MTG Salvation

Grove of the Burnwillows is spicy.

So for that special fun of card, I'd like to talk about Saheeli Rai. If you're running Grove of the Burnwillows and have easy access to red, you might want to consider running the planeswalker. Sure you can't pact for her and can't ancient stirrings into her, but when you draw her she's quite good at a number of things. 1) Card filtering. When running explore instead of SV, you lose card selection and scry 1 can help you find the amulet/bounce land/summoner's pact etc. 2) Copying amulet. Copying amulet is a HUGE boon. As you know, you can't 20 someone without double amulet, and if you have 1 amulet in play, copying it with saheeli can enable some hugely explosive plays that let you win out of nowhere. 3) Copying titan. If you don't have an amulet in play and just squeaked out that 6th mana- copying titan is insane value. Not only do you get the first 2 lands off titan, but you get another 2 lands from copying it... and then you give it haste and can get another 2 lands. That wraps up the reasons why I like playing w/ Saheeli as my fun-of.

Thanks Bobby - appreciate the work you guys put in the deck and for sharing your thoughts and sideboard strategy! Boarding out the full set of Scouts and Amulets is something I hadn't thought of, I'm excited to try it!

Grove of the Burnwillows is so spicy. I really love that maindeck relic is becoming a thing too. The superior dig from serum visions and early tolaria west transmutes is a tough trade, but I do love these grove + relic builds. Kanister's 4 grove 4 relic build is definitely my favorite.

A couple cards have been on my mind I was wandering if anyone had any thoughts on them.

Coalition Relic: I'm thinking about running 2 main over explores to fill out the ramp. A coalition relic on turn 3 can get a turn 4 titan with nothing more than some untapped lands. I like the efficiency even though it is weak to k command and stubborn denial. In a grove + relic build you are preboarded against most decks that commonly play cards that punish relic the worst so maybe this is alright.

Mystical Teachings Sideboard for sure unless all you face is blue control for some reason. I like that it's an instant way to threaten a titan before curving up to 6 for one. Being able to grab pact of negation seems strong too. Pairing it with other powerful sideboard instants like fiery justice, hurkyl's recall, and kozilek's return seems fun. 1 Rotfarm would probably be good enough to support the flashback.



fortanely can I just say thank you so much for posting your build and huge sideboarding guide.

A card I saw in the GP Vegas 9th place Titan Breach list that I think would do well here against Grixis Death's Shadow: Chameleon Colossus They don't have any way to remove it in the current stock lists, and even if they adapt to Mirran Crusader by re-adding bolts, they still need to have 2 bolts at the ready the turn we play it in order to do anything about it. After that, it's relatively easy to use it as a road block until you get enough mana to just end the game in a single swing. Thoughts?

Chameleon Colossus benefits from Cavern of Souls too. Very good sideboard card for amulet titan.

Hm. It's pretty narrow, but I also like the one of Colossus. You could put it in place of one Tracker, which is basically there because it's so good against the attrition strategies anyway, and pact for it on turn 4 or any turn thereafter they don't leave Stub mana up or have a Cavern. Let's be honest - the Trackers are there because of the Shadow anyway.

I'm intrigued by the chameleon, I'll probably try one out. On another note, what do you guys think of the new green crucible creature from HOU, Ramunap Excavator? I ran 1 crucible in my sb for a long time and made good use of it. The ability to pact for a crucible now could be big game. I know I'm going to try it out anyway.

Couple new cards for evaluation:
Scavenger Grounds - better or worse than Bojuka Bog? Part of it is also related to the next card...
Ramunap Excavator - this card in combination with access to GQ and Scavenger Grounds as well as the STS/Azusa combo could make for some game winning locks. The fact that Excavator comes into play untapped is an additional small positive.

Thoughts? @daviusminimus? Also, where is the resolution to that league - did you 5-0 or what?

Hey guys, long time lurker here. Second post on MTGSalvation ever. Popping my head in to say hi and to encourage everybody to keep up the great work on the deck! When entering modern about 6 months ago I did a lot of research (I used to play legacy U/B Reanimator in years past, but since then just casual formats) and tried out a few decks but fell in love with this one. I played it a bit pre-bloom ban because I owned most of the cards already but never competitively till now. I have to say that despite not having access to bloom, this is the most enjoyable deck I've played in many years of magic, it really is something unique. Thanks for the inspiration, without all of the contributors here I would never have chosen Amulet Titan for my first modern deck!

Anyway... enough of that. Here's my list that I'll be running at my next weekly. I have no budget for Grove of the Burnwillows.



I face a wide open meta at my LGS littered with decks ranging from U/B Mill and Mono-White Emeria Control, right through to Grixis Shadow, Affinity and EldraziTron. Oh and a sprinkling of Merfolk, Elves, Mono-Green Devotion, Jund, Junk and at least one of each tiered dedicated combo deck - Counters Company, Ad Nauseum, Scapeshift and Living End. U/W Control and U/W/R Nahiri sees some play too.

You'll notice a couple of unusual variations... none of them groundbreaking but ones that I have found effective after a couple of months of testing. One is Nissa, Steward of Elements. She is absolutely durdle trash in many games (I tried her mainboard for a while) but also won me at least 4 games by herself over about 4 weekly rounds of testing by either flipping a titan herself or beating face. Most of the time this has been against UW or U/W/R Control variants. I now bring her in almost exclusively for grindy and control matchups where she shines. The fact that abrupt decay play is pretty low right now is good for her too. I highly recommend her out of the SB for those facing a lot of Control in their meta. She is also serviceable in a more diverse range of grindy match-ups. I also must add that if you don't run Serum Visions you shouldn't run Nissa, as Serum Visions into Nissa activation for Free titan is half the power in grindy games.

I'm currently testing 2x mainboard Primal Command. I can't say how many times this card has won or saved me the game. Whether it's against burn to gain 7 life, or to shuffle away a lethal-threatening cranial plating, or even against Death's Shadow to kill a Shadow and remove their graveyard from their arsenal. The fact that it sits at 5 mana (the missing link in Amulet Titan Evolution) is gravy to fill in the decks hole in the curve. I would never bring this out of the sideboard as it is a) not tutorable or searchable and b) slower than other sideboard bullets. But 2x in the MB has really done me so many favours. Not to mention the 'Search for Prime Time' mode. Big fan.

The final variation that I've not seen too many people run is Academy Ruins in the MB. The amount of times I have come back into the game by getting back an amulet is substantial. The amount of times I've won by chaining EE's and Walking Ballistas is fewer, but not insignificant, and hideously devilish. I think is probably one I will not walk away from.

The card I'm most excited about from Hour of Devastation is, by far, Reason // Believe. This card seems like it might have even been designed for this deck to be honest (in my mind at least). It allows us to add an entirely dimension to our filtering and can lead to some pretty explosive out of nowhere plays, AND, not to say the least, pairs extremely well with my earlier pet card, Nissa, Steward of Elements. When in the yard, Believe also increases the power level of Serum Visions by some degree by allowing you to scry a titan to the top for a right-now activation of Believe for an out-of nowhere titan.

I'm going to test a 3x Serum Visions and 2x Reason // Believe split in the MB when the set is released (to increase the frequency of seeing it) but I can see a 4/1 ratio being more realistic given that Reason doesn't cantrip.

I'll pop in more regularly with my results if I can guys, but in the meantime, if you have any feedback on my list please feel free to pipe up! And in the meantime keep up the great work, and have fun!

Hey guys, just checking in again. This went live, so thought I would share a link. http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=114333

I like the idea of CC in the side, and seems cheap enough for me to pick one up

I think I'm gonna go away from Glissa after I can afford an engineered explosives again. Brutality is constantly a letdown and BB is too much for damnation.

My local meta is getting rough though, so I may have to put Amulet on the backburner for a while. Literally half the store plays 4 mainboard blood moon for me, tron, and the grixis player, and the grixis player has 2 in his sideboard for me and tron. It's getting kinda out of hand, so I'm putting together a bant green's sun's zenith deck to troll them. Path/Blessed Alliance/Ojutai Command/STE/Search for Tomorrow/Sphinx's Rev/Walking Ballista/Heartbeat/Dictate and a handful of basics.

I think I'm gonna go away from Glissa after I can afford an engineered explosives again.

Academy ruins will bring back amulets from the graveyard and is tutorable/searchable, and will not take up a non-land slot. I do understand the appeal of brutality/discard amulet/play amulet via glissa trigger, but I feel this is such a corner case scenario it's not worth the 3 slots. You will have more experience than me in this regard though.

So for that special fun of card, I'd like to talk about Saheeli Rai

Saheeli Rai copying titan or amulet seems hella fun I must admit... and more than corner-case powerful. Getting your Saheeli to survive until titan might be tricky though, then again, untapping with saheeli and amulet on turn 3 could enable some bonkers plays!

@djbenji Saheeli Rai is terrible by herself and is not easy to play on turn 3 at all, and there are very few games where you help once you stick a Titan. Nissa is debatable because she is useful off the top in the late game by herself, but Saheeli Rai needs other cards to do literally anything, so I just don't see it personally, keep up the brewing though, I like it!

@UktabiApeSquad I agree with kanister - Coalition Relic is another card that turns on artifact hate. Not sure I see a spot for Mystical Teachings either, but maybe brew something and see how it plays. I only see corner cases where it could be helpful.

@kanister Good point - I'm out on Scavenger Grounds. Still think there's room for the Ramunap in the board though, could have some impact against Eldrazi Tron or other Trons, Death's Shadow, etc on GQ locks if you have just one accelerant out, will brew with it at least.

@OoSunnYoO I brewed with Nissa, and after evaluating her I thought she sounded sexy, but in practice you board her out in nearly every match-up and when you have her in hand you almost never play her (usually have better plays turns 2-3, then you chain Titans so tapping out for her is usually just worse than a Titan). I don't think there is room for her without some changes to the deck personally, but give it a shot and share your results. Primal Command is a good card, but it's expensive, and with 11 cards that can find Titan you don't need more. Without that mode, you are basically putting a 5 mana spell in your deck to help against burn and kill a death's shadow/remove a graveyard - Relic can help against graveyard and still give you card advantage for cheaper, and burn match-up is already pretty even, so I don't think including an expensive spell is necessary to help against them. Academy Ruins is indeed a cool card, but 1) you dropped to 8 bouncelands and don't have Bog or Cavern maindeck, so I think your game 1 against control is probably weaker than most, and 2) in match-ups where your amulet is getting destroyed, the decks we have bad match-ups against we probably want to board them out anyway. I want to figure out a space for it too, so provide results!

FYI - just crushed a Death's Shadow deck with Chameleon Colossus. As long as you don't give them a window to flash in a Snapcaster and Bolt it to put 5 dmg on it, it's pretty impossible for them to comeback. Definitely keeping a spot on my 75.

Question to all on MTGO - whenever I have double amulet and I play Titan and try to bring 20, I click on the amulet trigger first and then it automatically stacks my triggers as Boros/Boros/Slayer/Slayer and Slayer resolves first, so I can't double pump. Any advice on how to get the Boros karoo triggers to resolve first? I typically click the Slayers first then the Boros on my Titan search, so maybe selecting in opposite order is an easy fix, just not sure yet? Also maybe I have a bad auto yield on? Advice appreciated, thanks!

@daviusminimus small sample size so far, but I am stubborn and am keeping in Sanctums/Visions instead of Groves/Explores for the time being, so having a silver bullet for Death's Shadow is more important for me than for you. Thank you on the advice on the amulet bug! Hope your results are going well. I think I'm going back to the Ruric Thar, as storm has felt bad for me too.

I do run two Relics and the one of Trinket Mage, plus maindeck Bog, plus two Dismember and three Swan Song in the board, plus a Chalice. Game 1 doesn't feel great without Relic, but postboard I feel okay, I think I have just had some bad beats. Last match game 2 I answered x2 Goblins and a Baral with x2 Dismember and EE in the process going down to 12, and they double grapeshotted me on turn 5 for the win. That's a pretty solid pile of cards to find in the top 15 or so cards in your deck.

Saheeli isn't bad on her own, check out this game where she essential in letting me win t3. https://youtu.be/7ugi_caaVLs

Saheeli isn't bad on her own, check out this game where she essential in letting me win t3. https://youtu.be/7ugi_caaVLs

I'm on board with Saheeli being potentially explosive in the deck, but I still think she's hard to cast t2 or t3. How have you found being able to cast her reliably on those turns? Also, on your turn 3 you had double amulet (thanks to saheeli) and dropped a titan with your opponent tapped out, why didn't you go for slayers/boros for a double activation to pump your titan 10/6, and then swing for the win finding sunhome? You played it safe and found simic/tolaria instead, which is fine. Were you hedging against something in particular?

That is cherry-picking a bit, and even then you paid three mana for Saheeli to do the same thing you could have done on turn 3 anyway if you bounced the bounceland turn 2. It's cute, but hands with Azusa, bounceland, Titan and amulet are explosive with or without Saheeli.

@daviusminimus agree, I have felt good in nearly every match-up and have been having a lot of success on MTGO as well, despite still losing 1 in 10 games to timing out because I'm still new to the platform. How have you been doing against affinity? We got rid of most of our artifact removal, and some even run Blood Moon in the board, so it feels like a tough match-up now. I don't really love casting dismember against them and losing 4 life either.

Stronghold was in hand. Had it not been, I'd have won the game with the sequence you described.

@GC, you can't win t3 without double amulet and Saheeli can give you that. I couldn't because of SS in hand, or it would've been perfect.

The vestiges are in there bc it feels dumb to pay 12 Tix for a land that's $6 in paper (gemstone) and I'm def losing % points because of it. Here it actually helped tho.