Fighting Clout of the Dominus: Solutions and Problems

In the current standard environment, red decks have access to a card that allows them to do something unfair: Clout of the Dominus. The stats boost and haste are nice, but shroud is what sets Clout apart. In PDC, shroud is a profoundly unfair mechanic. The class of cards that would really punish it, mass removal like Firespout or Wrath of God, simply doesn't exist at the common level (at least not in standard). Minus mass removal it becomes very difficult to profitably deal with a creature with shroud. In fact, before Clout really caught on, many decks could not answer a Clouted creature at all.

The addition of Clout completely changes how many matchups play out. For example, imagine you are piloting a black control deck packed with cheap removal like Terror and creatures like Ravenous Rats and Phyrexian Rager that put you ahead in cards without falling behind on the board. You win the die roll and choose to go first. You play a Swamp and pass. Your opponent leads with a Mountain. You smile, knowing he's likely playing an aggressive strategy and you have all the tools to crush him. He plays a Stream Hopper and says go. You draw, play a second Swamp, and cast Ravenous Rats. As you pass the turn you feel pretty good. Your Rats have already knocked a card out of his hand and now he will either have to waste mana giving his Stream Hopper flying or allow you to trade, netting a second card with your Rats. Instead, your opponent plays Clout of the Dominus on Stream Hopper and you realize you've lost: nothing in your deck can handle a 3/3 flier with shroud.

Traditional red aggro decks rely on quick creatures backed up with burn. Red aggro in the current standard (dubbed DDW, Dominus Deck Wins) has both of those components, but it also has the ability to get a lot of "free" wins just by resolving Clout of the Dominus. To defeat this deck, you must be able to handle a traditional aggro strategy and deal with Clout of the Dominus. This article focuses on dealing with Clout of the Dominus, but you should keep in mind that, unless your deck can stop the conventional assault of creatures and burn, stopping Clout won't matter.

With that in mind, here are some solutions to Clout, along with their advantages and disadvantages. (I'm focusing on Clout in the context of Red Decks, but it should be noted that it can go into blue decks as well).

Solution #1: Traditional enchantment removal

Examples: Naturalize; Demystify

Advantages: These spells are cheap, often instant-speed, and deal with Clout permanently.

Problems: Think about how you are hoping this plays out: you have mana up the turn they play Clout and you destroy it immediately, before they get to use the pump or haste. That means you traded your card one-for-one with theirs and came out even or behind on mana. This is the best case scenario for you (okay, maybe you could trick them into attacking, then destroy Clout and make a favorable block, but that won't happen very often) and it's just an even trade. There are many other likely scenarios that are much worse for you. For example, you draw the enchantment removal when they don't have Clout, leaving you with a dead card; or you don't have mana up when they play Clout so they get in a free chunk of damage before you can remove it. If you're going to devote slots in your deck to answering a card, you'd like to do better than something that, at best, gives you an even trade, and often turns out worse.

Additionally, these cards will be dead against decks that don't play any targets.

Solution #2: Enchantment-killing creatures

Examples: Wispmare; Wickerbough Elder

Advantages: When these cards work, they deal with Clout while giving you a free (in terms of cards) body. Also, they still provide a warm body even against decks with no targets.

Problems: These cards require you to spend 3-5 mana to get a creature and destroy an enchantment. Remember, your goal is not just to answer Clout, but to answer it in a way that lets you win the game. If your solution takes too long to come online, you may win the battle but lose the war. For example, if you activate Wickerbough Elder on turn four after taking two hits from a Clouted creature, you are almost certainly losing the game anyway.

Solution #3: Instant-speed creature removal

Examples: Shock; Peppersmoke

Advantages: The idea is to wait until they try to cast Clout. While it is still on the stack you respond by destroying the creature they targeted. Clout fizzles because its target is gone. When this works, you trade one of your card for two of theirs, coming out ahead both in cards and tempo. These cards have the added advantage of being strong against most decks you are likely to face.

Problems: This strategy requires you to leave mana up on your opponent's turn. Good players will not walk into a two-for-one, they will try to wait until you are tapped out to move. Therefore you have to pay attention to leaving mana up both in deck construction (playing the cheapest possible instant-speed removal while avoiding expensive sorcery-speed spells) and in play (not tapping out during your turn).

Solution #4: Ignore it

Examples: This is a strategy, not a specific card, but something like Steel of the Godhead might be the cornerstone of your plan.

Advantages: Obviously, when it works, this is the ideal strategy, since you bypass the annoying problem of dealing with Clout entirely.

Problems: If you're not going to deal with Clout, you'll have to win before it kills you. Ignoring it amounts to racing it. Unfortunately, Clout is an incredibly efficient racing card, basically acting as a 2/2 creature with haste for one mana that sometimes also gives another creature haste. On top of that, the rest of DDW is also great at racing, backing up Clout with cheap creatures and direct damage. To win the race you will likely have to resort to something like lifelink to get an edge.

This is my first article for pdcmagic.com. I've been thinking a fair amount about the format, trying to get back involved in PDC, and decided I might as well put some of my thoughts into an article. Comments/suggestions welcome.

Procumbo in the forums
Nate316 in-game

Postscript: I wrote this article before MPDC on 10/28, the first post-Shards standard tournament. DDW was indeed the most played deck, but despite a DDW variant winning the tournament, on average it did not do that well against the field. Many players adopted even more shroud-centric strategies involving Slippery Bogle and Deft Duelist. Nonetheless, at least at this point, DDW remains the deck you are most likely to face in any given round.