Did the Titanic hit the iceberg? Or did the iceberg hit the Titanic?
by Sean Olene, Lotus Vault Staff 07/06/10
A different review of M11’s mythic titans
Some of the buzz around M11 is the mythic Titans. Arguably one of the better cycles of beefy creatures released in a set, let alone a core set, all of these big nasties are solid creatures for their cost. There is no real dispute to their price, their power, or their abilities for the most part. The trend with them has been to rate them by their playability. This certainly seems like a fair handshake for the mighty giants, but a recurring theme has come through on the commentary by the pros (and those who mimic them).
As it stands, the league leader on the buzz forums is the Primeval Titan, for obvious reasons. He fetches lands, and not just basic ones. His ability provides for combo with Landfall and he thins your deck. How is he not the best one? Well let’s dig a little into our 6/6-6 buddies and see how that might not be the case.
I’ll just start at the top of the color wheel, and work my way around.
Were it not for Baneslayer Angel, I would be happy to finally see a white powerhouse that doesn’t show up on turn 8 or 9. Alas, she has stolen his thunder. As I will do with all of the other Titans, I am not going to bother discussing the power/toughness/casting cost of the Sun Titan. Instead, let’s look at EtB trigger and how it might provide for something useful or even good.
“Whenever Sun Titan enters the battlefield or attacks, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.”
Recursion is a beautiful thing. Return dead creatures whenever he attacks? Seems solid enough. White is full of disposable creatures in the early turns and having more bodies on the field is never a bad thing. But that is probably not enough. The real obvious play here in Standard is to return Jace Beleren, who just so happens to be returning in M11 as well. This works as a double foil – either power down your own Jace for selfish card drawing, or use it as a way to kill his pesky bigger brother, Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Clear card advantage either way you do it. If used as removal, you can keep bringing your own Jace back again and again. Oblivion Ring, Journey to Nowhere recursion? Nothing to complain about there. Did I mention it has vigilance?
Oh but wait… The criticism for this guy is that he requires you to have cards in your graveyard to trigger. Seriously? A 6 drop and you are trying to tell me you don’t have something in your graveyard to return by then? Especially if you are trying? This might be one of the weaker arguments against a card I have ever heard. Reanimate must be terrible too, based on that kind of logic.
And here is a freebee combo for you – Sun Titan + Flickerwisp. Come up with something degenerate.
Oh no. The terrible Titan. The “twiddle Titan”. I read a review of this card that claimed this was a terrible card through and through, and only existed as a balance for the return of Mana Leak. No evasion, terrible trigger, blah, blah, blah.
The Frost Titan is perhaps my favorite of the Titans. There is no awesome combo with its trigger, but this is the one Titan that can beat all of the other ones in a heads up fight. It doesn’t just “twiddle” a permanent, it locks it down. This actually provides the Frost Titan the ability to choose who it gets in combat with, and who is going to be attacking you after it swings. Hmmm… it feels like evasion, even though it doesn’t saying flying anywhere on the card. Funny how that works…
Wait, I believe I mentioned Mana Leak earlier. That is a really good card I hear.
“Whenever Frost Titan becomes the target of a spell or ability and opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless its controller pays 2.”
It has BUILT-IN counter!!!! Assuming someone has the mana to spare at turn 6 or 7, the Frost Titan eats up a large portion of your opponents resources for the turn without you even having to do anything. Oblivion Ring costs 5 mana, Doom Blade 4 mana, etc. Just imagine if you had a mana leak to back him up. Seems pretty good. He just needs a home to be viable. (This may be in a future article.)
After some discussion with a learned Magic pro, I believe this guy could be the best of the Titans. I wish there was a lot to talk about his ability, but its pretty straightforward – make dudes, make more dudes. God knows we all love our tokens these days…
The Grave Titan does get the mention of an existing deck type from me (thank you, Mr. Siftar) – Jund. Could the Grave Titan be the replacement for Siege-Gang Commander? He’s far harder to kill and supplies many more creatures, with no mana cost for his ability. Someone should test this out and get back to me.
The main thing the Grave Titan that makes it such a good black fatty (wow, Magic slang feels derogatory) is that it provides black with defense in combat, something it traditionally lacks. The Grave Titan always leaves behind two blockers, continually allowing you to swing freely. One of the two Titans that has an inevitably factor to it – if you don’t kill it soon, things will get out of hand. And just in case an army of zombies wasn’t enough, it has deathtouch as well. I have no idea why that matters too much, but no complaining about free stuff, right?
This Titan bores me. Whooo, it deals 3 damage whenever it comes over. Meh. It has firebreathing…? We know how much play Shivan Dragon has gotten all these years in competitive formats. And the dragon flies. Sure, this guy will clear chump blockers out of the way, but odds are you won’t be pumping any mana into it for the extra damage. Odds are you have better ways to spend your mana.
To be fair, this is the other “inevitably Titan”. No matter how many times your Kor Firewalker blocks this guy, the 3 damage coming to your face will get you. He does have that going for him. However, his lack of evasion or haste really makes this card fall flat in my eyes. Paying 6 mana for 3 damage, only to have him shot in the head right after you play him, doesn’t feel like enough bang for the buck.
Give me Anger back and I will be far more interested.
Here is the herald of all things big, green, and combolicious. You love thinning your deck, I love thinning my deck; that’s why we were so excited about fetch lands. Primeval Titan gets TWO lands every turn. Turn 4 Primeval Titan seems pretty easy to do, next turn “RAWR” some crazy stuff going on with your 6/6 trampling giant. Landfall is all the rage with him at the moment, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle combos abound and life with lands is good. But I am not sold on the green Titan yet. I am probably wrong here, but the reward doesn’t feel like enough if this card only fits into a gimmick deck.
So here is my ranking of the Titans, as they stand by themselves:
1. Grave Titan
2. Frost Titan
3. Sun Titan
4. Primeval Titan
5. Inferno Titan
I am sure for those if you keep up with the reviews of new cards, your heads just exploded. But this is my point: Play with them yourselves and find out what works for you. All of them are pretty solid creatures, others have more flexibility than some, and some fit into the current standard environment more readily than others. Just don’t assume that because someone tells you something is good that it really is, there is a good chance that they have not even bothered thinking about how to make a card good, just how to put it in the decks they already have built.
Keep coming back for more opinions (good or bad) and feel free to contact me at archivist@lotusvault.com with ideas, comments, or recipes for really good cookies.
~ Sean
“Some do. Some teach. The rest look it up.”