Table of Contents
Hey everyone! I’ve just updated the Timeless Best of 3 tier list ahead of this weekend’s Timeless Metagame Challenge which you can check out here.
In general not a whole lot has changed in Timeless over the past month, but there is one new archetype, a few changes to some of the already established decks and some movement between the tiers which I’ll be going over, and I’m also going to discuss whether I think Show and Tell should be restricted, as well as highlighting my picks for the 5 best decks ahead of the Metagame Challenge. Let’s get into it!
Recent Updates to Pre-Existing Lists
With Show and Tell really cementing itself as the deck to beat currently, all of these tweaks from different lists are to improve their matchup against the top deck even further.
Jund Midrange
Jund Midrange
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
9 mythic
40 rare
6 uncommon
5 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Planeswalkers (2)
Creatures (15)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$885.29
Sideboard
15 Cards
$57.21
This is the list that has undergone the most changes since the last update, largely in response to the uptick in Show and Tell and the resulting downtick in Titan. Blood Moon is a card that was an important maindeck tool in Jund against both Titan and greedier midrange decks that were capable of going bigger than you, but with the emergence of Show and Tell both of these sorts of decks have been on the decline which makes Blood Moon less essential in the maindeck currently.
Blood Moon can be good against Show and Tell but it’s not too difficult for them to play around it by fetching basics either so I like moving it to the sideboard and replacing it with slightly more discard spells (which are very effective against Show and Tell game 1 before they board into more counterplay like Veil of Summer and Leyline of Sanctity) and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker which is more generically strong across the board, helps dig towards what you need while ditching dead cards, and is a good tool that can help you close out the game too.
Then in the sideboard I’m now running 4 Roiling Vortex which is one of the best hate cards against Show and Tell, as well as Pick Your Poison which acts as both an answer to a turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity and a way to kill Atraxa, Grand Unifier that also works well with Jarsyl, Dark Age Scion.
Sultai Yawgmoth
Sultai Yawgmoth by Käpälä
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
10 mythic
37 rare
5 uncommon
8 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (28)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$1009.72
Sideboard
15 Cards
$78.03
There’s only a very minor change to Yawgmoth since the last build both of which come from Yawgmoth aficionado Käpälä. They were previously splashing blue for Tishana's Tidebinder and Test of Talents (specifically for Show and Tell), but this new build is also running one copy of Lavinia, Azorius Renegade to improve the matchup against Show and Tell game 1 since it’s a card you can Chord of Calling for in response to Show and Tell which then shuts off the opponent’s ability cast non-creature spells for free off Omniscience unless they have spare mana available for Fatal Push or Veil of Summer (neither of which commonly see play in the maindeck).
This is huge at enabling you to buy time which is usually all the Yawgmoth deck needs to win – you are sometimes capable of racing with a fast Natural Order into Craterhoof Behemoth or Yawgmoth, Thran Physician combo, but on average you’re usually slightly slower than Show and Tell and so Lavinia, Azorius Renegade buying you time is very relevant.
It is uncastable with the current manabase which does mean you’re very slightly reducing your card quality in other matchups but Yawgmoth as an archetype is already very solid against a lot of the rest of the format so I definitely think this is an improvement to the deck, especially while Show and Tell is the deck to beat.
Selesnya Titan
Selesnya Titan
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
14 mythic
28 rare
5 uncommon
9 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (15)
Lands (29)
60 Cards
$589.91
15 Cards
$75.35
This is a list I worked on a lot towards the start of the format but it’s definitely one of the decks that’s been hurt the most with the addition of Show and Tell since in general this is a deck that is great against fair decks, but struggles the most against fast combo. For that reason I’ve moved this down from tier 1 to tier 2, but I still think it’s one of the best choices to beat the decks that are trying to beat Show and Tell, and the recent tweaks I’ve made to the list should hopefully improve your Show and Tell matchup somewhat too.
The main change here is trimming a land to make room for 1 copy of Boromir, Warden of the Tower which you can search for with Archdruid's Charm in response to Show and Tell in order to stop the opponent comboing off with Omniscience. Before the Show and Tell lists became more refined you could search for Titan of Industry which would be able to destroy Omniscience, or cleanly block Atraxa, Grand Unifier, however with lists now adapting to run Borne Upon a Wind, they can very consistently win at instant speed with the Titan of Industry trigger on the stack making it very unreliable as an answer now.
Boromir, Warden of the Tower unfortunately doesn’t do anything against Atraxa, Grand Unifier, but it does preemptively stop Omniscience if they find it alongside another Show and Tell off the Atraxa, Grand Unifier trigger, and Titan is capable of beating Atraxa, Grand Unifier via Archdruid's Charm as a fight spell with Primeval Titan, or transforming Westvale Abbey so it still gives you a good chance.
Then in the sideboard I still like Rule of Law as another hate card since it diversifies your hate pieces – the nice thing about having both Boromir, Warden of the Tower and Rule of Law is that they both require different answers which makes sideboarding difficult for the Show and Tell player.
The best counterplay to Boromir, Warden of the Tower is Fatal Push and Veil of Summer, both of which are already pretty bad against your deck so aren’t ideal for the opponent to be boarding in, and Rule of Law requires answers such as Krosan Grip and Boseiju, Who Endures which aren’t great against your deck either, so it can lead to the opponent drawing otherwise dead cards in general, and can be awkward if they have answers for one and you happen to have the other.
Naya Winota
Naya Winota
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
10 mythic
32 rare
7 uncommon
11 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (28)
Instants (4)
Sorceries (4)
Lands (24)
60 Cards
$666.42
Sideboard
15 Cards
$35.31
This is another list I’ve done a lot of work on, and is a deck with a decent proactive gameplan that also has a great matchup against Show and Tell due to having essentially 7 copies of Boromir, Warden of the Tower in the maindeck (3 actual copies in addition to 4 Grizzled Huntmaster which can search for it) as well as 4 copies of Agent of Treachery that is also nice to put into play off Show and Tell if they don’t have Omniscience into Borne Upon a Wind.
The big issue with this deck is that you can struggle against non – Show and Tell decks that have disruption. Discard spells can be a problem but they can be played through since most decks running discard are slower fair decks where drawing a Natural Order or Winota, Joiner of Forces off the top often just wins you the game on the spot, but counterspells are much more of an issue since both of your top end cards in Natural Order and Winota, Joiner of Forces are 4 mana sorceries so they’re both naturally weak to counterspells, and unlike discard spells they can answer cards drawn off the top too.
Voice of Resurgence in the sideboard was primarily there to help improve the matchup against counterspell heavy decks but it didn’t really feel enough to me, and there were a number of Grizzled Huntmaster wishboard targets that I found myself very rarely going for, so I’ve cut the two least relevant of those and the 1 of Deafening Silence in order to run 3 Anointed Peacekeeper which in addition to Voice of Resurgence should help improve the counterspell matchups a lot more.
The other really nice thing about running Anointed Peacekeeper in the sideboard is that it provides you with a human replacement for Boromir, Warden of the Tower in matchups where that wasn’t that impactful, which covers a lot of matchups and so this should also further improve your matchup against non – Show and Tell decks, especially decks that rely on activated abilities such as Yawgmoth.
A New Archetype – Mono Black Vampires
Mono Black Necro Vampires
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
12 mythic
32 rare
5 uncommon
11 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$723.74
Sideboard
15 Cards
$29.21
This is a list I used to top 8 the latest Timeless 1k Tournament and have also been doing very well with on ladder which I think is a solid addition to the tier 2 decks in the format. As a brief explanation of the deck I’ve copied my excerpt from the best of 3 tier list below:
This is a midrange deck that has access to some incredibly fast starts thanks to Dark Ritual which enables you to cast both Necropotence and Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord into Vein Ripper on turn 1. There’s a lot of nice crossover synergy between your two top end gameplans as well since both Vein Ripper and Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord are nice at buffering your life total allowing for more Necropotence activations.
This particular build also has a lot of cards that really increase your range of keepable hands (which helps to fix the typical issue of Dark Ritual Necropotence decks which often have to mulligan a lot) such as Deathrite Shaman which enables you to cast your 3 drops ahead of curve without being reliant on Dark Ritual, and Preacher of the Schism which makes Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord live without Vein Ripper and provides you with another powerful turn 1 play via Dark Ritual.
The deck also runs a lot of cheap interaction including discard spells like Inquisition of Kozilek and Break Expectations which are useful across the board but are particularly important against combo and control (Thoughtseize isn’t run here since the life loss is a really big drawback when you’re running Necropotence, especially because you want to be running it in high numbers), and cheap interaction like Fatal Push and March of Wretched Sorrow (which is one of the best cards alongside Necropotence since it allows you to overdraw with Necropotence, then exile excess black cards durin your end step to kill the opponent’s biggest threat, sculpt your hand, and then gain a bunch of life to fuel Necropotence) which are really important at slowing down the fast creature decks, and enables the passive abilities on Vein Ripper.
Then post-sideboard you have really strong hate cards against a lot of the top decks that are capable of going over the top of you such as Roiling Vortex against Show and Tell, Grafdigger's Cage against Yawgmoth and Winota, and Ashiok, Dream Renderand Virulent Plague against Titan, all of which you can find fairly consistently off Necropotence since they’re run in high numbers.
I feel like the deck is very powerful with good tools to fight the majority of the top decks, and it’s capable of stealing some easy wins when you open with some of the broken Dark Ritual starts, but it is also a difficult deck to play both in terms of mulligan decisions and Necropotence activations etc. so if you’re thinking of picking the deck up and are a Premium member I’ve done an in-depth 6,247 word deck guide here with full details on all the card choices, how to play the deck, sideboard guide, tips & tricks etc., but if you’re not a Premium member I also have a video deck guide on the MTG Arena Zone YouTube channel you can check out for free here which has a briefer breakdown of the deck along with a lot of gameplay from the latest Timeless open if you want to see the deck in action.
Overall I think this is a solid deck in the format but it does rely on sideboard hate cards in certain matchups, and is vulnerable to Pithing Needle so I don’t think it’s quite on the same level as the tier 1 decks.
Should Show and Tell be Restricted
I’ve already written an article on the impact Show and Tell has had on Timeless on the Premium site here, but that was mainly a breakdown of the pros and cons of the different cards you can use to counteract the deck and the decks best positioned to beat it. Here I’m more interested in talking about the impact it has on the format in terms of gameplay and viable deck options.
I saw a lot of people complaining about Show and Tell shortly after its release but I always think it’s important to be patient and see if the metagame can adapt to new decks given time. I feel like now we’ve had long enough for the dust to settle and while I do think there is viable counterplay to the Show and Tell decks (meaning it can be beaten with most archetypes if you’re teched for the matchup), it’s still oppressive, format-warping, and still able to win even when the format is hostile towards it which is a red flag for me.
In addition to this I think the deck doesn’t lead to great gameplay patterns either – in a similar vein to the recently banned discover decks in Pioneer, having a combo that can win on the spot from zero board presence is very frustrating to play against and often leads to situations where you just have to hope they don’t have it.
This even applies to the commonly played hate cards as well – one of the biggest issues I’ve found when trying to build to beat Show and Tell is that all of the best options still have counterplay from cards Show and Tell is already running so not only do you have to hope they don’t have the combo, you also have to hope they don’t have the relevant counterplay when you have your hate cards too.
For example Boromir, Warden of the Tower can be bypassed via Fatal Push and Veil of Summer, Roiling Vortex can be bypassed by Krosan Grip or the opponent finding their wishboard tutor card like Mastermind's Acquisition fast, Rule of Law enables them to still cast Dig Through Time for free during your turn, and then something like Atraxa, Grand Unifier during theirs, discard spells can be counteracted by Veil of Summer and Leyline of Sanctity etc.
The deck being resilient enough to win through hate was highlighted in the recent Timeless 1k open tournament with the finals being a Show and Tell mirror, and Show and Tell only losing to other Show and Tell decks in the top 8.
Another issue I have with the deck is that it really limits the number of viable decks in the format. I’m someone who is constantly trying to come up with new brews and ideas, and there have been a lot of interesting ideas I’ve started to put together in Timeless recently before realizing that it’ll never be able to beat Show and Tell consistently and immediately ditching it so I’ve basically given up on trying to build new decks in Timeless until the next set releases now.
Having said all of that I do think Timeless is still a good format with Show and Tell as a part of it – there is counterplay, it is beatable with a lot of decks, and certain decks can have a consistently good matchup against it so I don’t think it’s ruining Timeless as a format, but I do think the format would be better if it was restricted personally.
It would open up a lot more viable archetypes particularly fair decks (which generally leads to good gameplay), and it would mean every deck didn’t have to dedicate multiple slots in the maindeck or sideboard to try and beat it. I don’t have an issue with these sorts of combo decks that can win from an empty board existing in the format, but I don’t think it’s great when it’s the best deck in the format.
As to whether I think a restriction is likely any time soon, I’d probably guess no since Wizards have said they would rather add new answers to the format to see if they can help the format to adapt to problematic decks rather than preemptively restrict them which I think is fair, especially with the ‘Big Score’ bonus sheets from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and Modern Horizons 3 coming to the format relatively soon.
But even with those additions I personally believe it would just be an overall positive for the format as a whole to restrict Show and Tell because it would be sad if a lot of the new cards didn’t see as much play because Show and Tell continued to be the dominant deck (especially because it is also getting some new tools such as Abrupt Decay which can answer all of the commonly played hate cards).
Top Decks for the Timeless Metagame Challenge
In my opinion the top 5 decks in Timeless currently are Sultai Show and Tell, Jund Midrange, Sultai Yawgmoth, Domain Zoo, and Mono Black Vampires so I’ve provided decklists for all of those archetypes below.
If you want more details on these decks then I recommend checking out the Bo3 tier list where each archetype has a write up with how the deck works, its weaknesses, and what metagames they’re likely to excel in. There’s also a bunch of other viable archetypes listed on there if none of these take your fancy, for example Grixis Shadow, Naya Winota, Grixis Breach, and Selesnya Titan which I think would also be good choices. Either way good luck if you’re playing in the Metagame Challenge and thanks a lot for reading!
Sultai Show and Tell by Omri
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
16 mythic
24 rare
5 uncommon
15 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (4)
Instants (15)
Sorceries (17)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$774.69
Sideboard
15 Cards
$52.15
Jund Midrange
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
9 mythic
40 rare
6 uncommon
5 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Planeswalkers (2)
Creatures (15)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (23)
60 Cards
$885.29
Sideboard
15 Cards
$57.21
Sultai Yawgmoth by Käpälä
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
10 mythic
37 rare
5 uncommon
8 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (28)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$1009.72
Sideboard
15 Cards
$78.03
Domain Zoo by Delmo
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
6 mythic
31 rare
13 uncommon
10 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (21)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$853.22
Sideboard
15 Cards
$35.25
Mono Black Necro Vampires
by Altheriax
Timeless
best of 3
12 mythic
32 rare
5 uncommon
11 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Planeswalkers (4)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$723.74
Sideboard
15 Cards
$29.21
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Altheriax
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