I think you are underestimating the potential of Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. In my personal Titania deck, I play Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth just so that all of my utility lands can tap for mana in the late game after I run out of fetchable basics.

Goodra_Hugs I can see merit behind Dryad. I could possibly cut Wayward Swordtooth for Dryad since I don’t think I need an additional exploration effect. The advantage would be that my colorless and fetchlands would now tap for green. The disadvantage is it’s not as big of a beater as swordtooth. Not sure which would provide me with more value. I‘ll have to see how often I feel like I need more green or have already fetched every basic from the deck.

Urborg is cute, but only maze and glacial chasm would benefit immediately as they are the only lands that don’t tap for mana. And most of the time the game is over before I’ve fetched out all of my basics. I have run into the problem before, but not often enough to run Urborg. My concern is that I don’t think what Urborg brings to the table is better than anything that I would have to cut to fit it in.

Driemer84 I guess Urborg is a bit cute, but you also have to remember that it also allows you to tap fetchlands and Ancient Tomb for mana without hurting you. I especially like it for the games where I have been fetching like crazy with Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Crucible of Worlds, and then cast Splendid Reclamation.

I also recommend Scorched Ruins as a great way to sacrifice lands while actually going up in mana.

Goodra_Hugs yep. I acknowledge what Urborg can do in my reply, but I still don’t think what it offers is more useful than anything I would have to cut to fit it in. Allowing fetches to tap after my forests are out the deck is useful, and the situation has come up, but I don’t think it comes up often enough for me to include Urborg.

I did run Scorched Ruins during my early iterations, but I just didn’t care for the card that much. It only ramps you by one compared to a regular land drop, and the price is high and unconditional. There are times when I don’t want to give up a couple of green sources for colorless mana, or sacrifice utility for ramp. It also felt bad to have that land get strip mined.

Check out the updates section and you can see everything I’ve already tried out. I may be I correct about some of my choices, but I tried lay out my reasoning the best I could as I made changes.

Goodra_Hugs I went back through my logs and Change Log 9 in March of 2018, is where I cut Scorched Ruins. I picked up a City of Traitors and replaced the Ruins. Ruins is just so rough in your opening hand and doesn’t ramp you in to Titania. At the earliest, Ruins can be your third land drop, but that means you’re sacrificing your first two land drops and left over with only colorless mana. To get back the two green sources means you need to play two more forests which puts you at land drop 5, which means Titania is coming out slow.

Driemer84 this is a very good site for other Titania players and I appreciate putting your thoughts in public.

My question is regarding Oblivion Stone alternatives. You say that you have it as a fail safe and you get to recover faster than the opps which I have found to be true. In that sense, have you tried Ugin, the Spirit Dragon? Gets rid of creatures and maybe some enchantments. It gives the flexibility to manage the X value as needed and solves the problem for good (exiles). It def hits us but as you said, we recover quicker so I'm thinking about trying it. Thoughts?

nebe7 Thanks for the complement!

I think Ugin is a suitable replacement for Oblivion Stone, but I opted for Oblivion Stone because at one point I ran All is Dust. Dust cleared indestructible permanents like Ugin, but I found the colorless permanents that we’re left behind to be more common and problematic than indestructible permanents.

There are definitely benefits to both, but there are times where Ugin’s loyalty isn’t high enough to clear out a problem, and Ugin will always leave behind everyone’s artifacts/devoid creatures, but Oblivion stone will leave behind anything indestructible. You just have to weigh what you think you will run in to more.

nebe7 I forgot to mention that the ability to activate O-Stone at instant speed is a big advantage too. You can pop it at the end of your opponents turn or at least post combat if it draws you some aggro. This gives you the first shot to reestablish a board.