Doctor Octopus, Master Planner Deck Tech

Doctor Octopus, Master Planner | Art by Xabi Gaztelua

Marvel's Spider-Man releases in a few weeks, but Wizards of the Coast has recently finished revealing all the cards in it. The set's creature types are mostly divided between two camps: Heroes and Villains, which makes sense for a super-hero comics IP. There's one Villain card in particular that cares about other Villains, and that's Doctor Octopus, Master Planner!

The first question I wondered before building around Doctor Octopus, Master Planner was are there enough Villain cards to build a Dimir Villain deck? Good news for you and me-- and bad news for Heroes -- there is indeed, and so I schemed up a deck to make Doc Ock and his villainy proud. Here's a rundown of what you can expect from it, with the full decklist towards the end.

What Does Doctor Octopus, Master Planner Do?

First off, the Doc wants you to have a bunch of Villains on the battlefield -- the more the merrier. Each other Villain you control gets +2/+2, which can add up quick, and since he's got a mana value of seven, you'll have time to assemble your crew of scalawags and malcontents.

Next, your maximum hand size is eight... which is only one more than your regular hand size of seven, but hey: flavor win! However, this ties into the last part of his text box, which says "At the beginning of your end step, if you have fewer than eight cards in hand, draw cards equal to the difference."

Excuse me... WHAT? That's an incredibly powerful ability, especially if you're playing lots of cheaper spells so that your hand is low by the time you cast this from the command zone. Now, having card draw attached to a commander is a well that Magic design drinks from often, but usually it's attached to an enters trigger, attack trigger or, in the case of Kozilek, the Great Distortion, which is similar, a cast trigger.

Doctor Octopus, Master Planner just wants to be on the battlefield when your end steps roll around, assuming your hand has been dwindled with evil deeds. So in addition to casting Villains, you're playing interaction like removal and counterspells, and lots and lots of fast mana.

Key Cards for Doctor Octopus, Master Planner

Your first order of business is to assemble your team of Villains, and as I mentioned there are a lot to choose from in this set. My first focus were Villains that care about Villains, and Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist and Flying Octobot give plenty of Doctor Octopus vibes and can become pretty big threats as the game progresses. Mysterio, Master of Illusion supplements your theme of deploying a bunch of Villains by making a bunch of blue Illusion Villain token creatures, that become 5/5s when your commander is on the battlefield.

Prowler, Clawed Thief connives when another Villain enters under your control, which can really help you pitch cards you can't or don't want to cast and draw fresh gasoline, while Tombstone, Career Criminal brings back a Villain from the graveyard and discounts Villain spells you cast.

Venom, Eddie Brock grows whenever another creature dies, then lets you draw a card if it was a Villain. Vulture, Scheming Scavenger gives all other Villains you control flying when it attacks, which can set up an impressive evasive attack.

There are plenty of other Villains that don't care about other Villains and instead just do cool evil stuff all on their own. We've got another version of our commander with Doc Ock, Evil Inventor, which can animate a Sol Ring or Dimir Signet into an 8/8 Robot Villain at the beginning of combat on your turn. Chameleon, Master of Disguise may enter as a copy of a creature you control, but it keeps its name so you can copy an legendary creature. It also has mayhem, so if you discard it, say, to connive from something like Doc Ock's Henchmen, you can cast it from your graveyard that same turn.

Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon is a weird card, effectively giving you mana ramp on your opponents' turns but turning back into a Villain on your turn that pumps itself for each blue spell you cast. Mechanical Mobster and Alchemax Slayer-Bots aren't the highest-quality creature cards, but they have some useful card text and get bigger with the commander on the battlefield.

Since I'm playing a lot of mana acceleration, the activated ability of Merciless Enforcers is a decent mana sink, and that lifegain can be crucial to surviving towards the later game where Doc Ock will start to shine. Lady Octopus, Inspired Inventor plays best in a heavy artifact deck, but I do have a good amount of artifacts, and she helps deploy them faster and empties my hand of cards. The cards stolen by Black Cat, Cunning Thief sit nicely away in exile, so they don't count towards your hand size.

Scorpion, Seething Striker and Mob Lookout provide additional opportunities to connive to keep the cards flowing and ditching cards that otherwise are clogging your hand.

Morbius the Living Vampire has a nifty collection of abilities, and after it dies you can cash it in to grab the best of the top three cards of your library. Common Crook and Symbiote Spawn are expendable Villains that give you a benefit when they die.

Since this is a Villain deck, I'm playing a handful of kindred support cards, like Metallic Mimic and Adaptive Automaton, which help make your Villains bigger and more threatening.

Bloodline Pretender exemplifies the selfishness of Villains by boosting itself for each other Villain that enters under your control, and since we've access to blue we definitely want Kindred Discovery; if your primary plan of drawing cards from your commander doesn't work out, this enchantment will keep you flush with plenty of extra gas.

I tapped a couple of Shapeshifters with the changeling ability as honorary Villains because of their nifty abilities. Shapesharer can copy the best creature on the battlefield for a turn, while Graveshifter can bring back a dead Villain from your graveyard. Changeling Outcast is an early drop Villain that can ping away at life totals and eventually get threatening once the commander appears.

Where it made sense, I grabbed some other in-universe flavor cards for the deck. Daily Bugle Building's Smear Campaign ability gives a legendary Villain menace until the end of turn, making it harder to block. Doc Ock's Tentacles provides a significant power and toughness boost, and it attaches for free to a creature you control with mana value five or greater when it enters. The mill of Grasping Tentacles doesn't exactly fit with the theme, but potentially grabbing a mana rock can help with your plan of big mana.

Risky Research is excellent card draw, while Villainous Wrath provides great mass removal with the potential of seriously damaging an opponent that has gone wide. And then there's the super-flavorful Behold the Sinister Six! that can reanimate up to six creatures with different names from your graveyard, an excellent way to recoup from a battlefield sweeper.

To further my plan of fast mana to empty my hand, in addition to the expected Sol Ring and mana rocks, I'm also running Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual and the flavorful Culling the Weak. Burning cards for mana is easy to do when your commander will replace those cards!

Dramatic Reversal can combine with a handful of artifact mana sources to nearly double that mana for your big turn; Turnabout can do the same thing, or if you are flush on lands you can untap those instead. Or, you can use it offensively to tap an opponent's blockers, or defensively to tap an opponent's attackers.

Frantic Search lets you draw two cards and discard two cards, and untaps the three lands you used to cast it, and the awesome The Immortal Sun makes your spells cheaper to cast, your creatures all a little bit bigger, draws you an extra card, and, oh yeah, shuts down the loyalty abilities of planeswalkers. Seems like worthy loot for our band of Villains to strive for!

How Does This Doctor Octopus, Master Planner Commander Deck Win?

With an expensive commander and a creature type that is only minimally supported in Magic (so far), the deck is solidly a Core (Tier 2) deck that's going to win by grinding out value, picking off key creatures your opponents control, and knocking out opponents with combat damage.

Doctor Octopus, Master Planner Commander Decklist

Conclusion

If you're a fan of Marvel comics and Spider-Man in particular, playing a Villain deck with Doc Ock at the helm is sure to be loads of fun. This very clearly lives in the lower Brackets where games go long and there's a bunch of interaction and game swings. If your group prefers to play Upgraded (Bracket 2) decks, you can certainly juice up the power level with some Game Changers.

Fierce Guardianship and Force of Will ups your ability to say "no" for no mana, and will be particularly useful in helping to keep your commander on the battlefield. Mox Diamond gives you some extra mana ramp at the cost of a land from your hand, but again the commander should let you recoup that lost card.

Which cards would you want to add to a Commander deck built around Doctor Octopus, Master Planner?

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