RUG Titanshift

by: Richard Meshell

Over the past few months of playing RG Titanshift, I’ve tested out splash colors to help out certain matchups. I tested a white splash at a SCG Modern Classic to reasonable success. I tested a black splash at FNM for Slaughter Games (to try and beat the one Restore Balance player I’m repeatedly paired up against). The last color combination to try was red-green-blue.

Blue would take away some of the consistency, but give the deck access to countermagic which sometimes felt like it was sorely needed in certain RG matchups. The upside to venturing into U-splash territory was that I did not need to really reinvent the wheel on this. RUG variants have been played for a few years, mainly with a heavy blue splash for Cryptic Command and no Primeval Titans. However, Team Channel Fireball played a version of RUG Titanshift at PT Born of the Gods. (PV’s Article on CFB.com). He ultimately wrote the deck off as garbage, finishing 3-3 in draft and 5-5 in constructed and admitted the team should have just played Twin. However, RUG Titanshift has had several notable performances prior to showing up at the Pro Tour in early 2014, including 2 Top 16 finishes at GP Kansas City in 2013. It also popped up from time to time during the Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time era of Modern. The point of all this is that there is a viable 3 color deck that the two-color variant was built on.

I scanned though old lists knowing that I wanted to keep Khalni Heart Expedition, 3-4 Valakuts, and around 2 or 3 Prismatic Omens. I reviewed a number of lists  before I landed on this PTQ-winning deck by Shogo Yamasaki. Other players I had kept decklists from included Lewk Faley and Scott Hoppe (the TC Decks search I used is here). In playing GR Titan, I knew Lightning Bolt was the weakest card in the deck but was included as a necessity. Even then, it was only OK in what it was doing, in that you’d always be fighting for board control by bolting a creature. After some tweaks, I landed on the 75 below:

Deck: RUG Titanshift
Lands		Spells		Creatures		Sideboard
1	Breeding Pool	3	Explore	4	Primeval Titan	3	Obstinate Baloth
2	Cinder Glade	2	Izzet Charm	4	Sakura-Tribe Elder	3	Nature’s Claim
3	Forest	4	Khalni Heart Expedition			2	Negate
1	Island	2	Prismatic Omen			2	Grafdigger’s Cage
2	Misty Rainforest	2	Relic of Progenitus			2	Anger of the Gods
6	Mountain	3	Remand			1	Ancient Grudge
1	Steam Vents	4	Scapeshift			1	Sudden Shock
2	Stomping Ground	4	Search for Tomorrow			1	Spellskite
4	Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle	2	Summoner’s Pact
4	Wooded Foothills
26	cards	26	cards	8	cards	15	cards
Display deck statistics

There are several differences between this list and Shogo’s list. First of all, I cut -2 Anger of the Gods and -2 Farseek for +2 Relic of Progenitus and +2 Summoner’s Pact. The manabase was also changed, as it was a list from when the Onslaught fetches were not legal. The manabase was mainly ported from existing early GR Titan decks (4 Forest, 7 Mountains, 4 Valakut, 6-7 Fetches, 5-6 Red duals). I felt like this was a good starting point, as I was comfortable in the GR shell to play it optimally and could still see what the blue splash had to offer.

Testing at FNMs, the deck did pretty well. The turn 4 kill was not removed, and I had a little extra digging power with Remand and Izzet Charm. These slotted well into what you were usually doing turns 1 through 3. For a turn 4 Titan, you have to play 2 ramp spells. There are a combination of things that could happen that allows you to still hold up Remand/Izzet Charm and make the 2 ramp spell goal. To play a turn 4 Scapeshift, you need to play 3 ramp spells. A turn 1 search for tomorrow makes holding up your countermagic turns 2 and 3 easier, but on turn 4 you will have three additional mana to protect your Scapeshift with your 2 mana countermagic.

Over 3 FNMs, this version posted a 3-1, 4-0, and 2-1 record with losses to Dredge and Infect. Over two PPTQs, both 37 and 49 players, I only managed a 4-4 record overall (2-2-drop at both). The four losses were against:

1. Elves: Lost on turn 3 after keeping a turn 4 kill both games. Bolt could have helped, but I should have mulliganed harder for SB cards in game 2.
2. Blue Moon: Game 1 is difficult, as you have no MD answers for Blood Moon unless you manage to Izzet Charm it. Game 2 I was able to outrace, as my card quality was better than his at the time. Game 3 was super close, I was keeping the board clean with a single Valakut and pinging him where I could. I never drew into a second Valakut, Scapeshift, or Titan. Not having the second Valakut was what hit me the most, and I eventually lost to a Stormbreath Dragon.
3. Junk: Completely win-able game. Game 3, I mulligan to 5 after throwing away a 7 that was redundant, but kinda slow. My 5 heavily relied on getting an early ramp spell, which was stripped as the only legal target for an Inquisition.
4. Naya Burn w/ Nactl: Close games, but their average draws can beat your good draws where you can only really beat their bad draws. I think the SB can be geared towards helping this a little bit, but mine wasn’t.

The deck has some room for improvement. First of all, because you need 3 Forests and 1 Island, you occasionally get in weird situations with Primeval Titan and manual-mode Valakut. Older lists played the full set of Prismatic Omen, and this deck could support it. I’m in favor of testing out number #3, and seeing how that goes. Second, the Relic of Progenitus is more of a “nice to have” than a “need to have”. It’s possible, with the addition of Remand,  that you don’t have to play these MB at all like you would in RG Titanshift. They still work fine with the rest of the deck, and would probably be pushed to a SB card. Third, 26 lands is fine but 27 is healthy. I would like to add an additional basic Mountain or Misty Rainforest (the 4-2 split of Wooded/Misty I’m still unsure of).

Proposed Changes:

-2 Relic of Progenitus -or-

-1 Relic of Progenitus, -1 Khalni Heart Expedition

+ 1 Prismatic Omen

+1 Mountain

I’ll probably continue playing some iteration of this through PPTQ season while figuring out a solid plan for Burn/Zoo. Being proactive in a diverse modern meta can give you an edge, and this deck has a proactive gameplan with solid counterspells for whatever you might play against.