Yeah, my mind slipped on the Inferno Titan. But the fact that he is used now goes to show you that they are specialized creatures. Inferno Titan is only being used because he's good in the meta.
Seriously though, saying "something is only good because it's good in the meta" is a weird way of calling the card bad, isn't it? You're saying it's conditionally good, but honestly, it's not. It's good. It's a 6/6 with repetitive weenie kills or lightning bolts. The fact that the meta rewards playing it is an upside, not a downside. Inferno Titan, when it's, as you put it "only good in meta, is generally "the best 6 drop in the format". It's far better than most of the crap in this thread, and depending on the meta, is better than even the other titans.
Sure, it's used generally as a weenie sweeper, but only because it's the best at doing that while killing the opponent. Which is insanely good.
The reason black sucks is because it's split between infect and non-infect cards. The rare slots of cards like Phyrexian Obliterator could have been the cards that made infect nuts, and the rare slots of cards like Skithiryx could have been the cards that pushed normal monoblack over the top. Since it's split between cards that are only good one way, and cards that are only good another way, it's no wonder Monoblack is bad.
Also, MonoGreen is Dungrove Elder+Primeval Titan, which is hardly an autoscoop.
There were U/B Blade lists running around at the beginning of the season with her, Despise and SoFaF. Might be something there with delver. Putting people in Topdeck mode while you have a big threat on board is pretty nice, and a sworded delver and lili is pretty big as far as threats go.
So, I've been playing around with Steel a lot, and I'm sorta wondering if it isn't just the best deck if you can tweak it right. I'm going to post my matchup analysis, and see where this thread goes.
I think we have an edge here, oddly. They tend to not have Divine Offering the board.
Free Wins-Sometimes, we just win, sometimes, they just win. They can curve out and there isn't much we can do about it bar dispatch.
Dispatch-It's fine, I kinda like dismember more because it's guaranteed, and hands full of dispatches just suck.
Geist of Saint Traft-This card is nuts, but you invalidate it with anything when you land a Tempered Steel. If you don't land a steel, this guy can just murder you though. Hero Blocks him fine as well, double blocking is not out of the question. Dispatch obviously sucks.
DO NOT MISASSIGN YOUR ROLE-Depending on the build, and depending on your hand, you might have to be the control in the matchup.
Etched Champion-The straight nuts. Champion is just insane in this matchup. He blocks literally everything well, and even without metalcraft will trade with a non-destined Geist.
Nobody plays this anymore, and I have very little experience in the matchup. Garruk seems like he'd be an obnoxious guy to deal with without a Steel on the board, but they tend to clog up the ground, while you clog up the air. Generally, the air is better. The Anthem builds with a bunch of mortarpod's are a huuuuuge pain, though. Mortarpod in general is savage beats.
Ok, so what's weird about this matchup is mostly player dependent. Like, if they drop an early fireslinger and shrine, then burn all of your creatures, you might just lose.
Shrine of Burning Rage-With a hand full of burn, the card eats you alive. If they drop a turn two shrine and you don't have a steel, you run the risk of a billion shocks wrecking your board and charging the Shrine.
Chandra's Phoenix-Wierd things happen with this. If they have Fireslinger, I sometimes don't know which to exile with dispatch or O-Ring. I usually err on the side of getting the Phoenix.
Oblivion Ring-Good card. Hits Shrine, hits Phoenix. Answering those is pretty important.
Tempered Steel-Play this, and your guys magically don't die to shock! YAY!
Hero of Bladehold-Absolutely nuts. Takes two burn spells to kill, and is an insane clock.
Spellskite-Pretty solid guy. Redirecting shrines is good, and they'll want to remove him early so their shrines are live.
If they have white, Day of Judgment-This. Card. Is. Brutal. Don't get me wrong, it's not an instant loss, but it is brutal. You really want your sweeper recovery here.
If they have Red, Slagstorm-It's basically Day, but doesn't hit Hero. Yay. Still nuts.
Sweeper Recovery-Glint Hawk Idol. Inkmoth Nexus. Origin Spellbomb. Learning how much pressure to apply to necessitate the sweeper, but keep enough in reserve to repopulate the board post-sweeper.
Sun Titan-You don't really beat a million Sun Titans unless you fly over them or somehow manage to swarm around them.
I THINK the matchup is worse for us when they are the Red list. The list with Day just means that they can't wipe the board until turn four.
Hero of Bladehold-Drop this guy turn four and wreck them, generally. It's a solid call for the matchup.
Oblivion Ring-More removal is awesome. Removal is pretty key to this matchup, because it's basically just a race.
Spellskite-Redirects wolf run activations. Cool tech.
Ancient Grudge- The nut low. You really want some non-artifact threats to blank these, or they're just going to tear you up.
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So, all in all? I think that you can make a Tempered Steel deck that manages to have good MU's across the board. I think the key is Hero of Bladehold and Oblivion Ring. The CFB list was fine, but gets wrecked by Wolf Run. I don't like that, especially since the cards that are good against WRR are good against most other MU's as well.
Sweepers: The deck is BUILT to recover from sweepers. What it's NOT built to do is beat a control deck in a long game. We can't do the illusions thing, since our biggest threat costs 3, which means we won't be able to drop it and hold up countermagic to counter a wrath. Guess what? What makes the deck good is a blisteringly fast start combined with built in resilience to sweepers in the form of Nexus, Idol and possibly Spellbomb. If we start holding up mana for mana leak, we end up dropping steel T5. You know what this deck can't compete with? A billion sun titans, or basically any deck with time to set up.
Every other deck in the format has the following plan against Tempered Steel: Don't die until you can set up your gameplan with no risk of death. By reducing the creature count, and holding up mana on key turns, YOU HELP THEM NOT DIE. This is fairly counterproductive, in my opinion.
Running the blue splash for Moorland Haunt is much different than running it for Mana Leak. If you draw a Haunt but not a blue source, it still produces mana. If you draw a leak but not a blue source, you have a dead card, which basically hands them the game.
Running Steel like "Jam threats, did I win" is obviously bad. The solution isn't making the deck bad, though. The solution is learning how to play Steel better, not adding counterproductive cards.
It's not bad in control mirrors....person with more counters tends to win, so if you have less counters, you can use it to even the battlefield so to speak.
U/W humans is obnoxious but winnable. Fiend Hunter and Oblivion Ring are just so good against us. I think we have a favorable matchup, but I dunno.
You'll want to board out the heroes against illusions, I think.
We can beat G/W, but nobody plays that anymore...
Red is pretty wierd. Sometimes, we just lose, and sometimes, we land a Steel and go to town. Hero is so nuts in that MU. Spellskite is decent. Oblivion Ring is better than Dispatch for me, because the Red players near me like to burn creatures, which turns off metalcraft fairly often. This also makes chandra's phoenix more valuable to them, o exiling it is a priority. Remember, this is mostly because of the playstyle in my area, so take it with a grain of salt.
It's good because threatening a wrath against illusions on turn two gives them less time to set up before they start holding up countermagic for your wrath effects, which makes them take longer to kill you, which gives YOU more time to set up your gameplan.
Depends on the build of steel you're running. The ones like Ari Lax's (See Ben Friedman's Build from the SCG Invitational and take out a champion and a dismember for 2 Oblivion Rings) are pretty good against Wolf-Run by virtue of the four maindeck Hero of Bladehold. The ChannelFireball version is much worse against WRR, because of a higher artifact and small creature count, both of which WRR has answers to. Slagstorm and Shock variants for small creatures, and Ancient Grudge and Creeping Corrosion for artifacts.
Steel is really good against Solar Flare if you play it right. Sometimes you just nut draw and win, other times you have to grind, but you definitely have the advantage with your built in sweeper protection(Inkmoth, Glint Hawk Idol, Origin Spellbomb out of the CFB list) and fast clock.
Against Illusions, which version you run is questionable. I think that the CFB list is better against Illusions, just because it has a lower mana curve, so you don't get blown out by things like Vapor Snag on Hero of Bladehold.
Basically, Steel is good. People will never give it the respect it deserves. When steel wins something, everyone chalks it up to luck, or other decks forgetting about it, so nobody really audibles to steel, because the disadvantages are so huge. Then, nobody changes their sideboards to hate it out because nobody audibled to steel.
So yeah, it's good. Try to have 4 Hero of Bladehold's on hand for WRR, since they're the easiest way to swing that matchup.
tl;dr steel is less weak to hate than people think it is
Leak is awful. Not worth risking dead cards for a chance of being a mediocre illusions deck. You want to drop some dudes and hold up mana for 3 turns, play illusions.
And because it has the word "Titan" in it's name.
inb4someonepostssomeawfulcardiforgotthathastitaninitsname
Seriously though, saying "something is only good because it's good in the meta" is a weird way of calling the card bad, isn't it? You're saying it's conditionally good, but honestly, it's not. It's good. It's a 6/6 with repetitive weenie kills or lightning bolts. The fact that the meta rewards playing it is an upside, not a downside. Inferno Titan, when it's, as you put it "only good in meta, is generally "the best 6 drop in the format". It's far better than most of the crap in this thread, and depending on the meta, is better than even the other titans.
Sure, it's used generally as a weenie sweeper, but only because it's the best at doing that while killing the opponent. Which is insanely good.
Also, MonoGreen is Dungrove Elder+Primeval Titan, which is hardly an autoscoop.
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Illusions:
We wreck this matchup so hard.
Hero of Bladehold is bad-It gives them a REALLY good Vapor Snag target.
Landing a Tempered Steel is really good-It makes your guys bigger than their guys
Flyers are really good-Delver is obnoxious if you are on the defensive without a steel
See this thread: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=377202
It's the discussion of the Steel MU in the Illusions Forums, if you need more convincing.
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UW Humans
I think we have an edge here, oddly. They tend to not have Divine Offering the board.
Free Wins-Sometimes, we just win, sometimes, they just win. They can curve out and there isn't much we can do about it bar dispatch.
Dispatch-It's fine, I kinda like dismember more because it's guaranteed, and hands full of dispatches just suck.
Geist of Saint Traft-This card is nuts, but you invalidate it with anything when you land a Tempered Steel. If you don't land a steel, this guy can just murder you though. Hero Blocks him fine as well, double blocking is not out of the question. Dispatch obviously sucks.
DO NOT MISASSIGN YOUR ROLE-Depending on the build, and depending on your hand, you might have to be the control in the matchup.
Etched Champion-The straight nuts. Champion is just insane in this matchup. He blocks literally everything well, and even without metalcraft will trade with a non-destined Geist.
See this thread for the MU from their side: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=377256
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G/W Tokens
Nobody plays this anymore, and I have very little experience in the matchup. Garruk seems like he'd be an obnoxious guy to deal with without a Steel on the board, but they tend to clog up the ground, while you clog up the air. Generally, the air is better. The Anthem builds with a bunch of mortarpod's are a huuuuuge pain, though. Mortarpod in general is savage beats.
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RDW
Ok, so what's weird about this matchup is mostly player dependent. Like, if they drop an early fireslinger and shrine, then burn all of your creatures, you might just lose.
Shrine of Burning Rage-With a hand full of burn, the card eats you alive. If they drop a turn two shrine and you don't have a steel, you run the risk of a billion shocks wrecking your board and charging the Shrine.
Chandra's Phoenix-Wierd things happen with this. If they have Fireslinger, I sometimes don't know which to exile with dispatch or O-Ring. I usually err on the side of getting the Phoenix.
Oblivion Ring-Good card. Hits Shrine, hits Phoenix. Answering those is pretty important.
Tempered Steel-Play this, and your guys magically don't die to shock! YAY!
Hero of Bladehold-Absolutely nuts. Takes two burn spells to kill, and is an insane clock.
Spellskite-Pretty solid guy. Redirecting shrines is good, and they'll want to remove him early so their shrines are live.
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U/X Control
If they have white, Day of Judgment-This. Card. Is. Brutal. Don't get me wrong, it's not an instant loss, but it is brutal. You really want your sweeper recovery here.
If they have Red, Slagstorm-It's basically Day, but doesn't hit Hero. Yay. Still nuts.
Sweeper Recovery-Glint Hawk Idol. Inkmoth Nexus. Origin Spellbomb. Learning how much pressure to apply to necessitate the sweeper, but keep enough in reserve to repopulate the board post-sweeper.
Sun Titan-You don't really beat a million Sun Titans unless you fly over them or somehow manage to swarm around them.
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Wolf Run
I THINK the matchup is worse for us when they are the Red list. The list with Day just means that they can't wipe the board until turn four.
Hero of Bladehold-Drop this guy turn four and wreck them, generally. It's a solid call for the matchup.
Oblivion Ring-More removal is awesome. Removal is pretty key to this matchup, because it's basically just a race.
Spellskite-Redirects wolf run activations. Cool tech.
Ancient Grudge- The nut low. You really want some non-artifact threats to blank these, or they're just going to tear you up.
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So, all in all? I think that you can make a Tempered Steel deck that manages to have good MU's across the board. I think the key is Hero of Bladehold and Oblivion Ring. The CFB list was fine, but gets wrecked by Wolf Run. I don't like that, especially since the cards that are good against WRR are good against most other MU's as well.
Thoughts, anyone?
Every other deck in the format has the following plan against Tempered Steel: Don't die until you can set up your gameplan with no risk of death. By reducing the creature count, and holding up mana on key turns, YOU HELP THEM NOT DIE. This is fairly counterproductive, in my opinion.
Running the blue splash for Moorland Haunt is much different than running it for Mana Leak. If you draw a Haunt but not a blue source, it still produces mana. If you draw a leak but not a blue source, you have a dead card, which basically hands them the game.
Running Steel like "Jam threats, did I win" is obviously bad. The solution isn't making the deck bad, though. The solution is learning how to play Steel better, not adding counterproductive cards.
Additionally, works well with etched champion. 2 axes+champion is pretty funny.
You'll want to board out the heroes against illusions, I think.
We can beat G/W, but nobody plays that anymore...
Red is pretty wierd. Sometimes, we just lose, and sometimes, we land a Steel and go to town. Hero is so nuts in that MU. Spellskite is decent. Oblivion Ring is better than Dispatch for me, because the Red players near me like to burn creatures, which turns off metalcraft fairly often. This also makes chandra's phoenix more valuable to them, o exiling it is a priority. Remember, this is mostly because of the playstyle in my area, so take it with a grain of salt.
It's good because threatening a wrath against illusions on turn two gives them less time to set up before they start holding up countermagic for your wrath effects, which makes them take longer to kill you, which gives YOU more time to set up your gameplan.
Steel is really good against Solar Flare if you play it right. Sometimes you just nut draw and win, other times you have to grind, but you definitely have the advantage with your built in sweeper protection(Inkmoth, Glint Hawk Idol, Origin Spellbomb out of the CFB list) and fast clock.
Against Illusions, which version you run is questionable. I think that the CFB list is better against Illusions, just because it has a lower mana curve, so you don't get blown out by things like Vapor Snag on Hero of Bladehold.
Basically, Steel is good. People will never give it the respect it deserves. When steel wins something, everyone chalks it up to luck, or other decks forgetting about it, so nobody really audibles to steel, because the disadvantages are so huge. Then, nobody changes their sideboards to hate it out because nobody audibled to steel.
So yeah, it's good. Try to have 4 Hero of Bladehold's on hand for WRR, since they're the easiest way to swing that matchup.
tl;dr steel is less weak to hate than people think it is