MTG Salvation

I prefer burst draw due to the nature of my group, although if the incremental draw is cheap or powerful enough I'll still run it (Sylvan Library for instance). I use Garruk's Packleader because it's ridiculously easy to tutor creatures in this deck. It's hard for me to cut creature based card advantage because converting 1 tutor into a half dozen cards is too good to pass up.

Does Packleader stand out as better than anything I'm currently running? I could see cutting Shamanic Revelation for it. It has the same cmc and doesn't require the army to be built to get the value from it. The life gain can be nice, but I'm not running it for that in the first place.

I feel Packleader is rather important due to the fact we can get it with our tutors. I don't really like playing it - a CMC 5 card that needs to be used proactively is kinda awkward for how I want the deck to function - but overall, it is something that does a lot of good work.

Shamanic Revelation is too good to cut in my view. It's not hard to get 5-6 creatures out, at which point it's already a very efficient draw spell. And it's not exactly rare for me to get 10+ cards off of it.

That said, I run all the draw spells you have there, plus Packleader and Hunter's Insight and there are times when I consider putting Soul's Majesty and/or Garruk, Primal Hunter in there as well. More efficient card draw is always good. But then I'm basically playing a storm deck....

I've been able to play quite a few games with Titania since building her. It's hard to see cuts on my end because my list is still constrained by budget (although it manages to take games from decks twice its price). Personally, I've found Wayward Swordtooth be quite handy, but would replace him with Azusa or Exploration in a heartbeat. That being said, I have really enjoyed the card draw and have ended up with more lands than I can play in hand before.

Haven't managed to hit Garruk's Packleader yet somehow, but I definitely recommend Hunter's Insight. There's usually a player on a more controlling plan that goes "Just 5? I'll take." Even once they figured that out, when I drop a card or two extra then push I have the chance to play it then.

I tried out Rhonas the Indomitable briefly, wasn't impressed. Granted, I'm in a creature heavy meta so maybe he just wasn't impressive for me.

On a side note, I'm having a bit of trouble with Titania getting removed. Re-casting her is fine, but not an optimal way to spend a turn. Do you guys tend to play in bursts when you have her out, or get her out early and chug along even if she is removed, then re-cast her later?

Incremental advantage doesn't work very well in my group so I tend to play Titania when I can get immediate value via some combo. I will also play her if someone else is obviously ahead on board and I think she'll fly under the radar. You might also consider Fortitude (in addition to the auto-include Sylvan Safekeeper). It seems like a terrible card but really it's very good at keeping Titania alive, and it's otherwise so bad I've never had anyone destroy it directly so I can usually bring it back to my hand.

I have Noxious Revival, Command Beacon, and Fortitude. I think the main issue is boardwipes that kill Titania. Maybe I just have to be more careful when casting her!

i Play in a creature heavy meta, so boardwipes are pretty prevalent.

If board wipes are common, I'd try to fit in Natural Affinity. It will turn any wrath from an opponent into Devastation, but leave you with an army of 5/3s.

I definitely play that card, haven't had it in hand at an opportune moment yet. At the same time, I still have a great win rate with the deck so maybe it isn't that big of a deal!

I think Fortitude is underrated. As long as it goes to the graveyard from the battlefield, it returns to your hand, so that means Disenchant effects only thwart it for one turn.

I also have an issue with a Titania list I've been trying out. The deck can ramp out ridiculous amounts of mana, but nothing to really do with it. I run a lot of stuff that draws me cards, like Shamanic Revelation and Rishkar's Expertise, effects that draw me cards gradually like Garruk's Packleader, and some mana sinks like Wildest Dreams. Do you guys have any recommendations?

I don't really have any classic "mana sinks". My main way of spending lots of mana is simply to cast lots of spells on the same turn, generally by chaining card draw spells into more card draw spells into more mana into more card draw until I have enough stuff to Crossroads+Hoofy for the win.

I had a rather amusing game over the weekend when an opponent cast Primal Vigor. When I had a Greater Good in play. He seemed to think that with it he could kill me on his next turn....

Quote from shermanido37 »

I think Fortitude is underrated. As long as it goes to the graveyard from the battlefield, it returns to your hand, so that means Disenchant effects only thwart it for one turn.

I also have an issue with a Titania list I've been trying out. The deck can ramp out ridiculous amounts of mana, but nothing to really do with it. I run a lot of stuff that draws me cards, like Shamanic Revelation and Rishkar's Expertise, effects that draw me cards gradually like Garruk's Packleader, and some mana sinks like Wildest Dreams. Do you guys have any recommendations?

You're correct. I always read Fortitude incorrectly and think the create has to go to the yard for it to return to hand.

The only true mana sink I run is Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, since he's easy to tutor and can win the game on the spot if you have enough mana.

I got a game in last night against Alesha, Chainer, and Merieke. I started with a mulligan to 5 with an opener of Exploration, land, land, Garruk Wildspeaker and an Oracle of Mul Daya. I was able to hit running lands for a turn 3 Oracle, but didn't get much value out of it before Merieke stole her. I landed Garruk, made a beast, and he survived a turn for me to ramp into the saddest Regal Force which only drew me two cards, but it was enough to start the engine as one of the cards was Rishkar's Expertise. Next turn I was able to cast the Expertise, drawing 5 from the Regal Force that was on the board, casting Eternal Witness off the Expertise to get back the Expertise. The game was over in the next few turns with the final turn going something like, Asuza, Lotus Cobra, putting Misty Rainforest into play from the graveyard 3 times (I had a Ramunap Excavator in play from a GSZ on a previous turn) and dropping Gaea's Cradle as my 4th and final land drop, making 20+ mana, casting Akroma's Memorial, getting it counter, Regrowting the Memorial, sticking the Memorial, casting Woodland Bellower putting Sylvan Safekeeper onto the field, creating 8 elementals off Safekeeper, -4 Garruk to give my team +3/+3 and trample and swinging about 40-50 damage at my 3 opponents.

The good news is that cards like Rishkar's Expertise can pull you right back into a game. The bad news is that I made no breakthroughs figuring out where to fit in the cards I'm still considering haha.

I could see cutting the Dark Depths package, replacing Stage and Dark Depths with another Snow-Covered Forest and something else from the cards I'm considering. I also could see cutting some of the removal creatures like Duplicant, Ulamog, and Worldbreaker to be less reactive and focus more on advancing my game plan. I just don't like the idea of not having utility to deal with problematic permanents.

By the way, I did end up cutting Noxious Revival in favor of Regrowth @Life1ess. I know that I had touted the perks of instant speed recursion with Revival, but looking back at all the times I've used it, I think I only remember one time where it mattered. Things really have to line up for it to be great and those situations rarely arise. First of all you have to have Noxious Revival in hand when someone targets your graveyard, and second of all you have to have a real bomb in your graveyard to make you want essentially give up a draw to use Revival. Truthfully, Revival is card disadvantage, and while the moments you get someone with it really stand out, in every other situation I wish it was just regrowth or eternal witness.

Worldly Tutor ended up taking Revival's spot, and I'm not sure why I wasn't running Worldly Tutor in the first place.

I've found that I've started to shy away from cards that have a high ceiling, but are situational. I cut Natural Affinity because I never have it in hand when someone has a Wrath, and outside of that situation it was never really something I wanted to cast. I realize Natural Affinity is a card that I just talked up in a post as well, so sorry for being a little hypocritical.

I play in a commander league every Tuesday night at my LGS. Normally I like to switch up the decks I play, but my love for this deck has been reignited and I want to focus on tuning up this list so I may run it all month.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my quick recap. It's pretty fun when you start off slowly and a couple of cards down and end up finishing miles ahead of everyone on board.

For me , the real strength of Noxious Revival is not that it's instant speed, it's that it doesn't cost mana. The card disadvantage isn't that much of concern when I have access to as much draw as I do in Titania, but saving two mana compared to Regrowth is huge.

So, I guess The Mending of Dominaria is the obvious card for us to discuss this time round. Personally, I don't think I run enough creatures (14 IIRC), so the first two triggers will likely wiff, and with that in mind, I feel it's too slow for just the third, even if that is very good. For a deck with a higher creature count though, I can see this being good.

I had the same thoughts. The best part of the card is the third trigger so that leaves 6 turns for someone to deal with it.

The fact that it's any creature is definitely a plus, but my deck only runs 17 creatures so 5 mana for only the potential of recursion isn't worth it in my build. But as @PhroX said, in a creature heavy build it could be great.

I looked at Multani too. I could see getting tricky with multiple activations of Gaea's Cradle if he happens to be in the yard (tap, bounce it to hand, play it again and tap it). But my list only has Lotus Cobra to abuse landfall, and Mosswort Bridge is the only land in the deck with an etb effect. Outside of that, I don't feel the need for a big beater. But I won't completely rule it out because my opinions are formed by how my list operates. If you can take advantage of landfall then I can see this guy being pretty good. Especially with a way to sacrifice him and exploration effects, like Claws of Gix and Azusa. I have a feeling he may be better suited in an Omnath, Locus of Rage deck.

Anyone have any experience with Sakura-Tribe Scout or Summoner's Pact? I really like the idea of putting a land like Cradle, Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm into play at instant speed as well as using it as just another Exploration effect. Also, Summoner's Pact seems better than Wordly Tutor in this deck. I like the idea of getting the card into your hand rather than the top of your deck to mask the incoming Craterhoof.

I'm curious of your feedback on the cards. My list is in the spoiler link in my signature if you want some context.

I don't play Titania myself, but have played the Tribe Scout. It's really cute, and it had moments of shinning, but in the end Crop Rotation was just better for instant-putting-lands-into-play. As ramp-effect, shes not that good, well, there's better options. And as a surprise effect, it was just too fragile.

The problem with the Scout is that she does nothing if you draw her when you're going off unless you also draw your Concordant Crossroads. Needing to tap is awkward for what amounts to an Exploration effect with the minor upside of instant speed.

Summoner's Pact is a good card, and certainly one that I can see being worth playing. Personally, I prefer Worldly Tutor as more and more, I'm finding that once I'm actually going off, I often end up drawing my entire deck, and if I don't, I can almost always draw that one extra card for Worldly to get the card to hand. What I need is more reliable ways of getting the enablers like Lotus Cobra, Garruk's Packleader and so on while developing my game, and Pact isn't great for doing that.

Thanks for the feedback. I immediately removed Scout from consideration after gold fishing a few hands. She's really not any good unless you get her on turn one, much like Burgeoning. I definitely prefer cards like Exploration, Azusa, Wayward Swordtooth so at least I can play lands from my graveyard or the top of my deck if there is a Crucible or Oracle in play.

Last night I played a 2 hour game at our LGS for our Tuesday night league. I was up against Angus McKenzie, Meren, and Balan. Aside from some annoyances from Meren and Balan, Angus was my nemesis. His deck is a planeswalker heavy build and he was able to keep the board clear and really insulate himself with Angus, Constant Mist, and Teferi's Protection, but luckily I had a Nissa, Vital Force emblem early on to dig. Eventually Angus exiled my substantial graveyard with an Angel of Finality where I lost my Command Beacon and Titania up to costing 13 mana. There was no way I was going to be able to get an army through his defenses and was threatening a Narset and a Venser ultimate. I had to force him into submission with Dust Bowl, Thespian's Stage copying Dust Bowl, Deserted Temple and a Crucible of Worlds. I was able to pick off 3 lands a turn for several turns and take him off white mana stranding a bunch of cards in his hand. This give me an opportunity to cast Titania using every land but Gaea's Cradle. I got back a simple Snow-Covered Forest since my deck was depleted of basics and only about 20 cards in total. I used the Forest to cast Concordant Crossroads, cast Zuran Orb, made 12 elementals and tapped the Cradle to cast Triumph of the Hordes and took out everyone in combat.

I love how this deck can explode early on and win quickly or grind through a two hour slog and put opponents in a stranglehold by cutting them off colors. This deck has a pretty good win percentage, but this one felt particularly good grinding out the win in a marathon game.

wow, what a fantastic game report really nice win!

Quote from PhroX »

I'm only going to have 16-17 (depending on what I cut for Mouth) snow cards, so I don't really feel that Scrying Sheets is worth using up one of my colourless land slots.

Love your perspective on Titania, I've been playing her for about 2 years and she's fantastic. Care to share a list? Curious about some of your options.

This is what I'm currently running:



There's a couple of tweaks I'm planning on as soon as I get round to ordering cards. I want a Joraga Treespeaker in there - not that keen on dorks for Titania, but Treespeaker is amazing ramp - though I'm not sure what to cut, and I'd like to give Pir's Whim a test in Tempt with Discovery's slot - it's not strictly better by any means, the land entering tapped is a big drawback, but earlier on in the game, when I'm developing, disrupting my opponents is very nice.

M19 thoughts: Two of the best reprints we could have asked for and...well, that's about it. Given our high land count, Dryad Greenseeker could be of some use if you want a cheap creature that can provide decent value over time, but I can't see it being in the best 99 cards in many lists, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma does help cast Titania and buffs our elementals when they attack, but again, probably doesn't do enough overall to be worth running. Transmogrifying Wand could be an option if you really need creature removal. But it's really all about Scapeshift and Crucible of Worlds, both of which are fantastic cards for us, and hopefully the reprints will drop the prices enough for everyone to pick them up.

I actually like Goreclaw since it makes many of our finishers cheaper, including Titania. +1/+1 may not be completely relevant, but trample is. This might be good enough to run over Kamahl, Fist of Krosa in builds that run him. Of Course, Khamal has other greater upsides, but the mixture of cheaper spells and giving the team trample on such a cheap card seems excellent.