Dovin, Grand Arbiter

Legendary Planeswalker — Dovin

+1: Until end of turn, whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, put a loyalty counter on this.

-1: Create a 1/1 colourless Thopter artifact creature token with flying. You gain 1 life.

-7: Look at the top ten cards of your library. Put three of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

Tokens

• Thopter 1/1 C

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (38)

wallisface on

1 year ago

I wouldn’t bother with Celestial Colonnade. If a game ever goes so long that you have 6 lands in play to activate it, you’ve likely already lost. It entering tapped will hurt you more than any of its capabilities to help you.

Counterspell is cheap and much better than Saw it Coming. Mana Leak would also be better if you want a cheaper option.

I really don’t think Dovin, Grand Arbiter does enough to be worth it.

InzHornet4 on Need help finding a focus …

2 years ago

If you'd want to use him, you would need fast access to a lot of tokens to be able to play him as soon as possible, maybe by turns 4 or 5. You could make it a bant list, because green white is pretty good at making tokens. I like planeswalkers that make tokens. If you can get enough on board, they get harder to deal with. Plus if you play that Saheeli, they count as non-returnable spells, so she'd make a token as you cast them. I wouldn't play that the Hero of the Precinct One honestly. I would suggest adding Nissa, Voice of Zendikar and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. They are very good in modern, and make tokens very reliably. Dovin, Grand Arbiter could be a cool addition, gaining some extra loyalty on the first turn he comes in, then start making tokens and gaining some life. For instants and sorceries, Raise the Alarm and Verdant Command are amazing low mana ways to get a couple tokens. The command would also give you an added second effect to help you out. If you draw one of those and a Nissa, Saheeli or Dovin, you could have 4 tokens on turn 4, then drop the Junk Winder. If you wanted to spend $9 on a card, you could get a few Cryptolith Rite and a few X spells and go that route. A Cryptolith Rite followed by a Raise the Alarm or Verdant Command would also get you a turn 4 Junk Winder. I would give you some more ideas, but I'm thinking of more budget friendly ways to make tokens. U do have a GW Walker Token deck for Modern if you want to check that out, but it isn't very budget friendly. Sorry if this is long btw, I love playing token decks.

Joe_Ken_ on Gideon holds the Front Line

3 years ago

Some cards you should really want are stuff that will make it harder to deal with your planeswalker and walkers that will make more tokens.

Sphere of Safety is great for a high enchantment deck like this one. Ghostly Prison and Propaganda are also good, but won’t protect your walkers.

Dovin, Grand Arbiter makes some flying tokens and can get close to his ultimate range real easy.

Dovin Baan has a little defensive utility and card draw, but I am recommending him since if he gets his ultimate off then there is now way you shouldn’t win.

Narset, Parter of Veils will turn off opponents card draw.

Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs can make attacks harder or produce a nice chump blocker.

Anointed Procession is probably one of the best cards you can have with your token producers in the deck.

Epicurus on Niv's Misfits

4 years ago

TolarianScientist, your concern is real. At the moment, I'm running 16 spells which deal with that concern:

• Basic Landcycling: Jhessian Zombies, Ancient Excavation, Migratory Route, Treacherous Terrain, Grave Upheaval and Sylvan Reclamation
• Mana Rocks: Chrome Mox, Lotus Bloom and Mox Tantalite
• Land Fetch: Frenzied Tilling, Deathsprout, Grisly Salvage and Exploding Borders
• The Lone Mana Dork: Leyline Prowler
• Also: Primal Amulet  ^Flip and Coiling Oracle

For a hot second, I also had Atzocan Seer on the list, but dropped it in favor of including more offense as a tradeoff for losing mana production (I removed it for Knight of New Alara).

The problem with mana dorks is that none of the best ones are color pairs. With any other 5-color commander, this decklist would look totally different.

I like your suggestion of borderposts. Right now, the Spells I'd most consider removing are Merfolk Skydiver, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Deathbringer Liege, Terminate and Dovin, Grand Arbiter. Of those spells, how many and which would you replace with borderposts of the same colors?

Sorry for the long response.

Idoneity on

4 years ago

It seems there are many cards in here that just don't do much, as well as there being naught in terms of basic essentials for a commander deck.

As for creatures:

Dewdrop Spy , Dream Thief , Faerie Duelist , Faerie Seer , Final-Sting Faerie , Hypnotic Sprite , Latchkey Faerie , Nightshade Schemers , Pestermite , Shinechaser , Surveilling Sprite , Thornwind Faeries , Wasp Lancer , and Wizened Snitches . None of these seem to stand out. They have lacking effects that don't bolster power level, but rather drag it down. Cards in other supertypes seem to fall under the same category.

Faerie Tauntings , Stolen by the Fae , Dimir Locket , Violet Pall and Dimir Locket all seem incongruous and lacking. Brainstorm is best when shuffling effects can launder away cards if need be. This deck has only two tutors. Stolen by the Fae is restrictive and minute in impact, as well as a sorcery. Violet Pall seems far too expensive for what it does.

For what I believe should be added, card draw, ramp, and threats.

Windreader Sphinx , Coastal Piracy , and Bident of Thassa are able to draw a considerable amount over the course of a match. Phyrexian Arena , Underworld Connections , and Consecrated Sphinx oft daggle me through the game rather easily.

Sol Ring , Smothering Tithe , Talisman of Progress , Talisman of Hierarchy , Azorius Signet , Dimir Signet , Orzhov Signet , and Mind Stone all carry their weight and herald efficiency.

For wraths, I find that two or three do the job well, and Rout or Cyclonic Rift seem to fit the plan of this deck well.

Dovin, Grand Arbiter could be a spicy option, and Unfulfilled Desires is a favourite of mine.

Good fortune to you, my liege. May all lout in your wake.

Fugl on Building On Tempo ~ Azorius Tempo ~ Pioneer

4 years ago

Geo67 Sorry for the late response. Depending on how many Gideon's you are lacking, I would recommend maxing on Avacyn or adding Gideon Blackblade , Thalia, Heretic Cathar , Supreme Will , Dovin, Grand Arbiter .

Grumplstiltskin Thanks for the question! There are a couple of cards that are good against this deck. One card would be Teferi, Time Raveler since it forces the deck to play sorcery speed. Thoughtseize and Fatal Push is pretty good as well. The deck has a really bad matchup with Izzet Phoenix. A deck that cast a lot of 1-2 cmc spells is gonna out tempo the deck since it plays so many low cmc cards and has evasive threats.

BlackSirius on

4 years ago

Dovin, Grand Arbiter might me worth considering. Life gain, token generator, and multi colored spell.

kamarupa on Agro blue/white flying deck

4 years ago

I've really enjoyed Dovin, Grand Arbiter in my Azorious weenie fliers deck. I've also found Always Watching to be very strong and worth the space and mana. Pride of the Clouds is really good, too, but almost too good because it's such an obvious target. Same thing with Sephara, Sky's Blade . Faerie Seer is worth considering, as is Segovian Angel and Squadron Hawk . The Hawks are very strong in my deck, acting as a sort of draw card. Immortal Servitude is also pretty great, often bringing 4 or more 1CMC creatures back from the graveyard for 4.

I think you should try to upgrade the mana-base a bit, or even add in 4x dual-color tap-lands. The mana chart shows that this is blue heavy, so at the least, probably 12 Islands and 8 Plains would help a bit.

Healer's Hawk is awesome. It's got such great value! Windstorm Drake , on the other hand, seems pretty clunky for 5.

I think it will be worth it to cut back you creature count to 24, thereby reducing the deck to 60 cards total, and opening up a few added spots for disruption spells like Negate or Reprobation . Of the creatures here, I think the best are Faerie Miscreant and Healer's Hawk, because both have such strong value for only 1CMC. Next I like with Empyrean Eagle or Thunderclap Wyvern combo-ed with Warden of Evos Isle, but probably not both. Spirit of the Spires, Sprite Noble, and Windstorm Drake seem like the weakest links, costing a lot of mana for less good payoffs. Cloudfin Raptor isn't very strong in my mind either, but at 1CMC, it's an ok choice. I think the aggro strategy will work best when it hits the fastest, so keeping the CMC down to 1-2 for most the creatures is going to get more wins. As it is right now, CMC-wise, it would probably work better with 2-4 more lands.