Qualifier Day 1 with Colorless Superfriends | Timeless

[@priorityholder]

Do you want to see Timeless Events on Arena? Like those for Historic and Explorer?

[@GeenoBilly]

Bo1 for sure!

[@ratz30]

Absolutely!

[@priorityholder]

@@GeenoBilly Yeah that's what I want too! I think I've heard that Timeless is the least played format on Arena though. Maybe they're concerned about splitting the queues too much?

[@priorityholder]

@@ratz30 Me too! Yeah it's annoying how every other constructed format on Arena has them, except Timeless.

[@BugioPimposo]

Nah, just timeless

[@donttoywithfloris]

Nice deck, as well as the BO1 deck you showcased earlier, thanks! I play a similar historic BO3 deck, which uses Thought-Knot Seer for hand disruption and Sowing Mycospawn for ramp and (quite often) land destruction. These cards really help in the ramping phase.

[@priorityholder]

Thanks! Yeah I love Though-Knot Seer so much and I have wondered if it should be in there. And they need to give us Reality Smasher already lol! Mycospawn is a sweet include! Are you also rocking Field of the Dead as a search target?

[@donttoywithfloris]

@@priorityholder Nope, but I do have a single Dust Bowl for additional land destruction though.

[@emilia0096]

May I ask what your decklist looks like for bo3?

[@donttoywithfloris]

@@emilia0096 Of course, here it is! Note I only play one Forsaken Monument (had another in the sideboard but never used it) and I don't have Karn or a wishboard. Also, Chalice is in the sideboard and goes in against any aggro deck. Deck 4 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269 4 Devourer of Destiny (MH3) 2 2 Drowner of Truth (MH3) 253 2 Guardian Idol (JMP) 467 1 Wastes (OGW) 186 4 It That Heralds the End (MH3) 9 4 Kozilek's Command (MH3) 11 4 Mind Stone (WTH) 153 3 Nulldrifter (MH3) 13 2 Radiant Fountain (M21) 248 1 The Irencrag (WOE) 248 4 Thought-Knot Seer (OGW) 9 4 Ugin's Labyrinth (MH3) 233 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger (BFZ) 15 3 Worn Powerstone (USG) 318 2 Dismember (SPG) 41 3 Sowing Mycospawn (MH3) 170 4 Yavimaya Coast (DMU) 261 2 Forest (ANA) 9 2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (M21) 1 1 Bonders' Enclave (IKO) 245 1 Blast Zone (BRO) 258 1 Dust Bowl (OTP) 65 1 Forsaken Monument (ZNR) 244 Sideboard 2 A-Haywire Mite (BRO) 199 2 Null Elemental Blast (MH3) 12 3 Disruptor Flute (MH3) 209 4 Chalice of the Void (MRD) 150 2 Thief of Existence (MH3) 174 1 Weathered Runestone (KHM) 247 1 Soul-Guide Lantern (WOE) 251

[@donttoywithfloris]

@@emilia0096 If you try it, let me know what you think!

[@matthewfew3278]

I've been playing my own tweaked version of this deck and dude is it absolutely incredible. It's so consistent. It ignores ponza, it grinds control very well. It dunks on aggro and burn, and it prisons midrange. I was a huge modern player pre covid and I traveled the country playing opens and GPs. This deck is as good or BETTER than old red green tron. It's such a juggernaut of a deck. Just the lands can keep you in the game and every single resolved spell had multiple effects that get you drastically ahead. Also it feels good to finally wreck other people with chalice because I played sultai midrange, grixis control, and lantern control in modern, so chalice used to poopoo on me. Great deck man! Most fun I've had since standard esper legends.

[@priorityholder]

Hey that makes me so happy to hear that! I'm glad to hear you're seeing success with it! What tweaks have you made? I always followed Modern from afar, but never played it. It always seemed so fun, I know people are conflicted about its current state though. I agree about the power of Chalice, can't feel good to be on the other side of it lol. I believe it's criminally underplayed, some decks completely fold to it. I really appreciate you reaching out with your experience, made my day lol. I think the deck is a nice mix of powerful, fun, and has a lot of play to it. An all-utility manabase is no joke! Here are some of my highlights with this deck: -Decking UW Control -Chalices for 1, 2, AND 3 by turn 4 -Purposely leaving Blood Moon in play with an Ugin minus to keep the opp color-screwed -Winning after getting attacked by 3x Archlight Phoenix on turn 2

[@matthewfew3278]

Here is my current list. It has gone through a few iterations over the last 3 weeks, but this is the most consistent version I've managed to build. It's very very similar to the original list you played weeks ago and a list I built about a year ago. As you said in this video, we just lose to show and tell. No bones about it. We don't have the main board ability to interact with other decks that don't interact. In modern Tron always loses to combo. It's just how it always has been. However this deck (which I cringily named Stainless T) is unbelievably well positioned against Mill, Energy, Jund (midrange as a whole), tribal aggro, and even prime time land decks. It is intermediate against control with either a T1 chalice or mind stone. If you gain momentum early it leaves dedicated control trying to play tempo and it can't do that very well. They'll deck themselves just trying to keep up with you. It also handles the rest of the format (jank, brews, old tech, casuals) with very little effort or critical maneuvering. K command is a broken spell. This is my version and I'm pretty sure it's as well suited against the BO1 meta as I can make it with my card pool. Thanks for the reply man and I'd love to see you play this deck more and more. Maybe give my list a try and see if you like it! Deck 4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (M21) 1 4 Devourer of Destiny (MH3) 2 4 Ugin's Labyrinth (MH3) 233 2 Ugin, the Ineffable (WAR) 2 4 Karn, the Great Creator (WAR) 1 4 Crystal Grotto (WOE) 254 4 Chalice of the Void (MRD) 150 4 Mind Stone (WTH) 153 4 Breaker of Creation (MH3) 1 4 Kozilek's Command (MH3) 11 3 Forsaken Monument (ZNR) 244 2 Mutavault (M14) 228 2 Blast Zone (WAR) 244 3 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269 1 Inventors' Fair (KLR) 284 3 Radiant Fountain (M21) 248 4 Zhalfirin Void (DAR) 249 3 The One Ring (LTR) 246 1 Wastes (OGW) 186 Sideboard 1 The One Ring (LTR) 246 1 Phyrexian Revoker (BRR) 40 1 Liquimetal Coating (BRR) 28 1 Darksteel Citadel (M15) 242 1 Weathered Runestone (KHM) 247 1 Damping Sphere (DAR) 213 1 Disruptor Flute (MH3) 209

[@matthewfew3278]

@priorityholder exchange that basic waste for an island or something. I forgot wastes can't be grabbed off boseju or field of ruin.

[@priorityholder]

@@matthewfew3278 I appreciate the detailed reply! I love Cavern in there. There's been a few times lately where I really wanted a Breaker to resolve and they countered it. You get the cast trigger, but wasting that much mana is rough. I agree that accepting the SnT matchup as bad is simply the best course of action. No sense in ruining the core gameplan to just become simply less bad against SnT. Breaker of Creation is such a interesting include. It's another thing to tuck under Labyrinth, can stabilize against aggro with the life gain trigger, a devastating closer, and is super tough to remove once on the board. Just a couple of questions: Is maindeck Wastes worth it? You can fetch it following an Assassin's Trophy, but not off something like a Boseiju. Am I missing other popular cards that let you grab it? I'm guessing that with 12 cards to tuck, Labyrinth is essentially always tapping for 2? The main concern I have (which may be irrelevant) is having such a high curve with 14 cards at 6+ MV. Or does the Scrying + Devourer triggers get you there? I appreciate talking to someone who has spent some time refining the deck. It's my nature that once a deck is feeling good, I abandon it and move to the next project lol. I don't often find those last few edges to be gained through further iteration. I needed something to play for the qualifier/play-in and eventually realized that this deck was probably my best shot.

[@matthewfew3278]

@priorityholder I have had very few game where bricking became an issue. I replaced the waste with a forrest already to get around boseju. The high curve is not too hard to deal with. The k commands, monuments, and one rings give you extra turns for drops. I run a full set of the two big eldrazi to create pressure against control and justify the caverns. It seemed like a safe include as a good colorless utility land. The cavern/eldrazi package has won me a good many games. Breaker is a very powerful uncommon and most of the time I never get passed 8 lands so I curved for the breakers rather than ulamog. Breaker has hexproof, annihilator, massive life gain (plus monument triggers), and it is a 10/6 with monument out. I have enjoyed it. Swap that waste for a forrest and give it a try. Just see how it feels compared to the lists you've run. I'm glad you inspired me to try this deck. It has been a blast so far. I'd love to know my w/l ratio.

[@ArsArmatoria]

Hello, I love this kind of deck and since I play mostly Bo3 (UBx Tempo) I would like to talk about some Sideboard/Wishboard choices. First of all, there is a short video with Reid Duke on Channel Fireball regarding SB and how to build it. I can put a link here if you like. I don't have all the WCs for this deck yet, so I can't test this right now, but I am very tempted to buy it (even though I was saving up for Mardu Energy). In Bo3 Timeless you mostly play against Black piles (veriations of Scam and Midrange decks), Mardu/Boros Energy, Show and Tell, Shift and Tell, UB and UBx Tempo. Sometimes you play against Jet Storm and a Control variant. First: Is Skysovereign really necessary? It just seems so bad against all of the above mentioned decks. It's 5 Mana and kills no relevant creatures besides in the Energy matchups and there it is too slow. Second: The graveyard is an extra resource and not that important for most decks currently. So, I imagine a land that exiles the Graveyard, like you suggested at the end, wouldn't be that useful most of the time. This might change if the new shift and tell version becomes more popular. But even then, I think you are correct in relying more on cards like Unlicensed Hearse. A suggestion for hate pieces there is Stone of Erech, which is played in some UB lists. It's static effect removes all creatures when they enter the GY, which makes reanimation more difficult, and it's activated ability funtions as a panic button to remove the GY. It also cycles. Third: I would try to play more versatile wrath effects and we have good options in Timeless. I would play at 1-2 Ratchet Bombs, but these can be less useful if the opponent has diverse mana cost creatures as is the case for energy most of the time, which is the deck we want those wraths for. They mostly have 1 drops, but their 2 drops are annoying as well and their tokes are 0 cost. Since we have the mana filter lands, we can play easily Toxic Deluge or Pyroclasm, when it comes out. This makes them cost 1 more Mana, but it would be a better boardwipe then RB in most cases. This would mean, that we had to play at least 8 of these filter lands, so at least 4 of the surveil lands since there are no other scry filter lands on Arena, but I think I it would be worthwile.. Fourth: There are not that many Scam piles running around so it might be feasible to play surveil lands + buried ruin to enable a more grindy gameplan. If it becomes a problem, one can switch back to scry. Fifth: Defense Grid in the SB might be needed to win against all these Tempo lists, but as I said earlier, I can't really test it right now. This deck is unbeatable, if it gets its pieces on the board, but Tempo and Control lists are good at keeping them away from it. I'd like to hear your thoughts about this and I hope you try to play Bo3 more. This deck might struggle with Boseiju in Shift and Tell, but Abrade is usually never seen since Mono Red doesn't really exist in Bo3. I've played against it once or twice.

[@priorityholder]

Thanks for the insight! Yeah my only experience with best of three is paper Limited, on Arena I just play best of one. I appreciate you taking the time to type out your thoughts! I've also seen most of those decks in bo1, but not so much Shift and Tell, but maybe it's getting more popular. Bo1 also has Necro Storm and various Belcher decks. Are those popular in bo3? I could see those decking having a hard time in sideboarded matches, so maybe they're preying on bo1. I'm not convinced Skysovereign is necessary. It's main role is to make a Karn in play more potent, but Karn doesn't really need to the help and/or is often killed right away. I guess its main strength is against Midrange, like coming down and nuking a Grief. But you're probably correct in questioning its usefulness. Yeah Scavenger Grounds sounds good in theory, but often the damage is done (turn 1 or 2 Reanimate or Buried Alive) before you could even crack it. I think Hearse could be a really nice Wish/Sideboard option, probably in addition to Tormod's Crypt. You're absolutely right about Ratchet Bombs, they are sometimes incredibly potent and other times really lacking (like against Bowmasters or Ajani which generate 2 MV and a 0 MV permanents). I love your suggestion of jamming Toxic Deluge or Pyroclasm by boosting the number of filterlands back up to at least 8 copies (by getting some Surveil ones back in there). I think I'd prefer Deluge since Guide of Souls can easily grow stuff out of Pyroclasm range. But I am worried about the life loss, especially with The One Ring dinging us. Another person commented with their list that also runs Breaker of Creation as another card to tuck under Labyrinth AND as a potent source of life gain. Some number of Breakers to offset the Deluges might do the trick. I think with a proper sideboard that this deck could be even stronger in bo3 than bo1. Game 1 Karn would have way more stuff to grab (in bo1 you only get 7 cards in your Wish/Sideboard). And you could swamp out Chalices if they aren't relevant. There's so many possible colorless hate cards it's difficult to narrow down the best ones. But you are correct that including as many versatile picks is the way. I never really felt like I needed the Buried Ruins to grind out games (against control) because basically every spell is a "must counter" (best feeling is resolving a Chalice X=2 against them, they have tools to deal with it, but I love locking out Mana Drains at least temporarily lol). BUT if you tweak the deck to pack Toxic Deluges then maybe you won't need as many Blast Zones and can go back to Buried Ruins for grindy matchups. Returning a Ring or a Monument to hand could be gg. I love Defense Grid in the Sideboard, bo1 might be too tight to squeeze it in, but you could probably afford it in bo3. I am not against playing more bo3, it's more of a time thing. It's easier to squeeze in games here and there in bo1 and it keeps the editing time down. Editing is currently the biggest barrier to me making videos. That being said, I love competitive Magic and will definitely be trying to play more of it in Timeless whether bo1 or bo3. Thanks again for the interest and the detailed thoughts! And good luck harvesting wildcards to save for Mardu Energy and maybe this monstrosity lol

[@ArsArmatoria]

@@priorityholder Ah, the troubles of video editing. I didn't think of that. When I think I don't have the time for Bo3, I play Brawl. I'm just not a fan of being overrun by a strategy I didn't expect and then don't have the chance to adapt and practice against it. Typing all this stuff out is fun for me :). I'm really bad at constructing decks from scratch, but thinking how to adapt them is always fun and even more so if I can exchange ideas with someone. If Necro Storm is Greaseball's Jet Storm (Jet Medallion, Necropotence etc.) then you will not encounter it that often, because it takes a lot of skill to win Bo3 with it. I gave up on it for a time, because I'm just not good enough yet. If it's a Tendrils deck, I think I played against it once. Belcher comes up from time to time, but since I mainly play UB Tempo it's beatable. I'll probably buy the wildcards for this deck and test a lot of things with it. The goal for me is to be able to beat energy reliably, don't lose as badly against Show and Tell and beat the rest of the field, because we are just too awesome. Breaker is probably a good substitute for small Ugin since it stabilizes you and pressures the opponent with annihilator. Unfortunately, cats don't care about annihilator... Fortunately, Breaker doesn't care about Static Prison. The thing with Energy is that they can have such busted starts that not having spot removal really hurts, so the mana acceleration has to be good enough that a 4 Mana Deluge is fast enough against their good openings. (Energy's best openings are straight unbeatable right now, unless you combo them out right afterwards.) The advantage of Pyroclasm is that it's faster and kills everything as long as the Guide didn't buff something. Since we don't have spot removal, the faster one might be necessary to stop fast starts. On the other hand Deluge might be necessary to better catch up. Testing will show which one is more feasible in that regard. Currently I am not too worried that Deluge will cost too much life, since it's usually cost you 2-4 life which can be recuperated with monument and Breaker easily. Another thing I'll probably try is to condense the wishboard as much as possible to create a solid sideboard. I'll probably also try a version without Karn at some point. He is a bit slow and there is no artifact besides Belcher and TOR that needs to be disabled. Flute or Needle can do that as well. I hope we get the Urza land cycle and oblivion stone some time in the future... I love big mana decks ever since Cloudpost, but wasn't able to play one since back then... Anyway, thanks for the videos and your response :)

[@priorityholder]

@@ArsArmatoria Yeah bo3 is certainly more rewarding and more balanced, but I can't shake the convenience of bo1 lol. I actually am primarily a Limited player. The majority of my Arena play time is Premier Drafts (that's how I have so many random rares/mythics to play around with lol). I love building decks though and have been having fun sharing the videos. My strength is deck ideas, so it's nice to talk to you and other commenters who are good at deck refinement! Yeah the Necro storm I was referring to plays some artifacts and creatures that create treasures upon dying to go off with Beseech the Mirror. It could be that that style is dying out now with the rising popularity of Jet Storm (the one I'm thinking of goes off with Chthonian Nightmare). Only done a couple of goldfishing games, but it seems like Toxic Deluge is what this deck wants. Still need to test more to determine if there's enough filter lands, but I suspect with all the card draw/selection it'll be fine. Yeah I'd be interested in hearing about a non-Karn version of the deck. The original gimmick of the deck was to be "Superfriends", but over time it's been shifting into a prisony-rampy-midrange pile. It's not as planeswalker centric as is used to be (running like Heart of Kiran and Karn Scion of Urza). Karn's passive doesn't come up all the time (though he does shut down Rings, Baubles, and Treasures), he's mainly there just for the -2. If we could get some Cloudposts or Urza lands on Arena that would be so sweet! How about All is Dust as a wrath that can tuck under Labyrinth? We can dream! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[@Manascrew]

@@priorityholder you seem like a really chill guy. i just started playing some drafts and went 7-1 and 7-2 in ixalan with a jeskai artifacts deck. I mostly try to make homebrew decks but I'm short on rares/mythics so im grinding out some gems.

[@priorityholder]

@@Manascrew Thanks! Hey that's great you did so well, it feels amazing to hit 7 wins in a Draft! I'm excited for Duskmourn to release, got a decent amount of currency banked for Premier Drafts. Did you get to draft Bloomburrow at all? Good luck banking those wildcards! It's hard to ever have enough

[@priorityholder]

* Spoilers Below * Well... That didn't go the way I wanted it to lol. But I still love the deck and think it's a nice choice for Timeless. More than the result itself, I'm disappointed that I didn't get to showcase it at full power, with a proper Sideboard. However, I still learned from the experience and if anything, it's made me hungrier for more competitive constructed! Unfortunately, it'll probably take a long time for the Qualifiers to circle back to Timeless, the next couple are in other formats. I might even give it a go in Historic or something (deck is the same outside of a nerfed The One Ring). I wish there were more opportunities for playing Timeless with stakes. I think it's better overall to accept SnT as a bad matchup and not bother with tweaking the deck so much. Even the "silver bullets" we can play have countermeasures that SnT already plays. SnT can power through Vexing Bauble with Veil of Summer (which they sometimes main!), Meteor Golem can attempt to blow up the Omniscience with the ETB but they run Borne Upon a Wind to go off at instant speed, and Platinum Angel gets got by Boseiju or Sink Into Stupor. And I've seen SnT lists running each of those countermeasures. So I think the better approach (not of the second sun) is to just shore up the other matchups and lean in on the fact that you can just decimate certain decks with Chalice on 1. Don't bother hedging. As to how I didn't know the Qualifier was best of 3, the landing page on Arena didn't specify it, and the fact I played best of 1 to qualify for it caused the confusion.

[@RadicalSpikee]

Maybe accept poor Show match up and keep just one vexing bauble in SB for Karn. Im curious how Show and Tell interact with Damping Sphere. Anyway interesting video, see you.

[@priorityholder]

Yeah I agree with that approach. Just accept the matchup and play to your strengths. I was considering Damping Sphere. It'll at least buy you a turn, also does work against Ugin's Labyrinth though. I'm glad you enjoyed the video!

[@TheNineteeners]

Does Glaring Fleshraker do anything for this deck? I have no experience with Timeless but it is a staple in any colourless deck that I play.

[@priorityholder]

Great question! I actually played an Eldazi Spawn deck recently in Timeless that featured Glaring Fleshraker, but I haven't thought about it in this shell. My inclination is that this deck is not the right home for it (at least, not as it is currently built). One advantage this deck has is blanking (almost) all creature removal like Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt. Stranding a bunch of the opponent's cards in their hand is part of the power. And adding Flashraker makes those cards live, not only that, but it is incredibly fragile. When I built around Fleshraker, I loved the explosivity of it, but hated the fragility. Also, I would love if there were more functional equivalents of it to provide redundancy. BUT, my instinct could be completely wrong lol. It can provide a clock and a source of mana ramp, however, I think Fleshraker is best maximized when you're casting a ton of cheap colorless stuff. You do have me wondering about it now though lol

[@TheNineteeners]

@@priorityholder Definitely my favourite deck to see in timeless, colourless is the best. Looking forward to seeing it in the future after some BO3 adjustments.

[@priorityholder]

@@TheNineteeners Thanks! Yeah it's so dang fun and also received a lot of help from MH3. I've been talking to other people trying it out and been getting some upgrade ideas!

[@emilia0096]

Hi there, do you have this decklist for bo3 in historic? Thank you!

[@priorityholder]

So I just play Timeless, and I don't have a list for Historic. BUT I think the main 60 should translate pretty well to Historic. The only difference is that The One Ring is nerfed. The metagame in Historic would dictate what you want in your Wish/Sideboard, and I imagine you won't need any of the anti-Show and Tell cards I'm playing in this vid. Here's the recommended list: www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6644198#paper For Historic, I'd start by removing the Vexing Baubles and Meteor Golems from the Sideboard. Not sure what to replace them with though, good luck!

[@Jerry-zf3ip]

If you wanted to add in more GY hate, you could include Scavenger Grounds as a land in the MB.

[@priorityholder]

Thanks for the suggestion! Yeah it honestly might be necessary to have some number of Scavenger Grounds in the main, considering how strong the graveyard strategies in Timeless are. The reason I haven't added them yet, is that often the damage is done by the time you can crack SG. Lots of turn 1 or 2 Reanimate or Buried Alive. Might still be worth putting in a few though!