Doomfang Ally – A 3-/3 Reachman with a twist

Doomfang Ally is the sixth Reachman in The Elder Scrolls Legends and the second Neutral “Ally”. Introduced with Isle of Madness, the 3-drop promotes decks with multi-color cards that run a very small number of neutral cards. When summoned, Doomfang Ally gets different boosts depending on the color of your top deck. For multi-color cards, multiple boosts get applied, causing considerable high-roll potential. For example, if the top card of your deck were Sun-in-Shadows (House Telvanni), Doomfang Ally gains the keywords Ward and Lethal as well as a buff of +0/+2.

Doomfang Ally – Good Buffs?!

Depending on your top deck, Doomfang Ally is likely to turn into something more valuable than a 3/3 for 3. All the other Allies (e.g. Mighty Ally, Cunning Ally, Nimble Ally, Resolute Ally) belong to the best 3-drops in the game, if your deck is running a vast majority of cards with the same color to trigger their special ability. So how does Doomfang Ally compare? Is he among the best 3-drops as well?

The High-Roll Potential…

When Doomfang procs for a single color, it gets reasonable stats when compared to other available 3-cost cards of the corresponding attribute. It’s not quite as good as “a triggered, colored Ally”, but still close. Doomfang Ally has upside potential when he high-rolls and triggers from a dual-color card and can go absolutely crazy when triggered from tri-color cards. Here is a list of buffs/ keywords for the various classes:

Archer (red/green) : +2/+0, Lethal

(red/green) : +2/+0, Lethal Assassin (blue/ green): Ward, Lethal

(blue/ green): Ward, Lethal Battlemage (red/ blue): +2/+0, Ward

(red/ blue): +2/+0, Ward Crusader (red/ yellow): +2/+0, Drain

(red/ yellow): +2/+0, Drain Mage (blue/ yellow): Ward, Drain

(blue/ yellow): Ward, Drain Monk (yellow/ green): Drain, Lethal

(yellow/ green): Drain, Lethal Scout (green/ purple): Lethal, +0/+2

(green/ purple): Lethal, +0/+2 Sorcerer (blue/ purple): Ward, +0/+2

(blue/ purple): Ward, +0/+2 Spellsword (yellow/ Purple): Drain, +0/+2

(yellow/ Purple): Drain, +0/+2 Warrior (red/purple): +2/+2

(red/purple): +2/+2 House Hlaalu (red/ yellow/ green): Drain, Lethal, +2/+0

(red/ yellow/ green): Drain, Lethal, +2/+0 House Redoran (red/ yellow/ purple): Drain, +2/+2

(red/ yellow/ purple): Drain, +2/+2 Tribunal Temple (blue/ yellow/ purple): Drain, Ward, +0/+2.

(blue/ yellow/ purple): Drain, Ward, +0/+2. House Dagoth (red/ blue/ green): Ward, Lethal, +2/+0

(red/ blue/ green): Ward, Lethal, +2/+0 House Telvanni (blue/ green/ purple): Ward, Lethal, +0/+2

Probabilities to trigger Doomfang Ally

The probability to trigger Doomfang Ally can be calcuated using this site. Here are two examples to give you a better feel.

Tri-color Card as Top Deck?

In a 75-card tri-color deck there can currently be a maximum of 7 tri-color cards. Not all of them are equally good, though, but let’s look at the probabilities of triggering him if you included all 7. Our scenario: you play Doomfang Ally on curve (3 magicka) without the ring of magicka, and you do not have a tri-color card in your hand. The remaining 69 cards in your deck leave you a 10% probability to find a tri-color card as your top deck.

Consequently, since most decks run only 3-4 copies of tri-color cards, there is only a 4-5% probability to high-roll him on curve. Is it worth to include more of them just to trigger Doomfang slightly more often? Probably not.

Maximising the Probability?

So let’s see the probabilities to trigger Doomfang Ally with all dual- and all tri-color cards in a 75 card deck. For House Redoran, there are currently 37 multi-color cards. Note, this would not be a good deck, because these mutli-color cards don’t have the greatest synergies. But, let’s look at it for science: it increases the probability to trigger Doomfang Ally from two colors or more to 53.6% (on turn 3, no ring, no multi-color cards in hand). Ceteris paribus, the following table shows the probabilities to get multiple triggers on curve in relation to the number of multi-color cards in a 75-card deck.

Multi-color cards in deck

(75 card deck) Probability for 2 triggers or more

(on curve, no ring,

no multi-color card in hand) 37 53.6% 30 43.5% 25 36.2% 20 29.0% 15 21.7% 10 14.5%

Before we look at more synergies, let’s evaluate the card using Quadrant Theory.

Doomfang Ally during Opening

During Opening, Doomfang Ally can be as much as a 3-cost 5/3 with Lethal and Ward, in House Dagoth or a 3/5 with Ward in Sorcerer. The buffs provide significant upside and you want to leverage them. If Doomfang Ally receives one buff only, he is somewhat stronger than most 3-cost creatures and often allows for 2:1 trades when equipped with Ward or when given +0/+2. When building your deck, you should review the number of dual-(tri-)color cards and also check for dual color Double Cards, like Tavyar the Knight & Rayvat the Mage. Maybe you find an opportunity to tinker the probabilities a little in your favor. But be careful if your opponent has any silence in hand, all the buffs might just convert back into a mere 3/3 for 3.

Doomfang Ally At Parity

At Parity, the Ally is best in blue, green or yellow. In blue, the Ward provides the possibility of a 2-for-1 trade. Green allows you to take control of the Field Lane and to dictate trades. If your opponent has a big threat into the Shadows, your Lethal Doomfang can easily take back control. And yellow allows you to gain some life which can also be an important factor at Parity.

Doomfang Ally when Winning

With your opponent on a two-turn clock, Doomfang Ally is obviously not the biggest body you can hope for. In this phase, you are really wanting to high-roll him. For Strength, another 5 damage can be huge thing to keep momentum and trade into a bigger Guard. A Lethal Doomfang will also help you to eliminate a Guard of any size, so particularly in Archer or Hlaalu, Doomfang can play a big part in keeping your two-turn clock. For yellow, the Drain might not be as important when you are winning, and in purple Endurance the additional health boost also does not help as much.

Doomfang Ally when Losing

When you are losing, the Ally does not have an immediate impact to your opponent’s board. A Guard is certainly more valuable. With Lethal, the Ally can help you to contest the Field Lane or remove an existing threat in the Shadow Lane on your next swing. Drain is certainly the preferred keyword in this situation. Doomfang definitely has some utility in this phase of the game, however, there are certainly better cards to help with a turnaround.

Synergies

In addition to the synergy with multi-color top-decks, there are a few interesting other options.

Ward Synergy in Sorcerer (and Telvanni)

High King Emeric

Skinned Hound

In Sorcerer decks, Doomfang’s ability to generate another creature with Ward can increase the probability to deal 4 damage or more when summoning High King Emeric. TESLegends.pro currently has Tempo Sorcerer as a Tier 1 deck including the Doomfang / High King duo. Certainly, since High King Emeric is a unique card, this synergy is a neat benefit, but one that can help to remove a Guard or provide some additional Reach when needed. Another beneficial option is to use Skinned Hound on a Warded Doomfang Ally. A 3/3 Guard with Ward can easily slow down your opponent’s attack and even require them to trade to creatures into your Doomfang.

Drain Synergy

Ebonheart Oracle

Conjurer’s Spirit

Undying Dragon

Doomfang Ally can also support yellow-heavy decks that evolve around self-healing / Drain. Ebonheart Oracle doubles the amount of Drain to 6, Undying Dragon loves your life points to be above 30, and Conjurer’s Spirit can summon a 2/2 Familiar (Wolf/ Spirit) at the end of a turn in which you gained health.

Lethal Synergy

Quicksilver Crossbow

Archer’s Gambit

Sword of the Inferno

The third keyword that Doomfang Ally can earn is Lethal. Having a 3/3 or even a 5/3 Lethal in an aggressive Archer list can be a serious threat. Consider equipping a Lethal Doomfang with Quicksilver Crossbow, or potentially even a Sword of the Inferno to kill your opponent’s biggest creature or just a Guard that is in your way. A similar effect can be achieved by using Archer’s Gambit, which would also allow a lane change to kill maybe another creature over there.

Top-Deck Previews and Tinkering the Odds

Dres Spy

Studious Greybeard

Resolute Ally

Cunning Ally

We have seen, that the probabilities for a high-roll are most often not particularly great. Therefore, one could consider including Doomfang Ally into a deck that already runs a few cards that allow you to preview (and tinker with) your top deck. Examples are:

Dres Spy , who allows you to look at the top card of your deck and to discard it. Studiosus Greybeard has a similar, but ongoing effect, while he is in play. Note, you probably don’t want to include these two just because of Doomfang Ally, but you might consider adding Doomfang to one of your decks that is already running either one of these.

, who allows you to look at the top card of your deck and to discard it. has a similar, but ongoing effect, while he is in play. Note, you probably don’t want to include these two just because of Doomfang Ally, but you might consider adding Doomfang to one of your decks that is already running either one of these. Any other Ally (e.g. Resolute Ally, Cunning Ally, Mighty Ally, …) can help predict, if Doomfang Ally will trigger a particular effect. For example, if you have 6 magicka, you can play a Cunning Ally to see if he triggers a Firebolt, which will also mean that Doomfang Ally, will definitely equip a Ward.

Summary

Doomfang Ally is a very, very solid card. Equipped with a buff from just one color already makes him playable in any blue-heavy deck and almost playable for any other color. If you get lucky and get two buffs from your top deck, he is very, very powerful in almost any class. As more Dual-color Double cards get released, Doomfang Ally might become a staple in even more decks. In tri-color decks, he is certainly a card that you have to consider as one of your 3-drops, due to the insane high-roll potential. Not an auto-include, but definitely a card to consider during refinement of your deck. In any case, Doomfang Ally requires a carefully designed deck with a reasonable number of dual-color cards inside. Keep checking your discard pile to get an idea about the probabilities of getting him triggered by a certain color.

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