We have about three weeks until we Return to Ravnica. Three weeks of Green Summer. And we FINALLY have the perfect list. At first I had a list. And then I had a good list. And now we have THE list. Why did it take so long? It took so long because it took a ton of work from a ton of great minds. I didn’t do this. We, as a community, built this deck. A lot of people gave up on it along the way, so we had to make it better. And we had to make it better again.
And with the final month of Green Summer counting down, we have THE list.
But before I get to it. Let’s drive down memory lane, with Primeval Titan.
Washington States 2010
Top 4
This deck produced absurd amounts of mana and absurd amounts of absurdly sized creatures. The deck was… absurd. Everything fit. Playing the deck was a wonderland. Here are a few of my favorite moments:
I played Genesis Wave for 5 with two Lotus Cobras in play, an Avenger of Zendikar in play, and an Avenger of Zendikar in hand. I hit FOUR fetchlands.
All on the 4th turn in the Top 8.
I played Ob Nixilis and SEVEN lands for a 21-point drain and 24/24 Ob Nixilis.
At the time, Primeval Titan was a new kid on the block and didn’t get much attention among the Titan family. Why do you need more lands when you already have six? The truth is, Primeval Titan is an enabler. He is not like the other Titans in that he doesn’t kill the opponent by himself (except for the [card valakut, the molten pinnacle]Valakut[/card] deck). Primeval Titan needs help. He needs to lead you somewhere. He will lead you to victory, but you must first lead him to an x = 15 Genesis Wave on the 5th turn.
Pro Tour Philadelphia 2011
Top 8 (Jesse Hampton)
This deck is hard to even believe. It sent [card emrakul, the aeons torn]Emrakuls[/card], Terastadons, and Primeval Titans through the breach on the third turn. It HARD CAST Emrakul on the fourth turn. It gained 12 life when it needed to gain 12 life. After this Pro Tour, Cloudpost was banned. WEIRD. Here is my favorite moment of this deck:
I am watching Adam Yurchik play against Kyle Boggemes in the feature match area. Kyle destroys ALL of Adam’s lands—but Adam has used Green Sun’s Zenith to assemble ALL FOUR OVERGROWN BATTLEMENTS. Adam taps his walls for 16 mana, and BLAM, Game Over.
Green Sun’s Zenith changed everything. Llanowar Elves/Primeval Titan split card? Seriously? Serioussllyy??? This began an era of improved consistency in green decks. Green decks could play 4 extra copies of Titan and 4 extra accelerators, all in the same card. No longer would blue decks dominate in flexibility.
This was a deck that I initially designed in Seattle and was seriously helped by Adam and Max Pincus in Philly to brew this into the monster it became. This is around the time my decks started to take off. I found that the more heads working on the problem, the better the deck becomes. I get less of the credit, but I am not out to get credit, I am out to make the sickest possible decks. Thanks to everybody for the help!
Washington States 2011
Top 8
SCG Vegas 2011
Top 8 (Corbett Gray)
This deck hammered the opponent over the head with giant artifacts until he or she crawled into a hole. It could gain 12 life off Glimmerpost and staggering amounts a turn off of Kessig Wolf Run fueled Wurmcoil Engines, while ignoring the opponent’s life total completely with giant flying infectors.
This was the debut of Glimmerpost in Standard. Glimmerpost changed the dynamic of ramp decks. Primeval Titan also gains 12 life? What? Yes! No longer would Vapor Snag dominate Primeval Titan. No longer would Primeval Titan decks be overrun. No longer would we need to sideboard life gain. We have life gain MAIN baby! A crazy amount of it.
SCG Open Portland 2012
2nd
It all led to this deck. A deck with 16 Llanowar Elves. A deck with 8 Palladium Myrs. A deck with 8 Primeval Titans. A deck with 12 Gavony Townships. A deck with 12 ways to get Glimmerpost and 5 ways to get Thragtusk. A deck with 58 mana sources that doesn’t run out of things to do with its mana. A deck that attacks for 50 on the fourth turn and wins on turn 25 against control decks. Not a deck. THE deck.
And Sword of Feast and Famine? ARE YOU *@#*(# KIDDING ME?? Do you understand how this works with Primeval Titan? Do you understand how this works with Gavony Township? The interactions are mind boggling. The interactions make me want to play Magic forever.
But I can’t play the deck forever. I have less than a month. Less than a month with the perfect 75.
Here is the sideboard:
3 Sword of War and Peace
2 Thragtusk
3 Wolfir Silverheart
2 Beast Within
1 Crushing Vines
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
2 Ghost Quarter
So, I gave you a 61-card main deck and a 14-card sideboard. The 75 is perfect, but the split is your choice. You guys have helped me so much in turning the clunky Soul of the Harvest deck into this metagame crushing menace. I trust you guys to figure out how to make these 75 cards fit. Thank you!!
Why do I brew?
After cruising through Standard on Saturday, I played in the Legacy open on Sunday with a dredge deck. Not my dredge deck, but a dredge deck I had found out there on the internet. Why did I do this? I haven’t had the time to crack Legacy. I haven’t had the time to carve out my own space. It is a scary world of turn-two kills, not unlike pauper, but it is not yet my world.
I went 2-4 with the dredge deck. If I’m going to go 2-4 at a tournament, I want to go 2-4 with my own deck. I am not playing just to win. I am playing to put my ideas in motion. I am playing to put my friends’ ideas in motion. I am playing to say, “HEY WORLD! YOU CAN DO YOUR OWN THING AND SUCCEED.” I am playing to say that if the metagame is stale, maybe it’s on you to give it a big shake. Be the change you want to see in the metagame.
2013 State Championship
States is coming up and I am determined to win this year. It is always a good time to show off your or a friend’s brew. It is a good time to push the metagame. States is a good time to play Magic. The moment Return to Ravnica comes out, I will be brewing. I will have a sick deck for the tournament, just like the last two years, and I will write about it here on Woo Brews. I take all feedback seriously. Let’s brew something sick!
But until then,
#GREENSUMMER
<3 Travis
facebook.com/travisdwoo
twitter.com/travisdwoo
Questions! Comments! Think there’s something I missed?
