Article: Tips on Becoming a Better Titan Player

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Tips on Becoming a Better Titan Player

Hello, my name is Reid Stradling and I’ve been playing Amulet Titan for 2 years. I started by watching VODs, usually Kanister, and built the deck for myself. After doing well in paper, I downloaded MTGO and Top8ed my first ever challenge attempt. Chasing that high, I played in many more challenges, getting many top 8s, top 4s, and even winning a couple. I have only played Titan in 2 large paper events, one being RC Portland and other being the Modern 10K in Portland. The RC did not go perfectly, but I went 7-2-1 in the $10K to place 22nd/469 players. I also placed 5th in a Modern Showcase Challenge. I have since gotten into streaming and content creation, and I have thousands of matches under my belt.

I love Modern, and I specifically love Titan. I have no real reason to write this other than the fact that I want to discuss Titan right now, so let’s dive right in.

Who’s Going to Make the Cuts?

Making cuts and knowing what you can cut is important to becoming a self-reliant and confident Titan player. So many players are so used to seeing a certain card in the deck that they just overlook it when trying to make cuts. An example of this recently for myself was Six in the sideboard. I was just so used to seeing it there, I didn’t pause to consider that I just wasn’t using it. Somebody has to make the cuts.

The best constructed deck builders know how to build perfect decks with no pet cards, only pure, flowing synergy. The best limited players build their decks making really tough cuts to get down to 40 cards. Titan can function with more than 60 cards, but 60 vs 61 vs 72 cards is not the point here. If you are able to question the place every card holds in your deck, you will become a better sideboarder, deckbuilder, and player. Every six months the deck has looked completely different in my experience, will you make progress in six months?

For example, recently I questioned the inclusion of Vesuva, wondering whether it was just a relic from the past. When I took it out, I didn’t miss it too much and still had a high winrate, but I decided there were aspects to single-amulet lines I noticed that made me keep it. Other amulet players made fun of me for trying to remove it, but it’s a necessary step to become a strong deckbuilder.

Why would I consider cutting Vesuva? Doesn’t it just have a ton of utility? My reasoning is that it’s not a very good card in opening hands, specifically with other colorless lands. When watching Kanister, I always see him cut cards if they do not impress him in his opening hand. Next time you see a card you don’t like in your opener, think about how much you value the card, opening hands need to be carefully maintained by the Amulet pilot.

Cards in my current mainboard that I think are substitution level are:

• Fetch and Surveil

• 2 Mycosynth Gardens

• 2 of the 4 Explores

• The 3rd Summoner’s pact

• The 7th bounceland

Cards with more staying power but that I can still see getting cut down the line:

• Vesuva

• 4th Arboreal Grazer

Sideboard Construction

Sideboard construction is a different art. It’s constantly shifting from one state to another with the meta. Not all sideboard cards need to have a large matchup spread. Most matchups only require 4-7 cards from the board. Let’s say you made a really good sideboard. So good, that you have 10 cards for each matchup! It will be the strongest sideboard ever, right? Wrong. You will end up over-sideboarding, detracting from the main focus of the deck, which is to get Amulet and Titan on the board. When mapping your sideboard for a matchup, only bring on a few necessary pieces.

Sideboard cards need to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. What I mean by “float like a butterfly” is they need to be light, imperceptible additions to your postboard deck. They need to blend in with the rest of the deck, not detract from your main plan, and only be drawn once or twice. “Sting like a bee” means they need to be extremely useful against that specific matchup. They cannot be “sort of good” or “maybe useful in this situation”. Examples of cards that don’t sting hard enough include Keen-Eyed Curator against Living End, or Collector Ouphe against Broodscale.

Because of these conditions, sideboard cards do not need to have the widest matchup spread. They just need to be very good in the few matchups they come in. For example, Soul-Guide Lantern does not cover most of the top meta, but when it does come in, it’s a powerhouse.

My sideboard usually looks like this: 2-4 utility or Saga replacement lands, 2-3 small artifacts, preferably fetchable off Saga, 3-4 Dismembers to clear any essential creatures off the board, 2-ish small utility creatures and maybe a way to fetch those, and then a couple of free slots that I might devote to sweepers, Mystical Dispute, or Force of Vigor.

In a deck where lands are spells, lands are very good in the sideboard. You can play an Insidious Fungus to fetch with Green Sun’s and destroy artifacts/enchantments. However,  Boseiju does the same at half the cost, can target lands, and doubles as a land. Lands can look unassuming, but don’t let that fool you. Even basic Forest can be a good sideboard piece to come in and cast early Grazer->Spelunking when you cut your Urza’s Sagas.

You want small creatures in your sideboard, not large ones. If you put a 5-drop in your sideboard like Elesh Norn or some big green creature, you will not see it in the early game when sideboard pieces matter the most. Your opponent will have the right pieces at that point in the game, will you? The game might already be decided by the time you can cast your 4 or 5-drop.

Once you have addressed removal, graveyards, artifact/enchantment hate, and Vexing Bauble to prevent pitch casts, you can move on to the flex slots. In these slots, I’m currently playing Mystical Dispute because it floats and stings well in all of the blue matchups, which are many. Another flex slot is taken by Force of Vigor, because it’s a one-off card that stings very well against Broodscale, Titan, and Affinity, though it does not float very well with the rest of the deck because you have to pitch a green card. Therefore, I do not run two. You can also choose to play sweepers, which are good when Boros is a large portion of the expected meta. I have noticed they are not necessary to beat Boros, and maybe don’t even improve your winrate in the matchup.

I’m not currently playing Six but I want to touch on it. People mistake Six as Titan transitioning to a midrange plan. I do not see it that way, it’s useful as a portal to your graveyard to make some of those spells castable, when you can’t resolve anything and there’s little pressure on the board. It feeds into your main combo plan, and should not be thought of as a separate on-board threat.

Learn Other Decks

Being good at Amulet Titans means you are good at guessing what’s in your opponent’s hand and you have good instincts for it. To develop those instincts, you need to be good at modern as a whole, understanding the ins and outs of each deck, as well as the probability of seeing one hate piece over another. To do this, play other decks and watch competent streamers play other decks. Study Goldfish decklists and note changes. Predict how those decklists will change in upcoming weeks as new archetypes increase in popularity.

Solve, Adjust, Solve Again

I still learn new lines and possibilities through find-the-line. Solve some of those to improve. Don’t cheat, solve it for yourself, it will be good for you to mess up a few times. When goldfishing, try and execute hard lines you find. Then once you’ve solved the line, cut yourself off from a resource like an extra mana, an extra spell, or delirium. Now solve the new, harder puzzle. You will learn what the line is between possible and impossible. Now when you are faced with stressful games, you can allow your intuition to take over rather than overthinking impossible lines.

Thank you for reading! If you liked this, I’ll be posting more free articles on my Patreon. I also have an extensive sideboard guide for paid subscribers.