Hello all, first post here though some of you have played with me on Cockatrice before. I've shared this deck with many online already and would like to continue to improve it with your help.
The deck as you can see is a quite straightforward all-in aggro deck featuring the new green C15 general Titania. She is an extremely strong general utilizing both abilities to the fullest and allowing for very explosive openers as well as killing out of nowhere even on a deadlocked board.
Let's examine her two abilities shall we?
When Titania, Protector of Argoth enters the battlefield, return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
The most straightforward ability and the one often misread -- the land comes directly into play, not to your hand! This additional ramp is what really sets the deck apart as even if Titania or your entire board is killed you're usually always only 1 land drop away from recasting her. This also allows for turns where you can double or triple Wasteland somebody all while developing your board.
Whenever a land you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a 5/3 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
The real meat of the card and the reason this deck is [in my opinion] very good. In Magic's history, cards that reward you for doing things you were planning on doing anyway tend to be the strongest. In Legacy/Modern, Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer & Treasure Cruise are good because their only "requirement" is that you play spells, but even they have occasional downsides as those decks can sometimes fizzle on wincons. Titania differs in that (nearly) every magic deck requires land, and with her (nearly) every land is an additional wincon!
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The two weaknesses of Titania are her manacost (3GG) and her relatively small backside. The first weakness is compensated for by Green's affinity for ramp, and we're playing 20+ pieces of the most viable options. As with most green decks, hands that have 1+ pieces of ramp are the best so we load up on it as much as possible. Note that despite how good Lotus Cobra is in most decks it's even more broken in Titania because your t3 fetchland adds 6 mana in total and creates a 5/3 with the help of Titania.
Titania's low toughness is not as much of an issue because as I mentioned earlier we don't really mind if she dies. If they're sweeping the board we can easily rebuild with 10+ power and if they're just targeting down Titania all that does is ramp us more and provide another 5/3.
The primary weakness of the deck is most obviously graveyard hate a la Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. [card]Scavenging Ooze, Relic of Progenitus[/cards] and other incidental GY hate is also annoying but not nearly as backbreaking as it only shuts off the first half of Titania.
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Most often the deck kills by the following ways:
-building up a board and then Hoofing for approximately a billion
-getting out early Titania and sneaking out dmg before they can stabilize or by putting them into The Abyss by forcing them to chump block every turn
If I had to make any changes I would reexamine the "toolbox" and how much space it occupies in the deck. The creature count seems too low for Pod but I've never regretted drawing it as I am always willing to pod Titania into Primeval Titan and continue into Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth. I have also questioned how much I want Chord of Calling as if I have enough creatures to convoke out a fatty I'm probably already winning.
Constant Mists was a joke card in my mind for a long time until it saved me countless times vs Animar. Arena is also in the deck for the same reason as there are decks that can just chump block my Elementals all day. For this reason I have considered Brawn.
Other cards in consideration that are on the cusp on coming in (and probably will for short time to test):
The reason for not including seemingly "must-run" cards like Scapeshift is in my testing it's been just a little too slow. I may be completely wrong about this, though and admit as much.
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Anyways, thanks for reading and I look forward to your discussion/comments.
I would be curious to see how Crucible of Worlds would perform in this deck. I think it would be a great card for synergy with what you are trying to accomplish, I did a Ctrl+F search and could not find the card in your original post. I'm not sure if it is banned because I am not familiar with French rules.
I saw your games online a couple of times and it has good results. I'm curious on the weaknesses. It really perform unexpectedly. Somewhat on the same par as Azusa.
The weaknesses I briefly mentioned in the OP -- decks that can counter Titania easily (hence Dosan despite multiple ways to search Cavern) as well as decks that can go off due to Green's lack of disruption (Animar and similar). Sometimes if on the play I can go off faster than those decks but on the draw I need to find a lot of land kill, Beast Within, Mouth of Ronom or my new favorite, Arena.
Quote from "Apollo7 »
I would be curious to see how Crucible of Worlds would perform in this deck. I think it would be a great card for synergy with what you are trying to accomplish, I did a Ctrl+F search and could not find the card in your original post. I'm not sure if it is banned because I am not familiar with French rules.
Unfortunately (or maybe not as it's a broken card) Crucible is banned in French. I agree it fits perfectly with the idea of the deck though I haven't tested a regular version of this deck yet (I imagine it's as simple as taking out so mana elves and adding in mana rocks).
A few thoughts:
- Plow Under: more land suppression, can be quite brutal when ramped into.
- Sundering Titan: very often MLD, procs titania and is a big dumb bruiser
- city of solitude: answer to counter decks.
A few thoughts:
- Plow Under: more land suppression, can be quite brutal when ramped into.
- Sundering Titan: very often MLD, procs titania and is a big dumb bruiser
- city of solitude: answer to counter decks.
Thanks for the feedback!
Those cards have been on my radar but I've shied away from including them for the following reasons:
-Plow Under is a tad too slow and doesn't progress my own board like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and Reap and Sow do. I might try it in place of Acid-Moss for a stretch.
-Terastodon is currently my 8-drop of choice because he can also answer problematic permanents like Planeswalkers and/or target my own lands to give me 33 power. Titan is very appealing, however... worth testing for sure.
-City of Solitude is not good in the deck because we like to activate abilities at instant speed (using Safekeeper to protect Titania, for instance).
Also, fastbond is legal in French Duel Commander... if you use fastbond... Grazing Gladehart helps negate the loss of life. If you have one on the battlefield with Sylvan Library, you can draw cards aggressively.
With all the landfall going on... Rampaging Baloths has good synergy with this deck.
How are all the one mana elves working out for you? I am not using them in my list.
Also, fastbond is legal in French Duel Commander... if you use fastbond... Grazing Gladehart helps negate the loss of life. If you have one on the battlefield with Sylvan Library, you can draw cards aggressively.
With all the landfall going on... Rampaging Baloths has good synergy with this deck.
How are all the one mana elves working out for you? I am not using them in my list.
I've tried out Baloths but most landfall happens before he gets out and I'll always cast Titania before him anyway. In my list almost all cards are support for Titania as drawing a hand with 6-drops and no ramp is miserable as the deck is basically dead until Titania can come out. Because Titania is so important to the deck the one mana elves are essential. Late game they can help recast Titania if she's been killed, otherwise they can pitch to Survival.
Tutor T1 for a Rofellos, or later turns for Reclamation Sage / Acidic Slime for problem permanents, Prime Time for value, or Behemoth to end things.
Perhaps pact is better. I'll have to test it out. I did have Phyrexian Revoker at one point in time so that's why I had Chord.
I've actually upped the # of Forests to 20 and this deck mulligans a lot to fast mana. There are occasional hands that are rough but usually we have a forest/fetchland.
Zuran Orb was kind of a necessary evil for games that I had Titania and a ton of land but no other interaction. Representing insta-kills was important so I'm testing it out.
In general I'll wait until there's a land in the Graveyard. The ramp is just as important as getting tokens online if she dies.
Scapeshift definitely does not require testing, I get stomped every single time my friend plays it with Titania out. He usually puts like 80 power on board. You sac a bunch of lands for a bunch of fetches, which you sac for more forests.
Crucible of Worlds is absolutely a house in the deck as well, when paired with glacial chasm he is really hard to deal with, and never has to pay the upkeep on it. Oh and it puts 10 power on board each time he plays/sacs it.
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
Modern: UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy: UWBMiracles
Edh: UUUThassa Control WWWHokori Stax GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy BBBGriselbrand French List RBGShattergang(Super Villians) RWGHazezon Flicker UBRMarchesa Aggro URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
French EDH BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB B Braids, Cabal Minion B G Titania, Protector of Argoth G R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us My Street Art
Here's my multiplayer commander decklist to give you a good place to start. It is heavily favorable for Crucible. Favorite new combo = Titania/Crucible of Worlds + Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage.
It is configured for multiplayer currently with Strip Mine, but that could just be another Snow-Covered Forest.
Switching to Duel Commander I'll probably change some of the more meta-dependent cards (like Gravity Well) for more stax elements/graveyard recursion. It's current weakness seems to be control, so I may add some anticontrol elements as well.
It's an extremely fun and resilient deck to play. Once there was 3 board wipes in 3 turns, and this deck still came back swinging the following turn.
1 Bant Panorama
1 Crystal Vein
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Hickory Woodlot
1 Jund Panorama
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Naya Panorama
15 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
Land Toolbox
1 Arena
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Dark Depths
1 Dust Bowl
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Encroaching Wastes
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Homeward Path
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mosswort Bridge [so easy to turn on]
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Petrified Field
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Wasteland
1 Crop Rotation
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Life from the Loam
1 Expedition Map
1 Reap and Sow
Ramp
1 Arbor Elf
1 Harrow
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Boreal Druid
1 Burgeoning
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Devoted Druid
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Exploration
1 Fastbond
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Gaea's Touch
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Priest of Titania
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
1 Acidic Slime
1 Dosan, the Falling Leaf
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Reclamation Sage
Creature Toolbox Enablers
1 Birthing Pod
1 Chord of Calling
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Worldly Tutor
Game Enders
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Hall of Gemstone [vs 3 color/control]
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
1 Primeval Titan
1 Terastodon
1 Zuran Orb
Catch-all Problem Solvers
1 Beast Within
1 Constant Mists
1 Song of the Dryads
1 Karn Liberated
Card Draw/Selection
1 Harmonize
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Sylvan Library
Hello all, first post here though some of you have played with me on Cockatrice before. I've shared this deck with many online already and would like to continue to improve it with your help.
The deck as you can see is a quite straightforward all-in aggro deck featuring the new green C15 general Titania. She is an extremely strong general utilizing both abilities to the fullest and allowing for very explosive openers as well as killing out of nowhere even on a deadlocked board.
Let's examine her two abilities shall we?
When Titania, Protector of Argoth enters the battlefield, return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
The most straightforward ability and the one often misread -- the land comes directly into play, not to your hand! This additional ramp is what really sets the deck apart as even if Titania or your entire board is killed you're usually always only 1 land drop away from recasting her. This also allows for turns where you can double or triple Wasteland somebody all while developing your board.
Whenever a land you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a 5/3 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
The real meat of the card and the reason this deck is [in my opinion] very good. In Magic's history, cards that reward you for doing things you were planning on doing anyway tend to be the strongest. In Legacy/Modern, Delver of Secrets, Young Pyromancer & Treasure Cruise are good because their only "requirement" is that you play spells, but even they have occasional downsides as those decks can sometimes fizzle on wincons. Titania differs in that (nearly) every magic deck requires land, and with her (nearly) every land is an additional wincon!
-----------
The two weaknesses of Titania are her manacost (3GG) and her relatively small backside. The first weakness is compensated for by Green's affinity for ramp, and we're playing 20+ pieces of the most viable options. As with most green decks, hands that have 1+ pieces of ramp are the best so we load up on it as much as possible. Note that despite how good Lotus Cobra is in most decks it's even more broken in Titania because your t3 fetchland adds 6 mana in total and creates a 5/3 with the help of Titania.
Titania's low toughness is not as much of an issue because as I mentioned earlier we don't really mind if she dies. If they're sweeping the board we can easily rebuild with 10+ power and if they're just targeting down Titania all that does is ramp us more and provide another 5/3.
The primary weakness of the deck is most obviously graveyard hate a la Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. [card]Scavenging Ooze, Relic of Progenitus[/cards] and other incidental GY hate is also annoying but not nearly as backbreaking as it only shuts off the first half of Titania.
-----------
Most often the deck kills by the following ways:
-building up a board and then Hoofing for approximately a billion
-getting out early Titania and sneaking out dmg before they can stabilize or by putting them into The Abyss by forcing them to chump block every turn
-chaining together land destruction spells
-alpha striking with Titania plus EOT saccing all lands to Zuran Orb or Sylvan Safekeeper
-----------
If I had to make any changes I would reexamine the "toolbox" and how much space it occupies in the deck. The creature count seems too low for Pod but I've never regretted drawing it as I am always willing to pod Titania into Primeval Titan and continue into Avenger of Zendikar and Craterhoof Behemoth. I have also questioned how much I want Chord of Calling as if I have enough creatures to convoke out a fatty I'm probably already winning.
Constant Mists was a joke card in my mind for a long time until it saved me countless times vs Animar. Arena is also in the deck for the same reason as there are decks that can just chump block my Elementals all day. For this reason I have considered Brawn.
Other cards in consideration that are on the cusp on coming in (and probably will for short time to test):
1 Greater Good
1 Tilling Treefolk
1 Scapeshift
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Natural Affinity [and other land->creature spells]
1 Village Elder [and other cute cards]
The reason for not including seemingly "must-run" cards like Scapeshift is in my testing it's been just a little too slow. I may be completely wrong about this, though and admit as much.
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Anyways, thanks for reading and I look forward to your discussion/comments.
//EunB
It really perform unexpectedly. Somewhat on the same par as Azusa.
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
The weaknesses I briefly mentioned in the OP -- decks that can counter Titania easily (hence Dosan despite multiple ways to search Cavern) as well as decks that can go off due to Green's lack of disruption (Animar and similar). Sometimes if on the play I can go off faster than those decks but on the draw I need to find a lot of land kill, Beast Within, Mouth of Ronom or my new favorite, Arena.
Unfortunately (or maybe not as it's a broken card) Crucible is banned in French. I agree it fits perfectly with the idea of the deck though I haven't tested a regular version of this deck yet (I imagine it's as simple as taking out so mana elves and adding in mana rocks).
A few thoughts:
- Plow Under: more land suppression, can be quite brutal when ramped into.
- Sundering Titan: very often MLD, procs titania and is a big dumb bruiser
- city of solitude: answer to counter decks.
Thanks for the feedback!
Those cards have been on my radar but I've shied away from including them for the following reasons:
-Plow Under is a tad too slow and doesn't progress my own board like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and Reap and Sow do. I might try it in place of Acid-Moss for a stretch.
-Terastodon is currently my 8-drop of choice because he can also answer problematic permanents like Planeswalkers and/or target my own lands to give me 33 power. Titan is very appealing, however... worth testing for sure.
-City of Solitude is not good in the deck because we like to activate abilities at instant speed (using Safekeeper to protect Titania, for instance).
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
It's in there. Some reason got left out.
Greater Good, Garruk's Packleader,Kavu Lair are all good sources of draw.
Also, fastbond is legal in French Duel Commander... if you use fastbond... Grazing Gladehart helps negate the loss of life. If you have one on the battlefield with Sylvan Library, you can draw cards aggressively.
With all the landfall going on... Rampaging Baloths has good synergy with this deck.
How are all the one mana elves working out for you? I am not using them in my list.
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
I've tried out Baloths but most landfall happens before he gets out and I'll always cast Titania before him anyway. In my list almost all cards are support for Titania as drawing a hand with 6-drops and no ramp is miserable as the deck is basically dead until Titania can come out. Because Titania is so important to the deck the one mana elves are essential. Late game they can help recast Titania if she's been killed, otherwise they can pitch to Survival.
Perhaps pact is better. I'll have to test it out. I did have Phyrexian Revoker at one point in time so that's why I had Chord.
I've actually upped the # of Forests to 20 and this deck mulligans a lot to fast mana. There are occasional hands that are rough but usually we have a forest/fetchland.
Zuran Orb was kind of a necessary evil for games that I had Titania and a ton of land but no other interaction. Representing insta-kills was important so I'm testing it out.
In general I'll wait until there's a land in the Graveyard. The ramp is just as important as getting tokens online if she dies.
Crucible of Worlds is absolutely a house in the deck as well, when paired with glacial chasm he is really hard to deal with, and never has to pay the upkeep on it. Oh and it puts 10 power on board each time he plays/sacs it.
Draft it Here!
UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
See 4th post - Crucible is banned in Duel Commander.
Ah, was not aware, I imagine life from the loam would be a decent replacement as well.
Draft it Here!
UUUBlue Man Group
Legacy:
UWBMiracles
Edh:
UUUThassa Control
WWWHokori Stax
GGGJolrael, Empress of Land Stompy
BBBGriselbrand French List
RBGShattergang(Super Villians)
RWGHazezon Flicker
UBRMarchesa Aggro
URGMaelstom Wanderer (Maelstorm)
Life From the Loam is already in the decklist.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
BRGW Saskia the Unyielding BRGW
GUWB Thrasios, Triton Hero // Tymna the Weaver GUWB
B Braids, Cabal Minion B
G Titania, Protector of Argoth G
R Zurgo Bellstriker R
Founding Father of [Team Stepfathers]: We beat you and you hate us
My Street Art
Here's my multiplayer commander decklist to give you a good place to start. It is heavily favorable for Crucible. Favorite new combo = Titania/Crucible of Worlds + Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage.
It is configured for multiplayer currently with Strip Mine, but that could just be another Snow-Covered Forest.
Switching to Duel Commander I'll probably change some of the more meta-dependent cards (like Gravity Well) for more stax elements/graveyard recursion. It's current weakness seems to be control, so I may add some anticontrol elements as well.
It's an extremely fun and resilient deck to play. Once there was 3 board wipes in 3 turns, and this deck still came back swinging the following turn.
C Kozilek C
GB Gitrog GB
G Titania G
WU Brago WU
GB MerenGB
Duel Commander Decks
UR Keranos UR
BRG Jund BRG
GR Tron GR GW Tron GW
C Eldrazi Tron (SB) C
BG Lantern Control BG
UW Control (SB) UW