Quote from nookularboy »@OfurTheSalty Thank you, glad to hear you like the deck. Also, thanks for the /r/Scaepshift shoutout lol.
Like others said, if you're looking for the effect something like Expedite would be all around better. Easily giving haste to Titan is what would make it broken (see pre-ban Amulet Titan deck), so most of the effects that allow you to do that aren't easy to use. Someone suggested Samut, which seems reasonable but would require you to cast both Search for Tomorrow and a 2 mana ramp spell to hit this and your titan on curve. If you're already playing Amulet, you could just put a Boros Garrison and Slayer's Stronghold in your manabase (that's would strictly be for fun).
@afosz The deck has no way to win on turn 3. There are a few a ways to do it with Amulet, but are a little more convoluted. You can win with 4 lands, Scapeshift, KHE, and Omen, but that happens on turn 4 as well.
You're right. Miscalculate on that one, my bad.
1
Of course it has plenty of other uses, but that is where it is strongest.
2
RG Titan Scapeshift
Overview of the Deck
Modern RG Scapeshift (TitanShift) is a Modern deck born out of Zendikar Standard. The deck's core strategy aims to cast an often game winning payoff card, either a Scapeshift or Primeval Titan, on the player's fourth turn. This is done by packing the deck full of ramp spells and asking the question "Can you win before my Turn 4?". There is a large amount of redundancy built into the deck to accomplish this plan every game, but enough subtlety in card differences to allow you to make optimal plays. This primer will cover: provide a high-level introduction to the deck, mulligan decisions, lines of play, a general sideboarding guide, and how to play around the most common hate cards.
History of the Deck
Titan Scapeshift first has its roots in Standard back in the Zendikar-M11-SOM block where most of the components of the deck were printed, and it is when Valakut Ramp dominated the meta. Reid Duke once called it in one of his articles as "the most powerful deck in Standard". Scapeshift did not make any waves when it was first printed in Morningtide since it did not have the key component to finish the combo. Not until Extended did Scapeshift catch up to Valakut eventually, which coincided with the dominance of Valakut Ramp in Standard. Scapeshift decks even then were differentiated into two -- the awesomely named Wargate Scapeshift; and RG Scapeshift, which as you may think, looks very similar to what our deck is now. And back then, they became the most dominant archetype of combo decks in Extended. So dominant in fact, that when Modern was first rolled out on 2011, Valakut was among the first to be banned. It was only more than a year later when it was unbanned, and then several builds that incorporated the Scapeshift - Valakut combo appeared.
Then on the 11th of November 2015, Thien Nguyen reached 7th place (out of 2674 players) in the Grand Prix Pittsburgh which further cemented the deck as a contender, and popularized it even more. His list concentrated on the combo aspect of the deck, used Commune with Lava to find Scapeshift which overall streamlined the main deck with as little interaction as possible. Even though the deck has gone through several iterations, the foundation for Modern RG Titan Scapeshift remains based on these builds.
Card Choices and Sample Decklists
The Framework
Scapeshift : 4, The single card combo with Valakut. Your goal is to cast this for lethal on turn 4.
Primeval Titan : 4, 6/6 trampler that fetches 2 lands to enable your combo. Can serve as an alternate win-con. You should also aim to cast this on turn 4.
Search for Tomorrow : 4, Fills in your turn 1 play by Suspending for G to find an untapped basic.
Sakura-Tribe Elder : 4, affectionately called "Steve". Serves as a chump blocker that also ramps. Can beat down the initial 2 damage when needed in a pinch.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle : - 3-4, Main win-con. Turns your land drops into Lightning Bolts. Read “Guide to Playing the Deck” below for additional details on how Valakut works.
Additional Ramp
Khalni Heart Expedition : 3-4, This card makes the deck a little more explosive, and it can be a source of card advantage in certain situations.
Explore : 2-4, 2 CMC Ramp and cantrip. Efficient in dumping Valakuts from your hand.
Farseek : 2-4, 2 CMC unconditional ramp. Allows you to fetch out most lands in your deck outside of basic Forests (important to remember under Blood Moon).
Wood Elves: 1-4, Will see play in some lists. Comes down on turn 3 as an additional blocker and will allow you to play a two mana ramp spell (given you did so on turns 1 or 2).
Flex Spots and Other Main Deck Card Choices
This primer won’t cover all the card choices you can make, but will hit on some of the most common ones.
Relic of Progenitus : - Used as a cantrip and incidental graveyard hate. Can be helpful in protecting yourself from Tarmogoyfs and Surgical Extractions.
Prismatic Omen : Makes your Valakut math a little weird, but winning with land drops a lot easier. Also allows you to win with Scapeshift and 6 lands. This is largely a preferential card, and is included based on your playstyle.
Lightning Bolt : Most versions play 4 to deal with early aggression. Meta call..
Summoner's Pact : Used to tutor Primeval Titan/Sakura-Tribe Elder and other green side-board creatures. Most versions now play 2 mainboard.
Primal Command : Also used to tutor creatures (Summoner’s Pact has really taken its place), but has other useful modes such as dealing with troublesome noncreature permanents, thinning graveyards, and padding your life total.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance: Planeswalker of choice. Emblem can just used as an additional win condition and the +/- modes are both supplemental to the deck’s plans.
Courser of Kruphix: Most main-deckable creature to help play against aggro. Will help you filter your draws with fetches and ramp spells.
Land Count and Choice
The landbase for RG versions generally look like:
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Green Fetchlands
5 RG lands (different configurations of Stomping Grounds and Cinder Glades)
6-8 Mountains
2-4 Forests (3 is the common number, 4 if you see a lot of Blood Moons)
Sample Decklists
Guide to Playing the Deck
Overview
It's difficult to choose a single decklist since most can vary from player to player. In general, a RG Scapeshift build can look something similar to this:
27 Lands
8-10 Payoff Cards
15-16 Ramp Spells
6-7 Flex Spots
For the purposes of this Primer, let's refer to a pretty basic maindeck (MD) list.
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
4 Primeval Titan
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Scapeshift
4 Explore
2 Farseek
9 FLEX
Lands [27]
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
7 Mountain
3 Forest
3 Stomping Ground
3 Cinder Glade
This is a pretty standard list. Many users here will deviate from this, and that is completely fine. If you are looking to just build the deck, this is a good starting point. You'll alos see that the flex cards can be interchanged without disrupting the flow of the deck (the additional ramp and FLEX cards are sort of lumped together). The payoff cards here are Scapeshift, Primeval Titan, and Summoner's Pact (to find Titan). These are the cards you're ultimately ramping to.
For this build, you have 13 Mountains at your disposal and 4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. These are the two numbers you need to remember most as they will come up every game. It is set up in such a way that you can Scapeshift with 7 Mountains on the battlefield and still have 18 damage left in your deck. This mana base also gives you the ability to activate Valakut naturally. We'll go over how the cards interact with each other in the next section.
How Does This Deck Work and Win?
This deck has 3 main ways to win:
Resolve Scapeshift with 7+ Lands
Resolve/Attack with Primeval Titan (Combat Damage+Valakut Triggers)
Natural Valakut Triggers (Land Drops/Prismatic Omen)
(Alternate) Sideboard Threats
Method 1: Resolve Scapeshift with 7+ lands; You'll need to cast Scapeshift with 7 lands on the battlefield and the ability to grab mountains out of your deck with a Valakut. This does 18 damage with 6 triggers, which is typically lethal. You have other interesting lines to take with this card, but we'll go into detail with that later.
Method 2: Resolve/Attack with Primeval Titan; You’ll find Primeval Titan with Summoner’s Pact. Often times, you’ll want to grab Valakuts with Titan’s ability, or lands that would turn on Valakut. In some instances, you’ll want to grab fetchlands.
Method 3: The deck plays enough basic mountains that you can grind down an opponent with land drops. If taking this approach, it is recommended that you do it with at least 2 Valakuts, as to keep your threat density reasonable. Prismatic Omen helps to get extra mileage out of the Valakut land drop and lets your fetchlands pull double duty.
Method 4: This is most relevant in sideboard games, where opponents can bring in hate against Scapeshift or Valakut itself.
How does Valakut work?
Valakut states that whenever a mountain enters the battlefield under your control, if you control at least 5 other mountains, Valakut does 3 damage to target creature or player. This condition is what as known in magic as an "intervening-if clause". I won't go into detail as to what exactly that means, but I will go into detail as to what it means in respect to Valakut.
Valakut's trigger is an intervening-if, meaning that the the trigger has to meet an additional clause in order to actually trigger and go on the stack and is written in the form "When/Whenever/At [trigger event], if [condition], [effect]". In our case "Whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control, if you control at least five other Mountains, you may have Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle deal 3 damage to target creature or player". If the additional clause is not met, then the ability does not trigger. So lets say your turn 1 play is Valakut and your turn 2 play is Stomping Ground. When Stomping Ground enter the battlefield, is there a Valakut trigger that goes on the stack? No. If you were playing MTGO, the land would just come in normally with no effects. If that was your 7th land drop, with Valakut and 5 other mountains, then yes, a trigger goes on the stack because you've met both conditions.
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!
The second half of the intervening if is that the conditions are checked again on resolution of the trigger. This is how land destruction works in fizzling a lethal Scapeshift. Lets say I cast a 7 land Scapeshift and put 6 triggers on the stack (grabbing 5 basic mountains and a Stomping Grounds), but my opponent has an active Tectonic Edge and destroys the Stomping Grounds that just came in. Now, each trigger goes to resolve. Basic Mountain 1 checks for 5 other mountains and only sees Basic Mountains 2-5, therefore the second clause of the intervening if is not met and the trigger does not resolve. Basic Mountains 2-5 go through a similar process. Then we get to the trigger caused by the Stomping Ground. This trigger goes to resolve and DOES see 5 other mountains (Basic Mountains 1-5), therefore the second condition is met and the trigger will resolve resulting in 3 damage.
With this deck in particular, it is important to remember that cards like Khalni Heart Expedition, Primeval Titan, Scapeshift, and Harrow put lands onto the battlefield at the same time. This is more evident with Scapeshift, but when the land enters and checks for the second clause of the intervening if, if will count its buddy/buddies that were brought in with it (since these are brought in at the same time due to resolution of the previous trigger/spell). So if you have Valakut + 4 Mountains with a Khalni Heart Expedition, grabbing two mountains from that KHE will net 6 damage since those mountains will be #5 and #6 and "see" each other.
Prismatic Omen is the X factor here. Omen states "Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types". So roll back to when were were resolving our Valakut triggers, and our opponent used Tectonic Edge on our Stomping Ground. Basic Mountain 1 checks for 5 other mountains and DOES see them! Basic Mountains 2-5 and Valakut, since now it is considered a Mountain thanks to Prismatic Omen. This trigger will resolve and so will the others. Now if the trigger sees Valakut as a mountain under Prismatic Omen, what happens when you have multiple Valakuts? Lets say you have Valakut 1, Valakut 2, 3 Stomping Grounds, and a Prismatic Omen. You play a Wooded Foothills for the turn. Both Valakuts check to see if they should trigger, and they do. Your Wooded Foothills is a mountain and both Valakuts are mountains for the purposes of the intervening if trigger thanks to Prismatic Omen. When the trigger goes to resolve, it will see 5 other mountains and deal its damage.
So how does this work with Scapeshift?
When Scapeshift is cast, you can choose any number of lands you control on resolution and sacrifice them (so between 0 and however many you control). Any cards you pull out of your deck will enter the battlefield at the same time, and will follow the guidelines outlined above.
So I’ve drawn my opening 7, what do I do?
Your math here is simple. You want to get to a minimum of 6 lands on turn 4. To cast your turn 4 Primeval Titan, you need to untap with 5 lands and be able to play your 6th, or just untap with 6. To cast your turn 4 Scapeshift, you can untap with as little as 5 lands. Lets do a high level overview of each scenario. For this example, let’s assume your ramp spells cost 2 mana and net 1 land (essentially a Farseek):
Primeval Titan:
Hand - 4 Lands, 2 Ramp Spells (RS), Titan/Pact
Turn 1: Land (1 land)
Turn 2: Land, RS (3 lands)
Turn 3: Land, RS (5 lands)
Turn 4 Land, Titan
Now you can shift when you play your ramp spell to turn 1 if you have a Search for Tomorrow, but this is more or less the basis. A Turn 4 titan will need 2 ramp spells outside your normal land drops. Got it? Good.
Scapeshift:
Hand + draw - 4 Lands, 3 Ramp Spells, Scapeshift
Turn 1: Land (1 Land)
Turn 2: Land, RS (3 Lands)
Turn 3: Land, RS, RS (6 Lands)
Turn 4: Land, Scapeshift
Once again, this is a simplification but to have a turn 4 Scapeshift you need to have 4 lands and effectively 3 ramp spells plus Scapeshift. In your 3-4 draw steps between turn 1 and turn 4, you should be able to hit a missing piece (land, ramp spell).
So looking at this sequence of plays, you realize there are zero ways to either play a Primeval Titan or lethal Scapeshift earlier than turn 4. Planning your turns 1-3 and determining what you are building to is about 50% of the skill to playing the deck. This part is also super easy to goldfish, so sit down at your table and give yourself 4 turns to either cast Scapeshift or a Primeval Titan. Bonus points for a Titan that is lethal that turn (requires some luck, but can be done ;)).
Don’t Make these mistakes
Sacrifice too many lands with Scapeshift: Keep track of the mountains in your deck, hand, graveyard, and exile. If you are worried about sacrificing too many lands, an option would be to sacrifice enough to get lethal triggers. An example would be if you had 2 Stomping Ground, 2 Cinder Glade, 3 Forest, and 2 Mountain. You can sacrifice the 3 Forest and 2 basic mountains for 3 Valakuts and 2 more basic Mountains to get 6 triggers (18 damage).
Float Mana: Not as important in RG builds, but is good practice. If you need to have some interaction after Scapeshift resolves, float the mana you need as you cast the spell. You can only float mana when you have priority, so if you don’t and your opponent lets the spell resolve, you are out of luck (and if you try, it’s a good way to have a judge called on you).
You can choose 0 as your number for Scapeshift: You do not have to sacrifice lands after an opponent resolves an aven mindcensor or shadow of doubt. Also remember sacrificing the lands you control is part of the resolution of Scapeshift, not that cast.
Valakut is a may ability: If for some reason you or your creatures were the only legal target for Valakut, you can target and choose not to resolve the trigger (G/W Hexproof with Leyline of Sanctity for instance). Deflecting Palm could also cause this scenario to be relevant.
Sideboard and Matchups
Everyone has a different sideboard, and constantly changes with the fluidity of the meta. We’ll touch on some of the most common sideboard cards. For the most recent tech, see discussions in the latest pages of this forum.
Anger of the Gods : Sweeper of choice. Exile effect is relevant against a lot of creature decks in modern.
Obstinate Baloth : Our discard protection and lifegain beater. All around good card and fills a few roles in the deck.
Nature's Claim : Goto removal for Blood Moon/Leyline. The given 4 life is rarely relevant due to the high damage output of the deck.
You’ll see many other cards used in this deck’s sideboard, but these 3 are far and beyond the most common ones.
Matchups
We’ll talk about the general approach you’ll want to take for each matchup and sideboard cards you will want to look to bring in.
Playing Around Hate Cards
We’ll talk about the most commonly played hate cards below and how to best play around them/sideboard for them. Click each spoiler tag for the individual discussion.
Splash Colors
Adding an additional color is pretty easy in the deck, between the number of fetches played and the individual search effects (Sakura Tribe Elder, Search for Tomorrow, Farseek).
Videos and Other Resources
Credits and Log
I don’t want to publish people’s actual names, but a huge shoutout to those in the MTGSalvation and Reddit communities for pulling the hivemind together and providing comments on the draft version. I’m sure as this primer is continually updated, we’ll add more names here.
03.24.17 - Primer has been published; Minor Updates
1
Thanks! I was pretty close to Top 32 and need to break my 10-5 ceiling but at least I got some cash out of it. Yeah, Prismatic Omen pulled a lot of weight in a lot of matchups. I've played with 2 for a long time and feel comfortable with that number.
The KHE is still a preference thing. I wanted to go on autopilot for the tournament and the lines with KHE are hardwired at this point. There was a match or two where I was able to Scapeshift under a Stubborn Denial to set my board with KHE to get lethal. IMO you have a lot more plays because the deck is good at getting 6, 12, and 18+ damage but nothing inbetween and a lot of decks will just sit at 15-20 life. Grixis DS pretty much has to drop to 12 and doesn't have a way to deal with resolved enchantments. It gives you some stupid inevitability if they are playing Serum Visions/Thought Scour for a few turns.
To be fair, KHE (and this deck) was just awful against the Jund version.
@FoodChainGoblins That's the plan. I'd work on it today but have some stuff due at work I'm trying to get done so it'll be a few days.
1
Claim lets you hit Expedition Map on the draw, which Grudge doesn't.
1
1
1
I'm still playing with Khalni Heart Expediton and Prismatic Omen.
1
Can't speak to the meta, but for a GP you want to play what you feel more comfortable with. Day 1 is just so long and the more you can make auto-pilot decisions, the more energy you can devote towards the more difficult ones. You have roughly a month between now and then, so you should be able to get a lot of reps in with the deck if you choose to go with it.
1
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Prismatic Omen
3 Khalni Heart Expedition
2 Explore
2 Farseek
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Nature's Claim
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Sudden Shock
3 Anger of the Gods
Started out 2-0 by having two really great matches against Affinity (both involved some tight play and a little bit of luck). I felt pretty hot going into Round 3, and was paired against Restore Balance with 4 Maindeck Leyline and Blood Moon, so I accepted the loss. Round 4 was paired against Sun and Moon, with 4 MD Leyline and Blood Moon. Game 1 in that match was a little demoralizing because I found and played all four maindeck Titans, on curve, only to have the first 3 wiped away each by a Wrath and the 4th one locked out by the new Gideon. Dropped at 2-2 so I would have time to make it downtown for the MLS match.
I realized I've played this maindeck setup (or close to it) for close to a year (since SCG and TCG regionals of last year) and it hasn't been bad for me.
1
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
4 Primeval Titan
Lands
4 Valakut
7 Mountains
3 Forest
3 Stomping Ground
3 Cinder Glade
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scapeshift
2 Summoner Pact
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Prismatic Omen
3 Sweltering Sun
3 Explore
2 Farseek
2 Primal Command
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Nature's Claim
2 Sudden Shock
1 Hornet Nest
1 Ancient Grudge
I checked and my list didn't get posted to the MTG website. I did play DS Jund in that span, and the MD relics and Prismatic Omens helped a lot (basically won it for me). I used the cycling on Sweltering Sun way more than I though I would, and having (3):Draw a Card was super helpful in a handful of games where an Anger would have otherwise been dead (then there was one game where an Anger would have been better and I didn't have Relic at that moment).
I haven't gotten much facetime with Hornet Nest yet. Its been in my SB for the past few weeks, but the right situation to use it just hasn't come up (I'll bring it in for DS and Eldrazi).
Might play something similar to this at the classic on Sunday. I'm going to test some more leading up to then. If anyone else does and can offer some input, let me know before Sunday.