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Summoning the Aeons Torn

Summoning the Aeons Torn

Every now and then I enjoy taking an established archetype and tinkering with it to create something unique. Way back in the early days of Modern, just after the banning of Cloudpost, I dabbled in a mono-Green Tron deck that centred around using Primeval Titan to tutor up your Tron pieces and ramp into Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. It worked fairly well for its time, but as Modern evolved, the Tron archetype cemented itself into the iterations we have today. However, that shell never left my mind and as I played more and more Tron over the years, I yearned to return to that version.

 

 

This deck is all about ramping hard, and while assembling Tron is a core component of the end game, the deck can function without it for much longer than its more traditional counterparts. One of the typical failings of a standard non-Eldrazi Tron deck is that it doesn’t function without Tron online since so many of its threats cost six or more. As well, since so much of these decks are one mana artifacts, a Chalice of the Void or Stony Silence can often be a death sentence. By weaning ourselves off of absolutely requiring Tron and by putting in more threats and ramp along the curve, we are able to create a more threat-heavy deck while still maintaining the late game inevitability of regular Tron.

One of the ways we do this is by including smaller creatures to fill out our curve. For example, Thought-Knot Seer is a page out of Eldrazi Tron’s book that gives us a bit of hand disruption as well as a sizable body. On the other hand, Wall of Roots is powerful in that it provides a strong defensive body that can also ramp us into our other threats, as well as just smooth out our curve. This way we can play our Wall on turn 2 and still have access to an Ancient Stirrings or Dismember on the same turn.

While we forego Tron staples like Karn Liberated in this build, our creature-oriented route offers several bonuses we otherwise wouldn’t be able to use. Summoning Trap is our ace in the hole against Blue decks, as they will almost always sandbag a counterspell for our Primeval Titan, Wurmcoil Engine, or Thought-Knot Seer. When our creatures get countered, we can cast Summoning Trap for free and get a creature from our top seven cards. Since we have so many giant threats, this can often find us something far more threatening than the creature that was countered. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is the biggest, baddest creature in the game, and as such is our best target for a Summoning Trap. Very few decks can deal with it at all, let alone on turns 3-6, so I’ve elected to include a full set to maximize our odds of landing an Emrakul.

                              

To back up Emrakul, the deck also features a full set of Primeval Titans to tutor our Tron lands, as well as three Wurmcoil Engines to gain us a ton of life and wreak havoc on midrange decks. A pair of Sundering Titan is in the deck to ruin multicolour manabases, and I’m even running a single Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to exile our opponent’s deck when regular damage won’t cut it. Each of these bombs provides a major board presence, and firing one off at instant-speed with Summoning Trap can often be enough to swing a game in our favour.

Ideally, an opening hand with this deck has some combination of early game ramp like a Wall of Roots, Expedition Map, or Explore, a threat, and a Summoning Trap to act as protection. I recommend keeping hands with at least one Green source and a Tron land, but if there’s enough early ramp and cantripping I can often justify keeping a hand with just Forests for lands. The sooner you can assemble either Tron, Summoning Trap, or the necessary mana for a Primeval Titan, the better.

Modern doesn’t have to be all about sticking to the most popular builds of a deck. As the format shifts more toward midrange decks, I feel like this version has potential to do some serious damage since it mitigates the opponent’s counterspells, which is usually one of the best answers against Tron decks. As well, the having the looming shadow of Emrakul hanging over the opponent’s head at all times can force them to play more cautiously, just in case they get blown out by an instant speed Eldrazi. So if ramp is your thing and you’re looking for an alternative to the same old Tron decks, Summoning Tron is right up your alley.