Why is Grave Titan so good?
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 19, 2020, 10 p.m. by alex277
So I'm a returning player after not playing in several years, so excuse me if I'm rusty. But I'm building a black deck and see that grave titan is everywhere in deck lists, and highly recommended everywhere as well. I find that the card is good, but I don't see it as fantastic as everyone is making it out to be. Something like massacre wurm or kokusho seems like a better card for the mana. Am I missing something? Why is this card considered so fantastic?
Last_Laugh says... #3
Simply put... it provides bodies on both attack and ETB. This makes the card abuseable in Aggro, Bounce/Flicker, and Recursion/Sacrifice decks which increases its' usage (and value) in EDH by a lot. Modern influences this cards value less than EDH imho.
February 20, 2020 2:14 a.m. Edited.
Flooremoji says... #4
Did you mean to post in the modern forum? The only competitive deck in modern that (sometimes) uses Grave Titan is ad naus.
The reason that deck uses GT is because it is focused on casting a five mana spell, but it can make more than five mana by turn 4-ish sometimes. GT provides a finisher out of nowhere for when opponents board out removal in favor of combo hate. It also is okay when they didn't board out all removal because of the extra zombies.
If you are talking about causual modern, it is just another black mythic that has a splashy effect.
Gidgetimer says... #2
I don't see many decklists that are running Grave Titan when I search modern decks on MTGTop8. Where are you finding a preponderance of Grave Titans? The context in which you see them may inform why people are running them.
Overall, it is 6 mana for a minimum of 10 power if it resolves. If he gets hit with a kill spell you went 1-for-1 and are up 2 zombies. If he survives to swing in combat you make another 2 2/2s for a total of 14 power that you have gotten out of it. Deathtouch means it kills anything that blocks it, so best case scenario for your opponent is chumping and allowing you to make a horde of zombies.
In modern, it is usually seen as too slow though. Unless you are accelerating to 6 mana on turn 3-4 it comes down too late. The other option is a control finisher and there are other finishers that work better in the format.
February 19, 2020 10:22 p.m.