[Editor's Note: This was originally published on the Asgard Games website in August 2012. Sharing here for archival purposes.]
This past weekend I participated in a Pro Tour Qualifier tournament in Fort Worth. Over 230 people showed up, and after nine rounds of Swiss and a playoff that extended the total to almost sixteen hours of play, I finished in second place. This is what I played:
4 Rampant Growth
4 Farseek
4 Primeval Titan
4 Frost Titan
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Ponder
3Whipflare
3 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Karn Liberated
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Vapor Snag
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Sulfur Falls
7 Forest
4 Island
1 Mountain
4 Glimmerpost
4 Hinterland Harbor
Sideboard:
2 Green Sun’s Zenith
3 Blasphemous Act
2 Thragtusk
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Karn Liberated
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Natural End
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
This deck has been gaining popularity, especially when Gerard Fabiano wrote about it last week. The idea of the deck is to play a titan, and then take an extra turn, which is usually enough to win the game. Playing a titan is still one of the most powerful things to do in standard, and I wanted to play them one more time before they rotate. Most of the lists are pretty similar, so I’ll just talk about the cards I played that were out of the norm.
I chose to play Whipflare over Bonfire of the Damned because I wanted more early game presence. This deck doesn’t need any extra power for the late game; it needs to survive that long. Playing a ramp spell on turn 2 and then another on turn 3 along with Whipflare is a common play, and Bonfire doesn’t let you do that. Sometimes when you draw Bonfire, you would rather ramp than pay the miracle cost, and casting it from your hand isn’t always enough. Clearing out small blockers for your titans to get through is much easier with Whipflare, and it lets you cast additional spells after combat. Essentially I felt I was more likely to lose a game in the first 5 turns than the last 5 turns, so I chose the spell that did more during those turns.
Whipflare performed very well for me all day, doing serious work against Geist of Saint Traft and Delver of Secrets, along with various zombies and mana producers. The other card that was amazing throughout the day was Garruk, Primal Hunter. Drawing six cards from a titan was enough every time, especially when one of them is Temporal Mastery. It’s also a threat that cannot be targeted by spot removal and it lives through Day of Judgment effects.
The sideboard cards are mostly to help against aggro matchups since I didn’t expect much control. I didn’t include anything for the mirror match since I felt the deck was off the radar, but I would add two Phantasmal Images to the board for future tournaments. Every card was effective throughout the day, including the Melira. I was able to zenith for her in game 3 of my quarterfinal match against UG Infect, and my opponent had no outs.
This deck is actually fairly simple to play, the only real decisions being which lands to search out with your ramp spells and Primeval Titans, and whether or not to miracle Temporal Mastery. Many times it’s better to just draw the card and not cast it, saving it as a seven mana Time Warp for when you have a titan or planeswalker in play. Other times it lets you cast a titan one turn sooner. The deck mulligans a lot, but it mulligans well. I won several mull to 5, and even one mull to 4.
I lost my first round of the Swiss, playing against the mirror. I then won seven matches in a row, beating various Naya, Delver, Zombie, and other decks. Naya is probably the easiest matchup, since they can’t really kill a titan ever. Delver is a coin flip but you are a slight favorite after board. Zombies can be a problem if they have a perfect draw, but usually Primeval Titan for Glimmerpost is enough to stay out of range. My top 8 matches were against Infect, Delver, and a UB Tezzeret deck that I lost to in the finals. The loss seemed more like my deck giving up and not drawing any ramp game 3, but it might be a bad matchup.
If you are playing a standard tournament in the future, I would recommend playing this deck, or a deck that can actually beat this (i.e. don’t play Naya). I’m still deciding between playing this again at the Austin PTQ this weekend, or playing in the Magic Online M13 sealed PTQ. Good luck to you in your future tournaments!
Later
Ty Thomason
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