Timeless GW Depths: Fun & Jank Episode 59

Let’s address the elephant in the room.

Yes, Plum played Timeless…
and yes, I actually enjoyed myself.

I have not played Timeless in a while.
And there’s a reason for that.

Every time I think about the format, my brain immediately jumps to words like slog, grind, someone is going to Strip Mine me until I stop feeling emotions. I love all the fun and powerful cards the format has, but there’s so many non-games that it feels like the ability to try out creative brews is greatly hindered by cards that “gatekeep” format.

Nonetheless I came across as list that caught my eye, dragged me back to Timeless with the promise of casting Knight of the Reliquary. Welcome back to Fun & Jank Episode 59, I’m Plum, and this week we’ll be taking a look at GW Dark Depths!

Let’s dive in!

Why This Deck?

Most of the Dark Depths shells floating around tend to be “all-in” on that plan. They turbo out Stage + Depths to create a big ol’ Spaghetti Monster as fast as possible. Usually it’s backed up with redundant tutors so they can end the game as quickly as possible.

That’s boring, and this is Fun & Jank.

I liked this list because it tried to take on the same idea from a different angle.

Instead of committing fully to the combo, it treats Dark Depths as just one axis of pressure in a lands-value midrange shell. You still threaten Marit Lage, but you’re just as happy:

• Grinding with Knight activations
• Looping Strip Mines
• Gaining life off lands dying
• Or building toward a Titania meld (we did actually achieve this one on stream)

The Deck

The main idea of this list is to have the constant threat of Marit Lage, with multiple ways to tutor for it’s pieces, while also playing a grindy value plan at the same time. This deck can make a 20/20, but it doesn’t fall apart when that plan gets answered.

Let’s break it down a bit more:

The Dark Depths Package

Yes, we’re playing the classic package:

• Dark Depths
• Thespian's Stage

Use Stage to copy Depths, which then has 0 Ice counters, and we get a flying indestructible creature. But the key difference here is pace. Because we’re not racing to assemble the combo as fast as possible, opponents are forced to respect when it might happen rather than that it will happen. It’s pretty easy to tell what our deck is trying to do from the start of the game, which means opponent’s have to stay on guard for the possibility of a 20/20 hitting the board right from the get-go.

Land-based Value

Reclaimer is a powerful one-drop creature that can turn into a decent late game ebater. Although we mainly use it as a repeatable crop-rotation over the course of the game. Is does basically everything we could need.

• Fixes your lands
• Tutors important lands
• Dumps lands in the yard

It’s a great engine piece for this list, and pulls double duty most of the time.

Knight is the entire reason I wanted to play this deck.

In Timeless, Knight of the Reliquary can keep up with the power of the format no problem, if you build around it correctly. With fetchlands, Strip Mine, and , Knight gives you access to any land in your deck and turns into a very fast clock on top of it.

Similar to Reclaimer, Knight is especially strong for its tutor ability, most notably grabbing Bojuka Bog at instant speed, or finding a piece of the Depths package. It also gets huge, which matters more often than people expect in a format where creatures are either gigantic or nonexistent.

This card is popular because its powerful, and holds an archetype like this one together especially well. It ramps, it fuels the graveyard, and it incidentally turns on Titania synergies while always giving us something productive to do. Obviously Strip Mine looping is where its at, but rebuying fetches or setting up another Marit Lage is quite strong.

Titania (the bad one)

This is not a good card. But like I said earlier, this is Fun & Jank. We looooove bad cards here. And this one actually did surprisingly well and won us a few games. The life gain actually come sin quite handy. We ended up playing Burn a couple times on stream and turning every Strip Mine, Fetch, Knight activation, or Crop Rotation into an extra 2 life came in handy.

And then there’s the meld.

If you manage to assemble Titania plus Argoth, Sanctum of Nature, the game usually ends shortly after. The meld isn’t something you rush, but we can make it happen often enough that opponents who don’t realize we have the ability to do so end up ignoring it by mistake.

Support

Probably the best removal in the format while Marit Lage is around. Answers most creatures cleanly.

Used as a flexible tutor rather than a combo engine. It smooths the deck without forcing you into linear play patterns. There were some experimental inclusions that overperformed and some that were just… fine. The good news is that this tutors for every creature in the deck, so we usually have something useful for it to grab.

Tutorable Creatures

Beyond the core land engine, the rest of the creature suite provides utility and pressure:

• Voice of Resurgence
  Still excellent. Punishes interaction and tends to gum up the board if the game goes long. Voice often buys the time needed to get Knight or Titania online.
• Sylvan Safekeeper
  Protection plus synergy. Safekeeper shields our important creatures and gives us another way to sacrifice lands when Titania is involved. It’s low-profile, but impactful.
• Scythecat Cub
  This is where we experimented a bit. Cub can absolutely snowball in the right shell, and there were moments where it became a real threat. That said, this deck isn’t built to maximize it.
• Badgermole Cub
  Similar story here. Perfectly serviceable, occasionally cute, but ultimately not something the deck is fully leveraging. If this were a dedicated dork list with more one-drops, it would probably shine more, but here, it mostly just filled space.
• Dryad Militant
  This little guy actually does some decent work against spell based combo decks. Just a fun inclusion to have in the tool box incase we needed it.

All of these creatures contribute something meaningful, and being able to tutor for the right one at the right time is what makes the deck feel resilient rather than clunky.

Tutorable Lands

Beyond the Dark Depths pieces, we filled out the mana base with a small toolbox of utility lands, none of which are mandatory. With Crop Rotation, Knight of the Reliquary, and Elvish Reclaimer in the deck its quite easy to grab any land we might need for any given situation. These ones help greatly if the game goes long by providing repeatable value. The important thing to recognize here is that the manabase has a lot of flexibility.

Gameplay

I fully expected to get stomped since I’ve been out of the format for a while, but we did surprisingly well! Although, we didn’t really come up against any of the top dogs in the format. But we ran into a decent spread of decks on stream, and that gave a pretty good snapshot of where this list shines and where it struggles.

Burn

This was easily the most surprising matchup of the day.

On paper, I expected to get ran over. In practice, Titania straight-up stole some games. The incidental life gain from fetches, Crop Rotation, Knight activations, and Strip Mine added up fast. There were several games where we dipped to single digits early, only to claw back into a comfortable life total rather quickly.

Swords to Plowshares pulling double duty as removal and life padding mattered a lot here too. Once Titania hit the battlefield, Burn had a very hard time closing the game unless they already had us dead on board.

This matchup felt better than expected.

Scam / Grief Decks

Scam was annoying, but manageable.

Discard hurts, obviously, but this deck is redundant by design. Losing a key card early didn’t immediately end the game because our threats overlap so much. Knight, Reclaimer, and land tutors gave us ways to rebuild, and once we stuck a real engine piece, Scam struggled to keep pressure on.

Fair Midrange Decks

These felt solidly favorable.

Most midrange decks just couldn’t keep up with repeated land-based value. Trading resources one-for-one doesn’t work very well against a deck where lands function as spells, and having access to Strip Mine without committing to a full prison plan created awkward spots for opponents.

Lands & Dark Depths Mirrors

Reality kinda set in on this one.

Against more streamlined lands decks, especially ones fully committed to Strip Mine loops, we were clearly the less focused version. Those decks do that plan better than we do, and when they got ahead early, it was hard to claw back.

That said, having multiple angles still mattered. There were games where threatening Marit Lage at weird times or gaining life with Titania forced opponents off their preferred lines. We didn’t dominate these matchups, but we weren’t completely dead either.

Combo & Big Mana

This was hit or miss.

When we could apply pressure early or disrupt their mana with Strip Mine, things felt fine. When we couldn’t, it was very obvious and we got stomped. That said, the ability to present fast Marit Lage kills in some games gave us steals we probably didn’t deserve.

Closing Thoughts

I’m still not the biggest fan of the format anymore. The format is still a slog in a lot of ways, and there are still plenty of games where it feels like one player simply doesn’t get to participate. Cards like Strip Mine, Force of Negation, and fast combo are always going to push the format toward extremes, but that’s something you sign up for when you queue into Timeless.

That said… this deck worked!

More importantly, it worked without forcing me into a single linear gameplan. I got to play real Magic. I got to make decisions. And I got to win games in multiple ways, sometimes with Marit Lage, sometimes with Knight value, and occasionally by melding Titania and watching my opponent scoop. And in a format that midrange usually can’t keep up with, it felt pretty good. In terms of actual performance, the deck held up better than expected.

As for changes, there are definitely a few things I’d look at tuning if I were to keep playing this deck:

• Some of the experimental creature slots could be trimmed. Badgermole Cub and Scythecat Cub weren’t bad, but the deck isn’t built to maximize them, and those slots could be used for more consistency or interaction.
• I’d consider leaning slightly harder into either disruption or value, depending on the metagame. Right now the list sits comfortably in the middle, which is good, but Timeless rewards being very deliberate about your plan.
• I could also see adjusting the utility land toolbox if the meta shifts. None of those slots are sacred, and that flexibility is one of the deck’s strengths.

So overall, if you want a blast of nostalgia and to jam some Knight of the Reliquaries, I’d highly recommend this list. For Fun & Jank purposes, this deck delivered exactly what I wanted it to do. I had fun, and I’m not mad about it.

Thanks for reading!

As always, feel free to comment and leave any questions you have below. And make sure to come back next week for even more Fun & Jank!

If you want to see these decks in action, come hang out with me on stream where we test, refine, and have a ton of fun together.

Happy Brewin’!