Modern is a format where anything is possible. There are certainly strategies that are more powerful than others, but there are also broad, powerful hate cards that can be used to beat up on huge swaths of the format. This is particularly true as the format continues to shift towards all-in aggro decks that feature cards like Become Immense, Temur Battle Rage, and various protection spells. These decks are prepared for spot removal like Lightning Bolt and damage-based sweepers like Anger of the Gods. But what happens when you combine spot removal, sweepers, blockers, and a combo finish of your own? You get something that might be able to fight the bulk of the format. Let’s take a look at Aachen’s creation:

Green-White Ramp ? Modern | Aachen, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
• 1 Qasali Pridemage
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels
• 2 Sun Titan
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 4 Eternal Witness
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 4 Wall of Omens

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 2 Garruk Wildspeaker

• Spells (14)
• 2 Primal Command
• 2 Tooth and Nail
• 2 Wrath of God
• 4 Search for Tomorrow
• 4 Path to Exile

• Lands (24)
• 2 Forest
• 9 Plains
• 2 Ghost Quarter
• 3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
• 4 Temple Garden
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Back to Nature
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Primal Command
• 1 Rampaging Baloths
• 2 Acidic Slime
• 2 Day of Judgment
• 2 Qasali Pridemage
• 4 Relic of Progenitus

Buy This Deck

A lot of the pieces of this deck may look familiar; we just haven’t seen them combined in this way before. You’ve got the combination of Path to Exile, Wall of Omens, and Wrath of God to buy time against aggro decks. You’ve also got Sun Titan at the top end to help rebuy Wall of Omens, Ghost Quarter, or Windswept Heath. This is all with the goal of eventually establishing Emeria, the Sky Ruin to grind out incremental value against controlling decks like Jund and Jeskai.

The difference is that this deck isn’t splashing Blue for something like Court Hussar. Instead, you’re playing Green, which gives access to Eternal Witness, Tireless Tracker, and Sakura-Tribe Elder. These cards are all phenomenal for this style of deck. Eternal Witness gives Sun Titan a way to rebuy cards like Path to Exile and Garruk Wildspeaker. Primal Command is a particularly interesting card to rebuy, since it help lock your opponent out of hitting land drops while tutoring up powerful creatures to help close out the game. Tireless Tracker is great in a deck that’s looking to hit so many land drops and can be rebought with Sun Titan. Lastly, Sakura-Tribe Elder is another awesome blocker and ramp spell that also interacts well with Sun Titan.

The big difference between this take on the Sun Titan strategy is that you’ve got so many ramp spells. Between Sakura-Tribe Elder and Search for Tomorrow, as well as Garruk Wildspeaker and even Sun Titan functioning as mana ramp, you can pretty easily work your way up to six or more mana. Six gives you access to Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sun Titan, and other monsters, but nine mana lets you win the game outright. While other Sun Titan decks mess around with Flickerwisp and Court Hussar, this deck just wants to cast Tooth and Nail. A resolved Tooth and Nail lets you put Xenagos, God of Revels and Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play, and end the game on the spot rather than trying to attrition your opponents out of the game.

These strategies generally don’t match up especially well against the format. However, we may be in a spot where this density of basic lands, combined with the suite of spot removal, sweepers, and recursive usage of Ghost Quarter, is exactly what it takes to get an edge in the most important matchups in Modern.