The deck is extremely proactive and has a lot of versatility to compete against such a varied format. The ability to ramp into titans quickly is very strong and usually punishes the midrange decks that cannot interact with the early Rampant Growth, Sphere of the Suns or Birds of Paradise you'll be casting between turns 1-3. It also has the ability to survive well using an assortment of Slagstorm, Galvanic Blast, and Devil's Play to keep the board clear til a titan lands on the table. Fortunately, I already had most of the expensive cards and just needed to pick up a few things before I was able to sleeve it up and try it out myself.
Gyula, Evan, and myself headed over to Colisseum of Comics in Kissimmee, Fl to try out their FNM environment. I was very impressed with the players there and everyone was extremely friendly. You could tell that mostly everyone there knew each other and it was full of people who would work long hours and show up to relax and enjoy the end of their week. Here's the decklist I used this past Friday:
Spells: 34
3x Slagstorm
1x Beast Within4x Rampant Growth
4x Galvanic Blast
4x Sphere of the Suns
2x Devil's Play
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Green Sun's Zenith
Lands: 26
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Inkmoth Nexus
3x Kessig Wolf Run
6x Mountain
5x Forest
Sideboard: 15
2x Beast Within
1x Bramblecrush
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Slagstorm
2x Acidic Slime
4x Autumn's Veil
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Viridian Corrupter
1x Asceticism
I admit, the sideboard was shoddily put together, but it had some strong answers against control, considering the playset of Inferno Titan and Slagstorm after boarding would be enough if I faced down an aggro opponent. Now, let's see how it went!
Round 1 was against a guy named Nick who brought U/W Blade to the table. In Game 1, my opponent played an aggressive turn 2 Invisible Stalker followed by a turn 3 Blade Splicer. With a Rampant Growth and a Solemn Simulacrum on my turn 3, I quickly cast Primeval Titan on turn 4. Unfortunately for my opponent, they could not reach their 4th land for the Angelic Destiny presumably in their hand or any piece of equipment to lay on the board, which quickly gave me the win. After sideboarding, I brought in the Slagstorm and Ancient Grudge. Unfortunately for Game 2, my opponent layed down a pair of Hero of Bladehold. After drawing no gas, we were both to Game 3. In Game 3, both my opponent and I took a mulligan to 5. After playing an Island, my opponent would have no lands for the rest of the game. I began top decking lands turn after turn until I had a turn 6 Inferno Titan that sealed the game. 1-0
The next round was against a very friendly Irishman named Eoin. After sharing some laughs and making fun of Evan, we moved into Game 1. His turn 1 Champion of the Parish and turn 2 Hamlet Captain on the play did some serious damage. Unfortunately, I was famined with lands, but had a Birds of Paradise that helped me play a turn 3 Slagstorm that wiped his board away with me at 10 life. After the Slagstorm hit, my opponent had lost a serious amount of momentum and could not keep the beats up after a turn 6 Primeval Titan. In Game 2, my opponent hit a ton of lands and got swarmed by Inkmoth hits until he hit 10 poison. 3-0
In Game 1, she played Inkmoth Nexus and used it to swing for 1 poison every turn for the next 4 turns. This was a clear signal that she didn't have anything worth casting, so I went to work, first playing a turn 4 Primeval Titan, followed by a turn 5 Inferno Titan. After beats, I used Devil's Play to hit her for 9 and we moved on to Game 2. My sideboarding for this match looked like this,
+2 Acidic Slime
+2 Ancient Grudge
+2 Beast Within
-3 Slagstorm
-1 Thrun
-1 Devil's Play
-1 Solemn Simulacrum
I dropped Slagstorm since I predicted she would have a full set of Phyrexian Crusader and they would be close to useless against them. I brought in the Ancient Grudge/Acidic Slime for Inkmoth Nexus and the Beast Within against.. well everything she plays, considering a 3/3 Beast Token is close to irrelevant in this matchup. In Game 2, she played a turn 2 Plague Stinger followed by a turn 3 Dark Favor, swinging in for 4 poison. Unfortunately, I did not have the removal spell I needed to stop the onslaught and conceeded after she cast a turn 4 Phyrexian Vatmother.
After seeing the Dark Favor strategy, I dropped one of the Ancient Grudge and put back in 1 Devil's Play. In Game 3, I saw an opening hand filled with 3 land, Rampant Growth, Inferno Titan, and a beautiful pair of Galvanic Blast. After she played another turn 3 Dark Favor, I used Galvanic Blast on the Plague Stinger followed by another Galvanic Blast on her activated Inkmoth Nexus. Keeping her off her 4th land drop would be crucial as I droped down an Inferno Titan. She stopped it with a Doom Blade, but did not have a second when I dropped down a Primeval Titan. The Titan along with Kessig Wolf Run would kill her on the next turn. Final record, 4-0.
So in the end, I got a respectable first place, 5 packs of Innistrad and the cool December promo, Savage Lands. Cool!
If I had to change anything about the deck, I'd probably try to fix the sideboard up so it has a better match up against control decks. Although I didn't play against any control decks, I still felt slightly unprepared for facing down a Mana Leak and Dissipate heavy opponent. I don't know if a full playset of Autumn's Veil is the right call. Potentially adding in a 4th Beast Within, Garruk, Primal Hunter or Garruk Relentless in my 75 may make a difference. As I play the deck, I hope to figure out more of it's weaknesses and fine tune it for the metagame coming in a post Worlds season.
A cool aside: when Gyula and I went to grab dinner, we walked into a bargain shop to look for cups to go along with our 2L beverages. We stumbled upon Coke' Cola glasses and stared in awe. For only $1. We jumped in on that deal and bought 2. Unfortunately Evan got stuck with the red plastic cups. Sorry dude =p The night, we had drinks like kings. Until next time, Magic players!
-David J.
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