@jdbeety: Players: “Valakut’s left the format! Hooray!” Future Future League: *look at each other* *start laughing*
At the 27th of December, 1831, Charles Darwin came on board of HMS Beagle, aiming to participate in a circumnavigation that would make his name widely known and create the basis of modern biology. The main purpose of Beagle’s voyage was not to investigate finches, but nobody could know the aftermath of their actions. So, despite Primeval Titan being far from Darwin’s Finches, I’m going to write “mana ramp article, part 42” and investigate the origin of the species and its adaptation to the environment. Their evolution went crazy, with Matthias Hunt deck splashing the last unused color—blue. This article expands my previous work with all new sweet data and thoughts. I will try to avoid things like “this is a well-known, recently investigated deck by {playername}.” Instead, I’ll try to figure out additional ways to exploit these new ideas.
And, as a special bonus, at the end of this article, you will find important information about actually dealing with a decreased amount of PT invitations for non-US players.
All Primeval Titan decks are somehow the same; they use the card’s incredible potential to be threat by itself and to create additional lines of attack with the best available lands, no matter whether it is Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Cloudpost, or Inkmoth Nexus. There is probably no place for Primeval Titan in Legacy and Vintage—formats with the largest number of available spell-lands—just because there are far more powerful engines from ancient times. There is also no room for Primeval Titan in Modern right now (the banning of both Valakut and Cloudpost was just unfair), but I really hope that this situation can be changed. *Launching StarCityGames.com spoiler generator for all lands currently legal in the format; article writing process is stopped for an hour or two*
The most powerful combination of utility lands available in Standard right now is Kessig Wolf Run and Inkmoth Nexus, so the core of any mana ramp looks like “Primeval Titan, Kessig Wolf Run, Rampant Growth, Green Sun’s Zenith, and Solemn Simulacrum.” All these decks use a great amount of ramping spells, sometimes affecting the overall consistency of the deck (especially the quality of starting hands after a mulligan). The reason is best seen in mirrors of Primeval Titan decks. They are centered about two things: resolving your Titan first and trying to win if your opponent has resolved one before you. Other threats are dangerous too, but nothing can be compared to Primeval Titan because he is a threat by himself, and he enables a second plan for winning; you are forced to solve two problems simultaneously—not mentioning that you still need to land your own Titan, which is vital too, but doesn’t solve any problems. Matches against other decks are normally similar: it’s hard to win if you are unable to resolve Primeval Titan.
The precondition of ramp’s variety of species is that the core of the deck is very compact (in contradiction to decks like Tempered Steel where about 50 cards are fixed)—about twenty-five cards or so. Moreover, green as the main color and a large amount of acceleration mean that there are many ways to splash anything you want to. So, let’s speak about actual evolution.
The very first list of Red-Green Wolf Run Ramp was played by Brian Sondag at SCG Open Indianapolis October 1 (where he narrowly missed top 16 by tiebreakers). A week after that, Brian won SCG Open Nashville, turning the metagame on its head. Look at Brian’s list.
Creatures (15)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 3 Primeval Titan
- 3 Wurmcoil Engine
- 4 Viridian Emissary
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (26)
Spells (15)
There are two important things about it. The first one is that the progress of the deck over eleven weeks is gargantuan. The second is that Brian’s exact seventy-five is very playable right now. It means that the deck is very solid in its core and that the environment is changing very fast, sometimes returning to its previous states.
The metagame that allowed Brian to steal the win was mostly dominated by control decks (namely Solar Flare); Jun’ya Iyanaga changed 4 Viridian Emissary and 4 Garruk, Primal Hunter to 4 Sphere of the Suns and 4 Inferno Titans to deal with a very aggressive field at Worlds. The top 16 of SCG Open: St Louis looks very interesting: the upper half is seven aggressive decks and Grixis Control, while the lower half contains five Wolf Run decks. The metagame is clearly ready to battle Primeval Titan, so green monsters will have to prepare for haters and each other if they’re aiming to run well at tomorrow’s SCG Invitational. The compactness of the deck’s core has led to the extreme diversity of builds, including splashes of all colors and the use of cards that are often considered 15th picks in draft; let’s look at all the possibilities starting from the average Red-Green Ramp.
Red-Green
The main advantage of deep red is the ability to consistently cast Slagstorm on turn three. To be clear, this is a really huge bonus and a simple reason to skip further experiments. Additional threats provided by red are Inferno Titan and Devil’s Play. Jun’ya Iyanga came to the very aggressive field of Worlds with a full four Inferno Titans, backed by ten red removal spells. It was unfortunately enough for every aggressive deck in town, but there are two significant problems in the Worlds winning list. The first one: I would never play eight Titans. Inferno Titan is amazing against aggro and relatively good against control, but the inconsistency of our starting hands will be too strong to justify more than six Titans. Cheaper threats are definitely needed, with Batterskull and both Garruks being at the top of the list.
Red-Green Ramp could be evolved for the metagame by choosing these additional threats. Batterskull is the best if you’re in a red-invaded metagame (a very likely situation, with Dennis Dowty’s fresh win and five Delver of Secrets decks in the Top 8). Garruk, Primal Hunter is the best against Control, and Garruk Relentless is probably optimal against nonred aggro decks. Moreover, do you still remember Caw-Blade playing three Jace Beleren in addition to four Jace, the Mind Sculptors? Matthias Hunt and Kyle Stoll played an amazing seven Garruks in their deck at Worlds (for a combined 11-1 record). Garruk, Primal Hunter is also great in mirror matches—even one “draw six cards” for 2GGG is just superior to Harmonize (that was one of the main reasons for the success of Snow Ramp a few years ago). Garruk Relentles is far easier to cast (there are just two planeswalkers with a single colored mana in their cost: Garruk Relentless and Chandra, the Firebrand). That matters in when you have a complicated three-colored manabase or if you have many colorless lands.
Enter Glimmerpost. This land proved itself as a great addition to Cloudpost and Vesuva in Modern, but it is definitely underestimated in Standard. I found very few instances of this card besides in Travis Woo Wolf Run Robots (see below). In fact, Glimmerpost is worth considering in regular versions of mana ramp; it is great against both Mono Red and Illusions (where it just gives you additional time to stabilize and win the race), and Slagstorm isn’t really good in these matches. So, if your metagame evolves around Illusions and Mono Red, I’d suggest the following build:
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (26)
Spells (20)
Arc Trail is good enough against opponents without Gavony Township, so be aware in this matchup preboard (but I believe that this sacrifice is possible; G/W went bad again, so there is no reason for your opponents to prefer it to U/W decks). Batterskull is chosen over Wurmcoil Engine because of the ability to rebuy it and because Phantasmal Image into a 0/0 Germ is not very impressive (Illusions and Control).
The plan for the mirror match is removal + Phyrexian Metamorph + Tumble Magnet. Magnet and Metamorph are cheap answers to opposing Titans, and its low cost allows you to spend additional mana on removal or ramping—which is vital if you’re going to break the match where your opponent casts his Titan first. And, when participating in a Titan clash, remember that proper switching from poison to regular damage is crucial because the amounts of damage are huge, and blocking is unlikely or even useless (because of trample). In this case, Glimmerpost is surprisingly relevant. Inkmoth Nexus in unlikely to survive for a long time (thank you, Ancient Grudge), and gaining twelve can give you additional turn; that is often crucial. Obviously any one of these cards (I mean Metamorph, Magnet, Glimmerpost, Grudge, etc.) doesn’t give you an edge by itself and is not a “cast and win,” but when combined together, they are definitely good.
Mono-Green
Mono-Green Wolf Run first emerged to beat the field of control decks, and if you’re still seeking for an edge against them, Dungrove Elder is for you. This deck is even weaker against any sort of swarm aggro decks, including Illusions (which are significantly weaker to removal-heavy versions of mana ramp), but Elder is just nuts against the mirror (where it can be significantly larger that Primeval Titan), any sort of control decks (cheap and very large threat immune to removal and clone effects), and finally, RDW (Traitorous Blood is for real). Garruk, Primal Hunter gives additional edge against the mirror and control, ensuring that you will always have more cards than the opponent will. So, if you want to play ramp in a control-heavy metagame, Mono-Green Ramp is a good idea. I don’t have an exact list of this deck (because I will never have a similar metagame and because I don’t really expect this metagame to occur very soon), but I can suggest trying 1-2 Sword of Feast and Famine to play “preboarded” against control decks.
Creatures (18)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (24)
Spells (14)
Sideboard
Important thing to consider: while common builds of Wolf Run Green run about 18-20 Forests, Dungrove Elder is already good with 14 Forests; that gives you the opportunity to play Glimmerpost for an additional edge against lllusions (which is still necessary). Illusions used to race you before you could stabilize, so additional life can really be decisive. Another way is to play more Kessig Wolf Runs and Inkmoth Nexuses —that is probably a good plan too because making threats from a bunch of manadorks seems to be an effective strategy; you can provide more threats than the opponent can handle, even without resolving multiple Titans.
Wolf Run Robots
Wolf Run Robots is something like a variation of the mono-green build, but relying on different threats. While the main advantage of mono-green is the cheap Dungrove Elder, robots have Palladium Myr for three mana—a way to resolve your Titans faster and more often,which is vital in the mirror. By the way, Palladium Myr is the only spell in Standard that lets you play a turn-4 Primeval Titan without other acceleration. Colorless threats also make this build far less sensitive to Flashfreeze (important against control matchups).
Problem with Wolf Run Robots is simple and very similar to the problem with mono-green: the Glimmerpost plan is relatively good, but it is significantly slower than Slagstorm. Batterskull helps a lot, but I just have a quick illustration of CFB’s success at Worlds: a week ago, I played FNM with Wolf Run Robots and was satisfied with the deck. Next day, we playtested with my teammate, who brought Tempered Steel. After a quick 0-5, I asked for sideboards—just for another 0-5. Moreover, spectators went “Hey! Just cast Slagstorm and win!” indefinitely, while I had no choice but to grind my teeth and play for another defeat.
Coming to FNM the previous day, I was confident that I wouldn’t face Tempered Steel (a little advantage of 40-person tournaments with well-known metagames), but it’s a very dangerous assumption for a large tournament (I think that Worlds contenders thought that before facing Conley). From the other side, it’s just impossible to be prepared for everything, so if I choose Wolf Run Robots for an important tournament (that is very likely), I’ll still pretend that Tempered Steel doesn’t exist.
I’m a Myr fanboy, so I was unable to resist playing my foil creatures. After some experiments, I came to the following build:
Creatures (16)
Lands (26)
Spells (18)
As I said, this build is weak against swarm aggro (while the matchup against Illusions is relatively good, if not positive), but I like it even when paired against Gavony Township decks. I wrote about this deck in my previous article, so you can examine it for overall thoughts and a Magnet-Metamorph plan for the mirror match. This build is tuned better—more relevant cards (like Batterskull and Blasphemous Act), fewer situational or weak cards.
Things I should notice are that I definitely want to play three Galvaniс Blasts maindeck—over Beast Within and Arc Trail (instant speed is crucial)—and that Genesis Wave is probably an interesting idea for the mirror match. A significantly increased amount of acceleration will probably let you play Wave for an X of seven or eight, thus gaining an unbeatable advantage; except for case when your opponent has an immediate onboard kill. But this situation is unlikely because Wolf Run decks normally have to have a turn or two to sculpt its win—so you can be prepared. Triple green is not easy to cast in the deck, with fourteen lands producing colorless mana, but Genesis Wave is a light year better than, say, Garruk, Primal Hunter in the late game, so one or two would be good additions for matches that are going to become a war of attrition.
Overall, I think that Wolf Run Robots is very nice but a little bit too cute. Myr Battlesphere has some significant advantages over other options, but you know, if it is really good, someone would play it in other decks. I like this deck, and I can clearly recommend it for some FNM fun, but you should think twice and carefully test it for serious play.
P.S. I thought twice, and I actually played this deck
Wolf Run White
This subarchetype was recently advocated by Reid Duke and Bing Luke, so you should probably read Reid’s article if you are really interested in his Birthing Pod build. I want to touch another direction. While Birthing Pod is a fine backup plan for the deck with Elesh Norn and Day of Judgment, there is a white card that’s worth splashing: Oblivion Ring. This spell is very real against opposing Titans and other “serious threats,” including planeswalkers. From the other side, I do not really like Reid’s deck with its seven manadorks and Day of Judgment maindeck. So, my idea is to play white for mostly Oblivion Ring and Gideon Jura. Setting Birthing Pod aside makes casting Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite harder, but Garruk, the Veil-Cursed can help solve this problem, alongside increasing removal count (that is necessary without Day of Judgment).
Creatures (15)
- 4 Solemn Simulacrum
- 2 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 4 Primeval Titan
- 2 Wurmcoil Engine
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (14)
I’m not sure if this build is actually better that others, but relying on enchantment and planeswalkers should be good when your opponent is bringing in artifact hate for Birthing Pod and Inkmoth Nexus. Adding Sphere of the Suns instead of Viridian Emissary (who is not good without Birthing Pod) would help to increase the deck’s speed (that is, I think, a significant problem of Wolf Run White).
Wolf Run Black
Black has two important cards for Wolf Run decks. No, not Doom Blade and Go for the Throat—if you just need good removal, you can use Beast Within or Galvanic Blast. Cards that make black worth considering are Olivia Voldaren and Curse of Death’s Hold. The enchantment is just a cheaper and weaker version of Elesh Norn, but it solves both the Nexus problem and makes opposing Titans significantly worse than yours. Weaknesses are the same too: Beast Within and ability to trade Titan for a Titan with Kessig Wolf Run.
Olivia Voldaren is very different from other ideas. She is cheap; she is well protected from red removal (especially in the late game); she can repeatedly kill any creatures in aggressive decks (and Inkmoth Nexus in the mirror); and finally she is able to steal an opposing Titan for relatively cheap. The problem is simple: you need a ton of nongreen mana, with double costs. To be clear, this is not an issue: all three-colored Wolf Run decks are in fact G/X/r with a small splash in red for Wolf Run activation.
Another notable card is Memoricide (that was, by the way, advocated by me for a long time for Valakut mirrors), which is significantly worse than the two previous cards because it isn’t worth significant mana changes by itself, but you just splash it with a Swamp (typical situation). It becomes too slow and nearly useless on the draw. If you’re already playing Olivia, Memoricide may be a useful addition. Jon Agley built a similar deck in his article; Jacob Baugh made top 16 of SCG Open: St Louis, and here is my attempt:
Creatures (15)
- 4 Solemn Simulacrum
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Inferno Titan
- 4 Primeval Titan
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 1 Viridian Emissary
- 3 Olivia Voldaren
Lands (26)
Spells (18)
Jacob’s list is normal R/G ramp with Slagstorm and a little black splash. Jon’s list is deep on black—even with Black Sun’s Zenith. Mine is a sort of compromise. Slagstorm is unfortunately unplayable in the deck with a real three-colored manabase, so I chose Gut Shot (that is still awesome in many matches) and Doom Blade. A pair of Gut Shots maindeck is because in three-colored ramp, you’re not just ramping; you’re sculpting your mana, which is a much more complicated task. So, you will more likely have troubles, and you will definitely be forced to keep more average and below-average starting hands, so you need something to allow you to sculptyour mana and provide simultaneous defense from aggressive decks.
Wolf RUG
Gerry T, a year ago: “Initially, I had Inferno Titans instead of their Frosty compadres, but I cannot stress how much better Frost Titan is. While Inferno Titan is going to crush decks based on weenie creatures, the rest of the deck should do that for you. Frost Titan beats every other Titan in a fight, which is incredibly important with the recent success of the ramp decks.”
Creatures (19)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Acidic Slime
- 2 Aether Adept
- 4 Frost Titan
- 2 Primeval Titan
- 1 Viridian Emissary
- 1 Tree of Redemption
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (10)
The more things change, the more they stay the same, and Rookie of the Year Matthias Hunt chose Frost Titan, Cackling Counterpart, and Flashfreeze as his weapons in Wolf Run mirrors. Casting Frost Titan after opponent’s Primeval Titan will freeze his advantage while you gain your own threat; that is basically a solution of the principal mirror problem. Cackling Counterpart ensures that you’ll be the person who casts more Titans—solving the second mirror problem too. In case both decks are playing Primeval Titan, Phyrexian Metamorph is probably better because of its ability to equalize the board state and do anything else simultaneously, but three frosty guys versus one green one is far better than one versus one.
The drawback of going deep into blue is clear: there is no way to support red removal. Matthias played four shocking Sensory Deprivations alongside maindeck Tree of Redemption to overcome this problem, but neither Deprivation nor Garruk Relentless is good against Hero of Bladehold. Matt was even forced to play Creeping Corrosion against the nearly unwinnable Tempered Steel matchup. I don’t know how exactly Matthias came to his 6-4 record at SCG Open: St Louis, but looking at the top 16 lists, I can’t state that his deck was probably good if the goal was to make Top 8, but he had no chance of winning; there were too many cheap creatures around, and I don’t see how there will be fewer tomorrow at the SCG Invitational. So, despite Matthias’s deck being a great example of metagaming, I can’t recommend it for actual playing.
But blue is a really interesting idea to explore, and there are few more ideas from the St Louis Open. One of them is that Ludevic’s Test Subject is great against Wolf Run decks. Moreover, Gerry T’s brand new pet card can be successfully used against aggressive decks—the third toughness actually matters against many decks, including Mono Red and Illusions. Moreover, testing flipped subject with Garruk, Primal Hunter’s drawing ability is like 500 hundred portions of ice cream for a little boy’s birthday. Mayor of Avabruck’s flipping is also far easier when you have a ton of free mana and a Test Subject in play. So, I finally came to the following build:
Creatures (19)
- 3 Solemn Simulacrum
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 2 Aether Adept
- 4 Frost Titan
- 2 Primeval Titan
- 3 Ludevic's Test Subject
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (10)
This list is going deeper into Matthias’s idea of metagaming against other Wolf Run decks, while it has more options against aggressive decks (but Sensory Deprivation is still needed), so I hope that this deck is for real, not just “one good player once played it to a 6-4 record and then moved the idea to the recycle bin.”
Blue was the last color for splashing into Wolf Run Ramp. Green as the main color makes splashing easy, but even Charles Darwin couldn’t imagine an environment where four-colored Wolf Run Ramp would be a legitimate choice, so this is the end of my article. Look at your metagame; explore your opportunities; don’t be afraid of trying something new and completely unexplored!
Post Scriptum
And last but not least, something new and completely unexplored. I said I have important information about dealing with the decreased PT invites number and other problems of non-US players. In Soviet Russia, three PTQs per season have us; so our Nationals and occasional GP top 16 and PT top 50 provide about thirty percent of our PT invitations before the policy changed. New WotC policy led to significant changes in our minds, so the community figured out a way to deal with it.
It was a lot of work (you see when the new policy was announced and when I’m writing these words), but now I can officially say that on the 21st of January there will be a StarCityGames.com Invitational Qualifier in Moscow! The winner of that event will receive a paid ticket from Moscow to Baltimore and a unique opportunity to battle against the best players of the United States! The SCG Invitational is one of the world’s best Magic tournaments, so it would be great to see a player from Russia there.
And if you, my reader, live outside of the United States, you should know that you could have this opportunity too. The economy of our event is based on entry fees, goodwill, and theenthusiasm of the community, and it allows us to cover expensive plane tickets from Russia to the United States. So, if you really want to play your favorite game at the highest level of competition, you can do it!
Best wishes, Valeriy Shunkov