2022 dubbing of Tempo Doomsday lists but be warned it will skew certain matchups out of favour and sometimes result in very clunky hands or gameplans, with the wrong parts of both halves being drawn.

Multi-Draw Spells

Even though it doesn't play as well with Lion's Eye Diamond compared to the options that exile cards rather than putting them in your hand, Ideas Unbound is the multi-draw tool that is used to try and dig multiple cards into a pile whilst enabling added protection in your hands or the greatest resource efficiency. Outside of the combo however, the card is somewhat lackluster and thus many look towards arguably better cards in a vacuum to take the slot.

Predict used to be the most popular of these and has been shown to be perfectly viable as an alternative with plenty of historical use examples from 2020 onwards. The main positives include synergising really well with the cantrip shell of the deck and being able to facilitate a longer game. The issues with it include the fact it only draws 2 cards, not 3, and it both risks a card to the graveyard and relies on the top of your library in the face of many shuffle effects like Surgical Extraction, Boseiju, Who Endures or other Ghost Quarter effects which can result in hitting Oracle itself or forcing a turn pass you can't afford. It's very viable but is likely slightly weaker in a dedicated Doomsday list.

Night's Whisper is another commonly suggested alternative. It pairs very strongly with excess mana from ritual effects and is a strong card in its own right pre-combo. Unfortunately only drawing two cards plus having life loss after Doomsday resolves can be limiting and costly, especially if having to be paired with Street Wraith cycles or Force pitch-casting.

Mill Cantrips

Before Consider arrived on the scene and basically obsoleted them, Mental Note and Thought Scour were two options for being able to dig three cards deep into your pile with limited mana. They do have benefits similar to Consider such as being instant speed and thus allowing to dig three through Narset, Parter of Veils or Spirit of the Labyrinth however only allowing one card to be drawn means you have to have a good payoff to get to (something like Unearth for example having milled an oracle) and unlike Surveil, there is no may clause for the mill so if you get hit by a Surgical Extraction for example you could have your day ruined quite considerably. You also cannot use these cleanly in Brainstorm piles like you can with Consider because you wouldn't have enough cards in the pile. The cards are fine but Consider is just better.

Echo of Eons

Echo of Eons is one of the various draw 7 effects that have existed in Magic and one of the few that are legal and playable in Legacy. It can be a very powerful tool allowing for some unique pile construction that plays well around Endurance and makes good use of Lion's Eye Diamond. If you run a list with an excess of Ritual effects you can put extra into the Flashback cost for Echo and cards like Predict or Consider allow you to easily place it into the graveyard.

You have to be wary though as you can deck yourself with the card if you miscount and forget that it exiles itself. There are also plenty of issues you could run into such as Hullbreacher and Orcish Bowmasters that can punish such plays. This fits into the "Probably a singleton for pile purposes but running a second Oracle likely does the same thing" category of cards.

Disruption and Removal

These cards can be very powerful allowing for a nice mix of flexibility and utility whilst being within the deck's core colors. One issue with them normally stems from the fact that two mana in Legacy is quite a lot and neither of these options presented are guaranteed to be effective in every matchup. If you are playing a slower, more controlling variant then they might have space as a one-of but they are not recommended.

The other issue is that trading cards for creatures is often not a good deal for Doomsday. For hate pieces, or a Marit Lage token, one of the more common bounce spells is usually enough.

Alternative Discard

Inquisition of Kozilek is an interesting card in Legacy. It hits 90% of all relevant things you want it to without any life loss associated with it. The big issue, and this can be very relevant, is it does not hit Force of Will. Force is still the most prevalent piece of blue interaction you will face and thus you need to have your own interaction be able to deal with it. Inquisition can be played but only after you have justified not running the full set of Duress or Thoughtseize.

Cabal Therapy alas has had its heyday and now just doesn't pack the same punch. These days with so many decks running such a mix of potential interaction, and without the help of Gitaxian Probe or sacrificial creatures to abuse the Flashback with, it is more than likely this card will now read "Look at target opponent's hand and feel remorse over the good ol' days as you name Force of Will but see Pyroblast, Dress Down and Force of Negation". It can be a useful tool in niche situations involving sacrificing your own oracle but unless you are running things like Baleful Strix to truly squeeze the value from it, it just cannot compete these days.