I had 12 mana t3, and if my Ancient Stirrings found Ugin instead of nothingness, I could have pulled out. Ugin and Steel Hellkite are both great.

I mean 1 colorless bomb isn't something you should rely on finding with Ancient Stirrings. There's slightly less than a 10% chance that you will actually see that one card in the top 5.

That's even worse than thinking you might find an Amulet of Vigor in the top 5. Consider them as lands for the most part or you can get yourself into trouble.

Initial testing shows Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is the best by far, since it can wipe most decks while remaining a threat. It does next to nothing against the more combo decks though. None of the other options really do either, so maybe I'm asking too much. I really like how Amulet of Vigor lives through Ugin's -X though, definitely a promising choice.

I'll keep testing.

The thought of land destruction just occurred to me with Ugin's -X. I'll have to work on deck featuring him and Painter's Servant later, seems like a really nasty combo.

@Jdvanliew

1. He was taking about sidebord options, not the hexproof archetype.

2. This deck is never meant to copy the Amulet Bloom deck and predates GP Omaha (The first time I remember Amulet bloom making top 8 in a features tournament)

3. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has protection from colored spells. Detention Sphere's exile is a triggered ability and therefore is not a part of Emrakul's protection.

@Jdvanliew

Bigger hexproof creatures can be a potential problem, as are shroud (it's the same thing basically, as far as I am concerned when it comes to killing them). The only cards that can deal with them are wipes that don't target, of which I am currently running Firespout. Therefore, I cannot kill any hexproof/shroud creature with 4 or more toughness. I am running 3 examples of creatures I couldn't deal with (Empyrial Archangel would die if I swung with enough at once, but you get the idea).

Yeah, I made the deck before any titan bloom stuff was around. The idea of using Amulet of Vigor to ramp has been around for quite some time, and neither I nor any of the first Titan Bloom pilots came up with the idea. I just took it in a different direction than a lot of people did, so my deck could stand up to disruption.

Detention Sphere targets him as a permanent, not a spell, so it slips through his protection. A lot of people misinterpret protection, so that's okay. Progenitus can die to plenty of stuff too, I can't count how many times I've heard people try to argue that he can't die because it has protection from EVERYTHING.

Protection can be broken down to 4 simple things, which you can easily remember with the acronym DEBT.

1. Damage
2. Enchanted/Equipped
3. Block
4. Targeted

Basically none of the 4 things can happen from anything that has "protection from ..." Protection from everything just means it has protection from all colors, etc. So you could still kill a Progenitus (and keep it dead) with something like Merciless Eviction.

Really like this build, but just a few questions:

1) Ever thought of having a Supreme Verdict in the side? Often the deck can rebuild the board state fairly quickly, plus you've got Thrun, the Last Troll who lives through it. It can help a lot in the Merfolk/Living End/Junk/Tokens/ Anything that's playing to the board matchup.

2) Ever considered Rampaging Baloths for the board/main? He demands an answer very quickly, and it games that will probably go long this guy gives so much value.

3) Khalni Garden could be a nice other utility land to slot in somewhere, Lili fodder and chump blocking can give you an extra turn to do what you need.

Supreme Verdict is just a little too difficult to cast color-wise. I'd probably pay the extra mana for Merciless Eviction for the ability to deal with undying, indestructible, etc. all in one, while having the added utility of answering affinity and boggles. I've thought about upgrading my Fracturing Gust, but I tend to play where every mana counts, and there's a big difference between 5 and 6. You do bring up a good point of decks I struggle against without an actual wipe, so I will look into my options.

I used to have the landfall guy in an earlier iteration of this deck, but cut it because it relies on other stuff to be good.

I've also considered that land, but I tend to have better options to fetch for a while, and as you implied, awfully hard to fit in more utility.

So, I've noticed that 4 cards are in here that more or less fill the same function, of something that I used to have as only 2 slots (which is what I'd like to cut them down to again).

Empyrial Archangel, Elderscale Wurm, Hornet Queen, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon are all basically my defensive cards that can be used offensively at the same time. They all have their individual pros and cons, so some variety is a good thing, but 4 seems to be a bit too much. I find myself rarely wanting Empyrial Archangel or Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in a match, and would much rather have one of the other 2 usually. I'm thinking of moving Hornet Queen to the side and cutting them both, which would free up two mainboard slots. Does anyone have arguments for either of the 2 up for the chopping block on why they are better than either of the counterparts?

Is there anything out there that would be good mainboard cards? I feel I've tested everything and it's all fallen short, sadly enough. I find I'd like more ramp, or smaller colorless things to cast in quite a few matches, so that could be a good place to start if anyone can come up with anything "outside the box" in either criteria, it'd be great.

Other suggestions are fine too, that's just what I've found myself wanting in a larger portion of the matches I've played.

Batterskull, while not outside the box, is awesome, colorless, and smaller than ugin.

also a second Spellskite is still pretty good,

you could get like, a sword in here and then any azusa, cobra, or spellskite becomes threatening? especially paired with a slayer's stronghold or sunhome. Sword of Feast and Famine I think is the one most used, but maybe Sword of Fire and Ice would be good for the draw, or Sword of Light and Shadow to protect from removal instead?

Ye, I'd like something more stand alone than the swords, but i'd like a CMC of 3 or less if at all possible. They'd be a good choice if opponents couldn't just remove my equip target and basically 2 for 1 me.

I could retain Hornet Queen in the main and just open a sideboard slot too, that's always an option.

I don't you'll get a colorless 3cmc or less threat to go with ancient stirrings. If matching the stirrings isn't important you could go like, goyf as a one of. But I understand the ancient stirrings being relevant (I play this deck almost copied straight from here and I love it, big fan of this build)

Lowest his colorless threat is going to be batterskull or sword on a dude.

Well, it doesn't have to be findable by the stirrings, something like Vault Skirge would be fine.

It doesn't have to be colorless either, that's just a plus. I was just throwing out some qualities that I feel could benefit the deck most. It's just hard filling the slots, especially since I essentially made another by cutting the third copy of Azusa.

hmm. yeah goyf could be good, any thought on like, Fleecemane Lion? given turn 1 amulet lion can get turn 2 monstrous, or it's just a good needs-an-answer-quickly card or it can get out of hand.

Have you considered a man-land at all? that would be a colorless threat (and tutorable with prime-time) Raging Ravine only costs 4 to activate, gets big, and is on colors.

I don't really like cards that require two different colored mana to cast. I try to stay away from them as much as possible simply because of the difficulty to cast.

There was a 2 CMC card like goyf that worked off landfall instead of the graveyard, maybe I'll have to dig up some copies and give it another shot. (Name escapes me right now)

Manlands are a possibility if I am simply adding to the land count, I don't think I can justify a cut for one though.

Steppe Lynx is a one-drop, I don't know what the name of a two-drop is.

Yeah I was thinking adding to land count with a manland, because they are better as a threat than a land in the build. mostly for the synergy with titan's search and ancient stirrings.

Plated Geopede is on two for landfall buffs.

Vinelasher Kudzu is the card I was thinking of, not exactly sure how powerful it will be though, I'll give it a test I guess. The whole "dies to removal" thing is always in the back of my mind when picking creatures that are just beaters, I generally want more from a creature than just high P/T.

It has strong synergy though, so maybe it'll work out.

I doubt it'll be consistent enough to be good. it depends on a summer bloom or an azusa, and at that point any big mana creature is just better.

+1/+1 counters and lands becoming threats made me think of Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, which isn't really a threat on its own, but it is easy pump for Primeval Titan, and quite deadly with Hornet Queen, thoughts?

I'm leaning towards just replacing Ugin, and coming up with another sideboard card at this point, since it seems hard enough to come up with 1 thing mainboard worthy...

I think going with a manland is the best choice, oran-rief needs other creatures, and at the point it's good you're already ahead, if you get it while you're behind it just keeps on losing the game for you. The kudzu is too inconsistent to seem good to me, you need two of the combo pieces to make it work and at that point more things to search for combo pieces would be better.

on the point of planeswalkers, did you look at Garruk Relentless  ^Flip at all? he makes dudes, tutors for dudes, can kill off things like delver (pre-flip) and stay on board, young pyromancer and friends, snapcaster, grim lavamancer... G is the only color needed for him, and only a single G at that. He seems worth testing out if you're looking for something smaller than ugin but good. most decks will offer you some way to flip him the turn he comes down (he also kills mana dorks out of abzan). he seems usable.

also a minor thing, City of Brass is just worse than Mana Confluence, unless you're specifically using city to synergize with Elderscale Wurm, because confluence gives you access to painless black mana when an opponent has an urborg out.

again, might be the right call with an elderscale, but I feel like you can just play around it by stopping using your mana confluence once life is at 7 with an elderscale out, should be easy enough to stall at that point.