My 16th Place RC LA List
Preface
Psychosis: Psychosis refers to a collection of symptoms that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality. During an episode of psychosis, a person’s thoughts and perceptions are disrupted and they may have difficulty recognizing what is real and what is not.
(National Institute of Mental Health)
This article might not be what you're expecting. I'm not going to talk about sideboard mapping. I'm barely going to talk about matchups. This article is about Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. And how the Amulet community has been suffering from deckbuilding psychosis.
I've been ranting about this to people who will listen, including my wife (who has no idea what I'm talking about.) The information in this rant helped me qualify me for another pro tour with Amulet Titan. Maybe that means people will listen this time. Maybe.
I'm going to sound like an old man shaking his fist at the clouds. And that's because I've accepted that I'm an old man, and those clouds ought to listen to what I have to say.
This is me putting into words a strange observation about The Lotus Field Era. And how the Lotus Field Analyst configurations distorted our Titan analysis so much that we forgot what the deck could do.
I'm trying to show how I untangled myself from Analyst and Malevolent Rumble. And once you've seen the how and why, maybe you'll choose to untangle yourself.
Preparing for LA, the conversation in my head was an interrogation of Dryad. I'm going to lay out how Dryad convinced me.
But first let's look at how we got here.
The Lotus Field Era Gave Us Deckbuilding Psychosis
For most of Titan's history, it has been a fringe deck, usually about 3% of any given field.
When Lotus Field was legal, Amulet became one of the most played decks and the consensus "best deck" of the format. I've been playing Amulet for like 8 years, and I'd never seen that happen.
This brought a bunch of new players to the deck, which is awesome. But when I worked with these players on the deck, they had such a short memory of what the deck could look like. I'd ask about lists without Malevolent Rumble, and their brain would short-circuit. They just couldn't do it.
During the Lotus Field era, there was this idea that Dryad was boomer brain. This makes sense. In the Lotus Field Era, Dryad was not the powerful thing you should be doing. Playing two Analysts and becoming an Analyst deck, was the best configuration of the deck at that time.
The curious thing was that when I spoke to people about Dryad, we'd mostly talk about the above.
They'd (correctly) explain why Analyst is the best thing to do. But I noticed people didn't fundamentally understand how Dryad changes the deck. Many of the players I spoke with could not have a nuanced conversation about Dryad. Because that part of the deck's history was simply missing from their brain.
These people understood Analyst, but they did not understand Dryad. Which is a big part of why we are where we are today.
Then came the banhammer. Thinking about the ban's effect on the community made me think back to 4th grade.
In the year 2000, the Kingdome, the stadium I watched the Seattle Mariners play in as a kid, was demolished. I was 10 years old, and my 4th grade teacher, Mr. Thorleifson, explained the difference between an explosion and an implosion. He wheeled in the T.V. and the whole class watched the Kingdome implode into dust.
The thing I remembered was the dust and the smoke that filled the air. The stadium came crashing down, and for a moment, the dust and the rubble took its place.
The Lotus Field ban was the same way, it kicked up dust and smoke and blotted out the memories of our collective past. Rather than explore Titan's history to find new configurations. We decided to live rubble. Picking through the debris trying to piece it back together.
"Maybe we can play Zuran's Orb?" we speculated as we choked on the fumes.
"What about Cephalid Coliseum. No what we need is a Lumra loop." I actually did this by the way. I put Lumra in my deck alongside Ramunap Ruins and 3-1'd an FNM.
It took me a long time to stumble out of the smog. The first step was pulling Analyst out of the deck. I firmly believe that this card has no business being anywhere near the maindeck. (And probably shouldn't be in the sideboard either.)
If you have a knee-jerk emotional reaction to benching Analyst, ask yourself, when was the last time you mulliganed and saw Analyst in your opening hand then bottomed something else?
And if that's not enough to convince you. Can you think of a time after the Lotus Field ban when Analyst won anything important?
Are you suffering from psychosis? Have you lost touch with reality? Do you think this card helps you win games when actually it makes you lose them?
Want to Know Which Amulet Lists Qd for the Pro Tour? Just Add the Dryads, Subtract the Analysts, and The Rumbles
Not a single Amulet deck with an Aftermath Analyst in it qualified for the Pro Tour. I feel as if there were another RC this weekend. Analyst and or Rumble configurations would be everywhere and they'd fail again.
Dryad configurations with 0 Malevolent Rumbles were the only lists to qualify across two US RCs. Even though it was the least common configuration, by a lot.
And this is why I use the term psychosis to describe what is happening. There is a disconnect from reality that is causing people to keep playing Analyst. (And to a lesser extent, Rumble.)
I went and looked through the results (I did this manually so may not be 100% accurate.)
Baltimore
Total Amulet Titan Lists: 24
Lists with no Dryad: 12 (All of them played Analyst)
Lists with at least one Dryad:** 11 (Seven played Analyst, One played Lumra)
Lists with 3+ Dryads, 0 Malevolent Rumbles, and 0 Analysts: 2. The PT qualifying list lives here.
Out of the four players to make day 2: Three of them played Dryad.
Think about that. Out of the 12 decks with no Dryads, only one of them made day 2. Out of the two decks playing 3+ Dryads, no Rumble, no Analyst, one of them made top 8 and the PT.
Los Angeles: There is one important detail about Los Angeles that needs to be addressed. Baltimore players did not have access to Roiling Canopy because the card didn't exist yet. It was printed just in time for LA. Because of this, it became clear that Azusa was quite good again. Many of the Analyst from BAL dropped it for a single Azusa. Let's take a look at the numbers.
Total Amulet Titan Lists: 38 (3.1% of the field, we are so back baby)
Lists with Analyst: 8 (Surprisingly, only 5 of these lists played Rumble)
Lists with Azusa but no Analyst: 26 (25 of these lists played Rumble)
Lists with No Azusa, no Dryad, and no Analyst: 1 (Peter Husisian, RC Portland winner w/ Titan. Who was very, VERY close, to qualifying for the PT in LA. He was playing double Gemstone Caverns in the board so he could cast Rumbles on turn 1. And as a Rumble hater I gotta say, that's pretty based.)
Lists with Dryad and Rumble: 2
Lists with Dryad and no Rumble: 1 (And just like BAL, the PT Qualifying list lives in this category.)
Now you can say small sample sized, results oriented thinking, blah, blah, blah. Don't worry, all the reasons WHY Dryad did so well is... Well... Further down this article...
Malevolent Rumble Is A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Nightmare
My first gripe with Malevolent Rumble is that it's a gateway drug to putting Analyst in your maindeck. But when you look at Rumble lists. You'll notice that they have fewer bouncelands, and usually no Dryads.
This means they are more reliant on sticking an Amulet effect, and they are less likely to have the needed bounceland. The idea is that you play fewer of these cards because you can rumble for them.
It feels smart, because your deck needs to have an Amulet in play (because you don't play Dryad). So when you Rumble to find an Amulet effect after your 1st one gets Thoughtseized or whatever, it feels like you have "agency."
But the way I see it, you are choosing to have weaker Titans, a fragile bottleneck, and somehow still have weaker Scapeshifts. All so you can rumble for cards you should be playing more of.
In a way, Rumble solves problems created by registering Rumble in the first place. You can solve these problems with more density.
Rumble will present more keepable hands. Not every hand can go from 1->3, so you will get dopamine when you see a "functional hand." There are two different types of bait here. The first piece of bait is that your Rumble can whiff and your hand falls apart. The second piece of bait is that maybe you do need a hand that goes from 1->3. Keeping anything that doesn't facilitate that is a losing plan, even if you get to take game actions along the way.
I'll admit that I'm being too harsh on the card. Rumble is an inherently broken card. It can facilitate T2 Rumble, find Spelunking. Turn 3 Spelunking ->Vestige and Bounceland to 4 mana to cast Scapeshift. So I don't think people are making a huge mistake by playing the card.
I do think people are making a big mistake when they include the card automatically.
Finding My Way to My 16th Place List (RC LA)
There were three steps leading to my LA list. First, was theory crafting. Then seeing this theory crafting validated in BAL. Finally, they printed Roiling Canopy which fulfilled the theory crafted ideas better.
Theory crafting
Early September, literally the same weekend as BAL, and about a month before LA, I came to the following conclusions.
The Rumble/Analyst builds are too reliant on Scapeshift.
The deck is too anemic outside of Scapeshift games. The games with no Scapeshift, and only Titans did not win enough.
When Lotus Field was legal, Titans could facilitate an Analyst game plan. But without that, Titans themselves don't really do anything beyond attack for 6, or 12 or whatever.
My solution:
Play Dryads so Titans can facilitate a game plan beyond themselves. We can no longer set up an Analyst with our Titans, but our Titans can set up a Valakut kill.
Play Slayers / Sunhome again so our Titans are legitimately threatening.
I theory crafted this list and began winning right away, with things more or less playing out how I thought.
Then Terry made top 8 with this list.
Seeing 4x Dryad top 8 the event all while the Analyst gamers fumbled felt like an affirmation of my theory crafting. The more I played with Terry's list, the more I realized that Dryad was exceptionally well positioned. Outside of boosting the deck's raw power, I found myself winning more against Broodscale and UW Chant.
Then Came Roiling Canopy - One of my problems with Titan was that Titans themselves were not strong enough. Roiling Canopy is the perfect solution. I no longer needed to play the awkward Sunhome package, WOTC printed something better that taps for G.
When LA rolled around I registered this:
(Activate Windows gamers, rise up.)
Matchups:
Esper Blink 2-1
Domain Zoo 1-2
Yawgmoth 2-0
Broodscale 2-0
Prowess 2-1
Esper Blink 1-2
Broodscale 2-0
Domain Zoo 2-1
UW Chant 2-1
Murktide 2-1
Prowess 2-0
Storm 0-2
Esper Goryo 2-0
Broodscale ID
The Recipe For Amulet Titan Deckbuilding & What Separates Good From Great Players
This is my Amulet Box. My rule is, I put a card in here when I register it for a tournament. If a card ever enters, it does not leave. I rarely loan any cards from this box.
Sometimes when I'm really struggling with a deckbuilding problem. I go and look back at old lists looking for old tech lost to time. I'll go look at Amulet lists from 2024, 2020, 2018, etc. Or I'll thumb through my Amulet box.
This has led to me finding some long lost bangers that have helped me and others Q for the PT over the years.
Thumbing through this box is like walking through Amulet Titan's history. Coalition Relic, Hornet Queen (which I maindecked when 5c Humans was the #1 deck), Sakura Tribe Scout, Sakura Tribe Elder, Hydroid Krasis! Chameleon Colossus! Karn and a Karn board, Mindbreak Trap! Gemstone Mine, Mortuary Mire.
So what? Who cares? What's the point?
People think that being a great Amulet player is about solving the crazy Amulet puzzles. It's not. Being a great Amulet player is knowing when and how to adjust and change the deck for different metas.
It's knowing when to play a red splash vs a white one. It's knowing whether to play Dryad, Karn, Analyst, or something else. And that's why nothing leaves the Amulet Box. A card good in one meta will likely see its time to shine again... Someday.
And this is at the core of what has been driving me crazy.
The way Dryad changes the deck, IS WHAT MATTERS RIGHT NOW. And from the more angles I looked at it, the more Dryad convinced me to play it.
How Dryad Fundamentally Changes the Deck
You don't have to play Dryad. You get to. Dryad is not an add-on the side, something to GSZ for occasionally. It should be built into the core of the deck.
Here's what Dryad offers you.
More Robust Bottleneck
Dryad allows you to shift where our bottlenecks live. The more of your deck that runs through Titan and requires the combat step, the easier it is for decks to attack. Dryad creates a separate layer of problems the opponent must deal with. The deck no longer has a single hinge-point that determines victory or defeat.
If you think you are slick by building a deck with the cleanest Titans. Only to get wrecked by Consign postboard. I'm telling you that you're losing games you don't have to. Or if your turns are getting sniped by Silence/Chant, you don't need to lose those games either.
2/4 Body
The 2/4 body is the hardest thing to quantify. Ragavan player Bolts the Grazer? Dryad means there's another roadblock, there are 2 bouncelands in play. A Titan comes next turn. Can the Ragavan player spend resources to attack Dryad? In a position like this, should the Solitude player evoke to exile Dryad? Solitude on Titan the following turn allows you to destroy their board with Valakut. Now the opponent must worry about the Valakut bounceland machine gun.
Decks no longer get to attack you freely. Phelia players do not automatically get free rein over the game. They cannot blink their own stuff until they deal with Dryad, unless they want to sac the Dog.
With no Dryad, disruptive elements like Consign, Solitude, etc beat you because you are taking damage the whole game. They only have to stop 1 or 2 Titans, before you're dead from combat damage.
If your mana is getting Mycospawn'd into oblivion, Dryad means you are not taking 3, 6, or more damage.
And on, and on, and on...
You Cast Titan More Often
A Dryad gives you more paths to 6 mana. You are less reliant on an Amulet effect to put a Titan into play. Dryad also makes better use of Amulet effects.
More Powerful Titans. Your Slow Titans Are Much More Powerful
A Titan that gets to attack when a Dryad is in play will lethal your opponent. Valakut + Hanwier coming into play is usually 6 damage. The follow up grabs a Vesuva on Valakut and a Roiling Canopy. This is 12 more damage from Valakut, and 6 more damage from Canopy. This is more than 20 damage in triggers alone.
With no Dryad in the deck. The stars need to align perfectly in order for Titan to lethal somebody. (And that's before you include blockers.)
Slow Titans: If there is no Amulet effect in play, you get to use all those Valakut triggers on containing the board. If there's no need to contain the board, your Titan will be lethal on the next attack.
An Answered Titan is Still an Emergency
A Titan grabbing Valakut+Hanweir will often deal 6 damage. If the Titan is answered, Dryad is still a big problem. A bounceland becomes a machine gun, and god forbid you have a Vesuva on the Valakut or a Roiling Canopy in play. In these positions every Grazer/Spelunking turns into a three damage, or sometimes six, and occasionally nine.
You are no longer fiddling your thumbs until you find your next Titan.
Less Reliant on Amulet Effect / Urza's Saga (Especially Postboard)
Without Dryad, putting an Amulet effect in play is critical. A slow Titan that can attack for 12, is not something that will close out a game of Modern.
This means when people board in hate to attack Amulet, you are no longer hosed.
Going further, sometimes relying on Amulet means keeping Sagas postboard when it might be a liability. With Dryad this is not an issue. You have more consistent ways to 6 mana with no Amulet effect. And your Titans and Scapeshifts are threatening even with no Amulet effect.
Sometimes You Have Removal
Most of the time, your slow Titans don't care about Valakuting the board. But occasionally you get to hit a critical piece on the board that would otherwise beat you if they untap with it. Something like a Ral, Slickshot, Devoted Druid.
You Get to Play More Bouncelands
Bouncelands is the fundamental reason why this deck is powerful. During the Lotus Field Era, they were not, Lotus Field was. But bouncelands are the imbalanced engine that lives in the core.
A single land generating 2, 4, sometimes 6 mana is fundamentally broken.
Bouncelands are the reason we can mulligan so well, it's why we can get to 6+ mana trivially.
This is also one of those things that newer Titan players don't take seriously enough. Newer players are far more likely to trim a bounceland for something else. But when you look at the games where a bounceland is involved vs not. They look like completely different decks.
When people asked me about any cool "tech" in my LA list I told them. The thing that is interesting about my list is only interesting to Amulet diehards. Because only they would be impressed by 4 Vestige and 9 bouncelands.
The downside is that getting flooded with bouncelands can be awkward, but Dryad mitigates that problem.
You Can Win Outside of Combat
You do not lose because your Titan gets outclassed by an infinity/infinity Broodscale on defense. With Dryad in play, Scapeshift->Colossus turn can put lethal on the stack without combat.
If your opponent had a Solitude or removal spell to cut off a Mirrorpool or Hanwier activation. This line no longer beats you.
In more obscure positions you can outmaneuver things like Force of Despair / Flare of Malice.
You put lethal on the stack, forcing the reaction. Then you cast Titans and Dryads again. And then you win in combat.
You're a Better Scapeshift Deck
Dryad makes Scapeshift better on the front side, and backside.
Frontside: You need to have a requisite amount of lands in play to enable Scapeshift lines. You also need GG. Dryad facilitates both of these requirements. Sometimes you resolve Scapeshift, and Dryad squeezes extra mana out of a bounceland. This gives you more ways to hit critical mana thresholds.
Backside: You only need 6 lands and a Dryad in play for a Scapeshift to win. Game two of my win-and-in. My Goryo opponent contained my Titan by evoking Solitude, and then Consigning the evoke trigger and Titan trigger.
On the following turn I play more lands and resolve a Scapeshift. Valakut = 18 damage Roiling Canopy = 20/20 Dryad. An Amulet effect in play means I can fetch and play Titan. That is too much ground for a deck to realistically cover.
You're a Better Colossus Deck
This is a culmination of the previous two points. Dryad makes it easier to squeeze more mana out of Scapeshift to cast a Colossus. If a Valakut is in play, the Colossus is probably lethal. Dryad means more bouncelands in the deck. Dryad allows you to hit 7 mana while keeping more lands in hand leading to juicier Colossi.
Build Your Own Midrange Deck Postboard
The extra mana from Dryad makes it easier to GSZ for 3 and 4 drops. There are a lot of different ways to transform postboard. This allows you to attack decks from different angles, or sidestep ways opponents want to attack you. A hand with Wrath of the Skies/Consigns does little against a hand that plays Dryad -> Icetill Explorer or Six.
The green creature suite lets you choose what you want to beat.
You Can Cast Your Splash Colors Postboard
No more cringing at uncastable Stock Ups / Firespouts in hand. Additionally, you can take less damage off your Dismembers.
Better Against Blood Moon
A Dryad can unlock your mana post Blood Moon. Against Murktide, I locked an opponent under their own Blood Moon because they had no U sources. Six allowed me to keep rebuying Grazers to not die. Eventually I retraced an Endurance. Then it found a Dryad which let me resolve a Dosan and a Titan the following turn. By the time the game was over, I had discarded 3 Boseijus to retrace things rather than blow up Moon.
Ways Dryad Changes Specific Matchups
This is not going to turn into a Dryad primer where I cover all the important matchups. But I want to explain why I felt Dryad was good for LA specifically.
Broodscale
You are Sowing Mycospawn Resistant. Dryad means you can get more mana out of your bouncelands, all while keeping them in hand and not exposing them to Sowing Mycospawn in the first place. Sometimes Dryad can beat Mycospawn by brute force.
Dryad makes a single Titan attack lethal. This is a matchup where "close to dead" is not an option. Brood cannot be allowed to untap with access to Emrakul. A Titan attacking for 12 or 18 is insufficient.
It's Combo, Emrakul, or Bust for the Broodscale player. No getting bullied by random shitters. Dryad is a brick wall for a 2/2 or 3/3 Broodscale, Mycospawn, and Constructs (not always). They must combo you or play Emrakul. The Brood midrange plan is insufficient.
An infinitely large Broodscale can easily be overcome. Dryad provides a blocker. You are more likely to have Constructs in play that can block as well. Offensively, Dryad gives victory routes without the combat zone. They must have infinite Broodscale and a payoff. In a small number of games, you can win through Emrakul. (Although Dryad actually hurts here. It is easier for an Emrakul to kill you when you have a Dryad in play vs not.)
Less Saga dependent. Something I started doing was cutting all sagas postboard OTD. Their Saga otp is checkmate to your Saga otd. Their Haywire Mites off Saga can keep you off Amulet from yours. Dryad offers more paths to 6 mana that are less reliant on Amulet. If there's no Dryad in your deck, then this choice is not an option. If you play a single Azusa, this line choice is rarely an option.
Slow Titans cut off Emrakul and threaten lethal the following turn. The way Broodscale punishes slow Titans is by resolving Emrakul. Bog means slow Titans can take this option away from Broodscale players (usually). With a Dryad in play, the slow Titan will be lethal next turn.
The Broodscale player may be able to deal with the Dryad, but Titan can find a 2nd copy relatively easily.
If there is no Dryad in your deck, your Titans will be unlikely to kill them before they can set up an Emrakul.
Set up Titan and hold mana up. One of the best ways to put a Broodscale player in a pickle, is to pass into their turn 3 with a position that looks like this.
To the Broodscale player, this represents, Boseiju, Dismember, a Primeval Titan next turn (likely lethal).
Broodscale is the biggest reason why Dryad persuaded me, and it's why I went so far out of my way to play the 9th bounceland.
UW Chant
The big piece of anti-Chant tech to come out of LA was Ba Sing Se. I didn't find the tech, and I wouldn't have played it anyway. I felt comfortable against Chant. It wasn't something I wanted to play against all day. But I had an even to slightly positive record against it in testing.
Dryad is 100% the reason why.
When you can pressure planeswalkers right away, the game gets hard for them. The way I consistently beat UW was by putting power and toughness on the board, early. GSZ->Arbor into T2 Dryad means that a Narset cannot come into play and downtick. If a T3feri enters play, it gets knocked down by Arbor and then you recast the Dryad.
Postboard Dryads let you bridge to a midgame that is resilient to Consign/Solitude. What does Consign/Solitude do against Arbor->Dryad->Icetill. Every Solitude target generates value that leads to TItan. If they wait to Solitude/Consign the Titan, they are still behind on board, and a 3/2 body does nothing against an army of 2/4s (Six, Dryad, Icetill). Every creature in play means more pressure on planeswalkers.
Dosan the Falling Leaf - I've been playing Dosan for a while. I'd steer the game to a point where I have a lot of mana in play, My opponent has Consign/Solitude up to contain my big turn. Then I will cast Dosan, they have nothing, then I resolve Scapeshift and win.
I have beat Atraxa with an early Dosan. If Atraxa does not find Solitude to deal Dosan, a Scapeshift turn beats their Atraxa.
But against Chant, Dosan is a house. Dryad into Dosan is a 5-alarm fire, a national emergency for the Chant player. They cannot freely cast planeswalkers, they cannot Chant or Consign me, they cannot Wrath of the Skies until turn 5. They have limited Prismatic Endings, evoking a Solitude in this spot is costly. If they do not have an answer right away, they are going to lose. If they do have an answer, that's one less answer for whatever is coming down the pipe. Dryad is bridging to 6 mana while they are putting out the Dosan fire.
Less exposed to Wrath of the Skies. The Chant player is licking their lips, they want to WotS you into oblivion. Dryad takes this away from them. You don't need the Urza's Sagas, you don't need the amulet effects to beat them. Dryad bridges into a midgame of green creatures that do not care about Consign.
A hand that is 3x Land, Planeswalker, Planeswalker, WoTS, Consign, does not line up well against Grazer/GSZarbor->Dryad->Dosan/Icetill/Six.
Esper Blink
By now you should have a sense of how Dryad changes this MU. But there are a few nuances I'd like to point out.
Attacking with Phelia is not free. The games where Phelia comes down and starts blinking for value happen less against Dryad. The Blink player must have an answer to Dryad before Dog to freely blink stuff. If they don't have an answer, they must blink the Dryad to get in for 2.
The Dryad, untapped mana, amulet pickle. Just like against Broodscale, Amulet->Dryad-> untapped mana is a headache for the Esper player. They must navigate a game where a lethal Titan is set up, there is a blocker for Dog, Dismember (or Boseiju) mana up, all while being insulated from Knight of the White Orchid.
If You Love Dryad So Much Why Don't You Marry It Play 4 Copies?
Playing 4 Dryads is perfectly reasonable. Terry Stratton did in his top8 Baltimore list. If you scour MTGO lists you'll see 4 Dryads pop up in deck dumps. The reason I didn't play 4 is to avoid getting flooded with Dryads. The last time 4 Dryads was stock, The One Ring was legal. TOR helped offset the downside of drawing too many Dryads.
I played 3 because I wanted to commonly see Dryad in my opener. And I wanted access to more copies when games go deep.
A Note About Azusa and "Clean Titan" Lists aka "If I Were Only Smarter, Wealthier, and Better Looking, My Titans Would Win All the Time Without Needing Any Extra Help"
When I co-hosted the Amulet Titan podcast, I argued constantly with my co-host Moniz about maindeck Bojuka Bog. This was before MH3, and Unholy Heat was one of the best reactive cards against Titan (not Consign). I’d argue that Bog was necessary to cut off game one Unholy Heat, and to turn off flying DRCs. Moniz would argue that having a Bog in the opener can be crippling.
Having a tap land and playing Amulet a turn late will lose more games than a Bog will win. That’s his argument anyway. Now is Moniz shrugging off lost games due to Unholy Heat and 3/3 DRC? Or am I shrugging off games I lost because I was a turn too slow, or I had to mulligan because of Bog was in my opener instead of a basic Forest?
The point here is our brains can have selective memory. We remember the times the cards we like reward us. We can be blind to the times those cards punished us or caused us to lose indirectly.
With this idea in mind, let’s apply it to an entire play pattern (and not a single card). There’s this idea that if you play perfectly, if you really know your way around the deck, that you don’t need all this Dryad Valakut nonsense. You can big brain your way through the combat step and win with Titans alone. And if you play with “training wheels” like Dryad you’re “not being a real Titan player.” And if your Titans are somehow insufficient, then you either messed up somewhere, or your opponent got lucky or something.
I beg Amulet players who feel this way to inspect their internal narratives. Check for selective memory. Do not shrug off lost games. Do not make excuses for why your Titans couldn’t close the game by themselves.
Do not fool yourself into thinking that if only you were smarter, wealthier, and better looking, that your Titans would have been enough. Just play the fucking Dryad and win your games instead.
Devil's Advocate: Peter's list and the Qualifying List in Canada
I'd like to play Devil's Advocate for a little bit. I don't want to make it seem that only Dryad decks saw success, and that there were literally no PT qualifying lists that didn't include Dryad.
There is one list that Qd for the PT without playing Dryad. It just didn't happen in America.
Here's a quick rundown of the Amulet lists in CA.
Total Amulet Titan Lists: 13
Lists with Analyst: 8
Lists with Dryad: 6
Lists with 3+ Dryads: 1
The list that grabbed the invite, no Analyst in the maindeck, of course.
Next we have Peter Husisian who came incredibly close to qualifying.
I include these lists to paint a more complete picture. Nothing in these lists changes how I feel about how to build Titan moving forward. Heavy Dryad lists with no Rumbles still outperformed everything else.
Closing Remarks
Remember earlier when I said that cards that were good in Titan once will likely be good again? I think that at some point in the next... I dunno, 5 years? Dryad should not be played for whatever reason.
And I'm not saying that by not playing Dryad, you are automatically wrong. But I am going to suggest that you ask yourself. "Am I suffering from deckbuilding psychosis?"
Thank You For Reading
If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Seriously, thank you. I have loved playing Amulet Titan over the years. I love playing the deck, I love talking about the deck, and I especially love talking about the deck with other people who also love the deck.
Some folks have asked to buy sideboard guides, coaching, etc. I spent most of my energy writing this, instead of doing all that. If you are interested in paid coaching, please reach out. I have coached many Amulet players.
I have convinced people to pick up the deck, then coached those same folks earn a PT invite by playing the deck.
Whenever someone I coach qualifies for the Pro Tour by playing Amulet Titan, I want them to sign one of my Amulet of Vigors. I'd love to have a complete playset of signed Amulets.
If you're interested, check out the form below.