Card in Review - Sun Titan

M11's Titans were interesting in that they were printed to try and fill two criteria:
1. If they were killed immediately, you weren't left with nothing for your six mana.
2. You never had to choose between attacking with your fatty or using its ability.

Wizards accomplished this by giving them a solid ability that activated when they showed up as well as every time they attacked, in addition to being a 6/6 with a nice evergreen ability for safe measure. This was ultimately successful - possibly even too successful. The problem with the titans is that they overshadowed most every other 5+ drop that was available. Why bother with Vorinclex when you could have already played a Primeval Titan and pulled out six lands? Sure Balefire Dragon wipes your opponent's entire board if he connects, but by the time you play him, Inferno Titan has dealt at least 12 damage.
Each one was a strategy in a box, providing both a creature big enough to win the game as well as support to protect it/yourself or ways to deal with your opponent's threats. Most worked on autopilot - there wasn't much strategy to go with Inferno Titan other than turning it sideways each turn - but a couple required you to build around. Sure Primeval Titan's power came from pulling out combinations of overpowered lands, but even if he's just vomiting basic lands onto the board he's helping you out. The most build-around titan was neither the strongest nor the weakest, but the one I found the most interesting.

Welcome to valuetown; Sun Titan will be your guide for today.

Sun Titan was the one whose ability wasn't always guaranteed to accomplish something. You needed permanents in the graveyard and they needed to be 3 or less mana. Otherwise, you ended up with an unexciting 6/6 with vigilance for six. I mean, that alone is pretty spiffy considering he'll never exist, but the white titan's ability has the most open-ended potential for sheer inventiveness.

So let's consider what we have to work with here:

-6/6 for six
A solid frame, especially for white, a 6/6 should outsize most creatures and be resistant to singular burn spells. 6 power is just two points off from finishing an opponent in three hits, meaning as central as a card the Titan might be, chances are he won't be in play long, since things should wrap up shortly after he shows up. Still, six mana is a lot, and you need early threats or defenses to set things up while you bide your time to drop the luminous one. Fortunately, the Titan synergizes with exactly those types of cards: early threats that are three or less mana. He may ask you to build around him, but his demands are simple and open-ended.

-Vigilance
A decidedly defensive ability, vigilance works nicely on a titan. Some of the keyword abilities are largely irrelevant (looking at you, Grave Titan) but in addition to not having to pick between attacking or using its ability, vigilance means you get to attack, use its ability and block. A slow control deck shouldn't have to fear being overrun even in the late game just because its bomb can't outrace the opponent's headstart if said bomb can still stand in the way of most anything on the ground.

-That Other Thing
Yeah, I can only waste your time talking about how keen a 6/6 is for so long. We're here to figure out what you can do with a free, any-permanent Unearth each turn. He'll probably generate some value in most any deck, but if you keep his ability in mind while deckbuilding, it really opens up a vista of synergies.

I'm a huge fan of all the little synergies that make Seal of Doom better in one deck and Eyeblight's Ending better in another - Sun Titan likewise helps you diversify your decks by giving you reasons to choose one card over another. So when building around him, what are some good support options to keep in mind?


Card Advantage

Regaining a lost permanent is already putting you ahead, but the main goal with Sun Titan is to turn that small permanent into a larger advantage.

There's a good number of cards that cost 3 or less mana and draw you a card, but that's being somewhat unimaginative. Instead, cards like Trinket Mage, Stoneforge Mystic and Treasure Mage let you fetch a useful artifact. Imperial Recruiter can grab a smaller-sized creature - likely one that the Titan could later recur - and Fierce Empath can grab a large one - such as the Titan itself!

The Titan can bring back a great many useful cards, but what about everything else? That's where Eternal Witness comes in, able to recur instants, sorceries, and permanents that are even more than 3 mana - including the Sun Titan itself. If you aren't running green, then Snapcaster Mage, Treasure Hunter and Cadaver Imp can all serve as reasonable substitutions. Of course, if you don't feel like just sticking to your own graveyard, then Animate Dead or Necromancy can be recurred to reanimate a big creature from any graveyard. Recurring Nightmare is interesting in that you can sacrifice a small creature to reanimate Sun Titan, who will then immediately bring back the small creature - and if something ever happens to the Nightmare, your Titan can bring it back.

If you're just after cards, Baleful Strix is a great option since it draws a card and trades with larger creatures - ideally several times. Courier's Capsule and Font of Return can get you two cards for two mana each turn, though the humble Hatching Plans can net you three cards for free so long as you have a way to sacrifice it each turn. Scarecrone can be sacrificed for a card every turn or used to recur larger artifact creatures. If your deck is built around the Titan, chances are you're running plenty of cards he can recur - which is exactly what Matter Reshaper can cheat out when it dies. Nevermind the fact that it, too can be recurred by the Titan.

What's really interesting is that there are a number of planeswalkers cheap enough to be recurred by Sun Titan. The original Jace Beleren is a steady stream of card draw, Ajani, Caller of the Pride can contribute some serious military might to the table, and Liliana of the Veil gets even better when you can just recur whatever you discard to her. Heck, even the much-maligned Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded looks like he has potential when there's a Sun Titan backing him up. Perhaps most intriguing is the newcomer Saheeli Rai: her -2 can make a copy of Sun Titan with haste! Between it and the original, you'll get three triggers of that tasty ability by the time you attack. All five of the transforming planeswalkers from Magic Origins are also valid targets, so long as you can accept bringing them back as creatures each time.

Removal

A good removal package will keep your opponent from overruning you, as well as keep the board clear for your Sun Titan to keep attacking and wear your foe down. The right graveyard can equate to a free Vindicate every time it attacks.

Even in white alone, you have a number of self-sacrificing options like Seal of Cleansing, Aura of Silence, Soul Snare and Lieutenant Kirtar. Serenity can wipe out everything and is ready to be brought back every turn. Even cards that are meant to stick to the table, such as Oblivion Ring and Prison Term, are worthwhile, since blowing them up will no longer permanently undo your removal.

White creatures have no problem dealing with enchantments, thanks to the likes of War Priest of Thune and Kami of Ancient Law, but adding red or green can help improve the versatility of your options and target artifacts as well. Qasali Pridemage, Duergar Hedge-Mage, Reclamation Sage and Keldon Vandals all are worthwhile choices. Fulminator Mage expands your portfolio a bit by being able to take out problem lands, too. Aura Shards is a great card and will still trigger whenever Sun Titan brings back a creature.

Black, as always, is the king of anti-creature options: Seal of Doom, Big Game Hunter, Fleshbag Marauder and Bone Shredder all have solid applications. Vampire Hexmage is interesting in that it can remove planeswalkers (as well as whatever other random utility you can score with it.) Necrotic Sliver can just zot plain old anything, though its flexibility will cost you to make repeated use of.

Looking to lock the game down control-style? Daring Apprentice might look promising, but summoning sickness means she'd only be able to counter a spell every other turn. You'd need to be sure to have a decent complement of counters in hand to back her up. Voidmage Prodigy might be more accommodating, though he requires two blue mana each time. Wizard Replica and Spiketail Drakeling might not be hard counters, but they are cheap to activate and don't require tapping.


If  you can swing the colour requirements, Pernicious Deed is a godsend for mass removal. You can sweep the board of anything that's five or less mana turn after turn! Oblivion Stone, Ratchet Bomb and Plague Boiler are likewise recurrable but not as reliable.

It's a good idea to pack some graveyard hate, at least in the sideboard, but you won't want to be using anything with universal effects if you're making heavy use of your own 'yard. Tormod's Crypt is the no-frills option, but Nihil Spellbomb can also serve as some card draw if you've got black in your mana base. Scrabbling Claws can share the love with any colour but is only single-target removal.

Mana

Chances are you won't need much in the way of mana-fixing once you have a Sun Titan in play, but Primeval Titan has shown that sometimes more land is all you need!

If not many of your cards are hitting the graveyard over the length of a game, it can feel like wasted potential once you get the Titan out and there's nothing to bring back. Perhaps the easiest way to ensure there's always at least something is to make use of fetch lands. The proper ones from Onslaught (or Zendikar) are obviously the best choices, but the 'slow-fetches' from Mirage or even plain old Terramorphic Expanse/Evolving Wilds are fine as well.

Green, of course, has all the best choices once you start considering nonland options. Sakura-Tribe Elder, Yavimaya Elder and Yavimaya Granger all sacrifice themselves for convenient recursion. Though if you have enough sacrifice outlets outside simply chump blocking, Wood Elves, Yavimaya Dryad and Nissa, Vastwood Seer are likewise solid. Knight of the Reliquary can be a good-sized bruiser cheap enough to recur, but it can also turn your basic lands into powerful utility lands or colour-fixing for anything you're short on.

Even without the addition of green, Knight of the White Orchid and Pilgrim's Eye are both worth considering. Wayfarer's Bauble helps you ramp into the Titan quicker, Armillary Sphere earns you card advantage, and Expedition Map can grab any useful nonbasic.

Still, lands aren't all about mana. Especially once you have your Titan out, you might be more interested in utility lands, especially those that sacrifice themselves. Strip Mine and its little brother Wasteland are perhaps the most infamous, though Mouth of Ronom, Blighted Fen or even Quicksand can help deal with creatures. Blue can score you some cards with Cephalid Coliseum or the more mana-intensive Blighted Cataract, but the addition of green offers a plethora of great options: Krosan Verge for ramp, Horizon Canopy for card draw, and Grove of the Guardian for huge 8/8 tokens. Regardless of colour, decks with a good amount of artifacts could appreciate Inventors' Fair and/or Buried Ruin. Gargoyle Castle can repeatedly make buff flyers if there isn't much else to do with your mana, and Mirrorpool has a lot of fun potential: most exciting, perhaps, is making a copy of Sun Titan (which will immediately recur the Mirrorpool) every turn.

Combos & Other Good Stuff

One of my favourite interactions with Sun Titan is the fact that it and Angelic Renewal cover each other so well. Any time the Titan dies, the Renewal can be sacrificed to bring it back, whereupon he'll immediately bring back the Renewal. Saffi Eriksdotter can perform similarly. Mostly I appreciate the protection to ensure you'll get extended use of your Titan, but the more cruel among you can utilize this interaction as an infinite sacrifice loop (that's an instant win with Goblin Bombardment or Altar of Dementia, for instance.) You can accomplish the same thing with any two of Necromancy, Animate Dead and/or Dance of the Dead by alternating targets and sacrifice Sun Titan in response to his trigger each time.

Phantasmal Image can be brought back to copy any creature in play - or Sun Titan itself, whereupon your new Phantasmal Titan can immediately bring back another permanent. Dump three Images in your graveyard with Buried Alive, say, and a Titan can bring them all back in a row as 6/6s with vigilance. Tired of having to wear down an opponent's forces in a battle of attrition? Simply pop Dauntless Escort before dropping a boardwipe, leaving the rest of your army high and dry, and the Titan will bring him back for another round... not that you'll likely need it.

If you're running lots of comes-into-play abilities, using the Sun Titan as a kind of 187 machine, then Cloudstone Curio and Crystal Shard could both provide some backup utility. Flickerwisp provides another way to reset abilities as well as a 3/1 body with flying. Kitchen Finks and Geralf's Messenger can be hard to deal with due to their self-recursive nature, but they can be absolutely backbreaking with Sun Titan able to give them another lease on life (or five.)

Anathemancer is an underplayed gem that can often blow a player's head clean off, especially in EDH. Unearthing him is nice, but Sun Titan can keep him coming back for more at a much more reasonable rate. Tainted Sigil takes the opposite route and gains you huge amounts of life each turn - so long as you never take enough damage to kill you in one swing, it or Children of Korlis can keep you alive indefinitely. Feeling extra rude? The Titan can fuel Contamination - or even just keep bringing it back if you don't feel like paying its upkeep - indefinitely. In the latter case you still get to play cards in your precombat main phase!

Of course, if all of this synergy still isn't enough for you, don't forget that the Titan can bring back Sunforger, another feature of Card in Review.


Titan Your Belt

So theorizing about every single card the Titan can bring back is fun and all, but eventually one needs to put these cards to the test. I've not only done so, but it's become one of my favourite decks to play (especially in multiplayer settings.)

You can see my decklist here.

I opted for a control-ish deck in green and white, which provide all the tools necessary to control the opponent's permanents and outfight his creatures. Despite being simple in concept and execution, the deck is quite versatile. Wall of Blossoms and Kitchen Finks trip up aggro decks badly before that crippling Wrath of God comes down. Voice of Resurgence (and Loxodon Smiter, from the sideboard) give control decks fits. Between WoG, Oblivion Ring and Qasali Pridemage, you can remove any type of permanent. Several of the creatures interact favourably with a board-wipe, but of course Sun Titan is the ultimate comeback card afterwards - or before, if you have an Angelic Renewal out. Currently, Umezawa's Jitte exists in the deck's two 'flex slots' - the added point removal shores up a bit of a weakness, and the pump ability helps creatures asides from the Titan be threatening - but it's still being experimented with.


All in all, I find Sun Titan to be a very versatile but straightforward card that can lend a lot of power to a deck in a form other than high power and combat abilities. He might not bash heads quite as hard as Terra Stomper or have the inevitability of Ætherling, but it can be great fun having a fattie that synergizes with the rest of your deck without being a lynchpin that it can't function without.