We are currently in Magic the Gathering: Modern season! With more upcoming RCQs and Golden Gate: Modern, let’s take a peek inside our current local Modern meta!
In an interesting turn of events, our recent RCQ on 13th June was won by a Temur Rhinos deck piloted by Kevin Wong. Cascade decks have always been present in the Modern scene. However, in the current meta that has recently been dominated by Affinity and Izzet Cutter Prowess, it was quite a surprise to see this deck float above them all. So today, let’s take a look at Temur Rhinos in Modern!
This deck is intriguing due to it being both a combo and a tempo deck. A huge part of the deck is using Cascade to get Crashing Footfalls immediately, and win the game by swinging 4/4 Rhinos at your opponent while actively removing any of their threats. This creates an extremely interactive deck that will slowly but surely eek out advantage over their opponents.
This deck also uses Temur colours, which are blue, red and green. Most of the tempo pieces in this deck uses either blue or red, such as the counterspells in blue and removals in red, or both. Whereas the green in the deck is for the Rhinos in Crashing Footfalls as well as recursion in cards like Endurance. By having all three colours, this also enables the deck to use cards like Shardless Agent and Violent Outburst to enable Cascade.
The combo in this deck is triggered by the Cascade mechanic found on Shardless Agent and Violent Outburst. This deck is also only possible due to the recent unbanning of Violent Outburst! Since both Shardless Agent and Violent Outburst have three converted mana cost, this allows it to cast any cards that have two or less converted mana cost to be cast instantly for free!
Crashing Footfalls is the other half of this combo. It uses the Suspend mechanic which makes it a zero converted mana cost card that normally can only turn on after 4 turns. By using Cascade, it allows us to bypass the turn cost needed by Crashing Footfalls, giving us two 4/4 rhinos with trample immediately. This is also why outside of Crashing Footfalls, almost every other card in the deck has a three or more converted mana cost.
Outside of “cheating” in Crashing Footfalls, this deck also uses a lot of cards that have a higher converted mana cost than it seems. This is because the deck uses a lot of cards with alternate casting cost (Force of Negation), split cards (Dead // Gone) or using the Evoke mechanic (Endurance).
Since the deck is more of a tempo deck, the Evoke mechanic is especially powerful. During the early game, they can be used as cheap sorceries through their Evoke cost and triggering their enter-the-battlefield effects. In the late game, they can be powerful creatures that can close out the game. In fact, the four Evoke Elementals are such powerful creatures that outside of Shardless Agent, the deck plays almost no other creatures.
The rest of the deck is filled with removals and counters to deny your opponents. Split cards like Dead // Gone and Fire // Ice are strong as the total converted mana cost of the cards are the combined cost, but you only need to pay for the half you are casting. Its split nature also allows you to choose which side you want to cast, making them super flexible. Cards like Force of Negation also allow you to cast it with an alternate casting cost, making it extremely strong in this and most decks. These cards are especially powerful against aggro decks as the targeted removals and cheap counters allows the deck to maintain its advantage throughout the games.
Other than cards with alternate casting cost, any staple cards with at least three converted mana cost can also be used in the deck. This includes removals such as Sink into Stupor or tempo staples like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is also easily another win condition in the deck if left unanswered.
