[deck title=Titan Breach (GP Calgary, 1st) – Attila Fur]
[Creatures]
4 Primeval Titan
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Woodfall Primus
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Assassin’s Trophy
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Faithless Looting
2 Farseek
1 Fatal Push
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Scapeshift
4 Search for Tomorrow
3 Summoner’s Pact
4 Through the Breach
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Blood Crypt
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Cinder Glade
2 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Wooded Foothills
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tireless Tracker
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Unravel the Aether
1 Damping Sphere
1 Shattering Spree
2 Slaughter Games
1 Ravenous Trap
4 Leyline of the Void
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
This is not a strict sideboard guide. Always be mindful of what cards the decks you are facing are running. Is this Izzet Phoenix with Crackling Drakes or only with Pyromancer’s Ascension? Is this the Amulet Titan build with Sakura-Tribe Scout or Trinket Mage? Is it traditional Burn or the hyper aggressive one drop version? All of these could affect what you bring in and out, for example sideboarding out the Engineered Explosives, or bringing in Damping Sphere or Chalice of the Void.
I have decided to go through all my sideboard cards and explain the reasoning of why they made the cut into the deck instead of some other cards, I have also gone through some other popular choices that see play in Titanshift and Titan Breach.
I’m mostly listing out the cards that I think are better in that matchup as well as the ones that I think are\can be worse in them. It does not mean that you should always board like this.
Farseek does get boarded out a lot. It’s not because it’s not a good card, but because I’d rather have room for disruption in the sideboarded games as opposed to going for pure speed in pre-boarded games.
Chalice of the Void
This card is extremely good against the top decks as well as some of our bad matchups. It overperforms against Izzet Phoenix, Grixis Death Shadow, and Living End; but you would also bring it in against Amulet Titan and Burn. It also has a lot of random applications against some of your bad matchups such as Ad Nauseum and Infect.
Reclamation Sage
This card is a mandatory inclusion when you’re using Summoner’s Pact to be able to tutor up an artifact\enchantment removal spell. Reclamation Sage comes in against any decks that may have Blood Moon as you can tutor it up if needed with Summoner’s Pact granting you an extra 3 copies in your deck.
Tireless Tracker
This card is good against all the grindy midrange and control matchups, you’d likely want more Trackers if you expect to face these matchups a lot. This card can often run away with the game in those matchups if left unchecked for a turn or two, mostly due to the amount of clues you’ll generate.
Obstinate Baloth
This card is mandatory if you want to beat burn, as that matchup is extremely close. It is also extremely good vs G/Bx decks. You also bring it in against Dredge as a speed bump and against miscellaneous aggro decks. If I could fit more in the sideboard, I would.
Unravel the Aether (AKA I don’t own a foil Deglamer)
Another piece of artifact\enchantment hate, the versatility of this card is getting past welding jars which is why I chose to run it over some other pieces. It can also shuffle a Wurmcoil back into the deck which may be relevant in the occasional Tron matchup.
Damping Sphere
Very good against Izzet Phoenix, various combo decks, Tron, and Amulet Titan. I would likely want to fit more in the deck if there was room for it. It can be a bit awkward if you have Summoner’s Pact + Breach, however it is typically more back breaking for the other decks than it is for you.
Shattering Spree
Very good against Amulet Titan, Tron, Whir, Lantern, Affinity, basically anything that values their artifacts. This card was chosen over shatterstorm as people were expecting shatterstorm. Due to the mana cost of this card it can easily be used to disrupt Amulet of Vigor and Expedition Map before they can be used even when you’re on the draw, which can heavily disrupt some of your opponents hands. Late game this card becomes quite devastating, it’s also worth noting that the replicate ability easily gets around Chalice of the Void.
Slaughter Games
Good against the prison decks, combo decks (Storm, Living End, Scapeshift, etc.) and Amulet Titan. You also likely bring this in against control in order to get rid of some of the problematic cards, but mostly to see their hand so that you can develop a game plan if you were unable to get under them in the early game. This is kind of a ‘catch all’ kind of card that can cripple various decks.
Leyline of the Void
Extremely good against Dredge, Izzet Phoenix, Grixis Death’s Shadow. You use this to hopefully buy a turn or two (at worst) against Dredge in order to race them, and to lock the other two decks out of their main game plan which is Phoenix\Pyromancer Ascension or Delving a big threat. It should buy you enough time to carry out your game plan of getting a Primeval Titan into play. This card is also quite backbreaking other some less popular graveyard strategies such as Living End.
Ravenous Trap
Very good against Dredge, Izzet Phoenix, and okay against Grixis Death’s Shadow. The core strength of this card in the deck is that you can dig for it via faithless looting if you don’t have it in your opening hand. You could Looting, flashback Looting and still be able to cast Ravenous Trap when the opponent is trying to go off with his graveyard as they’ll likely enable the clause needed for the free casting cost(If an opponent had three or more cards put into their graveyard this turn). Sometimes you need to keep hands that function over hands that have a Leyline of the Void in them and that’s where cards like Ravenous Trap shine. I used to run more of these but I’ve been liking the sheer power of Leyline of the Void more recently.
Omissions
Surgical Extraction
Leyline of the Void and Ravenous Trap just fill this spot better, Surgical felt underwhelming when I used it. This card is A LOT better when you can Snapcaster Mage it back.
Shatterstorm
This was the main tech card to try and beat Whir, and is also back breaking against Affinity\Hardened scales. The issue with using this against Whir is that they expected it and would often just Ego for it. I decided to use Shattering Spree instead, as it was a cheaper and more versatile card, though there is debate over it being less powerful.
Krosan Grip
This is mostly used to get around Welding Jar, due to it not being able to be responded to while on the stack because of the split second mechanic. Unravel the Aether serves a similar purpose and is 1 mana cheaper making it more versatile, and you can play it a turn sooner.
Anger of the Gods
This card is supposed to be amazing against Dredge, and yet I lost plenty of games where this card had been cast. This is why I went with the graveyard disruption plan in order to disrupt their main gameplan. I would suggest fitting one or two angers somewhere in the list to shore up random creature matchups you face, but it would not be due to dredge, although you’d bring them in as well if you had them as the final nail in the coffin.
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
This card is very good against control if it resolves, it is also very good against the Whir decks; but you would have to already have it in your hand or else they will likely just exile it via Unmoored Ego or Jester’s Cap. It does trump storm decks, but that wasn’t an expected deck going into the metagame for GP Calgary.
Relic of Progenitus
Relic felt weaker than the black graveyard hate cards, when looking at it from a sideboard standpoint. It also meant needing to keep mana up which could possibly cause you to sequence awkwardly in some turns and lose speed due to trying to keep the mana up. It’s a good main deck card for Titanshift, but Breach likely does not want to run it in those slots. It is also worth noting that exiling your own graveyard is not an effect you want when running faithless lootings.
Ancient Grudge
Due to having both Shattering Spree and Unravel the Aether, an artifact hate card had to get cut. If you expect more affinity or Hardened Scales, I would definitely want Ancient Grudge back in the sideboard as it is an amazing 2-for-1 versus those decks. Both Unravel the Aether and Shattering Spree were more versatile for the metagame that I expected.
Carnage Tyrant
Extremely good card against Control matchups if you’re expecting a lot of control decks. The deck already has a decent Control matchup due to the extra play EOT breach gives you in that matchup and doesn’t need much help, if at all in that matchup.
Abrade
Good if you’re expecting creature matchups and want some versatility in your spells, I just found the versatility of Unravel the Aether and Shattering Spree to be better for what I expected in the metagame.
Sideboard Guide
UR Phoenix
+ 1 Chalice of the Void
+ 1 Damping Sphere
+ 4 Leyline of the Void
+ 1 Ravenous Trap
+ 1 Reclamation Sage
– 2 Farseek
– 1 Summoner’s Pact
– 1 Scapeshift
– 1 Simian Spirit Guide
– 1 Through the Breach
Grixis Death’s Shadow
+ 4 Leyline of the Void
+ 1 Chalice of the Void
+ 2 Obstinate Baloth
– 1-2 Farseek
– 1 Through the Breach
– 1-2 Summoner’s Pact
– 1 Scapeshift
– 1 Woodfall Primus
Dredge
+ 4 Leyline of the Void
+ 2 Obstinate Baloth
+ 1 Ravenous Trap
– 1 Fatal Push
– 2 Assassin’s Trophy
– 1 Engineered Explosives
– 1 Woodfall Primus
– 1 Scapeshift
– 1 Swamp
Amulet Titan
+ 2 Slaughter Games
+ 1 Shattering Spree
+ 1 Damping Sphere
+ 1 Chalice of the Void
– 1-2 Farseek
– 1 Summoner’s Pact
– 1 Prismatic Omen
– 1 Scapeshift
UW \ UWR Control
+ 1 Tireless Tracker
+ 2 Obstinate Baloth
+ 2 Slaughter Games
– 1 Fatal Push
– 1 Engineered Explosives
– 1-2 Farseek
– 1 Summoner’s Pact
Whir / Lantern
+ 2 Tireless Tracker
+ 2 Slaughter Games
+ 1 Unravel the Aether
+ 1 Reclamation Sage
+ 1 Shattering Spree
– 1 Fatal Push
– 1-2 Summoner’s Pact
– 2 Farseek
– 1 Faithless Looting
Ad Nauseum
+ 2 Slaughter Games
+ 1 Unravel the Aether
+ 1 Reclamation Sage
+ 1 Shattering Spree
+ 1 Chalice of the Void
– 1 Fatal Push
– 1-3 Summoner’s Pact
– 2 Farseek
– 1 Simian Spirit Guide
GBx
+ 1 Tireless Tracker
+ 2 Obstinate Baloth
– 1-2 Through the Breach
– 1-2 Simian Spirit Guide
Tron
+ 1 Shattering Spree
+ 1 Damping Sphere
– 1 Engineered Explosives
– 1 Fatal Push
