Hello everyone. One of the first rares I opened from Strixhaven: School of Mages was Daemogoth Titan. Its enormous body spoke to my inner Timmy, and I knew it was a card that I needed to try out. A four-mana creature with eleven power and 10 toughness is a card waiting to be abused. This week, I have a few decks that harness the power of Daemogoth Titan. Let's get started.

Golgari Daemogoth Titan

The first deck utilizes both colors of Daemogoth Titan, Green and Black. Its plan is to attack with a Daemogoth Titan that you've managed to give trample to. Let's take a look at it.

Golgari Daemogoth Titan | STX Standard | JayVillain, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (23)
• 2 Dina, Soul Steeper
• 2 Valentin, Dean of the Vein
• 3 Serrated Scorpion
• 4 Daemogoth Titan
• 4 Daemogoth Woe-Eater
• 4 Eyetwitch
• 4 Sedgemoor Witch

• Instants (5)
• 2 Infuse with Vitality
• 3 Plumb the Forbidden

• Sorceries (6)
• 3 Bloodchief's Thirst
• 3 Hunt for Specimens

• Enchantments (5)
• 2 Bastion of Remembrance
• 3 Rune of Might

• Lands (21)
• 8 Forest
• 9 Swamp
• 4 Darkbore Pathway

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Containment Breach
• 1 Environmental Sciences
• 1 Introduction to Annihilation
• 1 Necrotic Fumes
• 3 Pest Summoning

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Start off the match by playing one of your early threats, such as Eyetwitch or Serrated Scorpion. Both of these creatures have abilities that offer you a benefit when they die. While it's better to hold them back for defense early on, especially against an aggressive deck, you can feel free to attack with them knowing that your opponent might not want to block them in order to deny you the learning and life gain that their deaths offer. In fact, it's better for you if they don't destroy these creatures on their own, as you'll need them to be fodder for sacrificing later on.

As the game progresses, you'll want to begin creating 1/1 Pest creature tokens that you'll be able to sacrifice. You can do this in a variety of ways. Valentin, Dean of the Vein provides a way to create a Pest whenever an opponent's nontoken creature would die, as long as you have 2 mana to pay. Sedgemoor Witch has a magecraft ability that creates a Pest whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell. This works especially well when you cast Hunt for Specimens or Pest Summoning, which are both sorceries that create Pest tokens for you to use.

With a battlefield full of sacrificial fodder, you can bring out the big guns. Both Daemogoth Woe-Eater and Daemogoth Titan fill this role. Daemogoth Woe-Eater requires you to sacrifice a creature at the beginning of your upkeep, while Daemogoth Titan only requires a sacrifice when you attack or block with it. Both of them are great targets for Rune of Might, which will provide the enchanted creature a +1/+1 bonus and trample. That trample is key to winning games, as without it, your opponent can simply chump block and take no damage. If your opponent has an unusually large amount of creatures in play, you might want to cast Infuse with Vitality so your creature will gain deathtouch, allowing you to assign a single point of damage to a blocking creature in order to destroy it. This is a great way to ensure more damage tramples over the blocker and to the opponent's life total.

Jund Daemogoth Titan

Next up, we have a deck that adds Red mana to the mix in an attempt to cleave the opponent in half. Let's take a look at the deck.

Jund Daemogoth Titan | STX Standard | DrSpilikin, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Daemogoth Titan
• 2 Unwilling Ingredient
• 3 Lovestruck Beast
• 3 Serrated Scorpion
• 4 Bayou Groff
• 4 Daemogoth Woe-Eater
• 4 Jaspera Sentinel

• Instants (9)
• 2 Infuse with Vitality
• 2 Kazuul's Fury
• 2 Unleash Fury
• 3 Lash of Malice

• Artifacts (5)
• 2 The Great Henge
• 3 Embercleave

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Mountain
• 4 Swamp
• 2 Necroblossom Snarl
• 3 Cragcrown Pathway
• 3 Darkbore Pathway
• 4 Fabled Passage

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While the previous deck was a little more mid-range, this deck is definitely an aggro deck. Well, as much of an aggro deck as it can be with its main attackers costing 4 mana. If your opponent makes it past turn five, you might find yourself in a world of trouble. Luckily, though, this deck has a couple of different ways it can win games.

The main plan of attack is similar to the previous deck's plan. By getting a copy of Daemogoth Woe-Eater or Daemogoth Titan onto the battlefield, you can begin sacrificing your other creatures and attacking for a ton of damage. In order to make sure you're not stopped by a single chump blocker, you can use Embercleave to gain a +1/+1 bonus, plus double strike and trample. Since you can flash this equipment in after blockers are declared, you should be able to take a big chunk out of your opponent's life total.

It is possible that you can win the game without even attacking. If you have a Daemogoth Titan in play, you can cast Unleash Fury on it. That will double the power of Daemogoth Titan from 11 to 22. Next, cast Kazuul's Fury and sacrifice your Daemogoth Titan. By choosing your opponent's life total as Kazuul's Fury's target, you can take an opponent from 20 health to -2 instantly. While this is unlikely to happen, you'll certainly remember it when it does.

Mono-Black Daemogoth Titan

The final deck I have for you is all about your devotion to Black. Let's check it out.

Mono-Black Daemogoth Titan | STX Standard | WattsVxI, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Daemogoth Titan
• 3 Archfiend's Vessel
• 3 Dream Devourer
• 3 Eyetwitch
• 3 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 3 Nightmare Shepherd
• 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 4 Hateful Eidolon

• Sorceries (5)
• 2 Blood on the Snow
• 3 Agadeem's Awakening

• Enchantments (10)
• 2 Demonic Embrace
• 2 Dramatic Finale
• 3 Dead Weight
• 3 Mire's Grasp

• Lands (20)
• 17 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 3 Castle Locthwain

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Confront the Past
• 1 Environmental Sciences
• 1 Inkling Summoning
• 1 Introduction to Annihilation
• 1 Mascot Exhibition
• 1 Necrotic Fumes
• 1 Pest Summoning

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Theros Beyond Death brought the return of a fan-favorite creature, Gray Merchant of Asphodel. This Zombie drains your opponent of an amount of life equal to your devotion to Black. This ability can allow you to win games without even attacking. Even if you aren't able to win on the spot like that, by gaining an amount of life equal to the amount of life your opponent lost, you'll be able to turn the tide in your favor. Since Daemogoth Titan provides you with four points of devotion to Black, having a copy of this Demon in play makes a big difference.

Nightmare Shepherd is another Demon that helps keep your devotion to Black high. Having a copy of Nightmare Shepherd in play provides two devotion to Black, but more importantly, it offers a way of keeping the devotion that your other creatures in play provide, even if those creatures are destroyed. That's thanks to Nightmare Shepherd being able to exile a nontoken creature you control when it would die in order to create a copy of that creature that is a 1/1. Those tokens, since they're copies, retain their mana value, allowing you to continue to count their mana symbols for your devotion.

This deck also offers a couple of combos that I want to mention. Hateful Eidolon can be instrumental in allowing you to draw additional cards. Pair it with Dead Weight and Mire's Grasp and you'll be able to destroy most threats and keep digging through your deck for threats of your own. Speaking of threats, Archfiend's Vessel itself isn't a huge threat. However, when you return Archfiend's Vessel to the battlefield with the ability of Lurrus of the Dream-Den, it will become a 5/5 Demon creature token. This token, and any other creature tokens you have in play, will also get boosted by Dramatic Finale. Having this enchantment in play will, in turn, allow you the ability to create additional 2/1 Inkling creature tokens that fly whenever your other nontoken creatures die. As a bonus, Dramatic Finale will also provide four points of devotion to Black for you to utilize.

Wrapping Up

Daemogoth Titan is a big creature with an obvious drawback. As you can see, though, that drawback can easily be turned into an advantage with the proper build.

What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

-Mike Likes