For the last few months, I have had the same answer to the question everyone loves to ask: What’s the best deck in Modern? Titan Shift. It’s a fast, linear deck with a good sideboard plan against the rest of the fast linear decks. Unfortunately, this is what Modern has devolved to due to the extinction of Splinter Twin but that’s another argument for another day. I’ve been playing the deck for the last few weeks to great success. I do think the older version of the deck that runs Anger of the Gods in the mainboard is outdated so I thought I’d share with you my updated list. Here is the list I was originally testing:
GR Titan Shift
Test Deck by Abdullah Elhawary
Maindeck:
Lands (27):
4x Cinder Glade
3x Forest
7x Mountain
4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2x Stomping Grounds
3x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
Creatures (8):
4x Primeval Titan
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
Sorceries (16):
4x Explore
2x Farseek
4x Search for Tomorrow
4x Scapeshift
2x Anger of the Gods
Instants (6):
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Summoner’s Pact
Planeswalkers (2):
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Enchantments (1):
1x Prismatic Omen
Sideboard:
1x Grafdigger’s Cage
2x Nature’s Claim
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Sudden Shock
2x Tireless Tracker
2x Choke
2x Crumble to Dust
3x Obstinate Baloth
Despite playing an outdated version of the deck, I still had a good win percentage, which illustrates how good the deck actually is. Here are some notes from my initial testing:
- The deck plays 13 mountains so whenever you cast Scapeshift, make sure you can actually kill your opponent. The key number of lands to sacrifice to Scapeshift is 7 because of the way Valakut is worded (the phrase “other mountains” being key)
- Anger of the Gods was bad against most of the popular decks
- Prismatic Omen was always a card that I liked having access to as a one of
- Grafdigger’s Cage and Sudden Shock were practically useless out of the board due to the death of both Infect and Dredge
- I needed more answers to Death’s Shadow
- Despite not being at it’s best in the current meta, Lightning Bolt is still a great card
I refined the deck after taking these things into account, and this is the result:
GR Titan Shift
Test Deck by Abdullah Elhawary
Maindeck:
Lands (27):
4x Cinder Glade
3x Forest
7x Mountain
4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2x Stomping Grounds
3x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
Creatures (8):
4x Primeval Titan
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
Sorceries (14):
3x Explore
3x Farseek
4x Search for Tomorrow
4x Scapeshift
Instants (6):
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Summoner’s Pact
Planeswalkers (2):
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Artifacts (2):
2x Engineered Explosives
Enchantments (1):
1x Prismatic Omen
Sideboard:
3x Relic of Progenitus
2x Nature’s Claim
1x Ancient Grudge
2x Anger of the Gods
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Choke
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Obstinate Baloth
Sideboard Guide:
Affinity:
In:
2x Nature’s Claim
2x Anger of the Gods
1x Ancient Grudge
Out:
1x Farseek
1x Scapeshift
1x Explore
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Burn:
In:
2x Obstinate Baloth
Out:
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Tron:
In:
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Obstinate Baloth
Out:
2x Engineered Explosives
2x Lightning Bolt
Junk:
In:
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Tireless Tracker
Out:
2x Lightning Bolt
1x Explore
1x Prismatic Omen
Jund:
In:
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Tireless Tracker
Out:
2x Explore
1x Search for Tomorrow
1x Prismatic Omen
Death’s Shadow Aggro:
In:
3x Relic of Progenitus
2x Obstinate Baloth
Out:
1x Prismatic Omen
4x Lightning Bolt
Grixis Control:
In:
3x Relic of Progenitus
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Choke
Out:
1x Prismatic Omen
2x Scapeshift
1x Search for Tomorrow
4x Lightning Bolt