I find that Amulet Titan is a fun deck but each match is an intellectual challenge, and the current meta is not making it easy. I also play burn, which is far more simple to play, but you get into some situations you can't get out, unlike Amulet.
I guess the last match you played was annoying to loose. I was thinking to add pyroclasm in addition to the 2 kozilek return, just to deal with Combo decks, removing early bird and devoted is a big deal.
As allways, great report and of course you were brave to bring the deck to a GP B-).
@daviusminimus Thank you for sharing your results. Against Abzan and Esper Shadow variants, or just straight Abzan, I also learned the hard way that it's better to keep Amulets in, as the only thing you'll turn off is Abrupt Decay really. I like the match-up, as it's usually just Jund with Path's instead of Lightning Bolts, and Lingering Souls, which our deck doesn't care about too much (if we're losing to lingering souls tokens, we're usually just losing to Liliana). If you can keep an early Grim Flayer off the board, I don't usually have too much trouble in the match-up. Elves is probably a terrible match-up, especially with the new Druid Vizier tech.
I hear what you're saying about the 50/50 match-ups except for Blood Moon and the difficulty in deciding which hands to keep, but I think that is just why the deck scares many people away. Mulligan decisions are hard and looking at them in retrospect makes you feel like you made bad decisions, but there are very few matches I feel like I didn't have a chance in, and normally those are just those matches similar to your Elves match - they hit me for 10 infect on turn 3 with a flier, or they comboed me off with Storm or Druid Company decks. In games that go a few turns we have lots of inevitability and the toolbox to work with. I think it's a hard deck for a GP mostly for that reason - it's hard to make lots of really close decisions correctly for 15+ games. But it's ultimately more rewarding, and I think the deck is good enough, personally. But I respect your opinion and appreciate your feedback.
@TALGARDO Nice job on the tourney, don't get down on the pact triggers, I missed one this weekend as well. It was my first PPTQ as well. Nerves are natural. I think these are the best kinds of learning points - you won't forget many pact triggers in the future!
To summarize this weekend, I went 2-1-2 at my PPTQ. I won two games against Storm and the match-up felt great. Lost to Dredge 2-1, game 3 they had the nuts and I took them to 1 card in library, lost because I fetched a Simic instead of a Selesnya Sanctuary two turns earlier, hard to tell that would have been my out so it was a tough loss. Went to time with BR Control and UB Fairies, would have won those matches. Could have went 5-0 with just a bit more experience with the deck and less PPTQ nerves.
Why don't most lists play hall of the bandit lord? It seems better in most respects to the slayer's stronghold
Hall of the Bandit Lord doesn't facilitate the one-shot kill with two Amulets. Stronghold does.
Stronghold can also tap for mana when not using it's ability to give things haste, while Hall of the Bandit Lord requires you to pay 3 life every time you want to use it for mana.
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Well, I can saw a woman in two, but you won't wanna look in the box when I'm through.
Why don't most lists play hall of the bandit lord? It seems better in most respects to the slayer's stronghold
We're already pretty tight on utility lands and Slayer's Stronghold does something similar. But Stronghold can be tutored by, and used on your first titan. You have to have Hall out when you cast your Titan to give it haste, so it can't be used on your first titan.
I've actually come to think taxes is one of my more favorable matchups. I cut some pacts, relics and explores and bring in sweepers, dismembers, and all lower-drop creatures i have. Kill leonin arbiter on-sight and try to get as many lands on the board as quickly as possible. Amulet is also very important in this matchup, as sometimes they do have land disruption-heavy starts and Azusa + amulet is your best way out of that. EE and ballista are also great against them. I've had taxes players get so traumatized by them that they brought in stony silence.
Against the eldrazi version, dismembers are great. I also play an ancient grudge, which is awesome if they have vial and tidehollow sculler and occasionally golem tokens from blade splicer. Thragtusk is always great against eldrazi decks as well.
playing this deck again since the summer bloom banning, and i can remember again why i love it so much. it's like a puzzle, where every decision matters a lot
Regarding sideboarding, im always taking out amulets and stirrings (or relics if they dont use graveyard) on interactive matchups. It is right?, for example, against bg or uw, i think that the ramp plan seems better than something like trying to turn 3 titan them with amulets. Taking out the amulets left me with weaker stirrings, so i like to cut them too. Id like the opinion of more experienced players. thank you
yeah, im having that issue. i mean when boarding, my deck becomes a lot more "colored" with the creature bombs and that, trying to play the long game, and i feel like the only good stirrings in post board games are the ones that found tolaria west
i dont like to cut the scouts, but i recognize them as a really weak card. i just like to have them to ramp or as a removal target instead of titans. Id try to cut them instead of stirrings. Maybe i misjudged their value
@daviusminimus I've still been jamming amulet online, but not as much. The bug with slayer's stronghold almost always untapping first has really been irritating me. I've also played a couple of PPTQs recently with middling results. Went 4-3 in one and 3-2 drop in another.
Tyrant looks interesting. I agree it could be a good Dromoka or Sigarda replacement, I'm less excite to replace Tusk with it though. I haven't been playing Titan much (except a PPTQ I went 5-2), there's a lot of Blood Moons at my local store right now. I've been tempted to try a version that reworks the mana base to cut Gemstone Mines and another land or two for Misty Rainforests and more basics but haven't gotten around to it.
@sunn that would be me, i wasn't expecting them to post the decklist online. Btw it wasn't a PPTQ. This LGS organised a series of events which leads to their Invitational, and this was the qualifier for it (finalists are invited). I was fortunate to start with 1 round bye (via qualification points) and got there with some luck and concession along the way, so it wasn't an exact representation of the deck. I will just go through the matchups I faced that day.
Round 1: BYE
Result: 1-0
Round 2: Affinity.
Game 1: Opponent mulled to 6, and I kept a slow hand (5 lands + amulet + titan). Opponent then mulled further to 5 and kept with no lands. I eventually won because of his slow start.
Game 2: Opponent mulled to 6 again, and didn't put out alot of pressure. However I would have lost if i haven't draw both copies of dismembers, which killed a Steel Overseer and an equipped Vault Skirge.
Result: 2-0
Round 3: Scapeshift.
Game 1: Opponent didn't have an explosives start, with no play on T1 and lightning bolt my scout on T2. He did cast a T3 and T4 Khalni Heart Expedition, but this allows me to go off with amulet + titan, and I also happened to draw the singleton Engineered Explosives which deals the the Expeditions.
Game 2: It came to a point where it's my turn, we are both at 20 life, opponent has 7 lands in play and I have a titan in play. I wasn't able to make another titan with haste because I used up my mana for a blue pact on previous turn. So I attack with my existing titan, bringing him down to 14, and cast Ruric Thar. If he has Scapeshift + 8th land, I would be dead. Luckily, he missed on the 8th land. He did however have the scapeshift, which he cast (and took 6 from Ruric, down to 8) for 4 valakut triggers, killing both titan and Ruric. On my turn I topdecked a green pact, search for titan and give it haste, dealing the last 8 point of dmg.
Result: 3-0
Round 4: Naya Zoo
Game 1: It's a favorable matchup for me, so long story short I ramped into multiple titans and won.
Game 2: Opponent kept a sketchy hand with no T1 play and T2 Noble Hirache. I have a T1 amulet, and decided on T2 lay bounceland, float 2 mana and cast Ballista for 1, kill the Noble. I haven't seen him casting Collected Company, but decided I don't want to face it on T3. Luckily, he missed on his third land drop, and I manage to ramp into titan and seal the game.
Result: 4-0
Round 5 and 6: ID
Result: 4-0-2, 6th place.
Quarter: Jeskai Control (4th place)
Game 1: Opponent tapped out for Giest of St. Traft, which IMHO is problematic for me if I can't win fast enough. Luckily, I topdecked a second amulet, which allows me to cast Azusa along with 2 X hasty titans for the win.
Game 2: Opponent was able to resolve his Geist again, all the while denying all my spells and tempo me out of contention.
Game 3: I manage to resolve an Azusa thanks to Cavern of Souls naming Human, and resetting it with bounceland to prepare for T4 titan. I won the game thanks to the Cavern.
Semi: Affinity (a friend of mine)
Previously he already mentioned that he can't make it for the Invitational, so he was ready to concede if he meets any friend along the way. I was lucky to meet him in semi and got the concession, locking me for the invite.
Finals: Burn
We didn't play it out as the invite was given out to both finalist. If we were to play it out, I doubt I would have won because he would be on the play in game 1, which is very important for me.
Summary: I actually only played 4 rounds total, winning all 4.
I have been following the Discord chat, and although I have not tested on the different variation of amulet titan (Shaheli, Breach, Retreat, Excavator etc.), I still think the normal Amulet Titan is the best and most consistent. I have play this list in 6 different PPTQ, overall results are 1 Final, 2 Semi, 1 Quarter and 2 X-2 drop.
Thanks for the comments! In match 1 I realized I should have transmuted for pact of negation after I declared attackers, but then my next thought that kind of superceded the commentary was that my opponent if he had path would have pathed before attackers to prevent me from getting the attack triggers. So from that point I assumed he didn't have path. In match 2 I felt I was pretty far ahead so was playing loose. It's definitely a problem to ease up when ahead that probably costs a few percentage points over the long run. Thanks again for the feedback, I'm going to try and make videos consistently, add me on mtgo if u want to and join the discord!
I have stoped playing this deck. I find it to slow and inconsistent.
With the new legend rule comming up (planewalkers as legend) could the deck be rebuild into a superfriends deck?
Oath of nissa us good. There is a dude from kamigava that draws a card when you play a legend. Both oath and azuza is a legend. Kamigava also has a land that taps for 2 mana but only for legend spells.
I am not sure what planewalkers would be good though. Garruk and gideon? Probably black for oath of liliana, and ob nixelus. Perhaps the golgari garruk.
The titan amulet shell would be so good for this sort of deck!
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Good work davius, bad luck on hitting that MU for your quarter-final! In regards to Leyline of Sanctity, i don't believe that it was necessarily incorrect to run 1 copy. Have you (or anybody else for that matter) tested a one-of witchbane orb instead? It can be found of stirrings and we can cast it with ease, rather than with difficulty for double-white if we ever top-deck it.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
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I find that Amulet Titan is a fun deck but each match is an intellectual challenge, and the current meta is not making it easy. I also play burn, which is far more simple to play, but you get into some situations you can't get out, unlike Amulet.
I guess the last match you played was annoying to loose. I was thinking to add pyroclasm in addition to the 2 kozilek return, just to deal with Combo decks, removing early bird and devoted is a big deal.
As allways, great report and of course you were brave to bring the deck to a GP B-).
I hear what you're saying about the 50/50 match-ups except for Blood Moon and the difficulty in deciding which hands to keep, but I think that is just why the deck scares many people away. Mulligan decisions are hard and looking at them in retrospect makes you feel like you made bad decisions, but there are very few matches I feel like I didn't have a chance in, and normally those are just those matches similar to your Elves match - they hit me for 10 infect on turn 3 with a flier, or they comboed me off with Storm or Druid Company decks. In games that go a few turns we have lots of inevitability and the toolbox to work with. I think it's a hard deck for a GP mostly for that reason - it's hard to make lots of really close decisions correctly for 15+ games. But it's ultimately more rewarding, and I think the deck is good enough, personally. But I respect your opinion and appreciate your feedback.
@TALGARDO Nice job on the tourney, don't get down on the pact triggers, I missed one this weekend as well. It was my first PPTQ as well. Nerves are natural. I think these are the best kinds of learning points - you won't forget many pact triggers in the future!
To summarize this weekend, I went 2-1-2 at my PPTQ. I won two games against Storm and the match-up felt great. Lost to Dredge 2-1, game 3 they had the nuts and I took them to 1 card in library, lost because I fetched a Simic instead of a Selesnya Sanctuary two turns earlier, hard to tell that would have been my out so it was a tough loss. Went to time with BR Control and UB Fairies, would have won those matches. Could have went 5-0 with just a bit more experience with the deck and less PPTQ nerves.
Hall of the Bandit Lord doesn't facilitate the one-shot kill with two Amulets. Stronghold does.
Stronghold can also tap for mana when not using it's ability to give things haste, while Hall of the Bandit Lord requires you to pay 3 life every time you want to use it for mana.
I'm using a big dice (10cm x 10cm x 10cm) to help me.
Another question is, how to deal with taxes. I found this deck quite hard to beat. It can be handled, but sometimes you get right under their shoes.
It's ok to destroy the Vials? or just kill their tax buddys with mass removal.
Also I was wondering if in order to deal with GBx decks, it is better to have 1 Chameleon Colossus and 1 Obstinate Baloth or tireless tracker is the proven answer.
Academy Ruins is very good to deal with control decks, but you can get stuck on it and slows down the game quite a bit.
Thanks!
I've actually come to think taxes is one of my more favorable matchups. I cut some pacts, relics and explores and bring in sweepers, dismembers, and all lower-drop creatures i have. Kill leonin arbiter on-sight and try to get as many lands on the board as quickly as possible. Amulet is also very important in this matchup, as sometimes they do have land disruption-heavy starts and Azusa + amulet is your best way out of that. EE and ballista are also great against them. I've had taxes players get so traumatized by them that they brought in stony silence.
Against the eldrazi version, dismembers are great. I also play an ancient grudge, which is awesome if they have vial and tidehollow sculler and occasionally golem tokens from blade splicer. Thragtusk is always great against eldrazi decks as well.
Keep on ramping B-)
Regarding sideboarding, im always taking out amulets and stirrings (or relics if they dont use graveyard) on interactive matchups. It is right?, for example, against bg or uw, i think that the ramp plan seems better than something like trying to turn 3 titan them with amulets. Taking out the amulets left me with weaker stirrings, so i like to cut them too. Id like the opinion of more experienced players. thank you
i dont like to cut the scouts, but i recognize them as a really weak card. i just like to have them to ramp or as a removal target instead of titans. Id try to cut them instead of stirrings. Maybe i misjudged their value
edit to thank for the fast response
This guy and a Sigarda is GG also =P.
I'm not testing the deck atm, I had to return some borrowed cards =(!!! missing it!
Looks like this guy stuck with amulet for his PPTQ and took it out; http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=16674&f=MO
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Round 1: BYE
Result: 1-0
Round 2: Affinity.
Game 1: Opponent mulled to 6, and I kept a slow hand (5 lands + amulet + titan). Opponent then mulled further to 5 and kept with no lands. I eventually won because of his slow start.
Game 2: Opponent mulled to 6 again, and didn't put out alot of pressure. However I would have lost if i haven't draw both copies of dismembers, which killed a Steel Overseer and an equipped Vault Skirge.
Result: 2-0
Round 3: Scapeshift.
Game 1: Opponent didn't have an explosives start, with no play on T1 and lightning bolt my scout on T2. He did cast a T3 and T4 Khalni Heart Expedition, but this allows me to go off with amulet + titan, and I also happened to draw the singleton Engineered Explosives which deals the the Expeditions.
Game 2: It came to a point where it's my turn, we are both at 20 life, opponent has 7 lands in play and I have a titan in play. I wasn't able to make another titan with haste because I used up my mana for a blue pact on previous turn. So I attack with my existing titan, bringing him down to 14, and cast Ruric Thar. If he has Scapeshift + 8th land, I would be dead. Luckily, he missed on the 8th land. He did however have the scapeshift, which he cast (and took 6 from Ruric, down to 8) for 4 valakut triggers, killing both titan and Ruric. On my turn I topdecked a green pact, search for titan and give it haste, dealing the last 8 point of dmg.
Result: 3-0
Round 4: Naya Zoo
Game 1: It's a favorable matchup for me, so long story short I ramped into multiple titans and won.
Game 2: Opponent kept a sketchy hand with no T1 play and T2 Noble Hirache. I have a T1 amulet, and decided on T2 lay bounceland, float 2 mana and cast Ballista for 1, kill the Noble. I haven't seen him casting Collected Company, but decided I don't want to face it on T3. Luckily, he missed on his third land drop, and I manage to ramp into titan and seal the game.
Result: 4-0
Round 5 and 6: ID
Result: 4-0-2, 6th place.
Quarter: Jeskai Control (4th place)
Game 1: Opponent tapped out for Giest of St. Traft, which IMHO is problematic for me if I can't win fast enough. Luckily, I topdecked a second amulet, which allows me to cast Azusa along with 2 X hasty titans for the win.
Game 2: Opponent was able to resolve his Geist again, all the while denying all my spells and tempo me out of contention.
Game 3: I manage to resolve an Azusa thanks to Cavern of Souls naming Human, and resetting it with bounceland to prepare for T4 titan. I won the game thanks to the Cavern.
Semi: Affinity (a friend of mine)
Previously he already mentioned that he can't make it for the Invitational, so he was ready to concede if he meets any friend along the way. I was lucky to meet him in semi and got the concession, locking me for the invite.
Finals: Burn
We didn't play it out as the invite was given out to both finalist. If we were to play it out, I doubt I would have won because he would be on the play in game 1, which is very important for me.
Summary: I actually only played 4 rounds total, winning all 4.
I have been following the Discord chat, and although I have not tested on the different variation of amulet titan (Shaheli, Breach, Retreat, Excavator etc.), I still think the normal Amulet Titan is the best and most consistent. I have play this list in 6 different PPTQ, overall results are 1 Final, 2 Semi, 1 Quarter and 2 X-2 drop.
With the new legend rule comming up (planewalkers as legend) could the deck be rebuild into a superfriends deck?
Oath of nissa us good. There is a dude from kamigava that draws a card when you play a legend. Both oath and azuza is a legend. Kamigava also has a land that taps for 2 mana but only for legend spells.
I am not sure what planewalkers would be good though. Garruk and gideon? Probably black for oath of liliana, and ob nixelus. Perhaps the golgari garruk.
The titan amulet shell would be so good for this sort of deck!
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza