Argoth Bureau of Land Management [EDH]

[Oversoul]

This one has been a long time coming. I was in an early market research playtest for The Brothers' War and just so happened to pull both Titania and Argoth in the same sealed pool. I never managed to meld them in that test, but I knew right then that I was going to build an EDH deck with this Titania as my commander. Sure enough, the packs I opened contained both cards in the meld pair. It's destiny, I tell you. I am going to do some shenanigans with lands.

Commander:
1 Titania, Voice of Gaea

1 Abundance
1 Ancient Greenwarden
1 Argoth, Sanctum of Nature
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
1 Bala Ged Recovery
1 Beast Within
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Burgeoning
1 Concordant Crossroads
1 Conduit of Worlds
1 Constant Mists
1 Crop Rotation
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Cultivator Colossus
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
1 Elvish Reclaimer
1 Eternal Witness
1 Expedition Map
1 Exploration
1 Far Wanderings
22 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Gaea's Touch
1 Genesis
1 Genesis Wave
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Harrow
1 Horn of Greed
1 Khalni Heart Expedition
1 Life from the Loam
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Lotus Vale
1 Manabond
1 Maze of Ith
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mox Diamond
1 Nature's Lore
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Petrified Field
1 Phyrexian Altar
1 Prismatic Vista
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Ramunap Excavator
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Regrowth
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Roiling Regrowth
1 Scapeshift
1 Seasons Past
1 Sol Ring
1 Spike Weaver
1 Splendid Reclamation
1 Spore Frog
1 Springbloom Druid
1 Strip Mine
1 Summer Bloom
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Three Visits
1 Timeless Witness
1 Tireless Provisioner
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Titania, Protector of Argoth
1 Tranquil Thicket
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Wayward Swordtooth
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 World Shaper
1 Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
1 Zuran Orb

-1 Force of Vigor
-2 Forest
-1 Journey of Discovery
-1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
-1 Rampant Growth

 

[Oversoul]

This deck won its first game with a combination of melding Titania and swinging with beast tokens generated by Rampaging Baloths. I got to do the thing and the deck ultimately won the game, so I can't be too bitter about it. But I really only won because a player who could have stopped Titania wanted to see the meld thing happen, so he effectively threw the game. I topdecked too many lands and really had to rely on Rampaging Baloths with Ancient Greenwarden in order to have a board presence. So yeah, the deck stalled out. But hey, a win is a win.

 

[Oversoul]

This deck can stall out sometimes, but it's good. I wound up in a tense game against Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice. I was stuck with hardly any land, and at one point had to use Elvish Reclaimer to sacrifice my only forest to get Maze of Ith for protection, so my lands were just Maze of Ith, Gaea's Cradle, and Dryad Arbor. Fortunately, Cradle is broken, and saw me through the game. By the time the Light-Paws player could find an answer for Maze of Ith, I got Glacial Chasm and a Life from the Loam engine going. Impressed with how well Titania complements Glacial Chasm.

 

[Oversoul]

My second updated deck of 2023...

-1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
-1 Force of Vigor
-1 Rampant Growth
-2 Forest
+1 Tireless Tracker
+1 Realms Uncharted
+1 Boseiju, Who Endures
+1 Lotus Vale
+1 Prismatic Vista

 

[Oversoul]

Played just one game so far with the updated list. I was worried that I might stall out after Burgeoning gave me a nice head start. But Titania was able to keep the pressure on my opponents, and I beat them all down in the end.

 

[Oversoul]

This deck is good. Unfortunately, I got off to a precarious start against a combo opponent (Slobad, Iron Goblin), and seemed to stall out. Scapeshift pulled me out of the stall and set me up to meld my commander into a 23/23. Unfortunately, a third player immediately hit Titania with Swords to Plowshares during my upkeep for some reason (he didn't wait to see who I was going to attack?), and this bought the Slobad deck more time without needing to deal with my attack, and he spent the rest of the game taking progressively longer turns building a progressively bigger board state without even bothering to attack the rest of us. Tireless Tracker almost pulled me out of the hole I was stuck in. But despite drawing tons of cards, I whiffed. I drew myself into a setup that would almost certainly have won the game if I'd had one more turn, but the Slobad player finally went infinite right before that. Oh well. The game went poorly for me, but I didn't see anything that made me want to tweak this deck for now. I think that the changes I made last month were the right ones and that this deck is in a great spot (normally).

 

[Oversoul]

My opponents kept killing my commander and then my other permanents were starting to get eaten up by Ashen Rider loops. I had a pretty high life total, no cards in hand, no one attacking me, and no way to break free from the Ashen Rider loops. The other two players at the table were more scared of me than they were of Ashen Rider, so I wasn't getting any help there either. Good for them. I scooped. I don't need that crap in my life.

 

[Oversoul]

Slogged through an epic game in which I essentially became the archenemy after a while. Tried to use Genesis Wave to close things out, but it was countered twice. Tried to build a big board state with Rampaging Baloths, but they were killed. Tried to get Titania to meld, but my opponents put a stop to that one too. Sylvan Library kept me going though all of it, and eventually I managed to resolve Genesis Wave for real, then follow it up with the old Titania (Protector of Argoth). I had Zuran Orb and Concordant Crossroads, so the beatings were finally able to commence.

 

[Oversoul]

Made a slight change...

-1 Journey of Discovery
+1 Conduit of Worlds

 

[Oversoul]

I only played three games on Wednesday evening, since my game with this deck ran so long. I was struggling with this deck almost the entire time. One opponent was playing an Orah, Skyclave Hierophant deck and had Remorseful Cleric. The threat of Remorseful Cleric held my commander in check. I couldn't effectively attack the Orah player without exposing myself to attacks from the Titania, Protector of Argoth deck. Ideally, I'd have tried to pit those two decks against each other, but all three of us started falling behind against a Jorn, God of Winter deck. Eventually, I fell behind all three of these other decks. So I thought that my chances were looking poor here.

This deck can be deceptively strong in the long game. The Jorn player picked off the Orah player, which allowed me to start using my graveyard more. Despite the Jorn player's impressive board state and capacity to rebuild it, pressure from both Titania decks eventually finished him off. It was down to just me against the other Titania deck, and I'd have had a decisive advantage if not for one detail: my Genesis Wave for 6 had deployed my Concordant Crossroads, which meant that I had to guard against a sudden wave of 5/3 elementals attacking me. After a few tense turns, I got an opening and was able to Scapeshift with my own Titania, Protector of Argoth on the table, swinging in for lethal damage and winning the game.