Introduction
Amulet Titan is the deck I default to in Modern whenever I can. Throughout the 《Nadu》 Summer, I felt compelled to direct my attention to that other broken combo deck, but since 《Nadu, Winged Wisdom》 is gone, I’ve been working on Amulet once again.
And there is a lot to talk about.
Recent Changes
The only major Modern Horizons 3 inclusion in Amulet is a copy or two of 《Shifting Woodland》. While it provides a good amount of utility and ability to play through interaction – in longer games you’ll tend to get Delirium naturally, and you can turn your land into 《Primeval Titan》 to beat 《Counterspell》 and removal – the real benefit comes from the ease with which 《Shifting Woodland》 can infinitely loop alongside 《Aftermath Analyst》.
《Aftermath Analyst》 made simply winning off a single 《Amulet of Vigor》 much easier. Where previously Amulet Titan had to rely on 《Dryad of the Ilysian Grove》 powering 《Primeval Titan》 up, nowadays the deck gets to run maindeck 《Spelunking》 to further increase the consistency.
Lastly, 《Aftermath Analyst》 frequently gets to just sidestep creature removal entirely. Sure, 《Solitude》 was never all that effective at stopping 《Primeval Titan》, but it was another thing you had to consider, and now it’s easy to get into a state where it really doesn’t matter.
Since then, Bloomburrow gave us 《Lumra, Bellow of the Woods》 – an effect in a similar space, yet with some crucial differences.
Nowadays, Amulet Titan is just as much about attacking with hasty 《Primeval Titan》 as it is about flipping your 《Lotus Field》 between the battlefield and graveyard. Whether you want to pick up Amulet, or just expect to play against it, you might find it useful to familiarize yourself with the play patterns and loops.
Let’s get to it!
Decklist: Amulet Titan
Amulet Titan by Piotr Glogowski
This is roughly the list I’ve been running lately. It’s pretty stock and contains all of the most relevant combo pieces we’ll be discussing today. It’s pretty common to see lists with more copies of 《Shifting Woodland》, but running more doesn’t seem to open new relevant lines.
The Basic 《Aftermath Analyst》 Loop
■Loop Pieces
《Forest》 serve as placeholders here. Any other land in the deck could serve that role, and we’ll go into detail on how various lands expand or alter the loop.
■How to Loop
Turn 《Shifting Woodland》 into 《Aftermath Analyst》. Remember to tap 《Shifting Woodland》 to add mana – it will lose that ability upon turning into a creature.
Afterwards, use 《Aftermath Analyst》‘s ability to sacrifice your 《Shifting Woodland》. That’s going to bring back all of the lands in your graveyard back to the battlefield.
Return two 《Lotus Field》, 《Shifting Woodland》, and two other lands to produce nine mana.
Since activating 《Shifting Woodland》 and 《Aftermath Analyst》 again costs eight mana, you can repeat that process to access infinite mana.
It might seem like a lot of cards, but you don’t need them in your hand – most of them need to be in either and or the battlefield. Between playing the game naturally, milling a few cards with 《Aftermath Analyst》, and searching for the missing pieces with a 《Primeval Titan》, it’s not too hard to assemble.
A 《Lotus Field》 is your sacrifice outlet, and you should typically play it on the turn you want to start looping. You typically want to sacrifice 《Lotus Field》 to itself – it’s better in the graveyard than it is in play – so avoid playing it earlier to leave it in play unless you have another copy ready.
《Echoing Deeps》, due to a rules quirk, can function as a second 《Lotus Field》. 《Aftermath Analyst》 brings back all of the lands at once, and as 《Echoing Deeps》 is entering, it still “sees” 《Lotus Field》 in the graveyard, so you can copy it. Conversely, 《Vesuva》 wouldn’t work – it’s only able to copy lands that already were on the battlefield.
Extra 《Amulet of Vigor》 can only help. With two or more 《Amulet of Vigor》, even a single 《Lotus Field》 is going to produce enough mana to loop. 《Spelunking》 can function as a replacement for an 《Amulet of Vigor》, too.
Keep in mind that 《Spelunking》 forces lands that don’t naturally have the “enters the battlefield tapped” text to always enter untapped, so you can lose out on some mana if you have multiple 《Amulet of Vigor》 and 《Spelunking》 in play. Realistically, it will never stop you from looping, so don’t worry.
Expanding the Loop With Other Lands
《Urza’s Saga》
You’ll need Delirium to activate 《Shifting Woodland》. Creature and land are a given – 《Aftermath Analyst》 and lands are always going to be in your graveyard. You need two additional types. You can keep sacrificing 《Urza’s Saga》 in the loop to provide a third card type – from there you just need one extra.
Surveil Lands
A Surveil land will let you mill a card per iteration. That way, you can eventually mill up to your entire deck and assemble any other loop.
《Urza’s Cave》
Similarly, 《Urza’s Cave》 can be activated every iteration once you have enough mana, so it’s going to fetch every land out of your deck.
《Radiant Fountain》
《Radiant Fountain》 replayed over and over will grant you infinite life.
《The One Ring》
You can also use 《The One Ring》 in your graveyard to draw infinite cards. Once you have infinite mana, activate 《Shifting Woodland》 targetting 《Aftermath Analyst》, as usual, but this time hold priority. Activate 《Shifting Woodland》 again, turning it into a 《The One Ring》. Tap the 《Shifting Woodland》/《The One Ring》, draw a card, and resolve the ability at the bottom of the stack, turning it into an 《Aftermath Analyst》 and continue as usual.
Bounce Lands
If a Bounce land is involved in the loop, you might need to pay attention to it. If you can sacrifice all of your lands with 《Lotus Field》, you can activate 《Shifting Woodland》, resolve your 《Lotus Field》 triggers, and only resolve your 《Simic Growth Chamber》 trigger once you’ve got no lands in play, essentially skipping the bounce. Otherwise, you should be free to sacrifice non-Bounce lands and continue the loop as normal. In some spots, you’ll simply need to bounce the Bounce land itself to continue the loop.
You could also keep looping and amassing infinite Bounce land triggers at the bottom of the stack, but it’s unlikely to be useful.
《Tolaria West》/Channel Lands
You could also use a bounceland to loop 《Tolaria West》 or Channel lands, too. Every iteration, you can pick up your 《Boseiju, Who Endures》 or 《Otawara, Soaring City》, and Channel them on every permanent your opponent controls – which was more or less the win condition found in 《Nadu》 decks.
《Mirrorpool》
《Mirrorpool》 lets you make infinite creatures. Once you have infinite mana, pause the loop after turning 《Shifting Woodland》 into an 《Aftermath Analyst》, but before sacrificing it. If your opponent interrupts you with a removal spell (or any other kind of interaction), you can just sacrifice 《Shifting Woodland》 to restart the loop and get to the same spot. If you want to add extra layers of protection, you can use 《Vesuva》 and/or 《Echoing Deeps》 to make extra copies of 《Shifting Woodland》.
Remember that 《Mirrorpool》 copying an 《Aftermath Analyst》 will actually make the token enter, so you’ll mill three cards. You might want to avoid milling yourself in certain spots – commonly, when your opponent has 《The One Ring》 protection, so take care not to create too many 《Aftermath Analyst》.
Once you have a couple of spare 《Aftermath Analyst》 tokens, 《Shifting Woodland》 can switch to transforming into any other creature from your graveyard – let’s say, a 《Primeval Titan》 (or 《Cultivator Colossus》, or 《Dryad of the Ilysian Grove》 if you run it).
Afterwards, iterate the loop as normal, copying a 《Primeval Titan》 each time.
《Hanweir Battlements》
Once that’s done, you can weave 《Hanweir Battlements》 into the loop in the same way. You can all of your creatures that way. If 《Hanweir Battlements》 were stuck in your hand, you can use the 《Shifting Woodland》/《Mirrorpool》 trick described above to make a copy of 《Arboreal Grazer》 or 《Cultivator Colossus》 and put it into play.
How to Beat 《The One Ring》 Protection?
As is, my list can only win with combat damage. If your opponent has protection, you need to pass and attack them the next turn. If you ran 《Dryad of the Ilysian Grove》 and 《Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle》, you could deal infinite damage in their upkeep.
Some lists ran 《Lush Oasis》 for the same purpose, but realistically, once you are in the loop you can, basically, do anything you want and it’s nearly impossible to break. The Channel loops leave them with nothing but basics. Leave all of your lands untapped as you pass.
If your opponent casts a sweeper somehow, you can let it happen and loop to create infinite 《Primeval Titan》 again the next time you have priority. If the sweeper is a 《Wrath of the Skies》, you can produce infinite mana, let it happen, use a spare 《Vesuva》-turned-《Shifting Woodland》 to copy an 《Amulet of Vigor》, copy it with 《The Mycosynth Gardens》 and create infinite Titans again.
You can reset your 《The One Ring》 protection with 《Otawara, Soaring City》. Some builds of Eldrazi run 《Emrakul, the Promised End》 and up to 5-6 basic forests – 《The One Ring》 protection is important to set up, otherwise an 《Eldrazi Temple》 into a sandbagged Emrakul could beat you.
If your life total is low and you are afraid of getting burned out, you can gain extra life by bouncing 《Spelunking》 a few times. Both 《Echoing Deeps》 and 《Urza’s Cave》 are Caves, so they grant you four life. Return a Cave to your hand every time by looping a Bounce land. You can’t gain infinite life, because 《Spelunking》 forces you to draw a card, but gaining sixteen or so should be plenty.
If you don’t have a 《The One Ring》 or 《Spelunking》 in hand or play, you should be able to find it without trouble using the 《Shifting Woodland》/《The One Ring》 trick. Take care not to mill yourself too much – you can’t recur permanents from your graveyard back to your hand.
What About 《Lumra, Bellow of the Woods》?
《Lumra, Bellow of the Woods》 occupies a similar slot to 《Aftermath Analyst》, but works slightly differently. 《Lumra》 triggers upon entering, so it can’t loop with 《Shifting Woodland》. Instead, 《Lumra》 goes infinite with a 《Mirrorpool》. 《Lumra》‘s mill is forced, so be careful not to mill out. At some point, you will be able to transition to the 《Aftermath Analyst》/《Shifting Woodland》 loop.
《Crumbling Vestige》 is necessary to get to exactly enough mana, but with a bit of luck, any colorless land will suffice. 《Lumra》 is likely to mill over some extra lands to supply you with the mana necessary.
You can also use 《Otawara, Soaring City》 to pick up and replay your 《Lumra》 repeatedly. It costs a lot of mana, but once again, sometimes you can gamble on getting some extra mana from 《Lumra》 triggers and limp until you get the actual infinite. Remember that 《Lumra》 is legendary, so your 《Otawara》 gets discounted down to 3 mana!
The Double Amulet Line
Resolving a 《Primeval Titan》 with two 《Amulet of Vigor》 always translated to victory. The classic 《Slayers’ Stronghold》/《Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion》 line is gone and replaced with 《Mirrorpool》 and 《Kessig Wolf Run》 or 《Oran-Rief, the Vastwood》.
Those are not strictly necessary to win, though. There’s a way to transition your double-Amulet Titan into an 《Aftermath Analyst》 loop.
The steps are as follows:
■How to Play
– First, play your 《Primeval Titan》.
– Fetch 《Mirrorpool》 and a 《Lotus Field》. Float 7 mana and use 《Mirrorpool》 to copy a 《Primeval Titan》. You can do that in response to your 《Lotus Field》 triggers, if necessary. You are left with two mana floating.
– Fetch 《Echoing Deeps》 and another 《Lotus Field》. Copy 《Primeval Titan》 again. Four mana floating left.
– Third 《Primeval Titan》 fetches 《Simic Growth Chamber》 and 《Tolaria West》. Bounce back 《Tolaria West》 and transmute if for a 《Summoner’s Pact》. Seven mana left floating.
– 《Summoner’s Pact》 for 《Aftermath Analyst》. Play and activate 《Aftermath Analyst》. Return all of the lands from your graveyard.
Now, you can use 《Mirrorpool》 to copy a 《Primeval Titan》, get 《Shifting Woodland》 into play, and transition into the 《Aftermath Analyst》 infinite. If at the start of your turn, your graveyard was empty, you wouldn’t necessarily have Delirium at that point.
Grabbing 《Urza’s Saga》 alongside 《Shifting Woodland》 remedies that, as long as you use your 《Mirrorpool》 before resolving your 《Lotus Field》 sacrifice triggers. You’ll have at least 《Aftermath Analyst》, 《Summoner’s Pact》, and 《Urza’s Saga》, which is already Delirium.
There are still strategic reasons to include a simpler win condition – the full line explained above requires you to Pact, sacrifice most of your lands, and expose yourself to graveyard hate; not to mention that often you’d like to board down on 《Urza’s Saga》 and 《Summoner’s Pact》 while keeping your 《Primeval Titan》 just as threatening. Whether you choose to run a win-con land or not is a valid question.
This short compendium should serve as a good entry point when it comes to learning the ins and outs of the new Amulet builds! You won’t be caught surprised and clueless the next time your opponent Pacts for an 《Aftermath Analyst》!
Piotr Glogowski (X / Twitch / Youtube)
