Wrath of Titans is named for the large creatures that feature throughout the deck and for the destruction it causes with all the removal which, if given the chance to resolve, can decimate an opponents game.
This deck creates a revolving battlefield and uses the graveyard like a second library to effectively create 2 places to draw from instead of just 1. It controls an opponents battlefield utilizing the strength of 'enter the battlefield' effects to keep you safe and with the hope of being returned over and over again, the creatures aren't afraid of dying so there is no shortage of attackers and blockers to address threats. If you're looking for a more detailed breakdown be sure to keep reading and thanks for taking the time to check out my deck and comment! Also a big thanks to everyone who has given my deck a +1!
Kicking off the game
The first opportunity I have to tutor for cards I always aim to get some key destroy cards with low CMC or low evoke costs right off the bat like Wispmare, Ingot Chewer or Shriekmaw to take care of pesky enchantments/artifacts or troublesome creatures. Or if my opponent's land base looks too good I'll go for some land destruction like Fulminator Mage or Faultgrinder or one of the low cost board wipes like Wrath of God, Damnation or Pernicious Deed to set them back to square one so as to buy me some time to ramp up and set up my revolving battlefield.
Other key cards I look for when tutoring if I have a good bunch of destroy cards already are the reanimate cards like Genesis or Karador, Ghost Chieftain. Preferably I want the former to go straight to the graveyard and latter to my hand which can be easily achieved using Jarad's Orders but if it doesn't happen that way, time permitting I will find another way like reanimating Karador or blocking with Genesis to kill him.
Mana and ramp
Let's address the elephant in the room >>> the cost of my deck! At first glance this deck is expensive, but that is because of some of the land cards I play so don't let the price of the deck turn you off because this deck can be built without the old dual lands... and once you take those out the price drops drastically!
To do this you would need to make adjustments to the way your deck is built so that it works better with basics. One example is Fertilid, it is a great card! Not in this deck of course but it would be a solid addition to ramp up the mana base in a deck with basics. As an elemental it works well with cards like Horde of Notions, Grave Sifter + Patriarch's Bidding. It's unlikely I would use cards like Sun Titan, Reveillark, Karmic Guide, Eternal Witness etc to pull Fertilid but they are options if needed and if there is nothing else more useful in the graveyard, it becomes a good option. Also cards like Cultivate and Kodama's Reach might work well because they allow you to tutor any basic lands. My suggestion if you're specifically looking to tutor forests is to consider a card like Silverglade Elemental in your build; there are multiple ways to bounce cards back from the graveyard, particularly elementals so it would work well. I run Silverglade Elemental in this build because it has great synergy as an elemental but also because of all the dual lands; for me it's a great way to repeatedly pull a forest + whatever other colour I might be struggling for at the time.
Playing against graveyard hate and using some of our own
In some games there have been times where I am the only one with a reanimator deck and everyone's graveyard hate has been directed at me so that it's an ongoing uphill battle to keep my graveyard. Certainly in 1 on 1 I don't always have the luxury of time to set up a fully revolving battlefield but it is usually there in some capacity even if it's only a few cards so graveyard hate can still be a set back even in 1 on 1. I don't combo out to win in this deck because winning the same few ways every time doesn't interest me. I like a challenge whether I am being hit with graveyard hate, land removal or counterspells... so for the times when graveyard hate is a big problem, I will sideboard in cards like Riftsweeper and/or Pull from Eternity. Losing the ability to play cards from my graveyard does cut my options in half so this is when cards like Thryx, the Sudden Storm, Brighthearth Banneret, Roil Elemental, Incandescent Soulstroke, Maelstrom Wanderer and Thicket Elemental help to ease the cost of casting spells.
Agent of Erebos and Bojuka Bog are both there to take care of other graveyard decks but also to prevent other players from benefiting from cards like Grave Sifter and Patriarch's Bidding. If Bojuka Bog is already on the field, Fulminator Mage can be useful for getting it into your graveyard so that it can be played again; land removal isn't just for your opponents in this deck.
Creating the revolving battlefield
As mentioned, a key strategy of this deck is to create a revolving battlefield and use the graveyard as a second place to play cards from with the aim to create the flexibility to replay cards over and over again to control the field. But doing it in a way where you have reasonable control over what is placed in the graveyard in case you encounter graveyard hate or so you don't end up losing because you have no cards left to draw. Having a revolving battlefield means whether its extra draw, mill, discard or sacrifice it all works in our favour.
If your hand is too full and you need to discard, don't despair as discarding works in our favour in this deck.
Dying from blocking isn't the end of days, this can be a way to prevent damage and sacrifice a card so it can be bounced back from the graveyard again to trigger an ETB effect.
Life from the Loam helps to put small amounts of cards into your graveyard whilst also providing a means to get lands into your hand.
Buried Alive and Jarad's Orders provide unconditional tutors to allow you to set up your graveyard based on your needs and the current threats without putting any unnecessary cards in there.
Grapple with the Past is a good low cost way to put a small amount cards into the graveyard which is especially important early game. It also provides a land or a creature of your choice to your hand drawing from your whole graveyard and not just the cards you drew; this is especially good if you're trying to get something in particular back from your graveyard. And with 83% of the deck being either a creature or land, the odds are in your favour that you won't dump much that isn't. (But even if you do, it's no biggie, just remember that there are ways to bring back everything with enough time)
Cards that aren't included and why
I've been asked before why I don't run great cards like Call to the Kindred and Splinter Twin. This is because I run so many board wipes and I'm intentionally building the deck around ETB effects, landfall + destruction so there's no guarantee my cards will stay on the battlefield long enough to make the most of them. TL:DR there are better cards to play in this build!
I like Deadbridge Chant but I haven't used it in my deck since the very beginning when I first made it. This is because I found after testing it I liked a bit more control over what gets put into my graveyard. Putting 1/10 of my deck into the graveyard sight unseen didn't sit well with me. I also don't like the high CMC or the fact that half of the effectiveness of the card relies on me getting around to my next upkeep without encountering enchantment removal or graveyard hate which is unlikely in my gaming groups.
I found deck staples like Temple of the False God and Sol Ring a bit underwhelming in this deck when I tested it because I was always needing coloured mana more. So I've shied away from colourless unless it has another useful function like Cavern of Souls + Primal Beyond.
Sometimes every bit of mana can count in early game so I removed Crystal Quarry recently after having it in my deck for years because time and again I was finding that having the luxury of 5 colours simply wasn't worth the 6 mana cost every time; I always found I needed to use that 1 mana elsewhere. And the alternative of the colourless mana was more often than not a hinderance because I really needed a colour mana instead. Not to mention that I am already running good cards like Chromatic Lantern, Cavern of Souls, Exotic Orchard, Command Tower, Primal Beyond, Reflecting Pool, Vesuva, Bloom Tender, Joiner Adept and Morophon, the Boundless to help strengthen the 5 colour mana base.
I have no interest in cards which have no additional functionality like Fusion Elemental because there are so many other cards to chose from which have 1 or more useful functions.
I also have no interest in cards that rely on me doing combat damage to a player like Skullbriar, the Walking Grave because it enforces a 'requirement' that needs meeting in order to be useful and it takes away from the ETB effects which my deck is built around. This applies to any cards that require 'targeting' of any kind, eg. Ashenmoor Liege etc.
I prefer to avoid non-elementals and 'one time use' cards unless they support the use of my graveyard or my mana base and this is simply because they are harder to recur since they don't take advantage of the tribal theme. eg. Shriekmaw is easier to bring back from the graveyard than Doom Blade. Ancient Greenwarden is easier to bring back from the graveyard than Crucible of Worlds.
Although my deck includes the mechanic 'landfall' it isn't built around this mechanic, the landfall cards I have in my deck weren't chosen for the 'landfall' mechanic but rather their usefulness and synergy in the bigger picture which is why I didn't include elementals like Akoum Hellhound, Brushfire Elemental with their temporary effects.
I make sure my decks aren't reliant on my Commander to the point of being crippled when unavailable so whilst this deck is definitely stronger with Horde of Notions it also functions fine without the Commander which is why there is no protection included in the build like Lightning Greaves etc. Including protection would mean sacrificing something else which I wasn't prepared to do.
This deck was due for an update and accidentally ended up with an overhaul. It includes new cards that have come out since I last updated it in 2017 which help make the synergy even better and in light of these changes, I also updated the land to better suit the deck. The primer has also been updated.
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