Today I’m going to be taking you through an in depth assessment of one play. The sequence was featured in a recent draft of mine on my YouTube channel. I didn’t quite realize how interesting the play would become until I started dissecting it after the draft.

Anyway, let’s start with the draft deck. It was quite a sweet one:

A deck with quite a high power level for sure. Round 2 game 2 started magnificently. I used Yeva’s Forcemage to push through a Citadel Castellan with a Valeron Wardens on the battlefield drawing a card. My opponent had some nice action with an Orchard Spirit and Rhox Maulers on the battlefield backed up by a Rogue’s Passage. While my creatures dominated his I was also not concerned about a pump spell. Even if my opponent had a pump spell to push Rhox Maulers over Castellan I had left up two mana and Titanic Growth to trump that.

There was no way I could lose. Until…

Act of treason could put a wrinkle into my plans. A relatively healthy 16 life immediately gets cut down to 10. Plus I have to block Rhox Maulers in some way to ensure that my Castellan will still be larger when it is returned to me at the end of my opponent’s turn.

Here is the board state when my opponent attacks:

My first thought is why would they play Act of Treason instead of using the Rogues passage? Surely I will swing out one turn and they will be able to use Act to finish me off. My opponent must have a good reason to have Act. Most likely scenarios are that my opponent has a trick or has a 3 or 2 drop to play post combat.

At this point what should go into every magic player’s mind is what do they have? Here is a list of all of the possibilities in those colors:

Aerial Volley



Fiery Conclusion



Fiery Impulse



Might of the Masses



Reclaim



Smash to Smithereens



Titanic Growth



Titan’s Strength



Vine Snare







We can throw out Aerial Volley, Reclaim and Smash for not being relevant at all and Vine Snare for its general unplayability. That leaves us with Fiery Conclusion, Fiery Impulse, Might of the Masses, Titanic Growth and Titan’s Strength. 4 commons and one uncommon.

We have a few different options and decision trees to go through.

Option 1 – Take the Damage

This is a pretty easy option to dismiss. If we take 10 damage and the Rhino gets Renown then we lose next turn to Rogue’s Passage. The only draw in our deck to stop us from losing is Wild Instincts and even then we still may lose to Orchard Spirit.

Option 2 – Chump block Castellan

Okay, so we’re never going to just take the 10, but what if we absorb 4 damage with Yeva’s Forcemage? In that scenario, we let the Rhino get renown and while we’re not dead the next turn, we are likely to lose the race to my opponent, especially if they have a 3 drop to play post-combat. While this option is better than option 1, I think we can do better.

Option 3 – Block Rhox Maulers with Forcemage and Cast Titanic Growth

If this plan goes off without a hitch we are in pretty good shape. We get to untap with 3 creatures against just Orchard Spirit and Maybe a three drop. We took a hit down to 10 but with 7 power on board plus War Oracle coming down next turn, there’s a good chance we can race.

Option 4 – Block Rhox Maulers with Wardens and Cast Titanic Growth

Very similar to Option 4. We will discuss differences below.

Option 5 – Double Block Rhox Maulers and pass

If we just let combat damage happen we lose the Wardens but only take 6 damage and don’t let the Maulers get Renown. We are still on a two turn clock, but only if our opponent activates passage both turns. With War Oracle + Titanic Growth we may be able to race back. If we cast Titanic Growth we end up with the same results as Option 3 and Option 4. However, this option has additional possibilities if our opponent plays a trick.

Option 6 – Double Block Rhox Maulers and Cast Growth on Wardens

Same as Option 4 unless opponent has a trick

Okay so we’ve determined that Options 1 and 2 are probably not going to work out well for us. They both leave us in positions in which we are unlikely to win the game. Options 3, 4 and 6 leave us in positions where we are very likely to win while Option 5 leaves us in a reasonable, though behind, position.

Which Trick to play around?

As we discussed earlier, one of the reasons to play Act of Treason over using the Rogue’s Passage this turn is if the opponent has a trick. Since Options 3 and 4 look so appealing we need to measure them up against all the available tricks in the format.

We can pretty quickly dismiss Option 3. It performs exactly the same as Option 4 in every scenario, except when the opponent has Fiery Impulse. In that spot, we would much rather just go with Option 4. It is also slightly better against Titan’s Strength/Might of the Masses in that it saves 1 damage.



So analyzing Option 4:

Lose against Fiery Conclusion – The worst of all worlds. We lose Growth, Castellan, Wardens and Rhox Maulers gets Renowned



Lose against Titanic Growth – We lose Growth, Wardens and Mauler gets Renowned



Lose against Might of the Masses – We lose Growth, Wardens, however, Maulers does not get Renowned. Opponent still has Passage to get Maulers through and we are likely losing that race.



Good against Titan’s Strength – We lose Wardens and Growth but get Mauler off the table. We untap with Castellan and Forcemage against Orchard Spirit at 10 life. We have a reasonable chance to race and win the game.



Good against Fiery Impulse – We lose Growth but opponent doesn’t even have an opportunity to cast Impulse for any value. Untap at 10 Life with Wardens, Castellan and Forcemage at 10 life against Spirit





Overall Option 4 has some dismal outcomes. If the opponent has Conclusion, Growth or Might then we have very little chance to win the game. Without going into too much extraneous detail, Option 6 is much worse against Fiery Conclusion, slightly better against Titanic Growth but turns Might of the Masses into a win. Since we are already losing to Fiery Conclusion Option 6 is nearly strictly better than Option 4.

So now we have one more choice to analyze. Option 5. Double blocking gives the opponent the incentive to act first. After all, if they have a pump spell, they can then kill both of our creatures and get the Rhox Maulers Renowned. This gives us a distinct advantage if our opponent uses a Fiery Conclusion. We let Conclusion resolve and then cast Growth the Forecemage. We eat the Rhox Maulers and untap with Forcemage against Orchard Spirit at 14 life with 4 cards in hand to our opponent’s 1.

However, how likely is it for the opponent to act first? If they have Fiery Conclusion they would probably be content with getting the damage through. They know how bad of a scenario it is for them if we have Titanic Growth after they tap out and have no real need to risk it. They can just wait until after combat and get rid of the Castellan and Wardens then. In other words, an experienced player who knows to play around a Titanic Growth (as well as Enshrouding Mist and to a lesser extent Mighty Leap or Might of the Masses) on our side, will not act first.

So given our opponent, if a strong player, won’t move first what is the best way to proceed? The only way we are severely punished for playing the Titanic Growth is if our opponent has Fiery Conclusion. But if we go with Option 5 then we are losing to Fiery Conclusion anyway. Our opponent just lets damage happen and kills our Wardens. Then post combat kills Forcemage and we have nothing, and are at 10 life against our opponent’s Maulers and Spirit.

So after all of that analysis the results can be distilled down simply:

The only way to beat Fiery Conclusion is if our opponent makes a mistake



Double blocking gives us the ability to play around the most cards while giving the opponent some incentive to make a mistake







The final answer is that the most likely way we win this game is by Double Blocking with the intention of casting Titanic Growth mid-combat.

Feel free to watch the draft and see how it played out for me! Though I will tell you. I did not put as much thought into the decision during the game as I did in the time afterwards.

Please let me know what you thought of this scenario. Is there anything I missed? A line of reasoning why a certain line of play would be better? I’d love to hear your thoughts!