Pattern Recognition #396 - Doran, Brawling

Features Pattern Recognition

berryjon

29 January 2026

238 views

Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

This video shows off my Doran Standard Brawl deck in action as I wasn't able to get a decent play-by-play at FNM. There were a few modifications to the deck that I think could go into a rebuild Commander styled deck that I highlight near the beginning.

I go 2-2 with this deck, and some games are over very quickly because Doran can quickly snowball. And other and long, tedious grinds. I should look into a couple more exile-removal spells, and I am annoyed that I misread a few of my own cards when dealing with Kotis. Escape Tunnel did good work in games that weren't recorded, but I keep getting tripped up that it doesn't provide mana itself.

The deck as-is can have trouble with UBx Control Decks, but that's part of the larger balance of the game. I could improve its protection and redundancy, but where would be the fun in that?

The win in game 4 against Avatar Aang was long, well fought and my opponent over-committed by a single step and lost for it. But hey, I finally get the achievement for it! Thank you!

Thank you all for watching and reading, and I'll see you all next week!

WAITAMINUTE WADDYA MEAN SLOW-GROW STARTS NEXT WEEK?!?!?!

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!