Breaking (Down) Primeval Titan

In the current standard with overpowered lands Primeval Titan has become king.  The question remains what are the most common ways of utilizing this card and which one of those methods is most successful.  I would like to focus on the different packages of cards that combo with Primeval Titan and attempt to determine which packages you should include in your next Titan Ramp deck.

The first packages to consider are the accompanying ramp cards.  There are essentially three different directions to take in ramping to your Primeval and beyond.  First is the sac land package that is found most often in Valakut decks.  This package includes Khalni heart Expeditions, Harrows, Explore, and Cultivates.  The Harrows and Heart Expeditions are unique to this deck because landfall of mountains in particular is important to get the full value out of your Valakuts and Avengers.  The pros to this package are massive landfall and the ability to choose which lands you are pulling from you deck.  The biggest drawback to this package is that it doesn't ramp as hard as some of the others we will be looking at.  The second ramp package is the one utilized mostly by Mono Green Eldrazi; it includes 4 Joraga Treespeaker, 4 Growth Spasm, 4 Explore, 4 Overgrown Battlement, and some number of Cultivate. This package can be incredibly explosive if Joraga is able to stick or you can get a growth spasm resolved as this often means you get your Titan a turn before your opponent, but it does not have the landfall strength of the Valakut.  The third ramp package is both the oldest and the newest.  Lotus Cobra combined with fetchlands, Oracle of Mul Daya, and Explore can lead to the most explosive plays of the game, but the entire package is dependent on keeping a Cobra in play...many times easier said than done.

 

The biggest question in determining what ramp package is right for the deck you are trying to build is answering these two questions, "How am I going to win the game and what can my opponent do to stop that from happening?"  Clearly, the Valakut package is just for the Valakut deck and has limited application elsewhere and therefore if you are trying to win with Valakut those answers are easy.  I want to win by burning my opponent out with Valakut, with the backup being Avenger and my opponent can only stop me if he can get rid of all my Valakuts and still deal with a resolved Avenger.  This is fairly straightforward and therefore it is the other two ramp packages that I want to focus on.  

The biggest vulnerabilities of these other two ramp strategies are the creatures that give them their explosiveness; namely Lotus Cobra and Joraga Treespeaker.  I believe this vulnerability is too large for your opponents and the metagame in general to not recognize and exploit which is why I am a large advocate of the following ramp package.

4 Joraga Treespeaker

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Growth Spasm

4 Explore

2 Cultivate  

This ramp package is very similar to the Mono Green Eldrazi package with a particular emphasis on beefing up its hardiness with Overgrown Battlements and its speed with Growth Spasm. I believe this particular package performs very well against a vast majority of the meta and when we take into account the finishers I am going to recommend it becomes even clearer why this package is superior to some of our other options. 

The ramp in a Primeval Titan deck is the kickstarter it gets the engine (Primeval Titan) going as fast as possible.  Once the engine gets going it needs a direction and that is where the finisher package comes into play.  The most popular finishers today are in no particular order; Eldrazi Big 3, Avenger of Zendikar, Rampaging Baloths,Valakut, Frost Titan, Inferno Titan, and recently Genesis Wave.  Clearly all of these are big spells that do some pretty broken stuff when played correctly and with enough speed.  I would like to suggest a new package of finishers that takes pieces of each group and meshes them together to form a much more flexible package.  

3 Frost Titan

3 Rite of Replication

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

I will share with you the process I went through to arrive at this particular finishing group.  I  began by evaluating all of the finishers relative level of power in the current meta.  (I only did this based on hard casting them...) 1. Emrakul 2. Ulamog 3. Kozilek 4. Frost Titan 5. Genesis Wave 6. Avenger/Valakut 7. Rampaging Baloths  The reason Frost Titan is ranked so high is that it has the ability shut down many of the cards in its same category.  I next evaluated what each finishers strong and weak match-ups were.  I won't bore you with the details, but essentially (and for good reason) each of these cards should win you the game, provided that your opponent isn't able to cast something as good on their turn.  Meaning that controlling the mirror is incredibly important.  Enter Rite of Replication!  This card gives you the flexibility in the mirror to lock your opponent down and respond to a lot of their threats in a relatively cheap manner (achieving 9 mana in a ramp deck is not a significant barrier). It can double up a legendary to clear an Eldrazi for just 4 mana, it can target a Primeval and empty your library of land on that turn, it can target a Frost Titan and effectively lock down your opponenets mana, it can simply match their best creature in a game where you got outramped...the flexibility this card gives to the deck is amazing and truly is the bet finisher I have been able to find.

I want to address a few sideboard holes that Primeval Titan decks often find themselves in before wrapping up with the list I currently use to break Primeval Titan and its crazy ramp abilities. The toughest match-up is often counters and control against your early game ramp or the Primeval Titan itself.  Summoning Trap remains your best friend here but this list includes counter magic of its own to bring in off the board for a game 2 surprise. The other choice that might seem odd is that I always board in my Obstinate Baloth against control.  Why?  One more creature I can cast that gets countered and thus is one more opportunity to insta win off a trap into Emrakul.  Without further ado here is what I believe is the ultimate Primeval Titan list available today.

4 Primeval Titan
3 Frost Titan
3 Overgrown Battlement
4 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Rite of Replication
4 Explore
4 Growth Spasm
2 Mana Leak
4 Summoning Trap

4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tectonic Edge
3 Eldrazi Temple
2 Eye of Ugin
4 Khalni Garden
2 Halimar Depths
2 Island
4 Forest

SB:
4 Obstinate Baloth
3 Spell Pierce
2 Nature's Claim
4 Flashfreeze
2 Mindbreak Trap

Decklist of the Day Grixis Control

Basically ever since I saw Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker I have the itch to play with him.  He is such a ridiculous card that when resolved demands an answer the next turn or its gg. Therefore, I have played around with Grixis decks for the last couple of weeks and after ROE came out I finally hit on a combo that I really think has the legs to do a decent job in standard.  


Had to start with 3 Nicol Bolas because the whole theme of the deck is to overwhelm-->win using this card. Sarkhan is a card draw machine and considering almost all of my spells costs 2 or less he will get a few draws easily.  Plus against UW or Polymorph he can dragonize their biggest threat, making it much easier to eliminate. (It is generally easier to kill a 5/5 dragon token than a Baneslayer angel or Emrakul...)


3 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
2 Sarkhan, the Mad
5 Planeswalkers


The Specter makes an excellent harasser and a great discard to a Blightning.  His unearth ability makes him a natural in a deck like this because it is cheap and you get great return out of it.  (Would you play 4 of a card that does 3 damage and discards one card for 2 mana?  I would!)


4 Sedraxis Specter
4 Creatures

The spell section is the real heart of this deck.  The deck is revolved around disruption in every possible form. Blightnings and Duress (in the SB) for card disruption, Lightning Bolt for utility, Spreading Seas for Mana disruption and card draw, countersquall as the mainboard counter option, consume the meek as black's best sweeper, and terminate for creature removal.  Mind spring is included for crazy card draw and the Chalices get us to Bolas that much faster.

4 Blightning
2 Consume the Meek
4 Countersquall
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Mind Spring
4 Spreading Seas
3 Terminate
25 Spells

4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Dragonskull Summit
3 Island
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
3 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Swamp
26 Lands

The sideboard is designed to be flexible against a variety of decks.  Adjust it to fit whatever the popular deck styles are in  your area. I decided to fill out Consume the Meek, thrown in some duress, a bunch of counters, or deathmark for any mythic deck. Let me know if you have any additional suggestions.

Sideboard
3 Negate
2 Flashfreeze
3 Deathmark
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Consume the Meek
3 Duress

You have to stall out your opponents for the first 5-6 turns countering their big spells, terminating their creatures, and sweeping anything that needs to be swept.  (any starting hand that has spreading seas and the requisite mana is very good btw)  By this time you have enough to cast Bolas.  If you have two in hand or are very ahead in the board go ahead and cast it right away, if not then wait to have some counterspell back up because a resolved and protected Bolas spells game over for your opponent very quickly.  Once Bolas hits the board just make it your priority to protect him and the game should be yours quite quickly. I will be testing this out all weekend and I will let you know how it goes and what kind of SB'ing I did.  In the mean time have fun at FNM and other events this weekend. And look for my follow up post on Monday.

Trevor Isham

About Me

This blog should detail my attempts to get into the game of Magic the Gathering from a complete n00b's perspective. I played magic off and on in junior high and high school, but never more than buying a few packs, opening them with friends, building some decks and goofing around.  Every so often I would rifle through my mishmash collection from at least 8 different sets and put together some fun new decks, but never entered a tournament ever.  Fresh out of college and a couple years into staring at a computer screen all day have led me to pick up a hobby that can engage my brain, meet some new people, and play a fun game in the process. 


After making the decision to get into playing some Magic my first step was to hit up some local card/comic book stores to find out what the local scene was like. I quickly discovered a shop right near my house and it seemed they had a fairly decent FMN turnout.  I spent the next two weeks voraciously reading articles, news highlights, decklists, and blogs in order to get caught up on the current state of standard version Magic.  I learned about the awesomeness of Jund, the woes of UW control, and far more about Magic than I ever thought I would ever know. 


The funny thing about my experience in these first two weeks was that I still had not purchased a single Magic Card! I knew all of these cards, decks, and the magic scene but had not a single card to play with.  Then an article by Jacob van Luren (who is in my top 2 of all MTG writers I have read) about a Jund deck that would perform well in the mirror.  After reading about it, thinking it over for about a day I decided to just order that deck, along with some of his sideboard suggestions and see what happens.  That week I also took place in my first booster draft of all time, Zen-Zen-WW!  


I had never done an online draft, didn't actually know how a draft worked, and couldn't really tell you anything about the Zendikar and Worldwake sets at all.  Needless to say it went about as predicted.  I drafted a really terrible blue black deck and went 0-3...sounds miserable...right?  Actually I had the time of my life...drafting was exhilerating, playing a new deck that I had just about 7 minutes to put together was very fun, and I met some really cool people. 


Well now about 3 weeks, a pre-release, a release, and a few drafts under my belt I thought I would start this blog for a couple different reasons.  The first being that I don't fit the typical Magic Community writer mold.  I am not a top 8 player, I haven't been playing for years, and I still ask a lot of rules questions whenever I play.  Namely I am a n00b, that happens to be a decent writer, and loves the game of MTG.  This gives me a unique perspective and one that I think Magic needs, if it is going to continue to grow and attract new players. 


I plan on posting my MTG experiences, thoughts I have about other player's articles, card reviews, decklists, and occasionally/hopefully have some guest writers on the blog.  My goal is to aid newer players in picking up the game of Magic, remind experienced players that a lot of Magic should be about teaching new players, and hopefully inspire some new thoughts on playing MTG.  Thanks and I hope you enjoy!!!


Trevor Isham