Picture this:

It's turn one. The opponent is rocking back and forth like a pot threatening to boil over.

"Mountain...

"Tap for ...

"Seal of Fire."

Still rocking back and forth there.

These Red Deck em effers* get excited over the most random spit, you think. Thank gawd that wasn't, like, a Monastery Swiftspear or something.

You review your hand. Value, value, a little more value, and Fatal Push. Didn't play a 1-drop, maybe, but there might be an Eidolon coming up. Glad I have this. The Fatal Push; you probably won't cast it immediately.

"Raging Ravine, go." You are quietly appreciative of the opening to play a land that enters the battlefield tapped.

Wannabe Fire God over there untaps, draws, and plays a second Mountain.

"Sacrifice the Seal of Fire," the opponent begins. "Skewer the Critics."

Wow; aggressive. You think; but still, you're kind of bored. Five life is one thing, even on turn two, but you've got triple-value! You should be able to string something together.

"Tap the other Mountain..." LOL. Here it comes.

"Chandra's Incinerator."

WHAT NOW?!?

In the old days of naivety, Patrick Chapin once argued that there were only two kinds of creatures: Baneslayers and Mulldrifters. If you've ever heard that Baneslayer Angel "just dies to Doom Blade" ... That's really the divide between these two categories of creatures.

Essentially, if you're happy you get to Doom Blade something: It's a Baneslayer.

Ever try the strategy of Doom Blading a Mulldrifter? Whether or not you actually have to, you'll run out of removal long before they run out of value.

Once lauded as the best large creature of all time, Baneslayer Angel is itself coming back in Core Set 2021! Baneslayers are creatures where the incentive to playing the card is in the creature itself. Thus, the iconic Baneslayer Angel is largely a vehicle for power and toughness; lifelink, often, yes... But still power and toughness. Tarmogoyf is a Baneslayer; and for all its text, so is Questing Beast.

You probably don't need me to remind you that Mulldrifter itself is not currently legal in Standard; but it has inheritors aplenty across many different archetypes:

A Doom Blade by any other name... Have you ever spent a piece of point removal on an Agent of Treachery? It will have already made so much mischief they might not let you play it any more.

It was Hall of Famer Brian Kibler who first claimed Baneslayer Angel was "the best large creature of all time", upon winning a Pro Tour with that very creature in his Extended Zoo deck. Other Zoo mages focused only on small creatures, but Kibler's Baneslayer Angel could live through Punishing Fire. Of course the next Pro Tour he won, only a couple of years later, featured this even larger creature:

In Kibler's defense (and Chapin's)... It's hard to imagine a general statement or rule that wouldn't be upset by the Titans.

On rare occasions, creatures will show up with all the properties of both Mulldrifters and Baneslayers. Omnath is one such Titan. Much love.

— Patrick Chapin (@thepchapin) June 8, 2020

So there is a third category: Baneslayers, Mulldrifters... And Titans.

Titans generally have great bodies. Often they will be less efficient than the best of the Baneslayers, but good enough to represent ongoing threats that you will have to respect and deal with. The original Titan cycle were all 6/6 creatures for six mana, so big.

But as an important distinction, Titans combine those bodies with additional abilities reminiscent of a Mulldrifter. Basically, you're happy to Doom Blade a Titan in the way that you would be happy to Doom Blade a Baneslayer; if you don't, it's probably going to kill you. But at the same time, Doom Blading a Titan is like Doom Blading a Mulldrifter; you can't make a habit of it or you're going to be way behind.

Let's go back to our conjectural Red Deck example of Chandra's Incinerator.

Now I have no idea if this card will be strong enough to play in large formats; but I would say that the scenario I spun up is reminiscent of a Gurmag Angler, but arguably faster and certainly more productive in the near term. It seems to me that Chandra's Incinerator is a better, more appropriate, Gurmag Angler for a deck that can play it... It's like an above-average Tarmogoyf that doesn't die to Fatal Push. Which is great!

It's at least a Baneslayer. 6/6 here for... One? Two? I am not even sure how you quite count that second turn. It does seem like the average Modern Red Deck will get more mileage out of Chandra's Incinerator than, say, a Bedlam Reveler. You certainly don't want an opponent untapping with one! A burn-heavy deck with all spells that deal 2-3 points of damage will be able to easily kill most opponents with only three cards at that point.

This creature is kind of Titan-light. A Doom Blade is going to go a long way as long as the opponent isn't stringing cards along the same turn that they play it. Prior to the first attack? The first post-cast draw step? All great! But once it gets going, this is a Tarmogoyf with a particularly explosive brand of Mulldrifter along for the ride.

Perhaps a clearer case is this one:

This card seems just outstanding to me.

At 6/6 for only five mana, they're really hitting you over the head with its power-to-mana cost ratio on Elder Gargaroth. Still, just being 6/6 for five wouldn't get you very far in 2020 (let alone 2021). Vigilance, Reach, and the all-important Trample load keywords onto a very Baneslayer body.

But that's not all!

What I really like about Elder Gargaroth is how its other ability triggers. While it doesn't get one of the three when it enters the battlefield, it does trigger on attack or block. That's kind of a big deal because it creates an additional disincentive when you are playing creatures to delay the opponent's oncoming offense.

Elder Gargaroth is clearly not going to be a Swiss Army Knife for every matchup. It in fact seems kind of bad against Yorion-style Control decks. But against fair decks with creatures? 6/6 is bigger than what almost any of them can field, so it will usually be blocking for value.

More importantly, if you're blocking to not only preserve life total but actually gain life, that ability triggers on block, before damage is actually dealth. Net-net, you can potentially put on a three life buffer before it's too late.

On the one hand, getting only one half of Uro's triggers - three life or a card - might seem less competitive; but with vigilance, you potentially get to go to the well twice as often. More importantly, making a 3/3 Beast is potentially the most important of the three abilities. A Beast obviously being able to help clog up the Red Zone or go wide offensively.

That said, all three abilities are going to be useful. It'll be a question of when, not whether.

Now both of these cards from Core Set 2021 might be a little sub-Titan (but are still functionally Titans if given just a little time). What can I say? Titans tend to get played.

The Titan moniker is pretty obvious with old Golos. I know it seems like a lifetime ago, but you used to get to play with Once Upon a Time and Oko, Thief of Crowns. I know! But even before they banned those cards in Standard, they banned not Golos, but what it searched up.

Back in the day, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim would go get Field of the Dead to either help get the party started, or double up Zombie production if you already had one on the battlefield. Far from being a mere Mulldrifter, Golos rose to Titan status (and extremely wide adoption for play) via that ability to exile multiple cards each turn. That, and a 3/5 body that could attack and especially block with format appropriate size.

At the end of the day, it's important to categorize our Baneslayers - like the upcoming Baneslayer Angel - for what they are. It's equally important to understand that when the Mulldrifters are good enough (or when everyone can play one, and cheaply, you're going to have to take that into consideration building your defensive packages. But as important as either of those categories are... It's vital you Remember the Titans; that they exist, or you might lose a lot of matches you could have won if you had just identified, then played, some.

LOVE

MIKE

* Em eff, like MF; you know, like... you know.