Hello again and welcome to another article from CommandBeacon.com. Today we will be rounding off the series of Theros: Beyond Death Commanders with the Elder Titans. Sealed in the underworld by the combined powers of the Theros Gods and with Klothys, God of Destiny as their eternal jailer, they've been bound since long ago. But today, we'll be helping them escape the underworld and bring them into the Commander format.
The Elder Titans are significantly cheaper to cast and embody a similar style as the powerful core set titans which were released almost a decade ago. On top of the enter the battlefield and attacks triggers, the Elder Titans have a detrimental sacrifice trigger unless they've been cast via their escape cost. To bring out the full potential of the Elder Titans, we're looking to use their initial casting cost as well as fuel the graveyard for escape. So let's take a look at our titans and get an idea of how we can use them.
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
Starting with Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. This Simic titan acts as a Growth Spiral with life gain and has shown some impressive results in multiple formats. The Simic colour combination is no stranger to ramp as they have access to all of green's ramp acceleration and blue's draw power to keep things going. Uro as a Commander will give consistent access to an additional ramp spell while having him in the graveyard keeps opponents wary of the looming threat. All the ramp and draw spells will also be the main fuel to escape Uro.
As for the deck composition itself, there needs to be an end game and an outlet for all this mana. So there are a number of big top end bombs and combos (see if you can spot them all). Urofocuses on being ahead of your opponents, so there are some highly disruptive cards in play to make sure you stay ahead. There was an extensive amount of choices for this Simic ramp deck as the balance for this style of deck is quite difficult and drawing your expensive spells early in the game is not optimal. This deck would keep you as a constant threat and target though, so if that's the case make sure you earn the hate you receive and enjoy.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Our hungry friend Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is a polar opposite to Uro. This titan has your opponents discard a card, and if they don't discard a nonland card they'll be losing 3 life on top of that. Kroxa is also 2 drop Commander, making it quick and consistent early game disruption which your opponents will definitely need to deal with if it even escapes. The Rakdos colour combination isn't new to these themes of discard and damage, but having each opponent discard effect as your commander allow for certain lines of play with cards that wouldn't make the cut otherwise.
This deck has a very pure strategy, involving disruption and burn with some reanimation to support both. There are a lot of options in the deck to reward you for having your opponents discard, such as Geth's Grimoire and Waste Not. These are the prime examples of cards that would usually hit the cutting board. Keeping a constant flow of disruption and damage will help whittle away your opponents until your aggressive game-ending threats can get through or you've delayed enough for your planeswalkers to go off. It's a lot more difficult than in some other colour combinations to be tricky, but Kroxa makes use of what he has and has some good interactions.
That's it for the Theros: Beyond Death Commanders! I think that although Uro has a more stable value-oriented plan, I am preferable to the Kroxa strategy. Each of them is a threat regardless so you may as well pick the one that tilts your opponent's strategies more. As always you can check out the full breakdowns of Uro and Kroxa along with many other decks on Command Beacon. Until next time good luck, have fun and keep shuffling.
