Kessig Wolf Run Deck With Primeval Titan and Inkmoth Nexus

October 10, 2011 | Posted by Dee

Update October 11, 2011: Check out the new list.

Yesterday Brian Sondag took down the StarCityGames Standard Open with this sweet Kessig Wolf Run ramp deck. It uses Primeval Titan to fetch Kessig Wolf Run and Inkmoth Nexus. Then it deals lethal poison damage, typically in one or two big swings.

I still have the Primeval Titans from my old Valakut deck so I playtested his deck to see how good it was. Playtesting went very well. I didn’t have too much problem beating most of my opponents.

I made some small changes based on playtesting. Here’s where I am with the deck.

Kessig Wolf Run Ramp Deck

Creatures (15)

Spells (19)

Lands (26)

Sideboard (15)

The deck is pretty straightforward. You’ve got ramp spells and creatures that make mana to hit Titan mana quickly. Green Sun’s Zenith gives the deck a lot of flexibility. You can fetch a mana creature early or go get a Titan once you have seven mana. Acidic Slime is a nice one-of to destroy important permanents like Oblivion Ring, Tempered Steel, and Birthing Pod.

Wurmcoil Engine is the other fattie. It gives you something to do at six mana if you haven’t drawn Titan. It gets the nod over Inferno Titan because of Day of Judgment and red aggro decks (Red Deck Wins).

The rest of the deck is removal and Garruk planeswalkers. Slagstorm can be game-breaking against creature decks so I moved the fourth copy from the sideboard to the main deck. It sometimes kills your own creatures but that can be a benefit because you have Viridian Emissary and Solemn Simulacrum.

Beast Within destroys just about everything but it has a steep drawback. I only play two copies because drawing multiples can be clunky especially if you don’t draw Slagstorm. Occasionally you should use it to destroy your Viridian Emissary, Solemn Simulacrum, or land and give yourself the creature token.

Incinerate is solid removal spell. That slot used to be Arc Trail but I wanted something that could kill 3/3 Beast Within tokens, Stormblood Berserker, and Inkmoth Nexus.

I split the Garruk planeswalkers for mana curve reasons. Garruk, Primal Hunter is really good but it felt like the deck needed to have a lower mana curve and play more four drops. Also, I wanted more removal to fight creature decks. Garruk Relentless has tutoring capabilities, which is very helpful to find Titan.

I changed five cards in the sideboard. Thrun got the cut for several reasons. It’s vulnerable to Phantasmal Image and Liliana of the Veil. Your opponent can buy himself a lot of time by blocking with Timely Reinforcement tokens. (Sure, it’s probably not the right play to leave that card in post-sideboard games, but players will do it anyways.) You can give Thrun trample with Kessig Wolf Run but you only have two copies of the land.

You have to keep leaving up two mana to protect Thrun against Day of Judgment. That is pretty bad early in the game as you handicap yourself with -2 mana every turn. This handicap also makes Kessig Wolf Run less effective with Thrun. Finally, Thrun gets outclassed by Titans, Wurmcoil Engine, Consecrated Sphinx, and Elesh Norn.

I added four Surgical Extraction to strip away counterspells so that your big spells can resolve. I expect control decks to increase their counterspells since this deck won a high profile tournament.

I cut a Sword of Feast and Famine because three copies seems like a lot in this version with less creatures (no Thrun, less Beast Within). I could be wrong though. Maybe the third Sword is better than the fourth Surgical Extraction. I added back a Garruk, Primal Hunter because it’s a great threat against control.

One good reason to play this deck is its strong mana base. The mana is very stable unlike three color decks like Solar Flare and Birthing Pod. You’re only playing two colors so you’re less likely to get color screwed. Plus, you have mana fixing with Rampant Growth, Solemn Simulacrum, Viridian Emissary, and Birds of Paradise.

Click the links below to buy cards in this deck on eBay. eBay has great prices to save you money.