Use This List to Improve Your Dandân Games!

Written by Derek (a.k.a.Tenceri)

Dandân is being released as a Chaos Vault: Secret Lair.

One of the core principles of Dandân, sometimes known as "Forgetful Fish," created by Nick Floyd, is how, after playing a few games, you’ll see various details and corner cases you wouldn't typically see in a regular game of Magic: The Gathering (MTG). The Dandân format proves how sophisticated MTG can be.

I built a Dandân list and improved it with ForceofPhil, who helped me learn to play control decks and understand Legacy. He taught me to think outside the box when it comes to deck construction.

Use Our Link to Buy Cards

Tenceri Dandân

Creatures (10)

10 Dandân

Instants (36)

4 Brainstorm
2 Consider
2 Piracy Charm
2 Ponder
2 Sapphire Charm
2 Vision Charm
2 Boomerang
2 Counterspell
6 Memory Lapse
2 Mission Briefing
4 Predict
2 Brainsurge
2 Tragic Lesson
2 Learn from the Past

Enchantments (2)

Founding the Third Path

Lands (32)

2 Halimar Depths
20 Island
2 Lonely Sandbar
2 Mystic Sanctuary
2 Otawara, Soaring City
2 Remote Isle
2 Soldevi Excavations

Join the Eternal Durdles on Patreon

Dandân lists don’t have much, if any, graveyard interaction. Some lists, like this one, include Mission Briefing and Mystic Sanctuary. ForceofPhil and I include Learn from the Past as a two-of to nearly ensure a way to prevent decking, which would otherwise be an extremely viable strategy.

These inclusions make Founding the Third Path a dynamic inclusion, prompting questions about timing and mana usage. It can fuel the graveyard alongside Predicts and cheeky Vision Charms.

Brainsurge, Tragic Lesson, Learn from the Past, and Soldevi Excavations create more of a Chess or Go experience. Brainsurge is card advantage and sets up the opponent's next draw step. Tragic Lesson allows for the reuse of lands like Otawara, Soaring City, and Halimar Depths after they've been played. Going up cards is powerful, but casting spells that cost more than all of the two-mana countermagic is challenging.

These changes lean toward skill expression rather than Hail Mary-style cards like Diminishing Returns. They test patience. Should you Learn from the Past when you have the mana available, or should you wait to counter a Mystic Sanctuary or Mission Briefing? When playing with a shared deck, drawing a card has so many more implications than in a regular game of MTG.

The most underestimated card in this list is Soldevi Excavations. Its scry 1 ability allows manipulation and mind-games, but sacrificing an Island can set you back when Boomerangs loom.

Soldevi Excavations isn’t for everyone. It hearkens back to Jace, the Mind Sculptor, in the 2010s Cawblade era. This Dandân variation focuses on skillful details, leveraging microadvantages that primarily revolve around timing.

Dandân can drastically improve your skill and how you think about MTG.