ArchGenius's picture
By: ArchGenius, Marcus Rehnberg
Oct 27 2010 4:30am
5
Login to post comments
5171 views


Creatures don't usually stick around very long in 100 singleton. If they aren't picked off by targeted removal, then they are swept away by sweepers.

Swords to Plowshares Day of Judgment The Abyss

Sometimes removal isn't even required as your best creatures are bounced and countered.

Repulse Force of Will Jace, the Mind Sculptor 

And if that doesn't work to discourage you from using creatures, then maybe this will. Creatures can always be stolen or neutralized pretty effectively.

Bribery Moat Humility

So, what are you supposed to do if you like playing with creatures?  Well, the most common approach is to play red.  Red has a collection of small creatures that don't really mind being destroyed.  They also have one of the best abilities to fight against the horde of anti-creature cards. They have haste.

Hell's Thunder Goblin Chieftain Demigod of Revenge

Why is haste so useful?  Because most control style of decks need to be reactive rather than proactive.  It's very difficult to build a control deck that counters everything, therefore most control decks rely on the ability to tutor for the answers they need. This is often due to the nature of tutoring in 100 singleton.

Enlightened Tutor Mystical Tutor Mystical Teachings

Most tutors either cost a lot of mana or they put the tutored for card on top of their owner's library.  This means that there is a short one-turn opportunity for you to use your creature before your opponent will likely tutor up a response to your creature.  For most creatures this one-turn opportunity is wasted because of summoning sickness.  But, if I have a creature with haste or an "enters the battlefield" effect, then my opponent's ability to counter my creatures is only partially effective because I've already gotten some use out of my creatures either via combat damage or the creature's "enters the battlefield" effect.  

One of the reasons I like the M2011 Titans so much is because they are large creatures with very powerful "enters the battlefield" effects.  However just imagine for one moment, "what if they had haste?"  Inferno Titan could hit for 12 damage plus fire-breathing or basically knock out most of your opponent's defenders.  Sun Titan could return a Dauntless Escort and Pernicious Deed in the same turn.  Primeval Titan could summon up some of the most broken lands ever printed while catapulting you up 4 lands. Grave Titan could create an army of 4 zombies, and Frost Titan could tap down your opponent's two most important land so that your opponent won't be able to do much during his next turn.  Giving a Titan haste is very difficult to accomplish in standard.  You can use cards like (Bloodthrone Taunter), Sword of Vengeance, or Battle Rampart, but these cards all seem like more trouble than they're worth.  Playing and equipping a titan in the same turn requires far too much mana, and the others are just too weak.  Sarkhan Vol is a possibility, but you'd still have to keep Sarkhan alive for at least 1 turn in order to set him up to super charge a titan.  In 100 singleton it becomes infinitely easier to give a titan haste so that you can double up on his abilities before your opponent has a turn to react.  Here are just some of the possibilities.

Lightning Greaves Stoneforge Mystic Sun Titan

You don't even need to keep Lightning Greaves on the board.  Sun Titan can bring it back to play so you can equip him, swing, and bring back something else.

Anger  Inferno Titan

Survival of the Fittest can do some broken things, but finding Anger is one of the most under-utilized abilities.  By itself, a single Survival of the Fittest can set up a hasty Titan.  It can even bring one in for 5 mana with the help of Karmic Guide.  If you don't have that much mana, a hasty Tarmogoyf and Vengevine will usually do the trick.  Make no mistake, Survival of the Fittest is one of the strongest cards in 100 singleton, and it's not because of Genesis. Anger is just so much faster and generally more useful than Genesis.

 

Sneak Attack Grave Titan

I'm not a huge fan of Sneak Attack in 100 singleton, but it is not a bad card.  The problem is that it really shines in a deck that is packed full of cards like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.  Just by having cards like that in your deck, you are opening yourself up to having dead cards in your hand, and losing to an opponent's Bribery.  In my opinion, Sneak Attack is just far too expensive for a card that is inconsistent, and doesn't always immediately effect the game.

Shallow Grave, Corpse Dance, Primeval Titan

A turn one Entomb for either Grave Titan or Primeval Titan, followed by a turn two Shallow Grave is one of the strongest early game two-card plays you can make without having an extraordinarily lucky draw.  The Grave Titan play will leave your opponent at 14 life and leave behind four 2/2 zombies to mop up the job in the next two turns.  The Primeval Titan play will leave your opponent at 14 while you jump from 2 land to 6 land including any four land of your choice which could include some combination of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Bazaar of Baghdad Wasteland Volrath's Stronghold.  Either of those situations set you up for a pretty good chance at victory, and neither one requires you to play any cards that are nearly impossible to cast from your hand.  That is the beauty of the Titans, they have low enough casting costs that you can actually cast them, and yet they are powerful enough that they are worth going through the process of getting them into your graveyard so you can reanimate them.

Body Double Volrath's Shapeshifter

 

Survival and Anger can be used in many different color combinations.  If you add blue to the mix you can get a very inexpensive hasty Titan with Volrath's Shapeshifter or Body Double to get the full effect.   

So where am I going with all of this speculative theory about cards?  This is basically the groundwork I had for creating my first post M2011 100 singleton deck. 

Survival Titan
100 singleton deck by Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand
Creatures
1 Anger
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fierce Empath
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Flickerwisp
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Genesis
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Inferno Titan
1 Karmic Guide
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Primeval Titan
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Reveillark
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sun Titan
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Vengevine
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Wall of Omens
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Wood Elves
38 cards

Other Spells
1 Soltari Visionary
1 AEther Vial
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Cultivate
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lightning Helix
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Path to Exile
1 Primal Command
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Scapeshift
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
20 cards
 
Lands
1 Arid Mesa
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Boros Garrison
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Flooded Strand
4 Forest
1 Karakas
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Raging Ravine
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Wooded Foothills
40 cards

Sun Titan

 

I know, I know, this format for a 100 singleton deck really doesn't do a whole lot.   There are too many card interactions to really get a feel for the deck, so let's break it down a bit.

The main goal of this deck is quite simply.  Ramp to six mana, stall fast decks, and win the game with a Titan. Of course there are a lot of contingency plans and other paths to victory, but that is the main goal.  A large part of this deck is built around Survival of the Fittest, but this deck can function reasonably well without Survival of the Fittest and graveyard hate is annoying but it usually doesn't stop us from getting an Inferno Titan into play.

Basic Removal

Lightning Bolt Lightning Helix Swords to Plowshares Path to Exile Oblivion Ring

These are the cards that belong in any deck built around Naya colors.  Efficient removal of this quality is good against almost every deck.

Notable cards that aren't in the deck:

Journey to Nowhere Oblivion Ring is much more versatile and sorcery speed creature removal that can be undone by artifact and enchantment removal is pretty bad in a lot of match-ups, However it's pretty good against Bribery.,

Incinerate Magma Jet These cards are very good, but the Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix are a bit better.  I'm often just looking for a little removal in order to finish off early game threats like Miners and opposing Fauna Shaman or Lotus Cobra.  This isn't a burn deck and it shouldn't have too much removal in it.

Flametongue Kavu  This card can be very good, but it can also be very bad.  My 4-drops are usually swamped with planeswalkers which are usually more important than a Flametongue Kavu.  Also, most of the time I'd rather search for an Inferno Titan and try to ramp up to it than try the mid-game option of using the Kavu.

Planeswalkers

Elspeth, Knight-Errant Garruk Wildspeaker Ajani Vengeant Sarkhan Vol

100 Singleton is dominated by creature and anti-creature strategies, therefore anything that can change that dynamic is useful.  Planeswalkers can slip by counterspells meant for creatures and they can also win games all by themselves.  Elspeth is key against Moat and is one of the best planeswalkers in the game for aggressive decks. Garruk helps play out a Titan earlier and is all around pretty good in decks that uses both small creatures like Eternal Witness and Fierce Empath and large creatures like Sun Titan. Sarkhan Vol is fits very nicely into this deck because of his ability to give a Titan haste, as well as his ability to steal a creature that can be sacrificed to the easily found Greater Gargadon

Notable cards that aren't in the deck:

Ajani Goldmane Ajani Goldmane doesn't offer an alternate path to victory beyond creatures.  Therefore he is usually just as vulnerable as whatever creatures are on the table.  Therefore I usually don't run Ajani Goldmane unless I'm running a weenie deck.

Chandra Nalaar Chandra is one of the few red spells that can take out a Baneslayer and live to talk about it.  She is also not very aggressive for a 5-drop.  If your opponent doesn't have to immediately respond to your 5-drops, then you need to be more aggressive.

Gideon Jura Gideon could be in this deck but I don't own a copy, and I currently have a lot of worthy replacements for Gideon.  He's not critical to the strategy of the deck and he isn't a truly undercosted bomb like Elspeth is.

Good in Any Deck

Sensei's Divining Top AEther Vial Grim Lavamancer Tarmogoyf Lotus Cobra Eternal Witness Figure of Destiny Kitchen Finks Arc-Slogger Birds of Paradise Noble Hierarch

Most of these cards are just very undercosted efficient creatures in my colors and therefore they deserve a spot in the deck.  Lotus Cobra, Eternal Witness and Kitchen Finks work very well with a lot of the Karmic Guide and Flickerwisp tricks we can use in this deck.  The other cards are simply undercosted bruisers that can end the game quickly if left unchecked. 

Survival decks love AEther Vial more than most other decks because it allows you to search for and put into play exactly what you want the turn you get it without having to worry about silly things like counterspells. 

Notable cards that aren't in the deck:

Harmonize Making cuts at the 4-drop level is always the hardest for me because there are so many good options.  Harmonize is very good, but I'm generally pretty focused on getting card advantage from my planeswalkers and creatures, so while it is good and in my colors, it doesn't really fit my deck.

Wall of Roots  Wall of Roots is great because you can use it during your opponent's turn as well as during your turn. This means you can keep counter mana open and play instants at the end of your opponent's turn.  Beyond Survival of the Fittest activations and Eladamri's Call there isn't a whole lot of spells that this deck is going to play on an opponent's turn.  Therefore Wall of Roots is not being utilized to its full potential.  I think I'll just stick to Sakura-Tribe Elder as my 2-drop ramp.

Nature's Lore  I generally prefer Sakura-Tribe Elder because of it interacts well with Sun Titan and friends.  Beyond that I'd prefer to pay 3 mana for 2 lands than 2 mana for 1 land that comes into play untapped.  Nature's Lore works wonders in Zoo decks where you can usually use that land the turn it comes into play.  My deck just wants to ramp.

Sylvan Ranger He has the same problem as Elvish Visionary.  Outside of a dedicated elf deck, the 1/1 body is usually much less useful than a 0/4 wall.  Therefore it gets cut not because it's bad, but because I don't need that much redundancy in my ramping cards. 

Crop Rotation Sejiri Steppe and Gaea's Cradle are primary targets for Crop Rotation.  I've considered playing this combo in the deck because it also works with Knight of the Reliquary and Flagstones of Trokair.  I haven't tested it out enough to know how good it is but it looks like a promising inclusion. 

Survival of the Fittest Creature Search

Primal Command Eladamri's Call Fauna Shaman Fierce Empath

Tutoring is much stronger in 100 singleton than any other non-Commander format because of the options you have.  The ability to choose one of 38 different creatures in order to create a situation that will uniquely dominate the board is daunting but very powerful. 

I consider Primal Command to be one of the strongest cards there is in 100 Singleton, because it can act as a creature tutor, put you out of burn range, temporarily remove a Moat, play like a plow under, and remove a pesky graveyard from the game.  It's only weakness is that it's a 5 mana sorcery that has a tendency to be countered a lot.  In one match, I got greedy and had it countered by a Crop Rotation.  Always beware of crop rotation.   

Fierce Empath I like this little guy a lot.  He fetches Titans and he can fetch land cycling fatties like Eternal Dragon, and he can also fetch Greater Gargadon if you need a sacrifice outlet.  What more could you want?

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Natural Order In order to make the most of natural order, you really need to build part of your deck around it.  This deck is designed to ramp up to a Sun Titan or a Inferno Titan, both of which can't be summoned with Natural Order.  Therefore we need to add more big creatures to the deck in order to accommodate Natural Order.  This tends to overload the top end of the curve and make it more likely that we won't be able to curve out. Then there is always the possibility of facing a blue deck with counterspells, bounce, and Bribery.  Suddenly Natural Order becomes much more of a risk.

Worldly Tutor Enlightened Tutor These are definitely more reactive cards that only become instant threats when you have a (Sensei's Diving Top) out.  Since we have no way of searching for the Divining top, I don't feel that these tutors are worth the card disadvantage and potential of facing counterspells.

Squee, Goblin Nabob Yes, he combos quite nicely with Survival and Fauna Shaman, but without one of those 2 cards he's pretty useless. Most of the time I'd rather be working on ramping up towards a hasty Titan than spending that extra green mana for Squee recursion.  If I play the hasty Titan correctly, I probably won't need to draw that many creatures, therefore I don't need the extra squee discards.

 

Blink and Recursion

FlickerwispKarmic GuideSaffi EriksdotterSun TitanReveillarkFierce EmpathEternal Witness

One of the goals of this deck is to get double duty from all of those creatures with an enters the battlefield ability.  Flickerwisp is the cheapest way to do this, but Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and Sun Titan are often able to finish the game with these recursion tricks.  Evoking a Reveillark to bring back Karmic Guide which returns Reveillark to play is one of the common tricks used in this deck.  Flickerwisp and either Reveillark or Karmic Guide works as well.  In fact there are numerous different ways you can combine these cards to bring them all into play over and over again.  

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Galepowder Mage Changeling Berserker These cards work really well with all the enters the battlefield creature effects we have.  I had both of these creatures in my deck at one point in time.  But I ended up cutting them in order to cut down on the number of midrange spells in this deck.  I really want to bypass four mana in order to get Titans out at five or six mana.  (Five mana if I have a Survival out, with the help of Karmic Guide) 

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker often feels like a win more card, and that's often not very good for 5 mana.  If you can get him and a Titan out and into play, you're probably going to win the game.  The problem is that getting a 5-drop and a 6-drop into play is not the best plan in the world to win a 100 singleton game.  Especially when Kiki-Jiki is very vulnerable to removal and even Karakas.  Don't get me wrong, I want him in the deck, but I'm just not sure if his difficult triple red casting cost is worth it for a conditional bomb. 

Card Advantage and stalling creatures

Wall of Omens Wall of Blossoms Stoneforge Mystic Sakura-Tribe Elder Wood Elves Fierce Empath

These cards are mainly designed as a way to slow down a fast deck and provide me with the time I need to get a Titan into play.  It helps that Fierce Empath can find that Titan if needed.  If I'm playing against a control deck and it looks like getting a Titan past a counterspell wall isn't going to happen, I'll simply go for the uncounterable Sword of Fire and Ice and go straight for the weenie rush victory.  I've discovered that having that back-up plan is essential in the control match-up.

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Elvish Visionary I really don't want to do much attacking in the early game and Elvish Visionary is a lousy blocker.  The only time I really want to be aggressive with my weenies is if I have out a Sword of Fire and Ice.  Therefore Wall of Omens and Wall of Blossoms trump Elvish Visionary in this deck.

Ranger of Eos This is a great card, but this is not the deck that can use it effectively. I generally want to minimize my 4 drops to the bare essentials.

Basilisk Collar Combo

Goblin Sharpshooter Cunning Sparkmage Stoneforge Mystic Basilisk Collar

There are a lot of creatures in 100 singleton, and many of those creatures are small and vulnerable to Goblin Sharpshooter and Cunning Sparkmage.  For the ones that aren't that vulnerable there is always the Basilisk Collar which turns Goblin Sharpshooter into a one-sided Wrath of God.  This combo is fairly obvious and that is why I included it.  However in practice it isn't nearly as effective.  Goblin Sharpshooter is usually good enough on it's own and when it's not, it usually doesn't survive long enough to gain equipment. 

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Cyclops Gladiator There are too many good 4-drops and this one has a hard casting cost and doesn't have an immediate effect on the board.

Vithian Stinger The unearth ability is a nice trick with Survival, but in all other regards it's weaker than Cunning Sparkmage and Goblin Sharpshooter

Haste Titan combo

AngerLightning GreavesSarkhan VolSun TitanInferno Titan

This is the main strategy of the deck.  A single Hasted Inferno Titan can deliver 12 points of damage to an opponent or take out another Titan and hit for 6 or any number of other combinations of tricks.  Sun Titan can bring back any number of very useful creatures.  Some of my favorites are Lightning Greaves, Fulminator Mage, Wasteland and Knight of the Reliquary.

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Fires of Yavimaya This was in the deck for a while, and it is effective, Lightning Greaves is generally better and easy to find with this deck.

Land Destruction Titan

Sun Titan Fulminator Mage Wasteland

If you can get a hasty Titan into play, you can often deny your opponent of the lands he needs to deal with that Titan.  Even against an opponent with 7 or more lands, this strategy can quickly limit your opponent's options.

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Tectonic Edge I didn't include this card because I didn't want too many colorless producing lands in my three color deck.  However without it Primeval Titan loses a lot of its punch.

Life Gain/ Anti Red Deck

Loxodon Hierarch Obstinate Baloth Kitchen Finks Primal Command SB: Auriok Champion Kor Firewalker

With this much life gain, you can usually last long enough against red to get out a Titan, and most red decks have a very hard time dealing with an active Titan.

Notables that aren't in the deck:

Pelakka Wurm Seven mana is a lot, but I think this guy is probably worth it.  He's generally a better target than Primeval Titan in this deck and he can easily put the game out of reach for an opposing burn deck.  If Natural Order has a place in this deck, it would be with this card and a few other decent green targets.

Cards that didn't live up to my expectations

Goblin Bombardment  I never saw it in over 20 rounds of play, and I've come to realize that it isn't needed to boost the power of Reveillark and Saffi Eriksdotter so that you can construct some infinite damage combos.  In most cases it's a "win more" card that can be replaced.

Basilisk Collar I've found I only need 2 reliable pieces of equipment for Stoneforge Mystic to find.  In most cases where I want the Basilisk Collar I'm usually more than happy with a Sword of Fire and Ice

Scapeshift In the one game I decided to use it in, I miscounted the Mountains I had in my deck and my opponent was able to stave off my victory with a well placed Wasteland.  I feel I need to either dedicate my deck to the Scapeshift victory or just drop it.  It messes with my mana enough and I don't currently have ways to search for it, so I'm dropping it for now.

Soltari Visionary This guy is not as great as a hasted Trygon Predator and it's only effective against heavy enchantment decks which I see enough that I want to use it, but not enough that I see it as a good card. In most cases I'd rather have a Acidic Slime.

SB:

Ricochet Trap I've sideboarded it in against blue decks as a way to counter counterspells and occasionally redirect a few draw spells.  It works much better in theory than practice.  I think the uncounterable creatures are probably a better anti-blue technique.

Stingscourger This is a way to bounce Bribery targets, however it's usually overkill when I'd almost always want Flickerwisp more than this guy.

New Cards to Try

Acidic Slime and Pyrokinesis are in from the sideboard.  I sided these two cards in so much that I might as well move them to the main deck.

Mangara of Corondor Mangara is not as good at playing with Sun Titan as Fulminator Mage but Mangara is one of those cards that is really really good with haste, which this deck is really good at providing.

Captain Sisay Sisay can search for a lot of decent legends and legendary lands including Mangara of Corondor, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Karakas.  She is also incredibly good with haste.  I'm probably going to add one to the deck as soon as I decide to spend the money on one.

After a lot of testing and deckbuilding with this deck I decided I wanted to see how good it really is.  So I bargained heavily with my wife for time to play this deck on the weekend and finally got the time to do it on Oct 2 and Oct 9. 

So, how did I do in the weekend events?  Well, see for yourself..

Well, it's too bad for me that there was a top 8 playoff round after this.  I was absolutely crushed in the first round.  Platipus10 was playing another deck featuring titans and quite a few ways of beating me.  This was definitely a poor match-up for me despite what my lucky standings might have indicated.

The next weekend I made a critical error of trying to bury a elf-deck's land with a Primal Command when my opponent had a Forest untapped.  My Primal Command, which would have gotten a Inferno Titan to seal the game ended up countered by a simple Crop Rotation for Gaea's Cradle.  That mistake cost me a critical match which sent me spiraling down to another 3-2 record with bad tiebreakers.  Of course I can't remember a time when I've gotten a 3-2 record and have had good tiebreakers.  Even when I have started out with a 3-0 record only to lose the last two rounds, I still end up with horrible tiebreakers.  Oh well, that's the price we pay for a tournament with an very generous payout.

So here is my revised deck.  I've streamlined a couple of items and I'm still trying to work out how to get Knight of the Reliquary and Crop Rotation to be optimized, but it's a deck that I'm still having a lot of fun playing and I've had some very successful matches with it.

 

Survival of the Titans version 2.0
100 Singleton Deck by Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand
Creatures
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Eternal Witness
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Flickerwisp
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Wood Elves
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Inferno Titan
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Fierce Empath
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Anger
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Sun Titan
1 Mangara of Corondor
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Karmic Guide
1 Fulminator Mage
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Reveillark
1 Vengevine
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Wall of Omens
1 Eternal Dragon
1 Acidic Slime
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Genesis
1 Wall of Blossoms
41 cards

Other Spells
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Primal Command
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Path to Exile
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sarkhan Vol
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Cultivate
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Lightning Greaves
1 AEther Vial
1 Lightning Helix
17 cards
 
Lands
1 Windswept Heath
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Taiga
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Savannah
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Mountain
4 Forest
1 Boros Garrison
1 Arid Mesa
1 Karakas
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Treetop Village
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Marsh Flats
1 Wasteland
1 Raging Ravine
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
3 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Misty Rainforest
40 cards

Sun Titan

 

I highlighted the obvious changes I made to the decklist to make it a little easier to read.  Hopefully you've enjoyed my little exploration of the Titans in 100 singleton, and I'll see you in the queues. 

-Marcus, Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand on Magic Online.

 

13 Comments

After submiting this article by ArchGenius at Wed, 10/13/2010 - 18:33
ArchGenius's picture

After submiting this article I read the downtime notes and there is going to be some big big changes to the prize structures of tournaments.

"Additional Organized Play Updates
We have examined the results of the past few months of organized play data and based on our findings we have decided to make the following changes to our prizes structures following our scheduled maintenance downtime on October 20:

-All Core Constructed Formats (Standard, Extended, and Legacy), excluding Block formats, will switch to Scars of Mirrodin booster packs for their prizes
-All Block Constructed Formats will award booster pack prizes from the corresponding block
-All Specialty Constructed Formats (Standard Singleton, Pauper, 100-Card Singleton, and Classic) will switch to Magic 2011 booster packs for their prizes
-All Limited Formats will continue to award booster pack prizes from the corresponding block"

100 Singleton tournaments will get M2011 prize packs on October 20th. Yeah...... Time to tell your friends.

Interesting breakdown. I by Paul Leicht at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 12:50
Paul Leicht's picture
5

Interesting breakdown. I haven't played 100cs in ages because my collection no longer has some of the critical staples. It would be nice if your breakdown included some remarks on plausible or reasonable budget replacements for things like Survival (Fauna Shaman?) The swords (Loxodon Warhammer?) and more. Thanks for the interesting read.

In future 100 singleton by ArchGenius at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 15:13
ArchGenius's picture

In future 100 singleton articles I'll look at budget alternatives.

Although it's kind of hard to find build a survival deck without Survival of the Fittest. Fauna Shaman is good, but it's already in the deck, and it's a lot slower than Survival of the Fittest.

great stuff, I find that no by JustSin at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 14:11
JustSin's picture
5

great stuff, I find that no matter what deck I run in 100cs I always get 0-2 in the first two rounds and drop 0-4 in matches, I can't catch a break in the format, which is so disappointing as it's one of my favorites.

With all of your fetch and such would you consider running Venser? Adding one or two duals that produce blue as well would easily cover the total cost of U to your entire deck and there's a ton of combo cards with it from draw to fetch to the witness and the titans. Maybe a bit of a stretch, but the potential when its in play in a deck like this is high. Do I also take it this is just pre-SoM?

This article is two weeks by ArchGenius at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 15:10
ArchGenius's picture

This article is two weeks old, and it was written up while I was working on 100 singleton decks before Scars came up so I haven't written anything about Scars and 100 singleton yet. I'm not sure why it took so long for this article to be posted.

Anyway, the metagame has shifted quite a bit and I'm currently working on a Bant version of the deck because I need some control elements to deal with the combo and control decks that I've seen lately. Mono-red burn decks and Naya Zoo aggro decks have completely dropped off the map.

Venser (The planeswalker) would be a good splash, but I've never had much luck with 4-color decks. (He's in my Bant deck.) I know a lot of people have been successful with 4-5 color decks but I've never been one of them.

well it wouldn't so much be a by JustSin at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 15:37
JustSin's picture

well it wouldn't so much be a splash as a card additon, kind of how UW control runs like two black sources for mind twist, which is the only black card in deck

Black is also used for by ArchGenius at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 15:49
ArchGenius's picture

Black is also used for Mystical Teaching's Flashback cost in that case. And yes, I consider that a splash too.

At a minimum, if I was adding blue, I'd add Fact or Fiction before Venser, so if I was going to make that change I'd probably add at least 2 cards, and call it a splash.

Of course it all depends on your definition of a splash. I consider one card, a splash.

:-)

"Black is also used for by JustSin at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 15:50
JustSin's picture

"Black is also used for Mystical Teaching's Flashback cost in that case."

ah, touche

Great article here. You by Drbenwayy at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 16:17
Drbenwayy's picture
5

Great article here. You provide a lot of information here and I especially like the explanations and card analysis. Having sections on New Cards to try, cards that didn't live up to your expectations and notables that aren't in the deck makes it so you cover almost any base that someone that is really interested can use. 100 Singleton is one of those formats that I really want to start playing in, just have to pick up some of the staples first, especially for the mana base.

One request for future articles though is could you possibly write the name of the card next to the small pictures, as I don't recognize some of the older cards and clicking over just to find out what the card is gets kind of annoying.

will do. by ArchGenius at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 16:19
ArchGenius's picture

will do.

Great Article by Zimbardo at Wed, 10/27/2010 - 18:53
Zimbardo's picture
5

Great article as always. Nice 6-0, and cool deck. I agree with many of your sentiments, including the idea that the titans are asking to be abused in 100CS.

I disagree with a few of the card choices, but so it goes with 100CS. In particular, I think it's insane to leave out FTK, Primeval Titan, and Enlightened Tutor.

I'm intrigued by Sarkhan Vol. Have you played him enough to be convinced that he's worth it? He's one of those planeswalkers that can't defend himself, and I'm always wary of those. How about Greater Gargadon - my first guess is that his sacrifice ability isn't as good as having Primeval Titan in the deck, but I obviously haven't tried the list.

Once again, great article.

Greater Gargadon is awesome by ArchGenius at Thu, 10/28/2010 - 09:20
ArchGenius's picture

Greater Gargadon is awesome as it gives armageddon players something to think about and I was able to beat 2 red decks by getting a Sword of Fire and Ice on one as my only needed win condition. It also combos well with Sarkhan Vol's second ability.

Sarkhan works reasonably well with this deck because it plays much more defenisively in the early game. Either Wall of Omens or Wall of Blossoms are usually present when I play Sarkhan, and that's usually all the protection he needs.

Flametongue Kavu is very good in the aggro style Naya or Red deck wins deck as a way to remove blockers and get your weenies to charge to victory. This works when you have a large volume of small creatures to attack with. I'm usually not in that position with this deck and the most aggressive I am is with Stoneforge Mystic. I'm not saying he's a bad choice. It's just that most of the time, this deck ramps past 4 drops to get to 5-6 drops and Flametongue Kavu is easily outclassed by Inferno Titan.

Enlightened Tutor and Primeval Titan bounce in and out of my deck frequently. They are both good cards but they are not always what I want to get. Against heavy control decks(my worst match-up), Enlightened Tutor usually just gives them a 2-1 as they counter whatever I get with the tutor. Otherwise the tutor is usually there only to get Survival or Oblivion Ring. I'm not always sure that is worth a card, as Survival takes a while to get going and isn't an instant victory condition unless you're playing the Necrotic Ooze combo. Primeval Titan is huge but he's also at the top of my curve and I don't have a lot of ways to use the extra mana. In order to use him fully, I need to have more mountains to power Valakut, which means making the deck more red. As it is now, it's mostly a white/green deck with a reasonable amount of red tossed in. That doesn't work too well if your mana base is heavily red-centered.

Primal Command is quite by cseraph at Sat, 12/04/2010 - 16:31
cseraph's picture

Primal Command is quite capable of permanently removing moat.

You list oblivion ring both as a card you are and are not running.

Also, you 'usually' have wall of blossoms or omens when you play Sarkhan? 0.o

In my personal experience, Saffi is just underpowered, and she's worse in your list than in many (B-based) decks.

Interesting decklist and card choices though.