There have been several cycles of "Titans" in Magic: The Gathering's history. These have usually been huge, iconic creatures, with powerful effects that are either triggered or activated, and they have typically cost six mana with 6 power and 6 toughness. Of course the titans we're most familiar with first debuted a decade ago now, in 2010, in the Magic 2011 Core Set. This initial (and impressive) wave of creatures consisted of Sun Titan, Frost Titan, Grave Titan, Inferno Titan, and Primeval Titan. (Ironically, all of them were actually "Giants," and not Titans.)

I don't remember the exact history as well as I'd like when it comes to which was the best, simply because week-after-week a new Titan would be on top of the metagame. One week Grave Titan would be king, the next week someone would figure out that Frost Titan was impossible to deal with in the current meta. Meanwhile Primeval Titan has likely been the most consistently powerful and played of those initial six, still seeing play in nearly every format he's legal in, including decks like 12 Post in Legacy and Scapeshift and Amulet in Modern. The 6/6 for six mana format was so iconic that, when Wurmcoil Engine was released in Scars of Mirrodin later that year, people would begin calling it the sixth Titan.

While none of them were banned, Wizards soon realized that all five of the initial Titans were a little bit pushed, and that, when they were reprinted in Magic 2012, the players had already had enough of their somewhat oppressive abilities.

Do the Titans Have Soul?

This brings us all the way to Magic 2015. In an attempt to "fix" the Titans, we received a cycle of "Souls." These were more 6/6 creatures for six mana, but instead of triggered abilities that triggered both upon entering the battlefield and attacking, the Souls had an activated ability that you would have to pay a hefty price - between five and seven mana, specifically - to activate. In addition, the Souls also had a second version of their ability that you could only use by exiling them from the graveyard for the same mana cost as the first ability.

The Soul lineup included Soul of Theros, Soul of Ravnica, Soul of Innistrad, Soul of Shandalar, Soul of Zendikar, and Soul of New Phyrexia - they added an artifact version this time - with each being a nod to one of Magic's famous planes. Ultimately, the six Souls saw very little play. It would seem that Wizards had aimed a little too low with their attempt to fix the overpowered Titan cycle, and these new activated abilities just weren't worth the squeeze, as they say.

Did the Titans Get Old?

Over the past couple days we've seen some cards that make it look like Wizards might be giving the Titans another shot, only with a few key differences and similarities. Let's go over those, along with the few Titans that have been spoiled thus far.

Differences:

• These don't cost six mana and, in fact, seem like they may all have different casting costs. However the two abilities spoiled have similar escape costs at four colored mana.
• These can't remain on the battlefield unless they escaped, which could be a tall order when it comes to deck-building.
• So far the two revealed have been one allied and one enemy colored.

Similarities:

• Once again, these have 6 power and 6 toughness.
• These have abilities that trigger both when they enter the battlefield and when they attack.
• These have Titan right in the name.
• Just like the original Titans, these have the Giant creature type, although they are actually Elder Giants, which is pretty cool.

The two examples we have as of me writing this are Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger, and they look pretty sweet. But the question that I'm curious about is whether this cycle will be Titans... or just Souls.

The things both of the two revealed Titans have in common are that they both enter the battlefield, trigger, then become sacrificed, acting as sorcery-speed spells for their first casting rather than creatures. As such, they're both appropriately costed for such effects. Let's take a look.

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

Uro costs three mana, and when it enters the battlefield (or attacks), you gain three life, draw a card, and you can put a land into play from your hand. This is obviously just an Explore or Growth Spiral that also gains you three life. For three mana, this is a fine deal, only costing one more mana than its counterparts, and a pretty good repeatable effect. I'm not sure if drawing one card and gaining three life is stronger than Primeval Titan just searching out two lands and putting them into play, but I don't think it is? That being said, a new card every turn could prove much stronger than two lands on the battlefield, and the life can definitely add up.

It's worth noting, however, that Primeval Titan is in a class by itself in terms of card and board advantage, and he even has trample. While Uro is Blue and Green, we're obviously comparing this more to Primeval Titan than Frost Titan, because it bears practically no resemblance to Frosty.

Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger

I don't think Kroxa is as good as Uro, but I still think it's quite good. For two mana, each opponent discards a card (ya heard, Commander players?). If they didn't discard a nonland card this way, they lose three life.

While an opponent discarding their worst card, and maybe losing three life isn't as good as always drawing a card, gaining three life, and ramping your mana, your opponent only has so many cards (and so much life) to work with, and this could add up fast.

Initially I was wondering why this was worded as "each opponent who didn't discard a nonland card this way loses 3 life." Why not just say, "each opponent who discarded a land card this way loses 3 life"? But then I realized that if they don't have any cards to discard at all, this wording still has them losing three life, which is a big deal. This basically makes it so that Kroxa is always doing something when it triggers, and almost acts as a kind of Inferno Titan effect when it attacks, albeit one that can't target, and one that the opponent can get around if they just discard a spell.

My only concern with Kroxa is that, by the time you actually get it onto the battlefield, the opponent might not have that many cards left to really discard. But then again, I imagine a 6/6 ripping a second card out of the opponent's hand, while already having caused the opponent to lose up to six life, is still going to be problematic.

Obviously the fact that this cycle of Titans is gold has a big effect on their flavor and abilities, as you can see. They seem more like the combination of two Titans (as gold cards always do) rather than taken from any one individual.

Both of the spoiled Titans seem like very powerful Magic cards, and the abilities are reasonably costed for what they do. I'm just wondering if it's going to be more common seeing these cast with escape around turn four, or closer to turn six, like their original counterparts.

One issue I see with these new behemoths (look, I didn't say Titans that time!) is how reliably decks will be able to get five or more cards into their graveyards. Will the new Standard require us to build around the escape mechanic, or can we reliably use it without that much effort? I think time will really tell here, and we can't be sure until we see the initial meta develop. Either way, these guys look spicy.

What do you guys think of these two? Will history look upon these as Titans or Souls? Have we reached the Goldilocks Zone with these? Are they just right? Lemme know your thoughts down below in the comments, and thanks a ton for reading! I love you guys, be sure to use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off, and I'll catch you next week!

Frank Lepore

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