Timeless is an extremely powerful format. Even though it’s comprised specifically of cards on MTG Arena, thanks to various supplemental sets, bonus sheets, and Special Guest cards, there are a lot of broken things you can do in Timeless.
This can make it difficult for premier sets to have a major impact. After all, competing with all-stars like Dark Ritual and Show and Tell is tough.
In spite of this, one particular addition to Arena from Foundations Jumpstart is starting to garner some attention. One player even managed to make it to top 300 Mythic on the ladder with a deck built around this inclusion. The card in question is none other than Violent Outburst.
Violent Outburst received a lot of hype during spoiler season since Crashing Footfalls was already on the client. However, crafting a deck around this “combo” takes some work. Today, we’re going to look at what makes this player’s decklist so intriguing, and any ways the decklist can be improved moving forward.
Deckbuilding Requirements
- Mana Value: 1RG
- Rarity: Common
- MTG Sets: Alara Reborn, Foundations Jumpstart
- Card Text: Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.) Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
The main goal behind this archetype is to generate an overwhelming advantage when you cast Violent Outburst. If you craft your deck in a way where the only card with mana value two or less present is Crashing Footfalls, you can reliably Cascade into it whenever you cast Violent Outburst.
Cascade decks are nothing new to Magic. Prior to the banning of Violent Outburst in Modern, Temur Crashing Footfalls was a top-tier strategy. However, those decks also had access to Shardless Agent, providing plenty of redundancy. That consistency isn’t really here on MTG Arena, as Violent Outburst is the only simple three-mana Cascade card on the client.
As such, the decklist shown above focuses heavily on being a control deck, using Crashing Footfalls as a way to turn the corner. In games where you don’t draw Violent Outburst, jamming Oko, Thief of Crowns can help you pull ahead.
Bloodbraid Elf is another card that generates a lot of value. If you’re fortunate enough to chain Bloodbraid Elf into Violent Outburst into Crashing Footfalls off your Cascade triggers, you’re in great shape.
Early Interaction
- Mana Value: 3RR
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 3/3
- MTG Sets: Modern Horizons 2, Special Guests
- Card Text: Double Strike. When Fury enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers. Evoke- Exile a red card from your hand.
Of course, in a format as powerful as Timeless, you need some good ways to keep your opponent off balance. Because of the restriction that Violent Outburst and Crashing Footfalls places on the mana value of other cards in your deck, you need to look towards interactive spells with alternate casting costs.
For instance, Fury is an incredible card against the various Zoo and Energy decks you’re bound to run into in Timeless. Pitching extra copies of Bloodbraid Elf to it is totally fine in the early game and can help protect Oko. At the same time, hard casting Fury is perfectly reasonable depending on the situation.
The same is true of Subtlety. Subtlety helps you push your advantage once you’ve resolved Crashing Footfalls. On turn four, your opponent will have to play around both Violent Outburst and Subtlety, which can be a pain.
Besides the Evoke Elementals, you’ll also find Adventure creatures like Brazen Borrower and Bonecrusher Giant in the mix. Both cards give you decent disruption on turn two and a threat to follow up with on turn three when you don’t have Violent Outburst rolled up.
Finally, while it’s a bit narrow, the inclusion of Commandeer is quite important. You don’t have access to Force of Negation on Arena, so Commandeer will have to do. It takes a lot of resources, but it’s your best resource against the unfair Dark Ritual decks. Between Subtlety, Brazen Borrower, Oko, and Lorien Revealed, you’ll generally have the requisite blue cards to pitch to Commandeer.
Concerns and Improvements
- Mana Value: 2U
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- MTG Sets: Urza’s Saga, Conspiracy: Take the Crown, Special Guests, Mystery Booster 2
- Card Text: Each player may put an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land card from their hand onto the battlefield.
Overall, the strength of the Temur Rhinos shell lies with its ability to beat up on creature decks. The deck plays tons of cheap interaction for creatures, and Crashing Footfalls presents a very fast clock to help your turn the corner.
Notably, there are some other strong anti-creature cards that this decklist didn’t make use of. Crude Abattoir/Unsavory Kitchen is a new digital-only card that is definitely worth consideration. It does a great job keeping a turn one Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer in check much better than Bonecrusher Giant.
Still, where this deck has the toughest time is versus combo strategies. Show and Tell is one of the most popular decks in Timeless, and this deck doesn’t match up super well there. Not only does the Show and Tell shell have counter magic at the ready for Crashing Footfalls, but a resolved Show and Tell is often game over.
Commandeer isn’t even an effective tool against Show and Tell, since it doesn’t successfully counter the spell. Your opponent still gets to put their Omniscience into play all the same.
Having a playset of Mystical Dispute in the sideboard does help. Given how popular Show and Tell decks are, perhaps it’s worth putting some copies of Mystical Dispute in the maindeck. You can always pitch it to Subtlety or Commandeer when facing non-blue deck. Nonetheless, that doesn’t make the Show and Tell matchup easy by any stretch.
With this in mind, Temur Rhinos feels mostly like a metacall that is a few pieces away from being a more robust option. Having a tool like Force of Negation or Shardless Agent for more consistency enter Arena would be a huge deal for the archetype.
Regardless, if you can dodge some poor matchups, this strategy can be a decent choice to grind the ladder with on Arena. If you’ve been itching to break out Violent Outburst once more since the Modern banning, Timeless has you covered.
